NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

There are all kinds of coaches in the NBA, tough coaches, smart coaches, driven coaches, easy coaches, and so on. It seems like a certain kind of coach would be the best coach to win for every team, but that is not the case. Often a coach needs certain kinds of players or a level of players. A great coach may go to another team and not be able to coach at all.

What happened? Did he lose his coaching mojo? Nah! Certain coaches are just better for certain situations.

Sometimes you just need the players. Look at George Karl getting Chauncey Billups in Denver. Can Karl suddenly coach? Nah! He just needed a point guard to represent his coaching. Simple.

Collins showed on the Pistons that he can take a team that is building, without tons of talent, and mold them into winners. It is a type of style that can last only so long. He was sort of the early prep coach for the eventual champion Pistons.

Doug Collins contemplates life with the 76ers. Why not the Lakers or Cavs?

Collins would be perfect for Philly right now. Give them 1 or 2 years of Collins and they would learn to put out full effort at all times. Problem is, Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Rudy Fernandez

The Blazers purchased the rights to Rudy Fernandez from Phoenix.

Rudy will actually make less money to play in the NBA than if he had stayed in Europe. If you flash back to the Olympics, Rudy was an outstanding player for Spain, the Olympic silver medalists.

Fernandez has been a huge surprise in early games with his ability to make precise passes to teammates. In one game he threw two passes between a defender’s legs.

The Blazers knew Rudy could score and were claiming he was the best young European in the NBA.

“All I know is, Rudy is going to play, whether as a starter of reserve,” McMillan said. “He plays the game with his heart. He plays it with passion, on both ends of the floor. You rarely see that in the NBA. A lot of guys give that effort on only one end of the floor. When you have a guy who plays hard on every possession, with his kind of potential … once he figures everything out, he’ll be a special player.”

Demopoulos said Fernandez reminds him of Doug Collins as a player. McMillan said he sees a little bit of Pistol Pete Maravich in him.

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Nobody is saying that the Portland Trail Blazers will win the NBA or even win their division, but these two rookies have taken the town by storm and now plan on storming the NBA!

Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Greg Oden

Last year the Portland fans went crazy when the team drafted Greg Oden from Ohio State.

Greg had led the Ohio State basketball team to the NCAA finals and dominated everyone along the way. He is the best big man to hit the NBA in a long time. He has the size and the beginnings of having the moves.

Will Greg be the new Shaquille O’Neal? That is a tough bill to live up to for anyone. We do know Greg will provide the big man presence the Trail Blazers need in the box.

Limited to 20 minutes in each game by coach Nate McMillan, Oden averaged 13.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, shooting .526 from the field. Of his 10 baskets, nine were dunks — six or seven of the rim-rattling, backboard-shaking variety.

Oden got few of his other attempts — jump hooks or putbacks — to fall. But he was aggressive on the offensive glass, and his presence at the defensive end meant opponents had to think before entering the paint with the ball.

Against Golden State, Oden dunked five times, more than once carrying an opposing arm or two up toward the basket.

“When he grabs on to that ball and pumps it up to the basket, you have two choices — get out of the way or foul him,” Portland assistant coach Dean Demopoulos said. “And a lot of the time, he’ll make the shot. Wherever he is, there’s going to be something physical happening.”

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Greg Oden is a tower of power that will make the Blazers a good team for years!
Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Let’s back up and look at Doug Collins.

My early memories were of Doug playing for the 76er’s, swooping to the hole and making a layup or drilling jumper after jumper. He played on the great Dr. J’s teams. He averaged over 17 points a game for his career.

Doug also played on the Olympic team that the Russians beat after the ref’s kept giving them do over’s until they scored the winning basket. Ok, so that one still bothers me. You can’t let everything go.

After retiring as a player, Doug went on to coaching. He got his first walking papers as Michael Jordan’s stubborn coach.

“We knocked heads early,” Collins said at the time. “I was 35, had never been a head coach before, was going to roll up my sleeves to show everybody that I could get the job done. I wanted to do things my way.”

Collins was fired and replaced by Phil Jackson, whose first team also lost to Detroit in the conference finals, 4-3. The following season the Bulls broke through, sweeping the Pistons 4-0 and going on to the first of six championships in the 90s with Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way. In 1995-96, they finished 72-10 as what many consider to be the greatest NBA team of all time.

Collins accepted his second head coaching job in 1995 and worked 2 1/2 seasons with the Pistons, going 46-36, 54-28 and 21-24 before he was let go amid reports his style caused friction with some of his players.

He was 37-45 in both seasons in Washington but couldn’t get the Wizards into the playoffs. He was fired shortly after Jordan was denied a return to the front office.

Collins’ overall record is 332-287 and 15-23 in the postseason.

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Here is a YouTube breaking the Chicago Bulls news of hiring Doug Collins.

Now being a huge Piston fans, the early Chicago years were followed and the Piston years were followed. Doug was tough, demanding, and a my way or the highway guy. He could make a weak team strong, but could not make a good team great.

Speaking of great, after a while Doug grated on you and you did not want to play for him anymore.

Now after Chicago experienced the tough, demanding, my way or the highway Scott Skiles, why would they sign Doug Collins?

The Bulls and Collins, who coached a young Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen before the 1990s dynasty took off, acknowledged Thursday discussing a return engagement. The sides also said there would be more talks once Collins’ obligations with TNT ended, which happened when the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals that night.

And Collins was adamant during a pregame interview with TNT: “I have not been offered. I have not accepted.”

On Friday, general manager John Paxson did not return a call to his cell phone, and Collins’ representative John Langel declined comment. A message seeking comment was left Friday night on Collins’ cell phone.

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The Bulls will have the number one pick in the draft, probably Derrick Rose of Memphis.

Does this sound like a do over of young Michael Jordan and Doug Collins?

Only Derrick Rose is not Michael Jordan and young Doug Collins had better not be old Doug Collins!

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