Note: The Jim Harbaugh news hit too late today for us to formulate any thoughts on it other than that it makes the most sense in the world. We’ll plan on talking tomorrow about what comes next for Michigan.
We wrote last week that Mike McCarthy, a man with one title a long time ago and a lot of good regular seasons coaching highly talented teams, is unfairly criticized as a coach. So, we’re not going to criticize Doc Rivers too strongly here. Is it funny that the Bucks fired a guy for playoff failures, reportedly let their superstar choose his successor, then hired a guy whose downside is all the playoff failures? Yes. It’s very funny. It’s a really dumb way to run a franchise. This doesn’t mean the Bucks are dumb, though. They won a title in a small-market situation. Dumb franchises don’t do that very often.
I’m not a parent. I’d like to be a parent one day, but I’m not a parent. I’ve been told by parents—good parents, in my estimation—that an important thing to do sometimes is to let your child make mistakes. I’m not trying to call Giannis Antetokounmpo a child. He’s an admirable grown man, and I like him a lot. But the Bucks kind of let him make a mistake here.
Great quarterbacks and great basketball players are under a lot of pressure right now from the ecosystem to also be great general managers. It doesn’t make any sense at all, but it’s a common theme. Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers. LeBron James. Kevin Durant. Each has been tasked, by themselves or those around them, with building themselves the ideal title-winning environment. Sometimes it’s worked. A lot of times it hasn’t.
Giannis is great enough as a player that he’s now getting the pressure to help run the Bucks, and in line with league norms, the Bucks gave him that voice. It didn’t work. The coach he wanted turned out to not be a great fit, even if the Bucks’ win–loss record is in a good place right now. Ideally, if extended the same courtesy in the future, he’ll now be more trusting of the front office to do the jobs they’re really good at, allowing him to focus on the one he’s good at himself. Was that the Bucks’ goal? Ehh. Probably not. But maybe it factored into the decision-making. Either way, it might work out alright.
Was Doc Rivers a good replacement for Adrian Griffin? I don’t know that he’s a bad one as an interim. You could do a lot worse than Doc Rivers, and I can’t imagine the Bucks are under any illusions here about what they’re getting. Where it becomes a bigger issue is if the Bucks don’t conduct a wider search this offseason. That search can include Doc Rivers. But there are better coaches out there who would love to coach Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Other Wisconsin Coaching Change(s)
Joe Barry is, indeed, out in Green Bay. So is Chris Gizzi, the strength and conditioning coordinator. In the third development of the day, the promised kicking competition is in: Jack Podlesny, Georgia’s old kicker who spent a little bit of last year’s training camp with the Vikings, has been signed. (For what it’s worth, Matt LaFleur did say on Monday, “We want competition at every position, so we’re always going to bring in competition,” after giving Anders Carlson the job pretty quickly last offseason after drafting him.)
Joe Barry, though.
He sounds like a good guy. It’s too bad it didn’t work out. It’s good for the Packers to move on.
I don’t know what the move is from here. This is the hard part, right? We’ve seen so many star offensive coordinators in recent years, including LaFleur. Up-and-comers on the defensive side exist, but they’re rarer. There isn’t an obvious slam dunk hire.
What are the priorities, then? This sounds a little LinkedIn, but I don’t think the worst approach would be for LaFleur to look at himself, look at his defensive personnel, and try to find someone who will fit perfectly with those surroundings, even if raw defensive coordinator potential is sacrificed as a result. This doesn’t need to be a slam dunk hire. The offense looks like it will be good for the next few years. An above-average defense would be great this fall. Emphasize fit, and know you’re not building from ground zero. The Packers don’t need to find the next great head coach. That’s not the goal here.
The Brewers Got Rhys Hopkins
Jeff Passan reported last night that the Brewers are signing Rhys Hoskins to a two-year, $34 million contract. At $17M per season, it’s in line with the higher end of what you’d guess Hoskins is worth, entering the downslope on the prototypical aging curve and coming off a missed season due to a torn ACL. Still, it’s a good signing. Hoskins should be a good anchor bat in the middle of the lineup, and I’m a little curious—given he had a very high pull rate, at least in 2022—whether he could be among those who benefit from the ban of the shift. (I just realized, with this news, that I didn’t hear a ton about the impact of the shift ban this year. There was so much about the pitch clock and so little about the shift ban. Was it a pretty small effect? Let’s put examining that or finding others’ examinations on the to-do list.)
From the Cubs’ angle, it’s tough, because Hoskins was not a bad fallback option in the event someone steps up and pays Cody Bellinger something he isn’t worth. Now, the Cubs are a little more cornered into paying for Bellinger. Matt Chapman could be some sort of alternative, but he and Bellinger have a lot less positional overlap than Bellinger and Hoskins. This signing is bad for the Cubs in more ways than one. Good work, Brewers. Yet again.
NDSU Lost an Assistant
Tyler Roehl, North Dakota State’s offensive coordinator who many players supported in NDSU’s head coaching search, has left Fargo for Nashville, joining Eddie George at Tennessee State. He’ll retain the same role, including the Associate Head Coach title. Roehl’s been on the staff in Fargo since 2014 and was the offensive coordinator from 2019 onwards.
Why did Roehl leave? It’s unclear. Tim Polasek, another former NDSU OC, got the head coaching job after being Craig Bohl’s offensive coordinator at Wyoming, so maybe Roehl was frustrated about being passed up, or maybe he thought, rightly or wrongly, that he needed to prove himself elsewhere, for the sake of impressing NDSU brass or brass somewhere else.
Whatever the cause, another key coaching figure from NDSU’s slight fade (to being second or third-best in the FCS rather than an unbeatable dynastic force) is gone. Transition in Fargo. This was a long way of telling you that I just realized today that NDSU opens in Boulder next year against Deion Sanders and the Buffs.
Tonight, etc.
- Iowa State’s got Kansas State tonight, and it’s unclear if Tamin Lipsey will play. On paper, it’s a huge trap game, even at home. Kansas State’s been underperforming its talent, and the Cyclones are coming off a surprising, very strong win. Can’t suffer a letdown in this one.
- The SEC continues to provide in the national college basketball scope, giving us Auburn’s trip to Alabama tonight. Alabama is much, much better than the polls would have you believe. That said, you don’t need to necessarily take them seriously. To use a popular online word, they are an unserious men’s basketball program. It’s on them to prove otherwise. Great opportunity tonight!
- Also on the national scene, tons of credit to South Carolina and Nebraska for their big wins last night, and more so for everything else they’ve each done this year. Two of the most heartening performances in college basketball over the course of the year so far. Good for Fred Hoiberg. Meanwhile, Houston got that Big 12 road win in Provo in what turned into an ugly game down the stretch. As we often ask about Houston: Does the ugliness mean anything bad? Or are they just good in a way that doesn’t look like it?
- The Blackhawks are in Seattle to play the Wild Card-chasing Kraken after extending Petr Mrázek on a two-year deal that’ll put him around the middle of NHL starting goalies in terms of salary. Coincidentally, he’s around the middle of NHL starting goalies in save percentage.
- There’s no men’s singles action in the Australian Open tonight, after Alexander Zverev took down Carlos Alcaraz last night (I’m sorry, but I’m going to toot my own horn as someone who doesn’t know tennis well and was nonetheless skeptical about Alcaraz coming into this tournament). On the women’s side, Coco Gauff plays Aryna Sabalenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, a finalist at the US Open, and a semifinalist at both the French Open and Wimbledon. Sabalenka isn’t the top-ranked player in the world, but she’s a good villain right now, even if the tall, strong, Belarussian trope centers on a lot of things she didn’t choose to be. She fits the recipe. I don’t know if she’s actually a bad figure. If I or my colleague has called her a bad person before, please take this as a retraction of that claim. (Yes, I just re-checked the Ukraine War section of her Wikipedia page.)
