May 1, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Lionel Hollins talks with Brooklyn Nets small forward
Joe Johnson(7) during the third quarter of game six of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks at Barclays Center. The Hawks defeated the Nets 111-87 to win the series 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
17. Lionel Hollins, Brooklyn Nets
So a coach locks up the No. 5 seed for the playoffs (in the Western Conference), wins 56 games and gets fired. What exactly were the Grizzlies thinking when they fired Lionel Hollins? In his last three years with Memphis, he went 143-87. Hollins was the coach who helped Mike Conley and Marc Gasol reach their full potential, and he accomplished the once thought to be impossible task of preventing Zach Randolph from eating his way out of the league.
Okay, so Hollins and the Nets went 38-44 last season, but hey that’s good enough for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The point here isn’t that Hollins barely got a playoff spot in the weakest conference of any sport ever, but the point is that he barely got a playoff spot in the weakest conference of any sport ever by playing Bojan Bogdanovic 34.3 minutes per game. Hollins is the right coach to fix Brooklyn, just give him a couple more seasons.
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