In four years as a head coach McHale has coached 6 playoff games, last year when Houston lost to an injured and one dimensional Thunder team. As an executive in 13 seasons at Minnesota McHale was part of a franchise that advanced past the first round once. As a head coach for five seasons Stotts has only coached 5 playoff games, with the Bucks that lost to the Pistons in 2006. So he does have a playoff win. But as an assistant Stotts has been on many coaching staffs that have advanced deep into the playoffs. He has been to the finals in 1996 and 2011, the conference finals in 1993, and the second round in 1997, 1998, 2009. He has lost in the first round in 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2010, 2012. Of course he also won a title in 2011 as an assistant with Dallas. I'm excited to see what sort of adjustments Stotts is able to make as the series goes on. I was not impressed with McMillian in the playoffs, he was vastly out coached at times. It will be great to see a coach who at the least holds his own and at his best can give us an edge. Go Zers!
I mentioned this in another thread, but I hope this is the playoff series where Stotts sticks up for his players and goes apeshit over a bad call. Too often, he just shrugs and lets shit calls happen. First flop, I'd like to see him get in a ref's grill and get T'ed up.
I'll be honest, I wish Paul Allen would go ape shit over a bad call once in a while like Mark Cuban does. The NBA doesn't like it but it's good for the team.
Playoff seasons head coach: Stotts 1, McMillan 5 (including 3 Blazer seasons) asst coach: Stotts 12, McMillan 1 If you compare them in their 2nd Blazer seasons, Nate hadn't had 3 of those playoff seasons yet, so Stotts has far more experience. Plus, McMillan's playoffs were all 1 series except 1 Sonics year, while Stotts' were multi-series in 6 years and single-series in 6 seasons, as Draco described.
