Why Scott Skiles?

No one knows why, but apparently the Nets have added Scott Skiles to their coaching short list, according to the Racine Journal Times following a note that they’ve also amped up their interests in Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, whose contract expires at the end of the postseason (which may be a week from now, if they continue to look the same against the Spurs). Look, Skiles is the kind of righteous tough guy who whips rookies into shape and drags the most out of a superstar-less roster that’s just happy to kiss the playoffs. (His work with the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks was exemplary in that manner.) And yet it’s been proven again and again that eventually his scare tactics stop working, the players stop listening, and the ceiling stays flat at “first round exit,” or even better, “second round sweep.” If the Nets showed anything last year, it’s that they’re a collection of big contracts and the non-negligible egos that come with those contracts—whoever coaches them has to know how to massage those talents out rather than barking at them to get it together. That is not Scott Skiles, who never made an adjustment he didn’t like reversing and remaking an extra dozen times. Please, no.