Charlotte Bobcats officially announce Mike Dunlap as their new head coach – NBA News
After speculation that the Charlotte Bobcats had completed their search for a new head coach; the Bobcats management held a press conference on Wednesday and announced that they have indeed selected Mike Dunlap as their new head
coach.
Dunlap will become the fifth head coach of the team in the 8 years since the franchise was formed. He will take over the reins of a team that is on the verge of collapse, after finishing with a 7-59 record last season, the worst
win-loss record by any team in NBA history.
At the end of the last season, the Bobcats decided not to extend the contract of then head coach Paul Silas, which gave start to an extensive coaching hunt by the team.
The Bobcats interviewed 10 different coaches for the job, before short listing Jerry Sloan, Quin Snyder and Brian Shaw to undergo second round of interviews with team owner Michael Jordan.
After Sloan decided to opt out of contention for the job, the Bobcats added Dunlap to their final three. Prior to the announcement of Dunlap as head coach, there were reports that the Bobcats were favouring Brian Shaw but he wanted
to take up the Orlando head coaching assignment.
Dunlap comes back into the NBA after coaching St John’s for two seasons. He has extensive experience of college basketball, 32 years to be exact. He was assistant coach to George Karl with the Denver Nuggets from 2006-2008.
General Manager Rich Cho praised Dunlap’s work ethics at the press conference, calling it the biggest reason why they decided to go for him.
"Really, the three primary things we were looking for were player development, a teacher, and somebody to set the culture for this organization. If you look around the league, the best organizations have a certain culture and the
first thing about the culture is to rely on hard work,” said Cho.
Dunlap will be taking over a young core that includes point guards D.J Augustin and Kemba Walker, shooting guard Gerald Henderson and power forward Bismack Biyombo. The Bobcats also have the 2nd overall pick in this
year NBA Draft, and will be looking forward to hiring a young talent to their team. In addition to that, they have plenty of cap space left in the salary cap, $21 million to be precise, with which they can tackle the free agency aggressively and look for a
good player.
“I think it's a team that can push the ball down the floor. What we have at point guard in Augustin and Walker, obviously that's a great start. I like how they play. I like what they are as far as personalities. They're quarterbacks.
I think they can get better and I believe they will get better,” said Dunlap.
The Bobcats are looking forward to turning around the franchise this season after a dismal performance in the previous one. With an aggressive new coach, a young core, the number 2 Draft pick plus cap space for the free agency,
they are in a position to make big moves and turn around the franchise.
In an ongoing attempt to revamp the team culture and wider appeal, the Bobcats unveiled new uniforms for the 2012-2013 season. They changed the colour scheme by reducing the orange, making navy blue the dominant colour with light
blue as the secondary colour.
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