Apparently a few players don't like him.

Sounds like he's had enough mentally.

He was an assistant at the Celtics and there is a big difference in pressure and expectations between being an assistant and a head coach especially at a club like the Wildcats with it's big rabid fan base is more like a Duke type situation.

I should've added very few coaches could handle that intense pressure especially with a 35 year playoff streak on the line and there's a good chance he didn't even really know what he was getting himself into when he signed on.

In my opinion, he's done a good job, even if Perth dont make finals

Fuck this guy.

What a low quality character and absolute loser.

He's prematurely tapping out because he can't handle a situation he is the cause of and relinquishing any ownership of it.

Getting paid for it for years to come doesn't change any of the above traits.

The bright side of comments like this is that they are a huge wake up call to new management and ownership re: hirings.

who, me or ScoMo

oh, scomo.

Weedy Slug - where did you hear that some players dont like him?

Personally - I think any new coach coming in the way he did was going to struggle. I think what he says and means also gets a bit twisted. I am neutral on but feel he deserves next season to see what he can do.

Comments like these just before the final round of games when you are trying to qualify for the playoffs really are alarming.

It may be worth cutting this guy if we qualify for the playoffs but before they start and letting Mike Kelly take the reins.

Glad this has been highlighted. Read the comments this morning and thought the messaging was terrible. Nothing short of winning the chip will keep him at Perth and even then it's no guarantee. Wouldn't surprise if the players don't like him.

Cotton has an option for next season perhaps he's let them know behind the scenes he won't be coming back unless there is a change of coach. That is the only way this bizarre messaging by ScoMo on the eve of the finals makes any sort of sense, he probably knows he's getting fired anyway.

The Press asked David Fizdale the same thing when the writing was on the wall at New York.

Fizdale gave a similar answer that his assurance was his contract.

Strange comments for a coach to make when his team is still alive. It could be that he is well and truly pissed off with the constant media speculation over his future. Many questions I have heard coaches in various sports asked wouldn't rate a pass in year 8 debating.

These are weird comments to make - there's gotta be more to it.

Maybe he feels like he’s being pushed up/thrown under the bus by the club?

I can’t imagine this is just him vs media, there has to be more to it surely.

Bizarre indeed!

If you watch the whole press conference you will see it was the journalist who was trying to push the whole "you'll be sacked if you don't make playoffs narrative".

I mean... nobody is under the impression that he just came out with those comments unsolicited or unprovoked.

Usually coaches are well versed into how to engage those kind of things and give "I'm just focusing on x" or “that’s a decision out of my hands” because they have an obligation to have a semblance of PR alignment.

ScoMo been watching too many Malthouse media conferences lmao

What's Andre Lemanis up to these days?

What was the question?
I doubt he opened his press conference with that line.
The local press have treated him poorly all year and he's clapped back a few times

Really only Nielsen, Caporn or Henare would be looked at as local coaches.
Doubt lemanis, beveridge get a look.
Looking around the league, the only assistant that looks to be hc material is jackomas.
Roth was perfect fit for Perth but just poor timing.

Lemanis , bevo should be considered, both excellent coaches.

If Morrison goes, with SEN consortium as the owners they probably will be prepared to pay for a top coach so you couldnt discount Goorjian. Obv if they dont want to spend the money then Kelly might get the gig.
I wish they got Roth but Trev decided to go to the Raptors at the wrong time.

The ownership group is SEG - SEN are the radio stations they own.

Cotton looking good.

Luke travers nba bound warriors like him

Blanchfield looks terrible, I guess he only plays well for gleeson

Yep Blanchfield been horrible

Great game though

This challenge rule is a bit suss.

So ref's call a foul on Reath, which was actually a block. Reach blocks it out of bounds. So why is it a jump ball? The other team gets penalised for the ref's shitty decision?

Hawks should have won by a lot more, the majority of their team are terrible decision makers with Harvey and Cleveland the worst. They'll get bounced in the 1st round.

Where's the travers Nba talk . Lazy can’t shoot

I actually thought the foul was before the clean block, when reath across cotton it slowed him down which assisted the block

Yeah travers and blanchfield really didn't lift. Wagstaff looked better than both at 46 years old

Cotton might go look elsewhere for a last big contract

Blanchfield looks terrible, I guess he only plays well for gleeson

I don't think it's Blanchfield, some games he seems to have a green light to shoot and be aggressive, other games he's just there to give the starters a rest. It's weird.

It seems everyone has bought in to "Wildcats" basketball except Scomo, 3rd qtr 1 foul, no defence!

Gleeson had a bazillion ways to get blanchfield open, he's a system player, scomos not a system coach

He played cloak and dagger when asked about John brown 111 .
Yet now he is just putting it all out there regarding himself haha

Provoked by the Media? Sure.
But being unable to answer such an obvious line of question doesn't bode well.
If he didn't know about the streak before he took the job, then he's an idiot.
If he hasn't figured it out by now, then I'm gobsmacked.

Furthermore, any coach, of any team, anywhere, that has been sitting in finals contention all season and then runs the risk of dropping out, must be prepared to answer questions on the subject.

Gets here extremely late, has to coach via zoom, with also a brand new assistant coach running things.

Recruiting - the biggest miss. Wildcats not only have had cotton but always an all league 4/5 man. Brandt, Kay, Plumlee, Mooney.

Gm recruits, not the coach. Their plan for the middle was Hodgson, and even he fall into their lap as he was planning to be in Europe.

Add in the uncertainty of being locked out of WA. A roster that isn't filled out properly, and a new guy who had to come in on day one of the blitz to figure guys out in person.

Law out for last two games.

The scramble of the brown fiasco. This is on Mills and management more than anything. Also new to the job.
To be a game away from making the playoffs amongst all that and they are under microscope? Can’t blame the coach at times for loosing his cool.

Brisbane have had years to get it right and haven’t. Phoenix were a game away from making the gf and have choked spectacularly with having a returning roster and coach who’s been in the league for over a decade?

I hope they get the win v Phoenix and everyone can take a chill pill and give them credit for hanging in as well as they have.

Morrison has to go after this season.

Not because he may be the coach of the team for who the streak breaks on but because SEG can't weather the potential he has lost the fans.

Like it or not SEG and Morrison have followed the venerated figure of Jack Bendat who achieved saint like status with the public for his quips "first we win then we win", the way he was determined to restore the Wildcats to not just also rans just making the playoffs but a dynasty. He brought in Bevo and between Jack, Bevo and Nick Marvin they set about instilling the community engagement and making the crowd a weapon.

The first off season Bevo was in charge it was reported in the media that the Wildcats were requiring their players to perform double the community hours than what was required by the League standards and they had some of the previous players walk out on the club.

Players like Damo, Wagstaff, Hire and Knight came in over those first few seasons and became talismans of this "Red Army" mentality and the expectation to engage with your fans. My own memories are of Damo defying the minders to keep signing autographs at an after game event because that is who he was and of players waving kids down to talk to them.

Both Bevo and Trev had their run ins with the media and adopted that seige mentality. Remember a few years ago when everyone in the media including former players were saying Perth needed a third import? Trev's reaction was, "They can say what they like, we believe we have the championship team right here and don't need to change".

Whenever Trev or Bevo went to war on the media and took on this mentality the fans (Their Red Army) was taken along with them. They were made to feel a part of it and on the same side as the team and the administration.

Morrison is now making comments that alienate the fans, make him sound distanced from his players and the club and betray a lack of unity.

SEG already has an uphill battle following on from Jack, they can't afford to lose the fans and end up in a situation like the post 2004 'Cats of disappearing from the public consciousness.

Give one of those chill pills to ScoMo - the guy's temperament is a huge red flag.

People in here trying to defend ScoMo saying he got here late.

I remember against Sydney the man took out Cotton & Norton at the same time to let Kevin White deal with a full court press...

New owners who know nothing about basketball.What shows me that their management has no idea is that Roth was sitting in their own backyard and then they had Kelly before they sign Morrison. Vic Law was the easy way out
for the former NBA recruiting guru Mills, but he has shown to be another injury prone downhill skier. Pay the coach
out and start another streak.

If wasn't here as late probably doesn’t make that sub, proving a point there

All those points you make Billy Bob are valid. But you'd expect after being on the road for two months with a good win loss record and with 9 home games to finish the season that their expectations would have changed after that road stretch. But the way they have played at home lately has been insipid. I do place more of the blame on Danny Mills' recruiting but Morrison still hasn't got the best out of his players with what he's had to work with. But most alarmingly is his attitude with the media. He comes across as being very arrogant and doesn't seem to embrace the clubs culture. As said earlier he's alienating the fans big time. And getting tech fouled every game isn't helping either when poor defense and leaking easy points is a big enough problem already.

Yep that stuff is on him for sure.

ScoMo certainly doesnt endear himself to fans and media - I think the cats ownership need to ensure compatible character of the poeple they hire. ScoMo just to me doesnt have the right mentality and approach that is needed.

In his defence if we compare him to Coach Roth - he didnt get to pick his team or pretty much any of the players. Roth had a whole season as an assistant coach and time to figure out the NBL and what type of players to find.

Scomo on the other hand was stuck with a poorly assembled roster and made to face the blame for it. Can he have handled the pressure better ? - for sure. The Red Army are one of the most passionate fan bases in Australia. I also wonder how much Mike Kelly has brought to the table - should have had more influence on a rookie NBL coach.

In hindsight Morrison should of kept the flex going - stuck with what worked with the core that was already there and then waited for a full offseason with the team to tweak the game plan.

This season was over after the John Brown saga fell through and management complacency "wildcats are always in the finals" probably stopped them from making changes while they were doing well, to being too late when they were in trouble.

The ball is back in the owners court for next season - do we assemble a Sydney, Illawarra or Melbourne level talented team next year or are we going to follow more the Brisbane model with affordable hiring. If so that passionate fan base will likely fall away, TV viewing decline and so on.

What shows me that their management has no idea is that Roth was sitting in their own backyard

He is clearly sick of that bellend Craig at the West asking the same questions over and over to ensure a headline the following day. That journo is a douche nozzle of epic proportions

Has he lost the plot?

Did he ever follow the plot?

He inherited a winning system (or plot if you will).

If Perth miss playoffs, will that motivate ownership and management to go back to the system/plot/winning system, including targeting the right recruits and investing in replacements as necessary.

The rest of the league might say that he's performed perfectly if Perth miss out on finals, so there’s that.

He has to go, for so many reasons.

He had two NBL first-team players, and overall above average squad, and still managed barely adequate results.
I still would have stuck up for him, but his attitude is petulant and insulting to the fans.
And still, he might have survived, but ultimately it became apparent he'd lost the engagement of his players.