Exclusive Q&A | Part 2 - Ex-Bobcats Head Coach Mike Dunlap Reflects On Charlotte's 2012-13 Season

In part 2, Mike Dunlap spoke exclusively with James Plowright of Hornets On SI about his 2012-13 season as head coach

Mike Dunlap Interview / @British_Buzz

Dunlap spoke exclusively to James Plowright of Hornets on SI to share some of his memories from that season. If you missed part one, go back and read about Dunlap's first impressions of the organisation, Kemba Walker's breakout year, coaching a young Bismack Biyombo and his memories of working with Michael Jordan.

In this second part, Dunlap discusses Michael Kidd-Gilchrist's struggles, challenging personalities on the team, why he was fired and reflects on what he would have done differently.

James Plowright: You coached Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as a rookie, he was selected 2nd overall after the Bobcats missed out on Anthony Davis. Do you think he the expectations weighed on him?

Mike Dunlap: Yes. Michael was a particularly sensitive person, he was well aware of what you alluded to, so he felt like he was letting the organisation down and MJ down when he didn't have a good game, whereas Biyombo was able to pass through that.

There was a patch where he didn't play well and it was directly linked to the fact of what you're alluding to, he was ultra sensitive to not playing well with his statistics from a game, but that never compromised his effort. Even though he felt bad, he was the single hardest playing person. He and Biyombo on our roster.

James Plowright: Can you shed any light on what happened to Kidd-Gilchrist’s shooting mechanics? They weren’t good in College, but his mechanics and confidence appeared to worsen during his NBA career?

Mike Dunlap: He was not a good shooter in college, he had a pronounced hitch. Everybody that tried to get a hold of Michael, myself included... You weren’t going to get rid of the hitch, we tried to get him shoot through it and sand it down a little bit. It was going to take him a while to make an open three. He wasn't going to be able to do that in this first couple of years because his shot needed major surgery and so I can only speak for the hours that he put in. He was always willing to do an extra workout to work on his shot, but it was going to take a while. For him to be able to, say, make threes that 33 to 36%, you know something that was serviceable, but he had too much work to do on his shot that involved a lot of things.

James Plowright: One of the reasons you brought in was to improve the culture. It’s fair to say there were some challenging players to coach on that team. Did you feel that hindered your progress in establishing a new culture?

Mike Dunlap: 100%, either you're older players are going to help you or hurt you and they (Some of the teams' veterans) weren't a part of the organisation. They were not true Bobcats, they weren't there for a number of years. These were bad contracts, and so you had some dour people at the end of the bench that were veterans that hurt the growth of the young ones, period, plain and simple, straight out.  They weren’t no (Udonis) Haslams, if you know what I mean.

When MJ came on our retreat, he said we hired you because we know you'll give them the chance, you'll coach them and you'll develop them. Mission accomplished. As witnessed by when Steve Clifford came in, I think he got a better cut of of young ones and then they moved all those guys (Veterans) out.

So, it made it hard for me that year, but I took the job under those conditions, I have no complaints. I love the young guys that we played. I love the year that we had. We tripled the wins. That's never been done in the history of the NBA (It’s worth pointing out there were only 66 games the year before due to a lockout). So, it doesn't mean that I was a great coach, but it doesn't mean I was a bad coach.

James Plowright: At the end of the season, you were you were let go after trebling the team’s wins, was that a surprise to you?

Mike Dunlap: No, I had a set of standards in terms of what I demanded. We had long practises and there was a certain lineup where I didn't play the veterans, the ones that had the heavy contracts and that was at my own peril and I knew it. I was brought in to change the culture, to make it harder. And sometimes I think the practises were too long. I was given a mandate, make the young ones better, and I think that happened.

But I think that I could have been… I learned a lot and the mistakes I made were what got me fired. I thought it was a wonderful year. I look at it as a very positive in the in the long haul of what I did in, in my career. But, you know, I was not surprised.

The fact of the matter is, is that that there were some people in the locker room that were not happy that I was the head coach. And when you coach in the NBA, your locker room, by in large must be happy with who the head coach was. And I was not Mr Popular. And that's on me 100%.

James Plowright: If you could go back in time to that season, would you change your approach?

Mike Dunlap: Yes, I would have definitely (Changed how he did things). The things that I learned the first year would have helped me modify my own behaviour and I could have done much better. They knew they were hiring a basically a college coach to come in and develop a certain group of guys. That mission got accomplished. I'm very proud of that. But like I said, is the organisation going to take some responsibility for giving a rookie head coach those contracts with the behaviour of some of those guys? No, they end up firing coaches.

You always get the lesson afterwards and so you know, I got some beautiful lessons. They were my mistakes. They weren't the assistants, they weren't the players, they were mine. But also, when you really investigate that roster and see what actually happened, I would say the next coach (Steve Clifford) got the benefit.

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If you missed part one, go back and read about Dunlap's first impressions of the organisation, Kemba Walker's breakout year, coaching a young Bismack Biyombo and his memories of working with Michael Jordan.

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