Actually, there is some new information that was put out in the last month or so that sheds new light to the coaching search. Early on, the Comms braintrust didn't say a lot about the coaching search, so reporters and logic filled in the gaps. A lot of it went like this:
- Looks like they, along with everyone else, REALLY like Ben Johnson
- Oh snap, Ben Johnson dissed them; said there were too many basketball people
--- another aspect; wide reports that coaches were being interviewed by a big group of people, and potentially included Magic along with Myers and of course Harris, who could all be viewed as "basketball guys"
- Oh boy, they seem to like Mike Macdonald but the Seahawks put together an offer MUCH faster (what was highly corroborated here was that second part; the first part about them liking a lot was mostly tea leaves)
- They end up hiring DQ
So, a lot of reporters and fans (including me) read a lot of tea leaves and came to some conclusions that maybe the hiring process wasn't great in some respects, maybe AP was not being given as much autonomy as would have been useful. Again, lots of maybes, lot of tea leaves.
More recently:
Now the reports are that AP actually did like DQ early on. There were serious culture and chemistry matches in the approach they had, and that was a key factor that AP wanted to have. Sure, this could be the team providing some useful positive cover on top of the above public statements by many reporters. However: maybe not. There is real evidence that the two of them really see eye to eye and enjoy working with each other.
So, if that is true, the answer should either be "yes" or Adam because I think there are signs he was indeed instrumental in getting DQ - and our ownership was in fact smart enough to give him that trust as well. All good things, if accurate!