Assistant Coach Discussion: McMillan And Brooks

Showing your age dude

 

Yeah, I was thinking about that option while listening to his appearance on the Stein/Haynes pod. I think he's too far removed to be any use as a HC because the game and players have changed and you can't make the players run themselves to death in practice anymore but as an assistant... he'd be of value. He was ahead of the curve with a lot of the 4-out stuff and had very successful defenses. JJ learned a lot from him and there's a great respect between the two of them. Stan also speaks Heat culture and can relate to Bron on that aspect.

 

https://lakersnation.com/lakers-head-coaching-rumors-sam-cassell-a-legitimate-candidate/

Sam Cassell is the exact opposite of JJ. Has plenty of experience, championship pedigree, and is ugly as hell.

 

i'm still pretty anti-irwin when he speaks about rob/the FO. he's got an agenda, and it colors every word he types on the subject. it's blatantly obvious and unprofessional--if the plan is to be taken seriously as a reporter.

and this is his agenda. how is rob the only person on the hook for the coaching hire when all reporting indicates this is a group decision, in concert with ownership (and i'm sure tim harris, rambis, etc.)?

i mean...he can tell her this...because it's true? flip this the other way: if rob hires someone who lebron isn't lobbying for, he and the coach will both be fired by the end of next season. tell me i'm wrong. of course he'll hire the guy lebron wants. and he won't have to tell jeanie this later; she already knows and is on board. when this coach also fails because our roster is top-heavy on salary but not talent, he will be fired, and irwin will claim rob fumbled the coaching hire and should be fired.

 

NBA front offices aren't very good at coaching hires in general. The success rate is very low. I'd be curious to see a stat for average record and duration of an average hire. But ultimately I don't care about the rest of the league, I care about the Lakers and we're awful at it. We made the right call once in the past 25 years and then got lucky once with our 3rd pick who we didn't want but couldn't hire his assistant because of his rap sheet. This isn't exclusive to Rob but the process has gotten more frightening the smaller the front office has gotten and the more we've embraced the family, friends, or former Lakers only approach.

I am really glad we're at least using Coach K this time even if it's only to give more credibility to the JJ decision.

But however this plays out, I'm pretty sure this is Rob's last hire. I think he'll be gone if this hire doesn't work. Generally GMs don't get to fire 4 HCs and not answer to the same chopping block. If JJ (or whoever) doesn't work, that would be his 4th firing and Jeanie won't keep eating dead money to pay coaches not to coach this team. So it does make sense that if he can deflect any of that, he'll try to because right now he's without armor.

 

Some notable coaches JJ played for who we could consider for his staff:

-SVG: HC, 6 yrs

-Jacque Vaughn: HC, 1 yr, also from Los Angeles

-Alvin Gentry: HC, 1 yr. He's currently
vice president of basketball engagement for the Kings. According to the press release the gig is "building and helping player evaluations utilizing his vast basketball relationship network. ... he will have in office in Sacramento but would travel throughout the season to different events including NBA, G-League and college events." Not sure if that's a promotion or demotion.

-Steve Clifford: assistant, 5 yrs and more importantly for Jeanie and Rob... former Lakers assistant coach. Probably still have his parking pass and credentials in a box somewhere.

-Sam Cassell: assistant, 3 years. We're interviewing him. If we like what we hear but agree with everyone other team in the league that he's a bridesmaid and not a bride (of Frankenstein), if it's not a slight to him, maybe we try to poach him from Boston before Doc gets him back.


Here's a list of the other notable HCs and assistants he's played under and learned from (just so you can piece together what went into making him the coach he'd be):

-Brian Hill - 06-07
-Jim Boylan - 2013
-Doc - 13-17
-Brett Brown - 17-19
-Rick Carlisle - 2021
-Ty Lue - 13-14, assistant
-Monty Williams - 18-19, assistant
-Chris Finch - 19-20, assistant (he's mentioned him on the pod 2-3 times about things he learned from him in NO)
-Jamahl Mosley 2021, assistant



Ideally I'd like for us to hire Stotts or Brooks and at least one of JJ's guys from the above list. That's a really good start to filling out the bench.

 

LeBron falls out of love when he needs a scapegoat which is more and more often.

 

why would jenkins be on the hot seat? memphis consistently overperforms its talent, imo. it's not jenkins's fault morant is either flashing guns at kids or getting injured.

if they fire him, he'll be the next malone, imo--some team with more talent will pick him up, and he'll win bigger.

 

Damn man ! Idk what we did to this guy but we really messed him up psychologically lol

 

According to reports it’s only matter of time WHEN Lakers announce JJ will be the new HC

 

the lakers crushed his title hopes on numerous occasions. he's just a salty, senile old man

 

Cause they can't blame Ja or JJJ? I do think they peaked as GSW's pseudo rival. Then injuries and off the court d******ery derailed them. Whether they can get back... we'll see. If they can't, I could see Jenkins having to fall on the sword but we won't know that until nearly a year from now.

Definitely agree that if he's canned, he's falling up into a better job. Really like what he's done with them... culture, buy-in, had them playing better than their talent indicated they were capable of.

I think two of those three are given all of next season at minimum. Green's job will probably depend on the success of meshing whoever they get for BI with Zion. The fact that there was zero two man game and only a your turn/ my turn offense between the two HAS to partially fall on the coach.

And Billups who knows. There's current speculation he might not last this summer. I don't get the point of firing him if you're going to tank next year too and they should. They're not good enough to compete yet and Flagg is worth it.

 

George Karl is 7-19 against the Lakers in the playoffs, and has never won a single series.

 

I Love that we still cause that salty MFer George Karl so much anguish...

 

At this point, just bring in BOTH Van Gundy’s for the sideline sibling rivalry drama! Woooooooo!

 

Rent free in that loser’s head all day!

 

I really hate when I find myself agreeing with Plaschke.

 

i mean, a broken clock is right twice a day. he just picks whatever is the negative take, and it's easy to have a negative take on the jj hire, which feels pretty imminent right now.

my question for plaschke and others is: who's your candidate and what's your ironclad reasoning? put it in print. now. not next year when we've missed the playoffs because lebron and AD weren't healthy again. now. who's the next spoelstra that is currently available to us and how do you know this is the next spoelstra?

edit: i don't have one. i'm glad to plead ignorance here. i don't know if david adelman or micah nori or james borrego is going to be the one that got away. all i know is lebron won't risk his rep by undermining whomever he backed for the position, and that may be more important than any x or o on any whiteboard anywhere.

 

Oh I’ve posted my humble rankings several times. Hasn’t changed much.

Last time I was good with Atkinson or Ham. Kinda the same thing where I liked one guy if we went experienced and another if we went with an assistant.

If we hire Jj and we rattle off 4 titles then great. A guy with no experience at all is a tough sell for me. It just is.

But if he is the guy I’ll root for the best. I’d never root against the team just to be right.

I honestly think people worry way too much about being right on the internet but that’s a whole different can of worms. I’m literally on my couch drinking a Coke basing my opinion on a random collection of social media posts, articles and YouTube videos. Not exactly high level sources. I’m not going to be upset if my take ends up being off.