Assistant Coach Discussion: McMillan And Brooks

The anger comes from the fact that we have a, for the most part, laughable, inept FO who have proven themselves unworthy over the years by their poor decisions.
We don’t trust them to make the right decisions, based on their track record.
They can’t even spell people’s names on a statue they present to the whole world!
How can we expect them to have the foresight, discernment and vision to pick out a guy who will become a great leader of men?
I agree that there isn’t that home run hire out there, but what separates the great, from the merely mediocre in this game are those who can pick out a prospect, BEFORE, everyone else can.
We had TWO of these in Dr. Buss and Jerry West.

 

It's Becky Hammon.

 

the question you should be asking yourself is: would we even be looking seriously at Redick if he wasn't a well-spoken, good-looking dude, who comes across well as a media guy?

and in my view, the answer to that is: no way!

now then the next rational question is: should we be gambling on maybe those qualities translating to head-coaching, or should we instead pick a guy who has plenty of demonstrable coaching experience either a former HC, or a highly-regarded assistant?

and please don't ask me or anyone else who should get the job. We all have our favorites, but we're not the ones who are doing the research, interviews, and due diligence talking to former players and colleagues of each candidate, so our information is extremely limited.

 

Watched Cuban on the Draymond podcast.He had an interesting comment on hiring coaches.He said the most difficult thing was hiring the right coach.He commented that all candidates have the knowledge and can identify what’s wrong with the team.The challenge is finding the person that fits your players at that particular time.

 

Latest from Stein on JJ

With JJ pegged as the guy so early it did have me wondering if the other interviews were a fallback but more importantly for his assistants.

When I broke down who he's played for both HCs and assistant coaches, I floated the idea of Cassell as one of his assistants. Borrego as an assistant would make AD happy. Dudley has the respect of both Bron and AD, so that's a win for both superstars.


Stein on the Cavs search since some of the candidates overlap

 

That's what I've been saying they were doing during interviews. They're assembling their staff during these interviews. I'm okay with Borrego as an assistant. Previous head coaching experience, relationship with AD, and could help offensively, IMO.

Really like the Dudley part, too.

 

don't matter who the pick, Rob n Co has shown their in ability to make the right hire even with Vogel winning a chip

 

hiring assistants who may be gunning for your job or leave at any time for another opportunity ? What could possibly go wrong?

Kidd was rehabilitating his image here as an assistant, and apparently it worked. Plus, when you have Luka for a PG who he can relate to, is he a good coach, or just a good fit for the current personnel? I'd imagine having two closers on his team in Kyrie and Luka will make him look better than he is, and he isn't as bad as his previous head coaching stop. That's usually the way it works.

But credit to Kidd, he did say he learned a lot from Frank Vogel while he was here. He basically went from being a player to a coach right away, and never had the chance to operate under the umbrella of another coach. Maybe he is truly better for the experience.

And we're about to keep JJ from that same benefit? It may turn out he becomes a much better coach after this stop when someone gives him a chance to learn the ropes without 10 spotlights on him all at once. This is already a tough gig, but to make it your first when you have no experience? Seems foolhardy.

 

thanks. i think this is possible, and i'm a little surprised we haven't interviewed her.

the answer is no. but i think being well-spoken and attractive/charismatic is something that carries a lot of people a lot of places in life. would steve kerr have gotten his FO and coaching gigs if he ugly and verbally disfluent?

why did pat riley become an assistant and head coach in a period of months?

and you've made my point with the last part. you're sure we're wrong no matter who's hired, even if you don't know what's right.

ok. i don't understand this logic. is it just a different form of laker exceptionalism (we should know who this person is cuz lakers)? because we have enough evidence now that that doesn't exist. jerry buss ain't walking through that door.

also, ham was a highly-regarded assistant. and there's no super highly-regarded head coaches available. the most recent one was...doc rivers.

the cleveland interest in stotts makes sense to me--they probably have better pieces than he did in portland with a weaker conference. he could basically run back the philosophy.

i also think stotts with redick as top assistant here would be a very interesting proposition (and much more like the pat riley situation). guessing neither would go for it, though. redick/dudley might make a lot of folks happy, too, as the object of their ire would be the first one fired with the favorite son the successor.

 

i don't see why hammon would leave the WNBA for this job when her team has won back to back titles. and i shudder to think of the extra criticism she'd get here when times are bad due to being a woman

 

i actually think the press might go slightly easier on her precisely because people expect the opposite. fans and bloggers and stuff will probably be biased, but if espn leads every show with some negative take on the lakers' coach who's a woman...bad look, imo.

we're not going to do it, but with jeanie as an owner, it would be a good story.

 

It would be a “great story” was also said of the Ham hiringI would hate to call Becky d******, though, like I did Ham. I like Becky and she won Summer League with a rag tag Spurs rejects.

 

why was ham a great story? he had no laker connections and wasn't a unique case (tons of former nba role players work as assistants and then become head coaches). ham was a boring story. like hiring stotts or atkinson or sam cassell would be. doesn't mean it's a bad hire, just a boring story.

hammon would be the first woman head coach in the only organization led primarily by a woman that also happens to be the league's flagship franchise. that's like, the biggest possible coaching story, right?

a redick hire would also be splashy, but not like that.

 

there were some celebration in the press for giving a 15 year assistant his dream job and it was the Lakers who did it…

 

I actually like the idea of Hammon more than JJ and she's really qualified so it would be far from a "Woke" or "Pro-Feminist" appointment. It's a shame we're not looking at her.

Also JJ made like 200 million dollars from his playing career. He won't be doing it for the money. I'm sure Hammon is not poor, but probably not worth even 1/10th of that. I generally prefer people who are hungry to succeed. You know they always go that extra step.

 

Money isn't the only thing that can make someone hungry. JJ said he thinks every day about not winning a championship. That's just as powerful and impactful of a driving force.

 

She’ll probably have her chance with the Spurs, I would not advice her getting the Lakers gig, it is the most toxic under the microscope job in Sports lol

 

Yep. I'm sure commitment and hungryness is not something JJ would lack. His cons are really the inexperience at coaching a team and how he deals with the locker room. He never was the vet guy in the team either. If he's not good, it's because of one of those

Ham was a Laker assistant 2 years.
He was also somewhat of a surprise and the storyline was the Lakers going with a hard-working guy who was a bit unknown being an assistant for so long and never being coveted for a position.

I like Becky consideration too. She should get an interview. I wonder why LeBron isn't pushing it, it would be amazing for his storyline.

Btw, LeBron on JJ pod talked about Minny and why they match well with Denver. He mentioned length, but he didn't mentioned the three 7 footers that allows Gobert to be the 2nd defender, which for me is the key to beat them. Found it odd. Not sure why he didn't mentioned it. He was either covering for Rob or he also pushed for AD at the 5 and going away from 2020 winning formula

 

lol totally forgot.

absolutely this. i think AD had to be talked into being a full-time 5 (he seemed really reluctant), and you can't sit by for that and then agree it's why denver kept beating you.