Assistant Coach Discussion: McMillan And Brooks

Cranjis has him Number one. Seems like a good candidate with Lee

 

If you like Atkinson, he was an assistant under Budenholzer.

They only difference & what we'd be hoping is the experienced he had with Kerr made him a better coach. Otherwise, he's a Bud disciple.

 

I put him under "smart" hire(s).

I like Malone a lot. I'll need to do more digging on Adleman, but I like the idea.

 

Yeah. I’m hoping that the head coaching experience along with the Warriors has helped him improve any flaws he had.

 

Bud, Atkinson, Lee, Ham I think were all on the staff at the same time or near it.

ROFL.

 

David Adleman

Nuggets Road to Gold: Selflessness and Success - YouTube

About 8 mins for those interested.

 

Latest from Stein...two of our targets likely aren't going to be available and the JJ buzz is real.

More on Lue

 

Adleman’s Dad was a hell of a coach with staying power. If he’s anything like pops, that could be a great hire.

 

LeBron predicted JJ's potential as a coach when he was at Duke. True story

I follow JJ for a while, love his podcasts. He's really good in Xs and Os. But I don't think that's the most important thing in a coach. I don't know if he's able to lead a group and deal with a locker room dynamics.
I think having LeBron until he retires as it seems, it's better to have an older and more savvy HC. I don't think we will be contending until LeBron goes, so let's just enjoy the ride and try to have fun following the team. Who knows if we get lucky in a postseason in the upcoming years

 

Adleman Sr. always scared me a bit, due to his unfortunate likeness to an Austrian born, psychopath dictator who rose to power in Germany in the 1930s.

 

phil is a weird dude

 

FWIW - Irwin thinks it's going to be Reddick but very narrowly.

 

I really hope it's not Reddick, but to be honest none of the candidates looks super promising.

 

there is no hope for this franchise if they appoint Reddick after the Ham flop

Ham can't coach? Ok, let's get an even less experienced guy! I mean at least let the guy prove himself as an assistant first.

may as well get Trae Young and surrender all our assets so I won't even bother watching next year.

 

redick would be VERY on brand, right? we hired rob as gm with no experience but with important ties to a major laker figure.

hell, go back to pat riley, who also had very limited experience.

i like adelman (in theory, i know nothing here tbh), but this could be a situation where by the time we really get a chance to talk to him, the coaching market will be drying up. like with free agency for players, maybe the best thing now is to start building relationships and registering interest with guys we might want in the future but moving quickly to hire someone else.

anyway, as i said in the other thread, our last lebron coach doesn't interest me too much. i don't think we'll contend again in the lebron era, and there's a reasonable chance whomever we pick up here will follow him out the door shortly. i know that won't be the narrative, but it's hard for me to buy that we're really looking for a bridge here.

 

Yeah. I am just not a fan of this for the reason you just gave.

Going with a guy less experienced than Ham is just wild to me. Even for this franchise.

 

i'll counter: i have questions sometimes about assistants and their value and their translation to the head coaching job. it's unsure to know from the outside what their role is, what their strengths are, how they will transfer, etc.

ham came highly recommended and had extensive experience. but maybe he's just a good assistant. same maybe is true of atkinson. same may end up being true of adelman.

of course players and their former employers are going to heartily endorse their guys for head coaching spots. but from the outside, how do you really get to know what they did and what part they played in the team's successes or failures?

anyway, the redick consideration made me wonder about other trajectories.

for example, tyronn christ served as an assistant coach for precisely one year (he was a director of player personnel in boston for two years before that) before cleveland made him "associate head coach" (the league's highest-paid one at that).

jason kidd was a head coach the year after he retired.

mark jackson had no experience as an assistant prior to serving as a head coach.

doc rivers had zero experience as an assistant coach.

steve kerr--probably the best analog here--was a broadcaster, then worked in the front office. no assistant coaching experience.

these guys have had varying degrees of success, but the point is that there's really not a blueprint for these things. sometimes superstar assistants who weren't former players go on to be good (vogel) or even great (spo, pop) coaches. sometimes great assistants are meh (mike brown, atkinson?) to bad (ham?) head coaches.

anyway, i'm just not sure there's an obvious path based on pedigree.

 

Maybe this could work out as a t** for tat common sense realization. The organization realized they were wrong with letting Bron pull his mother of all GM personnel screw ups in bringing Russ in so that’s now a non starter. (until we do Trae for him again) JK. But won’t surprise. And conversely they were wrong not letting Bron have the coach he most wanted after firing Luke, so this gets them even to give him his input on this coach. I still think it’s necessary for the remaining time he wears the Blue and Bright Yellow …. to not risk the mess that causes if they pick a guy who it turns out by mid season James has seen enough to stop respecting that guy.

 

Yeah, it seems we're on a very similar page here.

outside of Lue (seems less likely by the day) I think this coach might make it 1 year post-Bron. Lue, due to his standing in the league would probably be given more rope and his contract would be long and expensive enough that you can't afford to cut him loose.

Also sidenote on Lue, (couldn't find the quote myself) Irwin said that one NBA reporters for NBC sports suggested the trade price for Lue would likely be two firsts. Even if Ballmer is playing chicken with us, we're not in a position we can cough up those assets for a coach. If they're not extending him and were to part ways (unlikely) i think Ballmer would wait until during our press conference with our new head coach before letting Lue out of his deal. Even if it's opening night, game one I think he'd wait us out.

Kam bros threw out this troubling stat: since 2010-2011 only the Kings and Cavs have cycled through more coaches than us. Once we hire our next coach, we'll be in a 3-way tie with them for most coaches in that time span. Again, that's why I don't think this is a long term gig. Track record. I'd love to be proven wrong and we find our Spo and he's here two+ decades.

 

So basically as fans this is perfect. We can always question the management decision making since there is no obvious choice.