MO, he's ill and hopefully recovering well. However, I think we need to get a specific big man coach for Greg - like Kareem tutoring Bynum. How about Bill Russel or WALTON? Thoughts or suggestions as to who?
No way Bill Russell does that. He's too entrenched with the Celtics. Walton maybe. Coaching is a demanding job though and I doubt his knees would agree with this decision. What about Buck Williams?
Buck for specific Center skills? I'd think we'd need someone who has been a C, Ewing has done well with Howard and Kareem has helped Bynum.
The best possible person I can think of is Hakeem. As far as past moves go, he's second to no one. I have no idea if he is coaching, but I doubt it'd happen anyways.
Steve Johnson. In his prime, his footwork in the low post was second only to McHale, and he has local roots. (having played for the Blazers and Beavers)
Joel for D no problemo, but his offensive development is what I want to facilitate - that ain't Joel's thing.
Steve Johnson was a scoring machine in his day. Is he too old? Doesn't he reside in Portland somewhere?
Hakeem and Yao from last year: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4828213.html Video of their workout: <embed src='http://www.brightcove.tv/playerswf' bgcolor='#FFFFFF' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=909894375&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.tv&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.tv&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed>
Clifford Ray is supposed to be a good big man coach. I'm sure that Paul Allen's people will do their research and hire a quality guy if Mo can't stay on. I question why people keep throwing out past greats with no record as coaches as good ideas to coach Greg. While familiar and lending some "star power", it seems those guys usually don't make the greatest coaches and executives. My guess as to why this is is that the greatest players often have such superior physical gifts that they are able to just dominate. The guys with the lessor physical talents who had to scrap for everything and cut every corner to even be in the league, that survived by knowing the game inside and out... those are the guys who often go on to experience the most success from the sidelines. KP is one of many examples of this. STOMP
The job description we are talking about is much different from an everyday "coach" or executive. Ewing in Orlando... Kareem in LA. I agree with the notion that the best idea would be to bring in one of the greats simply to impart some of their moves and wisdom. Also, Hakeem has relatively extensive coaching experience. My short list is Olajuwon, Robinson, Walton.
is it their wisdom or their physical abilities that made them great though? It's my contention that the wisest guys aren't neccessarily (or even usually) the greats... it's the grinders In KP I trust STOMP
that makes more sense to me... Newell of course was the guy for teaching Bigs footwork and post moves btw...RIP Pete 11-17-08 STOMP
I like Kermit as well. Maybe he can teach Oden some toughness. Bothe are nice guy but Kermit had a limit.
