Seems like Nate will be back and Monty will be a HC somewhere else. So who should be hired to replace him? Personally I think the Blazers should bring in multiple people for training camp. Hire them has "consultants" and see if Nate takes a liking to any of them. My list - John Stockton, I'm surprised he hasn't tried coaching. All of out players could use help with the pick n roll and he could give Nate some great insight into Sloan's offense. Karl Malone, Could help LMA and Oden with the PnR, posting up and using your elbow to "accidently" take off the defenders head. Gary Payton, would pretty much be Bayless's private coach. Scotty Pippen, If I was KP I'd give him a big check and the French edition of Rosetta Stone and have him spend his summer in France with Batum. Batum played PointForward for Team France last year when Tony Parker got injured. He'll most likely be doing it again this year. Kareem Abdul Jabbar and/or Hakeem. Thoughts?
Add Lute Olson to the list, he's the only person I can think of that could possibly fill the role of Nate's Tex Winter.
I don't think Nate and GP got along. Pip could teach these guys a lot, but I heard he was a horrible practice guy like Clyde.
I don't want to name names, especially ex players, since you never really know if any of them are worth a damn as teachers. Personally, I'd love to see some kind of offensive guru added as an assistant, whomever that might be to try and institute a more motion oriented offense. I'm not sure if Nate's too proud for that or that would even work, but I can dream. (I think the more likely scenario is a run-of-the-mill assistant being added and Nate's fate will all depend on how he manages the team next year. If they have another early exit in the playoffs, or if they regress in terms of wins and overall performance, then I think Nate will get the boot and we'll be talking about searching for a new head coach this time next year ... or we'll be deep into the second or third round and we'll still be arguing about our predictable, boring iso heavy sets).
From what I have been reading, the Sixers are having a hard time finding somebody who will actually take their job.
I'd be on board with the Blazers trying Pippen as an assistant. I remember reading a Phil Jackson interview once, where he said that Jordan and Pippen had been equally strong leaders on the Bulls...Jordan led via harsh competitiveness, getting in the faces of those whom he demanded more of, while Pippen led via nurturing, explaining to a player what he was doing wrong and how he could improve it. To me, that sounds like Pippen could definitely have a successful career in coaching.
Well maybe after the phone picture incident, if Monty leaves and Greg gets hurt again, we can elevate him to assistant coach. His name of course, would be "Full Monty".
