Lakers Hire Ettore Messina

Italian coach Ettore Messina has agreed to join Mike Brown's coaching staff with the Los Angeles Lakers, a source familiar with the negotiations said.

Messina will be listed as an assistant coach but will be behind the bench, not on it, and will serve in more of a consulting capacity, sources said.

Brown developed a relationship with Messina when he was head coach of the Cavaliers and Messina was the head coach of CSKA Moscow. Brown routinely flew to Italy, where Messina held CSKA's training camps, to pick up new ideas to use with the Cavs.

Source: ESPN

 

Os Davis: Messina’s teams tend to play quite a slow tempo relative to that of most European leagues, particularly in Spain’s ACB, where Messina was for the past two seasons with Real Madrid and where the floor is wide open. Of course, there are exceptions to this. His 2005-06 CSKA Moscow squad could go into fourth gear early and run the court for the entire match. (Of note, too, is that this team was the ultimate fruit of Mikhail Prokhorov’s business labor, that CSKA dominated defensively in both the Euroleague and Russian Super League, and that Messina was named Euroleague coach of the year.) But the general rule on a Messina team is a slow tempo, half-court game on both sides of the ball.

Probably one of the bigger disappointments in his career -- and surely a source of extreme pressure on Messina from club management -- was Real Madrid’s inability over the past two seasons to get past rivals FC Barcelona. Despite the fact the seriously flexible system of player movement among top European clubs made the 2009-10 Madrid roster a revolving door throughout the season, Messina & Co. just couldn’t find the right combination of quick big men to counter Barcelona’s relentless attack and ability to open the floor at will.

In addition to his preference in the half-court, Laker fans will certainly be cheered by Messina's specialty of working with the post. Nobody in Europe, where frontcourts tend to be notably smaller but the bigs typically have the complete skill set in shooting, really employs anything like a triangle offense. But if Mike Brown was serious when he implied that some stuff with the triangle would remain in the playbook, you can bet that some of those Gasol-Bynum double post plays will have been tweaked/modified/perfected with Messina’s input.

Messina is also known for his defensive schemes, but again, this might not necessarily be adaptable to NBA play, as European teams basically always run zones.

LO'L: Would the Lakers roster as constructed flourish in Messina’s system? Are there areas where they might be lacking?

OD: If only they could send Derek Fisher back in time a few years, he’d be the ideal Messina point guard -- thrives in the half-court, best at setting up plays there and starting them off, etc. It will be interesting to see what Shannon Brown might learn under Messina’s tutelage.

Of course, one relationship that all will be watching is how Messina gets on with Pau Gasol. Can an All-Star get better? With his Continental resume and his most recent experience in Spain, Messina just might be the man to fully exploit all of Gasol’s many (and from this perspective, distinctly European) skills. Andrew Bynum taking tips on defense and post play from Messina? That’ll work. And as a big Derrick Caracter fan, I think he could be one to watch developing under Messina.

As for Kobe, Messina has coached some top stars, including Theo Papaloukas and some guy named Manu Ginobili, while employed in Europe and surely he has enough wisdom to handle the biggest name he'll have worked with.

Areas in which the Lakers are lacking, as you probably reckon too, are age and speed. I think any head coach, assistant coach or consultant might like to get a bit of help for these problems.

Full Interview Source Land of Lakes

 

From Hoopsworld Eric Pincus

Lastly, Pincus' report makes note of the other possible assistant coach candidates, including present Laker assistant Chuck Person, former Pistons head coach John Kuester, Mavericks assistant Tim Grgurich, and lead New Orleans assistant Michael Malone. We will certainly keep you updated as Brown continues to fill his staff with what is beginning to look like a pretty solid corps.