Portland Coach- And Then There Were Two

PLEASE!!!! Anything but Nate-Ball...

BNM

 

Do NBA head coaches really develop players? Assistants are the one's rolling up their sleeves and working with the young guys. I remember Sergio was a Demopolis project, Bayno was assigned to Bayless, Monty to Batum/Outlaw. Grgs worked with all the guys. Luke with Oden/Aldridge...I could go on and on.

 

If he runs the Pick & Roll (or Pop) with Lillard/Aldridge+Hickson and Batum isn't just relegated to the corner for 3's on offense it will be all I need.

 

Anyone crying about not playing youth is being silly. That is obviously the direction the team is going, and the finalists were chosen accordingly. One of the benefits to waiting on the hire

 

Slam-dunk summary.

 

There's a fine line between developing youth and breeding self-rightousness.

 

I'm trying to think of what 'young' talent that Larry or Hubie Brown developed.

 

Oh MM....the new naive, optimistic you is kinda cute.

 

Naive?

 

Mike Brown:

1988: basketball at Mesa Community College for two years

1990: basketball at the University of San Diego for two years

1992: started as an intern, then worked 5 years as video coordinator and scout for the Denver Nuggets

2000: hired by Gregg Popovich as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs.

2003: won a championship as assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs

2003: hired as assistant coach to Rick Carlisle with the Indiana Pacers. He helped lead Indiana to consecutive playoff appearances including a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2004.

2005: Brown got his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers, replacing Brendan Malone, becoming the second youngest coach in the league, with only Lawrence Frank of the New Jersey Nets younger.

17 years of basketball experience, 12 of those in the NBA, 5 as an assistant with very good teams (one championship) before becoming head coach




Erik Spoelstra:

1988: played in Sonny Vaccaro's Nike All-Star camp in Princeton, New Jersey, joining future NBA players Alonzo Mourning, Shawn Kemp, and Bobby Hurley in the camp.

1989: was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. Spoelstra was the Pilots' starting point guard for four years, averaging 9.2 points, 4.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game.

1993: two years as a player/coach for TuS Herten (later the Herten Ruhr Devils / Hertener Löwen), a midlevel professional German team based in Westphalia.

1995: Heat video coordinator

1997: assistant coach/video coordinator

1999: assistant coach/advanced scout

2001: assistant coach/director of scouting

2005: cited by Sports Illustrated for honing star guard Dwyane Wade’s "shooting balance and smoothing out his release after the Flash’s return from the Athens Olympics."

2006: won a championship with the Heat as assistant coach and director of scouting

2008: named head coach of Miami Heat

20 years of basketball experience, 13 in the NBA, 11 as assistant coach with the heat (one championship) before becoming head coach




Kaleb Canales:

2000: graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in kinesiology.

He later earned a master's degree in sports leadership from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Canales began his coaching career as an assistant coach at United High School and Martin High School, both in Laredo, and then at the college level at Texas-Arlington.

2005: hired as a video intern for the Portland Trail Blazers, and was eventually hired as the team's video coordinator

2009: promoted to assistant coach

2012: promoted to interim head coach

8 to 9 years of basketball experience if you count being an assistant coach at high schools, 7 in the NBA, only 3 as assistant coach before becoming head coach

 

And Kaleb has never worked under (and learned from) a really good NBA coach.

 

Well Kaleb must be a prodigy then?

 

Some here say, we'll lose for 1-2 years anyway, so a bad coach can't hurt. But it takes years to unload a bad coach. The city has to turn against him for about 3 years before Paul Allen has the nerve to fire him. Allen's afraid of the local media haters.

Whether it's Canales or Stotts, we will suck at coaching for at least 4 years, long after the player talent level deserves better.

I have really turned against Olshey's strategy now. I'm getting to hate him.

 

Seriously? Both have taken multiple young teams from 20-something win teams to 50+ win teams.

BNM

 

Hubie made the Grizzlies look fucking amazing for a while.

 

BNM, you may be right that everyone has a price, if a tad cynical!

but...

None of us know the behind the scenes process.
However, let's consider Paul Allen offers Phil Jackson $20 million to coach the Blazers and Jackson says no. So Allen offers $50 million and Jackson still says no. Allen then offers $100 million and Jackson says, hell, I don't really want the job but who could turn down that chunk of change?

How good would he be, how committed, to a job he didn't really want, a team he didn't really want, a city he didn't really want to live in? Would he be willing to put in the extra time and attention that this team of young players is going to need? Especially if the money was guaranteed?

I've known people who took jobs or transfers they didn't want because the money was too good to pass up (admittedly not $100 million) and admitted it was a mistake, they were miserable, they did not do as well as they should because they just wanted to get the hell out.

I don't know. You don't know. None of us know what went on behind the scenes. And because we don't have facts I'm reserving judgment. I'm not excited about the two choices, but I'm not sure what the other options were. I do think the fact that neither Malone nor Shaw were offered head coaching jobs anywhere is telling. If they are so hot, why didn't they get offers?

As for Maris' contention that the Blazers could have gotten Popovitch by paying the Spurs to allow them to negotiate with him, I'm no expert on either NBA rules or contract law. I doubt if Maris is either. But in most cases a contract can't be broken because someone has a better offer. If anyone can show me otherwise, show evidence the Blazers could, simply by paying out, gotten Popovich, I'm listening.

 

I've only heard of that happening with assistant coaches. I've never heard of a team letting a head coach out of his contract to go somewhere else.

 

So, what are the odds that the mystery 5th candidate gets the job?

 

Hmm so I guess that PA is flying Stotts over to London on his dime during the Olympics to meet with him just to keep up the appearance that KC was not the choice from the start. I thought PA was cutting down on frivolous spending?