1. Becky Hammon - Why not give her a chance. Pros: shes built for this, she has the makings to be one of the best coaches in the league. shes excellent at X's and O's. Would help in deepening the rotation. Would actually DEVELOP undrafted guys instead of rotting them on bench. VERY good at in game adjustments. Cons: Is Harden willing to listen to a woman head coach and respect her? I believe Russ and the rest of the team can. But can Harden respect her? https://time.com/3089036/becky-hammon-nba-coach-2/ 2. Adrian Griffin: Top Assistant in Toronto. Paid his dues. Would be a great player development guy. Toronto is known for having a million different defensive schemes. Would create a scheme to give us a Top 3-4 defense along with our already top 3 offense 3. Jerry Stackhouse Another guy who was instrumental in player development in Toronto, very defensive oriented. Former Player https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2018/4/19/17239844/know-the-coaching-candidate-jerry-stackhouse 4. Charles Lee/ Delvin Ham from the Bucks. Under Coach Bud. Very Brilliant in player development. Helped Milwuakee to a very good regular season record. Was with Bud in Atlanta too. Can make lesser players play to a higher potential. 5. Wes Unseld Jr. the son of hall of fame big man and Washington legend Wes Unseld. When he arrived in Denver, Unseld Jr. became the team’s “defensive coordinator,” and has held that role ever since. Slowly but surely he helped improve results on that side of the ball, transforming the Nuggets from the 29th-ranked defense in 2016-17 to the 10th-ranked defense in 2018-19. Over this past season, the group took a bit of a step backward in that category, finishing 16th. Fittingly, he got his coaching start in the Wizards organization in 2005 under his father, who was the GM at the time. He reportedly spent eight years in a scouting role before making the jump to assistant coach in 2004. Then, in 2011, he left the organization to work as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors for one season. He may not come with the same praise as someone like Kenny Atkinson, but the work he’s done with the Nuggets young talent speaks for itself. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and several other young players have shown great improvement, and as the lead assistant head coach, he deserves a handful of the credit for their growth. 6. Jacque Vaughn Similar to Dantoni and maybe what Harden likes is a guy that will give players offense freedom. (Keyword Harden likes). Along with defensive scheme that is aggressive built for our wings. Kenny Atkinsons top assistant for the Nets. He seems like someone Morey might really like
If we are talking out of the box as in guys who aren't at the top of every team's list then realistic options may be Ime Udoka, Stephen Silas, Chris Finch. I'd love any of them. I'd love Kenny Atkinson. Those are my current four choices.
Aren't those guys pretty much on everybody's list, though? Maybe not at the top, but... When I think of "out of the box", maybe the Celtics' hire of Brad Stevens kind of comes to mind. It looked like they hired a really good 16-year old college coach with no NBA experience. No head coaching, no assistant coaching, no scouting, no video guy experience on the NBA level. That was kind of out of nowhere, wasn't it? This is one of those situations I kind of hope Harden doesn't have a ton of influence over. I don't want to sit through years of croney, "he's my buddy" hires and trades. I also don't want to recycle coaches that have repeatedly been used and re-used. If that's the way it's going to be, let's blow it up. I would think (or rather, hope) it would be a Silas/Finch type of coach. Silas has worked with Luka and has a great offense in Dallas while Finch has worked directly with Harden and the Rockets organization for years. I really don't know much about the other guys other than their names keep getting mentioned, so no comment. Also, what does Tilman want to pay for a coach? lol.
I agree that out of the box would be more like a Spoelstra or a Brad Stevens or even Billy Donovan when he was hired. My response was kind of continuing the original list with my four choices which are just as popular as his choices minus Stack. I would argue the only reason you are seeing Ime Udoka, Kenny Atkinson, Stephen Silas and Chris Finch a bit is because you post here. The most popular names everywhere else for most coaching choices are Ty Lue and ironically enough Mike D'Antoni. Then you have your Mark Jackson, Billy Donovan, Brett Brown tier which seems to be pretty popular. Then you have Kenny Atkinson mentioned with some of these rebuilds like Chicago along with Wes Unseld. Ime Udoka is mentioned a bit because he is an associate head coach and from Pop's tree. Stephen Silas and Chris Finch are both way more under the radar guys who I rarely see listed as main candidates anywhere. let's assume that a big bonus to be the next head coach of the Rockets is that you have played professionally in the NBA like Feigen believes. Ime Udoka has also been under Pop (2012- 2019) and was the Associate Head Coach under Brett Brown last year. His NBA career kind of mirrors PJ's minus the huge coming home success that PJ had. He's also only 43 (same as Becky but likely younger than any other candidate that is brought in for HC). Let's say that playing professional ball in the NBA isn't an issue but just playing professionally in general. Becky hits that mark and so do the other three I mentioned. Let's say a criteria is to have been a HC or an Associate HC in the NBA. Becky can't meet that yet. Maybe Ime could come in as HC and Becky could be Associate Head Coach to really be in the second chair and then if she's great at it, like she will be and decides she wants to do it and not go into the front office (she applied in Milwaukee) she will become a top of the list candidate for a lot of future vacancies. As of now Becky has only been on the front row but hasn't been an Associate Head Coach. Silas, Finch and Udoka are all in that second chair. Kenny is a successful Head Coach who was in the wrong position. Think Vogel in Orlando or Michael Malone in Sacramento. Yea it's a silly goal post especially when you think about how much work she's put in, but I expect at least one of the two things above to be REQUIRED in the next coach.
Here’s the key... The more interviews, the better. We need to see all candidates possible and all of their different ideas and approaches...
Two caveats. #1 there are like seven other vacancies. We were shunned by Thibs last time (and this time) and Vogel chose to go to Orlando vs. interviewing with us. I bet both coaches wish they had been a bit more patient. #2 The last process was super broad. Silas (was Morey's top guy), Finch (coached here), Atkinson (coached here and was in the FO) are all in my top four. The organization has some familiarity with them. If Morey gets his choice of candidates, these guys will be in the top 10. The organization knows all of these guys. The new faces, yes, get more familiarity with these guys especially incase we pivot to a rebuild sooner than later.
Jay Wright Shaka Smart - Rockets rumored to have interest before Bill Self - rumored to have interest from rockets before as well.
I don't think a college coach is going to work for this group. These guys have too many years of experience and accolades under their belt to follow/listen to a college coach...even one as seasoned and accomplished as Self. If this was a rebuild situation with young kids like what Boston went through with Stevens and the Js then I can see it working.
Feigen said rockets want to take their time but in this market with 7 vacancies they might have to work quicker.
Great post. I would love it if the choice were Becky Hammon. I don't think it will be, but I'd love if it were.
I said this before Pat Fava... he coaches the New York Towers. No player on that roster is above 4'11 5'.
