[Chron] McHale likely to follow assistant coach model

Just passing time, kinda sorta Lock/merge as needed.

Rockets coach likely to follow assistant model

[rquoter]

...

When McHale signed on as Rockets coach last week, his first order of business was to begin interviews with assistant coaches, with one expected to serve in the lead assistant role that has become popular in the NBA.

"You try to get the right people," McHale said. "The head coach is a guy who has a lot of irons in the fire. Guys who are looking at things just from an offensive standpoint or defensive standpoint, they can spend a lot of time on that and really concentrate on that. That's really important, because there are times that you're going to need someone to just auger in on one thing and help you. I think those models do work.

"You've seen it done in a lot of ways, but I think the league is trending more toward that model. I do like that model."

Nothing new here

The idea of a top assistant running one aspect of the game, usually the defense, has become more common. It is not new.

When Billy Cunningham took over the 76ers in 1977, one season after the end of his playing career he immediately hired Chuck Daly to draw plays and create game plans and Jack McMahon to help with the players. When Rudy Tomjanovich succeeded Don Chaney, he insisted that Carroll Dawson be with him on the Rockets' bench. McHale's former teammate, Larry Bird, had Rick Carlisle run his Pacers offense, Dick Harter the defense.

In recent seasons, the Celtics have become the prototype for structuring a staff with a strong lead assistant running one side of the ball. Doc Rivers first gave that authority to Tom Thibodeau and then to Lawrence Frank.

"It depends on what the head coach wants you to do," Thibodeau said. "Doc wanted me to build the whole defense and put the defense in. Doc and I talked a lot about everything. If he didn't like something, he'd say, 'I don't want to do that,' or if he liked it, he'd tell me, 'Let's run with it.'"

However, Thibodeau said the "defensive coordinator" concept does not apply to basketball as it does football because the same players must play on both ends. As a lead assistant for Jeff Van Gundy, he was expected to help with every aspect of the game.

"With Jeff, he thought it was most important to work in all areas, like he had done with Pat Riley and I had with other coaches," Thibodeau said. "On some staffs, a lead assistant is a guy with head coaching experience. It's really about how you work together, share ideas. "

When Don Nelson coached the Mavericks, he had Avery Johnson run the practices and come up with much of the game-planning. When Johnson succeeded Nelson, he sought experienced head coaches to be with him on the bench, with first Del Harris then Paul Westphal his lead assistants.

"Now, the head coach has so many responsibilities, it has become more delegating and the head coach not trying to do everything themselves," Johnson said. "A few coaches are really hands-on, handle all the offense, defense, practice, scouting reports, film sessions. But for the most part, coaches are better at delegating. That is growing the role of the lead assistant."

Westphal said the great increase in information available, from scouting to video to advanced analytics, requires that coaches delegate more to the staff, the model Rockets owner Leslie Alexander endorsed when he announced the selection of McHale.

"There is so much more information available than there used to be," Westphal, now the Kings' coach, said. "You don't want to miss anything. No one person can absorb it all in its raw form. You need a mechanism to make sure you don't miss it.

'A real lonely job'

"Coaching can be a real lonely job. As a coach, you have to have somebody you can bounce things off and that you know has your back no matter what when things get tough. … An assistant you can trust, like a good marriage, can ride out the waves."

With that in mind, McHale likely will go with the lead assistant model.

"You're going to have a lot of different things pulling at you," McHale said. "You need guys who are specifically saying, 'Hey, when I went home last night, I looked at every defensive possession, and this is what we need to work on.'

"I think compartmentalizing the game … helps a great deal. Then those guys take a lot of pride in it, and all of sudden you're giving them a lot of authority to really use that. I just think that's the way to do it. For me, that's the way to go."
[/rquoter]​

 

Apologies!! I was on dark, currently on light now.

 

Yes, please do so.



And thank you.