Yeah, i don't see Jeff and Thibs coming here to assist Mike, that's not happening imo. As for the others the more interesting names for me are Hardy and Silas, but i don't see them leave Pop and Carlisle to have the same role under Mike, unless we give them a chance to slide into the headcoach position in a year. I also like the idea of having a guy like Hollins on the bench, but i'm not sure if he would work well with Harden. Not sure what to think about the Longobardi, Shrewsberry (isn't this one the guy who didn't want to follow Stevens in the nba?) and Erman. A name i'd go after in a heartbeat is Ron Adams (who basically built the defense of the Thunder and Warriors over the years), but i don't think we can lure him out of Golden State so...
Oh ok, i assumed he was still there, where is he now? Cause i see he was still there this season, is his contract expired?
A really excellent column, justtxyank, and I like the description of you at the bottom. I feel the same way about Star Wars, although my alternate universe would have seen the Sampson/Olajuwon team become the next dynasty of the league, which the media was convinced would happen at the time. This was a period when the national sports media actually liked Houston and our Rockets, as unimaginable as that may seem today. A very nice list, and I'm intrigued by Will Hardy. Rudy T had a similar rise up through the ranks of the Rockets, until getting his unexpected (by him, and everyone else) opportunity as our head coach. That he's been under Pop's wing for years is a major plus, in my opinion.
Lionel Hollins seems like a really good fit but his style of defense is vastly different than what the Rockets are used to playing. There is s big risk in drastically changing a system with a veteran team. Will Hardy is someone the Spurs have tried to hide in the past. Some Spurs coaches have been reticent to leave Pop early, I wonder if Hardy would. He is one of the top emerging assistant coaches.
Really great article. Normally, I don't dig that deep into these sorts of things, but you wrote it in a concise, dense, and understandable way, and I finished it all before I knew it. As I can't really provide any better insight, I'll just say that I consider Popovich to be the Belichick of the NBA. Thus, if a coach that worked under him actually is realistic acquisition possibility, I immediately assume we want no part of them, because Pop/Bill wouldn't let their best coaches actually leave. They cleverly shuffle their weak ones off on to stupider teams. *coughbobcough*
I am really not seeing a problem of our defense aside from switching everything regardless of who’s out there. Defensive rebounding, boxing out are personnel issues and attitude, not strategy. Those shots by Curry in the 4th for example were well defended for the most part, we simply have guys not committed to closing out strong enough. Not doubling Klay that first was inexcusable though. I see major holes on offense and Morey not getting the right players with length to compete with bigs, to the likes of the Warriors, as way more problematic but any change is welcome. Though I wonder if this makes a difference with MDA still here. He’s not going to accept a strong personality like Hollins.
Really nice article @justtxyank I think for the most part most fans know diddly squat about assistants. They only know *the names* like Thibs and JVG. So it is kind of funny to see people make assessments here when they just have no clue. So it is nice to pull back the curtains on a few new names like Shrewsberry, Longobardi, Hardy, Erman etc. There are gems out there waiting to be mined that can bring a new spin on the Rockets defense.
This is true but sometimes, merely sometimes head coaches like Thibs or Mike Brown tend to accept assistant jobs. This is also more and more common.