Feigen: Reading between lines on the Rockets' long list of coaching candidates

I actually don't expect they will hire anyone before the draft. Or, at least the draft isn't much of a hard deadline. I think Morey and his management team will be doing the draft and don't particularly want coaching input. Plus, there might be candidates on Finals teams that he'll have to wait on. And, given the likelihood of a lockout and the cancellation of summer leagues and whatnot, they really don't need a coach around for quite a while. I wouldn't be surprised to see them take months to make a choice.

 

Yeah, and apparently Donnie Walsh is pushing for a defensive-minded asst in NY. I sure hope Morey is not leading us down a road that Cuban and Dolan have paved.

I don't think this is Morey's reasoning. I say that out of hope. I like to believe we have the best GM, and the best GM will not step over the line to personally hire an entire coaching staff...nor will he say who to play and how many minutes.

 

heyp: I don't think it's that unusual for a front office to have some input in the hiring of assistants-- and not necessarily in a heavy-handed way. Adelman, it seems, was given full anatomy to hire his guys, though, as Morey said, the front office liked some members of Van Gundy's staff and wouldn't have minded retaining them. However, I recall that some teams would hire former head coaches as assistants when their head coaches is a rookie and that the front office at least had some input in these hires.

In any case, I don't think the Rockets would force their new guy to get assistants that he really doesn't want, but I'd imagine there would be a conversation about this topic.

 

Shane Battier as an assistant coach if he decides to retire?

 

this is just precious. repped.

 

Not gonna happen. Even a modest NBA player contract pays better than an assistant coach contract, and Battier should be able to get a decent enough deal for him to delay the pursuit of a coaching career, even assuming he wants to pursue coaching at all. The man's got options even if his first choice idea-- becoming the first black President of the U.S.-- was stolen by Obama.

 

Of course Shane has options but I wont be surprised if the Rockets put in a call to Shane atleast for an assistant position down the road maybe not this year but in the future. We are probably going to have a couple of different head coaches over the next 3 years since we are rebuilding.

 

Morey's innovations are basketball (or at least sports) related. Letting the head coach hire his assistants is just commonsense management for any business.

This is why Alexander is dumb is he is the one who decides the firing and hiring of head coaches.

 

Looks like Golden State has taken our list of candidates and used it for themselves!

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursn...ix-for-vacant-golden-state-head-coaching-job/

 

great post - i was just about to say something similar.

i like the thought that houston will use this as an opportunity to not only see who can help us, but build relationships around the league.

if morey has a great experience interviewing someone who ends up being a GM/coach elsewhere (say in a year or two), they may very well warm to the idea of doing business with houston - even if they werent picked for the position.

 

No shocker here! Expect a Budenholzer interview in the near future.

 

Doesn't look like it.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2011/04/29/loss-leaves-mcdyess-hurting/

 

Why do you keep bringing up Ettore Messina here? He is a bigger control freak than Jeff van Gundy is. He would never get along with Morey.

 

Aw man...

 

Sign that Gregg Popavich circa 1997 and tell me if it is just as funny!

 

Thats unfortunate for us. Oh well, on to the next one.

 

Well...

[rquoter]Adelman declined to mentor successor
Rockets tried to make their pick for next coach a new assistantBy JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle
May 2, 2011, 7:57PM

The Rockets had decided they would choose Rick Adelman's successor even before the team and the coach had agreed to part ways.

Adelman could have remained the Rockets' head coach, but was told that the Rockets had decided to hire his successor and put him on Adelman’s coaching staff if he remained, according to two individuals with knowledge of the talks.

Though Adelman and Rockets general manager Daryl Morey came together on several issues, Morey wanted Adelman to mentor a successor that Morey and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander would have chosen and put on Adelman’s staff. Adelman was unwilling to make the changes necessary to his staff, arguing in favor of assistants.

Adelman, 64, has long touted lead assistant Elston Turner as ready to lead a team, but the Rockets were not willing to designate Turner as Adelman’s successor, leading to Turner’s decision to turn down an offer to interview for the head coaching position.

There were discussions about adding Rio Grande Valley Vipers coach Chris Finch to the Rockets staff, according to both persons familiar with the talks, but it is unclear if Finch would have been designated as the head coach in waiting.

Finch led the Vipers to the 2009-10 NBA Development League championship and to this season’s D-League Finals.

Morey has been unwilling to discuss the disagreements that led to Adelman’s departure.

“We agreed to keep those conversations to ourselves,” Morey said last month. “We feel like we need change. I think the differences in terms of the mutual fit revolve around that.”

Though there have been instances in which assistant coaches have been designated to succeed veteran coaches, in those cases the assistant was part of a staff, rather than placed on the staff by the front office.

It is even more unusual given Adelman’s track record. He moved to eighth in career coaching wins and had the best winning percentage as Rockets coach in franchise history.

His assistants – Turner, Jack Sikma, T.R. Dunn and R.J. Adelman – had been on Adelman’s staff in all four seasons in Houston. Turner was a Sacramento assistant under Adelman for six seasons, Dunn for four seasons.

Sikma, who interviewed for the Rockets head coaching position last week, was an assistant coach in Seattle for four seasons. R.J. Adelman had been an advance scout for the Kings and SuperSonics before joining his father in Houston.

The insistence on putting a successor on Adelman’s staff would not be a part of the current coaching search because the Rockets are not expected to choose a coach late in his career. They could, however, seek to place Finch or another coach with a player development background on a new coach’s staff.

Finch is not expected to be a candidate for the head coaching position with the Rockets apparently seeking a coach with experience as an NBA head or assistant coach.

The Rockets interviewed Mike Woodson, Mario Elie, Kelvin Sampson and Sikma last week and are expected to meet with Sam Cassell and Kevin McHale this week. They have also shown interest in Dallas’ Dwane Casey, New Orleans’ Michael Malone, Boston’s Lawrence Frank, Los Angeles’ Brian Shaw and San Antonio’s Mike Budenholzer, though Budenholzer said he was not looking to leave San Antonio.[/rquoter]

I think I pulled a muscle while patting myself on the back.

 

I think the Rockets should consider these guys for interviews too:
Billy Cunningham
Craig Robinson
Tim Floyd
Steve Clifford
Reggie Theus
Chris Jent
Tubby Smith
Herb Williams
Herb Syndek
Jeff Bzdelik
Marc Iavaroni
Bob Hill

 

If they are interviewing all these people, why haven't we heard about interviewing Clutch yet?