2007-2008 under Adelman he was the director of player development for a year before becoming an assistant coach with MDA and the Knicks. https://nbacoaches.com/kenny-atkinson/
2007-2008 under Adelman he was the director of player development for a year before becoming an assistant coach with MDA and the Knicks. difficult indeed. which is why we need a big time coach who can handle himself. I think this is too difficult a situation for a rookie head coach to manage as Silas demonstrated. if we get another yes-man type coach, the target is squarely pointing at Stone's job next.
Yeah, if we had just let go a coach that was even passably mediocre this board will be full of people complaining. Luckily, it seems like the "were tanking on purpose crowd" is starting to understand how truly incompetent we are.
somewhere in the 5k words of the original posts I mentioned the coaching apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Atkinson has had great mentors along the way. that's one of the reasons I like him more than someone like Sam Cassell who is loved here for good reason, and has a super high bball IQ, but has only ever worked for Doc (which I'm not a fan of strategically).
its hard hard to see if you just watch the thunder... or even less, the magic. I would venture to guess if we get one of the big 4 (Nurse, Vogel, Atkinson, Udoka) we can raise our win total by 10 games without changing a single player from the roster.
Stage 1: Coddle and develop: Silas Stage 2: Accountability and playoffs Stage 3: Deep playoffs I suspect that the new HC will only last 2/3 years. Also the HCs that are looking for a Stage 3 job might be reluctant to take a Stage 2 job. I would be fine if the Rockets hired a HC with mostly assistant HC experience. The new HC has to be a hard ass about accountability, which will wear thin with the players in 2/3 years, and then he can be replaced.
interesting name. he worked for his dad for a few years with the wolves as a player development coach. maybe he picked up some things from rick. spent a year on Vogel's staff in ORL before spending the next 6 years under Malone in Denver. I wonder if Vogel might look to reunite with him here, with Adelman as his offensive coordinator to just run the Denver sets. Vogel will likely need an offensive coordinator.
Actual good content here, so of course it doesn't have a ton of posts yet. This is a great write up! I think accountability and creativity are the big 1a and 1b followed by player development. I think head coaches just don't move that needle as much as assistant coaches because of the distance from players and practice sessions. I need someone who is going to be good under pressure and make all the kids act like professionals. Because of that, I have Atkinson 3rd on my wish list. Nurse Vogel Atkinson There are some other good candidates, but these would be my choices if I had to make the call.
Ime or JVG. Would love a MDA and Harden reunion. It would be extra sweet if they could break through together- even if i found the style to be boring bball.
great work OP! but imo... our coaching search better not require no deep dive... Tilly better pony tf up for one of those top 3 or 4 names - period! i aint in the mood to keep playing no bs.
My rankings: 1a) Nurse 1b) Udoka 2) Atkinson 3) Vogel We all know deep down that anyone outside of this list should not even be seriously considered. I think most importantly, all four have had solid HC experience. Even if they have all wordly potential, we just cannot in good conscience hire a rookie HC after Silas. We can do our due diligence and interview all the others, but hiring anyone outside of the top four will result in full on riot mode from the fan base. One of these four will be the next Rockets coach.
Smoothie rocks! This kind of stuff is why I frequent clutchfans. Atkenson has really climbed up my list the more I read about him. Player development needs to be at the top of our list of strengths for this next coach. I’m also warming to Vogel because I know he’ll make us better defensively. There’s a lot of coaching talent out there. No excuse not to hit a home run with this search. it does suck that we are likely to overlook the next assistant coaching phenom in this process because we are so shell shocked by the Silas experience. But oh well.
correct on all counts. I don't think Silas was focused on player development during his time here. jalen entering year 3 without top notch coaching is a tragedy. jabari only wasted his first year, and we'll have a top 7 pick who gets good coaching from day 1. its not too late to bring in a player development expert for these guys. its also not a big deal if we win 30 games developing our stars vs 40 games playing to win. either way we probably lose our pick next year. just do what's best for our long term success. there is no excuse to miss on one of the top 4 guys. all are acceptable. it all depends on who paints the most convincing picture of success during the interviews. the other guys are likely interviewing as lead assistants or associate head coaches... or are interviewing for intel gathering. however, if we don't end up with one of the top 4 I think we have to start looking at Stone's performance as GM very critically as he approaches his final year under contract (I believe he had 4 years).
Again great post, appreciate the effort. I'm also a fan of Nurse, Vogel, etc. as the top choices. The only thing I would say is it undersells how excellent Doc Rivers has been throughout his career and Ime is placed pretty well but even I myself am having a tough time ranking him. Basically, Ime may be the coach people regret not hiring, the character issue affected my decision in ranking him also but trying to step outside of any personal bias. When it came to doing the job he took a talented Boston team and helped it hit the next level into the title contender they are now. As for a short period of success, many people undersold Lue and even Mike Brown in their short time with LeBron, despite winning Eastern Conference and NBA championships. They say the man at the top of the mountain didn't just fall there. Basically, it wasn't a lucky accident. Lue went on to showcase being a very good coach with his Clippers with Kawhi missing seasons, and Mike Brown took a Sacramento team to the playoffs for the first time in almost two decades, and winning Coach of the Year over Pop, Nurse everyone this year. The Next Great coach is young and Ime maybe that guy, if he keeps developing with the right cast he seems capable of winning a title or more eventually. Or he may have other personal distractions happen. As far as I know, he didn't sleep with owner's wives in San Antonio so it hasn't shown to be a trend.
