its true, I'm lower on doc than most. I think he's always been a great motivator which is a great skill for a HC to have. I never thought he was a great strategist on either end of the floor. I think a lot of credit goes to his assistants over the years, thibs, Lue, etc... for the game plans and schemes. I think he has a known flaw for being slow to adjust both in game and in a series, and even over the course of the season when rotation changes are needed. he's a hall of fame coach nonetheless. but I'm not sure what he's passing on to Cassell for example, besides his talent for leadership/motivation. I could see a strong case for Udoka to be the best choice. I'd be happy with any of the big 4 names. if I had to nitpick I'd say maybe go with the other 3 first just because he's only had 1 season, and in that season: 1, the roster was so good they could make it back to the finals without him. 2, his assistants were so good one of them vastly over achieved with Utah and the other could take the Celtics to the finals himself this year. so its hard to isolate how much was him and how much was the roster and staff... on the other hand, the other 3 candidates proved themselves year over year, and in some cases with multiple teams. however the case for Udoka would be that he appeared to have it all in the one season (superstar management / player buy-in, structured offense, effective defense / motivation to play hard, game management, adjustments, etc...) so I'd be really happy with him too.
It's very big name like Vogel or Nurse,who can bring some high-level assistant that is new angle about selecting HC I never thought about it. Good point,man
For the list of assistants, I will throw out the name Raman Sposato who has been a video coordinator and assistant coach for Blazers, Clippers, Pistons, Santa Cruz Warriors and was a regional scout for the Rockets before he moved into the college ranks at Tulane and University of Denver. I root for his success after we had a mutual personal connection and he once gave me free tickets to a Rockets @ Clippers game. if he ends up getting hired I will look like a genius but smoothie’s list is the best I’ve seen.
I like your perspective, the only thing I would say is I look at those coaches from the other side of the coin. Those assistants signed up to learn from Doc and Ime. Especially under Doc, they are part of his coaching tree. So their success was their own merit and talent, but like signing up as an assistant manager, secondary leader, executive to the CEO, etc. you pretty much learn as an understudy to the boss or decision maker. Doc and Ime were the leaders who although I'm sure learned from the assistant's talents, they taught as much or more for them to improve as coaches during that window. For example, Lue was an assistant almost all his career under Doc, he's definitely from his tree. Thibs looked at Doc as a teacher and mentor, he improved as a coach. They have a long history and friendship. Less so with Ime due to the shorter time of course, but Ime also likely taught his assistants as well as utilized their own talents and merit that year.
its true it goes both ways... and like I said I'm lower than most on doc, I'm aware of that. Lue is a great example of doc's mentorship, but I think he's more of an exception than the rule. he's far exceeded doc's creativity, adjustments, and game management, and I'm not sure he got any of that from doc who's famously not great at that stuff.
