Does anyone have anything good to say about our assistant coaches? Can anyone even name all our assistant coaches? What makes an ideal assistant coach anyway? (Do they read this board?) I love RudyT (as a coach and a human being), but I think he really needs some serious help with all these guys. I'm sure his assistants prepare very well for games (they're tape-watching experts, right?) but I can't believe they have any experience developing or improving players. Mr. Mean sounds nice and all, but how's he trying to improve the likes of Cato? Maybe we should fire some assistants in effigy of this season, and bring in some teacher coaches.
boylen, smith and dawson? this is a guess without checking anything "official" sounds like a law firm....
Jim Boylen Larry Smith Mike Wells Boylen is a former college guard with the University of Maine who was an All-American and finished second to Reggie Lewis as conference player of the year in 1987. He was an assistant coach at Michigan State from 1987-92. Many have given him credit for helping guys like Matt Maloney play on the NBA level. He is primarily responsible for the guards and is in his 10th season with the team. For the first four years of his tenure with the team, he was the video coordinator. Smith, a former NBA power forward of 13 years, was promoted to second in command after Bill Berry left for Chicago. Smith has worked closely with the big men for a number of years with the Rockets. Smith is in his 9th season as an assitant for the Rockets, working his first two during the championship seasons. Wells is in his 8th season with the rockets and only his third as a bench coach. He worked his way up from an internship to assitant video coordinator to video coordinator and then coach. His main gig is working on the video scouting of teams - putting together edited video for games to allow for advanced scouting of individual players and entire teams. Wells also works in the same capacity for USA Basketball, the group that trains and coaches the Olympic teams. The other guys are Carroll Dawson and Keith Jones. Dawson is the GM and primarily handles player transactions but he is in his 22nd season with the Rockets. He was an assistant coach from 1980-1996. He has helped to tutor big men from Moses Malone and Ralph Sampson to Hakeem Olajuwon. Jones is not only the trainer but the travelling secretary handling all the details of the road AND very important as a personnel guy. Lots of players know him and get along with him and he acts, oftentimes, as a recruiter for the team. I love media guides.
Jeff Man, I was going to say at one point that this is the best referenced material I have ever read on the guys .... then you mentioned the media guide. LOL A personal opinion: These guys make RT's job so much easier. He has an excellent rapport with all of them, relies on them heavily and they allow him to do what he wants when he wants. Also ... Each of these guys also have gametime responsibilities, looking after specific stats, timeouts, matchup ratios, "key" opponent movement, positioning on sets, etc... .
Having said that, in full "turnabout is fair play" mode, how about Don Chaney as an additional bench coach next year? Just a thought.
I assume their photos are in the media guide, but I don't have one. Can anyone post pictures of them, or describe them, so I can identify them on TV? I know who Larry Smith and Carroll Dawson are. Thanks.
