Found a guy! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Newman_(basketball) What an interesting resume! Drafted in the NBA but ended up playing in the CBA. Undrafted in the NFL though was on the practice squads of Seahawks/Jets but played in the Canadian Football League for 5 years. Spent a year as as an assistant coach (basketball) at the HS level before moving onto Washington State. 5 years as an assistant there, he gets hired at Sac State. Goes 20-114 and lands a job at Arizona State, goes 18-14 and gets let go lol. Then hired as an assistant to George Karl in Milwaukee for 6 years, serves under Byron Scott/Lawrence Frank in NJ for 1 year, serves under Pop 8 years and spending the previous 4 years on the Wizards staff as an assistant coach under Whitman. Anyone else find some random dude nobody is talking about worth a shot?
Elston Turner. Just because he was part of Adelman's coaching staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elston_Turner
Not so random assistant coach possibilities (with ties to JVG): Dean Cooper - NBDL head coach Salt Lake City Stars (formerly Idaho Stampede) Andy Greer - Toronto Raptors assistant coach Mike Longabardi - Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach
Another name nobody is discussing which I feels like needs to be thrown out there is Bill Laimbeer. He was an assistant to McHale in Minny (lol given the history) and won 3 championships plus 2 coach of the year awards in the WNBA. Furthermore, he is a guy who will command respect. He is a guy nobody will **** with. He is TOUGH.
Melvin Hunt. Has learned from Rudy T, George Karl, and Rick Carlisle. Brief stint as interim in Denver was widely lauded and most people thought he deserved a chance as a head coach after it. Considers analytics. Defensive minded coach but a huge fan of motion offenses.
Are you serious? From a Wikipedia entry, you can determine a guy is worth a shot? How can any regular fan have enough information on an assistant coach to make a recommendation? There's no eye test on assistant coaches. They don't crank out stats on assistant coaches. They work in a collaborative environment where they don't have the final say, which makes it pretty darn hard to attribute any successes/failures directly to them. It would be hard for an owner or GM to draw accurate conclusions on them, let alone some fan perusing Wikipedia. hahaha
