You know, if you think about it, the team we have now is likely to be a lot more receptive to a young coach. Both Musselman and Theus inherited rosters which were an awkward mix of young players and veterans. With Musselman, he got the job thinking he had a playoff team led by Bibby, Bonzi, and Artest who had just given the Spurs a pretty good fight in the first round. But then the season starts and there's no Bonzi and Bibby injures his thumb in training camp but plays the whole season anyway resulting in the worst shooting percentages of his career. Expected to make the post-season (by some) the team actually finished 16 games under .500, the worst record in 9 years. Musselman promised to make the defense better, but it got worse giving the Maloofs an excuse to let him go after a disappointing season.
Then Theus comes in and Bibby injures his thumb again, but this time wisely shut it's down so the Kings open the season with Orien Greene at PG, which clearly wasn't going to work, before lucking into a motivated Beno Udrih, eager to prove himself after three years on San Antonio's bench. The wait for Shareef's return lasts the entire season so Mikki Moore gets promoted to starting PF. The Kings actually finished with a better record than expected, due partly to Brad Miller's triumphant return to respectability, but the season ended with some controversy surrounding Theus and his treatment of Kevin Martin. It was a pretty good team when both Martin and Artest were healthy at the same time, but Artest had already worn out his welcome with the front office so he left in the off-season and early injuries this year gave an excuse to let Theus go.
So looking back at the history, I don't think Musselman and Theus were neccesarily terrible coaching choices. Both of them did have some good qualities (with Musselman his attention to detail and game plannning, with Theus his motivation and PR skills). But both coaches were in the unlucky situation of being asked to lead a team on the tail-end of a very succesful playoff run with an unbalanced roster and unrealistic expectations. Either one of them might have worked out in the long-term if they were given more time to establish themselves.
I think it would be a mistake at this point to overreact to these past three years and say that we need to bring in an old SOB now to whip these young guys into shape. Injuries and overall talent have been a problem, for the most part the effort has been there (with the possible exception of the end of this season under Kenny Natt which is understandable given the circumstances). The strategy up to this point has been to look for a young guy who will stay with the team for 8, 9 years or more and give the team an identity. I don't think it was the wrong strategy, I think both tenures were derailed partially by unforseeon circumstances (injuries mostly) and partially by a lack of clarity from the front office about what was expected (are we re-building? are we contending?). Musselman looked like a young up-and-coming coach with a promising background. Theus had ties to the franchise and a media-friendly personality. As it turns out, neither one was a good fit though.
I understand why people would want to bring in someone like Eddie Jordan or Avery Johnson with a track record. I'm not opposed to either option, but both come with some red flags. Can Jordan coach defense? Is Johnson too strict in his offense to allow individual talents to shine (Devin Harris)? But then anyone we bring in is going to have some strengths and some weaknesses. I don't have a problem with the established guys if we can cover for their deficiencies in other ways. But I don't think it's wise to throw out the assistant coach option altogether because of these past failures. What the Musselman and Theus situations suggest to me is that choosing a head coach is a huge decision. It pays to take your time and do your due diligence in checking these guys out before rushing to make a decision. Both Musselman and Theus seemed like odd signings at the time because of how many prominent candidates did not get interviewed. I don't think it would be wise to rule anyone out at this point.
