Yahoo: Economy could limit coaching options (Yahoo! Sports)

[Revrag]

The Wizards and Kings are among the few teams that figure to go shopping for a new coach this summer.

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[kennadog]

Noooooooo, not Eddie Jordan!

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Noooooooo, not Eddie Jordan!

I'm with ya Kenna, I want the Little General dammit!! Enough talk about Jordan and Whiz PLEASE!!!!

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Ooh, the article mentions David Blatt from Isreal...says he played at Princeton for Coachie! I like him already, do it Geoff!

 

[piksi]

Etore Messina is by far the best coach out of those three. By far the best. One of the best coaches in Europe ever. Zone master, defensive minded, discipline "nazi." In a way - Greg Popovic type.

Saying all this - I wouldn't take him at this stage because he prefers veteran players with experience.

I wish - Kings would approach Bozidar Maljkovic. He has developed many, many great players like Kukoc and Radja. He lets them play, make mistakes and learn from it. Only problem is - his practices are brutal, long, challenging. Not even sure he would be interested.

 

[Krunker]

I hope we don't get Jordan. I didn't like him his one year as head coach here, or when he coached the Wiz for that matter.

 

[BritishColumbia]

David Blatt is an Israeli-American coach with a great reputation among players. He is a great motivator, players like him as a person and play for him, loves working individually with players, coach-teacher, loves fast athletic basketball. He had a tremendous success with the Russian National team and head coach of Dynamo Moscow now. Also, he won one of the European Cups with a pretty weak team (Dynamo Saint-Petersburg if I am not mistaken).
Concerns: He's been very successful with athletic fast players who can defend (players like Kirilenko - his favorite apprentice). So not Sacramento Kings.


Etore Messina is one of the legends in Europe and he wants to coach in NBA. He is a basketball guru who is all about defence. Even NBA coaches come to CSKA camps to learn something from him. He is a tough guy but players respect him. It looks like he's won everything and everywhere. If you do not play defence, you do not play at all. Many coaches say that but Messina actually follows his principles. He is a head coach of CSKA Moscow that is like NY Yankees of European basketball and he knows how to deal with pressure and famous players.
Concerns: He is a legendary coach and I am not sure he will want to work in Sacramento with the Kings (my pure speculations). He can be very tough on players if they do not listen or play lazy - look at Popovich and multiply by 2.

 

[Bricklayer]

The questions with all of the European guys are the same as with any other unknown -- there is no doubt that they can coach, but can they gain the respect and control an NBA team? Because that's really the game. I don't for an instant believe that the NBA has all or even most of the great basketball coaches in the world. Its got some of them to be sure. But the average NBA coach isn't necessarily anything special basketballwise. Most of them are just ex-players with various degrees of basketball acumen. But the thing that they have, at least even the moderately successful ones, is the ability to connect with and gain the respect of an extremely difficult group of "subordinates" -- more difficult since at this level the subordinates largely run the show rather than the coach.

That more than the Xs and Ox is why a guy like Whis is such a ridiculous choice. Why college coaches, some of them great/legendary college coaches, routinely fail in the NBA. And a major question mark about the European options. Can they adjust? Can they gain the respect needed? Because if not it does not matter how legendary they are, they will fail in the NBA. One of these days an NBA team is going to take a shot at a European coach, its just inevitable. And if it works out, others will follow. But the question is, do we want to be the guinea pigs? Any offbeat coaching choice at this juncture has the potential to set us back years, or at least retard our progress, if it does not work out.

 

[sactownfan]

YES WE DO!!! its probably very quality and most importantly its cheap! plus we're ALL ABOUT BEING EURO! EURO STYLE, EURO PLAYERS! Petrie loves it!

 

[BritishColumbia]

The questions with all of the European guys are the same as with any other unknown -- there is no doubt that they can coach, but can they gain the respect and control an NBA team? Because that's really the game. I don't for an instant believe that the NBA has all or even most of the great basketball coaches in the world. Its got some of them to be sure. But the average NBA coach isn't necessarily anything special basketballwise. Most of them are just ex-players with various degrees of basketball acumen. But the thing that they have, at least even the moderately successful ones, is the ability to connect with and gain the respect of an extremely difficult group of "subordinates" -- more difficult since at this level the subordinates largely run the show rather than the coach.

That more than the Xs and Ox is why a guy like Whis is such a ridiculous choice. Why college coaches, some of them great/legendary college coaches, routinely fail in the NBA. And a major question mark about the European options. Can they adjust? Can they gain the respect needed? Because if not it does not matter how legendary they are, they will fail in the NBA. One of these days an NBA team is going to take a shot at a European coach, its just inevitable. And if it works out, others will follow. But the question is, do we want to be the guinea pigs? Any offbeat coaching choice at this juncture has the potential to set us back years, or at least retard our progress, if it does not work out.

That is exactly why I am not sure that we should go in that direction. However, I'd rather have Messina or Blatt than Jordan or Whiz.

 

[BritishColumbia]

YES WE DO!!! its probably very quality and most importantly its cheap! plus we're ALL ABOUT BEING EURO! EURO STYLE, EURO PLAYERS! Petrie loves it!

Only not cheap!! I think CSKA Moscow pays him about 3M Euros (about 4M US dollars) after taxes (like 8M before taxes in NBA). I am not 100% sure but I heard it somewhere last year. However, I think Ettore and David are ready to cut their financial appetites if they have a good offer from NBA.