Opportunity knocks for assistant coaches

[NJNJ]

There will be vacancies. On that, you can go to the proverbial bank. There always is coaching turnover in the NBA; the only unknown is how many teams will be looking for new head coaches in 2010.

 

We can pretty much identify two of them: the New Jersey Nets and the New Orleans Hornets. They already have cashiered the coaches who started the season; in the case of the Nets’ Lawrence Frank, it marked the end of the longest tenured coach (same team) in the Eastern Conference. Boston’s Doc Rivers now has that distinction.

 

Interestingly, neither New Jersey nor New Orleans went out and hired a replacement. They turned to someone already on the payroll (though both teams brought in new assistants to help the new boss). But whom will the Nets, Hornets and (pick a few teams) consider when it comes time to make a permanent move later this season or next summer?

 

There are the usual suspects: Jeff Van Gundy, Mike Fratello, Avery Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Byron Scott and even, perhaps, Frank. Those gents all have one thing in common: $$$$$. And now, more than ever, teams are watching their costs.

 

Says one general manager: “It is a fact of NBA life. Teams are losing money. Teams are watching what they spend and it has trickled down to the assistants, to the scouts, to the assistant scouts. There is no question about it.”

 

Added agent Steve Kauffman, who counts Sacramento Kings coach Paul Westphal as a client: “It’s certainly a factor right now. I believe after the next lockout – and there will be a lockout – then you’ll start to see salaries gradually rise again, sort of like the housing market.”

 

Using the economy (and a not-so-subtle admonishment last year from league commissioner David Stern), teams may instead look more closely into current NBA assistant coaches, who (a) have been waiting for their shot; and (b) would come much cheaper than anyone from the above group. The Pistons went that route with John Kuester. The Bulls went that route with Vinny Del Negro, although he was not an assistant coach. Miami’s Erik Spoelstra probably fits that description as well.

 

But whom might the next ones be? Here is a list of current NBA assistant coaches who might well be on the short lists of several teams. These fellows all have one thing in common – and it’s not $$$$$. They have never been an NBA head coach.

 

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[Erick Blasco]

I'm surprised Budenholzer hasn't become a head coach yet. Maybe he's loyal to Popovich and won't leave to get a head gig, but he's one of the better assistants in the league. Turner, Thibodeau, and Shaw are naturals.