Minnesota Sports Forum

Sam is getting an interview with the Kings.

ESPN sources say Mark Jackson, Vinny Del Negro and Sam Mitchell will get the first three interviews for Sacramento's vacant coaching job.

https://twitter.com/espnsteinline/status/722591041920983044

Random thoughts:

- Mitchell should coach a college program, especially a mid-tier program with guys that stick around 3 or 4 years. I could see him molding a group of guys into a pretty damn good team.

- I'd like to see Mark Jackson go to New York. Mark Jackson, James Dolan, and Phil Jackson all deserve each other. Throw in Dwight Howard for good measure - may be Derek Rose too. Yeah, definitely Rose. The dysfunction would be wonderful to watch!

- I don't really have a dog in this hunt. Thibs is the obvious choice because he immediately makes us better defensively by a mile without a single personnel change. We hire Thibs, we WILL be top 15 defensively next season. But questions linger about him in terms of how he fits with our core guys. For example.....

- Question: Will Thibs give these guys enough breathing room to establish their own hierarchy and culture? KAT needs to eventually be top dog - that much is clear. But he's young, very young. Wiggins and LaVine aren't the types that can be smothered with coaching. Part of me wonders if we need a modern-day Phil Jackson (not the flake the real Phil Jackson has become) - a cerebral dude that is just as adept at pushing the right buttons with guys as he is with the X and Os. You don't over-coach Michael Jordan. Brooks is intriguing to me. He seems like a patient, positive type that gives his players some breathing room.......and is probably smart enough to get better at the tactical stuff.

- I see Sacramento is aiming high.....

Q12543 wrote:Random thoughts:


- I'd like to see Mark Jackson go to New York. Mark Jackson, James Dolan, and Phil Jackson all deserve each other. Throw in Dwight Howard for good measure - may be Derek Rose too. Yeah, definitely Rose. The dysfunction would be wonderful to watch!

-.....

Q, I agree that would be highly entertaining.

A RealGM article on the Wolves coaching search:

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/241644/The-Wolves-Next-Most-Consequential-Decision

TheSP wrote:A RealGM article on the Wolves coaching search:

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/241644/The-Wolves-Next-Most-Consequential-Decision

That was a fun read at least. This was my favorite part. It made me laugh anyway.

"They have a franchise player in Towns, a promising second banana in Wiggins, and Zach LaVine, who some nights looks like he time-traveled into the past from 2046 to show us what basketball looks like in the future and some nights looks like a supremely athletic klutz."

Q12543 wrote:Random thoughts:

- Mitchell should coach a college program, especially a mid-tier program with guys that stick around 3 or 4 years. I could see him molding a group of guys into a pretty damn good team.

- I'd like to see Mark Jackson go to New York. Mark Jackson, James Dolan, and Phil Jackson all deserve each other. Throw in Dwight Howard for good measure - may be Derek Rose too. Yeah, definitely Rose. The dysfunction would be wonderful to watch!

- I don't really have a dog in this hunt. Thibs is the obvious choice because he immediately makes us better defensively by a mile without a single personnel change. We hire Thibs, we WILL be top 15 defensively next season. But questions linger about him in terms of how he fits with our core guys. For example.....

- Question: Will Thibs give these guys enough breathing room to establish their own hierarchy and culture? KAT needs to eventually be top dog - that much is clear. But he's young, very young. Wiggins and LaVine aren't the types that can be smothered with coaching. Part of me wonders if we need a modern-day Phil Jackson (not the flake the real Phil Jackson has become) - a cerebral dude that is just as adept at pushing the right buttons with guys as he is with the X and Os. You don't over-coach Michael Jordan. Brooks is intriguing to me. He seems like a patient, positive type that gives his players some breathing room.......and is probably smart enough to get better at the tactical stuff.

- I see Sacramento is aiming high.....

Great post lots of good stuff in here.

Would Sam Mitchell want to recruit? Lol honestly Sam I think would need the right school that he could be really bought into and he would need some guys to do some good work I recruiting for him. Ibdonthink you are right he had a lot of good aspects to be a terrific college coach relatively speaking. If he had some decent success right away he may be able to get some solid recruits. The thing about college basketball is getting talent there and some of that is identifying talent. It really depends on what Sam wants to do but he won't have a hard time finding a job doing something with basketball somewhere if that's what he wants to do.

I like where you went there on your last point. On one hand it does feel like these guys just need a guy to sort of just enable these guys to utilize there talents. On the other hand it seems like these guys can take some hard coaching. Towns is crazy competive hard on himself. Even though Lavine is sort of an awe shucks kinda guy he seems very coach able and Wiggins while may be a different guy seems to be a guy that doesn't have a selfish agenda and seems like a calculating guy that would accept being pushed if the person pushing had a clue of what they were talking about. Bazz Dieng and Rubio all seem up for tough coaching as well.

Anyway I liked your point it was something a little different and therefore refreshing in the conversation about the next coach.

Good article. Best insight into the attributes of a great head coach was the following passage describing Steve Kerr: "embracing small ball, moving Draymond Green to the starting lineup, marginalizing David Lee, using Andre Iguodala as a utility man off the bench--that hint at a keen understanding of how to emphasize his players' skills and hide their weaknesses. Kerr's open-mindedness and humility have allowed him to experiment and spot opportunities Jackson was blind to."

That passage identifies two of what I consider to be the three core attributes of a top head coach: (1) a keen understanding of how to emphasize players' skills and hide their weaknesses; and (2) open-mindedness and humility that allows the coach to experiment and spot opportunities. The third core attribute in my view is the ability to communicate effectively with players, which includes the ability to reach different players differently depending on each player's personality.

A coach who masters all three of these will earn the respect and confidence of his players. They will trust and respect him. As a result they will buy into the coach's system and want to play hard for him. It's a players league. So in the end, the coach has to win over the players' not the other way around. Thibs, JVG, Mark Jackson, etc. should all be measured carefully against these criteria.

It also needs to be noted that Kerr didn't swap Green for Lee until he actually had to. It was Lee getting injured that catapulted Green into the starting lineup, not Kerr's keen sense of player recognition or whatever you want to call it. They uncovered a lineup that was much better than the one they previously were using by accident, not coach's decision. Where you can give Kerr credit is continuing to use that lineup when Lee came back healthy. That took some courage, and he was able to get Lee to understand that the team was better for it. Lee was a professional, handled his business until he left. But make no mistake about it, Kerr stumbled upon that lineup by means of injury, not straight up creativity.

I enjoyed listening to this. Sam said some interesting things about the young guys and how he viewed the position he had.

http://www.1500espn.com/the-scoop-2/2016/04/ep-15-1-on-1-with-sam-mitchell-who-reflects-on-his-time-coaching-wolves/

If somehow the Kings hired Mitchell, I'm not sure who I would feel worse for...the Kings, or Sam himself. But it surely would be entertaining as hell to watch that shit-show play out.