Minnesota Sports Forum

Since there are threads focused on our head coach, I thought I'd start a thread on who would be some ideal assistant coaches to pair with them.

If JVG or Thibs become HC, we need a good offensive minded coach. Some ideas would be Steve Nash, Mike Antoni, Sam Cassell, John Stockton or Becky Hammond for our top assistant. And if any of the following guys are interested, I'd consider Atkinson (probably becomes a HC though), McHale (probably not interested), or Hoiberg (if he's canned). JVG loves Patrick Ewing, so I could see him as a possibility while Thibs likes Adrian Griffin.

I'd like to retain Ryan Saunders but I think we can do better than our other assistants. I don't know if Sam Mitchell would consider coming back as an assistant, but I'd at least consider him if our young core wanted him back.

Kevin Garnett would be nice...

May surprise some, but I would embrace Sam as an assistant. Don't see it though.

Anybody else tired of seeing David Adelman's face?

Camden0916 wrote:Anybody else tired of seeing David Adelman's face?

Lol. Yes.

I would assume either Van Gundy or Thibs would try to bring Ron Adams over from Golden State. Pat Ewing would be a good guess and others from their coaching tree especially those on staffs that have been let go. I would also like to see Saunders stick around and I have no doubt JVG would keep him on.

I've learned that Ryan Saunders actually has some value in the analytics department. Apparently he's installed programs for organizations that help in that area. And as some have noted, he's pretty good helping the guard group with some things.

Either way, his last name dictates that he isn't going anywhere. He's Flip's son. Flip built this. The son will be around to see it through.

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:

Camden0916 wrote:Anybody else tired of seeing David Adelman's face?

Lol. Yes.

I would assume either Van Gundy or Thibs would try to bring Ron Adams over from Golden State. Pat Ewing would be a good guess and others from their coaching tree especially those on staffs that have been let go. I would also like to see Saunders stick around and I have no doubt JVG would keep him on.

Ron Adams would be a great assistant coach but I'm not sure he wants to leave the Warriors. It would be a major coup if we could get him though.

Camden0916 wrote:I've learned that Ryan Saunders actually has some value in the analytics department. Apparently he's installed programs for organizations that help in that area. And as some have noted, he's pretty good helping the guard group with some things.

Either way, his last name dictates that he isn't going anywhere. He's Flip's son. Flip built this. The son will be around to see it through.

I've heard enough non MN media comment on Ryan's developmental abilities (even very recently) to believe he is fairly legit in that department.

I like Sam and all that but it just seems weird to have him back as an assistant coach for a different coach. It seems like the best thing for everyone would be to have more of a fresh start than that. Keep Ryan and maybe Gates plus some of the lesser guys if you want but it just rarely works to have a guy in that level of role that Sam had even in the situation he was thrown in come back as a lesser role. I'm not saying that he would not accept it but it just seems really difficult to mentally get over that adjustment for everyone involved. If they wanted to keep him around the organization doing something sure but Sam to me was always in some way at peace with what his fate was. He was going to work as hard as he could make the best case he could but he also understood what could happen. If he loses the job to a guy like Thibs JVG Brooks Etc there isn't any shame in that.

Keep Arnie Kander and the training staff.

Keep Ryan Saunders.

Let the new President of Basketball Operations and/or Head Coach fill the rest of the spots.

I think it would be super beneficial to add Mike D'Antoni to our staff if we could swing it. Maybe Thibs can use his Team USA relationship and get him here. D'Antoni's style offensively is something I've always liked. He just falls short defensively, so have his teams. If we had Thibs and DA, wow. What a massive turnaround from this year with Mitchell and Lowe.

Camden0916 wrote:Keep Arnie Kander and the training staff.

Keep Ryan Saunders.

Let the new President of Basketball Operations and/or Head Coach fill the rest of the spots.

I think it would be super beneficial to add Mike D'Antoni to our staff if we could swing it. Maybe Thibs can use his Team USA relationship and get him here. D'Antoni's style offensively is something I've always liked. He just falls short defensively, so have his teams. If we had Thibs and DA, wow. What a massive turnaround from this year with Mitchell and Lowe.

D'Antoni would be a nice get for an assistant for any of the guys the Wolves are after. I wonder if that's a tough get since he is working for the Colangelo's. It would be worth a shot.

I'll say this about the Woles coaching staff this last year I think they were solid when it came to player development. Ryan's strength has already been discussed and Gates came with a good rep in that area. I think Sam did some good things there as well. Lowe has worked with Flip before to help develop some guards in the past so maybe he doesn't suck there. We don't know much to give little Adelman the benefit of the doubt except Jim Peterson likes him But that's not enough. A few years from now we may find out what kind of abilities he has but I can't say the guy is an asset at this point even though I actually like some things about him. Of course what likely helped was having some vets as well like KG that obviously was pretty hands on with the players. Somebody has to get some credit for developing Dieng this last year if there is one guy that his improvement had to be tied to something other than just a player naturally getting better it's Dieng.

What we all want is an even better coaching staff all around this year and that's extremely likely to happen. I am nervous with excitement and typical ingrained Wolves fan worry that something is going to be screwed up. Lol