Chauncey Billups:Serious Candidate 4 Modern Era Player-Coach

[93 Phillies]

I like how you make this seem as if it's from an article.

i like how you make it seem like an article of some newspaper is more reliable than a realgm idea

[Dr Aki]

this opens a giant can of worms in terms of player payments

so whilst a good idea, its open to abuse. taking it to its most extreme, lets say the knicks sign lebron, wade and bosh, each for the minimum and pays each 35+mil per year to be coach/asst coaches. effectively signing everyone for nothing and pricing everyone else out of the market and making a mockery of the CBA, talent parity in the NBA and RFAs would leave all their small market teams to sign for big market teams.

only way this works is if players receive absolutely no payments whatsoever. which means players that have coaching acumen, would be doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

[BballerShotCaller]

The coaching salary issues can surely be solved, don't see that as the most serious deterrent.

only way this works is if players receive absolutely no payments whatsoever. which means players that have coaching acumen, would be doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

If players like Billups or LeBron are already excelling at huge critical leadership roles,.. then they are ALREADY doing a large part of the coaching without receiving any coaching compensation.

But I trust there are a lot of smart people who could come up with (engineer) a workable policy solution that closes abusive loop holes while making the concept a relevant choice for teams that find themselves in the rare situations where a player-coach is a realistic option.

[corona]

I disagree slightly with HK on this one. In 2006 when Flip Saunders was signed in Detroit. It was actually Chauncey Billups (offense) and Ben Wallace (defense) who coached the team. They handled everything and basically had the coach there just to allow them to do things the way they wanted to after LB was gone. Flip even admitted to this during that time, that the team was coaching itself.

billups (offense) & kmart (defense) basically do the same thing in denver. and when he's not on the court, chauncey's constantly up off the bench and in lawsons ear about what to do, how to read that situation...etc.

i'm also very certain that after last season billups approached the FO and told them to do what it takes (within reason) to get afflalo. 9/3/2 in 26mpg, with 49% fg, 46% from 3, playing stellar defense. looks like it was the right call.

[BubbaTee]

I don't think it would work.

First, it would severely disrupt team chemistry. Coaches are part of management, and even though there's no active labor dispute in the NBA today there's always a divide between players and management. There would likely emerge a rift between Billups and the other players as they realize that every word said to or in front of him could be relayed back to the front office, and could factor into player personnel decisions such as salary, discipline, or playing time. Billups as coach would no longer be one of the guys.

Second, the duties of head coaches extend beyond the court these days. Coaches are heavily involved in stuff like the draft, it's not like the Bill Russell days where he just handled the actual games and Red Auerbach did everything else. Coaches stay up late, some even sleep in their offices. Billups wouldn't be able to do that without being affected physically.

I don't doubt that Billups is smart enough to be a basketball coach. It's the other stuff that gets in the way.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

this opens a giant can of worms in terms of player payments

so whilst a good idea, its open to abuse. taking it to its most extreme, lets say the knicks sign lebron, wade and bosh, each for the minimum and pays each 35+mil per year to be coach/asst coaches. effectively signing everyone for nothing and pricing everyone else out of the market and making a mockery of the CBA, talent parity in the NBA and RFAs would leave all their small market teams to sign for big market teams.

only way this works is if players receive absolutely no payments whatsoever. which means players that have coaching acumen, would be doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Yeah, I basically thought it wasn't allowed anymore. Otherwise, every guy over 32 would be an "assistant coach".

That said, Karl always works well with one guy he can trust on the team to smooth things over with the rest of the team. Sam was his guy in Milwaukee and he had GP in Seattle. He knows how to test players.