Who should be the next coach of the Washington Wizards?

[TGW]

Thibs got fired. He hates rookies and bench players more than Brooks, so he wouldn't work here. But he's been more successful than Brooks too.

[dangermouse]

Thibs got fired. He hates rookies and bench players more than Brooks, so he wouldn't work here. But he's been more successful than Brooks too.

Oh :/

We need someone who WILL play young guns

[doclinkin]

Drag and drop from the Trades Thread.

I also don't see how the Zards trade Beal...unless it's for a package they simply can't refuse. BB's overall game continues to evolve and get better, and I expect the 25 year old to be a real beast 2-3 years from now. You don't trade that kind of upside unless it's absolutely necessary.

Wall shouldn't be an impediment to Beal continuing to excel. In fact, BB should thrive playing next to Wallstar. But first Wall has to recognize that he has a great running mate in Beal and another excellent complimentary piece in OP...and adjust his play accordingly, starting with becoming a truly pass-first PG.

Wall is a pass-first PG. Of the top 25 highest usage players (Wall is 23) only Harden and Westbrook have a higher Ast%. If you check the assist measures John is in the top tier in every meaningful category.

What he is not is an active and engaged an useful player when he is off the ball. So he dominates the ball because he doesn't do anything else. Maybe cannot do it, maybe does not know how. It's not just his iffy outside shot, it's everything else on offense: backdoor cuts, screens, offensive rebounds, decoy plays and feints. John just doesn't do it. He either has the ball or he stands around. Players like Simmons, Curry, Rondo, CP3, Patty Mills, George HIll, Lonzo, Lowry are all in the top guards in screen assists. Wall doesn't show up til page three.

And when he has the ball he does not stay in motion, probing and circling and keeping his dribble alive in the way of a Nash or Tony Parker or Kyrie. So the team around him stays static, aside from picks and a few set plays. It's predictable. Players on court have to wait and stay passive. Otto, who does do everything, and takes advantage of whatever creases the defense gives him, is reduced to a standstill corner shooter. The team becomes predictable, the only advantage we have then is the fact that Wall IS a superior passer, and when healthy he is one of the quickest and most athletic PGs in the league.

Then too there's his passive defense, which is injury related in part, scheme in part, maybe conditioning related, but also there's some laziness in his game on this end. He can make the flash play. He can make the highlight steal or block, but there is no glory in locking up your man off ball. And he is not reading angles to prevent the pass or disrupt the opponent set plays. And he ought to rebound better and box out etc, but unless his man has the ball he's mostly waiting for someone else to get the board so he can take off in transition. And he rarely fights through a pick. Maybe that's due to injury too. When John is locked in though he is disruptive, not just steals and deflections and blocks, so I have to think some of this is conserving his energy.

Lastly, with a lazy GM and unimpressive coach, John acts as adjunct GM. His post season analysis is taken as an offseason blueprint. The team scrambles to plug in the sort of player that John says the team needs. He's often right, but still, this telegraphs to agents and other teams what we want, and raises the asking price. So our lazy GM overpays early in the free agency and calls it a summer. Goes back to 'scouting' in Italy, etc.

Also, the team does not look forward to any long range plan. The coach has no particular vision or scheme to find players that fit. Our one nod to cleverness is an intentional design flaw to lack depth. So, we win with our stars, or, when they are injured, we can collect lotto tickets. We don't develop our own talent, don't extend them early when they are reasonable, we don't use our late picks, our minor league system, and never find talent that makes up for what John doesn't do, if he is going to be the axle around which all things turn.

A visionary front office would recruit a Steve Nash and ask him to coach. Coach Ginobili. Would pull a Euro coach with a winning record to teach the team game (give David Blatt a second chance) and put savvy hardworking young talent around him to grow a team from the ground up. Would have found a Brad Stevens. Coach Bud. And would not mismanage the cap in desperation every year.

I honestly think Ernie deliberately ruined our cap with Nicholson Mahinmi etc so that the job would not look as tempting to other GMs.

So. Going forward, it's tricky to think how to improve the team with Wall as a centerpiece UNLESS we upgrade the front office. An engaged and fired up John Wall can deserve and earn that contract. Make no mistake. We win a few games a year that we have no business winning simply because Wall has the talent to overcome opposition, and is fired up to make it happen. In those games he is a destructive force at both ends of the floor.

The areas where John is flawed in his game are 100% improvable with effort. If his injury woes are cured, his conditioning and offseason regimen can be focused on being able to outrun and outwork everybody on both ends of the floor. If he had a coach from the right system (every player is a threat off the ball, every player is both decoy, threat, and glue player, motion sets up easy baskets, screens on and off the ball open opportunities to attack) then Wall could be back to being the force he is when she shows up in those giant-killer games. If John Wall let teams even think he was doing that stand around lazy thing but instead crashed backdoor he would have 6 more points a game when teams turned their head away from him and he found the seam and the alley to sprint rise and flush. Picture a two man screen game with Brad and say Troy Brown or Otto, where the ball handler passes to the pick and instead of rolling, John slices in to catch the pass and stuff it. His speed means if teams do lose him in the shuffle, he is a threat from anywhere. He just has to actually shuffle. Shuffle and hustle, John. That's all.

=============================

doc, Wall used to be a pass-first PG but lately he’s become more of a pound-the-ball-and-look-for-my-shot PG. Yes, John is a superior passer when he wants to be but that’s too often not the case.

I think both you and Nate are spot on with your analysis of how Wall currently plays the game (especially on the offensive end) and what he needs to do to improve…and help his team and teammates. I agree that Wall is a transcendent talent who can take over games in ways that few NBA players can. A healthy Wall playing the right way is still a tremendous (albeit costly) asset.

What’s needed most, imo, is better coaching and, of course, Wall’s willingness to accept that coaching—even if means him getting yanked out of the game when he’s not playing as instructed.

I always find it interesting when people bring up former players like Nash and Ginobili as possible coaches. Both Nash & Ginobili were great players but is there any indication that they can coach? I certainly don’t want the Zards being the guinea pig for that experiment, particularly when the franchise is already on shaky ground under its current coach and GM.

The numbers say differently. The numbers say Wall --even this year, even pounding the rock-- assists on half his possessions.

As for can Manu coach. He says he doesn't want to. Okay. But can he? If you watched him on the bench he was attentive to what coaches were saying even when he wasn't in the game, and when playing he would often follow up with a player afterwards talking all the way out onto the floor. When he subbed in he would approach two players and tell them what he had seen from the bench.

This was Manu, seen a few times in his career:

Watch on YouTube

As for Nash. He has stated he absolutely would love to be a coach or in the front office sometime. He has worked in player development with the Warriors. And if you hear him speak you know this is an incredibly intelligent basketball lifer. Plus his politics and activism would find a perfect fit here in DC.

Watch on YouTube

Both Manu and Ginobili were the sort of players who had to maximize their smarts to succeed in the league. Both were team leaders, coaches on the floor. This team has tried and failed with a dozen or so coaches who had already had experience in the league, for my money why not try someone with a different perspective, a figurehead that players can look up to. If Scrubby Brooks is talking to a star player, okay he's the coach, but there have been coaches here before and will be after him. But if Ginobili tells you how it was done,if Hall of Famer Nash suggests a sly wrinkle to make the game easier for you, why wouldn't you listen? And half of coaching is managing personalities. All former Suns say Nash was what made that team succeed. And you don't think free agents would be willing to listen to a sales pitch from the guy who ignited the uptempo era?

Seems to me with a track record of failure we need to try something new to ignite interest and excitement not just in our fans and around the league, but in the locker room as well. If our point guard is our best asset, and highest paid player, why not get him an upgrade in advice and a role model to work with, a coach who he will respect on credentials coming in the door.

[doclinkin]

I mean at least interview the guy. See what staff he'd want to bring with him. Get a read on how he sees this team improving. Have him draw up some sets we aren't using but could succeed with. Talk over an offensive system that works with our personnel and a defensive set that minimizes our shortcomings. I'm not saying all former players will make good coaches (or GMs ahem EG, apologies Jerry West) but It wouldn't be fun to be in the room to see what Steve Nash thinks is a good fix for this squad?

[DCZards]

I mean at least interview the guy. See what staff he'd want to bring with him. Get a read on how he sees this team improving. Have him draw up some sets we aren't using but could succeed with. Talk over an offensive system that works with our personnel and a defensive set that minimizes our shortcomings. I'm not saying all former players will make good coaches (or GMs ahem EG, apologies Jerry West) but It wouldn't be fun to be in the room to see what Steve Nash thinks is a good fix for this squad?

I'd have no problem whatsoever having the Zards interview a Ginobili or a Nash as potential head coaches. You should want to hear what they have to say regarding offensive and defensive systems and the use of personnel.

Where we disagree is the notion that their outstanding pro careers make them leading candidates for the job. When I look around the NBA today I see outstanding young coaches like Brad Stevens, Eric Spoelstra, Quin Snyder, Dave Joerger, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Budenholzer and Nick Nurse. All of whom never played in the NBA.

And the best NBA head coach of all-time, imo, Greg Popovich, also never played a minute of NBA ball.

[pancakes3]

2 names in the Brad Stevens mold, but not as young and not as successful, are Buzz Williams and Chris Holtmann. but you gotta pull the trigger soon or else they'll get too comfortable in their spot and never leave, like Tony Bennett.

[doclinkin]

I don't think that having an outstanding pro career qualifies you for the job. I think that those two players in particular would prove to be solid head coaches and even strong assets in front office positions. Based on who they are and their analysis of the game and track record as coach on the floor types. There are some players who you hear in interviews and instantly feel they will do well if they choose to graduate to the next level. Steve Kerr was one of those. I get the feel that David West will be a solid head coach. I thought Greg Anthony would be, but he chose to become an analyst and has excelled there. Chauncey Billups had that vibe.

Am I against picking a coach who doesn't have any NBA experience as a player? Nope. I cited David Blatt above, tabbed Dave Jeoger when he was running the Dakota Wizards.

I mentioned those two for a couple reasons. I think they each would have cache that would provide an instant buy in by players who had seen them play. And they each have played in systems that I'd love to adapt to maximize John Wall's skill set. In the case of Manu he is from the same organization that coach Bud and Steve Kerr learned from. The Spurs model, from what I understand, values input from the ballboy on up. If a person in the organization has a good insight they want to hear about it. You feel like Manu somehow learned less under the tutelage of Popovich than either of those two? I'm curious why if so. I'd take Becky Hammond. Or pick a name. But Manu is well liked and trusted as player and leader and a guy who subsumed his ego for the sake of winning. He commands respect and I get the feel he would recruit talent around him. Not just in free agency but in his staff. I figure if Manu were HC he would have a staff of people who had worked in the Spurs system and were accustomed to that high level of excellence. Moot point though since he said he doesn't want to coach. Oh well.

As for Nash. He has said he does want to coach. My read is that he will be good at it. Even as a player he was a student of the game. He strove for technical mastery as a means of overachieving relative to his athletic talent. He admitted he did not have the greatest acceleration as a player so he worked on his stamina so that he could stay at top speed all game. John too is a student of the game with precise recall of situations and decision making. As his athletic gifts taper off he will need to supplant the skills borne of natural talent with better execution and smarter play in general. I just think he's a good fit for what John needs next.

[dangermouse]

I don't think that having an outstanding pro career qualifies you for the job. I think that those two players in particular would prove to be solid head coaches and even strong assets in front office positions. Based on who they are and their analysis of the game and track record as coach on the floor types. There are some players who you hear in interviews and instantly feel they will do well if they choose to graduate to the next level. Steve Kerr was one of those. I get the feel that David West will be a solid head coach. I thought Greg Anthony would be, but he chose to become an analyst and has excelled there. Chauncey Billups had that vibe.

Am I against picking a coach who doesn't have any NBA experience as a player? Nope. I cited David Blatt above, tabbed Dave Jeoger when he was running the Dakota Wizards.

I mentioned those two for a couple reasons. I think they each would have cache that would provide an instant buy in by players who had seen them play. And they each have played in systems that I'd love to adapt to maximize John Wall's skill set. In the case of Manu he is from the same organization that coach Bud and Steve Kerr learned from. The Spurs model, from what I understand, values input from the ballboy on up. If a person in the organization has a good insight they want to hear about it. You feel like Manu somehow learned less under the tutelage of Popovich than either of those two? I'm curious why if so. I'd take Becky Hammond. Or pick a name. But Manu is well liked and trusted as player and leader and a guy who subsumed his ego for the sake of winning. He commands respect and I get the feel he would recruit talent around him. Not just in free agency but in his staff. I figure if Manu were HC he would have a staff of people who had worked in the Spurs system and were accustomed to that high level of excellence. Moot point though since he said he doesn't want to coach. Oh well.

As for Nash. He has said he does want to coach. My read is that he will be good at it. Even as a player he was a student of the game. He strove for technical mastery as a means of overachieving relative to his athletic talent. He admitted he did not have the greatest acceleration as a player so he worked on his stamina so that he could stay at top speed all game. John too is a student of the game with precise recall of situations and decision making. As his athletic gifts taper off he will need to supplant the skills borne of natural talent with better execution and smarter play in general. I just think he's a good fit for what John needs next.

Solid case for Steve. I think the fit is perfect. Not too sure about someone else like Manu coming here and attempting to install a culture similar to the Spurs. Not because its undesirable, but because its outlandishly unlikely. I have a feeling Ernie would avoid recommending such a coach because that would mean goodbye for Ernie.

[Kanyewest]

Right now, a D'Antoni type of offense intrigues me with Beal as the primary ball handler mostly because he can shoot the 3 compared to Wall.

I believe I've mentioned Jay Wright back in 2009 although perhaps now his price tag after winning 2 national championships has gone up. That being said, there is a slight chance he could leave as rumors have surfaced with the 76ers and DC isn't too far from his hometown of of Philadelphia. He is in his late 50s and has had some issues coaching hotheads like Kyle Lowry, then again so did pretty much everyone in the NBA until Lowry matured.

I like Doc's suggestions of Nash or Manu- although they don't strike me as the types that are interested in becoming basketball coaches.

Luke Walton is also interesting if the Lakers choose to move on from him.

[nate33]

The track record of HOF-caliber basketball players who have have become good coaches is pretty scant. Other than Larry Bird, can anybody name one?

I think a problem is that the elite basketball players are so gifted with innate talent or a hyper-active work ethic, that they have trouble dealing with most ordinary players who may have neither. Would Manu become frustrated with Beal because Beal just can't see the obvious passing angles that are plain as day to Manu? I dunno.

In general, most of the successful former-player coaches were scrappy role players when they played, guys like Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Rick Carlisle and Mike D'Antoni. And these days, a lot of the best coaches didn't play pro ball at all.

[DCZards]

If you're looking for the next head coach from the Popovich/Spurs tree I'd keep my eye on Ime Udoka. This is his 7th season as a Spurs assistant coach and might be in line for a top job.

[pancakes3]

if given the green light, beal can be diet harden, sure. why not? you don't need manu to implement that system though.