Asked if he anticipates Steve Clifford, who has a season remaining on his contract, being the coach here next season, Polk responded, “I would today.”
Like each of Clifford’s previous four seasons, he and his staff will be evaluated in the spring.
“Once we get a new general manager on board, we’ll talk about the coaching staff,” Polk said.
“Steve has brought a lot of strong organization” to the franchise, Polk said, adding Clifford’s health crisis (a six-week leave to address severe headaches) concerned everyone in management.
“I think our coaching staff has done a good job. We think we can do an even better job,” Polk said. “We’re not at the top of the league (in record), so we should look at everything we’re doing.”
With 10 players under guaranteed contracts for next season, plus a rookie on a likely lottery-pick salary, the Hornets are already close to the anticipated luxury-tax threshold of approximately $120 million. That will make it difficult to improve the team’s bench, which continues to be a weakness.
Polk said the one-time spike in the salary cap, because of new national television contracts, was hard to manage. That was in the summer of 2016, when Nic Batum got his five-year, $120 million contract. Since then, the cap has risen in smaller increments than once projected, which has left the Hornets and some other teams in a jam.
Polk said management knew when it made the Dwight Howard trade (at a salary of $23.5 million this season and next) and other moves that the Hornets would again be floating just below the tax line next summer.
“Now, the new general manager needs to get us a little below the tax line to improve depth” by facilitating trades and/or signings.
Not much there, but sounds like Cliff is safe if the new GM likes him and that new GM will need to trade some money to get below tax line. Good to know Cliff has just one year left on his deal, when we suck again next year he should 100% be gone.
