The Rockets and Rick Adelman had "Irreconcilable Differences", so Houston is looking for a new head coach. Here's how I would handicap the field.
Mike Brown (4-1)- The former Cavs head coach is a Greg Popovich disciple which certainly won't hurt him in the eyes of Daryl Morey or Les Alexander. He was NBA coach of the year in 2009, but the Cavs whacked him after the 2010 season because they thought it would help keep Lebron James in Cleveland. His teams play good defense, but he obviously would have no Lebron James on this roster.
Lawrence Frank (6-1) - The Major Applewhite look-a-like did a fantastic job with an undermanned New Jersey Nets roster. He was offered but turned down the head coaching job at the University of Tennessee. Not a traditional coach by any means, but certainly young enough to relate to this roster.
Stan Van Gundy (8-1) - 1st Things 1st...SVG would need to be fired by the Orlando Magic. If he was already out of work, SVG might be the favorite. His teams traditionally bring it on defense (this year not withstanding) and he has a good relationship with Dwight Howard, who you would have to assume would be a Rockets trade target in the off season.
Mike Woodson (10-1)- The former Rockets guard coached the Atlanta Hawks for 6 seasons. His team improved its win total every season on the job. A Larry Brown protege his offenses are nothing to write home about but his teams could grind out an opponent and force them into a ton of bad shots.
Chris Finch (20-1)- Daryl Morey hand picked Finch out of no where once to lead the D-League Vipers. All he's done is win a championship and is in competition for a second. Given the difficulty of not knowing which players you might have on a night-in night out basis, that says something about his ability. The lack of a star on the Rockets roster seems to indicate to me that the Rockets could take a chance on a relative "no-name" coach and not worry about player's respecting him.
Ettore Messina (35-1)- The reigning Euroleague coach of the year, Messina has won 4 European championships in Russia and Spain. He was considered a strong candidate for the Toronto Raptors job a couple seasons ago and I think he is on the Rockets radar.
Jeff Van Gundy (50-1) - A guy can dream can't he? JVG still wants to coach and live in Houston. There's currently only 1 job that will allow him that combination.
No comments:
Post a Comment