8/26/2023 0 Comments Hoops hype rumors hornacek![]() “We’ve been texting back and forth,” Spoelstra said. MIAMI - Throughout the Heat’s playoff run, Erik Spoelstra has been confiding in and getting encouragement from another Miami coach - and it’s not Pat Riley.ĭolphins’ coach Mike McDaniel and Spoelstra have become friends. He’d be more of a daring hire at this point, but he could perhaps unite the Rockets’ front office and coaching staff better than anyone. ![]() ![]() After a successful stint there, he moved to the bench in Houston. The biggest question is how his rapport with players would translate to the head chair, but that’s a concern for any assistant.įinch coached in Europe for more than a decade until the Rockets tabbed him to coach their D-League team. Maybe someone who learned offense from Don Nelson and defense from Steve Clifford and gets along well with players would make a good head coach. Between and after stints with his dad, Stephen has impressed at other stops around the league. Paul Silas even let Stephen serve as head coach for games during the 2011-12 season. Stephen Silas broke into NBA coaching on his dad’s staffs with the Hornets (turned Pelicans) and Cavaliers. From afar, it’s just tough to judge his contributions to a loaded coaching staff in Los Angeles. He mentored John Wall with the Wizards before joining the Clippers. An intelligent player, Cassell has successfully transitioned to coaching, though I’m not sure he’s ready for a top job. But the Rockets have the best job available, so they can probably aim a little higher.Ĭassell, like Smith, played for the Rockets. If he can explain this year’s troubles, he’d be a solid hire. Hornacek coached the Suns and looked pretty good doing so until this season, when he feuded with Markieff Morris, used too many strange lineups and saw the team quit on him. There could be 10-15 – perhaps even more – candidates interviewed in the process, league sources said. Houston owner Les Alexander and general manager Daryl Morey met with Bickerstaff on Monday, as well as Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Sam Cassell and Houston assistant Chris Finch, league sources said.Ĭonversations with potential candidates are expected to include several prominent college coaches, sources said.Īmong the NBA candidates with whom the Rockets are working to set up interviews are former Phoenix Suns coach Jeff Hornacek and Charlotte Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, league sources said. Bickerstaff.Įxpect many more names in the Rockets’ coaching search. ![]() Guys love him,” says Jeff Hornacek, who coached Smith in Phoenix in 2013-14.There are the big names: Jeff Van Gundy, David Blatt, Mike D’Antoni and Frank Vogel.Īnd there’s the eliminated name: J.B. “It’s obvious why he’s stuck around as long as he has. Yet no one dismisses what Smith brings to a team, even one as loaded as Denver, which will take a 1-0 lead into Game 2 of the finals Sunday against Miami, and for whom he plays the elder statesman role. Here he is, having been in 762 regular season games over 13 seasons, and having become the first player in NBA history to play for 13 different teams – the last (for now) being the Nuggets, where he’s been this season after being traded from Washington, along with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, last summer. Players like him comprise the backbone of the NBA - true pros, able to make any situation, in any season, work. “Journeyman” is a pejorative in this league, a dismissal of a player whose talent and character remain high enough for him to remain in the game, but not good enough to find a permanent home.
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