Thoughts on This Week's NBA Coach Hirings

The last few days saw three of the five remaining NBA coaching vacancies filled with three quality hirings.  The Denver Nuggets pegged former Lakers guard and Indiana Pacers assistant coach, Brian Shaw to replace the ousted George Karl.  The Memphis Grizzlies promoted assistant coach Dave Joerger as Lionel Hollins' replacement.  And at long last, the Los Angeles Clippers finally completed the much anticipated Doc Rivers deal.  I must say, I am quite impressed with all three of these hirings.  The front offices of these three squads should be giving themselves pats on the backs for a job well done.  Each managed to hire a quality coach who will promote both the short-term and long-term growth of the franchise.  And consequently, these three Western Conference powerhouses just got all the more scarier.

Introducing: New Denver Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw

New Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger

And new Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers

I'll start off with the Rivers hiring.  I already touched a bit on this in my first post but here's the gist of it: Chew on this, Doc Rivers is one of the best coaches in the NBA.  He will immediately come in and change the culture of that franchise.  His prowess on the defensive side of the ball is much needed given Lob City's substandard defensive play last season.  The bigs in particular, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan (assuming that neither is traded this offseason), will be asked to do a lot more defensively and give a lot more effort and once Rivers can unleash the full potential of that freakishly athletic frontcourt (a matter of when rather than if), watch out.  Rivers also knows how to manage egos as he showed with the Celtics Big 3, something of extreme importance on a young team like the Clippers.  He can bring some of that 2008 "Ubuntu" style and get this young team to band together and be the best that they can possibly be.  He's also a former player himself so he knows what these guys are going through.  And finally, his hiring basically seals a Chris Paul resigning and it seems like he and CP3 will be able to create a good balance in who ultimately runs the team (Sidenote: To this point, it seems like Chris Paul has the final say in what is said and done within the Clippers organization.  He's the one that kept pushing management to pursue Doc.  They better be careful with this, letting a star player, whose only allegiance is to himself (something that's really true of any star), call the shots.  That's what happened in Orlando with Dwight Howard's infamous Dwightmare of 2010-2012.  He demanded a trade multiple times so the front office fired coach Stan Van Gundy in a desperate attempt to appease him.  Dwight said "Nope, I still want out." So then they fired GM Otis Smith.  Dwight said "Nope I don't care.  I still want a trade." So then, Orlando was forced to trade Dwight for 50 cents on the dollar for a platter revolving around Arron Afflalo and Nik Vucevic.  It's dangerous water to tread in).  It's my opinion that this hiring will get the Clippers over the hump of a playoff team that gets bounced in the opening rounds to a legitimate contender.  Yeah, Doc Rivers is that good.  Plus, shoutout to Donald Sterling for not being his customary, cheapskate self (Why do you think that he held onto Vinny del Negro and Mike Dunleavy for that long when it was clearly not the right situation for either coach? Because they're cheap as dirt and Sterling is a complete and utter cheapskate).  He'll be paying Doc a hefty 21 million over 3 years.  Congrats Donald.  With this hiring, you take somewhat of slide down to second behind the Miami Marlins' Jeffrey Loria for the distinction of  "Worst Owner in Professional Sports."  Clap clap.

A homecoming of sorts for Doc.

Now onto the next big hiring, the Denver Nuggets tying the head coaching knot with Brian Shaw.  I'm really glad to see Shaw finally get a head coaching gig.  He's seemed like nothing more than a backup plan in head coaching searches of the last two years.  Teams would like to have him, but he's not a flashy hiring so he's really been relegated to a second option.  Now, Shaw has gotten a chance to prove himself with the Nuggets and you know he wants to make all the other front offices that passed on him regret it.  And it seems like a perfect fit.  A young coach like Shaw coaching a young team capable of running and gunning like the Nuggets? Well played, Denver.  Well played.  I do expect Shaw to digress from Frank Vogel's "smash mouth"/slow-down offensive style to play to the strengths of the fresher-legged Nuggets.  And seeing how Indiana was the best defensive team in the league last year, I can easily envision a much improved Denver defense this season.  I also like how he went out and said he wasn't going to implement Phil Jackson's triangle offense (after all he executed the triangle in his playing days and coached the triangle under Jackson as an assistant coach on the Lakers 2009 and 2010 championship teams).  The triangle just doesn't fit in with the types of guys that Denver has. Good to see that Shaw is out to create a style of his own and it will be exciting to see how that original style translates into success or failure (but more likely success) with the Denver Nuggets.  

It'll be fun to see this man running the show for Denver next year.

And finally, we have the hiring of a coach that  nobody has probably ever heard of: the Memphis Grizzlies promoting Lionel Hollins' assistant Dave Joerger to the head coaching position.  This is not a flashy hiring by any stretch of the imagination.  It's not going to turn any heads, it's not going to get any fans excited, and it's not going to rock the professional basketball world.  But it's a solid hire, it's a smart hire, and it will probably go down as the most underrated coaching moves of this offseason.  Dave Joerger has been an assistant coach with the Grizzlies since 2007.  He's a guy that is quite familiar with the organization and the way that they run things.  He's a guy that Grizzlies players already know and respect.  He even shares the front office's inclination towards advanced statistics (a point of friction between Hollins and management that ultimately led to his letting go).  Yes, he's a young coach, a very young coach in fact at only 39, but that's the culture the NBA is slowly heading to now.  NBA management is now starting to invest in the "future." In the words of Pat Riley when he stepped aside to make room for current Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, "This game is now about younger coaches who are technologically skilled, innovative, and bring fresh new ideas." And look how that's working out for them.  It's also why the Pacers cast Jim O'Brien aside in favor of Frank Vogel and why the Brooklyn Nets just hired Jason Kidd.  That's what we're coming to in NBA culture.  Now back to Joerger.  He's a proven winner.  He's already won five championships! Granted they were all NBA D-League championships, but still!!!! That's got to count for something right?!?!? If nothing else, he's already proven that given the right pieces, he knows how to make the most out of those pieces and win (Am I really trying to convince you that D-League championships mean diddly-squat? Man this piece has got to end soon).  I'm sure that the Joerger signing has been incredibly overshadowed by other coaching hirings of this offseason but Dave Joerger is a man who has the potential to make this hiring one of the best of this offseason when we look back several years from now.  

The man already has his own bobblehead.
That's got to mean something too right?

It's good to see that the NBA coaching vacancies are slowly being filled.  It's even better that they're being filled with quality candidates who seem right for the various situations that they are being hired into.  If you're a Clippers, Nuggets, or Grizzlies fan, you have reason to smile because your respective front offices have improved your teams considerably by making smart and savvy coaching hires.  Now we're just waiting on you Philly and Boston!