Published: January 28, 2009
One of the hardest things to do in professional sports is to be a head coach. As the old adage goes, coaches are hired to be fired and when things go south with a team it’s usually the head coach who takes the fall. A general manager won’t fire himself and with the salary cap being what it is, it’s tough to pull the trigger on a deal midseason.
This fact was exacerbated this season as a record six head coaches were fired before Christmas. The casualties included Sam Mitchell, the 2006-07 NBA Coach of the Year for the Toronto Raptors; Maurice Cheeks, the ex-champion point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, canned despite turning Philly into a playoff team a year ago; Eddie Jordan, the first coach in 28 years to lead the Washington Wizards to four straight playoff appearances; Randy Wittman of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Reggie Theus of the Sacramento Kings and P.J. Carlesimo of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Just when the waters seemed to calm a little bit and coaches across the NBA let out a collective sigh of relief, this past week Marc Iavaroni of the Memphis Grizzlies became the seventh head coach shown the door when the front office decided the team wasn’t winning enough games despite the team being firmly entrenched in rebuilding mode.
What’s left when a head coach is axed during the season is a team caught in state of flux. You have a general manager and fans expecting changes, however due to the hectic traveling schedule an NBA teams has the new head coach won’t necessarily get a lot of practice time with his new team so they need to implement things on the fly.
Hence the need to bring someone into the mix that already has some familiarity with the players and the organization.
Toronto and Sacramento did that by shifting Jay Triano and Kenny Natt over a couple seats on the bench. Both are coaches who have spent time with their respective organizations as assistants before taking over the reigns in an interim basis as their teams head coaches and already had a rapport with the players, front office and local media.
Before a recent game against the Chicago Bulls, Triano was asked by a member of the Chicago media about what it was like to move a couple seats over this season and instead of dropping the normal cliches, Triano got a little introspective and dropped some great insight on the media.
“I’m not finding it very much of a change. The whole time I was sitting on the bench, even as a broadcaster back in my (Vancouver) Grizzlies days, I would play situations in my mind. Do I take a timeout here? Do I think that guy is looking a little bit tired? I think that I always coached in my mind and now that I’m doing it out there it feels like I’ve done it a thousand times.”
Natt agrees shifting over a couple of spots is nothing more than a natural progression. As a coach, even an assistant, you’re always learning and picking up new things from the people who you work alongside. The goal is that once you’ve given control you put all that knowledge into use.
“In all my career in regards to being an assistant coach you have input,” Natt told Hoops Addict while sharing stories with the media before a recent game against Toronto. “But when you’re the head coach you make all the decisions. You have a voice, you say what you want, do what you want, but you take all of those years as an assistant and you apply that over to the head job. That’s who I am and I’m able to do the things I want to do out there on the floor, it’s just a matter of continuing to grow and get better as a coach and we’ll continue to get better as a team.”
However, just because you have complete control it doesn’t mean being a head coach is the ideal situation for every coach. While talking with Triano this season it’s become clear that even though being a head coach has its merits, it seems at times as if he would prefer to be an assistant coach next season.
“For the assistant coaches it’s the purity of the game because it’s all you do all day,” Triano recently admitted during a pre-game media scrum. “You work with players and stuff like that. With being the head coach you have different responsibilities and I completely enjoy it, but it’s a little bit different meeting with Bryan (Colangelo) to discuss potential trades and you’re meeting with the media. There’s a lot more variety in the things you do on a given day. But game days are great and I love coming to the gym and getting ready to play.”
Natt, on the other hand, seems to fully embrace his role as a head coach. To him this is something he’s worked towards for years and having this role is the realization of his dreams and aspirations.
Despite the fact Natt has had his new role for just over a month, while talking with him he appears relaxed and at ease with his new position.
“I’m finding myself being more relaxed and more assured of myself as to what I want to do out there on the floor,” Natt admitted to Hoops Addict. “It’s been a growth process and a learning process in the meantime. I’ve been enduring a lot of down (times) because these losses have taken a toll on me as well as the rest of the team. But we’re still holding up fine.”
Replacing your head coach during the season is never an easy task, yet both men are doing an admirable job with their respective teams. Even though the records don’t back this up, spending time talking with them and their players it’s clear both coaches are making impacts on their players.
Hopefully some more wins come in the second half of the season to validate all the great things both coaches are currently doing for their respective teams.
Photo Credit: Ryan McNeill
2 Comments on "Moving One Seat Over"
Rashad Mobley on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 5:24 pm
Great piece Ryan. This story brings to mind a Jim Valvano quote, which went something to the effect of, “When an assistant coach gets hired, its assumes they knew all the answers but didn’t tell anyone.”
Ryan McNeill on Thu, 29th Jan 2009 12:42 pm
Ha! I haven’t heard that line but I like it a lot. Perhaps that could also pply to your new Wizards coach…