At a time when Cardinalmaniacs are engrossed
in speculation over who will step up to the challenge of
following in the footsteps of Mike Montgomery as Stanford’s
next head basketball coach, an even more difficult challenge may
await Montgomery across the Bay with the Golden State Warriors. The lowly
Warriors have been spared the laughingstock label only by the
fiasco that is the Los Angeles Clippers. This is a team haunted
by the curse of Joe Barry Carroll, the ghost of Chris Washburn,
and the long shadow of Latrell Sprewell choking P.J. Carlesimo.
If anyone had cared, ownership would have been recalled long
before Gray Davis.
Pundits have been quick to trot out the
litany of recent college coaches who have unsuccessfully
attempted to make the jump to the NBA and opine that Montgomery
will fail just as the others have. Their arguments sound
convincing. Two of those coaches, Rick Pitino and John Calipari,
appeared invincible in the college game, yet their styles didn’t
translate to success at the next level. The widespread assumption
is that Montgomery will be just another victim of a coach’s
inability to deal with the large egos and even larger paychecks
of the typical NBA player. As is often the case, the reality is
much more complicated than this oversimplification. Ultimately,
the health of the Golden State organization and Montgomery’s
ability to teach and develop younger players will determine how
well he fares in the NBA.
Warrior Organizational Failures
The Warriors have not finished over .500 or
been in the playoffs for 10 years, the longest such streak in the
NBA. This just happens to be the same decade that Chris Cohan has
owned the team, with Garry St. Jean along for the ride as GM for
the last seven of those disastrous years. St. Jean was displaced
last month with the hiring of Chris Mullin as Executive Vice
President of Basketball Operations. Mullin, regarded as a
straight shooter on the court and in the executive booth, added
close friend Rod Higgins as his GM on Thursday. By tapping
Montgomery, Mullin has demonstrated that dramatic changes and big
risks will be part of the turnaround strategy. He knows something
about top flight college coaches too, having been tutored by
Louie Carnesecca while at St. John’s, following Carnesecca’s
three year stint in the ABA.
The big question is whether this is Mullin’s
team or if Chris Cohan will meddle enough to add to a legacy that
includes trading first round picks Vince Carter and Joe Smith
while sitting pat with first rounder Todd Fuller. Mullin gets the
benefit of the doubt for now, but reports that Cohan has been
enamored with Montgomery for some time and even offered him the
Warriors’ head coaching job last year are cause for concern.
The betting money here is that St. Jean and a parade of subpar
coaches have been largely responsible for the recent
organizational rot, while Mullin, Higgins and Montgomery will
have the autonomy and ability to lay the foundation for a more
effective revamped Warrior organization.
Building and Coaching
If Mullin and Montgomery sound like an odd
pair, recall that Mullin’s pro career demonstrates just how
much a gym rat playing team basketball can accomplish in a league
filled with quicker, more explosive athletes. These two men share
the philosophy that rebuilding the organization and teaching
young players team basketball will form the core of future
success. This is in sharp contrast to the approach taken by
Montgomery’s predecessor, Eric Musselman, who preferred to
shuffle grizzled veterans in and out of the lineup, while younger
players languished on the bench.
In the Warriors, Mike Montgomery inherits a
team in transition. Thanks in part to Mullin’s work as a
“special assistant,” they have four solid players under
the age of 25 (Michael Pietrus – 22, Jason Richardson –
23, Troy Murphy – 24, and Mike Dunleavy – 24) who have
already demonstrated a great deal of potential. Montgomery
recruited both Dunleavy and Murphy to come to Stanford, so it is
not surprising that their games fit in well with Montgomery’s
team first approach. Throw in 26-year-old Speedy Claxton along
with the eleventh pick in the forthcoming draft and the nucleus
for tomorrow’s success may already be in place.
Even with this young group, the task in
front of Montgomery is enormous. In the last couple of years, the
Warriors have struggled most with team defense and offensive
execution, though the defense improved a little last year under
Musselman. Fortunately, these are two of Montgomery’s
biggest strengths. Monty’s first challenge will be to create
the desire and schemes for a team defense approach that can be
successful in the NBA. He will then need to install an offensive
system that generates open looks for Dunleavy and Murphy on a
regular basis, while taking advantage of the ability of players
like Jason Richardson to create and improvise. Finally, he needs
to find and develop some young post players who can go toe to toe
with the Goliaths that currently dominate the Western Conference.
Roster Challenges
While the youth movement is the future, the
veterans hold the key to short-term success. Half of the roster
includes older players who are free agents or have player options
to return, including their two priciest players, Van Exel and
Dampier. The biggest salary belongs to Nick Van Exel, who
struggled with injuries this year. He is perhaps the most
difficult personality to manage on the current roster and perhaps
the most talented. Does the 32-year-old Van Exel have the
patience for another rebuilding effort or is he only going to be
happy on a title contender?
Also in the mix is Eric Dampier, the 6’11”
big man who had a career year and might be looking for a new
contract to match. In a conference dominated by big men, it is
critically important that the Warriors are able to counter the
likes of O’Neal, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzski, Webber and Yao Ming, because they will be up against all-star seven footers
almost every night. Dampier has proven he can hold his own in the
middle; his free agent backup, Adonal Foyle, has demonstrated
similar talent on the defensive end, albeit with a limited
offensive game. Will either player opt to stay with the Warriors?
The cerebral Foyle, from basketball powerhouse Colgate, might be
just the kind of player who warms to Montgomery.
Some of the others veterans could return to
play a significant role the next version of the Warriors and two
in particular seen ready-make for Montgomery. The ageless Cliff
Robinson is 37, yet his strong defense and unselfish play make
him a candidate to lead by example under Montgomery. Brian Cardinal is an excellent example of a player who, like Mark Madsen, has value to his team way above his talents due mainly to
his style of play.
Along with Montgomery, Chris Mullin will be
instrumental in stocking next year’s roster with fresh
talent and the right types of players to make Monty’s system
work. Good coaching can draw upon superior intensity and
commitment to win games in the NBA, but it takes top talent to be
successful over the long haul.
Connecting with the Players
While nobody expects Montgomery to reinvent
himself in the NBA, don’t be surprised if you see facets of
him that have heretofore remained below the surface. One of his
biggest challenges will be relating to NBA players, whose
attitudes and mental makeup will bear little resemblance to what
he was used to at Stanford.When Montgomery was an assistant under
George Karl for the U.S. team in the 2002 World Championships, he
was stunned by the relative lack of commitment and capacity to
learn new concepts that was demonstrated by some of the players.
Monty will also have to change his
reputation for being aloof. The constant travel and grueling 82
game season will necessitate a more intimate interpersonal
dynamic with his players. If he thought Casey Jacobsen’s
hair was a big deal, he’s in for an even bigger body art
shock in the NBA. More importantly, without any playing or
coaching experience in the professional ranks, and even less
street credibility, the new coach cannot afford to keep his
players at arms length and cede control of the team dynamic to
the inevitable vocal prima donnas.
If there is any hope of success, veterans
and young players alike will have to be receptive to Montgomery’s
individual teaching, even if it means being drilled on
fundamentals. It remains to be seen if he can implement complex
offensive and defensive schemes when many players have a grasp of
the game that is more instinctive than cerebral and where the
tight spacing between games makes it risky to drill players more
than once or twice a week. In a league where many egos are too
big to be pruned back, Monty’s make-the-extra-pass approach
also requires the right players with the right attitude. The
coach needs to nurture the appropriate style of play as well as
some of the culture and chemistry off of the court. This will be
as much a test of Montgomery the man as Montgomery the coach; how
well we weaves those two roles together in his new environment
could be the difference between success and failure.
Deciding Factors
While it is hard to tell how well Montgomery’s
strengths as a coach will translate to the NBA, it’s clear
that the Golden State Warriors and their core of young players is
as favorable an environment as Montgomery could have hoped for.
Montgomery’s fate will be linked to that of Chris Mullin,
but if NBA insiders are to be believed, Mullin is a good horse to
bet on.
Like every NBA team, the Warriors have been
handicapped in their maneuvering by the salary cap. The good news
is that in another year they will likely have some breathing
room; the bad news is that they still need to nail down contracts
with some strong post players to be competitive. They need better
defense and perimeter shooting to have a shot at the playoffs,
but their biggest need is the type of leadership that will give
them a taste of success.
Monty’s great experiment is doomed to
fail if Chris Cohan ties Mullin’s hands and interferes with
the coaching role. Monty can create his own problems if he fails
to develop the right kind of relationships with his players or if
he falls back on his Stanford habit of trying to win all the
early games with veterans instead of letting younger players grow
into their roles so that they are stronger at the end of the
season.
Seemingly against all odds, the Denver Nuggets turned their fortunes around in a hurry. Just down the
road, the San Jose Sharks had the type of season that exceeded
even the wildest expectations. Can the Warriors be next?
John Calipari once explained the difference
between the college and pro coaching in the context of
discipline. “When you are coaching in college,”
Calipari noted, “you’re teaching life skills. If the
guy is late or he doesn’t do what he’s suppose to do,
you throw him out of a practice, you suspend him, and you are
teaching life skills. In the NBA, you are trying to win ball
games and if a guy is a jerk the same way he is in college, in
the pros, you start him, you give him 20 shots a game and you
promote him in the papers so you can trade him. You can’t
discipline him. If you discipline him, no one else wants him.”
Is this the type of world in which Mike
Montgomery can thrive? If Chris Mullin and Monty are given a free
reign to build the right type of team with the right type of
players, then Monty can indeed reverse the fortunes of his recent
college predecessors in the NBA. As long as ownership can stay
out of the way, I’m not betting against him. If nothing
else, at least we will finally get to see what he can do with the
quickness and athleticism of a Jason Richardson.
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