NBA’s help-wanted signs complicate hunt for coach
After Charles Barkley spent an evening offering Dwight Howard unsolicited career counseling he moved on to fellow TNT “Inside the NBA” analyst Kenny Smith.
Barkley warned his friend and foil to avoid the Rockets’ coaching position like a sinking ship — or a long movie much beloved by teenaged girls.
Barkley did not say which he had in mind when he compared the Rockets to “Titanic.” He also offered no explanation for his contention that Smith should not pursue a job with the Rockets, a team he apparently considers doomed.
Having so often been to Barkley’s immediate right during his rants about their former team, Smith probably could have guessed.
But others seem to disagree. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey argued the coaching job he would offer is the best available, though that was before the position with two more playoff teams — Memphis and Indiana — came open and Morey became unavailable for comment about his coaching search.
With the latest turns of the NBA coaching carrousel, six jobs have been filled and five are open.
The Wizards (Scott Brooks), Timberwolves (Tom Thibodeau), Nets (Kenny Atkinson), Lakers (Luke Walton), Suns (Earl Watson) and Kings (Dave Joeger), lottery teams all, have made their moves.
The Grizzlies and Rockets, after a relative break in the action for the Chicago predraft camp, have been interviewing candidates, with the Rockets meeting with Hornets assistant Stephen Silas. The Pacers, according to reports on Saturday, will promote assistant coach Nate McMillan.
The Magic found themselves with an opening when Scott Skiles stepped down Wednesday, with general manager Rob Hennigan telling the Orlando Sentinel he will reach out to former Pacers coach Frank Vogel.
The Knicks have conducted few interviews with Phil Jackson on vacation as interim coach Kurt Rambis seems the candidate to beat.
Vogel could be attractive to the Grizzlies. The Rockets touched base with his representatives last weekend. The Rockets have shown no signs of concern about competing for candidates, preferring the sort of “thorough” search they underwent in 2011 when they took six weeks before choosing Kevin McHale. That could change any time they believe they have found the right coach, but the right coach might have choices to make, too
While teams are weighing their options, coaches could be sizing up the openings in ways more in depth than Barkley offered.