Jun 26

Since his first day on the job, Neil Olshey has stated the team would wait until after the draft to turn attention to finding a new head coach. That's still the plan. But in an article by Scott Howard Cooper today on NBA.com, Olshey explains the reason for waiting to hire a coach isn't due solely to time constraints brought on by draft preparation. The roster composition is an important factor as well. Says Olshey ...

"I just think this is a players' league, and the roster composition and the type of player you have and the expectations you have based on those players dictate what you're looking for in a coach. There are a lot of very, very talented coaches and they're not all equipped to coach differing rosters. Some guys are better with veterans, some guys are better with young guys. Style of play is a big issue too, which nobody's talked about. It depends on how you are planning on playing based on the kind of players that you acquire. If you acquire players that are going to be more suited for up-tempo basketball, to me that's a different coaching search than if you're going to be a power, half-court team.

"I really do think that we're in a unique situation. I'll tell you this: If we had 12 players under contract right now and we had one pick in this draft, we would have hired a coach already. But you're talking about two lottery picks, the rights to a guy overseas, basically two restricted free agents and cap space ... there's just too many question marks about what this roster is going to look like."

Not really any new news here, but definitely a new and interesting way to think about the coaching search, or lack thereof.