The success that Stan Van Gundy has had since joining the Pistons in the dual role of coach and executive opened the doors for other joint arrangements around the league, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. When asked if he felt pressure to make his arrangement in Detroit work so it could open up similar avenues around the league for his coaching brethren, Van Gundy told Langlois, “Yeah, I think that’s fair to say. Actually, yeah. I don’t know about pressure, but you certainly feel — I don’t want to say the word obligation, either. I don’t know what the word would be. But you do feel a responsibility to do well and to show that coaches can do these things.” Since Van Gundy was hired by the Pistons, the Hawks (Mike Budenholzer) and Timberwolves (Tom Thibodeau) have made similar dual-role arrangements, Langlois adds.
Here’s more from out of the Central Division:
- Despite his loyalty to former Pacers coach Frank Vogel, Brian Shaw would welcome the opportunity to become Indiana’s next head coach, Scott Agness of VigilantSports relays. “I spent two seasons there under Frank Vogel as the associate head coach and I’m familiar with some of the players on that team and the way that they do business there,” Shaw said. “With that being said, it’s a bittersweet situation to be in, position to be in, because I have so much respect for Frank Vogel. I think he did a great job, especially with what he’s had to go through over the last couple of seasons with Paul George’s injury last year, losing David West and Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson, guys who were critical parts of the two teams that went to the Eastern Conference finals. Obviously, that is the goal of any coach to want to run their own system and be the head guy in charge of trying to put things together.” Shaw is reportedly one of a number of candidates that team executive Larry Bird is considering to replace the fired Vogel.
- In response to a fan-posed question on their official Twitter account, Bucks co-owner Jamie Dinan indicated he would like to re-sign unrestricted free agent combo forward Steve Novak for next season. Novak only appeared in three games with Milwaukee before a sprained left MCL prematurely ended his season, but the veteran has expressed his desire to re-sign with the franchise this summer.
- With the Cavs struggling down the stretch of the regular season, Kevin Love credits a talk coach Tyronn Lue gave to the team for sparking the recent hot streak Cleveland has been on, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes.
Uh, Doc with Clippers preceded SVG with Pistons, so no, SVG did not cause Docs deal
Yeah, you’re right. And Popovich, who holds the dual title of coach/president (though R.C. Buford does the day-to-day work), predates all of them.
The author was referring to planned hires. He made the distinction in the piece that Rivers was thrust into the role because of the Sterling fiasco and also notes it is difficult to tell where Pop’s influence ends and Buford’s begins.