Iavaroni to Portland?

[fordronken]

There was also something about it in the Oregonian

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0610suns0610.html

Suns' Iavaroni interviews for Blazers job

David Vest
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 10, 2005 12:00 AM

Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers head coach job Thursday night in Chicago, according to Iavaroni's agent.

Portland also interviewed Seattle assistant Dwane Casey on Wednesday in Chicago at the NBA's pre-draft camp.

"I think they (the Blazers) are getting closer," Warren LeGarie, who represents Iavaroni and Casey, told the (Portland, Ore.) Oregonian. "I don't know if they are near the finish line, but they are certainly moving forward."

Iavaroni has ties to Portland General Manager John Nash. Both were with the Philadelphia 76ers in the mid-1980s - Iavaroni as a player, Nash in the front office.

"It's an ongoing process and I've said we will get it done before the draft, sometime this month," Trail Blazers President Steve Patterson said.

Iavaroni has been with Phoenix for three seasons. Before that, he was an assistant for Cleveland under Mike Fratello, and with Miami under Pat Riley.

Portland fired Maurice Cheeks on March 1 after starting the season 22-32.

 

[JPlay]

Hopefully he's our defensive coach...ha.

 

[fordronken]

I don't know who we'd go after as an assistant if he left. Maybe Paul Silas?

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I don't know who we'd go after as an assistant if he left. Maybe Paul Silas?

Do you really think Silas would go for an assistant spot? When he comes back to coach, it will be a head job.

 

[George O'Brien]

The NBA is filled with former head coaches as assistants. Carlisimo (sp) has been with the Spurs. Del Harris is with the Rockets. I'm sure there are numerous others. Being an assistant keeps the guy's name out there, so unless the guys goes into the broadcasting it can get to be a problem if out of sight for a while.

In any case, Silas might enjoy the challenge of turning the Suns into a good defensive team. Since the Suns are likely to improve no matter who is responsible, he'd get a lot of credit and become a really hot product.

 

[sunsfn]

Iavaroni is an excellent big mans coach. He coached with Pat Riley in Miami, and also coached with Fratello.
He was also invoved in the Pete Newell big mans camp for many years, and is considered one of the better coachs to coach big men.

I do not know how he will be as a head coach, but I think the suns will miss his input if he leaves.

Some of you have talked about getting a defensive coach.
When the suns hired Alvin Gentry I remember reading that other than being a head coach, he was a defensive coach. Of course he could leave anytime also.

 

[cepstrum]

Do you really think Silas would go for an assistant spot? When he comes back to coach, it will be a head job.

I dont think that he will be available, but I would rather have musselman given the choice. Of course both are probably looking for full time gigs.

 

[George O'Brien]

I dont think that he will be available, but I would rather have musselman given the choice. Of course both are probably looking for full time gigs.

Musselman's name cropped up related to the Hawks a while ago, but I haven't seen his name in a while. Wasn't looking either.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

The NBA is filled with former head coaches as assistants. Carlisimo (sp) has been with the Spurs. Del Harris is with the Rockets. I'm sure there are numerous others. Being an assistant keeps the guy's name out there, so unless the guys goes into the broadcasting it can get to be a problem if out of sight for a while.

Most of those coaches went to the bench after some time off, or long long runs as head coaches. Paul Silas is still a top 5, maybe higher, available head coach. Not to mention he is getting paid by cleveland this year, and an assistant salary wouldn't make up for what he would lose by signing here.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Musselman's name cropped up related to the Hawks a while ago, but I haven't seen his name in a while. Wasn't looking either.

He was also linked to the Orlando job. He is currently an assistant under Fratello.

 

[Gaddabout]

I wrote a feature on Marc a couple years ago. You can find it here. He's known as a big man guru, but he's one of the brighter and more well-spoken people in basketball, too. He definately wants to be a head coach, no matter his friendship with D'Antoni.

 

[JPlay]

Alvin Gentry was a bad head coach and it looks like he's a bad assistant coach if he's the architect of our superior defense.

 

[Joe Mama]

People on this message board speculated that Alvin gentry might be a good defensive coach. No one in the media or in the Phoenix Suns organization never said he was going to do anything with the defense. I doubt there's one person in the coaching staff that is in charge of the defense.

There's another problem with bringing in a guy like Silas. That is essentially you would have two head coaches. I don't think they would do that to coach Mike at this point.

Joe Mama

 

[az1965]

I think Ivorani had an impact on Amare's development. That will be a significant loss. I don't know about Alvin Gentry. He had couple of stints as head coach and was just bad.

I like Silas. Hope he likes to join a title contender even as an assistant rather than go to a crappy team as a head coach.

 

[George O'Brien]

It is very hard to evaluate coaches based on their record. D'Antoni coached a terrible Nuggets and his record was awful. Gentry coached a mostly rookie Clipper team that appeared to be improving, but the Clippers don't keep players for long.

In any case, Silas would only return for a year or so before getting another head coaching job. If nothing turns up, he might be interested in helping to get a team a championship before moving on.

 

[Errntknght]

"People on this message board speculated that Alvin gentry might be a good defensive coach."

Yeah, that was me very early in the year - because the defense was considerably better than the year before. Think back, it was really horrible that year - wimpy traps, bizarre doubling down, almost no basic help, screens routinely misdefended etc. They were still doubling down too much early this year but the other things looked better - in fact, I also speculated that they were doubling down just for the practice and would cut that way back. The did that and the D looked pretty fair but then Amare took a month off completely from defending and there was general backsliding. It turns out that D'Antoni was telling them not to foul so as to keep the pace up and the guys took it a little too much to heart. Toward the end they got it balanced better and the D picked up.

It's pretty clear now that there was no defensive genius at the controls - comparing this year to the prior one I'd still guess there was someone besides D'Antoni basically in charge and Gentry was the new addition so the most likely candidate. And he's been coaching in the NBA for about twenty years so he's had time to learn the rudiments of coaching D. I've never heard him touted as a defensive guru - like Carlisle, Riley, Skiles, van G's...

 

[George O'Brien]

"People on this message board speculated that Alvin gentry might be a good defensive coach."

Yeah, that was me very early in the year - because the defense was considerably better than the year before. Think back, it was really horrible that year - wimpy traps, bizarre doubling down, almost no basic help, screens routinely misdefended etc. They were still doubling down too much early this year but the other things looked better - in fact, I also speculated that they were doubling down just for the practice and would cut that way back. The did that and the D looked pretty fair but then Amare took a month off completely from defending and there was general backsliding. It turns out that D'Antoni was telling them not to foul so as to keep the pace up and the guys took it a little too much to heart. Toward the end they got it balanced better and the D picked up.

It's pretty clear now that there was no defensive genius at the controls - comparing this year to the prior one I'd still guess there was someone besides D'Antoni basically in charge and Gentry was the new addition so the most likely candidate. And he's been coaching in the NBA for about twenty years so he's had time to learn the rudiments of coaching D. I've never heard him touted as a defensive guru - like Carlisle, Riley, Skiles, van G's...

My biggest concern with D'Antoni is that when asked about defense, only talks about energy and not about techniqe. Defense oriented coaches are always harping about breakdowns. So while the Suns are forced to expend more energy than bigger teams, their most obvious flaws are poor footwork, failure to block out, slow rotations, failure to communicate about blind picks, pushing opponents toward where the help is rather than letting them go away from it, etc.