Flip Saunders made an interesting comment before last night’s game that’s caught the attention of some people around the blogosphere. From Chris Silva of the Detroit Free Press:
“You know, Coach Wallace has done a pretty good job along those lines,” Saunders said. “Right now, he’s shooting the three so dang well yet he’s such a good post-up player it’s kind of a Catch-22. But I think what he’s done is he’s had a good year and he’s prepared himself to have a very solid and great playoff.
“And I know that when we talked at the beginning of the year, his big thing was to win a championship, and I know that if he’s got that focus and he’s motivated to win a championship, he’s setting the table for our whole team.”
As for that “Coach Wallace” label? Well, there are a few who could see Wallace patrolling the sideline someday.
“We always talk about it,” Saunders said. “Before it’s all said and done I think he will. No one thought Larry Bird would get involved in anything and Larry got involved. It’s the ones sometimes who you least expect it, those are the ones who end up jumping into it full force.”
For long-time readers of this site, the thought really isn’t anything new — I talked about this back in November, making some of my own observations as well as pointing out this interesting quote from Flip Saunders:
I was talking with someone today, and I said, “This might sound crazy, but I think Rasheed has a lot of the ingredients to be a very good coach.” If you can believe that.
He’s got a high basketball I.Q. He’s got an unbelievable amount of passion for the game. He’s a great competitor. He is a communicator. If he decides he wants to do something, he’ll go ahead and do it — doesn’t care what the ramifications are as far as what people think about it. … I’m sure referees wouldn’t want to see him on the sidelines.
But he has, with Cheikh Samb and Amir — he’s as critical of those guys, like in practice, saying to them, “If you guys can’t learn to play, you ain’t going to play.” He communicates with them, but he gives them tough love at times too.
That said, I’m not convinced at all that he has the temperament to deal with the media every day following practice and twice on game days. But hey, Bill Laimbeer made the switch, something none of us would have deemed possible 20 years ago, so who knows.
“I’m not convinced at all that he has the temperament to deal with the media every day following practice and twice on game days”
Umm…wouldn’t that be the best part of the whole thing? ‘Sheed getting fined $10k after a tough loss for spending an entire 15 minute interview repeating “both teams played hard”? Walking out of the room after throwing down the mic after mumbling “that’s it f**k this, I’m out of here”?
On a serious note, I don’t think anyone enjoys the constant media attention that coaches “enjoy” in this league. But, everybody deals with it some way or another. If he’s serious about wanting to coach then he no doubt has realized it’s simply par for the course and petulant behavior will not be tolerated. That is, unless it’s really, really entertaining…
Look at Sam Mitchell — he’s perpetually surly, but he’s so much fun to listen to. He gets all sarcastic and angry with the media, but Stern isn’t handing out fines left and right to him. And he was coach of the year last year! Ha! Maybe Sheed can follow in Sam’s footsteps (except maybe he could more than one offensive play).
(insert the word “run” into that last parenthetical statement)
It’s do bad they don’t allow player-coaches anymore (I think it’s forbidden by the CBA…anyone sure?) because I could see Rasheed playing into his 40s like Mutumbo and being an awesome player-coach.
I can see Sheed but Tayshaun as well. I remember Joe D saying Tayshaun has the makings to be a gm but I’ve noticed this season Tayshaun will be standing up on the sidelines yelling about people being out of position or something of that nature.
I don’t see Tay being assertive enough to keep the typical NBA knuckleheads in line. Assistant coach, sure. Maybe a mid major coach on the West Coast, at a school that wasn’t a pressure cooker.
tayshaun demonstrated this very well in that OT game against phoenix. He was passed the ball off the stuckey rebound (i think) in the closing seconds of regulation with the score tie. You always want your ’shooters’ to close, let billups take that shot-if he’s open-but he wasn’t at all and tay was, but he passed it on. Thing is, if they were down 2, okay put it on billups-but with a tie there was nothing to lose by trying to step up to the plate.
that moment kind of bothered me, otherwise I think tayshaun is a great player-but does not seem to have the mental component of a swelled ego. He hustles and changes games and gets hot but he doesn’t seem like someone who internally builds himself up as a ’star’ who needs to show off/put himself on display/take things over.
..late night ramblings. off to zzz land!
OT: I just found out that Amir Johnson signed with Rick Pitino & Louisville before declaring for the NBA draft. I wonder if Amir is going to talk some smack to Rasheed about the upcoming UNC-Louisville game? Probably not.
HEY MATT W! I got a YouTube for tonight’s game post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5h2mMRovGY&feature=related
Looking back at that playoff series, it’s amazing how much weight Max lost…
Rob G: But this one has the theme from Karate Kid…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0pvrgVy1fs&feature=related
(I totally picture Danny doing some foot sweeps to various Cobra Kai members)
Man, YouTube is so addictive. Here’s a sweet Grant Hill remix (although if you still harbour ill will, you might not want to check it out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoJgDz-xnk&feature=related
Grant Hill was a baaaad maaaan. I still remember when he grew a goatee and started cutting all the sleeves off his t-shirts because he put on a bit of muscle, and then he played with an edge and dunked on EVERYONE. If only it could have been different, but we DID get a championship.
Garrett! You win, or should I say…
“you’re the best / around / nothin’s ever gonna keep you down!”
I’m always very mixed on Grant Hill. On one hand I have a hard time getting over his “promise” to give Detroit a chance to resign him and yet having his signature on an Orlando contract at like 12:01 AM on the first day of Free Agency….Otoh its hard not to realized how SCREWED the Pistons would have been signing him to a max/near max contract at that time… Basically everything we know and love about the currenty “dynasty” wouldn’t have happened and we’d be… well we’d be Orlando… harsh tokes either way.
As for Rasheed, I could see him pulling it off, but honestly why? Today’s NBA player is paid SOOOO much better than guys from even two decades ago that its just hard to imagine them wanting to go through all that bullsh*t (constant media attention as mentioned above) for a “couple extra million”. Seriously, Sheed would be alot better off headed for the broadcast booth IMHO, where he can do WAY less work for about the same money coaches make… and TELL me people wouldn’t tune in to hear him say “Ball Don’t Lie” or “Anderson Varejo is a no talent floppy hack” on TNT?
I really hope it is Blaha and Special K on the NBA TV broadcast tonight. I won’t be able to take the Cleveland fools.
Add Sheed and Shaq to the TNT lineup in the next five years and I’ll be as happy as Max with a chubby baby drumstick.
hey Portland amigos! playoff time is a coming! Kara and I are moving to a place on Canyon/West Slope in Portland next weekend. She has a co-worker donating a bigscreen to the move-in cause - maybe we can have ya’ll over once we’re setup : )
Heres to a WIN over the calves. (yes, that was on purpose)
That whole “effort” thing is really sweet to see in action.
er, that was a foul. damon jones hasn’t swiped a ball in his life.
starters look sharp defensively out of the gates. their lebron scheme looks effective. for now.
big ben in cavs uniform bringing vomit to edge of gullet.
is this seriously the cavs thread? our most hated rivals? matt needs to quit that hoopsworld gig. i don’t care how many bills it pays.
go xavier.
The (belated) Cavs thread is up.
Damon Jones is the key to the Pistons’ victory, tonight.
Dyess took Sauce’s ribbing personally, apparently.