Kawakami: Warriors should be proactive about coach
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News S****ts Columnist
Article Launched: 05/12/2008
Short-attention-span reading and writing, and bonus cut-and-pasting from
my
Talking Points blog . . .
The Warriors don't need to worry about watching prime future candidates
Mike
D'Antoni and Rick Carlisle sign long-term deals with other franchises
because the Warriors already have a coach.
Er, don't they? OK, nobody's 100 percent sure about that one.
The Warriors have Don Nelson under contract for next season, and yet he
hasn't told the Warriors that he will return and hasn't set a definitive
timetable for making a decision.
Which makes Nelson a lame-duck coach starting . . . a few weeks ago.
If Nelson returns for the $5.1 million next season, the Warriors certainly
would have to treat it as his last - with the resulting loss of clout in
the
locker room - and Chris Mullin would have to start looking for their next
coach. (Of course, Mullin has only one year left on his own contract.)
If Nelson decides to retire this summer, the Warriors will have to find a
new coach immediately, and the pickings will be dangerously slim.
.. The Warriors should be proactive like the Knicks and Mavericks, not
tentative and sulky like Chicago (which wanted D'Antoni but lost him) and
Phoenix (which let D'Antoni walk).
Maybe Mullin and team president Robert Rowell are sold on assistant Keith
Smart, Nelson's hand-picked heir. But if Smart were a lock, wouldn't the
Warriors have said that by now?
.. Mullin needs to draw up a short list in case Nelson doesn't come back
next
season, and Mullin needs to keep it handy even if Nelson does come back.
If I had to draw up a list, knowing Mullin, it might go something like
this:
Mark Jackson (like Mullin, a St. John's star), Mario Elie, Avery Johnson,
Jeff Van Gundy and Smart. And I'd keep an eye on these already-employed
candidates who might be interested in a change of scenery by midseason:
Detroit's Flip Saunders, Wa****ngton's Eddie Jordan and, my favorite dark
horse, Dallas President Donnie Nelson (if things turn sour with Mark
Cuban).
.. Another reason the Warriors won't and shouldn't give Baron Davis a big
contract extension: Monta Ellis is going to get something close to $10
million a year, and no sane NBA team pays more than $25 million per season
for two short guards.
So, do you invest in Ellis at 22? Or Davis at 29? Easy choice.
[Non-Warriors' stuff snipped]
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