Hire Avery Johnson for 2009?

by jasonlbe on May 21, 2008 4:05 PM PDT

The warriors should make a deal with Avery Johnson to come to the Warriors with the agreement that after Nelson coaches next year he will become the head coach. They can either make him one of the coaching staff or just a "roving coach" so he can get used to the roster, while paying him a good fair salary in the first year. Then for all the other years they pay him solid head coach money. (figure he will probably agree to that since he will still be collecting checks from Mark Cuban anyway). Gives him a year off to clear his mind and then can come back fresh and lead the Warriors for many years to come. Plus, Nelson and Johnson must already get along pretty well considering Nelson gave him the reigns of the Mavericks. This would be a great pro-active move for the Warriors as in my opinion Avery is one of the better, if not best coaches out there, and young enough to lead our club for many years. We could definately do worse than this post-Nelson.

Hire Avery!

Poll

Is hiring Avery Johnson to run the Warriors in 2009 and help out in 2008 a good idea?

Yes

130 votes

No

104 votes

234 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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Comments

i see

avery going to the bulls since the bulls have that first pick.

by saintdee on May 21, 2008 4:28 PM PDT reply actions

Avery n' Nellie

Supposedly weren’t on the best of terms when Don left Dallas…. so unless they patched things up I doubt Nellie would want him on staff.

Plus, GS would NOT want to pay a coach to ‘rove’ or do anything other than what they are assigned. I like Avery, but he isn’t a good enough coach to bring on this year with a guarantee for next years head job.

Anyways, we already have a coach on staff that is ‘in line’ for the opening next year (if there is one) in Smart. And ownership still doesn’t want to tie themselves into anything this far ahead of time.

It would be kind of fitting though to see Avery on the sidelines for us, no less.

by IceDubs on May 21, 2008 5:17 PM PDT reply actions

Bad, bad idea

The big knock on Avery and a major reason he was fired is that he would not adapt his offense to accommodate Jason Kidd, ie less half court sets and more running. He had issues giving up control of the offense and over coaches (adjusting his lineup to counter the Dubs last year, taking Jason Kidd out for crunch time this year, etc).

Does that really sound like a good fit for these Warriors?

by genesic on May 21, 2008 5:35 PM PDT reply actions

Yes

I agree with this. Too controlling, too unwilling, non-negotiable. He would do wonders rebuilding a struggling franchise(see T Wolves) rather than building a contender like the Warriors.

by Travis Bickle on May 23, 2008 2:27 PM PDT up reply actions

contender

building a contender like the Warriors – how we wish that were true ! ! !

by hardcore on May 24, 2008 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions

technically

any young team with a significant amount of talent could be termed “building a contender” it may not seem so far fetched once we see exactly what we have in Brandan Wright and how well he and Biedrins play together. I think Brandan Wright’s going to be an excellent player, Monta is obviously already an excellent player, and Biedrins will be an exceptionally good center for a very long time.

Never did I say we ARE a contender. COMPLETELY different.

by Travis Bickle on May 27, 2008 7:27 AM PDT up reply actions

.

If Nelson leaves Avery is who I want. We need to make the transition from Run-N-Gun to traditional temp ASAP. Avery is also a Defensive Mastermind.

by ejdacanay on May 21, 2008 7:24 PM PDT reply actions

Regression to the mean

Do you really want the Warriors to move towards a slower half-court style? Is the NBA doomed to return to the grind-it-out defensive style of the 90’s? First the Suns blow up their team to join the herd (unsuccessfully I might add) and now the W’s should put their tails between their legs and do the same? I agree that they need to improve on defense and become more disciplined on offense, but their tempo and style fit their personnel. I for one, would rather watch the Warriors barely make the playoffs playing the way they do than watch a team like Cleveland make it to the later rounds playing the boring brand of ball that they do. I think the style of the Hornets is the happy medium we should strive for.

by mazlo on May 22, 2008 1:48 PM PDT up reply actions

Up-tempo

If you think that Nellie looked at the roster that he inherited and said “this looks like a running team so i’ll coach them as a running team” then you’ve been fooled. Nellie likes to coach the run-and-gun and the players were the ones that had to conform. Don’t forget… Nellie demanded that players lose weight and up their conditioning before he took the reigns.

Up-tempo ball is high-scoring and fun to watch and i enjoy their style too, but don’t get it twisted. Nellie’s brand of uptempo ball is designed for the most part to hide weaknesses, not to accentuate strengths. And a part of those weaknesses is Nellie’s weakness at coaching real defense. I don’t like slow grind-it-out games either, but in the system Nellie employs on this team, defensive improvment can only come from bringing in better defenders because his off the cuff offense kills the discipline needed for players to concentrate defensively.

I pray i never have to use a gun again...

...unless i'm at a strip club parking lot...

...and somebody tries to run me over with their car...

...But how often does that happen??

by ssmokinjoe on May 22, 2008 6:52 PM PDT up reply actions

and 1

Nellie knows street ball… but until the dubs can execute plays on offense, and become more desciplined in their shot selections, it’ll always just be fun basketball.

by oldskool on May 22, 2008 7:44 PM PDT up reply actions

But Avery Johnson?

But I’m not saying Don Nelson is the best fit for the Warriors long term either. I’m just saying that hiring a coach who is obsessed with defense and uncreative on offense is going to hurt more than it helps. Baron, Jax, Beans and Monte all thrive in an open, up-tempo system. They need someone who can reign them in while still giving them some freedom as well. Don’t know if that coach exists however.

by mazlo on May 23, 2008 4:08 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not totally sold on avery...

either. but I do think that nellie’s time is up. as for our guys thriving in an up-tempo style, this may be true. then again, when I seen them run the pick-n-rolls and the drive-n-dish plays in the half-court set they were things of beauty. and for some reason they went away from it. I guess they couldn’t set the plays up correctly and settled for one-on-one plays. those usually turned out ugly. it’s fine if the dubs maintain an up-tempo style. but when forced to, they should know how to execute in the half-court as well. and I don’t mean, get a low post player in the draft to have someone to dump it in to. that’s a pretty simple-minded approach to solving the problem. “run the offense!!” my coach used to always tell me. (I played for a crappy ass HS team years ago)

by oldskool on May 23, 2008 4:29 PM PDT up reply actions

I'd

give Keith Smart my vote since Nellie wants Keith to be his replacement. In Nellie we trust.

by saintdee on May 21, 2008 10:10 PM PDT reply actions

avery

ill start off with this, i love avery johnson’s voice, it is hilarious so i would like to hear that all the time, i never heard of the issues that avery and don had but they have worked together before and were successful. I think this is a great idea, its not avery’s fault that jason kidd is WAAAAY to slow to guard paul, in my mind that was cuban’s fault for trading devin harris and everyone for him, the whole trade was dumb, jason kidd is getting old. Back to avery i think avery can learn run-n-gun style mixed with his defensive mindset. He wasn’t run-n-gun in dallas cause they didnt have the personnel to do so. Besides avery’s winning percentage is ridiculously good….especially compared to keith smart’s ahah

by FeartheBeard4 on May 22, 2008 9:05 AM PDT reply actions

I'll never forget Smart form the baseline

There I was, a young lad watching hoops with my hoop junkie Dad. Him telling me that Indiana was going to win the NCAA championship because Bobby Night wouldn’t let anyone beat his team. The game was down to the wire with Indiana’s back against the wall when a hero stepped in and canned a jumper to clinch the game and win the big one. His name was Keith Smart. What a baller.

I have faith that Keith will step in and be an awesome coach. I also don’t think he will derail too much from how Nellie likes to coach. Keith will just put his spin on it and we’ll have to see. I think it will be better than having Montgomery or any of the other JO’s we’ve had as coaches in the past 15 years.

by gabezgsw on May 22, 2008 10:04 AM PDT reply actions

Avery?

Interesting thought, but there is a question as to whether Avery won with Nellie’s team in Dallas, and if he piggy backed him here, that would probably not help answer the question of whether Avery could win with his own team or not.

Also, pride would most likely get in Avery’s way, so I’m pretty sure that along with other reasons already stated, this wouldn’t happen.

by passionately objective on May 22, 2008 10:32 AM PDT reply actions

Avery gets out coached

After years and years of sub-par mental performances by our coaching staffs, we cannot step backwards with Avery.

He may be a good coach one of these days, but I dont have the patience to experiment or wait for another coach to mature. We have a shot to be good now, let’s make a solid go at it.

If Mullie thinks Keith Smart is the man, I am fine with that. He has now been with us a couple years and has a few more years on Avery which can be a major factor-experience is everything. Whether it really works out, we’ll have to wait and see.

by warriorsvictim on May 22, 2008 12:02 PM PDT reply actions

Interesting Thoughts

The poll is currently 49 for and 50 against. I guess it couldn’t be any more split. Kind of funny that some of you think Avery still needs to develop as a coach despite the fact he has taken a team to the finals, won 67 games, and won more than 50 games every year he has been a coach in the NBA. And this is not college where he needs to recruit, so don’t worry about whose players he won with. All I am saying is that you can do a whole lot worse than Avery Johnson, as evidenced by about 90% of the Warriors coaches over the past decade plus.

by jasonlbe on May 22, 2008 12:24 PM PDT reply actions

Umm...

If you gave me a team like Dallas I’d do pretty well.

They’ve had almost a $100M payroll, offensive options like Dirk, JHoward, JET, Stackhouse, etc., and a nice, deep bench. Limit the minutes, play your best players. When worse comes to worse, take a time out and say “We’re using the run around in circles, give it to Dirk, and go to your spot up 3pt locations play.” I could do that.

by Dubs fan in Boston on May 28, 2008 11:30 AM PDT up reply actions

dubs fans...

only enjoy the up-tempo playing style because we’ve been forced to take the short-term excitement over winning. but if the dubs were winning championships, it wouldn’t matter. I doubt we would hear anyone saying “I wish we were more like the warriors; exciting team but never in the playoffs.” We need to thank nellie for all he’s done, but say sorry you won’t get the title of most winningest coach ever as the dubs coach and move on. avery, ksmart, either one as long as he plays a better balance of offense and defense.

by oldskool on May 22, 2008 8:03 PM PDT reply actions