Alvin Gentry to join Kerr's staff

The news is starting to come fast and furious. Amid a myriad of rumors about Kevin Love, the first real news about Steve Kerr's coaching staff is starting to drop.

The good news:

Alvin Gentry to Golden State as assistant coach, I'm told.

— David Pick (@IAmDPick) June 19, 2014

Alvin Gentry is a long-time assistant who has spent time with the Spurs (pre-Poppovich, unfortunately) and Clippers. He's also served as the head coach of Miami, Detroit, the Clippers, and the Suns, without ever particularly distinguishing himself as a head coach.

That being said, Gentry is exactly the sort of experienced hand who you want supporting a first-time head coach like Kerr. His hiring will also be a minor coup because we've nabbed him from the Clippers, who are likely to be our primary Pacific division rivals this coming season. He and Kerr know each other well (he was head coach in Phoenix when Kerr was General Manager), so we can expect that they'll know how to work together.

He's also a high-profile African American coach, which may help soothe any remaining frayed nerves from players who could perceive a racial component to Mark Jackson's firing.

Unfortunately, with the good news comes the bad. David Blatt seems to be headed for the head coaching job in Cleveland, as Adrian Wojnarawski has reported. Other reports confirm that they have entered contract negotiations. Of course, you only have to look as far as our current head coach to realize that there's a difference between entering contract negotiations and actually taking a job.

Cleveland is an interesting destination for Blatt. His ability to communicate and command respect from NBA players will be immediately tested with the Cav's contentious locker room. (Somebody like Mark Jackson might have been a safer pick.) The injury to Embiid makes their probable lineup a little less enticing for a quick turnaround.

But it would be pretty surprising for someone to take an assistant coach position when a head coaching job was offered, so we can't call ourselves surprised.

So, everyone, let's give a warm welcome to Alvin Gentry, the newest addition to the Warriors organization!

Update:

It's a three year deal, and he's associate head coach. This sounds about as official as it can be without the Warriors officially making a press release about it:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Ex-LAC asst. Alvin Gentry has agreed to a 3-year context to be associate head coach of the Warriors under first year head coach Steve Kerr.</p>&mdash; Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/statuses/479833642932240384">June 20, 2014</a></blockquote>

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