Starting with Utah’s Tyrone Corbin, general manager John Paxson is preparing to interview several assistants for the Bulls’ vacant head coaching job.
Neither Corbin, the Lakers’ Brian Shaw, the Celtics’ Tom Thibodeau nor any other candidates Paxson interviews has the name recognition or head coaching cachet of Mike D’Antoni, who last weekend spurned the Bulls for the Knicks.
Does that matter? In a league so predominantly known as a players’ league, how important is hiring the right coach anyway?
In his public tweaking of Phil Jackson, wasn’t the great Red Auerbach’s implication that all Jackson had to do — with Michael and Scottie and Kobe and Shaq — was roll out the ball for practice to win his nine titles?
So many questions, so few answers.
It’s impossible, of course, to quantify the value of an NBA head coach, because beyond victories and defeats, which players mostly influence, different teams have enough different injury situations and chemistry issues and talent disparities that even Pat Riley and Jerry Sloan can suffer through dismal seasons.
Or is it?
“Phil makes more than $10 million, so evidently you can quantify it and put a price on his ability,” Chuck Daly said slyly.
The Hall of Fame coach sparred often with Jackson while winning back-to-back titles with the Pistons in the late 1980s. Daly long has been known as an objective and commanding basketball voice. So his take on the importance of hiring the right coach, not surprisingly, walked the line between giving credit and taking charge.
“It’s a players’ league and you have to have talent,” Daly said by phone. “All you can do as a coach is put players in position to succeed. But you absolutely can impact winning and losing. You’re making hundreds of split-second decisions every game.
“My thing always was I’m going to evaluate the situation, try to get the right players in the right spots and then I can’t do anything about whether the shot is made or missed. But as long as that shot was taken, then we both can live with the result.”
Daly lasted nine seasons with the Pistons, one of four teams he coached, and sighed audibly at the short shelf life NBA coaches now have. He also chuckled at the cyclical trends general managers seem to follow.
Back in the early 1990s, hiring college coaches became hot. Ex-players with little coaching experience — Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas — grew to be in vogue. And in the recycled coaches vein, there always seems to be another job for, say, Mike Fratello.
“You do need the right coach for your particular group,” Daly said. “Ideally, the coach is a combination of a good X’s and O’s man, a good communicator and a strong leader.”
Greg Anthony, who played for six teams and countless coaches in his 11 NBA seasons, agreed that good coaching goes beyond what’s drawn on the greaseboard during timeouts.
“It’s about accountability and structure and comfort for players as well,” said Anthony, now an ESPN broadcaster. “Phil gets measured by how many championships he has won but, in my opinion, doesn’t get enough credit for his coaching acumen and ability to relate to players.
“He’s the best coach I’ve ever seen, and that’s no disrespect to Riley, who I played for in New York. But you never see a Phil Jackson-coached team underachieve.”
Anthony did see a Tim Floyd-coached Bulls team lose often during Anthony’s 36-game stint in 2001-02. That experience allowed him to speak from experience about the importance of earning players’ respect.
“You revered your college coach like a father figure because that basically was your transition period from adolescence to adulthood,” Anthony said. “In the NBA, that relationship changes. The coach is an authority figure but he’s more peer-to-peer. After a while that relationship can sour and run its course.”
Anthony disputed the notion that players tune out coaches.
“It’s a players’ league, but players want to be coached,” he said. “They’ve been coached their entire lives. What you need depends on where you are. On an up-and-coming team, credibility is very significant.
“When I played for Riley, he gave you instant confidence because at critical points, he was as cool as a cucumber. That translated to players, much like what Byron Scott is doing now with New Orleans.
“It also depends on the direction of the organization. Franchises where it doesn’t look like they’re trying to win, it’s impossible for a coach to have an impact. But good coaching is invaluable. You can’t quantify it.”
So there you go. As critical a hire as Paxson faces, perhaps the answer to the original question is no. Paxson himself has stressed how essential leadership is.
“There are no bad coaches in the NBA,” Daly said. “All of these people know both sides of the ball. A lot of times what it comes down to is leadership. That’s what makes the best coaches.”
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
