The Give and Go: College Coaches

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.

Paul: John Calipari “desperately” wants to coach again in the NBA, per a front office executive to NorthJersey.com’s Steve Popper. Popper speculates as to a return to the Nets organization for Calipari, where his renowned recruitment abilities could be an attractive option for a Brooklyn team that will depend heavily on future free agencies to replenish their roster. It was barely a year ago that Calipari reportedly turned down a multi-year contract to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers to return to the University of Kentucky, but could this offseason be any different? If you were an organization looking to make moves in free agency, would you consider investing in John Calipari, and how much control over personnel would you be willing to cede?

If not Calipari, are there any other current college coaches that you think are realistic options to jump to the NBA?

Chris: It makes perfect sense that Calipari is ‘desperate’ to get back to the NBA, right? He strikes me as the type of guy who wants so badly to be considered ‘great’. In my opinion, what he’s done at Kentucky this season qualifies as that.  

For all the talk about how he just recruits the best players, the ‘coaching’ job he’s done this season with that collection of talent has been crazy. And he’s never gotten the credit he deserves for putting his players' best interests first and foremost while integrating those priorities with the priorities of his team simultaneously.

If Calipari had been offered that Cleveland job after LeBron James signed there, he would have had a very interesting decision to make. At that point he knew that the majority of his top freshmen (and Poythress and Cauley-Stein) were remaining at Kentucky and that he would have one of the greatest collections of talent on any college basketball team. But how could he have turned down an opportunity to coach the greatest basketball player in the world or turn down the attention that comes with that?

I find that fascinating. This year, however, if Kentucky goes 40-0 there’s not much left for him to do at the college level. An assistant can manage the NBA factory Kentucky has become. There’s no doubt he’s looking on to bigger and better things if he coaches the (arguably) greatest college basketball team of all time to a 40-0 National Championship and paste everyone in their way by 25 points.

As far as giving him control? If that happens, everyone will be making the Pitino comparison. Even for someone like Stan Van Gundy, it’s questionable to give the coach so much power over the roster. There’s always the chance Calipari goes all Chip Kelly on us and starts wheeling and dealing to get his former Kentucky players all on his roster (although that may not be the worst strategy).  

If you bring in Calipari, in my opinion, you must have a strong front office to keep him in check. He can still leverage his recruiting prowess to lure top-level free agents. But the front office experts should be the guys making those second-round draft picks, and filling out the roster with role players, contributors, and projects.

As far as other college coaches that could make the jump to the NBA? The hot names are guys like Kevin Ollie, Billy Donovan, or Fred Hoiberg. Those options aren’t bad. I could see all three of those guys thriving in a good basketball situation in the NBA. At the very least they could be Monty Williams, right?

One coach I’d be really interested to see take a stab at the NBA, but this would never happen, is Bo Ryan. Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin teams are among the NCAA’s very best year in and year out despite their Men’s Basketball Expenses being under $1.4 million. That’s ranked 242 in the country, just behind Vermont, Harvard, and Idaho, and 20% of what Louisville (1st) and Duke (2nd) are spending.

And Bo’s got the wrap of coaching boring, slow-it-down basketball - which may be so - but watch his team this season; there is shooting all over the floor. Sam Dekker as a versatile, stretch-four is a lethal weapon in college basketball, and oh yeah, they are boring to watch because their defense is always so good. Just for a season, I’d like to see what Bo Ryan could do with the Oklahoma City Thunder roster… and maybe the Phoenix Suns medical staff.

How about you, Mitchell? Want to see Calipari coaching your Brooklyn Nets and given the keys to the car instead of Billy King? Who else in the college coaching ranks do you have an eye on?

Paul: Calling them my Brooklyn Nets is the saddest thing I think I’ve ever read. But yes, I would. To be fair, you could have asked if I’d prefer the Brooklyn Knight to Billy King running the organization and I’d also agree. That’s not to say that John Calipari can step right into the NBA and effectively coach and/or manage the day-to-day responsibilities and minutiae of a front office, but at least with the Brooklyn Nets he won’t have any draft picks to worry about!

You mentioned Stan Van Gundy and Rick Pitino (too soon) as recent head coaches to be given autonomy over player/personnel decisions (with Doc Rivers also thrown in), and Pitino as the rare example of an NCAA transplant to attain Presidential-status as part of the promotion. Pitino famously flamed out, paving the way for the Jim O’Brien era and gaining a then-14-year old fan in the process, and outside of Gregg Popovich’s pre-R.C. Buford run as dual head coach/GM with the San Antonio Spurs, the recent track record hasn’t been great.

Like you said, any college coach, nevermind one who can shop for his own groceries, needs another strong personality in management to at least handle the business side of the operation. Whether or not John Calipari’s charisma and personal connections can successfully recruit free agents at the pro level, do you really want a (highly-successful) head coach and basketball evaluator negotiating million-dollar contracts with professional agents and attorneys? With some of the easier examples, like with no-doubt max players or street free agents, the league’s rigid salary-cap structure could benefit a non-MBA graduate with no prior GM experience, but somebody needs to actually read the CBA.

Otherwise, I have no doubt that John Calipari could be a successful head coach at the pro level, given a neutral, non-incompetent front office around him (no small assumption). His Kentucky programs had the benefit of attracting incredible athletes all over the floor, particularly at either the point guard or big-men positions, and he’s helped to acclimate his often one-and-done players’ adjustments by running some pro-style sets. He’ll need to approach the situation a bit differently than his last NBA stint with New Jersey, although you would think his last decade-plus of working with 18- and 19-year olds would fix his treatment of players.

I’d immediately develop an anxiety disorder if I were the GM that acquired John Calipari as my head coach this summer, in much the same way I would if I was Jason Kidd’s general manager. It’s true of every single head coach in the league but Calipari would especially need a secure general manager to work under, as any political power he’d theoretically flex to recruit a LeBron James or “Boogie” Cousins (two names already being rumored about, based off of an original rumor) to an organization could be consolidated against any incumbent GM’s. The details of his own recruitment to the Cleveland Cavaliers as a head coach last year are especially fascinating in hindsight. Imagine the narrative shifting to LeBron and Coach Cal freezing out David Griffin instead of LeBron and co. freezing out David Blatt this season?

Coach Cal’s upside could conceivably be championship-caliber, though, with the right mixture of veteran players and his former recruits. Any ambition on his part or frustrations that can arise (like with his last experience) could also lower his potential floor as an NBA head coach, along with the added media scrutiny among the media jackals (columnists) that would love to pounce on any Cal failures after his transformation of the culture around college basketball. His situation would obviously determine his success rate in any hypotheticals, but looking to him as a “quick-fix-to-a-championship!” savior seems short-sighted to me, and I wonder how he’d handle long-term security and an opportunity to build his own young team, a la Brad Stevens in Boston.

Along that same path, I’d love to see any of the college coaches you’ve already mentioned consider the jump to the NBA. Bo Ryan is especially interesting for all the reasons you mentioned, as he’s such an underrated coach who can institute defense but also show some flexibility on offense depending on his talent. Hoiberg will be a trendy name to replace Tom Thibodeau in Chicago or Flip Saunders in Minnesota as he moves upstairs full-time, as will Billy Donovan to the Orlando Magic again.

The last name I will be excited to see coach in the NBA, when he eventually makes that decision, and who exhibits similar tendencies as Stevens is VCU’s Shaka Smart. I could be projecting this onto him from my (limited) experiences watching his teams play in the NCAA tournament, but he appears to possess the creativity, acumen, patience, and communication skills needed to transition to managing adults at the NBA-level. Each of these names, along with John Calipari, would be welcome additions to the NBA, if and when they make the jump.