NBA PM: Could Calipari Coach the Knicks?
John Calipari signed an eight-year contract extension with the University of Kentucky on Monday, but by Tuesday The New York Post‘s Marc Berman was already predicting the transient coach’s next move: Madison Square Garden
Calipari, who is represented by Creative Artists Agency—the same agency that reps Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, assistant general manager Allan Houston and consultant Mark Warkentien—is rumored to have told confidants that he wants to be both an NBA coach and president. Berman concedes that Knicks owner James Dolan wouldn’t permit Calipari to hold both jobs, but insists that the Wildcats coach is a possible replacement for current Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, whose contract expires after next season.
Essentially Berman is making the case that CAA “still thinks it runs the Knicks” and because of that, they can push their client—and another, point guard Chris Paul—on the team at the same time.
On top of the usual sensationalism that generated this story in the first place, Calipari did drop one interesting nugget in an SEC conference call this week. When speaking about his new contract extension, Calipari noted, “Obviously there’s buyouts and all that kind of stuff in there.”
The use of the word “obviously” cannot be understated because the probability that Calipari will be in the Bluegrass State in eight years is next to nil. Yes, he had a nine-year stint at the University of Massachusetts and a 10-year set at Memphis. However, Calipari is always an investigation away from moving on to another gig. Not everything that happened at UMass and Memphis is his fault, obviously, but his exits have always been closely preceded by an NCAA probe.
Of course, the issue raised by Berman isn’t, “Will Calipari be in Kentucky for the rest of his contract?” Rather, the issue is, “Will Calipari be coaching the New York Knicks?” and that’s a tougher nut to crack.
First, D’Antoni and the Knicks players have a say in who’ll be the coach in 2012-2013. If the team makes it to the Eastern Conference Finals or beyond, there’s a good chance he gets an extension. If the team finishes the season by losing in the first round of the playoffs or by not making the postseason at all, there’s no chance he’ll be extended. The wildcard result is a second-round exit for the Knicks. Is that slight improvement enough for D’Antoni to keep his job?
Second, Calipari’s last foray into the association went very wrong. The team was 72-112 during his two-plus seasons at the helm and it’s not exactly like he was coaching schlubs. Sam Cassell, Chris Gatling, Kendall Gill, Kerry Kittles, Stephon Marbury, Keith Van Horn, Jim Jackson, and Jayson Williams suited up for New Jersey during that time, but in spite of their individual talents, the team was swept in its only playoff appearance of the Calipari era.
Calipari had good players with the Nets—not great players—so when he returned to the college ranks he ensured he had a significant talent advantage. He hired Dajuan Wagner ‘s father Milt at Memphis after getting the blue chip recruit’s letter of intent. A few years later Calipari hired Tigers guard Tyreke Evans’ personal strength coach, Lamont Peterson, as an administrative assistant.
Since Kentucky has broader recruiting appeal than Memphis, Calipari hasn’t been seen pulling in top talent with the same brand of small favors. Of course, he has coached nine Wildcats that went on to be selected in the NBA in two seasons in Lexington, so it’s clear he hasn’t lost his recruiting edge.
The point is, we know Calipari is a great coach when Derrick Rose, Evans, John Wall or Brandon Knight are running the show. How good will he be when he has to coach against Rose or Wall? Calipari’s teams weren’t always overly talented. He famously led the 1992 Minutemen to the Sweet 16 with a frontcourt that included a 6-7 center and a 6-3 power forward. But that was almost 20 years ago. Has all of this talent spoiled Calipari? And more importantly, has it mistakenly washed away the stink of his disastrous stint with the Nets?
{AUTHOR_BOX}Warriors Buy Dakota Wizards
The NBA’s Summer Leagues won’t be going on this year, so the Golden State Warriors made the proactive decision to buy the Dakota Wizards, becoming the fourth NBA team to own its Development League affiliate, according to the Associated Press.
The reason owning a minor league team is advantageous is because you can implement your own style of play and trust that players are developing the way you’d like even when they’re far away.
For instance, Thunder center Byron Mullens has seen significant time for the Tulsa 66ers over the past two seasons. Coach Nate Tibbetts has been instructed to use the same offense and defense that Thunder coach Scott Brooks utilizes, which means Mullens is in the loop when he gets called up to OKC.
Meanwhile in Washington…
The Wizards and Grizzlies are without a Development League now that Dakota’s team was purchased by the Warriors. The NBA D-League will be announcing new affiliates later this year and it’s expected that many teams will service multiple NBA franchises.
“We’ll be in touch with the league office and find out who they assign us to,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld told Michael Lee of The Washington Post. “We’re not sure just yet. Most likely Iowa, but we’re not sure yet.”
Riley to Discuss Pace With Spoelstra
For all the talk that Erik Spoelstra would be replaced by HEAT president Pat Riley, he has been very supportive of his successor.
When asked if the team would be speeding up the pace now that they have rookie point guard Norris Cole, Riley said it’s a decision that he and Spoelstra will sit down and make together. Maybe that’s not as much leeway as other NBA coaches get, but come on, this is Riley and he likes to be in charge.
“Erik and I have yet to really sit down and talk about the season and how everything went and where we can get better as a team,” Riley said, as quoted by Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I think the once thing that he and I have always had great rapport about is speed, quickness, athleticism, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
“And so,” he continued, “we continue to move in that vein with LeBron [James] and with Dwyane [Wade] and with Chris [Bosh], Mario [Chalmers], Joel Anthony and also Norris, there’s a possibility that there’ll be some thought about a change.
“Right now, we have to realize, two games away from winning a world championship with the way that we played already, is that you don’t want to reinvent the wheel here, you just want to try and take advantage of the opportunities that are there.”
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