Best Long-Term Candidates to Replace Brian Shaw with Denver Nuggets
Brian Shaw's run as Denver Nuggets head coach is over less than two years after it started, which means it's time to look ahead to his replacement.
Per a team release, Shaw's firing, which Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post first reported Tuesday, is now official:
"The Denver Nuggets have relieved Brian Shaw of his head coaching duties, General Manager and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly announced today. Additionally, Melvin Hunt has been named interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
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Denver had been in free fall since the All-Star break, and a couple of trade-deadline maneuverings—the team sent Arron Afflalo and JaVale McGee packing—didn't provide enough of a shakeup to correct its downward trajectory.
Now, the Nuggets have to figure out how much of their current core is worth preserving and, more importantly, which available (or perhaps soon-to-be-available head coach) would be best to lead it.
More than anything else, Denver needs stability. The next man in the big chair can't be a short-timer—not if the franchise that made 10 straight playoff trips before falling short last year hopes to recapture some of its consistent excellence.
If the Nuggets pursue a veteran replacement for Shaw, a track record of demonstrated success would be nice. They need a coach who has won big, one whose tactics figure to lead to sustainable success.
Alternatively, if Denver wants a younger option, he should be able to relate to the players currently on the roster.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, "Denver hasn't started to consider long-term candidates" for its coaching job yet. The "organization needs to decide direction and then look at best fits."
The Nuggets are in luck: Here are a few long-term answers worth considering.
Mike D'Antoni
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The spaced-out, pepped-up pick-and-roll attack Mike D'Antoni championed more than a decade ago with the Phoenix Suns is now the foundation of virtually every worthwhile offensive system in the NBA.
We know his ideas are sound because other teams have copied them so exhaustively.
The only thing preventing success in his stops after Phoenix were mismatched personnel and ownership groups that never empowered him in the struggle against strong-willed players.
Also, he didn't have a healthy Steve Nash, which, you know, was kind of a big deal.
However, point guard Ty Lawson is pretty capable of dominating the ball, contorting the defense and pushing the pace. He could do a half-decent impression of some parts of Nash's game for as long as it took the Nuggets to find a real signal-caller for D'Antoni's offense.
Don't discount the potential boost an MDA scheme would get in Denver, where the high altitude sucks the wind out of opponents. Keeping up with a functional D'Antoni offense is hard enough; imagine trying to do it in the thin air of the Mile High City.
Expect to see that sentiment everywhere in the coming days and weeks. It makes too much anecdotal sense to ignore. Especially when you toss in the fact that D'Antoni got his head-coaching start in Denver during the 1998-99 season.
Hey, good news! D'Antoni wants to coach again, as he told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick and Howard Beck on NBA Sunday Tip: "I love coaching—whether it's the NBA or another level—I'm going to do something."
According to Sam Amick of USA Today, D'Antoni would have interest in the Denver gig.
Let's not overthink this one, folks. There's a lot to like about this fit.
Alvin Gentry
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If, for some reason, the Nuggets aren't convinced D'Antoni still has the passion and commitment necessary to attack the coaching grind, Alvin Gentry would be a terrific Plan B.
The current de facto offensive coordinator for the Golden State Warriors studied under D'Antoni in Phoenix and presided over some truly elite scoring units from 2008-09 through 2012-13 after replacing his former boss as head coach.
As an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers last year, he helped guide the team to a No. 1 offensive rating, per NBA.com. His presence in Golden State has helped improve the Warriors' offensive rating to second in the league after finishing 12th last season.
"I wanted Alvin for his head coaching experience, offensive expertise and his humor—not necessarily in that order," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle. "A friend once said he brings great oxygen to a room. He's fun to be around, he's hilarious, he's smart and he's seen it all. If I could only have one guy, Alvin's the guy."
Alvin would be a good guy for the Nuggets, too.
Frankly, he's overqualified as a lead assistant, and he's going to get another shot as a head coach sooner or later. Why not with Denver?
Tom Thibodeau
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One issue here: Tom Thibodeau is currently employed by the Chicago Bulls.
That might not be a problem much longer, however. During an appearance on ESPN's Waddle and Silvy show Monday, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com said there was between a 90 and 95 percent chance that Thibs is fired or traded this offseason.
The Nuggets' history suggests they're far more comfortable identifying themselves as a score-first organization, which means embracing Thibodeau's gritty defensive philosophy would be a serious shock to the system. Maybe that's just the kind of overhaul this reeling franchise needs.
If given the choice, you'd suspect Thibs would want to swap out some of Denver's shakier defensive personnel, which might mean Lawson and Kenneth Faried could be short-timers. Then again, maybe he could channel Faried's energy into something useful on D.
It's difficult to imagine Thibodeau behind a mic or sitting quietly at home whenever his current coaching job with Chicago ends. He seems like a basketball lifer.
If Denver is interested in changing its image and restoring order, it would do well to put in a call to Thibs whenever he becomes available.
Fred Hoiberg
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It's that time again!
Whenever an NBA team in need of a fresh start has a coaching vacancy, Iowa State head coach and former NBA player Fred Hoiberg becomes a hot topic.
"Hoiberg is a candidate for every NBA coaching job—even when there's no Help Wanted sign hanging," wrote Randy Petersen of The Des Moines Register. "He's on everyone's short list."
If Thibodeau gets the axe in Chicago, we should expect Hoiberg to be a strong candidate there. He played for the Bulls and, according to Petersen, Bulls general manager Gar Forman was an assistant on the Iowa State team for which Hoiberg played. There are some serious Hoiberg-Bulls connections.
At the same time, Chicago's identity is clearly defined, and probably will continue to be without Thibodeau. That team's core isn't going to change much, which means Hoiberg wouldn't necessarily get to implement his choice of styles.
He'd likely have more freedom with the Nuggets, who are generally younger, more flexible and certainly less set in their approach. Because a key issue with Shaw was his inability to connect with Denver's younger players, Hoiberg, who is 42 and has spent the last five years around collegians, might be the right man to build a bridge.
Hoiberg has it pretty good in Ames with the Cyclones, but we've seen plenty of college coaches with terrific situations succumb to the siren song of the NBA. And if the Nuggets want to avoid a retread, the Iowa State head coach is probably the best guy to lure in.
Melvin Hunt
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Maybe it's unpopular to give the interim guy a legitimate shot at a permanent job. Usually, someone in Hunt's position would be on borrowed time.
However, look at the Memphis Grizzlies' Dave Joerger as a recent example of a successful interim-to-permanent transition. After replacing the reputedly out-of-touch Lionel Hollins on a short-term basis, he wound up thriving enough to keep the job.
It's not a common path, but sometimes it works.
Plus, Hunt was in consideration for the Philadelphia 76ers head coaching position in 2013, per John Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and anybody in the running for that gig must have been open to embracing a lengthy, measured rebuilding plan. Not only that, but the long-time assistant was among the candidates considered to replace George Karl in Denver, according to Mitchell, until Shaw got the position.
Hunt just got a firsthand look at how not to coach an NBA team from Shaw, and you'd have to assume he's more familiar with the current roster's abilities and limitations than anyone.
When the alternatives might be uninspiring names like Avery Johnson (whom ESPN's Marc Stein reports will be a contender), Mark Jackson and Vinny Del Negro, someone like Hunt starts to look a lot better.
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