First Steps New NBA Head Coaches Need to Take Once the 2011-12 Season Starts
As soon as the NBA lockout ends and we have basketball (fingers crossed that it happens soon), six new head coaches will don their suits and pace up and down the sidelines, hoping to motivate their teams to bigger and better things.
These six are: Mike Brown with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin McHale with the Houston Rockets, Mark Jackson with the Golden State Warriors, Dwane Casey with the Toronto Raptors, Lawrence Frank with the Detroit Pistons and Rick Adelman with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It is important to note that I'm not including Paul Silas, Frank Vogel and Tyrone Corbin, who all became head coaches in the midst of last season's campaign.
Each new head coach obviously hopes for immediate success, but what is the first thing that each has to do in order to achieve that success?
Read on to find out.
Mike Brown (Los Angeles Lakers)
1 of 6Mike Brown, a former Coach of the Year thanks to his work with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009, has some massive shoes to fill. After all, he's replacing an NBA legend in Phil Jackson as the head coach of one of the most storied franchises in all of the NBA.
Just like in Cleveland, Brown will have a lot of talent to work with. But there is one position that's rather lacking in the talent department, and that's where Brown is going to have to start if he's going to succeed.
The point guard is an incredibly important position for any basketball team and the Los Angeles Lakers' options there are rather underwhelming.
Unless the team brings a veteran in during the hopefully-upcoming free agency period, the Lakers have a couple players already on the roster to choose from. The first is long-time Laker Derek Fisher, a man who is very comfortable playing alongside Kobe Bryant but is clearly well past his prime.
If Brown decides to have Fisher come off the bench, he'll have to start one of the two rookie point guards that the Lakers selected in the 2011 NBA Draft: Michigan's Darius Morris or College of Charleston's Andrew Goudelock.
Personally, I think he should take the regular season to get the incredibly talented Morris up to NBA speed. Morris' passing abilities are incredible and he definitely has the ability to become the point guard of the future for the purple and gold.
Kevin McHale (Houston Rockets)
2 of 6Kevin McHale hasn't had the most stellar coaching history after relatively unsuccessful tenures with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he has been a crucial part in helping both Kevin Garnett and Al Jefferson become the players they are today.
After all, back during his playing days, McHale was the master of the low post, displaying more post moves than any player in NBA history. Yes, I'm including Hakeem Olajuwon and the Dream Shake here.
So far, the most impressive part of McHale's coaching career has been his ability to transfer his knowledge and experience to his players.
The first step for him in his new venture with the Houston Rockets is going to be developing the ridiculous amount of young players rostered by the franchise.
McHale gets to impart his wisdom onto three talented rookies in Florida's Chandler Parsons, Lithuania's Donatas Motiejunas and Kansas' Marcus Morris. Additionally, he gets to teach members of the 2010 draft class (Patrick Patterson) and the 2009 draft class (Terrence Williams, Jordan Hill, Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn).
There's a lot of young talent there and like any other coach, it's McHale's job to maximize it. The only difference is, McHale's job depends on that because he doesn't have too many established players to work with.
Mark Jackson (Golden State Warriors)
3 of 6I'm wondering if I'm going to get hit by a lightning bolt right now for even suggesting this, but Mark Jackson's first move as a head coach needs to be getting the Golden State Warriors to actually play defense.
For quite some time, the Warriors have focused only on the offensive end of the court. With Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, David Lee, Dorell Wright and many other offensive talents, defense has been a blasphemous word in Golden State. There's a reason I've referred to the Warriors' squad as a video game team in the past.
Jackson' first foray onto the sidelines as a head coach needs to be done with a focus on the less glamorous part of the game of basketball. It doesn't matter how many points the Warriors can score if they allow even more.
He'll be able to rely upon his own playing days to impart his knowledge to his players and he should be able to relate to them because of that experience and his relative youth, at least compared to the other coaches in the league.
Dwane Casey (Toronto Raptors)
4 of 6After 11 years of serving as the Seattle SuperSonics' assistant coach, Dwane Casey got his first head coaching gig in 2005 with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He wasn't too successful, going 53-69 in his first seasons and getting fired midway through the second after winning 20 of the team's first 40 games.
Casey went on to serve as the assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks until he was given a head coaching job with the Toronto Raptors this summer.
Just like Mark Jackson with the Golden State Warriors, Casey needs to focus on the defensive side of the ball off the bat. With Andrea Bargnani, the up-and-coming DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis, the Raptors will be at least competent on offense.
But last season, the Raptors allowed 105.4 points per game (26h in the league), allowed their opponents to shoot 48.2 percent from the field (29th in the league) and let the opposition drain 37.6 percent of their long-range shots (28th in the league). That has to change.
Casey, who has developed a reputation as a great defensive mind, even acknowledged this during his first press conference with the Raptors, saying, "Defensively, I am going to be a hands-on control freak."
Lawrence Frank (Detroit Pistons)
5 of 6A historically proud franchise in a tough-nosed city with diehard fans shouldn't be lacking in excitement, but the Detroit Pistons were last year.
Lawrence Frank, a former head coach for the New Jersey Nets, needs to change that and bring a level of fervor that was once present in the Palace when the Bad Boys were lining up for the opening tipoff in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Frank must exude confidence and win a game very early in the season while showcasing top draft pick Brandon Knight from the get-go, regardless of whether he plays point guard or shooting guard for the Pistons.
Detroit doesn't have too much talent going into the 2011-2012 season (if it happens), but with one good free agent pickup and some inspired play from the rookie from Kentucky, the Pistons could at least be competitive.
No one expects the Pistons to make the playoffs. If Frank leads them to the promised land, he would probably get a Mike Krzyzewski-like lifetime contract. All he needs to do at the start of his tenure with the team is make Detroit fans happy to watch their team play once more.
Rick Adelman (Minnesota Timberwolves)
6 of 6Rick Adelman has become famous for turning around franchises and making them successful in just his first year. Can he repeat the magic with the Minnesota Timberwolves? He certainly has the pieces in place to do so.
Before missing the playoffs each of the last two seasons with the Houston Rockets, Adelman had made 10 consecutive postseaon appearances. He'll hope to get back there this season.
The first step that Adelman will have to make with his new team is figuring out how to immediately incorporate the new parts of the Timberwolves' puzzle.
Ricky Rubio will finally be coming across the pond to join the Wolves at point guard and No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams will be playing his first season after a terrific two-year career with the Arizona Wildcats.
To be perfectly honest, I think both players will be busts. Rubio hasn't demonstrated enough to convince me that he's worth the hype, especially since he flat-out can't shoot, and Williams' status as a tweener and lack of any one go-to skill terrifies me.
It will be Adelman's job to prove me wrong.
Adam Fromal is a syndicated writer and Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
