The Nuggets have made a head coaching hire that appears to be going over well with the fan-base. But how will news of his assistants be received? ESPN’s Chris Broussard is reporting that Shaw is interested in bringing in the following guys:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p>Word is Brian Shaw looking at Bernie Bickerstaff, Jim Boylan and Tyronn Lue as potential assistants….may look at Alvin Gentry as well</p>— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard/statuses/349364238462091264″>June 25, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Somebody may need to remind Shaw of Bickerstaff's history with the Nuggets. Andrew Feinsten wrote up a history on Bickerstaff, back in 2008, that every Nuggets fan should read and be familiar with. Check it out here, and a snippet:
Bernie Bickerstaff – acting on either his own instincts, at the behest of incompetent ownership, or both – blew up over 15 years of relatively successful basketball and stable management in one year. Bickerstaff chose to run a fire sale and re-build the Nuggets through the draft, which is the lazy way to revamp a team for a championship (and has only worked infrequently in NBA history, like the Spurs throwing away a season to get Tim Duncan). In fact, I’m convinced that Bickerstaff didn’t even scout half the players he drafted or signed, but brought them in solely because they made Sports Illustrated covers (like Mark Macon and Darvin Ham) or played deep enough into the NCAA tournament for Bernie to notice them, regardless of the Nuggets personnel needs (like Jalen Rose).
And Jeff Morton wrote about some of Bickerstaff's bizarre trades in an article back in April. Check it out here and enjoy this snippet:
1996 is both the year I graduated from high school and maybe the darkest year in Nuggets history. So bad was the offseason that I seriously (for the first time ever) considered giving up on the team. Bernie Bickerstaff, through a series of bungled trades and the mishandling of Dikembe Mutombo tanked the team so thoroughly that subsequent General Managers (Allan Bristow and Dan Issel) struggled to dig out from the hole. It all started, and I would say was cap-stoned in a single day: June 13, 1996.
Tyronn Lue has some Nuggets ties as he was drafted by the team back in 1998 (23rd overall), but never played for the team and was traded, along with Tony Battie, to the Los Angeles Lakers for Nick Van Exel. Lue played in the NBA from 1998-2009 and won two titles with the Lakers in 2000 and 2001. Lue has been an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics since his playing days ended in 2009.
Jim Boylan was most recently the interim coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in January of 2013. The team went 22-28 under Boylan after Scott Skiles left the team – they made the playoffs out East, but got swept by the Miami Heat. Boylan played in Switzerland from 1979-86 and has served various coaching roles as a coach since 1982. He was a player/coach in Switzerland and has served as an NBA assistant with the Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Suns, Hawks, Bulls, and Bucks. He has also had head coaching experience with the Bulls (2007-08) and Bucks.
What will happen with John Welch, Melvin Hunt, Chad Iske, and Vance Walberg? We’ll find out if any of them will be retained soon enough. If they do go, teams will be adding very good coaches. Hunt has drawn interest from the 76ers as a head coach and Iske has interviewed with the Cavaliers for an assistant job earlier this summer.
And for more on Shaw, this is a MUST watch:
