Searchbits V: Til Tuesday
STILL TRENDING HOWARD
We have a definite date for a Juwan Howard interview: Tuesday. The only other guy who had a definite interview date was Luke Yaklich, who was supposed to have one yesterday. We only found out about that because Yaklich interviewed at Texas and in the process of informing people about what's going on the Texas 24/7 mod said Yaklich's timeline was "interview for head job at Michigan, and then probably go to Texas."
It seems like LaVall Jordan is likely to interview as well, but both 24/7 and Rivals have mentioned Jordan's buyout as an issue. Those seem to be handy for coach retention. I prefer Howard to Jordan so I'm not too put out by that. The idea that Michigan would be put off by a buyout seems ludicrous. Maybe Jordan + buyout ranks below Howard + nothing, because that would give Michigan more ammo to retain assistants.
Providence's Ed Cooley and Texas's Shaka Smart remain the only other names being mentioned in any context. Both guys are on the fringes of the search, but Sam had an extensive update on Cooley this morning.
[After THE JUMP: more Howard]
HANDICAPPING THE TIMBERWOLVES JOB
The main remaining hurdle to Juwan Howard's availability is the Minnesota Timberwolves job, which he is one of four finalists for. It sounds like it'll be an upset it anyone other than current interim Ryan Saunders, though:
Even though Rosas is interviewing multiple people for the position, Saunders remains a strong candidate for the job.
Rosas will be in Chicago the next few days representing the Wolves at the draft lottery and combine, but a source said Rosas should make a decision on the head coaching position possibly by the end of the week or over the weekend.
Last week Rosas spent several hours over three days discussing the position with Saunders. Their discussions ranged from personnel to style of play, player development, building an assistant coaching staff and how to modernize the Wolves’ offense into an up-tempo efficient offense.
But their conversations haven’t just dealt with issues on the court. They have discussed the importance of communication, leadership and how best to succeed in the Minnesota market in collaboration with other aspects of the organization, the source said.
Saunders remains the favorite to get the job given the backing he has from the players in the locker room, owner Glen Taylor and much of the organization.
If the team and owner are in Saunders's corner and the new president of basketball operations, Rosas, is having extended conversations with him it's going to be near impossible for one interview to upset that apple cart. Aaand Woj:
Ryan Saunders and Minnesota are nearing agreement on a multi-year deal to make him the Timberwolves coach, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 20, 2019
STAN STANS FOR JUWAN
Stan Van Gundy is surveyed for his Howard opinion:
“Erik Spoelstra, all the people with the Heat, all the people who played there and are working there now, they speak really highly of him …his reputation was certainly one of being not only a really good player but a great professional who was a leader and led in the right direction."
Also, inevitably, other Fab Five members. Jimmy King:
"He's a great communicator,” King said. “He recruited me, Ray, Jalen and Chris and look what he's done. This would be 2.0, for a lack of a better term, for him to be able to recruit another prominent team and build a program." …
“High school, college and pro, he's the best guy. There are other guys out there but when it comes to relationships and the past here at the University of Michigan, Juwan Howard fits the bill.”
"And for those that don't know, he was always the adult in the room amongst us. You never saw Juwan Howard without a haircut, you've never seen him without a crease in his pants, you've never seen him undisciplined. And he was a technician out on the floor.”
That's a good point. Howard spent his first year in the NBA completing his degree, and after making nine digits in the league he immediately went to work for one of the most regimented regimes in the NBA. He seems to have the same sort of mentality that most coaches do. Most coaches were tryhards with brief playing careers, and while Howard was certainly not that for a big chunk of his NBA career when you're in the NBA for 19 years those last 6-10 are certainly tryhard time.
I'm perfectly fine with either Juwan or Yaklich. Having both on staff next year would be tremendous.
Please don't let this go sideways, Warde.
Totally agree. Juwan and Yak together would be a home run. Juwan adds some excitement and the possibility of recruiting prowess (given his Fab 5 / NBA career) and Yak - also a good recruiter - adds stability and damn impressive defensive coaching.
Make this happen, Warde.
I like your optimism but we're calling this a home run? I'd call that a bunt single at best. I think we should just be honest here and say, look, the timing sucked. The pipe dreams said no. These are the only viable options. They come with a ton of question marks but it's what we're working with.
I wouldn't call anything about the last week a homerun, including our options moving forward.
A bunt single? For a guy that would probably be a head coach in the NBA within 3-4 years? Along with a top-end assistant who, along with giving John Beilein a freaking defense will likely become a head coach within a couple of seasons?
You must have been expecting Red Auerbach to be reincarnate to be dissapointed by that.
Agree to disagree. I get your point that there is certainly a decent ceiling with the above scenario but the floor is pretty low too. I would prefer a less risky / sexier pick but a lot of that comes down to someone's risk aversion. I get that. Also, I get that are options are limited. It sucks but I get it. I'm slowly crawling out of the hole of despair with all of this....slowly.
It’s a homerun given the options that are on the table. Coach K and John Calipari aren’t walking through the door and neither is Brad Stevens. John Beilein ain’t coming back either.
Looking at realistic hires at this point in the calendar, getting JH and retaining Yak would be absolute best case.
I respect your point of view, but the time to determine what is, and what isn’t, a home run hire isn’t when the player hired steps up to bat. It’s after the player has hit the ball.
I’m sure that many of us thought, “John Belein? WTF?” 12 years ago.
Every hire is merely potential. It remains to be seen how that potential develops. In fact, sometimes that takes a few years. I’m thinking about the “home run hire” excitement when Harbaugh was hired, and all the predictions of immediate championships, and “amaze-balls” and “Now we’re gonna clobber Ohio State,” haven’t come true yet.
I love the Harbaugh hire for lots of reasons, and I think it’s worked out very well, but the folks who were reading their omigod-this-is-gonna-be-AMAZING crystal balls haven’t been proved right about championships yet. I think it’ll happen at some point, though.
The “bunt single” analysis here is no more than speculation. You need a sexy name to get happy? Cool. But all of the coaches being mentioned are capable guys. Any one of them might be really great here. Or not. A great coach in one situation often proves to get poor results in another situation. Personalities sometimes don’t mesh. Timing’s sometimes wrong. Sometimes the seed doesn’t take in that particular soil, or under that sunlight. It happens.
It doesn’t really pay to worry about all this; it’s not like Warde Manuel is thinking, “OMG, what will the folks on Mgoblog think of this hire, I’d better check!” He’s more likely thinking, “What will the big donors to the athletic department think of this hire?”
Mostly true, but here’s the thing. With the level this program has reached, most people were hoping for someone who is more than just “capable” to replace Beilein. And Howard and Yaklich haven’t even shown that much as college HCs. People wanted a proven winner at the major college level, and absent Donovan or someone else unexpected, we’re going to end up settling for less than that and crossing our fingers.
Fuckin hell, Michigan fans have got to be the most miserable bunch of bastards on the planet. You guys are ridiculous.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. Like you, I am hoping for “great,” not “capable.”
Trouble is, we don’t know who will prove out yet. It’s true that head coaching experience counts. NBA experience counts. Heck, all of the intangibles count.
What I’m saying is that until we see results we won’t know if we have “capable at Michigan” or “great at Michigan” until some time has passed. All coaching searches have that crapshoot element; even the hires that seem most impressive aren’t necessarily going to translate to results.
We probably agree on quite a lot, and it’s just a question of emphasis; you would like to see proven results, and I respect that, but I’m probably a little more excited to see what someone like J. Howard can do with his NBA playing and coaching experience. More risk, to be sure. Maybe more upside, maybe not. In any case, we’re not going to call the shot, so as always, we wait for the outcome.
Maybe I'm nostalgic, but J. Howard coming home sounds like a major win. I'll miss Beilein for sure, but surprised I'd be excited about anyone after he left. Howard has me excited.
Warde didn't get Coach K to leave Dook, so this coaching search has been a total fucking failure!
Yea because that's what I was saying.....
Come on man, I obviously wasn't advocating that we were going to get a Coach K but there is a HUGE gap between Coach K and Juwan/Shaka Smart. There just is.
And I'll reiterate for a third time now, they are our options. I get it. I'm bummed about the circumstance, but understand the reality.
If you are bummed about Howard, then you have an unrealistic view of the program and NCAA coaching in general.
I’d say its at least a ground rule double.
As soon as you know your coach is a can’t miss coach you
A. Pay the man what he is worth and more. Check
B. Include a buyout that makes it very painful for his next employer. To the point maybe they look elsewhere. Fail
C. You stay in constant communication with Coach. Being hired at Cleveland wasn’t a 24 turnaround. The hiring week should’ve been happening the previous week or earlier. Fail
D. Now you get our version of Patrick Ewing. He might be better but honestly what tells you he will be? That’s hall of famer Patrick Ewing and he is barely making it. Beilein improves while he was here and he had decades under his belt. Hope for the best but my expectations are very low. Amaker(ish) to be honest. And if I didn’t mention it I think the world of JUWAN.
If there was a real chance that Beilein would stay, he would have made sure to stay in contact. He would not have agreed to the deal without our knowledge.
The evidence suggests that we didn't have a chance. He wanted to give the NBA a try. We shouldn't beat ourselves up over it.
As others have pointed out, you can't force a buyout on a coach who doesn't want one. His answer will always be "ok, bye."
"Constant communication" is another word for "badgering." Obviously, lines of communication are always ideal - that said, how many people who quit their jobs ever go to their bosses and say "I'm thinking of leaving" months in advance? Beilein essentially gave his two-week notice.
Patrick Ewing being a HoF basketball player has nothing to do with his coaching acumen.
There's a continuum between constant communication/badgering and this :
"Athletic director Warde Manuel, Beilein’s boss, was given a sliver of notice. Beilein alerted him two weeks ago that he was going to engage in conversations with NBA teams. No specifics were given. No teams were mentioned. Things were exceedingly preliminary at that point.
Soon after, on May 2, Manuel traveled to South Africa with the Michigan football team. The only communication between the two in the days that followed was a text message from Manuel to Beilein asking how things were going. Beilein responded that all was well and the two should catch up. Their next contact was 11 days later, on Monday morning, when Beilein called Manuel to tell him he had accepted the job with the Cavaliers."
It may not have made a difference in the end, but I would have liked the AD to have made more of an effort to stay in the loop and try to keep Beilein and/or to plan for life without him over those 11 days.
Fair enough. Going to South Africa is sort of like Bill Martin's sailing adventures. That said, it probably has little impact on the hire, given the timing. It's not prime coach-hirin' season. Warde could and probably should have skipped the trip, and definitely should have followed up with Beilein.
Well, no. People strangely seem to have forgotten Beilein’s interviewing with the Pistons a while ago. That should have clued Warde and everyone else in that he was very interested in bailing for the NBA, and might do it at any time.
I don’t know if Warde had a sit-down with Beilein after that, but he sure as heck should have.
Of course he did. That's when they renegotiated Beilein's contract. It's also when Warde said he prepared for Beilein to leave at his next shot at the NBA. I don't know who is forgetting what, but those things were widely reported.
Then why is he at Georgetown? Why is Howard maybe coming to coach at Michigan? Resumes? Come on man. There is a really solid assistant coach in New Jersey that is solid. You good with us hiring him. Juwan and Ewing are living off there playing careers. If they become successful head coaches then they have made the leap. 0-2 so far but jury is still out.
None of this, and none of the endorsements of Howard really say anything about how good he’ll be as a college coach. He could be very well suited for the NBA, but not for college.
As noted, our options given the timing are limited, and a lot of this is just people trying to convince themselves to be delighted with a hire that is probably going to be less than they hoped for as a Beilein replacement.
Pipe dreams were just that. Good coaches do not change job that often and the timing of JB leaving us really really sucked. I am pissed at him because he should have left earlier. A lot of good coaches would have been available then.
He should have left earlier? You mean, he should have quit before he got the job offer? Because that’s standard practice?
Are we sure Warde did everything he could have to get Donovan or Wright. We went a week into the search before the first interview and Warde is put off by Jordans relatively miniscule buyout for Michigan. Warde is from the old guard and prefers a cheap guy that he can control to an absolute winner.
This is my concern exactly. Juwan may turn out great, and I like his upside, but the way the search has gone so far and the names that are out there make it look like Warde is being way too limited in his scope and the likely reason for that seems to be them being cheap which should never happen at Michigan.
I'm pretty confident in predicting that Wright's not going to leave Villanova for another college job. Why would he, when he's won two national titles there?
There might be a chance for a college team to land Donovan, but it's never likely for a pro coach to go down a level.
You can't go into a coaching search expecting to land guys like that.
Right, and to add to that...
Why does everyone "need to know" that Warde kicked the tires on these elite coaches. I would certainly be disappointed, if I found out that he didn't. But here is what would also be disappointing: Warde publicly advertising every coach that he is pursuing so that, when many of them turn him down--which is most likely, given the names in question--the guy we eventually hire ends up being perceived as the "sixth choice." You put the new coach in a bad spot, and you send the message that Michigan doesn't have the cachet to get the coach that they really want.
Everyone on the internet wants to be an unofficial member of the athletic department--except that they wouldn't like the consequences of everyone else being privy to all of the same information.
Beilein quit on Monday and Yak interviewed on Saturday. Saddi also reportedly interviewed before Cooley. There may have been others that weren't leaked.
Do you have any actual idea of the size of Jordan's buyout? Butler doesn't announce contract details.
Chris Holtmann's buyout was nearly $4M. We know this because OSU paid it. His leaving when he did put Butler in a bind. They'd have reason to make Jordan's higher.
C'mon man. It may not be a 400 ft home run, but I'd call it a stand-up double, given his UM pedigree, playing career, and the absolutely sterling comments from around the NBA about his coaching ability.
A home run would be Brad Stevens or Billy Donovan. Juwan is not that. But a bunt single is more like some unknown mid-major guy with 1 good season out of many and tenuous ties, at best, to the university and midwest. Or maybe that's a fielder's choice.
The bunt single comment was totally dramatic (and frankly said mostly in jest). If folks are happy with the hire, I'll fall in line. I'll support whoever the school chooses and want nothing but success for Howard or whoever ends up getting the job. I've just been pretty down on Beilein leaving and what we've heard of the search thus far. I'm slowing digging myself out of that hole of despair. But the negging was deserved.
Other than the direct coaching experience, he is as close to a "Jim Harbaugh esk hire" you could get for the program.
There are probably 4-5 coaches who are in the same arena as Belien in terms of success, doing it the right way, being a teacher..etc. Those guys have really good jobs and are not leaving...so I see this as the very next best thing.
How likely is that Yaklich stays if Juwan is the coach? It is not like they have an established relationship. I am guessing if you were in the running for the gig but don't get it, you are not likely wanting to stay around. People around here should be ready for the likely outcome of Howard as the coach and Yaklich moving on.
Hoping that they sell Yak on staying and being in line to be head coach if/when Juwan heads back to the NBA.
I really hope they can keep Yak if Juwan becomes HC.
in the short term I understand the case for keeping Yak (continuity, hanging onto Wilson, defense) and think that would that'd be great, but in a way i'm fine with him leaving. If he leaves I think he's more likely to get a tier-2 head coaching job, gain some experience, and be a viable candidate to replace Howard at that point should he leave for the NBA. Howard works out and stays, great. Howard works out and leaves for NBA, at least we had a good run - go hire best coach available, maybe Yak?, Howard doesn't work out - sucks but Yak's got some experience under his belt?
I don't see it as realistic we'll keep a guy like that as an AHC or coach-in-waiting for 3,4, 5 years - someone will offer him something as a head job and it'll be tough to hang onto him in that capcaity. Better to let him fly? i dunno.
Shaka is on borrowed time. Yak could stay here another season and be a HC candidate at UT next season.
Flipside of that is he can get brought over to UT this year, and if he does his part but Shaka fails to win the requisite amount of games necessary, he can be promoted up a chair. I think it’s unlikely a major conference school will bring him on from another program when there are mid-major head coaches that might be more in line for the job. Plus the word is that UT might be the only job Chris Beard would leave for.
I don't think they'd fire Smart and then promote his assistant. In that case the assistant was part of the staff that failed to meet expectations.
Actually, I think Yak’s long term prospects are better if he stays than leaves for Texas. He has a chance to succeed Howard in 3-5 years when Howard makes the move to the NBA. For that to happen, he’d likely be leaving behind a successful program. I haven’t heard much about Smart moving up, so if Yak were to succeed him at Texas it would likely come with a rebuilding program. The question then becomes who would Yak be more likely to learn from, an NBA caliber coach or Shaka Smart?
It seems unlikely that Smart + Yak would do poorly enough for Smart to get canned but for them to give Yak the head job. Seems unlikely they'd hire the unproven assistant that was a part of the staff they were unhappy with.
I'm not sure what that says about his long term prospects at Texas though. If he goes there and turns around their defense in a season or two, he'll absolutely get a head job, maybe even a good one. In that sense, it might be good to leave and prove his worth at yet another destination. There's still the possibility that his success is because of coaching at a strong program with elite defensive players. If that's a reason other institution might be hesitant about him, they probably won't learn anything new about him next year at Michigan because they still have Simpson, Teske and Livers and will be elite defensively once again with Yak. Any remaining questions about Yak won't get answered next year if he's an assistant at Michigan again.
That said, you don't want to go to place where you can't overcome existing problems. It's still Shaka's team and you'll probably go down with him if he goes down. How confident is Yak that Shaka won't go down? Dunno. Probably depends on his confidence in himself and how much control Shaka is willing to give up.
Your last question is moot if Yak isn't offered a job by Michigan's new coach. That's not a given so he has to have some backup plans in place even if he doesn't want to leave.
In many cases, you are right, the assistant would look to move on. In Yak's case he has only been at one major program as an assistant under Beilein for a few years. For Yak, the option would be head coach at a lower Tier D1 program or more years as an assistant. If Yak really wants a good head coaching gig, staying on the bench with Howard as the new HC is not much different than moving to another big D1 program to get more experience under a different head coach. Not saying it will happen, but I could easily see Yak learning what he can from Juwan for a year or two and then getting a better head coach gig than he would have this year.
This is a good point re: his lack of experience as a D1 assistant coach. Staying at Michigan under another HC is like moving to another program to work under a different person without having to move your family, etc. And if he wants to stay at Michigan, he should be able to negotiate a good raise in the process.
If he wants to be a head coach, picking up a few more years as a Michigan assistant gives him continuity and the chance at continued development.
I’m hoping he stays on.
As long as Michigan matches what Texas is offering, I don't see the upside to him making a lateral move that yanks his kids out of school. I think he interviewed with Texas to give him bargaining power as an assistant and to make Warde think twice about not making him HC right now. Yak's next move should be an HC somewhere and I don't think that offer is coming in this late in the cycle. At most I'd say we get Yak for one more year but it would be a huge help in the transition.
Agree. I think if we hire Juwan, Yaklich likely goes. I think Luke is the less risky choice (we will almost guaranteed have a good defense and therefore be competitive) , but I will 100 percent support Juwan if he is hired.
Agree. I am now hoping it is Howard as HC, and that he is able to Yak on board as an assistant, and hopefully an offensive minded coach with previous HC experience. That is probably our best case scenario at this point, and just hope it works out.
Ok, I'm sold on Howard as head coach. Seems to be a must to keep Yak as DC. It would be nice to keep DeAndre and Saddie also.
Let's keep in mind the incoming head coach is probably going to want authority over their direct reports. Which isn't to say that Howard would let everyone go, but he'd be given the flexibility to shape his staff.
Saunders is now confirmed as the Wolves permanent coach, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
http://www.startribune.com/ryan-saunders-staying-on-as-timberwolves-head-coach-team-adding-assistant-gm-from-nets/510158302/
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