Scal: Mark Jackson's Staff Didn't Prepare Warriors To Be Championship Caliber

http://www.ibabuzz.com/warriors/2014/08/07/brian-scalabrine-mark-jacksons-staff-didnt-prepare-warriors-championship-caliber-push-stephen-curry-defense/




Brian Scalabrine: Mark Jackson’s staff didn’t prepare Warriors to be championship-caliber, push Stephen Curry on defense



Former Warriors coaches Mark Jackson and Brian Scalabrine agree that philosophical differences led to the assistant’s unceremonious reassignment during the regular season.

Scalabrine outlined some of those differences in an interview on The Doug Gottlieb Show on Thursday in his third radio interview in as many days that touched on his stint with the Warriors.

“We had a very difference of opinion as far as what it takes to push and win a championship,” said Scalabrine, who as a player won an NBA title with Boston. “I don’t think championships are given out. I think championships are earned, and I just felt like along the way we thought…something was going to happen. Like it’s OK to be average. It’s OK to be .500. It’s OK to be an eighth seed, ninth seed, or move our way up to a sixth seed. I mean, that’s just not the right mentality if you’re trying to win with a team with a lot of young players.

“Generally, as a staff we really didn’t prepare our team to be championship-caliber nor did we prepare our team to eventually be championship-caliber.

“I respected him as a head coach going into that, but after a while, it was just like us not doing what I would feel like our job is. It was just kind of frustrating.”

Scalabrine offered examples of how he disagreed with Jackson on how to challenge players “to be great,” including All-Star guard Stephen Curry, who Scalabrine said wasn’t given the opportunity at times to do more on defense to the player’s detriment because of Jackson.

“Taking the easy way out, right?” Scalabrine said. “Like putting (Curry) on not the best player, and that wasn’t his decision. That’s not Steph Curry’s responsibility. Steph wanted to guard Chris Paul. He wanted to guard Tony Parker. I can guarantee you. Everyone that knows Steph Curry knows that he’s like an elite competitor.

“But as a staff, Coach Jackson made that decision in saying, ‘Hey, I’m not going to challenge this guy. I’m not going to push this guy to be better on both ends of the floor. I want to save him for the offensive end.’ Look, I think Steph Curry if he was challenged day in and day out to defend, if you want to win a championship, you have to be able to defend your position.”

Scalabrine said Jackson’s way with Curry, who remains a strong supporter of the former head coach, was different from what he saw with his former coach in Chicago, Tom Thibodeau, challenging a star guard in teammate Derrick Rose on defense.

“I think that with the right scheme and having the right coach and putting him in the right position, Steph Curry is going to be a point guard that wins an NBA championship,” Scalabrine said. “He has that kind of ability, and it’s not just on one the side of the floor.”

On offense, Scalabrine said Golden State could have been “better organized” and was ultimately “an average offensive team with all that talent.”

“Harrison Barnes should have been like an elite player in the NBA, taking the next step after his rookie year,” Scalabrine said. “It’s just like unfortunate that he didn’t get a chance to do it.”

Scalabrine also said that even though he felt Klay Thompson was an elite player, he would have traded the guard in a deal for Minnesota forward Kevin Love, who is reportedly heading to Cleveland instead.

“My only knock on Kevin Love is I just think he’s never played with a great shot-blocking center, and Andrew Bogut is a great shot-blocking center,” Scalabrine said. “I’m not saying I’m right. Everyone has their own opinion. I personally would have made the move and then tried to convince a Mike Miller or a Ray Allen or some kind of shooting guard, try to trade for Kyle Korver, try to replace that shooting from Klay Thompson.

“Put Kevin Love with a shot-blocking center, a lot of his defensive errors are just based on size and athletic ability. Personally, I would have done it because I think Kevin Love really is a game-changer when he has a guy like Steph Curry with him or a guy that can create shots for him.”





bob
MY NOTE:  In another article Scal says the GSW will be better prepared under the new coaching staff of Steve Kerr.  Ok, so it's obvious him and Jackson didn't/doesn't see eye-to-eye, but other than that GSW has Ron Adams on their coaching staff now and that alone will produce a positive result.  My #2 team looking better. Now would be a great time for them to win their 2nd championship, while the Celtics (#1, 1A, 1B and 1C) are in rebuilding mode and are not ready to compete yet.



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It will be interesting to have regular doses of Scal's candor in Boston.  It will also be interesting to try to discern how much he has been forced to modify his statements in accordance with the party line.

Sam

While I like Scal and may agree with some of what he says, my initial reaction is that his differences with Mark Jackson didn't need to be aired so pointedly in public. I don't think the coaching fraternity reacts well to that type of thing.

That being said, I hope he's right about Kerr, and I especially hope he's right about Harrison Barnes, who I thought took a big step back last year.

Agree. Prospective employers generally do not like hearing a candidate trashing a past employer.

While no reflection on Scal's abilities, he was "just" an assistant coach coming from a career where he was a journeyman wrongly perceived by some as a mascot or a bone thrown to white fans.

Outside - you do remember that Jackson reassigned Scal to the D league team back in March and in May, has a bunch of negative things to say about Scal in Sports Illustrated?

The one that was demoted [Scalabrine], I would have had handled it six weeks, a month, two months earlier. The things that took place from his side, I would have nipped it in the bud initially. That's my fault for allowing it to go on. I'm pretty much a guy, just like ministry, I try to show you a different way of handling it. Hope that seeing me handle your disrespect, you'll come around and realize this isn't the way to handle it. Fortunately for me, it works for a lot of folks, there are some folks that just won't get it and you have to handle them differently. I would do that differently.

The proof is in the pudding with Mark Jackson and Jason Kidd (who was also a jerk towards Lawrence Frank - who is by all accounts a brilliant basketball mind) - both has very talented teams and both fell flat on their faces. Not sure they have earned the right to be considered part of the "coaching fraternity" quite yet.

And I think Scal is 100% on the money.

Mrkleen,

Of course I remember that Scal got reassigned to the D-league team. It wasn't a good situation, obviously, but at the time that Scal was reassigned, the only comments I remember were vague, nothing personal.

I wasn't aware of the SI article. I assume you mean this one:

http://www.si.com/nba/point-forward/2014/05/07/mark-jackson-fired-warriors-brian-scalabrine-darren-erman

If so, it's repeating what Jackson said on the NBA's Sirius radio channel the day after he (Jackson) was fired, so it's not that he was talking to SI sportswriters. Or is there another article?

Jackson didn't mention either Scal or Darren Erman (another assistant fired after Scal was reassigned) by name, but his comments are specific enough that it's obvious who he's talking about. My take is that it was a poor move by Jackson to unload on them and that he should've kept those opinions to himself.

But just because Jackson made a poor choice doesn't make it okay for Scal to do the same. Two wrongs don't make a right. It seems petty and unprofessional of both guys.

As for your thoughts about whether Mark Jackson is part of the coaching fraternity, I don't think it's fair to say he fell flat on his face. On the contrary, he got the Warriors to improve each season (23-43, 47-35, 51-31), they beat the 3-seed Nuggets and played the Spurs well in the 2013 playoffs, and they led in the fourth quarter in game 7 against the 3-seed Clippers despite not having their starting and backup centers and being totally outmanned against Griffin and Jordan.

There are several things I don't like about Jackson and I thought he was a lousy hire when they first announced it, but I have to begrudgingly give him credit for his accomplishments. I don't like his coaching style, but his players bought into it, they played hard for him, and they fought for him to be kept on as coach. He made them contenders in an incredibly tough Western Conference. I appreciate the loyalty you have toward Scal in this situation, but I don't see how you can say that Jackson fell flat on his face.

That is the article...and the quote was directly attributed to comments about Scal. I am all for the high road, but someone calls me out - he becomes fair game, sorry.

We had a number of exchanges last season about the Warriors, particularly in the way they were being coached by Jackson - where we disagreed. I believe we are in the same place now.

The Warriors succeed in spite of Jackson, not because of him in my estimation. He is a good motivator but terrible at Xs and Os. The Warriors don't really have a system and are entirely dependent on personnel. In the playoffs, that just wont cut it...as witnessed by his early exit last season.

He has a team full of great athletes - who at times look like a fun, run and gun team. Yet when the game gets close, it all devolves into isolation post-ups and terrible spacing and movement.

And the culture or lack thereof, is by all accounts awful. Firing two coaches this season, firing one the season before. Guy clearly is not ready for prime time.

We'll have to disagree.

They acquitted themselves very well in the playoffs. With Bogut --the anchor of their defense and leading rebounder -- out with a broken rib for the entire series, they had no business being in that series against the Clippers. Mark Jackson or not, I was proud of the way they scrapped and clawed and fought in that series and gave the Clippers everything they could handle.

Feel free to look for articles predicting that the Warriors should win the series with the Clippers. All 21 people making predictions on ESPN.com had the Clippers. Once Bogut was declared out, the talk was about the Clips winning in five or a sweep.

The fact that the Western Conference was historically stacked with good teams, that the Warriors' 51-31 record was good enough for only the 6th seed and no homecourt advantage, that they happened to lose after a gutsy performance in the first round -- none of that means their playoff performance deserves to be denigrated as an "early exit."

In my eyes, this all adds up.

A first round loss + a team with a ton of internal problems + stagnant offense = a coach who needs to move on.

In my opinion, Scal doesn't necessarily need to "get the last laugh" here.

Sure, him and Jackson had some differences, but what good is there to continue perpetuating the divide?




KJ