Six candidates for Warriors to consider as Atkinson’s replacement

Six candidates for Warriors to consider as Atkinson’s replacement originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Less than two weeks away from training camp as head coach for Team USA’s men’s basketball team, Steve Kerr on Monday was in the familiar position of hanging a “Help Wanted” sign on the door of the Warriors.

Already lining up a replacement for the late Dejan Milojević, who died in February, Kerr now has another opening with the departure of top assistant Kenny Atkinson, who reportedly accepted the job as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Atkinson is the fourth top assistant to leave for a top job elsewhere since Kerr arrived in Golden State in 2014, following Alvin Gentry (New Orleans), Luke Walton (Los Angeles Lakers) and Mike Brown (Sacramento Kings).
Kerr’s tendency in hiring top assistants has been to value experience as an NBA head coach. Of his four top assistants over the years, only Walton had no experience in that role before joining the Warriors.

Though Kerr, according to multiple league sources, contacted Darvin Ham shortly after he was fired by the Los Angeles Lakers last month, Ham ended up rejoining the Milwaukee Bucks as top assistant to Doc Rivers. Ham spent four seasons in Milwaukee as an assistant under Mike Budenholzer before going to LA.

That’s but one example of shrinkage in the pool of candidates over the past month, as new coaches hired assistants.

Here are six candidates still available to the Warriors as of Monday afternoon, with five fitting the profile of Kerr’s past hires and one that does not:

J.B. Bickerstaff

Bickerstaff spent five seasons as head coach of the Cavaliers, rebuilding in the first two, posting winning records in the last three, with back-to-back NBA playoff appearances in the last two. Though his contract runs through the 2025-26 NBA season, he was fired one week after Cleveland’s loss to the eventual-champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. He previously was head coach in Houston and Memphis. Bickerstaff, 45, is known for emphasizing defense.

James Borrego

Despite 10-win improvements in his final three seasons with the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/six-candidates-warriors-consider-atkinsons-235353416.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-06-24 23:53:53

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.