Lesser Known Coaching Candidates

by N4S on May 19, 2009 5:38 AM PDT

Dwane Casey:

Casey is currently an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks but he does have NBA head coaching experience. In 2005, after 11 seasons as an assistant coach with the Seattle Supersonics, Casey was hired by Kevin McHale to coach the Timberwolves. In his first season the Timberwolves won just 33 games, but 40 games into the next season the team was 20-20 and in the playoff hunt when Casey was informed he was fired. Minnesota went 12-30 the rest of that season, won 22 games the following year and this year posted a 24-58 mark. Meanwhile, Casey spent 2008 in Europe observing various Euroleague teams, wanting to stay around the game and maybe learn a few more things while still collecting on his first head coaching contract. He returned to the NBA at the beckoning of Rick Carlisle, who just concluded his first season directing the Mavs with a second-round exit to the Nuggets. Ironically, Casey registered a win this past season when he took over for an ejected Carlisle with six minutes remaining in the second quarter of an early January contest against… Minnesota. Dallas trailed Casey’s former squad by 16 when Carlisle got tossed. That deficit grew to as many as 29 points in the third quarter before Casey and the Mavs worked their magic outscoring McHale’s squad 66-30 over the final 22 minutes. In 2005, Casey interviewed for four different head coaching positions in the NBA. Last summer he was in the running for the Chicago job that eventually went to Vinny Del Negro. He has a resumee worth looking at.

Tom Thibodeau:

Thibodeau is often the one assistant coach people tack on to a list of previous NBA coaches or even high profile college coaches when compiling potential names for any NBA head coaching job because he has spent 18 years as an assistant in the league. He has sat next to the likes of Bill Musselman, John Lucas, Jeff Van Gundy, and currently Doc Rivers. Like Cavaliers coach Mike Brown who landed his first head job four years ago, Thibodeau is regarded as a defensive specialist. The Cavaliers and Celtics finished deadlocked for the lowest defensive field-goal percentage in this year’s regular season. People say defense wins championships. If the Sixers brass believe that, they will likely talk to Thibodeau, who already has Danny Ainge’s permission to explore other job opportunities.

Mike Malone:

While I was researching Brown’s road to his current post I came across an article that explained how Brown has designated Mike Malone in charge of the Cavaliers’ defense and the Cavs’ offense to former Sixers assistant John Kuester. The concept of having an offensive and defensive coordinator in basketball was not Brown’s original idea. Carlisle implored the same concept while coaching the Indiana Pacers and Brown headed up his defense. Clearly Brown has passed on his defensive philosophies to Malone who has spent the past eight years as an NBA assistant – four with the Knicks and four in Cleveland. Cleveland was number one in points allowed, holding the opposition under 92 on average. Malone is the son of former NBA head coach Brendan Malone. He is just 37 years old, but consider this; Malone’s boss just took home the NBA Coach of the Year trophy at 39 years of age after posting a league best 66-16 record. Remember this started out as a list of lesser known candidates if not long shots.

Dean Demopoulos:

Demopoulos sat next to John Chaney at Temple for 17 years, helping guide the Owls to 16 NCAA tournaments. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Demopoulos had hoped to be Chaney’s successor on North Broad. Chaney himself had hoped the same. But the powers that be had other plans which made Demopoulos devise a new plan for himself. In the spring of 2000, he was named head coach of Missouri-Kansas City. But after just one season where his team went 14-16, Demopoulos resumed a more familiar role, only assisting this time on the NBA level. Demopoulos has spent the past eight years as an assistant to Nate McMillan, first with the Super Sonics and currently with the Portland Trailblazers. Demopoulos went after the Sonics head job in the spring of 2005. Bob Weiss was hired. In the spring of 2007, he was a finalist for the University of Hawaii’s head job only to withdraw his name from consideration because he thought the Trailblazers had a bright future with a young core group. Demopoulos vows to be a head coach someday again. Wouldn’t it be ironic if it were only miles from the very institution that spurned him after 17 years of hard work and loyalty? The longest of shots.