Popovich's assistants popular around NBA
Web Posted: 06/04/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer
Spurs officials have spent the past three summers piecing together a roster they hope will contend for not only this season's NBA championship, but also for much of the rest of the decade.
Tim Duncan is under contract for at least three more seasons. Manu Ginobili is completing the first season of a six-year deal. Tony Parker received a six-year extension that has yet to start. Bruce Bowen has two more years on his contract. Beno Udrih has another three on his rookie deal.
As the Spurs prepare to play in their second NBA Finals in three years, their biggest challenge for the future, it seems, isn't keeping their players. It's maintaining their staff.
During the past month, assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo has interviewed for head-coaching positions with Minnesota and New York. Cleveland has spoken with Danny Ferry, the Spurs' director of basketball operations, about becoming the franchise's general manager. This week, the Cavaliers hired Mike Brown, who spent three seasons as an assistant under coach Gregg Popovich, as their new head coach.
Four years after former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson derisively labeled the Spurs' staff "The Simulator Crew" for its lack of NBA playing experience, the nickname has taken on a different connotation.
"Instead of saying, 'I want to be like Mike,'" Brown said, referring to Gatorade's old Michael Jordan slogan, "teams are saying, 'I want to be like the Spurs.'"
Last summer, Portland hired Kevin Pritchard, one of the Spurs' scouts, as its director of player personnel. He finished the season as the Trail Blazers' interim coach.
Popovich and Spurs general manager R.C. Buford both think Sam Presti, the team's talented 28-year-old director of player personnel, will eventually become a general manager in the league. Director of scouting Lance Blanks, who played an important role in re-signing Parker and facilitating the trade for Nazr Mohammed, also figures to attract attention from other teams.
"You hate to lose people that have helped create the success you have," Spurs chairman Peter Holt said. "But, at the same time, new people come in and bring new ideas, new blood."
The franchise has maintained its continuity during Holt's nine-year tenure because he hasn't had to replace any of his top-level decision makers — on either the basketball operations or business side — since former coach Bob Hill was fired. Popovich, whose contract doesn't expire until after the 2007-08 season, ceded his general manager le and day-to-day front-office duties to Buford in 2002, but continues as the executive vice president of basketball operations.
In Duncan's eight seasons, the Spurs have made three Finals appearances while compiling the highest winning percentage (.702) of any team in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues.
"The blend we have works and the teamwork we have works," Holt said. "Behind the scenes we have stability. You need that because the unstable part of the business is the basketball. On any given night, who knows what's going to happen?"
Still, as the Spurs' success has grown, so has their challenge to maintain it.
Should the Timberwolves hire Carlesimo — he had another conversation in recent days with Kevin McHale, Minnesota's vice president of basketball operations, that went well — Popovich will have to fill a vacancy on his coaching staff for the fourth consecutive summer.
Mike Budenholzer has been the one constant during Popovich's tenure — and probably the coach Popovich depends on the most.
After Brown left to become Indiana's associate head coach following the Spurs' 2003 championship, the Spurs replaced him with Mario Elie. A year later, Golden State's Mike Montgomery hired Elie as one of his top assistants.
Now charged to guide Cleveland, Brown has asked Popovich for advice in hiring his staff. He hopes to implement some of the same principles Popovich values, most notably a team-first at ude.
"The biggest thing you hear teams say is, 'We treat people the right way,'" Brown said. "But San Antonio doesn't just say it. They do it."
Three of Popovich's former players — Avery Johnson, Terry Porter and Doc Rivers — are now head coaches. Former Spurs guard Monty Williams also has spent the season interning with Popovich's staff.
"If there's any correlation there, I think we look for guys that understand the game, understand team and truly realize what it takes to win," Popovich said. "Oftentimes if those guys want to stay in the league, they end up wanting to coach or be in management of some sort. We've been pretty fortunate to attract the kind of player that really has a good basketball IQ."
Popovich and Buford have an unwritten philosophy: As long as you respect the organization, the organization will do its best to advance your career. Even if it means helping a staffer find a job with another team.
Ferry could be the first member of the team's current brain trust to leave, but he also has made it clear he will remain with the Spurs until the right job comes. The Cavaliers have been unable to specify the duties of their general-manager position.
"I think it's rewarding because people are recognizing Pop's vision," Buford said, "and the progress this organization has made under he and Peter."
Of course, the problem with having one's staff members leave is they usually depart with first-hand knowledge of how the franchise operates. In the case of Brown and Johnson, that means knowing much of the Spurs' playbook. Pritchard also talked openly this season about how he modeled Portland's scouting database after that of the Spurs, implementing the same formulas he learned from Presti.
"Hopefully, we'll continue to evolve and make good decisions," Buford said. "What we did three to five years ago isn't what we're doing now."
The NFL's New England Patriots have coped with some of the same problems. After the Patriots won their third Super Bowl in four years, the team's offensive and defensive coordinators both left for head-coaching jobs.
"Working for the Spurs means a lot in the eyes of a lot of other people," Mike Brown said. "In terms of organizations right now, they're at the pinnacle of the NBA. Everybody else is trying to get there."
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