Up top, I wanna acknowledge that most of us know absolute crap about coaching let alone assistant coaches, but still -
Who is that one deep cut assistant coach that you’ll always love, and thought would make an amazing head coach but failed miserably in that role.
Mine will probably be Nate Bjorkgren, who had a disastrous tenure in Indiana, but for some reason, I thought (and still think) he’ll be a great HC. His offense and plays were good, but I feel like he couldn’t build good relationships with any of his players.
Lionel Hollins was a really good assistant coach, and then spent a few years as the Grizz head coach that looked successful – but then he didn’t get his contract renewed, and has bounced around as an assistant. IDK if maybe there was something behind the scenes that led to him not being given another HC gig, like his players considered him a failure in a way other than their on-court record?
On the other hand, Brian Shaw was a leading candidate to take over the Lakers HC gig after Phil Jackson retired, but instead ended up as an assistant in Indy and then went to Denver and was flaming hot garbage, had a big falling out with veteran Andre Miller, and ended up being fired and not getting serious consideration for any future HC jobs.