NBA Coaches, Contemporary and Historical
by colganc on Feb 23, 2010 2:36 AM PST
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PrintI compiled this anecdotal list to see if there was an obvoius correlation between CBA experience and NBA championships or wins.
NBA Coaches, Contemporary and Historical
The following list of nineteen coaches comprises the past thirty years of NBA championship winning coaches, current and former NBA coaches mentioned here, or in the case of Red Auerbach one of the best. I have listed their pre-NBA head coaching experience, the number of championships, and their records as a head NBA coach. The primary information source was Wikipedia (I'm being lazy) and when Wikipedia failed, www.basketball-reference.com. The list is sorted by NBA championships and no sorting past that (two coaches with the same number of championships are not ordered alphabetically). I checked for championship winning teams at www.nba.com (http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html). Although at www.nba.com the BAA years are listed as "NBA Finals" I've counted Red Auerbach's BAA years as "other professional experience." Coaches with ABA experience have also been counted as "other professional experience."
Pre-NBA Head Coaching Breakdown
Coaches are counted in as many categories as they fit. Chuck Daly, for example, is counted in both the assistant NBA and college categories.
| Category | Number of Coaches | Championships | Championships per Coach | Record |
| Other professional experience (CBA, BAA, ABA) | 7 | 22 | 3.1 | 6264-3834 (.6203) |
| Assistant NBA | 11 | 25 | 2.3 | 7561-4523 (.6257) |
| College | 9 | 20 | 2.2 | 7715-5582 (.5802) |
| None | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 855-544 (.6112) |
Outliers and Exceptional Cases
Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach can really skew the results. Together they comprise roughly one third of all championships listed at www.nba.com. Removing Phil Jackson from the assistant NBA category reduces the championships per coach from 2.3 to 1.5. I give that case as an example, because Phil only coached as an assistant for one year. I feel even one year is enough to list his previous experience as an assistant, but some may disagree and the potential for distortion in such cases should be remembered.
In the top four coaches (ordered by number of championships) only Red Auerbach did not have previous NBA assistant experience. He was part of a very different era of basketball. Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Greg Poppovich all coach(ed) after the three point line was instituted and many other dramatic rule changes since the time of Auerbach. Those three constitute roughly two thirds of all championships since 1980 and each had prior experience as an assistant NBA coach.
Correlations Between Previous Experience and Success
With this limited and anecdotal data set previous professional experience correlates to an increase in career winning percentage and championships when compared to non-professional past experience. Of the four previous experience categories, previous NBA assistant experience and CBA head coaching experience are four percentage points above previous college head coaching in career winning percentage. The none category has too few coaches to take into account for comparison. Coaches with previous professional experience average ~35% more championships relative to coaches with previous assistant NBA coaching or college head coaching experience.
There is a correlation between CBA experience, as well as assistant NBA experience, and greater success as a coach.
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Bill Fitch is the only one on the list with a
losing record, so how can we expect Nate to deliver the title for us? Nate might win a title one day but it won’t be with us,he’s got so much to learn and I don’t think that he will learn it all in Portland. We HAVE to bring in another head coach to take us to the next level and that means that Kevin Pritchard has to find the courage to fire Nate and bring in an experienced coach. Finding the right coach is just as hard, if not much harder, than finding the right free agent to sign. I have been impressed with how much Adelman has grown as a coach and if I was the GM of the Blazers then I’d go after Rick.
he already has a job
#10, #52
Pie Doesn't Win Championships, Cake Wins Championships
by The Arkitect on Feb 23, 2010 10:58 AM PST up reply actions
except that rick is under contract with the rockets
this isn’t college football
Awesomeness (ô'səm-nes)
1. n. Something that inspires awe
2. n. Nicolas Batum
by thomasikehara on Feb 23, 2010 12:34 PM PST up reply actions
Not sure what expertise you are relying on to make such a bold statement about Nate
For that matter what expertise do you draw upon to say KP need to “find the courage”?
I have more often read that Nate should be coach of the year this year for the job he has done. When Jerry Sloan signs your praises you must be pretty good. So your assertions puzzle me.
"The one thing we said about this team right away is they mirror what their coach's personality is and that's to be hard-nosed and play extremely hard and play with intensity." - Alvin Gentry
Agree about Adelman it is tepmting to imagine him back.
I have to think that Adelman would be happy to come back to the lazers in a year or so. He has a good team in Houston but might be tempted to come over if PAM was strong.
But, I do take exception with the premise of your arguement. Nate has a 360-363 record. You describe him as a losing coach and so we could never win a title with him thus so. He is 4 wins behind a winning record and he coaches the PTB! Cmon now. He’ll break that this year!
Nate’s record is skewed because he sacrificed to take on a bottom feeder and has delivered superior results. I do however feel like Nate either needs to reinvent himself as a coach or move on to the next challenge. New Jersey?!!!
this just proves we need to hire this red auerbach guy
dinasour type of guys choir boys
by mittsabishy on Feb 23, 2010 9:34 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
It's nice to see all of this pulled together in one place
I do think, however, that you should have pulled in the W-L data from something other than Wikipedia (or adjusted the data). The records for some of the coaches go through 2008-2009 only; the records for others go through the current 2009-2010 season.
W-L
I think most of the Wikipedia entries are pulled from my second source: www.basketball-reference.com. There is surely some delay from when each article was updated. Tonight I might go through and update the W-L to make it current as of the end of the night.
How did you arrive at the list of coaches you decided to use?
It seems like you cherry picked coaches to fit your hypothesis. There are some notable exclusions such as Don Nelson and Mike D’Antoni
#10, #52
Pie Doesn't Win Championships, Cake Wins Championships
Cherry Picking
Outside of the championship winning coaches from the last 30 years, you are correct I cherry picked. The list of cherry picked coaches include: Stan Van Gundy, George Karl, Rick Adelman, Mike Brown, Flip Saunders, Jerry Sloan, Jack Ramsay, Red Auerbach, and Nate McMillian. I included them as I’ve heard them referenced in the past year or so on Blazer sites I’ve read.
If I feel up to it, tonight I’ll update the list to include Don Nelson and Mike D’Antoni. In regards to Mike D’Antoni his prior coaching experience to the NBA was Euro pro ball. Don Nelson would be a very good addition since he went straight to NBA head coach. I will be surprised if the addition of those two will change things much, even with the enormous amount of games Don Nelson has coached.
If you have the time, it would be interesting to include all the current head coaches, not just the successful ones, that would be where we would find if there is correlation between your hypothesis and your results
#10, #52
Pie Doesn't Win Championships, Cake Wins Championships
by The Arkitect on Feb 23, 2010 1:04 PM PST up reply actions
pretty much till he retires
#10, #52
Pie Doesn't Win Championships, Cake Wins Championships
by The Arkitect on Feb 23, 2010 5:34 PM PST up reply actions
unless Duncan retires and Greg decides he needs a "new challenge" coaching Oden and Roy
We can dream, right?…if Pop was like P-Jack he might jump ship and put himself into a better situation to win more rings. Unfortunately, I suspect Pop is more loyal to the Spurs and RC Buford won’t “push him out of town” like Reinsdorf did with Jackson in Chi-town
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
If I remember right Pop was GM when he hired himself as coach in SA
So perhaps RC was selected by Pop as well. Retirement perhaps but leaving SA for another team seems unlikely.
"The one thing we said about this team right away is they mirror what their coach's personality is and that's to be hard-nosed and play extremely hard and play with intensity." - Alvin Gentry
yeah, it's a pipe dream
but you never know what motivates people…sometimes they get to the point where they feel “they’ve done all they can” in a certain situation and (when TimD retires) Pop may feel like he doesn’t want to tear down and rebuild everything again. Or perhaps he’ll feel like the Spurs ownership doesn’t “appreciate him” like they used to, because they didn’t offer him a big enough raise due to budget constraints, etc
“Are you saying there’s a chance?”
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
There is a chance we will go get Larry Brown as well - so yes there is a chance, just so not much of a chance
"The one thing we said about this team right away is they mirror what their coach's personality is and that's to be hard-nosed and play extremely hard and play with intensity." - Alvin Gentry
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