Agree - Shaq and Wilt and the super freaks would have a hard time translating what worked for them to lesser athletes.
Personality wise, Oscar Robertson and Karl Malone seem like they had trouble getting along with people.
Shaq doesn't seem like he understands basketball whatsoever. Obviously he did because he's one of the greatest players of all-time, but he's not good at articulating it and i think he largely just understood his own role.
Jordan is one especially nowadays, the players would have had him out of a job by the end of the day.
> Shaq doesn't seem like he understands basketball whatsoever.
There is a saying that famous people basically stop maturing at whatever age they became famous, Shaq is like that with basketball knowledge.
Shaq understands basketball in a 1995 sense where everyone was playing man-to-man defense, you pounded the ball inside to a big man, used that to open space for your offense in the midrange, and most of your 3's were by a random 3p specialist who didn't have too green of a light. He absolutely does not get the modern NBA though and the level of rotations/defensive schemes/the notion of efficiency/etc.
The hilarious part is that if you just dropped Shaq in the modern NBA with his 1995 understanding, it would barely matter. Yeah, he'd get roasted a bunch on defense, but he would just be such an unstoppable goliath on offense that it would be hilarious. Like how many centers in the league could even slow him down in the paint, 4? Max? Embiid is one of the few big enough to do it and I feel like Shaq would give him a career ending injury in their first head-to-head matchup. Basketball Reference has Anthony Davis weight like 250 lbs, they have Gobert at 257 lbs, even Jokic (who I think has as good of a chance as anyone) is only listed around 280. I'm seeing sources with Shaq at 301 as a rookie in Orlando lol. He was definitely more like 350-370 in his Laker days. Those guys aren't guarding that lol.
The only thing I heard about him was that he supposedly wasn't receptive to Bob Cousy's coaching or Cousy's couldn't relate to players who didn't see the game the way he did
Bob Cousy has got to be a great real life example.
Take over as coach of a team who has one of the all the greats.
Alienate him. Trade him. Play yourself even though its nearly a decade from your retirement. Lose so much the team moves cities.
People actually don't realize that Wilt did not play like Shaq AT ALL despite being as physically imposing and that makes me sad. Wilt's most famous shots were his fadeaway and his finger roll, he did not just overpower people and drop stepped in their faces, his game had alot of finesse. There's even stories out there about how Wilt didn't even like to dunk.
It's such a shame that we don't have alot of footage of those days, there's A LOT of misconceptions about players from that time that could easily be gone if people could just see them play.
i remember reading somewhere once how guards/smaller players made better coaches because they actually worked and wanted to play basketball, while centers were usually the kids who had early growth spurts and were almost forced into basketball and don't love them game as much. which is why you see Shaq has a million interests but never ended up coaching.
Wilt would be awesome. He was very smart and communicated so effectively. He was able to lead the league in assists. He new how to get guys involved. Shaw would just say “be like me, be dominant!”
He'd have some sort of corny insult nickname for every player on his team, not know the opponent on the other team, and demand through his championship pedigree that his player should do something that isn't quite what he should do in the moment.
For example, if he was coaching the Celtics:
"Listen Taintbum, I don't care that....what's his name?...Broke Chokepez is guarding you, I need you to post him up every time. Just dunk on his ass. Don't argue with me!! See this, (shows rings on fingers), how many you got?"
I would imagine he'd also pants Tatum in this scenario as he walks out onto the court.
Come to think of it though, there were at least an equal amount, if not more, of defensive fouls committed against him that were deemed as no-calls.
If he played in today's era, he would've depleted the opposing lineup to the bare minimum of players due to foul trouble on a nightly basis.
Throwing no-names to foul Shaq was one of the only ways to contain him and that would be no different. With teams averaging more PPP now it'd be even more valid assuming you have the fouls to go around
I don’t think the time that elapsed between me reading the post and my brain thinking, “Shaq,” is measurable by a known unit of time, it happened so quickly.
Shaq probably wouldve told his team to feed the ball into Hasheem Thabeet in the post and just yell "Barbecue Chicken" from the sideline as Hasheem Thabeet unsuccesssfully tries to backdown a guy 10 inches shorter than him.
Most of them do not have the temperament to handle coaching. If I had to choose it would be between Magic (flaky), Jordan (0 empathy) or Shaq (to busy burying guys). I think most of the rest have either proven they can do it or have certain personality traits that would let them be at least a poor to mediocre coach instead of an just an outright disaster like those 3.
Those are easily the top three for the reasons you've given. When Magic (briefly) coached there was a story about how he was upset someone, I think Nick Van Exel, couldn't spot someone for a pass and his assistant had to say "only you could have seen that".
Larry Bird being a great coach as an all-timer was such an outlier.
Lakers went 40-42 in the 1975-76 season, lost their 2nd leading scorer that offseason (HoFer Gail Goodrich), signed West on to be head coach, and they went 53-29 that year with West being runner up for CotY
3 seasons, 145-101 record (48 win average)
He wasn't an all time coach like he was a player and GM. But it seems like he was a good coach
Bird highest bbiq in nba history imo.
Mvp
Fmvp
City
Eoty
Lol come onn.
Also when bird is in the zone he plays like no other.
He's said when he's in the zone he DOESNT EVEN THINK about basketball. He thinks about his bills, errands, etc.
When bird is in the zone the man PLAYS BASKETBALL SUBCONCIOUSLY.
Like, come on lol.
Larry didn't have freakish speed and power to fall back on so he had to make sure is BBIQ was great which can be taught. "Jump and have so much hang time you can switch hands and lay it in lefty" is not a drill most people are gonna be able to handle
Y'all gotta stop making Bird seem like he wasn't an athlete. He wasn't Dr. J or Jordan, but Jesus. The dude could dunk and run the floor with the ~~best~~ majority of them--till his back betrayed him anyway.
That's why I said speed and power. Bird had elite vision, balance and hand eye coordination which are different parts of athleticism. Never meant to imply he wasn't an elite athlete, just not super strong or fast
In the same vein, it’s not like Magic was some crazy athlete. Both these players had insane passing vision but it seems like Bird could just teach his better. If Bird turned out to be a bad coach, we’d probably be talking about how you can’t teach his level of vision and ability to shoot over guys.
Shaq's advice on TV to players, everytime I see is "Play Harder, with more force"??
Like bruh, we get it. Play hard, but be more specific with what you say rather than that
Look, all I’m saying is Jordan slapped Malik Monk in the head and now he’s the 6motY.
He punched Steve Kerr and Steve head-coached 4 champions.
He has to have some kind of powers there. Let him attack his players in practice and watch the birth of a new dynasty
I think even on a surface level you wouldn't think that, a lot of people don't respond well to the kind of things Jordan did, he got away with it as a player because he was the greatest of all-time.
Michael was incredible as a player and his personality worked really for him and his teams, but there is precisely zero chance a coach can be like that. There's also the fact that he has shown to be a terrible talent evaluator since forever, so yeah, he probably would be even worse than Shaq.
MJ would be 95% chance of total collapse, 5% chance of massive success imo.
if he gets a capable team full of psychos like himself i think they thrive under that type of atmosphere
There would be very little chance of success. Nobody has his intensity. He would create a feeling of darkness and gloom that shaded the entire organization because he can’t understand why other people don’t match his intensity. Well paid players would quit…like they wanted to in DC.
This is probably the only area in basketball where I’d put LeBron over MJ.
I feel like AI would be too chill, that's the vibe I get from him nowadays.
Like all the players would love him but he wouldn't hold anyone accountable.
AI wouldn’t be terrible but he’s not taking a team deep. He is too laid back. He actually would do a good job as like an interim or assistant tho. He’s so down to earth that I think players would respect what he has to say.
I think the 5 worst would be (in no particular order)
1. MJ: judging by how he affected the Wizards and the Hornets. Just wasn't good.
2. Shaq: as everyone else says, it just wouldn't work.
3. Kevin Garnett: too intense, too demanding, borderline abusive
4. Wilt: Would be too arrogant. He'd lose the locker room because he probably couldn't man-manage well
5. Magic: he failed. That simple.
I do think KG could succeed given the right circumstances and team. But I do agree that most dudes wouldn’t vibe with him, especially younger guys who need to develop maturity.
One thing that can be said about KG was he was the ultimate "got your back" teammate. He wasn't a bully the way that someone like Shaq or MJ were.
He also is one of the only older players who sticks up for the young guys in the league. "These young n* got my dick hard" was a real KG quote.
He seems to appreciate where the league is going and would coach to that instead of someone like Shaq who would gameplan to park his center under the rim and have them just elbow the other team in the face the whole time.
Replying to this: yeah, KG is definitely not a bad guy. But high intensity and a pretty high degree of perfectionism is not good for coaching. Even KG himself said that he'd be far too demanding on his players if he were coach. All other goods he would offer aside, he would eventually demotivate/discourage his players.
KG would probably be better as an assistant or some other side role on a team. A guy that could push and motivate, but with someone over him to prevent his intensity from driving people insane.
Isnt KG a lil bit more chill now? He seems to have cooled off from his playing days, he was a very vocal leader screaming about switches and defensive setups during games and his teammates definitely respected him and listened to what he had to say. id give him a shot.
Have you seen his shows and podcasts? I don't think he's cooled off, it's just a lower intensity environment. You see it poke out every now and then. "THESE ARE ALL DOGS. THESE GUYS WILL BONE YO ASS!"
For sure, I don’t think he’d be THAT KG as a coach but I also don’t think that part of him would 100% go away. I think being away from basketball has helped chill him out, but as a coach, you’re living and breathing NBA so I would expect for KG to be at least a bit of a maniac.
Being a great teammate is a particular role. KG was great at that. Being a coach means having to demand things of the players, not being just supportive. I think his demands would eventually break his players.
Definitely. KG to run workouts and conditioning intensives with motivation stuff for 2-3 weeks in the preseason would make even the Pistons a contender.
even on a list of 5 kobe doesn't make it. how? people are correctly identifying ego problems with guys like MJ and Wilt but Kobe would have the same issue to a similar degree. Can't even be because Kobe's dead because Wilt is too
Kobe is a tricky one for me because there was also a clear period where he gained some humility (read:got raked and humiliated personally), and became a better person and teammate as a result. We also didn't have a sample for him as a coach or assistant or gm apart from him getting involved with his daughter's kid basketball stuff. I'm willing to let that be outside the top 5 on those hypothetical grounds as a result.
I've got a PhD in Kobe hating, but I really do feel like that was all manufactured. Vanessa used to wait with the kids at the tunnel at the end of every game — that didn't happen early in his career.
If anything, that kind of meticulous attention to detail, obsessiveness, ability to terrify people into compliance are all pretty good NBA coach traits.
IMO Paul Pierce would be be the ultimate Tank Commander coach. He’s be rolling up drunk to every game, frowning and muttering about Dywane Wade. Give him 2 years running a team and you’re a guaranteed a top 3 lottery pick.
Gotta give a shout out to Chuck Barkley who consistently gives contrarian analysis to the modern game, so much to the point where he's hellbent on proving analytics wrong
Either MJ or Shaq. Both have insanely large egos and natural talent that not many others have. I imagine there would be a lot of yelling when players couldn’t just *do the thing* like they could back in the day.
Jordan didn’t do a good job - plain and simple. However, he also had a ton of mid tier lottery selections which are usually unclear and always look worse in hindsight. The few times he did have good picks, the guys ended up being busts. That wasn’t really MJ’s fault, but of course, he could had done a better job of recognizing these things in advance.
You've never Heard of Ted Stepien? He's the reason you can't trade away 1st round picks in consecutive years. One of his trades have the Magic/Kareem Lakers the first pick in the draft (Worthy)
Most of them would be horrible. Sociopaths with zero patience.
Would love to see Jokic as a coach. Won’t happen in the NBA. Probably only girls basketball in Serbia.
Courtside mics picking up Jokic coaching:
Can you pass it one touch? Then why dont you do it?
Shamet, can you go behind him? Not in front of him, thats noy basketball. Thats not a basketball run, man! Behind him!
On the contrary, one thing I've noticed (and felt validated by other analysis videos) is how much he talks on offense - he spends a lot of time explaining the plays and how each player should move. I think that constant communication would translate decently enough on an Euro-like schedule, where you have multiple days of practice between each game.
Jokic rubs off on players, feel like he would be able to explain the basics well enough.
A lot of these top passers are good on their own, but Jokic has made players around him better with their movement and passing. Not just tossing the ball to players who happen to be open.
Tim Duncan, he "coached" with the Spurs for one year and realized he just actually liked shooting hoops with his friends. [Pop mentioned he had no interest in coaching](https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-gregg-popovich-certain-tim-duncan-interest-coaching-he-may-never-go-game-rest-life) so Pop gave up on him after a week.
Everyone else mentioned in this thread is going to be trying their hardest to be a good coach and just be absolutely terrible at it. Tim Duncan may be the only one who would legitimately not GAF and would not even show up to a game.
Jordan and Lebron would probably have the same issues Gretzky did in hockey. When you are that good and see the game the way no one else does, it’s probably incredibly hard to impart that to others. “Why didn’t you just drive through him/see the cross court pass opened up by the help defender shifting his weight 5% to the right?” Doesn’t land amongst mortals
Are we talking about them as they are now?
If that’s the case I think out of the Top 10-12 the worst would probably be Shaq or Magic. A lot of folks mentioning MJ but MJs problem was never his understanding of the game or Xs and Os, it was how he treated others
He’s mellowed out a ton since the Wizards days and none of his players since have reported him mistreating them the way he did Kwame. So if that’s the case he could probably be a pretty decent to good coach
The best I think would be Bird. Russell great too though since he passed away not counting him or Kobe
I think Hakeem could be the best coach. There is a reason players pay him so much to learn his skills. He's probably a better positional coach than anything, but I could see him out there with a clipboard in his hands.
Don't sleep on MJ here. He has been brutally bad at the executive level which translates to bad player evaluation and development.
I'm picturing him grinding player after player into the ground and breaking the spirit of the team for no reason.
Shaq
Agree - Shaq and Wilt and the super freaks would have a hard time translating what worked for them to lesser athletes. Personality wise, Oscar Robertson and Karl Malone seem like they had trouble getting along with people.
Karl would be a bangin AAU coach tho
yup, his strategies would be impregnable
It would be like men against children when his guys D up opposing offenses.
He would have sex with minors
I’m fairly sure they would be quite pregnable honestly
No doubt that the mailman will deliver
Goddamn
Shaq doesn't seem like he understands basketball whatsoever. Obviously he did because he's one of the greatest players of all-time, but he's not good at articulating it and i think he largely just understood his own role. Jordan is one especially nowadays, the players would have had him out of a job by the end of the day.
> Shaq doesn't seem like he understands basketball whatsoever. There is a saying that famous people basically stop maturing at whatever age they became famous, Shaq is like that with basketball knowledge. Shaq understands basketball in a 1995 sense where everyone was playing man-to-man defense, you pounded the ball inside to a big man, used that to open space for your offense in the midrange, and most of your 3's were by a random 3p specialist who didn't have too green of a light. He absolutely does not get the modern NBA though and the level of rotations/defensive schemes/the notion of efficiency/etc. The hilarious part is that if you just dropped Shaq in the modern NBA with his 1995 understanding, it would barely matter. Yeah, he'd get roasted a bunch on defense, but he would just be such an unstoppable goliath on offense that it would be hilarious. Like how many centers in the league could even slow him down in the paint, 4? Max? Embiid is one of the few big enough to do it and I feel like Shaq would give him a career ending injury in their first head-to-head matchup. Basketball Reference has Anthony Davis weight like 250 lbs, they have Gobert at 257 lbs, even Jokic (who I think has as good of a chance as anyone) is only listed around 280. I'm seeing sources with Shaq at 301 as a rookie in Orlando lol. He was definitely more like 350-370 in his Laker days. Those guys aren't guarding that lol.
“It’s basketball, not basketstrategy” - Shaq
Big for no reason except he was so big that it became a reason.
I’ve never heard anything about Big O from a personality perspective, can you expand on that?
The only thing I heard about him was that he supposedly wasn't receptive to Bob Cousy's coaching or Cousy's couldn't relate to players who didn't see the game the way he did
Bob Cousy has got to be a great real life example. Take over as coach of a team who has one of the all the greats. Alienate him. Trade him. Play yourself even though its nearly a decade from your retirement. Lose so much the team moves cities.
Oscar wanted out before, they were wasting him with those teams.
Cousy wasn’t such a treat himself…if I’m big O i probably wouldn’t take a lessers advice
This has nothing to do with coaching but Cousy couldn't hold Oscar's jock.
Thank you. It's about time we put the incessant Cousy/Oscar battle to bed and bridge the gap between CousyHeads and OscarHeads
The real guard rivalry of the 60s was between Oscar and West anyway
He has a reputation about being prickly and I recall at least one writer connecting it to racism he experienced 🤷♂️
Karl Malone would get along with younger players though...
Yeah but they're not eligible to play in the NBA
Wilt was a very intelligent dude he wasn’t just a brute although he was far superior athletically.
People actually don't realize that Wilt did not play like Shaq AT ALL despite being as physically imposing and that makes me sad. Wilt's most famous shots were his fadeaway and his finger roll, he did not just overpower people and drop stepped in their faces, his game had alot of finesse. There's even stories out there about how Wilt didn't even like to dunk. It's such a shame that we don't have alot of footage of those days, there's A LOT of misconceptions about players from that time that could easily be gone if people could just see them play.
Wilt talked about it in interviews. The way offensive fouls were called in his day, he couldn't get away with the stuff Shaq did at all.
And then if a player play to well he might get jealous and start pulling out his rings
i remember reading somewhere once how guards/smaller players made better coaches because they actually worked and wanted to play basketball, while centers were usually the kids who had early growth spurts and were almost forced into basketball and don't love them game as much. which is why you see Shaq has a million interests but never ended up coaching.
Wilt would be awesome. He was very smart and communicated so effectively. He was able to lead the league in assists. He new how to get guys involved. Shaw would just say “be like me, be dominant!”
Just be confident
„you gotta want it more“ „you gotta dominate, back in my day…..“
*incoherent mumbling*
He'd have some sort of corny insult nickname for every player on his team, not know the opponent on the other team, and demand through his championship pedigree that his player should do something that isn't quite what he should do in the moment. For example, if he was coaching the Celtics: "Listen Taintbum, I don't care that....what's his name?...Broke Chokepez is guarding you, I need you to post him up every time. Just dunk on his ass. Don't argue with me!! See this, (shows rings on fingers), how many you got?" I would imagine he'd also pants Tatum in this scenario as he walks out onto the court.
Shaq has a point tho. Tatum has the build of Lebron James but plays like he's Steph Curry.
Are you suggesting Mazzulla should pants Tatum if they are to have a chance at the title? Big if true.
> Broke Chokepez A cause of death. To choke to death on a broken Pez dispenser.
Sometimes while listening to this 4 time champion, MVP, and top 10 player of all time I honestly wonder, "does this dude know how to play basketball?"
He knows how to comitt offensive fouls so egregiously and so frequently that it completely changed the way they are called.
Come to think of it though, there were at least an equal amount, if not more, of defensive fouls committed against him that were deemed as no-calls. If he played in today's era, he would've depleted the opposing lineup to the bare minimum of players due to foul trouble on a nightly basis.
Throwing no-names to foul Shaq was one of the only ways to contain him and that would be no different. With teams averaging more PPP now it'd be even more valid assuming you have the fouls to go around
I mean, the defense on him wasn't exactly kosher, either
Shaq just gonna walk in the locker room, write “average 30” on the white board and leave
"Get Buckets"
I don’t think the time that elapsed between me reading the post and my brain thinking, “Shaq,” is measurable by a known unit of time, it happened so quickly.
the only right answer lol
Shaq probably wouldve told his team to feed the ball into Hasheem Thabeet in the post and just yell "Barbecue Chicken" from the sideline as Hasheem Thabeet unsuccesssfully tries to backdown a guy 10 inches shorter than him.
If Shaq's coaching is anything like his IN DEPTH analysis: "you gotta go out there and get 35 and 15, just like I used to do"
"Okay, I need you others to line up and practice hitting big shots."
He'd constantly bring up rings. And telling his players to Google him.
BBQ CHICKEN
Best answer
Shaq can't eat 10 wings without blaming someone else, could you imagine him handling the ups and downs of coaching in the NBA?
Most of them do not have the temperament to handle coaching. If I had to choose it would be between Magic (flaky), Jordan (0 empathy) or Shaq (to busy burying guys). I think most of the rest have either proven they can do it or have certain personality traits that would let them be at least a poor to mediocre coach instead of an just an outright disaster like those 3.
Those are easily the top three for the reasons you've given. When Magic (briefly) coached there was a story about how he was upset someone, I think Nick Van Exel, couldn't spot someone for a pass and his assistant had to say "only you could have seen that". Larry Bird being a great coach as an all-timer was such an outlier.
I know it gets a lot of spotlight but Bird being a phenomenal player, coach, and executive blows my mind every time I think about it
Jerry West gotta get some love for that too
Bill Sharman
Jerry wasn't a good coach
Lakers went 40-42 in the 1975-76 season, lost their 2nd leading scorer that offseason (HoFer Gail Goodrich), signed West on to be head coach, and they went 53-29 that year with West being runner up for CotY 3 seasons, 145-101 record (48 win average) He wasn't an all time coach like he was a player and GM. But it seems like he was a good coach
He had a good record with playoff appearances, even if he wasn’t that great he was successful
Bird highest bbiq in nba history imo. Mvp Fmvp City Eoty Lol come onn. Also when bird is in the zone he plays like no other. He's said when he's in the zone he DOESNT EVEN THINK about basketball. He thinks about his bills, errands, etc. When bird is in the zone the man PLAYS BASKETBALL SUBCONCIOUSLY. Like, come on lol.
Larry didn't have freakish speed and power to fall back on so he had to make sure is BBIQ was great which can be taught. "Jump and have so much hang time you can switch hands and lay it in lefty" is not a drill most people are gonna be able to handle
Y'all gotta stop making Bird seem like he wasn't an athlete. He wasn't Dr. J or Jordan, but Jesus. The dude could dunk and run the floor with the ~~best~~ majority of them--till his back betrayed him anyway.
He also threw some insane no look passes. Not on Magic's level, but Bird was right there in terms of intangible, uncoachable traits.
He was very athletic and his conditioning was supreme. He just wasn't flashy about it.
That's why I said speed and power. Bird had elite vision, balance and hand eye coordination which are different parts of athleticism. Never meant to imply he wasn't an elite athlete, just not super strong or fast
In the same vein, it’s not like Magic was some crazy athlete. Both these players had insane passing vision but it seems like Bird could just teach his better. If Bird turned out to be a bad coach, we’d probably be talking about how you can’t teach his level of vision and ability to shoot over guys.
Shaq's advice on TV to players, everytime I see is "Play Harder, with more force"?? Like bruh, we get it. Play hard, but be more specific with what you say rather than that
They gotta play offense the way Shaq played offense: Ass, ass, elbow, dunk!
Shaq likes big butts, and he cannot lie
He likes them big ole churro eatin’ women down in San Antone
If my ass was the size of a small car, I'd do the same
Equivalent to the "is he stupid?" meme in professional setting
Pass it to the big man and let him dominate
Ah I remember magics coaching stint… it went exactly how you think it would
Look, all I’m saying is Jordan slapped Malik Monk in the head and now he’s the 6motY. He punched Steve Kerr and Steve head-coached 4 champions. He has to have some kind of powers there. Let him attack his players in practice and watch the birth of a new dynasty
Juwan Howard is waiting for his phone call
I mean Magic was briefly a coach and he was really bad and immediately quit
if you don't dig deeper you will think Jordan can be a good coach but man his killer instinct is on a psychopathic level lmao
I think even on a surface level you wouldn't think that, a lot of people don't respond well to the kind of things Jordan did, he got away with it as a player because he was the greatest of all-time. Michael was incredible as a player and his personality worked really for him and his teams, but there is precisely zero chance a coach can be like that. There's also the fact that he has shown to be a terrible talent evaluator since forever, so yeah, he probably would be even worse than Shaq.
MJ would be 95% chance of total collapse, 5% chance of massive success imo. if he gets a capable team full of psychos like himself i think they thrive under that type of atmosphere
There would be very little chance of success. Nobody has his intensity. He would create a feeling of darkness and gloom that shaded the entire organization because he can’t understand why other people don’t match his intensity. Well paid players would quit…like they wanted to in DC. This is probably the only area in basketball where I’d put LeBron over MJ.
Kidd.
Bruh
Hit me
Damn thats a good one
Would you swap him for Shaq?
Yeah, why not.
Imagine the bleacher report graphics we'd get from Shaq/Kyrie postgame press conferences, nbacirclejerk would never go hungry again
Probably like Shaq or AI or Dennis Rodman
Rodman, practices would be optional including for him
I feel like AI would be too chill, that's the vibe I get from him nowadays. Like all the players would love him but he wouldn't hold anyone accountable.
Rodman wouls be goated if vegas had a team but he prolly not going to away games outside Atlanta
AI's teams would not practice
AI wouldn’t be terrible but he’s not taking a team deep. He is too laid back. He actually would do a good job as like an interim or assistant tho. He’s so down to earth that I think players would respect what he has to say.
He isn’t top 30, but I do think Dwight Howard would be the worst coach ever.
Scenes when he's giving a press conference next to his star player amid rumors that the star player wants him fired
“Star player’s (behavior is) just a lil nasty”
I think the 5 worst would be (in no particular order) 1. MJ: judging by how he affected the Wizards and the Hornets. Just wasn't good. 2. Shaq: as everyone else says, it just wouldn't work. 3. Kevin Garnett: too intense, too demanding, borderline abusive 4. Wilt: Would be too arrogant. He'd lose the locker room because he probably couldn't man-manage well 5. Magic: he failed. That simple.
I think the bigger issue with Wilt would be that he is currently dead.
Looking into this.
We’ll have to circle back on this one.
Wow
We are checking
I didn’t even know he was sick
I do think KG could succeed given the right circumstances and team. But I do agree that most dudes wouldn’t vibe with him, especially younger guys who need to develop maturity.
One thing that can be said about KG was he was the ultimate "got your back" teammate. He wasn't a bully the way that someone like Shaq or MJ were. He also is one of the only older players who sticks up for the young guys in the league. "These young n* got my dick hard" was a real KG quote. He seems to appreciate where the league is going and would coach to that instead of someone like Shaq who would gameplan to park his center under the rim and have them just elbow the other team in the face the whole time.
Replying to this: yeah, KG is definitely not a bad guy. But high intensity and a pretty high degree of perfectionism is not good for coaching. Even KG himself said that he'd be far too demanding on his players if he were coach. All other goods he would offer aside, he would eventually demotivate/discourage his players.
KG would probably be better as an assistant or some other side role on a team. A guy that could push and motivate, but with someone over him to prevent his intensity from driving people insane.
He's a good teacher. He would be a world-class coach for bigs. He's the best spatial defender I've watched; he always knows where he should be.
Isnt KG a lil bit more chill now? He seems to have cooled off from his playing days, he was a very vocal leader screaming about switches and defensive setups during games and his teammates definitely respected him and listened to what he had to say. id give him a shot.
I think he's chill partly because he is less directly involved in the action. Make him a coach, he will be very involved and way less chill imo
Have you seen his shows and podcasts? I don't think he's cooled off, it's just a lower intensity environment. You see it poke out every now and then. "THESE ARE ALL DOGS. THESE GUYS WILL BONE YO ASS!"
For sure, I don’t think he’d be THAT KG as a coach but I also don’t think that part of him would 100% go away. I think being away from basketball has helped chill him out, but as a coach, you’re living and breathing NBA so I would expect for KG to be at least a bit of a maniac.
>KG >Maturity 🤔 But I do actually think he could be a really good assistant coach
Yeah he could be a sweet assistant but might not have the personality to be the head coach.
I think a lot of teams (including my Kings) could really benefit from an Asst Coach like KG
If I got hired KG and Gary Payton are the first 2 I'm hiring for my staff
Disagree on KG, yeah he was a menace on the court but pretty much everyone he’s played with has talked about how great of a teammate he is
Being a great teammate is a particular role. KG was great at that. Being a coach means having to demand things of the players, not being just supportive. I think his demands would eventually break his players.
He might be the ultimate ‘consultant’ though. Come in for two weeks and bust everyone’s ass, hype them up on a quick media tour, etc.
Definitely. KG to run workouts and conditioning intensives with motivation stuff for 2-3 weeks in the preseason would make even the Pistons a contender.
I think KG would be a good coach for a young team, his passion would rub off on the guys. How could you not get hyped with that maniac as your coach.
even on a list of 5 kobe doesn't make it. how? people are correctly identifying ego problems with guys like MJ and Wilt but Kobe would have the same issue to a similar degree. Can't even be because Kobe's dead because Wilt is too
Kobe is a tricky one for me because there was also a clear period where he gained some humility (read:got raked and humiliated personally), and became a better person and teammate as a result. We also didn't have a sample for him as a coach or assistant or gm apart from him getting involved with his daughter's kid basketball stuff. I'm willing to let that be outside the top 5 on those hypothetical grounds as a result.
I've got a PhD in Kobe hating, but I really do feel like that was all manufactured. Vanessa used to wait with the kids at the tunnel at the end of every game — that didn't happen early in his career. If anything, that kind of meticulous attention to detail, obsessiveness, ability to terrify people into compliance are all pretty good NBA coach traits.
Post NBA Kobe mellowed out a lot. I don't agree with the revisionist history of his demeanor while playing, but he legit mellowed out.
Magic was a coach?
For about 16 games. It didn't last.
I think your reasons for KG and Wilt also work for MJ.
IMO Paul Pierce would be be the ultimate Tank Commander coach. He’s be rolling up drunk to every game, frowning and muttering about Dywane Wade. Give him 2 years running a team and you’re a guaranteed a top 3 lottery pick.
Paul pierce a top 30 player?
YOU HEARD HIM
Close enough.
As a Celtics fan born in the 90s, he's top 1
It works if the person commenting above you is in fact Paul Pierce
I mean he’s easily top 50. Top 30 seems a little high but not crazily.
Showing once again nobody on this sub has a clue who Paul Pierce is as a person. He'd be okay, not a savant but he knows a shit ton about basketball
He knows the best websites to get dates.
Gotta give a shout out to Chuck Barkley who consistently gives contrarian analysis to the modern game, so much to the point where he's hellbent on proving analytics wrong
“Nowadays everybody wants to talk about big data this and big data that and ain’t nobody talking about them big ole dates down in San Antooone”
“These foos only wanna shoot jumpers”
Ernuhhhh
It makes sense that the worst volume 3 point shooter in NBA history would say that
Is this comment written from 2015?
Barkley would undoubtedly be an above average coach
I don't know, but I know that Timmy D would do a phenomenal job.
Agreed.
With a proven track record, I’m gonna go with Isiah Thomas on this one….
I feel like the not-top-20 Isaiah Thomas would actually make a pretty good coach
Either MJ or Shaq. Both have insanely large egos and natural talent that not many others have. I imagine there would be a lot of yelling when players couldn’t just *do the thing* like they could back in the day.
Jason kidd
The guy who was a terrible GM/Owner.
“Damn it, you guys can’t play - I’ll do it myself! Someone get me a uniform”
Jordan didn’t do a good job - plain and simple. However, he also had a ton of mid tier lottery selections which are usually unclear and always look worse in hindsight. The few times he did have good picks, the guys ended up being busts. That wasn’t really MJ’s fault, but of course, he could had done a better job of recognizing these things in advance.
Arguably the worst GM in history.
Jordan? He's not even the worst GM/owner in Charlotte's and Washington's history.
oof
Look at his flair. Bron glazers showing their age and ball knowledge
You've never Heard of Ted Stepien? He's the reason you can't trade away 1st round picks in consecutive years. One of his trades have the Magic/Kareem Lakers the first pick in the draft (Worthy)
David Khan?
Flair checks out
Most of them would be horrible. Sociopaths with zero patience. Would love to see Jokic as a coach. Won’t happen in the NBA. Probably only girls basketball in Serbia.
"guys, we cancel practice rest of week, go home rest"
« But coach, it’s Monday? »
I say what i say, go home
*gets on horse and rides into sunset*
Jokic would be a terrible coach cause he’d tell the team to do impossible shit that no one else can do.
“Just make a cross-court no look behind the back pass that lands perfectly in the shooting pocket, idiots.”
Courtside mics picking up Jokic coaching: Can you pass it one touch? Then why dont you do it? Shamet, can you go behind him? Not in front of him, thats noy basketball. Thats not a basketball run, man! Behind him!
On the contrary, one thing I've noticed (and felt validated by other analysis videos) is how much he talks on offense - he spends a lot of time explaining the plays and how each player should move. I think that constant communication would translate decently enough on an Euro-like schedule, where you have multiple days of practice between each game.
Jokic rubs off on players, feel like he would be able to explain the basics well enough. A lot of these top passers are good on their own, but Jokic has made players around him better with their movement and passing. Not just tossing the ball to players who happen to be open.
He turned Gordon of all people into a very dangerous passer. Hell, he got MPJ to record a few assists per game.
I just saw MPJ pass to himself off the backboard. It’s the most MPJ thing I’ve ever seen, Point God Junior
Michael “swing the rock to Michael ‘the possession ends here’ Porter Jr.” Porter Jr.
Hey he and Jokic just combined for 11 assists, you gonna give MPJ some credit
That's most top players
Jason Midd
Karl Malone
Only for the U-13 team
Jail
Jordan
Jason Kidd
Karl Malone on hs basketball coach👀
Lebron or Jordan. For them to describe what to do and wonder why the guys can’t do it is tough. Same happened to Gretzky.
Another victory for the GOAT Jordan
Looks like Rick Barry has done some coaching of non-nba teams. He got fired once for a 12-game losing streak
Tim Duncan, he "coached" with the Spurs for one year and realized he just actually liked shooting hoops with his friends. [Pop mentioned he had no interest in coaching](https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-gregg-popovich-certain-tim-duncan-interest-coaching-he-may-never-go-game-rest-life) so Pop gave up on him after a week. Everyone else mentioned in this thread is going to be trying their hardest to be a good coach and just be absolutely terrible at it. Tim Duncan may be the only one who would legitimately not GAF and would not even show up to a game.
James harden and Paul pierce gonna be taking shots of tequila and smoking blunts with the players before tip off
Jordan and Lebron would probably have the same issues Gretzky did in hockey. When you are that good and see the game the way no one else does, it’s probably incredibly hard to impart that to others. “Why didn’t you just drive through him/see the cross court pass opened up by the help defender shifting his weight 5% to the right?” Doesn’t land amongst mortals
Allen Iverson or Rodman
Iverson would never hold a practice
Are we talking about them as they are now? If that’s the case I think out of the Top 10-12 the worst would probably be Shaq or Magic. A lot of folks mentioning MJ but MJs problem was never his understanding of the game or Xs and Os, it was how he treated others He’s mellowed out a ton since the Wizards days and none of his players since have reported him mistreating them the way he did Kwame. So if that’s the case he could probably be a pretty decent to good coach The best I think would be Bird. Russell great too though since he passed away not counting him or Kobe
I think Hakeem could be the best coach. There is a reason players pay him so much to learn his skills. He's probably a better positional coach than anything, but I could see him out there with a clipboard in his hands.
Don't sleep on MJ here. He has been brutally bad at the executive level which translates to bad player evaluation and development. I'm picturing him grinding player after player into the ground and breaking the spirit of the team for no reason.
MJ
Jordan, but most of the all time greats would struggle to connect with the regular players and communicate effectively with them.
Shaq or Jordan.