Friday Roundtable: Best NBA Coaching Hire Thus Far

Mike Malone is heading from Golden State to another California team as the new head coach of the Sacramento Kings. (nba.si.com)

BDD's Friday Roundtable is a weekly discussion among a group of our writers on a trending NBA or college basketball topic.

This week's question: Phoenix, Charlotte, Sacramento and Atlanta all hired new head coaches for next season. Which hire will turn out to be the best for the team?

Alex:
I love Hornacek-to-Phoenix, but the Sacramento Kings have quietly made a coaching carousel coup by hiring Mike Malone. The former Golden State assistant is fresh off a strong run into the playoffs with a Warriors team featuring young principle players, much like the current Kings squad. Malone made a connection with turn-GSW guard Monta Ellis and Sacramento brass must be hopeful their new head coach can form the same kind of rapport with mercurial big man DeMarcus Cousins, while fostering a positive growth in the Kings' young backcourt.

Recent Kings coaches have not enjoyed long tenures or peaceful locker rooms. Enter Malone, who was recently part of turning another underachieving franchise in Northern California. Young, first-time head coaches always have a buzz around them, for better or worse, and pique the interest of the basketball community, free agents included. Malone's hiring makes Sacramento a slightly more appealing destination for players on the open market. Ellis is interested in re-connecting and, although bringing him in would conflict with Isaiah Thomas' development, it is a start for a suffering organization. With the Kings officially staying in SacTown, the pressure is on Malone to help steer the franchise in a winning direction. Some of the pieces are there, some still need to be acquired, but the biggest necessity has been fulfilled: getting a coach who has come out on top when encountering a situation like the one facing the Kings. Malone is that coach.

Kyle:
Right off the bat, I think you can remove Steve Clifford's name from contention. Not that I think he's a bad coach or will do a poor job, but he's walking into a nightmare in Charlotte with a team that has gone 28-120 the past two years. Clifford doesn't have much experience and even the league's best coaches would need a lot of time, patience and Tylenol to fix that program.

I actually like all three of the other hires, and since all three are first-time head coaches, it's difficult to predict which ones will adapt to the new leadership role the quickest and easiest.  I agree with Alex that both Jeff Hornacek and Mike Malone are strong fits with the Suns and Kings, but I also think Mike Budenholzer can be the type of coach the Atlanta Hawks need. Budenholzer does not have the name power of Hornacek, but he did spent the past 17 years with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, and if there is a current coach in the league to study and learn from for 17 years, it's Popovich. More importantly, Budenholzer was not just present for the Spurs' championship years. He was on the sideline to experience that 20-62 team in 1996-97 and watch how it transformed into a frequent NBA Finals contender.

It depends on free agency, but most likely Budenholzer will have a more experienced squad than Hornacek and Malone, and definitely one that has seem more success than the Suns and Kings. But still Atlanta is looking to take that next step from just making the playoffs to winning and advancing, and Budenholzer may be the guy to do it.

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Friday Roundtable: What Team Is Coming Back From A 3-2 Deficit?

Can the Clippers battle back from being down 3-2 to take the series from Memphis? (foxsportswest.com)

BDD's Friday Roundtable is a weekly discussion among a group of our writers on a trending NBA or college basketball topic.

This week's question: All four of Friday's games have the series at 3-2. Which team currently trailing is most likely to come back and advance to the next round?

Alex:
Boston? Atlanta? Houston? No. I'll take the Clippers as the team with the best chance to rattle out a series win after going down 3-2.

It took a massive comeback in Game 7 for them to close out the Memphis Grizzlies around this time last year and there's no reason it can't happen again. Chris Paul is the best point guard of his generation, able to balance the acts of tallying assists and taking on the scoring burden when needed, particularly in clutch moments. He has a fine supporting cast of bigs and a serviceable (and more, in the regular season) back-up.

If the Clips are to surge past Memphis, though, they must start impacting the paint and pulling in rebounds. This starts with DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, high ankle sprain and all, being able to gut it out against one of the NBA's best frontcourt tandems in Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. Easier said than done, obviously, but Jordan and Griffin are due for a big game and should go into tonight's potential elimination game looking to get their opposition in foul trouble and, moreso, out-positioning and out-hustling the Grizzlies for every possible rebound.

This extends to all the Los Angeles bigs. Basically, they must hold up their end of the bargain inside so the league's top distributor can keep his eyes open for weak spots in Memphis' armor.

Kyle:
The Los Angeles Clippers have the best chance of coming back and winning the series. This is partially because Oklahoma City and New York have been the better teams, but maybe let up on the gas a little too early, and Atlanta has looked about as stable as a one-legged gymnast.

But mostly the Clippers need it more than the Grizzlies do, and the team should realize that. Sure, we can talk about how great Memphis is defensively, how much Zach Randolph has stepped up the past three games and that the Clippers are banged up (it wasn't planned, but Alex hit all of this on the head in his portion), but sometimes a team just wills itself to victory. The Clippers surely know this is the year they can't exit in the first round.

It's such an unfamiliar sight. The city of Los Angeles is there for the taking. After decades of being the little brother to the Lakers and the city's punchline, the Clippers now have the better team. The Lakers season is already over, and the Clippers can build even more of a case for their arrival if they can advance further than their cross-city rival. This is why Chris Paul came to LA. This is why they drafted Blake Griffin. It has been a slow process to return to relevance and this year was the perfect combination of Clippers success and Lakers failure. Those who wore paper bags over their heads to Clippers games 10 years ago can now proudly don that red Clippers shirt and know the waiting is starting to pay off. Now is the time to capitalize on that, and I think the team understands that. 

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