The newest coach to join the NBA fraternity left Florida and went to the Midwest to join the Oklahoma City Thunder. Billy Donovan is a complete stranger to coaching in the NBA but it looks like he wants some familiar faces to help him in his first year.
Donovan has the task of coming to the Thunder to coach 2 of the top 10 players in the NBA in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant while also coaching with championship expectations. Might be a lot for a first year coach to handle so it appears Donovan might be trying to bring in some experienced NBA coaches to join his staff.
Following from Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.
Donovan has a targeted interest in several potential candidates, including ex-New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams, Chicago Bulls assistant Andy Greer and Portland Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts, league sources said.
Another possibility could be the return of New York Knicks assistant Brian Keefe, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Keefe left ex-Thunder coach Scott Brooks’ Thunder staff to join Derek Fisher in New York a year ago. Keefe is well-regarded among Thunder management and players. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are among the players partial to Keefe.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown passed on a chance to discuss joining Donovan’s staff, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Brown will be an assistant coach for Mark Few on USA Basketball’s entry in the Pan-Am Games in July.
Bringing in Mike Brown, would’ve been disastrous. On the other hand, Monty Williams and Brian Keefe could be 2 fantastic assistants for Donovan to have on his staff. It would be interesting to see if Williams would elect to take a step back and let another coach get the limelight of being the head coach after he’s fresh off losing his head coaching job with the New Orleans Pelicans. Keefe on the other hand, as Wojnarowski pointed out, already knows the Thunder organization and their players so he could only be a positive.
Donovan could potentially build up one of the best coaching staffs in the league and a solid coaching staff is almost important as the head coach because those are the guys who are in the trenches with the players, dissecting film and even sometimes saving their coach from making stupid mistakes. (I’m talking about you David Blatt.)
