Pete’s Perspective:
As the NBA Turns
Grizzlies Head Coach Marc Iavaroni
Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images
Iavaroni Named as Grizzlies Head Coach
This is “As the NBA Turns.” One week you’re in the dumps over the Draft Lottery and the next week you’re dancing Snoopy’s “happy dance” when you land the most coveted coaching prospect in the league.
Thursday afternoon, the Grizzlies made it official that they had hired Phoenix Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni as their head coach. A Suns assistant for the past five seasons, Iavaroni has been a hot prospect to become an NBA head coach for the past two off-seasons. Two years ago, he was virtually a lock (or so it was reported) to become the head coach in Portland, only to see Nate McMillan make the short trip down Interstate 5 from Seattle to Portland.
The Grizzlies – along with almost every other team with an opening – no doubt targeted Iavaroni for at least two reasons: first, he has a tremendous and well-deserved reputation for developing big-man talent (think Amare Stoudemire) and has been on the coaching staff of one of the most exciting teams in today’s NBA.
If Iavaroni’s hiring does nothing else, it certainly should reinforce the idea that the Grizzlies job – last season’s dismal record notwithstanding – is a good job to have. If media types can be trusted, Iavaroni was also a candidate in Orlando and Seattle and could just as easily have gone into either situation, including one in Seattle that currently features the #2 pick in the draft.
But he chose Memphis, opting to focus on the recent Grizz history of three consecutive playoff appearances and dismiss last season’s 22-60 record as a “blip on the screen.” Iavaroni, speaking at his introductory press conference in the Don Poier Media Center on Thursday afternoon, indicated that Memphis presented the best opportunity with regard to talent, organization and a commitment from ownership.
What style of basketball he will install with the Grizzlies was a prime topic of conversation. While Iavaroni was one of the ringmasters of the Suns’ offensive circus (“94 feet, :07 off the shot clock, 4 quarters” was a typical chalkboard exhortation), his first two NBA bosses were the defensively-minded Pat Riley and Mike Fratello.
The Phoenix system is based on the premise that the easiest (and therefore best) shots are available in the first seven seconds of the possession, well before the defenders have time to figure out what play (if any) is being called and how best to stop it. Riley’s Knick and Heat teams as well as Fratello’s Cleveland and Memphis squads took an entirely different tack. Riley and Fratello believed that better shots were available later in the shot clock when defenders were picked off screens or lost focus as the possession wore on. They also believed their margin of error was greater if the game contained fewer possessions. The Suns philosophy is essentially the reverse. The more possessions you have, the more you can score and the team that scores the most wins.
So with apprenticeships on both sides of basketball’s philosophical coin, where does that leave Iavaroni?
Not unexpectedly, probably somewhere in the middle. Iavaroni emphasized the need for the Grizzlies to be versatile, doing whatever it takes to “make the opponent uncomfortable.” He stressed an “attacking” offense, noting that the Grizzlies will run, “not like Phoenix, but in our own way.”
Last season the Grizzlies proved that they could score the ball in volume, particularly after Tony Barone released the hounds. What the Grizzlies absolutely, positively could not do was defend.
This is convenient, because Iavaroni is a particularly gifted defensive coach. Defensively, he promised an aggressive, switching man to man defense, which would be a marked departure from the latter stages of last season during which the Grizzlies played a great deal of zone to mask their defensive shortcomings.
So the task at hand, or so it would seem, is the successful fusion of Mike Fratello, Pat Riley and Mike D’Antoni into one coherent offensive and defensive philosophy that will resonate with the Grizzlies. What is most often forgotten about Iavaroni is that he played for Jerry Sloan in Utah. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Iavaroni also identified “simplicity and execution” as his twin goals for the Grizzlies while disdaining any impulse to “junk up the game.”
Iavaroni is one of the best-prepared coaches in the NBA. A video junkie, Iavaroni will watch tape virtually around the clock, looking for the tiniest advantage to exploit. I saw Marc run the sophomores through their practice at All Star Weekend in Las Vegas. Even for what amounted to an exhibition game, he was thoroughly prepared and the practice had form, structure and purpose. Having sat through my share of practices and shootarounds, I left impressed with Iavaroni’s attention to detail.
Iavaroni also has the ability to effectively communicate with players, alternating between constructive criticism and praise. It’s a communication style that is essential for success in today’s NBA. During Thursday’s media sesson, he stressed positive communication, good listening skills and a commitment to team goals in his interaction with players. It’s an approach that helped sell majority owner Michael Heisley on Iavaroni’s hiring.
This is a great get for the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies may have not won the Draft Lottery, but they’ve won the unofficial coaching lottery.
A couple of other random thoughts:
- Grizzlies majority owner Michael Heisley came into a certain amount of criticism for the lack of information available during the coaching search. Heisley flatly said that he wouldn’t conduct the search in the media. While it can be frustrating for fans when news on candidates and interviews comes in dribs and drabs, that’s the better way to go. Flipping 180 degrees, the Orlando Magic kept talking about head coach Brian Hill and whether or not he would survive to coach another season in the papers and turned the whole situation into a mini soap opera (which took another turn Thursday afternoon with word that the Magic offered Billy Donovan their job). Heisley did the right thing in keeping everything close to his vest despite everyone’s thirst for dirt, gossip, rumor and innuendo. It’s really the right way to approach a high-profile hire such as this.
- Similarly, he’s keeping his hand secret as to the identity of a new GM, although he did disclose that Iavaroni will have input into that hire. David Griffin, the assistant GM in Phoenix was mentioned by Heisley as having a “significant positive” since Griffin and Iavaroni have worked together, but that was as far as Heisley would go on the GM discussion.
- Let’s also give Heisley credit for his uncanny ability to close a deal. Think of his history of high-profile hires: Jerry West, Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello and now Marc Iavaroni. That’s a pretty impressive list.
- Not that this comes as a great surprise, but Pau Gasol figures to be a Grizzly for the foreseeable future. Iavaroni talked about building next season’s team around Mike Miller and Gasol while dismissing any notion of lingering bad feelings about Gasol’s meeting with Heisley to discuss a trade.
- The Grizzlies will have to fill another front office position with the departure of Assistant General Manager and legal counsel Tom Penn for the Portland Trail Blazers. Penn was in on the ground floor of the Grizzlies’ move to Memphis and his ability to navigate the arcane waters of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and salary cap rules was an invaluable asset. As important as the Iavaroni and general manager hires are to the Grizzlies, making sure that the team has a salary cap expert in the front office is every bit as important. Tom will also be missed around the St. Jude campus, as he was a board member and one of the Grizzlies’ primary contacts with St. Jude.