Chauncey Billups could have been the Timberwolves' coach, and declined
Around the time Chauncey Billups led the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 NBA title, because he was a heady point guard and because this is the NBA, he was unofficially anointed as The NBA’s Next Great Coach. Billups, who was the lead guard on a Pistons team that would make the next four Eastern Conference finals following that championship, parlayed his knack for getting everything right into a lasting NBA career that ended last season at age 37.
Chauncey’s lain low since then, but according to a report from the Denver Post, the 2004 Finals MVP could have had a choice seat on the Minnesota Timberwolves bench this season, with the assurance that he’d be able to lead those same Timberwolves as head coach starting in 2015-16.
One problem. The Timberwolves were expected to have the NBA’s worst record this season by most prior to the campaign, and they’ll finish 2014-15 with that designation. Billups didn’t want to be the scapegoat for that expecting lashing. From Mark Kiszla at the Denver Post:
If his goal was the daunting task of coaching a bad NBA team, Billups told me Tuesday he could already be set as the lead man on the Minnesota bench for next season. Flip Saunders tried to entice Billups to join the Timberwolves last year as the team's associate head coach, with the understanding Billups would take over the No. 1 job for the 2015-16 season, after a 12-month apprenticeship under Saunders.
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"In any rebuilding process, I feel like there's probably going to be two or three coaches. And I don't want to be that guy," said the 38-year-old Billups, while standing in the Nuggets' arena, where he served as the keynote speaker at the 39th annual Boy Scouts Sports Breakfast. "I don't want to be fired after two seasons and risk never getting another opportunity to coach."
The Timberwolves are 16-65 heading into the last night of the regular season, and in spite of the team’s potential to add the third consecutive top overall NBA draft pick this June, they most certainly will figure to be another lottery participant in 2016. This is what happens with young, rebuilding rosters.
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Flip Saunders (who coached Billups in Minnesota and Detroit) infamously hired himself as Wolves coach last year after what many rightfully felt to be a less-than-exhaustive coaching search. Soon after he dealt All-Star Kevin Love to Cleveland for Andrew Wiggins (this year’s Rookie of the Year favorite) and Andrew Bennett (perhaps the worst top overall draft pick in history, a shocking bit of knowledge considering the modern era that most NBA general managers work in), becoming younger and more financially pliable along the way.
The team also became far worse along that same way, with Wiggins having to learn on the fly and Bennett barely topping what was a miserable rookie season. Minnesota will add yet another youngster in June, the team can’t fall out of the top four in this year’s draft, but the road back to the postseason (which Minnesota hasn’t participated in since making the Western Conference finals in 2004) is a long run.
This is why Billups took a pass. Assuming, as Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr did, that he’d even want to take on a primo coaching gig in his rookie year on the sidelines. From the Post:
As for coaching, Billups admits, "I'd never say never, but it's really never been my thing."
That’s a somewhat-surprising statement given the respect the league has for Billups’ intelligence and leadership abilities, but it’s something to remember when we consider the fact that all 6-4 and under NBA point guards aren’t created the same.
Kerr, Mark Jackson, Doc Rivers, Jason Kidd and Derek Fisher were all given head coaching gigs despite no coaching experience prior to their turn, with varying results. Though Kerr (writing for two different websites, front office work, television work), Rivers (standout television work), and Jackson (ugh) took disparate roads to their hires, Kidd and Fisher jumped straight to the top gig. Kidd has done fantastic work after an iffy first half-season, and there’s no telling if Derek Fisher can’t turn into a Coach of the Year candidate after being outfitted with an actual NBA team.
Billups would have had a year on the sidelines to acclimate himself to the rhythm, as if he’s unaware of how this league works in the first place. This would presumably put him ahead of the former point guard crop, despite the misgivings we may have about Flip Saunders – Chauncey Billups made a potentially Hall of Fame career out of cruelly efficient offensive basketball.
Or, after immersing himself in the NBA from 1997 through 2014, playing for eight (technically nine) teams along the way, Billups may want to take a break. Following that break, he may not want to be a coach. Point guards are allowed to make their own decisions, y’know?
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
