SH Blog: Many in Warriors organization were displeased with Mark Jackson, team now in contact with Kerr and Stan Van Gundy

There are plenty around the league who feel the firing of Mark Jackson was completely unjustified, given the fact that his team just came off a 51-win season.

As most connected to the team in some way will tell you, however, it wasn’t just about the team’s record or what Jackson was able to do on the floor as the coach (which brought in mixed results, given the amount of talent on the team). There was an incredible amount of friction and turmoil within the entire organization because of his me-mentality, stubbornness and a sense of insecurity that many may not have seen from the outside looking in.

According to several reports from inside knowledge, he would alienate just about anyone that advised his players if it conflicted with his style, wanted to minimize credit given to his assistants, and managed to turn the team against the world – including its own organization. Despite what seemed to be majority support from the players when it came to Jackson, that wasn’t necessarily true either. 

Here are some stories explaining what went wrong with Jackson and the front office:

From Adam Lauridsen of Mercury News:

During the season, Jackson actively avoided engaging others in the organization on basketball matters and grew angry when they would interact, even casually, with players on these issues.  Zach Lowe already reported that Jackson banned Jerry West from practice and team functions for a period of time.  Kirk Lacob, who helps the team with a variety of basketball analytics, among other things, also caught Jackson’s ire for discussing basketball-related issues with players.  The “difference in philosophy” with Scalabrine has been well documented, including the allegation that one source of Scalabrine’s frustration was the coaching staff’s lack of attention to detail.  We can safely assume that Darren Erman wasn’t allegedly recording coaching meetings because he agreed with everything that was being done, but because he believed there were fundamental problems.  While there’s no dispute that Jackson was the coach and had final say over basketball matters, it’s these types of things that Lacob likely had in mind when he commented today that Jackson needs to be as good in his next job at “managing up and sideways” as he is managing his players.

Jackson was plagued all season by reports that he wasn’t adequately preparing his team for games — particularly when they were the humdrum variety against the bottom half of the NBA ranks.  Lacob took the unusual step of even publicly commenting on some of his frustrations.  Despite this spotlight on his prep work, Jackson continued to engage in behavior that some in the organization found highly questionable.  Reportedly, after the Game 2 40-point blowout, Jackson reconvened his team for a 20 minute practice the next day — far shorter than usual.  In Game 3, the Warriors came out flat and made similar mistakes to those that cost them the prior game.  It wasn’t until the second half of Game 3, when Jackson finally went small, that the team snapped back to life.  Would extra prep work before Game 3 have made the difference in the first half in a game where the Warriors eventually lost by 2?  There’s no way to know for sure, but Jackson’s decision again raised eyebrows.

Jackson carefully cultivated the image that he was loved by his players.  For many, that’s undoubtedly the truth.  Curry couldn’t have been more vocal in supporting him and others have weighed in after his departure.  But according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation, not everyone felt the same way, with roughly half the locker room ambivalent or worse in their views on Jackson.  The public got a glimpse of this during the Bogut sleep-injury brouhaha.  What should have been a couple of off-hand remarks, chalked up to the fog of pre-game chatter, instead triggered Jackson’s most heated press conference of the year.  The absolute and forceful nature of his denials was meant to project strength, but seemed to indicate the opposite.  Jackson’s best argument for keeping his job was the love he received from his players.  Even that appears to be a more complex picture than Jackson and his supporters have presented.

Another notable story from Jesse Taylor of Warriorsworld:

Outside of the conscious or unconscious bias that exists in our society when a powerful white male (Lacob) hires and supervises a minority (Jackson), this decision was not driven by race. And while religion was a factor in Jackson’s actions, it was not the reason Jackson was fired.

Jackson, in conjunction with Lindsey Hunter and Pete Myers, worked to create false enemies within the Warriors organization as a means to motivate his players and provide built-in excuses if he failed.

[…]

When hired, Jackson claimed he was creating a new culture; that “things be changin’ in the Bay Area.” However, outside of his inner circle, he was creating a culture of fear. Warriors staff members were afraid to speak with Jackson, who had proven over and over that he would be friendly to your face and rip you behind your back. If you weren’t in his inner circle, you were the enemy. And he made sure the players got that message.

[…]

But it became obvious over time that it was all about Jackson and his belief in the players. The “us” became Jackson and his players and the “them” was everyone else – including Warriors management and some of his coaches. Some players began to realize that it was unrealistic that those outside of Jackson’s inner circle would not want them to succeed. Would the organization really want players to fail just so they could fire Jackson? That was the message players were receiving. It didn’t make sense.

When management became aware of this problem, Jackson increased his efforts and created a full-blown campaign to discredit them amongst the players. His inner-circle spent so much time on this smear campaign, they spent less time making the team better.

The coaching staff showed signs of being unprepared. There were times Pete Myers would freestyle plays on his way out of the locker room at halftime; pitching “what-ifs” to the staff as the third quarter was about to begin.

Some of the players began to see through Jackson’s false bravado. The team was winning, but how much could be attributed to Jackson’s motivational tactics versus the fact that this was a talented group of players who were overcoming the coaching staff’s lack of preparation and game planning. Some players began to lose faith in their leader.

Jackson defended the job he did with the Warriors by pointing out the injury factor, from Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN:

“We did it without David Lee last year in the playoffs, and we were asked to do it this year without [Andrew] Bogut unfortunately,” Jackson said in a radio interview with 95.7 The Game. “And up one [point] in a Game 7 on the road against a No. 3 seed with two of the top 10 players in the world, the Sixth Man of the Year Award winner and a future Hall of Fame coach — I’d say we’re proud of what we’ve done on the floor.”

And although he rarely takes shots at others, Jackson made an exception for his former assistants, from Ben Golliver of SI:

“The one that was demoted [Scalabrine], I would have had handled it six weeks, a month, two months earlier. The things that took place from his side, I would have nipped it in the bud initially. That’s my fault for allowing it to go on. I’m pretty much a guy, just like ministry, I try to show you a different way of handling it. Hope that seeing me handle your disrespect, you’ll come around and realize this isn’t the way to handle it. Fortunately for me, it works for a lot of folks, there are some folks that just won’t get it and you have to handle them differently. I would do that differently.

“As far as assistants, you have to pick people who are loyal and dedicated. It’s inexcusable what the second assistant [Erman] did. That cannot be tolerated. For folks to say, two situations, it’s obviously documented that they both were 100 percent wrong. The only fault I got is hiring those guys. I would use wisdom in who is around me.”

Oh, and about the whole Darren Erman thing? Zach Lowe of Grantland explains why the assistant coach went out of his way to secretly record conversations:

The team fired another assistant, Darren Erman, after learning he had been secretly recording conversations Jackson had with other coaches. Erman was concerned Jackson was bad-mouthing him behind his back, multiple sources have said, and poisoning his relationship with players. The team changed the location of Erman’s parking spot without warning, sources say. Jackson also made it known he preferred that Jerry West, a senior adviser to the Warriors, stay away from practices.

Despite having to let Jackson go knowing how much he meant to Stephen Curry, Joe Lacob is confident that the star point guard ultimately trusts the organization to make the right moves for the team, from Tim Kawakami of Mercury News:

-Q: Are you concerned that this might sour his attitude about the organization?

-LACOB: Not at all. Not at all.

We spoke with Steph Curry several times actually. And I think he’s disappointed because because he… I would even say he loves Mark Jackson as a friend as a coach. I understand that, we understand thatBut I think he also likes this organization a lot and he trusts this organization. And I think he trusts Bob Myers and the crew at basketball operations. And I think you can answer that question by just asking him.
You’ve got to give him more than a day to probably reflect on it. But I think you’ll probably find that he is supportive.

The Warriors have finally gotten in touch with the available Stan Van Gundy, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports:

There are plenty of interesting topics that came up during the interview session with Lacob, including one about whether he felt Jackson was out-coached in the first round of the playoffs:

Mark Jackson came in here and had a tough first year and then turned it around on the court. He did that. He gets kudos for that. Gets credit for that. Cannot take that away from him.

And I would say even this playoff series, he was not out-coached. He asked me that this morning and I said, ‘You were not out-coached.’

The Warriors will now look for candidates to replace Jackson, and have already contacted two big names on their wish list, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports:

The Warriors have contacted former NBA head coach Stan Van Gundy about their head coach opening, a source told Yahoo. No interview set yet.

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) May 8, 2014

 

Former NBA player Steve Kerr has been contacted by the Warriors about their head coach opening, a source told Yahoo Sports.

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) May 8, 2014

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Despite saying Kevin Durant deserved to be this season’s MVP, LeBron James still didn’t give up on the idea that he could also have won it, from Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report:

LeBron on MVP: “I think I played well enough to win it, but I don’t think our team played well enough to win it.”

— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) May 7, 2014

Talk about putting his team under the bus. A sign of things to come in the offseason?

PHOTO OF THE DAY:

There are no words to describe this one. Just enjoy:

@freemaneric pic.twitter.com/HLWUbW0S2Y

— Mike Tunison (@xmasape) May 8, 2014

 

OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:

• According to Steve Aschburner of NBA.com, picking up Andrew Bynum was damaging to Roy Hibbert’s psyche: “Center Roy Hibbert‘s ongoing tailspin coincides with Bynum’s arrival, so much that some team insiders have wondered if the move rattled Hibbert’s confidence and trust. Through Jan. 31, Hibbert was posting his customary numbers – 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.5 blocks per game – for a team that was 35-10. After Bynum was signed, Hibbert averaged 9.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. He’s been worse in Indiana’s eight playoff games so far: 4.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.4 blocks. And the Pacers have gone 25-20. Bringing Bynum aboard rankled Hibbert, a source told NBA.com, when coach Frank Vogel ran plays to get Bynum involved offensively that he rarely calls for Hibbert.”

• The Mavericks believe they will be on the short list of teams that Carmelo Anthony will take interest in over the summer, from Marc Stein of ESPN: “When it comes to Melo, meanwhile, what you hear is that the Mavs are quietly optimistic they will be on that short list of teams granted a face-to-face visit with the New York Knicks’ scoring machine, just as they were with Dwight Howard last summer. The sense in Big D is that Melo will give them a legit look. It’s another ground ball that the Mavs are obligated to run out because Nowitzki is still their best player, which is something team officials acknowledge is too much to ask of the future Hall of Famer after 16 seasons. So the Mavs are bound to pursue Melo until they’re told they have no shot, because players of that caliber are rarely available and are hard to get when they are.”

• The Mavericks will also look to upgrade at the center position, from Stein: “The most interesting whisper, at this early stage, is that the Mavs intend to be at the front of the line to try to reacquire Tyson Chandler should the Knicks make their defensive anchor available via trade. Letting Chandler go remains the most fiercely debated aspect of Cuban’s decision to break up the Mavs’ championship team, but word is they’ll indeed pursue what many will regard as an overdue reunion. On the subject of using their cap space to upgrade via trade as opposed to outright signings, Milwaukee’s Larry Sanders remains another potential target after an absolute nightmare season. Monta has never been better since the Mavs imported him from Milwaukee; could life with Nowitzki, Carlisle and Cuban have a similar effect on Sanders?”

• Paul George and George Hill expressed their displeasure of the media “making up stories” about the Indiana Pacers, from Brian Windhorst of ESPN: “I’m just getting tired of the media and these stories,” he said. “I’m just putting everything to bed and to rest.” As the Pacers have struggled over the past two months, the team had numerous meetings and hinted at chemistry problems — including Hibbert saying some of his teammates were playing selfishly. It led to a rise in speculation about the team’s once-strong togetherness fraying as its cohesion on the court deteriorated. It has especially focused on Hibbert, who is coming off a third scoreless playoff game. “You guys keep making up stories,” Hill said. “We’re just trying to focus and letting Roy know through all this BS that is going on, the rumors and everything like that, that we’re all brothers. This locker room is a tight group and we’re going to continue to be there for each other even when people are trying to break it apart.”

• Paul Pierce says the Nets have to believe that being down 1-0 against the Miami Heat is a minor thing, from Stefan Bondy of Daily News: ““It was a three-point game at the half, fellas. I mean, we’re not overreacting,” he said. “We feel like we still can get a game in this building. You know, so we’ve just got to think this is minor. I think it’s minor, some of the things we’ve gotta do. We didn’t give no resistance (Tuesday night) and, you know, we still was in the game for the most part, until the end of the third quarter.”… “They got to the rim. They got the points in the paint off drives, layups, cutting to the basket, and we’ve got to be better, we’ve got to put up more resistance to that,” Pierce said. “We’ve gotta have more help. Guys gotta be aware of the shooters, because they present a problem when they’re in the paint and then they got guys that are open for the three-point shot, so we’ve got to be able to do both. “That’s why they’re the champs. We’ve gotta have double effort and we just didn’t have that.”

 

James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.