SH Blog: Barkley rips Heat fans and gets into it with Spurs fan, Popovich explains what he looks for in a player

With the NBA season over for all but four teams, most around the league are thinking about what to do heading into next season.

Naturally, everything starts from the top, and that means the search for quality coaches is on. The Golden State Warriors moved quickly and acquired Steve Kerr on a multi-year deal, while the Detroit Pistons scooped up the much-coveted Stan Van Gundy. There are still plenty of teams around the league looking to fill the vacancy of the coaching position, however, and the Los Angeles Lakers are certainly one of them, from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: 

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak met with Mike Dunleavy Sr. to discuss the franchise’s head coaching job on Wednesday morning, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Dunleavy has emerged as a candidate for the Lakers, who plan to seriously start searching for a new coach in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery. The Lakers have the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Dunleavy’s 17 seasons as an NBA head coach – including stops with the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers – give him the big-market background and skill set to deal with the pressures and responsibilities of the Lakers’ job and the credibility to coach All-Star Kobe Bryant. Dunleavy, 60, built a reputation as one of the league’s more innovative tacticians during his career.

They also interviewed Byron Scott for the coaching job, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN:

Sources: Lakers interviewed Byron Scott for vacant head coaching position yesterday.

— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) May 22, 2014

Meanwhile, plenty of teams are going after the much-respected Alvin Gentry, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports:

Los Angeles Clippers associate head coach Alvin Gentry is expected to soon interview for the Utah Jazz’s head-coaching vacancy, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday to see predraft workouts. The Jazz have already interviewed Chicago Bulls assistant coach Adrian Griffin, but have been deliberate in their process to hire a new head coach.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have also contacted the Clippers about Gentry for their head-coaching vacancy, but an interview has not been set up, a source said. Gentry has ties to new Cavaliers general manager David Griffin when both worked for the Phoenix Suns.

Gentry is also receiving strong interest from the Golden State Warriors to be the associate head coach under new coach Steve Kerr. Gentry worked under Kerr when both were in Phoenix.

The Sacramento Kings have also contacted Gentry about their assistant coach position, a source said. Kings head coach Michael Malone never filled the position vacated by his father Brendan a week before last season.

Also, something strange is going on in Memphis. Dave Joerger is currently the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, but he was allowed by the team to communicate with the Minnesota Timberwolves to become their potential coach, from Jerry Zgoda of Star Tribune:

The Wolves’ coaching search has a late entry, and probably a frontrunner at that:

The Wolves have been given permission to talk to Memphis coach Dave Joerger and are expected to meet with him by the end of the week, according to a league source.

That interview could come Thursday.

Joerger grew up in Staples, Minn., and goes way back with Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders.

oerger as a young coach attended Flip’s Wolves practices and took notes during training camp at St. John’s, and particuarlyl remembers watching Saunders install his offense the fall Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell joined the team.

Joerger’s Grizzlies team won 50 games last season but he’s currently in the middle of a mess in Memphis, where ownership suddenly fired much of its front office earlier this week

Bottom line, according to the source: Joerger wants out and Grizzlies ownership wants him out, but Joerger doesn’t want to leave the rest of his multi-year contract on the table and the team doesn’t want to pay him off.

Another coach of interest is Scott Skiles, who may be looking to come back into the league, from Andy Greder of Pioneer Press:

Skiles, who coached three teams from 1999 to 2013, is believed to want to coach again and has received interest from other franchises with vacancies, Glass said.

POPOVICH DETAILS WHAT HE LOOKS FOR IN A PLAYER: 

If there is one basketball mind you want to read into and understand, it’s Gregg Popovich. He may be one of the best – if not the best – coach we’ve seen in this generation, so anytime he explains the X’s and O’s or why he does what he does or what he believes in, you want to pay attention. Jeff McDonald of Express-News has the Q and A on the qualities he looks for in a player, how far Tony Parker has come since his rookie year, why players get screwed playing for him and more:

Q. What gives a guy like Duncan or others the will to come back year after year?

Pop: I think it’s totally dependent on the character and quality of the player, the mindset.  I can’t will that mindset.  Sure, I’m a maniac and sure I’m gonna stick to it, because I’m just built that way.  It could be right, could be wrong.  I don’t know, but I’m not out there playing every day.

So find 10 or 12 guys  that have that mindset.  It doesn’t mean you’re going to win a championship.  It doesn’t mean you’ll know what’s gonna happen. But to have that dedication and that fortitude to come back every year and try to be the best team you can be by playoff time, it takes character and toughness and that’s all embodied in the players that we have.

You watch guys, see how they react to practices, how they react to their teammates, see how important it is to them.  All those things tell you what you’re gonna get. You can save yourself a lot of problems by trying to do that work early rather than get a guy in your program and then say, ‘We gotta get rid of this guy.’

[…]

Q. Did you ever think Tony Parker would develop into the true point guard he’s become?

Pop: When we first got him, I didn’t think he could throw the ball to you. He was a scorer. He was a flat-scorer. Almost on Day 3, we put a little linear thing on paper, and put his name at this end for scoring point. And at the very other end, we put John Stockton as an assist guy.

We said, ‘We want to put you right here in the middle. We don’t want to make you John Stockton, because you’re too good a scorer. But if we can get you into the middle — which is really difficult to do, we’re going to turn you into half and half here — we’re going to do it.’

Over time, I think I can honestly say he’s done that. There’s times I’ll say, ‘You missed so-and-so. And he’ll look at me like, ‘I scored.’ So we go through that. I couldn’t be more proud of the way he’s adjusted his game over the years and become a scoring point. And then like last game, he didn’t score a lot. But he scored enough. The assists were huge.

 Q. Is that a good model for a guy like Russell Westbrook to follow?

Pop: I think that’s a great comparison. He was a scorer. He’s still a scorer because he’s such a dynamic player and so talented. He finds people way more than people give him credit for. There’s no doubt about that. Fans just see the dynamic way that he plays, but he’s perfectly willing to hit the open man.

[…]

Q. Does it take some self-discipline on your part, not to overplay guys?

Pop: I always think about our guys sometimes, and their stats. They really get screwed sometimes, playing for me. If you win 62 games, and some of them are by a decent margin, I bet our guys play fewer fourth quarter minutes than most good players on any team. I’d be willing to bet that. It hurts their stats, without a doubt, but luckily I’ve got players who don’t think about that.

BARKLEY RIPS HEAT FANS, GETS INTO IT WITH SPURS FAN:

Charles Barkley is never afraid to state his opinion, and he provided one on why he’d like to see LeBron James go back to Cleveland, from Brian Windhorst of ESPN:

In an interview Wednesday on ESPN’s “SVP & Russillo,” Barkley advocated a return to the Cavaliers for James and, in the process, took a shot at Miami Heat fans.

“I’ve always thought he was going to go back to Cleveland,” Barkley said. “Nobody dislikes LeBron. I think LeBron made a huge mistake with that ‘Decision’ crap. He’s come back and since admitted that. That’s the only thing people hold against LeBron.

“He’s a great player, a great person. I hope he goes back to Cleveland. Those fans in Miami are not real fans, those fans in Cleveland are real fans. I’ve always hoped he would go back to Cleveland. That would be a great way to finish his career.”

Oh, and if you have a problem with Barkley’s opinion (especially an irrelevant one meant to be nothing but a joke), you probably don’t want to confront him about it at a bar:

OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE: 

• If you ever wanted to know a little more about Shawn Bradley, this is the video to watch. It perfectly explains why basketball was far from everything for him, and perhaps, why he ultimately became the player he became, not that there is anything wrong with that.

• Lance Stephenson has been fined $5,000 by the league for this gem.

• Paul George has been diagnosed with a concussion, according to NBA.com: “Tuesday night, Indiana Pacers forward Paul George took a knee to the back of his head during the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals game against Miami. Immediately after the play, George exhibited no symptoms of a concussion and, in response to questions from the Pacers’ medical staff, he denied dizziness, nausea, and issues with his vision. He was also active and aware of his surroundings. As a result, the Indiana medical staff did not suspect a concussion. Following the game, George stated for the first time that he “blacked out” on the play. As a result of this statement, the team conducted the NBA-mandated concussion assessment, which did not reveal any active symptoms of concussion. Because of the statement and Indiana’s ongoing evaluation and management of potential concussions, George underwent further testing and evaluation Wednesday morning. He has been diagnosed by the team’s consulting neurologist with a concussion, based on his post-game reporting that he had briefly lost consciousness during the game.”

• Hakeem Olajuwon believes Portland did a favor for San Antonio by taking out the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, from Jonathan Feigen of Houston Chronicle: ““It’s deceiving if you just base it upon the playoffs, the loss in the first round,” Olajuwon said. “It is deceiving because I believe Portland did a huge favor to San Antonio. If the Rockets got past Portland, they had an opportunity to go all the way. “My point is that team that lost in the first round was truly a championship team because you see they match up so well with San Antonio. I think they had a better chance than Portland. You cannot judge the Rockets team based upon just being out in the first round. I think they are a better team. I think they just played the wrong team. Portland played incredibly well.”

• It appears that as of now, Joel Embiid is on the top of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ wishlist, from Jeff Goodman of ESPN: “The Cleveland Cavaliers have 7-footer Joel Embiid at the top of their draft board, but it’s still early in the process and the team needs to obtain medical information on the Cameroon native’s back injury, sources told ESPN.com on Wednesday. Sources also told ESPN.com that although Embiid is first on the organization’s wish list, that doesn’t mean that Cavs general manager David Griffin — who had the interim tag lifted earlier this month — isn’t also considering Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker with the first pick. Cleveland, which went into the draft lottery with a 2.4 percent chance of landing one of the top three picks, was far more focused on players who were likely to go in the middle or back end of the lottery than having to decide between Embiid, Wiggins and Parker.

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