One story that sort of flew under the radar this week, amid a barrage of playoff series and the NFL draft, was the firing of Golden State Warriors coach Keith Smart.
Smart should have been closer to winning NBA Coach of the Year than heading to the unemployment line, though his termination hardly caught many insiders by surprise.
Many members of the Bay Area media suspected Smart would need nothing short of a minor miracle to keep his job after taking over for Don Nelson just before the season began. Let me tell you, winning 36 games with this rag-tag bunch qualifies as such a miracle.
However, new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber and general manager Larry Riley already had decided that Smart was nothing other than a figure head to keep the seat warm while they figured out who they really wanted.
This kind of thinking is what has plagued the franchise for years on end … that the court is always shinier on the other side. We can always get a better player, a better coach, better GM … whatever. This is the franchise that basically traded away half a decade’s worth of draft picks for Chris Webber, then traded Webber himself a year later. Traded Mitch Richmond in his prime for Billy Owens because Nelson decided he was love in with big guards.
Not that it will make Smart feel any better, but he’s not the first Warriors coach to get the shaft. Eric Musselman, who is currently the coach of the NBA’s D-League Reno team, similarly overachieved with a talent-challenged Golden State club, but at least he was given two years.
Anyhow, Smart led this team to a 10-game improvement over Nelson’s 2009-10 club, and they were in a bunch of games until the end that didn’t fall their way. To think this team was just a few better bounces away from being a .500 club is astounding under the circumstances. Living in Reno, I receive the feed from several Bay Area sports channels and saw dozens of Warriors games, and I couldn’t help but be impressed.
The Warriors probably had the least amount of depth in the NBA. Monta Ellis is one of the game’s best pure scorers and underrated talents, and Stephen Curry is turning into a fine NBA combo guard.
David Lee proved he was worth every penny of his free-agent contract, as the guy is the most efficient double-double machine this side of Kevin Love and provides them with a much-needed element of toughness. Dorrell Wright went from career journeyman who had never averaged more than 7 points per game to one of the league’s top 3-point threats and a 16.4 per game average.
Aside from that relatively solid core, the Warriors had little else to offer. No depth and no inside threat though lottery pick Ekpe Udoh, despite battling injuries all year, showed signs of being a defensive stopper and solid rebounder.
The lame-duck Smart was unfailingly gracious to the media and his game observations appeared spot-on. He also got them to play a little more fundamentally sound brand of basketball than the circus-show style Nelson preferred. However, Lacob and Riley thought nothing of dumping Smart, trotting out the time-honored line about “moving in a new direction.”
That direction would be backward. Among the mentioned candidates are the usual suspects in the NBA’s recycled coaching carousel, including Rick Adelman, who already had one stint there, and former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.
No matter who wins this high-stakes game of “Duck, duck, goose,” I’m willing to bet the next coach’s salary that the Warriors go under 36 wins next year. It’s one step forward and a moonwalk back for this franchise.
Smart may or may not end up with another shot as an NBA head coach, but he made the most of his opportunity with the Warriors and he deserved better.