Sam Cassell is Already My Favorite Assistant Coach of All-Time

by Jake Whitacre on Jul 29, 2009 7:14 PM EDT in Coaching

Sure, I was excited like most of you when I heard that Sam Cassell would be a part of Flip Saunders' coaching staff. It's always exciting when a former NBA player joins the coaching ranks, especially a great communicator like Cassell. He gives the coaching staff a fiery, but positive leader who can motivate players to greater heights (something that the Hire Avery Johnson crowd desired) but he doesn't have the authority to micromanage everything to death like Avery Johnson could've if he'd been given the reins.

Since his hiring, we've heard good things about his work with Nick Young on coming off screens, working with Javaris Crittenton on his pull-up game, and Mike glowed about Sam's coaching style in Vegas. He looks like he's going to be an excellent addition to the staff and I don't think it will be long until he's coveted by someone for a head coaching gig.

As excited as I am to see how Cassell grows and develops as a coach over the next few years, I'm just as excited to hear all the wild and crazy stories that are bound to emerge of Cassell jawing with his players during practice and games. It should be great fodder for many posts in the near future. Via Roger Mason Jr.'s Twitter, we have our first example:

Cassellbiz_medium

Win, lose, or draw Sam Cassell is going to keep things interesting in Washington next year. It should be fun to watch.

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I'm glad it seems to be working so far.

I was initially very hesitant because Mark Stein said in a podcast last season that Cassell had really worn out his welcome in Boston and the rest of the team really disliked him and was glad to see him go. Maybe that was due to his status as a quasi player-coach though and we won’t have issues with him as a full time assistant.

by BayAreaBullet on Jul 29, 2009 7:53 PM EDT reply actions

I was extremely sceptical at the beginning

I like what he’s done so far, but if he is a failure as an assistant it won’t be the small, creeping, incompetence kind of failure. It will be an explosive failure that will result from him getting in one too many player’s face and splitting the locker room. I’m not predicting this, mind you. But that is my fear with him. That fear is much much less now than when I heard about the hiring.

by MR on Jul 30, 2009 11:14 AM EDT reply actions