“I always had a knack for it,” he said. “(I) just wanted to be involved with trying to develop stuff, Xs and Os, just seeing how it goes. I’ve been getting a lot of advice from different coaches, just going around getting a feel for it.”
Daniels, 33, has been staying around basketball by helping at high schools in Macon, Georgia. Ultimately he would like to work in the NBA, but he is exploring options at different levels. He interviewed for an assistant coaching position for the NBA Development League’s Austin Toros. Although he did not land the job, he continues to work on his resume while picking up insight along the way.
“You’ve got to learn to tell players to do stuff at a different tone and don’t expect for them to be able to do what they were able to do,” he said of the advice he’s received. “But try to give them your insight and help them with development on the court.”
Daniels says the first person to plant the seed in his head that he should try to coach is current Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who coached Daniels for three years in Boston. At Nets camp, former Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett also encouraged him to give it a shot.
It’s not hard to see why Daniels would make a good coach. He’s an unlikely NBA success story who put together a 10-year career after going undrafted, despite battling various injuries. He was never a star, but he was always a useful player when healthy, and there’s nobody better to teach young players that if you don’t have otherworldly scoring talent, the best way to stay in the league is to do the dirty work.
Hopefully, the right opportunity comes along. The world is a better place when Marquis Daniels is involved in the NBA.