Last season, it wouldn’t have mattered if Golden State brought in John Wooden circa 1968 to coach the team — they didn’t have enough talent on the roster to win a lot of games. And what talent they did have kept getting injured. Mark Jackson kind of had a free pass to learn how to be a head coach on the fly.
This season is going to be different.
After some deadline trades and offseason moves, the Warriors should have a starting lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Richard Jefferson (subject to change), David Lee and Andrew Bogut. Off the bench they bring Jarrett Jack, Harrison Barnes, Brandon Rush (he could start over Jefferson) and Carl Landry.
That’s not a contender, but it’s not bad. So now it is on Jackson to prove he can be an NBA coach and coax some wins out of the roster. Warriors GM Bob Meyers said as much to Matt Steinmentz at CSNBayArea.com.“Basketball operations, from the ownership group, myself, everybody, worked very hard to give them (the coaching staff) something to work with. I’m not sure we did last year, to be frank. I’m not sure we could expect much from the talent we supplied the coaching staff.
“But I told Mark. I called him after the Landry signing, I said, ‘You’ve got something to work with.’ Which I truly believe. And I don’t think he’s running from that challenge. I think he’s embracing it. I think he’s saying: ‘Yeah, I do.’ It’s up to them now to go forward with this group. I don’t know what your guys’ opinions are but I don’t think it’s unfair to ask to go forward and do well with this group of players.”
Allow me to translate that for you:
“You better win now or you’ll be broadcasting again next season.”
A lot of people questioned the hiring of Jackson, the ABC analyst who had no coaching experience (but did have a long NBA career). Last season wasn’t a fair test of if he could do the job. But this season will be. It’s on him now.