A Bill Simmons ESPN story about how the NBA should bring back the player-coach says basically that our coach is one of the five best in the league.  I like the idea of a Hinrich or Deng led team in the future.

A Bill Simmons ESPN story about how the NBA should bring back the player-coach says basically that our coach is one of the five best in the league.  I like the idea of a Hinrich or Deng led team in the future.

"3. To my mind, only five coaches in the league stand out -- Jackson, Avery Johnson, Gregg Popovich, Mike D'Antoni and Scott Skiles. (Note: I had to remove Larry Brown from the list after this season's Knicks travesty, although he might be onto something with this ingenious "sign big contract, stay for year or two, initiate sabotage, burn bridges, collect huge buyout" routine.) Nobody else matters; they're all interchangeable, ranging from "decent" to "I wouldn't hire that guy to manage a McDonald's." Take Dunleavy, whose 2000 Blazers blew a 15-point lead in Game 7 against the Lakers, still the most painful sports collapse of the decade. He's not a bad coach, but he's not really a good one, either. The same could be said for the rest of these guys."

from
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060524&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1