Steve Nash and the History of Point Guards Turned into a Head Coach
Brooklyn Nets Hire Steve Nash as Head Coach
The Brooklyn Nets have found their new head coach in the last possible person that you could have predicted Steve Nash. The two-time MVP amassed a career as a player unlike anything we’ve seen from a point guard not named Steph Curry or Magic Johnson, but his coaching experience leaves plenty of room for skepticism. Nash worked as a part-time consultant for the Golden State Warriors at the peak of their dynasty but has no serious experience in a coaching role beyond that. This may seem like an odd choice to even the most serious NBA fan, but the league has a rich history of former floor generals like Nash being handed job titles of this caliber. For the most part, this goes one of two ways — either it goes exactly as planned, or everything crashes and burns.
Besides Nash, the greatest point guard to become a head coach was Isiah Thomas. The Hall of Famer was a two-time NBA champion and twelve-time all-star as a player, but his career off the court couldn’t be farther from that. Thomas’s first coaching stint came with the Indiana Pacers in 2000. Thomas led a team of promising young players like Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest alongside the veteran presence of Reggie Miller but would be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in three consecutive years before being fired.
Following his pretty unremarkable time with the Pacers, Thomas was hired as the president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks. When Thomas was hired in 2003, the Knicks were 39-43 and the seventh seed in the eastern conference. By 2006, they had far and away from the league’s highest salary and were 23-59, good for the second-worst record in the league.
Previously Player Coach Failures
Among other things, the highlight of Thomas’s tenure was the infamous Eddy Curry trade, in which the Knicks gave up 2006 and 2007 first-round picks which would turn into the 2nd overall pick in 2006 in Lamarcus Aldridge and the 9th overall pick in 2007 in Joakim Noah. Naturally, after underperforming in an executive role as egregiously as he did, Thomas was promoted to a dual role as head coach and general manager because of course, he was. It’s not like they could’ve just signed a good coach instead. He would be let go after the 2007/2008 season after tying a franchise record with 59 losses. Thomas was given total control, threw money at whoever he felt like, and essentially sunk the franchise for the foreseeable future.
Player Turned Coach Transitions
Fellow Hall of Famer Jason Kidd has also made the transition into coaching. Kidd started his coaching career as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets spending only a season with the team. Despite the fact that Kidd led the team to a first-round playoff victory over the Toronto Raptors, the first thing I remember about Kidd as coach of the Nets was when he instructed guard Tyshawn Taylor to bump into him on the sidelines and spill a cup of soda that he was holding. The spilled drink stopped the game long enough for Kidd to draw up a final offensive play.
The Nets would lose the game and Kidd would be fined $50,000 for the incident. That Nets team had Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Joe Johnson, and the first thing I will remember about that team has always been and will always be Jason Kidd being a stooge. Kidd would be traded by the Nets to the Milwaukee Bucks for two second-round picks and spend three mostly uneventful seasons leading the team. Kidd spent the 2019/2020 season as an assistant for the Los Angeles Lakers and was even rumored to be in the running to return to Brooklyn as head coach before the position was offered to Nash.
But just as often as a choice like this can flame out spectacularly, it can also go better than expected. One of the best examples of a point guard turned coach in the league currently is Doc Rivers. Rivers was a standout member of some great Atlanta Hawks teams alongside Dominique Wilkins and Kevin Willis and was even selected as an all-star during the 1987-1988 season.
Doc Rivers
Following his playing career, Rivers debut as a coach for an Orlando Magic team that would acquire Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill. Injuries across the team eventually led to Rivers being fired after a 1-10 start. Rivers would then sign with the Boston Celtics and lead the legendary big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. Rivers led the Celtics to the 2008 championship as well as another final run in 2010.
In 2013, Rivers would be traded by the Celtics to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for a first-round pick. Rivers coached the Lob City-era of the Clippers led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, helped facilitate the ensuing rebuild following Paul and Griffin’s departure, and now coaches the team’s current roster led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Lenny Wilkens
But what is probably the best-case scenario of a point guard turned coach is Lenny Wilkens. Wilkens’ hall of fame career as a player saw him earn all-star recognition nine seasons and even led the league in assists in the 1969/1970 season while playing for the Seattle Supersonics. He would retire and spend a few seasons coaching the Supersonics then the Portland Trailblazers in some pretty forgettable seasons.
Wilkens returned to Seattle as head coach in 1977, would lead the team to the finals in his first season back, then would lead the team to the championship the following season. In all, Wilkens would spend an unheard of 32 seasons with six different teams, setting the record for most regular-season games coached and currently sitting at second all-time in wins as a head coach.
Nash Coaching Experiment
With the Nets coming off a 35-37 campaign and candidates like Dave Joerger and Becky Hammon on the market, it seems odd that Nash was able to jump the line like this.
Obviously, Nash’s lack of coaching experience warrants reasonable concern, but this is hardly a bad move by the Nets. Nash worked closely with Kevin Durant during their time in Golden State and was teammate with Nets general manager Sean Marks on the Phoenix Suns. Nash might also be the perfect coach for Kyrie Irving coming off a season in which he only played twenty games while sidelined with an injury. Overall, the Steve Nash tenure will either go pretty well or will fail horribly and hilariously, both of which will surely make for some entertaining basketball.
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