Charlotte Bobcats interview Patrick Ewing for Head Coach Job; Dave Joerger next in line - NBA Update
It has been almost a month since Charlotte Bobcats fired Coach Paul Silas and Bobcats’ President for Basketball operations Rod Higgins has yet to discover the coach that ‘wants to win’. A lot of names emerged
for the post but it has been learnt that the franchise has shortlisted two names for the interview, former Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing and Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Dave Joerger.
Patrick was interviewed today and Dave is scheduled to meet the board on Friday. Apart of these two the franchise has also scheduled a meeting with Mike Dunlap, associate head coach to Steve Lavin at St. John's
University on Wednesday.
Bobcats finished the regular season after breaking all the records of frailty and Silas was expectedly made the scapegoat.
Dave Joerger has quickly emerged as one of the most potential young assistant coach in the league. He has been working for the last 3 years under the aegis of Lionel Hollins, as Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach
and is credited with infusing the defensive mentality in the team.
Ewing however still has the best chance to take the post. He enjoys close relations with franchise minority owner Michael Jordan and has served under Coach Van Gundy as Orlando Magic’s assistant coach for a long
time now. And more importantly he has the desire to prove himself at the bigger stage;
“I’ve put in the work,” he said recently. “I’ve learned from a lot of very good coaches in Stan (Van Gundy), Jeff (Van Gundy), and Doug Collins, and I’ve played for a lot of great coaches. All I need is an opportunity,
and once I get that opportunity, hopefully I’ll be successful.”
Bobcats will be looking forward to get the number one pick in lottery and if they land Anthony Davis, the sensational power forward from the NCAA champions Kentucky Wildcats, then Ewing might just be the best
man for the job. A brilliant centre himself, Ewing has over the years played a huge role in polishing Dwight Howard’s talent and skill set at Orlando and his influence and experience will be very valuable for Davis.
The problem in Ewing’s case is that there is a general understanding in the league that if ex-NBAers are to be hired as coaches – there are 16 of them in the league – then they should be guards, preferably point
guards, because they know how to run the offense. Big men are not considered to be offensive guru’s and that very fact has gone against Ewing in the past, with Mike D’ Antoni getting a nod over him for the New York Knicks job a few years ago.
However given the state of the miserable Bobcats defense, Jordan might be inclined to give Ewing a nod.
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