Hornets Interested in Johnson

Word around the NBA indicates the New Orleans Hornets have set up an interview with former Maverick coach Avery Johnson. Hornet brass has a meeting in Houston with Johnson on Tuesday and while they are saying they have a list of candidates, Johnson is clearly the favorite. There is a very good change he will be named head coach in the next week or so, although it should be noted that Johnson has had some trouble in interviews in the past.

On the surface, Johnson is a good hire. He was always one of those guys that, as a player, you knew he'd be a coach someday and his early work in Dallas was excellent. He crashed and burned, however, down the stretch and came across like a guy who had all the answers and can't figure out why his answers weren't accepted. Now, this is a behavior that many young coaches display and eventually grow out of in their subsequent jobs. The big problem with Johnson, though, is that he lost the Dallas locker room with his rigid, stubborn way of doing business and eventually burned himself and his players out. And it only took three years to reach that burnout. He acted like a real tool when he got the boot in Dallas, but even still, I think he's going to end up being a really good coach.

My issue with this potential hiring has less to do with Johnson and more to do with the Hornets. There are plenty of coaches like Johnson in the NBA. They come to a new franchise, the guys rally around them, and they have success. But eventually their style wears on the players, the players tune them out, and they end up looking for a new job. Scott Skiles is like that. So is Rick Carlisle. And more importantly, so is former Hornet coach Byron Scott. In fact, Byron Scott is a posterchild for this brand of coach. His discipline is great when he comes in and he's new, but within three years or so, the players sour on his stubbornness and out he goes. The Hornet players HATED Scott when his tenure came to an end in the middle of last season. They didn't say it publicly but you could see it in the way they played and the way they worked with him.

When you fire a coach like Scott, you need a change of pace. You need a "Player's Coach" who relates to the guys in the room, fights for them in the media, and inspires them to play for him. In truth, the "Player's Coach" doesn't win a lot of titles (see: Don Nelson) but the Hornets aren't winning titles any time soon, anyway. Doug Collins or someone similar would be perfect for the Hornets for the two or three year transition away from Scott's reign. Bringing in Avery Johnson, almost a carbon copy of Scott, is a horrible move for the Hornets. A team that has been burned out by a fire and brimstone coach risks overkill when you bring in another coach just like him. Johnson would be a great hire in Philadelphia for a team that seriously lacked discipline for the last few years. But for a team that is already on the brink of destruction (bad ownership, lack of fan support, and a tempermental superstar in Chris Paul who can opt for free agency next year), the hiring of Johnson could be catostrophic.