W's Fire Keith Smart: Search on for New Coach

Well any print that Don Nelson left in Golden State has officially been wiped clean, as his protege and the man he groomed over the last few seasons to take over as coach of the Warriors, Keith Smart, was let go by the team Wednesday.

There has been plenty of talk about what type of coach the Warriors will be pursuing, but with the news only a few days old, I doubt we see a hiring until at least mid-May, if not until after the Finals.

I haven't yet heard a single name linked to Golden State, but there are plenty of different names out there that are open for work, depending on which way the W's want to go.

I personally would like to see a new, fresh face come in, a guy who hasn't been in the NBA 20+ years and carries a completely different philosophy than these young players carry today. That's what's changed in the NBA, the player has the power now, and if a Kobe Bryant has a dispute with a head coach, the franchise will have to side with the player they've invested $100+ million into.

It's a different era, and I don't thin Nelly was grasping that, and passed some of those traits (not all, Smart is not the exact same coach Nelly was) onto Keith Smart. This is the reason why I want a younger coach in here or a guy who's earned respect to be heard, but also knows the way of the game today. So no, I don't want Jerry Sloan (great coach in the 1990's, basically another Nelly), Rick Adelman or Mike D'Antoni (though I do think D'Antoni is a good coach with the right teams). If they're insistent on taking an NBA guy, I'd take Mike Budenholzer (Gregg Papavich's right-hand man in San Antonio), but I'd like it to be a guy from the college ranks. John Calipari is the guy who everyone says should move onto the NBA, and he'd be a great add, but my #1 choice right now would be UCLA's Ben Howland. If you've seen the way he's turned around and masterminded that UCLA program, you know why. He's a guy who gets today's game of basketball.