Per Anthony Slater of the Athletic.

I never really knew what went down when he left Cal's staff. Can anyone elaborate?

Great for Theo. Glad he can put the stench of Wyking behind him.

Go Theo and thrive.

OT -- Also, did the W's give up on Damien Jones?

joe amos yaks said:

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Go Theo and thrive.

OT -- Also, did the W's give up on Damien Jones?

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The W's traded Jones for Omari Spellman, in part to get a bit of room under the hard cap. But they were definitely frustrated with the guy.

85Bear said:

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Per Anthony Slater of the Athletic.

I never really knew what went down when he left Cal's staff. Can anyone elaborate?

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Upon his hiring, WJ was told that Theo was going to be one of his assistants. That's not a good way to begin.

Apparently, there were disagreements as to how important Theo's assistant role would be. No doubt, Theo thought he could do some things better than were being done.

Supposedly, neither Jones nor Theo handled the situation as well as they might have and things continued to degenerate, culminating in some sort of altercation between Theo and another staff member*, right around the team's early-season trip to a tournament in Hawaii. At that point, Theo was relieved of his duties, pending the terms of separation (which took months).

* The identity of the "other staff member" has been kept hush-hush, as far as I know. Possibly it was Jones himself, but quite possibly not.

Big C said:

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85Bear said:

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Per Anthony Slater of the Athletic.

I never really knew what went down when he left Cal's staff. Can anyone elaborate?

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Upon his hiring, WJ was told that Theo was going to be one of his assistants. That's not a good way to begin.

Apparently, there were disagreements as to how important Theo's role would be. No doubt, Theo thought he could do some things better than were being done.

Supposedly, neither Jones nor Theo handled the situation as well as they might have and things continued to degenerate, culminating in some sort of altercation between Theo and another staff member*, right around the team's early-season trip to a tournament in Hawaii. Theo was then relieved of his duties.

* The identity of the "other staff member" has been kept hush-hush, as far as I know. Possibly it was Jones himself, but quite possibly not.

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So much for building team unity from adversity.

Thanks for the info. Very unfortunate how it transpired. Best wishes to Theo with the Warriors. Make us Old Blues proud!

Big C said:

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85Bear said:

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Per Anthony Slater of the Athletic.

I never really knew what went down when he left Cal's staff. Can anyone elaborate?

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Upon his hiring, WJ was told that Theo was going to be one of his assistants. That's not a good way to begin.

Apparently, there were disagreements as to how important Theo's role would be. No doubt, Theo thought he could do some things better than were being done.

Supposedly, neither Jones nor Theo handled the situation as well as they might have and things continued to degenerate, culminating in some sort of altercation between Theo and another staff member*, right around the team's early-season trip to a tournament in Hawaii. Theo was then relieved of his duties, pending the terms of separation (which took months).

* The identity of the "other staff member" has been kept hush-hush, as far as I know. Possibly it was Jones himself, but quite possibly not.

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Based on a report from people who were unaffiliated with Cal in any way, and who knew none of the individuals involved, a) the "other staff member" was NOT Jones, and b) the "other staff member" instigated the altercation, NOT Theo. Of course, it is possible that the "other staff member" acted at the direction of Jones, but there is no evidence that such happened.

Mike Williams and Wyking Jones were certainly both foolish in allowing the initial situation. A good AD never forces an assistant on the head coach. A head coach who wants to actually be a head coach never allows the AD to force an assistant on him -- he should let the AD know in uncertain terms that it is the HC's job to pick assistants, not the AD's job, and if the AD chooses to fire him because the AD doesn't like how the HC performs his job in picking assistants, then the AD chooses to fire him. Theo was also foolish if he initially took the job knowing he was being forced on Wyking. An assistant should never take a job where he was forced on the HC by the AD -- the assistant or the HC or both will be gone quickly in that scenario.

Theo left a decent situation with the Lakers to go to Cal. Glad he has himself back with the Warriors.

Yes, it was poorly played by all parties involved. Not trying to absolve Jones, but if it was the only way he was going to get the job, what was he supposed to do? This is a further indictment of MW as a bad communicator. If he was going to insist on this condition, he should have taken steps to make it work better, throughout the process.

Moral of story: One of the prerequisites for being a HC should be the ability to hire a good staff. Heck, it should be one of the questions in the interview. The AD can recommend (and even gently persuade), but not dictate.

Big C said:

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Yes, it was poorly played by all parties involved. Not trying to absolve Jones, but if it was the only way he was going to get the job, what was he supposed to do? This is a further indictment of MW as a bad communicator. If he was going to insist on this condition, he should have taken steps to make it work better, throughout the process.

Moral of story: One of the prerequisites for being a HC should be the ability to hire a good staff. Heck, it should be one of the questions in the interview. The AD can recommend (and even gently persuade), but not dictate.

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Yeah, it is easy for me to say sitting behind my computer, but what Jones was supposed to do is tell Williams, "No. If it is a condition of me getting the job that you get to decide on one of my assistants, then I won't take the job. If you want me to be head coach, then you can't start me off by tying my hands and making me not really be the head coach. Do you want a successful head coach, or a head coach who isn't really head coach?"

I don't know what Williams would have done, either stuck with Jones or not hired him, but yeah, if Jones wasn't going to get the job if he refused, he should have refused. It takes guts to refuse a good paying job where you are doomed to failure because the boss puts conditions on that doom you to failure, but still, that's what you need to do. Maybe Jones figured he'd fail anyway, so he didn't care.

Of course the AD needs to ask about assistants in the interview, I've never heard of an AD who didn't (although there probably have been AD's who didn't). And as you say, recommending and gentle persuasion is fine, If the AD isn't asking about staff in the interview, the AD is doing a crappy job of interviewing. I worry about AD's who hire based on who wins the interview, ignoring track records, but still, the AD needs to ask the basic questions in the interview, and if the answers are lousy, red flags should be raised.

The good news is that finally everyone that matters is on Theo's side regardless of what the dust up was about and regardless of whoever the dust up was with. As an aside, methinks Theo won the altercation, probably quite easily, with enough leftover if anyone needed extra or just wanted their own portion.

Do we know whatever happened regarding his abrupt end at Cal?

GBear4Life said:

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Do we know whatever happened regarding his abrupt end at Cal?

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Scroll up, as Big C and others weighed in on this topic earlier in the thread.

GBear4Life said:

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Do we know whatever happened regarding his abrupt end at Cal?

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There's a great breakdown of it on Daily Kos.

Cal8285 said:

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Big C said:

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Yes, it was poorly played by all parties involved. Not trying to absolve Jones, but if it was the only way he was going to get the job, what was he supposed to do? This is a further indictment of MW as a bad communicator. If he was going to insist on this condition, he should have taken steps to make it work better, throughout the process.

Moral of story: One of the prerequisites for being a HC should be the ability to hire a good staff. Heck, it should be one of the questions in the interview. The AD can recommend (and even gently persuade), but not dictate.

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Yeah, it is easy for me to say sitting behind my computer, but what Jones was supposed to do is tell Williams, "No. If it is a condition of me getting the job that you get to decide on one of my assistants, then I won't take the job. If you want me to be head coach, then you can't start me off by tying my hands and making me not really be the head coach. Do you want a successful head coach, or a head coach who isn't really head coach?"

I don't know what Williams would have done, either stuck with Jones or not hired him, but yeah, if Jones wasn't going to get the job if he refused, he should have refused. It takes guts to refuse a good paying job where you are doomed to failure because the boss puts conditions on that doom you to failure, but still, that's what you need to do. Maybe Jones figured he'd fail anyway, so he didn't care.

Of course the AD needs to ask about assistants in the interview, I've never heard of an AD who didn't (although there probably have been AD's who didn't). And as you say, recommending and gentle persuasion is fine, If the AD isn't asking about staff in the interview, the AD is doing a crappy job of interviewing. I worry about AD's who hire based on who wins the interview, ignoring track records, but still, the AD needs to ask the basic questions in the interview, and if the answers are lousy, red flags should be raised.

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Maybe Jones figured he'd SUCCEED anyway, so he didn't care. Okay, we all know -- especially now -- he wasn't qualified, but I doubt HE thought that.

Yes, it would have taken guts for WJ to turn down the job because it was conditional on taking on an Assistant he may not have wanted. I'm not sure I have that kind of guts, considering I have a family to support and it was a contract for a million-a-year for five years.

Do I recall that this third person was the absurd presence of the strength and conditioning (and over muscled) coach on the front bench ...combined with his histrionics? I could very well be wrong. Wonder where he is now.

cal83dls79 said:

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Do I recall that this third person was the absurd presence of the strength and conditioning (and over muscled) coach on the front bench ...combined with his histrionics? I could very well be wrong. Wonder where he is now.

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no, you definitely don't recall that correctly.

and god forbid the s&c coach be strong.

bearister said:

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Can you BA superimpose Trump's face on the guy on the left???
I'd really like that!!

You are right, Nicodemus followed Cuonzo to Mo. and helped them finish 12th in the conference. Mo strong

cal83dls79 said:

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You are right, Nicodemus followed Cuonzo to Mo. and helped them finish 12th in the conference. Mo strong

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It's amazing how, at the time, we were all falling head-over-heels, myself included, for the before/after pictures.