San Antonio Spurs hire Scott Layden as an assistant coach â€" NBA Update
San Antonio Spurs head Coach Gregg Popovich had been on a head hunt to complete his coaching staff for the coming season and finally achieved his goal with the hiring of Scott Layden. The arrival of Layden completes the coaching staff at San Antonio; but it leaves behind a big hole in Utah Jazz â€" the team Layden has a long history with.
Layden’s first tenure with the Jazz came from 1981-1999 during which he worked as a scout and an assistant coach under his father Frank Layden. In that time, he was able to procure two of the biggest stars in Jazz’s franchise history in form of John Stockton and Karl Malone. Success was bound to come after that and the Jazz made it to the NBA Finals twice under Jerry Sloan â€" a coach Layden worked under for many years after his father’s tenure ended.
In his long tenure with the Desert City franchise, Layden became director of player personal in 1996 but the tenure ended after he left to serve as the interim general manager for the New York Knicks in 1999.
Layden’s time in the Big Apple was not as successful as had been in Salt Lake City. And an inevitable return materialized when he agreed to work under Sloan in 2005. He has remained as an assistant coach since then and when Sloan was fired two midway through the 2009-10 season, he was given the same responsibility under new head coach Tyrone Corbin.
After the departure of Kevin O’Connor, Layden seemed to be the best option for the general manager position at Utah, but the opening was given to Dennis Lindsey who had been an assistant coach with the Spurs.
Upon his arrival in Texas, Layden will be taking over the position left behind by Lindsey and who knows he may be next in line as Popovich has a history of producing GM’s. Along with Lindsey, Sam Presti, Danny Ferry, Dell Demps all served as assistant coaches with Popovich.
On the other hand, the departure of Layden leaves behind an opening on Corbin’s staff which is already shorthanded. Corbin and Jazz management have only little time left to find a suitable person before the start of next season.
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