The Coaches 3-on-3 Tournament

December 10, 2010 | From: Wolves Radio

By: John Focke

In the sports world we spend a lot time debating scenarios that will never happen, but it makes for good conversation when you are killing time which is a big part of the sports world.  Prior to the Wolves-Thunder game in the NBA Tonight Studios we debated which point guard you would take (of the current crop) to win you game 7 of the NBA Finals.  Debates like this have no right or wrong answer but they sure are fun.

Then during halftime of that game we got a tweet into our twitter account (@wolvesradio) for Howl At The Wolves asking if Minnesota's top three coaches would win in an 3 on 3 tourney of teams made up of current NBA Coaching staffs.

It's an interesting question and one that really got me thinking...would I put Kurt Ramis, Reggie Theus and Bill Laimbeer up against any other NBA Coaching staff in a 3 on 3 tourney? 

The answer at first came as a no brainer, of course I would...right?

Rambis, Reggie, and Laimbeer would destroy other coaching staffs, and if you needed a sub Minnesota could always throw Darrick Martin in to run the point or even go old school with Dave Whol who spent 7 years in the league back in the '70's.

But then I really started to do some research on the subject and came up with a couple teams that I thought would be able to compete and hang with the Wolves Bench Bosses.  I broke them down into three categories, Contenders, Defenders (teams that would put up a serious fight) and Pretenders.

Contenders:
LA LAKERS:
Not only do you have the Zen Master Phil Jackson as your big, but a heck of a shooter in Chuck Person and solid guard play by Brian Shaw...plus with only three players on the court what else do you think they will run but the Triangle offense!

DENVER NUGGETS:
George Karl at the point, a guy who played 5 years with the Spurs and scored over 1,000 career points as a 6-2 guard.  He would team up with Adrian Dantley the Rookie of the Year back in the 76-77 season, a 6 time All-Star and two-time scoring champ and rounding out the Nuggets squad, Stacey Augmon, probably better known for his college career at UNLV but a guy who made the All-Rookie First team and scored nearly 8,000 points in his career.

GOLDEN STATE: 
Keith Smart was a heck of a college ball player and he would be teamed up with a hard-nosed PG Jerry Sichting not to mention Calbert Chaney and Mark Price a 4-time All Star and 2-time 3 point champion.  This group may be better suited for the college game than the pros but no denying the talent on the Warriors bench.

LA CLIPPERS:
The Clips have an interesting group, Vinny Del Negro was a deadly shooter (47.5% from the field) and in this mythical game he would be flanked by a couple of solid guards who could get him the ball in Robert Pack and Howard Eisley.  Not sure they could break the Clippers Curse but they could cause some matchup issues to the Wolves Crew.

Defenders:
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES:
They may be the Dark Horse of the Tourney. Lionel Hollins was named to the All-Rookie team, All-Defensive team and was an All-Star back in his day and he would be teamed up with Johnny Davis, Henry Bibby and Damon Stoudamire...lot of guards but a pretty solid lineup.

NEW JERSEY:
Led by Avery Johnson, the Little General, a guy who was a winner as a player and one of the toughest guards in the league when he played, on the wing Sam Mitchell and Popeye Jones to pound the glass.  Who wouldn't want to see Laimbeer and Popeye bang in the paint!

PHOENIX SUNS:
Phoenix brings the thunder...Thunder Dan Majerle that is! The 3-Time All-Star still looks like he can dial from deep, Alvin Gentry was a college baller under Pistol Pete Maravich's dad, Press, so you know they are going to push the ball and roaming the middle, how about Bill Cartwright, a tough, no-nonsense big man.

Pretenders:
ORLANDO:
The Van Gundy's might be the first family of basketball but you can't tell me you would want Stan running the point in this tourney!  Sure it would be nice to have Patrick Ewing (or his alter-ego Patrick Chewing) ruling the paint but that is it for that squad.  Even if you went Twin Towers style with Patrick Ewing and Patrick Chewing on the floor at the same time would SVG be able to get the Magic by the Wolves squad 

While this mythical tournament may never happen (but David Stern if you're reading this it would be a great addition to All-Star Weekend in LA this year) it sure is fun to break down some of the matchups...Rambis, Theus and Laimbeer checking Phil, Shaw and Person...Teacher vs pupil, triangle vs Rhombus...so many angles...