If you look at the recent history of college coaches who jumped to the NBA, their success rate at the professional level was not vary good. Mike Montgomery, Leonard Hamilton, Tim Floyd, Lon Kruger, were abject failures coaching in the pros. Even extremely successful college coaches like Jerry Tarkanian failed miserably. John Calipari had one good season with the Nets. PJ Carlesimo made the playoffs a couple times with the Trailblazers, but nothing special. Rick Pitino's brilliance at the collegiate level never translated to the same level of success in the Pros (although his two years with the Knicks were good while his tenure with the Celtics was not)
You really have to start talking "old school" coaches to find men that had great success in the NBA after coaching in college: Bill Fitch, John MacLeod, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Dick Motta.
Whereas the NFL is much more of a coaching league, The NBA is a players league. Just look at the Past NBA Champions. With the exception of the Pistons in 2003, I'll bet that most (if not all) NBA winners have had at least one Hall of Famer on their roster. One great player can make an average coach look much better than he is. But even the smartest of coaches, while they can certainly get the most of the talent they are given, can not succeed in the long run without great players. Think how different Rick Pitino's tenure in Boston would have been had they been able to draft Tim Duncan instead of the Spurs.
Will Brad Stevens succeed in Boston? He has proven to be an excellent college coach (two trips to the NCAA finals as a mid-major coach is extremely impressive). But I am not sure he will do well with the current Celtic roster (especially if Rondo is traded or can't come back as the same player from his injury) Stevens will ultimately succeed or fail based on the roster he is given.
-- Modified on 7/4/2013 2:20:47 AM
