A mere two weeks after assistant coach Brian Scalabrine was exiled to Golden State’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz for allegedly falling from favor with head coach Mark Jackson (above), the Warriors have terminated another assistant, Darren Erman, for what’s being called “violation of company policy”. “Obviously, the timing is unfortunate,” said Warriors GM / master of understatement Bob Myers, and with two weeks before the playoffs begin, the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami claims, “multiple team sources have acknowledged that things have gotten a little screwy, but it’s also something that I believe owner Joe Lacob is consciously doing.”
Let’s put it this way: The San Antonio Spurs never dismiss key assistants on the eve of the playoffs. Seems to work out OK for them that way.
This all is a sign of violent instability, which usually is connected to a major problem between management and the coach, which usually only gets worse, not better, once it starts, and little things turn into big things turn into crisis mode all the time.
As today’s news was breaking, I was told by a Warriors source that circumstances of Erman’s dismissal are “very, very unfortunate” and made it sound like an isolated incident, but the source also didn’t argue that everything that happens now is against the backdrop of a lot of coach/management tension.
Stephen Curry and the rest of the team leaders support Jackson, now it’s on them to show that he’s the best coach for them. By winning in the playoffs, despite the roiling atmosphere at GSW HQ. That’s the gambit now; it’s not kumbaya, it’s venture-capitalist survive or get dumped. If you don’t understand that about this era of the Warriors, you’re never going to understand them.