Tonight could be Charlotte Bobcats coach and general manager Bernie Bickerstaff’s last time coaching against his previous employer. However, such a scenario was the case last season, too.
And with the grace of a pro poker player, the former Nuggets executive and coach recently wouldn’t leave any lines to read between concerning his coaching future with the Bobcats.
“I wrote a statement at the beginning of the year that I would not talk about (my) coaching (future),” Bickerstaff said this weekend. “It’s all about the players because (we speculated) that last year. … I’m not that important at all.
“I’m having fun with these kids. They are a good group. They work hard. It’s almost like a college environment. I’m having fun from that standpoint. But I’ve been coaching a long time.”
Bickerstaff seems focused on the challenging job of developing the Bobcats the right way, from the 2004 expansion club to a playoff team. Part of his blueprint is not forgetting what he learned in Denver.
Bickerstaff arrived in Denver in July 1990 as the GM with hopes of turning around an aging team. The Nuggets went from 20 victories to 42 in three seasons, shocked Western Conference top seed Seattle in the first round of 1994 playoffs with a talented young team and advanced to the postseason in 1995.
Bickerstaff also drafted Dikembe Mutombo, Rodney Rogers, Jalen Rose and Bryant Stith, traded for Antonio McDyess, Bison Dele (formerly Brian Williams) and Robert Pack and signed Reggie Williams as a free agent.
Bickerstaff is primarily criticized for not keeping his core players. The most notable departure was losing Mutombo to Atlanta in 1996. After a young, exciting team qualified for the playoffs in two consecutive seasons, the club got older, but not better: It won only 21 games in the 1996-97 season. Bickerstaff resigned as coach 13 games into that season before leaving to coach Washington.
“We talk about it all the time here in Charlotte and use that as a barometer,” said Bickerstaff of his Nuggets past. “We redid everything in Denver in three years. Everybody talks about free agents and all that.
“But I tell them the most important thing you have to take care of is what you have in-house, your core group of players. That did not happen in Denver. We did not provide the resources to keep some key pieces.”
Bickerstaff has tried to build Charlotte through the draft. Now the Bobcats (15-28) have a lot of young talent, led by 2005 rookie of the year Emeka Okafor and rookie Adam Morrison, as well as 2006 all-rookie second-teamer Raymond Felton, forward Sean May, swingman Gerald Wallace and center Primoz Brezec.
“He’s hung in there in a lot of situations and has done great with some teams,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “He’s respected in coaching as one of the solid guys.”
Bickerstaff said Charlotte misses a go-to star.
“The games we lose, we don’t have a (Kevin) Garnett or a Melo (Carmelo Anthony) or somebody that they can go to and put the ball in their hands,” Bickerstaff said. “We search. That’s the difference.”
With their first-round draft pick and possibly Toronto’s in the 2007 draft and money to spend in free agency, the Bobcats could enter next season primed to make their first playoff appearance. Bickerstaff said he and Michael Jordan, the Bobcats’ new managing member of basketball operations, talk “all the time” and are on the same page.
“It’s good and it’s honest,” Bickerstaff said. “What I like about that situation is the integrity that’s involved. There is no (games). There is no backstabbing.”
Bickerstaff is confident he will turn around the Bobcats soon. But whether he will be coach or GM at that time remains to be seen.
“Coaching long-term has never been in my plans from jump-street,” said Bickerstaff, who has also coached Seattle and is 397-496 in 13 seasons. “My thing is to get through this and see what we need to add to this basketball team.”
Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-954-1098 or mspears@denverpost.com.
