subject: Nba Tickets - A Look At New Nba Head Coaches [print this page] The position of head coach in the NBA is sometimes forgotten in its level of importance. While other sports have a manager or coach who performs a limited level of duties with the team, NBA head coaches are in the middle of it all, surrounded by an all-out marketing blitz from a front office that wants to sell more NBA tickets, as well as diverse players of various talents and levels of ability. Basically, they have to learn how to win with the roster which they've been given and learn how to win now, or in the shortest amount of time possible. Some head coaches are given a shorter "leash" than others, which is why there is such high turnover at times in the NBA. This offseason there are only two changes when it comes to new NBA head coaches for the upcoming season. Mike Dunlap was hired on June 19, 2012 to coach the Charlotte Bobcats, while Kaleb Canales was signed to coach the Portland Trail Blazers on March 15, 2012.
Mike Dunlap:
After the Bobcats' forgettable 2011-2012 season, in which they finished with the worst winning percentage in NBA history, the Bobcats fired Paul Silas and replaced him with Dunlap. During the years of 2006-2008, Dunlap was the assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets. Will Dunlap have any success with the Bobcats? Well, he's no stranger to winning, even though that came when he was at Metro State, leading the team to NCAA titles in both 2000 and 2002. With an overall record of 248-50, Dunlap led the Roadrunners to appearances in the NCAA Tournament during each one of his nine seasons. Not to be outdone, Dunlap was the head coach of the Adelaide 36ers in Australia's National Basketball League from 1994 through 1996, leading the 36ers to the Grand Final in 1994 and the semi-finals of the tournament in both 1995 and 1996.
Kaleb Canales:
Canales was born in July of 1978 in Laredo, Texas. After graduating from John B. Alexander High School, Canales decided to attend the University of Texas at Arlington, where he would graduate with a kinesiology degree before completing his master's degree in sports leadership from Virginia Commonwealth University. Laredo is where he would begin his coaching career, serving as the assistant coach at both United and Martin High Schools before moving onto Texas-Arlington at the collegiate level.
Canales' NBA coaching career began in an unusual fashion. Hired as the Portland Trail Blazers' video intern back in 2005, Canales would end up being promoted to the Trail Blazers' assistant coach in 2009 before serving as the team's head coach during the NBA's Summer League in 2010. When previous head coach Nate McMillan ended up being fired on March 15, 2012, it was Canales who would become the team's interim head coach. The Trail Blazers decided to remove the "interim" from Canales' title, making him the youngest head coach in the NBA (at least among active head coaches), as well as the first Mexican-American head coach in the entire history of the NBA. Canales inherits a talented team looking to move in the right direction, giving him an opportunity to make a name for himself.
