Golden State Warriors: Hiring Mike Malone as an assistant reveals more than we think

Joe Lacob and his Golden State Warriors hired Mark Jackson as their head coach on Monday, and there were mixed reactions.

Jackson has no coaching experience and quickly made the jump from game commentator to coach. However, he brings a new, young and remarkable face to the Golden State Warriors franchise.

Done.

There had to be some kind of trick, right?

The Warriors certainly wouldn’t hire an NBA commentator, with monotonous phrases like “Mom, there goes that man” and “hand down, man down,” without something to help ease the pain of their extremely loyal fan base.

Enter Mike Malone.

The former New Orleans Hornets assistant coach, considered one of the best assistants in the game, will join Mark Jackson on the Warriors’ bench next season.

This was a huge victory for Lacob and Co., who literally snatched Malone from the cold, dead hands of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Malone was a highly coveted head coaching candidate before he landed the Warriors’ assistant coaching job, even being considered for the Golden State job he now finds himself in.

He was an extremely serious candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers assistant job due to his previous ties to head coach Mike Brown.

He signed with the Warriors for a three-year deal, as well as a hefty fee for an assistant coach.

Malone is a smart guy with a passion for the defensive end of the ball, which is why the Warriors were able to throw such a large sum of money at an assistant coach (reportedly).

So what does the Malone hire say about the Jackson hire?

Some say Malone may actually be a better head coach than Jackson, though this is unproven as Jackson has yet to coach a single game at any level.

Make no mistake, Lacob knew what he was doing here.

Yes, he hired Jackson because he’s a big name with a strong desire to train. But this Malone signing may be the biggest story here.

This, to me, says that the Warriors feel that Jackson may not be ready to coach in the NBA and may need a little help from someone with a little more experience, at least to get started. Malone is there to guide you.

Malone could have taken another job elsewhere. He was considered the best assistant coach in all of basketball. There has to be something more to a story in which the top coach on the rise settles for a mediocre assistant job.

Either the Warriors have paid him through the roof, or Lacob has a plan here.

It seems to be both.

I don’t want to assume too much, but if Jackson can’t cut the mustard at Golden State after two years, I expect Malone to rank extremely high on the list of possible head-coaching candidates. In fact, he may be the only one on that list, as the reported amount of cash Lacob is paying him seems to reveal.

For now, don’t look at Golden State’s new head-coaching hire as a lost cause thrown at a man known for his catchphrases during games with little-known NBA analysis behind him.

Let’s call the Warriors’ head coaching job what it is. It’s a joint training job done by Jackson and Malone.

At least that’s what it seems.

As for Lacob, he got his big name trainer in Jackson. But more importantly, he landed a future NBA coach in Malone, a defensive specialist the team sorely needed.