Bob MacKinnon Jr. is a Nets lifer in a way. As the son of the man who twice served as an interim head coach and was a longtime assistant as well as the team’s general manager during the ’80s, the younger MacKinnon saw the Nets up close and personal. He developed relationships with players such as Mike O’Koren, Mike Gminski, Darryl Dawkins and Micheal Ray Richardson. He learned to do things the Nets’ way.
Now he has been hired to run things the Nets’ way with the team’s D-League Springfield Armor affiliate.
MacKinnon was introduced yesterday as the head coach of the Armor, the D-League team that the Nets entered into a hybrid affiliate with last season. Under the setup, the Nets will run and direct all basketball operations, and local ownership will handle all business and marketing aspects. MacKinnon, a former D-League head coach with Idaho and Colorado, said he has sat and discussed implementing Net head coach Avery Johnson’s system with the Armor.
“It’s going to be tremendous experience for me. A couple [of] weeks ago when I came in to interview with Avery, it was less of an interview and more just X-ing and O-ing together,” MacKinnon said. “Like, an hour-and-a-half flew by and Coach Johnson said, ‘I can do this for six hours.’ And I said, ‘Me too.’ . . . Getting a chance to learn his system and get his terminology is going to be big for me and I’m just excited about the opportunity. I know what a great defensive mind he has, and I can’t wait to learn.”
The real benefit for the Nets is essentially having a minor league team they can use to rehab players, get them to work on specific aspects of their game or just keep them in shape. The shift back and forth should be seamless because the Armor will use Johnson’s system and terminology.
“It’s a great benefit. Because you’re running one system throughout and one terminology throughout, so especially when you get assigned to us, there’s no change in terminology, there’s no change in structure and how things are run,” MacKinnon said. “I like coaching in the D-League because players are so motivated. . . . And they know that they need to develop their games and to get a chance to get looks and things like that, and develop what I call their basketball resume.”
The Nets and Armor are in the process of formulating gathering a roster. The D-League operates separately from the NBA and is not subject to the lockout. Players drafted by an NBA team or players who ended last season on an NBA roster, though, are not eligible for the D-League.