The hiring of Luke Walton is an example of why Josh Pastner will be successful

Josh Pastner is a smart guy.

Like really, really smart.

You see, after he failed to lure Tim Grgurich -- an NBA assistant coach -- to join his Memphis program, he found himself in a bit of a predicament. It was half past August, and Pastner hadn't completed his coaching staff. He went far enough to say that he was strongly considering heading into the season with just two assistants on his staff.

Just about everyone with an opinion -- and a venue to voice that opinion -- urged Pastner to hire someone. Anyone. We said that he should sign some shlep to go around the country sitting in high school gyms with a Memphis shirt on to "scout" the kids the Tigers were targeting. Gary Parrish went a step further by saying that Pastner should hire the father of one of those recruits onto his staff. Package deals are still alive and well so long as the new coach ends up as an official assistant coach.


Pastner did us all one better. He hired Luke Walton. As in the son of Bill, current Laker forward Luke Walton.

That's genius.

And that's why its tough to picture a future where Pastner isn't running one of the best programs in the country.

Purely as a basketball coach, John Calipari isn't great. He's very, very good, but he's not Dean Smith. Or Bobby Knight. Or John Wooden. He's not the kind of hoops tactician that can revolutionize how the game is played. Think about it like this: if your team is playing for the national title and you can pick any coach in the country to be on the sideline during that game, where do you pick Coach Cal? Off the top of my head, he's behind at least Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski and Brad Stevens. Maybe Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim as well. Is he taken before the Roy Williams' and the Billy Donovan's off the world? Would you consider him a better coach than a Jamie Dixon or a Bo Ryan, the kind of coach that can win despite being as a talent disadvantage?

What makes Coach Cal so successful is his ability to recruit. And that ability to recruit at unheard of levels is a perfect storm of Coach Cal's moxie and salesmanship on the recruiting trail, the zealots that make up Big Blue Nation and pack every home game, and his NBA Draft track record.

More importantly, however, is that Coach Cal has embraced things that other coaches haven't. He's outspoken about the fact that he wants his players on a fast track to the NBA. He came up with the idea of holding a pro-day for the guys from his program that were considering entering the NBA Draft this past April. The two Kentucky Legends games that he scheduled last week were so popular that Kansas has decided to piggy-back off of that idea.

In other words, Coach Cal understands what kids want, and he is creative and innovative enough in his recruiting to build a unique pitch to the players he targets.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree for the guy that replaced Coach Cal at Memphis.

Pastner has built a coaching staff that would rival any in the country in terms of their NBA experience. Luke Walton has played alongside Kobe Bryant, has been coached by Phil Jackson, and has two rings and played in the NBA Finals four times. Walton, who will be able to break his contract with Memphis as soon as the lockout is over, is probably trying to prepare himself of a coaching career after his playing career ends (which could be sooner rather than later, as he has been banged up the last two seasons). Walton was also a member of Arizona back when Pastner was still a spritely young assistant coach in 2003.

But Walton isn't the only guy on the staff with NBA experience. Damon Stoudamire, who played in the league for 13 years, and Jack Murphy, who was an advanced scout with the Nuggets, round out his staff. At 37 years old, Stoudamire is the oldest member of the staff.

The kids that Memphis targets are, generally speaking, going to have the potential to be NBA players. They are going to be competing with the best programs in the country for kids like Will Barton, Adonis Thomas, Jarnell Stokes and Archie Goodwin. By putting together a young staff -- a staff with significant NBA experience and extensive first-hand knowledge of the pro game -- Pastner has built an innovative and fairly unique recruiting pitch.

Blue-chip high school players want to be turned from talented youths to successful pros.

Who better to do that than a 13-year NBA veteran point guard, a current NBA forward that has spent years learning from Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, and a guy that was paid to evaluate NBA talent for a living.