Assistant Coaching Roundup

With Mike Sanders not asked back, Larry Krystkowiak needing to replace the coaching void left by his own promotion, and Lester Conner leaving yesterday as expected to take an assistant's job with the Pacers, the Bucks have been busy rounding out their coaching staff this week.

• Tony Brown was hired from the Boston Celtics, where he had been assistant the past couple seasons. He's a former Buck player and scout, with other assistant coaching stops in Portland, Toronto and Detroit. He played with Krystkowiak in Milwaukee and will assume the top assistant position. I think he has a rep for being more defensive-oriented, but it would have been hard to tell from watching the Celtics the past couple seasons. It's rumored he was only offered one year deal when Doc Rivers got a two year extension, which given Rivers' complete ineptitude isn't very confidence inspiring from a Bucks fan perspective.
  
• Bill Peterson was hired from Colorado State, where he had been an associate head coach for seven years. He will also serve as assistant coach for player development, and while the vast majority of his career has been at the collegiate level, he worked in a similar role for the Mavs from '98-'00.
  
• So if you're doing the math, that means three of last year's four assistants are gone (or in LK's situation, promoted), with two new hires. Most of the other discussion has been around former Buck Jack Sikma, whose team option was not picked up by the Sonics. On the surface, bringing back a former Buck great like Sikma to tutor Bogut seems like a good plan, but given all the young bigs in Seattle I also wonder what his availability suggests about his coaching ability. Most likely the unusual situation in Seattle is to blame.