NBA: 30 players who should be coaches someday

USA basket head coach Mike Krzyzewski (R) chats with his player Rajon Rondo (L) during a training session at La Caja Magica pavillion in Madrid, on August 19, 2010. The US team arrived in Madrid to hold a four-day training camp that started on August 17, ahead of exhibition games against Lithuania, Spain and Greece before they open the world tournament in Turkey against Croatia on August 28. AFP PHOTO / JAVIER SORIANO (Photo credit should read JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images) /

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Jalen Brunson, Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images /

NBA: 30 players who should be coaches someday 23. Jalen Brunson

If one were to chart a course for a young person to follow with an eye on one day coaching, it might look something like Jalen Brunson’s path. The son of an NBA veteran, Brunson was around the league from a young age. His first coach was his dad, training him in the sport they both loved. Then he went to Villanova, playing for new Hall of Fame head coach Jay Wright, and subsequently he was drafted to play for another coaching savant in Rick Carlisle.

Brunson is the type of point guard who would make an excellent coach one day, one with the ability to see the floor and make reads without the ego to think he has to shoot every time. He is playing for his team’s benefit, and not his own, scoring when he needs to and moving the ball when that is best.

That commitment to the team and not to advancing one’s own interest is a great component in a head coach. Being a coach in the NBA is not a glamour job; it’s hours and hours of work with critical fan scrutiny as the reward. Coaches can’t play favorites or stroke their own ego if they want to be effective; they have to put in the work and prove to their players they are making decisions based on what is best for the team.

Brunson is a perfect fit as he plays without much of an ego, and his life experiences from an early age have prepared him both for being an NBA point guard and a future coach. These years spent under Carlisle will only help him towards that endpoint, should he choose to pursue it.