He’s not yet ready to retire from playing basketball yet but it seems that veteran point guard Darell Armstong may have a job waiting for him somewhere when he does. Armstrong wants to be a head coach in the NBA and it does seem he has the knack for it. Will he be the next Avery Johnson? It’s way way too early to tell if he’ll be able to lead a team to the Finals in his first full year as a head coach but “The Next Avery” probably means that he’ll be a pretty successful young coach in the league in the future who might ascend to head coaching status really quickly.

“He has the personality for it,” said Byron Scott, who coached Armstrong with the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. “Darrell is one of those guys that is going to tell it how it is. He works hard as a player and I think he’ll do the same as a coach. He can relate to these guys from a coaching standpoint. I think he understands the game and I think he’ll be a very good coach in this league for a long time, if he’s given the opportunity.” Source

I noticed that a lot of former players who end up becoming good coaches in the league are guys who played point guard. Guys like Lenny Wilkens, Nate Mcmillan, Avery Johnson, Scott Skiles and others like them played the point in their playing career and have all been successful at coaching. I guess it’s the demands on being a general on the floor to lead the team and to make the plays that makes it pretty natural for the point guard spot to generate a lot of good coaches.

Let’s see what will happen to Darrell in a couple of years. Right now he’s still a player and still a pretty good and reliable one for the Indiana Pacers. I wish him luck for the rest of his playing days and also for his post retirement days.