Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

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Rapcast #87: Matt Steinmetz talks Scott Roth and Stephen Curry

The name's Roth, Scott Roth. We talk to Matt Steinmetz from Comcast Sportsnet BayArea about the newest Raptor.

The name’s Roth, Scott Roth. A day after I highlighted the importance of assistants, the Raptors steal Scott Roth from Golden State. Other than having an absolutely rocking last name, Scott Roth has been an NBA assistant coach for seven-plus seasons, an international head coach, an NBA player, a D-League coach, and a college standout. Here’s an excerpt from article announcing his hiring in Golden State which tells you all about him:

Roth’s coaching career includes stops as an assistant coach at the NBA level with the Dallas Mavericks from 1998-2000 and the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies from 2000-2002. He has international coaching experience as the assistant for the Turkish National Team in 2001 and 2002, and was the Dominican Republic Head Coach in 2007. The 44-year old also served as the Dallas Mavericks Director of Scouting in 1997-98 and has served as a head coach in the NBA Summer League.

Roth was drafted in the fourth round of the 1985 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs before beginning his professional playing career in Europe with Efes Pilsen of Turkey. He returned to the United States to play in the CBA with the Albany Patroons in 1987, parlaying his experience into a contract with the Utah Jazz that same season. He played for both the Spurs and Jazz during the 1988-89 season and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1989-90. He appeared in a total of 160 NBA games, averaging 4.7 ppg and 1.3 rpg. Roth continued playing professionally in Europe from 1991-1995 before beginning his coaching and scouting career.

The Wisconsin native stayed home for college, attending the University of Wisconsin where he was a three-year starter. With the Badgers, he was a two-time All Big-10 selection and team most valuable player. He finished as the school’s 14th all-time leading scorer, averaging over 18 ppg as a senior.

If that wasn’t enough, we got the man who first reported the news, Matt Steinmetz who covers the Warrirors for Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area. You can follow him on Twitter. We talked about Roth, discussed the Warrirors and settled the debate of whether Stephen Curry is a point or a shooting guard.

Grab the iTunes feed or the plain old feed. You can also download the file (12:50, 4.6MB). Sorry about some parts of my audio on this clip, I was underwater feeding my pet shark when I recorded it.

[audio:http://raptorsrepublic.com/audio/2010-07-05-mattsteinmetz.mp3]

Steinmetz feels that Scott Roth’s specialty would be developing front-court players and that generally speaking he leans towards the defensive end. When you think of Roth, you don’t really think of a specialist or a protege of anyone, he’s a well-rounded coach with a feel for all parts of that game. He isn’t loyal to a system since he’s worked under many coaches. He’s got a good feel for the game and can easily be the #1 assistant on the Raptors. Roth has head-coaching aspirations and proved to some degree what he’s capable off in the D-League and internationally.

Roth isn’t a guy who’s a “yeller or screamer” but is a more composed coach who’s name could come up in head-coaching talk in the future. The reason Roth was not retained was because the Warriors ownership situation was in a bit of a flux and that any assistant coach who didn’t have a year left on their contract basically took the first job they got a sight of. Taking the “bird in hand” is how Steinmetz described it and Roth took the opportunity because nobody really knows what direction the Warriors might be heading.

The Warriors are looking to become a better rebounding and defensive team, they feel David Lee can help with the rebounding and Dorell Wright can help with the defense. The goal for the Warriors seems to be a high-30s win total. Steinmetz feels that Curry is 100% a point guard and not a shooting guard or tweener. He refers to Bobby Knight describing Curry as the best passer in college basketball and even saying that he’s “as good a passer as has ever played college basketball”, all this when Curry was averaging 20+ points and less than four assists. Steinmetz also goes on to talk about the influence of being raised in an NBA family and how that impacts the players career.

That’s that for today.

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