Tag: Matt Bullard

Matt Bullard excited by new challenge in Rockets’ front office

“I’ve already been to work, been looking at draft prospects,” Bullard told Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. “It’s been a blast so far.”

When longtime Houston Rockets player and broadcaster Matt Bullard announced that he wasn’t returning to his usual television role with AT&T SportsNet Southwest, he made clear that it wasn’t his decision.

However, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t excited about what’s to come in his new role as an analyst in Houston’s front office beneath general manager Rafael Stone. “This change for me is very exciting,” Bullard tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. “It’s a new challenge I’m really excited about. I’m looking forward. I’ve already been to work, been looking at draft prospects. It’s been a blast so far.”

The Rockets currently own three first-round picks in the July 29 draft, headlined by the No. 2 overall selection. As such, Bullard should have a busy month as he gets acquainted with many of the 2021 rookie prospects. NBA free agency then begins in the first week of August, which will prompt yet another round of player evaluations by teams.

Bullard and Chris Wallace, who spent nearly 20 years as a general manager with Boston and Memphis, are the newest additions to Stone’s staff. Outside of Stone and assistant general manager Eli Witus, all are broadly considered scouts or analysts and are not given a more formal job title — since Stone prioritizes a collaborative approach and wants his front office members to share input on all sorts of topics.

Houston’s full list of scouts and analysts now includes Bullard, Wallace, Ed Pinckney, Chuck Hayes, Matt Barlowe, Alain Digbeu, Jake Flancer, Ross Homan, Ed Kupfer, Jimmy Paulis, Javier Pesquera, Marko Radovanovic, Jason Roman, Ben Rubin, Travis Stockbridge, and Cole Zwicker.

[lawrence-related id=50828,49830]

[listicle id=49943]

Matt Bullard, Chris Wallace join Rockets’ basketball operations staff

Rafael Stone is making two high-profile additions to his basketball operations staff with the hires of Matt Bullard and Chris Wallace.

Houston Rockets general manager Rafael Stone is making two high-profile additions to his basketball operations staff with the hires of Matt Bullard and Chris Wallace to front-office roles. Neither will have an official title, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, since Stone prefers to allow his staff to weigh in on all types of decisions.

Bullard is the third former NBA player in Houston’s front office, joining Ed Pinckney and Chuck Hayes. He played 11 NBA seasons, headlined by nine years with the Rockets and a spot on the 1993-94 championship team — which was the first to win a title in franchise history.

Since 2005, Bullard has worked as a game analyst for Houston’s local television broadcasts. His TV contract was not renewed after the 2020-21 season, but he quickly noted his ambition to join an NBA team in a management role, and this is the culmination of that goal.

As for Wallace, he began working in the NBA in 1986 as a scout and earned his first role as general manager with the Boston Celtics in 2000.

In 2007, he moved to Memphis as general manager and vice president of basketball operations, effectively replacing Jerry West. Wallace remained in that role until 2019, when he transitioned to an advisory role. Wallace was best known for building the defensive minded “grit and grind” era of the Grizzlies, which featured regular playoff appearances and big names such as Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, and Zach Randolph.

For Stone, who is still in his first calendar year as the lead executive in Houston (where he replaced Daryl Morey), the hires should alleviate any concern by fans regarding a lack of experience or pedigree.

“Houston made it a priority to add experience and expertise under Rafael Stone, investing in infrastructure as the franchise rebuilds,” writes ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. Bullard and Wallace could be consulted quickly, since the Rockets own three first-round picks in the July 29 draft and a have potentially busy start to free agency in the following week.

[lawrence-related id=50085,49830]

[listicle id=49943]

Matt Bullard wants Rockets center Christian Wood to shoot over the top

“The only thing that I think Christian Wood should work on in the post area is shooting over the top of smaller guys,” Bullard said.

In his playing days with the Houston Rockets in the 1990s, Matt Bullard was a slender 6-foot-10 forward whose best attribute at the NBA level was an ability to shoot well from distance.

As a result, Houston’s longtime television analyst — and perhaps a future front office member — has some ideas for how young big man Christian Wood can further develop his game. While Wood’s lanky frame often draws attention for his obvious lack of bulk, Bullard doesn’t want to see Wood focus on traditional post play. Rather, he wants the 25-year-old to shoot over the top of smaller and/or less athletic defenders.

In new comments to Zach Allen of The Dream Shake, Bullard said this of Houston’s athletic and sweet-shooting big man:

One of the reasons I like watching Christian Wood play is because I sort of identified with him. We have the same body type, 6-10, long arms, and not real bulky — and, in fact, very slender. … You want to keep him away from banging in the post, because he is not going to have the advantage down there because of the way his body is. The only thing that I think Christian Wood should work on in the post area is shooting over the top of smaller guys.

One of the things I learned directly when I was playing, going against the Detroit Pistons, I remember how exactly it went down. They switched, Joe Dumars is guarding me now, so I take Joe Dumars into the post and Kenny Smith throws me the ball and I’m trying to get advantage on Joe Dumars, and I got no chance because Joe Dumars is up underneath me, and he has a lower center of gravity, and he was so strong… it was like a fire hydrant.

There is no way me at 6-10, like really tall with a high center of gravity, is going to get any leverage on him. Players like Christian Wood shouldn’t be trying to bang in the post, they shouldn’t be trying to punish smaller players. They should be just working on shooting over the top, because that’s where the advantage of his body frame really lies.

The full interview between Allen and Bullard can be read here.

During his first season with the Rockets and in his first year as a consistent NBA starter, Wood averaged 21.0 points (51.4% FG, 37.4% on 3-pointers) and 9.6 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game. Prior to a severe ankle sprain on Feb. 4, Wood had earned some All-Star consideration for his play. He’s under contract for two more years and is likely a fixture as a frontcourt starter in Houston for the foreseeable future.

[lawrence-related id=49649,49519]

https://embed.sendtonews.com/oembed/?SC=9BsXcOcLsF-1286022-7498&format=json&offsetx=0&offsety=0&floatwidth=400&floatposition=bottom-right&float=on

[listicle id=49927]

Matt Bullard says he’s talking with NBA teams about a management role

Bullard isn’t returning as a broadcaster, but he is interested in working with the Rockets or another franchise in a management position.

Former Houston Rockets player Matt Bullard won’t be returning to his usual role of television broadcaster during the 2021-22 season, but that doesn’t mean that he’s done with the NBA. Far from it, in fact.

Bullard tells Zach Allen of The Dream Shake that he’s in talks with several teams about a potential management role. “One of the things I know about life is the only constant in life is change,” the 54-year-old said. “For me, moving on from TV and looking to get into management, and I’ll tell you there are several teams that I’m currently talking with. For me, it’s a welcome change, and I’m looking for a new challenge.”

Bullard points to Brent Barry, Shane Battier, and Rudy Tomjanovich as examples of former NBA players who successfully became front office members, and he would love to follow that path. He explains:

I’m trying to follow the same path that guys like Brent Barry, Shane Battier, and even what Rudy T is doing right now with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Those guys are blazing a path for guys like me to be in the front office, so we can (be a bridge) between the analytics and the basketball side. Sort of be a translator, trying to help the basketball guys to understand the analytics are telling us. Also, trying to figure out from the basketball guys what questions need to be answered.

Bullard, who won an NBA championship as a reserve forward with Houston’s first title team in 1993-94, did not say if the Rockets — whose front office is led by general manager Rafael Stone — are one of the teams that he’s currently in talks with. Elsewhere in the interview, Bullard expressed an openness to potential coaching roles, as well.

The complete Q&A between Allen and Bullard can be read here.

[lawrence-related id=49830]

[listicle id=49943]

Matt Bullard says he’s talking with NBA teams about a management role

Bullard isn’t returning as a broadcaster, but he is interested in working with the Rockets or another franchise in a management position.

Former Houston Rockets player Matt Bullard won’t be returning to his usual role of television broadcaster during the 2021-22 season, but that doesn’t mean that he’s done with the NBA. Far from it, in fact.

Bullard tells Zach Allen of The Dream Shake that he’s in talks with several teams about a potential management role. “One of the things I know about life is the only constant in life is change,” the 54-year-old said. “For me, moving on from TV and looking to get into management, and I’ll tell you there are several teams that I’m currently talking with. For me, it’s a welcome change, and I’m looking for a new challenge.”

Bullard points to Brent Barry, Shane Battier, and Rudy Tomjanovich as examples of former NBA players who successfully became front office members, and he would love to follow that path. He explains:

I’m trying to follow the same path that guys like Brent Barry, Shane Battier, and even what Rudy T is doing right now with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Those guys are blazing a path for guys like me to be in the front office, so we can (be a bridge) between the analytics and the basketball side. Sort of be a translator, trying to help the basketball guys to understand the analytics are telling us. Also, trying to figure out from the basketball guys what questions need to be answered.

Bullard, who won an NBA championship as a reserve forward with Houston’s first title team in 1993-94, did not say if the Rockets — whose front office is led by general manager Rafael Stone — are one of the teams that he’s currently in talks with. Elsewhere in the interview, Bullard expressed an openness to potential coaching roles, as well.

The complete Q&A between Allen and Bullard can be read here.

[lawrence-related id=49830]

[listicle id=49943]

Matt Bullard not returning as television analyst for Rockets

Bullard spent nine seasons with the Rockets as an NBA player and began his broadcasting career with the franchise in the 2005-06 season.

In a year of dramatic change for the Houston Rockets as an organization, headlined by the departures of former superstar James Harden, general manager Daryl Morey, head coach Mike D’Antoni, and CEO Tad Brown, they can now add television analyst to that long list.

Former player and longtime TV analyst Matt Bullard will not return to his usual role, as first reported by Jackson Gatlin of the Locked on Rockets podcast. Bullard played nine of his 11 NBA seasons in Houston, primarily during the 1990s, and he began calling games as a team broadcaster in the 2005-06 season. Bullard was a reserve forward for the 1993-94 squad that became the first in franchise history to win the NBA title.

Bullard told Gatlin that he was not given a reason for the decision, and he did not ask. Among his comments, via Houston CBS affiliate KHOU:

They called me just a couple days ago and said that they were not going to be renewing my contract. It was a big surprise to me. I felt like the work that we did this year on AT&T SportsNet in the middle of a pandemic — calling games off of monitors, and not being able to travel and be with the team — I felt like the product that we put out this year was some of our best work.

I was looking forward to getting right back at it next season, but they called and said that they will not be renewing my contract. So I won’t be back on AT&T SportsNet next season.

As a broadcaster, Bullard was nominated for two individual Lone Star  EMMY Awards (2010 and 2015) and was part of the broadcast team that won the Lone Star EMMY Award for Live Production in 2013. Most recently, Bullard worked for AT&T SportsNet Southwest, which is the local television affiliate that now broadcasts most of the team’s games.

Veteran play-by-play broadcaster Bill Worrell, who worked with Bullard over the last 15 years, is also not returning to the booth. As part of a gradual retirement plan, Worrell had transitioned to home-only broadcasts over the last few seasons, with Craig Ackerman — the team’s longtime voice on radio broadcasts — taking over the road TV duties.

Since Worrell and Ackerman were only working half of the games, Bullard’s departure could feel the most significant to TV viewers. After all, he and courtside reporter Cayleigh Griffin (who joined prior to the 2019-20 season) were the only consistent voices on local broadcasts.

The Rockets and AT&T SportsNet Southwest have yet to announce their broadcasters for the 2021-22 season, which is likely to begin in October. The timetable for announcements beyond Bullard is not yet clear.

[lawrence-related id=48988,16185]

[vertical-gallery id=49138]

‘Make Houston Clutch Again’: Former Rockets back Sam Cassell

Sam Cassell is reported to be a head coaching consideration for the Rockets, and several of his former teammates seem to like the idea.

Several members of the 1994 and 1995 “Clutch City” championship teams appear to be endorsing former teammate Sam Cassell as a candidate to replace outgoing Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni.

Cassell has worked as an NBA assistant for the last 11 seasons, including time with renowned Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers since 2014. “Mutual interest” was reported between Cassell and Houston shortly after D’Antoni informed the team that he wouldn’t return.

In recent days, former teammate Vernon Maxwell — who played in the backcourt alongside Cassell during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons — has used his (often hilarious) Twitter account to promote Cassell’s candidacy. He’s even created his own slogan of sorts, with “Make Houston Clutch Again” as a clear reference to the “Clutch City” era.

On Tuesday morning, Maxwell attempted to draw a humorous distinction between Cassell and fellow Clippers assistant Ty Lue — who is also believed to be a serious candidate for the Houston job opening.

Fellow 1990s teammate Matt Bullard, who now works as a television analyst for Houston’s game broadcasts, posted an archived photo Tuesday with the tagline “Clutch City.” The image from their playing days features Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Mario Elie… and Cassell.

Elie quickly retweeted it, perhaps offering an endorsement of his own. Elie has previously served as an assistant coach for several NBA coaches, which could potentially make him a staff consideration, as well.

Current Houston guard Austin Rivers, who played for Cassell in Los Angeles, has raved about Cassell’s offseason player development work. In particular, Rivers said Cassell helped him with his mid-range game, which Cassell was known for in his own playing days and could represent a philosophical contrast with the recent D’Antoni era.

During the 2020 playoffs, Doc Rivers made an emphatic case for why Cassell deserves to be hired for a lead job. Among his comments:

Sam Cassell should be a head coach, now. He’s got an incredibly high basketball IQ, and I hope he gets a shot. He’s paid every due that is possible and he’s yet to get a job, so I’m hoping that happens.

It isn’t yet clear if the backing of these big names will carry any weight, since GM Daryl Morey will be making the final decision. But it certainly can’t hurt, and if nothing else, it makes for a fun and entertaining trip down memory lane during the early days of Houston’s offseason.

[lawrence-related id=38251,38289]

Matt Bullard: 1990s Rockets were close to their own three-peat

How close were the Houston Rockets to winning a third championship in the early 1990s? Closer than you might think. Here’s why.

For many NBA fans, the most popular hypothetical from the 1990s era involves Michael Jordan‘s temporary mid-career retirement in October 1993. With the Chicago Bulls coming off three straight titles, many wonder if they’d have kept winning, had Jordan continued to play.

The Houston Rockets, of course, won the next two NBA championships in 1994 and 1995 following Jordan’s decision to walk away.

From Houston’s perspective, there’s a different hypothetical. What if one of two relatively open shots had gone down at the end of Game 7 of their second-round series at Seattle in the 1993 playoffs? Matt Bullard, who played nine seasons with the Rockets between 1990 and 2001 and now works as a broadcaster for the team, thinks he knows the answer.

“Had Seattle not beaten us in the playoffs in 1993, we probably would have three-peated in 1993, 1994, and 1995,” Bullard said Tuesday in an appearance on flagship radio station SportsTalk 790 in Houston. “We would’ve beaten the Bulls in 1993.”

[protected-iframe id=”10b0bab3ddb5ec45a49af7b302f91f40-134770792-70442694″ info=”https://widget.spreaker.com/widgets.js” class=”spreaker-player”]

Looking back, there are legitimate reasons for that confidence. By Win Shares, the 1992-93 season was the best of Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon‘s entire career. “The Dream” played all 82 games and averaged 26.1 points (52.9% FG), 13.0 rebounds, and a league-high 4.2 blocks per game, which led to him finishing second in MVP voting.

The Rockets went 55-27 that season, which was tied for the second-best record in the Western Conference. They also got much better as the year moved along, with two winning streaks of 15 games and 11 games in the regular season’s final two months. After starting the year 14-16, they finished 41-11 (.788) — good for a 65-win pace over a full season.

Though the Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton-led SuperSonics were a juggernaut in their own right, Houston had two golden opportunities late in Game 7 of a tight second-round series. With the game tied in the closing seconds of regulation, sharpshooting guard Kenny Smith missed a clean look from the corner that would’ve won the game at the buzzer.

Then, trailing by only one point in the closing seconds of overtime, Vernon Maxwell missed a go-ahead shot on the left baseline from about 18 feet away. Seattle then made two free throws in the final second to escape with the 103-100 victory (box score).

There were also a series of questionable officiating calls late in Game 7, each working to the benefit of the home team.

It was only a second-round series, of course. Even had Houston won, they would’ve had to then defeat both of that year’s NBA Finals participants (Phoenix and Chicago) in back-to-back rounds, in order to win the title.

But there’s certainly reason to wonder. The Rockets beat Charles Barkley’s Suns in a playoff series in each of the next two years, and they also won their final two regular-season games versus Phoenix in 1992-93.

[lawrence-related id=27704]

While Houston never faced the Bulls in the playoffs, they did go 5-1 versus Chicago in the regular season from 1990-91 through 1992-93 — including 2-0 in that final season, with both wins by double digits. Olajuwon was a tough matchup for the Bulls and the likes of Bill Cartwright, while Maxwell embraced the challenge of covering Jordan.

[lawrence-related id=29473,28733]

As it was, the Suns defeated Seattle in a seven-game Western Conference Finals before losing to Chicago in the NBA Finals in six games. But just as the Bulls wonder what might have been had Jordan not stepped away later that year, the Rockets have a fascinating 1993 hypothetical of their own about what might have happened with just one more shot.

[lawrence-related id=28239]

Matt Bullard: Scottie Pippen ‘not my favorite teammate’ on Rockets

Houston broadcaster Matt Bullard has fond memories of former Rockets teammate Charles Barkley, but not so much for Scottie Pippen.

After the 1997-98 NBA season, which is currently being profiled on ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary, longtime Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen chose to sign a new contract with the Houston Rockets.

It did not go nearly as well as envisioned.

Despite having three future Hall of Famers in Pippen, Charles Barkley, and Hakeem Olajuwon, the ’99 Rockets went just 29-21 in the regular season and were dispatched in the first round of the playoffs. Pippen then got into a public feud with Barkley that offseason, and Houston traded him to Portland after just one season with the franchise.

Current Houston broadcaster Matt Bullard played nine seasons with the Rockets over a period from 1990 to 2001, and he was on the roster for the complete tenures of both Pippen and Barkley in Houston.

In a Tuesday appearance on flagship radio station SportsTalk 790, Bullard looked back on those memories.

“When Scottie Pippen left the Bulls, I didn’t realize that he was coming off of being very underpaid for seven years,” Bullard said. “I didn’t know that he had that saltiness about being underpaid when he came to us. But I do remember, the rest of us — when Scottie came, and it was already after training camp had started a little bit — he came into Houston, and he never really did integrate himself into the Rockets’ organization.”

Bullard continued:

He never really tried to make an effort to be a Houston Rocket. … He was coming in thinking, ‘Hey, I’m Michael Jordan.’ I mean, not really Michael Jordan, but ‘I’m Scottie Pippen.’ And the rest of us could feel that. Those types of things still stick with me. … Looking back on all the teammates I’ve had, I would say that Scottie Pippen was not one of my favorite teammates. Because when I did play with him, he wasn’t trying to be a Rocket. He was just trying to be the man, and it didn’t really work.

[protected-iframe id=”10b0bab3ddb5ec45a49af7b302f91f40-134770792-70442694″ info=”https://widget.spreaker.com/widgets.js” class=”spreaker-player”]

Pippen averaged 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.0 steals per game during his one season with the Rockets.

By contrast, Bullard had a much more positive recollection of his years with Barkley. Here’s how Bullard characterized Barkley as a teammate, along with what led to his falling out with Pippen:

When Barkley came to the Rockets, he did try to integrate himself. He did a really good job of being a great teammate. He’s one of my favorite teammates of all-time. … I really enjoyed playing with him, and he really tried to make the Rockets better and play alongside Hakeem and Clyde [Drexler], and really tried to win games.

Charles had to take a paycut in order for Scottie Pippen to sign that big contract. I think when Charles made the sacrifice to take less money to bring in Pippen, and Scottie comes in and doesn’t try to integrate himself into the roster or the team, I think that really rubbed Charles the wrong way. Barkley really wanted to win a championship.

Obviously he never won one, but he felt like this was going to be his last chance to win one, teaming up with “The Dream” and Scottie Pippen. And Pippen came in and wasn’t playing well, and wasn’t a good teammate.

From there, Bullard shared a story about a bus trip with the team in the 1999 season to further illustrate what he meant.

“I remember one time on a bus ride, we had lost a game and we were going to the airport and we were all down,” Bullard said.

“We heard in the back, Scottie Pippen say very loudly so that everyone could hear, ‘We would’ve never done this with the Bulls.’ To me, it was like, ‘Hmm. That’s not good.’ So I can understand why Charles and Pippen got sideways when they were Rockets, and I can understand Charles’ side of it, because he took a paycut in order to bring Pippen in.”

Bullard said he was stunned by Pippen’s recent revelation on “The Last Dance” that he still had no regrets about refusing to enter a 1994 playoff game in the closing seconds when Chicago head coach Phil Jackson had drawn up the final shot for Toni Kukoc, rather than Pippen.

How about that? That was shocking, that Scottie Pippen basically quit on his teammates. He didn’t go into the game, didn’t inbound the ball. Toni Kukoc hits the shot to win, and Scottie still hasn’t learned his lesson after 25 to 30 years that ‘Hey, you don’t quit on your teammates.’ How the coach wants to run the play is how you should do it. … Those types of things follow you throughout your career.

Bullard declined to share more stories about Pippen, but his closing statement to hosts Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler summed it up.

“I’m not going to throw all the stuff out in public,” Bullard said with a laugh. “But I will say that Scottie’s not one of my favorite teammates. He never really was a Rocket, and that summarizes it right there.”

[lawrence-related id=9928,9747]

Tomjanovich on his coaching style: ‘Encouragement builds confidence’

In an interview with Matt Bullard (his former player), ‘Rudy T’ explains the unique coaching style that helped make him a Hall of Famer.

Former Houston Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich was seen by many as a “players’ coach” during his tenure, and he expands on that philosophy in a new interview with his former player, Matt Bullard.

“Rudy T,” as he’s best known, was recently announced as an inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020. In his 11-plus seasons as the team’s head coach from 1992 through 2003, Tomjanovich led Houston to a 503-397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51-39 (.567) mark in the NBA playoffs, headlined by two championships in 1994 and 1995. He is by far the winningest coach in franchise history.

In his chat Wednesday with Bullard and play-by-play broadcaster Craig Ackerman, who normally work together on Houston’s game telecasts, Tomjanovich reflected on his personal Hall of Fame news while also offering some new perspective on his unique coaching philosophy.

Here’s how one exchange from the interview went:

Bullard: One of the biggest things that I took away from your coaching is that when you feel like a coach is on your side, you want to play harder for that coach and not let him down. When you have a coach yelling at you constantly, then you just tune him out.

Tomjanovich: Absolutely. Encouragement builds confidence. Over the years, I tried to verbalize what my philosophy was becoming. I would say it’s 80% positive, 20% correction. When we’re doing a tape and the coach gets excited — ‘Look at this, this is what I’m talking about’ — they get an idea of what I think good Rockets basketball is.

https://www.facebook.com/17729777319/videos/534072790803197

The complete interview, which covers a wide range of topics related to Rudy T’s current life and his storied NBA career, can be viewed below.

Tomjanovich and the rest of the Hall of Fame’s new class will be enshrined on Aug. 29 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Former NBA players in the class include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and the late Kobe Bryant.

[lawrence-related id=28066,27817]

https://www.facebook.com/17729777319/videos/940873606367079