And-Ones: Garnett, Buyout Market, McCollum

Kevin Garnett has stayed busy in post-NBA days, working with several teams as a consultant and holding down a television role on TNT. Garnett spoke to Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY Sports to discuss his retirement and addressed the possibility of one day becoming a coach.

Garnett said to Zillgitt that he worked with players such as Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Thon Maker. However, in his own words, Garnett views himself less of a coach and more of a teacher. He also noted that he doesn’t want to tie himself down to working for one team, preferring his services to be more accessible.

“I wish it was a freer market than that, but I totally understand. But I like being free,” he said. “I like being able to work with multiple teams. That’s not the case. The league changed their rules a little bit. But from a mentoring aspect, you can mentor as many players as you want. As far as team, you have to stick with one team. I would never say never to anything, but I don’t have an appetite to coach. I’m more of a teacher than a coach. A coach has a lot more responsibility. I just want to teach the players, and that’s it. I don’t want to organize who gets what playing time. I definitely don’t want that.”

Check out other news around the basketball world:

• ESPN Insider’s Bobby Marks (subscription required and recommended) breaks down the remaining options on the buyout market. Marks provides a full list of teams with open roster spots, logical landing spots for the current free agents and likely buyout candidates, and assesses the cap hits for each of them.
• Blazers shooting guard C.J. McCollum has been named the vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, the NBPA announced on Twitter.