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Head coach Kevin O'Neill has his help

The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday that head coach Kevin O’Neill has named his coaching staff for the 2003-04 season. Bob Beyer, Shaun Brown, Tony Brown, Ron Oliver, Jim Sann and Jay Triano will join O’Neill for his first season with the Raptors. O’Neill was named head coach June 18. Beyer, Tony Brown, Sann and Triano will serve as bench coaches while Shaun Brown will be the team’s strength and conditioning coordinator and Oliver its video coordinator. “I am really pleased with the staff that has been put together,” said O’Neill. “I appreciate the support from Larry Tanenbaum, Richard Peddie and Glen Grunwald. “This staff, headed by my lead assistant Tony Brown, will work extremely hard to make our fans and Canada proud of our team.” Beyer, 41, will serve as an assistant to O’Neill for a second time. He was an assistant coach on O’Neill’s staff at Northwestern University from 1997-2000. Beyer has been an assistant coach at the collegiate level for 15 years, most recently serving the past two seasons under the legendary Bob Knight at Texas Tech. Beyer began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Siena College in 1988. He moved to the University of Wisconsin in 1993 where he helped the Badgers to an 18-11 record and their first NCAA Tournament birth in 47 years. In 1994, Beyer returned to Sienna College as its head coach for three seasons before joining O’Neill at Northwestern. Tony Brown, 42, has spent six seasons as an NBA assistant coach, including the past two alongside O’Neill on Rick Carlisle’s staff in Detroit. As an assistant, his teams have posted a 290-170 (.630) regular-season record and advanced to the playoffs each season. During Brown’s time with the Pistons, the club recorded a 100-64 (.610) regular-season record, posted back-to-back 50-win seasons, captured two Central Division titles and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final last season. Brown worked for four seasons (1997-2001) on Mike Dunleavy’s staff in Portland. The Blazers had a 190-106 (.642) regular-season record during that span, highlighted by a Pacific Division crown in 1999 and a 59-23 mark in 1999-2000. They fell to the eventual champion Lakers in seven games in the 2000 Western Conference Final. A veteran of seven seasons as an NBA player, Brown split his time with nine teams during his playing career, finishing with the Los Angeles Clippers and Seattle SuperSonics in 1991-92. While playing with New Jersey, Indiana, Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, Utah, Seattle, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, Brown averaged 6.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 359 games. His best statistical season came in 1986-87 with New Jersey when he averaged 11.3 points and 30.4 minutes. The University of Arkansas product was a fourth-round draft choice of New Jersey in the 1984 NBA Draft. Sann, 34, joins the Raptors following nine seasons in the New York Knicks organization. Sann spent the past two seasons in the position of director, basketball administration working in the areas of scouting and player personnel. He also served as the team’s video coordinator from 1996-2001. Triano, 45, returns for his second season as a Raptors assistant coach. The head coach of the Canadian men’s national team, Triano became the first Canadian born and Canadian trained coach in the NBA when he joined the Raptors last season. Oliver, 25, worked as the video coordinator for the Detroit Pistons the past three seasons and will also serve in that capacity with the Raptors. He was a four-year letterwinner on the University of Michigan basketball team from 1996-99. Shaun Brown, 38, comes to Toronto after six seasons as the strength and conditioning coach with the Boston Celtics. Prior to joining the NBA, Brown worked for nine seasons at the collegiate level with stints at the University of Kentucky (1992-97), Providence College (1989-92) and Rutgers University (1988-89). Craig Neal and Walker D. Russell, who served as assistant coaches last season under Lenny Wilkens, will continue in the organization in a scouting capacity. Micah Nori will return as the team’s advance scout. Assistant coach Dick Helm and strength and conditioning coach Ron De Angelo will not return to the franchise.