i have something to say about the offseason THE 2016 NBA OFFSEASON

rip big (witt)man

http://i.imgur.com/YD2aFWk.jpg

rip snake in the grass

http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/sports/2015-02-06/4f15b280-ae56-11e4-9b02-354a70de0518_GK2615.jpg

kings looking for 9th coach since 07

grunfeld staying apparently

this thread title is too confusing what have you done

league should remove ranadive for fucking up their product

this will be the kings 9th coach since 2007

word?

need more imo

let boogie be a player coach obv

good hire by the nets!

you dont hear that every day

Suns hired Earl Watson. 3 year deal

Report: Kings to interview Mike Woodson for head-coaching position

LMBO

https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/722591041920983044

Vivek is so drunk

http://i.imgur.com/cHGCH6V.png

can anyone vouch for this long ass article?
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/15232286/former-lakers-star-kobe-bryant-left-nba-just-getting-started
just not sure i want to read more about kobe but i hear its good?

lol got as far as kobe legit seriously having a Lord of The Rings fantasy type world that he has created.

but i'll probably read the whole thing later

lemme know :)

I enjoyed it but I also enjoyed the showtime special and don't particularly hate Kobes

did it say what he's doing next so i can start to plan how to avoid him?

I'm with CAD.

no plans specified

god what a horrible person lol:

He was touched when one of the young editors on the crew volunteered to work through Thanksgiving rather than go home to see his family.

young thibs
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CggK_deUYAEaVwj.jpg

dang, he looked like a hockey goon

like the sadistic gym coach in a 1980s slobs vs snobs comedy

brim, maybe that young editor hated his family?

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojVerticalNBA 4m4 minutes ago
Sources on @TheVertical. Washington, Scott Brooks meeting in California, trying to work on a deal.

supposedly 7 mill a year

chatter about him for the rockets too (though that was a few hrs ago)

amazing

we almost had a bidding war for scott brooks

Hearing Jeff Van Gundy wants the houston gig

lakers job probably a lot more desirable with the bean gone

I will be so mad if jvg gets a coaching job and mjax does not

de-troit

basketball

woj

Scott Brooks has agreed to deal to become the Washington coach, league source tells @TheVertical

is glasses really much better than wittman

he might know which way to hold that board that you draw plays on

jk scott brooks doesn't draw up plays

maybe its an oklahoma policy that coaches can't draw up plays

http://www.hearingrehabcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/glasses-1024x460.jpg

http://media.salon.com/2015/08/They-Live.jpg

is glasses really much better than wittman

― Better Pau Gasol (Spottie), Thursday, April 21, 2016 5:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was wondering if glasses was getting signed separately from scott or if they were a package deal

hearing they are going to split the salary 50/50

when u watch the nba through the they live glasses it says LEBRON IS THE JUICEMAN

pelton said this in his chat, kinda interesting

I think the NBA should rethink its entire philosophy on fouling to penalize the player who is responsible for creating the contact rather than the player with the nebulous right to the space, which is what creates the rip-through foul but also block/charge calls.

I agree with that, block vs charge in particular feels like a coinflip a lot of the time

http://i.imgur.com/3iCAPzD.jpg

lol

yes pleeeeeeease

fuck that not going to happen! really hoping for Ettore Messina.

did i tell you guys about my orlando magic theory

go on

i think they're going to win a lot of games next year

yeah i think they'll make the offs

man theres a lot of solid wings in the FA pool this year even if durant is the only star

theres gonna be a lot of talent floating around this offseason for sure but also too much money and some dudes are gonna get way overpaid.

this FA market will be a great test of GMs' and front offices' puzzle-solving ability

good time to have a negotiation/game theorist on staff

scotty brooks to wizards is official

reading "boys among men" and seeing the shaq and penny 30 for 30 have reminded me how many of these coaching/front office/tv guys have been around forever. there's a lot of musical chairs, but once you're in you really have to screw up to get out completely.

http://i.imgur.com/EPgSl5L.png

if he's willing to take less money than the max he's worth a look.

mavs r gonna max him out lol

its so obvious not sure how we missed that

Depends on the team's style of play. I wouldn't take Dwight Howard on the current Blazers at any price. The Mavs could probably absorb him without undue harm.

its so obvious not sure how we missed that

― lag∞n, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 1:11 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol seriously

they still will have to pay a ton to keep Parsons too (if he opts out)! that would mean they are overpaying for Matthews/Parsons/Dwight

good thing dirk took a paycut

i pretty much forgot that parsons was alive

he woulda helped them a ton vs okc

Should the NBA put the playoffs on hold for 2-4 weeks while guys heal up?

Oops, wrong thread.

its so obvious not sure how we missed that

― lag∞n, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:11 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i def believe dwight will get the max next yr but have consciously ignored as possible that he'll end up getting it from dallas, even though it makes a lot of (non-basketball) sense.

excluding tyson chandler, dwight really is a logical choice in keeping with mavericks tradition of paying & playing awful 5s

parsons is v good he will get a max deal if he opts out

parsons is 'v good' but injury prone so that knocks him down to just 'good' imo

I can't believe we forgot Dallas for Dwight, cubes has even tried to get him a few times hasn't he? Dwight is gonna be a classic bridesmaid max contract anyway and cubes will probably jump in and sign him at midnight just to make a splash

I was thinking about how cubes also tried to get both Shaq and Kobe at different times and I really want to see a short doc or a long z Lowe column on the dirk teammates that might have been throughout the years

wondering if players are thinking he's an idiot now since durant told everyone that's the case. or maybe they've always thought he was an idiot. kinda crazy he's never been able to land the marquee star to pair w dirk

supposedly dirk doesn't want to play with dwight and has vetoed that idea already

haha smart man

lol

dudes like i'm not sticking around another year for that shit

there are some good dirk/dwight photos out there

http://a4.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2014%2F0129%2Fdal_a_dirkhow_cr_1296x729.jpg&w=1140&cquality=40

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/178/files/2015/04/dwight-howard-dirk-nowitzki-nba-playoffs-houston-rockets-dallas-mavericks.jpg

http://frsports-bucket-0001.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/02/20180639/howard-dirk.jpg

http://sportsdaydfw.imgix.net/1455321993-NS_26mavsrockets48.jpg?q=50&auto=format&w=700

dirk is like 50 years old and cooked ftr

he's def sizzling but not fully cooked. like timmy more or less, actually slightly less cooked than timmy.

wut

i can't believe timmy is 40

also kinda crazy that jamal crawford is 36.

u really think dirk is fully done kev?

it'd be nice if dirk could play 6th man for a contender for a couple years, but that's so not gonna happen

he's making less than 6th man type of money

oh I just mean he's never going to leave the mavs

right right altho he did kinda say if they start a rebuild he wants out

unfortunately Cuban will never blow it up, he'll keep making creaky incremental moves to stay relevant

u really think dirk is fully done kev?

― Spottie, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:37 PM (22 minutes ago

medium well, but i was "wut"-ing at you saying timmy was more cooked. timmy was great most of this year

until the end. but that may just be cos pop isnt playing him much

unfortunately Cuban will never blow it up, he'll keep making creaky incremental moves to stay relevant

― Clay, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 2:59 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i mean there's worse things than making the playoffs every year and seeing what happens.

there's at least 3 ascendant teams in the West they have to keep ahead of if they want to make the offs again I think a lot has to happen for them to stay relevant past this year

if daj hadn't wussed out on his commitment to the mavs, they would have won in the neighborhood of 50 and would have more to build on going forward

yeah probably so.

you know whats crazy, jamal crawford is 36

West could look extremely different next yr though it's hard to make real predictions yet. Rockets okc clippers could all blow up their teams or not

otm

Tony Xypteras ‎@TonyXypteras
DeMarcus Cousins said the Kings would be a playoff team if Michael Malone were still here. Didn't hesitate.

While the c's were down about 18 or so last night I idly wondered if there were any free agent wings who score about 20-25 ppg that could slot right in there

There's one who used to play in Seattle but he's probably loyal to his rookie college coach and energy robber baron team owners I guess

idk kd seeming very up for grabs

wait was that sarcasm

so gonna happen imo

derozan too but i'd rather have someone who can shoot 3s

no derozan tyvm

yeah i still think he's a mirage

also can't play IT/derozan together

in the event that KD doesn't want to come here theres a pretty big drop to the next best available player in that role (parsons?) so you'd probably have to go for a big trade

theres a guy in chicago who doesn't like fred hoiberg or that front office (that said paxson/forman hold onto assets with hooked claws)

ya i wonder where dannys head is at re maxing out 2nd tier free agents, trade does seem to be the way to go if youre swinging for the fences, nets pick lands in the top 2 and the celtics cld have some good options

was reading a chris mannix thing just now saying the strategy will be to trade for a piece or two that would make the team appealing to durant or i guess some plan b free agent

the entire hornets team is going to free agency can we just sign them and merge

they really need to trade their picks and a couple guys off the roster, just too many guys

xp long as spencer hawes isn't involved

all the bigs other than kelly are gone iirc or maybe amir has a team option for 1 more year

i don't think they'll be paying to keep sully with their current situation

youre correct about amir, jerebko is on a similar deal i think. and yeah they're not gonna bother with sully or evan turner (despite brad inexplicably turning him into a swiss army knife off the bench)

i do think danny will have to tip his hand by the draft since you can't just draft 7 guys and then expect other teams to give you any leverage in moving some of them

turner turned out to be a dece back up pg but besides that his utility to the celtics is based mostly on the fact that they just have no playmaking outside IT

potential trade targets: butler, m gasol, dmc, harden

tuner was exposed really badly playing with the first unit against atl, they just left him in the gdamn corner all night.

feel like gasol prob actually the best fit if youre dreaming of pairing someone w kd and it, tho he has age/injury concerns obvs

harden would bump IT to 2nd unit prob which would be weird to do after this year

butler's a better fit since he plays d

wait was that sarcasm

― lag∞n, Friday, April 29, 2016 11:14 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

100% I think the only reason kd would stay is to coordinate jumping ship with russ

Might be some $$$ advantages too but whatever dude could just do the Lebron and say he's signing a one year deal and reup the next year with more cap or something

i hunger for cap

what about bropez?

one milli is a lot off money!
http://www.pjstar.com/news/20160426/nba-player-shaun-livingston-jump-starts-concordia-lutheran-school-renovations-with-1-million-donation

i think it would be awesome if kd went to boston or somewhere in the east

need to shift some good players over def

this would obv never happen in any current nba universe but my brother and i were fantasizing of seeing lebron and russ on the same team, it would be crazy to see, teams would get run over

russ-bron-drummond

ATTENTION DANNY AINGE http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/04/29/report-kings-willing-to-trade-demarcus-cousins-because-his-moodiness-bothers-teammates

are underhand free throws really that much more accurate? the pundits always act like dj and drummond would suddenly be making 70% immediately if they would just do that

seems unlikely but who knows

however drummond shot 32%! so he shd def try SOMETHING

like that is so crazy

idk about more accurate but potentially more repeatable and less dependent on touch, fingers, wrist action for a bigger guy.

they were good enough for rick barry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k1ZM_K5L8g

rick berry is one of the alltime great shooters

i think it can land softer? also might help with shooting it straighter, seems more repeatable? no idea tho rick barry was so good at it. would take a full summer of practice and commitment to it

ur angle increases which helps a lot

physics proves a rainbow has better chance of going in than line drive

yeah

all things being equal, but theyre not

like goon said its worth a shot 32% is criminal. 60% should be the bare minimum really

also lol iggy shoots rainbows but they... do not go in

def weird that he's a 35% 3 shooter all things considered

t-mac free throw syndrome

rick berry is one of the alltime great shooters

― lag∞n, Friday, April 29, 2016 2:34 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my point!

no not one of the alltime great ft shooters, one of the alltime great shooters

right, i'm saying underhand isn't necessarily just a last resort for hopeless cases like drummond even though it's fallen like beyond out of fashion.

luke walton coaching the lakers now bro

luke no don't join the dark side

u mean dont rejoin the dark side oops he was always dark hail satan

shd be interesting, prob not the best environment to cut yr teeth

Wasn't ILH rooting for this turn of events? For the lolz and schadenfreude?

Luke Walton unlikely to repeat his record as Kerr's stand-in when he takes over the Lakers.

we're one game closer to durant joining the spurs

its spelled c-e-l-t-i-c-s

spurs 2 best players play durant's positions lol

warriors tho mayb

spurs cld easily swing lma to center

kawhi could play 2, problem solved

durant doesnt seem like the kind of guy to go to a contender imo, hes too proud

too proud to win?

hahahaha stfu then why leave okc?

cause theyre bad, theyve repeatedly failed him

u guys durant isnt going to yr already good teams stop being greedy jeez wow

you dont really need a 2-guard if your 2nd 3 is kawhi ~ free yourself from thinking about positions ~

learn to appreciate what u have theres no need to be living in a fantasy world

i don't want KD! he's boring af

http://i.imgur.com/SBfsbYr.png

the warriors completing the first ever undefeated season wld def be p boring, the only thing that wld keep it interesting wld be the intense loathing from every basketball fan in the world

lolwtf xp

learn to appreciate what u have theres no need to be living in a fantasy world

― lag∞n, Saturday, April 30, 2016 11:17 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sports fandom is literally about indulging vicarious fantasies of physical conquest based on arbitrary geographical conditions, let me have this

yr team is currently marking toward a championship, request denied

*fantasizes abt u falling out of your chair and spraining your leg requiring ice and kisses, but u r alone and u have to kiss ur own booboos*

he's going to the most storied franchise in the nba but i do kinda think he'll wait a year and then take russ to the lakers w/ him.

watching the 90s magic 30 for 30, i'd forgotten young shaq, just a force of nature.

i dont see kd on the lakers, russ prob tho

lol skiles was a killjoy asshole as a player too

^just watched this too, I did not forget what an unbelievable force young Shaq was but I did forget how astoundingly shook nick Anderson was (and how screwed up he was about free throws forever!) and how quickly Shaq went from Orlando to la

kd, even kd and rwb together, to the lakers makes no sense at all to me. It's a step backwards to a poorly run franchise that will take years to compete, in a conference where you've got to beat the warriors and spurs.

also feel like players have become more aware of how bad it looks to run to a prestige franchise/team of mercenaries after the decision and to a lesser extent the are we having fun yet lakers and the melo knicks, flip side of the is prob a greater awareness of the value of a quality organization

dwight fled from LA, lma didnt even consider any of the destination teams

bron went back to cleve lol

obvs thats gonna vary depending on the individual player but feel like there has been a shift

yeah it's not like these guys don't know the same stuff we know.

also just don't get the sense that kd wants anything at all to do with russ whatsoever, but that could be my own personal bias against knuckleheads.

yeah lakers are not getting the good FA's for years.

feel like there are the "join a superteam" options (gsw and sas), then there are the "go to the east and maybe go to the finals a few times" options (mia and bos) and then there's the "i'm risk averse and this is all that i have ever known" option which is okc. there is no "join a rebuilding team during the last few years of my prime" option.

pros/cons
gsw
pros: could join greatest team ever, win titles for years
cons: would be second fiddle to curry, never be known as "the guy", could disrupt the chemistry of the dubs

sas
pros: best coach in the game, tons of talent at many age levels and positions, best tacos, best fans, close to UT, best tacos, would become greatest team of all time, greatest tacos
cons:

bos
pros: would be the dude, would be worshiped
cons: angry white ppl

mia
pros: fans dont care, no pressure, pat riley, not that far away from contention if he joins
cons: looks like he's copying lebron careerwise, looks hella lame

okc
pros: already your team, make hella money
cons: already never gonna win a title and your sidekick might leave and even if he stays hes gonna shoot too much

if theres one lesson of america its having angry wites on yr side is pretty good

except bball

celtics have done p good as a franchise

who wouldn't want to play w/ kelly olynyk and marcus smart

yes who wldnt want to play with just paul pierce and i bunch of scrubs, if only the celtics had some valuable assets and a gm with a history of turning assets into star players

https://youtu.be/VjEq-r2agqc

if the nets pick lands in the top two (~35% iirc) theyre gonna have pa lot of options, regardless its in the top six so it has good value even if they lose the lottery

i mean id be cool w the celtics keeping that pick and signing horford or w/e

think they have a p reasonable chance of prying a better player lose tho

Earvin Magic JohnsonVerified account
‏@MagicJohnson
Laker Nation: The Lakers should call LeBron James agent. We know he's going stay in CLE but they should go after him just in case he leaves.

magic thinking outside the box

Magic basically advocating stalking married exes after getting dumped there, nice

also just don't get the sense that kd wants anything at all to do with russ whatsoever, but that could be my own personal bias against knuckleheads.

Probably because of their differences regarding halal.

cant watch religion tear apart another great basketball team

Durant was not in the mood to discuss his feelings after the blowout loss.

"I'm not telling you," Durant said when asked if he was mad or frustrated by the loss. "... Cause it's over with. Move on. We'll just move past it and figure out what we need to do better. No crazy emotions. It's not like we're upset, screaming at each other in the locker room after the game. That's not going to make things better

http://i.imgur.com/pf3aEba.jpg

http://cavsnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/KD-LBJ-Cavs.jpg

what if...

nah jk that's from last year's offseason

He will be tempted to leave the Thunder to chase a ring, as LeBron did back in 2010. He could potentially join the Cavs.

no he will not

anyways celtics would be really cool, more weight in the east is a good thing for the league

hah checkout this quasi accurate vision

http://i.imgur.com/IByiUDt.jpg

i think if you shop a player into a new uni and it doesn't come true you should have to pay some kind of fine

what no there shd be a fine for not shopping a player into a uniform

Dirk n Parsons opting out.

i imagine dirk to take less on a longer deal? two year vets minimum or something.

dirk to boston book it

parsons could be a steal if you get 70+ games out of him, he'll probably get a max though because $$$

i imagine dirk to take less on a longer deal? two year vets minimum or something.

― Spottie, Monday, May 2, 2016 3:37 PM (49 minutes ago)

dirk is such a chump man

Where did your dirk hatred come from? I don't remember this in the past

i love dirk!

taking a pay cut to play for this sorry team is such a sad thing to see

^^

cuck nowitzki morelike huh

Oh haha

But they're gonna sign Dwight

dirk is cool with the millions he's already got. he seems to have no ambitions for world domination post-nba. he'll probably just kick back with some brewskies.

CP is def joining CP and Clips next year
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE4fruaHsd_/?taken-by=chandlerparsons

not a bad fit

please lord

That starting 5 would be ridic. They can't afford him tho right?

can't every team afford anyone rn

parsons wld be a perfect fit for the clips theyve had a black hole at the 3 since forever

according the lowe, the cap is gonna be 90M next year; clips have about 77.5M of guaranteed money next year. they could maybe make it happen with a trade or two and/or maybe buying pierce out or something, but the bench will be a disaster probs. again.

cap is gonna be 92M* next year

larry bird might be looking for a new coach - are there any good ones left? svg? that italian guy from the spurs?

what really vogel is good

tho i guess bird is an avowed adherent to the coaches have a shelf life school of thought

well, he is pretty good. he's got the 4th longest tenure of any head coach now and his teams always have top notch defensive cohesion. he gets along very well with the players and has shown that he can change the playing style of the team over a single offseason.

but the pacers have consistently struggled because vogel is so unimaginative offensively. there's no smooth transition between sets - if the first play gets bogged down, the second option is either an iso or a p&p. i don't think he can coach a team to the finals. hopefully he can be the mark jackson to someone else's steve kerr.

might be worth giving him a chance with good offensive players tho

don't think many other coaches have won so much with so few high picks

vogel might not have the best offensive talent, but its still misused. the pacers were 24th in ortg this season

about what i would expect from a team that had to play a ton of mins w dudes like ellis and mahinmi!

anyway this apparently has legs, the pacers are nuts to let vogel go

otm

indy has zero guys who can get to he cup

Yeah I was thinking about that watching stuckey and Ellis trying to manufacture points in those last two games and just felt sorry for their guard rotation. That team really overperformed for basically a collection of whatever flotsam they could gather around pg as a transition from the hibbert-west-etc version of that team, but yeah bird really seems to believe in coach shelf life- did it to himself after all

they have a couple really good pieces in george and turner but u need a starter than can penetrate and play make to pair with them, george has decent playmaking skills but its not like hes harden where hes good enough to be the only guy on the court filling that role, which explains why he takes so many midrange shots he often beats his man but cant get past the second level, which wld be a perfect time w the defense scrambling to pass off to yr second driving guy but instead theres like george hill

Monta can get in there but he is a pretty dumb decision maker and has cut back on his drives big time.

ya prime monta wldve been good but hes p cooked

Prime monta pre-moped was so fun. Then he wasn't.

pre moped monta playing w the intelligence he did in dallas wldve been so good, also if his prime was now when the league is more in tune w his skills

Just a few variables really

love to get to the cup

gotta... get that cup

[sees girl reading Getting to the Cup]

"Ah I love that book. The way he just [clenches fist] gets to that fricken cup."

By "the cup" I presume you all are referring to the "basketball ring", correct?

thats the one, the thing everybodys trying to get to

Do the best teams at putting the ball into the basketball ring get championship finger rims?

they get all the finger rims with the glistening stones and valuable ore

Something random I've been wondering is how many great players go on to have a non-terrible post-playing career in the NBA (as GMs or coaches)? McHale, Bird, and Jerry West are the ones I can think of immediately, but then we a much longer list of mopes (led by Jordan -- also Magic's coaching stint failed miserably) (and I have to include the transcendent Chris Mullin too ;_;) who've been forgettable. Do people still rate Joe Dumars?

ya seems like most good coaches were scrappy overachievers

dumars is so hard for me to rate as a gm, clearly an amazing job early followed by disaster (and i'm not really holding darko against him). generally across sports it's been kind of understood that great players make awful coaches, that yr mediocre or average lifers become the great coaches. there are exceptions to this and it seems like there are more in basketball than baseball or football. i'm sure i'm forgetting someone but i can't think of anyone who's a pantheon great who managed a great career as a coach, frank robinson is the closest the comes to mind right now but i don't think i'd say he was ever a great manager as much as he had a long career as a manager. maybe lenny wilkens? w/ evaluating talent it seems to be an entirely different thing w/ jerry west probably second only to auerbach (maybe first idk) and elway seemingly doing a good job in denver. even there though you have yr obv cases of greats who failed eg elgin baylor.

larry legend?

bird is great both coaching and gming

lol xp

larry a freak

when will rodman get his chance at the reins

when the Nevada Burning Men get into the league

better gm than coach right? though yeah at a minimum a good coach. i was gonna add an asterisk to mchale as a great player who did well as a coach (better than as a gm at least) in that he wasn't the best player on the celtics, he wasn't the superstar the other guys had to be afraid of (and apparently him and bird didn't really get along that great right?), but bird was totally that superstar asshole, not as much as jordan but far more than magic, and that kind of 'why can't you do this? i could, this shit is easy, you're a failure' kind of attitude is supposedly why greats can't make the transistion but it didn't hamper bird. maybe his experience w/ bobby knight inoculated him.

maybe a better coach that gm, imo he was a legit great coach, like that wildly overmatched pacers team took two off of jordans last team and then did it again the next year v shaq/kobe, had jalen (who never made an allstar team!) playing like an mvp

yeah he was v good. you know who was a crap gm and is a good coach... Kerr

McHale is a HOFer! (As is Dumars, which kind of surprised me.)

maybe his experience w/ bobby knight inoculated him.

he didn't really have an experience w/knight, left iu before bball started iirc

http://i.imgur.com/sE4tBVU.jpg

hahawow

you know who was a crap gm and is a good coach... Kerr

He wasn't great, but I don't think he was that bad:

http://valleyofthesuns.com/2010/06/16/a-look-back-at-steve-kerrs-tenure-as-suns-gm/

kerr had to deal w/ owner interference iirc. mchale obv a great player just not quite that freakish level like bird/magic/jordan. it's usually those guys who aren't able to relate to anything less than greatness. like imagine kobe coaching.

i thought knight was part of why he left.

www.insidethehall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/001306423.jpg

vogel gone

rip

wonder where hell end up houston maybe

:////

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnfTwTg9Yo

bird fired carlisle toooo

larry legend more ruthless to vogel in these presser quotes than he was to dominique wilkins it's goddam mean

ah well, it had to happen.

bird a vicious man (not a bird as his name wld imply)

vogel would be a coaching upgrade for quite a few teams

he seems like a good coach but the pacers could theoretically hire a better coach (or a worse one!)

based on the average coach prob be worse, but on the other hand bird is good

coaching quality is pretty high right now across the board, there's only a few left that are actively hurting their teams chances

larry's quotes from this presser will be taken out of context to feed that narrative that bird is a jerk. but you gotta keep in mind how bad vogel was at offense, and i think letting him go was warranted. maybe a bit premature - and it looks bad for bird because the team has overperformed - but it was going to be necessary one day.

defensive coordinator dan burke has been with the pacers since 1998 and he's now outlasted 5 head coaches. bird suggested that he will stick around and continue to run the defense.

bird also stated that he won't hire mchale and doesn't yet have a new coach lined up.

gonna go ahead and predict the team will not be significantly better on offense next year

brief segue: apparently d'antoni is up for the rockets job and I can't decide if that would be batshit insane and good or batshit insane and absolutely awful

lol poor dantoni a visionary who remade the nba can only get jobs w dysfunctional teams now

wonder when nash will coach

d'antoni rockets makes too much sense

if harden cld be convinced to move the ball more freely he wld be incredible

gonna go ahead and predict the team will not be significantly better on offense next year

― lag∞n, Friday, May 6, 2016 2:23 AM (9 minutes ago)

pacers roster definitely needs a revamp if they want to make it through the first round. i'd like to see something like:

a good pnr pg (jeff teague?)/george hill/paul george/thaddeus young/myles turner

monta can come off the bench or die in a fire

pacers along w a lot of other teams gonna have a hard time picking up free agents this year that everyone has money

teague wld be extremely perfect for them tho ya

i just noticed conley is a UFA this year?

hes still only 28 somehow

tha pacers having the second best player in the east and being a consistent playoff team should help their chances

i too am skeptical that the pacers will be significantly better on offense next year but the roster will look diff and myles turner will be a year older so who knows

micah
Posted: May 5, 2016 at 10:42:21 AM
tha pacers having the second best player in the east and being a consistent playoff team should help their chances

lol they literally barely even made the playoffs

https://media1.giphy.com/media/2XskdWz9y363OIIeLPq/200.gif

tha pacers having the second best player in the east and being a consistent playoff team should help their chances

― micah, Thursday, May 5, 2016 12:42 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol they literally barely even made the playoffs
― lag∞n, Friday, May 6, 2016 2:44 AM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they've been to the playoffs in 4 of the last 5 years

also lebron will be the 2nd best player in the east next year ;)

ur in too deep micah!

since when do the pacers have millsap
― ciderpress, Friday, May 6, 2016 2:45 AM (21 minutes ago)

you're kidding right?

millsap and george are pretty comparable, yeah

says a lot about the east that there's not a more obvious candidate

lowry was the 2nd best regular season player in the east imo but its hard to say now that he's slumping so hard in the offs again

lot of second best guys in the east

kinda like how 6-20 in the league as a whole is p fluid

also always at least three 5th best players

the best player by win shares per minute this year was someone named Rakeem Christmas who played 6 minutes for the pacers

2nd was boban, 3rd was steph, 4th was giannis's brother who played 6 minutes for the knicks

rakeem christmas def sounds like an an extremely real person not the name u use to register pirated software

Noel Hanukkah.

Kris Kwanzaa.

i use the name 'dj andrews' for that which could be a hypothetical basketball player

Rashomon Hashanah.

I have used dirk nowitzki as my software pirate name for over a decade, cheers adobe

lmao

jerk crackwitzki

rakeem christmas def sounds like an an extremely real person not the name u use to register pirated software

― lag∞n, Thursday, May 5, 2016 2:31 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a+ btw

i just noticed conley is a UFA this year?

― ciderpress, Thursday, May 5, 2016 12:40 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Might be the best guy who's really available after durant, depending on how you feel about horford or how the hawks handle him

Nobody talked about him being unrestricted this year because it seemed like the grizz would just go on and on but their implosion makes me think he could easily find a new spot and be really really good somewhere else

(I don't think Lebron or Drummond are going anywhere, whiteside has issues, I think demar is fools gold)

would be interesting to see conley on a team that plays more uptempo.

ya seems like this version of the griz is nearing its terminus, wonder if gasol is available

they would need to establish him again and prove he can still play at a high level, build up his value

ya prob

lol http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/05/05/phil-jackson-goes-on-vacation-reportedly-puts-knicks-coaching-search-on-hold

I hope Phil never leaves the knicks

no no carne you need him back

http://www.cinemablend.com/images/facebook/sections/71963/71963.jpg

mmm yes... yes http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/05/06/report-lakers-want-to-trade-first-round-pick-more-for-paul-george

*dubious sourcing

dave joerger gone, which...seems unfairly reactionary

although per woj it appears he was looking at other jobs anyway so more of a layoff I guess

saw a horford to the spurs rumor makes too much sense

Now that the spurs have lma and kahwi, it won't hurt them so much when they lose manu and timmy, especially if they keep popovich and can lure in solid FAs.

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 55s55 seconds ago
Report: Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace interviewed for Kings front-office job

lol

i wouldnt want to be part of the grizzlies for the next few years either, that team's aged out even once everyone's healthy again. esp if conley leaves in FA

Joerger to kings for 4/16 is in the works

not bad

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiBuShDUkAAAynR.jpg:large

damn it, let's try again. lol hinkie
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiBuShDUkAAAynR.jpg:large

second place finisher got the most first place votes!

jaeger to kings rip

Wonder if they can get Conley now

http://i.imgur.com/Z1hsjbI.png

everyone's really psyched huh

http://i.imgur.com/erpmmN4.jpg

they look like they're part of a panel discussion for guys who look generally unhealthy

related:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiIHVAdUYAAvXKh.jpg:large

Brought the b team eh

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 1m1 minute ago
Report: Dwight Howard tops Mavericks’ free-agent wish list

funny how dallas gets all their coveted free agents after their primes are dead and gone

there's a price where dwight would be a good signing imo but cuban will prob overpay

he could be a good fit there tho and they need a center badly

Did we call it or what

yup

skiles gone

not fired tho - just bailed the fuck out! surprising, i mean he knew he was getting a rebuilding team so he can't have been like "yo fuck this rebuild," maybe he's just tired, maybe he wants to chase and beat up jamal crawford on his personal time

this does not impact my orlando magic theory

what is yr theory?

Evan Fournier ‏@EvanFourmizz 31 minutes ago
WHAT THE FUCK

the theory is that they're a playoff team next year

oh word. this might actually give them the opportunity to find an even more appropriate coach for that goal. seeing some talk on twitter that there was conflict over the FO liking payton and skiles not liking him

lol skiles is a hothead

Never change , skiles

he just walked out of the last nba head coaching job hell ever have rip

He and Byron should start a podcast together

love too pod and yell about #grit

thought skiles would be there a couple more years max anyway, everyone knows he's a short term hire. team actually kinda did worse than i thought they would this year but the east is kinda loaded w/ teams in that 5-8 seed range. magic have a ton of cap space this summer so 'our coach isn't a notorious asshole anymore' is a selling point, actually think if horford doesn't stay in atlanta or maybe go to the spurs he'll end up in orlando.

They don't have a prob at the center position tho

im sure hed have no prob playing the 4

at the same time they prob want to let aaron gordon start for a full season and see what he can do

if they could get horford i think letting go of vucevic wouldn't be the worst thing anyway

i'm not really sure how good mario hezonja is expected to be

they have all these guys who are like 20-23 and look good on the court but aren't stars yet

hi this is danny ainge i would like your vucevic

gordon was playing great as the 4 after the t harris trade

vucevic also on a great contact
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/orlando_magic/

ya gordon kinda is the perfect nu 4

curious to see what they do with their wings, oladipo and fournier are both pretty good at what they do and presumably hezonja has a high ceiling based on his draft position. fournier is an RFA iirc and will surely generate interest

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 49s50 seconds ago
Report: Jeff Van Gundy a finalist in Rockets’ coaching search,

uh

please don't leave TV

also they interviewed kenny smith lmao something tells more morey is not making this hire

The Indiana Pacers are finalizing a deal to promote assistant Nate McMillan to head coach, league sources tell @TheVertical.

HA HA HA HA HA

Oh no

Bird exposed as one of those old guys who is completely blinded by anyone who says shit like "the way I look at it is, well you know me Larry, I'm old-school."

ugh so apparently hes generally a shitty offensive coach? clay what else is there to worry about?

i was hoping bird would hire hornacek ://

maybe he's changed some since coaching the sonics and blazers in the early-mid aughts. he's very highly respected around the league. but he's a disciplinarian, players reportedly aren't super fond of his m/l militaristic approach to schedule and practice, he'll alter a rotation once every couple of years, prefers point-guard dominated predictable offensive sets, runs shot clock like a madman, and is so risk-adverse as to be maddening. basically every thing you hated about basketball during that period is embodied in nate mcmillan.

i wrote an extremely long post about how much i despised his approach to the game c. like 2006 or 2007 on here, and that was before pace-and-space and flowing offensive systems even existed as a platonic ideal alternative.

ok, wonderful, so he has all of vogel's flaws but magnified? wow.

promoting a coach like this from within is a really bad look! and it sounds like it will lead to bad basketball too. gross.

sad!

I can't find my McMillan essay from a decade ago but there is this, original poster was hibachi, responding to me remembering that post

i think hibachi or cad once asked me what i thought about mcmillan in the first year portland was doing pretty good with roy & aldridge and i'd had a couple beers and wrote like a 6,000 word post about how severely i disagree w/ like every basketball decision mcmillan had ever made

― Clay, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I 100% remember this it was an eloquent essay that booted me directly and permanently off the McMillan bandwagon and he was vaporized as a head coach not long after, maybe the most otm thing ever on ilh

also if you isolate ilh in a searching for McMillan it's seriously 90% me bitching about his approach to basketball every couple months for five years

lol

really discouraging hire for the larry bird knows what he's doing crowd.

just cause hes not right abt everything doesnt mean he not good at his job

the bird is cooked

maybe hes panning on trading george and this is his whip the rookies into shape coach

scept mac is an "I only play my vets" guy

perfect

lol the years have focused my rage like glass love it

so the pacers hired byron scott?

These teams are killing me Mike Malone and Jeff Hornacek and probably a half dozen other guys I'm forgetting (that heat assistant Dave somebody) are just sitting RIGHT THERE and they keep hiring retreads from before the pace&space/shoot threes dummies/curry era

I do fear that the legend is losing it but that dude can still draft p well

lol i just remembered that during the roy/aldridge era the blazers trotted out lineups with aldridge (young and fast for his size), peak rudy fernandez, run and gunning sergio rodriguez, etc, guys just built to get up and down the floor. iirc they closed out with the slowest adjusted pace in the league, year after year.

Yah that team coulda shoulda been a blast

he benched dre miller for... steve blake

seriously my rage against nate mcmillan is just an bottomless well

Iirc I think I joined ilh around then

really excited to have clay's nate mcmillan vendetta back tbh

Ha clay a quick look and sort of the franchise page on basket ref reveals that the coach of four of the five slowest teams by relative pace rating (so compared to the league that year) were coached by...ya boy Nate

*Slowest teams in the history of the franchise!!

he is so so bad!!!!!!!!!!!

otoh, terry stotts 3 year extension polite_applause.gif

Draft lotto tonight

celtics will win the nba draft lotto

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cipp65gWsAAl470.jpg

🙏🙏🙏

30% to get a likely star, i'll take it

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 34s34 seconds ago
Report: Scott Skiles signs two-year non-compete agreement with Magic http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/05/17/report-scott-skiles-signs-two-year-non-compete-agreement-with-magic

huh

https://twitter.com/KarlTowns/status/732614258568003584

:(

my official lottery predix:

1. boston (via nets)
2. philly
3. denver (via knicks)
4. philly (via lakers)

Pretty nervous about this tbh

ya its crazy for the lakers all or nothin

what time is this thing gonna actually happen

oh boy, i always forget that the lottery designates the exact moment every year when jay bilas reenters my life

Mutombo spoiled the lottery? The fix is in lmao

haha he jinxed em, bet

yay it's lottery dais time!

love when teams send the coach or GM bc it's like "hi i am here bc i suck at my job"

i don't think willie cauley stein actually knows where he is

mitch looks haunted af

It2 sitting next to Mitch kupchak, feeling good about this

Kupchak zoom.gif

lol mitch

these questions are so dumb come on

no goofy representatives this year except abe leonsis' son (who seems pretty goofy tbf)

lakers kept their pick fix is in

We still in this yes!

Frozen envelopes

safe bet they get no 1

wait doesn't this mean the lakers keep their pick?

man this is lame

Thanks byron

Lol

!!!!!

goddammit

<3 the process

damn who told mutumbo

wait was that straight chalk? that can't have happened before i don't think.

also who's checking on hinkie

damn fix really was in

Wha happened?

no one moved up

celtics will pick the dragon

In a way I'm more happy lakers got the second pick less pressure there

yeah second def the easiest pick to have this year

New coach, no cooked kobe, cap space and a young core. Can't ask for much more moving forward

trade 4 george

sux for the celts huh

well kinda

also still feel like it's hard to give hinkie much vindication cuz i'm not sure adding ben simmons to okafor, noel, embiid's corpse and a nonexistent euro is doing much for you

feels pretty ripe for the celts to trade their pick

based on what brown was quoted saying to reporters after the lottery, the sixers are signaling pretty hard they'll pick ben simmons, not ingram

celtics def want to trade but also ainge doesnt overpay, for sure disappointed they didnt land in the top two but on the other hand this is the first celtics lottery since 2001 that they havent moved down LOL progress jk this pick might as well be 6

Brian Robb ‏@CelticsHub 4h4 hours ago
Celtics have had a lottery pick now 11 times in their history:
Moved up: 1 time (1986-Bias)
Stayed even: 5 times
Moved down: 5 times

who would the celtics even trade the 3 pick for unless boogie is available

boogie or butler seem to be the targets who knows if that has any basis in reality

its a curse folks a low key curse only basketball obsessives cld even understand

haha wow draftxpress going in on simmons

Simmons and his agent Rich Paul are unlikely to make things easy on Philadelphia, though, as reports have already emerged that “it's the Lakers or bust” from their standpoint. Simmons has been a bystander in this process thus far, passing up invitations to the NBA Combine and NBA Draft Lottery, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if he elected to refuse to visit the 76ers as well.

Considering how easily Simmons quit mid-season on the head coach (and his own godfather assistant coach) that he handpicked when selecting to play at LSU, the Sixers certainly have to be leery of taking a player who already has question marks about his competitive streak. The last thing they will want is a disgruntled player who has a well-known “off switch” completely shut down even before arriving in Philadelphia.

if i was brandon ingram i'd be sweating this one pretty hard

i would like straight up refuse to play for the sixers

lol what if both of them do that

Bill Simmons Reacts to Celtics Picking 3rd

im thankful for #content

they had some kinda Ringer Watches the Lottery periscope feed that i watched for about 3 minutes out of curiosity and it was extremely awkward, mostly bc it was like 6 writers on a couch, and to fit them all in the frame they had to set the camera far away, which meant they all had to yell, and periscope aligns vertically so it was this tiny horizontal couch of yelling writers amidst a vast blank space of wall and carpet.

lmao nice

live social video the future def

there were like 30k viewers in the room so wtf do I know

Before lottery, Warriors PR czar Raymond Ridder texted Luke Walton that Lakers got 4th pick. Luke fell for the prank, now has last laugh.

— Bill Oram (@billoram) May 18, 2016

the last laugh being that he will now be the coach of a v bad team, hilarious

Upside tho

if i'm philly i'm just taking ingram, simmons is on a mission to break the record for most predraft bad vibes.

Wouldn't he also a better fit personnel wise?

so many bad vibes with simmons. he's not a scorer, his jump shot mechanics are broken, and he's a whiny baby. even the australian national team doesnt like him.

bilas was comparing simmons and ingram on the lotto show--simmons got the edge in "passing" and "rebounding" and ingram got it in "shooting" and "defense." i was like when you put it like that...

celtics should keep the pick imo

hard to say, who knows what trades are possible

both of the best remaining lottery pick dudes are guards though. too. many. guards. oh and i guess there's the euroballer dragon dude, which...aight sure

Andrei Kirilenko is a solid comp for Bender

hnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhhh

im a fan of taking a chance on the dragon

i think the celts need to hope someone falls in love w/ dragan & wants him at 3 cuz otherwise i don't think a team is coming in hard to take jamal murray or buddy heild at 3

kirilenko wasn't a 7 footer iirc

murray would be a good fit for the celts i think but he feels like a guy who would go 4-5 picks later in a better draft

he's just a pure shooter type?

yeah he's a good shooter but big too like he could develop a post game. he might have trouble on defense cuz he isn't quick but the c's have good perimeter defenders already.

ok sure im down with that

buzz about d'antoni to houston today. that's surely the thing to turn their struggling defense around

not official, don't let me misrepresent, but he's had a couple of interviews is "an increasingly serious candidate" according to espn

now this is going to be fun

so many bad vibes with simmons. he's not a scorer, his jump shot mechanics are broken, and he's a whiny baby. even the australian national team doesnt like him.

― micah, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 9:26 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya he doesnt seem to be going out of his way to endear himself wonder if hell slip

seems like the prevailing opinion is still that you can't pass on what could be a lebron-esque player but def a lot of naysayers coming out of the woodwork suddenly

the whole not being able to shoot at all thing has got to be troubling

"Opponents were able to neutralize him very effectively in the half-court as the season moved on, simply backing five feet off him. Simmons would respond by getting very passive in turn, looking very conscious about firing up jumpers, even late in games when his team desperately needed him to be aggressive. "

2. Simmons’ box scores have grown increasingly hollow. One NBA executive described him as a “taller Rajon Rondo, a more athletic Evan Turner, or a skinnier Royce White.”

ow!

sounds like he has a similar skillset to giannis tbh

giannis is a freak tho

yeah

Id probably go with the dragon at 3, feel like a sweet shooting big euro dirk/zinger type would be huge for the c's. And if Kirilenko is a realistic comp that's good too- young Kirilenko was just a monster box score filler, that stretch when he and matrix were #1 fantasy picks because they would have like a steal a block and a couple threes every game now feels like a precursor to the ideal modern 4 man

Or trade it to someone who thinks they see something in any player beyond Ingram/Simmons...last time ainge had a decent pick to work with he turned a fifth pick and some garbage into Ray Allen (and big baby ha)

idk seems like simmons has a pretty low floor to me even if shooting never really quite gets there. he demonstrated his court vision & passing ability at LSU and will prob be able to finish at the rim and if he can guard both wings and bigs there's a draymond-esque skillset there.

if he can defend and shoot at dray green levels then he will be good i agree lol