2021 nba offseason draft free agency etc

big chet day, was thinking the fact that he hadnt declared yet prob meant he was going to the g league

Chet Holmgren will be making his college announcement on @Sportscenter tomorrow at 1pm ET with @PaulBiancardi. Gonzaga considered the favorites. G League Ignite also in the mix. Special prospect in terms of size, mobility, agility, shot-blocking instincts and perimeter skill. pic.twitter.com/gJCczzGOrT

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 18, 2021

idk why anyone would not go to the g league tbf

i guess what boosters pay top prospects is roughly in line with the $250k the g league offers, but you dont have to be doing crimes and im sure you get better coaching/training in the g league, college could be better from a marketing standpoint but thats pretty dependent on making a tourney run, college could be fun i guess but not fun enough to stay for more than one year lol

i agree the g league thing sounds great although one thing i did not realize was that for this year the g-league bubble resulted in the ignite team playing a lot more games against the other teams than they would during a "normal" g league season.

yeah seems like ideally you wouldnt play too many games really focus on practice/training more, one thing seems like this program could be helpful for is getting guys in good shape from a fundamental standpoint injury prevention etc... which would be even better extended to younger players if the nba opened an academy, guys growing up just playing a million games without any access to a professional training staff isnt great

wonder what they get up to at that img academy

gonzaga has a pretty great track record of development and team success i think it’s one of the schools that has a lot to offer in this scenario. putting the monetary aspect aside the ignite team doesn’t sound that fun compared to college, like being isolated in california and then playing in random G league games with no one around and nobody watching. playing a college schedule in non covid times sounds more exciting to me. if the 500k or whatever isn’t life changing to your family knowing you’re very likely to get a much bigger payment in a year i can see why college esp a team like gonzaga would still be more appealing.

college def seems funner but these guys are on a single minded quest for the nba and the g league seems better from that perspective

i also think for now there’s not any evidence that going to ignite is far more beneficial for you if you’re a top 3-5 prospect in your class than going to college. anthony edwards, james wiseman went top 2 after middling (at best) careers at middling college programs... cade and jalen suggs are prob gonna go 1-2 after going to school. there’s prob gonna need a 3+ year proof of concept that going to ignite prevents you from dropping in the draft in a way that college doesn’t for it to really take hold... the money will be a draw regardless but i think a lot of kids will still pass it up for school

tho i could def see guys wanting to "try college" theyre kids its a thing and hey if thats what they want i salute them life is for the living, i would go to usc tho

Chet going to Gonzaga is just so boring

i think ignite makes sense for the guys who are going to kentucky or duke as part of a class of 4 five star players bcuz guys tend to get washed out if they’re not the top dog... someone like wendell carter or something. but if you’re a top 3-5 player in the class it seems to not really matter what you do including going to australia and not playing real basketball

side note re dropping in the draft one of the most proven way to do that is to go to kentuky (ha xp) lol but that hasnt stopped anyone yet, idk about the g league as far as draft position but it just seems like from a preparation standpoint being coached etc by the actual nba with no time limits and not really needing to win games is just obvs better, but also it prob doesnt matter that much its just one year and really talent is the main differentiator, but like if i felt like i wanted to work on x and y aspects of my game i dont see how anyone can compete with the g league, and they give you money

Chet going to Gonzaga is just so boring

A lot of guys will probably still opt for college just because of the girls.

see if it were really about the fun and girls they would go to usc not gonzaga

in the main I think it’s funny we have a league named for gatorade

Year of the Hydrating Electrolyte Drink

lol

hahahah

its thee zags

Full story on Chet Holmgren committing to Gonzaga, with plenty of quotes on why he chose the Zags and the impact he expects to make in Spokane. With @PaulBiancardi:https://t.co/q18ywEvFxm

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 19, 2021

an 18 year old did not say this!

"He's a super honest standup guy," Holmgren said of Few. "He is a fan of the game and I hear he is a good fisherman too. He continues to learn about the game and loves what he is doing."

one might also say an 18 year old can't be named "chet" yet here were are

this whole thing is starting to seem pretty suspicious

maybe he's a plant from bosnia or someplace....trying to get people excited in an american white player

hello my name a chet holmgren i like hoop

couple very skilled big mans in this class

Why did Paolo Banchero overtake Chet Holmgren for the No. 1 spot in our 2022 mock draft? Here's a little taste of how much his game has evolved in the past year. By the way, he's 6'11, 250 pounds now. Full mock draft and scouting report: https://t.co/X2qjaUYEQi pic.twitter.com/VwQpldrzTo

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 20, 2021

hadn't heard of paolo before. he looks good!

literally! and they all made me bring it up, initiate offense, come off PnR, and make live game decisions w ball in my hands even when i jus wanted to catch in tha mid post😅 can’t stress enough how much they’ve helped me. now i’m more than comfortable doing all those things🤙🏽 https://t.co/ioD3LTIJzE

— Paolo (Paul-Oh)🇮🇹 (@Pp_doesit) April 20, 2021

lag∞n at 12:26 19 Apr 21

an 18 year old did not say this!

"He's a super honest standup guy," Holmgren said of Few. "He is a fan of the game and I hear he is a good fisherman too. He continues to learn about the game and loves what he is doing."

fishing is big here, the whole MN tinder joke is that it's all dudes holding fish they caught

lol so chet is definitely an industry plant where paolo sounds like a regular dude

jamal cosigns

And you've been a great listener, great attitude, and unmatched work ethic. We are all proud of you @Pp_doesit young 👑 https://t.co/TrPLhrDoCs

— 🏁 Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) April 20, 2021

playing against nba guys then going back to high school must be something

btw, did Jamal officially retire? He’s 41 and played in one game last season, but I don’t remember hearing any announcement

Not officially. He seems to still want to play

#1 class of 2022 prospect

Emoni Bates has decommitted from Michigan State this afternoon.

— Jake (@jakeweingarten) April 30, 2021

the fellas

Second day of the Iverson Classic practice kicking off. Some new NBA GMs in the building. Paolo Banchero, AJ Griffin and Chet Holmgren warming up. pic.twitter.com/EBIxupaw3u

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 7, 2021

I will be announcing my decision tomorrow at 6:30 PM PST on IG Live!! 👀🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/1JBv9rAQQ8

— Jaden Hardy (@JadenHardy1) May 15, 2021

Five-star recruit Jaden Hardy — a top Class of 2021 high school prospect — is planning to sign a pro deal with the NBA G League elite Ignite team, sources told @TheAthletic @Stadium.https://t.co/STVCR5fQMv

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 15, 2021

lmao

hahahaha

welcome to the league kid

Kentucky, Duke, et. al. gotta be shitting themselves. Especially the BB powerhouses that aren't football schools.

yeah doesnt seem great for them

maybe they can join the g league

going to be interesting to see how those programs change when one and done ends. i hope we end up with lumbering 4th year centers posting up over and over

college ball has already lost so many years of top players and is still a huge deal maybe it doesnt matter if they just never get the top players at all instead of only getting one year of them, kinda depends on how far the nba is willing to take this i guess

i hope we end up with lumbering 4th year centers posting up over and over

this would make my dad the happiest man on the planet

march madness is kind of immune to actual quality of gameplay. like having great players isn't usually what makes it entertaining, at least for the last fifteen or whatever years

its true

yeah, college ball is going to be fine one way or another. i just think a case like kentucky is interesting where their whole thing has been come here for a year and we'll make sure you get drafted. when that's not how it works anymore they're going to have to change strategy in a significant way.

league mad

The NBA is forbidding team executives from attending agent pro days to evaluate prospective draftees -- unless the pro days are conducted as part of the Chicago pre-draft combine in June, per memo shared with teams today.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 16, 2021

nba front office trying to exert the upper hand and fence in the power of the agents

Two Florida brothers ranked in the top 15 high school juniors in the country – Matt and Ryan Bewley – are signing two-year deals with the Overtime Elite professional league, sources tell ESPN, marking first prep underclassmen to sign contracts with an American basketball league.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 21, 2021

nice after school job

The deals for Matt and Ryan Bewley are expected to top seven-figures over the two years, sources tell ESPN. The OTE is planning a September 2021 start-up with Kevin Ollie as the head coach. Matt Bewley is the No. 3-rated prospect in ESPN's Class of 2023; Ryan is ranked 12th. https://t.co/LapOobF6uW

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 21, 2021

good for these kids, i find it hard to be compelled by this in any way as a fan of NBA and less so college

i think its interesting, the "pipeline" to the nba is bad, but maybe its getting better... or worse?

i have no idea how this league is planning on being profitable but support anything that blows up the current system

so theres an existing company called overtime which is doing this league

Launched in 2016 by William Morris Endeavor executives Dan Porter and Zachary Weiner, Overtime’s revenue comes from two sources. One is indirectly aligning with brands by integrating them into its online media content and making money off video ads. The other is direct revenue via e-commerce.

Overtime raised in April $80 million from investors, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ investment firm, global entertainer Drake, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and several National Basketball Association players. To date, the Brooklyn-based company said it has raised more than $140 million.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/overtime-selects-atlanta-for-teen-basketball-league-that-pays-100000.html

idk

these top recruits do tend to have large social media followings fwiw

hello i am global entertainer Drake

the ncaa kneecapped itself by waiting so long to allow players to profit off their name, image, and likeness

my kids watch overtime videos constantly. they've seen the inside of more random high school gyms than actual nba games.

there you go

i have no idea how this league is planning on being profitable but support anything that blows up the current system

― call all destroyer, Friday, May 21, 2021 9:54 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

to be fair i don't think a long-term plan for profitability means jack shit anymore

william morris endeavor is ari emanuel’s company, they’ve got an ungodly amount of money and are trying to branch out all over sports. they bought the UFC recently and they’re basically trying to take over the world. good new yorker article about them last week

sorry that was jumbled but the company seems to have no problem raising insane amounts of money from people with really deep pockets, many of whom are super shady, there was a segment in that story where they had to pull out of an investment in saudi arabia after the khashoggi incident and after one the close friends of their investors was thrown in secret jail, kinda wild

cool going to check that out https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/ari-emanuel-takes-on-the-world

it was maybe not sufficiently critical for such a long piece but it was good info

should be the new yorkers slogan

i was gonna say "in every new yorker article ever." tho when the do ask critical questions of the subject it's always in the second to last paragraph. they save the last one describing the the final time they saw the subject of the article in some way that is exemplary of the entire piece.

Scoot Henderson is forgoing his senior season and will be joining the G-League Ignite squad‼️🚨 @thereal013 pic.twitter.com/nnA81FUNwq

— SLAM HS Hoops (@SLAM_HS) May 21, 2021

Scoot Henderson automatically a top 5 nba name

sounds like a 1940s jazz trumpeter

Scoot Henderson's Hot 2s and 3s

the william morris takeover part of that ari emanuel article is unbelievable what a fn snake lol

lmao Scoot Henderson perfect jazz name

the william morris takeover part of that ari emanuel article is unbelievable what a fn snake lol

― lag∞n, Monday, May 24, 2021 10:03 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

right??

unchill

Report: Pelicans players ‘not vibing with’ Stan Van Gundy https://t.co/DbkA96eMMT

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) May 25, 2021

Noted vibemaster Stan Van Gundy

management needs to hire an independent vibe check firm to get to the bottom of this

independent vibe check firm

Great ATCQ EP

lmao

haha

svg was great as an analyst in the bubble, he should do that imo

by "that" i mean "go back to being an analyst," not "seal himself in a bubble"

I would donate to a Kickstarter to have him permanently replace his brother

"The 61-year-old Van Gundy had success during each of his three previous stints as an NBA head coach, which is part of the reason the Pelicans hired him."

hmm

https://i.imgur.com/Xe09y7g.png

yeah they figured "well let's not make him GM it will be cool" but then the GM traded jrue holiday for eric bledsoe and also for steven adams and gave him an extension before he ever played a game

ah well nevertheless

two pretty good coaches in a row couldnt do much with the roster maybe the players are bad just a thought.

i'm willing to give SVG a pass on this year, i don't think the pelicans have a winning roster. their best player is a de facto rookie center who plays point guard and is horrible on defense, their second best player is a ball dominant wing who also doesn't play defense, they have no shooting, also a huge center who can't make a shot from outside 3 feet, all their role players are young and haven't won anything... the fact that they constantly blew games at the end of the season, idk. maybe he's not getting through to them that could be an unfixable issue but also it's a pretty janky team

personally think they have some good players but a. theyre just young and b. its not a well constructed roster as far as fit

but the main guys will grow into their primes and you have time to assemble the right supporting pieces

having said that if stan is just annoying he prob has a fairly limited shelf life there

feel like with guys like stan and thibs who have annoying voices arent the handsomest and are taskmasters players can only take them for so long

that franchise has a stink on it in general, the only person who has won anything in new orleans has been cp3 who we now know drags any shitty out of the way franchise into the playoffs and yes i include the clippers in that group

"but the main guys will grow into their primes and you have time to assemble the right supporting pieces"

im sure the will zion bolt to knicks/lakers chat will start as early as next season.

yeah there is that lol sad

he should consider the celtics tho

maybe they should just like move to seattle or sumthn

yeah being 23 and super good at basketball and having stan van gundy yelling at you about defense all the time, it doesn't sound very fun

stan used to live in my parents neighborhood when he was w/ the heat and i ran into him in public like 3-4 times over the years and every single time he looked like he had just been rescued off a desert island like 6 hours prior

lmao yeah feel like coaches who cant take care of themselves isnt the best look

if i were a gm i would prob not consider a coach who wasnt "a players coach" at this point

hahaa xp

lmao yeah feel like coaches who cant take care of themselves isnt the best look

― lag∞n, Tuesday, May 25, 2021 11:02 AM (eighteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i had the pleasure of showing that hunky mullet picture of thibs to some friends last night. they couldnt believe it was the same guy

a beautiful moment when one sees young thibs for the first time

NBA coaches who think yelling at players on the regular is a good motivational tool should be relegated to G-League.

By far, SVG's best results were on a team where Dwight Howard openly hated him.

yeah fair play to stan on that one tho

stan won our hearts over on that one.

im sure the will zion bolt to knicks/lakers chat will start as early as next season.

― i was too much listening to your accent (Spottie), Tuesday, May 25, 2021 1:58 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's already started!

they asked him about playing at MSG, where he had played once before in a neutral site game, and he was like it's my favorite place to play ever

yeah his face genuinely lit up

haha yeah forgot about that just a couple weeks ago even...

poor pels fans

i really hope for the health of the league that the bucks win it this year.

yeah that's a good point

otm

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2QUuQ9XsAEH3w8?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Thunder are sitting pretty. Bulls and Twolves are up against the odds.

I'm really not worried about it because the minute the Wolves made the trade I knew they would lose it to Golden State.

If they get the Minny pick, the Warriors offseason is going to be fascinating. At some point you have to not just keep waiting for Klay to come back? If Curry were most any other star, or a couple years older, it would be time to at least think about trading him for max return and have a seriously loaded young core. But with Steph being who he is they'd be nuts to do that. Maybe if they have 2 lottery picks + Wiseman they can make an impact trade that doesn't immediately look stupid even if Klay is a shadow of himself next season. They're in a tough position (though one plenty of teams would switch to in a heartbeat).

I would not want to be the guy whose job it was to trade away Stef from GSW

yeah you just cant do it

wld be sad with all the tanking they did this year if the rockets didnt get a pick (47.9%)

I can't see it happening. Steph is more important to the dubs organization than anyone who isn't the owner. Anybody else is more expendable than Steph and it's not even close.

the only way steph would be traded away is if he specifically requested it and i haven't read or heard anything that indicates he has put even a drop of that idea in the water

i think i lean towards the idea that the warriors are playing it the right way. try and bolster the current roster while also not completely mortgaging your future. if they bring klay back, try and make some more moves on the margins, have some two top 5-6 picks on the roster... the absolute worst that happens in this situation is that you get to watch steph, klay and dray play generally competitive and fun basketball for a few years while having the fond memories of one of the greatest runs in NBA history close in the rearview. the actual worst thing they could do would be to cash in weisman and the other wolves pick for a "star" and still not ever make the west finals while trying to rebuild for the future w/ a bunch of middling picks

what was really so bad about this year for the warriors anyway? steph was must watch TV, prob the single most exciting player in the sport, he was a national story who made the team and the franchise matter. they played two de facto playoff games and lost both... so what. honestly it sounds way more fun than rooting for the clippers

Steph to the Lakers makes too much sense to not think about. The timing is ideal for all parties.

a truly dystopian vision, luckily the lakers dont have any assets

right the lakers like literally can't make a trade for 5 more years

I'll take Anthony Davis for Draymond and Steph and the two Warriors picks this year

you crazy

i... would not do that

well that would be one of the worst trades of all time from the warriors perspective

yah tahts nuts

could also joe lacob to throw in a few hundred millions dollars while you're at it

windhorst who loves to stir up lebron drama while saying he's not stirring up lebron drama made the argument earlier this year that lebron was recruiting steph as a free agent by going out of his way to repeatedly praise him in public. there may have been some truth to that but again zero indication from anyone that steph is even thinking about walking away from the warriors

Nobody liked my crazy trade sigh

draymond for bron and brow

i think it COULD happen but it wont happen until after next season (if everything falls apart). think he would at least give it one more go with klay and give the front office a chance to make up for their mistakes this season. im pretty sure hes gonna take that second 200M+ payday too.

what was really so bad about this year for the warriors anyway? steph was must watch TV, prob the single most exciting player in the sport, he was a national story who made the team and the franchise matter. they played two de facto playoff games and lost both... so what. honestly it sounds way more fun than rooting for the clippers

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 25, 2021 12:31 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

well they couldnt make up their mind what they wanted to do from the start. once they saw curry was still mvp level they shoulda pivoted from develop wiseman at all costs and focused on winning games and developing the youth as secondary. once they saw wiseman was gonna be years away from helping they shoulda traded him imo. instead they tried to force nico mannion minutes and brad wannamaker plus they never bolstered the roster after everyone got hurt leaving 7-8 guys to fight for the last 6 weeks or so (in which they were the hottest team in the league or close to it). i think they need to try and sign n trade oubre so they keep that roster spot open. Trade away at least one of their first round picks. they dont need a star but they need competent vets.

we all know whats really gonna happen tho: clippers lose early and kawhi comes to the warriors.

no he's coming to the heat (actually kawhi doesn't really care about winning at this point and just wants his little southern california fiefdom where he can live at home and only play 2 games per week)

the bad thing about this warriors season is that they drafted the wrong guy. everything else was decent.

right that's really the main issue

pelton and mike schmitz did a lottery redraft on windhorst's pod and they didn't have wiseman going in the lottery period. that felt like an overcorrection to me but yeah they should've picked lamelo or halliburton. no one else in the top 10 is really that exciting to me still tho, most of the good finds in this draft were later picks. so wiseman may still end up looking like an okay pick if you can just put lamelo and halliburton aside

yah its sad. its nice they still have options tho... picks, a good young prospect and some contracts to make the money work if necessary

https://theathletic.com/2611461/2021/05/25/warriors-offseason-steph-curry-style-bob-myers/

wow i'll have to go back and listen to that episode. i agree, that's a little extreme, but at the same time i haven't been able to figure out how wiseman becomes a really high-end player.

well he has to become a really good defender. offensively i think there's an avenue there for him since he's athletic, can run the floor, and has pretty nice form on his jumper. but if he's not giving you good defense then yeah i'm not sure what kind of player you have

The Warriors could have selected a better player than Wiseman, but there wasn't another center on the board. I'm not sure they knew that Klay was out of the season at that point because he got injured right before the draft. They hadn't traded for Oubre yet, so they could have drafted a SG and picked up a free agent center to back up starting center Marquese Chriss (who got injured on the second day of the season oops).

wild thing about that wiseman pick besides the fact that they didnt take lamelo is he played one college game total

he cld def still be a very nice player but itll take a while

they dont need to him to be at his full potential yet but they need him to be serviceable.. which he was not.

a jump from not serviceable to serviceable is pretty common for second year players, but on the other hand center defense is also considered one of the hard things to learn

No one knows what’s gonna happen with Wiseman. The thing is Ball is just so special.

you sayin' that lonzo is a... big baller?

Wiseman is kind of a throwback to the high school draft era. I remember when Jermaine O’Neal seemed bad for like 2 and a half years.

interesting that the two recent guys who slipped past #1 and made the mistake obvious as soon as they stepped on the court, lamelo and luka, both have superior feel for the game

also both did not play in america

also their names being with the letter L

also both of them are 6-7 primary ball handlers

LaMelo LaFrance Ball

i've thought of v young v skinny v dunderheaded young jermaine several times while watching wiseman xp to matt

he was on the blazers bench for so long

traded him for dale davis baby

classic

averaged 12mins a game in his 4th and final season in portland!

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kEQAAOSwRIJf1Nmu/s-l300.jpg

lmao rookie card literally a senior portrait

https://www.rksportspromotions.com/sites/default/files/ONealJermaine9697UDRookExclusives.jpg

president of basketball club

i like that one its got the regular basketball then a very large basketball background

so no one was like "hey under a magnifying glass the texture of a basketball is not that pleasant to look at"

prob someone did then everyone else was like who cares man lets just finish up these dumb cards

hahaha

lmao at that whole exchange about the ball. lmao ball.

it looks exactly like salmon roe

these lakers jerseys that have the huge vertical stripe on the shorts with nothing on the jerseys really bother me

sorry i meant to post that in the jerseys thread but maybe the lakers can address it in the off season

it looks exactly like salmon roe

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 25, 2021 10:06 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

closeup of a very orange snake

sorry i meant to post that in the jerseys thread but maybe the lakers can address it in the off season

closeup of a very orange snake

― Deicide at Chuck E. Cheese (PBKR), Tuesday, May 25, 2021 10:59 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes it looks like reptile scales to me. nothing against reptiles of course.

although if I saw a snake that color in real life --------------------->PBKR

Def triggering my trypophobia

uh oh (this guy is surely just angling to get bought off)

BREAKING: Meyer Orbach, the second largest shareholder in the Minnesota Timberwolves, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis alleging owner Glen Taylor’s pending sale to Lore-Rodriguez is in violation of franchise’s partnership agreement: https://t.co/NlM0Cd324s

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 26, 2021

The complaint filed by Orbach, a New Jersey real estate mogul who owns more than 17% of the Timberwolves and WNBA Lynx, also includes a significant revelation: Despite Taylor's public statements to the contrary, he has included no provision in the $1.5 billion sales agreement with Lore and Rodriguez that requires the new ownership group to keep the franchise in Minnesota upon taking control of the team, according to an exhibit in the complaint.

yep who cares tho

have to say no disrespect to minnesota it would be pretty funny if arod moved the team thereby becoming somehow even more hated than he already is

Jon K explained the suit, apparently the minority partners want their payout as soon as the deal is done.

but Taylor is trying to make them wait two years because of the stupid "mentoring" thing he wants to do where A Rod and Steve Internet learn the ropes from him

he leaked the no move clause thing just to make Taylor look like a dick in the local media

learn the ropes of sucking donkey balls???

yeah i read a little bit about it, i would do the exact same thing tbh

being a minority owner is just having a financial stake and getting free luxury box seats, so if you're getting sold out get the money asap

micah - that has been the subject of many jokes locally

to be sure

Duncan Robinson, on free agency, "First, and foremost, a fit."

— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) May 31, 2021

wildcard

Duncan is a restricted FA. If he opts for a lesser contract in order to get 'a fit', he just increases the odds Miami will match it, then they could trade him anywhere if they wish.

bringing this out of the celtics thread

Boston head coach Brad Stevens is planning to transition from his current role into becoming the new head of basketball ops. of the Celtics, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.

Danny Ainge plans to resign from his role as Celtics President, sources said.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 2, 2021

what an amazing come up for brad, sheesh

How come Duncan Robinson’s nickname isn’t Spurs Dynasty or something like that

excited for larger scale opportunities to say 'bad stevens'

Stevens has been described as worn down with coaching since The Bubble, and welcomed the chance to make the transition to the front office, sources tell ESPN. Stevens will help lead the search for his successor as head coach.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2021

hard to take this as anything other than "i'm sick of these guys"

Have to assume that the occasions will come with more frequency in a front office role. Or maybe not more frequency since the team plays 82 (or 72 or whatever) games a year, but by ratio.

feel like there could be some theyre sick of him in the mix too

xp

that part concerns me bcuz i wonder if this is just a happenstance of timing where brad maybe wanted a year off and then the GM job opened up and then 2 years from now he realizes he wants to coach again

feel like there could be some theyre sick of him in the mix too

― lag∞n, Wednesday, June 2, 2021 10:34 AM (seventeen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes for sure

wonder where mike zarren fits into this new regime

weird

The Celtics went all in on Kyrie and it just didn’t work. They never turned that around. I would love to start with Brown and Tatum tho.

this just feels off

it’s also tough bcuz if whoever he hires isn’t good enough or isn’t liked by the players there’s gonna be constant pressure for brad to take over like riley did SVG in 06. but this could also work out bcuz brad is very smart

The Celtics went all in on Kyrie and it just didn’t work. They never turned that around. I would love to start with Brown and Tatum tho.

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, June 2, 2021 10:36 AM (one second ago) bookmarkflaglink

i dont think thats totally accurate although it was obvs a fiasco

he definitely hasn't seemed as in his element the past few years as he was for the IT teams. might just be a guy who doesn't like coaching star players

this just feels off

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, June 2, 2021 10:36 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah its pretty weird

it feels like there was a plan to gracefully transition from danny and something threw a wrench in it

prob something like ownership loves brad, brad threatened to quit, they forced ainge out to make brad stay

very weird i agree

this feels like a rich guy not basketball move

everyone went insane after they saw the logo get stomped on

the leprechaun demanded a sacrifice

hahah

i feel like ainge decided to step down and brad saw the opportunity to get away from coaching without leaving the franchise. but he’s 44 not 65 so it strains the imagination that he’s not going to coach again.

also we dont know how real brads position is, curious to see who is above him, maybe theyre kicking him up stairs in the hopes of having him coach again, or maybe just because hes still under contract

i have a feeling that brad does not want to relocate his family right now, they're pretty ensconced in wellesley and his kids are not at the age where moving wouldn't be disruptive. that has to be at least a small part of this.

if brad wanted to still be coaching he could’ve just left and been the top coaching candidate in both the college and NBA markets, he could’ve just taken a year off too if that’s what he felt like he needed, the break would’ve been natural with ainge leaving. so he must genuinely want to be in a front office i just think he’ll coach again and it’s weird for a coach to be hired by the team’s ex coach especially one who didn’t accomplish all that much in reality even tho brad is widely respected and acknowledged to be very good at his job. it’s not like brad can go out and hire some thibs like figure whoever that is who is out there, it’s gonna have to be someone less accomplished than him, prob a guy who has never been an NBA head coach before, who understands he’ll be coaching in the shadow of his boss, it all sounds kind of awkward

yeah wild to me that both indiana and north carolina hired new coaches this year and now brad stevens is working in the celtics front office

who didn’t accomplish all that much in reality

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, June 2, 2021 10:53 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

went to four easter conference finals all with teams that i think reasonably couldve been called overachievers

yeah i’m not trying to disparage brad’s coaching record i’m just saying it’s not like a riley situation where the guy had coached for 20 years and won 4 titles before moving into an executive role. there’s just a certain number of coaches with more experience than brad who prob won’t wanna work for him

he’ll prob have to find “the next brad stevens” which could be great but it’s different than if they had just hired a normal GM and were looking for a coach, it would prob be the no 1 job on the market and open to the d’antoni level coaches who’ve been around for a while and accomplished a lot

idk i dont think it matters coaches want jobs and there arent very many of them, much less jobs with a couple young stars on board

the bigger concern for me is brad stevens has no front office experience, tho im sure hes in on the conversations and whatnot, but also who knows where hell actually end up in the hierarchy, if mike zarren is his boss then its more reasonable

question of mike zarren is perplexing, i googled him to see if anyone was reporting around that and got like 4 years worth of articles talking about him being the heir apparent to danny lol

open to the d’antoni level coaches who’ve been around for a while and accomplished a lot

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, June 2, 2021 11:23 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw stevens is more accomplished than thibs or diantoni lol, also hes been in the league for a while now, tho he does have a baby face

btw i’m reading the pat riley wikipedia and this sounds like some crazy shit

Six games into the 1981–82 season, Magic Johnson said he wished to be traded because he was unhappy playing for Westhead. Shortly afterward, Lakers' owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead. At an ensuing press conference, with Jerry West at his side, Buss named West head coach. West, however, balked, and Buss awkwardly tried to name West as "offensive captain" and then named West and Riley as co-coaches.[10] West made it clear during the press conference that he would only assist Riley, and that Riley was the head coach.

lol buss tried to publicly shame west into coaching

ha! I imagine that press conference will be reenacted in the hbo series, sounds like gold.... blue and gold

i really hope zarren takes over as president cause if stevens is the shot caller idk this is a pivotal time for the celtics and its not like there are easy answers someones gonna have to make good calls to get them to the next level

not really the spot you want to be learning on the job

the press release has stevens as president. zarren's not going to be above him.

this is a yikes guys

thats a pretty big finger to zarren if he's not in charge now

this has the feel of an internal power struggle that ainge and zarren lost and brad won

maybe brad was always right about personnel moves one can hope

i know he's on the permanent candidates list when a GM gets canned but has zarren ever said that he actually wants the top job?

gotta think that with years of people saying hes next after danny theres something there

but if he got fucked over in this deal well prob see if he wants to be the gm of a different team pretty fast

man they better hire the right coach

also a bunch of tricky personnel decisions upcoming, they have to figure out what to do about kemba and upgrade the bench

kidd or mark jackson please

not funny

the boston celtics have died

as far as ex players tho billups always seemed like a smart even keeled good dude who was also all about the winning

wonder if brad would go the ex player route

i hope they get someone who is good at making up offenses

billups would be good imo

feel like its a weird spot to put a rookie coach in but also not sure who else is out there

hard to know how good various assistant coaches are as a non insider since they dont do anything public

yeah and even for insiders its prob anyones guess how theyll do in the big chair

Ainge says he is looking forward to not being stressed and getting out to golf more.

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) June 2, 2021

Danny Ainge said he can get out and play golf a little bit more now.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) June 2, 2021

Ainge talking about when Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca hired him in 2003.

Ainge: “I was pretty happy, I was playing golf every day —”

Wyc: “You still do.”

Ainge: “Not enough.” *Laughs*

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) June 2, 2021

everyone so crispy right now

Danny Ainge said this was his decision. Said he started thinking about it when he had his heart attack two years ago.

“Then these last two years have been tough” with the bubble and all of the protocols. Said the job hasn’t been as much fun because of that.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) June 2, 2021

Wyc is a hell of a name

I didn’t know about the heart attack. He lost a lot of weight afterwards.

Brad Stevens is asked about potentially coaching and being in the front office.

Wyc Grousbeck interjects: "At the Celtics, that's two separate jobs."

— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) June 2, 2021

Wyc is a hell of a name

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, June 2, 2021 12:22 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

pronounced "wick" lol, if it were wike that sounds kind of normal but wick cmon

Brad Stevens is asked about potentially coaching and being in the front office.

Wyc Grousbeck interjects: "At the Celtics, that's two separate jobs."

— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) June 2, 2021

yeah thats good to hear

i mean the celtics have been a well run franchise with wyc so that gives me hope the current moves will work out but still it seems pretty dicey

I have two word for Brad Stevens: Brett Brown.

*words, lol

he does have the accent

golf, Chipotle, and flirting with a job with the Utah Jazz. Who could ask for anything more

make garnett the coach

many people on twitter are advocating for exactly that lol

garnett would never do it, but if he did it would be guaranteed to deliver messy drama

Garnett needs a lot more grey in his beard but i woulda thought the same thing about Nash.

bad stevens already hard at work?

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd and former Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce are expected to be head-coaching candidates for the Boston Celtics, league sources tell @YahooSports.

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 2, 2021

leaking that kidd is in consideration probably good strategy so that everyone's relieved when it's anyone else no matter how questionable

that's pretty obviously coming from kidd's agent

yeah on second read the wording is about as nondefinitive as possible

yeah literally minutes after the news of the celtics shakeup broke lol

feel like we can trust brad not to hire jason kidd, its just not his style

my new pick: ray allen

nooo lol people do not like ray

KG and rondo would be the ones stomping on the logo in that case

lol true

can you imagine being coached by kg

utterly psychotic lol

ray allen as coach, KG as assistant coach
then halfway through the season switch
then switch back for the last five games
take turns in the playoffs
must see tv

two words: coach perk

KG would make rookies (and vets) cry.

kg would try to check into the game in the first quarter of the first game he coached

my understanding is paul pierce has a lot of room in his schedule these days

does he know how to coach though

pierce is all set hes got that crypto

very smart, i gotta get in on that stuff

thats what im sayin

lol bobby

FYI on the NY Knicks

Roster building in the NBA is humbling and history has proven that one ill-advised transaction can send a team that overachieved in one season to one stuck on the treadmill of mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 3, 2021

hahah

He’s not egregiously terrible but it never fails to amaze me that that man has a job as an analyst of NBA front office moves

Especially because, that (presumably self-aware) tweet notwithstanding, he does actually often seem to advocate for teams pushing their chips into the table on big stars and the like

I guess you can take the GM out of the Nets but you can’t take the Nets out of the GM

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report-chris-paul-intends-decline-152917397.html

if theyre gonna pay him that much i would frontload the hell out of that contract

he's in an amazing position. there's zero way the suns can let him walk after this season

this injury in the playoffs maybe gave them some pause but yeah

cant say hes not a shrewd little bastard

xxxpost - there's literally a regular segment where people explain tweets to Mike Greenberg...called...Explain Your Tweet!

https://vimeo.com/355037468

feel like they do have a window over the next year or two before the extensions for their young guys really kick in to give CP an insane short term contract like 2 years $100m or something but if he's like "give me 4/160 or i'm walking" he might put them in a tough position where their young guys are in their prime w/ this huge albatross contract weighing the team down

jfc lol xp

articles says hes after 3/100

xxxpost - there's literally a regular segment where people explain tweets to Mike Greenberg...called...Explain Your Tweet!

https://vimeo.com/355037468

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, June 3, 2021 12:22 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh no! what a dweeb

xp that actually feels pretty reasonable to me. he shaves $15 million off his salary next year to essentially accept a $30 million expiring 2 years down the road. i think the suns could do that and feel not horrible about it. that third year would be painful bcuz ayton, bridges etc would be making big money by that point but it's only a year and it's not out of the question that cp could still be useful to some degree

yah that seems about right. but they should def frontload it

I think the celtics should hire stotts

Kidd — who was previously a head coach in Brooklyn and Milwaukee — is expected to interview for the Boston Celtics head coach opening and is expected to be a top target of the Portland Trail Blazers with the anticipation that Terry Stotts will be relieved of his duties after nine seasons with the team, sources said.

kidd's agent working overtime

i guess it's official--happy trails, terry stotts

rip

Among candidates expected to be considered for the Blazers opening, sources tell ESPN: Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups, Jeff Van Gundy, Nets assistant Mike D’Antoni, and Michigan’s Juwan Howard.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 5, 2021

I don't have the volume on, can anyone tell me if the road team has ever won 6 games in a series

it has never happened per the tv people

That woj tweet seems like a bunch of names pulled from a hat. if there is a theme there, it's total confusion about which direction to turn.

i think those sorts of floats are usually nonsense, but that does not mean the franchise does have a genuine sense of what's next

yeah i wouldn't worry too much about the specific names in the early new coach tweets

my yikes was def geared more towards "that's what's out there, huh? not great!"

Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard tells @YahooSports his preference to be the next head coach of the franchise is Jason Kidd: “[He’s] the guy I want.” https://t.co/xzeI7lf3vn

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 5, 2021

nooooo

Dame obv wants a guy who'll come in, fire up the players, demand their best every night, start strong from day one, wear out his welcome in 1.5 seasons and be cordially hated by the team, fans and front office by the time he collects his severance.

yikes!

wait I just remembered the time Kidd spilled a soda to get a free timeout or something, I’m on the train

that ruled

stotts is going to be rolling in schadenfreude next season

kidd and dame both oakland point guards

If dame wants Kidd you kind of have to do it. Also no offense to anyone involved but you just have to trade nurkic. Like I’m imagining Kidd and Nurkic and I see bad outcomes.

https://i.imgur.com/RuliqYR.png

every trade machine post slightly curses the team getting the better end of the deal

what no one told me

just make sure they're truly balanced before you post them and you'll cause no harm

i dont want to

As the Orlando Magic move into a full rebuilding process, coach Steve Clifford and the franchise have agreed together to a parting, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 5, 2021

mutual parting is the phrase of the moment apparently

Steve Clifford and the Orlando Magic have committed to a conscious uncoupling

They've agreed to disagree, sources say.

I actually like where the Magic are right now, it’s not an unpleasant rebuild imo

Bulls trade went great

good chance of getting a very good player in the draft

yeah the bulls trade was a heist. they could really use some lottery luck, if they get one of the top 3 guys in this draft to go with isaac and use the rest of their assets right they might actually have something

it’s funny they actually have a pretty decent recent draft history, i mean: oladipo, sabonis, gordon, isaac. they’ve just have a problem in terms of like... actually making a good team lol. including sabonis in the ibaka trade was a low key completely horrific move. the bamba pick really hurts given who went after him in that draft

Bamba was really good the second half of the season, after what was apparently a pretty tough battle with covid

yeah i’m not closing the door on him being useful but they could’ve had sexton, either bridges, SGA, MPJ etc. but it was a very john hammond pick taking the extremely long guy who can shoot (in theory anyway)

dipo and sabonis for ibaka is wild

with ibaka having one year left on his deal. presti must have been laughing hysterically after he finished that trade

yeah i’m not closing the door on him being useful but they could’ve had sexton, either bridges, SGA, MPJ etc. but it was a very john hammond pick taking the extremely long guy who can shoot (in theory anyway)

― J0rdan S., Saturday, June 5, 2021 1:25 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the kevin knox pick might go down as the worst in a long history of bad knicks picks

maybe not the worst player (tho he’s bad) but in terms of opportunity cost

can’t remember the last time i saw him play basketball

It was a great fit. His name, I mean.

he has a great name for sure

harden tweaked his hammy on the first play of the series

everyone plays like such psychos the first quarter of a big series

yikes

Nets’ James Harden is OUT for remainder of Game 1 vs. Bucks due to right hamstring injury.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 6, 2021

gosh that’s such a shame

just realize wrong thread, apologies!

Kidd withdrawing from pdx coach consideration

theyre gonna give him the lakers job?

there’s been a *lot* of local talk about his domestic violence history and whether that’s something the fans can stomach, probably not something he wants becoming a national conversation

Tom Thibodeau has won this year's Coach of the Year award. He's being given it before Nets-Bucks on TNT.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 7, 2021

https://www.instagram.com/p/CP1lLAdDPVj/?utm_medium=copy_link

dying

lol

the king

kings of that nature

they should've given it to him before hawks-sixers

kings of that nature

― ciderpress, Monday, June 7, 2021 4:56 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao

watching an old video from the chess youtuber agadmator, hes got over a million follower now but he prob had like 30k then

https://i.imgur.com/t93lf39.png

im getting nervous thinking about this

I don't want to talk about a Dame/Boston trade because the joy of watching Dame/JT would always come with the wave of sadness seeing Jaylen playing elsewhere.

BUT if the idea is ownership will only go into tax for a winner, the ceiling jump from Dame to Jaylen is legit.

— A.K (@Kungu_NBA) June 8, 2021

why/how would that even happen

dame doesnt seem like a happy camper, the current blazers roster probably has run its course, theyre not getting a better player than jaylen back, hes 6 years younger...

dame's contract is terrifying but if thats what bad stevens wants then sure

its probably fine but like...50 mil

dames age, 30!, is worrying

thats what i mean, he'll be owed 50 mil in his age 33 and 34 seasons

doubt the blazers would move him without a trade demand but that seems very possible, him publicly declaring that he wanted kidd for coach doesnt point to a thriving relationship

that’s an interesting trade idea, in terms of value. but it would also leave the blazers with two 2 guards and no point guard. not sure you can really run an offense thru CJ and jaylen in the playoffs, they’re both no 2 options albeit good ones. the blazers would be trading the better player but also the more expensive one so maybe they take on kemba too?

doubt they would take on kemba but youve gotta think theyd be attempting some sort of on the fly rebuild where theyre bad for only a year or two so fit prob wouldnt matter that much for them ie theyd maybe be looking to move cj too, tho! i think cj could prob play point

cause just replacing dame with jaylen is not going to make them better

this guy is on fire with the trades today, re kemba

And to answer the next question, the Knicks can literally take him into space, just give BOS a couple of picks.

— A.K (@Kungu_NBA) June 8, 2021

players might be better than picks celtics need to fill out their bench

nerlens and bullock for kemba, who says no

everyone because they're both free agents after this year.

the knicks aren't exactly the team to trade with if you're looking for players, not picks, since everyone is a free agent and/or not that great!

cld do sign and trade maybe

it's possible the celtics look at the east next year and are like, ok we're the 4th best team even in a top outcome scenario let's take a step back and replenish our assets a bit. but also not sure what you're getting for kemba unless it's from a dumb team like the knicks, might make more sense to roll the dice on kemba having a healthy year, the sixers or someone having a down or injury plagued season and maybe the seedings fall right for you or something and you can make another run at the ECF

the thing about kemba besides the fact that he isnt healthy is hes also a bad fit, dumping him on the knicks makes so much sense

even makes sense for the knicks

it definitely makes sense for the knicks as historically they take on overpriced players and place undue expectations onto them leading to mediocrity or worse, often misfit point guards or players w/ knee trouble, hard to imagine a better fit

hes also the hometown kid!

knicks fans would be pscyhed to have kemba. even a busted kemba would probably be the best point guard they've had since...marbury?

yeah kemba would be a fucking legend at MSG, already is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6eMBvSiOq0

Looks like Indy fired their coach

rip, bad and hated coach

prob for the best

Sources: Both the Boston Celtics and Kemba Walker want a breakup. The team tried trading him once in 2020, and it put a strain on the relationship since then.https://t.co/yiyJIexaoz

— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) June 9, 2021

Kemba made sense when they had hayward but it’s time to move on

hard to picture what they'd be able to get back for him

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

kemba can be a top fifteen scorer again, tristan can mentor the kids, let's do this

i'm in

wow steven adams makes 30 mil, what a world

kinda feel like lonzo in boston with brown/tatum could get kemba's numbers and maybe stay healthy too

fwiw ball is a RFA so there would need to be a sign and trade and hes def looking for more than $11m a year, i do love that trade tho i think i mightve even posted it on here before, maybe they could work something out that looks similar, smart-ball-brown-tatum-williams would be a ridiculous defensive team

smart brown ball

also not sure why they only have adams listed at 1 yr, other sources say he signed a 2 yr extension when he was traded, fully guaranteed. he's on the hook for $17m next year and $18m in 22-23

lonzo ball-marcus smart backcourt would be a rollercoaster

smartball, baby, smartball

lonzo is such a weird player to fit and the celtics are a good example of a team that might be able to use him....that next contract is a little scary tho

feel like his biz team would be up for a reasonable one-year deal (15/18?) with a legit '22 ECF contender in a major media market to show his skills on a national stage and set himself up for a long term max extension/sweet sweet endorsement action

plus lavar ball gets to go on boston radio/tv all the time, what fun

feel like the question is if rob can play an uninterrupted series or if they can only get 35 games a season out of him; i would love to see him flourish but if he's gonna be in and out of the lineup for the rest of his career I have to wonder if they want to sell high on him now.

if this is the sell high point on rob that will be very sad

You would have to give New Orleans picks to make that happen imo

Boston could be a truly nasty defensive team if they did that

if lonzo would take a 1 year deal sign me up.

i'm not really sure selling high on rob is a thing, he just hasn't played enough despite all the flashes for anyone to give up much for him. guys get traded at his age to be penciled into a significant role or as a buy-low reclamation project and i don't think he is either for the time being.

to be clear i don't want them to trade rob! i am not wishing him ill! he is exciting as fuck to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxMaWt7UL8g

oh yeah i gotcha my point was just that i think giving him another year and hoping he stays healthy is overwhelmingly the move

for sure, he also knock on wood hasnt had a serious injury yet and a lot of its been like muscle stuff bruises pulls and so forth so one would hope with conditioning and maturity he can find some consistent health, wld be sad if he cannot such a cool talented player

lonzo ball-marcus smart backcourt would be a rollercoaster

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, June 9, 2021 4:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol yeah hopefully you could find the sweet spot where both of them

can pick their spots cause they are both capable of making plays just not in a high usage way

celtics gave so many minutes this year to guys who just really couldnt do much

i don’t think lonzo is in the 1 year deal stage of his career. someone is gonna give him a 4/80 contract or something

yeah its his first non rookie deal

don't know if it'll be quite that high, probably depends on the market, how many teams have cap space. but whatever the exact number you're probably right and probably not wise for the c's to do that

i think if you could get him for solid starter money ~$15m a/y and move kembas deal thats pretty good

if ball helps bring a championship or even an East Conf championship to Boston, I think he's set with a max deal for four years following and beloved in Boston for the rest of his life.
if he believes he can step it up with the Celts, seems like a wise move to take a risk on a 4m/5m paycut for '22 and let lavar tell everyone how he's a selfless player and incredibly underpaid and then cash in for 23 but i am not an nba player or gm

i do not think hes a max guy a star but i do think he could be a piece a solid guy

the big problem with kemba in boston besides the injuries is hes really a primary scorer who thrives on going full on towards the goal at all times and hes actually not a very good playmaker, but with tatum and brown already in place kemba was having to pick his spots and was just never comfortable and he could never fill that facilitator role which is what they really need

lonzo is not going to create any more half court offense than kemba

ok

celtics have a conventional roster - bigs who do big things, wings who do wing things - so they should probably look for a conventional distributing guard like idk chris paul

do you have any of those

i hear tj mcconnell is a free agent

lol

your welcome

anyway all due respect to the point god but the days of the —conventional distributing guard— are largely behind us, brown and tatum initiate a lot of the offense, getting another star would obvs be great but past that getting guys who can make plays when they need to is good, lonzo is an excellent passer and has made progress as a shooter but is a poor finisher at the rim and a lot of his value is on defense, his profile is actually very similar to smarts, i think if you can add a guy like that its pretty good, then you just got to hope the nets get injured

Lonzo is Ricky Rubio 2.0 but with some hope left that he could improve as a shooter

i think lonzo has more ability to be productive without the ball in his hands and also has more positional flexibility, with rubio its like this guy is your point guard hes going to dribble a lot which is not great since hes a bad scorer

its kind messed up for lonzo that he was such a high draft pick and got so much press, if he were a #10 pick settling into a long career as a solid starter thatd make a lot more sense

lonzo shot ~38% from three this season, on like 9 attempts per game.

yeah he was legitimately scorching the nets for like a month before that late season injury too, im not ready to totally believe it but its pretty cool def

if you get frustrated with kemba always being injured then maybe lonzo isnt the way to go

there is that

i would just like some complementary players who can play defense, doesn't really matter who.

question was not so much how to get lonzo but what other player with an inflated contract do you trade kemba for (and how do you get rid of tristan who admittedly had one good game in the playoffs but was mostly unpleasant to watch) and Adams is who came to mind.

lonzo is not going to create any more half court offense than kemba

― micah, Wednesday, June 9, 2021 7:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm; the hope is that lonzo's strengths play better on a team where the wings can create and he can just be a ball mover

also adams is pretty bad now, probably close to a wash with tristan.

Boston Celtics president Brad Stevens has received team permissions to interview several assistant coaches for his franchise's head coaching job, including the Los Angeles Clippers' Chauncey Billups, sources told ESPN.

Stevens started making calls on Wednesday to get the OK to talk to several candidates, including Billups, Milwaukee Bucks' Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, Dallas' Jamahl Mosley and Brooklyn's Ime Udoka, sources told ESPN.

ime is as nice and sweet and thoughtful an athlete as i've ever spoken to and it would be truly joyous if he got a the big job somewhere

looks like brad is consciously attempting to hire a coach who is… not like brad stevens

they basically have to hire a nonwhite coach, even the local white middle aged radio guys have come to that conclusion

they should hire an italian

if porter doesn’t cut these no-dribble, off-rhythm threes in half next season it’ll be a huge coaching failure

The Athletic’s Shams Charania adds Becky Hammon, Dawn Staley and Brent Barry to a list of candidates for Portland's open coaching gig which already includes Chauncey Billups and Mike D’Antoni.

would be so cool

In February, Luka snapped at Mavs exec Haralabos Voulgaris: "Don’t f—ing tell me to calm down."

It's not the only example of a tense relationship.

Sources say Voulgaris is Dallas' most influential exec. Will he impact Luka's desire to stay long-term?

📚 https://t.co/q7TKUVnHdZ pic.twitter.com/jDEGbq4BCK

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 14, 2021

wild story on the mavs. i will just put it in the C&P thread

bob!

In an ESPN feature from 2013, Voulgaris is quoted as saying, “The whole process (of becoming a highly successful gambler) has led me to believe that I’d be able to put together a better team than almost any general manager in the league. If not maybe all.”

beautiful

Cuban added: “Bob has a great grasp of AI and the opportunities it create for gaining an advantage. Which is important to me. But he isn’t any more influential than any other data source on the team.”

i am savoring this

otm, this is the good stuff

Why is voulgaris talking to luka ever

didnt bob admit that he made most of his money off one simple plus minus hack not off of the analytics that he hired people to produce

dont get me wrong beating the house is very impressive regardless and maybe he did well with the analytics too idk BUT thinking that qualifies you to run a team is pretty funny, and thinking that it makes you automatically in line to be the best gm in the game is some clown shit lol

also i dont think i ever heard him talk about AI on twitter need to know more about what hes gotten up to, cuban is the perfect mark for someone just saying the words artificial intelligence to him

even thought you know you shouldnt it would be just irresistible to pitch AI to him then hire some programmers like please AI basketball now

mavs mustve already had a big data guy

feel like this story is good gossip about ppl disliking haralabob that is straining to be something more. they write that he has “near total control over the roster” but also that donnie nelson “spearheaded” every major move the mavs have made, it doesn’t seem like the writers really understand how much power he has. working with an obscenely rich gambler guy who he thinks he could be better than any GM in the NBA sounds awful tho

this is amazing lol

yeah, much of what made bob entertaining when he would go on pods was his complete confidence in his opinions and complete disdain for anything he thought was dumb. not nearly as fun when you have to work with someone like that.

the mavs had bad seeding luck this year, ended up taking one of the best teams in the NBA down to the final quarter of a 7 game series, and now everyone is losing their minds

jordan otm

the only notable thing in there to me is that doncic doesn’t like voulgaris. the rest of the stuff — bob’s influence in the front office in particular and his butting heads with colleagues, seems run of the mill for an NBA franchise

― k3vin k., Monday, June 14, 2021 1:56 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i mean it's pretty funny that a famous sports gambler and twitter personality is now one of the three most powerful people in an nba front office, i guess it depends on your definition of "notable"

the stuff about his belief he can do it better than anyone else is hilarious. also his pairing w cuban.

the mavs lost two years straight in the first round the specifics dont matter imo. their roster is in a worse place it was cos now they have to pay luka a ton more, and he doesnt like very high up in the org, and didnt like the coach (maybe still doesnt?) and doesnt like his untradable sidekick.

didn’t we know bob was pretty influential in the front office already? I had assumed he had a hand in all the moves. front office personnel directing rotations and such is pretty standard to afaia, and I’m sure the article overstates the extent to which it’s true

also they cite his influence in acquiring seth curry but not in trading him for josh richardson despite the allegation that he has "near total control" of the franchise

curry and wright are long gone. did he change his mind on them?

the mavs lost two years straight in the first round the specifics dont matter imo. their roster is in a worse place it was cos now they have to pay luka a ton more, and he doesnt like very high up in the org, and didnt like the coach (maybe still doesnt?) and doesnt like his untradable sidekick.

― Spottie, Monday, June 14, 2021 2:12 PM (twenty-one minutes ago)

i do think the specifics matter. if the issue is simply them losing in the first round in back to back years it needs to be acknowledged who they played in those years, that's important context. if they had drawn the nuggets and won and then taken the suns to 6 games would the level of hysteria be the same? if the issue is that the mavs haven't won the western conference in the last 2 years then the specifics matter less bcuz then you need to beat the clippers one way or another, but that doesn't seem to be the issue here. we know that the mavs aren't better than the clippers but i'm not sure how that's some huge indictment on them given the respective contention timelines of those two franchises

mavs need to find a path to further improvement for next year but i don't think 14th -> 7th -> 5th is behind schedule thus far

right, exactly

pels will have more to answer for if they don't make a leap next year

didn’t we know bob was pretty influential in the front office already? I had assumed he had a hand in all the moves.

i had not really assumed this!

i had not assumed, for example, that he had power to make draft picks over the objections of the scouting dept.

noted haralabos voulgaris reply guy kevin keller here to assure us this is all no big deal and not a hilarious tale of hubris

he thought he was better than every gm and now that he got a shot the franchise player cant stand to see him move his hand LMAO

hes telling rick carlisle what to do, rick carlisle!

hes convinced noted billionaire dipshit mark cuban that hes using artificial intelligence to solve basketball problems

LOL

I'm not a gambler at all, but I don't see the skills making you a good GM (talent evaluation, salary cap, player analytics, roster fit) necessarily are the same as those analyzing whether team x will beat team y in a given game by z points.

idk maybe they are

also... people skills lol

I hear that's important.

one thing we know about cuban is that he's very very bad at the "human" part of running a franchise so that he would hire and empower someone who treats his coworkers poorly can't be considered surprising in any way shape or form. i liked this thing hollinger wrote on the athletic recently about GMing:

Running a team also is about keeping 20 different balls in the air at the same time — keeping tabs on your own team, yes, but also watching 29 other NBA teams, talking to their front offices and understanding their cap situations, scouting college players, keeping tabs on the G League, trying to work in some overseas trips to see talent, yammering on the phone with the owner, dealing with agents and hiring staff for positions you barely knew existed (What do you mean the team chef took another job? How do I get a new one?)

a guy like haralabob -- or sam hinkie -- thinks that GMing is just using computers to identify market inefficiencies in player acquisition but that's actually a fairly small part of the job

in fairness to bob i do think he has some pretty good ideas about basketball and i think his analytics work was more wide-ranging than one might think. i did not object at all to the mavs bringing him on to be a key analytics guy but giving him any power over decisionmaking is....dumb.

analytics guys belong in the basement

all that said for what amounts to a hit piece on haralabob for having "near total control" of the franchise there aren't moves attributed to him in the article that turned out to be bad, except the acquisition of delon wright? josh green and tyrell terry were reasonable picks based on where ppl had them ranked pre-draft

are they... good?

they have had a lot of good process bad outcome moves

green and terry were both rated as mid-round picks, terry they got in the second round. the mavs backcourt was pretty crowded so it's not crazy that neither of them played that much. saadiq bey could've helped them but not hitting on the no 18 pick is pretty mild on the list of NBA front office sins

the article completely eliding the decision making process that led to seth curry for josh richardson is a red flag to me

luka seems like a diva btw, not that it should be unexpected given how good he is/has been at such a young age. but he gets mad at rick carlisle for his use of timeouts and for calling plays?

regardless pissing off the franchise player when you are a nerd suit is an oops

thinking that someone who is their own boss in a situation thats 100% one channel results driven can just fit into a big role in a high pressure corporate org w lots of big personalities is a poor assumption

cuban prob appreciated him for "telling it like it is" but that sort of bluntness and arrogance is prob not going to play that well for a bigger audience