2015 NBA OFFS(EASON)

tnt pregame every single guy felt the need to say that scotty got screwed over. i realize they're peers, potential coworkers, etc, but still funny to watch.

listened to pti out of habit today and Wilbon was irate that someone as fine and good as Brooks could be fired ever

do these ppl even watch basketball

how dare a team that got a once in a generation windfall of talent try a different coach before all those players get the hell out of dodge.

Otm

barkley was outraged also though we know the answer to 'do these ppl even watch basketball' there. i still kinda watch pti out of habit but kornheiser's general disinterest and wilbon's increasingly ott crankdom has made it not much better than around the horn for me now (presumably, i sure as fuck don't watch around the horn). speaking of horrible espn there's some ad w/ cowherd on the podcasts that starts w/ cowherd saying 'you guys know i don't wear underwear' and then i blocked out the rest so if you listen to any espn podcasts maybe just ffwd thru the first 30 seconds or so.

i was wondering if brooks to orlando rumors would heat up, i get the logic in a 'he developed okc, got them to the doorstep but couldn't get them all the way there' plus the 'he only lost his job cuz of bad luck' thing that some apparently believe. i'd been assuming that donovan was going to take that orlando job but maybe he burnt that bridge when he flaked out of that job a few years ago? anyhow for all the 'okc can't fire brooks cuz his stars love him' talk the reaction from the durant and westbrook camps today didn't suggest they were shocked or outraged.

http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/sports/2015-04-23/336cc860-e9e4-11e4-a900-555e662700c2_Oh-man-all-I-have-is-peace-Image-via-birdzilla-ro-on-Instagram-.jpg

birdman got some new tats

listened to pti out of habit today and Wilbon was irate that someone as fine and good as Brooks could be fired ever

do these ppl even watch basketball

Sportswriters' default narrative is that coaches don't deserve to be fired and it's the fault of those overpaid, spoiled athletes who just don't have the kind of can-do spirit of a Johnny Unitas or a Whitey Corngood.

yikes birdman war is bad actually

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/12753788/nba-oklahoma-city-fired-scott-brooks

does david thorpe work for the thunder? why is he using the first person here

In the latest installment of the NBA Front Office series, Tom Penn (playing the role of general manager), David Thorpe (senior consultant), Chad Ford (assistant GM), Amin Elhassan (scouting director) and Kevin Pelton (analytics director) discuss the state of the Oklahoma City Thunder following the firing of Scott Brooks. Was the move justified? Who's next for the Thunder?

lol weird

oh lol

i think he's the only one who took that literally tho haha

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 2m2 minutes ago
Report: Thunder considering Ettore Messina for coach http://dlvr.it/9XJ9pJ

spurs assistant, multiple euro championships as head coach

feel like alvin gentry shd be on their list, like they need someone to upgrade their offense he is a very good offensive coach, basically served that role this year in golden state

its a pretty similar situation to GS last year actually where a team that shd be great just needs a great offensive scheme

alvin gentry totally underrated

he got that last great run out of the amare-nash suns

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--thunder-preparing-offer--pushing-to-hire-florida-coach-billy-donovan-145628237.html

ffs thunder this is not the time to be fn around w a college coach

― lag∞n, Monday, April 20, 2015 3:42 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aaaaand they're gonna do it anyway lol

i'm willing to have an open mind about this

i sort of wonder if it's a hedge against durant leaving

maybe the wiz will hire alvin gentry after they fire mark wittman next season in anticipation of durant's arrival

also hiring a college coach whos from a big school with good recruiting smh, i mean maybe hes a good coach i dont really follow college ball but hes prob just a good recruiter like pitino and calipari before him

either way u dont hire someone whos gonna have growing pains adjusting to the pro game when youre in danger of losing yr franchise player in one year!

like even brad stevens whos college success was clearly not predicated on recruiting and is clearly a good pro coach often looked lost in the pro game his first year

i mostly feel like the presence of the coach doesn't matter for free agency. if durant was like "i want to stay here but you have to fire billy donovan" they would do it in a heartbeat.

idk i feel like winning a ring wld go a long way toward convincing any player to stay and im not sure they got any closer to that with this hire, also just confirms that okc is a bush league org so why wld durant put his trust in them

i guess i sorta feel like if the thunder made the finals with scott brooks they could prob make it with no coach, and there's prob a decent chance that donovan understands, like, basic lineup things that brooks didn't. if he doesn't know how to run or call plays nothing will have changed and we already know that durant and westbrook freelancing is good enough to get you close to a title.

they should have hired that spanish bro from the spurs though

def

and yeah the thunder are talented to win it all on talent alone if they can ever stay healthy but it doesnt seem like the wisest approach

tho lol at the image of some spanish guy with one year in the usa trying to correct years of westbrooks hard earned bad habits

maybe they hired a college coach just to yell at westbrook

i bet that will go great

yes it seems good

gotta think this makes the decision to jet all that much easier for durant. this was okc's opportunity to find a kerr-esque (perhaps inexperienced with head coaching but who gets the league and can relate to the players and win their respect) dude to help fix their offense and keep momentum and instead they get somebody who is going to have to struggle just to adjust to the nba period.

sam presti shd be locked in a room and only let out on draft day

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/amidst-riots--nba-guard-throw-bbq-in-baltimore-153835444.html

deep love for the people's champ

this was okc's opportunity to find a kerr-esque (perhaps inexperienced with head coaching but who gets the league and can relate to the players and win their respect) dude

A lot of these guys sitting around waiting for teams to offer them jobs?

Reggie Miller's available

So is hand down man down. Please let them both get hired this offseason.

stein says billy d to OKC is done

such a weird choice imo

you've got one season to keep a generational talent, let's bank on a new coach who will need that year to figure out how to work in the nba

we assuming durant is coming back healthy?

hoping certainly

losing durant to chronic injury would be an unthinkable bummer

feel like the fact that hes so light improves his chances of this not being chronic, really its like one injury that he got the less effective surgery on then came back too soon and reinjured, ie theres no pattern yet

i'm mostly just scared that okc's doctors who keep botching surgeries didn't fuck his foot up

i can sorta understand it from okc's standpoint in that if you're a franchise w/ little imagination then 'big name college coach' is an obv direction to go though 'we need to take that last step to a championship, who can get us there? i know, some dude who's never coached in the nba' is weird; brad stevens has done well but it's early yet and he is very much an anomaly, the only other case i can think of a coach making the college to nba jump from the past thirty or so years you can make a case for as a success is pitino's stint w/ the knicks. i get why donovan went there, other prominent college coaches who failed in the pros (calipari, pitino w/ the celts) went to situations w/ pretty dire talent so i can see thinking that's why they failed but it's such an immediate high pressure situation, not only w/ 'championship or bust' but also w/ 'keep yr stars happy' that it seems like a setup for failure in a different way. part of me also wonders in some way if this isn't on some level okc preparing for possibly having to rebuild in a couple of years time. let's say durant does walk, doesn't that increase their incentive to trade westbrook if only cuz losing both those guys and getting nothing in return is the kind of thing that when that franchise does recover odds are sam presti works someplace else.

donovan is an upgrade on brooks at least.