Sorry these have been gone so long. The playoffs have been redonkulous, not only with the quality of play, but with the amount of stuff going on. I'm doing a bunch of live-chats, trying to take notes, trying to write stuff for HP, trying to write stuff for FanHouse, and trying to not get divorced over my insistence on watching Sixers-Pistons in a blowout when the Paroxi-Wife even knows this series is a pointless exercise. But I found a break to muscle these up for you. Enjoy.
- Three Shades of Blue is talking about coaches and patience, something I wish we saw more of in the league. What drives me nuts is that these coaches that are being fired are obviously not bad coaches. They're not, folks. Avery Johnson coached a team that was one of the best ever in the regular season last year. You can throw at me all the "the regular season doesn't win championships" lines you want. But the fact is that Avery is a very young coach that has done a phenomenal job in Dallas, and he got canned because Cuban is Cuban. The Jones said that Avery got fired because "Cuban wanted to win." The Mavericks did win. They had a short period of time to get used to a dramatically altered lineup and chemistry after the Kidd trade, they're in a hyper-competitive Western Conference, Dirk was out for two weeks late in the season, and they still made the playoffs pretty comfortably. You really think Mo Cheeks is a better coach at 40-42 in the East? I've never understood the way that owners and GMs seem to have such a short attention span. It's not like most great coaches just vault to greatness. Unless they have the absolute best player in the game at the time. Like Phil Jackson. Do you realize Greg Popovich is only a .649 winning percentage coach in the playoffs? This is the guy who is arguably the best coach of the modern era. Reasonable expectations help put your people in a position to succeed. And the GMS with good coaches on hot seats are not holding those kind of expectations. And neither are their fans.
- A prominent NBA blogger shared my sentiments when he emailed me to say "BQR deserves a happy night like this more than most bloggers I can think of." And he certainly did get that night.
- TJ Ford getting traded (again) is a mere formality. The best option Corn and I came up with? TJ Ford and Andrea Bargnani to Sacramento for Ron Artest and Shelden Williams.
- Will someone please hurry up and hire Rick Carlisle? Though for the Dallas job we like JVG the best. That would be a tremendous fit.
- We're going to get into this in-depth with our Hornets-Spurs preview, but a central tenet is that the Hornets are the anti-Suns. Why? They score at a high margin, with low turnovers, and a low possession rate. Smart, efficient, deadly.
- Hello, understatement.
- Please, God? Please let D'Antoni go to the Bulls? Think about this. A team that's already defensively sound, that has always needed to run. I thought this last year against the Pistons, and the year before against the Heat. You have young, fast players. Use that. But they would never really commit to running. With D'Antoni they would. Hinrich, Gordon, Deng, Thomas, Noah. That's a team that can get up and down the floor. Please, please make this happen, Lord.
- A well-versed sad tale. Hats off.
- Hey, he took a whole thirty seconds before completely assassinating Nash's MVPs. That was fifteen seconds longer than I had in the pool. Also, in a game that has absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing at all to do with LA, he still found time to mention Kobe. Whew, thank God. I almost went a paragraph without it. Close call.
- Gah!
- As the momentum begins to surge, I fear it will share the same fate as so many before it. Doom.
- I am shocked, SHOCKED I say! This surely cannot be true! He makes pure gold from his own snot! Why, he's such a team player, he asks Luke Walton to do his laundry for him!
- Simmons: Bill, we like your writing. No kidding, we do. But you need to describe the game, not prescribe the game. Because sometimes you say things like this. We're not going to mention any other gaffes (*cough* Okafor!*cough*), because we all make them, but you need to not write them on a website read by millions of people. Thanks.
- Interesting article about D-League affiliation.
- It's gotta suck to be a Nuggets fan. I truly feel bad for them.
- I've just about had it from both sides of Rockets-Jaz about referees. Look, I complain as much as anybody. But we've all got to make a concentrated effort not to. Everyone thinks the refs suck. Spurs fans actually think that the Suns got the calls in that series, despite things like Duncan tripping over his own leg and falling down. No more. I'll make a pledge not to complain about poor officiating if you will. Deal?
- Three tiers from a blog about the 2011 NBA Champions.
- Allred ain't the only player on the Cavs with D-League experience.
9 comments:
With the Suns out of the playoffs, I imagine the Kobe hate will only continue on this blog. If the Lakers make the conference finals, I look for the Kobe hate to double and if they make the NBA finals (much less win the thing), I imagine every article you post will be devoted to bashing Kobe.
Am I onto something here?
Thanks for the notice guys for 3 Shades of Blue. Our attitude is simple. You don't build successful franchises by firing the coach after every disappointing season.
Does anyone believe that Byron Scott should have been fired after his first season in New Orleans when the team won 18 games? Not any more and now he is the Coach of the Year after his fourth season with the club.
What about Mike Woodson? It was only 4 years ago he won 13 games in his first season in Atlanta and people were saying his job was still in jeopardy until he won two games from Boston.
How about Sam Mitchell? He was on the hot seat before winning the Coach of the Year award last season.
Fans have too little patience with their teams and usually end up regretting the rash moves made at the end of the season. Patience is a virtue but not because it is easy.
I like the sarcasm, but I truly believe Bryant would take a pay cut to improve the team. As currently constructed, the Lakers don't need to make any changes (even if they don't win it all this season) because they'll be adding Bynum and Ariza to the mix once again next year.
HP, thanks for sharing that link to the entry from 3rd Quarter Collapse. Admittedly the Magic are a team I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to over the years, and even worse, their series this playoffs was the one I had the least interest in and watched the fewest minutes of, but that was a great heartfelt entry by Ben Q. Rock and I'm very happy for him that his Magic did indeed advance. Good luck to the Magic in the 2nd round :)
BTW, speaking of the Bryant not taking a pay cut thing, read the question that was being asked of him, it is not whether he'd take a pay cut or not (the question presents it as though Kobe has already said this in the past), the question is whether the Lakers would have to make sure they re-sign everyone for him to want to sign another contract with the Lakers:
Hartman: [Mychal Thompson] said that you would accept less money in order to ensure that you keep all the pieces in place so all these great young players can stay with the team. Is that going to be a consideration when you do get a new deal, that everyone stays aboard so this team can stay together?
Maybe it's just me but it really doesn't sound like he in fact asked Kobe if he would be willing to take less money or not. That could be why Kobe didn't answer that question and why the blogger felt he was "deflecting".
IMO Kobe won't take less money though, just cause NBA stars like him almost never do. He might wait till they re-sign guys like Vujacic or Turiaf or till they extend Bynum or whatever, but I'm sure he'll then sit down and say "max deal or I'm out." You have to figure that Jerry Buss is probably making a killing from the Lakers with their ticket prices and TV deals and can probably afford to pay all those guys if he has to.
After all, Kobe taking less money isn't gonna put the Lakers under the salary cap with the cash they're paying out to Gasol and Odom (about $28m for those two next year), plus the money that Fisher, Walton & Radmanovic are getting (about $5m each per year). Kobe taking less would just mean more money in Buss's pocket, not any increased flexibility to re-sign free agents the Lakers have Bird Rights to anyway.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. As a Spurs fan, the Hornets are the only team in the playoffs that truly scare me. I still think the Spurs will take it in 5, but it isn't going to be easy.
HP, I liked JVG also, but he says he isn't interested in the job.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/basketball/mavs/stories/050208dnspomavscoach.3935159.html
Anyway, with the ancient bench the Mavs have, I can't really blame him for not wanting to deal with that. Plus working for Cuban can't be the easiest thing.
HP,
Let's take another crack at this, okay?
I like the Pistons to win their series vs the Magic.
Do you think Orlando ... who you described along the lines of, "playing the best in the East right now" ... is going to beat Detroit in this series?
If you do, perhaps we could have a friendly blogger's wager on the outcome ... e.g. the Winner gets to write a guest piece on the Loser's site.
Or vice versa.
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