The NBA Offseason Thread

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

But you asked why Mike would get more love than Avery because Avery made the finals.

 

Then they blew the finals. And they got there by beating a depleted team in the West Finals. Point is, that finals trip for Avery just doesn't count as much as one would think. People still remember the circumstance.

 

Alright... Point taken.

[Maztinho 0]

D'Antoni never choked in the first round against an eight seed either.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Well then again he never faced his former mentor or the former of coach of a team whom he built.

[Maztinho 0]

Still if you lose to an 8 seed, I think that's more memorable than a Finals appearance to most people. Particularly since you could argue that it him inheriting a team to the Finals and just a few tweaks here and there that got them a bit further, but after a prolonged tenure under him you can really see what they can do.

 

It's like when LaVell Edwards retired as the BYU head football coach, the new guy came in and won a shitload of games the next year with Edwards' players, but after Crowton had the reigns for a few years the program was back to mediocre.

[Ripper 0]

On ESPN's front page, that picture of Kobe in the "Not just a chant" Line is the most disturbing thing I have seen all day.

 

 

[Maztinho 0]

On ESPN's front page, that picture of Kobe in the "Not just a chant" Line is the most disturbing thing I have seen all day.

 

WHAT YOU CRAPPIN' KOBE?

[Fartsauce 0]

Chuck Swirsky is leaving the Raptors play-by-play team and is moving back to Chicago for family reasons! Greatest day ever, as he was the reason I'd constantly mute any Toronto games. I believe he's going to be covering the Bulls next season.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Poor Czech...

[Precious Roy 0]

I'm already discouraged by the Knicks hiring process. I don't want to see D'Antoni or Johnson on the sideline, though at least Avery might get them to play some defense.

[Guest College Party]

Ripper, who do you think is best for the Bulls right now? Is there anyone that can fix this mess? There's no star player here. The best player (Deng) is a bench player anywhere else. The success of the Skiles Bulls was predicated on maximum effort from every player at every minute because they couldn't afford to get away with anything less. While highly admirable, especially to the non-athletically gifted like myself, the approach was ultimately asymptotal to a world championship: they would've gotten closer and closer, but never possibly could've won it all. Then the whole thing fell apart last Christmas and we had a roster of "try-hard guys" who couldn't be arsed to try hard, and without that, had nothing to offer.

 

How do you salvage what's now a roster of 8th and 9th men? It's highly doubtful that the "older" guys like Hinrich, Gordon, and Deng will ever rekindle the FIRE AND THE PASSION that they had in 04-05, and the more recent additions like Noah and Sefolosha don't look like they'll transcend that Paxson mold. Pax and Skiles built this team to be defense-defense-defense-first, and throwing Mike d'Antoni into that sort of system won't yield fast results, if any at all. Moreover, if the reason he's available to the Bulls in the first place is that Steve Kerr is a dillweed who doesn't like uptempo basketball, and Bob Sarver only cares about making money...how will working under John Paxson and Jerry Reinsdorf possibly be any better?

 

Poor Czech...

Swirsky's doing radio, and the Bulls are on a station with a goofy-ass signal that goes east all the way to Toronto but only as far west as, like, Naperville, so I just watch them on TV. Basketball sucks on the radio, anyway. I'm really bummed about losing Red Kerr, though. He should've had that job till his death.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

And now I just found out that they changed up their announcing teams and got rid of Wayne Larrivee and Red Kerr. Horrible news.

 

Horrible news indeed.

 

Why would they get rid of them?

[Ripper 0]

For the bulls, no one would work there.

 

They need to make some trades. quickly. they need a post player (look to Zach in New York for that) and after that, I think they are okay.

 

Hinrich can't possibly suck that bad next year, they are going to lose Gordon(one would think), but they hopefully would sign and trade him to get a big that can actually score on the block.

 

But I will never know with Chicago. I didn't understand how they got good in the first place until I noticed they went two years with none of their shooters giong through a real shooters slump. They are just a jumpshooting team and need to break that. So its more Pax than the coach.

 

And to think....the Bulls could have had the Grinch up there if he had been willing to let go of Hinrich.

[Guest College Party]

And now I just found out that they changed up their announcing teams and got rid of Wayne Larrivee and Red Kerr. Horrible news.

 

Horrible news indeed.

 

Why would they get rid of them?

Cost-cutting is my guess: they had PBP split between Tom Dore on cable (also fired) and Wayne Larrivee on channel 9, plus Stacey King did color with Red on cable but not 9, so now instead of four TV announcers, there are only two. I've heard good things about Neil Funk, but I don't do radio basketball, so I can't vouch for him. I just know that Larrivee is one of the best in the business, and Red is to the Bulls what Ron Santo is to the Cubs: kinda crazy, but he's a dear figure and really cares about the team. The complaint I always heard about the Comcast team was that they whined about every bad or non-call to the point of utter annoyance, much like a certain pair of announcers from the other Reinsdorf-owned team on the Reinsdorf-owned cable channel. That never seemed to be the case with Larrivee.

 

You paint a bleak picture, Ripper. Part of me doesn't even give a damn what the Bulls do, since it appears that they're giving up their place in the pecking order to their United Center co-tenants.

[Brett Favre 0]

I'm already discouraged by the Knicks hiring process. I don't want to see D'Antoni or Johnson on the sideline, though at least Avery might get them to play some defense.

 

Mark Jackson will be the coach.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

can someone explain wtf is so special about mark jackson that everybody wants him? I dont get it.

[Ripper 0]

Beats me. Listening to him commentate he always says moronic things that the coach should do and I just shake my head.

 

Case in point, in the HAwks/Celtics series, doc rivers only had Paul Pierce of the big three in the game and put Posey and Cassell out there. He said that the hawks should be doubling Paul Pierce since he was the only scorer on the court. Its that dumb shit that makes me wonder what the hell kind of coach is he going to be.

[naiwf 0]

can someone explain wtf is so special about mark jackson that everybody wants him? I dont get it.

 

He's from NYC and apparently that means he can fix the Knicks. I don't get it either.

 

[Brett Favre 0]

I don't what kind of coach he'll be but it's cause he played under some great coaches, and was always seen as a coach on the floor.

[Precious Roy 0]

Beats me. Listening to him commentate he always says moronic things that the coach should do and I just shake my head.

 

Case in point, in the HAwks/Celtics series, doc rivers only had Paul Pierce of the big three in the game and put Posey and Cassell out there. He said that the hawks should be doubling Paul Pierce since he was the only scorer on the court. Its that dumb shit that makes me wonder what the hell kind of coach is he going to be.

 

Eh, that's not that dumb. Posey is strictly a jumpshooter and Cassell at this point in his career is basically the same. In that scenario Pierce is the only guy who can hurt you one on one, so you double him and rely on your team defense to make rotations onto the jumpshooters.

 

That's not an endorsement for Mark Jackson as coach though. I'm still holding out hope that Jeff Van Gundy will come back

 

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

I don't see the need for the Knicks to throw large money at a big named coach... It's not like it has worked for them in this past decade.

[Ripper 0]

Beats me. Listening to him commentate he always says moronic things that the coach should do and I just shake my head.

 

Case in point, in the HAwks/Celtics series, doc rivers only had Paul Pierce of the big three in the game and put Posey and Cassell out there. He said that the hawks should be doubling Paul Pierce since he was the only scorer on the court. Its that dumb shit that makes me wonder what the hell kind of coach is he going to be.

 

Eh, that's not that dumb. Posey is strictly a jumpshooter and Cassell at this point in his career is basically the same. In that scenario Pierce is the only guy who can hurt you one on one, so you double him and rely on your team defense to make rotations onto the jumpshooters.

 

That's not an endorsement for Mark Jackson as coach though. I'm still holding out hope that Jeff Van Gundy will come back

 

 

Thats why its dumb. You double pierce and you leave guys wide open doing the only thing they can do in a close game. You don't leave shooters. Period. Wide open three from Posey or Cassell is a better shot than contested one on one shot from Pierce and it creates a stagnant offense when doing so.

 

Its that kind of crap that will get you beat down in close games.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

What does everyone think of Carlisle going to the Mavs? Think it will benefit? I always liked Carlisle.

[Damaramu 0]

I don't see the need for the Knicks to throw large money at a big named coach... It's not like it has worked for them in this past decade.

 

I agree with this.

 

The thing is it's going to take a little longer than one year to turn the Knicks around. You throw a lot of money at a big name coach with a history of winning and people are going to expect him to turn it around immediately. When he doesn't the media and fans in NY will probably turn on him and he'll be villified and booted out of town.

 

So why waste your money on the coach when you should probably be trying to fix the actual team? It's going to take a lot more than a coach to turn that place around.

[alfdogg 0]

I was reading a chat log on ESPN last week, I forget if it was Ford or Chris Sheridan. But one of them said that the Suns trading Steve Nash may be an option worth exploring. What would you guys' opinion be on the possibility of this?

[naiwf 0]

I think it all hinges on who would they trade him to and what they would expect to get back for him. I don't know how much money and years he has left on his contract but despite his all-NBA 2nd team level skillset I don't think he's very tradeable because of his age and inability to guard anyone in the league. He's a perfect fit for a team like the old Suns, but I don't think he'd work nearly as well anywhere else.

[Precious Roy 0]

Beats me. Listening to him commentate he always says moronic things that the coach should do and I just shake my head.

 

Case in point, in the HAwks/Celtics series, doc rivers only had Paul Pierce of the big three in the game and put Posey and Cassell out there. He said that the hawks should be doubling Paul Pierce since he was the only scorer on the court. Its that dumb shit that makes me wonder what the hell kind of coach is he going to be.

 

Eh, that's not that dumb. Posey is strictly a jumpshooter and Cassell at this point in his career is basically the same. In that scenario Pierce is the only guy who can hurt you one on one, so you double him and rely on your team defense to make rotations onto the jumpshooters.

 

That's not an endorsement for Mark Jackson as coach though. I'm still holding out hope that Jeff Van Gundy will come back

 

 

Thats why its dumb. You double pierce and you leave guys wide open doing the only thing they can do in a close game. You don't leave shooters. Period. Wide open three from Posey or Cassell is a better shot than contested one on one shot from Pierce and it creates a stagnant offense when doing so.

 

Its that kind of crap that will get you beat down in close games.

 

Well, I really don't know the context of the comment since I didn't see that game, I can't imagine the Celtics would have only had Pierce on the court if it was a crucial point in the game, but as a general rule I would think in that situation you could shade with a second defender on Pierce to prevent penetration to the inside and still give your team the chance to rotate and cover the shooters, especially with the kind of athleticism that Atlanta has. Nobody should ever be left wide open, but you can throw more than one defender at the ballhandler without that happening if all 5 guys on defense are on the same page.

[alfdogg 0]

According to hoopshype, Nash has two years left at $12,250,000 and $13,125,000, with the second year being a team option. I don't think he would be incredibly hard to move.

[dh86 0]

All joking aside, "play against Michael Jordan" is the correct answer here.

 

 

They would have lost to anyone. The games they won on the way to the finals featured them keeping the ball out of Sucky VonChokesalot hand. Stocktons three, Horney's layup, Ostertags block. All plays that fuck up would have fucked up.

 

The bulls doubled stockton two years in a row to force him to pass to Malone with the game on the line and he turned it over both times. That dude really did suck ass.

 

For people to put him in the All-Time PF list over Barkley or Mchale is embarrassing. (duncan is still a center. Fuck the spurs lineup chart)

 

You say Malone chokes alot, yet would put Barkley ahead of him??????? wtf?

 

 

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I was reading a chat log on ESPN last week, I forget if it was Ford or Chris Sheridan. But one of them said that the Suns trading Steve Nash may be an option worth exploring. What would you guys' opinion be on the possibility of this?

Even with D'Antoni on his way out and Shaq blubbering up the middle, I'm not sure there's good value to it. They'll probably be running a different kind of offense next year, but they don't have a real point guard besides Nash on the roster, so half of their trade would have to be getting someone back to fill that role.

 

If they're not going to resign him, they should try to deal him within the next year for a few promising guys on rookie contracts, unless they just want to let him walk to clear cap space for a max deal free agent next summer or summer 2010. He's already going to be an expiring contract, so they don't need to trade for wastes of space who fill the same role. I'd say they could get a few good draft picks for Nash too, but given the Suns' predilection for selling their picks for money, there's probably no point to that.

[teke184 0]

I could see Nash moved to the Raptors in exchange for TJ Ford, as Ford is being replaced by Jose Calderon as the PG of the future and seems unwilling to take a demotion to the bench.

 

Ford's contract is $8 million a year for 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and a player option for 2010-2011.

 

 

According to the ESPN Trade Machine, this can work under the following scenario:

 

The Suns send Nash (1 year left)

 

The Raptors send TJ Ford (2 years left), Anthony Parker (1 year left), and Joey Graham (1 year left).