The Official 2015-2016 NBA Regular Season Thread

[nol]

Also bears mentioning that fan voting in the NBA has not resulted in anywhere near the amount of idiocy one sees in the NHL or the MLB All Star games.

[nol]

Well, apparently David Blatt got fired. Are we going to have Tyronn Lue coaching the East All-Stars or what?

[Karlifornia]

Surprising.

[bronconick]

LeBron should just be the GM, but he'd probably have to take a pay cut.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by nol

Well, apparently David Blatt got fired. Are we going to have Tyronn Lue coaching the East All-Stars or what?

That will fix things, now those 3 guys who need the ball in their hands all the time will be able to do it

[nol]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

That will fix things, now those 3 guys who need the ball in their hands all the time will be able to do it

When you really think about it, it's more likely that a move this drastic will light a fire under the current players than it is that the Cavs could do something like trade Kevin Love back for Andrew Wiggins or another player who would help them be more competitive with the Warriors/Spurs.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by nol

When you really think about it, it's more likely that a move this drastic will light a fire under the current players than it is that the Cavs could do something like trade Kevin Love back for Andrew Wiggins or another player who would help them be more competitive with the Warriors/Spurs.

Not really, just think it's a dysfunctional franchise, just like the one who fired Mike Brown for winning 60+ back to back years.

My first piece of evidence is they have already signed Ty Lue to a multiyear contract since announcing they fired Blatt in the last 30 mins.

[whomario]

Seemed to be inevitable. Guess their owner/management is blinded by the Big 3 into thinking they ought to be better than "merely" a 60 win team (which they are on pace to be). That roster is not that good past Lebron/Irving and maybe Love. At least not compared to the Spurs and Warriors. They are about on par with the Thunder, which in many seasons would give them a really good chance at being the leagues best team. There just happen to be 2 historically great teams around right now ...
And Kyrie, Shumpert and Mo Williams have all missed large chunks of the season, Mozgov is still getting into things after surgery. And yes, the fact that Mo Williams being out is a legit excuse tells you sth about their roster.

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

That will fix things, now those 3 guys who need the ball in their hands all the time will be able to do it

Maybe they´ll actually be better, but if that´d be a sign of Lues ability or the players (read Lebron) inability to actually be coached. Lue will let them be and try to work it out themselves i guess.

Hope Blatt gets another job with a young team with players that are actually coachable.


EDIT: Blatts final statement as a Cavs coach (and before knowing he´d be fired):

"It's about my team," he said. "It's about my guys and I don't like it. I don't like it at all. My guys are out there fighting for the Cavaliers and doing the best job they can in a tough NBA -- very tough -- especially because this is a team that night after night has a target on its back. They go out there and they fight and they play and they deal with adversity like we've had to deal with all year. We are far from perfect and we are still not at our best, but it's not for lack of effort."

Which is what he´s always done and which is why his prior teams were always willing to execute for him.

[Vince, Pt. II]

That's kind of crazy. I guess it does send that message out, but still.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

That's kind of crazy. I guess it does send that message out, but still.

Is "Its the coachs fault, you guys are awesome" really the message you´d want to send, though ?

Blatt should go to the Warriors as an Assistant for the Rest of the season (Kerr wanted him there before he got offered the Cavs job)

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by whomario

Is "Its the coachs fault, you guys are awesome" really the message you´d want to send, though ?

Blatt should go to the Warriors as an Assistant for the Rest of the season (Kerr wanted him there before he got offered the Cavs job)

That would be amazing.

[nol]

Originally Posted by whomario

Is "Its the coachs fault, you guys are awesome" really the message you´d want to send, though ?

You say that as though the trade deadline has already passed.

Also they're on pace for 60 wins despite injuries and their schedule will surely be easier the rest of the season of only by virtue of having gotten 3 of the 4 Spurs/Warriors matchups out of the way. If the past 5+ years is any indication, a LeBron James team can win around 60 games and make the Finals on autopilot, so there is not much downside to a coaching change.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by nol

You say that as though the trade deadline has already passed.

No, i merely say that as though that firing does not "send the message out"

But if i were to go further: If they see the Roster at fault and can find a solution via trade, that does not make this any better. Because then as an organization you recognize that you just fired the coach that reached the finals despite injuries (and possibly lost due to them) and was on track to do so again despite a flawed roster.

The real sad thing is that Blatt did his best work with PFs that can shoot and Point-Forward type SFs and played set tailor-made for guys like Lebron and Love. Heck, the Cavs even run some of it pretty successfully for a while before going back to the "pound, pound, pound" offense.

[stevew]

Blatt should have been fired midway thru the season last year. I am looking forward to seeing what Ty can do with his chance.

[JonInMiddleGA]

This one seems like a mixed bag. Blatt very likely IS in over his head, but I don't know that another coach is going to change their trajectory in any significant way either.

For consistency sake I'll buy the argument that there's at least a chance the change might make some difference but honestly I don't believe this one will unless there's a major roster overhaul to go with it.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by stevew

Blatt should have been fired midway thru the season last year. I am looking forward to seeing what Ty can do with his chance.

Couldn't disagree more. I'm officially rooting against the Cavaliers from here on out. If they wanted to fire Blatt, they needed to do it in the off-season. My question is, how does being as noted on a 60-win pace, with the injuries they've had, tell you he's not cut out for this -- but you thought he was worth keeping around after last year when they were two wins short of the title? Just makes no sense to me and seems the organization is desperate.

[MrBug708]

Is luke Walton a good coach or is he just letting a well oiled machine keep on trucking? I have a Warriors friend who thinks he's a top 5 coach

[whomario]

Why can´t it be both ? After all he hasn´t taken over coming from the outside, but has been part of the process. It´s been no secret that Kerr actually listens to his assistants input (contrary to how Jackson handled things f.e.) and to me always seemed fine with it being a shared project with him as figurehead and the guy making the final decision rather than the guy having a need to come up with everything. As said, he also pushed to hire Blatt.
No one will be able to answer this one way or another for another few years, but at the very least you can assume there were very good reasons the Warriors/Kerr chose him as the lead assistant and then as Interim.

[nol]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Couldn't disagree more. I'm officially rooting against the Cavaliers from here on out. If they wanted to fire Blatt, they needed to do it in the off-season. My question is, how does being as noted on a 60-win pace, with the injuries they've had, tell you he's not cut out for this -- but you thought he was worth keeping around after last year when they were two wins short of the title? Just makes no sense to me and seems the organization is desperate.

Seems? They are trying to win a championship and there are two historically good teams clearly ahead of them. Nothing wrong with being desperate there.

The whole point is that it certainly could backfire, which barring a LeBron injury just means they drop a few more games in the playoffs before losing in the Finals.

[Groundhog]

I don't know what was going on behind closed doors in Cleveland, but seems crazy to me to fire the coach of a team that just made the finals and is on pace to be the #1 seed in the east. It was clear LeBron was never onboard with Blatt - I don't know how many timeouts I've seen Cleveland take, only to have LeBron come out and run an iso play - but was he really the problem here? Kyrie and Love are bad defenders - those are the biggest issues with the Cavs right now. I don't see Lue fixing either of those things.

[nol]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I don't know what was going on behind closed doors in Cleveland, but seems crazy to me to fire the coach of a team that just made the finals and is on pace to be the #1 seed in the east. It was clear LeBron was never onboard with Blatt - I don't know how many timeouts I've seen Cleveland take, only to have LeBron come out and run an iso play - but was he really the problem here? Kyrie and Love are bad defenders - those are the biggest issues with the Cavs right now. I don't see Lue fixing either of those things.

Right, no defensive scheme could fix these problens, but firing the coach at least brings some chance of making the players realize that the current amount of effort is not going to cut it.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by nol

Right, no defensive scheme could fix these problens, but firing the coach at least brings some chance of making the players realize that the current amount of effort is not going to cut it.

Again i ask: Does it really ? This is telling the players that the scheme was wrong, not that their effort was lackluster.

[nol]

Originally Posted by whomario

Again i ask: Does it really ? This is telling the players that the scheme was wrong, not that their effort was lackluster.

Nope, it's been pretty well-documented that Lue has been in charge of the defense, so the scheme on that end will in all likelihood be the same.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by nol

Nope, it's been pretty well-documented that Lue has been in charge of the defense, so the scheme on that end will in all likelihood be the same.

Let me rephrase: Firing the coach they don´t like tells the players their effort was lackluster ?

I actually get why the Cavs might feel they had to do this. It just irks me wrong that this bunch and especially Lebron refused to even give this "being coached thing" a chance. Especially since Lebron saw what good could happen if you allow that in Miami.

Rick Carlisle with some choice words: http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/1/...for-our-league

[cuervo72]

This is like Chip Kelly, but in reverse!

[duckman]

Adrian Wojnarowski is telling a much different narrative than the one other sources are saying. Sounds like LeBron is trying to sell the media that Blatt was incompetent and cater to star players, but really he wanted his guy as head coach because they share the same agent.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-dav...035612484.html

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

This is like Chip Kelly, but in reverse!

It is funny I thought of Chip Kelly as well. My thought was Blatt has to be regretting not doing things his way. I think he was unprepared for what he was walking into last season. The whole "I am not a rookie" thing just smacked of insecurity. I really would have liked to see what this team would have done with the motion offense that he wanted to put in. I am not prepared to say the players got him fired. Blatt was far from perfect. I will say that the players did not fight for his job. Ultimately, this goes to the front office for the way this roster is built imo.

[nol]

Originally Posted by whomario

I actually get why the Cavs might feel they had to do this. It just irks me wrong that this bunch and especially Lebron refused to even give this "being coached thing" a chance. Especially since Lebron saw what good could happen if you allow that in Miami.

Coaches who have won championships in the last 20 years: Jackson, Popovich, Larry Brown, Pat Riley, Carlisle, Rivers, Kerr, Spoelstra. Spoelstra is the worst coach on the list by a comfortable margin. Miami won titles with better talent surrounding LeBron and worse competition among the Western teams (and the Spurs team the Heat beat in 12-13 was great, just not as good as this years' Spurs or Warriors, who could both end up being one of the top 5 teams in NBA history), so saying it was because LeBron got coached up to become a champion is pretty disingenuous.

I think David Blatt did well for a new coach in that situation - I was probably the only one besides you not freaking out about the Chicago series last season. I think the Wolves would be wise to try bringing him in over Sam Mitchell ASAP, but you cannot objectively look at that list of coaches and say Blatt is good enough that you absolutely have to stand pat.

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Ultimately, this goes to the front office for the way this roster is built imo.

And none of the above is to say that LeBron had no role in the decision. Of course he did; I'm just willing to give him enough credit to say it wasn't necessarily the wrong decision. It was certainly a worse decision on his part to want to team with Kevin Love rather than Andrew Wiggins, a move that was predictably short-sighted.

[miami_fan]

Speaking of coaching preparedness. JB Bickerstaff is now coaching a roster with Harden, Howard, Lawson, and Josh Smith. Good luck with that young fella.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by nol

so saying it was because LeBron got coached up to become a champion is pretty disingenuous.

I am not saying Spoelstra taught him things, i am saying Lebron allowed himself to be coached and be put into positions on the court (to actually run plays) where he benefitted the team the most. He played off the ball and he even moved his but into the Post. Both things he removed completely upon leaving Miami and apparently made it clear from the get go. He completely morphed back into iso-Bron.

[nol]

Originally Posted by whomario

I am not saying Spoelstra taught him things, i am saying Lebron allowed himself to be coached and be put into positions on the court (to actually run plays) where he benefitted the team the most. He played off the ball and he even moved his but into the Post. Both things he removed completely upon leaving Miami and apparently made it clear from the get go. He completely morphed back into iso-Bron.

It's pretty clear to me at least that he is more selective about when to post up. Iso-Bron is good enough to get out of the Eastern Conference with one or both of Love and Irving unavailable, so what extra benefit does the team stand to gain from allowing him to take that extra pounding during the regular season when the only way to win the Finals is through some combination of a superhuman all-around effort from LeBron and the eventual West winner picking up injuries along the way?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by whomario

I am not saying Spoelstra taught him things, i am saying Lebron allowed himself to be coached and be put into positions on the court (to actually run plays) where he benefitted the team the most. He played off the ball and he even moved his but into the Post. Both things he removed completely upon leaving Miami and apparently made it clear from the get go. He completely morphed back into iso-Bron.

He's in his 13th year and has a bum back. Some of the stuff he did in Miami I just don't think he's capable of doing on a nightly basis anymore.

That Cleveland team has a boatload of talent but it's kind of weirdly built. They have a lot of quality bigs but can't play them when they go against the top West teams. It's basically a team built to destroy the East and get destroyed by the West in the Finals.

[JonInMiddleGA]

espn.com has a fairly detailed piece on all the signs that this was coming, maybe even the reasons it was inevitable.

NBA - The final unraveling of David Blatt

Now I know we love to try to parse out the ulterior motives in ESPN stuff, and there's certainly a sense of the piece basically justifying the coaching change. It points out numerous things that LBJ didn't do to exacerbate things but also doesn't entirely shy away from highlighting the parts he played in moving things toward this end either. That might almost be considered relatively fair/objective writing IMO.

From the article, honestly, I think you might draw the conclusion that Blatt lost the team -- or even lost his chance to ever have the team -- from his very first NBA win.

It also makes another good point that somewhat defends Blatt: that the team he ended up coaching really isn't the team he was hired to coach. He was hired with the expectation of coaching Wiggins, he ended up with Bron & Kevin Love.

Blatt being a legit NBA coach remains a possibility IMO, but I came away from the article pretty convinced that he was not the right man for the job in Cleveland at this point.

[RainMaker]

Stars will always dictate how things play out with a coach. If they don't buy in, you're almost obligated to make a move. Seems like they just didn't buy in to him.

Still skeptical of anything Windhorst writes about Lebron as he's mostly just his PR guy at this point.

[nol]

And on the flip side, the one part of the Woj article that actually talks about David Blatt as something other than a helpless pawn in LeBron James' single-minded mission to personally enrich himself and his sports agency is a sentence that basically says "yeah he did struggle adjusting to the increased complexity of the NBA game."

That's all it is. The team doesn't need anything in the way of teaching. It needs to beat a better team in the Finals, and for that to happen there needs to be some luck and there can be absolutely no slippage in terms of any in-game adjustments.

[RainMaker]

Yeah I don't get Woj's article either. The agent commission off a coach isn't all that much in his world.

Lets say he got a coach hired for $5 million a year. A commission of 4-10% isn't exactly huge for a guy worth what Lebron is worth.

[nol]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Yeah I don't get Woj's article either. The agent commission off a coach isn't all that much in his world.

Lets say he got a coach hired for $5 million a year. A commission of 4-10% isn't exactly huge for a guy worth what Lebron is worth.

In Woj's world, his closest and most reliable sources are agents (think about it, he is most known for announcing where players are going to be drafted or sign as free agents before it officially happens), and I can't imagine a bunch of established guys with JDs or whatever are going to have too many nice things to say about how LeBron James' homie from high school is rivaling them or bettering them in terms of clients/influence/etc.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Seems like they just didn't buy in to him.

That first story in the article though -- his reaction to their first-win celebration -- makes it seem doubtful to me that he even understands the concept.

edit to add: He can hold whatever view of his ability or rightful authority or credibility or whateveryouwanttocallit that he chooses. But even a hardass like me grasps the reality that how others view it WILL make a difference in the outcome.

[Groundhog]

LeBron's body language today is about 10x better than I've seen since he came back to Cleveland.

[miami_fan]

Tyronn has one of those Phil Jackson thrones on the sidelines.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I hadn't thought about this until I saw an article on it but .... nobody is sure who is going to coach either team in the all star game at the moment.

Just like Blatt is unlikely to be able to coach the East, Kerr wasn't eligible to coach the West (no back to back years now) but there's a question of whether Walton -- despite being officially credited with zero wins -- might be allowed to go instead of Popovich.

[miami_fan]

I am not sure why Lue would not be the coach. His team will probably have the best record, right?

[miami_fan]

Hell let Walton coach and have Kerr and Blatt as his assistants.

[Groundhog]

Welp, looks like Lue didn't magically install a competent offense overnight.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I am not sure why Lue would not be the coach. His team will probably have the best record, right?

Lue has suggested that the honor belongs to Blatt, and that he'll do it in order to get the staff the honor but that he'd prefer it to be Blatt.

Granted, maybe that's just good p.r. but that's why the subject has come up.

[nol]

I don't know if it's something in the water tonight, but these are definitely two of the funniest sequences of the season.

Guys. It's come to this. https://t.co/2MATXbgsXc

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) January 24, 2016

Not sure what sport this is but it looks amazing pic.twitter.com/xCqoGR1CI7

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 24, 2016

[whomario]

1) I am shocked (shocked !!) that Dennis Schroeder is now a player that slows things down and thinks before romping forward, thus sadly ending this hilarious back and forth

2) This needs the Benny Hill theme treatment

[Vince, Pt. II]

The Warriors have reportedly recalled Kevon Looney from their D-League affiliate. He was averaging 8 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes there. If he can provide solid backup minutes at the 4, that will be a tremendous help for the Warriors' bench.

[Brian Swartz]

I think the ASG coaches will be Lue and Popovich. There's some talk about letting Walton coach, but if he coaches then Blatt should too and the NBA has already said Lue is the East coach if Cleveland is in first.

Interesting food for thought: after the Spurs-Warriors game, the two teams will still have less losses, combined, than any other NBA team. LOL @ Popovich holding out Duncan for basically precautionary reasons, and love Kerr's response(that he needs a day off now and then since he's '57 years old').

I love me some Rick Carlisle. He'd be my pick if I had to choose a coach(non-Popovich category).

Stan Van Gundy's comment the other day about the Pistons being 'firmly committed to being mediocre' sums up the team better than anything I can say. Will be interesting to see what happens if those habits don't change in the next year or two.

Originally Posted by nol

I don't know if it's something in the water tonight, but these are definitely two of the funniest sequences of the season.

Not much in the NBA makes me laugh. I've watched both a few times and I'm not sure I believe them. Kobe's lovely baseline jumper off the side of the backboard to Randle so he could get swatted by GINOBILI! a few days back was great also.

Toronto seems to be emerging as the East's least dysfunctional, and is worth rooting for even if there's no other reason to.

I hope Sacramento does make the playoffs. They'd spice up the first round, and Karl always gives good soundbite.

[Brian Swartz]

Was reminded of how nice corners of the internet like this are with generally intelligent sports fans today. Read some stuff on Golden State-oriented fan sites and the general opinion was of the variety that this is going to be a super-high scoring game with the Spurs because of the way San Antonio has copied the GSW way with the super-high tempo they are playing this year.

Except of course, than San Antonio is playing slower this year, which with the Aldridge addition you would expect. 25th in pace according to the Hollinger measure.

Much rather discuss things with the group here who usually know what they are talking about, even if we don't always agree.