2016 NBA Offseason Thread

[CMH]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

The money SHOULD matter to you as a fan because the money affects management's decisions. If you're paying a coach Popovich money and it's a disaster from the jump and it's clear a move needs to be made, management is sitting there not making that move because they're worried about the money they'll have to eat over X amount of years and if they do make the move, the next coach they hire probably won't be the best coach on the market because they don't want to pay two coaches top dollar.

That's a good point as well.

See: Indiana.

Yes, I will never stop calling out Bird for the McMillan decision. And he will try to deflect and act high and mighty about it to the media when it blows up.

[ProfessaPackMan]

2016 Offseason Thread

Who are these other owners that are like that though? I know Ted Leonsis is one. And I guarantee the number of these owners are on the low side.

It's one thing for them to be cheap on paying players. A coaches salary has no impact at all on the cap and its money out of their pockets(which they easily make back up over the course of a year)

But we've also seen Owners will continue to spend money regardless of what it'll cost to pay out other coaches if it means getting the guy they want.

Not to mention, Pop, Doc and Thibs are the only ones making "Pop Money"($10 Mil and Up but they also are the only coaches with with full roster decision say).Everybody else is in the $2-7 Mil range(Van Gundy, Carlisle and Brooks are the only 3 making $7 Mil).

[Vni]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Lakers to Hire Shaw as Luke's assistant.

[wco81]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Do assistant coaches make more than they do appearing on TV?

Actually, I guess Shaw only occasionally appears in studio on NBA TV. Probably not big money there.

[ProfessaPackMan]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

He's also a finalist for the Rockets' Coaching job

Per Woj

Sources: Charlotte's Stephen Silas is flying to Oklahoma City to meet with Steve Kerr on Monday for Golden State's top assistant's job.

[ProfessaPackMan]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Interesting read on the Rockets' GM and what they may do this offseason

Nine years ago this week, the Rockets ended Jeff Van Gundy’s tenure in Houston. There was some controversy involved. Van Gundy had been annoyed the previous year when Rockets owner Les Alexander hired general manager Daryl Morey to eventually replace veteran executive Carroll Dawson without consulting Van Gundy, and the two sides — Alexander and Morey on one, Van Gundy on another — were uncertain on how to proceed once the Rockets’ season ended in a disappointing first-round playoff loss to the Jazz.

Morey and Alexander claimed Van Gundy was making up his mind about what to do next and had given his OK for the Rockets’ front office to seek new candidates. Van Gundy claimed he wanted to go back to Houston all along. In the end, it didn’t matter — Van Gundy was out, and new coach Rick Adelman was brought in.

MORE: Ranking the 23 most hated players in NBA history

Now, it’s Morey who is in a position almost as tenuous as Van Gundy was. A decade into his time with the Rockets, Morey is trying to navigate his way around a difficult decision — the hiring of a new Rockets coach to replace Kevin McHale — while contending with an offseason that will surely determine how much longer he holds on to his job and how much power he will maintain.

Over the last two weeks, the Rockets have been interviewing candidates for their coaching job, including Van Gundy, as well as Frank Vogel, Jeff Hornacek, David Blatt and TNT analyst/former Rockets point guard Kenny Smith. Before Houston’s brief playoff appearance (a five-game loss to the Warriors), Alexander asserted that he would be more involved in the Rockets’ offseason, following a dive from 56 to 41 wins and a season that obviously disturbed Alexander. They’ve been conducting interviews at the owner's South Florida, an indication of just how involved he is.

That might seem to be a death knell for a lot of executives. The more an owner gets hands-on, the more likely it is that front-office heads will roll. At the least, the power Morey had amassed when he pulled off the back-to-back summer acquisitions of James Harden (in 2012) and Dwight Howard (2013) obviously has waned.

MORE: Bringing back Van Gundy should be obvious for Rockets

But Morey has been far more adaptable than his reputation would suggest. He is credited with bringing analytics to NBA front offices on a wholesale scale, but he has never been entirely wed to the dictates that the numbers spit out.

At last year’s Sloan Sports Analytics conference hosted by MIT, Morey recalled a time when the numbers seemed to show that the Rockets were better when they played Dikembe Mutombo over Yao Ming. Morey, though, couldn’t bring himself to commit to playing Mutombo more, and he recalled that Van Gundy called him out on it, saying, “You either believe this (expleteive) or you don’t.”

Morey has been frequently equated with one of his former employees, recently resigned Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie, who was hired in Philadelphia after cutting his teeth in Houston. According to other executives around the league, that’s not an entirely fair comparison. Where Hinkie was fully committed to playing percentages and probabilities while building a team, Morey has had a more deft hand when dealing with agents and other general managers, and with the personalities on his roster.

MORE: How Hinkie made the NBA better by destroying the 76ers

“Daryl is a guy who can understand where you’re coming from and work out something, be creative, be tenacious, all of those things,” one NBA team executive told Sporting News. “He approaches things with a lot of imagination and understanding of how to make deals work for everybody. With Sam, he was doing his own thing all along. It could be like you were speaking two different languages sometimes. He knew what he wanted, he would tell you, and that was the beginning and the end of the conversation.”

Inflexibility, in part, is why Hinkie is out of a job. He tended to view players strictly through the lens of asset-hood, not as people who could be brought along with some TLC. Morey is much less rigid and much more willing to consider the human element of a roster. And Morey is still employed.

Earlier this year, one player who was struggling to assert his role felt like he was not getting much communication from Morey as to what was expected of him. Morey met with the player in his office, had a long discussion and, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation, told the player, “You know what? you’re right. I’ll do better with communication.”

MORE: Ranking the 23 most hated players in NBA history

After nine years, and with the kind of season the Rockets had, there was little wonder that rumors about Morey’s job security were abounding earlier this spring. But his contract runs through the 2017-18 season, which essentially gives Morey another year to retool his roster. It’s not a great year for free-agency, but the Rockets will be searching for shooting, especially a versatile forward who can spread the floor.

A person familiar with the organization told Sporting News that landing Hawks star Al Horford is the Rockets' top-line goal in free agency, and Ryan Anderson also would be a possibility. Also, expect Morey to be creative when pursuing sign-and-trade deals involving star players like Blake Griffin, Jimmy Butler or Carmelo Anthony, should they become available.

MORE: 23 best NBA free agents who could land on new teams

The Rockets are closing in on hiring a coach, one who will come with a lot of input from Alexander and will have a lot of influence over what Morey does this summer. No matter the coach, there is much at stake for Morey. He’s been flexible enough to stay employed, but he will need results in the coming months to stay that way.

[CMH]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

I don't care about him. Where's that link about Hinkie making the NBA better by destroying the Sixers?

[23]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

I don't care about him. Where's that link about Hinkie making the NBA better by destroying the Sixers?

Im sure he can calculate the percentages left on him staying in HOU

[ProfessaPackMan]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Get your boy, Dre

Per ProBasketballTalk

Go back a couple months. LeBron James was sending cryptic tweets, unfollowing the Cavaliers on Twitter, showing contempt for his teammates, saying he wanted to play with Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. LeBron’s associates reportedly insisted he could leave Cleveland again in free agency if the Cavs mistreated him.

The Cavaliers thought it was possible LeBron would leave – if they flamed out in the playoffs.

But maybe they had the situation backward.

Stephen A. Smith of ESPN:

I’ll drop one other tidbit of information, because people have been ignoring what I’ve been saying. I’ve hinted around it for months as you well know. But I’m going to say this again.

LeBron James promised the city of Cleveland, “I’m coming back to bring you that elusive title that has escaped this city since 1964.” He never said anything about staying once he does accomplish that.

I’m in Miami last week. I’m in Miami a few months ago. Skip Bayless, I’m hearing about a return to Miami if this man wins. He ain’t going nowhere if he loses. But, if he wins, his options are open. LA, but especially Miami, a return to South Beach.

Look man, there’s a lot going on. And there’s a lot riding on him winning. Losing changes everything, because it keeps there in Cleveland. But more importantly, it keeps him stuck, because he knows he can’t leave until he fulfills his promise. And if you can’t because you’re not a champion, that’s far worse than just choosing to stay because you want to.

It’s going to get very interesting. Keep your eyes on it.

This sounds crazy. But at one point, it seemed unlikely LeBron would leave his hometown team with a nationally televised announcement – and he did that. It once seemed downright impossible he’d return to Cleveland – and he did that. So, I’m reluctant to rule anything out.

It’s also worth revisiting his Sports Illustrated letter:

My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.

I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when. After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.

LeBron doesn’t explicitly promise to retire a Cavalier, nor does he promise to win a title for Northeast Ohio. But as much as he promises one, he promises the other.

So, if he leads the Cavs to a title then uses that as an excuse to bolt, that would strike me as pretty disingenuous spin of his original message.

But it doesn’t matter how I view it. It matters how LeBron sees it.

And, as we’ve seen, that’s difficult to predict from the outside.

[cima]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Lol, LeBron isn't going anywhere. If they win the title this year and I believe JR Smith is the only rotation player that's a FA (and Delly but I think he's restricted), wouldn't that be the best place for him to win? I don't see how joining the Lakers or Heat would be better than staying with the Cavs from a talent standpoint.

The truth is though, if they do win the title and he left, Cleveland fans wouldn't even be mad; he'd be in God status for life because he got them that title.

[King_B_Mack]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Saw that earlier lol. Good old Screamin' A. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it went down though.

[Themayorofawsometown]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

So you're just gonna bust Steven a Smith quotes and act like it means something though

Sent from my N9130 using Tapatalk

[ProfessaPackMan]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

I didn't bust anything. The site where I got the article from used it as a reference.

If I put any weight into his words, I would've just copied his quotes only.

[23]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

But more importantly, it keeps him stuck, because he knows he can’t leave until he fulfills his promise. And if you can’t because you’re not a champion, that’s far worse than just choosing to stay because you want to.

LOLOLOLOL


Who's holding him to this Screaming A?

LeBron is the coach and GM, what is he gonna do, burn his own jersey?

[SPTO]

re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread

Until Screamin' A. gains an ounce of credibility i'll believe his words. Until then, we should just ignore everything this buffoon says.


Anyways I wanted to ask a question and i'm sure it's probably being talked about a little in the GS/OKC thread but if OKC knocks off GS do you think the chances of Durant staying increases or decreases?