2014-15 NBA Off-Season Thread

[Big Breeze]

Nick Johnson should be a first round baller.

It's going to be hard to justify him a spot in the first round, but I'm cheering for him nonetheless. He's an undersized 2 with limited point guard skills. He's a great defender and athlete who has improved his offensive skills through the years, but still doesn't project to be elite in that area. I know his game well because I've seen him play at Findlay Prep for two years before he moved on to Arizona. Mad respect for his family too since he's the nephew of Dennis Johnson. The family is from California, even though Nick grew up in the Phoenix area.

[Big Breeze]

I'm disappointed in Zach La Vine going to the draft from UCLA and Jordan Adams to a lesser extent. La Vine is a tremendous athlete with a load of potential, but he never really put it all together all season and really struggled towards the end of the year. He could have made himself a guaranteed lottery pick next year, but he'll be lucky to make the first round now.

Adams can score and shoot from distance, but I'm not sure he'll be able to do it on a high level in the NBA. He needs to tone his body up and become a better defender. Leaving as a sophomore probably helps him before his game really gets picked apart even more. It's sad that this is how we evaluate nowadays.

[Big Breeze]

Chane Behanan is a late entrant into the draft too. That's going to go up and smoke like his college career. Hello D-League. Hello Puerto Rico.

[Gregg Popabitch]

Nick Johnson should be a first round baller.

It's going to be hard to justify him a spot in the first round, but I'm cheering for him nonetheless. He's an undersized 2 with limited point guard skills. He's a great defender and athlete who has improved his offensive skills through the years, but still doesn't project to be elite in that area. I know his game well because I've seen him play at Findlay Prep for two years before he moved on to Arizona. Mad respect for his family too since he's the nephew of Dennis Johnson. The family is from California, even though Nick grew up in the Phoenix area.

Seeing as how bigger point type players are starting to become more of the rage (Lebron, Harden, Iguodala, MCW all initiate offense for their teams), I could see him as a starter in the league as an undersized 2 as his ceiling but my projection for him is more as a first guard off the bench. He's too athletic, talented, smart and has too much of a motor not to make it in the league. He's going to be one of those guys who should be going in the late first round but will be undervalued and get drafted in the middle or late second round but will carve out a niche for himself because he's super athletic, he hustles, and he knows how to play.

I don't get the LaVine hype. Yeah, he's a sick athlete. That was always apparent. But this talk about him being a nasty shooter? I never saw that once in a game and I saw a whole bunch of UCLA games (I saw an inordinate amount of Pac-12 games). Whenever I saw him play, I saw a dude that had no clue what he was doing out there on the court. He definitely needs another year or two in college.

I like Jordan Adams but he needs to work on his body. I'm not sure how good of a defender he'll be at the next level but I like his ability to score.....I just don't think he's a good enough scorer where it'll matter at the NBA level. If his jump shot gets better, I like his chances of sticking around in the league though.

While we're on the UCLA kick, I really like Kyle Anderson's game. He's not an athlete but he has some of the most interesting set of skills that I've seen in a prospect in awhile. He's an elite passer, a very good ball handler, a good rebounder, and has started to turn himself into a decent outside spot up shooter (and if he keeps up his efficiency while extending his range, he'll be even more valuable as a player). The thing I like about his jump shot now is that he has a high release point so he should be difficult to block at the next level. He's also super long as hell. He's going to suck on defense and he's not physically strong (maybe an NBA weight and conditioning staff and a nutritionist will help take care of that).

[Big Breeze]

Anderson's lack of foot speed scares the shit out of me. Don't know if he's going to get entrusted right away to run a team. Really concerned how he would play without the ball the majority of the time. I doubt he's going to intimidate much off the ball. Defensively, he's going to be toast in the league too.

I would have liked all three UCLA products to stay an additional year, but with Anderson, i already knew the deal. La Vine and Adams exceeded expectations (kinda), so they are bolting while the opportunity presents itself.

[peanut butter]

New Lowe column spreads more light on the Warriors and Jackson's ridiculous antics. Sounds like he's banned Jerry West from being around the team too. Don't know whether I've ever heard of a more insecure coach.



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[alpha]

article also speculated Kerr might be a candidate to replace Jax. Who else?

[naturalborn103]

I would love to see SVG back coaching.

[naturalborn103]

Nate DuncanVerified account
‏@NateDuncanNBA
Heard now from multiple people familiar w/ European basketball that Mirotic makes 1 million Euros or less, not the 3.5 reported elsewhere

Great news for the Bulls

[peanut butter]

D'Antoni is done with this bullshit



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[VideoKilledThe]

D'Antoni is done with this bullshit



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Heeelll Yeah! I'll drink to that

[Positive A]

New Hawks "second" logo. Love it.

[peanut butter]

Some interesting quotes/thoughts about Jackson following the Warriors win last night:

On the night where a loss may have brought the hammer down on his head, Jackson himself wasted at that dropping it with his verbal salvos instead.

"The way that this team conducts itself, in spite of everything that we've gone through, all the lies, all the adversity, all the sources, I could not be prouder, because what we are doing collectively speaks against it," Jackson said. "Somebody's lying."

And therein lies the most fascinating part of this Warriors' saga.

Coaches who lie about whatever political battle they're currently involved in aren't usually able to pull the wool over their players' eyes. Yet as was evidenced yet again in Game 6, Jackson – whose personality and style have rubbed so many within the organization the wrong way at different times – has the full backing of these players who are now on the verge of pulling off the unexpected.

That's the unique part of this whole situation, the thing that makes it different than the many situations last postseason when coaching lives were on the line. These professional players – from Stephen Curry to David Lee on down – are taking the court with their coach and his uncertain fate in mind.

The staring contest between him and Warriors owner Joe Lacob, in other words, continues.

On most teams in the NBA, the notion of a No. 6 seed pushing a No. 3 seed to a Game 7 while not having their Defensive Player of the Year-candidate center (Andrew Bogut, fractured rib) would be grounds for applause. But after the Warriors landed Bogut one year and Andre Iguodala the next with role players galore in between, Lacob – whose team's 51-31 record was the franchise's best since 1991-92 – apparently decided that anything less than a push for the NBA Finals was a failure. He has eyes for Steve Kerr, or - as was reported by San Jose Mercury News - Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg.

Lacob has that right to have a wandering eye, of course, in large part because he led the group that paid a then-league-record $450 million for the team in the summer of 2010. But the problem for Lacob now, you see, is that the pressure shifts his way with every win and that day when his mind gets made up for him may be coming even closer.

The Warriors fanbase that has shown a willingness to boo Lacob before, knows the woeful history of its lovable loser: two playoff appearances in the last 19 years, one of which came on Jackson's watch last year when No. 6 Golden State upset the No. 3 Denver Nuggets in the first round before falling to the San Antonio Spurs.

They don't much care about the internal politics, whether it be the one-sided stories in the media (and that goes both ways) or the uncomfortable stuff that goes on when West, the NBA legend who has been a team consultant since 2010, decides to drop by the team's practices.

They like positive results. And on Thursday night, Jackson & Co. added version fuel to this fire by providing just that yet again.

"You get the feel that no matter what happens, our coach won't be our coach next year," Warriors center Jermaine O'Neal said after the win. "You just get that feel. But we are willing to give all we've got for this group, for that coach, and hopefully whatever that will and whatever we've given is good enough to take us as far as we should go."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nb ... s/8598059/


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[peanut butter]

Interesting insight into the different ways that Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson handle religion in their lives and locker rooms:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nb ... n/8658755/


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[Req]

Interesting insight into the different ways that Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson handle religion in their lives and locker rooms:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nb ... n/8658755/

Jackson's strong Christian beliefs and practices are well-chronicled: The former All-Star point guard who found God later in life

All it needed to say. Born again Christians are thee worst

[stupidregister]

Interesting insight into the different ways that Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson handle religion in their lives and locker rooms:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nb ... n/8658755/

Jackson's strong Christian beliefs and practices are well-chronicled: The former All-Star point guard who found God later in life

All it needed to say. Born again Christians are thee worst

Yeah, was that before or after he cheated on his wife with a stripper and almost got extorted by the skank? I can't remember...

[Smithee]

Yes, but....him being an actual ordained minister helps explain why he's an excellent motivational speaker. Quite an important thing for a head coach.

I'm fucking agreeing with Req and stupidregister. This sucks.

[Smithee]

Thanks for that article, PB. Good read.

Can we switch it up? Seems like a lot of fellow Dubs fans on the forum and I guess this our new thread.

What do you guys think of Jim Barnett's retirement?

Are we chanting "Please don't go!" or are we welcoming in Mr. T as the obvious best replacement?

[Smithee]

Absolutely no disrespect to the god Tom Tolbert but I personally am going w/ the former.

[peanut butter]

Thanks for that article, PB. Good read.

Can we switch it up? Seems like a lot of fellow Dubs fans on the forum and I guess this our new thread.

What do you guys think of Jim Barnett's retirement?

Are we chanting "Please don't go!" or are we welcoming in Mr. T as the obvious best replacement?

Barnett is still gonna do like 20 games next year, and some radio work too. He's not gone entirely. Tolbert is a fine substitute. But ultimately, and we're not gonna go down this path again, because we don't see eye-to-eye, to me tho, Warriors broadcasts wont be entirely enjoyable until Fitz is gone.


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[Smithee]

our old #Fitz/Olympics argument was part of my repertoire for that post. Tolbert will be fine. and that is good heartening to know Jim will still be doing at least a limited schedule.

JB may be boring at times but he is the goddamn fucking man. He's like a basketball version of Ray Fosse, only he didn't have to get run over by Pete Rose in an all star game and he doesn't suck as a color commentator.

Dude taught me how to to look for the nail on the free throw line with your right foot in an early 90's Warriors vignette. That put a Young middle school Smiff's FT % up a good 10-12% from then on. Long live Jim Barnett...

[peanut butter]

Bucher and Simmons have a really good rundown of what the status of the Warriors is on the most recent BS Report. Addresses a lot of the issues that we've talked about in both the current NBA threads.


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[Tweak Da Leak]

I thought bay area fans would love Fitz' homerisms

[peanut butter]

Some do



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[Smithee]

^^ Shots fired.

[naturalborn103]

I usually don't like him, but I thought this Strauss article about Jackson was pretty good.

The basketball Rorschach test by the Bay
May, 5, 2014
By Ethan Sherwood Strauss

The question was posed to Stephen Curry after his 2013-14 had already ended: “Was this season a success or a failure?”

“It’s hard to put it in black-and-white terms like that,” Curry responded; sensibly, I might add. Life doesn’t often fit into a binary of bad or good. After expounding a bit, noting where the Warriors finished, he continued, “It’s hard to say it’s a failure of a season. Obviously we had our eyes set on bigger goals.”

That’s where the Warriors are right now. They came up short of their objective, but want to defend how far they got. Is a hard-fought first-round exit enough? If, as it’s often said, the Warriors would run through a wall for their coach, then why did such intense motivation only add up to 51 regular-season wins and three more in the postseason? Why did it lead to home losses against mediocre teams?

The other side is that, after losing Andrew Bogut, they had no business being in that series with the Los Angeles Clippers, and were leading late in Game 7. The season may have ended in disappointment, but their brief playoff performance was far from disappointing.

That’s the Mark Jackson Warriors for you, a cloudy basketball Rorschach test. If you like him, you’re inclined to see an embattled, underappreciated coach, willing his men to the playoffs through unfair trials and tribulations. If you dislike him, you’re inclined to see a glorified motivational speaker whose questionable decisions are what separate the Warriors from contender status. There’s little agreement between the two sides on how good a coach Jackson is. Because of this, there’s little agreement between the two sides on how good the Warriors were supposed to be.

There’s a great case for bringing him back. He’s unafraid to lead, thick with personality, and meaningfully supportive of his players. He doesn’t overwork them in practice, knowing from personal experience that an 82-game season takes its toll.

Many fans find Jackson easy to connect with because he’s so emotive. Unlike the traditional guarded coach, Jackson’s humanity is on display. In April, a reporter teased Jackson after a news conference. “You’re sensitive, Mark,” he said with a smile.

The response from Jackson was swift and loud, “I am NOT sensitive! I am NOT sensitive!”

Fortunately, Jackson isn’t this guarded in his coaching. He just doesn’t coach scared. Foul trouble? Keep playing. Three-pointer in transition? Fire away. He’s willing to trust younger players, and he’s willing, on a whim, to trust Hilton Armstrong with post-ups in a playoff game.

He’s also not afraid to tell his guys he loves them, even if it’s in the heat of battle. His players love him back, and Curry will tell you as much. Jackson’s openness has led to a lot of positive relationships.

Sensitivity isn’t a problem, but the attached defensiveness became one. In the aftermath of this Warriors season, many NBA fans shake their heads at how Golden State management could be uncomfortable with a coach so beloved by his players. Did owner Joe Lacob & Co. not see how the Warriors fought in that playoff series?

Much of the mysterious friction can be traced to the coach’s own discomfort, his inability to quell an insecurity that paradoxically mingles with a swelling confidence.


Before Game 2 against the Clippers, before the Donald Sterling incident became public, Doc Rivers was in his “Aw, shucks” mode, talking about how he can only control so much, letting us in on how he questions himself: “You really do, honestly. I’m not kidding around. You do all the time. You second-guess yourself a lot when you [win], too. But when you lose, you really do; probably more so in the playoffs.”

Jackson followed Rivers’ presser with far less projected security. After Game 1, Andre Iguodala had credited Armstrong with a key strategic suggestion, and Jackson pushed back hard on this story.

“It wasn’t a tweak. You guys fell for that? That was nice,” Jackson laughs. “[If] we needed Hilton to give us that, we’re in trouble.”

Maybe Jackson just wanted to set the record straight, but why even bother pushing back against the narrative his starting small forward offered? It’s not a bad look to seem amenable to player suggestions. Nobody would hold it against him.

Though they aren’t blameless in what happened, the two assistant coaches Jackson had issues with are gone -- one fired in front of the team without adequate grounds, the other caught attempting to record what he felt was a campaign against him, sources have confirmed to ESPN.com.

While it’s easy to portray management’s discomfort with Jackson as a bunch of suits hell-bent on ruining a good thing, place yourself in that suit. Are you comfortable committing long-term to a coach who reportedly emotionally clashes with employees to such a degree? Perhaps you are, but committing to that guy comes with some risk. Jackson is fond of saying, “I’m low-maintenance.” He might be a fine coach, but he is high-maintenance.

The insecurity can mushroom into what sounds like paranoia. Apropos of very little, he’ll say: "The way that this team conducts itself, in spite of everything that we've gone through, all the lies, all the adversity, all the sources, I could not be prouder, because what we are doing collectively speaks against it. Somebody's lying."

Somebody’s lying? Who? How?

“Please don’t twist my words,” he commands the media, after Bogut publicly responded to Jackson’s theorizing that the big man might have hurt himself sleeping. But who’s doing the twisting? That part is left vague.

There’s a “doth protest too much” element to the denunciations of critics. Jackson hates the word "dysfunctional," using it sarcastically multiple times after a story by Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski introduced it to the Warriors lexicon. But how else could you characterize the ousting of assistant coaches? Job-ending disagreements, undermining, secret recordings -- all these things speak to a lack of harmony on the bench.

Yet somehow, the 2013-14 Warriors were functionally dysfunctional. We saw the best defensive Golden State team in decades, a gloriously nasty collection of physical defenders like Bogut, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Iguodala supplemented the physicality with knowledge and craft, filling in whatever gaps opened up on the perimeter.

We saw Curry make good on the hype he generated in last year's playoffs. We saw Thompson develop further as a defender. The Warriors were a good team this season, there’s little doubt about that.

What we didn’t see was a Warriors offense that played up to expectations. In two seasons, Jackson has yet to field a better-ranked offensive team than Keith Smart’s Monta-ball Warriors.

Jackson’s “hockey substitutions” of five bench players at once created bad stretches on offense. The Warriors played too much isolation ball, relied on post-ups as though the team were playing in Jackson’s era. Curry’s an elite pick-and-roll weapon, though you couldn’t tell on the possessions when Jermaine O’Neal burned a shot clock going to work on the block.

For a second straight season, they eschewed small ball till the playoffs, when again it worked famously. There’s much talk of how big a mistake it’d be for the Warriors to fire Jackson. That could well be true, but here’s a question that’s posed less often: Why didn’t Jackson learn from his mistake? Why did it take another playoff injury for the Warriors to discover floor-spread potency?

Now we’re back to the basketball Rorschach test, where Jackson’s supporters can argue that at least he made the right adjustments when the games mattered most. That’s if they’re deploying an argument other than the repeated “His players will run through a wall for him.”

The players can offer to run through walls and still never break the one that divides Jackson from management. For all his fine attributes, that insecurity festered enough to become self-fulfilling. Fifty-one wins probably wouldn’t be an issue if Jackson’s reign was a calm one. His job would be safe. Few would be debating his fate or his merits. Instead, fear of judgment may have manifested the feared judgment.

[peanut butter]

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[binary]

Awesommeee! Go Lacob! I didn't agree with the Iggy move, but this is a great move.

[naturalborn103]

Why did you not like iggy move??

[peanut butter]

I'm not exactly in the same boat. But typically, the anti-Iguodala argument goes: It was a win-now move for a team that wasn't ready to win now, it hamstrung the team financially and restricted their roster flexibility as well as killed Barnes development.


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