MVN - Most Valuable Network

NBA coaching carousel and some Andrew Bynum rumors

As the Lakers await the winner of the Utah Houston series, let’s take a look at what’s happening around the league.

In New York, newly hired Donny Walsh is taking a methodical approach to rebuilding the franchise.  He is slowly but surely pushing Isiah Thomas closer to the door, but hasn’t ended his tenure with the Knicks yet.  The much maligned Thomas has a few years left on his deal and would make an excellent scout or personnel guy, but has so much bad blood around the league that letting him go seems obvious.  To Walsh’s credit, the slow approach is taking the sting out and preventing this from being the big story it would have been, had Isiah been given his walking papers a month ago.

Mark Jackson has been mentioned as the heir apparent head coach, but it appears Walsh is waiting to interview some coaches that are still coaching.  The big talk is about Tom Thibodaux of Boston.  He’s credited with orchestrating Boston’s defensive resurgence this year and won’t interview until the play-offs are over.  Two other top coaches could be available, namely Mike D’Antoni and Avery Johnson.

If D’Antoni is let go from Phoenix, Toronto would be the logical choice, as Bryan Colangelo is the man who brought D’Antoni to Phoenix originally.  There are also rumors that Mike Dunleavy might be available, and that Walsh might have an interest in him as well.  As a tip, Walsh should bring in Patrick Ewing for an interview.  Many Knick fans would like to see Patrick back in New York.  By interviewing Patrick, you would get a lot of good public relations and have a better chance of bringing him in as an assistant under Mark Jackson, if you show some respect and interview him as a head coach.  He also might be able to offer a perspective on the team that no else has brought up, which is one of the best things about holding interviews with numerous candidates, especially those with a lot of NBA experience.

Avery Johnson on the other hand, is expected to be wooed heavily by the Chicago Bulls.  Paxson and company like the defensive approach as well as the strong character Avery Johnson brings.  There’s no guarantees that he’s out in Dallas, but after the Josh Howard birthday party scenario, it looks like he is.

Larry Brown is the new Head Coach of the Charlotte Bobcats and was beaming in the press conference.  It should be very interesting to see how he fares.  The debacle in New York was a lot of his own doing, and it should be interesting to see how he adapts.  Charlotte has a decent team, with enough fire power to compete for the play offs, and will also have somewhere around the 8th pick in the draft.  The key here for the Bobcats, is hopefully they have a prenuptial agreement, in case the lovely wedding turns into another ugly divorce.

Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut is returning to school for his junior year, which surprises me.  The NBA scouts and mock draft moguls have consistently listed him somewhere between 15-25 in this year’s draft.  I guess 7’3 260 pound centers, that go after shots like Tommy Lee goes after groupies isn’t worthy of a lottery pick.  If I were a GM in the late lottery I wouldn’t think twice about giving Thabeet the guarantee that I would pick him.  The reason he’s staying, is the difference between the 12th or 13th pick and the 25th pick is huge when it comes down to dollars.

Last years 12th pick Thaddeus Young got a two year deal starting at 1.8 million and the 25th pick Morris Almond got a two year deal starting at 1 million.  Also, there’s no guarantee that he’d even go 25th, so he figured another year of seasoning would be worth it.  If he can climb up to the 7th pick, which I think he can, he’ll get a two year deal worth about 5.3 mil, according the rookie salary cap.

In Laker news, about two weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles at a local watering hole having a drink, when I had a chance meeting with an old friend with deep ties within the Laker organization.  The subject of Andrew Bynum came up and I was commenting on how good it would be to have him back on the Lakers for the play offs.  Anyway, he turns around and says to me, “Andrew is fine, the Lakers are holding him back as a precaution.”   Then he mentioned that he’ll definitely be back and that was the end of the conversation.  Now that the first round is over for the Lakers, and the Rockets have extended their series with Utah, it gives the Lakers a couple of more days to rest and heal.  I was under the impression that Andrew was done, especially after Phil Jackson’s “remote chance” comment, but might the Lakers be saving Andrew as a secret weapon?

In regards to the Celtic Hawk debacle; I would be mad if I were a Phoenix Suns fan as Stern looked the other way as a few Celtic players ventured onto the court during the Garnett/Pachuilia altercation.  Garnett also man handled a referee and came away with no suspension.  It’s another example of favoritism by Stern, as the leagues ugly double standard was once again on display.  Last year in the Suns Spurs series the rules were interpreted letter by letter, with no deviation.  This year, they are letting the Celtics slide, plain and simple.  The poor Suns received no such sympathy and were lambasted by the league for being upset with the overall officiating of the series.  A year later, the guy that refereed the aforementioned play off series is in jail.

Lastly, my opinion on the Nugget/Laker series was that George Karl played it all wrong.  He should have tried to outscore the Lakers, not out defend them.  Not that they would have won, but their chances would have been far greater.  An up-tempo game, with scores in the 130’s would have allowed them a punchers chance to steal a few games, then who knows what can happen.  The play offs is not a time to work on your weaknesses.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am and is filed under Georgia, Brian Cook, Andrei Kirilinko, Amare Stoudamire, Police, Valdosta Daily Times, Wes Unseld, Rick Mahorn, Rony Turiaf, DJ Mbenga, Pacific, Greece, Jerry Buss, Chris Mihm, Charles Oakley, Colorado, Portland, Oden, NBDL, Elton Brown, ed ziti, Kings, Maurice Lucas, Lee Riley, New Orleans, Stu Lantz, Aaron Jay Sapiro, Javaris Crittenton, Dallas, Mavericks, Josh Tucker, referees, fouls, free throws, Jordan Farmar, Don Marbury, Hornets, Bob Nightengale, Church, The Winner Within, Maurice Evans, Willis Reed, Vladimir Radmanovic, line, Betting, Bets, Gambling, Coby Karl, Larry Bird, Knicks, Smush Parker, Leandro Barbosa, Sacramento, Larry Brown, Grant Hill, Pau Gasol, New York, NCAA, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Eddy Curry, Isiah Thomas, Rockies, Mike Dunleavy, Indiana Pacers, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs, Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton, Pat Riley, DJ Strawberry, Jackie Butler, Ira Newble, Reggie Theus, Rick Adelman, Trevor Ariza, Mitch Kupchak, Lakers, Sasha Vujacic, St Johns, Derek Fisher, Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan, Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom, Baron Davis, Avery Johnson, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, Devean George, Los Angeles Lakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.