2024 NBA Season and Playoffs

[Moranis]

Jacques Vaughn deserves to be fired. That Brooklyn Nets team is a 44-47 win caliber team and they are on track to finish with 32 wins at their current form. That is underperforming by 12-15 wins. It has been one of the worst if not the singular worst coaching jobs in the league this season. He deserved to be canned.

No they aren't.  That team isn't very good at all.  Bridges is a 2nd level player.  They don't really have a 3rd level player. Outside of Bridges, they have a bunch of one dimensional players.  Vegas had them at 37.5 to start the year.  They are under that, but this is not a good team.

Disagree. They are a team full of solid vets which is good enough to be .500. Mikal Bridges as you say is a borderline star or whatever pushes them up into that 44-47 win zone.

G: Dinwiddie, D Smith Jr
G: M Bridges, L Walker, Cam Thomas
F: Cam Johnson, Okogie
F: D Finney Smith, B Simmons
C: N Claxton, D Sharpe

That is a team that should be slightly above .500

That's a pretty crappy roster.  I can't  see any coach making it a .500 team.

exactly.  The Raptors have a better roster and a worse record and the Nets don't have a better roster than any team with a better record (except maybe the Jazz).  That roster isn't bottom of the barrel, but it is pretty clearly a well below .500 roster.  The Nets simply aren't good.

The Raptors are another team that have underachieved badly. Probably to a similar level as Brooklyn. Both should be 44-47 win teams and both are well below .500.

Toronto has or had a different type of roster than Brooklyn. Brooklyn had a lot of depth and balance with little high end talent (only Mikal Bridges). Toronto had high talent (Siakam, S Barnes, sort of Anunoby) but dodgy balance and depth. The Raptros had an overabundance of combo forwards, lack of shooters, only 1 PG (Schroder), only 1 center [same with with BKN, only area of BKN's squad that lacked depth]. But overall, I would rate the two squads as similar value rosters despite the Raptors having superior top end talent because of the Nets quality balance & depth.

A good coach could have done a lot more with both of those rosters. Both coaches deserved to be fired for bad job performance.

You are seriously overrating the talent on both those teams.  They are the 11th and 12th most talented teams in the East, and that is exactly where they are in the standings. 

[Roy H.]

Adrian Wojnarowski: Minnesota Timberwolves G Mike Conley Jr. has agreed on a two-year $21 million extension, Steven Heumann and Jess Holtz of @CAA_Basketball tell ESPN. The Timberwolves keep Conley Jr. out of summer free agency and in backcourt thru 2025-2026. 19 hours ago – via Twitter wojespn

That's a nice deal for both sides.  I suspect Conley could have done better on the open market -- even at 36 years old -- but he seems quite happy in Minnesota.

[mobilija]

Adrian Wojnarowski: Minnesota Timberwolves G Mike Conley Jr. has agreed on a two-year $21 million extension, Steven Heumann and Jess Holtz of @CAA_Basketball tell ESPN. The Timberwolves keep Conley Jr. out of summer free agency and in backcourt thru 2025-2026. 19 hours ago – via Twitter wojespn

That's a nice deal for both sides.  I suspect Conley could have done better on the open market -- even at 36 years old -- but he seems quite happy in Minnesota.

Point Guard version of Horford. Steady veteran connector piece of the puzzle.

[Goldstar88]

Nikola Jokic: 'If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come'

“I don’t want to leave Denver… If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come.” Nikola Jokic says he’d be open to teaming up with Luka Doncic but only on the Nuggets. (Translated by @MiroslavCuk )

[Celtics2021]

Nikola Jokic: 'If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come'

“I don’t want to leave Denver… If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come.” Nikola Jokic says he’d be open to teaming up with Luka Doncic but only on the Nuggets. (Translated by @MiroslavCuk )

Seems like Jokic is about to earn himself a tampering fine.

[Roy H.]

Nikola Jokic: 'If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come'

“I don’t want to leave Denver… If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come.” Nikola Jokic says he’d be open to teaming up with Luka Doncic but only on the Nuggets. (Translated by @MiroslavCuk )

Seems like Jokic is about to earn himself a tampering fine.

You're probably right, but the NBA was probably right when it didn't enforce this stuff for years.  Players recruit each other all of the time.  It's sort of silly to just punish tame, public statements while allowing the more egregious stuff to go unpunished.

[Roy H.]

“I’ve seen the trend now. I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses,” Redick said Tuesday on “First Take.” “We get it, Doc. Taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard. It’s hard, we get it. Just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for players. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis, it’s his players’ fault. Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys. You look at his quotes over the weekend, now he wants to take credit for James Harden traded to the Clippers working out. He wants credit for that. There’s never accountability with that guy. There’s never accountability.”

[Atzar]

Nikola Jokic: 'If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come'

“I don’t want to leave Denver… If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come.” Nikola Jokic says he’d be open to teaming up with Luka Doncic but only on the Nuggets. (Translated by @MiroslavCuk )

Seems like Jokic is about to earn himself a tampering fine.

You're probably right, but the NBA was probably right when it didn't enforce this stuff for years.  Players recruit each other all of the time.  It's sort of silly to just punish tame, public statements while allowing the more egregious stuff to go unpunished.

Yeah.  Frankly I just took the Jokic comment as a joke anyway. 

I mean, if somebody directly asks him if he'd like to team up with Doncic, what is he supposed to say?  Technically the answer is 'nothing' I guess, but at the same time I'd much prefer the players show a little personality from time to time. 

[SparzWizard]

“I’ve seen the trend now. I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses,” Redick said Tuesday on “First Take.” “We get it, Doc. Taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard. It’s hard, we get it. Just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for players. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis, it’s his players’ fault. Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys. You look at his quotes over the weekend, now he wants to take credit for James Harden traded to the Clippers working out. He wants credit for that. There’s never accountability with that guy. There’s never accountability.”

Doc Rivers is a clown. He gets zero credit for the 2008 championship run. It was mainly the Big 3 and Tom Thibs calling the shots. That's why the defense was extremely well.

Doc is a modern day version of Steve Nash the head coach. Just clueless at what he does. And chokes. Except Nash had real headaches he had to put up with.

[SparzWizard]

Nikola Jokic: 'If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come'

“I don’t want to leave Denver… If Luka gets p---ed off in Dallas, he can come.” Nikola Jokic says he’d be open to teaming up with Luka Doncic but only on the Nuggets. (Translated by @MiroslavCuk )

Don't stop there Jokic. If Giannis is p---ed (and he sounds like he is), then he can join forces with Jokic in Denver!

A Big 3 of Luka/Giannis/Jokic is a force to be reckoned with.

[cman88]

“I’ve seen the trend now. I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses,” Redick said Tuesday on “First Take.” “We get it, Doc. Taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard. It’s hard, we get it. Just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for players. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis, it’s his players’ fault. Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys. You look at his quotes over the weekend, now he wants to take credit for James Harden traded to the Clippers working out. He wants credit for that. There’s never accountability with that guy. There’s never accountability.”

Doc Rivers is a clown. He gets zero credit for the 2008 championship run. It was mainly the Big 3 and Tom Thibs calling the shots. That's why the defense was extremely well.

Doc is a modern day version of Steve Nash the head coach. Just clueless at what he does. And chokes. Except Nash had real headaches he had to put up with.

Doc been living off that 2008 championship for years. Somehow keep getting top coaching jobs for elite talented teams.

Guy has been handed championship level teams since then and floundered.

[Phantom255x]

I do find it amusing how much Doc tries to make sure nothing is his fault. Lose to the Grizzlies? It's because half the team was obviously in Cabo. Underachieve with elite Celtics and Clippers teams during the 2010s? It was only because of injuries and the players. Doc also wanted to bolt as soon as the C's were pretty much entering a rebuild. It's wild to me how he is seemingly put up there like he's Popovich when he isn't even close. But whatever, he's the Bucks problem now. Good thing they gave him the 40M extension!

[Donoghus]

I do find it amusing how much Doc tries to make sure nothing is his fault. Lose to the Grizzlies? It's because half the team was obviously in Cabo. Underachieve with elite Celtics and Clippers teams during the 2010s? It was only because of injuries and the players. Doc also wanted to bolt as soon as the C's were pretty much entering a rebuild. It's wild to me how he is seemingly put up there like he's Popovich when he isn't even close. But whatever, he's the Bucks problem now. Good thing they gave him the 40M extension!

Well (and I can't believe I'm saying this), in Doc's defense, injuries were a legit excuse for the Celtics during the bulk of the New Three era. 

[Ed Monix]

Doc Rivers admits he was a bit confused when Milwaukee called him.

“I told [Bucks ownership] ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’”

———

Source: SiriusXMNBA

[Ed Monix]

Doc Rivers admits he was a bit confused when Milwaukee called him.

“I told [Bucks ownership] ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’”

———

Source: SiriusXMNBA

Seems like Doc is already looking for someone else to blame lol.