Everything NBA 2020-21

[golden]

Dame's not liking the Finch hire:

Dame makes a good point. The normal, rational, logical thing to do mid-season is to promote a current assistant coach as an interim head coach... especially considering you have an entire coaching staff that needs to be hired by Finch. Imagine the politics now in Minny. Finch obviously will want to bring in his own people, many of whom won't be available until the off-season. But now he inherits a cluster and with current assistant coaches kissing his ass while looking over their shoulder knowing they won't be there next year.

Classic T-Wolves thing to do.

[LJ2]

Dame's not liking the Finch hire:

With all due respect to Dame, there has been no team more successful than the Toronto Raptors over the course of the last 7 years. No body wants to emulate what's happening with the Blazers. I mean if Minny wants a dominant backcourt that can't get out of the 2nd round then by all means go with Vanterpool

[slaw]

Dame makes a good point. The normal, rational, logical thing to do mid-season is to promote a current assistant coach as an interim head coach... especially considering you have an entire coaching staff that needs to be hired by Finch. Imagine the politics now in Minny. Finch obviously will want to bring in his own people, many of whom won't be available until the off-season. But now he inherits a cluster and with current assistant coaches kissing his ass while looking over their shoulder knowing they won't be there next year.

Classic T-Wolves thing to do.

Based on reading some of the stuff in the Minny press, it sounds like Rosas (team president) wanted to hire Finch in 2019 (they go way back) but either couldn't do it cause it meant firing Saunders and ownership wouldn't permit it, or he didn't want to spend the political capital pulling the trigger on Saunders at the time.

The timing is strange but.... if Finch is the guy, then he is the guy and you never know what happens by the time the offseason comes around and maybe he gets a better offer. He also gets 5 games on the bench and the break until the second half to make some changes and experiment, plus the entire second half to get things on track, which maybe fast tracks the process next season.

[can't teach wingspan]

I have to think the Timberwolves GM has a hot seat as well given the timing of it. I think it's too late in the season and the Pups are too far out of the running for the playoffs, so the GM may have gotten a phone call that if he doesn't make the playoffs next year then he's done too.

But hey, we'll see what happens. I think Minn has had something like 10 different head coaches in 15 years or something like that so best of luck to Finch.

[golden]

I have to think the Timberwolves GM has a hot seat as well given the timing of it. I think it's too late in the season and the Pups are too far out of the running for the playoffs, so the GM may have gotten a phone call that if he doesn't make the playoffs next year then he's done too.

But hey, we'll see what happens. I think Minn has had something like 10 different head coaches in 15 years or something like that so best of luck to Finch.

Warriors smartly turned KD leaving in free agency into a sign & trade for D’Angelo Russell, then flipped him for Wiggins (who has become serviceable) and a top 3 protected TWolves 1st round draft pick. That is some great GM’ing, whereas most franchises would have lost KD and got nothing back. That Twolves pick is almost a lock to be top 10, if not top 5. And it’s unprotected next year. Minny’s GM has to be having sleepless nights about who will get drafted with that pick.

[Kagemusha]

Warriors smartly turned KD leaving in free agency into a sign & trade for D’Angelo Russell, then flipped him for Wiggins (who has become serviceable) and a top 3 protected TWolves 1st round draft pick. That is some great GM’ing, whereas most franchises would have lost KD and got nothing back.

Cough * Raptors * cough

[G__Deane]

So Cousins is being released outright....how about we get him not just for the potential upside but simply for injury protection for Baynes and Boucher? He's only 30, still has court presence, gives us some sandpaper and might just thrive again under Nurse, who knows.

Worse guys to have on the bench unless there's something else cooking, as long as he goes anywhere but LA. But Baynes off the bench seems to be working better now so ....

[MixxAOR]

So Cousins is being released outright....how about we get him not just for the potential upside but simply for injury protection for Baynes and Boucher? He's only 30, still has court presence, gives us some sandpaper and might just thrive again under Nurse, who knows.

Worse guys to have on the bench unless there's something else cooking, as long as he goes anywhere but LA. But Baynes off the bench seems to be working better now so ....

He'll join LA team most likely.

[planetmars]

So Cousins is being released outright....how about we get him not just for the potential upside but simply for injury protection for Baynes and Boucher? He's only 30, still has court presence, gives us some sandpaper and might just thrive again under Nurse, who knows.

Worse guys to have on the bench unless there's something else cooking, as long as he goes anywhere but LA. But Baynes off the bench seems to be working better now so ....

He was making Alex Len money.. so cutting him doesn't cost Houston much. I was looking at his stats.. it's rough. He's a below 40% shooter (and this isn't at the 3pt line, this is overall) and he's a center. Baynes might actually be a better defender too.

[G__Deane]

He'll join LA team most likely.

Seems to be the default, yes. Serge and him on the Clippers, elbows will be flying

[G__Deane]

He was making Alex Len money.. so cutting him doesn't cost Houston much. I was looking at his stats.. it's rough. He's a below 40% shooter (and this isn't at the 3pt line, this is overall) and he's a center. Baynes might actually be a better defender too.

Yah as long as you look at him only as insurance and the potential upside under Nurse is just .... upside, it costs you nothing

[S.R.]

He was making Alex Len money.. so cutting him doesn't cost Houston much. I was looking at his stats.. it's rough. He's a below 40% shooter (and this isn't at the 3pt line, this is overall) and he's a center. Baynes might actually be a better defender too.

There's a reason Cousin's next team will be his 4th one in 3 years. He isn't good anymore.

He would only be injury insurance/6 fouls on the bench. Not sure he has any interest in signing with Toronto for that, he'll take that in LA instead.

[S.R.]

Based on reading some of the stuff in the Minny press, it sounds like Rosas (team president) wanted to hire Finch in 2019 (they go way back) but either couldn't do it cause it meant firing Saunders and ownership wouldn't permit it, or he didn't want to spend the political capital pulling the trigger on Saunders at the time.

The timing is strange but.... if Finch is the guy, then he is the guy and you never know what happens by the time the offseason comes around and maybe he gets a better offer. He also gets 5 games on the bench and the break until the second half to make some changes and experiment, plus the entire second half to get things on track, which maybe fast tracks the process next season.

Minny still has a huge culture issue, it's just a losing organization from top to bottom (and KAT apparently doesn't help that). Pretty tough for a coach to turn that around, the problems are bigger than him.

Finch is about to be their 6th coach in the past 8 seasons. They've been to the playoffs once in the past 17 years. Yikes & good luck, tough spot for your first HC gig.

[A.I]

He'll join LA team most likely.

Tried to win an easy championship with the Warriors in 2019, hope he doesn't win one this year if he goes to one of the LA teams.

[S.R.]

How about All-Stars? I swear people think every Tom, Dick, and Harry is supposed to be in the All-Star game now. Fred's a good case study - not well known around the league (especially to casual fans), currently on a middling team, putting up 20/6/4, and some Raptors fans convinced he ABSOLUTELY should be an All-Star. Why?

Fred's still an up and comer who doesn't have the profile of a high draft pick, he's going to have to win some All Defence awards before he gets in on 20/6/4, or be a token rep if the Raps are near the top of the standings. That's just how it works.

With offence taking off in the league, more and more guys are putting up numbers that may have gotten you to the ASG 20 years ago. But we get 140 points in regulation now and guys dropping 50 pieces all over the place, it's not the same league anymore. All-Star recognition isn't relative to the NBA 20 years ago, it's relative to your peers. If everybody's dropping 20ppg, you better be dropping 25+. (There are currently 35 guys putting up 20+ ppg. Go back 20 years and you had 20 guys doing that. It's crazy.)

Also getting the feeling there's a bit of an "everybody gets a participation award" vibe seeping in.

This is all aside from the whole voting process, I don't know how you fix that without excluding the fans - which they understandably don't want to do.