Around the League: Week 15 1/22-1/28

[carey]

Sorry for the late thread. I hear the Milwaukee Bucks fired their head coach and that the Bucks fans... are thrilled.

Nationally televised games this week

Monday: Miami @ Houston 8:00 PM EST NBATv, Minnesota @ L.A. Clippers 10:30 PM EST NBATv
Tuesday: Cleveland @ San Antonio 8:00 PM EST TNT, Boston @ L.A. Lakers 10:30 PM EST TNT
Wednesday: Houston @ Dallas City 8:00 PM EST ESPN, Boston @ L.A. Clippers 10:30 PM EST ESPN
Thursday: Washington @ Oklahoma City 8:00 PM EST TNT, Minnesota @ Golden State 10:30 PM EST TNT
Friday: Houston @ New Orleans 8:00 PM EST ESPN
Saturday: Boston @ Golden State 8:30 PM EST ABC
Sunday: Phoenix @ Houston 3:30 PM EST NBATv, Philadelphia @ Oklahoma City 6:0 PM EST ESPN

NBA News

D.A. columns for the week.

• Pick in Cleveland Cavaliers' pocket makes trades possible -- and other things murky: http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/22/c ... deadline#/
• Why NBA All-Star Draft has look of a (present or future) made-for-TV event: http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/22/m ... o-future#/
• Morning Tip Q&A: Mike Conley: http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/22/m ... e-conley#/
• DA's Top 15 Rankings: Oklahoma City Thunder keep on rising: http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/22/m ... -22-2018#/
• Morning Tip Mailbag: http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/22/m ... -22-2018#/

Other NBA news.

• Bucks fire Kidd, want fresh approach: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2218 ... jason-kidd
• The Cavaliers cannot trade the Nets’ draft pick, unless they protect it: https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/1/22/ ... draft-pick
• Spurs, Kawhi Leonard’s relationship has grown ‘distant’ as injury rehab lingers, per report: https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/1/22/ ... g-popovich
• LeBron James was lukewarm when asked about Tyronn Lue’s job security: https://www.sbnation.com/2018/1/20/1691 ... h-our-team

[carey]

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/955546380717600768

Klutch Sports mouth piece claims Giannis is devastated & Kidd hasn't even been told yet.

[O_Gardino]

Sorry for the late thread. I hear the Milwaukee Bucks fired their head coach and that the Bucks fans... are thrilled.

This thread is funny. My favorite one: "Is Bledsoe the first guy to have 2 coaches fired during the season?" Noted. If you are a former NBA PG, don't coach Eric Bledsoe.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/bomani_jones/status/955568375396225026

This is interesting to me. Are black coaches typically less interested in analytics?

[Furlanfufi]

uhh...is Jason Kidd black?

[carey]

uhh...is Jason Kidd black?

Lol.

[Furlanfufi]

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/955555397271658496

[Split T]

Watson and Kidd sucked. Fizdale was a little surprising but I don't know the whole story there.

[TOO]

Watson and Kidd sucked. Fizdale was a little surprising but I don't know the whole story there.

Haynes is known for pushing race in his tweets/stories. Nothing to see here.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/955636272181272576

[Split T]

Cousins became the 7th player to post a 30/20/10 game. Wilt(like 20 times) Oscar twice, George McGinnis, David Lee, Elgin Baylor, and Kareem

[Split T]

Made it a 40/20/10 game. Only Wilt and Oscar ever did that.

[TOO]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/955636272181272576

Poor guy has never fit in there.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/AllTheBucks/status/955477278275891200

You don't say??

[carey]

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/955687020864524288

Today has been a crazy day.

[carey]

Just to recap this NBA Monday.

• Kidd fired. Giannis is reportedly devastated. He calls Kidd before Kidd was formally notified and offered to help save his job.
• Boogie puts up 40/20/10.
• Cavaliers have player only meeting to discuss why Kevin Love was granted sick leave.
• Dame Lillard meets with the Blazers owner to discuss changes to the team.
• Wall calls Barea a "little midget" and Barea says that "Wall's own teammates don't even like him."

[Mori Chu]

That's really interesting about Kidd. I was hearing on podcasts that he was doing a really bad job. Not sure if true. Sounded like his rotations were weird. I heard about some dumb plays like fouling when he was up at the end of games. Great player but never really thought he would be a great coach tbh.

That Haynes comment about a lot of the fired coaches being black: I do wonder whether it is about modern data and analytics. I have seen a lot of quotes from current and former players casting doubt about analytics. (Fizdale's "Take that for data!" is a famous example of such a quote.) I don't think it's that they are black per se, more that people who played the game for 10-15 years start to feel like they have a better "feel" for the game than some blind numbers can tell. They also mostly aren't deeply educated to understand the kind of math and stats and confidence that can go along with such stats and analytics. Again, totally not about race, more about being deeply experienced in the domain from having been a player, and like 80% of the players are black. As for black coaches being pushed out, well, Fizdale will likely have 10 job offers this summer, and the other two fired coaches (Watson and Kidd) were bad, so I don't know what to say to that as far as being racially motivated.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/IAmDPick/status/955773683347451904

[O_Gardino]

My hot take on the race issue is that the firings kinda are about race, in a round about way.

Former players, usually black former players, are far more likely to be hired with little to no coaching experience. Teams talk about hiring someone who can connect with the players, understand what the players are going through, have knack for communicating with players, etc, all of which are nice ways of saying they are black. Many of those guys turn out to be bad coaches, and are subsequently fired. That's what happens in any industry when you hire someone for a key leadership position who has no experience. It's a gamble that that person will be bad at their job. I don't know how the league wide percentages work out, but the NBA seems to take that gamble on former players a lot, especially on former PGs.

[O_Gardino]

https://twitter.com/AllTheBucks/status/955477278275891200

You don't say??

I love to hate Bledsoe.