Around the League: Week 19 2/19-2/25

[In2ition]

Idk who would be best for this team next year, but I'm hoping for half the roster rehaul.

[Cap]

Idk who would be best for this team next year, but I'm hoping for half the roster rehaul.

I’m hoping to acquire excellent young players who can help this team contend in the future.

If you ask McD to make change for the sake of change, we’re going to get Avery Bradley.

[In2ition]

Idk who would be best for this team next year, but I'm hoping for half the roster rehaul.

I’m hoping to acquire excellent young players who can help this team contend in the future.

If you ask McD to make change for the sake of change, we’re going to get Avery Bradley.

Well not for the sake of change. It's got to make sense, and Avery doesn't make sense to me.

[Mori Chu]

Not sure what the appeal of Fiz is. He did a mediocre job with a Grizzlies team. He doesn't believe in analytics in a time when it is at it's premium and has transformed the league. His halftime analysis just now was "lots of assists, that ball is poppin' and they are making shots."

Well, to be fair, the ball in question *was* poppin'.

[Mori Chu]

As a more serious reply, I guess I'm swayed by the fact that a lot of people in and around the league think really highly of Fizdale. They don't get why he was fired in Memphis and think he should be scooped up right away by any team looking for a new coach. So that carries some weight with me. I don't like the "take that for data" comment or the spirit behind it; if I were going to hire him, I'd want to ask him whether he rejects modern analytics, and if his answer is unsatisfactory, I'd tell him it isn't going to be a good fit. But otherwise I like the guy.

I'm not concerned about the mediocre Memphis result. He had a mediocre-to-bad team and got a .500 record out of them. I'm not sure they were capable of much more with so little shooting and with their best players starting to age and become brittle.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/co ... da01c.html

[Hermen]

Didn't Memphis have a great start to the season? I remember them beating the Warriors and the Rockets (twice) and being near the top of the west. Then the injuries got them.
As for analytics - Gasol started shooting threes when Fizdale took over.
He's probably not the next Pop, but I think with him coaching would no longer be an excuse if we keep sucking

[O_Gardino]

Marty and Herman dropping facts.

Plus, Fiz went to the University of San Diego, so you know he would get the most out of San Diego native Jared Dudley.

[O_Gardino]

OK. So. Last night, Blake pulled a classic Blake. If Detroit can't beat Charlotte, there's no way they will catch Miami.

Also, Pop continues to out coach Lebron. If you are Larry Nance Jr, you've got to love playing limited minutes even though you contribute 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 block, and don't miss a single shot or ft. Better sit down, son. You might take some attention away from Lebron.

[Indy]

To me, trading away players and/or emphasizing young players is more like "Iron Chef." Here, chef, make something delicious (a win) with only these few ingredients (players). The chef is still trying his/her darnedest to make a great meal, they just have some constraints on them. And often, on Iron Chef and other cooking shows, they still find ways to make something good and interesting despite the constraints before them.

But actively walking in and telling the players, "We want to lose," is quite different. That's telling the chef, "I actually want you to cook a bad meal today. Can you do that?" That means the chef actually doesn't want to try to make something great, regardless of the ingredients. That is worse.

It isn't just that Cuban said out loud something you are supposed to think quietly in your head. It's that he actually told the chef he doesn't want a good meal, that he wants them to try to cook something bad.

But the rules are set up in a way where it is better for your business to lose big than be mediocre. Punishing people for using the rules to their advantage is disingenuous and places blame on others instead of you taking responsibility for your system. Grow a pair, mix it up, and find a way to discourage coming in as a bottom 3-5 team. Reward teams that are middle of the pack instead of dead last, so teams are fighting to at least be average.

I'll say it again: it starts with ownership. Owners should be accountable to win 160 games in every 5 year span, or they have to sell the team. That solves the problem of tanking, and the problem of long term bad ownership.

But the league is run by the owners, not the commissioner. He works for them. So I don't think you will get a majority of white billionaires to tell each other they have to leave the club. Especially because being forced to sell depresses the market, and drives down valuations for the other teams.

I agree it's unlikely, but it's the best solution.

Out of curiosity, do you feel that if the owners of the league were not white billionaires the outcome would be different?

I think white guys in this country have a ton of privilege they don't even see. I think billionaires are likely the most privileged group in existence. So yes, in a hypothetical world where you don't have to be incredibly wealthy and incredibly privileged to own an NBA team, and those owners more closely resembled the make up of the citizens, it would be more likely for them to put the betterment of the league above their exclusive club and profits to support your suggestion.

[EDC]

Not sure what race has to do with the convo but I think you give the general population too much credit. Most people would put their own profits first.

[Indy]

Not sure what race has to do with the convo but I think you give the general population too much credit. Most people would put their own profits first.

Entitlement breads more entitlement. That's what I was driving at with race being part of the equation. And I do think most people would put profits first, but most extremely wealthy people seem to have alligator arms more frequently than others.