No need for a Night Watch after last night. Utah won because Carlos Boozer finally decided to show up in the playoffs. Case closed. No need to stretch four paragraphs out of that one when it boils down to one fact. Although Kobe’s dunk…yikes.
Dallas has given their head coaching job to Rick Carlisle. I’m sure people in Dallas are either yawning or making Jim Carrey jokes, but this is about as solid of a hire as you can get. Carlisle is a semi-chameleon meaning he can coach offense and defense. In his six years as a head coach he’s made it to the playoffs five times. Sure in the playoffs he has a record of 30-32 but when you factor in that he was the guy who built up the Pistons aka the Stackhouse years (before being pushed out in an ugly way and watching Larry Brown reap the benefits) and still guided the Pacers in the post-Artest era, he’s a winner.
The D’Antoni saga continues….frankly I’m shocked by all of the stupidity running around. Why Phoenix would ever let him go is still beyond me. Why Chicago would even pursue him instead of just waiting to hire Thibodeau (much cheaper, much less baggage) is beyond me. Why the Knicks are throwing the bank at D’Antoni despite the fact that this team fits the complete opposite of his style, instead of just hiring Mark Jackson….well nothing is beyond the Knicks right now. The biggest loser out of all of this will be Phoenix and they are too stubborn to realize this. D’Antoni is winning. He’s going to get another job, get paid and continue his legacy. He also gets to go down in history as one of the few head coaches who have been able to control their own destiny. Chicago and New York are both going to end up winning. Either they snag D’Antoni or they still get their preferred choices (Thib, Jackson, Avery). Phoenix? They lose D’Antoni, they lose that entire system that has won them all those games. Remember the Suns were horrifyingly bad before D’Antoni got there. He not only breathed fresh air into the Suns, he did it to basketball. Now everyone wants to run bits and pieces of that offense or use that philosophy. The Suns let D’Antoni walk away, they officially die. I said it.
Also can someone explain to me why teams are sending players instead of execs to the NBA lottery. Seriously? Durant, Rudy Gay and D-Wade? Why D-Wade? Come on people…who else misses the pained expressions on GMs faces as they learned their fates, lost picks and saw their jobs flashing before their eyes? Or their awkward celebrations? None of the players are going to give any emotion, they’ll have the ‘Man I wonder what I’m doing after this’ face. Or maybe a constant smile. Come on Stern, step in and do something about this.
Another thing I’m not much of a fan of….the new thing of releasing information on your website. Understood if you’re a celeb or a superstar. But Jose Calderon? Really? After all this time of saying you don’t want the starting job…you’re going to say you want the starting job on your website? Good attitude, definitely not going to create any friction when you have two point guards who want the starting job. And josemanuelcalderon.com? That’s the longest friggin’ URL in history. Come on man. Now that I have that out of the way…you’re right Mr. Calderon. You should be the starter and TJ Ford should be banned from Canada.