NBA News: Phil Jackson, Chris Paul
Phil Jackson and the Knickerbockers have parted ways "mutually"
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19755552/new-york-knicks-team-presid…
Chris Paul was JUST traded to the Houston Rockets. Details are still coming out.
Buh-bye, Phil... you will be missed (said literally by no one, ever, in NYC)
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Rockets needed cap space to sign CP3, CP3 could've walked away from the Clippers for nothing. Seems like a win for both teams.
Sources: After Paul informed Clippers he'd sign w/ HOU in FA, teams agreed to deal sending Beverley, Decker, Williams and 2018 FRP for Paul. https://t.co/9Lk9FPEPbu
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) June 28, 2017
Kyrie, PG, LeBron, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan
Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan.
Cleveland, LAC, or LAL?
In before the first "I hate the NBA" comment.
If only they'd done this a week earlier... before they passed on Dennis Smith Jr and Malik Monk for Ntilikina because Phil thought he was a better fit in his outdated offense.
Even when Dolan makes a smart move it's dumb.
his dumb move cost him $24,000,000 in payments bc Dolan picked up Jackson's two year option.
Stoopid is as stoopid does
last year, and the fact that he had to facilitate nearly everything for the Rockets on offense clearly had a lot to do with it. Bringing in someone like Paul solves a lot of those issues, as they can now share those responsibilities. And the fact that both are good shooters off the ball, and the rest of the roster is basically set up to play off of a playmaker, should help them out a lot, IMO.
Still don't think they're good enough to give the Warriors a serious run, yet, so they'll still have to make a move or two more to put them into serious contention, but it's a good start.
Was one of the more bizarre things you will see. Harden looked like he did not even want to be on the court.
But those sorts of games have happened before, LeBron's performances in games 5 and 6 in 2010 seem to spring to mind (still waiting for the explanation on that. Will probably have to wait for the autobiography).
probably had something to do with it, and that's another point in favor of adding someone like Paul to take the pressure of having to create everything off of Harden. If he isn't having a good game, or, in the case of San Antonio, they have a great individual defender matched up on him, they can just shift the responsibilities over more toward Paul and not have much of a drop off.
The only other guy on the team who could reasonably create was Lou Williams, but he only creates for himself. Eric Gordon is a nice complementary offensive player, but you can't run the offense through him.
A team with Paul, Gordon, Harden, Ariza and Capela is a pretty strong starting 5, they should be an iteresting team to watch next year.
Very well, including find others. But I don't really think of Chris Paul as a self-creator of shots. He has never been that guy you can give the ball to and say, get out of the way he's getting us points.
But, he has the ball a TON. And James Harden is not going to like being the 2nd option and losing possessions. I don't see those two working well together.
he can adapt to it. He very much prefers to be a SG and play off the ball.
Problem w owner, will never win.
did he ever fix his back/knee issues that prevented him from coaching? Watching him sit on a high stool courtside and waddle back and forth was painful.
But what does this mean for the Warriors and Cavs?
It'll work. Both guys can hit threes and Paul is a good defender. Splitting the offensive load means you won't have Harden wearing down as much late. Question is at Paul's age, how long can it work.
How much diversity their offense needs. They were one of the best in the league.
The defense is culprit #1 with a star.
Their offense in the playoffs was significantly off from the regular season. It didn't fall off a cliff or anything but Zach Lowe's general conclusion is that their allergy to mid-range jumpers made the Rockets easier to guard in the playoffs, when teams could concentrate on their sets, than in the regular season. In Paul, they're getting maybe the best mid-range player in the game today. He will force them to move away, I imagine, from their philosophy of 3s and layups only, which is one of the ways that this trade is interesting.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19364260/zach-lowe-san-antonio-spurs…
So now there are what, four major pieces left to fall? Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Kyle Lowry and Blake Griffin?
There are really 5 teams that are looking like they are going to try and contend next year:
Golden State, Cleveland, Boston, Houston and San Antonio (just because they are the Spurs). You'd have to think those guys are ending up on those teams (maybe Lowry goes to Minnesota, which in that case throw Minny into the contenders mix as well).
Personally, I think Boston grabs George and Hayward, Lowry re-signs in Toronto and Griffin goes to OKC, Houston or San Antonio.
re: Knicks & Jackson
Lots of rejoicing going on here in NYC but a lot of people are completely failing to remember that the Knicks have been a complete dumpster fire for the past 15 years and honestly, for as long as Lil' Jimmy Dolan owns the team, they're going to continue to be.
That Isiah T is a candidate??
That may be even worse lol
He's always a candidate because Lil'JD has some strange fascination with him. Well before Phil Jackson, there was Isiah Thomas destroying the Knicks with not a single playoff appearence after his initial season as President of BB Ops, in which he was hired during the season.
Can some one explain to me why CP3 is helping to purposely make his new team worse? He's a free agent, he can go wherever he wants. I can't wait for him and Carmelo to go on the we just want to win tour.
That's true, and also, Paul can sign a bigger extension with the Rockets if he's traded to them than if he just signs with them outright.
It just seems to be a very strange middle ground between trying to maximize his chance at a championship and trying to maximize the amount of money he is making.
The one thing that gives me pause about this trade is that if Jerry West thumbsed-up it, it might pay dividends down the line - you can count the number of wrong personnel moves he's made in his entire post-playing career on one hand. It'll inded be interesting to weigh the Clippers' identity of futility vs West's uncanny acumen for making the right trade - something's gotta give.
The thing people need to understand is that no matter how good the Clips have been and no matter how bad the Lakers have been (and they've been BAD), L.A. is always going to be a Laker town. I mean, Michigan vs MSU is as close an analogy as you're gonna find. Except the Clippers aren't even our little brother - they're some random kid of your mom's co-worker that she got conned into babysitting for the afternoon and the kid is wiping his snot on your XBox. The Clipper fanbase is 5% actual fans of the team, 25% fans of their stars, and 70% fairweather fans who are back to wearing purple the minute the Lakers start being good again. They've unmistakably been better than the Lakers and will be much better next season as well - and L.A. still isn't their town.
As for Phil Jackson - I wouldn't say he went from genius to idiot, so much as being a GM revealed the limits of his skills. He's a master at passive-aggressive needling and mind games. That may not make him a fun guy to work with but the results as a coach speak for themselves. Those same traits, however, did not translate into success as a general manager.
Will definitely make Houston better. Problem is they will never win the west with the monster team out at G.S.