2018-19 NBA Thread

this would have easily cost him $250k in fines

 

I've yet to see a shred of evidence that Jeannie is in any way a competent executive.

 

He needed to step down so he could do this.

 

She fired her idiot brother.

Meanwhile, there is lots of talk on LA sports radio about the "shadow GM." That person has to be Kobe, who is linked at the hip with Pelinka. And Jennie's Kobe fatuation is legendary.

In other words, Pelinka ain't going nowhere.

 

She seems just as dumb.

IIRC correctly, she was the one in charge of the FA meetings a few years back when the Lakers were selling Hollywood fame, and the FA (Aldridge?) couldn't find out anything about the basketball.

Plashke says its Linda Rambis, Kurt's wife.

 

Jeannie's most outstanding executive abilities were demonstrated when she posed without a shred of clothing.

 

The Pelinka-Magic dynamic, of course, has carryovers of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry. I suppose there was probably kvetching because Magic spent so much time at Sparty tourney games and not doing basketball-operations stuff. Pelinka (who is rarely if ever shown on teevee playing celebrity fan for Michigan) probably chimed in on that.

And in that case, he's probably not wrong; nobody cares if the director of basketball operations flies back home to watch the ole alma mater a couple times a season, but Magic did it for weeks and weeks at a time.

(It's probably not entirely coincidental Magic resigned on the overnight of April 8-9, two days after Sparty got knocked out of the Final Four, and presumably he flew home to LA -- you can imagine some snotty emails, "well, lah dee dah, look at who decided to show up for work for a change," etc etc.)

But if I'm LeBron James, I want to find out right away who I answer to, and there's one way to find that out: Tell Jeannie to sack Pelinka, or trade me.

 

I guess its clear why the Lakers, Celtics, and even the Bulls never won 4 in 5 years, the league adjusts and the effort wans and things are taken for granted. The W's just look like they don't want it bad enough. I give the Rockets credit last night, they found a way to close out a very good Jazz team. In the 4th, Harden does what Harden does, and Paul hit at least 3 huge shots (that I can recall) from spots he always appears to hit from, the FT line and the elbow 3. (Man though the Jazz have no creators and then in the last 2 mins they took out Rubio who was the only guy hitting tough shots; I give Quin Snyder huge coaching props but why no Rubio at end?)

Conversely, the W's took it easy, then finally got the lead late (KD with the dunk!) and immediately give up a4 pt play. Curry looked like an afterthought, never had the ball or unlike Harden and Paul, never got his sweet spot shots. But IMHO it was all about effort and hustle and the Clips dominated in that category. When was the last time the champion struggled in the 1st round? Maybe Cavs in 2016? When before? I can't remember another one.

 

The Warriors are their defense and when that sucks, they suck. So many open looks for LA last night which, to their credit, they were knocking down unconsciously.

The center spot, once again, seems to be a problem. Bogut and Looney were getting eaten alive by Harrell. Some of that, I realize, was not their fault as the W's rotations and help were lacking. Another less-than-impactful game from Curry, too.

This series should not give any fan of theirs optimism that getting out of the 1st round is a slam dunk, let alone beating Houston.

Houston fought hard last night although Utah did all they could to help them out with Mitchell channeling '94 John Starks and their "offense" and resulting frustration fouls in the last two minutes. What a mess.

 

The Bulls only had two 3-peats because Jordan left for baseball. No other reason.

 

I’m a Bulls fan from then and they did have to change from Grant/Cartwright/BJ to Harper/Rodman/Longley.

 

They still had the first three in 1993-94. And added Kukoc.