All of you picking against the Bulls are just playing right into Thibs' hands! He's the master of the "no one believes in us" stuff - you're only inspiring them!

Izzo, Donovan or Fred Hoiberg.

Lionel Hollins

Stan Van Gundy

that would allow great players into the league immediately and it would allow lesser underclassmen to continue to develop in the NCAA (ugh.) instead of wasting a couple years as bench warmers.

pay them money some as well.

I think the NBA should just to try to get the top 30 prospects each year to play in the D-League, offering to pay for their future college, provide some of their own education and mentoring and pay them money some as well. Players could then declare after one year there or wait up three or four years at which point they are automatically eligible.

I'm surprised nobody else has followed the Brandon Jennings path, he got paid good money in Europe and got sponsorships on top of that, but was still a lottery pick and still got a big contract once he was a free agent.

I think the NBA should just to try to get the top 30 prospects each year to play in the D-League, offering to pay for their future college, provide some of their own education and mentoring and pay them money some as well. Players could then declare after one year there or wait up three or four years at which point they are automatically eligible.

I also get that a perfect NBA system would let LeBron or Durant go direct but force the also-rans to try to develop themselves more, but that's hard to achieve.

Basketball is a stupid game sometimes. This is one of those times. #### Kendrick Perkins.

It's hard for me to understand how the Grizzlies can have so little shooting on the floor at all times. Have they tried Miller+Lee lineup

They had to have played at least 14 mins together tonight. Lee is essentially the main 2-guard and Miller is one of the main subs, so they are out there together some. But they are gonna play Allen a fair amount, so that limits the shooting they can put out there. I do think the Miller-Lee lineup will see more use if anybody starts to do them like the Spurs did in the WCF last year. I think(hope?) the Allen-Prince combo will see very limited use and they will use Miller pretty liberally if a team is really clamping down on Gasol/Randolph inside. That's essentially why they signed him.

What I don't understand is why anyone associated with the team would give any indication that they're interested in these guys if its not already a done deal. It just makes the team look bad when they can't get them.

What I don't understand is why anyone associated with the team would give any indication that they're interested in these guys if its not already a done deal. It just makes the team look bad when they can't get them.

Speculation about most of those has been coming from everywhere (not just the team), in Hoiberg's case for a couple years now. The other name mentioned a bunch is Flip Saunders.

Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs was named the NBA Coach of the Year on Tuesday, becoming just the third three-time winner of the award in league history.

Popovich tallied 59 first-place votes and 380 points in balloting among sportswriters and broadcasters, finishing just ahead of Phoenix Suns coach Jeff Hornacek, who had 339 points (37 first-place votes).

Chicago's Tom Thibodeau (159 points), Charlotte's Steve Clifford (127) and Toronto's Dwane Casey (70) rounded out the top five.

New GM thought that firing the Coach of the Year and hiring a first time coach was the smart way to develop a team.

It doesn't have to be coming from the team. It can come from the coaches themselves, their agents, player's agents, or just off the record idle speculation. That's not to say the Wolves couldn't have floated these names, but I'm not necessarily going to blame them for something they might not have had anything to do with.

I thought George Karl was dead or had some sort of catastrophic health problem. Why did he leave Denver again?

Turns out one good way to not lose in the first round is to not make the playoffs at all.

Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs was named the NBA Coach of the Year on Tuesday, becoming just the third three-time winner of the award in league history

Can someone explain to me why he is not in the Hall of Fame as a coach?

jeremy tyler went to japan but that didn't work out very well for anyone.

how would this help the NBA?

They have a system where someone else pays for the training and development and makes the players marketable commodities, all before the NBA has to pay a dime.

I don't really understand the problem people are trying to solve.

I do understand that the NBA would like, on the whole, to put more of the training/development/marketing on the NCAA, thus the push for a two-year-exclusion.

I also get that a perfect NBA system would let LeBron or Durant go direct but force the also-rans to try to develop themselves more, but that's hard to achieve.

I think the NCAA limits player development some; I think full time professional coaching rather limited college coaching would develop players better. I think rather than token liberal arts education that none of the players really care about specialized education directed at future NBA players would help handling the day to day that goes with being a player.

I think it eventually makes the D-League more marketable if it becomes the home of future stars rather merely fringe players and retreads, minor league baseball makes good money, basketball has that potential as well.

Any comments on the Warriors' new stadium site?

In April 2013, Hoiberg signed a 10-year contract extension with Iowa State worth $20 million. Hoiberg's contract has a $2 million buyout clause if he leaves for another college coaching position, but the buyout is only $500,000 if he leaves to become an NBA head coach or general manager.

Why would the Spurs' minor league system care about developing Jabari Parker for two years if he's going to then enter the real draft and almost surely go to a different franchise?

The AHL pays $40,000-$70,000, right? Would players pass up college for $40,000 without the same expenses factored in?

How would an NBDL type thing work if players could go straight from high school? Would that change the draft? Why would the Spurs' minor league system care about developing Jabari Parker for two years if he's going to then enter the real draft and almost surely go to a different franchise?

I think they would look at guys living four to an apartment and eating fast food and sharing a Wii and not saving any money

This sounds a lot like what college is probably like for these guys.

I think 40K still comes out ahead though with no tuition to pay for, especially if they are living in a cheap city. 40K would probably go a lot further for members of the Vipers than the D-Fenders. Guys like Wiggins or Parker would also be free to sign endorsements deals which could change the math significantly as well. Jennings when he played Europe not only got paid by his team, but got a pretty lucrative sponsorship from Under Armour as well.

The Indiana Pacers' Frank Vogel is "coaching for his job" and a strong playoff showing is essential despite a 56-win season that earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, sources said.

Team sources confirmed a Yahoo Sports report that the Pacers' Lance Stephenson and Evan Turner fought during practice before Game 1 of their playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, and sources said Stephenson and guard George Hill had to be separated on the bench during a 26-point home loss to the San Antonio Spurs on March 31.

Dragic, MIP. Stephenson 2nd, ADavis 3rd. Durant got a 1st place vote and LeBron a 2nd (from the same guy, who voted Griffin 3rd). Strange award.

I think I can explain the slight step backward in 10-11 with one link, and note that it took him about a year to recover.

Also, being close to the water made no sense for an NBA arena, except as the dishonest centerpiece of a flimflam deal to move shoddily constructed condos. Mission Bay will be cheaper, but further from useful transit. I would prefer for the Warriors to stay in Oakland and ditch the Golden State non-sense. They're an Oakland team.

It will be interesting to see how they solve the transit issue. There's one MUNI line that runs there now, but it wont be enough. And the roads going in there seem perfectly designed for a traffic bottleneck. AT&T gets around the transportation problem by being a walkable distance from the Ferry building/BART. I think this might be just too far for that to be a viable option for most people.

I'm starting to think that the Bulls might have made a mistake by trading Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas...