With the Spurs beating the Heat in 5 on Sunday. its now time to discuss an interesting off-season.

Draft class and Free agency.

Discuss.

Well, to have a remote chance, Bulls need to add a Tier 1 player...pretty easy.

To do that, they would need to amnesty Boozer (easy) and give up Taj Gibson...which is going to be tough.



And dunno if this is playing out again like a few years ago where everyone goes to Miami again.

The Lakers...sheesh, where do I start....

Los bulls have teh d-rose. maybe he can last more than 10 games next season.

as for the lakers, you know how i stand about that team. get rid of Jim.

I have set the over/under to 5 games.



I guarantee it.

I'll be eagerly watching if the LeHeat win Game 5 of the regular season next year. Cuz, if not...LeBosh is still wrong.

wanna take a over/under on how long thibs is going to be coaching the bulls next year? :P

I disagree, but there are plenty of peeps on your side. Not that I'm a Jim supporter, but there have been far worse than him.

We'll see how that plays out. He's still signed to that extension and so, a coach for Chicago for another few years...

But, he may go too if a team meets Chicago's asking price.



I think the Bulls are for even thinking of it. No coach gets more out of a roster than Thibs in the NBA.

But, not the first time Chicago has had turmoil between coach and front office. Let's remember that Phil and Krause did not exactly see eye-to-eye.

agreed. he's across the building. or was......

I just don't think he has his dad's keen eye for players and team decisions. why pick a coach who hasn't won a championship and doesn't emphasize defense?

Well, his dad was the guy that wanted Mike D'Antoni. From his deathbed. Jim and Mitch wanted Phil, that why it was just about done going into Monday. I think the bigger culprit in the Lakers current state is still David Stern lack of backbone.

I'm the biggest fan of Jerry Buss. But even Jerry Buss needed to be saved from himself every so often. Jerry West and Mitch had to save Jerry Buss from himself a number of times.

Sadly CGE... we have to start from the bottom... I respect Kobe, and I understand why the Lakers made that contract, but it locks us up for the next two years.

The 7th pick is a tough spot.. there are no guaranteed contributors in that range. Might be a better idea to trade it for a decent wing/forward and a serviceable PG, something we desperately need to compete in the Western Conference.

Yummy: I think the Bulls are actually in a good spot. They've managed to stay competitive without DRose and assuming they figure out how to keep him healthy, you're right - one tier 1 free agent should help get them over the hump in the east.

Don't know if Melo/Love are that guy though.. both guys are one way players who seem to only care about their own stat lines. But anyone has to be better than Boozer.

If Boozer is still a Bull this fall, then I'd start questioning management...

Problem with the bulls is that Thibs and John Paxson are having their feuds.

How ugly is that? I read somewhere that they nearly came to blows or something? Or was that another coach vs. Pax?

That was Del Negro.


I think Thibs' issue is more against Forman.

i was dying at the last one.

The Lakers have personnel and ownership issues to deal with I don't see all these things getting resolved until the spoiled Buss kids finally realize they are fucking up the franchise.

I don't believe the story about Jerry Buss wanting D'Antoni one bit. I believe that Jerry probably told Jim that he could use him as an excuse if need be but Jim Buss has made many suspect decisions over the years and I don't see that changing until he steps down or is forced out. Don't get me wrong he not the only problem the Lakers have but he is one of the biggest.

Wonder what Indy does since Lance is a FA. Roy totally regressed last year. Hopefully no more bonehead trades like Leonard for Paul George.

I can't help what you believe or not believe. I can only say that its believable because Jerry Buss isn't the freaking pope like everyone makes him out to be; he's not infallible. Read any real book on Showtime, Phil's books, etc. He's made plenty of questionable moves, and choosing Mike D'antoni would be right in line with one of those decisions.

...and I guarantee that if the CP3 trade went through, we wouldn't be talking about Jim.

but believe what you want, the Lakers still suck.

So should I read Showtime? The preview was entertaining. Is it real?

^^Doom, you should. Dope book. Lots of drama and nothing is sugar-coated. I have a feeling you Heat guys will see some relevance, having the team that the world looks at under a microscope in a city that loves its stars.

its better (to me) than some other basketball books because its written after interviews with a couple dozen people around the organization. Its not just one man's opinion. Because of this, its not a point-of-view, but a book that collects a bunch of perspectives. From that point of view, it is all real at least as the people telling the story are concerned.

BTW, good stuff on Pat Riley in the book. Dude is driven. I think he's learned a lot since the stuff in the book, but you can see how he is both driven and a little crazy at the same time.

Yeah Riles is nuts. Love the story where he dunked his head in ice water to motivate the team.

The reasons I don't believe are that there are too many conflicting reports about how it went down, Jim's being the last version had it been the first and only version it would be more credible , and Jim's horrible track record. If the Lakers got CP3 Mitch would have gotten the credit not Jim

...so we wouldn't be talking about Jim.

Agree to disagree.

No some of us will be talking about how bad Jim Buss is for awhile his horrible job will affect the Lakers for years to come.

God I love Riley. Brilliant press conference yesterday.

O RLY?

I don't think Riley could've said it any better.

where did this go?

Riles is good, man. If I were a heat guy I'd think I'd like to hear that Riley and the LeBron have a meeting to air it out, or to plan out what to do going forward. I think Kobe and the Laker FO and Timmy and Pop had a similar meeting to map out a strategy. Love it or hate it, I think in this day and age you have to have input going both ways.

The problem with Riles is that in the locker room, people get tired of his unrelenting message (and according to Showtime, they get a little tired of him, a known micromanager). Luckily, they don't really deal with him game to game and practice to practice, so maybe the message gets through.

He loosened up in his years with Wade and Shaq but yeah he was a hard ass. That old school mentality has changed as the players realized their pull.

I think Pops & Carlisle could make an arguable case here. Monta has easily gotten back to his pre-Bucks days & Carter has had a small resurgence thanks to Carlisle. And Pops...is just Pops. I wonder just how far Leonard will go with the Spurs after Pops retires (since he's been quoted that he'll remain coaching as long as Tim keeps playing).


Haven't decided if I like this Mavs trade yet besides the fact it gives us a legit center again. Both teams did get what they want, though.

The Mavs and Knicks trade i think heavily favors the knicks. Mavs had to give up alot just to get Chandler. Calderon was a steal to get.

asik to the pelicans

LeBron declares free-agency...


Wake me up when he re-signs with the LeHeat. Nothing more than him freeing up some $$ so that the LeHeat can get more help.

Yup.

Calderon also eats up valuable cap. Mavs basically received Tyson for nothing more.
The only question is will Cuban play the free agency aggressive this time. I'm not expecting Melo or LBJ, but there's enough cap. space to get at least 2 great players.

Lakers fans wanting Nick Young to stay.

Gotta love Miami. The Big 3 were eating a salad at a local $$$ restaurant/hotel and some gossip columnist for the Miami Heat tweeted about it as if it was THE meeting. That's all 2 of our 4 sports talk radio shows talked about. They called the hotel staff and everything. Even one of the local news stations sent out a camera crew and you see the players leaving in their Ferraris.

Rin's gotta get dealt from what I'm hearing if Houston wants to go for Melo. Asik was easy to move. Bulls chances in getting Melo not looking great but you never know.