Published Monday through Friday 

Who’s fired and who’s about to be hired

Steve Nash is out as Nets head coach; the news release was nicely worded. It simply stated, “Nash and the Nets have agreed to part ways,” make no mistake about it Nash was fired. Did he deserve the firing, probably not but who said life is fair? I believed Nash was in trouble the team had gotten off to such a slow start. I told a co-worker the firing caught me off guard, I informed him “I thought if the team didn’t play better by late November or early December Nash could be fired.   

The first two seasons while Nash was head coach the team finished above .500 although they lost in the playoffs, this season the have won 2 games while losing 5 when Nash was terminated. Now who’s about to be hired, surprise…surprise. The Nets new coach will be Ime Udoka who is suspended as Celtics coach. The truth is I believed although he was suspended for the season, I had serious doubts if he would ever return to the helm. This is the surprise part for me, I thought it could be a few years before Udoka received an invitation to coach at the NBA level again.

The buck stops here 

The title of this account is a plaque former president Harry Truman placed on his desk. Perhaps the problem of the Lakers is not on the court but the front office. None of the moves over Rod Pelinka’s tenure were made in the dark, unfortunately when they blow up, he becomes the fall guy. Granted he cannot play the game, but his personnel decisions have certainly played a large role in player acquisition. In addition Pelinka is certainly not responsible for Anthony Davis, LeBron James and others missing games due to injury.

Here we are again at a crossroads, the Lakers won’t have a draft choice of their own for the next 10 years. Okay just kidding, it’s not that bad but almost. We don’t know all the details however Pacer center Myles Turner is gently pushing for the Lakers to make a trade. The proposed trade would have the Lakers receiving Turner plus 3-point specialist Buddy Hield. The Lakers would trade Russell Westbrook plus their 2027 and 2029 first round draft choices. Up to this point we see what’s occurred for the Lakers thus far. So many draft choices surrendered to date have handicap building this team. I’m going to sit in Pelinka’s chair for a moment, I’m gonna say…make the deal. Harry Truman made the tough decisions perhaps it is time for Pelinka to do the same thing.

The eye of a scout

I found this very interesting, Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe is listed as a second-round draft pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. This part I found most interesting, and you might as well. Emoni Bates is projected a second-round pick in several mocks and in others he barely misses the cut. Why am I using my eye as a scout, a couple of reasons and I will elaborate. The 6 foot 9 Tshiebwe’s offensive game is limited but the man can genuinely go and get the basketball.

Tshiebwe led NCAA Division I teams in rebounds with 15.2 a game, it’s not the fact Tshiebwe can’t score Kentucky runs no plays for him. As for Bates we know the story, he arrived at Memphis as a high impact freshman and had a less than spectacular first year. Bates would transfer to Eastern Michigan for his sophomore year, at this point we don’t know what to expect despite the early hype. We have two prospects one returning from a stellar year (Tshiebwe) while the other (Bates) is still attempting to find his way. Is either one projected to be an NBA player, better yet do they have the right stuff? We certainly don’t have the answer; truth is we might not know until the end of the 2023 collegiate season.

Piling on

The NBA season is a mere 6 games so far, despite the limited number of games we can report there are rumblings in Philly. It appears Sixer fans are displeased with the coaching of Doc Rivers, pause here for just a minute. I’ve seen but 10 minutes of Sixer action thus far, you ask the question why Darvin Ham is safe with the Lakers who are yet to win a game? The answer is simple, Ham has coached but 5 games in the NBA, over the course of his career how many games has Rivers coached?

I don’t dislike Rivers however for a long period of time I believe it’s been his reputation over actual production. His playing days are long behind him so I cannot expect Rivers to suit up and play. Management and flow of the game are at least two keys for me in success at the NBA level. I hope this does not appear to be a case of me piling on I just happen to believe Rivers coaching is an illusion. If it turns out I’m wrong, I certainly will return and make mention of it.

Speaking of the draft

The opening night of NBA action for Magic forward Paola Banchero was outstanding although his team lost to the Pistons. Moderating the highlights it was mentioned he was the top draft pick in 2022, I’d forgotten although it was only four months ago. I decided to return and check the actual draft versus a mock to determine the accuracy. I only looked at one mock, nbadraft.net which was darn near accurate. Below is how it played out, the number in parenthesis is the actual draft position:

Jabari Smith (3)

Chet Holmgren (2)

Paola Banchero (1)

Jaden Ivy (5)

Benedict Mathurin (6)    

Through the first five picks nbadraft.net’s mock draft was accurate with a slight margin of error. This provides evidence (at least for me) the exactness of several mock draft sites.