The Angst-filled, Anxiety-fueled, Drama-obsessed 2025 NBA OFFSEASON THREAD

have to kick this off at some point so why not with this--david griffin out in new orleans

Baring some terrible lottery luck, the Sixers have managed to keep their top 6 pick.

Assuming they don't move up and get Flagg at 1, who should I hope they get at 5?

Coach Bud out in Phoenix

imagine going back to those watching the 2021 Finals and telling them that Budenholzer would be fired by both the Bucks AND the Suns in less than 4 years. you'd probably never be able to work out what exactly happened but might suspect KD was involved

well, he was basically being fired in real time during the playoffs so i think if you had told someone the bucks won the finals and bud was still fired two seasons later it wouldn't have been that surprising

in fact our understanding in that moment of bud as an obviously good but still highly flawed coach may have been the most accurate one, tho it wasn't really any issues w/ his regular season performances

hard to say much of what happened in phoenix was bud's fault and there's nothing there that a new coach is just going to fix, but there's absolutely no point in keeping him around either.

yeah when you've fired a coach 3 years in a row... maybe it's not the coach?

so the pelicans are going to replace david griffin with joe dumars in a truly alltime loser franchise move

suns had to fire bud cause booker doesnt like him and theyre desperately trying to retain him

not that retaining booker is the right move but whatre you gonna do

its the right move for the fans. i think there would be a pretty big revolt if they traded him away without his request

with those contracts for KD and Beal they're in a tight corner. that is not a team where you want anything to do with the second apron.

they should trade Booker for Austin Reaves and a 2nd rounder

vaguely ominous statement by book

Devin Booker on Phoenix Suns fans still supporting the team after they were eliminated from playoff contention:

“It took a real Suns fan to be in there tonight… I pay respect to the person that it was either their first time or maybe their last time ever seeing me play.”

noted on the lowe pod that booker said how crazy it is that they were just in the finals a few seasons ago and now theyre here.

like i said i think he gives it one more ride with whatever they can scrap together from a KD trade this offseason and if it's looking bleak again he'll ask out at the deadline.

yeah sounds right

simmons said it well on that pod -- if the team and the coach are problems but you're stuck w/ the team then your only option is to fire the coach. even if it's the third year in a row of doing so

say a thing they owe 75M in fired coaches from the last three seasons

Sam Amico
@AmicoHoops
·
3h
Report: Pelicans ownership will mandate Joe Dumars to trade Zion Williamson

the nico stuff today is just so embarrassing lol

a genuine fuckin lame

seems obvious that a lot of this was driven by luka not acting like nico was his boss, turns out only one of them is good at basketball

Sam Amico
@AmicoHoops
·
3h
Report: Pelicans ownership will mandate Joe Dumars to trade Zion Williamson

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:31 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

you can always get the best value when trading the player is a publicly-known mandate iirc

Luka Doncic tells @malika_andrews about throwing his phone and breaking it when he found out he got traded to the Lakers 😳

"My heart was broken honestly." 💔 pic.twitter.com/rfsIGlOaBC

— ESPN (@espn) April 18, 2025

sry for the bad site, but man Nico is such a shitbag

macmahon goes deep on the dysfunction in the mavs training/medical staff and puts it all at the feet of nico https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44704219/inside-end-luka-doncic-era-dallas-mavericks

that's a good piece, guess bad people in those positions really fucks a franchise up

mcmahon doing some serious journalism, good stuff

For awhile it felt like the era of horrendously inept front office/ownership ppl sowing chaos and creating fiascos might be coming to an end with everyone investing in analytics depts and stakes for competence getting so high… but ladies and gentlemen i am here to tell you that between Nico Harrison, Mat Ishbia, and the Michael Malone/Calvin Booth feud, happy days are here again. The human ego remains undefeated

lol otm

@tim_cato

Nico: “I did know Luka was important to the fan base. I didn’t know quite to this level.”

also this
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpD44XbWMAEnomK?format=jpg&name=medium
from this article i cant access:
https://alldlls.com/mavericks-nico-harrison-patrick-dumont-rumors-fire-reporting/

what complete fools. truly

hawks fired landry fields as GM... sure

i feel like that’s as close as we’ll ever get to an apology and admission of regret from nico

maybe like... do a poll to a sample of your fans? you know, maybe a little research.

til i learned that there was someone who thought nico harrison had irreproachable basketball expertise

what complete fools. truly

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 21, 2025 2:29 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

seriously unbelievable

how has Harrison not been fired yet lol

bullying/booing works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hw9HsVf2bs

get his ass

how has Harrison not been fired yet lol

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Monday, April 21, 2025 3:30 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

dumonts gotta save face he fires nico now and it looks like he got worked, bet they put someone above nico and let him fade into bolivian

i feel like they’re keeping nico on so as to not be bullied into submission by their fanbase and because the davis/kyrie injuries mean he + they can ostensibly claim that the new vision for the team hasn’t been able to play out yet

i think what would scare me if i was the owner is that nico has been pretty open about not thinking much longer than 3-4 years down the road, just recently replied “i intend to fulfill my contract” (three years) when asked about his long term future with the franchise, and has a demonstrated track record of putting future assets in trades for immediate improvements. so to let that person make even more decisions in that vein seems like a very poor idea when you know you’re at the very least going to be the one person left holding the bag

thats why you gotta give him a boss

feels like one of those situations like the kings & pelicans where they turn to some perceived steady hand, old guy who's been around the block done it before etc who is their joe dumars

they coulda played some of these cards for sure... but once dumont dropped those quotes today you gotta follow that up with a firing, im afraid.

guess nico had another press conference have not checked it out but people are saying its bad

including chuck https://bsky.app/profile/dimeuproxx.bsky.social/post/3lnebxelhg22m

feels like one of those situations like the kings & pelicans where they turn to some perceived steady hand, old guy who's been around the block done it before etc who is their joe dumars

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 21, 2025 1:02 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is the way. always works

only his original partner in crime from his playing days can out-dumars the dumars. time to ring up isiah thomas, nico, that'll right the ship

oh man

watched the colorado-dallas hockey game last night. there was a row of guys sitting behind the stars bench all wearing FIRE NICO t-shirts

hollinger on hawks org dysfunction https://archive.ph/7yDi2

If it never totally felt like the Hawks were coming or going the last few years, perhaps there’s a reason: Though Fields was theoretically in charge, the number of competing organizational voices was cacophonous.

Per league sources, owner Tony Ressler’s son Nick has had significant input, and while his day-to-day involvement appeared to lessen this season, I’m told he’s still in the room on any important decision. Coach Quin Snyder, lured from a Costa Rican beach vacation to take over in early 2023, still has significant say (and the salary to prove it). The front office has other voices — such as Saleh, assistant GM Kyle Korver, adviser and former Cavs GM Chris Grant and agent-turned-adviser Chris Emens. And in addition to those I already named, seven other people in basketball operations have VP titles.

end of hoop collective pod today they were talking about how they've already announced that the new GM will have a yet to be hired president of basketball ops above him... red !!FATALLY BAD OWNERSHIP!! sirens going off at deafening levels

yeah whats the point of that even just hire the top guy and let him fill out his staff have a couple holdovers sure why not

lol

FROM SHAMS:

The Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst have agreed to a multiyear contract extension, sources tell ESPN. The Bucks and Horst's agent, Brian Elfus, reached a new deal this week for the NBA championship executive and one-time exec of the year before his contract expired.

i guess if ownership made him to do the trades giannis wanted whats he gonna do, now hes going to have the pleasure of trading giannis

happy trails pop. would have been crazy for him to coach again.

best coach in NBA history?

no contest. nearest competition would be red auerbach and he's no match for pops. jackson? riley? karl? can't touch him.

i wanted him to make a comeback :(

happy retirement to the goat

looks like bron is going to miss 0 games

@mcten Story filed to t.co/oAsD1rYqjW: LeBron James suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee from his collision with Donte DiVincenzo in Wednesday’s Game 5, a league source told ESPN. The injury entails a 3-5 week recovery timeline.

i think pop was planning to come back until his most recent fainting spell. i think he realized it was going to be too much to recover in time to dedicate to the grind of a whole season.

mitch johnson goes from interim to permanent head coach, and i'm not sure how i feel about it. not just bc he's young (literally my age i think?) but also most of his coaching experience is limited to "the spurs when they were at their shittiest". a lot to be said of the spurs coaching tree, but most of that tree came from guys who came out of the spurs golden age years.

to be fair, pop was not exactly a battle-tested coach when he appointed himself in 96. and maybe the spurs will be soo good in the future that coaching talent wont be that decisive a factor. maybe he's got the juice. but if the spurs make some big moves this offseason (which i think is plausible) there's going to be a lot more pressure on him to win than on pop 30 years ago.

yeah don’t love not having more of a process for the permanent head coach

looks like bron is going to miss 0 games

@mcten Story filed to t.co/oAsD1rYqjW: LeBron James suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee from his collision with Donte DiVincenzo in Wednesday’s Game 5, a league source told ESPN. The injury entails a 3-5 week recovery timeline.

― lag∞n, Friday, May 2, 2025 10:58 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

when he went down i was hoopsplaining to my wife how he always does this and he's never hurt and how ive seen his ankle bone touch hit the ground and he comes back in the same game etc etc. is this his first like kinda big injury?

yea the fact that he's played like 1600 straight games scoring 10+ points is insane for that reason, not once has he landed awkwardly in a way that would cause him to sit out, even when he looks like he's in immense pain he bounces right back, he's just built different I guess

I'm sure he's played through a lot of pain, but he never seems to suffer serious structural damage, the sort of thing requiring surgery. Which is beggars belief, seeing how many games he's played including playoffs.

Which is beggars belief

lol https://bsky.app/profile/johnhollinger.bsky.social/post/3lo7xg2cgfc2s

Aw, Pop.

apparently ishbia put some pal of his in charge of basketball ops, never change

assistant coach on the ishbias michigan st team bunch of mid major college coaching jobs since only nba experience is working in the suns front office the last 11 months

lol

it's so good