Walton fired

I look at the KAT Wolves and see Boogie Kings all over again
Both good examples of the dangers of tanking. KAT was the best selection of his draft, there’s a good argument that Boogie was the best selection in his (alternates being Wall or George, neither of whom are the talents the tank crew dreams of). You can “win” the tanking race to the draft, nab the best player, and still find yourself on the same old treadmill
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
Both good examples of the dangers of tanking. KAT was the best selection of his draft, there’s a good argument that Boogie was the best selection in his (alternates being Wall or George, neither of whom are the talents the tank crew dreams of). You can “win” the tanking race to the draft, nab the best player, and still find yourself on the same old treadmill
Indeed. This may be the case for the Mavs with Luka, treadmilling one and done Playoff appearances as he decides he wants a trade down the road.
 
Kenny Atkinson turned guys who were G-Leaguers into starting level NBA players and literally every since guy that played on his squads prior to Kyrie had the best season of their careers on what became a winning team after they got enough decent pieces.

Russell: Allstar
RHJ: starting PF (moved him from SF) on a winning team
Kurocs: rookie season looked super promising and could be a starting SF for a long time now he's playing for Partizan averaging like 2ppg
Harris and Dinwiddie were G-:leaguers who are probably two of the most sort after role players in the NBA
Carroll : revived him career after injury

It's crazy what he did to turn them around
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Kenny Atkinson turned guys who were G-Leaguers into starting level NBA players and literally every since guy that played on his squads prior to Kyrie had the best season of their careers on what became a winning team after they got enough decent pieces.

Russell: Allstar
RHJ: starting PF (moved him from SF) on a winning team
Kurocs: rookie season looked super promising and could be a starting SF for a long time now he's playing for Partizan averaging like 2ppg
Harris and Dinwiddie were G-:leaguers who are probably two of the most sort after role players in the NBA
Carroll : revived him career after injury

It's crazy what he did to turn them around
But his players hated him to the point of asking for him to be fired. I get what you're saying but that's not exactly a tenable situation either.
 
Kyrie and KD came to the Nets together in free agency. They got him fired half way into the season after that.
Still does not discredit that he turned the ship the moment he had decent talent and developed more guys who were fringe and on there way out of the NBA than most people hell Quincy Acy was shooting 40% from 3 for him for half a season. There is no star players on the Kings for him to deal with.
 
Kenny Atkinson turned guys who were G-Leaguers into starting level NBA players and literally every since guy that played on his squads prior to Kyrie had the best season of their careers on what became a winning team after they got enough decent pieces.

Russell: Allstar
RHJ: starting PF (moved him from SF) on a winning team
Kurocs: rookie season looked super promising and could be a starting SF for a long time now he's playing for Partizan averaging like 2ppg
Harris and Dinwiddie were G-:leaguers who are probably two of the most sort after role players in the NBA
Carroll : revived him career after injury

It's crazy what he did to turn them around
Atkinson would be a great get.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Still does not discredit that he turned the ship the moment he had decent talent and developed more guys who were fringe and on there way out of the NBA than most people hell Quincy Acy was shooting 40% from 3 for him for half a season. There is no star players on the Kings for him to deal with.
The issue is that he developed fringe guys into rotation guys precisely because there were no other pieces to get in the way. When the Nets actually got good players/ those guys developed, he quickly wore out his welcome.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
The Kings are at the stage where they need him to develop fringe guys and have terrible pieces.
But they'd have their draft picks. The Nets literally had nothing for years so while Atkinson's ability to develop dudes with bad knees into functional NBA players and find undrafted dudes is commendable, the thinking is that he was only able to do it precisely because there was no chance for them to bring in anything better/anyone with more leverage than dudes scrapping for their next NBA contract.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
Acting head coach for a few games isn’t really that big of a deal. See Walton. First assistant, that she has over Bobby.
Whether you consider it a big deal or not, it's experience. Also, she's been mentoring under Pop and not the Keith Smarts and Luke Waltons of the NBA world.

I'm not bashing Bobby at all here. I like what he's been doing and am very curious to see how this plays out. Hopefully he's successful and becomes an NBA HC - I'd like to see that.
 
Whether you consider it a big deal or not, it's experience. Also, she's been mentoring under Pop and not the Keith Smarts and Luke Waltons of the NBA world.

I'm not bashing Bobby at all here. I like what he's been doing and am very curious to see how this plays out. Hopefully he's successful and becomes an NBA HC - I'd like to see that.
Pop is a big name, but if we’re levering big names, Bobby coached under Flip and Karl. And he played under Adellman and coachie. Hence why I don’t see that as a gigantic advantage for Hammon.
 
Pop is a big name, but if we’re levering big names, Bobby coached under Flip and Karl. And he played under Adellman and coachie. Hence why I don’t see that as a gigantic advantage for Hammon.
Coaches from the Spurs is a brand in the league now. Like it or not, Bobby won't mentioned in the upcoming assistant coaches that will get a head coach job.

I think his next step will be the associate head coach, the guy who will take over when the head coach is out, then he will start to get interview opportunity for head coach vancanies.
 
They want us to do the process without actually having to endure nightly losses.
Actually trading for Simmons is to fix the roster construction issue and give us some length. It isn’t to tank. The time to tank was last year and the plethora of wing players. One more loss would have at a minimum netted us Wagner. 2 losses would have netted us Barnes.
 
WALTON TO REPLACE VOGEL AS LAKERS COACH

After a couple of devastating losses at home (Spurs, Nets), Lakers Coach Frank Vogel is expected to be relieved of his duties before 2022, according to The Indefatigable (link at end).

Luke Walton was recently invited back to pose with Laker championship trophies and one thing led to another.

No new agreement has been reached (yet), pending Lebron James final opinion (which officially counts as 2.5 votes, compared to 1 for every other player).

James has often lamented the departure of Walton:

"Luke did what needed to be done here. He got rid of all the unproductive young players (Randle, Russell, Clarkson, Ingram, Ball, Hart, Nance, Zubac, ect) and made room for my favorite veterans, which directly led to our 'bubble championship'. Not many people realize that we voted that Luke receive a ring for that and without Luke Walton, the Lakers would have one less trophy. Let's do it again."

Walton, fresh off an interview for the head coaching position at Emory University (spoiler alert - he wasn't hired), expressed some surprise, not that he would be considered, but that Vogel would be relieved of his duties so early into a season:

"Any team which gives up on a coach this early in the season has got to be dysfunctional,, but unlike Frank, I have an amazing second half record, piling up victories over teams which have already quit. So I am privileged to be considered."

Asked for comment after the trophy ceremony, Brian Shaw, who spent three years as LAL associate head coach (two during Walton's previous time there) after a two year stint as the head man in Denver (where he was replaced by former Kings coach Mike Malone), said, "Oh, pshaw, this is just a carousel anyway"

Byron Scott (also a former Lakers head coach who Walton first replaced), and who began his coaching career by serving two years (1998-2000) as an assistant in Sacramento's "Golden Age" explained, "Great scott - EVERYBODY gets a third chance in the NBA - hell i've had FOUR chances".

Scott had also served as Cleveland Head Coach for three years, until Lebron James returned to the team after spending those three years in Miami. Prior to that, Scott previously served as head coach in New Jersey and New Orleans.

Asked if he would be interested in returning to the Lakers, Walton told The Indefatigable, "I'll have to watch the tape first".
 
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