Henchman of Santa posted:

Embiid will probably be in the Rising Stars game and that'll be fun enough.

quote:

The latest chatter on the coaching grapevine, meanwhile, tells us that the toastiest seat on the NBA map at present belongs, rightly or wrongly, to the Chicago Bulls' Fred Hoiberg.

The Bulls’ largely disappointing play in December, on the heels of a non-playoff season, has put Hoiberg under earlier-than-expected pressure, according to league sources.

Just to be clear: Hoiberg isn’t exactly alone in the crosshairs in Chicago. Thanks to a succession of underwhelming first-round draft picks and a roster construction that has been questioned from the moment it materialized over the summer, fan frustration with the front-office tag team of John Paxson and Gar Forman has never been more tangible, ‎rising steadily since Rajon Rondo and then Dwyane Wade were signed as the marquee additions to a roster already light on proven perimeter threats to space the floor.

Yet sources told ESPN.com this week that the Bulls have been increasingly assessing the coaching fit as well, sparked by an ongoing dip in the team’s level of play and consistency that began with an unraveling at home on Dec. 13 from 21 points up against the Minnesota Timberwolves and a certain Tom Thibodeau.

The greatest source of insulation that has protected Hoiberg to this point, sources say, is the fact that making a change now would require the Bulls to swallow significant guaranteed money on his five-year contract valued in the $25 million range.

But sources say the Bulls have been concerned with the team's responsiveness to its young coach ‎and Hoiberg's hold on a veteran roster in his second season since making the jump from Iowa State to the NBA in June 2015.

The Bulls, remember, jumped out to a hopeful 8-4 start. Through the end of November, Chicago sported a 10-7 record and the league's fourth-best scoring margin, behind only the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers.

But the 1-6 funk that began with the Timberwolves collapse left the Bulls, as of Monday morning, having been outscored by 5.8 points per game in December. That represented the league's largest drop in average scoring margin from month to month at minus-11.4, worse than the November-to-December slumping suffered by the Atlanta Hawks (minus-10.2 PPG) and the Los Angeles Lakers (minus-7.6 PPG).

Although Chicago has since mustered two wins this week, neither was especially reassuring. The Bulls outlasted the equally inconsistent Indiana Pacers on Monday night in a 90-85 grind, then escaped with a two-point win Wednesday night at home over lowly Brooklyn when Jimmy Butler -- playing the ball of his life since returning from the Rio Olympics -- sank the first buzzer-beater of his career in a brilliant 40-point, 11-rebound show.

The Bulls, though, had to erase a 97-90 deficit at home with less than three minutes to go to turn away the 8-23 Nets.

Hoiberg has a longtime admirer in Forman and was handpicked by the Bulls out of the college ranks well before the end of Thibodeau's reign, billed as the ideal candidate personality-wise to mesh with Chicago management after the successful but tense co-existence with Thibodeau for the duo known locally as GarPax.‎

The Bulls went 42-40 in Hoiberg's debut campaign, missing the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. The coaching staff was then shuffled coming into this season, as well as the roster, but the departures of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and corresponding arrivals of Wade, Rondo and Michael Carter-Williams haven't nudged the 16-16 Bulls any closer to the 50-win standard Thibs established.

Is the new coach really the chief culprit for those struggles? Fair question. Hoiberg sympathizers would undoubtedly say that the Bulls still don't have the sort of offensive options to carry out his desire to play a fast-paced, spread-the-floor game, which is obviously more about Paxson and Forman ‎than the guy on the bench.

Hoiberg, however, was billed by Forman on the way in as an offensive guru. Almost a season and a half post-Thibs, Chicago’s O is as isolation-heavy and predictable as ever.

Perhaps the Houdini act against Brooklyn was the start of something. Perhaps Hoiberg can keep scratching out wins, like the past two, to ease the pressure and hush talk about the heat that’s bubbling at bench level and upstairs, too.

Perhaps this will be that thoroughly abnormal NBA season ‎in which all 30 coaches last 82 games. Hoiberg, after all, is one of those four Year 2 coaches.

Yet as a calendar change looms, 2017 is bound to be no different than the past 40-odd years that preceded it when it comes to this old truism in basketball (and maybe every other professional sport):

The easiest change to make, when things aren't going as planned, is the coach.

Away all Goats posted:

Found on the nba subreddit:

Embiid good

Dejan Bimble posted:

Well sometimes chunk, something's so obvious you don't need to stand up and take a look, you can lay back and let the smell hit you, and know perfectly the state of things

WhyteRyce posted:

https://twitter.com/Cowbell_Kingdom/status/814858197508886528

Koufos for Patrick Beverly is what I want.

Koufos for Corey Brewer is what I'll get.

Dejan Bimble posted:

Man that really shook my root beer barrel and I thought you were naming some Nagorno-Krabakh forward for Orlando who I hadn't seen play

DeimosRising posted:

Karabakh ballers, South Ossetian ballers, Abkhazian ballers...the fall of the CCCP has really held them back, I bet...sad...

Metapod posted:

Jamychal green is really good tbh

Dejan Bimble posted:

Lowry vs Kemba is a non debate. The Raptors have one of the best offenses in the league with Lowry in and Deroazan out, and when he's out and Deroazan is in with Joseph, they're no good. He's the little formerly chubby engine that powers that team.

Think of the legacy of losing the USA would have if Yugoslavia and the USSR were still around, shame


MY all star team

Dejan Bimble posted:

Think of the legacy of losing the USA would have if Yugoslavia and the USSR were still around, shame

Dejan Bimble posted:

Lowry vs Kemba is a non debate. The Raptors have one of the best offenses in the league with Lowry in and Deroazan out, and when he's out and Deroazan is in with Joseph, they're no good. He's the little formerly chubby engine that powers that team.

Think of the legacy of losing the USA would have if Yugoslavia and the USSR were still around, shame


MY all star team

Spacebump posted:

Lol. If anything they'd have another gold and 04 wouldn't have gone down the way it did. Players would have been more motivated to play and stick it to the Soviets. At best that team would have the __ best player in any tournament for the past few decades?

Dexo posted:

http://www.espn.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/4859/how-bulls-hoiberg-ended-up-in-the-nbas-hottest-seat


I'm going to be so angry when Hoiberg gets fired and GarPax is allowed to find another coach.

They ran out the only actual successful coaching hire they have ever made. Other than that it's been varying levels of trash and Garbage, outside of the two years or so of Skiles before he started to hate everyone.

tanglewood1420 posted:

Dragic
Bogdanovic
Bjelica
Teletovic
Jokic

Bench: Vujacic, Udrih, Saric, Nurkic, Vucevic, Bender, BOBAN

That is a lot of outside shooting, good post scoring and some terrible, terrible defence. Also a lot of big men.

tanglewood1420 posted:

Dragic
Bogdanovic
Bjelica
Teletovic
Jokic

Bench: Vujacic, Udrih, Saric, Nurkic, Vucevic, Bender, BOBAN

That is a lot of outside shooting, good post scoring and some terrible, terrible defence. Also a lot of big men.

euphronius posted:

Only have to wait about 1 year to add the balkans to Russia.

Dejan Bimble posted:

It's also worth remembering in this fantasy that these regions arent economically devestated. So you have stronger taller fitter people. Add the baltics onto the Russian team, let's play some bball.

quote:

I'd like to see a combined world/africa/euro euro teams vs whomever from the US would agree to play

euphronius posted:

Oh poo poo my brain was thinking "baltics"

Sorry.

xbilkis posted:

Even if the Bulls make front office changes, it'll be Gar taking the fall and Paxson will probably stay insulated from any actual criticism

tanglewood1420 posted:

I suggested this in the offseason and no-one else picked it up.

A basketball style Ryder Cup, USA vs Europe, three game series played in the pre-season over a week, played every two years. Of course you wouldn't get any of the big stars signing up due to injury concerns but it would be pretty fun.

NickRoweFillea posted:

Up Circle posted:

I voted for kobe.

Cool Buff Man posted:

Thank you. People voting for Kemba haven't looked at the drat stats. Isaiah is better in every single way except 3 pt % and he makes up for that elsewhere according to his ts% and his feet don't even touch the ground while at the barber