Who will the Bucks pick to coach them in a championship push?
The Milwaukee Bucks were a good team, but they probably weren’t great. And that was precisely Adrian Griffin’s problem.
News of Griffin’s firing in Milwaukee floored the NBA world on Tuesday. Not because folks were shocked the Bucks fired Griffin, who reportedly had issues with his scheme and some of his players. But because of the timing. At 30-13, Milwaukee is tied for the second-best record in the NBA at the halfway point of the regular season. There was no guarantee that standings success would last but, again, the second-best record in the league! It’s late January!
Nonetheless, the Bucks clearly have their eyes on someone who they believe can elevate their roster in the postseason. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard won’t be around forever. One of the rumored early favorites is Doc Rivers, who might be able to deliver on that promise.
Here’s a list of head coaching candidates for the Bucks to consider as they chase a second title with Antetokounmpo.
A video from CBS Sports provided another angle of the final moments of Furman’s 68-67 win, punctuated by JP Pegues’ game-winning three-pointer. It shows the broadcast team of play-by-play Kevin Harlan and color commentators Stan Van Gundy and Dan Bonner trying to process the final seconds of chaos in real-time.
And as Furman stole victory from the jaws of defeat, everyone’s reactions were so amazing and relatable.
From Harlan almost falling out of his seat to the stunned silence of Van Gundy and Bonner — all ends of the spectrum were covered here:
“DID WE JUST SEE WHAT WE THINK WE JUST SAW?!”
Kevin Harlan nearly FELL OUT OF HIS CHAIR. Dan Bonner and @realStanVG were STUNNED.
It’s another to see him at work, absolutely losing it over an instant classic moment in sports. And for two guys like Van Gundy and Bonner — who are present to offer insight — to be literally speechless?
“I was an old coach and there was worse you could come up with on me.”
LeBron James is going to make history and break the NBA’s all-time scoring record, and at this point, it’s just a matter of when and how.
He will have his first legitimate chance at passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by attempting to score more than 36 points when the Lakers host the Oklahoma City Thunder in Los Angeles at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening.
The game will be broadcast on TNT and Stan Van Gundy will serve as the color commentator as LeBron attempts to break history. He will be joined by play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson and reporter Stephanie Ready.
If you are older than 25 and don’t have a TikTok account (points to self), the phrase “bussin” means that something could be delicious, like a dish of food. The phrase has its roots in Black culture as part of African American Vernacular English. Oftentimes, you’ll hear it used to describe something being awesome.
Well, Van Gundy now knows what the word “bussin” means, and he also attempted to use it in a sentence during the Lakers/Clippers game. NBA star Kevin Durant appears to have helped him discover the phrase.
"LeBron's playmaking is bussin'… Kevin Durant has sent me to the Urban Dictionary so that I can get some of these terms right… Dwyane (Wade's) an old man; I'm not sure if he could keep up with the lingo."- Stan Van Gundy pic.twitter.com/FJiFvEcKgK
Older people learning younger people things is a tried and true way to get a good laugh, and Van Gundy seemed more than obliged to fulfill his duties in that important relationship.
Welcome to Layup Lines, our basketball newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.
One scroll through the NBA’s daily injury report and you’ll see a who’s who of all-star caliber players with a designation of “questionable” or “out.” Yesterday, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant ruled out, with Paul George shedding a questionable tag to return from a five-game absence.
Today, it’s Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Haliburton missing time, with Bradley Beal questionable but reportedly expected to return after missing five games. The list goes on.
In a lot of ways, the injuries are to be expected in a sport as taxing on the body as basketball, played just about every other day. But it can also be perplexing to people familiar with the access modern players have to the best in sports medicine. That was the point Stan Van Gundy was trying to make when he had this hilarious exchange with KD on Twitter.
Per Van Gundy, NBA players of the 1990s practiced harder and more often and had more back-to-backs in the schedule, yet they suffered injuries less frequently and missed fewer games than today’s players. It’s hard to know if players today actually are more injured, but KD agreed with SVG’s sentiment.
It certainly seems to be the case when you consider that at least 75 players played in at least 80 games every full season from 1990-99, and that number was down to 13 players last season. Though that could also be part of the modern strategy to reduce injuries. But if SVG is correct, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
As he clarified in his confusion over whether KD was in agreement, Durant’s leg injury was unavoidable — someone fell into him. But in theory, the frequency of soft tissue injuries like Mitchell’s groin and Beal’s hamstring shouldn’t be up from decades ago.
If they are, there’s a flaw either in how teams are training or players are preparing, or both, and it all contributes to a frustrating fan experience when nobody knows who’s going to be available.
— Prince J. Grimes
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
John Wall has been all the talk on NBA Twitter the last 24 hours since the release of his incredibly candid appearance on the Run Your Race podcast.
He made a few eye-opening comments on the show, including the stories of how his time with the Wizards came to an end and this hilariously unpleasant exchange with Tyler Hansbrough that contributed to his decision as a recruit not to attend North Carolina.
The stuff about his recent time with the Houston Rockets especially got my attention just because of how poorly run that organization seems to be. Wall became just the latest player to go on record about Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr.’s need for veteran leadership after Austin Rivers said similar things not long ago.
“I had to tell them, like, the [expletive] y’all getting away with over there, you go to any other team, you’d be out of the [expletive] league. Like, you wouldn’t play.”
It’s no wonder the Rockets are in the middle of an 11-game losing streak and have the worst record in the NBA.
Cleveland Cavaliers (+240) at Memphis Grizzlies (-7.5, -290), O/U 227.5, 8 PM ET
The shorthanded Cavs are about to run into an absolute buzzsaw in Memphis, facing a Grizzlies team that has won 10 straight games. The Cavs are one of the best teams defending the paint, though, which is where Memphis scores the most. I’ll take the underdog to keep it tight and cover the 7.5-point spread.
Shootaround
— Wembenyama Wednesday: Vic might be seeing some future teammates live and in person soon
Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.
Charles Curtis here. Welcome to the slowest sports day of the year. There’s no baseball, no summer league games, no NFL preseason. We had a single WNBA game that already took place! But … otherwise, slow. Even the NBA rumor mill has ground to a halt as we await Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell or maybe Russell Westbrook to get traded.
I have just the thing to pass the time.
You see, back in 2011, at a basketball camp, the great Stan Van Gundy was teaching something about dribbling. And suddenly, he had handles like Kyrie, showing a dazzling array of moves that not a lot of people expected out of Van Gundy.
Why is this relevant? Because, recently, it was brought to my attention that someone on Reddit put up an edited version of that famous video … but that person added some superstars getting their ankles broken by him.
Here. Enjoy:
That’s all I’ve got. On to the good stuff:
The Tip-Off
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Want an update on the Durant trade situation or lack thereof? From Hoops Hype’s NBA trade rumor rankings:
The Rudy Gobert trade seems to have really hurt Durant’s chances of having his trade request fulfilled, as the massive haul Utah received for the limited offensive center means that a team is going to have to come through with a gargantuan offer to land Durant.
As such, talks for Durant have reportedly slowed to a trickle with the Nets no longer being aggressive in making outgoing calls on that front …
What’s more, Durant and his camp appear to have gone dark on Brooklyn once again. Could he come back and rescind his trade request? The Nets are certainly hoping that is the case.
— Steph Curry is hosting the ESPYs tonight, so I ranked some all-time great ESPYs hosts, and I bring this up because KD has gotten roasted a lot at the awards show.
The Timberwolves veteran — who played for the Los Angeles Clippers for four seasons before heading to Minnesota — insisted to JJ Redick on ESPN that the Lakers’ 2020 title deserves an asterisk and that it’s a “Bubble Championship.” Here’s Beverley making his case. Kevin Harlan will sit in a chair courtside Wednesday night that, he feels, does not belong to him. It’s the same way he felt at the All-Star Game in February. “I may be broadcasting this game tonight,” Harlan texted Marv Albert that night. “But this will always be your seat. This will always be your chair.” Harlan is Turner Sports’ replacement for Albert as the play-by-play voice of the conference finals. He’ll be joined by Hall of Fame player Reggie Miller and ex-coach Stan Van Gundy as the Dallas Mavericks face the Golden State Warriors in the opening game of the Western Conference finals.
Even though Harlan has a strong partnership and rapport with Miller, he’s excited by the addition of Van Gundy. Working with a coach is important in big games, Harlan said, because they add another layer of context and perspective that is “so vital.” “And (Van Gundy) does it. He is so knowledgeable and is so well-prepared, I am in awe of his preparation for these games,” Harlan said. “I find him incredibly compelling. His addition will be just absolutely perfect for a game, and games, of this stature.”
