The Heat won their fourth straight Eastern Conference championship this year, but like the last team to pull that off, the 1986/87 Celtics, they fell short of an NBA title. Miami certainly hopes it doesn’t repeat the fate that befell Boston, which failed to win another Eastern Conference title for 21 years after that. Here’s the latest from the East:
- Carmelo Anthony would prefer to stay in New York, but he knows his best chance to win would be to leave, a source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. ‘Melo is reportedly leaning toward signing with a team other than the Knicks this summer.
- Derek Fisher‘s contract to coach the Knicks runs for four years instead of five, as had been initially reported, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Another report indicated the deal contains at least one team option, so perhaps it’s guaranteed for four seasons with a team option for the fifth, though that’s just my speculation.
- It’s logical to suspect that David Blatt would prefer a head coaching job to an assistant’s post, but it seems he won’t wait around on the Cavs opening if they dally, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports explains. The Warriors and some close to the former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach believe that he’ll accept a job on Steve Kerr‘s Golden State staff if Cleveland doesn’t move quickly to hire him after its face-to-face interview with him this week, Wojnarowski hears.
- The Cavs continue to pursue high-profile college coaches behind the scenes, Wojnarowski also writes in the same piece.
- The Heat benched the slumping Mario Chalmers in Game 5, but the soon-to-be free agent hasn’t soured on Miami, as he tells fellow Yahoo! Sports scribe Marc J. Spears. “I hope we stay together,” Chalmers said. “I think we have a good thing going.”