Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni plans to begin the playoffs with a nine-man rotation, but it could evolve depending on matchups, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. While Gerald Green was sidelined with an adductor injury, the second unit consisted primarily of Iman Shumpert, Danuel House and Austin Rivers. However, Green saw extended action in the season finale, while Shumpert never entered the game.
“I guess,” D’Antoni said when asked about a nine-man rotation, “but that could be 10 halfway through the second quarter. I don’t know. In my mind we’re going to go a certain way and then read the game a little bit. Hopefully everybody’s ready to go. I want everybody to be ready and everybody will be called upon at some point. Hopefully, it’s a long playoff. Every game will have a different challenge. Everybody’s got to be ready. I don’t think anything will always be set in stone.”
There’s more news from the Southwest Division:
- Mark Cuban will try to re-sign most of the Mavericks‘ free agents this summer, according to The Dallas Morning News. Cuban discussed his plans in a radio interview this week in which he compared the current roster to the teams Dirk Nowitzki had earlier in his career. “I see the same type of future for this team with Luka [Doncic] and KP [Kristaps Porzingis] and bringing back our other guys,” Cuban said. “We’ll extend Dwight Powell and keep him around for another three years. We think we’ve got a great core – and probably bring back Maxi [Kleber] and DoDo [Dorian Finney-Smith]. I think we can add a free agent, we’ll keep our guys for the most part, we’ll see what happens in the draft, see what’s available to us and go from there. If Luka and KP are the workers I think they are or know they are, then the future’s really good. It’s really bright.”
- Former Hornets GM Rich Cho could be in line for a “major post” in the Grizzlies‘ rebuilt front office, NBA columnist Mitch Lawrence tweets. Cho has been out of the league since being let go by Charlotte in February of 2018.
- Michael C. Wright of ESPN takes a look at the Spurs‘ player development system that has helped the organization make playoff trips for more than two decades.
Faried or NeNe?
Looking at Cho’s record in Bas.Ref.,… Not so good. It’s like he got worse every year!
Cho’s first r1 pick was Kemba Walker; his last three were Malik Monk, Malachi Richardson, & Ed Kaminsky.
Cho’s first FA signing was Wesley Mathews for Portland; last was a 30 yo who played 8 mins.
If you think Cho made those choices on his own then yeah he did get worse as he went along. I’ve got a feeling in Charlotte MJ had final say in who they drafted or signed. They both messed up big time when they didn’t take the BOS offer for the pick that became Kaminsky. I think it was 3 or 4 future 1sts so Ainge could pick Winslow 9th. He did work under Pop and RC back in the day.
Nobody ever seemed to say, who decided on what. Memphis could say, it was MJ messing up, not our guy! Jordan would just laugh. He bought a NBA franchise on credit, neener neener.