Kyrie Irving and Fred VanVleet — who is declining his player option — are the top free agent point guards, John Hollinger of The Athletic opines. According to Hollinger, they’re the only max or near-max point guards on the market. Hollinger rates D’Angelo Russell and Tre Jones as the only other free agent floor leaders worth more than the mid-level exception, with Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schröder warranting a mid-level investment.
We have more from the around the basketball world:
- Crypto.com is closing part of its business but it won’t impact its naming rights deal for Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reports. AEG, which owns and operates the home arena for the Lakers and Clippers, entered into a 20-year, $700MM naming rights agreement with Singapore-based Crypto.com in November 2021.
- ABC and ESPN analyst Mark Jackson deserves another shot at coaching, an unnamed general manager told Marc Berman in a Casino.org story. Jackson, the Warriors’ head coach before going into broadcasting, interviewed for the Bucks’ head coaching job that went to Adrian Griffin. He has also been passed over for a number of other head coaching jobs in recent years. “He needs to be open to be an associate head coach,” the GM said. “If he was on the bench in Memphis or New Orleans, he’d be perfect for Ja Morant or Zion Williamson.’’
- The Suns are looking to hire Mavericks assistant Quinton Crawford as an assistant on Frank Vogel‘s staff, Marc Stein of The Stein Line tweets. In another coaching note, the Wizards are close to hiring Pelicans analytics expert Sammy Gelfand.
ABC and ESPN analyst Mark Jackson deserves another shot at coaching, an unnamed GM told Marc Berman in a Casino.org story.
How are casino and .org in the same sentence let alone website?!
Well, casino.org supports non-profits by letting them gamble in their casinos. Loopholes, gotta love them.
The guy is absolutely right, Mark Jackson needs to be open to an Associate Head Coach position. He needs to rebuild his name after the way it ended with the warriors.
And then, how could he go into an interview in New York and be unprepared? The way his assistant coaching staff in Golden State blew up in his face he has to have a perfectly laid out plan for success to relay to his potential new bosses regarding that category.
I know guys in basketball that go into these interviews with hundreds of pages of material. This is how he would use this guy and that guy and here’s how the defense would run and this is what I do in these scenarios. Everything is prepared like their life depends on it. Anything less with an interview prospect and I’m crinkling my nose and looking around the room for someone else.
Agree with everything you’ve said here but I guess the most obvious question would be, why would he leave the comfort and stress free life of being on the NBA’s top broadcast team to return to the coaching carousel? I get that like a number of guys, coaching may be in his blood but the reality is, he has a great lifestyle
Guess the closest analogy is Bill Cowher in football. Left coaching on his own volition of course, and has had his name associated with numerous head coaching jobs over the years. But I think common sense has won any debate
Whether he “should” or not, I couldn’t see him leaving his tv job to be an associate hc or lead assistant. There’s still no guarantee that somebody would hire him to be a head coach after a year, two, or three years of assisting. And leaving to go to a bad team to be the coach-in-waiting is probably not a desirable situation to leave television for, either.
Somebody’s just gonna have to love him enough to just give him a hc job off him taking the earphones off and interviewing.
Does Mark Jackson really want to coach again?
Working on TV seems like so much fun.
I guess its the salary discrepancy.
Some of those tv gigs pay more than coaching
Russ to Washington looks very likely.
He enjoyed his time there and when waived by the lakers he was considering going back then.
They need a big addition if they wish to do anything this coming season.
Russ Beal Kuzma KP….. doesn’t sound amazing but it surely will result in a playoff appearance, which is an improvement.
Huge underdog but Brooklyn..
they kinda need some experience and a do it all guy like Russ. Plus in the past he’s done well with 3 and D wings around him and then a big man.
Brooklyn has been very vocal in the fact they want to add size.
Russ Bridges Johnson …
Good depth with guys like Mills ONeale DFS Claxton Harris etc etc
Not a contender but probably good enough to warrant another trip to the playoffs again
Mark Jackson is too religious to be a head coach…
Might work as part of a diverse team, but he’d just lose anyone who bases their reality on science as a head coach…
Although I’d like to see him move back into coaching, so I wouldn’t have to put up with them on the TV, they seem to only interview for head coaching jobs…