Community Shootaround

On Friday, Paul George carried the Pacers past the Heat and stuffed the stat sheet in the process. He compiled 36 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block in a game that made it clear that George is back to his All-Star form after suffering a gruesome injury while playing for team USA last year. Indiana will play the Cavs on Sunday in a matchup against the Eastern Conference’s best player, LeBron James.

It wasn’t long ago that George was going toe-to-toe with James in the playoffs and elevating his status among the league’s best. If he continues to dominate games like he did on Friday night, the Pacers could be another serious challenger to the Cavs in the East and George may have a shot at winning his first MVP award. It might be too early to set expectations that high, but if George can lead his team to a top four seed come playoff time, he should easily be regarded as one of the top players in the Eastern Conference.

That leads us to tonight’s shootaround topic: Who are the top three players in the Eastern Conference right now?

George’s game against Miami may have firmly planted him in the conversation, but other stars such as Carmelo Anthony, John Wall and Chris Bosh, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds in the same game, might have something to say about that. Kyle Lowry, who has led his team to a 5-1 record while sporting a 21.9 player efficiency rating, deserves attention as well.

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.

The Mavericks and head coach Rick Carlisle reached an agreement Thursday on a five-year, $35MM contract extension that will keep him in Dallas through the 2021/22 campaign. Carlisle will first finish out his current deal covering both this season as well as 2016/17, which is a team option. “We are excited to retain Coach Carlisle in the Mavericks family,” owner Mark Cuban said in the team’s official release. “He is a championship-caliber coach that has made this organization better on and off the court.”

The 56-year-old is the president of the NBA Coaches Association and is widely respected around the league. Carlisle led the Mavs to the NBA title in 2011 and has been with the franchise since May 2008, making him the third longest-tenured head coach in the NBA. He won Coach of the Year honors for the Pistons in 2002, which was his first season as an NBA coach. Carlisle led Detroit to back-to-back 50-win seasons before beginning a four-year tenure with the Pacers. He’s 619-431 over 13 full seasons as an NBA head coach, and he owns a 57-58 postseason record. For Dallas, he’s gone 338-220 in the regular season and 27-26 in the playoffs.

That is quite a solid résumé for Carlisle, and it’s one that would likely garner considerable interest around the NBA if he were to suddenly become unemployed or hit the open market. Carlisle is obviously happy being a part of the Mavericks organization, and judging by the average annual value of his new extension, the franchise reciprocates that feeling. But is remaining in Dallas with a team that is clearly in a rebuilding phase and will eventually need to forge ahead without franchise stalwart Dirk Nowitzki, who at 37 years old is nearing the end of his Hall-of-Fame career, a smart move for the coach?

This brings me to the topic for today: Was signing an extension with the Mavericks the right move for Rick Carlisle, or should he have waited to see the state of the roster in 2017/18, the first year his extension kicks in, prior to signing on for five more seasons?

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.

Thanks to some comments made by Lakers coach Byron Scott regarding Nuggets point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, a mini debate has arisen regarding the merits of Mudiay versus Lakers rookie playmaker D’Angelo Russell. Scott said that as the draft approached he didn’t think that Mudiay was a true point guard, and the coach also questioned Mudiay’s decision-making. As for his own rookie guard, Russell, Scott said, “His workouts were extremely good. You saw the leadership qualities that he had. You saw the ability to pass the ball and make other guys better, the ability to get to the basket and the ability to knock down 3s, open jump shots and off-the-dribble shots. He had the total package offensively. Defensively, the one thing I thought he did was he competed.”

Mudiay and Russell will always be linked and compared to each other because they were both first-rounders in the same draft class, such is the nature of sports. It’s an especially interesting debate considering neither player is a pure point guard, and both are learning the position and the league on the fly. Which brings me to today’s topic for discussion: Based on the early season returns, who do you believe is the better point guard — Emmanuel Mudiay or D’Angelo Russell?

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. But don’t just settle for providing us with a name, we want to hear why you feel the way you do. We look forward to what you have to say.

NBA teams cut as much as 25% of their rosters at the end of the preseason, but franchises that have D-League affiliates have a way to maintain ties to many of the players they release from the NBA roster. An NBA team can claim the D-League rights to up to four of the players it waives, as long as the players clear waivers, consent to join the D-League, and don’t already have their D-League rights owned by another team. These are known as affiliate players, as our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry details. NBA teams allocated a total of 46 affiliate players to the D-League at the beginning of the season last year, and this year, that number has risen to 56, according to the list the D-League announced on Tuesday. These players are going directly to the D-League affiliate of the NBA team that cut them and weren’t eligible for the D-League draft that took place Saturday.

This brings me to the topic/question for today: Which D-League affiliate player has the best shot at making an impact in the NBA this season? Click here to see the full list.

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts, opinions, and insights on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.

Monday was the leaguewide cutoff for teams to exercise their 2016/17 rookie scale options on any eligible players. If a team passed on exercising its option on a player, that player will now become an unrestricted free agent next summer, instead of a restricted free agent, as would have been the case if the team had exercised the option and allowed the player’s contract to run its full course. Any team that declines a rookie scale team option will only be permitted to re-sign that player for no more than the option amount next offseason, a rule in place to prevent teams from circumventing the salary cap to funnel higher paydays to star young players after two or three seasons. You can see the full list of players who were eligible this fall, as well as the status of their options here:

This brings me to the question/topic for today: Which rookie scale team option that was exercised prior to this year’s deadline was the biggest surprise, and why?

These rookie scale options are bargains for the teams in most instances, and as a result franchises will usually exercise them, even if the player hasn’t quite lived up to his potential during his time in the league thus far. But there are cases where it may be evident that a player isn’t cut out for the NBA, and the team may be better served to decline the option and move on. Browsing the list of eligible players linked above, were there any who fell into the latter category whose team may have been better served to have cut its losses and declined that player’s option? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to what you have to say.

The Pistons are set to retire the numbers of former players Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace this season, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. Both were major contributors on Detroit’s 2003/04 NBA championship squad, the franchise’s last. Billups, who was also affectionately known as “Mr. Big Shot,” retired after the 2013/14 season. The point guard rejoined the Pistons for that final season after he had been traded to the Nuggets in November of 2008 for Allen Iverson. Wallace, a rebounding whiz and defensive monster, left Detroit after the 2005/06 season when he inked a four-year, $60MM deal with the rival Bulls. Big Ben would return to the Motor City in 2009/10, and he remained a member of the Pistons until his retirement after the 2011/12 season.

This brings me to the topic/question if the day: Where do Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace rank among the all-time Pistons greats?

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on these two Detroit sports greats. Do any of you out there disagree with the team’s plan to retire their numbers? If so, why? We look forward to what you have to say on the subject.

The chatter about a potential scenario in which Knicks team president Phil Jackson would return to work for the Lakers and fiancee Jeanie Buss has resurfaced in NBA circles over recent weeks, according to a report by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. It should be noted that Jackson can reportedly opt out of his five-year deal with the Knicks after this season, though that doesn’t necessarily imply that the executive will depart New York at that time. Speculation emerged earlier this year that Jackson wouldn’t finish out his contract, though he did go on record back in June saying that he wanted to stay around long enough to help the Knicks turn around their fortunes.

This brings me to the topic/question for today: Will Phil Jackson depart the Knicks to return to the Lakers organization?

Is a reunion in the cards for Jackson and the Lakers, or will the Zen Master call it a career once he walks away from the Knicks? How much longer do you believe Jackson will remain with New York? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts, predictions, and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.

Winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award is one of the most prestigious individual achievements in all of sports. Snagging the award takes not only great individual numbers, it also requires the player to elevate his franchise, as well as his teammates, with his play and production throughout the grueling 82-game schedule. Stephen Curry earned the award for the 2014/15 campaign, securing 100 out of 130 possible first-place votes, with James Harden coming in second followed by LeBron James in the third slot.

While Curry, Harden, and James are all likely to be in the discussion for this year’s MVP award, there are a number of players who possess the skills and ability to thrust themselves into consideration for this season’s honor. This brings me to the question/topic for today: Who will win the 2015/16 NBA MVP Award?

Let’s get those predictions on record now. That way you’ll have documented proof to show your friends in the spring when the award is handed out. Take to the comments section below to share who you believe will win the award, as well as the stat line you think that player will put up to deserve such an honor. We look forward to what you have to say.