Community Shootaround

Whispers about a potential coaching change have followed Luke Walton around for nearly the entire 2018/19 campaign, and while the Lakers have insisted both publicly and privately that his job is safe for the rest of the season, there’s no guarantee he’ll keep it beyond that.

With just 22 games left in their season, the 29-31 Lakers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture, trailing the eighth-seeded Spurs by three games. It will take an impressive run over the next month and a half to earn a playoff spot. If the Lakers can’t make that type of run, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the team move on from Walton in the offseason. However, he’s not the only NBA head coach who might be on the hot seat in the coming weeks or months.

As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports relays, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 has suggested that Igor Kokoskov‘s seat in Phoenix is getting hot. The Suns picked up a win on Monday night to snap their 17-game losing streak, but if the Suns had been mulling a change, a single victory is unlikely to change their minds. It’s Kokoskov’s first year in Phoenix, but the general manager who hired him – Ryan McDonough – is no longer in the front office, so the new management group might want to bring in its own coach this spring.

Elsewhere in the Western Conference, Alvin Gentry finds himself in a similar spot to Kokoskov. The GM who hired him has recently been fired, and his team hasn’t met expectations in 2018/19. On the other hand, Gentry has had to deal with unusual circumstances, including an Anthony Davis trade request, and he still has his team playing hard. He’s reportedly well-liked by management and ownership, so the Pelicans may stick with him beyond this season.

Ryan Saunders (Timberwolves), Larry Drew (Cavaliers), and Jim Boylen (Bulls) took over for recently-fired head coaches during the season, and while the odds are against all three keeping their jobs in 2019/20, they’ve all gotten pretty good reviews so far. It wouldn’t be shocking to see any combination of the three return for next season.

Scott Brooks‘ Wizards have underperformed in 2018/19. The club has insisted all year that he’s not on the hot seat, but his job security appears more tenuous than many of his fellow lottery-bound coaches, who either have a track record of success (like Rick Carlisle) or were recently hired (such as David Fizdale, J.B. Bickerstaff, and Lloyd Pierce).

With the home stretch of the ’18/19 season approaching, we want to know which teams you expect to make a coaching change this spring. Which coaches are in the most danger? Will we see plenty of turnover once the season ends, like we did a year ago, or will it be a fairly quiet spring for head coaching turnover?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in!

When LeBron James signed with the Lakers last summer, anticipation began building about who the next star would be to join him in L.A. It’s a question that still hasn’t been answered.

As LeBron tries to make a run to the playoffs surrounded by a collection of young players and veterans on one-year contracts, the organization’s long-term picture remains fuzzy. The front office made a strong pitch for Pelicans star Anthony Davis before the trade deadline, but all its offers were rebuffed, and now the Lakers will have to compete with teams such as the Celtics and Knicks that might have more assets they’re willing to offer to New Orleans.

L.A. will enter the summer with enough cap room to offer a max contract, but the team may not be the front-runner for anyone in a talented free agent class. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps examined some of the elite free agents this week and found that the Lakers won’t have an easy path toward landing any of them.

The Knicks are believed to have the inside track on Kevin Durant if he decides to leave the Warriors. The Celtics remain confident they can keep Kyrie Irving, but Bontemps thinks it’s more likely that he would team up with Durant in New York than accept a reunion with James. Kawhi Leonard has indicated a desire to play in Los Angeles, but reportedly prefers a lead role with the Clippers over becoming part of LeBron’s supporting cast.

Klay Thompson will stay with the Warriors if they comes through with a max offer. Kemba Walker has strong ties to Charlotte, which can give him a supermax contract worth more than $200MM over five years. The Bucks’ Khris Middleton and the Sixers’ Tobias Harris both appear destined to stay with their current teams.

Bontemps pegs Jimmy Butler as the most likely option for the Lakers if the Sixers decide they don’t want to max out him and Butler at the same time Ben Simmons becomes eligible for an extension. The ESPN writer sees DeMarcus Cousins as another possibility if the Lakers are willing to take a risk on his long-term health so soon after a major Achilles injury.

We want to get your input on the Lakers’ future. Who do you believe will be the best player that team president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka will add this summer? Please leave your responses in the space below.

As we relayed on Saturday, Adam Silver criticized the practice of tanking during his annual All-Star press conference, calling it “corrosive” for NBA franchises. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst revisits Silver’s comments today, noting that the NBA commissioner referred to the concept of relegation in soccer leagues when he discussed tanking.

“People who are familiar with the operation of other leagues, you understand now why there’s relegation,” Silver said. “Because you pay an enormous price if you’re not competitive. I think, again, for the league and for our teams, there’s that ongoing challenge of whether we can come up with yet a better system.”

As Windhorst acknowledges, there’s no chance that the NBA would consider a system that relegates the league’s worst teams to the G League each season. But Windhorst believes that Silver and the league office would consider instituting anti-tanking measures that go beyond simply adjusting the lottery odds, since those changes have proven to be largely ineffective when it comes to dissuading tanking.

[RELATED: How New Lottery Odds Will Affect NBA’s Race To The Bottom]

What sort of changes could the NBA consider? Windhorst suggests that the teams at the very bottom of the league’s standings could have their payouts from the league-wide revenue pool cut back or eliminated altogether for that season. Alternately, those clubs could be penalized by having their available cap room or exceptions temporarily reduced, Windhorst suggests.

It’s not clear whether the NBA is actually considering possibilities along those lines, but Silver’s reference to a “better system” suggests that the league isn’t necessarily satisfied with the current format, despite the recent tweaks.

With the NBA constantly on the lookout for ways to discourage tanking, we want to know how you’d address the issue. Is the current lottery format satisfactory? Are there changes you’d make to that system? Are there outside-the-box suggestions like Windhorst’s that you’d like to see instituted?

Jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Each year typically brings multiple front office shake-ups around the NBA. In 2018, the Hornets, Pistons, Sixers, and Timberwolves all dispatched their respective heads of basketball operations. In 2017, even more teams brought in new management groups, including the Knicks, Clippers, Cavaliers, Bucks, and a handful of others.

So far in 2019, the rumor mill has been quiet when it comes to potential front office changes. However, with the end of the regular season less than two months away, it will likely just be a matter of time before we get word of a team or two going in a new direction.

Front office shake-ups aren’t always easy to predict — before a bizarre Twitter-related scandal surfaced last summer, Bryan Colangelo didn’t appear to be in any danger in Philadelphia, but just over a week after that story broke, he was gone. While a saga like that one is unlikely to be repeated, it’s possible we’ll get some surprising front office news this summer.

For now though, there are a few general managers or presidents of basketball operations who already might be on the hot seat.

Wizards president of basketball ops Ernie Grunfeld is one of those executives, as his club has failed to get past the second round of the playoffs at all during his lengthy tenure in Washington, and has taken a significant step back this season. John Wall‘s four-year, super-max deal, which will begin this July, looks like perhaps the worst contract in the NBA, and the Wizards aren’t exactly loaded with assets around Wall and backcourt mate Bradley Beal.

Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace and Pelicans GM Dell Demps have faced plenty of criticism in recent years as well. Memphis, bogged down by Chandler Parsons‘ overpriced contract and declining veteran assets, has struggled mightily in the last two seasons, and Demps’ issues navigating the Anthony Davis waters have been well documented — as have his issues building the roster around Davis over the last several years.

In Chicago, a few good moves from Bulls executives John Paxson and Gar Forman, such as drafting Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter, have helped mask some questionable decisions in free agency and on the trade market. But with the Bulls’ win total set to decline for a fourth straight year, fans are losing their patience with the Paxson/Forman duo.

As the 2018/19 approaches its home stretch, we want to get your thoughts on the front office situations around the league. Do you expect any or all of the executives we mentioned above to lose their jobs this spring? Do some deserve another chance? Are there any other GMs or presidents across the NBA that you believe should be replaced?

Jump into the comment section below to share your two cents!

The Lakers want Anthony Davis and they want him now.

That’s apparent by their latest reported offer for the Pelicans superstar.

According to reports that surfaced today, the Lakers are willing to give up most of their young talent, draft picks and some cap space in order to pair up Davis with LeBron James. They’re willing to package Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Rajon Rondo, Michael Beasley and two first-round picks for Davis and Solomon Hill.

Kuzma is the Lakers’ second-leading scorer and Ingram, the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, is a close third. Ball, currently injured, was the second overall pick in the 2017 draft. Rondo and Beasley have expiring contracts, while Hill is owed over $12MM next season, so the Lakers would be sacrificing some cap space. And draft picks have become increasingly valued assets, so that’s quite a package the Lakers are willing to surrender.

Still, New Orleans doesn’t have to pull the trigger. The Pelicans could simply hold onto Davis and wait for the Celtics to enter the bidding. Boston can’t acquire Davis at this time because it already has a player, Kyrie Irving, who signed a designated player extension. Davis did the same with the Pelicans and no team can have two such players on the roster.

That prohibition ends when Irving becomes a free agent this offseason and the Celtics have long coveted AD. They could put together a package featuring Jayson Tatum and other quality players, plus a boatload of draft picks for Davis’ services.

The Pelicans could also hold out for offers from other teams with a collection of young talent and draft picks. They reportedly want an All-NBA caliber player as part of a deal for Davis and there’s no certainty that any of the players the Lakers offered fit that description.

That leads us to our question of the day: Should the Pelicans accept the latest Lakers offer for Anthony Davis or should they wait until the offseason to deal him?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.