Hoops Rumors Originals

Now that the Nets have abruptly parted ways with highly-respected head coach Kenny Atkinson, there is one more big-ticket name available for this summer’s intriguing coaching carousel. With several other teams potentially looking to make coaching changes in the offseason, we at Hoops Rumors felt it was high time to speculate wildly about summer 2020 coaching hires.

There may be coaching vacancies among several glamor NBA franchises, including the Knicks, Nets (Atkinson’s Nets replacement, Jacque Vaughn, will be merely an interim coach this season), Bulls, Rockets and Sixers.

Atkinson served as an assistant coach in New York and Atlanta before finally getting a crack at the lead job in Brooklyn. He coached the rebuilding Nets, without a single All-Star, to an impressive 42-40 record and a playoff berth last season. At 28-34, the team is currently the No. 7 seed in the East, despite All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant appearing in a combined 20 games this year.

Mike D’Antoni is a coaching free agent this summer, and even if Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta may be wary of bringing him back, he will not be hurting for work. A great 212-95 regular season record, a Coach of the Year Award in 2016/17, and one Western Conference Finals appearance should ensure that.

Though interim Knicks head coach Mike Miller has coached a hapless New York squad to a competent 15-26 record, his job security has been openly challenged by Knicks brand manager Steve Stoute. Miller may have done enough in a tough environment to warrant a look from another franchise.

Top assistant coaches like Becky Hammon with the Spurs, Tyronn Lue with the Clippers, Adrian Griffin with the Raptors and Nate Tibbetts with the Trail Blazers could all get a head coaching opportunity this summer.

We want to know what you think. Who are the best available coaches on the market this summer? Which teams would match best with which available or potentially-available coaches?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

Players available on the buyout market typically don’t become difference-makers for their new teams. Occasionally, productive players will join a playoff team late in the season and help buoy that club heading into the postseason, like Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli did for the Sixers in 2018 or Enes Kanter did for the Trail Blazers in 2019.

More often than not though, buyout-market additions don’t significantly move the needle. A year ago, the late-season signees who saw the most playing time down the stretch were Wayne Ellington (Pistons) and Wesley Matthews (Pacers), whose teams didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs. The eventual-champion Raptors signed a player off the buyout market, but that player – Jeremy Lin – barely saw any action during the team’s title run.

With that in mind, we don’t want to overstate the impact that this year’s post-trade-deadline acquisitions will have the rest of the way. Still, it’s possible one of those players could be this year’s Ilyasova, Belinelli, or Kanter, playing an important role for a team that wins a playoff series or two — or even makes a Finals run.

As our roundup of the 2020 buyout market shows, there are a few candidates who could potentially fit that bill. One is new Clippers guard Reggie Jackson, who was bought out by Detroit last month. While some league observers viewed the signing of Jackson as unnecessary for a team that already featured a fairly strong, versatile backcourt, the ex-Piston has looked great in his first six games in Los Angeles, averaging 9.2 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.5 RPG on .500/.409/1.000 shooting in a part-time role.

Although he was technically waived in December rather than bought out in February, Rockets forward Jeff Green also signed after the trade deadline and has excelled with his new team. Serving as a de facto center in Houston’s microball lineup, Green has posted 7.7 PPG and 2.5 RPG with an impressive .593/.500/.833 shooting line in six games (17.5 MPG).

In Milwaukee, new Bucks forward Marvin Williams hasn’t put up eye-popping numbers, but he has been a steady, reliable presence on the wing, providing solid defense against opposing scoring threats. His best game so far came against the rival Raptors, when he recorded nine points, five rebounds, and a pair of steals in just 16 minutes of action while frequently guarding All-Star forward Pascal Siakam.

Rockets forward DeMarre Carroll and Lakers forward Markieff Morris are among the other recent additions who are seeing part-time minutes for their new teams. It’s even worth mentioning Anthony Tolliver, who signed a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies on Monday and promptly knocked down 4-of-5 three-pointers in a blowout win over Atlanta. If he sticks with the team beyond his 10-day deal, maybe he could help Memphis hang onto the No. 8 seed in the West.

A handful of somewhat intriguing players are still on the free agent market, including J.R. Smith, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson, Isaiah Thomas, and Allen Crabbe. It’s possible one or more of those players will sign with a contender soon and play a key role in the coming weeks.

What do you think? Will any of these players really make a difference for their new clubs down the stretch and in the postseason? If so, which one do you think is the best bet to make an impact?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

Thanks to analytics, the NBA has undergone radical changes in the way the game is played.

The traditional center has become more and more obsolete. The mid-range jumper and isolation plays are discouraged, rather than being a staple of every team’s offense. A big man’s game has been replaced by small ball.

Now, every game is a bevy of drives to the basket and 3-point shots. It wasn’t long ago that players would get benched for taking transition threes. Now, coaches get upset if someone passes up a good long-range look on the fast break.

But like eating too dessert, has the emphasis on 3-point shooting become too much of a belly-ache instead of sweet satisfaction?

The amount of 3-point attempts has skyrocketed in just a decade. In 2009/10, the Magic led the league in 3-point attempts at 27.3 3-point tries per game. The Grizzlies ranked last at 12.4 per game.

Five years later, the Rockets led the league at 32.7 attempts per game but there was a big dropoff to second place in that category, as the Cavaliers shot an average of 27.5. The Timberwolves ranked last at 14.9 and 10 other teams shot fewer than 20 per game.

Look at where we are today. The Rockets, no surprise, rank first with a whopping 44.2 attempts per game. The eight teams immediately below them shoot at least 35 per game. The Pacers rank last at 27.7 per game.

That’s right. The team taking the fewest 3-pointers this season would have ranked first in that category 10 years ago.

The way things are trending, 3-point attempts will continue to rise, though not as dramatically as they have the last five or 10 years.

Is it time for the league to step in and prevent every game from essentially turning into a 3-point shooting contest? They could try to experiment with limiting the amount of threes that could be taken, such as counting shots beyond the arc as three points only at certain times of the game. Or they could do something really drastic, like erase it altogether.

The latter is a pipe dream, but there are many fans out there who would like to see basketball return to its roots.

That brings us to our question of the day: Do you like the dramatic increase in 3-point shooting in recent years or do you think the NBA should take steps to curtail or discourage teams from taking so many 3s?

Please take to the comments section to voice your opinion. We look forward to what you have to say.