June 2013 – Page 20 – NBA Blog

Brooklyn Nets to speak with Brian Shaw about coaching job

After waiting several weeks for his season to end, the Nets are set to speak with Brian Shaw.

The Nets formally requested — and were granted permission — to speak with Shaw about their coaching vacancy, according to a Yahoo! Sports report.

Shaw, who spent the past two seasons as the associate head coach of the Pacers, has been widely regarded as one of the NBA’s top assistant coaches for some time. His stock has only heightened in the wake of several other assistants getting tapped for head coaching jobs this offseason.

Shaw’s agent, Jerome Stanley, declined to comment on the matter to The Post when reached by phone, but he told ESPN Los Angeles several teams have reached out to the Pacers about his client’s services.

“The season has ended and now he plans to speak to a few teams about potential opportunities to be a head coach,” Stanley told the website.

Reported by Tim Bontemps of the New York Post

Bucks make no guarantees to draft prospects

There are no guarantees for draft prospects auditioning with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Literally.

Bucks director of scouting Billy McKinney said Wednesday it’s not a tactic the team has used.

Some NBA teams do offer guarantees to players that they will be picked at a certain position in the draft. The thinking behind that is to prevent a player from working out for other teams before the draft, while also providing the player and his agent certainty of a draft floor.

But the negative side is a guarantee can severely limit a team’s flexibility on draft night.

“We haven’t done it,” McKinney said. “In fact, a couple years ago when Larry Sanders came in and worked out, somebody thought we had given Larry a guarantee.

“I talked about it after the workout that we hadn’t guaranteed Larry, and we didn’t guarantee Brandon (Jennings), either.”

Reported by Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Kawhi Leonard happy to guard LeBron James in NBA Finals

Chances are, the Spurs will use Kawhi Leonard often on defense against four-time NBA MVP LeBron James.

That’s just fine with Leonard.

”I would rather guard the best guy on the floor,” Leonard said. ”I want to get better myself. Guarding him is going to make me a better player. I accept the challenge to go out there and play.”

Leonard said he won’t take much from how Indiana defended James in the Eastern Conference finals, since the teams have a different overall defensive game plan.

And he also thinks being on the NBA’s biggest stage shouldn’t be a reason to change how anyone plays.

”It’s another game,” Leonard said. ”I don’t think it’s going to be any different. Everybody wants to compete to win a championship. People are competing at their highest level.”

Gregg Popovich gives Pat Riley credit for building Heat

When the Miami Heat pulled off what so many thought was unthinkable and signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play alongside Dwyane Wade three summers ago, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was impressed.

So he called Heat President Pat Riley to say exactly that.

”He’s been a competitor, obviously, his whole career since he was a player in college and beyond,” Popovich said Wednesday, the last day of practices before his Spurs and the Heat will open the NBA Finals with Game 1 in Miami. ”He put together a team fairly, within the rules, that is a monster. So why wouldn’t he get credit for that? Why wouldn’t you congratulate him for that? So I did.”

Not many around the league did, of course.

When Riley and other Heat executives like managing general partner Micky Arison and senior vice president Andy Elisburg put together the plan that they thought would land James and Bosh, season-ticket holders were sold on the idea of a Heat trying to build a dynasty.

Now with three straight finals appearances, and with a chance at a second straight title, they might be on their way to building one. And in Popovich’s eyes, Miami’s success only makes Riley’s career look even more storied now.

Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Dwyane Wade, back again in the NBA Finals

“I mean, anytime you can get to the finals two years in a row is tough,” said Wade, who’ll be making his third straight finals appearance and fourth overall. “But to win it back to back? I remember Michael Jordan saying winning your first title is the toughest. And in some ways it’s very tough to win that first one. But I personally think it’s tougher to win the next one, because now you’ve finally gave everything to win that first one.”

This postseason is certainly proving to be tougher for Wade.

A bruised right knee has dogged him now for the better part of three months. In the beginning, the official word was that the ailment was minor and the hope was that it could clear up with a bit of rest. Obviously, that’s not exactly the case.

Wade is averaging only 14.1 points in the playoffs on 45 percent shooting. He’s getting to the foul line, on average, 3.9 times per game in these playoffs, or less than half of what he managed in his first eight postseasons.

And his trademark explosiveness just has not been there, either.

In his first 110 playoff games, he scored more than 20 points on 87 occasions. This year, in 15 playoff games, he’s topped 20 only twice — getting exactly 21 points both times, the second coming in Monday’s win over Indiana in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Sixers coaching candidate pool keeps shrinking

The pool of prospective coaches from which the 76ers look to hire their new coach was reduced again on Sunday when the Sacramento Kings selected former Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Malone.

The 41-year-old Malone, who replaced Keith Smart, spent the last two seasons as the top assistant to Mark Jackson. Malone is the third coach to be hired recently who was at one time or another believed to be high on the Sixers’ list.

Of course, that list was linked with Tony DiLeo, who was replaced as president of basketball operations on May 10 by new general manager Sam Hinkie.

Since Hinkie, a former executive with Houston, came on board, the Sixers have asked for permission to speak with Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson, and they have been linked to Chris Finch, also a Houston assistant.

Reported by John N. Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Mike Malone tells assistant Kings coaches they will not be retained

The remaking of the Kings continued Tuesday when assistant coaches from Keith Smart’s staff were informed by new head coach Michael Malone they would not be retained.

The contracts for Jim Eyen, Alex English, Bobby Jackson and Clifford Ray expire June 30. Smart was fired last week with one year left on his deal. Jackson, the popular former Kings player, was added to the staff for the 2011-12 season, under Paul Westphal. The team announced Jackson would remain with the Kings in another capacity yet to be determined.

After retiring from the Kings as a player, Jackson served as “team ambassador” during the 2009-10 season by representing the team at community events and being involved with fans. He also served in a regional scout/player development role. Jackson assisted the front office with scouting, player evaluations and preparing for the NBA draft.

The rest of the coaching staff wasn’t so fortunate.

Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee

San Antonio Spurs excellence continues

The 1950s-60s Boston Celtics dynasty, to which every subsequent NBA championship run gets compared, lasted 13 seasons. The Magic Johnson Lakers faded after 12 seasons. The running of the Jordan Bulls? Eight seasons.

San Antonio’s looking to slap NBA title bookends on 15 seasons of excellence.

That’s an NBA title in a lockout-shortened season followed by 14 consecutive 50-win seasons, among which the Spurs sprinkled three more NBA championships and now have a shot at a fifth.

Expansion and free agency didn’t pre-empt such consistency in professional team sports. But the grudging fade of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings leaves San Antonio as the most consistent success show among the major professional sports. That can be said now that the Spurs returned to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2007.

“It feels like forever since we’ve been to this point,” San Antonio center Tim Duncan said after San Antonio swept Memphis in the Western Conference Final. “We’ve been on the verge of getting here. In the last couple of years, we still feel we’re in contention, but we can’t get over that hump to get back in the Finals. It’s just an amazing feeling, honestly.”

Asked if he was worried the Spurs might never get back there, Duncan said, “Nothing’s promised. I don’t know if there was doubt. I would hope we did, but nothing’s promised.”

Reported by David J. Neal of the Miami Herald

New Toronto GM Ujiri looks to turn around Raptors

Masai Ujiri is returning to the Raptors as general manager and bringing with him a “passion to win.” He has a lot of work ahead, joining a team that has missed the playoffs for five straight seasons.

Ujiri was introduced Tuesday at Air Canada Centre after his hiring last week. He was an assistant GM with the Raptors for three seasons before leaving for the Denver Nuggets in 2010.

“I love this place,” said Ujiri, the first African-born GM in North America’s four major sports. “I’m pumped. I’m excited. This is a stage that I’ve always wanted in my life.”

Ujiri, who was born in Nigeria, was the NBA executive of the year with the Nuggets. He succeeds Bryan Colangelo, who remains the Raptors’ president in a nonbasketball role.

“It’s going to take patience,” Ujiri said. “It’s going to take will. We’re going to instill passion – a passion to win.”

Reported by the Associated Press

Erik Spoelstra and Gregg Popovich making the right moves

Other than being widely known by just the first syllable of their surnames, the coaches who will match wits in these NBA Finals may seem like polar opposites.

Of course, they would probably disagree with that assertion.

Miami’s Erik Spoelstra wears sharp suits and is a stats guy; San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich often skips the tie and would immeasurably prefer to answer questions about wine than anything about himself. Both are intensely private, but even during an NBA Finals loaded with star power – the “Big Three” from Miami, the “Big Three” from San Antonio, a four-time MVP in LeBron James, a four-time champion in Tim Duncan – the coaches will share misery in one way.

To their chagrin, Spo and Pop will be in the spotlight.

“It’s easier to talk about how they are similar versus how they are dissimilar,” said ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy, a former NBA coach who is part of the broadcast team for the series that opens Thursday in Miami. “They are both going to the Hall of Fame. They both have tremendous respect from the coaches they coach against, and they both have a level of humility that I believe shows NBA coaching in the most positive light possible.”

Reported by the Associated Press