BGleas

How was that not a charge on Harden?

Always happens to Chris Paul, and to your point this is probably the first time I've actually been rooting for him.

I'll be happily shocked if Phoenix wins tonight.

I don't think there is anything they can do, especially without Brown (not that he'd be the difference in winning the series, he'd just help make it respectable). The Nets are just too talented.

Agree. The refs aren't costing the Celtics the game, they're just making it extremely uninteresting, and as a Celtics fan very frustrating. Instead of a 10-15 point game where you're at least sticking in wondering if the Celtics can make it close in the 4th, it's a 25 point blowout and you're hoping Stevens gets a tech and Smart gets ejected for losing his mind.

Thank you! I thought everyone would disagree. That call on the Harden 3 was terrible. I didn't expect an overturn either, but nobody touched him and he started falling before anyone was near him. Tatum has been getting mugged going to the basket and he's getting nothing.

Agree with your first paragraph, the East isn't over, but if "the others" are shooting like this then the Nets will be really hard to beat. On your second paragraph, I agree except that the Celtics aren't getting any calls. Tough to play bully ball when the refs aren't calling anything on the other team. Tatum should have 3-4 trips to the foul line by now and I think he has none.

I don't expect the Celtics to win this series, I'm not sure if they can even win a game, and the Nets are phenomenal, but with that said the officiating in this game has been absurd. Tatum, Smart and Fournier have been getting mugged going to the basket and are getting no calls, meanwhile even guys like Landry Shammet are drawing ticky tack fouls on the other end. It wouldn't change the outcome, but its very frustrating to watch. By the way, if the Nets are healthy I don't see how they lose.

Will be interesting to see what GS does this summer. They have a window of time here to get back into championship contention with a prime Steph. A lot will depend on how Klay Thompson is when he comes back. While KD has shown an achilles isn't necessarily debilitating, Klay also had the ACL on the other leg, and for a shooter that relies on his legs and lateral movement on both ends of the court it will be interesting to watch. The other big decision will be how do they add another star and can they even do it? If I was GS I'd go all in on the present and try and flip Wiseman and pieces for a star looking for a fresh start (not sure who that is). They need another star and it would push a guy like Wiggins, if you don't have to include him in the deal, into that Harrison Barnes role from the beginning of the dynasty (a guy capable of getting 20pts on any night but also just as capable of disappearing, but in a role where you're not reliant on him).

There was a good part of his tenure where the narrative was that it was nice to finally have a coach that doesn't throw the players under the bus and actually takes blame. I feel like as fans (myself included) "he never took blame" is one of those things we say about former coaches as their tenure gets in the rearview mirror.

Same. It's very strange that he never made any kind of public statement, at minimum thank the fans and say your glad you had the opportunity or something.

I knew Mike Dunleavy was his assistant. I knew Chris Ford was KC Jones assistant (full disclosure, I grew up a Sixers fan, hated the Celtics until I went to work there so I wasn't a Celtics fan then).

Of course, but we were talking about knowing an assistant from your favorite team when calling yourself a huge fan (at least that's what I thought we were discussing to point )

Given how often coaches change, I'd say being able to rattle off half of the coaches in the league is pretty good. That's knowing a good portion of the coaches. I'd say the same thing about the NFL.

When I say knowing an assistant, I mean just knowing his name and who he is. I don't mean knowing how he coaches, his style or anything like that. Maybe that has been the disconnect in the conversation? As an NBA fan I know the names of several assistants and would recognize them when being talked about. I don't know their coaching style as we don't really have access to that.

I would agree that kids currently in high school right now are too young to remember Woodson from coaching the Hawks, unless they had some connection to following his teams there. They may even be too young to remember him with the Knicks. But it is stunning to me that a 17 year old basketball player would call himself an NBA fan and not know who many of the current head coaches are. How would they not know Brad Stevens, Greg Popovich, Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr, Ty Lue, Nick Nurse, etc., etc. You'd know most of those guys just from watching a few recent playoff series or NBA Finals.

I guess I just don't understand how you could be that into it and not know who some of the assistants are? I don't mean every assistant for every team or anything (nobody fan is going to know that) but assistants are often (not all the time but often) mentioned during broadcasts, especially if the assistant is a hot candidate for a head job. It just seems odd that someone could be that big of a fan and never hear an assistants name?

Completely agree. I think you used a great word there with "relevancy". With the way Dolson and Woodson are building this, the plan seems to not just be improvement but to be relevant and a top college basketball program again. IU is not only investing in the head coach, but investing in top assistants and a top notch support staff. The plan seems to be to show players that IU will not only give you everything you need to develop while you're there, but also continue to support you for the rest of your life. I'm onboard!

Agree, definitely a silly discussion (I'm not arguing, just having a discussion), but it's the offseason what else do we have to talk about? I would question what you mean by "huge NBA fan"? I was a kid in the 80's and I knew Jimmy Lynam was a Sixers assistant, I knew Chris Ford was a Celtics assistant and I knew Mike Dunleavy was a Lakers assistant. But I'm also a really small sample size.

I was one that was very disappointed about the hire initially and pretty vocal about it, but that was when I didn't fully understand the hire. I wanted IU to hire a proven college program builder. Look at what Chris Beard did at Texas Tech or Eric Musselman at Nevada and Arkansas or what Scott Drew has done at Baylor. Guys with a proven track record of building college programs. That's what I wanted for IU. I viewed hiring Woodson as very lazy by Scott Dolson. Hiring an "IU guy" for the sake of hiring an IU guy. It just reeked of laziness to me, and I was vocal about it that first day. I also was aware of Mike Woodson and viewed him as fairly boring. If I was a fan of say the Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings or Orlando Magic and my team hired Woodson as the HC, it would be a very uninspiring hire. Then HSN went down for a few days. We couldn't post, so I followed what Woodson and Dolson were saying closely. We had the Thad Matta hire and Woodson and Dolson both spoke at the presser and to other media. We heard what Woodson's former players said about him in terms of development and relating to players, etc. When HSN was live again, I came back and said that if this was Dolson not being lazy but actually being extremely forward thinking with NIL coming and building a real NBA program/factory (not necessarily one and done) that plays a style of basketball that recruits want to be in and has the support staff that prepares players for professional basketball, with a coach that has been there and done it, then I'm fully onboard. I don't mean turning IU into Kentucky in terms of the one and done model, but more turning IU into a destination for players that want all of the things that come with being supported in achieving their dreams, while winning. Player development, up tempo/pro style offense, support staff such as Thad Matta and additional off the court support, and a top notch coaching staff that has been there and done that. I now see that Dolson had a vision. It wasn't a lazy "get me the most available IU guy" hire. It was get me the guy that can connect the past to the future. Get me the guy that can build a forward thinking program that honors the past, but builds a program that the top players want and need to be a part of. Give me the guy with connections all over the world of basketball and the experience to connect with top players trying to improve and become men. While disappointed at first, I quickly changed course after seeing/hearing the vision.

Then are they really that big of fans? If you watch the local broadcasts of your local team, often the announcers are going to speak on the top assistants and their roles. Many local broadcasts will do interviews with the assistants in between quarters or during halftime, etc. I wouldn't expect anyone to know the full lineup of assistants of any team, I don't know the Celtics full staff, but if you're a fan of a particular team I'd expect you can probably name and assistant or two. As a Celtics fan, if you followed the '08 championship team, everyone knew who Tom Thibdeau was as the lead assistant. Everyone (meaning fans) knew Tex Winter was Phil Jackson's assistant. People who follow the Miami Heat knew who David Fizdale was in the early Wade/LeBron years, etc., etc. This is going back long before your son would have been paying attention, but people at the time of the Pistons mid-2000's teams knew Woodson was Larry Brown's lead assistant on their title team. Pacer fans in the Larry Bird coaching era knew Rick Carlisle and Dick Harter.

Even right there at the start of OT, what is the strategy to kick the kickoff back and then just drill down field to turn it over?

Unless they change their strategy, I don't see how IU wins before PK's. Maybe getting it to PK's is the strategy at this point. Weird though that the announcers seemed to think if someone would score it would be IU.

Yes, looking a little better. The defense has been really solid.