Tag: Phil Jackson

Drafting and Dynasties With Pesquera, Ibañez-Baldor

November 17, 2020 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

Guest Javier Pesquera believes LaMelo Ball is the 2020 draft class’ top prospect and accordingly expects him to go No. 1 to the Timberwolves (Foxlifevisuals/Creative Commons).

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Javier Pesquera, roving NBA draft analyst and occasional consultant for The Stepien, returns to break down the fast-approaching 2020 draft. Then, after the break, Agu Ibañez Baldor stops by to discuss his book, “Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Teams in NBA History.”

*Due to dynamic advertising, time stamps may vary:

Javier Pesquera at 7:28-7:39: “At No. 1, I do have LaMelo Ball in his own tier by himself, and I think LaMelo Ball is gonna go No. 1 unless Minnesota actually finds a trade that they like, which I don’t think is happening at this point.”

12:25-12:42 (JP): “I think there are a lot of doubters as well. I do like him [Obi Toppin]. He has as much potential as anybody in this class, and that’s related to his physical tools. … The comparison to Amar’e Stoudemire pops in your head right away because of the way he leaps off the floor and the way he finishes in transition. He has that type of ability.” Continue reading

Melissa Isaacson: Bulls’ Title Run Was a “Magical, Magical Time”

May 17, 2020 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

Michael Jordan hanging in the air (Momez/Creative Commons)

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Melissa Isaacson, former sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, relives covering the historically dominant Bulls teams of the early 1990s, as she breaks down The Last Dance, the popular docuseries in which she appears. She also discusses her latest book, State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation.

Time stamps may vary due to dynamic advertising:

4:25 – 5:40: “Over the years, he [Michael Jordan] really has been sort of portrayed as this egomaniac, and he’s kind of helped along with that narrative. His Hall of Fame speech was taken in a way that I was sort of really shocked by. I actually really liked his Hall of Fame speech. It sounded to a lot of people like he was being selfish. … Hopefully the audience will see through the docuseries, those who maybe had one opinion of him, that the competitive side of him is crazy. No question. It’s on a level that…is not even close [to most people] – it’s not a stereotype – but that is exactly what makes him who he is, what makes him as great as he is. So there’s gonna be some eccentric qualities, but I would never ever call him an egomaniac, and I wouldn’t call him a mean person regardless of some of the scraps we’ve seen him get into with his teammates.”

9:43 – 10:44: “They [Bulls players] were all just really sensitive to me being pregnant. I have a lot of stories and a lot of memories of…guys interacting with me, Michael patting my stomach before he ran on the court every game when he came back [from his first retirement]. He’d look for me and pat my stomach for luck, I guess. Ordinarily you might be a little put off or uncomfortable, but, again, this is Michael Jordan. … It was just a magical, magical time. I felt blessed. I still feel blessed. A lot of people have asked, ‘Were you aware of how great it was?’ Oftentimes, it takes many years to look back and fully appreciate things. I fully appreciated it, I did, because it was clear that he was the best player in the world.” Continue reading

Keith Smith: Clippers Face “No-Win Situation,” Celtics Target Hayward

June 30, 2017 / Loren Chen / 0 Comments

Chris Paul’s exit further complicates the Clippers’ and Blake Griffin’s looming decision of how to handle his unrestricted free agency (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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Though the free agency period does not officially begin until July 1, the landscape of the NBA has already shifted dramatically after the draft, a few franchise-altering trades and a couple front-office shake-ups. To help us sort through all the madness of the last week and predict the remaining changes to come, we’ve brought on Keith Smith, who covers the NBA for Real GM and Fan Rag Sports, and has been presenting detailed analyses of each team’s offseason plans on his show, NBA Front Office. With Keith, we break down the ramifications of the blockbuster trades that sent Chris Paul to Houston and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, discuss the fallout of the Knicks and the Cavaliers severing ties with executives Phil Jackson and David Griffin, respectively, and, of course, try to forecast the eventual landing spots for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin, George Hill, Paul Millsap and all of the other high-profile free agents and likely movers this offseason.

7:03-7:30: “One of the things that’s really funny about the Blake Griffin question is you can see it going one of two ways. You can see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Forget it. We can’t replace CP3. I’m not gonna be able to win here now. I want to move on. I want to get out of here and go somewhere else.’ Or you could see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Finally, it’s my team. I have it to myself. I don’t have to deal with this guy yapping at me all the time, and we didn’t necessarily get along great.’ So that’s where it becomes really tricky.”

Dan Devine: Pelicans’ “Bully Ball” Could Take Toll on Warriors in Postseason (Trade Deadline Special)

February 23, 2017 / Loren Chen / 0 Comments

Alongside new addition DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis and the Pelicans hope to rise up the Western Conference standings and cause problems for the Warriors in the playoffs (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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Less than 24 hours before the NBA’s annual trade deadline, Yahoo! Sports NBA editor Dan Devine (Ball Don’t Lie) fits us into his busy schedule. Dan breaks down the league’s biggest trades to date (chief among them, this past weekend’s DeMarcus Cousins deal), hints at what may be on the horizon and touches upon the Clippers’ postseason prospects and two dark-horse contenders in the Rockets and Wizards. He even provides a glimpse into New Orleans cuisine. What a guy! What a show!

7:57-9:15: Dan explores how the DeMarcus Cousins acquisition will likely affect the Pelicans’ position in the race for the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed:

“Adding Boogie to the lineup, giving them that core three with Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, gives them, from a talent perspective, maybe the best core that you can offer in that group. It’s also worth remembering that New Orleans is three games back of Denver in the loss column right now, and they’ve got to leapfrog both Portland and Sacramento…They’ve got some work to do…and they’re going to have to integrate a gigantic piece with 25 games left in the season. Continue reading

Defense Propels 76ers Nine Spots (Power Rankings: Jan. 20, 2017 Edition)

January 20, 2017 / Joshua Fischman / 0 Comments

Coach Brett Brown and his Sixers are finally starting to see results, with wins in seven of their last nine games (TastyPoutine/Creative Commons).

With every team at or beyond the midpoint of its regular-season schedule, it could not be a better time to assess how each squad measures up. Some teams will be celebrating All-Star starter selections just named, while many others are confronting serious injuries. Amid this crazy time, the 76ers jumped nine slots, leaving the league’s cellar thanks to a mighty strong start to 2017. Meanwhile, the Charlotte Hornets, Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic have experienced the league’s steepest declines in recent weeks.

Biggest Jumps: Philadelphia 76ers (+9), Washington Wizards (+4), Detroit Pistons (+4), Denver Nuggets (+4)

Biggest Falls: Sacramento Kings (-8), Charlotte Hornets (-8), Orlando Magic (-7)
Continue reading

Kristaps Porzingis Transforms Into a New Yorker & A Cuban Odyssey With Adena Andrews

November 18, 2016 / Loren Chen / 0 Comments

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Freshly returned from Cuba, fellow Trojan Adena Andrews, who has written for ESPNW, NBA.com and CBS Sports, talks about the New York Knicks and her life-changing trip. Despite falling to the bottom-feeding Wizards (our interview was recorded before the game), the new-look Knicks have been showing signs of improvement. During the Knicks discussion, Adena addresses the team’s integration process given so many offseason changes, Kristaps Porzingis’ burgeoning New Yorkness and what the Zen Master brings to the organization, occasional controversy and all. Later, her enlightening journey to Cuba provides extraordinary insight into historical events and how they’ve shaped today’s Cuba. Adena also explains her newfound closeness with the foreign land and many of its people. Enjoy some excerpts below:

Knicks:

1:56-2:25: “I think I’m kind of like every other Knicks fan. We start the season and we’re like, ‘Oh yeah! We’re gonna win the chip! It’s gonna be ours!’ I think that’s what New Yorkers do best: we overreact. Especially because the Knicks are really good at getting great names and getting us excited. That’s where I’m at. I’m at the ‘Bring on the second round of the playoffs because we haven’t seen it in so long’ place.”

2:42-2:56: “It seems like every year we have a new unit, and that’s our excuse. It’s like ‘We’re in a building year. We’re in a building year.’ We’ve built enough buildings here to populate downtown Manhattan.”
Continue reading

Seth Rosenthal: Despite Knicks’ Struggles, Porzingis Has “Made Everything Worthwhile”

February 28, 2016 / Aaron Fischman / 0 Comments

No. 4 overall pick Kristaps Porzingis has adeptly handled his rookie season thus far (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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Following a brutal season the New York Knicks would much rather you forgot, the team jumped out to a solid 22-22 start this campaign. Unfortunately, the team subsequently experienced a bitter downturn in which it fired its second-year head coach Derek Fisher. And the struggles continue. On both sides of the ball, however, No. 4 overall pick Kristaps Porzingis has shown early signs of brilliance at a mere 20 years old. Plus, there are other promising developments, such as the continued improvement of Lance Thomas. To discuss these complex Knicks, Seth Rosenthal, SB Nation editor as well as the editor for SBN’s Knicks site Posting and Toasting, stopped by. Seth didn’t sugarcoat things, providing the good, the bad and the ugly. The highlights can be found below:

1:48 – 1:53 on the Knicks’ season:

“The worst thing that happened to them is that they started the year that strong, ’cause now they look so terrible in comparison.”

3:47 – 4:24 on Kristaps Porzingis:

“A lot of people assumed he would be a big, weak shooting big man kind of stiff, not a great defender…he’s been a very versatile scorer. If anything, his outside catch-and-shoot game is the weakest part of his scoring repertoire. He’s been a really solid defender…if he continues to grow…if he stays healthy, he’s going to have an extremely well-rounded game.”

6:23 – 7:14 on the precipitous decline of the Knicks after a promising start:

“On the court, it was palpable that the team wasn’t quite responding to (Fisher) the way they were before…The offense you have to play as a team, running the triangle, depends more so than other teams’ schemes do on brute effort. If the Knicks aren’t cutting…dribbling over screens, using their screens, and attacking the glass, that hampers them more than teams that are more open in their structure and more athletically gifted…Guys were starting to flag a little bit…Increasingly, within the team, (this) became attributed to Fisher.” Continue reading

Tag: Phil Jackson

Drafting and Dynasties With Pesquera, Ibañez-Baldor

Melissa Isaacson: Bulls’ Title Run Was a “Magical, Magical Time”

Keith Smith: Clippers Face “No-Win Situation,” Celtics Target Hayward

Dan Devine: Pelicans’ “Bully Ball” Could Take Toll on Warriors in Postseason (Trade Deadline Special)

Defense Propels 76ers Nine Spots (Power Rankings: Jan. 20, 2017 Edition)

Kristaps Porzingis Transforms Into a New Yorker & A Cuban Odyssey With Adena Andrews

Seth Rosenthal: Despite Knicks’ Struggles, Porzingis Has “Made Everything Worthwhile”

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