The Warriors knocked off the Spurs today to knot their series back up, 2-2. And they did it with Steph Curry on a balky ankle. Tomorrow night, the Thunder and Bulls will try to even up their series as well. If you know who’s going to win each of these series, you could probably make a fortune. The NBA future is about as unclear as it ever gets right about now.
For a couple teams, though, the future is getting a little clearer. Or at least the major players in that future. In today’s blog, we’ve got news on two NBA teams making up their minds on who will be their GM heading into the offseason. Before we start that, though, check out our Euroleague final report for a heads-up on what’s going on across the pond.
Now here’s all the latest news and rumors from around the NBA.
- There’s a new boss in Philly: former Rockets assistant GM Sam Hinkie. John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer tells us a little about him: “One thing I’ve learned about Hinkie in the last 48 hours is that he’s not just all about crunching numbers. Yes, he’s big on ascribing value to shots taken at the basket vs. long two-pointers that should be threes, but perhaps there is more here. In three conversations with people in Houston who have worked with him and watched him work, the common thread is that while Hinkie and former boss Daryl Morey, the Houston general manager, have hired a slew of MIT MBAs to analyze everything, Hinkie is a relentless worker who will “scout talent as much as anyone in the league.” Hinkie joined the Rockets in 2005, two years before Morey did. During that time, the Rockets more than doubled their scouting department – not including advance scouts – to six.”
The Grizzlies are playing their style of basketball, and it’s been troubling the Thunder quite a bit so far. But Lionel Hollins is being modest about it, reports Jeff Caplan of NBA.com: ‘The reality of All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook – Allen’s more natural counterpart –being shelved is in full effect and it’s not pretty. The Grizzlies are doing all they can to grit-and-grind their way to making life as uncomfortable as possible for Durant, forcing his teammates to step up, and especially late in these games, each of which have been up for grabs in the final three minutes. “I’ve said it before, when a guy has the ball and has to score like that it takes energy, and the more you make him work, that’s the best you can do,” Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. “You can’t stop Kevin Durant, he’s a great player, but he played 45, 46 minutes and he’s asked to carry a huge load for them. As the game goes on other people for them, they start taking the load away from him a little bit, but I don’t think that we can stop him. I’m not attributing it to us.” “
