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I am publishing a poll.
I have already cast the first vote.
Based upon what I am hearing from my sources, I think Phil Jackson is going to be the next coach of the Brooklyn Nets — provided Mikhail Prokhorov ponies up money-wise. If you want to believe in the Kelvin Sampson shenanigans, go ahead.
Sampson is a choice …. but not mine.
Doc Rivers is one of the top choices — of not the top choice — to become the next coach of Team USA. This is a subject that was speculated upon in the immediate aftermath of Team USA’s gold medal triumph in London, and there is reason to believe it is closer to becoming a reality.
Why?
Take a look at the transcript below from Colangelo’s recent interview on SheridanHoopsRadio.
When the subject of who would replace Mike Krzyzewski was raised, Colangelo threw Rivers’ name out there without any prompting. (And while he was at it, he flat-out rejected the notion of Russia’s head coach, David Blatt, an Israeli-American who played collegiately at Princeton, coming under consideration for the job.
The next Team USA coach will lead the team in the summer of 2014 at the World Cup (formerly known as the World Championship) in Spain.
Here is the transcript:
CS: The word came from London that Coach K said that this was going to be it for him and if that is indeed the case, he’s going to go out with 50 wins in his last 50 games, and that’s a heck of an accomplishment. I know you want to change his mind. I know you guys are supposed to get together for a bottle of red wine and a pizza. Has that happened yet?
Welcome to the first broadcast of SheridanHoops Radio, which will be broadcast daily (except on weekends) throughout the 2012-13 NBA season.
Our first show features Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo, coach Mike Krzyzyewski and chief scout Tony Ronzone.
My co-host is Andy Roth.
Enjoy.
Coming off their gold medal victory at the London Olympics, these guys had an awful lot to say about the past, present and future of USA Basketball.
So we’re all getting a reminder of how things are really day-to-day in the Olympics, eh?
A couple days ago, Carmelo Anthony had the new U.S. Olympics scoring record (37) and Team USA was considered unbeatable after they out Dream Teamed the original Dream Team and beat Nigeria by 83.
Then we get through Day 4 of the competition, and the world has turned upside down. The single highest-scoring game now belongs to Patty Mills of Australia, who dropped 39 on Great Britain as the Boomers came back from an 10-point halftime deficit to defeat Great Britain.
Oh, and Team USA?
Not looking quite so unbeatable anymore, I’d say. When those 3-pointers don’t fall, when the defense gets its share of turnovers but can’t get stops at other times, when the rim is unprotected with Tyson Chandler (8 minutes vs. Lithuania) on the bench, the U.S. team is a structurally flawed team. There’s no getting around that fact.
One week from today, we’ll have our gold medal game.
And right now, it looks like Team USA will go up against Australia in the quarterfinals, Argentina, Spain or Brazil in the semifinals, and Russia, France, Spain or Brazil in the gold medal game (assuming they get there).
But the unexpected can happen, and Monday could be the day the tanks roll in and change everything.
So …
Before Monday’s games get underway, let’s ask 5 pertinent questions about the 2012 Olympics:
1. IS IT A CERTAINTY THAT USA AND RUSSIA WILL WIN THEIR GROUPS?
No. But it is highly probable. In Group A, the Americans will finish first even if they lose to Argentina — unless they lose by at least 110 points. The FIBA tiebreaker is point differential, and Team USA is +162 through four games. In Group B, the Russians are undefeated with one game remaining, against Australia. The line on that game is only 7, and you know why? Because Russia’s clever coach, David Blatt, could decide to become the first Israeli-American to send in the Russian tanks. And if Russia loses to Australia in Monday’s first game (3 a.m. EDT), the night’s penultimate game, Brazil-Spain, becomes a must-win game instead of a must-lose game.
2. WHY WOULD BRAZIL-SPAIN BE A MUST-LOSE GAME?
Simple. Because the loser (assuming Russia defeats Australia) goes into the bracket opposite Team USA’s bracket and would not have to face LeBron James’ team until the gold medal game. If you want to know how important it is to be on the other side of the bracket, ask Italy. In 2004, they defeated Lithuania in the semifinals and played Argentina for the gold because Argentina put on a clinic in defeating Team Marbury in the other semifinal. Italy has fallen off the basketball map since then, but they still have that silver-medal finish in 2004 in their national resume.
3. WHO POSES THE GREATEST THREAT TO TEAM USA?
The team that has been lulling everyone to sleep, or just plain sucking-but-mostly-winning — Brazil. They have the world’s best non-NBA point guard in Marcelinho Huertas, who leads the tournament with 6.3 assists (tied for 1st, actually, with Alexei Shved of Russia), they have 3-point shooters, and they have a beastly NBA front line of three NBA players — Anderson Varejao, Nene and Tiago Splitter — who can punish the Americans on the boards like no one else. In case you didn’t notice, the Americans were outrebounded (42-37 overall, and 36-24 on the defensive boards) for the first time in this tournament Saturday by Lithuania, which played small ball and used Jonas Valanciunas for a mere 9 minutes. Brazil also has a brilliant coach in Ruben Magnano, who is Argentine but is coaching Argentina’s greatest rival because of a fallout a few years back with the Argentine federation.
4. AMONG NON-NBA PLAYERS, WHO IS HAVING THE BEST TOURNAMENT?
Tough call, but the nod at this point goes to Russia’s 6-foot-5 shooting guard, Vitaly Frizdon, who scored 24 against Spain as Russia rallied from a 20-2 deficit to win Saturday, and who hit the buzzer-beating game-winner against Brazil in the tournament’s most thrilling finish to date. Frizdon plays for Khimki Moscow, where last year he was teammates with e-NBA players Chris Quinn, Sergei Monia, Zoran Plananic, Mickael Gelabele and Australia’s Matt Nielsen, who is a borderline NBA-worthy player. Khimki won the EuroCup (a notch below the Euroleague) last season. Honorable mention goes to Ike Diogu of Nigeria, who was out of the NBA last season and played in China. He is averaging 17.0 ppg, 10th best in the Olympics.
5. WHO ELSE IS OFF THE CHARTS STATISTICALLY?
Let’s start with Nicolas Batum, who is shooting an otherworldly 84.4 percent from 2-point range (he is 6-for-17 on 3s) and scoring 15.2 points per game for France, which will finish second in Group A unless Argentina defeats Team USA. Luis Scola and Patty Mills are tied for the scoring lead at 22.5 points per game, and Carmelo Anthony is fourth at 20.5 despite playing only 16.8 minutes per game. ‘Melo’s 64.4 field goal percentage leads all players, with Andrei Kirilenko (60.9), Batum (60 pct), Luis Scola (.576) and Pau Gasol (.564) giving chase. ‘Melo also leads the tournament in 3-point percentage (.636, 14-for-22).
(RELATED CONTENT: Roundup of Saturday’s games)
(RELATED CONTENT: The Lithuanian Tavern: Diary of the Uncredentialed, Edition V)
(RELATED CONTENT: Video: Lessons learned vs. Lithuania; Argentina preview)
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. He has covered every version of Team USA since 1996, at the Olympics in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing, as well as the World Championships in Indianapolis, Japan and Turkey. Follow him on Twitter.
I do not usually write our blog, leaving that task in the capable hands of our bloggers, Jim Park and Dan Malone.
But I also do not usually watch the Olympics on TV, especially not on NBC. I haven’t been on by sofa watching the Olympics since 1992, and back then I believe my sofa might have been a futon. But here I am back in New York after ditching the idea of going to London as uncredentialed media in the hope of becoming credentialed (chronicled in detail here, in Diary of the Uncredentialed, Edition IV), and I am stuck with NBC like the rest of you in America.
It is afternoon here, the commercials are making me angry, and so I am out on the porch doing today’s blog because Verizon has been ducking Park for three days now with his Internet down, and we needed a bench guy.
So let’s have a look around the Web, a broader look than usual, and see what’s up:
Matt Barnes mug shot from Manhattan Beach, Calif. PD
From TMZ.com: The police officer who arrested ex-LA Lakers star Matt Barnes waited in an alley for 2 hours … waited for Barnes to exit a restaurant, and then charged the b-baller with felony resisting arrest – even though Barnes never got physically violent … Barnes had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to appear on a ticket for driving on a suspended license. Sources say Barnes had gone to the DMV, gotten his license reinstated, and mistakenly believed he no longer had to go to court to clear the ticket. Now here’s where it gets strange. Our law enforcement sources say the arresting officer KNEW Barnes had an outstanding warrant as he watched the NBA forward and his baby mama park their car in a lot Monday night — and walk a block-and-a-half to MB Post, a popular restaurant in Manhattan Beach, CA — yet the cop did not approach the hoopster. Instead the officer waited in an alley near the car” for 2 hours before pouncing. We’re told Barnes already had one hand behind his back as he attempted to hand his gf (sic) the keys with his other hand so she could drive home. Sources say the cop grabbed the hand with the keys and the Lakers champ pulled away. The cop then immediately informed Barnes he would be charged with resisting arrest.
Russia coach David Blatt.
Coach Mike) Krzyzewski canceled practice Friday, in part so that the players could get one last opportunity to see some of their athletic brethren in events. Kobe Bryant took in Roger Federer’s tennis match at Wimbledon, while many other players were planning to see Michael Phelps’ last swim meet in Olympic competition Friday night.
From Gery Woeffel of the Racine-Journal-Times: The Bucks are also in talks with unrestricted free-agent center Joel Przybilla, yet another excellent defender who played last season for the Portland Trail Blazers. According to some individuals close to negotiations, the Bucks are clearly the front-runners for his services. The Bucks haven’t been nearly as aggressive in their pursuit of a wing player, though. They did draft Doron Lamb, a shooting guard from Kentucky in the second round. While Lamb is definitely an intriguing prospect, as he exhibited in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, he doesn’t appear ready for major minutes. What’s more, he doesn’t have the size the Bucks are looking for at the wing spot. That has led Bucks officials to explore the possibility of trading for a wing player or signing one in free agency. While they have plenty of time to pull off a trade before training camp by using one of their power forwards as bait, they have been checking out the free-agent market. While the top-shelf wings have already signed with other teams, there are still some solid veterans available. One of them is Mickael Pietrus, who played last season with Boston. … Bill McCandless, Pietrus’ agent, said his client is drawing consideration from several teams. McCandless confirmed he and Bucks general manager John Hammond have had exploratory talks. “We talked about 10 to 14 days ago,” McCandless said. “We’re waiting to see what happens. Mickael would be interested in playing for Milwaukee, absolutely.”
