NBA 2023-24 Season Thread - Page 51 - Sporting Events and Fantasy Sports

The best part of Rivers taking the Milwaukee gig is that I won't have to listen to him on ESPN/ABC anymore. To my ear, the Breen, Burke, Rivers triad was devoid of chemistry and entertaining humor.

Rivers comparing Tatum to Magic Johnson on Christmas Day didn't help, either. I knew Magic Johnson; Magic Johnson was an enemy of mine; Jayson Tatum is no Magic Johnson.

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01-25-2024 , 12:41 PM

#1252

nucularburro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Onlydo2days

Really?

Can't imagine Doc could land in a better spot than this. C'mon, the Bucks are still 1 of the best teams in the NBA.

Hiring Doc is just lol.

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01-25-2024 , 02:42 PM

#1253

LFC_USA

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Originally Posted by nucularburro

Hiring Doc is just lol.

Nate McMillan wasn’t available?

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01-25-2024 , 02:58 PM

#1254

Chilltown

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They shouldn't have given multiple years to Doc.

1 and we will see would have been best.

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01-25-2024 , 06:19 PM

#1255

tarheels2222

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Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw they signed him through 26-27 for $40 mil total. But I guess Doc had all of the leverage.

Bucks are now paying 3 head coaches at once.

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01-25-2024 , 06:25 PM

#1256

King~of~Diamonds

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You couldnt fire Griffin 40 games in and hire a white guy. That’s for sure

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01-25-2024 , 06:26 PM

#1257

King~of~Diamonds

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Originally Posted by tarheels2222

Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw they signed him through 26-27 for $40 mil total. But I guess Doc had all of the leverage.

Bucks are now paying 3 head coaches at once.

You cant expect Doc to rot on TV while a terrible coach like Monty Williams is making 8 figures a year. That contract changed everything

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01-25-2024 , 06:49 PM

#1258

candybar

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Quote:

Originally Posted by candybar

With that said, my suspicion is that Doc Rivers is a power-hungry scoundrel who's primarily concerned with himself. If you look at the major moves he made as GM - on the whole, one of the worst GM jobs anyone's ever done - most of them seem to be about putting people with whom he has personal connections in the locker room to make it difficult for players to criticize him. Even aside from trading for his own son and giving him an unconscionable contract, he also gave a 38-year old Paul Pierce a 3-year contract, signed Brandon Bass for no discernable basketball reason and traded a first-round pick for a half-season rental of Jeff Green. Then, worst of all, he traded away Chris Paul, largely because Chris Paul dared to raise questions about Doc's own nepotism.

On the whole, he inherited one of the best rosters in all of basketball, pissed off the team's best player and eventually traded him, gave a huge contract to his own son, who was roughly a replacement player and brought in other cronies to ensure he doesn't have to deal with dissent. People have praised him for overachieving with a bad roster, but that bad roster was entirely of his own making.

Since this is already a slander piece, let's also speculate on how Doc Rivers became the GM in the first place - the team at the time effectively had no owner because of the Donald Sterling scandal and Doc at the time was praised for his leadership in light of this scandal (unclear if he really did anything meaningful though, much of this seemed to be about him being a prominent Black person employed by a confirmed anti-Black racist) and had a fair amount of political capital both within the team and with the public. So what did he spend that capital on? Did he fight racism? Did he empower other victims of racism? No, he somehow manipulated the situation, using the power vacuum and the political capital to demote the current GM (who not only hired Doc, but gave him a more "senior" position than his own initially to soothe Doc's ego) and take his place, then abused the powers to enrich his own family.

I wrote this about Doc a while back and it sounds like Doc once again staged a coup (as he's done before to become the GM). He had been hired as an advisor a month or so ago and given his history, is probably one of the main reasons why the players suddenly lost faith in Adrian Griffin.

https://theathletic.com/5222650/2024...hy-doc-rivers/

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League sources say Doc Rivers, who is an ESPN analyst after getting fired by the Philadelphia 76ers last May, began to serve as an informal consultant to Griffin at the behest of the Bucks. One month later, multiple sources briefed on the matter now indicate that Rivers is the serious leader for the now-vacant position and the preferred choice of key stakeholders.

At this point I almost admire him for his unbelievable political skills. The man keeps delivering.

Edit: Also, let's not forget Doc's connections in the media being able to shape narratives to his benefit:

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Originally Posted by candybar

Speaking of narratives, does anyone else find it suspicious that Ben Simmons, the 2nd best player on his team, gets this much blame in the media for the team losing a close series? The exact same thing happened to Paul George last year. And neither player played that terribly in the series on the whole, though both had memeable moments. Maybe it's a pure coincidence but it almost feels like Doc has friends in the media that are trying to push a specific narrative.

Last edited by candybar; 01-25-2024 at 06:58 PM.

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01-25-2024 , 06:50 PM

#1259

tarheels2222

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Originally Posted by King~of~Diamonds

You cant expect Doc to rot on TV while a terrible coach like Monty Williams is making 8 figures a year. That contract changed everything

That Monty contract was something.

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01-25-2024 , 07:12 PM

#1260

72off

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yeah you're not gonna get a coach with the stature of doc on a 1-year deal, especially when he has a high-paying announcing gig

and wait ... are these guys allowed to announce and have adviser/consultant jobs with teams at the same time? a tenuous conflict of interest, but still ... kind of weird. i would have expected there'd be a line there, just to be safe

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Originally Posted by tarheels2222

Bucks are now paying 3 head coaches at once.

lol. pretty weird for a team that's been very good for 6 straight seasons

chelski basketball club type stuff

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Originally Posted by candybar

he really does seem to have the rizz huh, a real game of zones champ. impressive

but also the adviser thing is a 2-way street. guessing they only bring him in because they're waffling on griffin to begin with, and then maybe once he's in he can start working ppl, convincing them that defense is the problem, that it's griffin's fault, and that he can fix it etc

did they give reasons for the change beyond that? i saw something about how giannis supposedly like griffin and wasn't angling for a change ... but then again it's pretty rare for a star to come out and say yeah i hated that dude and i'm glad he's gone. maybe lets blame dame, it rhymes and everything

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01-25-2024 , 07:16 PM

#1261

muttiah

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Can't wait for Giannis to call for Doc's head after getting dropped in the second round. And Doc to throw Dame under the bus for sure.

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01-25-2024 , 07:24 PM

#1262

rickroll

oddly catty

Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 23,003

candybar!!!!!!!!!!!!! how are you mang? haven't seen you around these parts in ages RIP BFI

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01-25-2024 , 08:31 PM

#1263

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All-Star Staters:

East Frontcourt: Embiid, Giannis, Tatum
East Backcourt: Haliburton, Dame

West Frontcourt: Lebron, Joker, KD
West Backcourt: Luka, SGA

Only questionable pick is Dame, but it's popularity as always

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01-25-2024 , 08:31 PM

#1264

All-inMcLovin

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Brunson should be starting.

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01-25-2024 , 09:45 PM

#1265

Hellmuth was right

Pooh-Bah

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Quote:

Originally Posted by RT

Lebron over AD is pretty questionable if you ask me

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01-25-2024 , 10:14 PM

#1266

Chilltown

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As long as Lebron is playing then he should be a starter on the all star team.

Wizards Jordan was a starter!

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01-25-2024 , 10:43 PM

#1267

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Siakam triple double. Such a good fit even without Haliburton

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01-25-2024 , 10:55 PM

#1268

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Originally Posted by All-inMcLovin

Brunson should be starting.

He should have. Fans ****ed him

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01-25-2024 , 11:10 PM

#1269

72off

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it's FANtastic!

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01-26-2024 , 01:15 AM

#1270

702guy

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serious question from non-NBA regular...the Nuggets roster of 2023-24 is:

- Jokic
- Murray
- Garbage

Is that correct?

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01-26-2024 , 01:40 AM

#1271

All-inMcLovin

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Quote:

Originally Posted by 702guy

serious question from non-NBA regular...the Nuggets roster of 2023-24 is:

- Jokic
- Murray
- Garbage

Is that correct?

They also can’t really make big comebacks because they don’t shoot well from 3.

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01-26-2024 , 03:55 AM

#1272

monikrazy

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Originally Posted by muttiah

Can't wait for Giannis to call for Doc's head after getting dropped in the second round. And Doc to throw Dame under the bus for sure.

Yup. It's super-lol that Bucks went with Doc, his recent playoff track record is horrific.

The main reason the Sixers didn't fire him sooner was the owners were cheap. Amazingly, he will have similar leverage over the Bucks owners. He also has a built in excuse for any play-off failure this year.

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01-26-2024 , 04:23 AM

#1273

All-inMcLovin

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Knicks are going all the way. 11-2 since OG trade and gave the Nuggets their worst beatdown of the last 2 seasons. OG had 26 pts on 10-18 FG with 6 (!!!) steals.