DEN CEO and assumed heir-apparent to ownership, says he now looks less crazy than the alternative times he could have fired them:
“Oh, also sorry for firing you both even though you didn’t deserve it.”
Kroenke began his nearly 30-minute news conference, his first since the firings, by praising Malone and Booth: “I want to start off by initially just staying thank you to both Calvin and Coach Malone … And to be frank, neither one of them deserved it, so for that I apologize.”
Denver beat everyone to Black Monday, which this year snares Mike Budenholzer [Phoenix] after one year … which matches what Frank Vogel got … which also matches what Igor Kokosov got, and is 3 more games than what Jay Tirano got - but 36 games less than what Earl Watson got [across 3 seasons], and 3 years less than what Monty Williams got.
It’s Phoenix, though. If ever they stumble across stable ownership, they’ll probably be fine.
Trae Young got tossed for making a mockery of the game, and allegedly he was upset about fouls not being called on Orlando. [The Magic were whistled for 25, the Hawks for 18.] The real mockery was the Hawks letting Orlando shoot for just over 48% in the game and forcing a 2nd game to get in vs. the Miami-Chicago winner.
Oh, and Steph Curry did Steph Curry things to finally get Golden State though the play-in round and off to go play Houston to start. Memphis awaits the Dallas-Sacramento winner for a chance to go play 68-win Oklahoma City.
They could changes the points per basket from 2 / 3 / 1 to 2.34 / 3.51 / 1.17 to remain scoring neutral.
I’m expecting OKC to represent the West. they have just been too good and too deep. The only thing that might trip them up is playoff inexperiance.
But I wouldn’t be too surprised if any of Denver, either LA team, or the Warriors upset them and represent the West.
I’d be shocked if Houston, Minnesota, or the whichever of the 3 remaining teams gets seeded 8 represents the West.
These play-in games are so compelling… 
I know it would never happen because they love the extra revenue, but I feel like a team should at least have to win half their games to qualify for the post-season. It’s not like the NFL where a team could win their division (an accomplishment) at 8-9. The Heat went into last night after a 37-45 regular season., and could theoretically win the NBA Championship and end the season (playoffs included) with more losses than wins (win the next play-in game, then every playoff series 4-3). Doesn’t seem right…
Sure, it could happen - the NHL had a Stanley Cup champion in 1938 that finished the season, regular season and playoffs combined, at 21-28-9 - but that generally means going through top teams the whole way. Relative to the NBA: if you’re a 60, 62, 65, 68 win team and lose a 7-game series to someone who finished under .500, that’s not a “wow, they shouldn’t have let a sub-.500 team get into the playoffs” problem. That’s a “you gakked up on the court for 4 losses” problem.
I’d say in a league with 6 of the 8 teams making the playoffs, such as the 1938 NHL, it’s gonna happen sometime. As a lad, I remember the NHL having 16 playoff teams from a 21-team league.
The NBA is now allowing 20 of the 30 teams to “have a chance” at winning the title. It attempts thwart the incentive for tanking, which in theory should produce more competitive games near the end of the season.
But overall, there are way too many playoff teams from a competitive standpoint. Why play such a long regular season if it doesn’t really matter? (besides $$$)
Is there anything thing else required?
Damn those teh analytics, helping teams win and ruining the game!
The Wolves did not look confused game 1.
My vote for MVP is Donovan Mitchell. He has been great a long time. Getting one seed in Cleveland THIS year is remarkable. The other players are good. He makes them better. He always makes his supporting cast better. They get paid more because of him. Not many guys do that. And,he has excelled in Utah and Cleveland. As a Celts fan, looking forward to his matchup with Jaylon Brown. Those 2 can be centerpiece of my team any day.
Ime is a solid coach and will be for next gen.
Mitchell is good for sure and I realize he’s your pick and you know he won’t win because he’s not one of the 3 finalist. But even if the top 3 wasn’t revealed I’m not sure how SGA isn’t the MVP as he was the best player on a team that made history with the best point differential ever.
Though you can also make a case for Jokic again because with him on the floor and off it Denver is a totally different team, and not in a good way.
Jokic is best player in league and Denver might not be playoff team without him. As a team, they under achieved. I do think Mitchell is more important to Cleveland than SGA to OKC. He definitely had a great season. I would have voted for him last year. Mitchell won’t even make first team AllPro since dribble for 20 secs Luka will grab second backcourt spot.
Heat, after Game 3: “It can’t get any worse than this.”
Game 4: it got much worse.
I did not have “Buddy Hield saves Warriors season” on my NBA bingo card.
Officals miss blatant lane violations in Pacers comeback. The only surprise here is that referees would ever call it, because there’s at least a dozen times a game where the FT shooter goes into his shooting motion but clearly has the ball and at least two players are already in the lane - so why would they bother to start calling it late in the game?
Knicks 2 straight 20 point comebacks at the Garden. Impressive.