Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on June 14, 2025, 11:25:13 AMThere's rumors that piss me off. Talking trading KAT, along with either OG or Robinson, and next available 1st rd draft pick for the oft-injured aged Kevin Durant. That is exactly the moronic kind of crap that put the Knicks in a three-decade hole and no way out...trading the young farm of up-n-comers for one over-the-hill aging star (KD is 36 [KAT 7 yrs younger with nearly identical stats] and looking for a 4-5 year contract). That kind of trade has Dolan written all over it, and the kind of idea that Thibs would scoff at, which might be why he's gone. And KD is an offensive juggernaut, and not exactly a defensive wunderkind

If that happens, I will stop watching the Knicks     

It took a wildly savvy GM and HC to build this team over the past 5 years, and the team is young and not even close to reaching their potential. I pray they don't flush all the good for one old guy who gets traded more often than baseball cards in second grade (well, that was common in the 50's and 50s)

Totally agree. Trading for KD would be absolutely brutal.

If they do that, they're fools.

Brunson's words on Thibs:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/jalen-brunson-gets-brutally-honest-171901331.html

One thing nobody has mentioned here that I think is highly relevant for this thread is the fact that Thibs, right before he was fired, was one of the NBA's longest tenured coaches. To my knowledge, only two (Kerr and Spoelstra) have been the head coach of their team for more than 5 years. Both of those guys have multiple championships. I'm not counting Pop because he announced his retirement before Thibs was fired. So only two were there longer than Thibs and Thibs has never been in an NBA final as a head coach let alone won one.

A small handful are/were tied with Thibs at 5 years, but the point is, 5 years is now a long time in today's NBA. Like it or not, players kind of run the sport now. There has been massive player empowerment in the NBA that you don't have nearly as much as in other sports. If one or two stars on a team decide they don't like the coach, the coach is gone. Has happened numerous times.

Obviously I'm not saying this is good (I don't think it is), but that's the reality. Thibs is a common example in the league. You don't see Popovich/Jerry Sloan type tenures much anymore. Stars move around from team to team way more now, and new players who have clout decide they don't want the coach around anymore. They make insane amounts of money and are simply seen to be in a position to be able to call those kinds of shots. You get two very good players who decide they don't like their coach anymore and it's sayonara. Even one player can make it happen.

I'm sure folks here don't like that. I don't like it either, but I'm very aware of its existence. We can yearn for the NBA the way it used to be in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but it's not. Not even close. And it's not going back to that either.