Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James have been linked their entire NBA careers – as top picks in the 2003 NBA draft, star small forwards and friends.
But they’re splitting paths for tonight’s Knicks-Cavaliers game.
Melo is obviously the big loss, but New York will also miss Kyle O'Quinn, a solid backup.
The Knicks (14-15) are probably overmatched against the Cavaliers (18-7) either way. But with a high effort level, New York at least has a chance, even without its star.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver likes the idea of 1-16 playoff seeding.
Could it finally happen this season?
The more people I talk to, the more people in the league think that it’s going to end up being a playoffs-only scenario. And to spice it up, this is something I think Adam Silver is going to bring to the table.
There have two major impediments to this plan in normal years:
It seems likely the season will resume at only Disney World. A single site eliminates the travel concerns.
At least five Eastern Conference owners would have to vote for this format change. They typically want to protect their playoff slots and easier path to the NBA Finals rather than mixing with often-better Western Conference teams.
But if only some teams resume, owners of the finished teams would would be incentivized to support whatever draws the most revenue. If only playoff teams return, that would increase the pool of owners who wouldn’t be voting by self interest.
It helps that the top eight teams in each conference have the league’s 16 best records. So no teams would gain or lose a playoff berth unless more regular-season games are played (or a play-in tournament is held).
This might be the year for a 1-16 format. Just don’t expect it to continue into normal years.
If it happens without any more regular-season games, here’s how the bracket would look:
It’s the lure of the New York market, that a coach would consider passing on coaching Giannis Antetokounmpo and a team on the rise in Milwaukee to take the job.
In the summer of 2018, Mike Budenholzer was out in Atlanta and the best established name on the coaching market. At the time, it was known Coach Bud was the top choice of the Knicks, but he was reportedly close to taking the job, according to Ian Begley at SNY.TV.
Discussions between the Knicks and Budenholzer in the 2018 offseason advanced to a point where some people who would have come with Budenholzer to New York were talking about places to live in the city because they felt Budenholzer was close to taking the job, per SNY sources…
One official from an opposing team involved in searches at the time confirmed that coaching the Knicks intrigued Budenholzer. “Bud was definitely interested,” the team official said recently.
Budenholzer, however, chose Milwaukee, which had Antetokounmpo and a roster that was talented but needed a more modern offensive style and more focus. Budenholzer brought that and the team won 60 games last season, and is a title contender this season (if and when the NBA season restarts).
The Knicks hired David Fizdale, who lasted less than a season and a half before being let go. New team president Leon Rose now has to hire a new coach, and that will say a lot about the direction he wants to take the team.
He’d be lucky to find someone as good as Budenholzer.
It was the highlight of an entertaining — if not always pretty — afternoon of live golf, raising money for charity.
Tampa Bay Bay Buccanneers quarterback Tom Brady (it’s so weird to type that) was on his fourth shot on the par-5 7th hole at the Medalist Golf Club. Brady had a rough front nine to that point, and commentator Charles Barkley decided to up the trash talk (as if Barkley should talk about someone else’s golf game).
“How many shots do you want? Come on, I’m going to give you some shots man, I want some of you,” Barkley said.
“Don’t worry, it ain’t over yet,” Brady countered as he walked up to his fourth shot, 130 yards from the pin. “I think you just made him mad, Chuck,” host Brian Anderson said. “No, he can take a joke,” Barkley replied. Then this happened.
.@TomBrady got tired of Chuck's trash talking ⛳️🤣#CapitalOnesTheMatch pic.twitter.com/h6fiVKC7EU
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 24, 2020
Brady earned that trash talk.
It wasn’t the only great exchange between the two; they had some fun on an earlier on a par 3 when Barkley bet Brady couldn’t get it on the green.
Hilarious exchange between Charles and Brady
Charles bet Brady $50,000 to keep it on the green.
Charles: "You know Tom, I should've just said if you can keep it on the planet."
Brady: "When does football season starts? I'm ready.."pic.twitter.com/srCsxbdbHW
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 24, 2020
The Golden State Warriors have been public about it, they expect their season to be over. Golden State is far from alone, multiple teams well out of the playoff picture have questioned the expense and risk-to-reward ratio of coming back to play a handful of regular season games without fans in Orlando.
More and more, the buzz has been the NBA league office sees things the same way. I am not the only reporter hearing this: Steve Popper of Newsday wrote a column saying there was no reason to invite all 30 teams to the bubble city and the USA Today’s well-connected Jeff Zillgett added this:
The NBA will continue to say many ideas are on the table but I have heard rumblings of this idea: if play resumes with regular-season games, teams without a chance of making the playoffs wouldn’t be invited. https://t.co/TkySFKiTBu
— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) May 24, 2020
This is where we throw in the caveat: There are no hard-and-fast plans from the NBA yet and every option is still being considered. One lesson Adam Silver took from David Stern was not to make a decision until you have to, and Silver is going to absorb more information in the coming weeks — such as from the recent GM survey — before making his call.
That said, the league seems to be coalescing around a general plan, which includes camps starting in mid-June and games in mid-July in Orlando.
For the bottom three to five teams in each conference, there is little motivation to head to Orlando for the bubble. It’s an expense to the owner with no gate revenue coming in, teams want to protect their NBA Draft Lottery status, and the Warriors don’t want to risk injury to Stephen Curry — or the Timberwolves to Karl-Anthony Towns, or the Hawks to Trae Young — for a handful of meaningless games.
The league is considering a play-in tournament for the final seed or seeds in each conference (there are a few format options on the table, it was part of the GM survey). That would bring the top 10 or 12 seeds from each conference to the bubble, depending upon the format, and they would play a handful of games to determine which teams are in the playoffs (and face the top seeds).
Either way, that would leave the three or five teams with the worst records in each conference home. Which is the smart thing to do, there’s no reason to add risk to the bubble for a handful of meaningless games.