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76ers coaching search: Philadelphia looking at Kelvin Sampson, Chris Finch

2013-05-21T14:38:59Z

New Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie is apparently looking at some of his former Rockets cohorts to be the head coach of his new squad, as Liberty Ballers writes that Hinkie is looking at Houston assistants Kelvin Sampson and Chris Finch to take the open position.

Hinkie's hiring already suggests a new offensive philosophy for the team, and his coaching search appears likely to follow in the same footsteps. As Daryl Morey's top assistant since 2010, Hinkie has had association with both promising coaching prospects and apparently feels they'll be helpful in implementing his analytics-based system.

More: Liberty Ballers, for Sixers fans Liberty Ballers on Hinkie and analytics and on the Sixers finally having a plan

Sampson, 57, had oodles of success as an NCAA head coach, making the NCAA Tournament all but one year between 1994 and 2007 in jobs at Washington State, Oklahoma, and Indiana, making the Final Four and Elite Eight with the Sooners. But sanctions placed on him after NCAA violations in the recruiting of Eric Gordon led to him becoming a toxic name at the college level and forcing teams to pass a show-cause in order to hire him. He's since been a well-regarded NBA assistant, taking jobs with the Spurs and Bucks and working with Hinkie in Houston since 2011.

Finch, 43, started by performing well overseas and then brought his acumen back home. After a brief European playing career, he took coaching jobs in Britain, Germany and Belgium before taking a job as head coach of the Rockets' D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, in 2009. The team would win the D-League Finals in his first year in charge before losing in the finals his second year, at which point the Rockets decided the young coach could learn from his first experience on the NBA sidelines, serving as a top-level assistant the past two seasons. He's also served as the head coach of the British national team, manning the sidelines during the 2012 London Olympics.

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What 2013 NBA Mock Drafts look like before the lottery

2013-05-21T14:30:04Z

We're less than 12 hours away from knowing who will have the first pick in the 2013 NBA Draft -- fingers crossed, Orlando -- but we're already pretty certain who that first pick will be. In a relatively weak draft, pretty much everybody agrees that Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel, despite an ACL tear that ended his lone season in college, will be chosen first.

The high-topped 6'10 power forward didn't take long to show himself as an athletic freak. He averaged 10.5 points and 9.5 rebounds, but most scarily, 4.4 blocks, just a shade off the numbers that earned one-and-done Kentucky big man predecessor Anthony Davis the first pick in last year's draft. Although Noel's injury kept him out of the NBA Draft Combine and could keep him out of games through the start of 2013-2014, scouts seem to agree he's the top option.

Here's a look at the top pick in a smattering of mock drafts, most of which don't account for team need:

SB Nation: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

Draft Express: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

Sports Illustrated: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

CBS Sports: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

ESPN: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

NBADraft.net: Ben McLemore, Kansas

Here's a look at who else is listed in the various top fives:

Ben McLemore, Kansas (one No. 1, four No. 2s, one No. 4)
Anthony Bennett, UNLV (three No. 3s, three times not in top 5)
Otto Porter, Georgetown (one No. 3, one No. 4, one no. 5, three times not in top 5)
Alex Len, Maryland (one No. 2, two No. 5s, three times not in top 5)
Victor Oladipo, Indiana (one No. 3, two No. 4s, three times not in top 5)
Trey Burke, Michigan (one No. 4, three No. 5s, two times not in top 5)
Cody Zeller, Indiana (one No. 4, five times not in top 5)

The general consensus -- as you can tell from the amount of players with wide variance -- is that it's an open draft. Noel and McLemore seem the only locks to be top three picks, while everybody else is clustered with the potential to go almost anywhere.

More from SB Nation:

• Can Nerlens Noel play in the middle? | More combine coverage

• How the Spurs confused the Grizzlies

Stan Van Gundy says he will not coach in 2013-14

2013-05-21T14:03:01Z

Stan Van Gundy and his mock turtlenecks won't return to the NBA sidelines next season, as the coach told an Orlando radio station that he would not accept a head coaching gig despite the overtures of several teams.

Six NBA coaches have been fired, five openings have not yet been filled, and more are likely to come. Van Gundy's name has been on several short-lists, with the Hawks and the Bucks both rumored to have the 53-year-old in their sights. But Van Gundy confirms that he won't be taking those jobs, or any others, per David Baumann of Sports Talk Florida.

"As you get down the road more and the longer you are out, the harder it is to get back in and that was certainly a difficult part of the decision process for me because it’s certainly something that I miss and don’t want to close the door on for the rest of my life, but, it is not right now anyway, in the best interest of my family, so it won’t be next year."

The older of the two Van Gundy brothers, Stan says that although several teams have contacted him, he has not interviewed with any and won't this offseason. However, he is interested in returning to coaching, just not right now.

Van Gundy has been out of coaching since the end of the 2011-12 season. He's had success at both of his NBA stops, turning a Miami Heat squad with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade into a title contender, then turning the Magic into an elite squad around Howard.

But both stints have met contentious ends: in Miami, many viewed his resignation as a move forced by Pat Riley, who unretired months before the team won its 2006 NBA Finals. And in Orlando, Van Gundy's departure was part of an overhaul made by the squad in hopes of retaining Dwight Howard, who eventually forced his way into a trade in the 2012 offseason.

More from SB Nation:

• Can Nerlens Noel play in the middle? | More combine coverage

Jim Boeheim rips Knicks not named Carmelo Anthony

2013-05-21T13:42:20Z

Jim Boeheim is still a fan of Carmelo Anthony, but the Syracuse head coach isn't exactly too fond of Anthony's teammates or surprised that the New York Knicks didn't get very far in the NBA Playoffs despite his former star at the helm.

Whether of his own accord, Mike Woodson's game plan or the Indiana Pacers' stifling defense, Anthony ended up with the ball over and over and over and over again in the Knicks' six-game Eastern Conference Semifinals defeat. Sometimes it worked to the tune of 39 points in the decisive Game 6. Sometimes it didn't -- Anthony scored 54 points on 53 shots the two games beforehand. All things told, Melo averaged 28.8 points per game, over twice as much as the next-closest player on the team, but he needed a playoffs-high 25.8 shot attempts per game to do so.

Visit: Posting and Toasting, for Knicks fans Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, for Syracuse fans

In Boeheim's eyes, the fault rests not with the guy who got him the 2003 NCAA Championship, but rather the rest of the team. He eviscerated nearly every other player in orange and blue Monday to Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com:

"Tyson Chandler claims he never gets the ball. He doesn't try to get the ball," said Boeheim, who coached Chandler when he was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic team. "He had two points and Hibbert had (21). What was the difference in the series? Raymond Felton was 0-for-7. Lance Stephenson had (25) points. They're going to blame it on Carmelo? I told him when he went to New York, they're going to blame it on you."

He went on to criticize point guard Pablo Prigioni ("never scored against [the U.S. national team") and Kenyon Martin ("should have been looking for the ball"), said the team was never going to win with their current roster construction ("The New York Knicks have who?") and that too much was asked of Anthony ("He's going to have to get 50 for them to win") before sealing the deal by saying that Anthony's chances weren't much better next year ("They're not going to get better. They need two more options.")

Boeheim isn't altogether wrong. As Seth Rosenthal of Posting and Toasting pointed out in two must-read pieces for Knicks fans, this year's squad was successful mainly by chance in the face of a weirdly constructed roster and that roster is set for a confusing and difficult-to-manage summer.

But valiantly as much as Boeheim tries to shirk the weight from his pupil's shoulders, Anthony is the rock of the Knicks, and with his best shot, the team is left waiting for next year.

More from SB Nation:

• Can Nerlens Noel play in the middle? | More combine coverage

2013 NBA Draft Lottery may be Keith Smart's final appearance for Kings

2013-05-21T13:02:26Z

The Sacramento Kings gave Keith Smart the honor of representing the team at the NBA Draft Lottery, but it shouldn't be read as an endorsement. Smart is not considered likely to be retained by the Sacramento Kings' new ownership group, and his appearance at Tuesday night's proceedings might be his final as the face of the organization.

Considering everything about the Kings down to the very location of the franchise was up for grabs through last week, basketball operations were allowed to take somewhat of a backseat. But now that Vivek Ranadive and his group are the owners of a team staying home in Sactown, they can turn their attention to the on-court product. Team president Geoff Petrie is likely soon to be fired, and the man who replaces him will likely opt to replace Smart, as Victor Contreras of the Sacramento Bee writes.

As Sactown Royalty wrote as the team's season wound down, the front office changes were to be expected regardless of where the team ended up. Smart's coaching style began to chafe with pretty much all of his players, so it's not particularly surprising.

Smart's career hit its high mark when he sunk the game-winning basket in the 1987 NCAA Tournament for Indiana. A brief NBA career led to a long one overseas and in the minor leagues. He's never had much of an opportunity to succeed as an NBA coach: three of his four seasons began as the interim coach for a squad that was already struggling, and this, his fourth, saw the Kings struggle to a 28-54 record, below his lifetime .354 winning percentage.

More from SB Nation:

• Can Nerlens Noel play in the middle? | More combine coverage

NBA playoff schedule 2013: Grizzlies try to bounce back vs. Spurs

2013-05-21T12:00:10Z

One might expect the Memphis Grizzlies to have their heads down after a 105-83 whooping at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

But the best postseason run in franchise history hasn't been built on early success: they lost their first two games of the playoffs -- one a blowout against the Los Angeles Clippers, one a Chris Paul buzzer-beater. They won that series in six games, the most recent team to win four straight after losing the first two matchups of a playoff series. They dropped the first game in their conference semifinals, too, falling on a Kevin Durant transition pullup. It was the last win of the season for the Western Conference's top team this year, as the Grizzlies knocked off the Thunder in five.

Of course, their opponent here is not to be trifled with: 14 seasons after his first NBA Championship, Tim Duncan still has San Antonio operating at a juggernaut-esque level. And in Game 1, it hit Memphis where it hurts. The Spurs took the team with the second-best defensive efficiency in the league and got its staunch, disciplined set out of sorts. As Mike Prada showed, they used misdirection on disguised pick-and-rolls to get Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol -- not the spriest on their feet -- off balance and out of position. And as Grizzly Bear Blues showed, the Grizzlies paid for their decision to cheat off the Spurs' wealth of corner three-point shooters, decisions that led to San Antonio drilling 14-of-29 attempts from beyond the arc.

Memphis will be competitive if it can get a better performance team-wide, but to win, it will probably need a strong performance from Randolph. The team's leading scorer in the playoffs, Randolph has dazzled all postseason long with his ability to barrel through, shoot over, and while his way past superior defenders, to the tune of 18.3 points per game, while averaging a team-high 9.1 rebounds. In Game 1? Two points on 1-for-8 shooting, with four boards. Some of it was nice interior defense, but a lot of it was an off-night from a guy who's had relatively few.

Here's the info on Game 2, the only game Tuesday night in a rapidly slimming NBA Playoffs schedule:

Game 2, Memphis Grizzlies vs. San Antonio Spurs

Spurs lead 1-0

Location: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas

Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Time: 9 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Odds: San Antonio favored by 4.5 points

Upcoming NBA Playoff schedule:

Pacers vs. Heat, Game 1: Wednesday, May 22, 8:30 p.m. ET

Spurs vs. Grizzlies, Game 3: Saturday, May 25, 9 p.m.

More from SB Nation:

• Can Nerlens Noel play in the middle? | More combine coverage