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Bad news for Amar and Mychal's Second Big Adventure: According to Woj, the Draft Combine is going to be a little less exciting as Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, and Joel Embiid will all be skipping it. According to Woj, Wiggins withdrew at the last minute:
Teams were furnished with a list of players planning to participate in the combine in recent days, and the reported absence of Embiid and Parker pushed Wiggins' representatives with BDA Sports to pull him out on Sunday night.
Woj also mentions that players will commonly skip the Combine due to injuries, but it's unprecedented to have the consensus top three picks skip.
My thinking is that the team workouts are more important for these three, anyway. The Combine seems more of a way for players to help their draft stock in the first round, make the leap from second round to late first, or move from potentially undrafted to the second round.
Last week, Tony Jones of the SL Trib did a nice little write-up on Suns Assistant Coach and Peter J. Novak man-crush Mike Longabardi. There are some great tidbits in there from Jeff Van Gundy and John Lucas III, both of whom have worked with Longabardi.
For those on the #HireSteve team, bad news: According to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, a deal between Kerr and the Knicks is close. As with any negotiations, there is a bit of a hangup, as the Knicks are [wisely] trying to pay Kerr like a first time head coach, because... you know... he IS a first time head coach. Apparently Kerr is seeking 5 years, $30 million.
Following on the Kerr news, for those in the #SVGisrightforme camp, some bad news:
Warriors haven't had serious talks w/ Kerr in days, w/ owner Joe Lacob rapidly joining management in believing Stan Van Gundy's best choice.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 12, 2014
Apparently, SVG is interested. There is a little chatter about the Dubs interviewing Lionel Hollins and SVG, but nothing concrete.
Yesterday, after the OKC collapse in L.A., things got too familiar on Twitter when criticism of Scott Brooks started to pour out of every corner. The statements from both sides (supporting and questioning Brooks' decisions) looked astoundingly similar to the arguments Jazz fans had about Ty Corbin.
ppl out chea defending a grown man in a position of authority because ppl won’t listen to him. what in hades...
— Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) May 11, 2014
.@RealSkipBayless they’ve had one coach in their time together. if the coach can’t get them to listen, that’s the coach’s fault, too.
— Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) May 11, 2014
See, it's not just Jazz fans that are crazy.
Happy Monday, errone!