The Phoenix Suns, a model NBA franchise if your goal is to metaphorically burn with the heat and fragrance of a large tire fire, fired coach Igor Kokoskov on Monday after one season on the job. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Suns are chasing Monty Williams, also a candidate for the Lakers job.
Devin Booker was drafted by the Suns four years ago. Whoever the Suns hire will be Booker’s fifth coach in the NBA. Can you name the first four? That’d be Jeff Hornacek, Earl Watson, Jay Triano, and Kokoskov. No better way to build a team from the ground up than to ... constantly change direction on the sidelines, creating instability unnatural even in the chaotic NBA. (Great reaction to the Kokoskov news from Watson, by the way.)
Kokoskov will end up back on an NBA bench this summer if he doesn’t decide to get some more head coach reps in over in Europe (where he’s had success as the Slovenian national team coach). The Suns were never going to compete for wins this season -- they had a bizarre offseason punctuated by the general manager getting fired nine days before the start of the regular season -- and it seemed like Kokoskov patched together a rotation as best he could.
James Jones is now fully in charge of the basketball team, with Jeff Bower handling the day-to-day operations. I guess they’ll get to hire their own coach now ... if Robert Sarver doesn’t force his way into the conversation. Who are we kidding? Of course he will. This is why the Suns are the Suns.
Scores
Bucks 127, Pistons 104
Milwaukee wins series 4-0
Rockets 91, Jazz 107
Houston leads 3-1
Schedule
A good ol’ 4-game playoff Tuesday!
Magic at Raptors, 7 ET, NBA TV
Toronto leads 3-1
Nets at Sixers, 8 ET, TNT
Philadelphia leads 3-1
Spurs at Nuggets, 9:30 ET, NBA TV
Series tied 2-2
Thunder at Blazers, 10:30 ET, TNT
Portland leads 3-1
Links
Congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks for ruining yet another April for the basketball fans of Detroit. The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since May 26, 2008. Yikes.
Meanwhile, Giannis is pulling out both Jordanesque hanging trick shots and volleyball spikes. He had 41 as he led Milwaukee to its first playoff series win since 2001. Giannis was six years old the last time the Bucks won a series!
Blake Griffin had a really good season, and deserved better than this.
Dan Devine looks ahead to a real test for the Bucks: an experienced Celtics team waiting in the second round.
The Jazz avoided a sweep of their own as Jae Crowder had a great game and Donovan Mitchell was electric in the fourth. Will this be a gentlemen’s sweep or will Utah put a minor panic into the Rockets? Game 5 is Wednesday in Texas. This summer, the Jazz probably need to prioritize adding another scorer to the mix.
How will the Pacers try to get Victor Oladipo over the hump?
The Clippers are hanging tough with the Warriors. It should be a wake-up call for Golden State. How will they react?
There are less than 10 people in the world I will trust to handle a “let’s talk about Russell Westbrook” column and Chris Herring is one of them, so go read this.
Kevin Durant talks about media thirst and free agency speculation. It’s really kind of odd that this bothers Durant so much and he hasn’t followed the tried and true strategy of refusing to answer questions about it. Hasn’t he ever seen a Russell Westbrook press conference?
There will be more WNBA games on TV this season thanks to a deal between the league and CBS Sports Network.
In some serious news, Luke Walton has been sued and accused of sexual assault by a former sports reporter in Los Angeles. The incident in question is alleged to have happened when Walton was an assistant coach with the Warriors. The alleged victim interacted with Walton once he was hired by the Lakers until she left the business. The Warriors, Lakers, and Kings (who hired Walton last week) all made brief statements saying this is the first they’ve heard of the allegations. Walton has retained Derrick Rose’s attorney.
The Minnesota Lynx are replacing THE LEGEND Lindsay Whalen with ... her nemesis, Odyssey Sims.
The Process is alive and well in Brooklyn.
And finally: shout out to the Nets for having their GM gets fined for rolling into the refs’ private locker room after Game 4 and for the next franchise owner of the team getting fined for tweeting support for his GM. The Nets, my friends, are great.
Be excellent to each other.
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2019/4/23/18512302/igor-kokoskov-fired-suns-coach-gmib
2019-04-23 12:02:51Z
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