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Friday, February 7, 2020

Kevin Durant: ‘I’m still going to do the burner thing’ - NBCSports.com

Kevin Durant has issued varying explanations for a burner Instagram account and a suspected burner Twitter account.

A new twist: Defiance.

Durant on All The Smoke:

I’m still going to do the burner thing. I’m still going to do that.

Certain people, I’m going to come back on my regular account. But if I’m just trying to do my thing, I want to dip in, you know what I mean? I got the burner.

I just slipped up that one time. You know why I slipped up.

Durant might be trolling. Everyone bashed him for his burner account(s). Just saying this is an easy way to spite his critics. Durant says plenty online using his real name.

But would anyone be totally shocked if Durant still uses a burner?

Also: I don’t know why Durant slipped up that one time. He previously said it was because he just woke up from a nap. But the way he laughed and got dapped up by Matt Barnes hints there’s more the story.

Every day in the NBA there is a lot to unpack, so every weekday morning throughout the season we will give you the three things you need to know from the last 24 hours in the NBA.

1) Will following the Warriors’, Lakers’ paths turn around the Knicks? The Knicks tried the superstar player route (Isiah Thomas). They tried the superstar coach route (Phil Jackson). They tried the company man route (Steve Mills). None of those have turned around the fortunes of James Dolan’s floundering Knicks. Instead, it has led to fans chanting “sell the team” at Dolan during a recent game (something that apparently got under his skin, WAY under his skin).

The Knicks also tried the smart, trusted, experienced NBA executive route (Donnie Walsh) and the team got out of its salary cap mess and made the playoffs. Then Dolan fired him.

With the Knicks’ top basketball job open, again, there was a lot of interest in another trusted executive, Masai Ujiri of Toronto. However, to pry him out of a comfortable spot north of the border would have required months of a delicate dance, with no promise of success on the other side. Dolan wasn’t going to be that patient, so he went with another power broker, this time following the path of the Warriors (Bob Myers) and Lakers (Rob Pelinka) in hiring a powerful agent. The Knick are going to hire CAA’s Leon Rose to run basketball operations (the official hiring will take some time because Rose has to divest from his lengthy list of clients first).

The real question Knicks fans want to be answered is simple: Can superagent Leon Rose — with William “World Wide Wes” Wesley by his side — be the guy that turns Knicks’ culture and organization around?

The answer is not that simple.

How we got here is interesting (and a matter of speculation). There was a split in the front office heading into the trade deadline, according to Ian Bagley of SNY.TV: The side that wanted to trade Marcus Morris for picks/young players to go with R.J. Barrett and Mitchell Robinson, the side that wanted to build patiently. Then there was the side that wanted to trade Morris for a player or players who could help the team win more now, hence the rumors about the Knicks being in talks with the Warriors about D'Angelo Russell.

The slow build side won out, which is the smart choice. The Knicks now have seven first-round picks in the next four years. If there’s good scouting in place, if the Knicks get a little luck with the lottery ping-pong balls, this is a path to success down the line. Picture the Lakers, who got lottery luck (three No. 2 picks), then developed those players (how well is up for debate), which built a base where LeBron James believed he could come and win. Next, some of those young players were traded to become Anthony Davis, and the Lakers were contenders. A different version of the same model happened over in Brooklyn, where a culture was built, young players were developed into a team that made the playoffs last season, and that became a place stars such as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant wanted to play.

In both cases, a foundation was built that could be turned into superstars. The Knicks remain one of the handful of franchises that can recruit and win a race for a superstar free agent. Rose (and Wesley) are the kinds of power brokers players will listen to, guys who can get meetings with the franchise-changing free agents and convince them to come to play in the Garden.

But first, a culture change needed to happen, and then a foundation of talent needed to be built up. The Nets and Clippers did that work. For the Knicks it will require patience, smart hires on the basketball side, good drafts, hard work, and a little bit of luck.

Are Leon Rose and William “World Wide Wes” Wesley up for the task? Maybe. Sometimes hiring an agent works (Myers), sometimes it doesn’t (Lon Babby in Phoenix). If James Dolan doesn’t want to do the long dance to land an experienced star executive (Ujiri, OKC’s Sam Presti, Houston’s Daryl Morey, etc.), then this is a good hire. Rose is smart and driven and could succeed in this role

But my gut reaction is, “James Dolan still owns the team.”

2) Small-ball Rockets beat Lakers behind 41 points from Russell Westbrook. If you’re a Laker fan, on the day you watched your team stand pat while your rivals — and yes, the Clippers are now rivals, not little brothers — get better by adding Marcus Morris, this Tweet is all you care about from Thursday night.

As long as he comes out of retirement, the Lakers are going to land Collison and that’s a quality addition. The Lakers can get some small wins on the buyout market, too.

However, it was small ball that won on the court Thursday night. Houston beat the Lakers 121-111.

At the trade deadline, the Rockets sent out Clint Capela, got Robert Covington, and went all-in on small ball — if lame-duck coach Mike D’Antoni is going out, he’s going out on his own terms — and for a night in Los Angeles it paid off. Covington had 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and was a team-best +16 — this is what he does. Covington puts up nice raw numbers, but he defends well and fits in the gaps on offense and at the end of the night the team is just better when he is on the court.

It also helps to have Russell Westbrook go off for 41 points.

By the way, it’s our loss that LeBron James never entered the Dunk Contest.

3) The rosters for Team LeBron and Team Giannis in the All-Star Game are set. No trades, no fireworks, no surprises this year. Of course, LeBron James selected Anthony Davis first (at least this year it’s not to recruit him). Of course, Giannis Antetokounmpo selected teammate Khris Middleton first among the reserves. There were jokes about James Harden‘s willingness to pass and more, but no real fireworks as the sides for All-Star Game were chosen.

Still, this playground-style team choosing by the captains is more fun than East vs. West or USA vs. the World formats. The league found something that worked.

Here are your All-Star teams:

Team LeBron (coached by Frank Vogel)
Starters
LeBron James
Anthony Davis
Kawhi Leonard
Luka Doncic
James Harden

Reserves
Damian Lillard
Ben Simmons
Nikola Jokic
Jayson Tatum
Chris Paul
Russell Westbrook
Domantas Sabonis

Team Giannis (coached by Nick Nurse)
Starters
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Joel Embiid
Pascal Siakam
Kemba Walker
Trae Young

Reserves
Khris Middleton
Bam Adebayo
Rudy Gobert
Jimmy Butler
Kyle Lowry
Brandon Ingram
Donovan Mitchell

The NBA All-Star Game will be played Feb. 16 at the United Center in Chicago. You can catch it on TNT starting at 8 p.m. ET.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A public memorial service for Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others killed in a helicopter crash is planned for Feb. 24 at Staples Center, a person with knowledge of the details told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The arena is where Bryant starred for the Los Angeles Lakers for two decades and the date 2/24 corresponds with the No. 24 jersey he wore and the No. 2 worn by his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

No official announcement about the memorial has been made. The person who provided the information to the AP is knowledgeable about the planning and spoke only on condition of anonymity. The Los Angeles Times was first to report the event, citing two anonymous sources with knowledge of the planning.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said a memorial would be held but his office had no immediate comment, nor did the Lakers or Staples Center.

Staples has played host to other memorials, including for Michael Jackson and, last year, for rapper Nipsey Hussle.

Bryant was killed Jan. 26 when the helicopter carrying him, his daughter and the others crashed into a mountainside in Calabasas while flying to a girls basketball tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy. Gianna’s team was coached by Bryant and was playing in the tournament.

No cause for the crash has been determined, though a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board is expected soon.

A basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Memphis Grizzlies is scheduled for Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Staples Center, according to the arena’s website.

A public memorial for Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and daughter Alyssa will be held Feb. 10 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Also killed in the crash were Bryant friends Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton.

So much for a quiet trade deadline.

For a couple of months in the run-up to the NBA trade deadline, sources around the league talked about all the reasons not to expect a lot of trades this year, from a lack of cap space to take on bad contracts to a lack of sellers. Then came Kobe Bryant’s tragic death, which became a black cloud over the league and blotted out talk of things as trivial as trades.

But when the doors opened on trade talks again, it felt like the whole league rushed in — the result was a wild, trade filled couple of days that changed both this season and the trajectory of a number of teams.

Here is who won and who lost.

Winner: Los Angeles Clippers

In a West where the margins between the top teams — especially the two that call Staples Center home — are so thin, the Clippers’ moves around the trade deadline made this team better. Maybe a lot better. If they were not the favorites to come out of the West before the deadline, I have them there now. At least on paper.

The big move: The Clippers traded for Marcus Morris.

Morris brings grit, some interior toughness, a few technicals, and some floor-spacing shooting to Los Angeles. Morris averaged 18.5 points per game for the Knicks, and shot 45.4 percent from three — and that was without players such as Kawhi Leonard or Paul George drawing defenders to get him wide-open looks. Also, Morris is a physical defender — exactly the kind of player teams want on their side in the playoffs. Doc Rivers now has even more options on how to attack teams with this versatile roster.

The Clippers still bring Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell off the bench behind that starting five.

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

This is all relative. The Lakers may still win the West — they do have LeBron James, after all — but the trade deadline made their path more difficult.

The Clippers got a boost picking up Marcus Morris. Denver got a little better and added some scoring (and will get healthy at some point). Utah’s one move was more than a month earlier, but they added scoring off the bench in the form of Jordan Clarkson.

The Lakers are still the Lakers. They also should get better because they will thrive in the buyout market, and they are still the favorites to land Darren Collison if he returns.

But even with that, the opponents the Lakers need to beat got better in the last few days, and that is not ideal for the Lakers.

Winner: Atlanta Hawks

To maximize what Trae Young can do, the Hawks needed to find him the right pick-and-roll partner, a guy who sets a strong pick then dive hard to the rim, drawing defenders with him (or getting open for the alley-oop). Some defense and shot blocking would be nice, too.

Enter Clint Capela, picked up from the Rockets in a massive four-team, 12-player trade — and the Hawks got him without giving up a first-round pick, nor rising star John Collins.

Capela was half of a very effective pick-and-roll tandem with James Harden (they scored more than a point per possession, in the Damian Lillard/Jusuf Nurkic range). The Hawks looked at a lot of big men and settled on the one that likely fits best with Young. Whether Capela fits next to Collins is another story and something to watch over the next couple of years.

Winner: Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are in the mix with the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors, vying to be the second-best team in the East. (Philadelphia would like to be in that conversation, too, but right now they are not.) At the trade deadline, the Heat got deeper — adding Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder — and while that’s not likely making them a threat to any team with a Greek Freak on the roster, it may be enough to make Miami the second-best team in the East. Toronto and Boston stood still, Miami got better and added playoff-proven veterans.

At the same time, Miami got out from under the oversized contracts of James Johnson and Dion Waiters. It’s a masterstroke. Miami maintained its financial flexibility for the summer of 2021, in case any famous players who grew up in Greece want to test the free-agent market.

Loser: 2020 free agents

The teams that had cap space this summer to chase max-level free agents were not exactly inspiring: Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Charlotte, New York, and Phoenix.

Now Atlanta, Cleveland, and Memphis are off that list. Their deadline moves said they were not inspired by the free agent class and decided to spend that money now.

To be fair, Detroit now will have the cap space — Detroit valued that cap space more than they valued Andre Drummond, the Cavaliers valued Drummond more than the cap space. Still, for potential free agents such as Gordon Hayward, DeMar DeRozan, Drummond (although he likely opts into that $28.8 million next season), Joe Harris, Montrezl Harrell, and others, it’s some slim pickings out there.

Winner: Robert Covington

Robert Covington got traded from a team that had lost a dozen games in a row (now 13) in the NBA’s coldest city to warm-weather Houston on a team poised to be a playoff threat — that’s a win.

Covington had 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and was a team-high +16 in his first game with the Rockets, Thursday nights win against the Lakers. That’s what Covington does, he puts up solid stats, but the team just plays better defense and runs a little smoother when he is on the court. Use whatever coach’s cliche you want — “he does the little things that don’t show up in the box score” or “he just plays winning basketball” — but he makes teams better.

Loser: Moe Harkless

If Covington wins because of the change in his situation, then you have to feel for Harkless. He did nothing wrong, he played well for the Clippers — he started most of the time, played smart, and took on the toughest wing defensive assignments so that Kawhi Leonard and Paul George didn’t have to all game. But, his $11.5 million contract made him a perfect person to round out a trade deal.

Harkless got traded from a title contender in sunny Los Angeles to the New York Knicks. That’s going to be a shock to the system.

Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves

Gersson Rosas is reshaping this team and he made some bold moves to do just that at the trade deadline.

He traded for D'Angelo Russell, which will make Karl-Anthony Towns happy and gives the Timberwolves a solid point guard of the future. Amazingly, he got Andrew Wiggins off the books at the same time. He added solid bench depth by trading for Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez. He got good value for Covington. He managed the salary cap well.

That’s a good start. I have serious questions about how well a team with Russell and Towns is going to defend, how good they can ultimately be, but considering where Minnesota was this is still a big step forward.

Loser Traditional NBA centers

Andre Drummond — who scores more than 17 points a game and is the NBA’s best rebounder — had almost no trade market and was salary dumped to Cleveland. Houston sent Clint Capela out the door to start a 6’5″ center in P.J. Tucker. Cleveland could not get a good enough offer for Tristan Thompson to pull the trigger on a deal. Boston and other teams were not willing to put real assets on the table to trade for a traditional center, deciding instead to wait for the buyout market.

In case you had any doubt about how the game is moving away from traditional centers, there’s your evidence. The league is moving on. Teams will still need an old-school big on the roster (although Houston is trying to prove that wrong), but teams are not going to pay big for one unless he is high-level elite (Joel Embiid, Rudy Gobert, Nikola Jokic level).

Derrick Rose is having a renaissance season, and as part of that rebirth he was returning to the All-Star Saturday Night Skills Challenge — in Chicago, where he remains beloved — to defend his title from 2009.

Until he strained his adductor the other night.

Rose is now out of action for the Pistons through the All-Star break, and he will not be participating in the Saturday night events, the league announced. That sucks, especially for the fans in Chicago.

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is taking his place. The second-year guard is having a strong season for the Thunder, averaging 19.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists a game.

The other participants in this year’s skills challenge are Bam Adebayo (Heat), Patrick Beverley (Clippers), Spencer Dinwiddie (Nets), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Domantas Sabonis (Pacers), Pascal Siakam (Raptors), Jayson Tatum (Celtics). Beverley, Dinwiddie, and Tatum have all won this event in the past.

The rules are the same as always, this is a head-to-head tournament where players have to maneuver an obstacle-course competition that tests their dribbling, passing, agility, and 3-point shooting.

The skills competition, along with the Dunk Contest and Three-Point contest, highlight All-Star Saturday night, taking place at the United Center in Chicago Feb. 15.

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"thing" - Google News
February 07, 2020 at 10:58PM
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Kevin Durant: ‘I’m still going to do the burner thing’ - NBCSports.com
"thing" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2JDx9PK
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