According to Shams, the NBA is planning on having a 72 game season starting on December 22nd. It seems like there will still be a play-in series for the 8th seed like last season, and the NBA wants the games to be played in arenas, not in a bubble.

This gives players that were in the bubble around 2 months off, usually the length of the offseason, however, players who have not played in the bubble are going to have to wait a total of 10 months to play another NBA game.

The NBA draft is set for November 18th with NBA free agency usually a week after.

We also have to give major credit to Adam Silver who has dealt with COVID-19 particularly well.

What are your thoughts on this proposed idea?

According to multiple reports, it seems like the Knicks are seriously considering moving down in the draft.

Another report recently came out that the Knicks have shown interest in Kentucky Guard Tyrese Maxey, according to Marc Berman.

Tyrese is projected to go in the teens, so it would make sense if the Knicks were to trade back from 8. Also, with the recent hire of Kenny Payne, former assistant and development coach at UK, it would make sense the Knicks would be interested.

The last rumor is the Knicks are very focused on the 2021 draft. The 2021 draft is a lot better than this years draft, with players such as Cade Cunningham, Jonathan Kuminga, and Jalen Green in the class.

By trading down, the Knicks could maybe get a 3rd first round pick for the 2021 draft.

The Chris Paul Decision:

Oklahoma City’s biggest decision this offseason will be what to do with veteran point guard Chris Paul. Paul, 35, still has 2 years and about 85 million dollars left on his massive contract, but his value is through the roof after his rise back to stardom. Title contenders will seek Paul to be a veteran leader to be the missing piece to their championship run. The 76ers, Bucks, Lakers, and Knicks have all shown interest in Paul if he becomes available through trade. Championship contending teams would likely give up a lot for Paul in order to add another star to help their push for a title. Trading CP3 would almost certainly trigger Oklahoma City to hit the reset button and rebuild the team around young players such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, and Darius Bazley. SGA significantly improved off of his rookie year, Dort demonstrated how good of a defender he is since being inserted into the lineup, especially with his lock-down defense against James Harden in the playoffs, and Bazley showed immense growth between the season stoppage and restart in Orlando. The Thunder are loaded with first-round picks from the George and Westbrook trades, putting them in a good position to rebuild the Thunder into a title contender again.

Danilo Gallinari

Thunder power forward Danilo Gallinari will hit the open market this offseason, just a year after OKC acquired him in a trade with the Clippers. Many teams will be interested in Gallinari due to his knockdown shooting at the power forward position. If the Thunder do decide to rebuild, a sign and trade situation would be ideal for the team to get assets in return for the 32 year old.

The Search for a New Head Coach

Billy Donovan joined the Thunder in 2015 after his 2 National Championship runs with the Florida Gators. Since Kevin Durant left, Donovan has not made it past the first round. Billy was a coach of the year finalist, but came up short in the race against Nick Nurse. Despite his success this past season, the Thunder and Donovan mutually agreed that it was time to part ways. Donovan will be in search of a new head coaching job, and the Thunder will search for someone to fill the void left by Donovan’s departure.

So many questions surround this Thunder team during this offseason. If the Thunder decide to rebuild, Paul, Gallinari, Adams, and Schroder all could be on their way out. The Thunder have the talent to try and run it back one more time with this squad, but trading Chris Paul, who’s value is as high as ever, may be the smart move for the team going forward. Picking up young talent through trade and drafting well could lead the Thunder back to the top of the West.

Update: November 18th is the new proposed date.

Greer and Dice west assistants for Thibodeau during his time in Minnesota and Chicago.

The coaching staff is shaping up, as the three are joining Thibodeau, Kenny Payne, and Jonnie Bryant.

It seems as if the Knicks are confident that they can find the right player at 8, so don’t expect any trade-ups or downs.

What is so interesting about this class is that there are a lot of players that can turn out to be amazing players, but there are a lot of question marks. There aren’t any locks to be stats (maybe Anthony Edwards) but that’s it. It’s going to come down to how well the scouting is of each team. Also, with COVID, I don’t know if the combine will happen, and everything else that happens before the draft, which also may hurt teams of knowing the great players.

From a Knicks perspective, it seems like Killian Hayes might be there, who I would love. Other players that maybe there are Kira Lewis, Obi Toppin, Tyrese Halliburton, and more.

The Knicks may now look to trade up or down as this is a pretty weak draft class.

Some players in the 8th pick area that the Knicks may look at:

Killian Hayes

Obi Toppin

Devin Vassell

Tyrese Haliburton

We will get more updates as the draft gets closer, which is on October 16th.

First, The Knicks are hiring Johnnie Bryant as an assistant coach. Bryant previously was with Utah, and he is known for his player development. He has worked with guys like Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Paul Millsap, and more. If you guys were worried about Thibodeau and his development skills, you shouldn’t be worried anymore, as we now have two top developmental coaches on the bench.

Second, Mike Miller will not being joining Thibodeau’s staff and is pursuing other coaching opportunities as we speak. It seems unlikely he will be back in any capacity.

Lastly, even though it was reported a few weeks ago that Mike Woodson would be on the Knicks staff, there has not been an official announcement yet. However, it is still reported that Woodson will most likely be with the Knicks next season.

It will be interesting to see who will fill out the rest of the coaching bench, but we will have to wait a little bit longer.

Let’s move on and take a look at some of the players Alvin Gentry has had in the last five years including this year (asterisks and carets mark players who were on the roster at the same time):

Anthony Davis*

Demarcus Cousins*

Rajon Rondo*

Julius Randle*

Jrue Holiday*^

Zion Williamson^

Brandon Ingram^

Gentry has had good talent and at least one superstar on the roster every year in New Orleans, but the best any of those teams ever did was 48 wins and the 6th seed (both the 4 and 5 seeds won 48 games, while the 7 and 8 seeds won 47 games).

Below is a list of a few heach coaches that Gentry has outlasted compared to his statistics with the Pelicans. 

Alvin Gentry:  175-223 (43.9%), 5-4 in the playoffs

Tom Thibodeau (Minnesota):  97-107 (47.5%), 0 playoff appearances

Jason Kidd (Milwaukee):  139-152 (47.8%), 12-4 in the playoffs

Tyronn Lue (Cleveland):  128-83 (60.7%), 41-20 in the playoffs, 1 ring

I find it very interesting that these coaches all spent less time with their teams than Gentry has and have mostly better statistics, but Gentry still hasn’t been fired. Ty Lue was fired one season after his star player, so could this mean that we are finally going to see Gentry get canned, or is David Griffin just going to let Gentry finish the last year on his contract.

Kenny has been an assistant coach at Kentucky since 2010. Kenny is a player-development guru and is a big part of why Kentucky has over 25 alumni in the league right now. KAT said that he was the “best developmental coach in the country”. He was also a huge key to Knox’s success in college, and now he will be helped by him again. This most likely means that Knox will be on the team next year. I don’t know how we were able to get him away from the UK, but from what I’ve read and heard, I’m very happy we did. Seems like a great hire.

Expect more assistant coaches hires soon. Mike Woodson still has not been officially hired, so look out for that also.