Who will coach the Lakers next season? Almost immediately upon getting knocked out of the playoffs, the focus of L.A.’s offseason turned to who will replace Phil Jackson and his 11 championship rings. Because they are the Lakers and because they still have a ton of talent on the roster, L.A. should have the pick of the litter. GM Mitch Kupchak says that while he expects Jackson to retire, he is not yet ready to talk about the probable coaching vacancy. But we can. Read More »

When Mike Brown was fired over a little over a month ago, I listed Tom Thibodeau, Larry Brown and Avery Johnson as the three coaches the Cavaliers should pursue for their head coaching vacancy. Now, Thibodeau is with the Bulls, Johnson is with the Nets, and Larry Brown — still under contract with the Bobcats — has not pushed to be released in order to pursue other opportunities like many thought he would.

Since the vacancy, the Cleveland position has become a give-and-take. Coaches have wanted at least some indication that LeBron will be returning to Cleveland next year, but because it’s impossible for the team to ensure that, coaches such as Tom Izzo have been turning down large sums of money rather than take the risk. Read More »

At the very moment today’s Smack is being posted, odds are some NBA superstar — Amar’e Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, maybe Mr. You Know Who — is hearing a knock on his front door, or taking a phone call from a front-office exec who sounds like a 14-year-old trying to be cool on the phone with the girl he’s crushing on. You want to hear a grown man’s voice crack? Listen in on one of these icebreaker free-agent phone calls … The first bomb in the Nets/Knicks battle for talent was dropped yesterday, when a giant billboard of Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov began to appear on the side of a New York City building that just happens to face the offices at Madison Square Garden. Read More »

If you’re trying to convince LeBron to re-sign in Cleveland when he just came off a disappointing postseason and the marketing millions of New York, L.A. and Chicago are calling his name, is it the best move to hire a head coach with zero head coaching experience?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Brian Shaw — who has reportedly reached an agreement with the Cavaliers to be their next head coach — will be a good coach in the League. Ever since he retired in ’03 he’s been working for the Lakers, first as a scout and then on the bench as an assistant next to Phil Jackson and Tex Winter. Read More »

Nobody would have predicted this. It wasn’t really that long ago when Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady were neck-and-neck in the debate over who was the most talented player — Shaq and Tim Duncan were still the most dominant — and explosive offensive weapon in the NBA. Today, Kobe and T-Mac are both 31 years old, but while Kobe is still pretty much in his prime and leading his team to championships, T-Mac is like a classic car running on fumes and still hasn’t been on the court in the second round of the playoffs … Read More »

Good news for the Orlando Magic: Winning last night’s Game 3 puts you right back in the NBA Finals, and with two more home games in a row, in position to stretch this thing to six or seven games and pull off an upset. Bad news: You played about as flawless a game as possible (at least offensively) and still just barely got the W … Orlando came out scorching in the first quarter, hitting like 75 percent of their shots, but were still mostly playing from behind due to Kobe Bryant single-handedly destroying their defense. Read More »