Uh oh.......Lakers coming calling

[John]

Wow!!! From the Courant "What we can report: UConn AD Warde Manuel said Thursday, through a spokesman, “there is no update to give” regarding Ollie’s contract talks. No word from Ollie’s side."

He's monitoring.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think he would be doing what JC "gave him" a disservice and he knows that………..as said above the NBA will always be there and his impact now is his university and the kids that want to come learn from him. He doesn't want to go there to baby sit those whack jobs…….and the Lakers? They're in awful shape…….

He's staying and for quite a while…….you will hear it very soon because he will need to let the recruits know, especially DHam……..

 

[tcf15]

Dave McMenamin ‏@mcten 4m
The Lakers plan to reach out to the Chicago Bulls for permission to interview Tom Thibodeau, a league source tells http://ESPNLosAngeles.com

 

[HuskyHawk]

I guess we need to get used to this. I don't like it though. The good news is that he already just left an NBA coaching offer to be an assistant at UConn. He has a legacy he can build here and his family is comfortable. If he can turn down the Lakers, one of the two marquee teams in the league and his hometown team, I doubt anyone else can lure him away until he feels like he has nothing left to achieve in the college game. Calhoun was once rumored to the Celtics I believe, but was never offered. He did come close to leaving for South Carolina.

 

[dogfan96]

Lakers have asked permission to speak with Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau

 

[CL82]

To that end, sources say, Lakers officials intend to reach out to two of the biggest names in the college game -- UConn's Kevin Ollie and Kentucky's John Calipari -- to at least gauge their interest in the job.

One of the biggest names in college basketball...going into his 3rd year as a head coach. Unreal when you stop and think about it.

 

[ZooCougar]

Thank you for the free publicity Lakers.

 

[CL82]

Will someone explain Goodman to me?

 

[Caronimo]

goodmanespn@gmail.com

Hey dude Olander has more National Championships than the University of Arizona

 

[djct1999]

Is there any way we can get a restraining order against Goodman? seriously, he should not be able to watch, comment or tweet anything about uconn ever.

 

[CallMeBruce]

No employee owes his employer or coworkers any more than his best work for the period for which he is being paid. KO is free to do what is best for him and his family without criticism from me. If he leaves, UConn just has to figure out what the next step is.

Well, he would owe them a $2m penalty, but that's not the point. He's free from a lawsuit from UConn, but if he walked now after specifically saying that he wasn't interested in the NBA now because he cares too much about his kids here, then that would make him a liar, and I'd feel free to judge him for that.

None of this matters, since he's not going to the NBA. He was linked with the Lakers job weeks ago, and then confirmed he wasn't leaving UConn now. He's not leaving.

 

[John]

 

[Gampeltiles]

I guess we need to get used to this. I don't like it though. The good news is that he already just left an NBA coaching offer to be an assistant at UConn. He has a legacy he can build here and his family is comfortable. If he can turn down the Lakers, one of the two marquee teams in the league and his hometown team, I doubt anyone else can lure him away until he feels like he has nothing left to achieve in the college game. Calhoun was once rumored to the Celtics I believe, but was never offered. He did come close to leaving for South Carolina.

The situation with D'Antoni has been dicey for months, it was somewhat of a surprise that the Lakers were willing to give him next year. Really, this is just a confirmation that the job is OFFICIALLY open. I am sure it has crossed KO's mind that this would be a possibility, it has to play out, and it looks to be a long process. In the meantime, people will do what they need to do. WM, KO & the Lakers IF they have an interest.

 

[Kitaman]

Lakers are the only NBA team that scares me. Los Angeles connection is the main reason. I do believe that the position will be available 10 years out though. So Ollie hopefully will wait to consider if offered.

 

[tcf15]

 

[CL82]

I stand corrected...lol.

 

[Husky25]

One of the biggest names in college basketball...going into his 3rd year as a head coach. Unreal when you stop and think about it.

My $0.02:

Ollie is not used goods and would come on the relative cheap. NBA owners are more than willing to take a chance on the untested "wunderkind" on short money. By and large, a mistake won't cost them much and their product won't be too affected. Calipari makes $5.5M and he has a negative track record with the Nets. Pitino is in his early 60's, making $7M, and left a terrible taste in the NBA's mouth. Who's left? Hoiberg is off the market. Bill Self is 51 and making $3 mil. Coach K is 3 years away from being required to draw on his 401(k). Roy Williams is approaching new retirement age. Billy Donovan perhaps? He's making about $4M. Shaka Smart?

If I were making a hire, I'd take a look at the benches of the remaining playoff teams, and start my list with the more accomplished assistant coaches. College coaches struggle in the NBA. It's a different game where the only similarities are the court and hoop dimensions. Tom Thibodeau has not won anything yet. Why would he go to an older, less talented team with cap issues than stay in Chicago?

 

[champs99and04]

this article right here should be the definitive piece on why no one should ever take Goodman's basketball opinions seriously. dude was wrong on damn near everything, even took a shot at TSam when he wound up being a legit difference maker in 3 tourney games as a freshmen.

The Parrish article linked right below it is just as hilarious in hindsight:

"And it's why it would be wrong to spend this space waxing poetically only about how Calhoun made college basketball relevant in New England, about how he built a program out of nothing in the middle of nowhere, about how he signed and developed Rip, Emeka, Kemba and dozens of other NBA Draft picks, the last being Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb. That's some of story, and that portion of the story is really impressive. It's why Calhoun is in the Hall of Fame, and deservedly so. But the other part of the story is about a bully who apparently didn't demand the same type of excellence in the classroom from his players that he demanded on the court, about a stubborn man who walked away only when his body failed him yet again, about a rule-breaker who left a program on probation, banned from the NCAA tournament and without the kind of talent necessary to compete in the Big East."

People were acting like it was going to take a miracle to go .500 when Calhoun stepped down. Clearly, as much as the talking heads under-estimated Ollie, they under-estimated the remaining talent on the roster even more.

 

[Huskyforlife]

View attachment 5949

Lol Boheim isn't even being considered, but our second year coach is

 

[John]

Lol Boheim isn't even being considered, but our second year coach is

I know, crazy right? Can't imagine an elite NBA franchise wouldn't want to tap into that vast wealth of zone defense wisdom.

 

[Dove]

Lakers have asked permission to speak with Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau

Boudreau is pissed!

 

[Husky25]

Lol Boheim isn't even being considered, but our second year coach is

Dude is 69 years old.

 

[RichZ]

The NBA allure for Ollie could shine a little brighter, though. His team lost two NBA-bound starters (senior Shabazz Napier and junior Deandre Daniels) and landed just one recruit from Rivals' top 150 (guard Daniel Hamilton, 14th overall).

Ollie played 13 seasons in the league, last suiting up for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2009-10. He reportedly made quite an impression on MVP front-runner (and free-agent-to-be in 2016) Kevin Durant, a fact that Stein and Shelburne write is "bound to make the promising young coach...a target of any NBA team with aspirations of trying to steal Durant from the Thunder in free agency in 2016."

Quoted from one of the seemingly hundreds of news items today about KO and the lakers.
The author's rationale flies in the face of everything that KO stands for. I believe he'd be the last guy to take a job offered to him based on his perceived ability and willingness to poach a friend from another friend.

What's even worse is reading the comments generated by some of these articles. Most of these laker fans are more delusional than Rutgers Al, or your average cuse fan. They seem to assume that whichever candidate the organzation wants is theirs for the asking. Like being the lakers coach is the most desirable job in the world, and no one could possibly turn it down.

 

[Inyatkin]

Dave McMenamin ‏@mcten 4m
The Lakers plan to reach out to the Chicago Bulls for permission to interview Tom Thibodeau, a league source tells http://ESPNLosAngeles.com

Oh my god Ollie's going to the Bulls.

 

[aceboon]

Quoted from one of the seemingly hundreds of news items today about KO and the lakers.
The author's rationale flies in the face of everything that KO stands for. I believe he'd be the last guy to take a job offered to him based on his perceived ability and willingness to poach a friend from another friend.

What's even worse is reading the comments generated by some of these articles. Most of these laker fans are more delusional than Rutgers Al, or your average cuse fan. They seem to assume that whichever candidate the organzation wants is theirs for the asking. Like being the lakers coach is the most desirable job in the world, and no one could possibly turn it down.

who wrote that?