2013 NBA Playoffs

[Lights Out]

Again, Karl only got past the first round of the playoffs once in 8 full seasons as HC.

Karl is a regular-season coach. That's all he'll ever be.

To be fair, the only times he had anything close to a championship roster, he got to two WCF's and a Finals in Seattle, an ECF in Milwaukee, and a WCF in Denver. That's more than most coaches can say. That being said, he's underachieved a lot too.

[Burkell007]

The Nuggets fired George Karl today. Denver managed to lose the reigning Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year in one offseason! The Kroenkes seem to be cheaping out with the Nuggets just like they've been criticized for doing with Arsenal.

I could see him going to the Clippers if Brian Shaw goes to the Nets, or vice versa.

Wow Denver you had SUCH a good thing going, what a way to screw it all up. I agree he will coach the clippers or nets next year.

Good thing going? The Nuggets have only gotten past the first round of the playoffs twice since 1994.

They have a great roster and had a good front office and Karl is a good coach, better then most .this team WAS on the rise, we will see

[dfwabel]

The Nuggets fired George Karl today. Denver managed to lose the reigning Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year in one offseason! The Kroenkes seem to be cheaping out with the Nuggets just like they've been criticized for doing with Arsenal.

I could see him going to the Clippers if Brian Shaw goes to the Nets, or vice versa.

Wow Denver you had SUCH a good thing going, what a way to screw it all up. I agree he will coach the clippers or nets next year.

Good thing going? The Nuggets have only gotten past the first round of the playoffs twice since 1994.

They have a great roster and had a good front office and Karl is a good coach, better then most .this team WAS on the rise, we will see

That great roster got beat by GSW in the first round.

While DEN was great at home this season, check the schedule. They not only have the advantage of altitude, they have the advantage of scheduling. DEN and SLC are the two stops on a teams road trip home, specifically a greater advantage if the road team has a back-to-back. DEN caught a team returning home under the guise of a back-to-back numerous times in the last three seasons.

Edit: To add a link.

[HedleyLamarr]

The Nuggets fired George Karl today. Denver managed to lose the reigning Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year in one offseason! The Kroenkes seem to be cheaping out with the Nuggets just like they've been criticized for doing with Arsenal.

Maybe Stan is saving money to build a new stadium for the Rams in St. Louis.

Nah, I don't believe that either.....

[DustDevil61]

The Nuggets fired George Karl today. Denver managed to lose the reigning Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year in one offseason! The Kroenkes seem to be cheaping out with the Nuggets just like they've been criticized for doing with Arsenal.

Maybe Stan is saving money to build a new stadium for the Rams in St. Louis.

Nah, I don't believe that either.....

Or pocketing more for when he ships them back to Los Angeles.

Eh...maybe.

[dbadefense1990]

Again, Karl only got past the first round of the playoffs once in 8 full seasons as HC.

Karl is a regular-season coach. That's all he'll ever be.

To be fair, the only times he had anything close to a championship roster, he got to two WCF's and a Finals in Seattle, an ECF in Milwaukee, and a WCF in Denver. That's more than most coaches can say. That being said, he's underachieved a lot too.

You can't underachieve as coach when your competition was:

-Charles Barkley in his prime, including the Game 7 performance of 44 points and 24 rebounds against his Sonics.

-The mighty 72-win Bulls of 1996.

-Allen Iverson in his prime, and those 2001 76ers consisting of the league MVP, Coach of the Year (Larry Brown), Defensive POY (Dikembe Mutombo) and 6th MOY (Aaron McKie).

-Kobe Bryant in his prime, along with that 65-win team of Gasol and Bynum in 2009 (which everyone has, by now, forgotten how well they worked together).

If there were any of his teams which "underachieved" (not completely choke, but be upset by inferior squads), I'd go with those 1997 and 1998 Seattle teams, losing to an aging and past-prime Olajuwon, Drexler and Barkley tandem in Houston, and also losing to a hot-headed and relatively inexperienced Del Harris Lakers of young Kobe and loud-mouthed Van Exel and Shaq (this despite having 61 wins and having the tiebreaker over LA for their eventual playoff meeting).

Now the 1994 Sonics; that was a full-on choke.

[dfwabel]

While the 2001 ECF was as poorly officiated as the 2002 WCF, all of your other thoughts make it seem that in the NBA, coaching is rarely or not necessary and you only need to hit the Lottery and get the generation's best player.

If coaching does not matter, why not fire him after eight plus seasons?

[Lights Out]

While the 2001 ECF was as poorly officiated as the 2002 WCF, all of your other thoughts make it seem that in the NBA, coaching is rarely or not necessary and you only need to hit the Lottery and get the generation's best player.

If coaching does not matter, why not fire him after eight plus seasons?

Huh? Coaching and talent is a symbiotic relationship in the NBA just like in all other leagues - you need both to win big.

[pmoehrin]

I'll just say two things with George Karl.

1. In his last two stops both Seattle and Milwaukee were worse off before he got there and worse off after he left.

2. If nobody else wants him he can coach me, because if you don't think he's not one of the ten best coaches in the NBA right now, you don't know what your talking about. There's coaches as good as him, the only guy out there I think I would take hands down over Karl is Gregg Popovich.

You fire someone like that, you do so at your own risk. You think one of the things stopping the Nuggets from going to that next level is George Karl, that's all you.

As for the game tonight, like I've said a few times I don't think it was a must win game for the Spurs coming in, but it became one and for their credit they pulled it out. Like I predictions thread Duncan gave them a lot of problems. I think he will the whole series. Tony Parker for his part played great. Zero turnovers usually means zero fast break game for the other team. It was pretty much all on LeBron tonight in terms of facilitating the offense which I don't think they can do and I think Miami was lucky to keep this game as close as they did.

Granted the effort level from them came in spurts and wasn't consistent, but trying harder isn't going to get it done. They need to make some serious matchup adjustments otherwise this series will be over in five games.

[Alex Houston]

Tony Parker just had his Eli Manning moment.

[JTernup]

Anybody who watches the nuggets knows GK is a POS coach I love the guy as a person but that isn't enough. You can think whatever you want it doesn't matter to me but the Nuggets got better today. If the Nuggets re-sign IGGY and stone Andre miller in the Pepsi Center parking lot this will be a successful off season even with the loss of Ujiri.

P.S. Have fun scuffling in Toronto, you won't have a job in 3 years!!!

Dfwabel's post killed multiple brain cells after reading it! I forgot what I was doing. NOT ATTACKING YOU, just the idiotic nature of your post it is VERY clear you haven't watched a single NUGGZ game in the past few years.

[FiddySicks]

Yeah, but no disrespect or anything...

[TalktoChuck]

If Iggy was going to resign before Karl left (which I doubt) I highly doubt he will now that Karl is gone.

[NJTank]

What a game tonight, the Spurs are just amazingly clutch.

[dbadefense1990]

Thank you San Antonio for...

1. Seizing home court advantage from the Heat.

2. Cheering me up, on an otherwise depressing night.

[vmd9]

Winning game 1 doesn't mean much. Chicago was up on the Heat 1-0 as well and we all know how that turned out. Yes, the Spurs are a much better team but I'm not going to get excited just yet.

[Lights Out]

Fun Fact: the Heat lost Game 1 of the Finals in 2006 and 2012. Good for the Spurs that they stole a win in Miami, but the Heat are still very much in it.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

Fun Fact: the Heat lost Game 1 of the Finals in 2006 and 2012. Good for the Spurs that they stole a win in Miami, but the Heat are still very much in it.

Yeah, the Heat are way too good of a team for anyone to think they're all of a sudden out of it. However, I don't think anyone actually has that opinion. Double however, I think the Spurs have a leg up on the 06 Mavs and 12 Thunder in that, unlike those teams, the team has been in the Finals before and won't over- or under-react to wins and losses.

I think the 2012 Spurs were a year younger and a year better, but I'm glad we're getting last year's "inevitable" matchup (remember how dominant the 12 Spurs were supposed to be?) this year. I'm hoping for a good, long series.

Also, it just sank in yesterday that LeBron's on year three with the Heat, and they've been in the Finals each of the three. Even if they go 1-2 in that time, that's pretty amazing. Because we all have to pick sides, I'll go with 1. Jordan 2. Russell 3. Kareem 4. Magic 5. Kobe (!) 6. Duncan 7. LeBron as a quick-and-dirty greatest of all time list. But LeBron has the most potential of any of those to end up anywhere on the list. He's really something.

[Cujo]

What the was with that bizarre Miami player intro?

[Kramerica Industries]

The Miami Heat PA announcer is just a nightmare to listen to.