In the latest NBA news Nate McMillan is done in Atlanta, Jacque Vaughn was extended and former second-overall pick Lonzo Ball is done for the season.
NBA news: Lonzo Ball is done
According to Shams Charania, Lonzo Ball will not play this season due to a torn meniscus and other issues in his left knee. The Bulls’ point guard hasn’t played since the middle of last season. Unfortunately for the second overall pick, his career is in question after missing 35 games last year and the entire length of this season with knee pain that still doesn’t appear to have a solution.
In terms of Lonzo, it is good for him that these issues did not fully hit him before he signed his second contract in the league. While it is bad for the Bulls that this happened, at least the Ball brother got paid before his career has come into doubt.
This is another bad sign for the Bulls who have had a disappointing season. They may be able to make the play-in tournament but in the best-case realistic scenario the Bulls have an early first-round exit (I think we can all agree they aren’t beating the Bucks or Celtics) and a grim future ahead with the decision looming to pay Nikola Vucevic this summer or signal the end of the DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine era.
NBA news: Jacque Vaughn’s contract extended
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Nets have extended head coach Jacque Vaughn’s contract after he replaced Steve Nash early in the season. Vaughn has done an excellent job this season turning around a squad with major problems into a championship contender until their All-NBA players requested trades. This gives Vaughn security for the next couple of years.
Brooklyn may be able to stay in the playoff or at the least qualify for the play-in but this team will not be a championship contender this season. This team has a lot of options to do this summer in terms of direction but it seems at the very least they will not be going into a full rebuild. Still, I would expect everyone but Ben Simmons (due to his bad contract) to be available in trade talks this summer.
NBA news: Nate McMillian fired
After a disappointing season so far for the Hawks, head coach Nate McMillian has been fired. Atlanta’s 29-30 record is not where they thought they would be going into the year after trading for Dejounte Murray.
The team is at weird and bad crossroads currently as Trae Young is the mostly likely All-NBA player to request a trade this summer and this would leave Murray without a counterpart, which is very inconvenient due to the fact that he only has one more year left on his deal. The Hawks didn’t really make a big move at the deadline (they made a minor move of adding Saddiq Bey) and kept the off-again on-again marriage of John Collins and Young still intact.
Joe Prunty will be the interim head coach for the Hawks and they are expected to go after former Utah Jazz head coach Quin Synder in the offseason, according to Woj. No matter who the Hawks go with, the next head coach will have a lot to do as Woj reported the Hawks want someone who can help with “player development, accountability and getting Hawks offense and defense into league’s Top 10” in order to meet the qualifications of the search.
The accountability seems to be a dig at Trae Young who publicly feuded with McMillan. The player development seems to be hinting at the fact that at least publicly want to keep their young-ish core together.
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