NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Lakers Considering Hollins
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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Lionel Hollins has emerged as a candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers’ coaching job, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Lakers management plans to interview Hollins later this week, league sources said.
After meeting with Mike Dunleavy and Byron Scott last week, it seems the Lakers are now turning their attention to Lionel Hollins.
Hollins spent this past season out of the league after being fired from the Memphis Grizzlies last offseason. In the 2012-13 season, the Grizzlies went 56-26 under Hollins and lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. Despite the team’s success, Hollins was fired after reportedly butting heads with management throughout the season.
The Lakers’ interest in Hollins may stem from a few different considerations. First, Hollins is known as an old school, defensive minded coach, which should appeal to Kobe Bryant. It was reported that Bryant wanted Tom Thibodeau to take over in Los Angeles, but the likelihood is that he will stay with the Chicago Bulls. With Thibodeau likely unavailable, Hollins is as similar of a coach as can be found on the open market. Secondly, Hollins managed to create a culture and defensive identity in Memphis in his five seasons there. The Lakers currently lack an identity as Kobe enters his final two years in the league, and the roster is being rebuilt. Hollins can create a defensive philosophy in Los Angeles, and feature Bryant as a focal point in a slow paced, post based offense, while developing the younger talent.
Hollins may not be a perfect fit, but his candidacy makes sense. Expect more candidates to surface in the weeks leading up to the draft.
Shelly Sterling will meet with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Sunday afternoon … and the subject of the meeting is selling the Clippers … TMZ Sports has learned.
We’re told Shelly sees the handwriting on the wall — the NBA wants the team sold — but she wants to do it on her terms. She and her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, have been secretly meeting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to see if they can reach an agreement whereby Shelly has the right to voluntarily sell the team.
via TMZ
On Friday, TMZ broke the news that Donald Sterling had agreed to hand over authority to his wife, Shelly Sterling, to negotiate a forced sale of the Los Angeles Clippers. On Sunday, TMZ reported that Shelly Sterling would meet with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer regarding the sale of the team.
The league has maintained that it will proceed with its formal removal proceedings of Sterling, and will hold a hearing on June 3. However, it seems that Shelly Sterling wants to at least have input on the sale of the team, and may have a preference to sell to Ballmer. Ballmer has strong ties to the Seattle area, and on several occasions has tried to purchase a team to move to Seattle. However, Ballmer recently told the Wall Street Journal that if he bought the Clippers, he would keep them in Los Angeles. Ballmer stated that he recognizes that the Clippers have tremendous value in Los Angeles and it would devalue the team to move them.
This is all still preliminary, however. The league will have final say on the terms of the sale, and would likely make any sale contingent on keeping the team in Los Angeles.
Whoa: Dave Joerger, per source, has declined the Timberwolves’ offer and will remain coach in Memphis.
The details surrounding Dave Joerger’s potential move to the Minnesota Timbewolves have been somewhat of a mystery. At first, it seemed that Memphis wanted to move on from Joerger after just one season as head coach, and a move to Minnesota was all but final. However, on Sunday, the Grizzlies unexpectedly announced that Joerger would stay on as head coach moving forward.
Grizzlies owner Robert Pera took to Twitter to answer questions from fans after recent shake ups in the front office, and retaining Joerger.
“I think Dave is a great coach,” Pera tweeted. “But, personnel has to want to be in Memphis. I know now Dave 100% wants to be here.”
Earlier reports suggested that Pera and other Memphis officials were not thrilled with Joerger and wanted to bring in someone more experienced and accomplished. Now, Pera is saying that he just wanted to be sure Joerger wanted to be in Memphis.
Another issue was compensation. The Grizzlies wanted the Timberwolves to surrender a second round pick as compensation for releasing Joerger from his contract. Marc Stein of ESPN reported that the two teams could not come to an agreement, which led to Joerger staying in Memphis. The details remain unclear, but what is clear is that Joerger will be back in Memphis next season and the search for a coach in Minnesota continues.
