With the opening of NBA training camps just one week away, Mannix and Beck open the Mailbag to answer listener questions on John Wall, coaches in the hot seat, teams likely to disappoint, early trade chatter, an early look at the Wizards and more.
With the opening of NBA training camps just one week away, Mannix and Beck open the Mailbag to answer listener questions on John Wall, coaches in the hot seat, teams likely to disappoint, early trade chatter, an early look at the Wizards and more.
The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Howard Beck: Who's on the hot seat? Who has some pressure on them? Luke Walton has to be the top of that list, in part because of a new-ish front office, and in part because he's been there for a few years and they haven't really made much perceptible progress. So that seems obvious. But the other thing, too, is like when we talk about coaches and who's on the hot seat and who to keep an eye on, I mean, there are, what, eight new coaches this season ... nine ... and several who just got settled into place a year ago, and we've got another handful of coaches that are just secure. There really aren't that many places to look for coaches that are in danger. So it's almost Luke Walton by default.
And, look, it's hard for a new front office when you inherit a team. You can't make major changes right off the bat usually, because you're usually capped out, as that front office is. Coach is one thing they can do, and they've stuck by Luke Walton and they've been very public about that. But, everybody's got a limit.
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