This year’s free agency/trading window has the potential to be wild and upend the league. Clippers have to make very good decisions, which they did last summer (they just messed up at the trading deadline).

There are many options out there, but the chance to get a credible #4, credible backup #1 and a solid backup #5 are there for the taking.

The fact that they’re not wedded to keeping Norm is a good sign.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/shes-coaching-edge-nba-history-and-asking-why-not

Turned out that was a Carlisle stroke of genius. So I’ll throw this out for discussion: Would TyLue have made that same call? I think not–as he usually goes the conservative route and wants to talk about things. Cudos to RCarlisle. And speaking of Carlisle, who’s that attractive blond gal assistant coach who seems very active on that staff?

We’ve seen this many times over the years where a burgeoning dynasty blows game 1 and they roar back and steamroll to the title anyway. But this felt like an actual strategy by Carlisle to use hockey substations to wear them down and steal it late. They turned the ball over 24 times but their transition D on those turnovers was the special. Siakam got to any spot he wanted and missed normally great looks for him. I don’t expect that to be the case in game 2.

Dort was unconscious from 3 and Shai–although not that efficient—had a monster game too. If they’d simply been flat and the Pacers played out of their minds it wouldn’t be that noteworthy. But Indiana can play a LOT better than this and I’m not sure OKC has that much better of a game in them. At least there’s some intrigue now in what we all expected to be a lopsided finals.