Serge Ibaka still hasn't practiced with the Thunder. (USATSI)
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As we wait to find out whether or not Serge Ibaka will be able to play for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, we probably need to see whether or not he'll practice with the team. Ibaka was ruled out of the rest of the playoffs prior to Game 1 against the San Antonio Spurs with a calf injury, but there have been rumors of him possibly returning to the Thunder sometime in the next couple games to give them a bit of life.
As of Saturday when the Thunder addressed the media, Ibaka hadn't practiced with his teammates. However, he did some work with the OKC training staff and is day-to-day with his calf injury. There's a possibility he'll be back on the court Sunday night when the Thunder host the Spurs and look to avoid an 0-3 hole in the series. From Daily Thunder:
Ibaka said he has not practiced or even run yet, but confirmed he remains day-to-day with his calf strain.
“Right now I'm waiting for the team doctor to confirm, and also it's depending on whether I will go tomorrow, day by day, and see,” he said. “I'm waiting what the doctor going to tell me and how my body going to feel. So day by day, let's see how I'm going to wake up tomorrow.”
One interesting thing Ibaka said, though, was that he wasn't as much concerned with the risk of re-injury or a full tear, as much as it's about pain tolerance.
Ibaka has had a profound impact on the floor against the Spurs over the past couple seasons, turning them away at the rim and making the athletic advantage for the Thunder something veyr hard for the Spurs to overcome. But without him on the floor in Game 1 and Game 2 of the 2014 Western Conference finals, San Antonio has had their way offensively with the Thunder. Ibaka getting back on the floor could give Oklahoma City a much needed boost and if he's able to play similar to how we're used to seeing, the Thunder might be able to make a series of this.
We won't know about Ibaka's status until right before game time, but Scott Brooks did say he was thinking about a possible lineup change. Hopefully, that will involve Ibaka being healthy enough to play and inserted into the starting unit.
Basketball Hot News
Report: Grizzlies may chase Jeff Van Gundy for coach. Good luck with that.
In the past two years the small market Memphis Grizzlies have fired their popular coach and pushed aside their front office guys to make room for more analytics-driven new front office guys, then fired a couple of those new guys and told the second coach he can go look for a new job in Minnesota (Memphis will give up a second round pick to get rid of the coach, the deal is close to being done).
That’s a lot of change and instability. So who do they want now to provide that solid foundation now?
Jeff Van Gundy.
I want Kate Beckinsale to pull up in a Maserati Spyder for our date tonight. About the same odds of happening. But the Grizzlies are going to try to pull him out of the cushy broadcast booth gig to go to one of the NBA’s smallest markets, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
Sources told ESPN.com that the Grizzlies have serious interest in trying to convince Van Gundy to serve as coach and team president in a job structure modeled after the new dual role brother Stan Van Gundy has secured with the Detroit Pistons.
Jeff Van Gundy’s interest in that sort of undertaking — or the Grizzlies specifically in the wake of all their recent turmoil — is unclear, with the former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach and current ESPN analyst consistent in his reluctance to publicly discuss job openings.
I can think of eight to nine million reasons this is not going to work out.
Stan Van Gundy and Doc Rivers recently got the “president and coach” job gigs and both got $7 million a year. If you are going to pull Jeff Van Gundy out of a cushy television gig to do this your offer needs to start at $8 million a year for four or five years and be willing to go up from there. That’s a lot of money for a small market team to be spending on a coach. Too much if you care about the bottom line.
That doesn’t even begin to touch on the odds Jeff leaves the broadcast booth for the Grizzlies. I mean, great barbecue in Memphis and all, but it’s going to take a lot more than that. Would you want to work for a boss who has shifted front office personnel and priorities like that?
Memphis is a tempting job for some coaches because there is legit talent there, the problem is Zach Randolph is a free agent this summer and Marc Gasol next summer. There is a lot of risk there.
It’s just not a job Jeff Van Gundy would leave the booth for.
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