The Give and Go: Bill Simmons' Entertaining as Hell Tournament Comes to Life

Credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.

Chris:  For those who don’t know what Bill Simmons’ Entertaining as Hell Tournament is you can read a fairly detailed description here.   

The quick version: every team that isn’t going to make the playoffs, plus the current 8-seeds in each conference, are thrown into a post-season tournament. Winner gets the 8-seed in either the East or West.

Mitchell, if this tournament existed this season, who wins it? Who is the MVP? What’s the biggest upset? And what are the top-5 hypothetical moments that will come to define this tournament’s inaugural season?

Five Fake Trades

NBA.com

1. Brooklyn trades Kevin Garnett and Alan Anderson to Portland for Thomas Robinson, Joel Freeland, and Meyers Leonard

Episode 052 - (Let's See Some) Trades!

Chris and Paul spend the entirety of Episode 52 thinking of trades that should happen before the NBA’s trade deadline on February 19th (but probably won’t), and the teams and players that need a trade the most.

Worth a click:

Rebuilding 102: Year 2 of Sam Hinkie's Philadelphia 76ers (Chris St. Jean, Basketball Society)

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist's jump shot, voice remain a work in progress (Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated)

The Fatalist (Louisa Thomas, Grantland)

Time for Your Western Conference Wake-Up Call: Don't Sleep on the Clippers! (Zach Lowe, The Triangle/Grantland)

The Give and Go: What Are the Kings Doing?

Photo Credit: Max Whittaker

The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.

Chris:  

The Kings recently fired Mike Malone amid all kinds of controversy that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports has been all over.  

First, Adrian reported the firing, noting Malone was ‘hired before D'Alessandro on June 3, 2013’ and that Malone disagreed with D’Alessandro about playing style and the potential Josh Smith trade.  He also linked George Karl and Vinny Del Negro to the opening, essentially declaring interim head coach Ty Corbin a lame duck candidate.

Second, Adrian profiled the Malone-Kings relationship in more depth leading off with a specific disagreement about Royce White.  This also had more details about the Josh Smith disagreement and painted Malone as someone with a reputation for being volatile, but ‘had grown in the Kings job, worked to curb those shortcomings and built a strong bond and trust within his locker room.’  It also again linked George Karl to the job and added his motivation for doing so (Karl didn’t squash the rumors).

Lastly, Adrian reported Tuesday, that Chris Mullin (an ‘ownership adviser’ for the Kings) is basically the front runner for the job.

So, Mitchell, what in the world is going on in Sacramento?  Was it a mistake to fire Mike Malone or just a mistake that it wasn’t done last off-season?  And who should the Kings hire as their next coach?  Ty Corbin?  George Karl? Chris Mullin?  Someone else?

#8 - Sacramento Kings

Rockey Widner/Getty Images

What I’d Do:

Marcus Smart – Oklahoma State

6’3” (6’9.25” wingspan), 227 lbs., 03/06/1994 (20 years old)

I promised myself if I had to write up the Sacramento Kings’s offseason and draft situation I would only mention the Rudy Gay/player option drama once. I’ll try to make it quick.