13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts – NBA End of Season

Make sure to listen and add the 13 Rules: NBA Random Thoughts podcast to your list! This week, the NBA End of Season, Steve shares his thoughts after the conclusion of the 2024-25 NBA Season.

NBA End of Season – Western Conference

• Mike Buderholzer’s firing by the Phoenix Suns is another step in one of the quickest descensions from the top of the mountain. Keep in mind Budenholzer coached the Milwaukee Bucks to the title in 2021. The Bucks fired him two years later and after a year off the Phoenix Suns hired him only to again be fired. The knock this time was his players quit on him. Couple that with the knocks from Milwaukee that he was slow to make in game adjustments, remember the lost series against the Miami Heat. Budenholzer will get paid because he has four more years at $10 million a year coming to him so nobody should feel sorry for him but it looks like it will will be difficult for him to be a head coach again. Of course crazy things can happen and somebody might hire him.
• Kevin Durant should be remembered as the second best player of this generation. Unfortunetly he has a great deal of baggage that people may remember instead. This is a guy who was MVP when he played the Oklahoma City Thunder and was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics. Who remembers that? Instead we think of him as a guy that that moved from team to team other through free agency or asking to traded. He signed with the Golden State Warriors and it was said he did it to win a time. Stars like him should have played on one or two teams in their career. As great as he is, when he retires is there a team that can retire his number? Their have been lesser players teams built statues for.
• The fall of the Sacramento Kings is another sad NBA story. Two years ago the “Light the Beam” team enjoyed a renaissance in Sacramento and they had the third best record in the Western Conference. This year they were knocked out of the Play-in game. They have fired their coach and General Manager. This after both received awards for leading the Kings two years ago. The team has some good players but don’t seem to play together well. It may be time to tear it down.
• The New Orleans Pelicans fired David Griffin and hired Joe Dumars this week, Dumars was the architect of the Detroit Pistons last title in 2004. The Pelicans are a team with an arena that is sub-standard and an owner that doesn’t want to allow her team to get into paying the tax. The question for New Orleans is, what does Dumars do with Zion Williamson and does Wille Green retum?
• On the positive side you have to give credit to the Dallas Mavericks players and coaching staff. This was an ownership and their general manager deservingly maligned for the Luka Doncic trade. The team then watched Kyrie Irving, their best player, tear his ACL. Yet despite these problems the out-manned team went out and got in the Play-in tournament.

NBA End of Season – Eastern Conference

• Speaking of tear downs the NBA has a new name for insanity, the Chicago Bulls. Each year they do the same thing, get in the Play-in game. They don’t get better or worse. I don’t know how the fans and ownership could be happy with the situation.
• Another problem team, the Atlanta Hawks. They have stuck with Trae Young all these years, he will be 27 years old when the 25-26 season begins. They dealt De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic this year, two good offensive players that could help them. What they are trying to do? I can’t figure out. Are they at the point where they look to deal Young while he still has value.