What’s Going On: Coach talk, Starbury and the Return of Sub-.300 shooters.

By Christopher Sells
12.16.2008 - Updated on 12.16.2008

First off, last night’s highlights in case you missed them:

Now, some other news tidbits...
The Cavs reportedly want Shawn Marion
There are rumors that Cleveland wants to send Wally Szczczczerbiak and Sideshow Varejao to Miami for Shawn Marion. It makes sense for both sides, actually. Miami gets an actual big man and an expiring contract, Cleveland gets actual talent and an expiring contract in case it’s a bad fit. Of course, you don’t usually mess with a team that is playing as well as the Cavs are. But it worked for Philadelphia in ’01, so maybe they should pull the trigger.

Theus is out
In case you missed it, Reggie Theus got the ax yesterday. Even though he had the Kings within sniffing distance of .500 last year and saw management trade his best player in the offseason, apparently he was expected to produce some sort of on-court quality with his new best player injured and a bunch of role players trying to fill in. I don’t mind coaches getting fired, but can you at least have a better plan in place if you’re going to do it? There are too many interim coaches that I’ve never even heard of.

You’re next, McHale
Kevin McHale was forced into coaching a week or so ago and the Timberwolves haven’t really done any better than they were doing before. He says that will come in time, but had some other thoughts about his now jobless peers:

"I think you’re going to see more and more shorter term stuff in our league," [McHale] said. "Just because the access now, there’s so much media availability and everything else. There’s just so many bloggers; everybody’s got an opinion. There’s all kinds of stuff going on. Sometimes that starts forming the opinion of people in front offices, too, and owner. It’s been kind of a crazy year so far."

Sure, blame us. You know how us internet-types like to get in the ears of team presidents and owners. While I’ve got your attention Mr. Owner, you should hire me. Or it could be that the higher-ups just didn’t like the direction the team was headed and decided to make a change. Don’t be scared, Kevin. You’ve been working on borrowed time anyway, just take it like a man when you get canned later this season.

Jack, Denzel, Dyan... Starbury?
There’s a rumor circulating that Stephon Marbury might get to attend the Knicks/Lakers game tonight. In a non-working capacity, of course. Steph might buy himself a courtside seat to the game since the Knicks have told him to stay away. I love it. It’s a hilarious story and it sounds exactly like something he’d do. But I can’t believe that the Knicks would allow this to happen. It would be the ultimate distraction. They’re probably answering questions about it as we speak. First they got to deal with D’Antoni’s return to Phoenix, now this. I heart NY.

Because they don’t have fours
Antoine Walker thinks he’ll be getting a buyout soon from Memphis, for whom he hasn’t played a single minute this year, and he’ll start looking for a new team. I’m not sure anyone’s really interested, but someone will probably figure that it can’t hurt to bring him in at the veteran’s minimum.