Latest news with #TheBigNumber
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
The 2025-26 Clippers could become the oldest team in NBA history
With 40-year-old Chris Paul officially in the fold, the 2025-26 Clippers are on track to be the oldest team in NBA history with an average age of 33.2 years old, as noted by Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh on the latest episode of "The Big Number" NBA podcast. Oldest teams since the merger: 2025-26 Clippers: 33.2 (weighted for playing time) 2000-01 Jazz: 32.0 1997-98 Rockets: 32.0 1997-98 Bulls: 31.7 1999-00 Jazz: 31.5 What they're saying: "The Hakeem Rockets, the Jordan Bulls, the Stockton and Malone Jazz … these were the most ancient NBA teams ever … and they look like children compared to this Clippers team," said Haberstroh. Roster breakdown: Paul is expected to be part of a core Clippers rotation that also includes James Harden (who will be 37 by the start of next season), Brook Lopez (37), Nicolas Batum (36), Kawhi Leonard (34), Bogdan Bogdanović (33), Bradley Beal (32) and Kris Dunn (31). Zigging when others are zagging: The Clippers plan to trot out a historically old squad during a time when the NBA is getting younger and more athletic. Look no further than the 2025 NBA Finals, which featured the lowest average age on record (25.5 years old) and crowned the youngest champion (24.7) in a half-century. It's a bold strategy, to say the least. Here's Tom: "It's such a different roster than where the league seems to be headed. … If you look at age trends over the last decade or so, older teams are winning more in the regular season, but the further you go into the postseason, it gets younger and younger than in previous generations. So I feel like this Clippers team is built for the No. 1 or No. 2 seed … but not necessarily for winning the title." Watch: Full episode (YouTube)
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Clippers may be deep, but could age be their downfall?
Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstron and NBA writer Dan Devine break down L.A.'s series of offseason signings - what has pushed the team's average age to a historic level. Hear the full conversation on 'The Big Number' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript This week's big number is 33.2. That's the average age: 33 years old of the Los Angeles Clippers roster if the players log as many minutes as they did last season. OK, so. That's really old, OK. The oldest team in NBA history, if this happens as it did last year. Wow. I looked this up. The oldest team on record, according to basketball reference age tracking is the 200, 2001 Utah Jazz with John Stockton, Brian Russell, Karl Malone. That team had an average age of 32. This Clippers team is at 33.2, Dan. So, like, way beyond what we've seen from any of the oldest teams, all the gray beards, all the old heads of your. This Clippers team is older than any of those. They got a pretty full roster now that they've added, uh, Brook Lopez and John Collins and Bradley Beal, and then Chris Paul is sort of like the finishing, although I, I think they still do have one roster spot available, so I don't know. The, the interesting thing to me is in a league, and we've talked about this, we'll probably talk about it some more moving forward. Like, it feels like we're moving younger, right? Like we just had the conversation about the Oklahoma City Thunder, we had the conversations about the Indiana Pacers, about the age of those rosters, the depth of those rosters, the style of play, all those sorts of things. And Lawrence Frank, the president of basketball operations with the Clippers, was like, listen, we're just trying to get the best players. We need to get the best players possible and who are available to us. And at this point, you know, based on who we could get, you know, we didn't think that Brook Lopez was going to be available. We didn't think we're gonna be able to get John Collins. We didn't had no idea Bradley Beal was gonna, uh, you know, reach the open market on a buyout. We had no idea Chris Paul was gonna be available in the 3rd week of free agency, the end of July. And so we're going to get the best players we can that fit with our style. They've put themselves in that position where it's really interesting. This might be the deepest roster in the league right now. But also, as you say, pretty comfortably the oldest, and those two things don't necessarily seem like they go together. Close
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Have the Sixers reached the end of the road with Embiid, George?
Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss Philadelphia's strategy with its oft-injured superstars and if it's time for the team to part ways with both. Hear the full conversation on 'The Big Number' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript I'll just go ahead and say it. I think they need to move on from the Paul George uh timeline and just go with the kids. I think, I think it has come to that point, but the problem is, no matter how much they would like to move on from this and say we need to go full youth movement, it isn't really up to them. It's up to other teams who are really like looking at these contracts with Paul George and Joel Embiid. And determining whether those are plus value assets and what it would take for them to take on Joel Embiid's contract, which will pay him. A ton of money going forward, and as long as Joel Embiid and Paul George are on this team, and with all those question marks around their knees and their health questions and their ability to gel together, we don't even know if they can play well together, in that chemistry. They paid that big three $136 million last season. They played 15 games together, which if you do the math, carry the two. That's $9 million per game that those big three played together. So over the next three seasons, we're looking at a situation in which this coming year, they got $145 million on the books dedicated to those three, 153 in 2026, 2027, and if Paul George picks up that player option, that fourth year of his player option, that will be $163 million that are allocated to those three players. Yeah, like well over 90% of the salary cap for each of the next three years. I mean, this was, this was the bet they made, right? They are stuck, they are stuck in this in-between of we've made our firm commitment to this build. And also, we are backfilling, because again, if you're paying more than 90% of your cap to three guys, you've got to find the other talent somewhere else, and you've got like the kids have to be all right. Close
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Could a familiar face be the Knicks next head coach?
Could a familiar face be the Knicks next head coach? | The Big Number Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss New York's search for its next leader after the dismissal of Tom Thibodeau and why former associate head coach Johnnie Bryant may be the favorite for the job. Hear the full conversation on 'The Big Number' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Another team is trying to win it all next year, maybe. Advertisement The New York Knicks were not happy with Tom Thibodeaux's job presumably, uh, obviously, is that the fact that they just let him go on Tuesday, uh, Tom Thibodeau out as the New York Knicks head coach. I've written about it, you've written about it. Um, this is a really interesting story. The fact that it was so soon after the Eastern Conference, uh, Defeat against the Indiana Pacers, it lends me to believe that they have someone in mind, right? It lends me to believe that like, look, we have our guy that we really want to pursue here and we wanna get him before some other team does, but I wonder, Dan. Advertisement Of the candidates that we've thrown out there, whether it's Jay Wright or Michael Malone, or as I, I put in there as kind of a, could you imagine if they hired John Calipari uh out of the college ranks, Carl Anthony Towns is former coach very close with the uh with Leon. Rose and World Wide West. Johnny becomes a very interesting candidate here, Johnny Bryant, uh, Mark Stein also reporting that Jason Kidd and Eme Udoka also said to have interest drawing from the New York Knicks, but the Johnny Bride story, uh, I feel like. Do you fire Tom Thibodeaux and then hire his associate, his assistant coach, worried that maybe the Suns would get him first? Do you make that move to preempt uh Johnny Bryant getting hired by the Phoenix Suns? I don't know, but this is getting very interesting.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Suns hire Jordan Ott - why it's no surprise
Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss Phoenix's choice to be its new head coach and why governor Mat Ishbia's ties to Michigan State may have played a role in the decision. Hear the full conversation on 'The Big Number' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Look man, when they did that coaching search, and they had a list of like 25 candidates, and I, I literally said, is there one that went to Michigan State? Advertisement cause that person is getting the job. And sure enough, not to discredit Jordan not, he's been around the league for a long time, but like the way that Matt Isa has run this team, selecting Brian Gregory, a former college coach to be his GM. Michigan State assistant coach to be his GM, it reminds me of the Charlotte Hornets under Michael Jordan when he hired Mitch Kupchak, former Chapel Hill guy, uh, UNC guy, Mitch Mitch Kupchak to be his GM and Buzz Peterson, Michael Jordan's roommate at college to be the assistant GM. It just feels like that recipe of of. Of hiring your buddies, hiring your college buddies, isn't necessarily a recipe for success, but it is something you can do as an owner. Advertisement Like, you pay $4 billion for this team. You want to take care of your guys, your buddies, you're more than welcome to do that. That is within your right. I just don't think that that is necessarily a recipe for success. And we've already seen. That Kevin Durant is reportedly gonna be shot this summer and might be on the trade block. It's not the first time that like friends have hired friends into the front office. We just saw over there in in in Utah that Danny Ainge, the CEO of the Utah Jazz, are hiring Austin Ainge, his son, to run the basketball ops for the team. So like keeping things all in the family, that's always been true in the NBA previous to the Jordan not higher. Advertisement The Phoenix Suns went with Monty Williams, who brought them to an NBA Finals. They went with Frank Vogel, who won an NBA championship. They went with Mike Budenhouser, who won an NBA championship. None of that worked, so why not get a guy who went to the same school as you? Like, if, if we're, if we're the, the process of going, like, we need somebody with championship experience, if that's not panning out, then try something different. Who knows? I I don't know, 40 year old guy with some good references and who went to the same school as me. Sure, what the hell? Why not? Let's give it a shot. Devin Booker, you like him? Advertisement Great. Sounds tremendous. Uh, you know, who knows? Uh, the, the, the process and the and the, the approach in the last few years in Phoenix has left something to be desired, a different process. Sure, why not? Tough stuff over there in Phoenix, but, uh, congrats to Jordan not on the, on the gig, uh, curious to see how that goes.
