For the third time in a year, ESPN must figure out what to do with its top NBA announcing team.
Instead of opting for a flashy name, the network should select Tim Legler to work alongside venerable play-by-play man Mike Breen and trailblazer Doris Burke.
After laying off Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson last summer, ESPN tabbed Doc Rivers to work alongside Breen and Burke this season.
However, Rivers bolted for the head coaching job at the Bucks mid-season, to be replaced by JJ Redick, who’s now himself leaving to coach the Lakers.
Frankly, neither exit this year qualifies as a tragedy.
Earlier this week, Scott Van Pelt gave Legler a hearty sendoff, noting that their longtime collaboration on midnight “SportsCenter” could be coming to an end.
“NBA fans get that this dude is the best there is, and I don’t want to lose you, but if we lose you some because you’re out there doing games that would be cool with me, because you’re not good at this, man, you’re great at this,” Van Pelt told Legler. “Nobody’s better at talking basketball than Tim Legler.”
While this segment was widely interpreted to mean Legler could be leaving the network, sources told The Post that is not necessarily the case.
Rather, Legler and ESPN are currently in discussions for a new contract, one source said.
Legler is also slated to be a color commentator on ESPN’s Summer League coverage, which kicks off in July.
For years, Legler has wanted to do more games, but ESPN decision-makers resisted giving him a bigger workload onsite as he is so valuable in studio, particularly with Van Pelt.
However, ESPN leadership has warmed up to the idea of him calling more games, sources said.
An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.
Legler would be a great fit with Breen and Burke because he is so adept at communicating basketball nuances in a concise manner, drawing attention to what’s actually happening on the court — as opposed to himself.
Networks place a high value on hiring former players and coaches as analysts after they had Hall of Fame and/or championship pedigree.
While Legler was not a superstar as a player — he never made an All-Star team — and does not have any rings, he is supremely pleasant to listen to as a broadcaster.
He was excellent when he got tabbed as a color commentator on Game 3 of Nuggets-Timberwolves this past May.
There are a couple other options for ESPN if they choose to remain in-house.
Richard Jefferson could get a look.
Another plausible scenario is that ESPN opts to keep the team as a two-person booth with Breen and Burke.
The two worked together for a number of years before this season when Jackson and Van Gundy were not on with Breen, and had great chemistry.
It didn’t work out so great adding Rivers or Redick with them — for whatever reason the chemistry never blossomed in those three-person booths.
From outside of ESPN, Chris Webber would be a solid darkhorse candidate.
Webber is a Hall of Famer who is a talented broadcaster, having previously worked alongside the great Marv Albert at TNT.
He is currently a free agent as he parted ways with TNT right before the 2021 playoffs.
Chris Paul joined ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” as a studio analyst early in these past playoffs and one would imagine he’s a possible candidate for this job, but he said in April that he isn’t retiring.
He has 30 million reasons not to stop playing — the Warriors owe him that much next season.
Dwyane Wade would come to mind, as he is working as a color commentator for Team USA basketball on NBC at the Olympics this summer.
However, this role has been widely speculated as a tryout for him to work on their top announce team in the likely event that the NBA on NBC returns in 2025.
Charles Barkley would be a fantastic option for ESPN to add buzz to the booth, but there’s still at least another year of the NBA on TNT.
That reason would also disqualify Stan Van Gundy, as would the fact that he just eviscerated the network for how they treated his brother on the way out.
