A few Friday night NBA observations
1) I will start this one by saying that I still believe that Carmelo Anthony was the 2003-04 NBA Rookie of the Year, not the guy who won the award, LeBron James. And Anthony has improved tremedously since then and is a borderline franchise type of player right now. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, as things currently stand now, Anthony isn't a pimple on Lebron James' backside.
James is so athletically dominant, he can pretty much do whatever he wants on the court. He is currently more of a threat off the dribble in the halfcourt than Kobe Bryant. Please go back and read that last sentence again. He came into the league with so much hype, I desperately wanted to despise him. But his talent is boundless. He is not far away from being the best player in the NBA. His problem is that it does not appear that the Cavs have provided him with the right coach to partner up with.
LeBron has the ability to average 35 points a game. If he does that, the Cavs would probably miss the playoffs. The challenge that coach Mike Brown has in front of him is not an easy one, but I do not think he is doing a great job. Most coaches who have superstars tend to coach less and partner up more with superstars. Phil Jackson has created a legacy out of partnering up with superstars, but I digress. With James, Brown has to do both. His superstar/partner is the one that needs the most coaching. For the Cavaliers to fulfill their potential, he needs to teach a 20 year old James concepts that Michael Jordan didn't learn until he turned 30.
Firstly, James need to be one of the guys. He's too young to be an isolated superstar. His veteran teammates will resent him. A public spat with Larry Hughes doesn't help anything. It probably sounds unfair, but thats on the coach. Hughes' bad attitude and James' immaturity notwithstanding, these are your two best players. Hughes is making 13 million a year to head up LeBron's supporting cast. Squeezing Hughes on minutes in crunch time proves nothing and creates bad feelings. A very valuable simple premise of coaching commonly repeated by Jeff Van Gundy, get your best players on the floor when it matters the most.
The second point is that Brown needs to make LeBron understand that if he shoots less and passes more, the Cavs will win more. In the games so far this year that James has had 9 assists or more, the Cavs are 3-0 . In the games so far this year that LeBron has shot the ball 25 times or more, the Cavs are 0-6. He is such a talented passer and so hard to guard off the dribble, there is no reason for him to ever take a perimeter jumper off the dribble. Also, if LeBron's teammates like him more, he'll probably pass to them more. With that said, Brown is in a tough spot. Odds are LeBron will probably not learn this lesson until there is a coach partnering up with him who is wearing some jewelry.
2) So it seems like Ron Artest is getting the TO treatment for the media. But NBA general managers are somewhat smarter. Indiana pacer president Donnie Walsh reported today that he was encouraged that he got 12-15 offers. My question is whats wrong with the other 15 general managers.
The way I see it, there are only two teams in the entire NBA that should not be getting Walsh on the phone, San Antonio and Detroit. And the reason is simple, neither of these teams need to undertake the risk of trading for a psycho. But Artest would be an enormous help to every other team in the league.
As you've probably already surmised, I watch a lot of basketball, There is definitely an intensity crisis in the league. This guy is the most intense player in the league between the lines, and that includes practice. The whole league needs a guy this intense. If you're the Bulls, don't you trade Ben Gordon and Nocioni for him. If you're the Nets, wouldn't you take Artest and Jeff Foster for Vince Carter?? I guarantee guys wouldn't be laughing in the locker room after a 20 point loss.
The best teams in the NBA all have one big time perimeter defender that can make the best players in the elague work very hard for their points. The Spurs have Bruce Bowen. The Pistons have Tayshaun Prince. The Heat went out in the offseason and got themselves James Posey, who they hope can fill that role. One of the main reasons the Pacers are a title contender is because they have Artest.
Now Artest has put the Pacers in an impossible position by publicly demanding a trade. They will have trouble getting full value because he forced their hand, and his well earned reputation doesn't help. But he's the type of player whose value shows up in the most important of statistical categories, the win column.
3) As a follow up to an NBA prediction I made 6 weeks ago: It looks like I might have been dead wrong about the Nets.
Firstly, it seems like Richard Jefferson is a little too concerned with keeping up with Vince Carter offensively, he's forgetting what got him his max contract, defense. It seems like night in and night out, the best perimeter player on the other team keeps lighting him up. And Vince Carter is starting more and more to the lazy, jump shooter the Raptors traded. Combine that with a 33 year old Jason Kidd and a big man rotation that is thin and not physical, and you've got a team thats two games below .500. They may get lucky and get a 3 seed because their division is a disgrace, but I'm issuing my mea culpa now. This is not a team that advances deep in the playoffs.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
These are the sports related items that are annoying me on this cold winter Monday night.
1) Tony Dungy- His team is on the verge of making history and he stands there in press conferences like his just saw his dog get hit by a car. And what about this nonsense that he may sit his starters while his team is undefeated. Is he nuts?? This team has a chance to be a team for the ages that runs the table in the era of parity and he's coaching them scared. There's no doubt in my mind that this team has what it takes to go undefeated. My question is whether their coach has the intestinal fortitude to get them there. If I was a player on that team and heard his pensive noncommital drone, I'd wonder a little bit about my leader. The Colts have proved they can kick everyone's butt and their most improtant butt kicking time is coming up soon. Coach Dungy, you've got a special team here. Its not enough to allow them to pursue greatness, you must implore them to.
2) Major League Baseball Owners- The next time there is a serious labor negotiation, no one in that sport should have the nerve to cry poor. The absurdity of major league contracts has never been worse. The owners would tell you that it isn't and point to things like we haven't seen contracts anywhere close to Manny Ramirez' or Alex Rodriguez', but the prices being paid for average major league baseball players are downright obscene. In the last two weeks, we've seen the Dodgers give 13 million dollars a year for 3 years to a leadoff hitting shortstop with a .284 career batting average(Rafael Furcal). The Bluejays gave 9 million dollars a year for 5 years to a 30 year old relief pitcher who has closed for exactly one season in the majors(B.J. Ryan). The Mets gave a 34 year old closer with a violent pitching motion 4 years at 11 million. Now, I like Billy Wagner, but they're paying him more per year than the Yankees pay Mariano Rivera and they're going to be paying him 11 million a year when he's 38. And the worst one I've seen was today. The San Francisco Giants decided that they were short on overpaid players in their thirties. You see, Moises Alou, Edgardo Alfonzo, Omar Vizquel, Ray Durham, and Jason Schmidt aren't enough. They had to have Matt Morris at 3 years and 27 million dollars. This is the 31 year old Matt Morris who has had serious shoulder surgery twice in his career and has not completed a season with an ERA under 4.00 since his last operation.
I hope the owners are proud of themselves. I'm sure MLB commissioner Bud Selig will tell us its progress because the Yankees and the Red Sox weren't buyers of any of these players. My answer will be, thats why the Yankees and the Red Sox are good every year.
3) Stan Van Gundy's resignation- Those who regularly read this space know that I am quite fond of Stan's coaching prowess. And I certainly got my panties in a bunch this summer when Riley casually mentioned to a reporter that he "wanted more control of the day to day operation." All this makes it that much tougher to swallow that Stan left this job on his own. I have a purely speculative theory. Shaq wanted him gone. To me thats the only explanantion. I don't think Stan would have left because coaching Shaq and Dwayne Wade together is a once in a lifetime coaching opportunity that a lifer like Stan most likely would not readily walk away from. If Riley pushed him out because he wanted the job himself, there would be no need for a cover story. Anyone who faxes in his resignation like Riley did in New York is totally comfortable being prtrayed as a classless backstabber. But Shaq is a different story. He's wildly popular nationally. He's a marketing machine and he's now positioned himself as a pillar in the community with his law enforcement work. But most importantly, he prides himself as the anti-Kobe. If he was on record as having run a respected coach off a great job because he didn't like the way he was being coached, his untarnished image could take a hit. And what may be more important to him than that, might be the lost ability to play the moral superiority card over Kobe to the media. Shaq is a master at managing the media and if he had a role in Stan's firing, and the media catches wind, he will lose that upper hand. For Riley, like it would be for anyone else, a happy Shaq makes a productive Shaq. That, and maybe Riles wanted to get back to the sidelines just a little bit..........
1) Tony Dungy- His team is on the verge of making history and he stands there in press conferences like his just saw his dog get hit by a car. And what about this nonsense that he may sit his starters while his team is undefeated. Is he nuts?? This team has a chance to be a team for the ages that runs the table in the era of parity and he's coaching them scared. There's no doubt in my mind that this team has what it takes to go undefeated. My question is whether their coach has the intestinal fortitude to get them there. If I was a player on that team and heard his pensive noncommital drone, I'd wonder a little bit about my leader. The Colts have proved they can kick everyone's butt and their most improtant butt kicking time is coming up soon. Coach Dungy, you've got a special team here. Its not enough to allow them to pursue greatness, you must implore them to.
2) Major League Baseball Owners- The next time there is a serious labor negotiation, no one in that sport should have the nerve to cry poor. The absurdity of major league contracts has never been worse. The owners would tell you that it isn't and point to things like we haven't seen contracts anywhere close to Manny Ramirez' or Alex Rodriguez', but the prices being paid for average major league baseball players are downright obscene. In the last two weeks, we've seen the Dodgers give 13 million dollars a year for 3 years to a leadoff hitting shortstop with a .284 career batting average(Rafael Furcal). The Bluejays gave 9 million dollars a year for 5 years to a 30 year old relief pitcher who has closed for exactly one season in the majors(B.J. Ryan). The Mets gave a 34 year old closer with a violent pitching motion 4 years at 11 million. Now, I like Billy Wagner, but they're paying him more per year than the Yankees pay Mariano Rivera and they're going to be paying him 11 million a year when he's 38. And the worst one I've seen was today. The San Francisco Giants decided that they were short on overpaid players in their thirties. You see, Moises Alou, Edgardo Alfonzo, Omar Vizquel, Ray Durham, and Jason Schmidt aren't enough. They had to have Matt Morris at 3 years and 27 million dollars. This is the 31 year old Matt Morris who has had serious shoulder surgery twice in his career and has not completed a season with an ERA under 4.00 since his last operation.
I hope the owners are proud of themselves. I'm sure MLB commissioner Bud Selig will tell us its progress because the Yankees and the Red Sox weren't buyers of any of these players. My answer will be, thats why the Yankees and the Red Sox are good every year.
3) Stan Van Gundy's resignation- Those who regularly read this space know that I am quite fond of Stan's coaching prowess. And I certainly got my panties in a bunch this summer when Riley casually mentioned to a reporter that he "wanted more control of the day to day operation." All this makes it that much tougher to swallow that Stan left this job on his own. I have a purely speculative theory. Shaq wanted him gone. To me thats the only explanantion. I don't think Stan would have left because coaching Shaq and Dwayne Wade together is a once in a lifetime coaching opportunity that a lifer like Stan most likely would not readily walk away from. If Riley pushed him out because he wanted the job himself, there would be no need for a cover story. Anyone who faxes in his resignation like Riley did in New York is totally comfortable being prtrayed as a classless backstabber. But Shaq is a different story. He's wildly popular nationally. He's a marketing machine and he's now positioned himself as a pillar in the community with his law enforcement work. But most importantly, he prides himself as the anti-Kobe. If he was on record as having run a respected coach off a great job because he didn't like the way he was being coached, his untarnished image could take a hit. And what may be more important to him than that, might be the lost ability to play the moral superiority card over Kobe to the media. Shaq is a master at managing the media and if he had a role in Stan's firing, and the media catches wind, he will lose that upper hand. For Riley, like it would be for anyone else, a happy Shaq makes a productive Shaq. That, and maybe Riles wanted to get back to the sidelines just a little bit..........
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the lengthy delay between entries.
There has been so much said about the Terrell Owens fiasco that, quite frankly, I've been hesitant to write about it. The reporting has been extremely one sided and its difficult to discuss a different type of angle on it because inevitably, it could make a writer sound like a TO apologist. And Michael Irvin has that market cornered ( along with a couple of others, according to the Dallas police). With that said, I'm going to pursue my angle and give it a shot.
Andy Reid has done an outstanding job of building a program in Philadelphia. He has sustained consistent year over year success, which is an extremely difficult to do in the modern NFL. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a football coach and evaluator of personnel. And if he is one day fortunate enough to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, there will be no mention of the 2005 season on his bust.
From the very beginning of the season, Reid knew that Donovan McNabb's health was fragile at best. He essentially started the season with a sports hernia and quickly banged up his knee. Without McNabb, it would be virtually impossible for the Eagles to get back to the Super Bowl. Yet in 4 of the Eagles first 6 games, McNabb attempted 45 or more passes. In two of those games, he attempted over 50 passes. Is this how you protect a fragile quarterback? Last time I checked, the Eagles had a guy named Brian Westbrook who is a more than capable running back. In the four preceding years when Reid advanced to the NFC Championship game (and 1 year the Super Bowl), he always exhibited a much more healthy balance of running and passing. And most of those times his franchise quarterback was actually healthy. When you consider that Westbrook didn't have a contract for next year when this year started, would it be a stretch to believe that the one sided offense was designed to further management's negotiating leverage?
While we're on the subject of his franchise quarterback, in retrospect, was it the best idea to unconditionally support McNabb? Many people will tell you yes, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Now don't get me wrong, TO's act is deplorable. However, some of the things that have trickled out of the Eagles locker room during this entire fiasco would have you think that McNabb is a lot more popular with the people he works for than with the people he works with. It is Andy Reid's job to know this. His answer was to banish the better player and severely damage the season. Even though TO was not in their future, that entire locker room knows he's the best player on the field every week. McNabb's unwillingness to work things out and Reid's support of that will permanently effect McNabb's image among his teammates. In my opinion, the McNabb/Reid Eagle regime is permanently damaged.
One of my daily rituals during the NBA season is the combing of box scores while I'm on the can in the morning. (my only doody reference in this entry. ) Through this process, (the box scores, not the doody...oops) I've noticed a disturbing , short sighted trend among NBA coaches. It is amazing how many minutes many coaches are playing their starters. And keep in mind, most of the offenders are coaches who are planning on coaching right through the end of May.
Flip Saunders always have very good regular season records when he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yet, come playoff time, they mostly fell flat on their face. And after watching Flip coach the Pistons through their first 15 games this season, I can see why. Flip is killing his starters. Last night, in their 16th game of the season, the smallest minute log for his starters was 37 minutes. Hey Flip, if your reserves aren't good enough to play in December, how much are they going to help you in may when you've burnt out Billups and the Wallaces.
Saunders isn't the only one doing it. Mike D'antoni's doing the same thing in Phoenix. But he's got an ace in the hole with Amare Stoudemire returning in February from an injury. Phil Jackson is doing it in L.A. He would probably tell you that he has no other option because Kwame Brown stinks, but competent professionals like Luke Walton and Devean George are not playing all that much. If the Lakers get to May, the only shot they have to make any noise in the watered down Western conference is to have Kobe and Lamar Odom as fresh as possible.
Then we have the other side of the ledger in coaches who are seeing the bigger picture. Look at the Van Gundy brothers. Jeff got off to an awful start this year in Houston, already losing Tracy McGrady twice to injury, yet he still kept his eye on the ball and is playing nine guys double digit minutes both nights. Stan has a very deep bench, but has spent most of this young season without Shaq. But he's still giving plenty of minutes to Alonzo Mourning and Jason Kapono, and even though he's playing Dwayne Wade a ton, he's keeping everyone else fresh. Same goes for Mike Fratello in Memphis who has a deep bench and uses it, night in and night out. And then there's Greg Popovich who does have the luxury of the deepest bench in the NBA. But he does a masterful job of using it. He knows that his bread is buttered with Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker. So he plays Mohammed, Barry, and Udrih more this time of year, because he doesn't want to have to use them a lot in May and June. And that more than anything else will be the reason the Spurs will raise the O'Brein trophy once again come the middle of June.
There has been so much said about the Terrell Owens fiasco that, quite frankly, I've been hesitant to write about it. The reporting has been extremely one sided and its difficult to discuss a different type of angle on it because inevitably, it could make a writer sound like a TO apologist. And Michael Irvin has that market cornered ( along with a couple of others, according to the Dallas police). With that said, I'm going to pursue my angle and give it a shot.
Andy Reid has done an outstanding job of building a program in Philadelphia. He has sustained consistent year over year success, which is an extremely difficult to do in the modern NFL. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a football coach and evaluator of personnel. And if he is one day fortunate enough to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, there will be no mention of the 2005 season on his bust.
From the very beginning of the season, Reid knew that Donovan McNabb's health was fragile at best. He essentially started the season with a sports hernia and quickly banged up his knee. Without McNabb, it would be virtually impossible for the Eagles to get back to the Super Bowl. Yet in 4 of the Eagles first 6 games, McNabb attempted 45 or more passes. In two of those games, he attempted over 50 passes. Is this how you protect a fragile quarterback? Last time I checked, the Eagles had a guy named Brian Westbrook who is a more than capable running back. In the four preceding years when Reid advanced to the NFC Championship game (and 1 year the Super Bowl), he always exhibited a much more healthy balance of running and passing. And most of those times his franchise quarterback was actually healthy. When you consider that Westbrook didn't have a contract for next year when this year started, would it be a stretch to believe that the one sided offense was designed to further management's negotiating leverage?
While we're on the subject of his franchise quarterback, in retrospect, was it the best idea to unconditionally support McNabb? Many people will tell you yes, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Now don't get me wrong, TO's act is deplorable. However, some of the things that have trickled out of the Eagles locker room during this entire fiasco would have you think that McNabb is a lot more popular with the people he works for than with the people he works with. It is Andy Reid's job to know this. His answer was to banish the better player and severely damage the season. Even though TO was not in their future, that entire locker room knows he's the best player on the field every week. McNabb's unwillingness to work things out and Reid's support of that will permanently effect McNabb's image among his teammates. In my opinion, the McNabb/Reid Eagle regime is permanently damaged.
One of my daily rituals during the NBA season is the combing of box scores while I'm on the can in the morning. (my only doody reference in this entry. ) Through this process, (the box scores, not the doody...oops) I've noticed a disturbing , short sighted trend among NBA coaches. It is amazing how many minutes many coaches are playing their starters. And keep in mind, most of the offenders are coaches who are planning on coaching right through the end of May.
Flip Saunders always have very good regular season records when he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yet, come playoff time, they mostly fell flat on their face. And after watching Flip coach the Pistons through their first 15 games this season, I can see why. Flip is killing his starters. Last night, in their 16th game of the season, the smallest minute log for his starters was 37 minutes. Hey Flip, if your reserves aren't good enough to play in December, how much are they going to help you in may when you've burnt out Billups and the Wallaces.
Saunders isn't the only one doing it. Mike D'antoni's doing the same thing in Phoenix. But he's got an ace in the hole with Amare Stoudemire returning in February from an injury. Phil Jackson is doing it in L.A. He would probably tell you that he has no other option because Kwame Brown stinks, but competent professionals like Luke Walton and Devean George are not playing all that much. If the Lakers get to May, the only shot they have to make any noise in the watered down Western conference is to have Kobe and Lamar Odom as fresh as possible.
Then we have the other side of the ledger in coaches who are seeing the bigger picture. Look at the Van Gundy brothers. Jeff got off to an awful start this year in Houston, already losing Tracy McGrady twice to injury, yet he still kept his eye on the ball and is playing nine guys double digit minutes both nights. Stan has a very deep bench, but has spent most of this young season without Shaq. But he's still giving plenty of minutes to Alonzo Mourning and Jason Kapono, and even though he's playing Dwayne Wade a ton, he's keeping everyone else fresh. Same goes for Mike Fratello in Memphis who has a deep bench and uses it, night in and night out. And then there's Greg Popovich who does have the luxury of the deepest bench in the NBA. But he does a masterful job of using it. He knows that his bread is buttered with Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker. So he plays Mohammed, Barry, and Udrih more this time of year, because he doesn't want to have to use them a lot in May and June. And that more than anything else will be the reason the Spurs will raise the O'Brein trophy once again come the middle of June.
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