Random Thoughts








These are things I pondered as I sat down to eat some Thanksgiving crow about my prediciton that the Nets would be better than people think.........








While I'm on the Nets, my sources tell me that LeBron James is just as likely to go to the Nets as the Knicks at this point. Contrary to popular belief, living in New York is much more important to LeBron than playing at Madison Square Garden. LeBron is keenly aware he can live in Manhattan and conveniently play for the Nets in Newark or Brooklyn. And yes, before you laugh at me, I really do have sources!!



Also, a quick post script on the Lawrence Frank firing. Lawrence was as hard working a coach as there was in the league. He earned his players' respect with tireless dedication. I have been critical of Frank in the past for not emphasizing shot selection enough. His teams always seemed to take a high volume of contested perimeter shots. Nonetheless, he was in a no win situation this season and handled his departure with grace and class. He is definitely a guy who deserves another chance without a stripped down bargain basement roster accompanied by an injury epidemic. Frank is one of the good guys.





Its very strange to me that as much as Greg Oden has improved from last year to this year, there are nights that Portland looks like they're regressing. And as good as Oden has looked he got shredded last week in consecutive games by Brook Lopez and Marc Gasol.





The Miami Heat have very little bench. Its starting to become a problem and the calendar's just turning to December. Their lack of depth will not exactly be a selling point when it comes time to re-sign Dwayne Wade.



The next head coach to get the axe will most likely be Jay Triano of Toronto. Its one thing to lack skilled perimeter defenders. Its another thing to hold no player accountable for what they do at the defensive end of the floor. With Chris Bosh in the last year of his contract, it is too important a season to let it slip out of control over effort issues. I would think that Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo sees the urgency and will act accordingly.



As good as the Atlanta Hawks have played, I guarantee you that Jamal Crawford will shoot them out of a very important game before alls said and done.



Read the above line again and insert the Denver Nuggets and J.R. Smith where the Hawks and Crawford are.



How do teams with NO guards like the Knicks and the Heat (besides Dwyane Wade) allow Jamaal Tinsley to end up signing with the Memphis Grizzlies. Tinsley has been a much better fit with the Grizzlies than Allen Iverson was ever going to be. He has made their whole starting lineup a better team. In the meantime the Heat keep rolling a slow Mario Chalmers out next to Wade every night and the Knicks keep giving Chris Duhon 30 minutes a night.



Speaking of Duhon, who do you think he has naked pictures of , D'Antoni, Dolan, or Donnie? My guess is Dolan.......



As good as the Phoenix Suns have been early on, they have gotten exposed this week as a team who plays weak interior defense. They should be a player in the trade market at deadline time looking for a big man who defends.



The Washington Wizards have started to play better with the return of Antawn Jamison. In the end, the best this group can do is a first round playoff loss. I know I belabor this point, but the two players he traded the #5 pick for last year, Randy Foye and Mike Miller, are making very little contribtuion to any success the Wizards are having. They could have been competing just the same and had Ricky Rubio stashed in Spain to begin loading up for their future. Unfortunately for Ernie Grunfeld, this might be his legacy in Washington.



Is Thabo Sefolosha the Swiss translation of Shane Battier?



Speaking of the Oklahoma City Thunder, it looks like they're starting to come around a little. Kevin Durant has been very good and Thunder coach Scott Brooks hides him well on defense. But the most important thing for the Thunder is the continued development of point guard Russell Westbrook. When Westbrook keeps his turnovers and missed shots low, ands his assists high, it directly translates into success for the Thunder.



T.J. Ford is the worst starting point guard in the league not named Chris Duhon. But at least you can forgive the Pacers for not pusuing Tinsley. He was a key reason that Pacer president larry Bird kept a bail bondsman on speed dial.



I hate to say it, but the San Antonio Spurs are getting old before our eyes. At this stage, there is no way I could see them competing athletically in a playoff series with the Lakers or the Nuggets.

Doc Rivers is doing a very nice job of rationing his veteran starters' minutes, especially Kevin Garnett. If the Celtics do not enter the playoffs healthy, they will not have much of a chance to get back to the finals.

Cleveland Cavalier coach Mike Brown is not exactly making friends and influencing people when it comes to his own players. His choice of giving Zydrunas Ilgauskas a Did Not Play-Coaches Decision for the first time in Ilgauskas' career on the night Ilgauskas was to break the Cavliers games played record was foolish and needless. Furthermore, the Cavs are a much better team with Anderson Varejao and Ilgauskas on the court as oppossed to J.J. Hickson and Shaquille O'Neal. Brown needs to be careful about genuflecting to Shaq too much. Shaq has torn down much better coaches than him. Just ask Stan Van Gundy and Mike D'Antoni.......

Before anyone gets too excited over the better than usual start for the Charlotte Bobcats, remember that the Bobcats have not traveled West yet and they're not exactly world beaters on the road. Stephen Jackson helps, but he's really just a band aid on a bullet wound.

So much for last year's draft being a weak one. It actually is spawning a point guard revolution. Brandon Jennings is leading the Bucks to respectability. Ty Lawson is a key bench player on a championship contender in Denver. Darren Collison led New Orleans to a 5-4 record in Chris Paul's absence. And a few of the point guards who started slow are starting to look better. Jonny Flynn has been struggling to learn the triangle offense for Minnesota and has started to improve as they've ran more pick and roll. Eric Maynor is ably backing up Deron Williams for Utah. Jrue Holiday has started a few games for the Sixers and been effective, although he's going back to the bench next week when Allen Iverson arrives. And thats not even including future star Sacramento's Tyreke Evans, who is really a two guard, but dabbles at some point. The only one of this group that is really struggling is Stephen Curry. He's having tremendous difficulty on the defensive end.

Back next week with players I can't wait to watch and the players I'm sick of. Giddyap. Y'all be cool.

An Open letter to New York Knicks president and general manager Donnie Walsh

















Dear Donnie,





Considering that you're a Bronx native and have lived your life working in the business of professional basketball, I would never insult you by explaining to you the type of fan base that you've inherited when you undertook the enormous task of rebuliding the organization that Isiah Thomas ripped apart as if it were the low cut top of an office intern. However, from what appears to be happening, it may be time for you to be reminded our need and desire for basketball relevance. We're too loyal a group to accept anything else.





We don't possess the entitlements of New York Yankee or Boston Celtic fans when it comes to championships. We understand that those are few and far between. But our loyalty, appreciation of history, and understanding of the nuances of the game commands basketball relevance. And the product that you put on the floor each night is the polar opposite. As fans, we have been graced with an anti-competitve team of mercenaries who play as if they are waiting for a savior to arrive from the heavens. He actually did arrive two Fridays ago, but the problem was that he was wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform.







I am a 40 year old Knick fan, so I am obviously too young to recall the championship teams of 1970 and 1973. My first recollection of rooting for the Knicks is the 1975-76 team with a young Bob McAdoo in his prime and the last season of the great Walt "Clyde" Frazier. Even at the tender age of 7, my father taught me enough to know that if we had Clyde and Earl the Pearl Monroe, we were relevant, no matter how old they were. The following year, in Willis Reed's first year as head coach, the Knicks advanced to the second round of the playoffs after a 43-39 season. It wasn't greatness, but the Knicks mattered.







In the next few years, the Knicks drafted well, and I got the pleasure of rooting for good young players like Bill Cartwright and Micheal Ray Richardson, who together led the Knicks to a 50 win season after Hall of Fame coach Red Holzman had returned to the sidelines. Unfortunately, we got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, but as fans, we had hope and confidence about the future. Unfortunately, the following year, we took a step back and had a 33 win season and missed the playoffs. That also ended up being Holzman's last season as head coach.







Now, Donnie, I want you to observe what happened after this. Management was bold and aggressive. The Knicks traded Richardson to the Golden State Warriors for future Knicks legend Bernard King. The Knicks also hired Hubie Brown as head coach. Led by Brown, King, and Cartwright, the Knicks won 44 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs only to get swept by eventual NBA champion, the Julius Erving led Philadelphia 76ers. But the statement was made. As long as the Knicks had King and Hubie Brown, we would be a force to be reckoned with and Madison Square Garden would once again be a tough place for opponents to play.







The following season was memorable for a variety of reasons. The Knicks won 47 games in 1983-1984 and were also knocked out in the second round of the playoffs. But this was the year that the Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons in a 5 game epic series in the first round of the playoffs. This series was memorable for all Knicks fans because of the classic duel that developed between King and Pistons guard Isiah Thomas. The same Isiah Thomas that exhibited disgusting gall in announcing to Knick fans in his first season as general manager, "Welcome to the Playoffs." Well Donnie, I guess Isiah exhibited his selective memory in forgetting that we beat him that year in the playoffs, so no need to welcome us. Now that I think about it, maybe his methodical dismantling of every aspect of our organization was an elaborate revenge plot, but I digress. The Knicks would lose a 7 game second round series that season to the eventual World Champion Boston Celtics. Again, we may not have been the best team in the NBA, but we were relevant.





The following season was characterized by a stroke of bad luck followed by a stroke of great luck. Bernard King's devastating knee injury defined this 24 win season. And a lucky ping pong ball defined the offseason. The Knicks weren't having such a great season when King went down, so the 24 win total at season's end was somewhat predictable. What we didn't predict Donnie is Commissioner David Stern picking our ping pong ball out of the lottery bucket giving us the right to select Patrick Ewing with the first pick in the draft.





Now I know Donnie that I do not need to recount to you many details of the Patrick Ewing era with the Knicks considering you became the Indiana Pacers general manager in 1986. You lived it in a unique way. You successfully built a team to compete with Ewing's Knicks. As an executive, you understood that the right decisions weren't always the easy ones. Your second year as Pacer GM, you risked getting lynched by an angry mob by selecting Reggie Miller in the first round in 1987, opting to leave Indiana hometown hero Steve Alford on the board. And we all know how well that worked out. However, Donnie, I do feel the need to enlighten you some on what us Knick fans FEEL about Patrick Ewing, because this helps underscore our insatiable desire for basketball relevance.





Patrick Ewing was suppossed to be the Knicks savior. He was the avenue that would return us to the championship glory years of the early seventies. Unfortunately, he was never properly surrounded with enough talent to get us over the hump until it was too late in his career. Whether it was Dave DeBusschere, Al Bianchi, or Ernie Grunfeld, none of our GMs could get the formula exactly right around Patrick Ewing. They all delivered us big time coaches. Ewing was coached by Hubie Brown, Rick Pitino, Pat Riley, and Jeff Van Gundy. (The Don Nelson era NEVER happened, I swear..), but it was never enough. By the time Grunfeld surrounded Ewing with an athletic, skilled group, it was too late. If Patrick played with Latrell Sprewell, Allen Houston, Larry Johnson, and Marcus Camby when he was in his prime, odds are we would have won a title. And we wrongly blamed Patrick for that.





You see Donnie, Patrick gave us every thing he had. When his athleticism started to fail him a little, he re-made his game. He gave us over a decade of excitement and was a John Starks 2-18 performance away from delivering us that elusive title. As a Knick fan, I wish I appreciated Patrick the way I do now. He gave us basketball relevance for a long stretch. From the late 80's through the late 90's, Patrick Ewing was New York Knicks basketball and we mattered. Madison Square Garden was electric every night, no matter who the road team was. As I watch the disaster that you're rolling out night after night, I get a deeper and deeper appreciation for what Ewing delivered. And Donnie, before I detail our demise to you, which is crucially important because you seem to be making many of the same mistakes, I need to point one other thing to you about Patrick Ewing.





Patrick Ewing is currently an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic and from all accounts a damn good one. From what I understand, Ewing has played a significant role in the development of Orlando center Dwight Howard. Before that, he was instrumental in developing Yao Ming. Ewing has also been very public in his desire to return to the Knicks as a coach, whether it be as an assistant or running the show himself. The only former Knick players who have a much historical significance to our organization are Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier. The organization has always found roles for both of them whether it be on the sidelines, the front office, or the broadcast booth. However, when Ewing requested an interview for an opportunity to join Mike D'Antoni's staff before last season, he was rebuffed. Donnie, we have always been a franchise whose history mattered. I would hope that if another chance would arise to be able to bring Ewing back to the organization in a role he's qualified for (assistant coach or head coach), that you'll make it right with Patrick and bring him home, but I digress......





It all started to go down hill Donnie, when Jeff Van Gundy, a coach who I greatly respect and admire, won a power struggle with Ernie Grunfeld and Grunfeld was dismissed as GM. His successor was former Utah Jazz GM Scott Layden. Layden's plan seem to be to build the Utah Jazz east and call them the Knicks. The problem was that Scotty boy didn't have Karl Malone and John Stockton, which is the equivalent of the white tigers performing in Vegas without Siegfried and Roy. Layden took on salary like Isiah Thomas harassed female employees. As opposed to letting Ewing's contract expire and come off the salary cap, keeping in mind that the group he had had gone to the finals with Ewing getting hurt early in the playoffs in 1999, Layden shipped Ewing out and brought back Glen Rice and his bloaded contract and Luc Longley's corpse and the corpse's bloated contract. Layden paid absurd amounts of Cablevision's money to sign free agents Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson, and Clarence Weatherspoon. He traded Marcus Camby, and the #7 pick in the 2002 draft, which ended up being Nene, for Antonio McDyess cooming off knee surgery. McDyess was never the same player. Nene is currently the starting center on a legitimate title contender and Marcus Camby is still blocking shots, changing shots and pulling down rebounds at the age of 35. And for Layden's final gift, he cornered the market on overweight, undersized power forwards by drafting Michael Sweetney in 2003 who ate himself out of the league. Needless to say, if Layden had been willing to rebuild, we would have been closer to turning it around. Instead, Scotty boy put us on the road to irrelevance.





The thing is Donnie, is that most Knick fans believed that we were on our way out of the woods in December of 2003 when Layden was dismissed and MSG management hired Isiah Thomas on Garden president Steve Mills' recommendation. Needless to say, Thomas descended our proud organization to depths none of us ever thought imaginable. Donnie, I would never insult you by detailing the train wreck that Isiah made of our roster and salary cap situation. After all, you are the one who has taken on the monumental task of turning around this atrocity. No one understands this personnel mess better than you. but I do feel the need to remind you how Thomas dragged our organization through the mud. He took a class organization with a proud fan base and reduced it to the lowest common denominator.



His first year on the job, he humiliated a classy gentleman in head coach Don Chaney by joking about firing him on the David Letterman show 3 days BEFORE he fired Chaney. He created a corporate culture within the Knick offices that was akin to a go-go bar, culminating in a very public sexual harassment trial. Because of Isiah, the name Anucha Brown Sanders has been engraved in New York Knick history for all the wrong reasons. Donnie, it still puzzles me how garden management would pay $20 million to Shandon Anderson to go home, but wouldn't pay $6 million to Sanders to spare the organization epic embarrassment. And as you well know, Isiah couldn't just go away quietly. His convoluted overdose/suicide attempt last year forced you to publicly defend him just because you kept him on with the organization because you personally like Isiah and you are a compassionate man. And of course Isiah handled it in his own unique way by publicly throwing his 16 year old daughter under the bus. Donnie, this mees you have inherited goes beyond the roster. The culture has been poisoned and there is no quick antidote to cleanse it. And I'm sparing the details of the disaster that Stephon Marbury brought home with him.



Donnie, you've done some very good things since you took over the Knicks. Finding takers for Zack Randolph and Jamal Crawford for players with expiring contracts was no easy feat, but you got it done. And your first round pick last season, Italian forward Danilo Gallinari shows a lot of promise, assuming that he doesn't need back surgery. But Donnie, what you've done in your tenure is not inspiring confidence and from all appearances, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket.



You see Donnie, what you have here is a team of mercenaries, with very few building blocks. You brought in a coach who subscribes to an up tempo guard driven system. Yet in this past year's draft, with a draft loaded with point guards who could succeed in running Mike D'Antoni's system, you chose to select yet another power forward. Donnie, I don't think very much of the player you selected, Jordan Hill. He's very raw and is a low energy player. He appears to be the second coming of Jerrod Mustaf. But its virtually immaterial how good Hill is, unless he morphs into Amare Stoudemire. Donnie, you don't have any guards. And you left 4 point guards on the board who all could have been long term solutions at the position. Ty Lawson is a key bench contributor on a title contender in the Denver Nuggets and you left him on the board for Hill. Before you accuse me of 20/20 hindsight, Donnie, click on this link http://deependdive.blogspot.com/2009/06/some-wrap-up-business-on-finals-and-my.html. Brandon Jennings scored 55 points last Saturday night for Milwaukee and is the fastest guard in the league and you left him on the board for Hill. Eric Maynor won a game for Utah the other night scoring 11 4th quarter points against Toronto and you left him on the board for Hill. And Utah has one of the league's best point guards in Deron Williams but deemed Maynor too good to pass up. Darren Collison led New Orleans to a win earlier this week replacing an injured Chris Paul, the best point guard in the league. New Orleans took Collison even though they have Paul because he was too good to pass up. You passed on him for Hill. Your answer was to select Toney Douglas at the end of the first round, who is an off guard in a point guard's body. That #8 pick was a huge key in getting things going on the right track and you squandered it. Even if Hill ends up being productive, he'll never get enough playing time behind Gallinari and David Lee.

This entire formula has created an atmosphere where your players have very little vested interest in team success. Lets use Lee as an example. He made his name in the league through hustle and scrappy play. These days, he hustles one out of every 3 games and plays more like a finesse player. Part of it is the culture, but Lee needs to realize if he approached effort the way Anderson Varejao does on Cleveland, he may have gotten that 5 year $50 million contract he was looking for ths past offseason. Instead he's back in New York on a one year contract praying that you'll find enough value in him to sign him to a long term deal. And while we're talking about one year contracts, Donnie, if you do decide to sign Allen Iverson, which will definitely help, please waive that sideshow clown Nate Robinson. His clown act on and off the court only furthers the classless culture that was pervasive during the Isiah regime. Remember, Donnie, Iverson's a freebie for you this year. He won't hurt your lottery chances because Isiah traded next year's first rounder in the Marbury trade. We'll call that trade the gift that keeps on giving.


Donnie, I know the plan is to use the available cap space to sign LeBron James in the offseason. But frankly thats no excuse for what occurred two Fridays ago at the garden when Le Bron and the Cavaliers came in for a visit. It used to be that if one of the best players in the league came on a conference rival came into the Garden for a nationally televised game, the one thing he could count on was to be knocked on his rear end several times through the course of the game. The way everyone, and I mean everyone Donnie, genuflected at this man's feet made me want to vomit bile. A regular season game against a conference rival turned into a recruiting visit, and the whole country saw it. What happened to the pride of the New York Knicks? And before you blame the fans, remember they're taking their lead from the organization of which you are president. I must say Donnie, it is a new low for our very proud franchise and that begs my last question.

I understand that signing LeBron is Plan A, but what's plan B? What happens if LeBron stays in Cleveland, Dwyane Wade stays in Miami and Chris Bosh joins him there, Amare Stoudemire stays in Phoenix, and Joe Johnson goes to The Bulls? What are the Knicks going to do? Donnie, you have to realize that the Bulls, the Heat, the Nets, and the Clippers all have cap space available for one of these stars. Each and every one of those teams are a more preferable destination for a star who wants to win immediately. We've reached a new low when the Clippers are a more attractive free agent destination than the New York Knicks.

One last thought for you Donnie. You've been around this game and you've seen alot. You know what its like to deal with siginificant organizational adversity. After all, you were the President of the Indiana Pacers when the your players ran into the stands 5 years ago in Auburn Hills, Michigan to beat up fans. Please recognize how dire this has become for your loyal fan base. Implore your coach to play the young guys, or at least guys you think are part of the solution. If you bring in Iverson, surround him with Gallinari, Lee, Wilson Chandler, and Douglas. Let D'Antoni know that Jordan Hill should have a role in the rotation. If he stinks, and I think he does, Donnie, you need to know sooner rather than later. Please get this ship steered in the right direction. As fans, this is what we deserve. We've done our time. Make us relevant again.


Best Regards,


Brian Geltzeiler

We're one week into the season, and some things I see are surprising.....other things not so much......



I'm surprised Shaquille O'Neal showed up in a contract year in such poor shape. He looks like hew's taking nutrition advice from Rex Ryan.


I'm not surprised with how good the Dallas Mavericks have looked. Shawn Marion gives them a lot, which allows them to as for less from Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry.


I'm surprised how good the Houston Rockets have looked. At least for this week, Trevor Ariza has been more than an adequate replacement for Ron Artest and point guard Aaron Brooks has actually played like a point guard. Its been distribution first, shooting second. And wouldn't you know, his scoring hasn't sufferred.

I'm not surprised how good the Boston Celtics have started off. And, most importantly, it appears as if head coach Doc Rivers is understanding his team's most important statistic, Kevin Garnett's minutes. If he keeps Garnett's minutes regulated in the 25-30 range every night, his chances increase exponentially of having Garnett available come playoff time.

I'm surprised how improved Washington Wizards forward Andray Blatche looks. but I'm not surprised that Gilbert Arenas looks like he's lost a step, although that may end up making him a more effective player. I'm still not a Wizards advocate.

I'm not surprised that Kevin Durant has struggled to start the year. Durant is immensely talented, but needs to get stronger and learn how to defend before he becomes any type of elite player. And while we're on the Thunder, I'm very surprised at how much Jeff Green has improved. It looks like the pro game has slowed down for him and he looks a lot more like the Jeff Green that starred at Georgetown.

I'm very surprised the Indiana Pacers look so bad. I know they're missing Mike Dunleavy and Tyler Hansbrough, but in reality, it doesn't matter. They're soft defensively. T. J. Ford is not a starting point guard in the league. And head coach Jim O'Brien is trying to have them run an up tempo system that they're clearly ill suited to run. This team in no way resembles the Celtic teams of the early 2000s that O'Brien coached.

I'm not surprised that the Knicks are anti-competitive. Granted, Isiah Thomas left Donnie Walsh with a horrific mess, but Donnie seems to have lost a little zip off the fastball so to speak. This situation is crying out for a column of its own.


At this stage, I'm thoroughly surprised that any front office on the league would allow Larry Brown to have personnel input on a team he coaches. but that's exactly what the Charlotte Bobcats have done. I guess team president Michael Jordan's "competitive juices" don't carry over to the success of the team he presides over. But he gives one heck of a hall of fame induction speech. Anyway, Larry is mired with the worst team this side of the Knicks. The Bobcats are so bad, I istakenly placed Jason Richardson on their team in my season preview because I couldn't believe a team's personnel could be so bad.

I'm not surprised that Carmelo Anthony appears to have taken his game to another level. I still contend that his upside is to be as good as Bernard King. And with a very capable team around him, this is a very good situation for Anthony to have lots of success on a personal and a team level.

I'm not surprised how quickly Byron Scott has lost the New Orleans Hornets after their playoff meltdown against Denver last year. The sooner the Hornets dump Scott and bring in someone on an interim basis (anyone), the sooner they'll get things going in the right direction. I'm also not surprised at how quickly Don Nelson has lost the Warriors this year. it was incumbent upon Nellie to unload Stephen Jackson before he could start to poison the young guys. From an effort standpoint, the culture appears tainted. Jackson comes as advertised. Nellie's got no one to blame but himself.

I'm not surprised that Allen Iverson is already complaining about coming off the bench one game into this arrangement. I'm also not surprised that the Grizzlies failed to settle this matter BEFORE they signed Iverson. But, I am surprised that the Knicks didn't seriously explore the possibility of bringing in Iverson for one year. He could have fit in in their up tempo system and was a high reward low risk proposition one a one year deal.

Giddyap. Y'all be cool.

Lets get it on with the West.....





Northwest Division (in predicted order of finish)



Denver Nuggets- They had a great year last year making it to the Western Conference finals. and the good news is that they got better. They brought in Arron Afflalo to replace Dahntay Jones, which will be an upgrade at a better price. But most importantly, they traded for a first round draft pick and selected the apple of my eye, Ty Lawson. Lawson will bring a speed dimension that the Nuggets didn't have last year and will enhance the Nuggets when they're speeding up the tempo. The bad news is that the Lakers and the Spurs both improved more than the Nuggets, so getting further than last year will most likely be a pipe dream.





Portland Trailblazers- The Blazers learned a lot in their first round loss to the Houston Rockets last season. They're a young team who will need to play more disciplined to advance in the postseason. They signed veteran point guard Andre Miller as a free agent. Miller is not the perfect complement to superstar Brandon Roy in the back court. But he's also a player who has never won in his career, and this is a chance to win. With the Blazers just signing LaMarcus Aldridge to a rich 5 year deal, they've got a core in tact for the next 3 years with Aldridge, Miller, and Roy. I have faith in head coach Nate McMillan's ability to make it work. With that said, that may not generally translate into making it further than last year. Its a deep, difficult Western Conference and Portland will get better, but this will be a tough year to break through.



Utah Jazz- The Jazz brought the same core group back with the addition of first round pick guard Eric Maynor, who looks ready. Head coach Jerry Sloan will be challenged in handling the situation at power forward. Carlos Boozer is on the last year of his contract and will be on the trading block until he gets dealt. Paul Millsap just signed a 4 year $32 million deal and is clearly the Jazz' future at the position. Sloan is a hall of famer, but he may have his hands full with this. Ultimately, the best the Jazz can hope for this season is to be cannon fodder for either the Spurs or the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.



Oklahoma City Thunder- The Thunder will certainly be improved. And Kevin Durant is a star in the making. However, before we send Durant to Springfield, Massachusetts, can we see him learn how to guard someone? The Thunder are young and athletic, but the West is too deep to envision them creeping into the playoffs. They have a nice core of Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, but they're just not there yet.



Minnesota Timberwolves- Minnesota GM David Kahn has taken a lot of heat in the media for his gutsy move to trade for an extra lottery pick and use both picks on point guards. I continue to believe that he did the right thing for the organization long term. With Rubio staying in Spain for a few years, Kahn has the luxury to hand Jonny Flynn the keys and see what's he's got. If Flynn, works out, then he's got a great trade chip in Rubio to wheel for whatever they need. And if Flynn doesn't work out, hand the keys to Rubio. Unfortunately, none of that will translate into a lot of improvement for this year. Another year out of the playoffs will mean another year in the lottery and the ability to add another productive member to the rotation. Minnesota has got themselves on the right track to be competitive in 2-3 years. And the added bonus is that the only big money they have committed long term is to franchise cornerstone power forward Al Jefferson.


Southwest Division (in predicted order of finish)


San Antonio Spurs- I give the Spurs front office and ownership a lot of credit. They reloaded to make one last run at a title with an aging superstar. The Spurs are smart enough to realize that Tim Duncan is a once in a generation star and you need to make hay while the sun shines. If Duncan's minutes are properly economized in the regular season, he still has enough gas in the tank to be a force in the playoffs. The Spurs traded Kurt Thomas' and Bruce Bowen's expiring contracts for Richard Jefferson. If Jefferson can revert back to his early career habits of quality shot selection and stifling perimeter defense, he's a difference maker for the Spurs. Of course, the Jefferson we saw in Milwaulee and at the tail end in New Jersey, is a player who can implode the Spurs' title hopes. The good news for San Antonio fans is that Spur head coach Gregg Popovich will keep RJ on a short leash. The Spurs also added Antonio McDyess as a free agent and had the wonderful good fortune of having power forward DeJuan Blair fall to them in the 2nd round of the draft. McDyess and Blair will take minutes and pressure of Duncan in a way that Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto never could. ANd as good as all that sounds, they still need to have Duncan and Manu Ginobili healthy for the playoffs or its all for naught. Count on seeing the Spurs playing into the end of May.

Dallas Mavericks- Here's another team in a foot race with Father Time. This past offseason, in making every effort to maximize their title contention aspirations around star power forward Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks re-signed 36 year old point guard Jason Kidd, signed free agent forward, 31 year old Shawn Marion, and signed 32 year old free agent forward Tim Thomas. Dallas has done great job of surrounding Nowitzki with the right type of players to win with. With the addition of power forward Drew Gooden, they have the ability to be good going big or small. I'm not the biggest Jason Kidd fan at this stage of his career, but there's no disputing he fits very well here. And very frankly, the worst thing the Mavericks have going against them is the presence of the Lakers and Spurs in the same conference. They've improved significantly, but for this season, it won't be enough.


New Orleans Hornets- Another team that managed to improve in the highly competitive West. Unfortunately, they've got a major problem that the other top teams in the West don't have. The Hornets completely quit on their coach Byron Scott last year during a home playoff game, losing to Denver in excess of 50 points. And with Scott in the last year of his contract and some players openly questioning newly acquired Emeka Okafor's current injury, which has kept him out of most of the preseason, the Hornets are not exactly a picture of team unity. The Hornets' best chance to make a run in the West will be to dump Scott midseason, considering he's on the last year of his contract. Still, the best they can hope for is winning one playoff round.

Houston Rockets- As impressive as the Rockets were in last year's playoffs, this is a very different team without Yao Ming and Ron Artest. Yao will sit out the year with a foot injury and Artest signed with the Lakers as a free agent. Houston GM Daryl Morey would have you believe that the free agent signing of Trevor Ariza from the Lakers represents an upgrade over Artest. Morey would be mistaken. Artest may be certifiably insane, but he was the straw that stirred the drink for the Rockets on both ends of the floor last season. Ariza is a very nice complementary player. The Rockets will take a step back this year, but once they get Yao back for next season, I expect them to contend in the West all over again.

Memphis Grizzlies- If the game were played with 3 basketballs and teams needed parole officers instead of head coaches, the Grizzlies would be set. But in the current NBA landscape, this team is a mess. This was a team plagued last season by the offensive selfishness of young players Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo. So GM Chris Wallace's answer was to bring in two of the biggest chuckers in the league in Zach Randolph and Allen Iverson . Wallace will regret the day he passed on Carlos Boozer's expiring deal to take on Randolph for three years at the league max. Matter of fact, Wallace will end up regretting it before the calendar turns to December. This is an impossible situation for head coach Lionel Hollins to succeed. Its no secret why this organization has been such a mess, for so long.


Pacific Division (in predicted order of finish)


Los Angeles Lakers- The Lakers hierarchy has made it very clear that they are interested in cementing a dynasty after willing their first title in their post-Shaq era. They let Trevor Ariza go sign with Houston as a free agent and committed the same money to Ron Artest. Regardless of whta you read anywhere else, this is an upgrade in every way, Artest's off court insanity not withstanding. Artest is a team player on the court and can carry the load for long stretches on both ends of the floor, which is huge in keeping Kobe Bryant fresh for playoff time. Keep in mind, he led the Rockets without Yao Ming to push this same Laker team to 7 games in the same round of last year's playoffs. Also, Artest will HELP team chemistry on the Lakers. Please allow me to explain. The Lakers chose to bring back my man crush, Lamar Odom for four years at a minimal paycut, which was his best offer. The worst kept secret on the Lakers is the not so terrific relationship between Odom and Bryant. That relationship virtually torpedoed the Lakers in the 2008 finals against the Celtics. Artest is Odom's old friend back from AAU days in New York. Bryant oppenly campaigned to have Artest brought in and admittedly has a very good realtionship with Ron. Ron can actually build a bridge between Kobe and Lamar. And besides, what does Lamar have to be unhappy about? He won a title, got paid, gets to play with his old friend and shares a bed every night with my favorite Kardashian sister. In summary, there is no way anyone beats the Lakers come playoff time....and they may win 70 games in the regular season on their way.


Phoenix Suns- This is a team who's laying in the weeds a little bit. The trading of the artist formerly known as Shaquille O'Neal is a clear case of addition by subtraction. Shaq slowed the Suns down and confused their indentity. This is now a team with something to prove. Amare Stoudemire is in a contract year. Steve Nash and Grant Hill would like to prove they're not finished. Jason Richardson is a good fit in their up tempo system. And first round pick Earl Clark replaces what they lost with trading Boris Diaw for Richardson last season. Also, 2nd year center Robin Lopez (Brook's sister....I mean brother...) is a much better complement to Stoudemire in their up tempo system that Shaq ever was. At the very least, I expect the Suns to make the playoffs and be a royal pain in someone's rump come mid May.


Los Angeles Clippers- Lots of good offseason news for the Clips. They were blessed in the #1 pick in the draft and they were lucky to enough to have a star in the making for them in Blake Griffin. And GM Mike Dunleavy was able to unload roster and salary cap albatross in Zach Randolph, turning them into Craig Smith and Sebastian Telfair, two productive bench players. He was also smart enough to keep Marcus Camby for the last year of his contract. The problem is that once the season starts, the team will be coached by head coach Mike Dunleavy, who does a substandard job when compared to GM Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy truly lost these guys last year, and most everyone is back. Extricating Zach Randolph will help, but it won't fix everything. Dunleavy had major problems with Baron Davis, Al Thornton, and Ricky Davis among others, and its naive to believe that they'll go away. They will be improved, but the best it will result in will be the 8th seed in the playoffs and canon fodder for the Lakers.


Sacramento Kings- They're a long way from looking good, but its starting to appear they're on the right track. They selected Tyreke Evans with the 4th pick of the first round. Evans is a freakish athlete thats got star written all over him. When you combine that with their first round pick last year, forward Jason Thompson, they now have some building blocks. They also are going to only have one big money player after this season in Kevin Martin, who's only 26. The bad news is that they probably won't be much better this year, but they will be back in the lottery to continue to build.


Golden State Warriors- This has become such a dysfunctional situation and from all appearances, it didn't have to be. The Warriors have drafted pretty well. In the last three years, they've selected Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, Anthony Randolph, and Stephen Curry, who are all 23 or younger. But Don Nelson's handling of this whole Stephen Jackson situation is providing a damaging distraction. The longer Jackson's trade demand goes unmet, the more he poisons the culture among the young players. Nellie should have seen this coming. If you buy a house on a golf course, don't act surprised if golf balls fly through your windows. If you try to rebuild and keep Stephen Jackson as your veteran presence, you'll have golf balls flying through your windows. I hate to say it, because Don Nelson has been a coach and an executive in this league for a long time and has had plenty of success, but the sooner Warrior owner Chris Cohan turns the organization over to someone else, the better. It will be another year out of the playoffs, but their success this season will be predicated on how well the young players develop together.


Predicted Playoff Seedings

1) L.A. Lakers
2) San Antonio
3) Denver
4) Dallas
5) Portland
6) Phoenix
7) New Orleans
8) Utah

Final Four

L.A. Lakers over Dallas
San Antonio over Denver

Western Conference Finals

L.A. Lakers over San Antonio

NBA Finals

L.A. Lakers over Orlando ( 7 games)- I hate to predict a repeat. It almost appears lazy. But the bottom line is that the two best teams from last season are the two that improved the most. Y'all be cool. Giddyap.

With a week to go before opening night, its time to preview the season. I'll give you a little something on each team, starting with the Eastern Conference today. I'll take on the West next week.
















Atlantic Division ( teams are broken down in order of predicted finish)















Boston Celtics-Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels are very nice additions to the Celtics, which they desperately need. Heck, they could add everybody's favorite psychotherapy patient Stephon Marbury and he would help backing up Rajon Rondo, but in the end its all noise. If Kevin Garnett does not return to his 2008-09 form, there's no way the Celtics compete for a title. Hear that creaking......its the Celtics window closing.
















Toronto Raptors- Raptor general manager Bryan Colangelo had an aggressive bold offseason signing Handsome Hedo Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack to rich free agent contracts and extending former first overall pick Andrea Bargnani with an enormous deal. Colangelo starts the season with an eclectic group that's fun to watch, but will be short on rebounding and perimeter defense. I'm also not sure if he's got the right coach to make this team compete in Jay Triano. All of this spending was designed to show pending star free agent Chris Bosh that the organization is committing to winning. If it doesn't end up being enough to keep Bosh in Toronto, the Raptors are on the hook for a lot of money with a team that can't compete. The good news for Colangelo is that Jack is Bosh's college teammate and good friend and he's signed for 4 years, so you never know.











New Jersey Nets- This is going to be a team to watch this season for all of the right reasons. And they are certainly going to be better than people think. Very athletic with a very good point guard in Devin Harris and a very promising young big man in Brook Lopez. Lots of verys for a team only projected to win about 25 games. This team will be a very attractive option for one of the superstar free agents of the class of 2010, especially now that they have a billionaire Russian owner who is willing to spend a few bucks. Mark my words, the Nets are a more likely destination for LeBron James or Dwyane Wade than their higher profile crosstown rivals.













Philadelphia 76ers- As good a coach as Eddie Jordan is, he's going to have a tough time turning around this disaster. They did not have the financial willingness to re-sign point guard Andre Miller and their up tempo system does not run without the right point guard. They drafted UCLA frshman Jrue Holiday with their first round pick leaving Carolina point guard Ty Lawson on the board. Holiday wasn't even good enough to start in the Pac-10 last season. He's at least two years away from running the Sixers. In addition, their highest paid player, Elton Brand is a half court player who is ill-equipped to succeed in the Sixers' up tempo system. Get ready for lots of empty seats at the Wachovia Center.






New York Knicks- The Knicks look so bad, they make the Sixers look like the Lakers. They bring back most of the same group as last season. They added the Bust of Draft Past in Darko Milicic and the Bust of draft future in Jordan Hill. The only real building blocks they have are last year's #1 Danilo Galinari and Wilson Chandler, and Chandler had very little trade value when GM Donnie Walsh shopped him in the offseason. And on top of all of of this, their misguided off season pursuits of Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Carlos Boozer, and Ramon Sessions wreak of a situation where the general manager and the coach are not on the same page. LeBron, do yourself a favor. Stay far far away.....unless you're folowing the Nets to Brooklyn.























Central Division (in predicted order of finish)



















Cleveland Cavaliers- The Cavs little makeover reminds me of the town of Rock Ridge from the movie Blazing Saddles. Rock Ridge was the fake town that was built with just store fronts with nothing behind men to throw the sheriff's men off the trail. On the surface, the Cavs should look better from the addition of Shaquille O'Neal, Anthony Parker, and Jamario Moon. But O'Neal at this stage of his career is not all that different from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, except Shaq has a TV show and 5 championship rings. Bringing Shaq in was a nice gesture to try and keep LeBron in town this offseason, but its not going to translate into more playoff wins, which is what the Cavs need to be better than last year. The Cavs biggest problems in the playoffs was having enough athletes to match up with Orlando's big wing players. Parker is 34 years old, and not athletic enough to match up with Rashard Lewis or Vince Carter. And Moon is a good athlete, but couldn't hit the water if he threw a bag of garbage off a pier. In the end, it will probably mean the same fate as last season... a conference finals loss and a lot of nail biting over whether LeBron James is going to stay in town.











Chicago Bulls- This is the year the Bulls will make their move towards being an elite team in the East. They will benefit tremendously from the continued development of young star point guard Derrick Rose. Center Joakim Noah will show some offense to accompany his intense defense, rebounding and athleticism. Luol Deng should be back healthy and he adds to their athleticism. And they subtracted the biggest ball hog this side of Allen Iverson in Ben Gordon. I even think that head coach Vinny Del Negro took his lumps in last year's playoffs and learned plenty. The Bulls will challenge the Cavaliers for Central division supremacy and will be a clear pain in someone's rump come playoff time.










Indiana Pacers- They won't be great, but they'll be better than people think. Their big offseason additions were first round pick Tyler Hansbrough and free agent signee Dahntay Jones. Hansbrough should help marginally and Jones probably less. The big factors for the Pacers will be the continued development of 2nd year center Roy Hibbert, who has looked like a monster in preseason, and the return from a knee injury of swingman Mike Dunleavy. With an improved Hibbert and a healthy Dunleavy, underrated and under appreciated star Danny Granger should get enough help to make this team a 6, 7, or 8 seed in the East, which represents progress in Indiana these days.

















Milwaukee Bucks- The Bucks are a team that may got a little bit better. It probably won't be enough for a playoff berth, but they should make some progress. They traded Richard Jefferson for cap relief, which will end up being addition by subtraction for two reasons. Jefferson's shot selection has gotten progressively worse as time has gone on. And his departure opens up playing time for last year's first round pick Joe Alexander, who is a good athlete that can shoot but needs live action to develop his game. The Bucks also chose not to re-sign restricted free agent point guard Ramon Sessions and drafted point guard Brandon Jennings in the first round. Jennings is a dynamic athlete with potential to turn into an electric point guard, so there's upside there. The Bucks also brought in a couple of good athletes for good prices in Hakim Warrick and Carlos Delfino. The big danger for the Bucks is that head coach Scott Skiles doesn't lose patience with some of these young players and kill their confidence before they ever have it.











Detroit Pistons- So, if you're Joe Dumars, and you make an awful trade last season, shipping out a seasoned championship point guard in Chauncey Billups and bringing in the world's biggest chucker (Allen Iverson), essentially torpedoing the Pistons' entire season?? If I'm Joe D, I trade Prince and Hamilton for cap relief and draft picks, blow the whole thing up and start from scratch. Unfortunately, for Pistons fans, I'm not Joe D. Dumars attempted to remake this thing on the fly and threw ridiculous amounts of money on the world's second biggest chucker, Ben Gordon, and a three point shooting power forward who doesn't defend or rebound in Charlie Villanueva. And to top it off, Joe D hires a career assistant who's last head coaching job 20 years ago resulted in the worst season in Division 1 college history as HIS new head coach. We will spend the season gawking at them as if they were a car accident, sort of the NBA's version of a rubber necking delay.














Southeast Division ( in order of predicted finish)

Orlando Magic- No one would have blamed Magic GM Otis Smith if he had decided to bring back the same team from last season. that made a surprise run to th NBA finals All he really HAD to do was re-sign Handsome Hedo, and they could run it back with Dwight Howard being a year better. But Smith saw an opportunity to improve this team, and with ownership's blessing (financial commitment), he made them a force. He let the Raptors overpay Turkoglu. He brought in Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson for Courtney Lee and some expiring contracts. Carter is a huge upgrade over Handsome Hedo and Anderson is the kind of stretch "4" that Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy loves. Smith also signed free agent undersized power forward Brandon Bass from Dallas, who makes an excellent front court mate for Howard and Rashard Lewis and gives the Magic a power presence, which will allow Van Gundy to go big or small. Smith also recognized the value of backup center Marcin Gortat and matched Dallas' offer sheet to keep him in Orlando. And for Otis' last trick, he signed Jason Williams to backup Jameer Nelson at point guard. Williams spent a year out of basketball, but was an extremely functional point guard for the Miami Heat 2006 title team. All in all, a stellar offseason for my man Otis. Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009-2010 Eastern Conference champions.





Atlanta Hawks- The Hawks made attempts to improve in the offseason, unfortunately I'm not sure they worked. They brought Jamal Crawford in from Golden State. Crawford is a chucker in the Iverson/Ben Gordon mold, which won't exactly help team chemistry. Joe Johnson has one foot out the door in the last year of his contract. And if he doesn't come back, it turns quickly into a disaster. They've got big financial decisions to coming up on Marvin Williams and Al Horford. And considering that they're already paying Josh Smith and Mike Bibby for awhile, this thing goes in reverse quickly without Johnson. The East is too tough for them to advance anywhere. It will be a first round playoff loss and lean times on the horizon once again in Atlanta.



Miami Heat- I hate to say it, but things don't look all that good here either. Yes, they've got Dwyane Wade in his prime. And with Wade being a free agent after the season, he may have one foot out the door as well. The Heat's best chance to keep Wade may have come and gone with their failed offseason pursuit of Lamar Odom and Carlos Boozer. Now their best chance is to hope for significant improvement from Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers, and Daequan Cook. In other words, Wade's probably good as gone. The good news for Miami is that with the shot Jermaine O'Neal in the last year of his ridiuclously bloated contract, they have virtually no money committed beyond this year.

Washington Wizards- The notion that the Wizards somehow made themselves a playoff team by moving the #5 pick in the draft for Mike Miller and Randy Foye and getting all-world chucker Gilbert Arenas back from injury is faulty at best and utterly absurd at worst. I'm a big fan of Ernie Grunfeld, but he's got it wrong here. He could have started to rebuild this thing around Ricky Rubio. Instead, he's grasping at straws with a selfish veteran team. The only thing the Miller/Foye trade did was get them closer to making the playoffs, which will mean less balls in the lottery jar, utlimately setting the organization back. The good news is that another lottery pick will be pending.

Charlotte Bobcats- Don't look now, but Larry Brown took the wrong job again. Ownership has very little financial commitment to winning considering that owner Bob Johnson is dying to sell the team. General manager Rod Higgins has not done well on a shoestring budget. President Michael Jordan is too busy playing golf and giving unique and entertaining Hall of Fame induction speeches. The bottom line is that outside of Jason Richardson (chucker) and some young point guard depth, the Bobcats have nothing. They can talk up the Tyson Chandler-Emeka Okafor deal all they want basketball-wise, getting Chandler was all about saving money considering that Chandler cannot stay healthy enough to stay on the court. If Larry doesn't want this to be his last job, he better jump ship quick, because this team this season is not going to be his lead item on the old resume.

Predicted Playoff Seedings

1) Cleveland
2) Orlando
3) Boston
4) Chicago
5) Toronto
6) Indiana
7) Atlanta
8) Miami

Final Four

Chicago over Cleveland
Orlando over Boston

Conference Finals

Orlando over Chicago.

Western conference preview will be up before next Friday. Y'all be cool. Giddyap.

As a lifelong basketball fan and the son of a college basketball star from the late forties, very rarely do I see an NBA story that carries a personal connection for me. But I'm happy to say, there's a story to tell.



















Earlier this week, the Detroit Pistons hired former Cleveland Cavalier assistant John Kuester as their head coach. As I saw Kuester's hiring being reported, I listened to various commentators routinely list the various stops throughout the course of his coaching career. He had been an assistant in the NBA with Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Jersey, Orlando, and most recently Cleveland since 1995. They also routinely mention his two college head coaching jobs at Boston University and George Washington. They don't mention what happened at George Washington that preceded the five year gap in Coach Kuester's resume. In the 1988-89 season he presided over one of the worst seasons in NCAA history, where his GW squad compiled a 1-27 record. As a sophomore at GW, at the time I was quite the basketball fan. I didn't miss a home game that season. I saw the entire train wreck unfold from start to finish. And Kuester was the catalyst.









I carry a very unique perspective on that particular season. I lived in a dorm with all of the players. I knew most of them personally and was very close friends with two players in particular, one being a team captain. But it didn't take an insider to see what went wrong in that historically horrific season. As things got bad for GW that season, the players slowly quit on Kuester. Then, worse than that, Kuester quit on his kids. Even through that, I never held Kuester in harsh judgement because the circumstances were exceedingly difficult as the avalanche started rolling down the hill. However, there is one thing I heard that I believe defined Coach Kuester during that miserable campaign.







One of the captains of that 1988-1989 team was junior Mike Jones. Mike was a 6'6" 210 lb. power forward who night in and night out was playing against much bigger opponents. The most notable being former Phoenix Sun first round draft pick (#7 overall) Tim Perry who played for Temple University. Mike was a physical player who always played with a ton of emotion. By the tail end of that season, Kuester had sucked all of the emotion out of him. The biggest indictment of Kuester I heard out of Mike's mouth came on the morning of the Dec. 10, 1988 home loss to Rutgers. Mike didn't even want to go to the gym that day because he knew they could beat Rutgers, but no else on the team believed Kuester could help them win. His players didn't see him as adding value.





A player doesn't have to love a coach to play well for him. A player has to believe that the coach is an asset. Why do the Orlando Magic players still appreciate Stan Van Gundy even though he's constantly berating them? Because they believe that Stan adds value towards their shared goal of winning. When players stop believing in a coach, most times its on the coach. And in college basketball, its always the coach's fault if the players stop believing in him. Kuester lost his kids early that season with no ability to get them back.





Part of why it went down that way could be explained in this next anecdote. My father, Burt Geltzeiler, grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey. He was a college basketball player for Newark-Rutgers from 1945-1950. And from what I understand, he was a very good college basketball player, averaging 22 points per game in 1950 and was drafted by the Tri City Hawks (now the Atlanta Hawks) in the 7th round by Tri City general manager Red Auerbach, but I digress.





Before John Kuester coached the GW Colonials, their head coach was a Bobby Knight disciple named Gerry Gimelstob, who hailed from the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey. Gimelstob coached GW from 1981-1985. In the fall of 1983, my father received a phone call from Gerry's younger brother Barry Gimelstob. Even though Gerry and Barry were younger than my father, he knew them both from the neighborhood. As my dad would tell it to me, all of the best jewish athletes knew each other well. Barry had called my dad to assist in the recruiting of a Jewish basketball player in Philadelphia who hailed from Russia named Max Blank. Blank had been dubbed by scouts as "The Jewish Larry Bird". He was a 6'9" 240 lb power forward with a silky smooth jump shot and a tough demeanor that belied his ability. Barry would proceed to explain that Blank's high school coach, Hal Reinfeld, was giving the Gimelstobs a difficult time in allowing them access to recruit his player. Reinfeld was very protective of Blank. He had just come to this country from Russia as a senior in high school and in his one year in Philadelphia. He was first team All-City with former NBA player Jerome "Pooh" Richardson, among others.





After a few phone calls back and forth, Reinfeld told Gerry Gimelstob was that the only way Gimelstob could talk with Blank, was if Reinfeld got word that Gimelstob was a good guy. And the only guy Reinfeld knew from the Weequhaic was Reinfeld's old friend from the army, my father, Burt Geltzeiler. My father was very happy to oblige and called Reinfeld. As they say in show business, the rest is history. Blank and Gimelstob hit it off and Blank committed to play at GW.





Unfortuantely, this real life story does not have a Hollywood ending. In the Fall of 1984, Blank's freshman year, he blew out his knee playing in a tournament known as the Roundball Classic. In February 1985, Gimelstob was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as saying that Blank's future is in doubt. The 1984-85 season would be Gimelstob's final one as GW's head basketball coach.





Kuester's first season as coach at GW was 1985-86. I arrived there as a freshman. One of the first weekends my parents came to Washington DC to visit me coincided with fall basketball practice. So, of course, my dad wanted to go down to the gym and check out the player he had a hand in recruiting. We watched practice from the catwalk on the 2nd deck. I'll never forget my father's reaction when he saw Blank lumbering around in his big bulky knee brace. He looked at me with a blank stare (no pun intended) and said, "Thats him??? Max was a shadow of the player he had heard about. But something struck both of us about Blank that day. No matter how hard it was for him to move, he never stopped working.



When the season started and I saw Max on the court, he actually looked a little better. He still didn't move well because of the knee, but he was a good shooter, an instinctive rebounder and a physical player. He certainly was an asset on the court. The following season, Kuester's 1-27 masterpiece, he used Max less and less. Mike Jones and I used to discuss it all the time. Mike grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey, just over the Walt Whitman bridge from Philadelphia where Max played high school ball. Mike knew of Max in high school and always raved to me how good he was before he blew the knee out. Mike also told me that all of the guys on the team felt that Max could help the cause if Kuester played him more. And Mike liked Max. Most of all Mike considerd him a good guy and it takes one to know one.



I got the opportunity towards the tail end of the 1988-89 season to talk with Max one night. Max had dated a girl that I previously dated. I was out one night at our local watering hole, The Exchange, with Mike. Max was in the bar that night and Mike decided that he was going to have a little fun with Max and I by comparing our notes on this girl we both dated. He called Max over to us at the bar and started in. Max and I both got a big laugh out of it and then I told Max who my dad was and asked him if he remembered him. Max did remember him and the two of us hit it off. Max told me that night that he had accepted the fact relatively early that the knee injury would derail his NBA dreams. He also lamented the fact that Gerry Gimelstob was no longer his coach, because he felt like Gimelstob cared about him. Despite the knee injury he felt like he could have been a productive college player. He told me he felt like Kuester treated him "like trash." Max felt like Kuester disposed of him and disregarded him because he was not one of Kuester's guys and no longer had the ability to help Kuester advance. Later on, Mike confirmed to me that all of the guys liked Max a lot and felt very badly for the way Kuester treated him. Max had only been in the U.S. one year when he enrolled at GW. He was still learning the language. Kuester wanted nothing to do with helping him socially or academically. Kuester didn't believe in Max and in return, his players didn't believe in him. Is this a coach you would want to lead your NBA franchise?



My story comes from a slanted perspective. I knew some of Kuester's players well and liked them. And they didn't respect Kuester in the slightest. In the interest of fairness, Kuester always had a big fan in Larry Brown. Kuester was a key assistant with him in Philadlephia and on Brown's 2003-2004 Detroit Pistons championship team. Brown and Kuester are both members of the North Carolina Tar Heel fraternity. And it is certainly conceivable and reasonable for a man to grow into his craft over the course of 20 years. But I do not think that one can argue the point that his leadership skills in his last head coaching job, 20 years ago, were pretty much nonexistent. And his people skills weren't much better.

The man who hired Kuester last week, Pistons GM Joe Dumars is a highly respected executive in the NBA. He gets credit for putting together the only championship team we have seen in the last 30 years that was devoid of a superstar, that being the Pistons 2003-2004 team. However he has presided over two of the largest blunders we have seen in the last decade. In the 2003 draft, he selected the infamous Darko Milicic with the #2 pick, leaving franchise players like Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on the board. And last season, he shipped out Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson in a cost cutting move ( a trade I liked by the way) which propelled Denver to the Western Conference finals and secured Detriot's position as the #8 seed and cannon fodder for the Cavaliers in the first round. Before all is said and done, I think this Kuester hire will be an unmitigated disaster for the Pistons. It won't be all Kuester's fault. Dumars has assembled a roster of one dimensional selfish players. New free agent signings Ben Gordon and Charlie Villaneuva are liabilities. Villaneuva is a weak defensive player who doesn't rebound. And Gordon is a chucker who doesn't defend. They have no quality big players and a point guard in Rodney Stuckey who Dumars seems to think is a lot better than he is. It will be a perfect group for Kuester. Doug Collins and Avery Johnson both turned down the job before it was offered to Kuester. Yes, it was about money (Detroit is presently paying 3 coaches), but I can't help but think that if the right team was assembled, one Johnson or Collins would have taken the job for the money offered.

My last point on Kuester is about the job he did as Cleveland's lead assistant last season. Thise of you who regularly read this space, know that I was very critical of the way the Cavs ran their offense in the Eastern Conference finals against Orlando. Their offense was very scattered with no thought of tempo control whatsoever and because of that, among other things, the Orlando Magic took care of them rather easily. Cleveland coach Mike Brown handled the defense. The offense was handled by one, John Kuester. Good luck Detroit. You're going to need it.

Back next week with opinions and such on the free agent signing period. Giddyap. Y'all be cool.

Plenty of trades, plenty of draft picks with plenty to say.......











Its very difficult to not like the San Antonio Spurs acquisition of forward Richard Jefferson for nothing but salary cap fodder ( Francisco Oberto, Bruce Bowen, and Kurt Thomas) from the Milwaukee Bucks. However, I'm not sure that he's going to help as much as they think he will. When Jefferson first came into the league, he was a tenacious defender who took the ball to the basket aggressively and often. As the years have worn on, he has become more of an average defensive player and more of a perimeter shooter. The problem is that he's not a very good perimeter shooter and his shot selection is spotty at best. The Spurs have always played a team game on both ends of the floor. Jefferson may not fit in as seamlessly as they believe.





With that said, what's going on in Milwaukee? Last June they traded their 1st round pick (6th overall) Yi Jianlian to the Nets for Richard Jefferson. This June, they trade Jefferson for three guys they're going to cut. And it appears that they are going to use the money to retain point guard Ramon Sessions. This will come right on the heels of drafting point guard Brandon Jennings with their #1 pick this year. Keeping in mind that August of last year, they completed a trade for point guard Luke Ridnour. Their rebuilding plan resembles a moving target. Being a Bucks fan is worse than being one of Jon and Kate's eight.





From a basketball standpoint, the biggest non story of the offseason so far has been the Cavaliers acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq is the biggest of the big names and will certainly make the Cavs more interesting to watch, but he's not going to cure what ailed the Cavs in their playoff loss to the Orlando Magic.



The Cavaliers had an outstanding regular season on the strength of their half court defense. They were at their best on both sides of the court playing at a slow pace. In the Orlando series, they were caught from moment one in Orlando's up and down the floor fast paced transition game. And they were not athletic enough to keep up with the Magic. Shaq is a very nice luxury to have. But if you're not going to slow the game down to feed him in the post, he becomes a very expensive statue. The Cavs under utilized their main post presence in Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Obviously Shaq, even at this stage of his career, is much better than Ilgauskas. But if he's not getting the ball, he's useless. He can't thrive in an uptempo system ( i.e the 2008-2009 Phoenix Suns). And this notion that he can help stop Dwight Howard is laughable. The best thing Shaq has in relation to Howard is the ability to create 12 Howard free throws over the course of a game. Very frankly, the Cavs 2nd round draft choice, Danny Green from North Carolina will be a lot more helpful in a series next year against the Magic than the artist formerly known as Shaquille O'Neal. And the task of keeping up with the Magic didn't get any easier with their acquisition of Vince Carter.....



Speaking of Vince Carter, this is one of those few NBA trades that every party involved actually benefits. I will preface this analysis by saying I am a big Vince Carter fan. He gets a very bad rap in this league for quitting on the Toronto Raptors in 2004. And Vince was dead wrong back then. But I believe he righted that sin by being not only a good soldier on a somewhat hopeless New Jersey Net team last season, but an enthusiastic leader who set a very professional example for a very young team. He played unselfish basketball and took an interest in the improvement of the younger players. He deserves a shot at a title a lot more than the coach killing, hypocritical Jason Kidd, who quit on Vince's Nets, but I digress.



I love this trade for Orlando. They get Carter and Ryan Anderson and gave up cap fodder in Tony Battie and Rafer Alston and a promising young player in Courtney Lee. This makes the Magic more athletic and more importantly gives them leverage against a likely Hedo Turkoglu defection. Now if Turkoglu wants to return, it will be On Orlando's terms. Orlando GM Otis Smith derserves a lot of credit for pulling the trigger on this deal.



I like this trade for the Nets as well. Lee is unique in the respect that he's 21 years old with some significant playoff experience under his belt. He is a tough, athletic kid who works hard and doesn't intimidate easily. He can shoot it a little bit and seems to understand NBA defense. He also handles the ball well, which makes him a good backcourt partner to Devin Harris. The Nets also save a lot of money in this deal and open up a lot of cap space for the 2010 free agent class. And with a young nucleus of Lee, Harris, and center Brook Lopez, the Nets have assembled an attractive supporting cast to the array of free agent superstars anticipated to be available next year. Good work by Nets president Rod Thorn.

The other deal from draft week was the Washington Wizards trading away the fifth pick of the first round and three bad contracts (Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia, and Oleksiy Pecherov) to the Minnesota Timberwolves for guards Randy foye and Mike Miller. Before I tell you how much I despise this trade for Washington, let me first tell you that I have always had a great amount of respect for Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld. He's always been very creative and resourceful when building a team, the Wizards included. But Ernie has made some decisions in the past 9 months that qualify as head scratchers. He fired a very good coach in Eddie Jordan less than 1 month into the season with a 1-10 record on a team besieged by injuries. He hired long time personnel executive Ed Tapscott as interim coach. And no, Knick fans that was not a gas bubble you just had, it was your muscle memory of the gut punch you felt that fateful 1999 draft night when Tapscott selected the immortal Frederic Weis with the 15th pick of the first round leaving Ron Artest on the board. Tapscott lead the Wizards to an 18-53 record to finish out the season. Eddie Jordan was out of work less than a season as he was hired to coach the Philadelphia 76ers not long after the season. Needless to say, I found Jordan's firing and Tapscott's subsequest hiring more than a little curious.

Which brings us to the Foye/Miller trade. When Grunfeld made this deal it made it very clear that this was a trade with the short term in mind. Some so called experts have even predicted that this trade would catapult the Wizards into the elite of the Eastern Conference. I'm not sipping from that Kool Aid jug. The Wizards were a 19 win team last year. I understand that Gilbert Arenas was out all year, but guys like Foye and Miller don't make you an elite contender. They help you get the #8 seed in the playoffs and a quick ticket home from Cleveland/Orlando/Boston, which is NBA no man's land. Either you're competing for a title or you're rebuilding. When you get stuck in between, you become the Knicks from the last decade. No matter what Grunfeld thought of this draft, the Wizards are best served with a young player contributing as he develops. To take it a step further, this trade wreaks of Grunfeld being concerned for his job and looking for a quick turnaround. Those turnarounds don't happen unless you can acquire Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the same offseason while they both have plenty left in the tank.


There was plenty I liked about the draft and plenty, well.....not so much.

I liked what Minnestoa GM David Kahn did in drafting point guards Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn with the #5 and #6 picks. He increased his odds greatly to have a solid point guard for the next 10 years, and if ends up with two solid point guards, he's got a very tradable commodity. He kept a good eye on the long term picture for a team that won't be competing for a title in the next 3 years.

I liked Sacramento's selection of Tyreke Evans with the #4 pick. The Kings need good athletes and Evans is an exceptional one.

I did not like the Knicks selection of Jordan Hill at #8. He seems destined for a very pedestrian career. And why, in a point guard heavy draft, with a fast tempo system, would Knick GM Donnie Walsh pass on a fast break point guard like Ty Lawson. Even if Walsh didn't like Lawson (by the way, I LOVE Lawson), take a shot on someone like Brandon Jennings who at least is suppossed to have the skill set to run the system. I don't think Walsh has this ship moving in the right direction.

I liked Indiana's selection of Tyler Hansbrough with the #13 pick. Hansbrough may not end up being a star, but he will be a solid contributor for years to come.

I did not like Detroit's selection of Austin Daye with the #15 pick. Daye's upside is that he turns out to be Tayshaun Prince, and as effective as Prince is, I don't think the Pistons need two of him. In addition, I think Daye is a bust waiting to happen. He does not seem cut out to be physical enough to be any kind of NBA defender.

As you probably would figure, I predictably love the Denver trade for the #18 pick and Ty Lawson. The prevailing thought is that Lawson will serve as Chauncey Billups backup, but I think Lawson will be much more. I think that Denver coach George "the Animal" Karl will use Lawson and Billups together a whole bunch. Billups is strong enough to cover wing players. And Billups tendency to channel his inner Iverson and fire bad threes off the dribble will be mitigated with him playing off the ball. It also helps the Nuggets salary cap wise because playing Lawson and Billups together will not make it necessary to overpay last year's starting two guard Dahntay Jones. They can now devote that money to resigning the legendary Chris "Birdman" Anderson.

I like Utah's pick of Virginia Commonwealth guard Eric Maynor at #20. Similar philosophy to what Denver did. Because Utah point guard Deron Williams has good size, he can defend the two guards. And Maynor has good scoring ability off the dribble and is more than skilled enough to be an effective wing player offensively as well as an efficient point guard.

I also like Sacramento's pick at #23, Israeli forward Omir Casspi. He's an energetic, athletic 6'9" forward who doesn't intimidate easily and has confidence in his ability. The Kings had a very good draft.

I did not like the Cavs selection of Christian Eyenga, a forward from the Congo, with the last pick of the first round. The Cavs need wing athletes, preferably one who can shoot. When your team is in a position to compete for a title, making first round picks to stash over in Europe to develop for a few years defeats the purpose. They got very lucky that Danny Green fell to them in the 2nd round at #46. Green is an athletic wing who can shoot and defend who hung around far too long in this draft.

Speaking if guys who hung around far too long, I love the San Antonio Spurs selection of Pittsburgh forward DeJuan Blair in the 2nd round (#37). Blair is a player whose development as a pro was going to be largely dependent on which organization selected him. If he ended up in Minnesota or Memphis, I'm not sure he would have all that much impact. But Blair hit the lottery in San Antonio. He is a very physical player who will take a lot of the physical load off of Tim Duncan. And playing with seasoned veterans who win championships like Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker will do wonders for Blair learning what it takes to be a winning basketball player. This also obviously works out great for the Spurs. Blair will be the first big man off of their bench and be able to provide a low post presence while Duncan gets his much needed rest. This is a marriage made in heaven.

I find it impossible to pan a 2nd round pick, because in reality there are only shots in the dark anyway. So here are the 2nd round picks I think could succeed and make someone's rotation.

Pitt's Sam Young to the Grizzlies at #36
Arizona's Chase Budinger to the Rockets at #44
North Carolina's Danny Green to Cleveland at #46
Oklahoma's Taylor Griffin to Phoenix at #48
Michigan State's Goran Suton to Utah at #50 (good draft for the Jazz)
Connecticut's AJ Price to Indiana at #52 (good draft for the Pacers)

Back next week to sort out the free agency madness. Y'all be cool. Giddyap.

Some wrap up business on the Finals and my mock draft








Before I convey a few random thoughts about the quick work the Lakers made of the Magic, I'd like to respond to the slew of e-mail that I've received from some readers who wanted to take me to task about my merciless assault on Laker point guard Derek Fisher in this space. Here is my response: Fisher's still washed up.





I know that Fisher hit two very big three pointers in the Lakers game 4 overtime win. The first one tied the game with 4 seconds left in regulation and the second one gave the Lakers a 3 point lead in the overtime, a lead the Lakers would never relinquish. But that still doesn't change the fact that Fisher is athletically inferior to every guard he plays against. And who says that Shannon Brown could not have hit big threes if given the chance. I would never have played Fisher as much as Jackson in every series and I stand by it. But then again, Phil Jackson has 10 championship rings and all I have are a couple of wedding rings, so there you go.





Speaking of Philosophical Phil, I think this was his 2nd best coaching job ever. His best was the 1994 Bulls when he had a 55 win season without Michael Jordan and was a bad Hue Hollins whistle from being in the NBA finals. And his 3rd best was the Bulls 72 win season in 1996 that culminated in a title. His finest coaching moment of the series was with 10 seconds left in regulation of game 2, he was able to put a defense on the floor that had the Magic's two shot opportunities to win the game attempted by Orlando's 5th option, Courtney Lee.





A quick note on Kobe Bryant. He changed his game just enough to put the Lakers over the top. Make no mistake. Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol didn't get any better this year. Kobe just played with them more allowing their vast talent to matter for the Lakers. Kobe even starting regularly feeding Gasol in the post down the stretch of games. Don't get me wrong. Kobe isn't exactly the most humble guy in the world. But he played enough team basketball to lead his team to a title and he deserves a lot of credit for that. Now that I just threw up in my mouth, its onto my mock draft.





Most scouts and NBA executives are calling this draft the worst in years. I wholeheartedly disagree. If you need a point guard, this draft is a good place to find one. This draft may be lacking star power, but there's a lot of players in this draft who will be contributors. Too many personnel executives shoot for the moon in the draft. The same chance exists to unearth a star in drafting for contributors than drafting to find the next Michael Jordan (remember Harold "Baby Jordan" Miner). With that in mind, lets begin.





1) LA Clippers- Blake Griffin (F) Oklahoma- The closest thing there is to a sure thing in this draft. The way I see it it is the only thing that can ruin him is that Creepy Clipper Karma. And that has powers we beyond anything that can be analyzed.





2) Memphis- Ricky Rubio (G) Spain- I believe Memphis GM Chris Wallace when he says they are very interested in Rubio and will not let threats from Rubio's camp that Rubio won't come to Memphis prevent Wallace from drafting him. Rubio needs to be the highest pick he can to make enough money to buy himself out of his Spanish league contract. If Memphis selects him, Rubio will come. He'll have fellow Spanish Olympic teammate Marc Gasol waiting for him. Rubio will be a good NBA point guard. He can play NBA level defense at a very young age. He guarded Chris Paul and Deron Williams very effectively in the Olympic gold medal game. Needs to watch his turnovers





3) Oklahoma City- Hasheem Thabeet (C) Connecticut- Thabeet is in the Dikembe Mutombo mold. Very good shot blocker. Very good rebounder. He's adequate offensively. He has great size at 7'3". But needs to add toughness. Got pushed around a lot in Big East play for a guy this size. If the Tin Man finds his heart, Oklahoma City's got themselves a real good center. For the record, I do think Thabeet toughens up and becomes a good center.





4) Sacramento- Stephen Curry (G) Davidson- Curry is an excellent shooter who can fill it up quick. But I question his ability to be a point guard and he's way too skinny to be an effective wing player. Has questionable shot selection for a guy who suppossedly has a "high basketball IQ". I wouldn't take him this early, but a lot of teams are enamored with him. Probably ends up as a good bench player.





5) Washington- Tyreke Evans (G) Memphis- Evans is a great fit for the Wizards. Handles the ball enough to allow Gilbert Arenas to play some on the wing as a scoring guard. And Evans is a tremendous athlete who should evolve into a decent wing defender. He could play a big role in the Wizards turning it around fast.





6) Minnesota- James Harden (G) Arizona St.- Minnesota's back court is a mess. Harden will help stabilize it. Not the best athlete, but a good scorer and a physically tough player for 6"5". Could certainly be part of the long term solution on Minnesota.





7) Golden St.- Jrue Holiday (G) UCLA- Warrior coach Don Nelson (who's back in charge after inserting a ginsu into Chris Mullin's delicate back) will not be able to resist an athlete like Holiday. Holiday's workouts have suppossedly been off the charts. Scouts are drooling over him ignoring the fact that he wasn't all that good a player for UCLA last year. He could develop, but a coin toss is more certain.





8) New York- Ty Lawson (G) North Carolina- Many scouts think this is early for Lawson and maybe a little wishful thinking by this Knick fan, but I think Lawson is going to be one of the top 3 point guards in the league. He's fast, strong, and unselfish. He's a decent shooter, an agressive and willing defender, and he doesn't turn the ball over much. Scouts are concerned about his height and his work ethic. Last time I checked, the best point guard in the league Chris Paul is 5"11" and strong as an ox, just like Lawson. Thats right, I went there. Lawson was the most important player for the champion Tar Heels and played the NCAA tournament with a very bad toe. A great fit in Knick coach Mike D'Antoni's up tempo system. My favorite player in this draft.





9) Toronto- Jordan Hill (F) Arizona- Toronto will think they are a getting a bookend to Chris Bosh to help Bosh with all of the grunt work. But they're getting a tentative player with a low motor. Not a Jordan Hill fan.





10) Milwaukee- Jonny Flynn (G) Syracuse- A good fit for Milwaukee. Flynn is exactly the kind of floor leader Buck Coach Scott Skiles needs running the point. Needs to improve the shooting and watch the turnovers, but he'll be a good one.





11) New Jersey- Earl Clark (F) Louisville- Clark is a very well rounded basketball player. One of the more talented players in this draft. Has been unfairly downgraded by scouts because of work ethic questions. His college coach Rick Pitino believes he has what it takes. Similar skill set to Lamar Odom. That makes Earl my second favorite player in this draft behind Lawson. He'll be a very good player on a championship contender before all is said and done.





12) Charlotte- Demar DeRozan (F/G) USC- Charlotte thinks they're getting a replacement for Raja Bell as a shutdown wing defender with tremendous athletic ability. What they're really getting is a tremendous athlete who is disinterested and selfish and will be impossible for Larry Brown to coach. This guy has bust written all over him.





13) Indiana- Gerald Henderson (G) Duke- Indiana GM Larry Bird will grab his ex teammate Gerald Henderson's son. The Pacers could use a reliable off guard and Bird knows this kid's a good citizen, which is very important in Indiana. Henderson will be a solid NBA player, but not much more.





14) Phoenix- Eric Maynor (G) Virginia Commonwealth- Maynor can serve as the heir apparent to Steve Nash. Maynor has a complete game. Good at just about everything, great at nothing. But he is a legitimate floor leader who plays wiith passion and guts.





15) Detroit- James Johnson (F) Wake Forest- This guy is billed as being able to play both small forward and power forward. My guess is that he won't play either that well. He's suppossedly a black belt in jujitsu, which will onlly draw him flagrant fouls in the NBA. This pick will not end up at the top of Piston GM Joe Dumars' resume when he ends up looking for a new job.





16) Chicago- Tyler Hansbrough (F) North Carolina- The Bulls are not all that pleased with their 2006 first rounder Tyrus Thomas at power forward. Hansbrough is a hard working physical forward who can shoot. Sort of the anti Tyrus Thomas, who is athletic, but immature. The perfect player to either push Thomas or replace him





17) Philadelphia- Brandon Jennings (G)- Italy- Jennings played professionally in Italy this past season. I'm using the word played loosely because from what in understand, all he did was sit on the bench last season and complain about it. The Sixers figure he can replace free agent point guard Andre Miller, but they might as well be throwing their money on black or red at the roulette table.



18) Minnesota- B.J. Mullens (C) Ohio St.- Minnesota will figure that Mullens can be a project with lots of upside. I think he's the dictionary definition of a bust who never should have left college this early.



19) Atlanta- Jeff Teague (G) Wake Forest- Not a big fan of Teague's game. Clearly should be staying in school at least another year. But the Hawks need a replacement for free agent point guard Mike Bibby. Teague may develop eventually, but will certainly disappoint in the short term.



20) Utah- DeJuan Blair (F) Pittsburgh- I definitely have concerns about Blair, but if he lands in
Utah, he'll have landed in the right place. Utah's coach Jerry Sloan has had outstanding success with undersized, but strong power forwards Carlos Boozer and Paul Milsapp. And with all indications appearing that Boozer will opt out of his contract and explore free agency and with Milsapp entering restricted free agency, who better to bring in than an undersized strong power forward in DeJuan Blair. Blair stock has dropped recently due concerns about his knees. And if he drops to 20, the Jazz will bethrilled and rightfully so. He won't be a star, but he will be a significant contributor in the right situation.



21) New Orleans- Nick Calathes (G) Florida- New Orleans would rather not pay a rookie contract this year, so they'll select Calathes because he signed a contract to play in Greece, so they can wait a few years to bring him in and start paying him. Calathes' game is probably more suited to Europe anyway.



22) Dallas- Sam Young (F/G) Pittsburgh- Young is a very effective wing player who plays strong, defends well, and can shoot. He goes this low because he's ancient by draft standards at 24. Not a lot of upside for him from where he is now. But the good news is that he's pretty damn good now. He may just end up the reason the Mavericks are able to move Josh Howard, which just might net them Chris Bosh.



23) Sacramento- Austin Daye (F) Gonzaga- Sacramento may go European here instead to save a contract, but I think they'll like Daye a lot here. Personally, I don't think Daye deserves to go in the first round. Even though he's 6'11". he's softer than the stay puff marshmallow man. He's only 190 pounds and his only discernible skill is his ability to shoot. Guys like this get thrown around in the NBA like rag dolls.



24) Portland- Darren Collison- (G) UCLA- Certain things about the draft make me scratch my head. Jrue Holiday spent the year last year as Collison's backup, rightfully so. Yet Holiday will go in the lottery and Collison will be lucky to go in the first round because Holiday is a workout star. If Portland selects Collison, they'll be getting a pass first point guard who is a tenacious defender. Collison may be a little small, but he makes up for it with a great motor. He's a perfect fit for the Trailblazers.



25) Oklahoma City- Terrence Williams (G/F) Louisville- If the Thunder get Williams here, they'll have gotten good value. A good athlete and a smart player. He is just not that great an offensive player. he handles the ball decently, but does not have a nose for the basket. He'll defend well on the NBA level. Many scouts have him as a top 10 pick, but you can do better in this draft. He'll be a contributor wherever he goes. Thats his ceiling, but at this stage of the draft thats a good thing.



26) Chicago- Wayne Ellington (G) North Carolina- This would be a great value pick for the Bulls. With it looking likely that they lose Ben Gordon to free agency ( a blessing by the way) Ellington will fill that role and be a much better complement to star point guard Derrick Rose. Gordon dominates the ball way too much. If the Bulls add Hansbrough and Ellington with losing Gordon to free agency, they will be a much better team this year and possibly contend in the East. Both would be excellent chemistry picks.

27) Memphis- Omri Casspi (F) Israel- Everything I've seen on this guy I loved. He didn't want to work out for many teams because in his eyes, the workouts are not reflective of the kind of player he is. And although he changed his mind (as he should have) and blew teams away with his workout , the man has a point. He's a very athletic and energetic forward. He would provide Memphis with some much needed grit. In the words of Judge Smails from Caddyshack, "the world needs ditch diggers too!!" Casspi is a ditch digger.

28) Minnesota- Patrick Mills (G) St. Mary's- Mills is a shoot first point guard and lord knows Minnesota has plenty of them. But Mills just might be the best point guard on their roster if they draft him. Questionable shot selection and lots of turnovers work against Mills. But he might just give them a better chance to win than current point guards Randy Foye and (gulp) Sebastian Telfair.

29) L.A. Lakers- Chase Budinger (G/F) Arizona- If Budinger is here when the Lakers pick, and I think he will be, he will be just the excuse they need to part ways with the psychotic Sasha Vujacic. Watching Vujacic hug his teammates while their nostrils flair at the smell has become downright uncomfortable. Budinger can play the same role as a shooter off the bench, which is really Budinger's only future in the league.

30) Cleveland- Danny Green (F) North Carolina- If I'm correct, the national champion Tar Heels will have placed 4 players in the first round. Green is an excellent shooter and an excellent defender. He doesn't create a lot offensively, but he shoots it real well, and is a very athletic and willing defender. Green is exactly the type of player the Cavaliers were missing in their loss to the Magic in the Eastern Conference finals. Green is an excellent wing complement to LeBron James.

There you have it. I'll be back before the draft with rumors. Giddyap. Y'all be cool.