Some more NBA ideas right below......





I received a little flak from some readers about my endorsement of the Houston Rockets. Questions have been raised about team chemistry and Tracy McGrady's willingness to play within the framework of a team concept. Normally, I would heed these concerns, bu head coach Rick Adelman has a hostory of dealing with these types of things quite well. Thats a prediction I'm not backing off.





However, I'll give you a prediction I'm starting to back away from. I'm not sure Michael Curry has a clue what to do in Detroit. It appears as though the only right move he's making is bringing Richard Hamilton off the bench. The Pistons play good, agressive team defense. But for a team with this much offensive talent, it shouldn't be such a struggle to score, yet somehow it is. The problem tends to be when Rodney Stuckey is not on the court. When Stuckey is on the court, he's the point guard and no oen has to play out of position. When Stuckey is on the bench, Curry plays with a different point guard each possession. This is fine on every third possession when Allen Iverson is handling the ball. But to have Hamilton and 6'10" Tayshaun Prince on the peimeter handling the ball is assinine. It appears that Curry is trying not to ask Iverson to be too much of a distributor. Yet when Stcukey isn't in the game, thats exaxtly what Iverson should be. Taking Prince away from the baseline offensively really takes away from his game. Him and Rasheed Wallace do a great job occupying space together. This has been a very successful organization most of the decade with this core group. Iverson should be asked to fit in around the other guys, not vice versa. If Pistons general manager Joe Dumars is not committed to Curry long term, it would be a great idea to break Chuck Daly out of mothballs and let him try to make one run with this team. He'd get them right. Then start over next year with someone new. they're only going to be loading uo for the 2010 free agent class anyway next year.





Over the last few years, I've been pretty critical of Cleveland Cavaliers' coach Mike Brown. But as far as this season is concerned, no one has done more to this point to earn Coach of the Year than he has. He has the Cavs competing with the Celtics for the top spot in the West and he's done it with injuries to two key guys, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Delonte West. Now, you can call the Cavs Team LeBron if you'd like and I couldn't argue with you, because without him they are a 25 win team. However, Brown does an outstanding job of using LeBron's wide range of abilites to put the Cavs in the Best possible matchups. Brown is not afraid to play LeBron at any of the 5 positions on the floor, if the matchup or the opponent calls for it. He will go deep into his bench and without Ilgauskas and West, he's had to. It looks like every player has a well defined role and there's never a question of how any player fits in to a particular situation. This and Lebron's maturity and commitment to defense have been the chief reasons that the Cavs are part of the league elite. S they get healthier, they'll only get tougher nad they may end up being too deep for the Celtics in a 7 game series.





Most times that a coach is fired and a general manager is asked to move down to the sidelines to coach the mess they've made, its normally the last step out the door for said general manager. Last year's dictionary definition was the New York Knick swan song of Isiah "they can't do that to our interns, only we can do that to our interns" Thomas. However, there's a version of this scenario playing out this year in Minnesota that is starting to appear as quite the opposite. Kevin McHale appears to be getting the Timberwolves onto the right track. He has a very young team with a few talented pieces and a few pieces that don't fit. The Wolves are 12-14 since Mchale took over and were 4-15 under Randy Wittman. But the record doesn't matter as much as the fact that plyaers are improving under McHale's watch. The centerpiece of the Kevin Garnett deal, Al Jefferson, is playing at an all star level night in and night out. Rookie big man Kevin Love has had a very productive rookie year coming off of McHale's bench. And potential disappointments Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair have shown progress under McHale. Now will all of this be enough to get McHale a stay of execution at the end of the season? That remains to be seen, but its nice to see him give it a run. He's been portrayed as a clueless personnel guy and some of that could be true. But he's taking advantage of the opportunity to prove his critics wrong.





One of the more amazing implosions of a franchise is going on right in front of our eyes and yet no one seems no take much note of it because its being done by an organization with whom we have always directly associated futility. Considering the talent level and interesting mix of young and veteran players on the Los Angeles Clippers, their pitiful season is inexcusable and a direct indictment on head coach Mike Dunleavy. It is amazing that just 2 1/2 years ago, the Clippers made a run into the 2nd round of the playoffs. If owner Donald Sterling does not unload Dunleavy at the end of the season, then he gets what he deserves, whcih would hopefully be loads of season ticket holders not renewing. As in most situations like this one, the guy that made the mess should not be the one to clean it.

Y'all be cool. giddyap