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Moral victory for winless Nets in loss to Celtics? November 7, 2009 10:55 PM By Chris Sheridan
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - They don't give out Ws in the NBA for moral victories, which is why the New Jersey Nets will awake Sunday still sporting the league's only goose egg in the win column. But what happened Saturday night, with New Jersey sticking with the Boston Celtics all the way into the final minute of the fourth quarter of an 86-76 loss despite having only eight healthy bodies, can arguably be considered the most positive night thus far of what promises to be a dismal season. "Our guys are battling their tails off, and we'll break through. We're not discouraged," said Nets coach Lawrence Frank, whose team dropped to 0-7. "Our team going in, we said none of us is as strong as all of us, and it's literally come to fruition in a seven-game stretch. Go figure. But our guys have a great deal of pride and they're trying to win. We walked in the locker room, and it wasn't like a moral victory. They wanted to win, and we're disappointed we came up short, but it's a credit to those guys in the locker room, and we're going to keep on battling." The Nets were without starters Devin Harris (strained right groin), Courtney Lee (strained left groin), Yi Jianlian (sprained knee) and Chris Douglas-Roberts (swine flu), along with reserves Keyon Dooling (hip), Jarvis Hayes (hamstring) and Tony Battie (knee), but they led by as many as eight, kept the game tight the entire way and had four chances to cut into a six-point deficit in the final 90 seconds, only to miss on offense each of those four times. Frank had to go with a starting five of Brook Lopez at center, Bobby Simmons and Josh Boone at the forward spots and Rafer Alston and Trenton Hassell in the backcourt. His only available reserves were rookie Terrence Williams (4-for-14, 4 turnovers), Eduardo Najera (zero points, one rebound and two turnovers in 12 minutes) and Sean Williams (4 points in 5 minutes of playing time.) "Sometimes when you're in that forest it's hard to see in between those trees," Frank said, "but I think in the process we are getting better, and the numbers will take care of themselvs in terms of wins and losses. If we keep plugging away, we'll get the wins we deserve to get. I like the approach that our guys have, they have no fear of anyone." If Frank has any fear concerning his job security, he is keeping it well hidden. Frank, team president Rod Thorn and general manager Kiki Vandeweghe are all in the final year of their contracts, and the entire organization is in a state of limbo while they wait to see if the sale of the club from Bruce Ratner to Russian oligarch Mickael Prokhorov goes through. That issue may not be resolved until the end of December, and the school of thought at the Meadowlands is that nobody on the coaching staff is in job jeopardy simply because of the fact that the club would have to spend money to pay a replacement, and spending money is not something the Nets are doing these days. (Frank's No. 1 assistant, Brian Hill, decided to leave over the summer after management asked him and most of the other assistant coaches to take pay cuts, and the Nets are scrambling so far and wide for sponsors that the rotating signage on the front of the scorer's table featured advertisements, in English and Chinese, for the Agricultural Bank of China, and for a product called YiLi Low Lactose Milk). So for at least another 7-8 weeks, Frank -- the longest tenured coach in the Eastern Conference, with a career record of 225-232 -- should remain secure. But once the outcome of the Ratner-Prokhorov transaction is known, everyone in the organization is apt to morph from lame duck to on the chopping block. "I think somtimes because your record is bad people assume that the coach is in trouble, and I don't know if that's the case here," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "I know it shoudn't be. In our case, at least in Boston, it was more talk from the media than from inside. I never felt threatened that I was going anywhere -- that don't mean you're not, it can happen. "But I think they're pretty smart here. They know what they have. They know what they're dealing with, especially right now with the injuries and the youth. They decided to go in this direction. So you just do your job. You come and you show up and you do your job every day, and I think Lawrence has done a fantastic job but has nothing to show for it, and that's tough." The last time a coach was fired in-season without any victories was in 2002 when Memphis dismissed Sidney Lowe after the Grizzlies opened 0-8. In 1988, the Pacers let Dr. Jack Ramsay go when Indiana started 0-7, in 1996, Cotton Fitzsimmons was fired in Phoenix with an 0-8 record, and Rivers lost his job in Orlando six years ago after the Magic opened 1-10. "All of us go through it [rebuilding]," Rivers said. "Pat Riley went through it, Phil [Jackson] went through it, one year. Guys go through it, and you've got to just maintain what you do and your belief system. And when you go through this, is does challenge you, it absolutely does. "In Boston I went through it, and you just think 'How am I going to figure a way to win this game tonight?' And then to also build for the future when you have a young team, it's a tough, tough line to walk." Read comments or leave a comment Answers few and far between on Allen Iverson's future in Memphis November 7, 2009 10:40 PM by Chad Ford
Is Allen Iverson's career in Memphis over after just three games? On Saturday, Iverson was granted permission to leave the Grizzlies to deal with a personal matter a Grizzlies spokesperson confirmed. The question is, will he be back? Head coach Lionel Hollins said Saturday night that Iverson's departure was "indefinite." Owner Michael Heisley said Iverson's absence has nothing to do with his displeasure about his role on the team. “I’m not going to get into the personal reason but it has nothing to do with the other stuff,” Heisley told the Commercial Appeal, referring to Iverson’s unhappiness over his sixth man role. “I’m the guy who said he could go. It’s a real family issue that I don’t think should be reported.” However, Heisley also said that there are still big issues to address when and if Iverson returns. “There’s no question that when he comes back we have to work some things out,” Heisley said. “He’s got a lot of work to do, but we’ve all got to get on the same page. He understands what the conditions are. And we need to be less hyper about this along with Allen.” Despite Heisley's remarks to the media, the rumor making its way through the NBA grapevine, according to a number of league sources unconnected to the Grizzlies, is that Iverson's gone for good from the team. One rival GM, citing a conversation with someone from the Grizzlies coaching staff, told ESPN.com that the Grizzlies and Iverson had mutually agreed to part ways. According to this source, the word is that Iverson was causing too many distractions and the team didn't want to deal with Iverson's insistence that he be put in the starting lineup. But another league source cautioned that these things often have a way of working themselves out over time. "You never say it's over until it's over," the source said. "The Grizzlies still owe Iverson a lot of money. I'm sure they're going to explore trading him but it's going to be really, really hard. If they can't, they may have to swallow $3.5 million this season. That works out to $1 million per game. They have a lot of financial problems there. I'm just not sure they are going to give up just yet." Iverson, who signed with Memphis as a free agent in the offseason, can't be traded until Dec. 15. If the Grizzlies intend to trade him, they have to keep him on the roster until at least that date, and they might also have to insist that they intend to keep him for the remainder of the season to keep teams from merely waiting for him to be waived. Of course, it's unclear whether Iverson has trade value at this point, given his problems with the Grizzlies. A number of GMs I spoke with on Saturday night said they had no interest in acquiring Iverson via trade or off the waiver wire. "I can't imagine anyone wanting him at this point," one GM said. "Struggling teams now know he's going to be a distraction. Contending teams have to live with the fact that Iverson puts himself above the team. Even the Clippers backed away from him this summer and Donald Sterling will do anything to sell tickets. I'm still not sure what the Grizzlies were thinking." No one is, especially in light of recent revelations that neither GM Chris Wallace nor Hollins addressed Iverson's role as a starter or bench player before signing him. "That is, in a word, amazing," said one NBA executive who explored signing Iverson this summer said. "The guy has a documented history of resisting coming off the bench. The Grizzlies had a young starting backcourt of Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo. No one thought to explore it?" Iverson started the season sidelined by a hamstring injury. In his three games with the Grizzlies, he has come off the bench. After his first game, he made it known he was unhappy. "It's something that I never did in my life, so obviously it's a big adjustment," Iverson said of coming off the bench. Iverson also indicated that he was off to a rocky start with Hollins over more than just a starting position. "I think that's probably the worst part of all this," Iverson said Friday. "That while all this is going on, we have never talked to each other. That's probably why it's at this point right now. We've just never had a conversation, so it's probably going to always be hard for me and him to see eye-to-eye, because we've never even talked to each other. Obviously that's what you do if you're trying to accomplish the same goal." Iverson ran into similar issues last season with the Pistons. After he was demoted from his starting job to a sixth-man role, he eventually left the team and didn't return for the rest of the season. While the official reason provided was that Iverson was rehabbing an injury, sources said later that the Pistons and Iverson had mutually agreed to part ways because he couldn't come to grips with being demoted to the bench. Is history repeating itself? If it is, one GM was ready to write AI's NBA eulogy: "He's finished in the NBA. He can go hang out with Stephon Marbury." Read comments or leave a comment Shorthanded Nuggets overmatched in Atlanta November 7, 2009 10:20 PM By John Hollinger
ATLANTA – This is the difference between the Nuggets and most of the other contenders: Depth. Teams like Orlando and the Lakers can shrug off the loss of a starter or two and still claw their way to victories, as they’ve done in the absence of Rashard Lewis and Pau Gasol, respectively. Denver? They can hang with anybody at full strength. But the past two nights we’ve seen the result of their sitting out the summer spending spree by fellow contenders Boston, Cleveland, San Antonio and Orlando. With J.R. Smith suspended for the first seven games and Kenyon Martin out since early in Friday’s loss in Miami, too many cracks showed up in the Denver facade in a 125-100 loss to the Hawks. Exhibit A is what’s happened in the absence of two starters: Consecutive blowout defeats where the Nuggies fell behind by more than 20 points in the third quarter. Yes, these were road games against tough opponents, but that’s the point. The Nuggets can’t deal with that caliber of opposition in such a compromised state. “We didn’t have enough energy tonight to overcome the negative influence of having two of your best players sitting next to me,” said Nuggets coach George Karl. With Kenyon Martin’s mid-range threat replaced by non-shooter Renaldo Balkman and Smith replaced by another weak perimeter threat in Joey Graham, the Nuggets made only two triples on the night. Worse yet, their drivers constantly faced crowds of Hawks at the rim, as Atlanta saw no need to respect any perimeter shooter besides Chauncey Billups. Atlanta returned nine Denver shots to sender, including six blocks by Josh Smith. “The two games that we played really special [without J.R. Smith] we found the 3-ball,” said Karl. “Tonight we didn’t. They brought a crowd to our penetration, and probably to a degree we didn’t respect the shot-blockers. There’s more of a comfort zone and a confidence with J.R. knowing he’s standing in one of those corners, and he adds an ability to play-make for us too.” Fortunately for Denver, Smith comes back on Tuesday against Chicago. Martin, who is day-to-day with a left fibula contusion, may return by then as well. But in an 82-game season this scenario undoubtedly will crop up again, and when it does, as tonight illustrated, the Nuggets don’t have as many resources to cope with it as their more free-spending brethren. Read comments or leave a comment November 7, 2009 1:17 AM By J.A. Adande
It’s a Friday night in Los Angeles. Am I at the Laker game or the hot new club? Yes. No need to choose anymore now that Sam Nazarian, the nightlife mogul of L.A., opened an edition of his Hyde Lounge inside Staples Center. No matter that it’s located 30 rows and three decks of suites away from the court, just a few feet below the $28 seats in the 300 level. This is the new coveted real estate. Instead of scattering around the building or choosing among the court-level Chairman’s Room or the Lexus Club high above the baseline, the beautiful people now have a central location to do what they do best: hold drinks poured from $400 bottles of vodka, send text messages from their Blackberries and bask in their hotness. Watching the game is an option, too. “It’s L.A., man,” said Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG, the company that owns Staples Center. “We finally, finally have a place that everyone else is staring at us, saying, ‘We want one of those.’” As one clubgoer said, “You can’t do this at the Target Center.” In the course of a $20 million updating of the 10-year-old arena this summer, AEG and Nazarian’s company SBE spent more than $1 million to clear out eight suites and line them with dark padding, comfy booths, long bars, full-length mirrors and a ceiling with panels that light up (kind of like the disco floor in “Saturday Night Fever.”) Friday night’s Lakers-Grizzlies game served as the grand opening, with a red carpet outside the arena and coveted silver wristbands distributed to the 200 or so people who can fit inside the new club. How do you get a wristband? If you’re asking you probably aren’t getting one. You can’t buy them. You pretty much have to be in the SBE circle and get invited. I'm not even sure how I got my hands on one. I called someone who gave me someone's number to call. I left a message on that person's voice mail and received a call from someone else. That person told me to meet her where she would give me a wristband ... as soon as she got one from someone else. For Leiweke, Hyde@Staples Center is an ode to the Forum Club that was the place to be at Laker games in their former home. Despite the various clubs for courtside denizens and suite-holders, “We didn’t have that kind of sexiness of the Forum Club,” Leiweke said. "That place reeks of sexiness. And it’s a demo we weren’t quite hitting. Now we’re hitting it.” “What demo is that?” I ask. “Wait till you see it,” is all he says. “It’s unbelievable.” So just before halftime I duck into the tunnel, go down a hallway and take an elevator up to suite level C. There’s a rope, a podium and four people outside, all waiting to determine who’s in and who’s out (a couple of actors from a premium cable show didn’t make it past the rope on opening night). I hold up my wristband and get waved down to another woman. She’s busy texting away and doesn’t notice me for two minutes. But eventually the wristband does the trick, I’m past the rope, up to the large door and inside the club. That demographic Leiweke was talking about? No other way to describe it than good-looking. I just don’t expect many of them to spend the evening discussing the merits of Ron Artest v. Trevor Ariza. I glance at one of the menus set up in an empty booth. Cheapest bottle in there is Krol Vodka at $375. The price list tops out at $10,000 for a big bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Halftime hits, the club fills up. A guy tells his friend, “This place is dope, bro.” People still talk like that? The only clue the third quarter’s about to start comes when the DJ lowers the volume on the dance remix of “I Love L.A.” Most people have their backs turned to the game far below, where the players are so small you can’t really tell that Allen Iverson has grown his cornrows back. The place has a wow factor, but can it make money? They’re counting on bottle service to pay the way, but half the booths were empty during the game. And as one person observed: “These people don’t look rich. They’re hot, but they’re not rich.” The biggest of the money men, the likes of Jeffrey Katzenberg, won’t be heading up there. Not their kind of scene. And the in-crowd tends to move on to the next hot spot in L.A. after six months or so. But as long as the Lakers keep winning, Staples Center is going to be filled with the "right demo." And Nazarian insists Hyde@Staples Center is going to be here for a long time. “The best of L.A.,” he calls it. A synopsis of L.A., is more like it. And if you happen to come across a box score, that’ll work, too. Read comments or leave a comment World, please notice Chuck Hayes November 6, 2009 12:34 PM By Henry Abbott
Chuck Hayes is starting in place of Yao Ming, and the Rockets are 3-2 out of the gates, which makes them just one of 10 NBA teams with a winning record. They've beaten Golden State, Portland and Utah, and lost to the Lakers by a single point. Tonight they play the Thunder, which will be the first time all season Houston has been favored to win.
How have they had this surprising starless success? At 6-6, Chuck Hayes is tiny for an NBA center, but he's a huge part of the reason. Jason Friedman of Rockets.com is kicking off a campaign to get Chuck Hayes on the NBA's All-Defense team. I'll second that. Friedman writes: “I may not be top in the league in blocks but if I’m guarding, say, LaMarcus Aldridge and I make him shoot a bad percentage, then I hope they pay attention to that,” says Hayes. “I just wish there was a stat for keeping your man to the lowest field goal percentage.” Well guess what, Chuck? You just so happen to work for the most number-crunching team in the league. Of course there’s a stat for that! Consider these numbers (courtesy of the Rockets’ Basketball Operations department):
Read comments or leave a comment November 6, 2009 11:29 AM By Henry Abbott
Not that they have time, but consider the message Real Madrid coach Ettore Messina gets to share with his team's fans on his Sports.ru blog: I consider myself a tailor whose job is to create the best possible suit for the team. I’m not a prêt-à-porter guy; I don’t produce those “ready to wear” clothes. I’m like a man who makes a suit that’s supposed to fit its owner perfectly. That means it takes time for me to understand what’s best for the team both defensively and offensively. Like, we can defend a pick-and-roll in many different ways. And the way we defended it with CSKA could be ill-suited for a team that’s not as powerful and at the same time is much quicker than CSKA. We have to adjust our pick-and-roll defense, adjust principles of defensive rotations, etc. It’s my job to define through experiment what we should do. Same goes for the offense. With CSKA, we didn’t run a lot of pick-and-rolls. We liked to create post-up opportunities for our bigs and set plenty of off-the-ball screens for the shooters. But here in Madrid day by day I become more and more confident that this is a team that should use pick-and-rolls more often. We’ve got a lot of frontline players who can pick and pop out, which could give us versatility as far as offense is concerned. At the same time, it’s important not to overlook posting-up that forces defenders inside and creates space for our shooters on the perimeter. Figuring all this out takes a while and in the meantime we’re not playing consistently and sometimes lose games. How many times have we seen NBA coaches feeling steamed, because they're in the middle of long-term goals, while being asked by the media and fans about short-term results? This kind of coach-controlled conversation is a chance for coaches to get fans to understand the big picture. If fans, media and owners can follow the rationale, I have to believe this kind of leadership could help a coach buy the job security necessary to do things the right way. Similarly, in a world where coaches were expected to explain themselves meaningfully, those without solid plans would have a hard time hiding, which is probably good for basketball too. Read comments or leave a comment November 6, 2009 11:17 AM By Henry Abbott
Read comments or leave a comment November 6, 2009 8:57 AM
Read comments or leave a comment Don't forget Bobcats in Stephen Jackson sweepstakes November 5, 2009 4:53 PM By Marc Stein
It's been about a week since we had any certifiable chatter to pass along on the Stephen Jackson trade front. That's not because the Warriors have slowed the search for trade partners -- to the contrary -- but because the most interested parties (Cleveland and Denver) are generally high-payroll teams that can't easily absorb Jackson's long-term contract. The Cavs and the Nuggets, furthermore, just aren't teeming with tradeable (and available) assets to hook Golden State. What we can confirm, though, is that Charlotte has to be mentioned more prominently on the list of interested suitors. We've briefly noted the Bobcats' interest in a couple of previous entries, but further checking reveals that the Bobs have seriously explored the prospect of trading for Jackson, apparently undaunted by the fact that they weren't mentioned when Jackson announced late in the summer that he wanted to be dealt to Cleveland, New York or one of the three Texas teams. It remains to be seen how far the Bobcats are willing to go, since taking on Jackson's contract doesn't exactly sound like owner Bob Johnson's kind of move. You figure Charlotte, like Cleveland, would also be asking for Ronny Turiaf in exchange for their willingness to absorb Jackson's three-year extension, which is worth nearly $28 million when it kicks in next season. But there is some hope here . . . even as we issue the reminder that Golden State is adamant about not trading Turiaf. Unlike Cleveland or Denver, Charlotte actually might have the resources to put a workable deal together before Dec. 15, when players signed as free agents during the summer become eligible to be traded. Boris Diaw is close to Jackson's price range and has two years left on his contract after this season (worth $18 million) compared to Jackson's three. Could Johnson, whether he's ultimately selling or keeping this franchise, live with taking on only one extra season of salary depending on what else is in the trade? Presumably. I've also heard from one source close to the situation that the ever-fickle coach is more frustrated than not with Diaw, even though Diaw's good work as a playmaking big man after arriving in Charlotte helped the Bobcats recover from a 7-18 start to win a franchise-record 35 games in Brown's first season. Charlotte's first choice -- in any deal -- remains moving Nazr Mohammed first, Vladimir Radmanovic second and packaging them together if possible. The Bobcats have been trying to move Mohammed for months and could make a deal with Golden State work cap-wise by combining Mohammed and Radmanovic -- both of whom are earning $6.5 million this season and $6.9 million next season -- for Jackson and the smaller expiring contracts of Acie Law and Devean George. Yet you shouldn't expect Golden State to settle for anything less than Diaw, whose abilities as a point forward would undoubtedly appeal to Don Nelson. The Warriors continue to transmit the message that they won't rush the process just for the sake of parting with Jackson, preferring to wait until Dec. 15 or maybe even the trade deadline in February in hopes of getting back something of value for a player who, in their view, has been far more productive than problematic when you look at his whole Warriors career. What could speed things up? Like we've been saying from the start: It's too early in the season for any team in the Jackson mix to feel trade urgency . . . especially scorching-hot Denver. We just might have to be more patient on this one until the urgency has more time to bubble. Read comments or leave a comment November 5, 2009 4:28 PM By Henry Abbott
Read comments or leave a comment Stephen Curry will not be easily hazed November 5, 2009 3:29 PM By Henry Abbott
In his diary on GQ.com, the rookie Warrior Stephen Curry talks about a prank his teammates tried to pull on him before his first regular-season game: Before heading out to the court, that was probably the most nervous I got all night. Everybody was piled in the hallway. You could hear the crowd, the music playing. We all got pretty excited. One of our captains gave a good speech to get us motivated. Then my teammates tried to play a joke on me. As soon as we said "1-2-3 Warriors!" we got in single-file to take the court, and I was the first person in line. When we got to the end of the tunnel, I turned around, and they were further down the hall than I thought they'd be. Because I'm the only rookie, they had planned to let me run out on the court by myself and then kind of look around all dumb -- and then they'd come out eventually. But since I saw them, they couldn't really pull it off. Read comments or leave a comment Making history today: Latavious Williams November 5, 2009 2:42 PM I was once part of an event with Dan Shanoff. It was great when they introduced us. There was Will Leitch from Deadspin. Henry Abbott from TrueHoop. And Dan Shanoff from DanShanoff.com.
You see what happens there? It's like he's twice as famous. You probably know him as the former author of ESPN.com's Daily Quickie. You can follow his work at his website. (And, by the way, at that reading he killed it with an account of appearing on ESPN TV, blind without his glasses, high on green room candy, and sweating profusely.) In any event, he has been kind enough to write a post for TrueHoop about Latavious Williams. With a lot less notice than it deserves, Latavious Williams will make history tonight. Williams -- a 6-foot-8 small forward rated among the top high school players in the country -- will become the first player to jump from high school to the NBA's D-League. Why is this such a big deal? Let's back up one second: A year ago, Brandon Jennings made his own history when he became the first prep player to spend the traditional "one-and-done" year not in college, but in Europe. So far, it's worked out nicely. Why did Jennings go to Italy? Well, he didn't qualify academically for Arizona, for starters. And Italy presented a pretty good economic proposition. And the competition was very good -- good enough that, despite his modest stats, it was a terrific preparation for the NBA. Jennings had the right idea: Players with every intention of playing in the NBA -- and no intention of spending more than a year in college basketball -- have no business in college hoops. Their year -- or even two -- is cynical, as are the coaches who recruit them. The reason why the top (i.e., NBA-ready-ish) preps spend that cynical year in college is not to get better -- it's because they have no other viable options. Jennings changed that, but it still wasn't ideal: European basketball doesn't want to be the one-and-done way-station for precocious American teen players that the NBA won't let in. Jennings was talented enough, but a novelty. The Europe option simply doesn't scale. But what if there was a domestic alternative? A U.S.-based league whose entire reason for being was to train players to succeed in the NBA? Oh, that's right: It's called the NBA, through their D-League. And while the NBA has made it clear that they do not want players going straight from high school into the NBA Draft -- LeBron, Kobe, KG, et al notwithstanding -- the NBA has made it clear (if not in bright lights) it is in the business of supporting, directly, the training and development of future NBA players, straight out of high school. This is a terrific development. It is in the best interests of the player. Instead of playing for a college coach more concerned with winning games (or maintaining his job security) than the professional development of any individual player, the player is given instruction from pro coaches whose entire job and incentive structure is to prepare and develop players for the NBA. (Here's a great piece of trivia: 1 in 5 NBA players have spent at least some time in the D-League, and the percentage is growing, not shrinking.) And while the player won't make European millions, it is payment to play basketball -- and prepare for a year before entering the NBA Draft, presumably increasing their draft value and, ultimately, money they can make. (And, if the player is good enough, shoe money is there immediately.) It is in the best interests of the NBA. The NBA is better off with a pipeline of the most talented prep players taught how to play and compete in the pro game (against pro players, most of whom have some pro future), rather than players with a year or two being taught how to play the college way (against college players, most of whom have no pro future). The notion that the NBA needs college hoops to "market" the players through the NCAA Tournament is overblown; ask Bucks fans if, four games into the season, they are excited about Brandon Jennings, even though almost none of them had heard of him -- let alone seen him play -- before draft night. Plus: With top preps going pro immediately, the TV exposure for the D-League will increase, and fans will have plenty of chances to see the best one-year wonders before they hit the NBA Draft. It is in the best interests of college basketball. The one-and-done players might be supremely talented, but ultimately, their college careers are a short-lived -- creating an unhealthy dependency on one-year wonders who really don't care about college basketball. Instead, college coaches can focus on the players who want to play 3-4 years of college basketball -- with a pro future an end-game for some, but a "normal" career the result for most. Don't worry: College basketball will always survive, thanks to its playoff format -- it doesn't matter WHO is playing; the bracket doesn't care about the name on the back of the jersey ... or the front, for that matter. And even if you remove the Top 50 most pro-worthy freshmen from each incoming class, there is plenty of star power that develops over time. So let's use an example: If John Wall's No. 1 priority is a career in the NBA, he is better off spending a year in the D-League than he is spending a year at Kentucky, even if he wins a national title (which is irrelevant to Wall's goal of a successful NBA career -- just look at Kevin Durant's Tournament experience). It simply makes more sense: If your goal is an NBA career and the NBA is willing to give you an earnest path from high school straight into the NBA (albeit the NBA's minor league), why would you spend a year (or even two) NOT doing that, instead going to college -- where the priority is on a half-dozen things that end up as obstacles to your goal of a pro career? For decades, college basketball has been the best available route to the NBA. But that wasn't because college basketball actually IS the best route to the NBA; it was because there was a lack of any other viable (or superior) alternatives. With the D-League, not only is there a viable alternative -- I would argue it is superior. Maybe not on Day 1, but I think that as more players realize this is a viable alternative route, more will take advantage of it. You will see that college hoops will not implode, and the NBA development pipeline -- through the D-League -- will get much much stronger, translating into better prepared young players and a healthier future overall, for the NBA, for college hoops and especially for the top tier of prep players. Read comments or leave a comment 2010 is the king of free agency, but 2011 is no slouch November 5, 2009 2:32 PM By Henry Abbott
Among 2011's potential unrestricted free agents:
ESPN's updated list of restricted and unrestricted 2010 and 2011 free agents has just been published. Read comments or leave a comment Superstar calls -- from coaches November 5, 2009 1:43 PM By Henry Abbott
These are the highlights of last night's Wizards vs. Heat game. Missing are the three lowlights. They were all Gilbert Arenas plays, and they were all in crunch time. Dwyane Wade and Gilbert Arenas had been going back-and-forth all night. Two great scorers, doing their thing. The game was tied before Wade, in isolation a step inside the 3-point line, stuck a jumper with 24 seconds left to give the Heat a slender lead. It was Arenas' turn in the mano-a-mano battle.
He was guarded by the notably slimmed-down Quentin Richardson. Earlier in the period, he had burned Richardson badly on the perimeter and made his way easily into the lane. He evidently planned to do the same thing. Even after taking a timeout, the Wizards inbounded in the backcourt, giving Arenas a chance to get a full head of steam. And he did. Creating space to get off a shot in the NBA is generally about varying speeds, to keep the defense from being able to predict where you'll be. This is one of those things that a lot of college players have yet to master. (At Train Like a Pro, we practiced running at five different speeds, and were instructed to vary them constantly.) But Arenas eschewed that thinking, and just hauled ass almost from halfcourt. He sailed right past Richardson. It looked like a reasonably good idea, as he made it down to where Heat center Jermaine O'Neal was protecting the rim. But then something really odd happened. The kind of thing that doesn't happen to NBA superstars who aren't coming off major injuries. Arenas just lost the ball. Out of bounds. Big fancy duel, lost to a sad little rookie mistake. As someone who really likes coaching and plays and cutting and passing and teamwork, I'm always sad to see NBA coaches remove themselves from NBA crunch time by calling for superstar isolation after superstar isolation (teams score better in other parts of the game). When the superstar just throws it out of bounds, I instantly think about all those great Flip Saunders plays they could have run, but didn't. For this. I don't even blame Arenas. He's getting back into the rhythm of things. He knows what he's doing. He just dropped the ball. I'm sure he's yelling at himself plenty about it -- don't know what the point would be of piling on. (Never got that, by the way. Dropping the ball is like tripping. If you trip, and I yell at you, would you trip less in the future? Or would I make you less relaxed, and more likely to trip or screw something else up? To me yelling is about fixing problems of lack of effort, or attention. But not problems of lack of coordination.) After a foul, the Wizards got the ball back, and once again, of course, the play was for Arenas. The Heat, now up three after a Wade free throw, were all over the 3-point line. With plenty of time left (his last play didn't take long!) Arenas drove to the available space in the middle of the floor. He was greeted again by O'Neal, who had left big Wizard Brendan Haywood alone under the hoop. Arenas had a beautiful idea: Lob it to Haywood, get an emphatic dunk, fire up the fans, and duke it out in a one-point game at home with nine seconds left. But his lob was miserable. It hit the near side of the rim. Haywood only even jumped for it as a courtesy -- he had no chance. And the game was basically over. Only there was one more Wizardly possession. Arenas came off some screens, caught the ball in the corner, and again made his way straight for the hoop, where he skillfully negotiated a layup for himself ... and missed it as he fell down. That's three crunch time Miami possessions, zero successful passes to anyone other than Arenas, and zero points. I get it: Superstars have earned the right to run those plays. But what's more important: Feeding the star, or playing your team's best possible basketball? I admire teams that surprise opponents in crunch time. Didn't we learn anything from Keith Smart? Steve Alford was the man on that team, but Indiana won a title because his open teammate got the ball and the green light. Why is that so rare in the NBA? Read comments or leave a comment DeJuan Blair 10 seconds away from being a Cavalier November 5, 2009 12:33 PM By Chris Broussard
I reported this on my NBA 411 segment on "Mike and Mike in the Morning'' today: According to information gathered from multiple league executives, DeJuan Blair was 10 seconds away from joining "King James'' and "The Big Shaquisition'' in Cleveland. On draft night 2009, Cleveland offered Denver $2 million for the 34th pick. Cavs GM Danny Ferry thought it was essentially a done deal and had fingered Blair as the pick. But with just 10 seconds left to make its selection, Denver was offered $2.25 million, a league record for the sale of a 34th pick, from the Houston Rockets. Because there was such a small amount of time left to make the pick, the Nuggets didn't have a chance to give Cleveland the opportunity to beat Houston's offer. So the Rockets got the pick and instructed Denver to select Sergio Llull for them. Three picks later, San Antonio took Blair. Of course, Cleveland could have gotten Blair at 30, but it took Christian Eyenga instead. Read comments or leave a comment |
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