NBA Beatdown 04.07.08: West Is Best, Changes For The Knicks, NBA Draft News, More
Posted by BL Anderson on 04.07.2008
Find out why the West is Best, what's gonna happen to the Knicks now that Walsh is in charge, and why I feel sorry for the Golden State Warriors. You get ALL THIS...crap.
NBA BeatDown 04.05.08
Hello everyone, I'm BL Anderson, and welcome to version 2.0 of the NBA BeatDown. Some of you may remember me from the column that I wrote many a moon ago, before the most recent redesign, but for those of you whom are unfamiliar with my work (or lack thereof), I'll just tell you up front that it's awful; my jokes are terrible, and my opinion is completely worthless. That said…let's get on to the league, for crying out loud!
-West is Best
The Western Conference is engulfed in the most heated playoff contention in more than a decade, as 6 of the 8 teams that will qualify for the playoffs are on pace to win 50 games or better. The general consensus is that no team is a sure thing in the Western Conference to win the championship, and that whomever comes out of the west as the Conference Champion will face a much more settled Eastern Conference Champion of either Boston or Detroit.
Here is a look at the Western Conference standings, as of 4.7.08:
1) New Orleans Hornets (54-22)
2) San Antonio Spurs (53-24)
3) Los Angeles Lakers (53-24)
4) Utah Jazz (51-26)
5) Houston Rockets (52-25)
6) Phoenix Suns (51-26)
7) Dallas Mavericks (48-29)
8) Denver Nuggets (46-31)
I mean…the 8th place team has…46 Wins?! With 5 games left to play?! This is ridiculous! I feel bad for these teams:
9) Golden State Warriors (Tied for 8th record-wise…Denver owns the tiebreaker
10) Portland Trailblazers (38-39) 8 ½ games back
I feel bad for Golden State because they put together a really good season after pulling that big upset last year against Dallas. Monta Ellis made great strides to improve himself, and has become a middle-class man's Dwyane Wade, without all of the injuries and the endorsement deals. Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson, along with one of the most underrated and underpublized (I just made that word up!) 5 men in the league in Andris Biedrins. They've got 5 games left, so they do have an opportunity to get in, but they have to play games near-perfect, or hope that Denver is imperfect, in order to get in the playoffs and lose to the Hornets…or win. Hell, with this group of teams heading into the playoffs…who really knows who will win it all. There will be no real first round upsets this year, not because the lower seed won't prevail, but because teams 1-8 are so even! Only San Antonio has the edge, and the sole reason for that would be the experience of having been there before.
I feel REALLY bad for Portland. First, they lost their number 1 draft pick Greg Oden to season-ending knee surgery before he even played a friggin' game, then Brandon Roy got hurt, then just about everyone on the team made progress, then Brandon Roy was an all-star, and then they could been in the race for home court advantage in the East! But in the west? Not even a lock for the playoffs. Now, it would be a statistical impossibility for the Blazers to get into the playoffs. They are certainly set for next year, however, as Greg Oden will (hopefully) make a full return to active duty, and Rudy Fernandez 90% sure to finally come to the NBA, and Raef LaFrentz has a contract that expires next year, which could make the Blazers a major player near the trade deadline for a team that is looking to get out of a $10 Million engagement at the end of the season.
-Around the League…
-Memphis Grizzlies Coach Marc Iavaroni job in Jeopardy
Word out of Memphis this week is that first-year coach Marc Iavaroni, a veteran assistant last year for the Phoenix Suns, is in danger of losing his job at season's end. The Grizzlies have stumbled mightily to a low level of suckitude this year, composing a craptastic 19-54 record, and guaranteed themselves a last place finish in the Southwest Division. Coach Iavaroni came in to the Memphis Grizzlies basketball scene with a much-heralded resume as one of the architects of the Phoenix Suns free-wheeling, run-and-gun offense. It was a brilliant idea to introduce this in Memphis, not so much in execution, as Memphis has struggled all year to find an identity without the necessary personnel to run this style of offense. Mike Conley, Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick, Rudy Gay, and Darko Milicic do not = Phoenix Suns in talent, experience, wins, or anything for that matter.
The thing that the Grizzlies DO have going for them is that they are young. VERY young. And even though they traded Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown and a bag of Doritos before the trade deadline, the youth coupled with the salary cap flexibility that they will have in the off-season, could prove to allow Iavaroni, assuming he gets to keep his job, at least some promise to work with before they move Memphis to an even smaller market eventually due to the apathy in the local fan base. Face facts folks: Nobody cares about Pro Basketball in Memphis, mostly because the team that they put on the floor doesn't even match up with the college basketball team they've got on the floor right now. (Okay, that was an exaggeration, hopefully you get my point)
Back to Iavaroni, the rumor making the rounds just now is that he would be replaced by the (Not-so) great Larry Brown, as Brown has a proven track record of coming in and turning a team around in a short period of time, with the notable exception or the 23-59 New York Knicks debacle a couple of years back. Brown only got one season there before being fired in what could now be considered as a "Bad" decision by MSG Chairman James Dolan.
So what do the Grizzlies have to say about this? "We support Marc Iavaroni and the job he's done so far," Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace said. "It's been a tough season. But Marc and the staff have done an excellent job keeping this team together. There's been improvement in young players. Our effort is there every night. It's been an upbeat, relatively together team for a squad that's been in a tough situation as far as winning ball games." In a brief interview with New York Daily News, Wallace also had this to say at the mention of the Grizzlies seeking Larry Brown to replace Iavaroni: "I categorically deny that. There is no heir apparent."
Would the man that Peter Vescey of the New York Post calls ‘Next Town Brown' be able to turn the Grizzlies' sad, dismal state of affairs around? Or has Brown lost his touch, and would the process of bringing Brown in be all for naught? Or…considering the most likely scenario: what if Marc Iavaroni stayed on as coach, and they were able to draft someone next year, and use the cap space that they have finagled to sign a quality free agent or two? Or what of the most important question of all: Would anyone give a crap about the Grizzlies? Geez, I think that Michael Jordan, in his prime, could sign with the Grizzlies and no one would give hoot.
-New York Knicks Hire Donnie Walsh as New VP of Basketball Operations
The Knicks, the biggest joke in all of pro sports, announced this week that Donnie Walsh will take over as the Vice President of Basketball Operations this week in a widely rumored move by MSG Chairman James Dolan to fix the plethora of problems that the now-former VP and still current coach of the Knicks Isiah Thomas created.
Walsh, the recently departed long-time Indiana Pacers executive, will assume the duties that Thomas had of running the day-to-day of the ball club. Thomas will remain on as Head Coach…for now.
I would suggest that Walsh will fire Thomas, as he sees very clearly that the team is not responding at all to him, and they need a new voice. Thomas has proven that his judge of talent and character are spoiled, and that he cannot stay out of the bad-vibe category of head coach and front office personnel around the NBA. Thomas was involved in a serious sexual harassment suit, in which MSG ended up settling out of court for a large some of money. Thomas was directly involved in that.
Thomas, in my opinion, has been a terrible coach, and an even worse executive. I do believe that Donnie Walsh will fire Isiah Thomas at the end of the season. He has every right to fire Thomas, and I expect that to occur. Normally, when a new VP or GM comes through, the Coach is the first to go, in order for the new guy to put his stamp on the organization.
Buh-Bye, Isiah. Good luck finding your way into another job, only to underachieve and screw up at every turn. And by the way…thanks for the memories, even if they weren't so great. Isiah Thomas=Hell of a Basketball Player…Bad GM. Walsh stated in a news conference on Tuesday that he will keep Thomas for the interim, but that he would need to have a "meaningful basketball conversation" with Thomas. When it's all said and done, I would imagine that he will end up letting Thomas go, based on Thomas' performance not only as a GM (Yuck!), but also as the coach of an awful team.
Back to Walsh, as he will assuredly jettison most of the team if he can. The talent on paper is good enough to make the playoffs in the paltry eastern conference. However, the chemistry is atrocious, with too many me-first attitudes, and nary a team player to be found, with the notable exceptions of David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, and Malik Rose.
Part of Walsh's agreement with the Knicks is that he has penultimate control over the team. Instead of answering to MSG President Steve Mills, as did Isiah, Walsh will report directly to Garden Chairman James Dolan. The mandate from Dolan was and is very clear: Turn the team around at all costs.
Can Walsh turn the team around? Well…yes. Marbury needs to go. Eddy Curry is a valuable piece, but not a star. I think that Curry can be a solid 2nd or 3rd banana, but not the top banana. I do not believe that he has an aggressive enough persona to get the job done as a top banana. Even to be a 2nd banana, Curry would need someone of exceptional star status in order to be effective. Basically, as long as Curry doesn't feel the pressure, he can be a useful piece to the Knicks. Back to Marbury, as he still has another year on his contract after this one…Marbury is not the present guy for Walsh's, or Isiah's, New York Knicks. If I were Walsh, I would jettison Marbury as soon as I could find someone ignorant enough to take him. Make no bones about it, Marbury is a good individual player, but a terrible team player. And he is not the type of guy that Walsh, a career Indiana Pacer up to this point, wants representing his basketball team. The selfishness…the goofy interviews…the basically antagonistic persona…and I reckon that, even though Marbury is home grown, born and raised in the NYC, the Knicks fans are tired of his played out antics, as well.
Knick fans…rejoice! Your much-publicized misfortunes are potentially at an end!
-Several Underclassmen Declare for NBA Draft
Once several teams were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament this past week, a few individuals came out and declared for the NBA Draft.
-Robin and Brooke Lopez-Stanford University
The twin brother big man tandem decided that they would enter the draft together, as both players are projected to be drafted in the first round, and Brooke is projected to be a top 5 pick on some draft boards. It's like god made the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon, but decided it was better not to have one, and instead split him into two separate people. Brooke Lopez has good size for the pros (you can't teach height!) and a low post game, whilst Robin Lopez has the defensive end on lock, yo. Rebounding, blocks, and energy is something that just about any team would be happy to spend a 1st round pick on. Both guys are pretty much locks to be drafted in the 1st round. We'll see if that can translate into professional basketball success.
-Earl Clarke – University of Louisville
Clark came off the bench to be the best player in Louisville's Elite Eight tournament run. Clark has great work ethic, is a good 6-8 rebounder, and is fairly athletic, along with solid defense for a college player. His shot is VERY limited, however, and even Coach Rick Pitino stated that he felt like Earl should stay in school for another year. Clark will, most likely, be a bench player, and has the potential to be a contributor provided he continues to work to improve. As Clark is only a sophomore, he could very well have returned to UofL and been the star of the team. This is now unlikely to occur, though Clark has yet to hire an agent.
-Eric Gordon – Indiana University
Let me say that Gordon has excellent potential to be something in the NBA. That said, he could turn out to be nothing. I watched Gordon, frustrated, brick his way to 3 for 15 from the field and an early exit for the Hoosiers in the first round of the Tourney to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Gordon has a lot of tools, but I think that his ceiling is probably a rich man's Ben Gordon (Interesting comparison Anderson…you're fired) with his shooting touch. There isn't exactly a big time market for undersized two guards in the NBA, but Gordon will still be a lottery pick.
-Jerryd Bayless – University of Arizona
Bayless has performed very well in his freshman season and will now be moved on. Bayless has better handling that Gordon, and can play the point in some spots, which puts him ahead of Eric Gordon in that category. However, Bayless is another undersized scoring guard (2-guard in a Point guard's body), and that will affect his ceiling in the pros. I've only ever seen, in my lifetime, players of EXCEPTIONAL talent do well as undersized shooting guards in the NBA. So, we'll see…
Still waiting for Beasley and OJ Mayo to declare, but I think that Beasley is a definite, and Mayo may very well stay in school, to improve his abilities and be #1 pick next year. If Mayo stayed, I do not see a better college basketball player than he next season.
-Isn't this stupid thing over yet?!
Well…that's all for me this time. Next week we'll attempt to resurrect the old BeatDown Q & A, where we conversate with YOU, the READER, about topics related to the NBA. If you are interested in participating in the BeatDown Q & A, you can email me at robert.lowhorn@gmail.com
