Points in the Paint 4.23.08: Playoff Talk & More

Posted by Rob Bonnette on 04.23.2008

Knicks talk plus playoff talk!

Hey there everyone, and welcome to another edition of Points in the Paint. This week it's a little bit of playoff talk and little bit of Knicks talk. Before I get it rolling, here are my quick and dirty first round picks. I elaborated in the roundtable, so I won't spoil my remarks here.

The East:

Boston in four (so far, so good)
Detroit in five (in trouble, but still possible)
Orlando in six (still looking good)
Washington in six (uhh….oops!)

And the West:

Lakers in six (see Boston)
Dallas in six (yikes!)
Phoenix in six (double yikes!)
Utah in six (looks good right now)

And now, onto the show…

Who's on the spot?

As it is every year, the playoffs are going to result in somebody becoming a scapegoat for their respective teams' failures. Here are two people who, in my opinion, should get a real serious examination if their teams come up short of expectations.

Dirk Nowitzki: The only reason Dirk hasn't been run out of town is that he's Mark Cuban's favorite player on the team. Despite the Mavericks disastrous collapses in the last two postseasons, Dirk hasn't gotten the heat from management that others in his position have in the past. Avery Johnson is rumored to be on the hot seat, and new acquisition Jason Kidd is definitely under some pressure to provide that extra push to get them back to the Finals, but Dirk's name never seems to come up. Now if Cuban can let Steve Nash walk, then Dirk shouldn't be off limits. You can very easily make the argument that if you swapped Dirk for Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett over the past two seasons the Mavericks would have two rings. Dirk has been punked severely in ways that those other two would not have been, yet he avoids the type of ripping that almost always falls on underachieving franchise players. Well, if the Mavs don't get past the first round and Dirk turns into Fadeaway Dirk in the process, then Cuban needs to seriously rethink the logic of revolving everything around him. I think he's the classic second banana in a franchise player's body, like Pau Gasol, which is no disgrace in the grand scheme of things but also dooms one's team to falling short when they rely on you. But with his Mavericks down 2-0, he has to step up and deliver if they're going to come back. In his defense, he has played well enough; his teammates have been more of a letdown than him. But he's going to have to find it in him to have a game like Tim Duncan did on Saturday (40 and 15), if not two of them, otherwise he'll be looking at back-to-back second exits from a team that has Finals-worthy talent on it.

Gilbert Arenas

The examination has already been happening in the local media and amongst the fans; soon, it will be management's turn. Arenas is an elite scorer and gets a lot of attention, but hasn't been able to parlay that into anything significant as far as victories go. Yes, the Wizards have been to the playoffs four straight times, largely because of his contributions, but they seem to have reached a plateau of 40 to 45 wins, a playoff berth, and an early exit. He played well in game 1 against Cleveland but came up short in crunch time, then turned in a total dog of a performance in game 2. The broom could be coming out if he and his teammates don't play better. Arenas is under the microscope, in my book because he's looking to be minted as a max out guy in the offseason and isn't playing like one. Yes, I know he's coming off a major injury but it's about more than his shooting percentage. I see him as a guy who wants to be a star, put up numbers, and if a win comes in the process, fine. His team has a major problem because he dominates the ball, and all of his mates other than Antawn Jamison get sucked into the ‘stand around and watch Gilbert' vortex when he's out there. Now while he was out most of this season, these same guys routinely played quite well and one of them (Caron Butler) was a legit All-Star. They even improved defensively, which was unheard of with Gilbert in the lineup. Wizards management is going to have to assess just what their goals is, to win a championship or just to sell tickets and make the playoffs every year. If it's the former then you have to consider moving Gilbert if he won't make the adjustments in his game that the team needs, because right now he's not a championship caliber player. An All-Star yes, but not a true franchise guy.

Knicks Fan Update!!

I know it's been a long time since I've done one of these, but bear with me please. Being a Knicks fan these past several years has been like being stuck watching your least favorite movies on an endless loop while strapped to a chair. It's been downright awful, and I was sick of chronicling that in print. Ever since Jeff Van Gundy quit as coach it's almost all downhill. We had the Scott Layden era, which saw:

1. Our icon Patrick Ewing treated like garbage and then dealt to Seattle when they could have just let his contract run out and used the cap space.
2. The additions, with six year deals nonetheless, of Clarence Weatherspoon, Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson.
3. The $100 million contract for Allan Houston where we were only bidding against ourselves.
4. The draft day trade where we sent Marcus Camby and the rights to Nene Hilario away for an injured Antonio McDyess, when we could have just drafted Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, or Tayshaun Prince.

Then came the Isaiah Thomas era, which has been well documented already. No need to rehash it all here. But now Isaiah is gone, and Donnie Walsh is in charge. Does that mean no more bloated contracts for undeserving players (Eddie Curry, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson, Jared Jeffries, and Jerome James)? Probably. No more trades for problem guys with big salaries (Stephon Marbury)? More than likely. But does it mean we're going to be any better? I don't know. The one thing Isaiah was good at was drafting players, and I don't see much from Walsh's history there to give me much hope. In most instances, Walsh didn't make any blunders with his draft picks, but he did make some picks that are questionable in hindsight and there isn't one first rounder I saw during the last fifteen years that made me jump with excitement. I don't if he'll be able to find guys like David Lee should we get stuck with a late first rounder sometime in the next few years. We shall see. If can move one or two of those contracts I listed above, that will be a good start.

OK, that's it for this week. Next week I dive in with both feet to playoff talk.