Points in the Paint 12.15.08: The Pink Slip Edition

Posted by Rob Bonnette on 12.15.2008

More firings and some trades!

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Points in the Paint, where we try to get something done before our crappy computer dies on us again. This week we have more fired coaches, and a few traded players to discuss. Enjoy!

The Firing Line Continues!

Just two weeks after Eddie Jordan and PJ Carlieisimo walked the plank, another NBA head coach got his walking papers. Sam Mitchell of the Toronto Raptors was run after an 8-9 start to the season, and we can again blame the GM for worshipping at the altar of potential (more on that soon). Bryan Colangelo, with the first pick in the 2006 draft, opted for Andrea Bargnani, when Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, and LaMarcus Aldridge were all available. Nice job, Bryan. Bargnani was your garden variety European seven footer in that he could shoot well from outside, lacked toughness and wasn't much of an inside presence. And of course he was projected to be the next Dirk Nowitzki. And as someone who bashes Dirk on a regular basis, allow me to stick up for the man for once and consider that an insult. For all his psychological shortcomings, Dirk has skills and does actually deliver something on the boards. He at least puts in enough real work to get eight to ten rebounds on average; Bargnani is good for a career high five boards a game this season. Big difference. Bargnani was supposed to take a role alongside Chris Bosh and give the Raptors a twin towers type duo of highly skilled power forward/centers, but instead he's played more like an oversized wing player. As a result, he never was able to lock down a role in the starting lineup and forced the Raptors to gamble on Jermaine O'Neal while trying to make Bargnani work as a seven foot small forward. And when it doesn't work so well, Mitchell obviously wants to sit him down. But by doing so he ran afoul of the GM who wants to see his first round gamble pay off big. And once that happens, you'd better win or you are out. 8-9 isn't a winning record, so blowing Mitchell out was pretty easy. So how are things going under the new guy? Well, so far the Raptors are 2-3, which bears a pretty close resemblance to 8-9. And Mr. Bargnani's numbers have gotten worse now that he is no longer under the unfair scrutiny on Sam Mitchell; he's still getting 28 minutes a night, but over these five games under the new coach, he's scoring an average 6.2 points on 23 percent shooting, while pulling down 4.8 rebounds a night. Yikes. I guess Sam was the problem, huh?

Next up was Minnesota, who chose to fire Randy Wittman after less than two full seasons worth of games where he finished with a not so good record of 38-105. This isn't surprising on its face, but there are some things that make this a little more interesting. First off, Wittman was hired to replace Dwayne Casey, who had a record of 20-20 halfway through his second year as the T-Wolves coach. After a 33-49 season where he had to preside over the start of a rebuilding process and had pretty much no help outside of Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak (that was before he was dealt to Boston for the team killing duo of Ricky Davis and Mark Blount), Casey had the T-Wolves at 20-20 with Garnett, Davis, Blount, and a few new additions that were OK but not great (Mike James and rookie Randy Foye). And for that he was shown the door so GM McHale could put the man he really wanted for the gig in Wittman. A lot of good that did; Wittman took that 20-20 and went 12-30 the rest of the way for that season. Then McHale dealt Garnett for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, and awesomeness that is Sebastian Telfair and Gerald Green. Trading the franchise's best player for a collection of bums and youngsters doomed the T-Wolves to a bottom feeding 22-60 in 2007-08, and the lack of any major acquisitions in the offseason had them at 4-15 when Wittman got the axe. They're 0-3 with McHale as head coach now, and probably won't be getting better any time soon. Right now Al Jefferson is the only player on their roster who wouldn't need a ticket to get to the All-Star game; the rest of the roster consists of young players still looking to fulfill their potential (Randy Foye, Rashad Mccants, Corey Brewer, and Rodney Carney), a rookie in Kevin Love, good sixth men masquerading as starters (Craig Smith, Mike Miller and Ryan Gomes), and scrubs (Telfair, Kevin Ollie, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins). That's not a winning bunch, and McHale is responsible for putting them together. He drafted Mccants when Danny Granger was still available, opted for Foye over Rudy Gay, and went with Brewer when he could have taken Thaddeus Young or Al Thornton. Imagine having any one of Granger, Gay, Young, or Thornton to start at small forward with Miller or Gomes coming off the bench as opposed to what they have now.

Like I always say, GMs make the mistakes and coaches pay for them. But wait, as I am in the process of writing this, we have a new name to add to the firing line….Maurice Cheeks, come on down! After a disappointing 9-14 start, Cheeks got his pink slip before Saturday's game against the Wizards. Now unlike the other dismissals, this one actually has some substance to it. Some. The Sixers laid out a lot of cash to bring in Elton Brand, and along with that came expectations. Shoot, even I had the Sixers finishing second in their division and getting a top four playoff seed. Now that's in real jeopardy. They've actually backslid some from the previous season; last time around they scored about the same number of points as their opponents (96) and shot the same percentage from the floor (46). The only serious deficit was in three point shooting, where they were outdone 36 percent to 32. Flash forward to this season and the scoring is down to 94 points a game, the shooting percentage is down to 43.7, and the three point shooting is down to 30 percent. And even though they've apparently defended better (the opponents are down to 95 points per game on 45 percent shooting overall and 34 percent from three point land), the offense has clearly taken a pretty big step backwards. And when you consider that they're bringing back the same team from last season, one that was good enough to get in the playoffs as a seventh seed, plus a regular 20/10 guy in Elton Brand, and it's understandable that management would be more than a little bit antsy. You can't take a playoff team, add an All Star to an otherwise intact roster, and then get worse. Sorry Mo, you gots to go.

Trading Time!

Enough with the coaches; onto the players! There have been a few major deals done since we last spoke, and the results will be very interesting to watch over the next few weeks. The biggest one is the Phoenix-Charlotte trade that saw the Bobcats send Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley to Phoenix in return for Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, and Sean Singletary. This deal has generated opinions all over the place, with some saying the Suns pulled off a steal and others calling it a big mistake. No one seems to think the Bobcats made out well in this; ‘typical Larry Brown move' is a common refrain. What do I think? Well, first let's look at the biggest name in the deal. Richardson is a legit 20-point scorer at the two guard position, which is never a bad thing to have, and Dudley is a reserve forward who can give a few quality minutes off the bench. The only real issues are that Richardson isn't much of a defender and, like every other 20-point scorer, wants a lot of shots. And that could be a problem with a team that already has one guy who wants a lot of shots in Amare Stoudemire, another guy who wants to get some of his own in Shaquille O'Neal, and a sixth man who loves to fire away in Leandro Barbosa. Now this wouldn't be a big deal if the Suns were still playing D'Anotoni ball, where they were taking more shots and getting everyone more opportunities as a result. But at Terry Porter's slower pace, where there just aren't as many shots to go around, there could be some issues down the road. You have three guys who could pin any loss on the team to their lack of shot opportunities; Amare and Shaq already do so, and Richardson could go that route if he's that type (I honestly have no idea if he is). It could work really well, but it will be a sticky situation. I'm not sure at all what positives there are for the Bobcats here. Bell is a better defender than Richardson, but not a better player. Diaw is a jack of all trades, master of none who hasn't been much good since his breakout season three years ago. Where he'll fit in on team that already has Gerald Wallace, Adam Morrison and Emeka Okafor is beyond me. So maybe they'll defend a little better with Bell coming off the bench at shooting guard, but not enough to get any better as an overall team. This is truly a wait and see deal here; the Suns look to have gotten the better of it but we won‘t be sure until we see how Richardson fits in.

The other deal was the one between the Wizards, Hornets, and Grizzlies where the Wizards got Mike James from New Orleans and Javaris Crittendon from Memphis, while the Hornets got Antonio Daniels from Washington and the Grizzlies got a future second round pick. This one is a little easier to interpret. The Grizzlies had a logjam at point guard with Crittendon stuck behind Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley, the Wizards needed somebody in the backcourt who could score a little until Gilbert Arenas finally gets back, and the Hornets needed a backup point guard who they would actually put on the floor (James was racking up DNP-CDs). James is better as a second unit guy who can come in and provide some offense; if he plays with the starters he'll take just enough shots to piss off the stars without scoring enough to help win the game. He did this in Toronto where had a career best 20 points in 5 assists per game a few years back, then was allowed to leave because he wasn't a pass first type. Right now, though, the Wizards need whatever help they can get to help turn things around, and if James has anything left in the tank he should at least help them be more competitive until Gilbert gets back.

Alright, that's it for week. Next time around, it's all about….beats the heck outta me. I'll think of something.