dunkside

First Garnett is out for the playoffs with a mysterious knee injury, then Danny Ainge suffers a heart attack. And now, this.

And it’s all the Celtics’ fault. They were told not to do it, but they went ahead and did it anyway – they signed Marbury and tried to get him a title. And now, the basketball gods are angry, my friends. And the Celtics won’t like them when they’re angry.

The Celtics are being hit with the 10 plagues for defying the basketball gods and signing Marbury to a contract. Garnett is out, Ainge got a warning in the form of a “minor heart attack”, the TD Banknorth Garden was overrun by frogs at every Celtics home game (or whatever those round shaped green wearing creatures were), and he won’t admit it, but Doc Rivers must have gotten the crabs.

What’s next you ask ? Let’s check the list. Water to blood (this must refer to Garnett’s injury) – checked. Frogs and locusts (they’re all green, some are fat and some are slim, it’s the fans at the TD Banknorth Garden) - checked. Gnats or lice – checked. Boils – checked. Next: DARKNESS. As in a dark arena. This means 1st round playoff elimination. Rejoyice Bulls fans, this will be the 2nd time in 3 years the Bulls knock out the defending champions in the 1st round.

There are more bad news, though. If the Celtics continue to defy the basketball gods and sign Marbury for next season, too, I fear Big Baby will be in big trouble (you know, 10th plague, death of the babies).

admin General Boston Celtics, Ray Allen, Stephon Marbury

For years Hinrich made me mad with his stupid decisions: off the dribble 3p shots on the fast break when he has 2 open team-mates streaking to the basket, quick bad shots with more than 15 seconds left on the clock, hesitating on penetration and taking the ball back at the 3p line instead of trying to finish strong at the rim and, of course, overdribbling. He did all these things 3 seasons ago and he still does them.

This is why Larry Brown would be the perfect coach for Hinrich. Larry Brown is known for getting the most out of his point guards, and the points that he harps on are the things that Hinrich needs to work on: only take good shots, move the ball, make the extra pass.

And this even has a chance to happen. Hinrich is paid way too much for the Bulls to keep him as a back-up guard (although with John Paxson as GM you never know) and the Bobcats were said to be looking to move Raymond Felton before DJ Augustine got injured. I doubt the Bulls have much interest in Felton, and even if they did, the salaries don’t match so other players would have to be involved. But if a 3rd team got involved Hinrich could end up playing for Larry Brown, which would most likely be the best thing that could happen for him as a basketball player.

admin Player analysis Kirk Hinrich, Larry Brown

Here’s a quick recap on how, since taking over the Suns, Robert Sarver managed, through a mix of dumb and cheap decisions, to ruin the beautiful team put together by the Colangelo’s:

1. Draft picks were sold with complete disregard for the franchise’s future. The worst such decision was selling the #7 pick in 2004, which could have brought the Suns one of Josh Smith, Andre Iguodala or Luol Deng (who could have easily replaced Marion when he decided that he wanted out)  or a PF/C like Andris Biedrins or Al Jefferson to help Amare in the paint. Either of Josh Smith or Iguodala could have filled the role of athletic defensive wing player very well, while Biedrins, a tall defensive C who can rebound, would have been a great match next to Amare’s offensive prowess.

2. Joe Johnson was lowballed and chose to walk even when the Suns matched Atlanta’s offer. He must have felt disrespected to a terrible degree to leave a contender and give up the opportunity to play with one of the most unselfish players in the league. Some people still feel that had the Suns had JJ at 100% in 2005 they could have went all the way.

3. Colangelo was let go and replaced with Steve Kerr. Chaos ensued. Literally.

4. Suns traded Marion for Shaq, the complete opposite type of player to what D’Antoni’s system required. Needless to say that it did not work out well. The Suns were booted by the Spurs from the playoffs (again) and they dropped from elite team to good team despite Shaq playing better and was more motivated than he ever was during the last 4 seasons.

5. D’Antoni was replaced with Porter in an attempt to change the style of the team.

6. By running their offense through Shaq instead of Amare they alienated their youngest star (and only chance to stay relevant after 2010) in order to appease a guy who ruined their style and will be gone in 2010 anyway.

7. In their attempt to become a more defensively oriented team, the Suns traded their only defensive stopper, Bell, together with Diaw for another scorer (J-Rich).

8. Finally realizing that Porter only made them a bad offensive team while failing to improve their defense, they fired him only half a season into his contract and turned the team over to Alvin Gentry who reinstated the run&gun style. But it was a case of too little too late.

The Suns will be soon eliminated from the playoffs and with an owner like Sarver it wouldn’t surprise me to see them follow in the steps of the Clippers.

admin Cheap owners, General managers Phoenix Suns, Robert Sar

MVP

Lebron. Book it.

Lebron played well enough to win in both in 2006 and 2008, but he had a horrible team, kinda like Wade has now. Now that Cleveland is ahead of the Lakers in the standings and things will probably stay that way till the end of the season, there’s no more excuse not to vote for Lebron. Just like last season the game between the Lakers and the Hornets that decided the final standings might have been decisive in the MVP voting. Last season Kobe got it as some sort of career achievement award and possibly because of the voters’ feelings of guilt. I don’t think many of them really liked him, so that time they voted just to prove they are not biased against him: “we’ll give him one now, so then we can never vote for him again without feeling guilty about it”. Since Kobe then sort of fizzled in the finals, I doubt he’s gonna win another MVP award until he leads his team to a title.

I expect Lebron to win it overwhelmingly, and Wade to be a distant second. Wade will get the most second place votes, but less first place votes than Kobe. The top 5 would be: Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan.

DPOY

Dwight Howard. It should be a landslide, maybe even more so than the MVP vote. Lebron and Wade should get some 2nd and 3rd place votes.

ROY

Rose. Might have been closer had the Bulls not made the playoffs (they can still miss them, but the way they played lately and their schedule suggest they will get in).

Sixth Man of the Year

Allen Iverson.

Ok, Ok, I’m just kidding. I’d go with Flip Murray, but I don’t know if he got talked about enough in the media for the voters to recognize him. Nate Robinson on the other hand won the Dunk Contest and plays in NY so he gets enough coverage. Plus playing in D’Antoni’s system helped him put up some nice numbers which can only help his cause. Murray might be more deserving for being an important part off the bench for the 4th best team in the East, but Nate will win it.

Most improved player

Paul Millsap will probably win it. He helped the Jazz stay afloat while Boozer was out. Had the Nets made the playoffs Harris would have won the award, but they faded of late. Jameer Nelson would have been a good candidate had he not been injured.

COY

Stan van Gundy. Mike Brown might have a chance, but the decisive factor should be the way Orlando’s defense (and overall play) improved despite playing a soft SF at PF and having just average to poor defenders around Howard.

Executive of the year

I expect the COY and Executive of the Year will go one to Cleveland and the other to Orlando, so if Stan gets the COY then Ferry should get this award. Mike Brown gets less credit because he got a good team (put together by the Executive of the Year) and he has the best player in the world on his team.

First All NBA Team and First All Defensive Team

I don’t think this ever happened before, but this could be the 1st time when these 2 teams are identical. The 1st All NBA Team should have Wade and Kobe at G, Lebron and Duncan at F and Dwight Howard at C. Kobe is a permanent fixture on the D teams, Dwight couldn’t miss it as the DPOY and Duncan should be in by default as Garnett missed a bunch of games and the Celtics played beyong expectations – the expectations they built themselves with that torrid start of the season. Considering the effort put forth by both Wade and Lebron on the defensive end (Wade has more blk/game than a whole bunch of 7 footers and Lebron’s come from behind blocks are even more spectacular than his thunderous dunks) they deserve to be recognized.

Bowen is now too old now and played too little to have a chance at the 1st team. Battier or Artest might still ruin it by taking the place of Wade or Lebron, but the fact that they now play on the same team could work against them and make them split the votes.

admin Awards Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Nate Robinson, Paul Millsap, Stan van Gundy

I’ve been on Tyrus’ bandwagon since he joined the Bulls, I complained about Skiles not giving him enough minutes and slowing down his development, I defended him when he was compared to LaMarcus Aldridge and called a bust. Now that he’s starting to show what he can do, what I always knew he could do, it’s time to talk about him some more.

During his short career Tyrus has been acused of a lot of things. Little by little he proved the critics wrong. With increased playing time came increased production, a lower fouling rate, more consistency, better FT%. But now the thing I hear the most is:

Tyrus should stop shooting jumpshots

To which I say: bullshit. When Tyrus came in the league he didn’t have any offensive game other than the dunk. He was way too light as a PF to back down his opponents and get dunks and layups out of it. His defenders sagged off him to cut his penetration giving him a jumpshot every time, knowing he couldn’t make them.

Last offseason Tyrus stated he’d work on his jumpshot and you can actually see the results. The form of the jumpshot is good, and he improved his FT%. Since having a rough start of the season (2-22 FG combined in the 2nd and 3rd games), little by little Tyrus improved his game, especially his offense. He might have an occasional bad shooting night but is not because he’s taking bad shots. It’s just that his shots are not falling, and this happens sometimes. It looks like it’s more a matter of confidence than anything else. He needs more reps and that will help improve his confidence. In the meanwhile, his improving jumper allowed him to become a much better scorer. As a result he averaged 15.3 ppg in February and brought his scoring average for the season to double digits.

What he needs to do is to keep working on that jumper so it becomes automatic when he’s left alone. This will open the dribble penetration, which usually results in a dunk or a foul. The only thing he should avoid is falling in love with his jumper, cause I still want to see him dunking the ball everytime he can. If he keeps working on his game and he gets around 35 min/game he could average 15 points and 8.5 rebounds with a couple of assists, a steal and around 2 blocks per game. Usually players take a big jump in their 3rd season, but considering Tyrus has been playing few minutes in his first 2 seasons, he might make the jump in his 4th season. And if he does, his numbers could be even better than those.

admin Player analysis Tyrus Thomas

In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We’re playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.

Twittering this message from the lockerroom at halftime got Charlie Villanueva in trouble. There was somewhat of a scandal or storm around it, and I even heard the term “twitter-gate” used. And now Skiles banned twittering during games. This is getting ridiculous. 

I could see why if Charlie V said something like “Check out the rack on that shorty in the 2nd row. I’d hit that”. But this was basketball related, and obviously not only was he listening to Skiles’ message at half-time, but he took it to heart. He called himself out. He said he needed to step up and then he actually did. And in doing so he helped his team win against the Celtics. 

I, for one, couldn’t care less what the players do in the lockerroom if it helps them get motivated and play better in the 2nd half, and I think true fans agree. Whether they’re reading from Sun-Tzu, having an orgy or watching paint dry, it just doesn’t matter as long as it’s legal and it helps them perform better on the court. 

Players are not 9 to 5 workers and the NBA should stop trying to make them look like they are. Things like making players dress like beancounters or stopping them from twittering  are not gonna help the teams and the NBA put a better product on the floor. Having better refs and removing the flopping would help a lot more. There is a big pile of crap in the middle of the livingroom, but all they care about is changing the color of the walls.

Also complaining about “professionalism” just because Villanueva took 2 minutes to twitter at halftime is hypocritical since most people do use the Internet at work for personal reasons. It’s the same thing as if he would have used those 2 minutes to talk with a teammate about his new car or the new game he played or the latest movie he watched or whatever else.

In the end Villanueva displayed more common sense than those caught up in the “twitter-gate”: 

We’re talking about Twitter here. We should be worried about [our next opponent] Orlando.

Just to be clear about the title: Skiles is the twat. The twits are all the people complaining about this.

admin General idiocy Charlie Villanueva

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good: Shaq has been playing better and with more motivation this season than he did in years.

The bad: The Orlando game Shaq took a long piggy back ride on Dwight Howard’s back. Not being able to keep up with Dwight’s athleticism, Shaq tried to wear him down by leaning on him like an old boxer trying to slow down his younger opponent. 

The ugly: When that failed, Shaq resorted to some pretty obvious flopping. On one play Shaq tried to take a charge, only Dwight used a piruete and there was little to no contact, yet Shaq fell to the floor like a giant sequoia. He must have spent too much time with Nash, cause these days the flop is Nash’s only defensive strategy. But at least he has an excuse: he doesn’t have the size or strength or hops to keep up with younger, more athletic players and try to block their shot.

Stay classy, Shaq

The obvious flop mentioned above had Stan Van Gundy complaining, and for good reason. Here’s what he said:

I was shocked, seriously, shocked. And very disappointed cause he knows what it’s like. Lets stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that tonight.

Not much to get upset about, right ? Well, guess again. Shaq did have something to say about it. He showed off his “class” again by lashing out at Stan Van Gundy, calling him a bum, a nobody (amongst other things) and calling his career a flop. Shaq also took swipes at Dwight Howard, Jeff van Gundy and Patrick Ewing as well. Way to stay classy, Shaq. 

Of course it’s not new from Shaq to show absolutely no character. In fact he has a pattern of trashing his former organizations and teammates. When he left LA he not only dissed Kobe but he went after the entire organization, especially Dr Buss, and the city of LA. Then when he left Miami he threw his former team-mates under the bus. He always was a petty, jelous, boastful, ego maniacal baby in a man-shaped whale’s body. But lately he’s been taking it to a whole new level. First he attacked Bosh without any reason after Bosh complained about the refs not calling 3 seconds on Shaq (without saying anything bad about Shaq himself), and now this. 

The Big Hypocrite

You know who must have enjoyed Shaq’s flopping the most ? Vlade Divac. After complaining and making fun of Vlade’s flopping, Flopzilla ended throwing himself on his back quicker than a 5 dollar whore.

While incoherently tring to explain how he flopped cause the rules required him to and how his flop was not really a flop cause he doesn’t do that,  Shaq said that “He (Howard) came with the same old, stale Patrick Ewing move”. Yeah, the guy who after almost 20 years in the league doesn’t have one single move (unless you count buldozing people over as a move) complained about someone else’s “old, stale move”.

At this point I hope the Suns miss the playoffs cause he just doesn’t deserve to be there. Not on account of his play – to his credit he stayed motivated for almost an entire season and might play 70+ games in a season for just the second time in 9 years – but because of his attitude. And if they do miss the playoffs, I fully expect him to take 35 games off next season and mail it in for the rest so he can be well rested for … his retirement.

admin General Shaquille O'Neal, Stan van Gundy

So the Thunder beat the Grizzlies with Thabo replacing Durant (out with an ankle sprain) in the starting line-up. Big deal, right ?  Every dog has his day. And the Grizzlies suck anyway. Well, now the Thunder won their second in a row with Thabo in the starting line-up, this time missing not just their best player but also their 2nd best player (or 3rd, depends on how you rank Green and Westbrook). Thabo’s stats weren’t impressive, but were  good (15 points on 6-11 FG, 7 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 1 TO). What’s more important is that the win came on the court of a team that already has more than twice as many wins and is fighting for the playoffs – Dallas is now 8th with Phoenix right behind them. They should be pretty motivated at this point of the season, which makes the Thunder’s win even more impressive.

Of course this doesn’t mean Thabo is a star, but what it shows is that he’s a quality player that can be a serviceable back-up and can even produce as a starter if needed . Yet somehow there wasn’t enough room for him on the roster of the Bulls. Did I mention that he’s paid like 10 times less than Hinrich and he can play multiple positions ? Well, he is and he does.

admin General managers, Player analysis John Paxson, Oklahoma City Thunder, Thabo Sefolosha

Cavs @ Heat

• Not much to say about Wade vs Lebron. It was everything fans were expecting. There was scoring, there was dunking, there were blocks, 3 pointers and then some more dunking. It’s the second time Wade and Lebron put up 40 points each when playing against each other. It only makes you wonder if they can top it when they meet again this Saturday.

• Jamario Moon started again and played well. Can’t really blame him for not being able to do much against Lebron. When he plays like he did, especially when he’s hitting from long range (6-7 on 3 pointers), no one can stop the “new and improved Ron Artest” (I just can’t get enough of Ron Ron’s lunacy). Moon seems to have won the starting SF spot and neither James Jones nor Diawara look like they have a shot of taking it from him.

• Despite being down 11 points with less than 8 minutes remaining and the Heat seemingly rolling, the Cavs didn’t get fazed. They had a certain poise, showed maturity and got the job done. That’s the kind of attitude that could make the difference between winning and losing a playoff series.

• The Cavs are far from being at 100%. Ben Wallace is out with a broken foot (and he played much better for the Cavs than he ever did for the Bulls), Delonte West still has some problems with his injured wrist, Pavlovic just came back from injury. This thought should scare the crap out of the Celtics and Lakers, cause the Cavs just got Joe Smith to help with their depth in the front-court, and if they get everyone healthy they look to me like the favorites for the title.

• Moon and JO look like they have developed pretty good chemistry with Wade. The Heat don’t have enough weapons to compete with the big boys of the East, but they certainly can get to the 2nd round of the playoffs and throw a scare into the team they meet there.

• At the end of the game when the Cavs came storming back from 11 down by forcing the ball out of Wade’s hands, the Heat could have used the 3p shooting of one Cook, Daequan. It would have taken the pressure off Wade and helped to actually put some points on the board. However he has been reported missing since the All Star Weekend and has apparently been replaced with a version of Adam Morrison. Like, the new and improved Adam Morrison or something.

admin Game notes Cleveland Cavaliers, Daequan Cook, Dwyane Wade, Jamario Moon, Lebron James, Miami Heat

At the trade deadline Paxson solved the logjam in the backcourt created by the arrival of Salmons by trading away Thabo Sefolosha instead of getting rid of his beloved Hinrich. I complained about it at the time.

Sam Presti seemed to see what Paxson could not, so the Thunder got Sefolosha and he started getting minutes. So far the results are not bad. 2 games ago Thabo had 12 points on 5-9 FG and 8 rebounds in a close loss at Dallas, and in his last game he got the starting job replacing the injured Durant. The result: 15 points on 5-13 FG to go with 11 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk and 3 TO, and a W at Memphis.

One wonders how many Bulls players will end up flourishing on other teams just as soon as they get traded. First was Chandler, but there was the excuse that he’s playing with Chris Paul, and on the Bulls he’d have no one to get him the ball like that. Then Duhon explodes in New York. He’s averaging 12.2 ppg and almost 8 ast while shooting over 40% from the 3p line while in Chicago opposing players dared him to shoot the 3. But he plays for D’Antoni, who’s system is known for inflating everyone’s stats (although I doubt his system teaches you how to shoot 3s). And now it looks like Thabo Sefolosha is on the same path.

Meanwhile the Bulls have “enjoyed” a “magnificent” display of basketball from Hinrich, who’s been averaging 7.6 points on 42.5% FG, 1.3 rebounds and 3.6 ast over the last 6 games. And he’s been doing it while being paid just a little over 8 million more than Thabo is. A real bargain I’d say. But then, you can’t really put a price on love, can you ? And John MacBeth Paxson loves him some Kirk.

admin General managers, Player analysis John Paxson, Thabo Sefolosha