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The Works: Erik Spoelstra’s Feathers; Not-So-Tough Choices in Sactown

November 30, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: the Kings play the waiting game with a stand-off on top; and some big news about this column. But first, the myth of coach fitness.

Fit to Be Coach

Over the past couple seasons, “fit” has become a trendy word to use in assessing any trade, draft pick and free agent signing. Fit has always been important to decision-makers, but now it’s getting its day in the sun with fans and armchair pundits. How else was a fawning audience to explain why OKC’s darling GM Sam Presti passed up Tyreke Evans for James Harden? It was fit! And, as Presti well knows, it does matter. It’s not empty buzz.

Some who heralded the new Heat forgot about fit; others, myself included, assumed basketball geniuses like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade could create their own chemistry, with a nod to the 2008 Olympic team. But here we are, with bad fit apparently sinking the Heat.

But that’s not all. Erik Spoelstra is also (supposedly) killing the Heat with, depending on your perspective, a lack of creativity or willful mismanagement of his constellation. But we know, emphatically and empirically, that Spoelstra is not a bad coach. He took last year’s version of the Heat to a 47-35 record. For stretches of the season, Quentin Richardson was the second-best player on last year’s Heat team. That’s not a joke.

Spoelstra is part Pat Riley — a grinder at heart, a guy who works 23 hours a day and demands the same from his players — and part Lawrence Frank — a X&O whiz kid. But because of the very nature of Miami’s three “chill” bros, Spoelstra has had to be a bit heavier on the Riley, all while maintaining a delicate balance. That hasn’t allowed his L-Frank side to come out. Or, these superstars are so heavy-handed that the Xs and Os have to come with a heavier dose of Drill Sergeant than Spoelstra can muster in his tenuous position.

So, while Spoelstra has both the chops to command this team and the brains to make it sing, he just isn’t in the right spot to execute it all. It’s just a bad fit.

 

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The Works: The Orlando Magic’s Balancing Act

November 29, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: when picks are illusions and Derrick Rose dismembers Tyreke Evans. But first, the peculiar position of the Orlando Magic with regard to the future.

Is Orlando Flexible or Flawed?

The Mavericks beat the Heat over the weekend; there was an element of “I told you so” to this win, as Dallas didn’t even get the chance to make a pitch to LeBron James over the summer.

As Art Garcia writes, Mark Cuban’s pitch to Maverick Carter (in hopes of making a pitch) included this now-prophetic line: “No team had ever blown up a team of all their core, then added a couple of free agents and won.” Well, at least that’s how Cuban tells it today.

Then today, the Orlando Sentinel reports that the Magic wouldn’t be averse to trading well, anyone but Dwight Howard, despite being one of the best teams in the league:

The Magic still are open to making a deal for either Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul … Even Gilbert Arenas would be in the discussion if he wasn’t owed gadzillions. Maybe Monta Ellis.

The Magic are no fools: They want to win a title and they know they need either a big-time scorer or playmaker to get past the Celtics or Heat, and then the Lakers. They would even be willing to take a step back this season to restock if it meant they could land either Anthony or Paul.

The blockquote is long, but the gist important: Mark Cuban predicted that no team built out of free agency — a core-less entity — would never wrap its hands around that great treasure over the horizon. At the same time, somehow, the Magic are (supposedly) looking not only to add another major piece, but to part with anyone on their payroll to do so. In effect, they’re acknowledging that to make it over that hump, their core needs a serious upgrade. To such a degree that this core itself is called into question.

 

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The Works Gives Thanks

November 24, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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Atlanta Hawks

This is a very special (day before) Thanksgiving edition of The Works.

After my wife and I braved the great Seattle ice-wall of 2010 to reach the airport — passing wrecked cars and reliving “The Road” every step of the way — I started thinking about the holiday. Not “the holidays,” you ding-bat; the humble pilgrims are now some of America’s finest blue-bloods, which means they make money off Christmas and have no reason to lobby for a celebration unique to their tradition.

Old money isn’t a culture, it’s a state of mind. Still, considering all the trouble some of us take to make sure Thanksgiving gets done right each year, it’s a little strange to me that there are no good Thanksgiving songs. Or chants. Or madrigals. Or anything joyous, rousing, repetitive, and yet ruminative, that small to medium-large groups can trot out while the turkey is bleeding to death in the backyard.

 

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The Works: Here Lies Allen Iverson; Rookie Crystal Ball

November 23, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: we predict where rookies will be in 10 years and determine who can learn from Delonte West. But first, Allen Iverson’s sad story becomes more bleak.

The Man Who Wasn’t King

Allen IversonAllen Iverson is bonkin’ it up in Turkey, in a second-tier league, and he’s likely broke. This is how it ends?

Whether or not you like to admit, once upon a time Allen Iverson was the NBA. When Jordan was gone for the second time, and Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant popular but hollow, it was Iverson who filled the void. He was a polarizing figure, an icon for a generation and, for a few that came before, proof that the sport was doomed.

On his best days, he was positively electric, and won games, too. On the bad ones, well, he had the swagger and personality to slough it off — only making it worse for those already inclined to screw up their faces at them.

But enough about me. Iverson didn’t prove the doubters wrong when he tried to stick in Memphis; failed utterly in his return to Philly; and now, isn’t even able to play prodigal son, or the sad-sack has-been reaping the spoils of foreign shores. Plenty of lesser men have been able to, in far better leagues. Why not Allen Iverson? At this point, it’s impossible to say. We have no way of knowing if this will last. But given the slow, painful decline that he’s been in since leaving Denver, it’s hard to think anything good is going to come out of this international move — it seems like the last stop, the final straw, and any other metaphor of doom you care to call on.

 

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The Works: When Owners Care Too Much; Respect for Blake Griffin

November 22, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In today’s Works: how one master dunkers commends another; why everyone feels bad for Greg Oden; and the eternal challenge for retooling the Hornets.

But first, the difference between hands-on owners and the handsy ones.

On Meddlesome OwnersMark Cuban

If you haven’t spent some time with Sam Amick’s wonderful, elucidating Q&A with new Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, please stop, click the link and read it. That single piece will give you everything you need to know about Golden State’s new era.

One of the items Lacob touches on is how he relates to the idea of a “meddling owner,” and fan backlash in respect to such. “Meddling” is one of those descriptive words that has a very specific connotation in NBA discourse, and it’s not positive. When dissing Mark Cuban, you use the word “meddling.” If you wanted to commend Cuban or any other owner for his activity level, you’d call the owner “engaged.” But no one ever calls an owner “engaged,” because engagement is not the preference.

It’s a double-standard, that fans who so often (think they) have all the answers despite thin (more like non-existent) basketball resumés criticize owners with thin basketball resumés who pretend to have all the answers.

 

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The Works: What’s Next for Greg Oden?

November 19, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In today’s Works: how Greg Oden and Yi Jianlian are going to make things difficult for their teams come June and the world’s most comprehensive list of military-related NBA names and nicknames.

QO Madness

Greg OdenAfter the sting of Greg Oden‘s latest tough break wears off, the intrigue sets in. The big question right now is whether the Blazers will cough up the mammoth qualifying offer needed to make Oden a restricted free agent during this offseason. The QO question is typically academic, given that most players worth keeping won’t sign the QO, it’s typically a small-dollar contract and it always lasts just one year. Players want long-term security, not one-season leases on their NBA careers.

Offering a QO is just another tentacle of franchise power when it comes to first-round picks, the final flourish of big business advantage for the owners. (This is why I was so angrily flummoxed when Memphis declined to tender Ronnie Brewer a cheap QO.) But there are particular factors at work that make Oden’s QO a real tough sell to the Blazers.

First of all, it’s freaking $8.8 million. That’s a lot of money, about 14 percent of this year’s salary cap.

If Portland offered, it would guarantee Oden would be a Blazer for 2010-11 — provided Oden didn’t get an outrageous offer as a restricted free agent. If Portland didn’t offer it, Oden would become unrestricted, and his career in Portland would essentially be over. The question for the Blazers: is giving Oden one more shot to save his career in Portland worth reduced free agent flexibility and potentially paying the tax?

 

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The Works: Michael Beasley Is Back; What Is What It Takes?

November 18, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: why research matters and those tragic Blazers. But first, why you should watch Michael Beasley.

Open Your Eyes

After Kevin Love had his Game of Games (the 30/30 one), I asked the Twitter-verse why it was that rebounding on a bad team was so much more admirable, and impressive, than scoring in bunches for one. The response, of course, was that rebounding takes effort and ingenuity, whereas you or I could go into a game today and start chucking shots at the basket. I guess. The point is well taken, though; someone has to score the point. There’s no rule that someone on lottery-bound squads has to dominate the glass.

Historically speaking, it’s just a lot harder to get 30 boards than, say, 40 points. So that settles that.

There are plenty of other reasons to be skeptical of Michael Beasley’s Minnesota renaissance. For one, Beasley has funny hair, might still be kind of loopy, can’t rebound like Love, and by his own admission, benefited from getting to be a big fish is a small, festering pond. Not to mention that the redemption narrative is about the most hackneyed trope in all of sports. There are good and bad years. Days, too. It’s not the gods at work.

All that said, Beasley’s turnaround is one of the more remarkable stories of this young season. One torrential shooting performance doth not a young star make. But [insert less hood-sounding nickname here] lately has made a habit of putting up 25-30 every night, and has a decent shot at Most Improved Player, in a rare instance where that honor actually makes some sense.

 

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The Works: Monta’s Desire; Banned in South Beach; Speeding It Up

November 17, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: the Heat vs. angry journalism; some drastic changes in pace; and Rob Peterson’s basketball prayer. But first, shouldn’t players get upset sometimes?

Feelings Are Our Friends

Here’s a question for you: what’s so wrong with a player being upset?

Obviously, it depends on context, and degree. But on some basic level, an upset level is an engaged one. Arguing a non-call isn’t always a sign of egoism, or a lack of self-control. Sometimes, it just shows that the player really, really wanted that bucket.

The same goes for mixing it up with the coach. Insubordination, and self-serving demands, are bad. Letting emotions run high in a tight game? That’s exactly the kind of spirit we idealize in athletes the world over.

As usual, though, things are different with the NBA.

Earlier this week, Monta Ellis sat on the bench with five fouls as the Detroit Pistons stormed their way out of a big, dark hole. Coach Keith Smart reasoned that, given how quickly Ellis had picked up his fifth, it wasn’t worth risking his go-to scorer until absolutely necessary. Ellis, however, didn’t see it that way. He was … upset. And he said so. At the time, Ellis told reporters that “I don’t like it, at all.” This made all the papers; there was no outright condemnation, but it was thrown out there, as news.

Monta Ellis got upset.

 

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The Works: For the Knicks, What Goes Down, Must Come Up

November 16, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: the Clippers’ failed youth movement and the Works has a sitcom (sort of). But first, Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks and the law of opposites.

Beautiful Losers

The logic of the super-team is simple: it doesn’t matter who is on your roster. The less baggage, the better; all a franchise needs is one chatty All-Star to rope in a few of his friends. That’s why, with the Nuggets facing the Knicks, you get two parallel, even contradictory, story lines abut the men in orange and blue.

On the one hand, Anthony must still be considered a serious option for New York. Maybe Miami hasn’t worked out as planned, but Boston, where a smart GM kept a modicum of young, affordable talent around, and then built from there, is looking as deadly as ever. If the Knicks hope to land Melo and add other high-quality piece, they will have to part ways with a few of their young projects. The good news is, the Knicks have enough rookie contracts in place that, in theory, Anthony and another stud could come on board without having to, as the Heat did, “clear the decks.”

Tom Penn mentioned that phrase on draft night; then it found its way into the latest LeBron James ad. I always wondered if there was any connection. Would that James polemic really have benefited from a salary cap/roster revolution tangent?

At the same time, the Knicks themselves — the actual team, the one under contract and playing out this season — have been something of disappointment. No one expected greatness overnight, but this team hasn’t even captured the imagination as expected. Actually, scratch that: they are a freaking mess. The kids aren’t developing, or getting to flash their gifts in the vaunted Mike D’Antoni system. Amar’e Stoudemire is at once underperforming and revealing what limitations he has at his best.

Good thing that has no bearing on how attractive this team might be to Carmelo Anthony.

 

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The Works: Hot Jazz; Bill Walton on TV!

November 15, 2010   Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller   No comments

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In The Works today: Bill Walton returns to the airwaves and Wolf Blitzer comments on the Colin Cowherd-John Wall skirmish (sort of). But first, oh those crazy Utah Jazz!

… And the Jazz Played On (And On And On)

Deron WilliamsThe Utah Jazz had a marvelous little week, rattling off five straight wins during which they trailed by a combined 88 points, according to the calculations of the Salt Lake Tribune‘s excellent new beat writer Brian T. Smith. It’s hard to believe all this began with the Jazz sitting at 2-3, losing by 18 in the second quarter at home to the L.A. Clippers. Five antacid-demanding games later, the Jazz are atop the Northwest at 7-3, having won three of their 10 or so most challenging road games (in Miami, Orlando and Atlanta).

Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference’s blog did the yeoman work of calculating just how mathematically improbable all this was. In each of the five games, there was a point (and in several cases long stretches of play) during which Utah had less a probability of winning of less than 10 percent. Coming back to win one such game is to be respected. Five in a row, four of which are on the road against playoff teams, two of those on the back-end of back-to-backs? It’s simply unbelievable.

Perhaps most shocking is that Jerry Sloan gave no Oscar-winning halftime speeches to his team. It has been reported that Raja Bell gave an inspiring talk at intermission early in the string, but that’s it. No broken Gatorade coolers, no hoarse throats, no threats of bodily harm. Just conviction in the system, and better second-half execution.

 

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