The best championship money can buy!
When the Boston Celtics traded for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer, most everyone expected them to win the NBA Championship. Had they fell short of this goal, I do believe that Doc Rivers would be looking for a commentary job sometime later this afternoon. Danny Ainge pulled the trigger on these two trades, basically jeopardizing the future of the C’s after next season. Questions will linger about whether Ray Allen’s ankles can survive another season, or Paul Piece’s knees; and who knows if Doc Rivers can repeat the same steps taken this year. His past certainly tells a different story.
I may sound bitter, being a Detroit fan, but I hate seeing teams go out and BUY wins. To me, it takes away the integrity of the game. I understand it is all part of the game, but I just feel it is a bit much. Trading away draft picks and lame players to get some big pieces for an “all-or-nothing” push, seems to go outside of the lines to me. If someone tried performing this trade in any fantasy league, the league would have vetoed it 10-2, with the 2 trying to persuade all the others the upside to both teams and the “Celtics” explaining that he didn’t even need Garnett. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
Now that it’s over, the comparisons will begin. “Where does this team rank?” I keep hearing how great of defense that was being played and to me I just didn’t see it. They allowed one 81 point game, but even in the blow out, the Lakers still scored 91. Kobe again had no help. I thought Phil Jackson had released Pau Gasol at one point, and even Lamar Odom was characteristically out played. Many of the talking heads are saying BEST DEFENSE EVER! SERIOUSLY? Again, home-town-homer right now, but the Detroit Pistons had better defensive teams, especially the Bad Boys; the Bulls learned the way of the Bad Boys and beat the Pistons with their own medicine in the early 90’s; even the Celtics in the 80’s played tougher defense, in my opinion. Look at the players they went against: Magic, Jordan, Bird, Isaiah, Malone/Stockton, Ewing, (H)Akeem, and David Robinson versus Chauncey Billups, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Chris Bosh, Mike Bibby and Dwight Howard. To me, it doesn’t quite add up.
If this team was so good, why did they take each series to at least 6 games? The Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavs took them to game 7’s. The Hawks and Cavs? Did I read that correctly? The Celtics did not win a road game until game 3 in Detroit, meaning that they were 0-6 on the road at that point. Home court wasn’t even that sacred; the Pistons ripped game 2 from them. A good defensive team does not let teams like the Hawks and the depleted Cavs hang around for game 7. They don’t let a Detroit team pretend they are worth something on their home court. Again, all the talking heads are blabbing about repeating. The parade hasn’t even started yet, and they want next season’s winning prediction already? Look at espn.com, all the experts but one, picked the Lakers to win. And now they are jumping on the C’s bandwagon and picking them to win next year. Easy Jon Barry! The Celtics just played 108 games, and the 30-something big 3 just averaged 36 minutes in 101 games. That is a lot of time to be playing and not much time resting. Those old legs will certainly need some time to rest.
The NBA is a game of copy cats; Hack-a-Shaq/Ben, tough-nosed defense, run-and-gun offense. So before you go and give the C’s the 2009 ring, wait and see who tries to buy their way to a ring next year.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Underachiever
A person or thing that performs below expectations. Also see Detroit Pistons.
Ok, so I made that last part up. But is it really that far off?
A few days after their season ended, Joe Dumars held a press conference that ended a miserable tenure of what was a semi-tolerable coaching stint of Flip Saunders: Three straight seasons, three early exits. When you precede a coach who won a title in 2004, then took his team to Game 7 in the Finals the next year, you are expected to take the team back to that level, or even further.
I was never really sold on Flip to begin with. Flip had the Big Ticket (Kevin Garnett) for this entire coaching career, and mainly mediocre supporting staff to round off the rest of the rosters. The Timberwolves were never throwing money around to get anyone to really support Garnett, but they still made it to the playoffs all but the final year of Saunders’ existence. In each of those years but one, the Wolves never made it past the first round. Underachiever. The second to last year, Flip guided the team to the Conference finals only to be ousted by the Lakers (who were then deconstructed by the Detroit Pistons). Underachiever. The final year of his Minnesota stint, the players (especially KG’s not-so-polite trade requests all year long) gave up on Flip, and lead to Genearl Manager Kevin McHale leading the team the rest of the way. The players quitting, and the team underachieving sure sounds familiar!
Joe Dumars let Flip go and it was his only option. The team failed (miserably, I might add) and something needed to change. If you do not change, and stay content with being alright, than you will become the Buffalo Bills. Some people will say that the Bills were a good team; and I will agree. BUT good will only get you so far, and for the Bills’ case, it took them to 4 straight Superbowl losses. Some teams and most players will never win the Big Game in their sport. However, the Pistons have been molded to win championships. That is plural, championshipS, and anything less is unacceptable.
This will be a tell-tale of Joe Dumars. He is definitely rolling the dice with Michael Curry, especially with the likes of Avery Johnson still being available. When Curry took the court, you would not mistake him for Michael Jordan by any means. He barely played 20 minutes a game, averaged under 5 points, and not even 2 rebounds. However, he had leadership qualities that both the NBA and his teams noted. He served as head of the players association, VP of player development in the NBDL and VP of NBA basketball operations, and now head coach of the Detroit Pistons. Those are not titles you just walk into. You have to work for it and grind out a lot of long days to get to those ranks.
This could also be the end of the line for Dumars. If Curry fails, then what is Mr. Davidson to think of Joe D. then? If you look at Dumars’ drafts, they haven’t been early 90’s, Dallas Cowboy-esque. For every Tayshawn Prince, there has been a Darko Milicic; and every Jason Maxiell there has been a Rodney White. So it is not like Dumars is drafting an army of great players; he is shooting a mere 50%. Not a bad shooting percentage (Joe Dumars shot a career average of .460), but if his coaches won at that rate, they would definitely be looking for other jobs. For the record, Rick Carlisle had a .610 winning percentage; Larry Brown was .659; and Flip Saunders .715. These are very good numbers; considering Larry Brown won a championship, and came very close the following year. So, I have to ask: What is stopping Bill Davidson from pulling the plug on Joe D?
Ok, so I made that last part up. But is it really that far off?
A few days after their season ended, Joe Dumars held a press conference that ended a miserable tenure of what was a semi-tolerable coaching stint of Flip Saunders: Three straight seasons, three early exits. When you precede a coach who won a title in 2004, then took his team to Game 7 in the Finals the next year, you are expected to take the team back to that level, or even further.
I was never really sold on Flip to begin with. Flip had the Big Ticket (Kevin Garnett) for this entire coaching career, and mainly mediocre supporting staff to round off the rest of the rosters. The Timberwolves were never throwing money around to get anyone to really support Garnett, but they still made it to the playoffs all but the final year of Saunders’ existence. In each of those years but one, the Wolves never made it past the first round. Underachiever. The second to last year, Flip guided the team to the Conference finals only to be ousted by the Lakers (who were then deconstructed by the Detroit Pistons). Underachiever. The final year of his Minnesota stint, the players (especially KG’s not-so-polite trade requests all year long) gave up on Flip, and lead to Genearl Manager Kevin McHale leading the team the rest of the way. The players quitting, and the team underachieving sure sounds familiar!
Joe Dumars let Flip go and it was his only option. The team failed (miserably, I might add) and something needed to change. If you do not change, and stay content with being alright, than you will become the Buffalo Bills. Some people will say that the Bills were a good team; and I will agree. BUT good will only get you so far, and for the Bills’ case, it took them to 4 straight Superbowl losses. Some teams and most players will never win the Big Game in their sport. However, the Pistons have been molded to win championships. That is plural, championshipS, and anything less is unacceptable.
This will be a tell-tale of Joe Dumars. He is definitely rolling the dice with Michael Curry, especially with the likes of Avery Johnson still being available. When Curry took the court, you would not mistake him for Michael Jordan by any means. He barely played 20 minutes a game, averaged under 5 points, and not even 2 rebounds. However, he had leadership qualities that both the NBA and his teams noted. He served as head of the players association, VP of player development in the NBDL and VP of NBA basketball operations, and now head coach of the Detroit Pistons. Those are not titles you just walk into. You have to work for it and grind out a lot of long days to get to those ranks.
This could also be the end of the line for Dumars. If Curry fails, then what is Mr. Davidson to think of Joe D. then? If you look at Dumars’ drafts, they haven’t been early 90’s, Dallas Cowboy-esque. For every Tayshawn Prince, there has been a Darko Milicic; and every Jason Maxiell there has been a Rodney White. So it is not like Dumars is drafting an army of great players; he is shooting a mere 50%. Not a bad shooting percentage (Joe Dumars shot a career average of .460), but if his coaches won at that rate, they would definitely be looking for other jobs. For the record, Rick Carlisle had a .610 winning percentage; Larry Brown was .659; and Flip Saunders .715. These are very good numbers; considering Larry Brown won a championship, and came very close the following year. So, I have to ask: What is stopping Bill Davidson from pulling the plug on Joe D?
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