HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The shocking events of this afternoon in Boston touched off passionate reactions from folks all over the country and all around the globe, and NBA players were not immune.
With the details on exactly what happened and why at the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon still being investigated, the response of players on Twitter was swift and simple. And it echoed the sentiment of a nation.
Everyone is concerned for the citizens of Boston and beyond that have been impacted by this tragedy:
Our world is full of evil. Time to make a damn change. We just killin each other for no reason. #sosad— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) April 15, 2013
Saddened by the news of the explosions at the @bostonmarathon. Praying for everyone impacted by this tragedy.— Chris Wilcox (@ChrisWilcox44) April 15, 2013
Prayers goes out to those involved/hurt in #BostonMarathon. WTF is wrong with people man. Just sad— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 15, 2013
Sad to hear about the explosion in Boston…. Sending prayers to everyone affected… #PrayForBoston— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) April 15, 2013
Explosions at the Boston Marathon? These images are frighteningly familiar. Praying for all the runners and spectators.— Omri Casspi (@Casspi18) April 15, 2013
Prayers up 2 any and all affected by the attacks n Boston.— Avery Bradley (@Avery_Bradley) April 15, 2013
Prayers Go out 2 the People in BOston! Just heard about the Bombing, #stopthemadness— Tony Allen (@aa000G9) April 15, 2013
Shocked and sad to hear about the explosions at the Boston Marathon today. There are things that I will never understand. #PrayForBoston— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) April 15, 2013
What's wrong with people man! An innocent event can't go without incident. Prayers for all in Boston and their families— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) April 15, 2013
Pray for Boston, people are sick and this world is full of evil #GOD be with us all…..— Marquis Daniels (@Marquis_Daniels) April 15, 2013
Damn!! What's going on in Boston?? Hope ppl are safe— Courtney Lee (@CourtneyLee2211) April 15, 2013
Wowww some coward sets off a bomb at the Boston Marathon that's so sad God Bless everyone involved smh #praying— Anthony Morrow (@MrAnthonyMorrow) April 15, 2013
Wow. I can't believe what happened in Boston! Our thoughts and prayers are going out to everyone involved. Such a shame.— Jimmer Fredette (@jimmerfredette) April 15, 2013
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: Carmelo Anthony‘s 50-point game last night against the Heat was one you have to see if you’ve missed it. But the one we’re going with this morning is the Bulls-Wizards game from D.C. The Wizards are definitely playing better defense overall and smarter down the stretch, too, as evidenced by a smart dump-off pass John Wall made to Nene in the closing minute of last night’s game that led to free throw attempts. Although Nene missed ‘em both, Trevor Ariza got the ball back, drained two free throws of his own and clinched the win for Washington. In these last eight games the Wizards have to go, they’ve become a must-see team on League Pass.
Seattle, Sacramento step into the ring — The official ruling on whether or not the Sacramento Kings will remain in California’s capital city or move to Seattle and become the rebranded Seattle SuperSonics won’t be known until the NBA’s Board of Governor’s meeting on April 18-19. But today, in New York, constituencies from both the Seattle and Sacramento groups will present all of their information to NBA officials as they attempt to gather data about the potential scenarios. Our own Scott Howard-Cooper has more on the battle for a team that begins today, as well as some key issues to watch:
This battle has been Sacramento against Seattle all along.
It’s not Sacramento against itself, because it was inevitable the city would build a new ownership conglomerate and a new arena plan. And it’s not Seattle against the NBA, because the league has been very clear in its interest in returning to Washington state.
If Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer headed the same group to buy the Kings to play in Sacramento, it breezes through the approval process. If any city other than Seattle is trying to poach the team – Anaheim, Las Vegas, Virginia Beach – Sacramento mounts a successful comeback victory and probably wins easy.
Sacramento against Seattle.
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There are so many layers to this:
If the Seattle bid is voted down later this month – if – don’t be surprised if the current owners, the Maloof family, holds on to the Kings for a while. It could be a few months to step back and see who else wants to play Monopoly now that the team is on the open market, but that would be long enough to have control over trades, draft and free agency. They could still sell late in the summer and give the new owner enough time to draw more than 3,500 fans a game.The Maloofs have not ruled out the possibility of owning the Kings next season. That’s more of a longshot than the July/August scenario, but the family is considering all options at this point. Including staying on and gauging the mood with a new commissioner, Adam Silver.If Seattle is denied and the Maloofs sell? It will have to be to a group that will own the team in Sacramento. Again, the Board of Governors vote is about location. If California’s capital city wins, the team stays no matter who is at the top of the masthead.
Voting consideration No. 1: It makes sense that small-market owners would prefer competing against the local TV money of other small-market teams. Boost for Sacramento. Except that some owners, from markers of any size, could want the cut of the to-be-decided relocation fee. Boost for Seattle. (See, counters to every argument.)
Voting consideration No. 2: Ranadive’s late addition to the Sacramento group, after Stern backhanded the first offer of its attempted counter-strike, is a positive. How much of a positive is unclear. Owners have to at least be intrigued by the potential of increasing the revenue stream in India, and the relationships he may have already built as No. 3 man in Golden State ownership group can help. But the Warriors may already have been in the Sacramento camp. It is possible Ranadive will not swing a vote.
Voting consideration No. 3: Stern, who has worked for years to keep the Kings from moving, has lost one of his most compliant voters. The Maloofs historically followed the commissioner’s lead on most topics. They’re clearly looking out for their best interests on this one.
Babby, Suns reach 2-year deal — During his tenure as Suns president of basketball operations, Lon Babby has seen Phoenix go 96-126, has traded away franchise icon Steve Nash and embark on a rebuilding process that has left many NBA observers puzzled if not downright confused. But Suns managing partner Robert Sarver has liked what Babby is doing with the franchise, presumably, or he wouldn’t have given Babby the two-year extension that Babby signed on Saturday. Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic has more on Babby’s tenure and future in Phoenix:
With his contract set to expire at the end of June, Babby agreed to a two-year contract extension to remain at the helm of the Suns in what was an unconventional NBA front office format when he was hired in 2010. Babby, 62, tabbed Lance Blanks, who has one contract year remaining, to be his general manager and basketball expert while Babby was charged with remaining competitive for Steve Nash’s final two years and then transitioning to a new era this season.
“I’ve had a wonderful career and I view this was a wonderful opportunity,” Babby said. “I knew it was an extraordinary challenge. Not every day is simple. It can be painful and difficult. I didn’t want to leave it at this stage. I may be like Moses. I’m on a journey to get to the promised land of a championship. I didn’t want to leave at the start of the walk through the desert.
“… We’ve done a lot of heavy lifting. It doesn’t feel right to leave if Robert and the organization have faith in me when I feel like we’re about to start the climb up the mountain.”
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The idea of tapping into Babby’s esteemed career as a lawyer, sports agent and pro franchise counsel was to take advantage of a new collective bargaining agreement, have trade and contract negotiating expertise and change the payroll to a younger team by adding draft picks and creating salary-cap flexibility for free agents.
The hits of Babby’s tenure have been trading for Marcin Gortat, extending Jared Dudley, winning an amnesty bid for Luis Scola, bringing back Goran Dragic at Sarver’s behest, signing P.J. Tucker at a minimum salary, accumulating 10 picks in the next three drafts and creating a possibility to sign a maximum-salary free agent in July.
The misses that drew overwhelming social media disapproval of the extension was whiffing on prioritizing Michael Beasley as a free-agent signing, trading Dragic and a first-round pick for Aaron Brooks, the portrayal of this season’s team as a playoff team, the dismissal of coach Alvin Gentry and the handling of the departures of Nash and Grant Hill.
Babby was offered the extension Saturday and accepted Tuesday. Sarver’s endorsement means Blanks likely will stay on board for his last contract year and there is a strong possibility that interim head coach Lindsey Hunter is named the permanent coach.
“Lon has led our front office during this important transition period for the organization and he has my full support as we continue to rebuild,” Sarver said in a prepared statement.
Report: Heisley nearly a part-owner of Bucks — Former Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley has been hospitalized since late February after suffering a stroke. He has reportedly been in a coma for more than a month and his health is obviously in a dire situation. But long before Heisley had these unfortunate medical issues, he was reportedly interested in becoming a part-owner (and eventual owner) of the Milwaukee Bucks with its current owner, Sen. Herb Kohl. Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times has the details:
After last season when Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl publicly acknowledged he was looking to take on business partners for his NBA franchise, rumors of potential candidates immediately began to swirl around the NBA.
By last fall, there were whispers Michael Heisley, who had decided to sell the Memphis Grizzlies, had more than a passing interest in joining forces with Kohl. Some NBA officials and insiders even contended Heisley would be part of the Bucks’ ownership group sooner rather than later, perhaps even this season.
The scenario painted by some individuals was that Heisley intended on first becoming a Bucks minority owner with Kohl still in charge. Then, after approximately three years, Heisley would have the option of becoming the majority owner.
According to some people close to Heisley and Kohl, though, the latter got cold feet and balked at the idea of relinquishing his franchise, just like he did in the summer of 2003 when it appeared he was on the brink of selling the Bucks to a consortium headed by Michael Jordan.
Kohl, who purchased the Bucks in 1985 from Jim Fitzgerald for approximately $19 million, is apparently still receptive to bringing on an additional business partner. The possibility of the 76-year-old Heisley re-entering the Bucks’ picture is highly unlikely.
Wizards finishing out season strong — A knee injury to John Wall coupled with a 4-28 start gave Washington all the makings for another woebegone season. But since Wall has returned, the Wizards have knocked off some pretty solid opponents — including Denver, Oklahoma City and their latest victim, Chicago — while showing improved defense and execution, particularly in the fourth quarter. Washington could have easily mailed in the last few weeks of games and not tried to build toward the future, but by doing the opposite, it is setting itself up for success come the 2013-14 season, writes Mike Wise of The Washington Post:
In pure basketball sense, Randy Wittman announcing that the Wizards have set a goal to finish ninth in the Eastern Conference — one spot out of a playoff berth — makes, well, no sense. Same as his Yogi-like proclamation that “it ain’t over yet,” moments after his Wizards beat the Bulls, 90-86, on Tuesday night at Verizon Center.
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“A lot of teams that aren’t really fighting for anything do tend to roll over and take the rest of the season how it comes,” Martell Webster said after the game. “But not us. We’re fighting for each other and showing each other we deserve to be in the playoffs, that we can actually play playoff-caliber basketball.”
“My perception of the team has evolved since I got here,” he added. “Be honest, I didn’t know what the hell to expect when I first got here. So many teams you got a lot of talk and no action. We talk and we perform here. We play for each other. We play to win. It doesn’t matter what part of the season it is.”
On second glance, it makes all the sense in the world to finish ninth — the world of the Wizards, where measuring progress since John Wall returned is so important to the future. His teammates have been much better. He has been flammable of late, knocking down a big shot late against the Bulls and making the right decisions down the stretch. Bradley Beal is occasionally butter from beyond the arc. Webster is suddenly worth a mid-level exception and more.
Look, they were never going to be a playoff team this season. Those hopes died the moment Wall sustained a knee injury that cost him the first 33 games and Nene aggravated a left foot injury in the Olympics, limiting him for much of the season’s early going.
Their postseason was gone after they started 4-28, and after that there were only two important questions to be answered: Would Wall show that he was a bona-fide point guard capable of making his teammates better while also showing the same explosiveness he had before the injury? And were some of the key components around him good enough to warrant keeping him for the future?
Sure, 28-46 doesn’t make for a complete roster reassessment. But 24-18 after that start, the way the Wizards have turned into a tough out on many nights and into one of the top 10 defensive teams in the league since Wall’s return, has answered both questions in the affirmative.
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The best teams often compromise the integrity of the product to rest and protect their players with the express reason of being fresh for the postseason — see San Antonio and Miami. The worst teams sometimes don’t play their stars simply because they don’t want to miss out on the possibility of moving one slot ahead of another team in the draft for a significantly better player.
Wittman and the Wizards could get away with sitting Nene or Wall the next two weeks. Lord knows the organization, headed for the lottery for the fifth straight time, has not always done what’s right for the game the past five seasons.
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The last thing the Wizards needed was another 20-something, doe-eyed kid trying to figure his game and his new environment out at the same time. They need a piece or two to be a playoff team next season.
One of those pieces became showing purpose and passion this season, right up until Game No. 82. Going all out for ninth place doesn’t sound very noble, does it?
But from whence the Wizards came this season, it’s a building block for next year.
ICYMI of the night: What Kenyon Martinlikely did once or twice to Chris Andersen in practice when both were with Denver now available for mass consumption … :
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: This mightbe hard to believe, but there are only nine more nights of 10-plus games left in the season. Where has all the time gone? A full night like last night’s 14-game schedule leaves plenty of good matchups — even when the not-so-elite/bad teams get together (Milwaukee-Philly and Orlando-Charlotte, we’re looking at you). Of course, you’d have to be living under a rock to have not seen/heard about the Bulls ending the Heat’s 27-game win streak, so we won’t feature that one in this space. We’ll go instead with Pacers-Rockets, which featured a nice contrast of styles (Indiana’s grinding ways vs. Houston’s score-as-fast-as-possible mantra) and, apparently the harsh words Roy Hibbert had for his Indiana mates after Monday’s win against Atlanta worked. The bench, the target of Hibbert’s ire, didn’t let the Pacers down and overall, Indiana’s defense was top notch — particularly Hibbert’s rim defense and Paul George‘s lockdown job on Rockets All-Star James Harden.
Lakers glad to see Miami’s run stopped — The gap between the Lakers and Heat this season in terms of their elite status is pretty wide: the Heat sport the best record in the league and, as of Wednesday night, had a 27-game win streak rolling. The Lakers, on the other hand, have been fighting just to make the playoffs all season (they’re No. 8 in the West) and have dealt with a seemingly endless run of drama, injuries and a combination of the two. Still, the current Lakers take pride in their past and legacy, which includes the NBA’s longest winning streak — a 33-game run put forth by the 1971-72 Lakers. After the Heat suffered a 101-97 defeat in Chicago last night to end their win streak, Pau Gasol and other Lakers are glad the record for win streaks is staying in L.A., writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:
The 1971-72 Lakers can exhale. Their 33-game winning streak is still the NBA’s longest.
The current crop of Lakers took some pride in its preservation after the Miami Heat’s streak ended at 27 with a 101-97 loss Wednesday to the Chicago Bulls.
Some players were even happy.
“In a big way, I am,” said Pau Gasol, who in his six seasons with the Lakers has become friends with the coach of that ’71-72 team, Bill Sharman. “I’m glad that we kept the streak. It was about time that Miami lost.”
The Heat put together a string of come-from-behind victories to prolong its winning ways since a Feb. 1 loss to Indiana, but it finally ended against Chicago as Bulls fans chanted “End of streak! End of streak!”
The Lakers (37-35) have been pretty preoccupied in recent weeks trying to keep their heads above .500. Most of them still kept at least a casual eye on the Heat streak.
“I guess now that it’s over, it’s kind of nice that the Lakers still have it,” Steve Blake said.
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The present-day Lakers weren’t lighting up cigars to commemorate the continued life of the 41-year old record. It didn’t even matter that they also beat Minnesota on Wednesday, 120-117.
Said Blake: “We have too many other things for ourselves to worry about.”
Wall says he’s faster than Westbrook — When it comes to pure on-court speed, which player is faster: John Wall or Russell Westbrook. The folks in OKC are likely to have a much different opinion than the one that Wall shared with John Rohde of The Oklahoman last night after Wall struggled through a 3-for-18 shooting night in a 103-80 loss at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Going purely off how each of them fared at the Taco Bell Skills Challenge in 2012, Wall technically was faster than Westbrook, as you can read about here. Anyway, here’s Rohde’s report:
Washington Wizards point guard John Wall didn’t hesitate when he was asked if the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook is the NBA’s fastest player.
“No, I’m going to say myself,” Wall said after shooting just 3 for 18 from the field in the Wizards’ 103-80 loss to OKC before a sellout crowd of 18,203 at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Wall wouldn’t even say for certain that Westbrook was the league’s second-fastest player.
“It’s tough man,” said Wall, who was coming off a career-high 47 points Monday against Memphis and finished with 18 points and 12 assists against the Thunder. “There’s a couple fast guys in this league. He (Westbrook) is up there, Derrick (Rose) is up there, when he’s healthy. Mike Conley‘s pretty quick. There’s a couple guys. Ty Lawson‘s quick. So there’s a lot of guys, but I put myself first.”
Wall was still complimentary of Westbrook, admitting he is at a place in his career where Wall hopes to some day find himself.
“We’re both young, athletic, fast point guards and that’s very rare that you see that in this league,” Wall said. “I’m trying to take the same steps as he’s taken, being an All-Star, making the playoffs and that type of thing, so that’s what I’m trying to do. Give a lot of credit to how he’s working and how he’s helping this team.”
Woodson raves over Smith’s shot selection — As one of the streakiest shooters in the game today, Knicks swingman J.R. Smith has long been known for his ability to shoot his team into (and more than a few times) out of games during the course of his career. Smith’s gunner mentality often drew the ire of coach George Karl when Smith was a sixth-man type for the Nuggets and that mentality has also been known to irk his current coach, Mike Woodson. Yet as the Knicks have picked up steam of late winning five straight games, Woodson has been impressed with Smith’s discretion on the court, writes John Jeansonne of Newsday:
Just because he can doesn’t mean he should. Knicks shooter J.R. Smith is just that, a shooter, who can nail jump shots from binocular range.
But what coach Mike Woodson has liked about Smith’s contribution to this Knicks season, and particularly to the team’s six-game winning streak down the stretch, is that “he’s starting to figure out some things. He’s not just taking jump shots. He’s taking it to the rim, getting to the free-throw line. He’s rebounding, he’s playing defense.”
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He had 35 points, the night after scoring 32 against Boston. In a reserve role, as usual, he made 10 of 18 field goals — 3 of 7 three-pointers — and, as Woodson said, earning free throws. He made 12 of 13 and shared team-high rebounding honors with Carmelo Anthony (7 apiece).
All those numbers matter as the Knicks watched a 30-point lead in the last minute of the first half melt down to four in the final minute of the game.
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“I wanted to establish my game on the inside and move on from there,” Smith said. “I got a lot of calls, I made my free throws. My body is killing me but I’ll take it.”
So will Woodson, who acknowledged that Smith came to the Knicks last year with a reputation for relying too much on his outside shooting skill. Smith — his given name is Earl Joseph Smith III, though he goes by “J.R.,” which these days could stand for “Judgement Revised” — has appeared to learn a lot of new tricks in his old age, 27, and eighth NBA season.
“I can’t speak for other coaches [who had Smith],” Woodson said. “When I saw him last year, I liked what he brought to the table. It’s my job as his coach to show him some love, put him in positions to be successful. But still coach him.
“Younger players are different from older players. I probably would’ve been a little tougher on him when he was younger, and pat him, too. I still try to coach him, but be demanding of him. Sometimes he fights me. That’s part of coaching, give and take. He’s still got a ways to go but he’s getting there.”
Nets’ Evans hits 20-20 mark — Early in the offseason, the Brooklyn Nets picked up rebounding maven Reggie Evans from the Clippers for the right to swap second-round picks in 2016. So far, Brooklyn has looked like winners in that trade as Evans is the team leader in rebounds and has more than twice as many rebounds than the forward the Nets threw a lot of money at in the offseason, Kris Humphries. Evans was at his rebounding best last night in Portland, tearing down 26 boards and scoring 22 points to join some elite NBA company, writes Sean Highkin of USA Today:
The Brooklyn Nets’ recent hot streak has been defined by the stellar play of Deron Williams and Brook Lopez. But on Wednesday, Reggie Evans did something that has only been done 13 times this season, and mostly by players of much higher stature. His 22 points and 26 rebounds were what powered the Nets to a 111-93 road blowout of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Here are the other players who have had games of at least 20 points and 20 rebounds this season:
Zach Randolph
DeMarcus Cousins
Joakim Noah (twice)
Dwight Howard
Nikola Vucevic (twice)
David Lee
Al Horford
Enes Kanter
Kevin Love
Tim Duncan
Dirk Nowitzki
That’s three future Hall of Famers (Howard, Nowitzki and Duncan), five players who were All-Stars this season (Randolph, Noah, Howard, Lee and Duncan), and a few of the most highly regarded young big men in the league (Cousins, Vucevic and Kanter). Not bad company for a role player like Evans to be in.
Jazz tweaking offensive gameplan? — Anyone who has watched Utah over the last three seasons knows the game plan whether it was Jerry Sloan or the current coach, Ty Corbin, leading the squad: get the ball to Al Jefferson as early and as often as possible. While Jefferson is the Jazz’s leading scorer for the third straight season, Utah also fell out of the playoff chase thanks to a dismal start to March which included several road losses. Neither some nor all of those losses are Jefferson’s fault, but the Jazz have changed things up a bit of late on offense and it might be paying off as they have won three straight games, writes Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune:
Jefferson took 23 shots on Wednesday. His role in the Jazz offense is not diminished. But is it changing?
That was the sense given by both Mo Williams and Paul Millsap following the Jazz’s 103-88 win over the Phoenix Suns. Jefferson finished with 25 points on 12-of-23 shooting, and he scored six of the team’s first 10 points to start the game. However, both Williams and Millsap said the Jazz have changed the offensive philosophy at beginnings of games, which could explain the fast starts in Monday’s win over Philadelphia and Wednesday.
Both nights, the Jazz made their first six shots.
“I think we got a little carried away with just coming down, starting the game, just throwing it down to Al, letting him work.” Millsap said. “It made it too tough on him, made it too tough on everybody else. It’s basically just getting everybody moving, moving the basketball around.”
Millsap said the Jazz’s focus needs to be “getting different options.”
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Here’s Mo Williams’ explanation of what the Jazz are doing:
“I think we’re coming out and we’re running different stuff than we usually run. More and more pick and roll situations. We’re going to eventually go to Al — a lot. I think it’s better when we come out and we get some pick and rolls, which we have, and kind of getting Gordon going early, getting him in motion, getting some ball movement. Getting bodies moving, instead of just coming in and going to Al. The perimeter first shots or the jump shots, those are tough.”
Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.
Who’s the best player you won’t see in the playoffs but wish you would? (And, please, let’s leave the injured stars off this list.)
Steve Aschburner: The “no injured stars” qualifier to this question, in my mind, applies to Derrick Rose, Amar’e Stoudemire or Andrew Bynumbut not to Kyrie Irving, whose various absences have not been as debilitating. Nor have they been the reason why Cleveland floats near the bottom of the East river; the Cavs’ 17-32 pace (.347) with him wasn’t getting them to the postseason any more than their 22-47 mark (.319) overall. As it was, this was a breakthrough season for Irving, from his All-Star weekend highlights to all the pre-21-year-old history he has achieved. With Anderson Varejao healthy and a stiffer defense, Cleveland might have gotten in and put the point guard’s transcendent talents on display for a coming-out party much like Rose’s in 2009 against Boston, when he was about Irving’s age.
Kyrie Irving
Fran Blinebury: Kobe Bryant. (I’ve always wanted to know how many expletives a Laker fan could type in 60 seconds.)
Jeff Caplan: I know my Eastern brethren will likely choose Jrue Holiday and that’s a wonderful choice. Another is John Wall, who is playing spectacularly. But, allow me to suggest Ricky Rubio. There are few magicians in this league and Rubio is one of them. He’s quietly put together a very nice second half to the season since regaining confidence in his surgically repaired left knee, and doing so with a decimated roster due to massive injury woe. Minnesota fans should again be excited for next season when we can only assume the Wolves will have a fully healthy roster and still have Rick Adelman as their coach. Rubio has improved each month and in March he is averaging 13.2 ppg and 7.8 apg. The playoffs were made for such a performer. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for next season.
Scott Howard-Cooper: Based on the last few weeks, I am tempted to say John Wall. But let’s say LaMarcus Aldridge. A playoff series, or more, would be a deserved spotlight. If it’s any consolation, he will have a lot of them with the Blazers in the years ahead.
John Schuhmann: Well, either Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki is going to miss the playoffs, and I hear they’re both pretty good. But the one guy I can’t wait to see in the postseason is Kyrie Irving, so I’m kind of rooting for the Cavs to put some pieces around him this summer (and for him to stay healthy). Irving is a 21-year-old star who plays with an electricity and embraces the big moment. He’s made to star on the big stage, and hopefully that time comes soon.
Sekou Smith: There is still an outside chance we could see him in the playoffs, depending on what happens with that eighth and final spot in the Western Conference standings, but watching the bearded Dirk Nowitzkigo to work against the Clippers Tuesday night on TNT is a reminder of just how wicked the big fella can be when he’s got it going. His season got off to a rugged start with the injury and the Mavericks struggling to find their way. But I keep having flashbacks to the 2011 playoffs, when Dirk made his case as one of the game’s truly great players. You know he’d go down in a blaze of glory in a first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder. Crazy as it sounds, John Wall of the Wizards would be No. 2 on my list. With the way he’s playing these days, you have to wonder what might have been for the Wizards in the East had he been healthy all season …
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: Yes, the Heat kept their win streak rolling (it’s at 27, in case you’ve been living in a cave or something). No, the Nuggets’ didn’t keep theirs rolling (it ended at 15 games, one shy of breaking the franchise’s all-time mark). But the game we’re going to focus on in this space is, surprisingly, Grizzlies-Wizards. The final score (107-94 Washington) give the impression we had a blowout on our hands all night. That would be wrong, though, as Washington only lead 76-74 heading into the fourth quarter and needed a truly amazing performance from John Wall to put away the always hard-fighting Grizz in this one. As hard as the Wizards have had it this season, there’s a real future for this team if Wall can stay healthy for an entire season.
Wall keeps churning, improving game – If you missed it a few weeks ago, our man David Aldridge did a great job of looking at the youthful-but-lottery-bound backcourts in the Eastern Conference that reside in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Washington. One of the stars of those backcourts, John Wall, has been on a tear since missing the season’s first 32 games with a knee injury and had perhaps his best game since his return last night against Memphis. Wall burned the Grizz for a career-best 47 pointsas Washington won to improve to 21-16 since Wall got back in the lineup. Brandon Parker of The Washington Post has more on Wall and his rapid rise:
After recording a career-high 47 points in Washington’s 107-94 win against playoff-bound Memphis, Wall is now averaging 25 points and 9.3 assists during his past nine games. The Wizards have gone 6-3 during that stint and are now 21-16 since Wall’s return from a leg injury.
“I believe in my ability,” Wall said. “I’m very confident and I think whenever you’re in your zone or you’re in a great rhythm like I’ve been in the last couple months, you don’t feel nobody can guard you no matter who it is.”
Wall’s 47 points against a strong defensive team like Memphis puts him on a short list with Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. They’re the only two players to score more points than Wall in a game this season, with 54 and 52, respectively.
Before and after Monday’s game, Wizards Coach Randy Wittman touched on how he felt many have underestimated the transition Wall had to go through after missing the first 33 games with a knee injury.
“I think he’s showing you right now what he can be,” Wittman said when asked if Wall was a franchise player. “You don’t really understand what he went through this year. It’s tough to sit for three and a half months and not do anything. And then I get him, the doctor says I can play him and I throw him to the wolves.”
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Wall has also shown patience with his jumper, steadily working to eliminate the hitch in his shot and add another dimension to a skill set built on speed and flash. By doing so, he also seems to be indirectly addressing the questions surrounding his value as a franchise and max-contract player.
“The work that he did all summer leading up to his injury in September is starting to pay off,” Wittman said. “And he’s continuing to do that work now. He’s 22. I think we’re beginning to see who John Wall can be.”
Injuries wreak havoc on Pacers’ roster — Last night against Atlanta, Indiana trotted out a starting lineup of D.J. Augustin, Paul George, Tyler Hansbrough, Gerald Green and Roy Hibbert — a group that had started zero games together. Although the Pacers won, they built a monster lead earlier in the game but had to sweat out a 100-94 victory in the fourth quarter. The unfamiliar lineups may be more of a common thing for Indiana as the season wears down thanks to injuries to the Pacers’ regular starters, writes Phillip B. Wilsonof The Indianapolis Star:
Two more Indiana Pacers were affixed the dreaded “day-to-day” injury tag Monday as the starting backcourt of George Hill and Lance Stephenson sat out against Atlanta at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Hill, the starting point guard, is bothered by a left groin strain. Stephenson has a right hip flexor. The Pacers were also without starting forward David West (back strain) for a fifth consecutive game and 2009 NBA All-Star forward David Granger, who has played just five games as a reserve due to a seasonlong knee problem.
“George’s is probably more serious than Lance’s,” Vogel said before the game. “(Hill) still has a good chance of playing on Wednesday, (but) they’re more concerned with his groin than they are Lance’s hip.”
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“David is going to be still day-to-day,” Vogel said. “There’s an outside chance he could play Wednesday, but not 100 percent sure. And Danny as well. Those guys both could see action in Texas.”
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The tape on George’s left hand was gone, so perhaps that ends the All-Star forward’s pinkie pain. He had taped up his hand for the previous four games.
“They didn’t even tell me about it, that’s how much the trainers were worried about it,” Vogel said. “I didn’t even know about it.”
Lakers revert to bad selves — Don’t look now, L.A. fans, but your squad might be getting back into the funk that dogged the most of the season. After picking up wins this month against the Hawks, Bulls, Pacers and scoring romps over the Magic and Kings, it looked like the Lakers were hitting their rhythm and locking in on a playoff berth. Then came the last three games, all of which have been losses, including last night’s defeat in Oakland to the Warriors. That loss, coupled with Utah’s win over Philly at home, trimmed L.A.’s lead for No. 8 in the West to one game. Worse yet, writes Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, the Lakers seems to be fracturing again:
Dwight Howard staring at teammates after their defensive gaffes.
Mike D’Antoni leading huddles that featured multiple players fragmented and away from the group.
Kobe Bryant shooting and shooting and shooting.
Just 10 days after the Lakers looked like a bonded team in their best road victory of the season in Indiana, they dropped back into their early-season mode of not doing the little things that make a team work together and lost to the Golden State Warriors, 109-103, on Monday night.
In a familiar refrain this season, the Lakers only tried harder once they were already being embarrassed.
Apparently the previous two games – losses to also-rans Phoenix and Washington – weren’t enough to get the Lakers’ attention. They lost their third consecutive game, their second since Bryant’s return from the left ankle sprain that limited him to advising teammates beautifully in Indiana.
Bryant scored 36 points but shot 11 for 27 from the field a game after D’Antoni came away steamed at the Lakers’ lack of ball movement in their home loss to the Wizards.
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Bryant stressed the need for improved execution, especially in team defense, saying: “I don’t think it’s time to get emotional. Just got to maintain our poise.”
Said D’Antoni: “I don’t know if we have the speed sometimes to play harder.”
Howard got just eight field-goal attempts in 38 minutes and took three stitches to his lower lip from a David Lee elbow. Metta World Peace, the team’s iron man in an injury-filled season, sat out the second half because of a strained left knee. In his second game back from a foot injury, Pau Gasol was three steps slow at both ends.
Nuggets’ Karl shares his playoff idea — Although Denver’s 15-game win streak came to an end last night in New Orleans, the Nuggets’ streak has helped them elevate themselves from the No. 6-8 seeds in the West into the upper-crust of the conference. As it stands today, Denver is the No. 4 seed and would play Memphis in the first round with the Nuggets holding home-court advantage. But there are scenarios in place in which the No. 4 seed could end up as the team without home-court advantage in the first round. Nuggets coach George Karl has thoughts on that notion as well as the overall playoff setup in a playoff-based conversation he had with Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post and other area writers:
So basically, here’s Karl’s idea: The top eight teams from the Western Conference and the top eight teams from the Eastern Conference are put into a playoff pool. At this point, conference affiliation no longer matters. Instead, it’s all about record.
The team with the best record plays the team with the 16th-best record and so on.
And then, like he said, they reseed hockey-style for the next round. And so, the NBA’s “Final Four” could be four teams from the same conference — but, as proven by this system, perhaps the four best teams in basketball.
“I think it would get fans excited, man. It would be crazy,” Karl said. “And we travel with private jets now, so I think you can schedule it to where you’d get two days of rest between games. I think it would be really fun and interesting to see the matchups.”
So if you were commissioner, you would try to make this happen? Like, for real?
“I would advocate it,” he said. “I don’t know if the Board of Governors would pass it, but I would advocate it.”
After George had gone off the map with this idea, I chimed in with a thought — why not just get rid of conferences altogether? Why punish a team that’s ninth or 10th in the West that’s way better than, say, seventh and eighth in the East?
Promptly, Chris Marlowe from Altitude suggested that my thought was “Draconian,” and Karl himself said: “I think you’re going off the map.”
The coach had one other idea on Saturday. Cut the 82-game season to a 62-game season, and then in the middle of the season, “You can take a three-week break and have an NCAA-like tournament. Single elimination is a lot different than a seven-game series.”
World Peace pondering opt out after season — Metta World Peace is averaging 12.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg and shooting 40.5 percent — all numbers which make for his overall best statistical season with the Lakers since joining them as a free agent back in 2009. While World Peace has experienced a bit of a statistical renaissance, he is also carrying a weighty player option on his contract this summer and can choose to opt out of his deal. Given the new CBA world of the NBA, most players wouldn’t dream of such a move as it sacrifices a guaranteed payday for the uncertainty of free agency. But the Lakers have yet to use their one-time amnesty provision and there is thought that World Peace could be their selection this summer. Our man Scott Howard-Cooper has more on what World Peace may do this offseason:
World Peace has a player option for 2013-14, the final year of his contract, at $7.7 million. He said his agent, Marc Cornstein, will approach the Lakers about an extension, but that will be a very short conversation unless the 33-year-old small forward is willing to take a severe pay cut. And it may be short no matter what.
If World Peace does not terminate the deal, he immediately becomes a candidate to be cut under the amnesty provision. If he does terminate, likely (one would hope) after conversations with team officials to gauge the chances of getting more years at a lot less money annually, it is nearly impossible to imagine the Lakers committing more than two seasons on a new deal to maintain the possible cap room in the summer of 2014.
The choice for World Peace could be to risk free agency in what figures to be a cold market in 2013 or keep the final season of the contract in place at the $7.7 million and possibly have his Lakers career end before he wants. He could also stay in the deal and be traded as an expiring contract to an undesirable destination.
“I think my agent is trying to see if he can get an extension to stay here in L.A.,” World Peace told NBA.com. “I’m really excited about the possibilities of staying here in L.A.”
But would he take a pay cut to help make it happen?
“It’s too early to say those types of things right now,” he said Monday night at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors beat the Lakers 109-103. “It’s too early to say. I don’t know what the Lakers are thinking. I don’t know what anybody’s thinking. I don’t even know what other teams think. I don’t know what’s going on because I haven’t told my agent, ‘Hey, go out there and ask around’ and things like that. I don’t know what anybody’s thinking at this point in time. I just try to keep my game. I’m playing at a good level.”
ICYMI of the night: The move Steph Curry puts on Steve Nash makes the former MVP (an notoriously poor defender) look just silly on defense …:
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
The one recap to watch: One day after we were treated to a mostly disappointing Pacers-Heat showdown in Miami (the Heat romped in the second half to down Indiana), we had another matchup on paper that looked solid: Thunder vs. Spurs. This one actually lived up to the billing a little bit better than Pacers-Heat did, so it’s our game of the night. Nice early drama in this one as the Thunder took a 32-22 lead after the first quarter, but then things fell apart for OKC in the second quarter and just kept on going south from there. Led by the 3-point shooting of Danny Green and the all-around skills of Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs rattled off a 23-4 run in the second quarter to take control of the game. Although OKC made a series of runs each night to keep the game close, San Antonio more than dictated the game with its defense and kept hold of the No. 1 spot out West with the win.
Iggy non-committal on future with Nuggets — In his first season with Denver, Andre Iguodala is the team’s third-leading scorer, ranks second in minutes played, is third in rebounds and leads it in steals. He’s amassed more wins already (43) than he did in any of his eight previous seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and is part of a team that seems primed for a legit playoff run that may carry deep into May or even June. So, re-signing Iguodala — a free agent this summer — seems like a lock, right? Not exactly, writes Paola Boivinfor the Denver Post:
With just 17 games remaining in the season, Andre Iguodala is closer to making a decision about his future.
Iguodala’s contract gives him the opportunity to “opt out” and become a free agent after the season.
Although the issue will get his full attention then, he admits he is aware of what is happening around him.
“Obviously, you’re talking to your agent and you’re paying attention to trades, and salary caps that are being opened up through sign and trades and other guys who are in the same position as you,” he said. “It’s in the back of your mind. But as far as making a concrete decision, you really don’t size it up until the season’s over, because we have some opportunities to do some really good things here.”
Van Gundy remembers the good ol’ Orlando days — Stan Van Gundy‘s farewell season and departure as coach of the Magic likely couldn’t have gone worse, with Van Gundy dealing with the almost-daily “Dwightmare” talk surrounding Dwight Howard, his awkward mid-season news conference in which Van Gundy addressed rumors of Howard wanting him fired (and Howard pretending not to know about it) to getting fired shortly after the Magic lost to the Pacers, 4-1, in the first round. Yet for Van Gundy, in an interview with USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt, the memories of playoff runs and building a winner in Orlando outweigh his final season:
Oh for sure, it got squirrely and it all went sideways last season with a compelling mix of humor, stress, bad decisions and communication disorder. It was a general malaise and dysfunction, resulting in Howard’s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in August. Howard returns to play in Orlando for the first time Tuesday, and his reception will not be warm and fuzzy.
But before all that, former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said it was, “a lot of fun. We worked hard, and I think guys had a lot of fun and enjoyed the success. It was just a good time here.
“They had been 12 years without winning a playoff series. We were able to go on a little bit of a run, and there was a lot of excitement around our team. Things were really on the upswing.”
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“Dwight matured into an outstanding player … the best big man in our league,” Van Gundy said. “(Then-general manager) Otis Smith did a great job of putting the roster together and surrounded him with outstanding players who really fit him very well.”
…Almost always siding with fun, Howard grew up in Orlando, Van Gundy said.
“At first, there were times when he needed to be more serious,” he said. “But as it went on, he understood, for the most part, being serious when we had work to do. There were other times when he could relax and have a good time.
“Even in practice and games, Dwight’s a guy who wants to have a good time and enjoy what he’s doing and have a smile on his face. That’s just the way he is. I don’t think that will ever change.”
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Van Gundy said if Orlando decided to retire a number, “it would have to start with Dwight and Shaq (O’Neal). They are, by far, the two best players in the history of the organization. Then, in my mind, you have to start with Dwight. He was here longer and certainly had just as much success.”
Wallace’s future looking stable in New York — The Knicks’ depth has been tested of late with Amar’e Stoudemire out for the rest of the regular season after surgery on his right knee and Rasheed Wallace out after having surgery on his broken left foot. New York recently re-signed veteran Kenyon Martin to a second 10-day contract to provide another big body for the frontline, but depth remains an issue and signing another player isn’t out of the question. Coach Mike Woodson tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that any roster move the Knicks make won’t led to ‘Sheed being released:
Mike Woodson hinted that the club could make a roster to move to add another player but in a strange twist the Knicks head coach indicated that releasing injured Rasheed Wallace isn’t under consideration.
The Knicks have 13 available players with Wallace and Amar’e Stoudemire sidelined for the remainder of the regular season. In order to sign a player, the Knicks would have to create a roster spot by cutting a player. Wallace, who had foot surgery last month, is the most logical candidate since it is unlikely he will play again this season. In fact, he may be forced back into retirement.
But when Woodson was asked if he has reconsidering waiving Wallace, a player he convinced to come out of two-year retirement, the head coach said: “I don’t know where that came from. That was you guys (in the media). I never made that statement about waiving Rasheed. Rasheed still has a chance to bounce back as well but again as we go up this road we’ve just got to wait and see.
“Are these guys able to come back for us? I don’t know what the process is in terms of being able to add another roster spot. I haven’t really looked into that.”
Woodson admitted that he is approaching the remainder of the regular season as if he won’t have either Stoudemire or Wallace. He then revealed that he intends to speak with general manager Glen Grunwald next week about adding a player.
“When we come off this trip Glen and I will sit down and start accessing that very closely,” Woodson said. “Because I think we have until the latter part of March to make some decisions.”
Wall on his future, his jump shot and more — As our man David Aldridge pointed out in his must-read Morning Tip yesterday, the Wizards have gone 15-13 after a 4-28 start and have notched wins over the Heat, Thunder, Nuggets and Hawks during that span. The biggest reason for that success has been the return of point guard John Wall, who is improving as a playmaker and shooter for the Wizards while also remaining a solid perimeter defender. Zach Lowe of Grantland.com chatted with the Wizards’ young star about his comeback, his future in D.C. and more in a solid Q&A:
That much is clear from the numbers and your record since you got back. Your jumper will obviously be a key issue going forward. What’s the state of it, mechanically? What do the coaches have you working on, in terms of form?
Nothing much. Just making sure I’m staying on balance, jumping straight up and down. Things like that.
Can you do what they are asking for with consistency? Have they basically remade your jumper since you left college?
No, not really. It’s the same form. It’s just making sure that I don’t hold onto the ball as long as I used to, that I follow through, don’t fade away. Things like that.
Yeah, that Tyreke Evans leg kick, right?
Yeah, something like that. That’s something I used to do a lot, and they don’t want me doing that.
It sounds like you feel a bit better about your shot.
For me, it was just little things, and it’s about confidence. So for me, once I got my confidence, I’m cool. I don’t mind taking them. If I miss a couple, I’m still shooting it, and I’m not scared to take that type of shot in the fourth quarter.
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Speaking of those guys: It feels like your name has kind of fallen out of the “elite point guards” conversation a bit, given the time you’ve missed with injuries this season. Do you notice that? Do you care?
Nah, I can’t pay attention to that. I don’t think like that.
Have you started thinking about your contract extension talks yet?
I haven’t started thinking about that.
Really? The deadline isn’t that far away.
That’s true. Look, I’m just enjoying D.C. This hasn’t been going the way we wanted it to, in terms of winning, but I think we are building something here.
Do you feel like you deserve a max contract? That you’re a max guy?
I feel like I am. I do, definitely.
Kanter finding his rhythm in second season — When Utah shockingly decided to trade Deron Williams to the Nets at the trade deadline in 2011, one of the pieces they received back from New Jersey was a first-round pick in the 2011 Draft which eventually became the No. 3 overall selection. With that pick, the Jazz took young-but-raw big man Enes Kanter. The center from Turkey struggled with the NBA game as a rookie and, although he showed some prowess on the offensive glass, looked very much like a work in progress. Since then, Kanter spent the offseason honing his body and is regularly tutored by Utah’s veteran center, Al Jefferson, on the post moves and footwork that are Jefferson’s trademark. Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune details how Kanter has stepped up his game this season thanks to that offseason and in-season work:
Now that the rest of the league has had an opportunity to catch a glimpse, it may finally be time for an honest discussion about Kanter’s potential and future with the Jazz. In the five games since his start against the Bobcats, Kanter is averaging 15.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, up from season averages of 7.2 points and 4.5 rebounds.
“I got experience,” Kanter said. “I just help my teammates however I can. We lost the last couple of games; it was pretty sad.”
While the Charlotte game was the one for which Kanter received the most attention, coach Tyrone Corbin said his subsequent performances in games against Milwaukee and the Cavs may have been more impressive.
From setting hard screens to rolling the right way, Kanter has grown, Corbin says. He was in the game at the end against Milwaukee, and had a chance to win the game after rebounding Gordon Hayward’s blocked layup, but his shot missed at the buzzer.
“He was at the right spot, he caught it and just finished, he didn’t bring it down,” Corbin said. “That kind of thing is invaluable to get guys on the floor to get the experience and grow through it, especially while they’re young.”
Corbin and Jefferson agreed that the key for Kanter in the recent stretch was the confidence that he would play big minutes. That he could be patient, and didn’t have to force anything to try to make an impression.
“I think coming off the bench, sometimes young guys figure if they don’t do things right, they can get snatched out the game,” Jefferson said. “I just think that he knew he wasn’t coming out of the game and he had a swag about himself and it worked out for him.”
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Kanter’s role will only increase beyond this year. During Kanter’s struggles earlier this season, it was common to hear chatter that power forward Derrick Favors had developed more rapidly, that he was more ready than Kanter to step into an enhanced role.
All the while, Kanter continued to work. He famously shed 51 pounds in the offseason and arrived at training camp with abdominal muscles that could be played in a zydeco band.
ICYMI(s) of the night: We love “The Manimal” around these parts, so here are a pair of must-see plays from the Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried:
Two ships passing in the night. Two teams headed in opposite directions. Though, you wouldn’t have guessed it from a glimpse of the NBA standings a couple months ago.
When Washington played at Minnesota Wednesday, it was a clash of one of the NBA’s most improved teams taking on one of its most floundering. The hair’s difference in their records overall didn’t tell the story of what’s gone on either team.
Let’s use Jan. 3 as the pivot point. That’s the night Minnesota’s Kevin Love reinjured his right hand, sending him into surgery and rehab that’s kept him off the court ever since. The Wolves were 15-14 then, beating Denver and feeling reasonably good about their chances of ending an eight-year playoff drought.
Without Love, though, the Wolves have gone 5-23. Teammates injured before and after have been missed, too, and second-year forward Derrick Williams has shown flashes of his potential in Love’s absence. But there’s no denying the W-L numbers.
Since that date, Minnesota has been playing at a .179 clip, a drop of .339 percentage points from its previous .517. No team in the league has nosedived worse in that time.
Playoffs? Yeah … right.
The Wolves are facing their seven consecutive season of winning fewer than 40 percent of their games. In fact, heading into the Wizards game at Target Center, Minnesota would have needed to go 13-12 over its final 25 to avoid that mark – that is, it would have to play above .500 just to reach .400. Not likely.
This 2012-13 season hasn’t just been difficult, it’s been cruel. The Wolves had lost 242 “man games” to injuries through their first 57, with only guard Luke Ridnour appearing in every game. Meanwhile, Chase Budinger (51), Brandon Roy (51), Kevin Love (39), Malcolm Lee (38), Ricky Rubio (24) and Andrei Kirilenko (12) all were in double digits in absences, with Nikola Pekovic (9) right behind. Heck, even coach Rick Adelman missed a number on the sideline while tending to his wife’s illness.
The other ugly number for the Wolves this season has been their 3-point shooting, headed toward historically bad. At 29.7 percent (303-for-1,021), Minnesota is on pace to join Charlotte (29.5 percent last season) as the only teams in the past 10 years to shoot worse than 30 percent from the arc. Losing Love – the 3-point champ at last season’s All-Star weekend – and Budinger have depleted the team’s long-range ranks. Meanwhile, the Wolves’ opponents have been hitting nearly 49 percent from the arc since that dreaded Jan. 3 date.
Washington, by contrast, weathered the worst of its season while John Wall was out with a left knee (patella stress) injury. The Wizards’ turnaround doesn’t exactly coincide with Jan. 3; their point guard played his first game on Jan. 12 and they’ve gone 14-11 since his return.
Still, Washington leads all teams in percentage improvement since Jan. 3, rising from 4-26 (.133) to 15-13 (.536) since. Cleveland and New Orleans, respectively the Nos. 2 and 3 clubs in percentage increases, not coincidentally have gotten healthier too thanks to Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis and Eric Gordon.
Here are the team’s with the biggest rises and falls since Jan. 3:
TRENDING UP
.403: Washington (from 4-26, .133, to 15-13, .536)
The moving target that has been Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis‘ expectation for his basketball team through the years got firmed up considerably about a month ago. Splitting some sort of difference between chasing a playoff berth and avoiding the bottom two or three spots in the NBA standings, Leonsis set a clear goal: Finish .500 in the games remaining, counting from point guard John Wall‘s return from a left knee injury.
Simple enough, to track if not to achieve. After all, the Wizards without Wall went 5-28 through the first 33 games of 2012-13. That would suggest that more than just a one-player fix was needed – Nene was hurting too, with Washington 1-12 in the big man’s absences. But Wall’s return to action on Jan. 12 seemed a reasonable line of demarcation, representing the biggest talent boost these guys were going to get.
So far? So fair. As in neither great nor rotten, as in mediocre, as in middling, as in meeting Leonsis’ January-imposed standard, as in way better than they were. Washington is 10-9 with Wall. Since Jan. 7, the low point after 33 games, it has posted a better W-L record than eight of the 14 other Eastern Conference teams and it now looks down rather than up in the standings at Charlotte and Orlando.
A glimpse of some team stats shows the difference Wall has helped make at both ends of the floor:
Pre-John Wall Post-John Wall
W-L: 5-28 10-9
PPG: 89.2 94.7
OPPG: 97.2 91.7
FG%: 40.8 46.2
DFG%: 44.0 43.0
The defense that kept Washington in more games than it otherwise would have managed now ranks fifth with a 102.0 defensive rating. Offensively, the Wizards still are 30th of the NBA’s 30 (97.7). But with Wall back, and with top pick Bradley Beal developing rapidly (including East rookie of the month honors in December and January), the work coach Randy Wittman got out of them even in lean times has been paying off.
“We’re not surprised at all,” Beal said at All-Star Weekend. “In our heads, our record should be backwards. If we had everybody healthy, if things were right ever since the beginning … not to use that as an excuse but since [Wall has] been back, everything’s been perfect. John creates so much more space out there on the floor. So with myself and some other shooters, and then our bigs down low, I think it’s going to be difficult for a team to guard us.”
Defensively, Washington has held 11 consecutive opponents under 100 points, its longest such streak since March 1999. That’s in jeopardy this weekend with Denver in D.C. Friday and Houston showing up Saturday. Still, the Wizards’ defensive habits aren’t likely to be lost – tested maybe but not lost – in a span of 48 hours.
“Usually a team that has our record, they’re a sieve at the other end,” assistant coach Jerry Sichting said recently. “Our guys bought in, they played good defense. Most of our problems, we just couldn’t score. The first two months, we were really lucky to get to 90. Sometimes we were struggling to get into the 80s. But Randy’s got them playing hard and he’s got them playing defense, so the foundation is there to win games.”
There’s one of the X factors in this: Wittman. Once assumed to be a Bob Knight disciple in coaching style stemming from his Indiana roots – and overlooking his nine seasons in the NBA not playing for Knight, followed by years as an assistant with the Pacers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Magic and Wizards – Wittman is on his third head coaching job. Each circumstance has been different – though consistently lousy – and he has learned at every stop.
“He’s a coach who believes in his team,” Wizards guard Martell Webster said. “Now that we’re starting to buy into the system, it’s paying off for us. He was never worried about his position. … He was very frank with [management] and very up front that it didn’t matter. He cared about us and what went on in this locker room.”
Wittman, 53, took over in Cleveland in 1999 in the thick of center Zyrdrunas Ilgauskas‘ foot problems – Big Z didn’t play at all in Wittman’s first season with the Cavs and lasted only 24 games in the second before re-injuring himself. In Minnesota in January 2007, he stepped in as a midseason replacement – then had Kevin Garnett traded out from under him that summer.
He took over on the fly again last season after Washington’s 2-15 start under Flip Saunders. Harboring playoff ambitions two years earlier, the roster underwent a veterans purge in the wake of the Gilbert Arenas fiasco, then an overload of immaturity (JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Nick Young) set up a second purge.
Wittman did well enough with what was left standing to finish 9-8 last spring and earn a fresh contract in June. And yet, there’s this:
Lowest winning percentage for NBA coaches with 400-plus games:
.326 Randy Wittman, 133-275
.369 Wes Unseld, 202-345
.382 Garry St. Jean, 172-278
.388 Tom Nissalke, 248-391
.401 John Lucas, 173-258
– Compiled by Elias Sports Bureau
Depending how you look at that chart, no head coach in NBA history has failed as often over such a long period. Or none has had the opportunity to fail that often. It’s almost like an MLB pitcher who loses 20 games; some manager must think he’s pretty good to give him the ball that many times.
Leonsis said last month that evaluating Wittman and his staff with a banged-up, shorthanded team would have been unfair. Basically, that’s the same job he had with the Cavs and the Wolves, too. Whatever the teams’ deficiencies have been, though, that .326 dogs him, not the individual players, the trainers or anyone else.
“I’ve never been in a situation good or bad where I wished I wasn’t in it,” Wittman said. “Even the tough start we had this year, I didn’t have any complaints. Our guys played their asses off. You try to keep them fighting and playing, and at some point it’s going to turn. Hopefully we’ve reached that point now.”
Some coaches benefit from good timing (San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich) and build from there. Others ride a wave of improving circumstances (Miami’s Erik Spoelstra). Still others hang back (Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau), waiting years for an opportunity that won’t instantly eat them alive.
That old saying about there being only 30 of these incredible, high-paying coach jobs in the world? Well, not all 30 are equally incredible.
“Most of the guys who would kill for that opportunity have never had to do it,” Sichting said. “It’s not easy, especially taking over in the middle of the season. Obviously things were going the wrong way or you wouldn’t be taking over.
“The thing that wins more than anything is talent. When you’re undermanned because of what your roster looks like or because of injuries, it’s really hard to win a game in this league. But Randy works his tail off. He’s got a great mind for the game, X- and O-wise. He lost a few pounds earlier in the year, but he’s making a comeback. We’ll get some more pounds on him.”
The key for the next two months: Win one of every two games. Prior to this 10-9 stretch, the longest a Wittman team ever stayed at or above .500 was in 2000-01, when the Cavs got to 20-20 before an Ilgauskas-less 10-32 swoon.
There might be more pressure now that Washington is fully manned (or nearly so, with Jordan Crawford traded and Cartier Martin limping). But then, there’s always pressure relative to the expectations, whether the owner’s, the fans’ or the individiuals. Otherwise, as Wittman sees it, you’re not setting the bar high enough.
“Hell, I hate losing. I don’t deal with it very well,” he said. “But if sit and worry about that, you’ll never amount to anything. Seriously, I don’t ever think ‘Aw, this is another tough year.’ I’ve been doing this a long time. You try to learn from it and become a better coach next year.”
Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.
According to one theory in circulation on the personnel grapevine, Celtics officials could be moved this week to try to make the case to Garnett that waiving his no-trade provision to accept that long-rumored trade to the Los Angeles Clippers would be the best thing not only for himself but for the long-term health of the franchise. Combine that approach with the expected lobbying from the L.A. side by good buddy Chauncey Billups, as the theory goes, and maybe Garnett will ultimately relent and consent to a swap.
Have to add three follow-up caveats here, though:
1. After spending a solid 15 minutes in the same room with Garnett in Houston as part of ESPN Radio’s All-Star Weekend team, I became convinced that KG isn’t waiving that no-trade clause. For anyone or any team. My impression is that it’s going to take more lobbying than anyone out there can muster.
2. Broussard reported late Monday night on “SportsCenter” that Billups has already warned the Clippers that Garnett’s position appears to be firm … and that Garnett spelled out the exact same thing to Chris Paul last summer when Paul informed KG that the Clippers wanted to pursue him via trade.
3. Even if Garnett did wind up with the Clippers this week, after all the bluster against the idea, I still struggle to picture the Celtics telling Pierce that they’re going to send him to the Hawks for the good of Boston’s long-term health. The deal might make sense for Atlanta — since Pierce’s $5 million buyout for next season would extend the Hawks’ window of flexibility and create a new set of options — but it still looks like as an impossible sell in Boston.
I’ve always thought Rajon Rondo, not Pierce or Garnett, would be the first member of Boston’s star trio to be dealt. There simply might not be a shake-up move available to the Celtics at this deadline now that Rondo has been lost to a season-ending knee injury.
…
There’s more on that subject.
The Clippers, according one source close to the situation, would not be willing to surrender both Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan to Boston even if Garnett was willing to waive his no-trade clause.
Is that posturing? An absolute stance?
We’ll find out for sure between now and the deadline, but the source insisted that the Clippers feel that a Bledsoe-and-Jordan combo is too much to surrender for a 36-year-old who isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be playing.
Report: Hawks driven to deal Smith soon — Hawks star Josh Smith has seen his name in the trade rumors almost as much as his childhood friend, Dwight Howard. So far, we’ve had talks of Smith going to San Antonio, to Brooklyn, to Phoenix (though not as likely) and some other places, too. Add a couple more teams to the mix, as ESPN.com’s Marc Stein and Chris Broussard report. The Nets and Suns are hot after Smith, but now the Bucks, Wizards and the Celtics are reportedly entering the fray, too, with some big names being tossed about to land the Hawks’ versatile forward:
The Atlanta Hawks have convinced numerous teams that they’re definitely trading Josh Smith this week, largely because they see the unpredictable lefty as a virtual lock to leave them in free agency this summer.
So …
Destinations?
One team close to the situation consulted Monday night predicted that the Nets would ultimately land Smith via a three-way trade after ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported Feb. 11 that Smith is a prime Brooklyn Nets trade target.
Another team pinpointed the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks as the strongest contenders to win the Smith sweepstakes. The big worry for both of those teams, though, is whether they could really risk trading for Smith when convincing him to re-sign for the long term is likely to be a serious challenge in either city. Especially with Smith said to be angling for a max deal … and with nobody confusing the Suns or the Bucks with Mikhail Prokohorov‘s Nets.
Broussard, furthermore, tweeted early Tuesday that the Washington Wizards have made anyone on the roster available for Smith, apart from John Wall, Bradley Beal or Nene.
Which brings us to the Boston Celtics.
NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com on Monday that the Boston Celtics have, indeed, registered their interest on the Smith front, with the caveat that they also remain highly interested in the Clippers’ Eric Bledsoe.
Yet a Boston deal for Smith, sources said, would almost certainly have to be built around Paul Pierce, because Kevin Garnett isn’t waiving his no-trade clause to go to the Atlanta Hawks if he’s not willing to waive it to go to the Clipperland. And the prospect of Celtics front-office chief Danny Ainge exiling Pierce to the Hawks for Smith, after everything Pierce has done to restore the Celtics to glory over the past half-decade, is still hard to imagine.
At least for me.
Buss’ legacy helped Kobe stick with Lakers — With legendary Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss dying yesterday at 80, a dark cloud hangs over the NBA this morning (and likely will for several days) as the league mourns not only one of its most successful owners, but one who shaped the vision for several other franchises. Our own Scott Howard-Cooper has a great look at Buss and how he turned Los Angeles, which was not an NBA hotbed when Buss bought the team in 1979, into a hoops town. One of the hallmarks of Buss’ stint as an owner was his ability to build the Lakers into a contender two separate times — once with the Magic Johnson-led group of the 1980s and again in the 2000s with the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal-led group. But once O’Neal was dealt to the Miami Heat in 2004 and Bryant was left with a less-than-stellar team in L.A., Buss faced the challenge of not just building a new contender, but keeping Bryant from forcing his way out of L.A. As Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports, a near-trade for Bryant in 2007 helped Kobe realize just how good of an owner Buss was:
After all the anger and angst and fury of the immediate post-Shaq era had inspired Kobe Bryant to make a trade demand, Jerry Buss finally called his superstar guard to the owner’s home in the Los Angeles hills on an autumn evening in 2007.
The Los Angeles Lakers had found a trade for Bryant, but Buss warned him that it wasn’t to one of his selected destinations.
“Detroit,” Buss said.
The Lakers had agreed to a deal to send Bryant to the Pistons and needed Bryant’s approval to waive his no-trade clause. The package included a combination of Detroit’s core players and draft picks, sources say. Buss and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak needed an answer soon, because they refused to let the issue linger into training camp.
Looking back, Bryant isn’t sure it would’ve mattered whether it was Detroit or Chicago, Dallas or New York. In that moment, in Buss’ house in the hills, it washed over Bryant how much staying a Laker for life meant to him, how no matter how dire the state of the franchise seemed, that Buss had a history of restoring the Lakers to championship contention.
“It hit me that I didn’t really want to walk out on Dr. Buss,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports on Monday.
Months later, Kupchak honored Buss’ faith and made the trade for Pau Gasol. Soon, the Lakers were back in the NBA Finals three straight years and winning two more titles. Soon, Bryant was back to understanding the inevitable essence of Jerry Buss’ prowess: In the end, the old man was a force of nature.
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Now, the Lakers understand that relying upon Bryant as the franchise player is coming to an end in the next couple of years, and Dwight Howard must be convinced to stay and be the cornerstone for the future.Buss had been seriously ill, less connected to the franchise in the past year, but you’d have to believe at a different time in his ownership that he would’ve forged a relationship with Howard that would’ve made it impossible for him to leave. Those days are done; Jim Buss isn’t Jerry. No one will ever be Jerry Buss again.
In that meeting in the fall of 2007, near the start of training camp, Buss presented Bryant with a scenario of Bryant’s own request: a trade out of Los Angeles, out of the franchise that drafted and groomed him and taught him to be a champion.
Even now, Kobe Bryant still thinks about that time in his life when he was too impatient, when he failed to give Buss’ own history and greatness its proper due. Whatever the owner had told him that night about a trade – Detroit or Chicago, Dallas or wherever – it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
For all Bryant’s impatience, there was still such an immense part of him that was comforted in the company of the Los Angeles Lakers’ patriarch. True for Bryant, true for all of them.
No one walks away from the Lakers, from Buss, and does so without a deep, lingering regret. These were the Showtime Lakers, and they would be again with Bryant and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. In his 17th season, Bryant’s belief that he’ll never wear another uniform is unwavering.
Jerry Buss gave Bryant the gift of Jerry West trading for him on draft day in ’96, of Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson, of five NBA championships that perhaps wouldn’t have been available anywhere else.
All these years later, Kobe Bryant is blessed to know that he never walked out on Dr. Buss, that he’ll share something with the late, great owner forever: Lakers for life – and beyond.
Even more on Jerry Buss’ passing — Rather than detail every story around the web paying tribute to Buss, here’s a tidy roundup of some of the best we’ve seen that are worth your time:
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In the latest Shaqtin’ A Fool, Shaq calls out Caron Butler, John Wall, Roger Mason Jr. and Tyreke Evans as well as investigating some recent free-throw shenanigans. Vote for your favorite Shaqtin’ A Fool moment! –
