Actually, I feel kind of like Seinfeld (and I don't even like his show), "it's an article about nothing." First and foremost, Utah is at the top of the Midwest Division. Now all you out there in Internetland, who didn't think Utah would fold like cheap lawn chair when Stockton went down. I know I did. I figured they'd go along about just above .500 until Stockton came back and then they'd kick intooverdrive and then end up with their 50 wins, barely. But once again, they are number one. Why? Ostertag is playing like crap and isn't starting. Bryon Russell is playing like crap and isn't starting. Theformer is replaced by Greg Foster/Antoine Carr and the latter by Adam Keefe. None of these players are considered stars by any stretch of the imagination, but they are key components. Jerry Sloanruns a tight ship. He is a perfectionist. His team is probably the best coached team in the NBA with all due respect to Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. Sloan is great and rarely mentioned as a coachinggreat. All he does is lead his team to 50 wins a year, every year. Personally, he is a victim of his own success. Because they do so well every year, the Jazz rarely get great players in the draft. Ofcourse, they have done really well in recent drafts getting Howard Eisley, Jacques Vaughn, Ostertag, Russell and Shandon Anderson. But none are game breakers. As well, their cap has always beenrelatively used up by stars Karl Malone and Stockton and their other role players. They just haven't been lucky enough to have a lot of cap space at the right time. And of course, the Jazz play in SaltLake City. It's probably the most boring place on earth. A friend of my family worked in Salt Lake City for 4 months. It took him 3 months to find a bar opened on the weekend after 900pm. MostNBA players don't like the Salt Lake City atmosphere. Big city players, like Derek Harper, refuse trades to Utah because of the city itself. But besides the city, the franchise is one the best in the NBA.The city itself is relatively small compared to other cities in the NBA, but the Jazz is the only game in town. The Delta Center is sold out every night and the Jazz are always competitive. The coachhas been there for years. Players are loyal to the team and the team is loyal to the players. It's something to behold.
So how does Utah remain at the top of the league every year? Execution. Practice. Precision. Perfection. Utah decided years ago to hitch the franchise to the Stockton/Malone express. Nothing wrongwith that. Sloan created an offense which is perfect for those two, maximizing their skills, and running the game through their best players. If any gets a chance to watch the Jazz play often, just watchStockton and Malone when they go into isolation into their two man game. It's a thing of beauty. The most often mentioned play is the pick and roll. Sometimes Malone sets this pick, Stockton getsfree, Malone rolls down to the basket, gets the ball and dunk. That's the way it's drawn up, even going back to the creation of basketball. But Karl Malone is so much more than a offensive linemenplaying basketball. He has make himself into a complete basketball player. He can stop and nail the 20 foot jumper so all of a sudden the pick and roll is much harder to defend. In fact, it's notdissimilar to Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas in the Bad Boy era. Big man pick. Little man gets free. Big man steps back. Little man passes ball to open big man. Big man knocks down the open 20footer. Laimbeer used to do it. Malone does it now. It's great. I've probably seen them vary that play 10 different ways. I've even seen Stockton lay out a pick. It's nice to watch a 6'0" 175 lb. pointguard set a pick on a 250 lb. power forward. Now besides pick and roll, the two also run a high-low game with Malone in the post and Stockton up top feeding him down low. This is a great series towatch as well. Unlike most teams, Malone doesn't hold the ball forever down there until something happens (i.e. a double team). He usually gets the ball and makes his move to the basket. If thedouble team comes from up top, he passes back up to Stockton who has an open jumper.
Now if this wasn't bad enough for opponents, there are three other players on the team who play pretty well too. Not only do they play well, they play well within the system. Cutters, screens,movement are all used to get open shots. Utah is a perennial top 10 in field goal percentage. They are very efficient at getting open shots and good looks at the basket. Jeff Hornacek is great at uglyshots. He is also a great long distance shooter. Getting him for Jeff Malone is possibly the biggest coup for the Jazz since drafting Stockton and Malone. Hornacek gives Utah the requisite outsideshooter to relieve some pressure down low. As well, he can play point enough to allow Stockton to move around and get open off screens. The way Utah plays though, with passing and movement, anyplayer can get open given the right play.
Hmm....that was interesting. I never knew I was such a Utah fan. I'm not. Weird. Maybe if I give myself some time, I'll recover and start something else. Give me a couple minutes. I'll read the paper,see what looks good and then I'll be back.
Who has the best 6th man in the NBA? It's got to be that young buck on the L.A. Lakers, you know. That kid with the shoe deal and commercials? Shaquille O'Neal. Let's give up props to Del Harrisfor this. He's not going to rush Shaq back in this time. If you check the box scores to see minutes distribution, it's 33 33 29 35 37 31 31 11 for (in order) Fox, Horry, Campbell, Jones, Van Exel, Bryant,O'Neal and Fisher. Now this is what you call good distribution. As Shaq gets more healthy, minutes will be taken away from Horry and Campbell, as it should, but dammit, that's a scary team. They areyoung, fresh and deep. And maybe Shaq will win the 6th man of the year. The guy does average 25 points and 11 rebounds a game.
The Phoenix Suns have a lot of scorers. Rex Chapman. Clifford Robinson. Cedric Ceballos. Kevin Johnson. The list goes on. There is only one ball. They are playing good ball now. Also, becauseDanny Manning and Kevin Johnson are out, players are getting more playing time, like Cedric Ceballos. When DRM and KJ get back, those two will certainly get their 30 minutes a game. What willbe the cost? Most of Phoenix are in a contract year and want playing time so they can pad their stats. Does this mean a player revolt for Danny Ainge? No quite. It just means players who have amalcontent label thrust on them deservedly or not, like Ced Ceballos or Cliff Robinson, will be under pressure. Do they take the less playing time like a man and to the benefit of the team, or do theybitch about lack of playing time? Stay tuned.
This from the Toronto Star about the Toronto Raptors"Given their depleted roster, ill-timed defensive breakdowns, lack of rebounding and offensive inconsistency..." Does that just about wrap up whatis wrong with the Raptors? Did they miss anything? Ugly uniforms? Bad hair cuts? They covered offense and defense. I think they missed special teams. Their coverage is bad on punts as well.
Has anyone realized that the bad teams in the NBA are really bad. I mean, doormat bad. Single digit wins bad. There are 5 teams with single digits in wins and if you count Vancouver with 10 wins, 6teams with winning percentages at .300 or below. Because they suck so much, there are many teams with really good records, who stomp on the doormats. Let's suppose that a team who wins 45 gamesis a good (not great but good) team. That means the winning percentage is 0.549. If you take into account New Jersey at 0.548 than there are 15 teams with 0.548 and above. There are only 16 teams inthe playoffs. There are only six teams near .500 as well. This means there is a weird distribution of good to mediocre to bad teams. Usually the 13-18 best teams are struggling to hit .500 to make theplayoffs. This year, because the bad teams are absolutely horrible, you might see teams with 45 at the number 8 slot in both divisions. My friend told me about this phenomenon a couple months agoand I just noticed it today in the standings. It's very weird. It used to be more than half the NBA teams are .500 give or take five game or so. Then there were about the same number of .600 teams thatthere were stinkers. Not this year. There are 12 .600 teams. That means 12 teams will win 50. That seems like a lot too me.
Since I'm talking about the standings, now seems like as good as time as any to take stock of some teams. A little more than 1/3 of the way into the season, Boston is above .500. Can you say, Coach ofthe Year? Yes. Rick Pitino is more substance than style. He may come with a big reputation. But everywhere he has coached, he has produced. He led Boston University to the NCAAs. Providence toa Final Four. The Knicks to 50 win seasons after years of ineptitude. Kentucky to the NCAA championship. He wins. He produces. He is a great coach. New Jersey is above .500. For a team thatlooked like it was going to explode last year, it really has settled down and done well. First the Dallas trade got rid of the Bradley albatross, Ed O'Bannon, Robert Pack, et al. Basically, under achievingand/or injury prone players for useful pro players like Eric Montross (i.e. trade bait), Sam Cassell, Jimmy Jackson (i.e. more trade bait), Chris Gatling, etc. Then the Jersey brass unloaded some excessto the 76ers for a superstar in waiting in Keith Van Horn, freed up some playing time for Kerry Kittles and Kendall Gill and picked up some useful players and brought in a new found optimisticattitude surrounding the team. Has anyone notices the Bulls are on top in the central again? I guess rumors of their demise is greatly exaggerated. After a scorching start, Atlanta has played veryaverage. I guess getting back the Admiral and adding Tim Duncan really does help because San Antonio is tied with Utah atop the Midwest division. Seattle and the Lakers are just sailing along.Winner gets the number one seed. Loser gets three. It's that simple. Phoenix is doing well with small ball, but will it play in the playoffs when they match up against Hakeem, the Admiral, Duncan,Malone, Shaq or Vin Baker? Maybe it really was P.J. Carlissemo. The Blazers are 19 and 11. They are playing well. Is it Dunleavy? It just the talent winning in spite of themselves. They have so muchtalent I think they can't help but win sometimes.
How about this for a weird stat Kevin Willis is averaging 18.2 ppg. That is second among centers in the Western Conference. You want most improved player? Here he is. He averaged what last year?8 points? There isn't a big drop off from Hakeem to Willis in the scoring category, even if he does look like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Do you think a player can sue their team for ownership of the team when the players' contract is worth more than the franchise? Garnett is almost there. Imagine the next contract for a super star? IfGrant Hill becomes a free agent, he'd command $150 million on the open market? The Pistons are worth a lot because they own the Palace, but a small market team may not be that much. If DavidRobinson resigns with San Antonio for $150 million over 7 years. He'd have a contract worth more than the franchise. He probably could find a legal loophole for own the team if they missed apayment. Scary isn't it. I think I have the answer. Profit sharing. Have the players get a flat salary and then a percentage of profits. The better the team does at the gate the better the player gets in hisbank account. You think Loy Vaught would stand for seeing 7,000 a game at the Clip Joint if he's taking in a percentage of the profits? Nope. He'd get his team to start winning to get some fans. He'dpressure the ownership to move to a better arena (ie. the Duck Pond in Anaheim). Now how's that for a novel idea.
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