I’m just going to skim over the obvious Washington Wizards bullet points and save the majority of capitalonian focus for the most intriguing player in the NBA.
John Wall’s good and going to get much, much better. Hopefully all those summer games don’t sap his legs for the ultra 66-game grind.
We all know they should still be the Bullets.
The MJ era was awkward, but at least introduced us to a world where his Airness is far from infallible. At some point, we had to expect it and the Washington experience was just the first step toward mortality.
Jordan Crawford on Jordan Crawford, “I don’t tell nobody, but I feel like I can be better than Michael Jordan.”
Now that the boring shit’s out the way, let’s dissect JaVaaaaaaale McGeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…
In the eyes of his peers, JaVale holds a unique place:
Ron Artest on JaVale:
“He potentially could be a really good player. I think he got to go to school a little bit more. He’s got to work on that IQ a little bit. He got to watch more tape. I don’t think he watches tape. I think he plays video games. I do. I don’t think he watches tape. I think he plays video games and I think he could possibly have an Atari. He should upgrade to a Play Station.”
Kenyon Martin on McGee:
“He’s shooting the ball like he’s Kareem. I know I’m not good, but I’m not calling for the ball.”
Lamar Odomsharing his thoughts after playing with JaVale at team USA try-outs in 2010:
“He’s not here by accident or mistake. He’s one of the most athletic players I’ve ever seen in my life…He’s 7-1, got like a David Robinson build, springs off the floor real quick, goes over the rim. If he can just get his feel for the game together, he can have an impact on a team. Because the game is called basketball, not run and jump.”
While the National Run & Jump Association has a certain ring to it, Lamar’s right. McGee’s physical talents make him one of the most captivating players in a league made up of world-class athletes and part of the reason I decided to dedicate 90% of this Wizards preview to him alone.
The director of USA Basketball, Jerry Colangelo, saw him up close during those same try-outs and added this:
“He’s very raw, he’s very young, he’s a real babe in terms of game experience and he has a real future. So that’s really how we left it with him: Keep working on your game and you may get a call sooner rather than later. You don’t know. We’re playing that by ear.
With the exception of K-Mart getting after him a bit, there’s a trend of inconsistency and lack of focus here and anyone who was willing to sit through the madcap Wizards’ antics last year knows exactly what I’m talking about. I can’t even fathom the trials and tribulations Wizards coach Flip Saunders goes through on a nightly basis:
“The cinnamon thing, that thing doesn’t cut it.”
And of McGee’s misplaced inclinations to take a defensive rebound and push the ball the length of the court?
“We’re going to eliminate his full-court dribbling, that’s what we are going to do. We’re going to eliminate or he’s going to be sitting with (reporters) at the press table for a while. Because I’ve watched that on film and that’s not good.”
Even his teammate, the 21-year-old prodigy John Wall, can see the potential impact McGee’s shenanigans have on the team:
“I don’t know what they (McGee and Nick Young) got going on. They got their own little stories, and their own little movies and they rap sometimes during the season. Basically, as long as they’re being serious and doing the right things and not playing around when its game time or when we’re having a meeting or on the road, anything like that, that’s all I can really focus on.”
McGee’s in a precarious situation in Washington. Like most youngsters, he could benefit greatly from the presence of a few veterans and some stability. Instead, he’s surrounded by other young’ns like Wall, Andray Blatche, Crawford and Young—he’s not that young by NBA standards, but still acts a fool from time to time. In the midst of that prankster-loving environment, McGee’s improved his game in each of his three seasons. His points, rebounds, blocks, field goal percentage, minutes played, games played, PER and offensive and defensive win shares all reached career highs last year. Just beyond the desperate cries for consistency from all corners of the NBA globe is the truth; JaVale’s rapidly improving and he’s only 23.
It’s a lot easier to get excited about a guy before he arrives. It’s the reason people have been flipping their shit about Anthony Randolph since he left LSU and the cause for Rubio mania. If we get a glimpse of that shining star potential, we’re hungry and imaginative about a cosmos full of possibilities and all the while the kids we pin these hopes on are just that … kids; still growing, still developing, still becoming. Some make it, some don’t and then some do this:
Deep in the heart of the south, in a place marked by crisscrossing highways and oppressive heat; an NBA franchise and its fans live in dull, apathetic pain. The strange ownership saga that began back in 2005 when the Atlanta Spirit group purchased the team is finally over, but the 2011 team, like its predecessors dating back to the Dominique Wilkins days seem destined to forever be a potential playoff spoiler and nothing more. Where Nique’s Hawks were at least entertaining, this bunch has become plodding and predictable (they ranked 27th out of 30 teams in pace last year).
The Hawks’ current path can be traced back to July 8th, 2010 when they made the decision to re-sign a then 29-year-old Joe Johnson to a six-year, $119million deal that will wind up paying him just under $25million in 2016, when he’s 35. This is the same Joe Johnson who’s made just one All NBA team (and it was an All NBA Third team) in his ten-year career. The same Joe Johnson who completed the 2010-11 season with his least productive numbers since 2006 and he’s going to be eating up nearly half of Atlanta’s cap space for the foreseeable future.
Then there’s Al Horford, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague who provide at least a glimmer beyond the dull glow of an annual second round playoff defeat. I’m trying to find something to get excited about with this team, but I’ve seen them play, there’s just not much to look forward to. At least last year Jamal Crawford had the imagination to occasionally captivate the audience. Now there’s just Jeff Teague; a 23-year-old point guard entering his third year enveloped in hopeful curiosity after his performance as a fill-in for the injured Kirk Hinrich in the playoffs. Teague could be what the Hawks have previously resisted (I won’t revisit the painful details of the 2005 draft): a pace-pushing starting point guard. The eight-game audition last spring isn’t enough to start pulling back flips and actually buying tickets to Hawks’ games, but at least it’s a departure from what’s become routine from Joe, Horford and Josh Smith (stop shooting those threes!).
With $65million committed to just nine players they have under contract, don’t expect many recognizable free agents heading to Atlanta. And since they had just one pick in the 2011 draft (Keith Benson from Oakland University), we’ll see the same crew they trotted out last year—minus Crawford and with Teague seeing more of a featured role early in the season while Hinrich recovers from shoulder surgery.
It’s not all bad though. With Boston’s big three getting older and losing some of that bark (looking at you, KG) and Orlando being distracted by new trade rumors every day, there’s an opportunity for the Hawks to be the third best team in the conference. It seems like the front office is content in that three-to-five range where they’re guaranteed to make the playoffs and, so their logic seems, at least have a chance to win it all. I blame these low expectations directly on the 2008 playoffs when the upstart eight-seed Hawks captivated the basketball world by taking the eventual champion Celtics to seven games in the first round. It was at that time that someone in Atlanta’s front office came to the conclusion that the underdog can win in the NBA and the teams they’ve built over the past three seasons have reflected that flawed rationale.
I’m sure the good marketing people in Atlanta are cooking up some compelling reasons to support the Hawks, but until this team redesigns its aesthetic and commitment to winning, I’d be hard pressed to spend money watching this them and based on last year’s attendance numbers, the residents of the Peach State agree.
For as long as I’ve been following the NBA, the Utah Jazz have been identifiable by the presence of players and a single coach who’ve cultivated a respectable workmanlike ethos. From their ancient leathery coach, Jerry Sloan, the approach flowed toward the blue collar duo of Stockton and Malone and was seamlessly transitioned to a modern-day version in Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. The Jazz we knew are no more.
The new Jazz are a mishmash of good, but not great players. Their fans go to sleep at night whispering soft prayers to the basketball gods, “Please let this be the year of The Al Jefferson. And maybe if you could see to it that Derrick Favors can become a starter and Enes Kanter can be the real deal; well, it’d kinda cool. ” Regardless of how the basketball gods respond to those requests, big Al’s support system is still young, shallow and somewhat unreliable. That description might sound more applicable to a group of teenagers, but it fits the new Jazz too. Al’s flanked by delicate Devin Harris (averages missing 14 games per year) and Paul Millsap. After that it starts getting lean. It doesn’t look like Andrei Kirilenko is going to re-sign which leaves Gordon Hayward (a tribute to classical Jazz roots), CJ Miles and Raja Bell to fight for the last two starting spots.
This isn’t a squad to inspire fear in the hearts of competitors. Unless Kanter and Favors are able to replicate some Ralph Sampson/Akeem Olajuwon mid-80s type performances, these guys should fall short of the playoffs again. With a group of good players, but no anchor, no Deron or Karl, it’s going to be a challenging climb into the top-eight in the conference. Looking at their opponents last year, they were able to compete with non-playoff teams and Eastern Conference foes, but consistently struggled against inter-conference playoff teams:
Opponent
Games
Wins
Losses
Win%
Vs West Conf Playoff teams
31
10
21
32.3%
Vs Non West Playoff teams
21
11
10
52.4%
Vs East Conf Playoff teams
16
8
8
50.0%
Vs Non East Playoff teams
14
10
4
71.4%
If Jefferson makes the leap to an elite post player (very possible given his skill-set and the lack of quality bigs in the league) and Favors/Kanter/Hayward make significant improvements, the Jazz could leapfrog Denver or New Orleans for one of the last playoff spots; aka lambs to the Mavs/Lakers/Thunder slaughter. It’s not a contending team, but the Jazz have just enough talent to compete for the playoffs and just enough youth to keep fans intrigued by a promising, but undefined future. It’s OK to let go; Karl, John, Deron, Jerry and especially Al insist on it.
The Thunder used to be in Seattle and I live in Seattle, so it seems like a good place to start previewing teams. And if you read my posts during the playoffs last season, you know I had a mostly-healthy fascination with the Thunder and the inexplicable decision making of their sparkplug point guard, Russell Westbrook.
Six months later and I still see Russell as the lynchpin of this organization’s development. They’re one of the few (possibly only) teams that return their entire roster from last year—a team that won its division and made it to the Western Conference finals. Oh, and four of the top seven in their rotation are under 24-years-old. If you’re an Oklahoma City fan, you have every reason to be frothing at the mouth when you think about the potential of this team.
But it goes back to Westbrook. I watched OKC play throughout last season and have heard/read their fans saying that no one should be surprised with Russell’s playoff performance; that’s just Russell being Russell. And to an extent, I agree. His decision making, or lack thereof, has driven Americans batshit crazy since he entered the league in 2008 (he’s started 229 of 246 games in his young career). It’s easy to dismiss his mistakes as a consequence of being a developing youngster learning through failure (the old Jordan way) and all we can do is hope that’s the case. On the surface, Russell may have been as Iverson-esque as he’s been for the duration of his career, but he just did it less efficiently while increasing his volume:
Westbrook Stats
Regular season
Playoffs
Change
Field-goal attempts/game
16.95
20.18
+19%
3pt Field Goal attempts/game
1.26
2.82
+125%
Usage Rate
31.6%
34%
+2.4%
Field-goal Percentage
44.2%
39.4%
-4.8%
PER (performance efficiency rating)
23.6
19.6
-4
eFG% (effective field goal %)
45.4%
41.4%
-4%
TS% (true shooting %)
53.8%
49.9%
-3.9%
Turnovers/game
3.9
4.6
+17.6%
The regular season-to-playoff drop-offs are disturbing and indisputable. Russell’s shot/pass selection was always suspect, but it got worse when it mattered the most. With creative geniuses, we accept the mistakes alongside the eye popping, text-message inspiring tip dunks, but for the 2011 playoffs, we saw both from Russell, just far too many of the turnover/missed shot variety.
This year will be a telling one in the Thunder’s evolving catalog. While the rest of the league’s stars spin off to form super-friend mini all-star clusters, Oklahoma City’s faced with the opposite conundrum: Too many youngsters desperate for individual acceptance; aka too many cooks in the kitchen. In the 80s, this group would’ve stayed together for a decade and won a couple titles at the least. And if Westbrook and Durant were on separate teams, they might be banging down doors to play alongside each other. As it stands though, these guys seem like a break-up waiting to happen. Kevin Durant plus Russell Westbrook plus Serge Ibaka plus James Harden… it’s great to watch, but based on math alone, it doesn’t feel sustainable. Whether our imagined Westbrook versus Durant rivalry come to fruition or Harden’s beard decides to take him to more fertile hardwoods or the salary cap decidesSam Prestijust can’t afford Ibaka; something’s got to give. Even The Beatles broke up once.
On their darkest days, they remain one of the three best teams in the west. Give them a healthy Kendrick Perkins and 66 games to gel and anything less than a conference finals appearance is a letdown. But a little growth and a little “get by with a little help from my friends”, and they’re a contender. Given their youth and what the average 24-year-old is doing at this age, the awesome expectations for this team could be their demise or the sentiment that drives them to unified success.
Hey kids, gather round. We’re 22 days away from tipping off the 2011-12 NBA regular season. From the outside looking in, the acrimony between the owners and players seems like it happened years ago. It might be winter, but we’re in the midst of a great thawing. Everyone’s already resuming their natural roles (front offices and agents negotiating, players working out at team facilities, players angling for trades via the media—just like riding a bike) and sticking to the script. Despite the oncoming maelstrom of transactions, it all feels serene and peaceful now that the lockout is mostly over.
As we move into year one of this six-year truce, I intend to write a brief prologue of each of the league’s 30 teams. Since we have roughly three weeks until the season starts and I work a full-time job, it’s altogether possible that I’m undertaking too much and will suffocate under the weight like a small man under a large garbage pile. It’s also worth acknowledging that the league might move too fast for me. If I write that the Nets have a gaping hole at power forward and then they sign David West; there’s nothing to be done—except a quick edit which probably won’t happen (I owe you honesty if nothing else).
So without wasting any more of your time or my time, let’s look to the future and hope for the sunny days.
Dancing With Noah 