The Sports Curmudgeon

There’s lots of NBA “stuff” to deal with today. Larry Brown has a new job as the head coach in Charlotte. I’m not so sure he didn’t jump too quickly to take that job. In NY, Larry Brown coached under the “supervision” of a former great NBA player who had demonstrated a huge set of shortcomings as a GM/executive in the NBA. Now, in Charlotte, Larry Brown will coach under the “supervision” of a former great NBA player who has demonstrated a huge set of shortcomings as a GM/executive in the NBA. Is there an echo in here? Oh, and days after he took the Bobcats’ job, there was an opening in Dallas and potentially one in Phoenix. While I will go on to say that both of those teams have significant problems, they are both more talented than the Bobcats.

Let me start with Dallas. I’m not going to try to paint Avery Johnson as the next Red Auerbach; he’s not. But as an NBA coach, Avery Johnson is better than average. If you rank ordered the problems the Mavs had last season, they would be:

1. Players on the court
2. Owner
3. Coaches on the bench.

Dallas was winning two out of three of its games (35-18) when Mark Cuban dug into his hip pocket and paid dearly to acquire Jason Kidd. The Mavs were a “break-even team” after that trade (16-13). Here is the cold, hard breakdown on what Cuban did to the Mavs:

Jason Kidd’s stats are alluring particularly if you are enthralled with triple doubles. But Jason Kidd cannot cover any point guard in the NBA effectively. Therefore, Kidd’s stats have to be seriously devalued because he will give up points and assists and rebounds at the defensive end of the floor all the time he is on the court. Chris Paul averaged 12 assists in the series against the Mavs and less than 2 turnovers.

Jason Kidd has been “unhappy” everywhere he has played. It took almost three seasons of his whining and whispering to reporters and migraine headaches – which miraculously disappeared when his work location changed latitude and longitude – to force his way out of New Jersey.

Dallas now owns the $21M contract of a guy who is old, who cannot play any defense, and who has a history of being a less than happy camper in all his previous stops. BRILLIANT !!

I do not want to leave the impression that the Mavs gave up all that much to get Kidd. Dsagna Diop is a spot player in the middle. He won’t carry a team anywhere, but the Mavs could have used someone large to help out Eric Dampier in the middle. [By the way, Dampier’s defense is less than stellar too.] Losing Devin Harris was not all that huge either since it will probably be another two years until Harris is an average NBA point guard. In two years, Jason Kidd either will be out of the league or will be playing for a hugely reduced salary.

Do you realize that the Knicks are no longer the team in the NBA with the highest payroll? That’s right; the Mavs now own that distinction; the Mavs’ payroll is more than $16M higher than the Knicks. Like the Knicks, the Mavs have the month of May at their leisure…

Back when David Stern invented a new rule limiting owners to seats off the bench and off the floor, Mark Cuban did his pouting and complaining shtick on sports talk outlets. One of the points he made in several places was that because he was on the floor and was in the players’ huddle during timeouts, it allowed him to see just how much respect the players had for Avery Johnson and how good a coach Johnson was. He said that Johnson might not have gotten the Mavs’ job had not Cuban seen him in action. That was less than 24 months ago; now Johnson is gonzo.

There was a report in the Dallas Morning News of a confrontation between Johnson and Cuban in Johnson’s office after a loss to the Lakers. According to that report, witnesses heard Johnson tell Cuban that if he knew so much, then he (Cuban) should coach the team. If true, that proves that Avery Johnson knows what he is doing. There were rumors that Don Nelson got tired of Cuban’s talking X’s and O’s to him and that is why Nelson left in the middle of a season. I have no idea if any of that is true, but it does fit a pattern. And now Mark Cuban – the guy who uses his blog to tell the world how everyone else is running their business stupidly – gets to hire his first head coach. Stand by for the Mark Cuban full court press of sports talk show appearances after the hiring to trumpet what a great decision he made.

Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune summed up a lot of this:

“Ownership Hysteria Alert: Mark Cuban is coming to Wrigley for tonight’s game. Anytime you get a rich guy coming to town after his team tanks in the playoffs you’ve got a perfect match. Apparently, Aramis Ramirez is the Spanish playoff term for Dirk Nowitzki.”

Meanwhile in Phoenix, there is a simple bottom line. The trade for Shaq did not work for the reason that I and a boatload of other observers said it would not. Shaq cannot play the kind of game the Suns used to play and the Suns are less effective playing the way they have to play when Shaq is on the court. Shaq was supposedly there to provide defense – particularly against the Spurs’ Tim Duncan. That might have worked three years ago, but Shaq is no longer able to provide that. Duncan just posted 24 points a game and 14 rebounds a game against the Suns. The ghost of Wilt Chamberlain could have done that.

In Denver, Carmelo Anthony said his team quit. I don’t know if they quit, but watching the Nuggets play basketball is almost like watching those filmed “And 1 Tour” exhibitions. It’s all about running and hogging the ball and playing as little defense as possible so you can get the ball back as quickly as possible so you can run and hog the ball some more. Allen Iverson – acquired by the Nuggets last year – is a transcendent talent who plays full tilt for 48 minutes. But he has never been a winner because he is selfish and does not share the ball. Put him on the same team with Anthony and JR Smith and assists will become an endangered species - - as they are in Denver.

Interestingly, the Nuggets are now 4-20 in playoff games since Carmelo Anthony arrived. In his single year at Syracuse, he led the Orange to the NCAA Championship. To do that, he led his team to six “playoff” wins in a season. So, how many more years might it be until he matches that total in the NBA?

The Mavs, the Suns, and the Nuggets have some striking similarities:

1. All three teams traded for superstars who forced a trade out of their previous venue.

2. All three teams do not play defense.

3. All three teams are out of the playoffs in the first round.

And if that were not bad enough, all three of these teams play in the NBA West where there are a bunch of young teams playing good basketball and getting better such as LA, New Orleans, Portland and Utah.

Finally, now that Dick Vitale has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, let me say unequivocally that is one acceptance speech I do not want to hear - - BAY-BEE!

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…