August 9, 2005

ATLANTA’S THREE STOOGE ACT CREATING MAJOR HEADACHES FOR NBA

      Curly, Larry and Moe have set up shop in Atlanta under the guise of the ownership group for the NBA’s Hawks.  Confused?  So is the league and, most of all, the few fans of the hometown club.  Caught in the middle?  Joe Johnson—who at this point doesn’t know if he’s coming or going…(back to Phoenix).  Maybe, he’s changing his mind about going to Atlanta—that seems to be a customary notion in the peach state.  

      Minority partners are supposed to silent partners.  There’s an old joke about the New York Yankees that there is nothing in life more silent than being a silent partner of George Steinbrenner.  Perhaps that silence needs to be taught to the Atlanta Hawks.  How else to explain a club’s minority owner going public in an attempt to put the kibosh on the proposed trade.  Concerns such as this should be done in private, and before the deal is made.  The Hawks has plenty of time to bandy back and forth the pros and cons of the deal and when they made the offer to Johnson it should have been with confidence and with solidarity.  The whole issue makes the team look likes it being run by a bunch of morons.  And the sixteen fans that regularly attend Hawks games are probably reviewing their commitment.        

       Johnson didn’t want to continue as a fourth option on a successful team, preferring to be the starting point guard on a cellar-dweller.  What initially gave Atlanta the notion that Johnson, an experienced two-guard, would be able to handle the point on a consistent basis is unknown.  If the trade goes through and Johnson can’t adapt to the point it could go down as one of the more expensive mistakes ever made.  Of course the brains that run the franchise would soon learn that Johnson is most effective as a part-time point guard and quickly return him to his rightful shooting guard spot. 

       So, what do you do with a team that came within one game, and perhaps a couple of nagging injuries, from making it to the NBA Finals?  If you’re the Miami Heat you completely overhaul your roster.  On top of that you have the club president send out signals that he will replace the head coach—with himself.  Can you imagine what would have happened if the team didn’t make it to the Eastern Conference Finals?  Would the Heat have traded Shaq for three middling players?  Well…no point in getting carried away.

       The Heat have been among the busiest of teams this off-season.  They were the big players in the NBA record five team, 13 player deal that netted them Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey while they divested the large contract that belonged to Eddie Jones.  The result is that the Heat believe that they have added the necessary depth to challenge—not only Conference champion Detroit, but also league champion San Antonio.  With Shaq getting up there in age—he as an old 33—the time is now for the Heat to win that elusive title.  But did they improve?

       There some questions regarding the viability of Walker and Williams positively integrating their unique talents into the team concept set up by the Heat.  Walker has long thought of himself as a primary scoring and ball handling option, while Williams has always preferred making the spectacular—if not difficult—play when a simple one would suffice.  Can either of these two individuals find comfort knowing that they are far down the ladder of scoring options on the club?  First and foremost the plan is to get the ball inside to Shaq.  When that fails it means that Dwayne Wade begins to take over the game.  Walker and Williams will be reduced to simply feeding the two established team stars and providing decoys.  Can their egos accept those reduced roles?  If they can then the Heat will be early favourites for the league crown.  If not the Heat will be do-or-die to simply match last season’s success.

      The only other contending club in the conference to make a splash is the New Jersey Nets.  They were on the verge of adding power forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim to a club that is guard heavy—but decided at the last minute that a medical condition was too pervasive for them to spend the $38 million of Rahim.  Instead the Nets went out and acquired inconsistent center Marc Jackson from Philadelphia.  This is definitely a step down for the Nets and could present future problems for other players interested in signing with the club. 

       What the hell is going on in Laker-land?  First they draft a high school center that won’t be ready to play for three years, if then, and then they go out and pick up notorious slacker Kwame Brown to fill their center needs.  It looks as if the Laker brain trust has far too much confidence in Phil Jackson—expecting the Zen master to make a fancy dish out of chicken salad when his history dictates that he needs the proper ingredients to make that dish. 

      Both Portland and Memphis are attempting to get rid of their bad seeds—at whatever cost, and Dallas is simply waiting for the right moment to dump former star Michael Finley.  Utah thinks they can compete next season, for whatever reason, and the Timber wolves seem to be hibernating the summer away.  Houston thinks it has discovered its missing link—Stromile Swift.  The Rockets should be better, but they still need Yao Ming to develop into that dominating player he intermittently shows he can be.

       The Clippers keep trying to improve—but hell, they’re the Clippers.  And back east what is Milwaukee thinking anyway.  They’ve thrown buckets of money at players and talk like they’re a contender.  For what?  They might make the playoffs, but that’s the extent of it.  All that money for a fifth seed?  What’s the point.  And the Raptors have finally been located.  It was thought that GM Rob Babcock was actually sleeping in the same summer cabin as his old friend Kevin McHale.  The Raptors have extended an offer to Chris Duhon, but the restricted free agent point guard will likely be brought back to Chicago.  I still think there’s a trade in the Raptor future. 

      At this point there has been little movement by the teams at the top.  Both Detroit and San Antonio have stayed pat, and why not since both clubs are prepped to be the early season favourites once again.  I guess we’ll just have to see what other surprises these NBA clubs throw at us. 

       Two months until training camp