Write On Sports LLC - "NBA Offseason Review - Part 3" by Mark T.R. Donohue

NBA Offseason Review - Part 3

2006-09-25 19:00:11 | By: Mark T.R. Donohue

Not such a long time ago, the Western Conference was considered by far the source of power in the NBA. Remember all of those tiresome "Leastern" jokes? Things change incredibly quickly in pro sports, however. The unspoken implication of all the wailing about Dallas meeting San Antonio in the semifinals instead of the conference finals last year was that none of the other teams in the West were really any good. Honestly, if the Clippers made the playoffs, there must be something wrong. With a healthy Amare Stoudemire, a resurgent Ron Artest-led Kings team, and Carmelo Anthony flush with confidence after his summer performance for the U.S. team, the Western Conference should be back with a vengeance this year. I wouldn't get my hopes up for the Clippers, though.

Here's the first half of the Western Conference:

Northwest Division

Denver Nuggets
Innies: F/C Jamal Sampson (FA, Sacramento), F Yakhouba Diawara (undrafted FA), G J.R. Smith (trade, New Orleans via Chicago), F Joe Smith (Milwaukee), G/F DerMarr Johnson (unsigned FA).
Outies: G/F Greg Buckner (FA, Dallas), C Francisco Elson (FA, San Antonio), F Ruben Patterson (trade, Milwaukee), G Howard Eisley (trade, Chicago).

What went wrong here? After last spring's playoff washout it should have been completely obvious what the Nuggets needed to do. Somehow or another Denver needed to find some outside shooting to provide Carmelo Anthony with triple-team relief. At the same time, they needed to find a way to rid themselves of the noxious presence of Kenyon Martin, who somehow managed to make himself a locker room cancer while missing large chunks of the season with injury woes. After a power struggle ushered reigning GM Kiki Vandeweghe out of town, the ill-defined new player personnel team failed to accomplish either of these goals and signed raw forward prospect Nene to a richly undeserved contract extension for good measure. The Nuggets still look like a playoff team in a soft division, but Anthony and coach George Karl both deserve better than this. Like last year, I highly doubt that the Nuggets roster will survive unchanged from November to April.

Minnesota Timberwolves
Innies: G Randy Foye (draft pick), F Craig Smith (draft pick), C Loukas Mavrokefalidis (draft pick), G Mike James (FA, Toronto).
Outies: G Marcus Banks (FA, Phoenix), F Ronald Dupree (FA, Detroit), G Anthony Carter (unsigned FA).

The Kevin Garnett Trade Demand Watch is officially underway. What are the T-Wolves to do? They don't have enough players to give Garnett the support he needs to win a championship, and they're not in the financial position to go out and add the right guys. Given their cap situation Mike James was probably the best they could get, but he is almost certain to disappoint after a career year in Toronto. It's still impossible not to look at this roster and see Garnett surrounded by a bunch of one-dimensional or no-dimensional players like Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell, Mark Madsen, and Mark Blount. It's really just an issue of whether they get off to a bad start or a really bad start.

Portland Trail Blazers
Innies: F LaMarcus Aldridge (draft pick), G Brandon Roy (draft pick), G Sergio Rodriguez (draft pick), F Joel Freeland (draft pick), G Dan Dickau (trade, Boston), F/C Raef LaFrentz (trade, Boston), C Jamaal Magloire (trade, Milwaukee).
Outies: G Steve Blake (trade, Milwaukee), F Viktor Khryapa (trade, Chicago), C/F Theo Ratliff (trade, Boston), C Ha Seung-Jin (trade, Milwaukee), C Brian Skinner (trade, Milwaukee), G Sebastian Telfair (trade, Boston), F Nikoloz Tskitishvili (waived), G Voshon Lenard (unsigned FA).

So, if you take the Jail out of the Blazers, what do you have left? Some suggestions: the Pale Blazers, the Fail Blazers, the Snail Blazers. Portland's rebuilding project is progressing with the usual blend of good decisions and head-scratchers. The point guard swap of Sebastian Telfair for Dan Dickau seems like a rather dramatic exchange of potential for predictability. Telfair seemed like a suitably intriguing and exciting young player to keep interest in the franchise from utterly dying out as the losing seasons amass. The sensible pick of LaMarcus Aldridge is a nice surprise. The pick not long after of the "projectable" Brandon Roy is a more typical Trail Blazers choice. Portland has to hope that both will contribute significantly immediately if the Blazers are to beat out the Hawks for the worst record in the NBA. Management should stay close to the phones all year, because unlike Atlanta there are a number of guys on the Portland roster whom playoff-bound teams may seek to add as role players. Surprising re-sign Joel Przybilla leads the list, but Raef LaFrentz and Jamaal Magloire are also good candidates to get dealt. Blazer "mainstays" Zach Randolph and Darius Miles are always on the market as well, assuming they can avoid further drug arrests. Not bloody likely.

Seattle SuperSonics
Innies: F Mouhamed Saer Sene (draft pick), F Denham Brown (draft pick), G Yotam Halperin (draft pick), F Mickaël Gelabale (Europe).
Outies: C Mikki Moore (trade, New Jersey), G Mike Wilks (unsigned FA).

It's hard to imagine how the off-season could have possibly gone any worse for Sonics fans. First the team was sold to a new ownership group from Oklahoma City, who all but openly salivated about their desire to relocate the team. This despite the fact that there's already, kind of, a team playing in Oklahoma City at the moment. Now the likely final season in Seattle SuperSonics history will begin without any moves having been made to correct what last year was a team that set bold and exotic new standards for crappy defense. They allowed 121 points to the Raptors. Twice. Charlotte scored 104 points on them in Seattle. In one remarkable overtime game against the Suns in January, they won 152-149. Fun to watch, in a rainbow-colored ball kind of way, but not exactly a path to postseason glory. It's hard to see an anonymous group of draft picks and no free-agent help (although to their credit they did re-sign F/C Chris Wilcox) helping Seattle to change their slothful, stand-around-and-shoot-jump-shots ways any time soon. It should be an interesting season series with the Blazers, who some reports have moving north to Seattle as soon as the Sonics vacate. Which team will fans at the Key Arena root for? Should they root for either?

Utah Jazz
Innies: G Ronnie Brewer (draft pick), G Dee Brown (draft pick), F Paul Millsap (draft pick), G Derek Fisher (trade, Golden State).
Outies: G Devin Brown (trade, Golden State), G Keith McLeod (trade, Golden State), G Andre Owens (trade, Golden State), C Greg Ostertag (retired).

I can't remember watching a single Jazz game last season, although they played the Nuggets four times so I must have seen them at least once. Their off-season moves seem kind of forgettable as well. They traded a clutch of spare parts to Golden State for Derek Fisher, who will probably be more trouble than he's worth. It is a bit heartwarming to see Dee Brown reunited with his former Illinois backcourt mate Deron Williams. On the whole that's kind of a lot of shooting-guards-in-point-guard-bodies to have on one team, but I have learned before to regret underestimating the coaching prowess of Jerry Sloan. If Andrei Kirilenko is fully operational for the entire season, they have as good a chance as anyone to make the playoffs in the wide-open West, but don't expect them to upset any of the teams ahead of them with real frontcourts.

Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors
Innies: C Patrick O'Bryant (draft pick), F Kosta Perovic (draft pick), G Dajuan Wagner (FA, comeback), G Devin Brown (trade, Utah), G Keith McLeod (trade, Utah), G Andre Owens (trade, Utah).
Outies: G Derek Fisher (trade, Utah), G Will Bynum (waived), G/F Calbert Cheaney (unsigned FA).

The Warriors are kind of like the NBA version of the Arizona Cardinals. Every year, a lot of "experts" predict them to get better and surprise a lot of people, not for any good reason, and every year they disappoint. No one ever seems to learn their lesson, not least of all the Warriors, who last made the playoffs when I was in eighth grade. No, really. It's happening again! Golden State has brought back coaching giant Don Nelson, late of the Mavericks and the man who was behind the bench for that storied 1993-94 Warriors team. We'll see whether he can make something out of Jason Richardson, one of the least-recognized great players in the league, and a rogues' gallery of Mike Dunleavy, Adonal Foyle, Troy Murphy, Mickael Pietrus, and others. Dallas and Phoenix have demonstrated that it's possible to have at least great regular seasons playing a run-and-gun style. Nelson was the guy who got that strategy back into fashion. It'll be interesting to see how Richardson and Baron Davis adapt to his leadership. I'll predict right now that the Warriors will be better, but not better enough, and like the Cardinals, we'll be kicking ourselves for ever believing in them in the first place.

Los Angeles Clippers
Innies: C Paul Davis (draft pick), G Guillermo Diaz (draft pick), F Tim Thomas (FA, Phoenix), F/C Aaron Williams (FA, New Orleans).
Outies: F Vladimir Radmanovic (FA, L.A. Lakers), F Walter McCarty (unsigned FA).

They missed their chance. It was all set up for the Clippers, but just as for their entire woeful history, forces beyond their control conspired to spoil everything. The Lakers were one win in the first round away from a conference semi against their somewhat less prestigious tenants that would have shook the world. Or at least Southern California, which if you ask people from around there is the only part of the world that matters anyway. The Clippers would have won that series, and they would have given Dallas hell in the conference finals. Instead, they wound up playing a Suns team they really didn't match up at all well against and still pushing them to a seventh game. Now they seem to have fallen back in the pack in the West a bit, as the Suns get Amare back and Dallas and San Antonio reload. I like second-rounder Paul Davis more than most of the big men who were taken above him in the '06 draft, and he won't even be the most ungainly big white guy on a team that already features Chris Kaman. Free agent signing Tim Thomas had something to play for in Phoenix last year after being unceremoniously dismissed by the Bulls; now that he has long-term security look for him to go back into his accustomed "waking coma" mode.

Los Angeles Lakers
Innies: G Jordan Farmar (draft pick), G J.R. Pinnock (draft pick), F Vladimir Radmanovic (FA, L.A. Clippers), G Shammond Williams (FA, comeback).
Outies: G/F Devean George (FA, Dallas), G/F Devin Green (unsigned FA), F/G Jim Jackson (unsigned FA).

OK, here is a question. Assume you are an NBA fan. Not a Lakers fan in particular, but just a fan of the game. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Kobe Bryant is such a gigantic prima donna that his ego won't allow for even a single other quality NBA starter to darken the door of his team's locker room? Well, I guess that's not really fair to Lamar Odom, but as I understand it the way the salary cap works it would have been almost impossible to trade Shaq and get absolutely no one back. Wait and see what happens when Odom's free agency rolls around. On one hand, the existence of Team Kobe allows for spectacles like the 81-point outburst against Toronto last year and That Game against the Suns in the playoffs when Bryant made not one but two buzzer-beating no-doubters. On the other hand, Bryant's petulant refusal to delegate even one little bit almost guarantees that we'll never see the league's best player on its biggest stage ever again. That's kind of sad. On the other hand, and I don't know if you guessed this, I kind of hate Kobe. He's a jerk. Serves him right. As far as the Lakers' offseason moves are concerned, there's not much of interest to report. Radmanovic is the exact kind of passive, stand-still jump-shooting bit player who'll pitch in without threatening Emperor Kobe's hegemony. I think they'll miss Devean George more than his limited skills would suggest. George always seemed like the one guy on the team who could make Kobe look good and seem to be having a good time all at once, a valuable skill. On the other hand, maybe it will allow Phil Jackson to at long last find a use for Kwame Brown.

Phoenix Suns
Innies: G Marcus Banks (FA, Minnesota), F Jumaine Jones (FA, Charlotte), F/C Sean Marks (FA, San Antonio), G/F Eric Piatkowski (FA, Chicago).
Outies: F Tim Thomas (FA, L.A. Clippers), G Eddie House (FA, New Jersey), F Brian Grant (trade, Boston).

Last year Amare Stoudemire barely played, and for the Suns' middle-term goals, it might have been a good thing. Steve Nash got to win another MVP, one he may have even deserved. Shawn Marion got to feel like a big man, and Boris Diaw emerged as possibly the most devastating weapon in the history of fantasy basketball. Now Stoudemire is back, if not yet 100%, and on paper Phoenix ought to be even better than the team that buzz-sawed through the regular season two years ago. If the Suns ran anything approaching a traditional half-court offense, you might be able to win more subscribers to the theory that Amare's return will somehow damage the team's delicate balance, but it says here that Nash will have no trouble distributing sufficiently. All self-respecting NBA fans should be hoping that Stoudemire's knee holds together for the playoffs, because it's about time we had a definitive answer to the age-old question of whether you can win a championship Playing Like That.

Sacramento Kings
Innies: G Quincy Douby (draft pick), G/F John Salmons (FA, Philadelphia), G Pooh Jeter (undrafted FA), F/C Justin Williams (undrafted FA), C Loren Woods (FA, Toronto).
Outies: F/C Jamal Sampson (FA, Denver), G/F Bonzi Wells (unsigned FA).

The Pacific Division was supposed to be way down last year with Amare Stoudemire's injury, the Clippers' continuing Clipper-ness, the Warriors' continuing Warrior-ness, and Sacramento's long-overdue teardown. You know what's great about Ron Artest being utterly psycho? Well, everything. But Artest's world-class crazy steered him right into the waiting hands of the Kings last year, keeping the Pacific interesting and giving Ron four shots a year at punching Kobe Bryant in the face. Maybe more in the playoffs! The Kings were a "better-than-an-eighth-seed" eighth seed last year and even without Bonzi Wells they will probably be actually better than an eighth seed this time around. With the obvious caveats that Mike Bibby doesn't get hurt, Artest doesn't get called back to his homeworld, and the unfamiliar feeling of playing for a contending team doesn't prove too much for Shareef Abdur-Rahim's fragile psyche.

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