Daily Basketball
NBA and NCAA blogging on an occasionally daily basis
Archive for August, 2007
August 25, 2007 at 3:06 pm · Filed under NBA
USA Basketball and fans around the world called the 1992 and 1996 Olympic basketball teams “Dream Teams,” rightfully so after beating their opponents by huge margins and being led by the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone. Every player on the roster was a star in the NBA, and as expected, they dominated the foreign competition.
The USA Basketball team continued its success with a gold medal in Sydney in 2000. However, basketball fans are well aware after a bronze-medal finish in 2004 and after dropping numerous games to mediocre opponents that the international competition has risen since MJ started selling Air Jordans worldwide. The influx of foreign players shows that. Regardless, our fans won’t settle for second-place, and quite clearly have the better talent.
Although Team USA is undefeated at this point in the Americas tournament, the problem for our NBA All-Stars is not that they face superior players, but that they play under foreign rules. Only a handful of players on foreign national rosters could earn a contract in the NBA, yet somehow they light us up in international play.
Player selection: All-stars or international-style players
The 1992 and 1996 teams that dominated came before foreign countries had really developed their basketball programs. Our Olympic teams now must play against stronger competition than before, so 70-point blowouts may be a thing of the past. The original Dream Teams dominated with a team full of superstars and legends.
Now, only a portion of the top players wish to compete for the team, which leaves several roster sports open for second-tier stars (see Lamar Odom, Josh Howard, Tyson Chandler) or players that can thrive in international play without need a lot of touches (Bruce Bowen, Mike Miller).
Some of those second-tier players have international skill, but until the 12 best American players in the NBA want to play with a fiery passion for their team, Jerry Colangelo will have to continue picking his players out of a smaller pool. Where’s Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady? Even Shaquille O’Neal could come in for a 10-minute quarter and score 20 points if the “hack a Shaq” strategy.
So, because the Select team may or may not ever amount to anything, and the top players will continue to nurse injuries and get married during the month of play, USA Basketball fans should hope that Colangelo realized instead of bringing in second-rate All-Stars (add Kirk Hinrich and Brad Miller to that list), he should invite players who played on the U19 international team, rebounders, defensive-oriented players — even if it means cutting down on the 10 jumpshooters who were meant to spread the zone.
The Dream Team days are over. A gold-medal for the USA is no longer a shoo-in, and if the top players don’t want to play, forget filling in those roster spots with overpaid players to fill those shoes of Jordan, Bird, and Magic.
August 13, 2007 at 8:50 pm · Filed under NBA
Certainly, I have no plans to continually harass the Boston Celtics organization, but I’m back with another post about the Celtics.
It’s not exactly breaking news anymore that Danny Ainge asked Reggie Miller to consider coming back to play for his team. Apparently Ainge wasn’t the first to propose this, as a couple teams have also contacted Miller (the Cavaliers, for one) since he retired from the Indiana Pacers after the 2004-05 season.
Miller, somewhat surprisingly, started working out twice a day to see if he could handle the grind of playing in the NBA at age 42. Nobody doubts that Reggie can still shoot, however, could he hold up for 10-15 minutes for 82+ games?
Over Miller’s last three seasons, he averaged 12.5 points per game. As Danny Ainge constructs his All-Star team, does he really need to sign a player who started declining in his play five years ago. Miller wasn’t a lockdown defensive player before, and if he plays against players half his age, things would become more difficult.
Reggie is one of the greats, but his days are (or should be) over. Fans and other NBA players already have the Celtics games marked on their calendar. If Miller returns, there will be players out to humiliate him just like young guns hoped to tarnish Michael Jordan’s legacy.
Besides, the Celtics already have two-guard Ray Allen, who shoots strikingly similar percentages compared with Miller. Ainge may be after a cheap veteran player, but certainly the Celtics would be better off with a defender instead of a shadow of the great Reggie Miller.
This post is not meant to say that Reggie isn’t one of the best SGs of his era, or to say that Reggie wouldn’t help the young (but rapidly aging) Celtics. Maybe Doc Rivers should become a player-coach, he’s only four years older than Reggie.
With all of the buzz about the Celtics this past month, the NBA should be glad the attention is no longer on Tim Donaghy and NBA fans should be excited that Reggie Miller may postpone his broadcasting career for another season.
August 1, 2007 at 8:51 pm · Filed under NBA
Now that Kevin Garnett seems to be the face of the Boston Celtics franchise (with a new three-year, $51 million extension), the Celtics look to greatly improve upon their 24 wins last season. While Garnett, Paul Pierce, and recently acquired All-star Ray Allen, that shouldn’t be a problem. However, satisfying the expectations of fans might be.
Our unofficial TrueHoop plug of the day comes in a post about Kevin Pritchard on the philosophy of the San Antonio Spurs. That is, “Get three superstars and then fill the roster with guys willing to go through a wall to win.”
Although a few years older, the trio of Garnett-Pierce-Allen may beat out Duncan-Parker-Ginobili, if not match it’s level of talent. On the other hand, the Spurs have dominated the decade, and the Celtics don’t have much left to acquire “guys willing to go through a wall to win.”
After coming to terms with Eddie House, the team now has 12 players under salary, thanks to rookies Glen Davis, Brandon Wallace and Gabe Pruitt. Seeing as that’s one-fourth of their roster, the Celtics have five players who qualify to play with their D-League affiliates.
The Celtics have another $3.8 million of its MLE to spend on new players. Considering $56 million of salary cap belong to the Big Three, the team doesn’t have a whole lot of cash to throw, or much left talent to trade off after sending five players and two draft picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Danny Ainge will look to target another couple of veteran players to add to his team. He seems to seriously consider adding Dikembe Mutombo, among others. Luckily, Ainge making two high-roller trades this past two months has brought a change in what players think about playing in Boston.
With only a couple of their first-round draft picks the next five years, and very little salary cap space, the Celtics will need to either see a big improvement from their bench players, or hope that quality players take a large paycut in order to play with the Celtics (think the Karl Malone and Gary Payton with the Los Angeles Lakers).
Consider that the All-Star trio has a short window to win (within three or four years), the fans in Boston probably won’t add their 17th NBA championship. However, they could still win their division. That gives them either the 3rd or 4th seed, and probably home-court advantage. But the Celtics will need to fill out their rotation and get some lucky breaks before advancing to the Finals, much less beat the Spurs, Phoenix Suns, or Dallas Mavericks.
