Scattered Thoughts on the NBA

by user Wade Garrett

1) The Draft Day Wildcard Nobody's Talking About: The Spurs own the rights to Argentinian forward Luis Scola, who widely regarded to be the best professional basketball player in the world not currently playing in the NBA.  Scola is the two-time MVP of Spain's professional basketball league, and is best known to Americans for putting up 24 and 11 in the 2004 Olympic gold medal game, and for eating Jermaine O'Neal's lunch in the 2002 World Championships.  Scola is an NBA all-star caliber player, who the Spurs have been unable to bring over to the United States for several years because of contract issues with his Spanish club team.  Scola is now available to come to the states, but he would command an all-star's salary, and the Spurs, who are seemingly set to win their fourth NBA title in the past eight nine years, don't really need the help, and even if they did, they couldn't sign him without running afoul of the luxury tax.  If the Spurs play their cards right, they could deal Scola's rights for some new parts to replace their aging role players like Robert Horry and Michael Finley.

1b) Two teams badly in need of a post scorer like Scola are the Chicago Bulls and the Charlotte Bobcats, both of whom already feature teammates of Scola's from the Argentinan Olympic team.  The Bobcats have the #8 pick in the draft, and plenty of room under the salary cap.  The Bulls have the #9 overall pick in the draft and a couple of moveable contracts.  Would they trade their picks for Scola's rights?  If so, the Bulls would immediately become the class of the Eastern conference, and the Bobcats would make the playoffs next year.  The Spurs could use the pick to draft either Georgetown's Jeff Green or Kansas' Julian Wright, both of whom are disciplined, unselfish, and known how to pass, thus making them great fits for San Antonio's system.  Would anybody want to play a San Antonio team that starts one of those guys at the 3 and brings Bowen in as a stopper-off-the-bench?  Its the potential blockbuster nobody's talking about.

2) Memphis' Coaching Situation: The Grizzlies just announced that they have signed coveted Phoenix Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni to a 3-year deal to become their head coach.  Iavaroni has for years been the most highly sought-after assistant coach, rumored to be on every 'short list' in the NBA (sort of like Willie Randolph in baseball or Lovie Smith in the NFL).  Iavaroni is a running coach, and his team simply can not win if it starts Damon Stoudamire at point guard. If Michael Conley is still on the board when Memphis drafts at #4, they have to take him, right?

2b)  Atlanta needs a point guard, and they draft one spot ahead of Memphis.  Atlanta is expected to draft a big guy, then trade for a veteran, but if they decide to take Conley instead, then Memphis should draft Florida's Al Horford with the fourth pick, move Pau Gasol to center and draft Marist point guard Jared Jordan early in the second round.  An Iavaroni-coached team of Gasol, Horford, Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick, Jared Jordan and Chucky Atkins would play a lot of 130-125 games and give fans in Memphis a reason to, you know, support the team.

3)  This Year's 2nd-Round Sleepers: You know how every year some obvious talent falls deep down the board for no good reason?  Look at the playoffs:  Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Manu Ginobili, Michael Redd, Mikki Moore, and Daniel Gibson were all taken in the second round of the draft, Ben Wallace and Raja Bell went undrafted, and others like Tayshaun Prince, Josh Howard and David Lee weren't drafted until the very end of the first round.  This year, three sure-to-be-available players who could potentially make immediately impacts on good NBA teams are Wisconsin's Alando Tucker, Marist's Jared Jordan and Spain's Marc Gasol.

4)  "This Low Block's Not Big Enough For The Two of Us": The conventional wisdom in the NBA draft is:  never draft a good small player over a good big player, and, if a potential all-star draftee plays the same position as your best veteran player, draft him and trade your veteran for value at a different position.  Portland seems ready to adhere to conventional wisdom by drafting Ohio State's future perennial all-star center Greg Oden, moving LaMarcus Aldridge to power forward (his natural position) and dealing Zach Randolph.  Over the past four seasons, Randolph has averaged 20.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, and he is a potential all-star in a conference that doesn't also feature Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand.  I've heard rumors of two potential destinations:  Washington (for Antwawn Jamison) and Atlanta (along with Jarrett Jack, in return for Atlanta's #3 overall pick).

The Trailblazers' biggest need is at small forward; their second biggest need is at point guard, where Sergio Rodriguez has shown flashes, but isn't yet ready to run the show on a full-time basis.  The Jamison trade would give Portland an all-star small forward, but he's a substantially below-average defender who has scored a lot of points throughout his career mainly because he's been best player on a series of bad teams.  Furthermore, he's a high-possession guy, which would mean Oden and his fellow young stars Aldridge and Brandon Roy would get fewer shots than they deserve.  Also, he's getting up there in age.  If they want to address the small forward position, I'd rather see them try to work a trade to Chicago, who both badly needs a low-post scorer and has plenty of young chips to trade.  Wouldn't the combination of Kirk Hinrich and Thabo Sefolosha look good in the black and red?  Both are unselfish, defensive-oriented players who don't need to take a lot of shots to influence games.

The Atlanta offer seems to me to be a total steal for Portland.  Not only would they be able to get Mike Conley, the best point guard in the draft and one of the three-best point guard prospects of the past ten years; they would also get to take advantage of the fact that Oden and Conley have been playing together since they were 15 years old, and have won together at every level at which they've played.  They would probably be overpaying for the pick, but they would simultaneously get rid of a shaky character guy in Randolph, significantly upgrade the point guard position, and open up some minutes for Rodriguez to get on the floor at point guard.  In some ways, they would look like a more talented Toronto Raptors, a team which features two young point guards, one of whom is a a quick, penetrate-and-dish distributor and the other of whom is a pick-and-roll specialist. Atlanta would then have an all-star power forward and a significant upgrade at point guard, and could package a few of its young forwards in order to obtain a center better than Zaza Pachulia

5)  None of this changes the fact that, if I was an NBA GM, I'd quickly make Portland a lowball offer for Randolph, just to see if they'll bite.  They're in a rush to get him out of town, and would almost definitely take less than full value in return.  It doesn't mean I wouldn't be outbid for his services, but any GM who makes too generous of an offer is a fool.

6)  Van Gundy Has A Personality?  Since When?  - Jeff Van Gundy is an excellent television analyst.  Not only is he the most insightful color commentator on tv, he's also surpringly funny. Who knew he had a sense of humor, or any personality at all for that matter?  Every time you watch one of his games, you learn something new, not just about basketball, but about life in the NBA -- for instance, which referees coaches appreciate the most, or the fact that "Detlef Schrempf" is apparently the widely accepted terminology for a particular type of basketball move.  I eat stuff like that up with a spoon.

Wade Garrett lives in Brooklyn, New York