|
djsunyc
Posts: 44929
Alba Posts: 42
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #536
|
Isiah's coaching decisions are questionable
Charley Rosen / Special to FOXSports.com
There's no question that Steve Nash is a great player and absolutely deserving of being a two-time MVP. However, Phoenix will never win a championship as long as he remains their go-to scorer in half-court situations.
The simple reasons are these: Little guys are more vulnerable to injuries, especially when they routinely challenge the league's bigs in the shadow of the basket. Whenever a runt misses a layup, his team's court balance is usually compromised and leaves them susceptible to fastbreaks and early-offense disadvantages. High-scoring runts never play good defense, which necessitates lots of scrambling rotations behind them that also can burden their own big men with perpetual foul trouble.
The 1990 Pistons were the only championship team whose top-scorer was a runt — Isiah Thomas. But Zeke's offense was ably abetted by Joe Dumars, James Edwards, Mark Aguirre, Bill Laimbeer and Vinnie Johnson.
Given their go-go style of play, there's only one current player who could perfectly complement Nash and make the Suns a legitimate contender. Someone who can create his own shot, score points by the dozen, run, bury 3-balls, pass and even play defense.
It's Joe Johnson.
ZEKE SHOW
Speaking of Zeke, Thomas has made a significant alteration in the Knicks' game-day schedule. Normally, NBA teams have their shoot around sometime in the late morning or early afternoon -- anywhere from 11 am to 1 pm. The idea is to rouse the players out of their beds, have them break a sweat, and focus their attention on the upcoming game. But Thomas has decreed that the Knicks' shoots will take place immediately before games. His aim is to save everybody from undergoing an extra roundtrip to and from whichever venue is available.
But this is an incredibly bad decision.
For one, letting the players sleep too late often makes them logy for the rest of the day. Secondly, it encourages late-night partying, thereby increasing the likelihood of the kind of trouble that ends up on police blotters. Thirdly, it taps the players' energies and distracts the focus that is necessary to get out of the gate at full speed once the lights are turned on for real.
No wonder the Knicks have been plagued with slow starts in virtually every game they've played thus far.
Speaking of Zeke: How much of a real difference is there between his avowal to "bench anybody" and Larry Brown's multiple starting lineups?
Here are some more nice guys: Butch Beard, Neal Walk, A. C. Green, Larry Krystowiak, Dana Barros, Kurt Rambis, Anthony Bowie, Corey Gaines, Doug Lee, Robert Pack and the late Steve Patterson.
ZERO TOLERANCE
In explaining why he was late for a practice session, J. R. Smith claimed that he wasn't "a morning person." If he doesn't mend his ways, how long will it be before Smith becomes "a mourning person?"
In explaining why the NBA instituted the zero tolerance rule that stifles players from expressing their disagreements with calls by referees, David Stern said this: "It's all about the game. We want our arenas to be places where fans can come and enjoy the game."
In other words, Stern is dictating to the fans exactly what is and what isn't enjoyable.
Let's see … During the games, leggings designed to keep the players' easily injured hamstrings warm and secure are prohibited. Off the court, only corporate attire is acceptable. Hands-on defense is verboten. A new, mushy ball is introduced that tends to hit the rim and plop through the net. And now a curb on the natural and necessary expression of the passion that players must bring to their performances.
It's not about the game, Mister Sterner-than-thou. It's about a squeaky clean appearance being deemed more important than the reality of world-class athletic competition. It's about valuing finesse more than power. It's about turning basketball games into a pinball game.
To say nothing of the fact that the new ball sells for $20 more than the old one.
RAIN IN SPAIN
Walt Frazier is a surprisingly perceptive color man on Knicks telecasts. And despite MSG's officially mandated censorship, Frazier even manages to inject an occasional comment that highlights the team's sad sack status. Frazier's "gimmick" is his syncopated, mellifluous vocabulary — wheeling and dealing, stopping and popping, shaking and baking, and so on (and on and on and on …). But sometimes Clyde manages to trip over his own tongue.
Which is what he did during Friday's Knicks-Rockets game. First he described Eddy Curry as being "proul fone," then he noted that Dikembe Mutombo was an accomplished "shot blocker."
Sounds like Clyde needs a refresher course with Professor Henry Higgins: "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
Methinks that Ricky Davis revealed more than he intended to when he likened the Blazers to "a pack of roaches." (Perhaps he was really talking about the butts of marijuana cigarettes. Nah!) What Davis really accomplished was exposing his desperate need to artificially inflate his own ego by insulting his opponents. But if the Blazers are vermin, then Davis has inadvertently diminished whatever success he has ever had (or will ever have) whenever Minnesota plays Portland.
No wonder the guy's a loser.
How interesting that Nellie abandoned small-ball after one game. It seems as though he suddenly discovered that Mike Dunleavy couldn't defend or rebound at the power-forward position. Did Nellie think that his own mere presence would instantly transform the weak, lanky Dunleavy into a brute?
Prior to this season, Dunleavy had played in a total of 317 NBA games. Were any of those against Dallas during Nellie's tenure on the Mavs' bench? And what was Nellie attending to during the Warriors' most recent training camp? His shaky real estate investments? His next meal? His next nap? His next lawsuit?
Forget about the latest XXX adventures of Briana Banks and Bridgitte K. The hottest video on the market has to be the one depicting the let's-be-friends hug-a-thon between Ron Artest and Ben Wallace.
A last word on Isiah. Like John Thompson and Chuck Daley, Thomas is promoting an us-versus-them attitude on his team. The danger here is that if the Knicks keep losing (an inevitable outcome), then sooner rather than later the prevailing attitude will become us versus us.
|
