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SKY
Posts: 20356
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Joined: 6/30/2004
Member: #687
USA
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Isiah needs a lone star
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/story/253612p-217131c.html
SAN ANTONIO - Sometimes, the planets align perfectly and, presto, you can rebuild in one fell swoop without ever hitting rock bottom.
The Spurs well remember the day in 1997 when Tim Duncan fell into their laps. Since then, they've won two championships and are poised to compete for as many titles as their power forward sees fit. They can count themselves as one of the truly lucky NBA franchises, the ones who have been able to rebuild from the inside out, around a franchise talent standing 7 feet.
Isiah Thomas should be reminded of this every time his Knicks play the Spurs, as was the case at the SBC Center last night. He often has compared rebuilding his team to replacing a jet engine at 40,000 feet. Never mind having the right tools. There isn't even a blueprint for what Isiah is attempting.
Not so with the Spurs, who can mark themselves down for 55 wins a year and a long playoff run every spring because of Duncan.
"He rates right up there with the best of them," said Lenny Wilkens, who has seen all the great power forwards during his 44 years as player and coach in the NBA. "He combines the agility to get by people and he passes the ball extremely well."
Perhaps it was an oversight, but Wilkens left out the most important stuff. Duncan makes teammates better. He wins titles.
He wasn't even MVP-caliber Duncan last night, but it hardly mattered. The Spurs are so far ahead of the Knicks and about 90% of the league at this point, they can take a ho-hum 17-point, 10-rebound performance from their superstar and still win a laugher, 99-81.
Meanwhile, Thomas, who inherited a terrible salary cap from Scott Layden and has only made it worse trying his mid-air repair job, is trying to rebuild from the outside in. It's a flawed approach. Athletic wing players can only take you so far.
If he had made the Texas trip and not gone off to scout college talent, Isiah could have seen how it should be done. But he knows, all too well. The Spurs tanked their season way back when Duncan was a senior and won the biggest lottery prize since Shaquille O'Neal. They never had to be bad for very long - they missed the playoffs only once during David Robinson's rapid decline before Duncan arrived.
In Houston, where the Knicks play tomorrow night, the Rockets are rebuilding in the same manner: Inside-out, behind a big man who might make a difference one day. They went just two seasons after Hakeem Olajuwon's departure before finding Yao Ming in the lottery. To accelerate matters, they had the smarts to stockpile enough talent during the last stages of the Olajuwon era to parlay three players into Tracy McGrady last summer.
The Rockets' loss to lowly Atlanta last night shows they're a work in progress. They need maturing, on both McGrady's and Yao's parts. But they have the two building blocks. Compare that to Thomas' predicament. He's been busy assembling supporting-cast types, none of whom stepped forward last night. He's made no inroads finding the superstar who can take the Knicks back to prominence. The way he spends money, he may never.
The Spurs spend wisely. But what continues to make them so good, and what is in stark contrast to the Knicks, is that they play team ball. Of their first 29 baskets last night, 24 came off assists.
The Spurs took the fight to the Knicks, who often show too little. Meanwhile, Isiah Thomas has imported players who can only run and dunk and don't perform as well in halfcourt sets or at the defensive end. Sure, they fit into Thomas' never-ending "we're more exciting" sales spiel.
But you want to know what's really exciting?
The kind of winning that goes on down here.
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11/17/2004 10:07 AM