Man, call me ketchup, 'cuz that's all I've been doing on this blog it seems. For starters, I want to do a quick wrap-up of the conference semis.
Cavs-Nets
As a lukewarm Nets fan, I wasn't happy with how the Nets went out in this series. JKidd fought 'till the bitter end, but RJ and especially Vince didn't give their team enough down the stretch of game 6, much as they didn't throughout this series. Too many jumpers, not enough drives. And for the love of god, why did Lawrence Frank put the ball in Vince's hands at crunch time instead of his hall-of-fame point guard? Vince consistently made bad decisions late in games, from turnovers (see game 4) to contested jumpers with the game on the line. A total head-scratcher.
With that said, I don't know where the Nets go from here. I don't see the return of KRStic-one making a huge impact, since they were mediocre even when they had him at the beginning of the season. This year's rookies were promising, but will they make the jump to becoming solid rotation players next year? Hard to say. Unless Nenad comes back as a Divac or Sabonis-type, it may be time to blow it up and start over. But if that happens, here's hoping that Rod Thorn has the good sense not to do Jason Kidd like the indians did Manhattan. I'm saying, if he gives up maybe the best Net of all-time (probably second best, Dr. J was SIIIICK back in the day) for some beads and jewelry (aka Andrew Bynum, who just might be the reincarnation of Benoit Benjamin), who knows when the franchise will recover. Not a huge concern, given Rod's track record as one of the very best GMs out there (what is it with those WVa boys?). But this year's trade deadline rumors should be very troublesome to Nets fans.
Jazz-Warriors
Damn, I screwed this one up. Fact is, I badly underestimated a) the effects that fatigue would have on a team whose success was in large part based on bouncing around the court at twice the speed of its opponents and b) the increased importance of depth in the NBA playoffs. Depth has always been big in the modern (4-round) NBA playoffs, but the move to seven games in the first round has meant that depth (or lack thereof) becomes a factor earlier than ever before. I covered both of these topics in earlier posts, so I won't say any more. Consider the guru schooled.
I can't leave the discussion of the Warriors, though, without sharing this email from my buddy Vic, a longtime (and long-suffering) fan of the bay area's finest. Without further ado, a brief history of the team post-Run TMC:
"- Mitch Richmond is traded for Billy Owens - a perennial all-star for yet another underachieving Syracuse boy
- Chris Webber and Nellie feud. Cohan chooses the coach. Webber leaves. Nellie loses the team - Nellie leaves. So they lose both.
- Webber is traded for Gugliotta who promptly get booed for not being Webber. He later gets traded for Donyell Marshall.
- Tim Hardaway and Sprewell feud, and Timmy gets traded for Bimbo freaking Coles. [eds. note - don't forget methuselah..I mean, Kevin Willis, a spry 33 at the time. They lost Willis that summer to free agency.]
- Mullin get a thumb injury and never really recovers - he got old fast
- Warriors luck out and get the no.1 pick in the draft, they take Joe Smith - not too bad, except he hated being a PF.
- As one of the doormats of the league, the warriors draft Todd Fuller - citing his upstanding character and incredibly high GPA - the guy is a stiff. Most Warriors fans didn't want him.
- Again, a year later, Warriors get a decent draft pick and go for Adonal Foyle. Fans are screaming for T-mac who was drafted right after. Again, management loves Foyle, citing his upstanding character and great intelligence.
- somewhere in between, Sprewell chokes his coach, and they trade him for Chris Mills, [John] Starks and Terry Cummings.
- Warriors get Antawn Jamison - not too bad of a pick I suppose
- Warriors have a good draft and net Arenas, JRich and Murphy - Arenas becomes a bonafide stud
- Warriors lose Arenas because of some obscure loophole
- Warriors suck again, but since they have the worst record in the league, they have a really really good chance and landing one of the top two slots in the draft - Yao or JWill is theirs. They get unlucky and draft third. Chris Mullin convinces Dunleavy to declare for the draft
- Warriors draft Dunleavy - Brian Cardinal promptly takes his starting spot.
- Dunleavy sucks
- Mullin trades tawn for Nick Van Exel as a salary dump. This later becomes Baron -> Good trade.
- Mullin signs Foyle, Fisher, Dunleavy, and Murphy to massive contracts - horrible horrible decisions. Fans and media alike were screaming for Mullin's head after these signings.
To Mullin's credit he dumped three of those chumps. Too bad he didn't do it with Foyle a couple of years ago when the league gave them a one time opportunity to drop a contract.
Best part is - when traded, Dunleavy and Murphy talked about how great it was to finally be on a playoff team and playing in front of fans who "Actually know basketball." Media lauds the Pacers, saying they got two high "IQ" players. Media apparently doesn't watch basketball. Post trade, Pacers immediately plummet from 5-6th seed to out of the playoffs. Warriors surge.
The thing that gets me the most. Basketball is only really 5-8 players. And out of those just 1 or 2 impact players is all you really need to be competitive. It's not football or baseball, where you have to assemble a larger team. It's hard to miss the playoffs for 13 yrs straight."
Almost makes you shed a tear, don't it? And this doesn't even include the Erick Dampier affair, or the Jamison-Vince Carter swap.
This leaves the Warriors at a crucial juncture, where they must decide whether or not to build on the existing team, or accept the playoff run as a fluke. I strongly lean towards the former, but that'll have to be a topic for another day.
Until next time, when I get over losing a damned post again.
