Thrown Under the Bus

     It was painful watching the Los Angeles Lakers give away game four in Utah last night, but worse was listening to Phil Jackson throw Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and Sasha Vujacic under the bus after the loss. How dare the head coach play Monday-Morning-Quarterback moments after a loss that he steered.  Those aforementioned players didn't tell Kobe Bryant to play through the pain he was in.  Nor did they decide whether he should stay in the game.  They weren't responsible for not calling timeouts when the offense wasn't executing. They were not responsible for Kobe jacking up three pointers, penetrating without passing, and last but not least, guarding his man and theirs.  It was Phil Jackson's job to make all those decisions and to a lesser extent Kobe Bryant.

     I have felt for quite some time that Kobe is arguably the smartest player in the game, along with the most talented, but his common sense, his memory of last night's fourth quarter, and the trust he has spoken of all season of his teammates went out the door when the overtime began. Why, when Fisher had drained three long range three pointers, would you stop passing to him?  Why would you stop tossing the ball into Gasol, who had a phenomenal game?  Why would you not set up Odom, who was virtually unstoppable all night? Courage? Bullshit! Willis Reed and his broken leg was a different era and a much different circumstance.  This was game four in Utah in the second round.  The goal is to play two more rounds.  The Lakers had a chance to come home up three games to one and Jackson sat frozen as his Golden Child Bryant let what was so hard fought slip away.

    Why after all season did Jackson suddenly blame the other players on the floor with Kobe, when that is exactly how they have played all year long?  Why say "the other players abandoned Kobe," and "they gave the ball to him too early?" You can't have it both ways Phil.  You don't get to decide after the fact that the team wasn't playing the way you wanted them to.  Call a timeout for Chrissakes. Pull Kobe aside and tell him to continue to draw the double team like he has all series and then kick the ball to one of your hot, and not hurting, teammates. Draw a play up for Sasha, who was hitting all his shots in the first half, and watch him drain it. Come on, is it just me, or don't you find it offensive when Mr. Nine Championships finds fault with the four players who did exactly what they have done in game after game, and lay all the blame on them? I do.  Not once did Phil say he and the staff screwed up. Blame Tex Winter, but don't blame the four for doing what has worked in the past. Be a man and a real coach and take some responsibility for what happened in that game.  

     How exactly are those players, particularly the ones that have not been in a pressure situation like this before, expected to respond after comments like Jackson gave to the media?  We have heard for weeks that the team is young, inexperienced, etc. Is this how you build confidence?  Is this constructive coaching? In my book it is chicken shit. Phil is a blamer.  He is a guy that takes sides. Read his book that trashed Kobe after his first stint with the Lakers and you'll get my point.  Phil should have made better decisions; a timeout, a short rest for Kobe, a brief chat with Fisher instructing him to bring the ball up, etc. He took the coward's way out, and in doing so, has left his team wondering how they are really supposed to play. Worst of all, he demeaned them at a time when they need to be confident and focused on the task at hand, which is beating the Utah Jazz, not worried about getting run over by the bus driven by Coach Jackson.

Mark Cuban: Mr. I Want It Now

A little over a week ago the Dallas Mavericks fired head coach Avery Johnson.  Someone had to take the fall for another quick exit in the playoffs.  Who else could you possibly blame?  How about Mark Cuban? He was the one that passed on resigning Steve Nash, who went to the Phoenix Suns where he went on to win two consecutive MVP awards and is arguably the best pure point guard in the NBA.  By the way, he makes about 8 million dollars less than Jason Kidd. 

     A few years ago Cuban made the right decision by allowing Avery Johnson to turn his Mavericks into a more intelligent team than predecessor Don Nelson, at the end of the 2003-04 season, when Nelson stepped down.  Nelson had the number one offensive team in the NBA and the second worst defensive club. Under Johnson, the Mavericks finished the 2003-04 season as the 14th best defensive team and after his first full season at the helm they were seventh. The following two seasons their defensive finished fourth and sixth respectively. He also managed to put Dallas in the top three in point differential his second and third seasons.  They dipped this last season to tenth, while still finishing sixth in the league in points given up.  What does all this mean?  Johnson turned a high octane, shoot as soon as you get the ball bunch, into a real basketball team.  One that competes with everyone in the league, a team that went to the finals, something Dallas had not done, and worst of all, turned the expectations up.  

     The early playoff exits were in many ways failures because Coach Johnson had raised expectations for the franchise.  One can only imagine what his teams would have looked like with Steve Nash at the helm or an inside post presence that Erik Dampier could never provide. But personnel decisions were not his, they were his boss's, Mr. Cuban.

     Mark Cuban by anyone's standards is a major success at everything he does.  He worked menial jobs before becoming a millionaire at 32 and after he sold his first successful business, Microsolutions, to CompuServe, he then co-founded Broadcast.com and parlayed the sale of that company to Yahoo, which in turn made him a billionaire by the age of 40.  When he decided to jump into the entertainment business, he didn't just dabble.  In less than seven years he has amassed over 35 producing credits, among them the Oscar award winning film 'Good Night and Good Luck" and he has crafted relationships with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.  He lives most men's dreams. But there is one thing his money and drive can't buy, and that is an NBA championship. Sports is about chemistry and the way that comes about is through meticulous and very time consuming work.  Scouting, preparing, practicing, and committing to one goal.  Josh Howard recently spurned Avery Johnson's demand that no player party during the playoffs. Howard took his disdain for Johnson's rule to new heights by handing out invitations to his birthday party in the locker room. Where was the commitment to one goal in Howard's mind? The Mavericks currently have a third of their roster with a minimum of eleven years on the hardwood and only four players with less than five years experience, most of whom play very little.  They are in aging team that just brought in Kidd, one of the oldest point guards in the league, gave away Devon Harris, one of the youngest, and a handful of draft picks. What good will college scouting do this franchise when you don't have any picks?

     My guess is Mark Cuban will scour the free agent market and throw as much money as he can at anyone he thinks will make them better.  He probably could care less about the luxury tax, but tossing money around isn't going to make his team gel.  He also lacks any real trade bait, unless he is willing to unload Josh Howard. The best thing for this franchise is for Cuban to stay away from personnel decisions and let them play basketball. That also includes letting the coach do his job.  He was heard by many in the Mavericks offices excoriating Avery Johnson after a loss to the Lakers in March.  If the temps heard the second guessing, you can bet that the players heard it too, and it probably played a hand in how the team performed down the stretch and in the playoffs for Coach Johnson.  Luckily, Cuban hired Rick Carlisle, a wonderful coach.  But there is no way he can do or will do a better job with the same roster as Avery Johnson. Not that we will get to see the same roster, because the impatient Cuban wants his championship and if you look closely at the man's life, there is very little he hasn't been able to get his hands on in a short amount of time. Perhaps as Mr. Cuban turns 50 this summer, he will reflect on how difficult it is to own a franchise with so much expectation and so little to show for it. If he does, he might come to the same conclusion as I have; hire the right people, show faith in them, have a lot of patience, and stay in your courtside seat where the best fan is seen and not heard.

     

The NBA Playoffs: Day One

     You may have already read today's sports section, but I haven't, so I am going to give my perspective on yesterday's NBA playoff action and a little preview on today's. The playoffs began with an Eastern Conference game that takes the backseat to the Western Conference, at least until Boston faces Detroit in the Conference finals, according to most sport analysts.  But before anyone lays money down on that potential match up, don't count out the Cavaliers.  In a word, Lebron.  At 6'8 and 240, the game has never seen a player so big, athletic, and ferocious as the King. Kobe may be the best player in the NBA, but Lebron may be taking his rightful place at the throne sooner than some think. Despite playing with fairly mediocre talent around him, he has the ability to take over a game in an instant, and yesterday was no exception.  So don't count them out of anything.

     Now the Western Conference.  Beginning with Phoenix, I will argue that if Phoenix does not go to the finals, which I don't believe they will, it is time for Mike D'Antoni to go.  Why acquire Shaquille O'Neal for the purpose of strengthening the middle and opening up the floor for others, only to pull him in the crucial minutes of regulation?  When Spurs Coach Greg Poppovich went to 'hack-a-shack' with six minutes to go in the game and down by roughly seven points, D'Antoni sat Shaq after two missed free throws.  Scoring was not Phoenix's issue, it was defense.  They got Shaq primarily for that reason.  People in Afghanistan know he can't shoot free throws, it is the deal with the devil you make.  Once Shaq went out, Duncan and company attacked the paint and within a blink of an eye they were leading.  When Shaq was reinserted, the Suns faired better, but the momentum had shifted.  Playoffs are about runs, and most importantly, fourth quarter runs.  D'Antoni blew it.  He also blew it again in the first overtime, Amare Stoudemire was no help either, but the Phoenix coach had a chance to put Mano Ginobili on the line with six seconds to play and a three point lead.  Shaq had a chance to potentially foul him, he was caught playing off of Duncan protecting the lane, but with five fouls and no order to foul, he choose not to.  It would have better to have fouled out and maintained a one point lead with six seconds and the ball than to allow what happened -- an open three point shot to send it to overtime and it did.  Sorry Suns, but this series may have been decided with yesterday's game.  

     Now I finally get to express why the Jason Kidd, Devon Harris trade was doomed.  Forget that Harris just got his driver's license and has fifteen years in the league ahead of him and Kidd is closer to an AARP membership than most assistant coaches, it was the wrong move.  If winning a championship is what motivated the move, which it surely was, then what was necessary to look at is what does Jason Kidd bring that you need.  He brings poise and leadership, end of story.  Harris is quicker, which helps on both ends of the court, he can get to the basket and score, and most importantly, he opens the court up for his teammates.  Kidd is not a scorer, so teams do not fear him lighting them up, nor do they worry he will break down defenses.  The Harris/Nowitzki tandem was in the top two for scoring duo's (PG and PF) in the league.  Nowitzki is a jump shooter, an amazing one, but that's it.  He isolates as well as anyone in the league and gets his shot off.  He is not dependent on screen and rolls or a ton of picks.  At 7'0, he is easy to get the ball to.  What Harris gave them was a point guard that helped create space by breaking down the defense and thereby opening the floor for Dirk.  Jason Kidd can really only pass it to him, that's it.  It was a dumb and desperate move and the inexperienced Hornets are going to send Dallas home in the first round for the second year in a row.

    My Vincent Price team in this year's playoffs are the Utah Jazz, because they are the scariest team.  They are virtually unbeatable at home and all it takes for them to win a series that they don't have home court advantage in is to win one on the road and that is exactly what they did yesterday.  Houston will be done in five games and McGrady will continue to be winless in the post season.  Utah can start looking ahead, even though we know they won't, to the Lakers.  Assuming the Lakers win, which they will, more on them in a minute.  Utah has an excellent chance of beating the Lakers, particularly if Andrew Bynum doesn't return, or even if he does and is not up to speed.  Why? They have an amazing big point guard, Deron Williams and Center Mehmet Okur.  Did you have to read that twice? Yes, Okur. Because Okur can pull up and hit the three, Pau Gasol will have to guard him outside, which in theory, if Deron does his job and breaks down the Lakers defense, it will open up the middle, which is where the Lakers are vulnerable.  Even if help comes, which sometimes it does not, with Gasol up top, Boozer and the wiry Kirilenko will have a much easier time of getting second chance shots.  I think this will be a very exciting match up if it Okur's.

    Finally, the Lakers.  They will come out today fresh, hungry and with purpose.  I don't think Denver has the fortitude to beat the Lakers in a seven games series, not even in a five game, so I am not that worried.  I expect the bench of the Lakers will come up big and look for Sasha Vujacic, who could get under the skin of an armadillo, to goad Allen Iverson into a technical foul in one of the first two games.  Another reason why Denver won't beat the Lakers is A.I.  He is a great athlete but he doesn't make his teammates better, never has and never will.  He shoots a lot and his field goal percentage is one of the worst in the history of the game for someone with his scoring average.  He isn't known for his passing and neither is Carmelo Anthony.  Two great players but not great complimentary games.  If Denver wants to get past the first round next year, look for them to find a point guard and a player with the mental toughness to lead a disparate group.

    As far as the other games go, Detroit will not have a cake walk through the playoffs on their way to a supposed conference finals with Boston and look for that trouble to start today. Toronto and Orlando is a who's who for fourth place and Boston is the team everyone should fear, including the entire Western Conference. They play defense and the NBA playoffs are about fourth quarter runs and who plays the best half court game on both ends down the stretch. So far this year they are consistent on both ends.  Time will tell.   

     

Ben Howland and the 'Finale Four'

Ben Howland has now coached the UCLA Bruins to three straight final fours and has experienced the exact same outcome every year.  Both Florida teams of 2006 and 2007 were longer, more athletic and most importantly, were able to take away Howland's stiffling half court defense.  This years Memphis Tigers did the same thing.  How did they both do it? Florida had big enough players to see over the double team and move the ball quickly.   They had bigger, faster guards that could get into the paint easily, and they prevented the UCLA frontcourt from executing its offense.  Florida's punishing half court game was replaced in '08 by Memphis's uptempo transition style, that overwhelmed the Bruins, evidenced by the Tigers staggering fast break point advantage. 

     Defensively, the teams were very similar, which begs the question, why did Coach Howland play the same style of basketball all three years? Surely he knew the Florida team he faced in 2007 was eerily similar to the team a year before. We must assume he watched enough footage of Memphis in the tournament to know what they were going to bring.  So why play a slow down, dribble until the clock almost runs out offense? Perhaps because he choose philosophy over better judgement. What does that mean?  Howland's philosophy has been consistent since day one - everyone plays defense every second they are on the floor and then work the clock on offense. It's the latter that is problematic. The Bruins have very few set plays, so an expiring clock often leads to an improvised shot, not a reliable one.  The Bruins have had very shaky outside shooting; Josh Shipp, one of this years goats, was unable to open up the floor for the rest of the players.  And lastly, point guard, Darren Collison, the frontcourt goat the last two years, dribbles endlessly and fails to get the ball into the post. By holding to the philosophy of working the clock down, (that reasoning remains unclear), Coach Howland eschewed better judgement by insisting his team stick to his style over a better game plan that might have given them a shot at victory. That plan should have entailed running and creating scoring opportunities whenever possible. The Bruins have had amazing athletes and rarely do they run the floor or utilize the bench to their advantage. It most certainly should have included moving the ball around and working for the best shot, even if that meant shooting with twenty seconds to go on the clock.  This year, more than any other, it should have included getting the ball into the post, where Kevin Love was virtually unstoppable.

     Does Coach Howland know how to teach and make set plays?  Does he know how to create space for his shooters so they can get open looks coming off screens?  Does he know how to teach his kids an entry pass?  It's hard to believe he doesn't.  But all year the Bruins escaped by the skin of their teeth against lesser teams and programs.  In the end, his philosophy lost out to an NCAA tournament that is several cuts above the Pac 10 and Howland's extremely weak non conference schedule.  So unless Coach Howland changes his philosophy, despite the incredible achievement of three consecutive 30 win seasons and three final four appearances in a row, come next March he is probably looking at 120-plus wins, four final fours, and still no banner to hang in Pauley Pavilion. 

Why I started this blog

I probably should have written this before I wrote my first entry, but I think I needed to see if I would really do this.  So a few hours ago I picked something to write about, nothing controversial, but something I have given some thought to lately.  I plan on writing about sports topics because I am a passionate Los Angeles sports fan and the view from which I see things is rarely covered by any sports journalist out there.  I plan on spending more time writing about LA sports initially, but I would like to expand that to sports topics and themes outside the Los Angeles area.  I hope you enjoy the pieces.  Thanks, 

Joshua Stern

Why Phil Jackson deserves coach of the year

If you think back to training camp in 2007, all was not well in Laker Land.  They didn't land a big draft pick, not that he would've played much anyway as a rookie, more about that soon, there were no seemingly big free agent acquisitions, more about that soon as well, or trades, oh, and Kobe, their big star, the one they traded Vlade Divac for around ten years ago, was recorded in a parking lot dumping on the next child prodigy, Andrew Bynum.  The media circus that ensued looked like it would not only engulf the Lakers, but the entire NBA.  If you looked closely at Kobe on opening night against the Houston Rockets you could tell things were amiss in Camelot.  Cut to some cooling out of emotions and considerable improved play by a number of players, particularly the new child prodigy, Andrew Bynum, and voila, the ghost of Jerry West was temporarily quieted. Bynum's emergence was starting to take the shape everyone had hoped for and Derek Fisher was a real under-the- radar surprise with his calming influence, both on the court and in the locker room. And finally, Phil Jackson began allowing his youngest players to stay on the court and play through their mistakes, namely Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic.  Jackson has always been known for preferring experienced players over younger ones.  It appears as some sort of hazing ritual they must endure by riding the pine for incredibly long periods and, when they finally get to play, they get the hook out of games quicker than open mic performers on stage at The Apollo Theater.  Quite frankly, Phil is very difficult coach for young players, but that doesn't mean they don't learn from him.  Until this season, I have never seen a young player play the game with any type of confidence under his auspices.      

     How could the Zen Master have gone up a level?  What does a guy who has won nine championships have to learn?  Apparently, his new approach has paid off.  The bench mob, which the Lakers' second unit has coined themselves, is made up of all the guys that normally couldn't stay on the court past their first turnover.  Luke Walton, an off and on again starter, is the only player that has earned the respect from his coach that allows him to play through his mistakes, and now that has been extended to the aforementioned Farmar, Vujacic, and Vladimir Radmonovic.  It is also worth noting that the same privelige was afforded to the child prodigy, Bynum, when it was evident that the shadow of Shaq was quickly turning to vapor at the Staples Center.  

    It is safe to say that Kobe's attitude towards his teammates, perhaps as much off the court as on, is a tremendous factor in Coach Jackson and the Lakers success this season.  Add to this the addition of Pau Gasol, the power forward scoring threat the team so desperately needed, and an increase in overall team basketball I.Q. that is hard to beat when every player is on the same page, and you have a recipe for the expectations the team is hearing loudly everywhere they travel.  What also strikes me as most extraordinary, is the plethora of injuries the team has suffered this season, and yet they still are within striking distance of the best record in the Western Conference with two weeks to go in the season.  

   I know the calming of a training camp circus is not enough of a reason to honor Jackson with a special award that could easily go to Byron Scott or Greg Popovich or that, just because the Zen Master realized, consciously or not, that he had another level to go before he reached enlightenment, should make him any more worthy.  But take a look at what they have done on the court this year, take a look at who is doing it, not just Kobe or Lamar, and take a look at the other coaches and see if they have been as battle tested this season as Mr. Jackson.  I think you will come to the same conclusion, the Zen Master deserves to sit on the Lotus Leaf by himself.