Kiki a Net, DerMarr a Spur

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Former Nuggets are on the move.   

Kiki Vandeweghe has been hired by the New Jersey Nets to fill a front office role under Rod Thorn.  This is undoubtedly a case of Thorn paying Kiki back for not only taking Kenyon Martin off of the Nets hands, but also giving New Jersey three first round picks for the right to do so.   

Kiki did a tremendous job tearing apart a horrible team with a couple of huge contracts and rebuilding from scratch.  The Nuggets went from a laughingstock with no future to a perennial playoff team in just three seasons thanks to Kiki’s work.  He made a good trade that landed the Nuggets both Camby and Nene, knew when to sell high on Raef LaFrentz getting rid of Juwan Howard’s atrocious deal in the process, he avoided giving horrible contracts to the Anthony Goldwires and Tariq Abdul-Wahads of the world and when he did spend money he did it reasonably, for the most part, as he signed Andre Miller and Marcus Camby to flat contracts that did not include an exponential jump in value from year to year.  In fact, he was able to get them each to accept a reduction in salary in the second years of those contracts in order to maximize the Nuggets’ cap space that resulted in the sign and trade for K-Mart. 

Of course, that is not the entire story of the Vandeweghe era.  He made the aforementioned gaff of giving up three first round draft picks in the sign and trade for Martin.  That contract has become one of the worst deals in the league although to be fair no one had any idea Kenyon would need microfracture surgeries on both knees at this point in his career.  But we all knew the Nuggets overpaid for Martin both monetarily and in resources throwing in the three first rounders.   The Nets gave no indication that they would have matched an offer sheet and in fact what was coming out of New Jersey make it sound like they would definitely not match an offer sheet, which would have made Martin’s contract much more reasonable.  The offer sheet would have been for one less season with lower annual salaries.  However, Kiki gave up the three first round picks just to make sure he did not have to wait the 15 days the Nets had to match.   

Add in the fact that from everything I have read and heard Kiki would have drafted Darko ahead of Melo, he drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Ricky Sanchez and he drafted Nene ahead of Amare Stoudemire. Throw that all in a pot and mix it together and you see a GM who basically deconstructed a team, spent the team’s cap space somewhat responsibly and misappropriated a handful of draft picks.   

That record is spotty at best. 

Kiki put the Nuggets back on the map, but some of his decisions also kept them from reaching their final destination.  Kiki was never afraid to do something controversial, but it is difficult to know if that is ego (I will show everyone how smart I am) or intestinal fortitude.   

I cannot wait to see how the Thron/Vadeweghe administration handles the many issues that are facing the Nets.  Maybe Thorn brought Kiki on board to help him deconstruct the mess that he has made. 

In other news DerMarr Johnson has been signed by the San Antonio Spurs.  I always liked DerMarr as a ninth or tenth man.  He seemed to be a solid defender when he challenged himself to be and was an effective shooter from the corner.  During the Nuggets amazing second half run in the 04-05 season it seemed like DerMarr was automatic form the corner, especially in the first quarter, after which many of their games had already been decided. 

However, last season his three point percentage dropped from 35% down to 22% and without giving a consistent effort on defense, rebounding or passing he essentially lost all of his value. 

It will be interesting to see if he can get on the floor for San Antonio.  Free Agent signee Ime Udoka can not seem to get off the bench and he is a consistent defender and a solid shooter from that corner spot.  The Spurs seem to keep their fifteenth spot on the roster in constant flux.  DerMarr may not be around for very long.

Rumors and Projections That Make no Sense

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

First the KG trade rumors.  It is obvious that the Wolves are working to trade KG before the draft in order to land some picks.  That makes sense.  His value will drop after the draft and bottom out at the trade deadline.  They need to make a deal now.

What makes no sense, if the Stoudemire to Atlanta or Charlotte rumors are true (and that is a big if), and Phoenix is willing to trade Amare, why on earth would Minnesota not take him?  I know cap space and draft picks offer the siren song of the unknown and create excitement, but Amare is an absolute stud who can score at will.  He was rusty for the first month or so of last season and went on a tear after that.  I realize that Minnesota will not have cap space in the future, but if they just nab Amare, they get a top flight player for KG.  What good will cap space do them?  What major free agent will ever want to sign there knowing that they have failed to build around their star player for all of these years?  Minnesota will not get anything better than Amare when they finally trade KG.  They should just do a deal straight up with Phoenix right now.

Why would Milwaukee be interested in Mike Conley?  They have a point guard that they can easily keep as long as they pony up the cash.  Their team will not get better if they draft a PG just to let the one they have go.  Sure they will probably have to pay a little more than Mo Williams is worth to keep him, but the whole goal is to build a team, not replace one player with another.  If they can waive goodbye to Williams and then sign a top free agent with what they save then fine, but who do they think they can sign that will help?  It is doubtful that Conley will even be available to them at #6, but it still bugs me that they were ever considering Conley.

If Joakim Noah is such a great team guy, why is he telling Milwaukee and Minnesota not to draft him?  If he was such a team oriented player, why not go with whoever drafts you and work hard to make that team better?  Steve Francis pulls this with Vancouver and he is an ungrateful jerk.  Noah does it and he is still a media darling.  What’s the difference?

Why doesn’t David Stern just appoint someone to run the Hawks until this ownership issue is resolved?  Having a team that is both such an important position in the draft and being ripe to help implement a major trade mired in conflict is screwing everything up.  If they could have landed Stoudemire, but one owner would not allow it out of spite for the other owners someone should have stepped in and forced things through.  How good would the Hawks be with Amare?  Shelden Williams does not look so bad at the four with Amare on one side and Josh Smith on the other.  Throw in Joe Johnson and that deep bench and you have a very dangerous team.  Now on the other hand, add in Al Horford or Yi Jianlian and Acie Law and what do you have?  Another lottery appearance, that’s what.

What is keeping Boston and Indiana from making deals?  Boston needs to show some progress and Indiana needs to start over.  They are both active in trade discussions, but like I said earlier, player values spike around the draft, unless they have an expiring contract, then their value spikes at the trade deadline.  Neither team is working with a large expiring contract so get something done already.  What does Boston do that will improve them at #5?  Nothing.  Sure they can land another solid prospect, but that is it.  Maybe if they take Jeff Green or Corey Brewer they have a player who will help from day one, but will they be in the playoffs this season?  Next season?  Five years from now?  No one knows.  This team is going nowhere without a trade.  Indiana needs to get rid of Jermaine O’Neal.  It sounds like they are trying, but they need to do something sooner rather than later.

I am hoping that we get some major trades going tonight, but I would not count on it.  At least there is enough suspense surrounding where all the top players will end up since it really is a crap shoot from pick three through 12 or so. 

David Stern Gone Wild!

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

Crank up the late night commercials with the drunk girls committing all kinds of debauchery.  Is David Stern looking into a camera in his office and slowly pulling up his dress shirt?  It is a possibility because we have another episode of David Stern Gone Wild queued up in the DVD player.

 

Anyway, I will try to keep from beating a dead horse, or a dead playoff season, but with the Nuggets out and the Jazz sitting in the Western Conference Finals (how the Sam Hill did that happen?) awaiting the winner of the Suns/Spurs series I have to write a little more about the suspension to Amare and Diaw. 

I just listened to David Stern’s performance on The Dan Patrick Show and I was pretty shocked at his demeanor.  He was very combative, disingenuous and sarcastic.  I have no idea how many other interviews he had done to that point, I am guessing not more than a handful, but he escalated the conversation to a contentious debate immediately.  I was impressed that Dan Patrick was able to maintain his composure.  Stern made the interview very difficult from start to finish. 

Patrick tried to make the point that this was not a couple of scrubs in a mid season game, but this was an All-NBA player had been suspended form a crucial playoff game.  Stern instantly mocked him saying that he will take note next time not to apply the rule to star players even though this is a valid point that.  The situation calls for a more significant look at the rule and how it should be applied. 

Stern did say that he was not pleased with the result of the penalty and he would be happy to work with owners to change the rule if the owners so desire.  He played the victim the entire time claiming that he had no choice but to follow the rule as it was written, which he believes leaves no room for interpretation. 

Stern seems to revel in the perception that he will do the “right” thing every time based on the rules.  It does not even matter if in the short term the consequences for his league are negative.  He knew he would take the bullet and this would be an unpopular decision.  In his mind he has stood up for what is right, but it is more about what he believes the sponsors of the league want to see.  This decision was about his view of himself and how he wants to be perceived by others than about the NBA and what is best for the fans that make the league go. 

It did take courage, in a masochistic way, to implement the rule based on a strict interpretation, but it would have also taken courage to decide that Amare and Diaw could play tonight.  Doing the right thing is not always doing the hard thing.  We could have all taken umbrage that the rule did indeed work and no one from either bench entered the altercation. 

It has been pointed out in many places that it is natural to stand up for your teammates, especially you small point guard with a bad back.  Add in the fact that the Spurs (Bruce Bowen) are doing all that can be done to rough up Nash and Amare and can nay of us blame Amare and Diaw for how they reacted?  Then in a split second, they realized that they could not rush onto the court and they returned to the bench.  Did what they do in any way threaten to heighten the tensions or escalate the altercation between the two teams?  Obviously it did not.

This decision is designed to make a statement that there is no place for violence in the NBA.  Stern believes that if they stick to the strict interpretation of this rule that players will learn to sit still with their hands in their laps when any potential brouhaha is simmering.  This position is preposterous.  If no suspension had been levied, would players instantly begin running away from the immediate vicinity of their bench in order to get involved in fights?  Of course not, and that is the bottom line of this argument.  Would we be heading down a slippery slope leading the NBA to lose control of its players?  A thousand times no. 

The rule has worked and continues to work.  It worked in New York when the Nuggets and Knicks got into it and it worked Monday in San Antonio, but apparently it did not work well enough for David Stern because Amare and Diaw got too close to being to close.

In my previous post I gave a couple of alternatives that the league could have chosen in order to avert this very situation, but in looking at the rule closer, my favorite one is not an option.  I wanted to see Amare and Diaw sit out the first game of next season, but the rule states that any suspension must be served the following game, unless enough players are suspended that the team cannot field the minimum of eight players.  Talk about no room for interpretation.

The two remaining logical alternatives that the league could have worked from are Amare and Diaw did not leave the immediate vicinity of the bench, or that this was not a true altercation as no fight took place.  Either one of those would have preserved the spirit of the law and allowed the game tonight to be played at full strength.  It is clear that the term “altercation” is open for interpretation because Stu Jackson claimed in a separate interview that when Tim Duncan was on the court there was no altercation between Francisco Elson and James Jones.  I am sure we could come up with a more vague word than altercation, but it would not be easy.

It is sad that the league could not realize that they could maintain the integrity of the rule and still allow the actions of Amare and Diaw to go unpunished.  Doing so would not have caused an eruption of bench clearing brawls nor would it have ushered in a new era of violence.  It just would have preserved this series that is about all we have left to enjoy in this playoff season.  Then again, maybe
Phoenix plays out of their minds tonight and pull off a true upset that will change the balance of power and signal an end to the Spurs era. 

I guess even without Amare we all better watch tonight, you never know when history might be made.  That is what is so great about sports even when commissioners go wild.

Suspension of Common Sense

Born a Nuggets Fan has moved to Pickaxe and Roll

The NBA has frustrated its fans once again.  There were many different ways that the NBA could have avoided making the decision to suspend Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for Game 5 of what is probably the most anticipated series of the post season. 

The rule states that players cannot leave the immediate area of the bench during an altercation. 

The league could have determined that they never crossed the border for the coach’s box and thus had not left the immediate area of the bench.

The league could have determined that this was not an “altercation.”  This was the reasoning that they cited when they decided to ignore the instance where Tim Duncan walked out on the court after Francisco Elson and James Jones got in each other’s way after an Elson dunk in the first half.  If there was no altercation, why was Duncan on the floor?  He definitely was not going to the scorer’s table to check in either.  (Can everyone please stop calling for Bruce Bowen to be suspended for leaving the bench too?  All he did was reach out and pull Duncan back.  Again, I dislike Bowen as much as anyone, but being irrational like that does not forward our case.)

The league could have decided that this was not a big deal, which is accurate because it wasn’t, and ignored the rule.

Any of those arguments could be seen as inconsistent with previous league decisions (thanks for pointing that out so openly in the post game show Charles).  I can understand why the league may be hesitant to apply one of those solutions even though they should have.  Here are some other options that would not have called for Jackson and Stern to look the other way and would have kept their tough guy personas in tact.

The league could have decided that the rule would be enforced, but suspensions would not take place until the next regular season. 

If they really wanted to be tough guys, they could have decided that Duncan would be suspended for game 5 as well for leaving the bench during the “non-altercation” mentioned above.  This would have left both teams roughly equally depleted and reinforced the do not ever leave the bench during any action that could fall under the guise of an altercation for everyone.

I believe that the deciding factor for the suspensions was the fact that the NBA suspended a handful of important Knick players several years ago and they lost the series to the Heat because of it.  In a roundabout way the league probably believed that had they not punished the Suns now, the Knick fans would have felt like they had been screwed retroactively. 

There are a couple of very big differences between the Knicks’ actions and the Suns’ actions.  There actually was a fight, which is the term that should be written into the rule instead of altercation, in the instance where the Knicks were suspended.  There was no fight in the Suns/Spurs “altercation.”  More importantly, this rule was designed for teams like the Knicks who were ready to throw down at a moment’s notice, especially when the Heat were involved.  The Suns are about as far away from that type of team as possible.  Not only are the Suns not fighters, they are consistently labeled as “soft.” 

The NBA has shown that they are willing to look at other issues on a case by case basis.  Why not this one?  Fights have been largely phased out in the NBA, a great deal of the credit for that goes to the rule in question.  The fact that the league is different now and much less violent, should allow the league to bend a little on the interpretation of that rule. 

I am upset beyond words that the series has been hampered by this silly abuse of power by David Stern and Stu Jackson, but when all is said and done, the blame ultimately is at the feet of the Suns’ coaching staff.  Players are going to get fired up and want to help a teammate when they are drilled with an unnecessarily hard foul or cheap shot, but coaches are supposed to be more cerebral than that. 

The replay shows the Suns’ coaches running in the direction of the “altercation” with arms flailing and mouths agape.  It is not easy to see because all the action took place at the edge of the Suns bench, but in some replays you can see the Spurs’ bench and it is easy to notice a Spurs coach standing with his back to the action hands and feet spread out wide blocking Spurs players from leaving the immediate area of their bench. 

Ultimately, the Suns did break the rule leaving themselves open to a close minded, authoritarian decision by Jackson and Stern, but for the good of the game, a better decision could have, and should have, been applied in this situation.