The New East... and the Chicago Bulls

In the last blog I mentioned how excited I am for the NBA playoffs this year, so I can’t resist diving in real quick.  And who would have thunk it??  It looks like the East’s top four might be as good as the West’s this year… or maybe better!  If you had uttered that phrase anywhere near knowledgeable hoops junkies during the last twelve years, you would have been laughed right out of the gym (or sauna?), and rightfully so.  The “aughts” were an absolutely terrible decade for the NBA’s Leastern Conference.  While the monsters of the West battled among themselves (often times having five or six of the leagues top six teams) the East, on the other hand, started promoting sub .500 teams into the playoffs.  In 2004 the Knicks got in to the playoffs and they were ten games under .500!  Conversely, it became commonplace for Western Conference clubs to be left out of the playoffs with winning records.  Multiple teams in multiple years this happened.  It was absurd and unfair.  The West was just that much better.  

So as a result, very strong teams like Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, and even Portland (in the early part of the decade) who would have dominated had they played in the East, are mostly forgotten historically, while the New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Detroit Pistons and their players get bogus credit for all the Eastern Conference Championship Banners they won.  When for the most part, it was kinda like playing in the NIT tournament.  Seriously, who grieves for Chris Webber?  Steve Nash?  Bonzi Wells??? 

Today the West continues to have the better conference.  As of now three teams have winning records that will be left out of the playoffs, while in the East the eighth (and possibly seventh) playoff seeds will finish below the .500 mark.  While that is still despicable and embarrassing, and the top three teams in the league still reside in the West (including the current NBA Champs,) for the first time in years the East actually might make things interesting. 

  

The Boston Celtics have been the cream of the East for the past four years, and the Orlando Magic have risen to a legitimate contending level as well.  LeBron and Wade joining forces in Miami this year has solidly put them in the top four, but the best team in the East, right now, has to be the Chicago Bulls.

At the top of their roster the Bulls are laden with good and more importantly, complimentary basketball players.  Take note Miami.  Somebody, and I can’t remember who, made a great point the other day.  They said something like this, “If somebody told me I could have both LeBron and Dwayne Wade on my team, of course I would do it.”  BUT, fitting those similar pieces together within a real basketball situation (not just fantasy numbers) has been something of a nightmare for the Heat and Coach Spolstra.  There is only one ball to go around.  Yes, they still have a good record at 45-21 (winning against lesser talent) and they will certainly be a high playoff seed in the East, but there is still an enormous question mark that hovers over their late game-half court offense when the score is close… and who takes the shot?  So far in that situation they have been impossibly terrible.  This is not the case in Chicago.

When the Bulls took Derrick Rose with the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, I thought they should have taken Michael Beasley instead (because they really needed a low-post scorer.)  But boy was I wrong.  John Paxson and the Bulls brass obviously met with both players before making their choice, and after talking to Rose, they KNEW that he was the guy for them.  Why?  Because of his character.  Everybody in the draft’s top ten has great talent, but Rose was so much more than that.  He was smart, he was hungry, and he was a leader.  He was exactly what they needed.  Rose is the perfect example of this new trend of dominating point guards in the league.  Somehow, at a very young age, these guys just get it.  They care about winning more than making commercials or starting record labels.  They care about creating a legacy.  And Rose has been invaluable.   

With Rose running the show and Luol Deng playing brilliantly off the ball, the Bulls are just now getting solid contributions from their two big men, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, who missed dozens of games with injuries.  Only recently at full strength, the team is just now coming into it’s own, which is scary for the rest of the league.  Right before the season started there were rumors that the Nuggets were willing to trade their superstar Carmelo Anthony for Noah, virtually straight up, but John Paxson adamantly refused to include him in any deal.  I was shocked by this.  I thought he made a huge mistake by not seizing the opportunity to add a perimeter player of Melo’s ability, because their biggest weakness now was their outside shooting.  Although I knew how valuable Noah’s defensive intensity was (and of course I LOVE the guy… he lead my Gators to two NCAA Championships for crying out loud!!) I really thought Pax missed the boat on that one too, questioning his foresight.  And guess what?  I was wrong again!

The Bulls new head coach Tom Thibodeau, the defensive mastermind behind the Celtics last few years of championship contention as Doc Rivers’ top assistant, had a plan for Noah.  He was the second most important piece to their puzzle and was to be the anchor of the Bulls Defense, and that plan has pretty much worked to perfection.  Add in Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver off of the bench and the picture becomes clear.  The Bulls are, pretty much, a good Two-Guard away from winning the next five or six championships.  (Hmmmm isn’t that the position Michael Jordan revolutionized a few years back?  How interesting!  You think he thinks everyday about maaaaaybe coming back?  Yea, me too.) 

The bottom line is the Bulls play the right way.  They play amazing team defense and Derrick Rose’s ability to either score or find the open guy on offense is nothing short of a miracle.  There is no question mark in Chicago as to who is going to have the ball in his hands, and as long as Rose is healthy I really think the Bulls are the favorites in the East.  And he’s still getting Better!  But, even if the Celtics, Magic, Heat, Hawks, or (gulp) Knicks are somehow able to knock these guys out of the playoffs this year, the Bull’s future is downright scary.  Next year they will be in a position to add the aforementioned A or B list Shooting Guard to the squad (Jason Richardson anyone?) because Chicagoans know, Keith Bogans and Ronnie Brewer are more like K and L list, respectively.

So, assuming that happens what have you got?  A new Chicago Bulls Dynasty?  Another statue infront of the United Center?  Be afraid Eastern Conference.  Be veeeeeery afraaaaaaid!

This past summer, a pal of mine, and honorary Underdog, Kyle Fabel said that LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh had ruined the NBA when they decided to join up in Miami.  That creating a “super-team” was going to destroy the competitive balance in the league.  Well, I’ve already admitted twice in this blog when I was wrong, and Kyle was wrong in this case.  It’s not about the individual players.  It’s about how they fit together as a team.  How they can co-exist.  It’s about basketball… and the better team always wins. 

Derrick Rose knows that, Joakim Noah knows that, Tom Thibodeau knows that.  And now, so does Kyle.  And that lucky jerk is a Bulls Fan!!! 

You think he’s looking forward to the Playoffs!

Yea, me too.

And so are we. 

Thanks for reading,

Underdogs OUT!!! 

Carmelo, the Knicks, and the small-market conundrum...

What's up Underdogs?  Welcome back to the show.

I spent the last month in New York and the whole city is a buzz with excitement, because during that time, as you might have heard…
The Knicks got Carmelo Anthony!!!

Yes, the NBA these days seems to enjoy as much of its intrigue and attention from player movement (and speculation of said movement,) as from the actual games.  Possibly more.  Fans and Media members are extremely fascinated with players changing teams, and rightly so.  One player with specific needed strengths can make a more dramatic difference on a basketball court than any athlete can in any other American Sport.  So diehard Hoops fans just love trade speculation.  And this year, we got a ton.  (And not just talk this year but actual trades!)  It was the best trade deadline ever!

But it’s tricky business.  Because the league’s unique salary cap is dictated by maximum contracts, NBA teams' General Managers have to be creative and above-all intelligent, in the way they construct their teams.  The consequence of multiple missteps in their team-building strategy could be years upon years of bad basketball.  (Just ask the Knicks and the ever-delusional Isiah Thomas.) But if you make smart moves and plan well within a solid system, as a GM, you can prove invaluable to your franchise, your city, and your business partners.    

Will promising young Clipper, Blake Griffin, skip town
in five years?

The natural bi-product of this system is that at some point you, as a GM, have no control over what will happen.  For instance, let’s say you are a GM.  What happens if A) Your best player’s current Maximum contract is going to run out at the end of the season, and B) You offered him a Maximum extention on that contract on the first day you were allowed to, but C) He has refused to sign it?

Why?  Because he wants to play for the Knicks.   

This is what you would have had to deal with this year if you were the GM of the Denver Nuggets.  It is an element of a mostly-effective system that has really reared its ugly head this season.  And for the always image conscious NBA, this has become a bit of a problem.  Or has it?  You know what they say about publicity.  Even if this seems like a negative aspect of the NBA's inner workings, the media loves it.  They write articles about it every day, and NBA fans gobble it up!  Somehow I don't think that David Stern is losing any sleep.

Anyway, back to the point.  Since the beginning of the season, the Nuggets and Carmelo pretty much knew this was their last year together, but what to do?  No team was going to trade for Anthony (or give up anything of value) unless he signed an extension, so they wouldn’t be simply “renting” him for the last months of the season, and Carmelo repeatedly said he would only sign the extension with the Knicks.  But the Knicks didn’t have anything that Denver wanted!  It was a circular-logic problem and there appeared to be no answer.  Or, as Ned Flanders would say, this was a “Dilly of a Pickle!”        

So what happened?  Well eventually, after scratching their heads for two-thirds of the season, Denver finally decided that they didn’t want to be like Cleveland or Toronto this past summer (when those teams lost LeBron and Chris Bosh respectively… for nothing,) so they traded Melo to the Knicks.  Proving that if you’re good enough, you can get what you want.  It’s the way of the world right?  The Knicks get the guy they want under contract for the next 4 years and for the first time in ages, the future in New York actually looks bright.

The Mavericks have continued to contend with
solid personnel moves.  

Now naturally, this situation has many people up in arms about the future of a league where players seem to have an inordinate amount of power, sort of like the tail wagging the dog.  The Denver Nuggets played the role of victim masterfully in this case, and all other small-market teams located in “less desirable” cities are freaking out as a result.  They are terrified that they will lose their ability to compete with the larger markets, something along the lines of what we have seen happen in baseball.  But the key difference, is that the NBA has a salary cap.  So technically, the footing is far more even.  Two of the three best teams of the past decade in the NBA have been from San Antonio and Detroit.  And during that span teams from Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Oakland, Portland, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City have ventured deep into the playoffs.  Would that happen in baseball?  Never. 

The Clippers finally unloaded Baron Davis' ridiculous contract
at the deadline.  Is their historically inept leadership turning around?

So conspiracy theorists are really reaching when they accuse the NBA of having a large-market bias.  From a business stand-point the league is almost certainly at its healthiest when the dominant teams are in Los Angeles and Boston, and then maybe throw in Chicago and New York, if possible.  And yes, that happens to be where we are today, (and if I was a conspiracy theorist, the Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett trades would be exhibits A and B respectively.)  BUT, the Celtics were bad for seventeen years!  San Antonio and Detroit won five championships in eight years!  And the New York Knicks have been the laughingstock of the league for ten years!  (Not to mention the LA Clippers thirty years of futility.)  It seems like none of these things would have happened if David Stern was really pulling the strings like Stromboli.         

Can D'Antoni lead Amar'e and Melo to a Championship in NY?

So, is the league “happier” when large-market dollars are dominating the attention of the league.  Probably.  Just ask any economist.  But I definitely believe that the league has created a system where small-market teams can compete, AND be fiscally responsible.  You have to be very smart and a little bit lucky (San Antonio and Oklahoma City.)  And yes, you may eventually lose your “star” player, but Denver and Cleveland had Melo and LeBron for seven years respectively.  Phoenix had Amar’e for eight years.  It’s not like they came to town, didn’t like it, and bolted.  Build a winner around them and they will stay.  Period.  Make questionable moves, never define an effective system, create an aura of instability… and they will leave.  It’s the way of the world.  Why should basketball be any different? 

So here’s to the NBA and what will certainly be the best playoffs in many years.  The basketball this year has been amazing!  And don’t worry too much, about the future, small-market owners and fans.  Don't cry foul, the roof's not caving in.  If you build it… they will come.

Thanks for reading as always,

UnderDogs OUT!