Assessing Draft winners and losers three days after the Draft is for losers.
How the hell do I know if Gerschon Yabusele is going to pan out? I just learned how to spell Gerschon Yabusele without peeking.
In the era of one-and-done college players, and international players looking to make their marks, it’s sillier than ever to guess who’s going to be great and who will not before they’ve had a single practice with their new teams. Roles will change as their bodies change; playing time will increase or decrease depending on what teams do in free agency and trades, and impatient owners can torpedo a budding career in a city before it even begins.
Better to just make some observations based on last week’s activities, up to and including Thursday’s Draft in Brooklyn. These aren’t grades and they aren’t predictions; they’re exactly as I said: observations, with an eye toward the next couple of years.
1. Sam Hinkie can sleep well. His work in Philly is done; he left the 76ers with a potential future — even with a few missteps and whiffs along the way — and that’s all a general manager can do. Ben Simmons will have some tough nights as a rookie, as all rookies do, but the skill set he brings to the table made him a no-brainer first pick for new GM Bryan Colanglelo. Timothe Luwawu and Furkan Korkmaz were also slated to go much higher than they did, but at least one needs to flash in order to justify taking two more Euro guards in the first round. It’s great to hear that Joel Embiid has been cleared to start practicing, but Philly can’t count on him being able to stay healthy after two years on the shelf; taking a big like Michigan State’s Deyonta Davis with one of those later firsts may have been more prudent.
2. Sam Presti is no coward. With a week to go before Kevin Durant decides the immediate futures of Presti and everyone else in Oklahoma City, the Thunder’s GM sent Serge Ibaka to Orlando. It was the kind of deal that would be a gamble for an eighth-seeded playoff team, much less one that was a win away from the Finals. But time and time again since taking over in OKC, Presti has been proactive rather than reactive. He took the heat for trading James Harden a year before he probably had to (and, four years later, that deal doesn’t look so lopsided against the Thunder now, does it?); he moved Jeff Green, who was closer to Durant than anybody at the time, when he needed a center, and he moved Ibaka, who was OKC’s best all-around defender the last several years, just as Durant is deciding whether to stay or go.
The parallels between the Thunder and the NFL’s New England Patriots are scary; just as with the Patriots and Tom Brady, OKC is clear eyed and sober as a judge when it comes to all non-KD/Westbrook personnel. Brady/KD/Westbrook stay; there is a sell-by date on almost everyone else. Getting Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the rights to rookie Domantas Sabonis for Ibaka made plenty of basketball and salary cap sense. But doing it so close to Durant’s decision day took some steady hands. And other body parts.
3. It’s hard to be Danny Ainge. The Celtics’ GM has made no secret the last couple of years that he’s wanted to package his cache of Draft picks as part of a deal for an All-Star or better level player. Which is part of the problem. Everyone knows how desperate Boston is to get a big name to TD Garden, so no one is willing to give in. You keep hearing around the league that the Cs value their young players more than others do, and that often gets in the way of a potential deal being consummated. Ainge went feast/famine with Cal’s Jaylen Brown with the third pick, and he was right to verbally smack Cs fans that booed the choice when it was announced Thursday. No one has any idea what an 18-year-old kid will or won’t become, and at the moment of his greatest joy to date, it’s so selfish and unbecoming to boo him.
Didn’t mind the potential stash picks in Guerschon Yabusele and Ante Zizic later in the first; Boston already has almost two teams’ worth of players on site, many going back and forth from the D League, and will only add to that with second-rounders Demetrius Jackson and Ben Bentil. In a world where patience is waiting 30 seconds for your Instagram picture to post, Ainge is building Boston the right way — slowly, methodically. He is fortunate he’s in a city where that isn’t excoriated.
4. I’ve met and interviewed Thon Maker. Really, really nice kid, earnest, will work extremely hard. I’m rooting for him. I just am not sure he should have been the 10th pick in the first round of the Draft, by Milwaukee. He certainly fits the kind of player Jason Kidd and John Hammond have gone after the last few years — long and active, and potentially an incredibly disruptive wing player. But the Bucks need shooting. They were dead last in the league this past season in made three-pointers (440, exactly half of what the number two team in made threes, Cleveland, made — and more than 600 threes behind the first-place Warriors). They were 22nd in three-point percentage. They already have lots of length with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and John Henson. What they need is some folks who can knock down some jumpers. If they couldn’t move up to get Buddy Hield or Jamal Murray, the next best bet was Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine.
5. The Suns have approximately 7,423 point guards. Adding Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis in the second round to go with Eric Bledsoe and Brevin Knight gives Phoenix a near-monopoly on Kentucky floor generals, to go along with more Bluegrassers in shooting guards Devin Booker and Archie Goodwin. In a league where guards now have primacy, it’s true that you can never have too many guys who can handle the ball. But the Suns need some threes and fours of consequence, too. They did well in that regard by snagging Dragan Bender at four, then moving up to get Washington’s Marquiss Chriss with the eighth pick from Sacramento; he’s certainly athletic and has major upside. But they, like Boston, have a glut at guard, and no easy way to alleviate it.
6. There is much to be said for not overthinking a Draft pick, so bravo to the Pelicans for taking Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield at six. Ditto Memphis, which got Mike Conley, Jr., insurance by taking Vanderbilt’s Wade Baldwin, Jr., at 17. (Were they obligated to take another Junior?) New Orleans needed a two guard who could play off of Anthony Davis, and it picked the best two guard available. The Pels didn’t talk themselves into taking someone else with upside or a younger international guard; they went with the guy who took his team to the Final Four and shot 46 percent on threes this season. Good for them. Need, meet Buddy. Buddy, meet need. Now go over to the weakside and wait for AD to find you.
7. Sacramento…huh? Now, I’m not much into the mock draft thing as you know, but no one I spoke with in the weeks before the Draft had Greek center Georgios Papagiannis anywhere near the top half of the first round. He certainly was on Draft lists and certainly has potential as a young big man, but…13th overall? Don’t the Kings already have an All-Star center in DeMarcus Cousins? It’s hard to believe Papagiannis wouldn’t have been there at 22 or 28, where the Kings (smartly) managed to wrangle extra first-round picks in trades with Phoenix and Charlotte. A team in need of long-term backcourt help like the Kings had lots of other options: Dejounte Murray or Denzel Valentine or Wade Baldwin or Malik Beasley all would have made sense there. Papagiannis just doesn’t. Not at 13. But, time will tell. Malachi Richardson at 22 and Skal Labissiere at 28 were fine picks, particularly Labissiere, who was projected a high Lottery pick at the beginning of the college season.
8. Denver tried to move up to get Hield, couldn’t, then settled in and made three rock-solid first-round picks: Kentucky’s Jamal Murray at seven, Spanish big Juan Hernangomez at 15 and Florida State’s Malik Beasley at 19. All of them should contribute immediately, with Murray almost certain to become a strong complement in the backcourt to second-year point Emmanuel Mudiay. GM Tim Connelly took a lot of heat in his first season, but he’s added a lot of talent the last two years. The Nuggets don’t have to wait any more for Danilo Gallinari or Wilson Chandler or any other vets to come back from injuries. They’ve got a good young nucleus, a good young coach in Mike Malone and a good chance to make a move up next season in the west.
9. Starting with just one meh first-round pick at 20, Indiana did quite well, maneuvering into the three-team deal with Atlanta and Utah that netted the Pacers a starting point guard next season in Jeff Teague, then dealing that first-rounder to Brooklyn for a starting power forward in Thaddeus Young. Larry Bird said he wanted to play faster next year, and now he’s got a starting five that should do just that. (Myles Turner…geesh.) And adding hard-working, overachieving Georges Niang from Iowa State late in the second was solid work, too. With Young under team control for two years at a reasonable-these-days $25 million total, the Pacers will have plenty of cap flexibility to extend Teague and get him into the $14-$18 million annual range of most starting points these days, and still have a little leftover to add another player in free agency.
10. The Spurs, again, got an incredibly talented player who’ll likely become a star in San Antonio at the end of the first round in Washington freshman guard Dejounte Murray, whom most mock drafts had going in the top 15. He gives the Spurs yet another solid piece with which to surround All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge in the post Big Three era, along with Kyle Anderson and Jonathan Simmons and 6-foot-10 Latvian forward Davis Bertans, who’s expected to come to the States this year, five years after San Antonio got his rights in the 2011 Draft. I’m sure that in quiet moments, Spurs GM R.C. Buford wonders why, year after year, teams ahead of his in the Draft pass on talent that he and his team can then pounce on and continue the NBA’s longest streak of excellence since Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics.
But that’s none of his business.
11. New York and Miami and Washington, one hopes, had restful, contemplative evenings, maybe spent with friends and loved ones, as they watched the drama unfold without their participation.
NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT…
Are the Cleveland Cavaliers positioned to do it again next season?
Perhaps LeBron James just had the city wrong when he talked about the multiple titles he was planning to win.
Sports legacies dance on the head of a pin. If one more shot by the Golden State Warriors three goes in during the final four minutes of Game 7, I am surely writing this morning about the nascent Golden State dynasty, and how the Warriors have changed the game, forever. Conversely, I would be writing about how the Cavaliers now have to trade Kevin Love, and how LeBron James is rapidly running out of chances to win a title outside of Miami.
But, it didn’t. And, the Cavaliers did.
No team had ever rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship. But James has made the seemingly impossible possible before. At 31, with any luck that his back holds up, and the way he takes care of himself, he’s probably got another three or four quality seasons left in him, which should dovetail nicely with Kyrie Irving’s emergence as the franchise’s Next.
Having conquered the most psychic hurdles — the city’s 52-year championship-free drought — Cleveland is now mentally and emotionally free. The burden is lifted. James and the Cavs don’t have to operate under the “yeah, but” cloud any more. Everything will be downhill from here on out.
“When they talked about it, and they were dismissive of it, it’s because we didn’t feel any of it,” General Manager David Griffin insisted after the Cavs’ clincher. “‘Bron did, ’cause he’s from there. None of (the rest of) us are from there … the 52 years didn’t have anything to do with us. This was the only time that we’d all been together. So none of us were weighing down. We hadn’t been together for two years and not won. This was the first time we’d been together. The way these guys felt was, ‘I can’t wait to see the city. I want to be on the parade float. But we have to do this (bleep) for us.'”
There is no guarantee that the Cavs will rip off several titles in a row, but things are lined up for Cleveland nicely, for several reasons:
1. The Eastern Conference is better top to bottom than it’s been in years, but there is no obvious threat to Cleveland’s hegemony
The Toronto Raptors have a great guard tandem in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan (DeRozan, a free agent, is reportedly not even going to take meetings with other teams when able at the end of this week, so that he can quickly hammer out a new deal with the Raptors). But the Raptors don’t have many young players that still have upside. They’re maxing out right now with what they have, and their reinforcements like 2013 first-rounder Bruno Caboclo indeed still look a year or two away from being a year or two away. At any rate, Cleveland shooed them away in the Eastern Conference finals without much real sweating.
The Atlanta Hawks have a solid, 50-win team that it is in the process of dismantling, after trading starting point guard Jeff Teague to Indiana last week in a three-team deal that netted Baylor forward Taurean Prince for the Hawks in the first round. Majority owner Tony Ressler acknowledged his impatience to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with getting swept by the Cavs two postseasons in a row. And sources indicate Atlanta was looking to make an even bigger splash; there aren’t many untouchables left on the roster, which will be impacted most by what All-Star free agent Al Horford does.
The Miami Heat are in limbo until there’s resolution one way or the other on Chris Bosh’s health, and even if he’s cleared to play again next season, how can there be any hope he’ll be able to play long-term after he’s been shut down the last two seasons? Charlotte is a solid team that played great this season, but Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lin and Al Jefferson are all going to have suitors in free agency, and it’s hard seeing the Hornets being able to keep them all. And on (Detroit Pistons) and on (Indiana Pacers) and on (Boston Celtics).
2. Irving made it through a season healthy, and showed what a force he can be in the postseason
The difference between the Cavs and Warriors this postseason compared with last is pretty simple: Cleveland was the healthy team this time around, and Golden State was not. And Irving’s presence this year after fracturing his kneecap in Game 1 of The 2015 Finals tipped the scales. When he was in attack mode, as he was in Game 3, the Warriors had no answers.
Already an All-Star, Irving became James’s co-star when it mattered most, averaging 27 points and shooting 40 percent on 3-pointers against the Warriors. And when you make the Finals-securing 3-pointer, as Irving did in the last minute of Game 7, you go to another level. It’s not that Irving lacked confidence before, but getting it done in such a clutch situation raises your standing.
There’s nothing that should get in Irving’s head now. He’s proven himself on the biggest stage; he’s an All-Star, an Olympian and a champion. He doesn’t have to be the face of the franchise anymore while James is in town, but he can take over the heavy lifting during the regular season.
3. Kevin Love can buy, and not rent anymore.
Up until Game 7, Love was having a terrible Finals. He’d suffered a concussion in Game 2, missed Game 3 altogether, was wholly ineffective in Game 4, and got in early foul trouble in Game 6, thus saving Lue the embarrassment of having to bench him. But in the game the Cavs had to have, Love delivered with 14 rebounds in 30 minutes and a +19 plus-minus — especially impressive considering how well the Warriors’ Draymond Green (32 points) played opposite him.
“Luckily, I set my (concussion protocol) baseline so low, so I could pass it,” Love joked after Game 4.
But Love passed another test. James can trust him to be productive when it matters most. That will likely squelch any internal talk about trading him, even though teams like Boston will surely keep trying to pry him away. James gets pretty loyal toward people who help him win rings; witness how much he pushed to keep Mike Miller, who banged in seven 3-pointers in the Heat’s clinching Game 5 win over Oklahoma City in 2012.
And, it bears repeating: the $68 million or so he’s due the next three years before his player option in 2019-20 is going to look like minimum wage five years from now, compared with what other power forwards are going to get on new deals. Everyone knows how hard it is to find a talented player willing and able to accept being a third option; even if they were so inclined, who’s out there that Cleveland could get who could handle such an odd job better?
4. Tristan Thompson, Beast Mode
No one is talking about the $80 million over five years he got last summer any more. Not after averaging a double-double (10.3 points, 10.1 rebounds) and shooting 64 percent from the floor in The Finals. His performance against Golden State was even more impressive considering how ordinary he’d been offensively against Toronto and Atlanta (the Cavs didn’t need much inside with all the 3-pointers they rained on the Raptors and Hawks).
But against the Warriors, Thompson teamed with James to batter Golden State in screen/roll action throughout the series, and made himself available for lobs and dunks time and again, as Cleveland sliced up the Dubs’ interior D. He’s not a playmaking five, the new nomenclature of the advanced stats crowd. With James on the ball, he’ll never have to be. He just has to be big and long and active like he was against the Warriors.
5. Playoff Lue!!
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said constantly during the season that the year after a team wins its first championships is much easier. Roles are established, players know the system better and confidence is at an all-time high. And that’s true as well for the Cavs, who weathered the mid-season firing of Coach David Blatt, got themselves together just as the playoffs started, and thrived as Tyronn Lue made lineup adjustments that worked.
Cleveland went three-ball crazy while rampaging through the East in the playoffs as Channing Frye and Love shot the Hawks and Raptors into the summer. But Lue glued Frye to the bench against Golden State, along with Matthew Dellavedova, while Richard Jefferson’s guile and wiles, and Tristan Thompson’s tenaciousness inside, allowed the Cavs to deal with the Warriors’ Lineup of Death successfully.
Yet none of that would matter if Lue didn’t have James’ respect. That was the ultimate issue between James and Blatt, and that wasn’t all Blatt’s fault. But James just was always closer to Lue, listened more to Lue and was willing to be coached by Lue. It was a respect borne of mutual understanding.
“When you grow up in the inner city, where you guys grew up, you’re always stacked against the numbers,” James told our NBA TV crew on the set after Game 7. “You’re always like, okay, he’s going to be another statistic. There’s no way he’s going to make it out and be something other than society (says) he should be. Myself and TLue — him from Mexico City, Missouri, me from Akron, Ohio, single-parent households — we knew the struggle, where every single day is really not promised … from TLue going from Mexico, Missouri, to going to Nebraska, and being drafted to the Lakers, and me making it out of the inner city and being drafted to my hometown team, we had a lot of things in common.”
Lue struggled with taking over for Blatt. They liked, and like, each other, even though both interviewed for the head job. And Lue knew the whispers that always rise in some circles when the assistant takes over for the head coach.
But Lue’s resume was one that a player like James could respect, and did.
He played with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal on two championship teams in Los Angeles. He played with Michael Jordan in Washington during Jordan’s final days as a player, and he was one of the only guys on those non-playoff teams that Jordan truly respected.
Doc Rivers hired Lue as an assistant in Boston in 2011, two years after Lue’s retirement as a player. Lue went with Rivers to the Clippers’ bench in 2013. And the Cavaliers thought enough of Lue that even though he didn’t get their head coaching job, they made him the highest paid assistant in the league to be Blatt’s associate head coach.
James knew all of that — and how Lue grew up. It made their partnership an easy and natural one. Lue barked at James when he needed to be barked at, and he got everyone else to play faster and embrace the three. It didn’t happen all at once, but it happened.
6. Dan Gilbert’s Wallet-Sized Wallet
Gilbert has never shied away from spending when his team was a true contender, and with a payroll well in excess of $100 million going forward, he’s still all in.
An owner like Gilbert is exactly what the repeater tax implemented after the 2011 lockout was supposed to discourage: someone who didn’t mind spending mid-level or greater prices to keep quality rotation players. But does anyone think Gilbert won’t pay to keep free agents like J.R. Smith or Jefferson — who now says he wants to play next season after announcing his retirement after Game 7 — or any other vet who’d like to chase a ring the next couple of years? (Of course James, technically a free agent on Friday, will return to Cleveland; that’s just bookkeeping.) And Cleveland won’t be subject to the repeater tax until at least 2018, even if they’re over the tax threshold in 2016-17.
7. That Dude is That Dude
“He’s the best player in the game,” Griffin said. “It’s not even close.”
There are people in the Bay, San Antonio and Oklahoma City who may still disagree. But James has had more meaningful Junes more often than anyone else playing this decade. His teams have made six straight Finals. He’s now 3-3 in those series, with three Finals MVP awards, and in the two Game 7s he’s played against the Spurs and Warriors during that run, his averages: 32 points, 11.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 44.7 percent shooting from the floor, 89 percent from the line.
What James did in the last three games of The Finals is the equal of anyone’s performance in a single championship series in the last 40 years — and I mean anyone’s, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, O’Neal, Bryant and Tim Duncan. He completely took control of the series, and a historic 73-win team could do nothing but hope he missed the jumpers it conceded him, because it couldn’t do anything from keeping him from the front of the rim.
James was only better against OKC in The 2011-12 Finals, when he won his first championship series MVP. And that’s only because that series only went five games, and he didn’t have two relative clunkers to begin it as he did against Golden State.
The only question about James going forward is whether he can hold up physically, and whether he’s becoming bored with regular seasons. He’s already begged off of a fourth appearance in the Olympics, which wasn’t a surprise. The Cavs worked in maintenance rest days for him during the season — he missed six of their last 10 regular season games after playing in 70 of their first 74 — and will continue doing so.
And, again: the burden is off of him, really, for the first time since The Decision. He won two titles in Miami, but he did so in a Pat Riley-dominant organization, where he was a valued employee, but didn’t have final say. Cleveland gave him the chance at a seemingly impossible double-double: win a title in your home state, the way you want to do it. For a long time, it looked impossible. And then, it happened.
It happened.
LeBron James can exhale. He’s free — of all the doubters, the burdens, the history. Now he can see how high he can really count.
…AND NOBODY ASKED YOU, EITHER
Goodbye, Derrick Martell. From Raul Nuevo:
What do you think of the Rose trade? I get the Knicks, but can´t understand the Bulls at all.
They’d reached the end of the road with D-Rose, Raul. He wasn’t the player he was before all the injuries, he didn’t get along with Jimmy Butler — in whom Chicago invested $90 million last summer — and the Bulls weren’t going to re-sign him after next season. And, in truth, the word from his camp throughout the season was that a change of scenery was probably best for him. It’s sad, considering Rose’s MVP season in 2011 and the good feelings everyone had that a kid from Englewood became a star for the hometown team.
The MVP press conference Derrick had in front of his family and with his mother remains one of the best moments to witness in recent years. But the ACL tear changed everything. Derrick will get a shot in New York to re-establish himself as a premier point guard alongside Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis, but we’ll all lament what could have been in the Windy City.
Watch out for the shills, traitors cut a deal.
Or agents planted, manipulating games from the field. From Peter Westberg:
Sir, I have to say that being a fan of you for years, I was severely disappointed in your company-man approach to the NBA conspiracy question. I get it, if I were working at a restaurant and people thought something was wrong with the food I would defend it if I thought it was the right thing to do. But I would also hope that I would at least consider the fact that they have a point and let the Chef taste it.
First off, it was clear to me, and more than one former NBA player (Reggie Miller) that the reason Green was suspended in The Finals was the same reason he wasn’t in the Western bracket. They wanted to extend the series. How you could draw, let alone defend, any other conclusion there is beyond laughable.
To say that the Cavs couldn’t lobby for Green to be suspended is also funny. Especially when LeBron has two mouthpieces disguised as journalists running around for him on ESPN citing unnamed sources all the time.
In my opinion you also make the mistake that many people do when talking about whether specific games are messed with. You assert that it would be a crazy conspiracy too vast to contribute to deciding every game. You’re right. I don’t know if anyone is saying that the NBA really wanted the Cavs to win. I think they wanted the time slot on Fathers Day full. Just like they wanted Memorial Day for the previous series.
And don’t insult our intelligence by talking about how the NBA already has their network money because only an idiot would believe that they didn’t profit either through advertising or exposure by having a Game 7 in The Finals. No one is saying LeBron didn’t have some great games. I think a lot of people think that these series are being extended in an unnatural way. I think it’s strange that people like Tim Donaghy and Bill Simmons are able to predict which officials will be working based on the circumstances of the series.
In closing, I have been a huge LeBron fan since he entered the league. I take nothing away from the man’s accomplishments because as I see it now, this is just business as usual for the league. And I have been a huge fan of yours for years despite our disagreement here. I truly believe that down the line the NBA will have to deal with all of this, much like baseball dealt with the steroid issue and the NFL is currently fumbling through the concussion issue.
But as far as I go, I think I’m done. NBA was my favorite for about 29 years. Always suspected things, this year I think they went too far. I can’t take it seriously anymore.
Yeah, Reggie didn’t say that, Peter. He said that he didn’t like the retroactive punishment assigned by the league the day after Game 4, and that if the referees who worked the game didn’t think Green’s foul was a Flagrant 1, the NBA shouldn’t have stepped in and triggered an automatic suspension by upgrading the common foul to a Flagrant. Which is fair criticism. And he said he didn’t think the league would have acted if The Finals had been tied 2-2 rather than the Warriors being up 3-1. But that is radically different from your inference that he said the league acted because it wanted to extend the series. Get your facts straight.
As I said, the league was crystal clear after it didn’t suspend Green for kicking Steven Adams in the groin during the Western Conference finals: do not hit anyone else in the groin. That was not the first time Green hit someone below the belt. I’m not sure how a player couldn’t understand those instructions. That’s on Draymond. Sorry.
You say the league “wanted the time slot on Fathers Day,” but in the tradition of all conspiracy theorists, offer not one shred of proof as to how they brought that about. How’d they do it? By making Harrison Barnes shoot 2 of 22 from the floor in Games 5 and 6? By throwing J.R. Smith (accidently) into Andrew Bogut’s knee? By forcing the Warriors to get outscored 31-11 in the first quarter of Game 6? The same two teams played in The Finals last year: did the league not want the time slot on Father’s Day last year? Oh, that’s right; it couldn’t show a game on Father’s Day last year because the series was over by the time Father’s Day came. So … they want it every other Father’s Day? Finding a set of facts around which to twist whatever theory you have is not difficult, but that doesn’t make it right, either.
There was nothing “unnatural,” as you put it, about Cleveland kicking Golden State’s butt in Game 6, unless you’re a Warriors fan and looking for something or someone to blame for your team’s collapse. And, again: you do a disservice to LeBron James by claiming that the NBA had a hand in the Cavaliers’ victory rather than his amazing performance. You do take away from his accomplishments when you suggest Cleveland won not because of what he did on the floor, but what the league did off the floor. If the NBA didn’t “really want the Cavs to win,” what would the point of the conspiracy be? The only way the league could assure a Father’s Day game — the Holy Grail, as you see it — was to make sure the Cavs won Games 5 and 6.
And: you can predict which officials will work playoff series later in the postseason once you know who the crews for the first game or two are. The best refs get multiple games in series. It doesn’t take especially thorough detective work to know that if Monty McCutchen or Danny Crawford work early in the Finals, they’re likely to work late in the Finals.
None of this will convince you that I’m anything other than a paid shill for Adam Silver’s Rock n’ Roll Wrasslin’ Carny Show. Nothing I can, or want to, do about that. But I hope you enjoy the rest of your NBA-free days.
A Voice of Reason. From Dave Long:
As they say on talk radio: long-time fan… of college and NBA hoops; first time writer…
My personal theory is: no conspiracy, but utter incompetence plus outsized referee ego.
Having the same few referees call all the games is like marrying your cousin. They get locked into a mindset.
For some reason, the Cavs were “allowed” to physically bully the GSW. Case in point: Nearly every pick Tristan Thompson “set” at the top of the key looked like an NFL lineman blocking the opposing player, not at all stationary. (I’ve always detested the Spurs for their moving screens.)
The referees did seem to have it out for Curry. The calls that fouled him out of Game 6 were ridiculous. And when the star of one team gets two fouls early, especially touch fouls like that, it impacts the entire game; that momentum thing again. In Game 7, Tristan Thompson bulldozed Curry who wasn’t moving, actually ran over him, and the foul was called on Curry. WTF is up with that? Do I believe the ref or my lying eyes?
Now, this is reasonable. I can have a conversation along these lines, Dave. Some playoff games this year were officiated poorly — Exhibit A being Game 2 of Spurs-Thunder. And I agree that some refs bring a little too much bass into games, if you get my meaning. It’s not a secret that there are some refs who still think they’re Marshall Dillon when they work a game — but they drive both teams crazy with that attitude. And every referee has his or her own preferences for how a game should be officiated (allowing more incidental contact/tight whistle, etc.) I agree that two or three of the fouls on Curry were ticky-tack ones and should have been “play on” no calls. Referees do miss calls, and certainly, Curry being in foul trouble impacted Game 6. But he wasn’t in foul trouble when the Cavs went up 13-2 in the first quarter and when the Warriors trailed by 20 by the end of the quarter. Curry also has to be smarter in those situations; if you know a game is being called tightly, you have to adjust on the fly and back off. But Golden State’s opponents have complained for the last two years about Andrew Bogut’s moving screens, without success. It cuts both ways. It cuts all ways. And thanks for making critical arguments without descending into ad hominem attacks and Looney Tunes Land.
Send your questions, comments, criticisms and Do Not Disturb signs to keep those unwanted overnight guests at bay to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If your e-mail is sufficiently funny, thought-provoking, well-written or snarky, we just might publish it!
I’M FEELIN’ …
1) Fifty-two years in the making, Cleveland threw a hell of a parade for the Cavaliers Wednesday. Congrats to a city that needed to feel good for a few days. You have a champion. Now go stand over there with Boston. You are no longer allowed to whine about your sports teams’ cosmic failures.
2) The hope of USA Basketball for the last two years was that the 2016 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team be headed by Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. There were a lot of notable players who passed on potential team participation, but of those, only Steph Curry’s absence is tough to swallow — and as he would have been an Under Armour guy on a Nike team, they’ll somehow manage to go on without him. Much of the rest of the roster was fairly predictable. USAB wanted Paul George to finish what he started before suffering that gruesome broken leg while training for it two years ago. DeMarcus Cousins earned a spot with his strong performance for the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the FIBA World Cup. Carmelo Anthony has always been ready and willing to drop his summers for international play and the Warriors’ ascension the last two seasons made Draymond Green and Klay Thompson locks. (Harrison Barnes was a bit of a surprise.) It’s still a very strong team that will still be a strong, if not prohibitive, favorite to win the gold in Rio.
3) Way to own it, D’Angelo Russell.
4) On this issue, I agree with Steve Kerr. But whether or not I agree, or you agree or do not, it’s better when people in sports do not muzzle themselves about issues of importance to all of us, and speak their minds. If Tom Brady supports Donald Trump for president, good for him. He’s entitled to express his opinion. Same here.
NOT FEELIN’…
1) So after two years of painstaking and meticulous planning, the Wizards don’t even merit a meeting with Kevin Durant? Not even a courtesy, ‘I’m not signing there but I’m not gonna diss my hometown’ get together for show? They better have a hell of a Plan B in their back pocket.
2) As ever, the Dallas Mavericks have made it clear through selective leaking that they’re going to be aggressive in free agency, and at the front of the line for players like Miami’s Hassan Whiteside. But the Mavs have been saying this for four years now, and have had very little to show for it when July was over (though, in fairness, you can’t blame them for DeAndre Jordan’s about-face last year after verbally agreeing to a deal). Dallas needs a home run this year after a whole lot of free agent strikeouts.
3) Sonny Hill, the Philadelphia hoops legend and historian, used to always correct me: “not Hal Greer; Hal Lear,” he said once if he said it a hundred times. Sonny respected Hal Greer, the Syracuse National/76er guard and Hall of Famer, to be sure. But one of his heroes growing up was Lear, who starred at Temple in the mid-’50s alongside guard Guy Rodgers. Lear didn’t star in the NBA, but became one of the Eastern League’s all-time great players. Lear died on Saturday at the age of 81.
4) Pulling for you, Coach Summitt. You are as much an inspiration as you fight to live the rest of your days in dignity and privacy as you were on the sidelines for the Volunteers.
5) A young woman was being interviewed on TV Friday morning, and she was talking about how much she and her whole family regretted their pro-Brexit votes, because the reality of Great Britain now leaving the Economic Union was becoming clear. Um, wait a minute. Brexit was a referendum on whether Great Britain would leave the Economic Union. It wasn’t a vote about anything else. This isn’t about whether you were pro- or anti-Brexit; this is about lack of common sense. To regret a vote because the result of the vote brought about exactly what the referendum said it would is beyond nonsensical. Perhaps you shouldn’t vote on things about which you have no understanding.
BY THE NUMBERS
25 — Number to be worn in New York by Derrick Rose, changing from the number 1 he wore with the Bulls. The number 25 has special significance for Rose; he wore it at Simeon High School in Chicago, as tradition at that school dictates its best player wear 25 in honor of Ben Wilson, the school’s star player who was murdered in 1984 before the start of his senior season there.
26 — International players taken in the Draft this year, the most ever, including a record 14 first-round picks, starting with Dragan Bender, taken fourth overall by Phoenix. The flood is explainable, per sources: with the NBA’s salary cap set to explode further in the next two years, more international players want to come over now and cash in rather than remain overseas.
30,800,000 — Viewers for Game 7 of the Finals between Cleveland and Golden State, making the Cavs’ victory over the Warriors the most watched NBA game since Game 6 of the 1998 Finals — Michael Jordan’s last game with the Chicago Bulls, when the team won their sixth NBA title. The Cavs-Warriors series as a whole was also the most watched since the Bulls-Jazz Finals in ’98.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
— DeMarcus Cousins (@boogiecousins), Thursday, 9:13 p.m. Now, he could have been asking for the strength to cope with a grill that wouldn’t light, or a car that wouldn’t start. But his post did come after the Kings had announced they were taking Greek center Georgios Pappagiannis with the 13th pick overall in the first round. Center is not the Kings’ primary area of need, given that they have DeMarcus Cousins, an All-Star and Olympian, currently starting for them at that position.
THEY SAID IT
“Tell J.R. and everybody to put on a shirt. You can’t just be walking around without a shirt for like a whole week. Now Shumpert is taking off his shirt, Kyrie is taking off his shirt. Come on man.”
— President Barack Obama, at the end of a congratulatory phone call to Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue following the team’s championship parade — during which several players including J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving gave the Cavs’ float a shirts vs. skins look.
“We’re excited. Despite the fact that we’re losing an icon that’s been with us for 20 years, this is a new chapter for us moving forward.”
— Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, to local reporters, after Los Angeles took Duke swingman Brandon Ingram with the second pick overall in last week’s Draft, the first major move by the organization since Kobe Bryant’s last game with the team and subsequent retirement, two decades after the Lakers maneuvered to acquire his Draft rights from Charlotte in 1996.
“Some of the guys looked at me sideways. Some of the guys I already knew from high school, so we were like friends. So they were happy and some guys gave me dap. And other guys were like, it should be them. I don’t know, if I were in that situation, I would have been like, congrats, you know, you’ve made a step. Now go make a name for yourself.”
— Thon Maker, the unlikely 10th pick overall in Thursday’s Draft to the Bucks, to CBSSports.com, on the reaction in the Green Room when his name was called by Adam Silver.
Longtime NBA reporter and columnist David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
