HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Sam Smith

The 2008 playoffs are about halfway finished, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that the champion is going to come from the Western Conference yet again.

Have you been watching this Celtics-Cavaliers series?

No, I don’t blame you. I have been watching, though I enjoy finger nails scraping across a chalkboard and Republican presidential debates.

This most highlights the reason why the Eastern Conference is inferior to the Western Conference. The East has turned Ray Allen’s sweet jump shot into Muhammad Ali against Trevor Berbick. Yes, Cavs coach Mike Brown makes a mockery of the game with his slowdown, half court, walk-it-up, unimaginative offense that generally puts LeBron James, arguably the best open court player in NBA history, in a one/four set against a wall of defenders.

It would be truly amazing if James remains in Cleveland when his contract expires with that system, which could have him used up by the time he’s 28. The amazing part is Boston has allowed itself to be lured into Cleveland’s stuck-in-mud game, which probably is smart in the short term for the Cavs.

They should lose Game 7. But too many of the Celtics flaws – flaws we all talked about before the season that seemed resolved in a brilliant 66-win run – seem all too real.

Could three All-Stars in their 30’s who’ve never had much playoff success and have just come together stand up to the crucible? It seems no now. Kevin Garnett’s critics say he ran away from late offensive responsibility, and it’s seemed to be happening again. The ball doesn’t go to him enough, which is a Boston mistake, and he seems too willing to give it up, a Garnett failing. Could too much have been strained out of them pushing for that brilliant regular season? But it did give them Game 7’s at home in a season of parity when home court really matters.

The Celtics were wonderful to watch all season, scoring in transition, which Cleveland is good at stalling, moving the ball and themselves. But Cleveland invited them into bad basketball hell and the Celtics obliged.

Though Rajon Rondo bailed out Boston in Game 5 with a couple of big time first half threes, Rondo is mostly ineffective in the half court since he’s a poor decision maker and shooter. Sam Cassell doesn’t fit because he needs the ball and can’t defend. The Celtics Friday finally went back to Eddie House, who’d helped them all season but fell out of favor in the failed Cassell experiment. Kendrick Perkins has been useless and with Rondo that’s two players who don’t have to be guarded, allowing teams to pack it in even more. He should have yielded some time to Leon Powe. But the Little Nine doesn’t matter as much as the Big Three. Larry Bird never blamed Greg Kite. OK, but he was kidding. The Celtics impressed all season with unselfish play, but have failed to impose their collective will against two teams, the Hawks and Cavs, who have far inferior talent.

Whoever comes out of the West it’s difficult to see threatened by an Eastern team.

So what else have we learned in the last month?

Yes, Chris Paul is brilliant. But Deron Williams is brillian. Yes, maybe missing just the last letter. Really, really close.

Though Williams’ Jazz went home Friday night, we’re now waiting to see Williams and Paul in the USA team backcourt this summer. The duo now look like 1-2 in NBA point guards with Williams now officially the league’s most overlooked player, especially with Paul the darling of these playoffs.

But Kobe Bryant would still be my playoff MVP. No one gets more defensive attention and makes more big shots.

Williams can’t have the freedom in Jerry Sloan’s structured system that Paul has. Still, Williams averaged 21.6 points and 10 assists in the playoffs and 24 points and 12 assists the last five games against the Lakers.

The Jazz lost because Carlos Boozer couldn’t make shots, allowing the Lakers’ big men to stay inside, where Boozer was too small to play effectively inside.

The Lakers now look like the title favorites, and that’s without Andrew Bynum.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson hardly got any credit this season for pulling together what looked like a disaster of a Lakers season back in October as Bryant fought to be traded to the East, where he no doubt would have turned into Ricky Davis.

But with the Lakers now setting up what could be a five-year run, Jackson could pass Bill Russell in championships.

Figure them the favorite over who emerges from the Spurs-Hornets Game 7.

What we seem to be encountering there with three Hornets blowouts at home is less the power of home court advantage than two teams meeting, the Spurs on the way down and the young Hornets on the way up.

The future West landscape is beginning to look like the Lakers, Hornets, perhaps Trail Blazers and Jazz.

The Spurs hardly are done with Tony Parker at 26. But Manu Ginobili soon hits a hard 31 with all those falls and flops and international play and Tim Duncan is 32. Their supporting cast is mostly applying for Medicare. It’s why you see the young Hornets too quick for the Spurs too often. Look, this has been a serious decade long run. Few ever go that long. Few have been better than the Spurs.

Even if the Hornets don’t get by the Spurs Monday in Game 7, they are awfully close in their rear view mirror.

This quirky home court dominance in the conference semifinals has led to a mostly boring round with few game winners or buzzer beaters and plenty of blowouts. But with only the Pistons and Lakers winning on the road, at least we get a pair of Game 7’s, which don’t come along much.

So what else have we learned?

Oh, yeah. That Richard Hamilton isn’t bad.

While much was made of Rodney Stuckey stepping in for the injured Chauncey Billups against the Magic and not making a turnover in two games (though Lindsey Hunter threw away his walker and mostly played that first game), it was Hamilton who came up huge with 30-plus games and averaging 43 minutes the last three games.

Yes, Tayshaun Prince’s block on Hedo Turkoglu in the clinching game was the defensive play of the playoffs. Though Duncan’s three in the Game 1 with the Suns to send the game in double overtime – still the best game of this playoffs – remains the best moment in these playoffs.

The worst? The fire in New Orleans, as if they don’t have enough disasters, the choking pregame smoke in Boston, Carmelo Anthony declaring his team quitters (hey, was that another forced Anthony shot?), the Spurs hack-a-Shaq. As Mark Jackson would say, “Spurs, you’re better than that.” And the foolishness of the Washington Wizards, who seemed to have taken Gilbert Arenas‘ entertainment-instead-of-basketball lead by importing a failed rapper to try to mock LeBron James’ rapper friend.

It seemed they could have been using the stuff Josh Howard – wink, wink – says he saves for summer.

So we’re halfway there and if this is where amazing happens, then the games have to be getting better. Although I’m not holding out much hope in the East.

Mark Cuban is a smart guy. I know this because I hear him tell everyone that. I find it difficult to challenge since he knew when to get out of the dot com boom and became a billionaire. I had no idea when to dump my newspaper stock and now am writing for basketball web sites. Good ones, mind you. But I am working. Cuban is dancing, with stars and just in general, it seems.

Last week, he was at Wrigley Field in Chicago sitting with maverick Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell, sparking once again all kinds of talk in Chicago about Cuban purchasing the legendary baseball Chicago Cubs.

The conventional wisdom has been that baseball owners, having watched the NBA basically fine Cuban more than Rasheed Wallace, won’t vet Cuban and allow him anywhere near their sport.

Now, with Zell the hellion looking to maximize profits on selling the team and stadium, you can be sure no matter what baseball says, Zell will feel entitled to the biggest bid. He’s the kind of entrepreneur to fight for it and in the American way warn baseball that its antitrust exemption doesn’t allow it to ignore the top bidder, no matter how bad his TV dancing may be.

The conventional wisdom (by the way, who are those people?) also has been Cuban doesn’t have the money, estimated at perhaps a billion dollars, to get into baseball in Chicago. Not in a sport without a salary cap. Not while also running the Mavericks.

See where I’m going here?

Is it time for Mark Cuban to cash in again? I can see – thus far my speculation – Cuban trying to sell the Mavericks to step up into baseball and one of the elite franchises in American sports history. One that is stocked with talent poised for a great run, where Cuban can even enhance his sports reputation. It’s Cuban’s kind of bold, headline-making move.

Chicago or Dallas? C’mon. Get real. Cuban is from Pennsylvania and went to college in Indiana. He’s a lifelong baseball fan. It’s a better environment for wardrobe of Cuban’s t-shirts.

Few know better than Cuban when to sell high and buy low, and now would be the perfect time to dump the Mavs and trade up to the Cubs.

Look, the Mavs are done. Did you see how happy Avery Johnson was to be fired?

No, they’re not an expansion team or a perennial loser, but their run is over.

Though Cuban and I have differed on his real impact given the team was on the brink of breaking through when he bought it, Cuban did some great things in Dallas. He helped get a beautiful new arena built. He involved the fans and scared the heck out of the local media. He should run for governor with that record.

But the Mavs maxed out and have been in decline since blowing that Game 3 fourth quarter lead in the 2006 Finals.

They’re out of the playoffs in the first round for the second consecutive season and looking for a new coach, said to likely be Rick Carlisle. They took a calculated gamble in trading for Jason Kidd, and it didn’t work. Look, they knew the window was closing and they took a shot. I can respect that, even if it didn’t work.

It’s over for this Mavs’ group.

Five of their top six players, including Jerry Stackhouse as sixth man, will be at least 30 for next season. Three are at least 34. They’re one of the league’s oldest and now slowest teams. They gave up too much youth and future in draft picks for Kidd.

The West is changing. The Hornets are young and athletic. The Trail Blazers could emerge if Greg Oden is healthy. The Lakers look like they have a run in them if Andrew Bynum can return to health next season. The Mavs as now constituted look like a team that’s going to struggle just to make the playoffs and be an easy out for the next several years. They’ve won at least 50 games for the last eight seasons. That’s a longer run than most get. It’s over.

And knowing Cuban you figure he knows. Give the man this: He reads markets well.

You don’t get to be much of a media star with a declining sports asset.

What a great time to sell, especially with the Cubs beckoning, a team with no championship for 100 years, a team that’s loaded with talent, just as the Mavs were when he Cuban bought them. It’s the chance to be a hero in one of the world’s great cities and media markets. Imagine how famous Cuban could then make himself, which, after all, seems to be what he is most about.

There was opposition among NBA owners to Cuban at the time he purhcaed the Mavs. Many had heard of his antics and iconoclastic personality. But commissioner David Stern couldn’t resist. It’s generally understood around the NBA there is regret they accepted Cuban given the way he has bashed and questioned the league so often. But Cuban offered to pay way more than the Mavs were valued at. Ownership equity increases like players’ salaries. It was just too tempting.

Once someone is paid something, that becomes the basis for that talent, the NBA definition of market value. Samuel Dalembert gets $64 million. Now Tyson Chandler wants $65 million because his stats are better. So Cuban pays some $280 million for a franchise valued at perhaps half that and Stern sees equity increasing for everyone with a new market set.

So what if Cuban makes an astronomical offer for the Cubs, one of those offers you can’t turn down?

Zell is certainly a character and non conformist. He owes no allegiance to baseball owners. Friends say though he is a minority partner in the Chicago White Sox, he doesn’t even like baseball. He has a massive debt to finance in purchasing Tribune Co. You can believe he’ll take the highest offer for the Cubs and Wrigley Field matter who makes it. You also figure he’d love to make baseball explain why it wouldn’t accept the best offer if it is Cuban. How does Congress sanction that with baseball’s antitrust exemption?

No one wants to get into that fight.

Though for a billionaire, Zell needs money now to service that huge debt. He’s not likely to want payment dragged out in a legal fight with baseball over its right to select the new Cubs’ owner. Of course, Zell also seems fond of telling people where to go just to show how rich he is and they aren’t. He’s is unpredictable. After all, who buys a huge media company in this environment?

As for Mark Cuban, you’ve got to figure the NBA, especially in Dallas, is a sell now. And MLB might well be the buy. Mark Cuban didn’t get rich sitting on declining assets.

So where was that great NBA playoffs we all were talking about and expecting?

As everyone packed up and headed for new destinations after everyone finished two games Wednesday night, there were seven series at 2-0 and an eighth, the Pistons and 76ers at 1-1, and you know the 76ers have no chance unless ‘Sheed spends the weekend at Pat’s eating cheesesteaks and asking for extra cheese. Anyone who’s been to Pat’s-and if you’ve been to Philly you have been to Pat’s-knows if you want extra cheese they yell at you, and you know how sensitive ‘Sheed can be.

Though I disgress.

The first round is supposed to be like this. The best playoff teams play the worst playoff teams, and the best are supposed to win. Oh, sure, sometimes George Karl gets so nervous he can’t go to the bathroom and his teams end up stinking. And, of course, Tracy McGrady gets to go home quickly since his travel agent says he gets the best fares in early May.

Poor McGrady. We keep picking on him. Yes, Yao and Rafer Alston are out, so the Jazz is better and should win. Though you hate to hear McGrady saying he was gassed at the end of Game 2 (zero for seven shooting in the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 2) and had nothing left.

He probably was tired. The Jazz did what all smart teams do in the playoffs. You take the ball out of the hands of the No. 1 option or ballhandler (if you can, Dallas) by pressuring and doubling him. But if you are the star, even if you are tired, and especially if you are McGrady, who is a nice young man who has a reputation around the NBA as somewhat less forceful than General Patton, then perhaps you don’t readily admit how exhausted you were after your team lost again and you appeared headed out of the playoffs in the first round for the seventh consecutive time. Yes, you usually were the underdog, but at least fake it. You know, like a presidential candidate.

Here’s the issue with McGrady. He has star talent, but he doesn’t want to be a star, or, at least, the star. He is more comfortable being the No. 2 guy, deferring to someone like Yao. As we like to say in the NBA now, he is who he is and it is what it is.

And, by the way, while I’m rambling, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gets my coveted Coach of the First Two Playoff Games award. Popovich was terrific in setting his team up to attack every Suns weakness, exploiting Steve Nash on defense, which really is no great innovation. But also mixing up his screens at different angles, doing just enough subtle things to win a possession or two, enough in Game 1 to draw up that brilliant Tim Duncan three. Who’d have thought of that. Hopefully, not Popovich.

I admit, intentionally fouling Shaq helped in Game 1 when the Suns took Shaq out, then had to double Duncan and Michael Finley got open for some  big threes. But I hate seeing someone as good as Popovich resort to that. Nellie, OK. He likes to mess with the game. Though Phil Jackson pretty much invented the hack-a-Shaq with his three headed center monster (well, maybe not quite monster) of Luc Longley, Bill Wennington and John Salley. OK, Dennis Rodman was in there somewhere.

But that’s not manning up. Play defense! Fouling like that is not part of the game. Yes, yes, just make the free throws and they’ll stop. It’s just not basketball, though. The game should transcend any tactic within any particular game.

So, what else?

That Kobe guy. He’s not Michael, but he sure is close. Closer than anyone’s ever been. That 49-pointer was terrific Wednesday night (did the net even rustle on most of those shots), though the Nuggets certainly win the award for the playoffs’ most undisciplined team.

If only Karl hadn’t retired before the playoffs.

What, he’s there?

You can tell Karl has given up. Karl is a fiery guy, a good coach and one who appreciates ball movement and fundamental play even if he never cared much for defense. He once wrote a book titled, “This Game’s the Best. So why don’t they quit screwing with it?”

It sounds like it’s the story of his Nuggets.

No one passes to anyone. The shots are crazy, almost like an old Seinfeld show of trying to do the opposite every time. Karl sits there with a perplexed look on his face. They seem to have overdosed him on drugs to just get him through the games with these players. And, yes, this will be Carmelo Anthony’s fifth straight first round exit as he makes a run at Tracy McGrady and is now a Pau-like 3-18 in playoff games in his career.

Bryant’s the best player in the playoffs. The best player in these playoffs has been Chris Paul. Sorry, Dwight Howard is playing against Rasho Nesterovic. Well, at least some of the time. Paul’s play against the Mavericks has been the individual story of the first week, though it also has Deron Williams now officially replacing David West as the most underrated player. West gets mentioned as underrated so often now I think he may be overrated.

Williams, who generally outplays Paul every time they go head to head, or head fake to head fake, is quietly carrying the Jazz through the Rockets. Paul’s play has been special, especially doing it against Jason Kidd. One general manager told me he believes Paul is now a top five overall player and first team all-NBA.  I responded, Duh.

So we get to see what the kids now do on the road, the Hornets in Dallas where they’ve lost just about every game since Truck Robinson’s last charge. The same with the Orlando Magic, who have been good on the road this season. Yes, Howard has been fabulous with his perfect vision games—yes, 20/20’s. But the difference has been Jameer Nelson, averaging more than 20 points. If that keeps up, the Raptors are extinct. Sorry, you deserve better clichés than that.

The Cavs have not been a particularly good on the road, or particularly good anywhere other than LeBron James. Washington’s problem is Gilbert Arenas. He’s back with plenty of excuses: Coming off surgery, wrist sprain, his mouse is stuck and his blog is slow. You have to take a look at Arenas. But he takes away from the defensive edge and team play that has Washington surprising all season. I thought the Wizards could win the series. But you begin to wonder the overall effect Arenas’ act is having on his teammates.

I also am not counting out the Suns yet. I expect Mike D’Antoni to come out for his pregame media session before Game 3 in a coffin and sit up and say, “We ain’t dead yet.”

The Suns have been a resilient team through major playoff disappointments and the NBA taking the Spurs series away from them last season. They should have won Game 1 and got on CBA rules would have won two points for quarters in Game 2. Yes, Tony Parker overran Steve Nash. But Shaq has been good and the Suns won’t give up.

And, of yeah, the Celtics still look like the best team.

But we’ve had just two games. Is that all?

Here’s a multiple choice test, which were always my favorite since I’d at least have some answer.

Who is Jeff Bower?

A. The star character in the TV show 24?
B. The lead singer in the old rock and roll group Sha Na Na?
C. The right fielder for the champion New York Yankees’ teams of the 1950’s?
D. The former longtime football coach at Southern Mississippi?

Technically, you could have gotten it right with D, who has been the more famous Jeff Bower.

I’m thinking about the other Jeff Bower, the anonymous one whose New Orleans Hornets open the NBA playoffs at home this weekend as the winner of the NBA’s toughest division, the Southwest with the Spurs, Rockets and Mavericks, with MVP candidate Chris Paul, one of the league’s leading rebounders in Tyson Chandler, an All-Star forward in David West and one of the top young teams in the NBA.

“My job is to work with ownership and Mr. (George) Shinn and the coaches to put the best team together we can,” says Bower. “It’s not about who I am. It’s about what the team does and who they are. I do not search out anything more than that. My satisfaction is in watching the team play hard and together and grow successful. I spent a lot of years as an advance scout. That’s an anonymous job, but a really important one. I have no problems stepping back to the side.”

The side is one thing. But Bower seems to do everything he can to get out of the team picture.

Most executives in team sports talk about putting the team first.

Especially during all their interviews.

Bower really does take this behind-the-scenes thing seriously. I asked several general managers about him and they said they really didn’t know him. They said they did know who he was, though. So I asked someone who’d made a trade with him, the Bulls‘ John Paxson.

“I don’t know Jeff well,” Paxson replied.

“Other than he’s a straight shooter and a smart basketball guy,” Paxson added. “No ego at all from what I’ve experienced. A genuinely nice guy.”

Aren’t we taught they finish last?

Not exactly last, but this New Orleans Hornets team wasn’t supposed to finish where it has.

Playoffs! As former New Orleans resident Jim Mora made famous. Heck, they seemed to be just glad to know what city was home. For two years it was Oklahoma City, that traditional NBA destination rich with such history as, well, a very important flyover for many years in the Finals. Then it was back to New Orleans, itself having lost an NBA franchise some two decades ago and never thinking it important enough between Mardi Gras to get another. Quick, someone sober up and find out where our NBA team went.

Finally, New Orleans got another team, though it seemed something of the booby prize with owner George Shinn, who’d become as welcomed in Charlotte as Sherman’s union army. Here, take our owner, please.

Having lost the Jazz in the early 1980’s for lack of public support, the New Orleans populace gave the Hornets a collective yawn. The new kids in town were at the bottom in NBA attendance. And then depression really set it.

Hurricane Katrina devastated the city with the levees giving way and the Hornets moved to Oklahoma City for two years and were embraced there to the point changes were made in the team’s lease to allow it to leave New Orleans upon its return if attendance faltered.

Yes, that’s certainly the recipe for team stability, which is generally required for team success.

So what is the sound of one hand clapping?

Yet, the Hornets have somehow made it all work. Coach Byron Scott is the leading Coach of the Year candidate. Paul is a top league MVP candidate. West is no longer the league’s most underrated player as an All-Star this season. Chandler is a Defensive Player of the Year contender.

It’s suddenly a team of stars put together by the guy whose ambition going into the NBA was to become a better college assistant coach.

Talk about your big dreamers.

“I’d always hoped to get to specifically be an advance scout,” says Bower. “I thought that was the best way to learn. I planned for after a few years to go back to college and coach again and apply what I’d learned. But this has worked out well.”

Do you suppose that’s what Bill Gates said about his little computer experiment with something called Microsoft?

Bower seems to be a humble man. He’s certainly not a GQ man. He’s bald. Shaved head, hip hop bald, though I doubt he has much of that music in his iPod. He’s generously built and apparently fond of the famous local cuisine. Let’s say his playing career is somewhat less impressive than that of the likely executive of the year, Boston’s Danny Ainge.

Ainge certainly is deserving for his bold moves in recreating the Celtics.

Bower seems to be helping saving a franchise for a city.

The Hornets have been selling out regularly since the All-Star break, 12 of their last 17 after clinching the division Tuesday. Without a winning team, they would be packing up the moving trucks again next season.

“From the outside looking in, there’s something of the ‘How could this ever work out?’” Bower agrees. “We felt in coming back to New Orleans we’d do everything we possibly could to be successful and we believed with the players we had on the team we could be successful on the court. Early on the crowds were small. The people who were there were passionate. And the more we won, the more people took notice and as the people have gotten to know our players the games were sold out and we’ve got a loud, active home court advantage.”

As unlikely as it seemed for the Hornets, it certainly was more unlikely for Bower.

He’s from Pennsylvania and his dream always seemed to be coach at Penn State. He was an assistant there in the early 1980’s on a staff with future NBA coach Brian Hill and then moved on to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, a quaint town on the Hudson River north of New York City and where the Smith Brothers of cough drop fame are buried. Didn’t know, eh? Like much of New York, it was settled by the Dutch. It was made famous, sort of, by one Dutchman, the dunkin’ one, the Pacers‘ Rik Smits at Marist. Bower became an assistant at Marist and then associate head coach during the Smits reign. Does it get better than that?

But that small college experience was a lesson.

“We had to be creative, some up with ways to do more with less,” recalls Bower. “Those years recruiting we were going against the Big East schools, looking at kids on the fringe to make up a team. They had more resources, but every now and then we’d be in the right place.”

Bower decided to leave college, albeit briefly, for the most anonymous of lives, that of the NBA advance scout. It is one of the loneliest, least rewarding, drudge work jobs in the glamorous NBA world. Advance scouts, as the description suggests, head out ahead of the team, on their own, making notes about future opponents. They chart games for the plays a team runs and keep notes on players for future trades. Sometimes it’s a Noah-like existence with 40 games in 40 nights. They generally travel on their own without the amenities of the team plane and camaraderie of the group. Few know who they are since most haven’t played or been big time college players or coaches. The pay is low grade and room service isn’t particularly special.

Welcome to the NBA!

No big deal. Bower was going back to college, anyway.

Bower did hang around longer than he anticipated, working up to scouting director and an assistant under longtime executive Bob Bass. He was called general manager for a time, though Bass was still above him. The Hornets even issued a press release in 2003 saying Bower, then on the bench briefly as an assistant in the ever changing wacky management world of the Shinn Hornets, was returning to Penn State to be an assistant coach under a friend, Ed DeChellis.

Penn State assistant? Hornets executive? Yeah, Penn State assistant.

Incoming coach Tim Floyd persuaded Bower to stay on as an assistant. But it was a dysfunctional team in revolt against Floyd, who was dumped after a season. Star Jamal Mashburn had to retire with injuries. Bower went back to personnel and then was named actual general manager to replace Allan Bristow for the 2005-06 season. Yes, welcome to rock bottom.

The Hornets were 18-64, which was the good news.

The hurricane struck and the city was devastated. Players and coaches couldn’t even reach their homes. The league transferred the team to Oklahoma City. What? No one ever had heard of it as an expansion possibility. No NBA team ever had played there. Wasn’t there rodeos and stampedes?

But Bower was doing his job in personnel, quietly, of course, and the Hornets had drafted West at No. 18 and then lucked into Paul at No. 4 in 2005. That enabled the Hornets to move from 18 to 38 wins in Bower’s first season running the team.

The team was accepted in Oklahoma City with its collegiate and collegial atmosphere. But the Hornets still had a major stigma. They were cheap. They didn’t spend on players. Players wanted to leave. Shinn was a divisive figure.

Perhaps it was too much, but credibility is expensive.

The Hornets made a major deal to pay Peja Stojakovic, shocking many with the $62 million contract the Pacers wouldn’t pay after the deal for Ron Artest. Bower also dealt franchise favorite PJ Brown for underachieving Chicago center Chandler. The vision of a team was coming together. Paul was a penetrating guard who could sink the defense and pitch to a shooter like Stojakovic. Paul also had proven adept in his brief time as a pro and in college to create high percentage shots for big men.

Just go to the rim, Tyson. I’ll find you.

West had developed a solid jumper where he could step out and had to be defended, creating space for Paul to penetrate and for Chandler. They gave West a big extension and dug around for Jannero Pargo.

Some teams collect stars; some teams get pieces to fit. The latter generally is more successful.

“We knew we had some pieces we could count on with West and Paul,” said Bower. “We wanted to add players with a style of play and skills to blend with those two and add talent to the roster. With free agency, we sent a message that we were interested in improving in as quick a manner as we could. That summer was a big turning point for the team.”

It would take a year to occur.

Stojakovic needed surgergy and suddenly the signing looked like a disaster, though Hornets doctors were confident Stojakovic would return. The team gave Oklahoma City a spirited last season, but fell short of the playoffs late as Paul also was hurt.

“Last year, they had a little success but it was short lived because of the injuries,” said Bower. “But that experience helped the team grow by fighting through everything and not being eliminated until the 80th game. The competitiveness and resiliency showed and getting healthy they’ve been able to show the potential of coming together.”

We’ve been counting them out all season. Everyone has been counting them out for years. Charlotte kicked them out. Katrina ran them off. They left Oklahoma City behind. They didn’t know if the city ever would care. But they haven’t been beaten yet.

By the way, those answers were Jack Bauer played by Kiefer Sutherland, Bowser from the oldies revival group Sha Na Na, Hank Bauer of the Yankees and the forgotten Jeff Bower from Southern Mississippi. The Hornets’ Jeff Bower is the man now.

I remember when the Houston Rockets were a mess, when national commentators were calling for major changes and that the team was a failure, when Tracy McGrady was in such a regular pout he was talking about being traded and Rockets’ brass only wished they’d find someone dumb enough to take his back problems.
 
Yes, I can remember late December.
 
Luis Scola seemed happy. I recall him in the Rockets’ locker room talking happily about seeing the Christmas lights on Michigan Avenue even if there seemed no light at the end of the tunnel for the Rockets.
 
The intrepid beat writer from the Houston Chronicle, Jonathan Feigen, was gingerly asking coach Rick Adelman the obligatory questions about being 12-14 and Jeff Van Gundy suddenly looking like Red Auerbach. Magic Johnson had just said on TNT that the Rockets should be broken up because the Yao-McGrady pairing wasn’t working. The team was 12-14 and few in Houston disagreed. People around the Rockets whispered about McGrady’s unhappiness and a trade seemed inevitable.
 
Especially after the Rockets won seven of nine without McGrady when he went out soon after that win in Chicago.
 
I’ve known Adelman a long time, though not quite as far back as when he was a bad shooting guard for the Bulls who was best known for his defensive hustle. He’s been a successful NBA coach, known more for his offense and decency toward players. He’d been brought in to replace the dour Van Gundy (except on TV and in real life) and liven up the offense.
 
Yao couldn’t quite play from Adelman’s favored high post and McGrady didn’t care to move that quickly or stay out of the half court game the players so loved to hate under Van Gundy.
 
“I know this works,” Adelman was saying. “I know it does.”
 
Now, the rest of us do.
 
But 22 straight after Sunday’s win over the Lakers?
 
No, not Adelman or anyone had any idea any of this was possible.
 
A few games ago Shane Battier said the Rockets were the worst best team ever. Hard to disagree, at least comparing them to the 19 straight wins of the 1999-2000 Lakers of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the 20 straight of the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson and the 33 straight alltimer of the 1971-72 Lakers of Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich.
 
Let’s get serious. McGrady is good, but in now his 11th season he hasn’t been to the second round of the playoffs. There’s no truth he was in line to become the Charmin spokesman. Quick name three Rockets. OK, two.
 
Which is why no matter how great this Rockets streak is, their season and McGrady will be judged by the playoffs.
 
Sorry, life and the NBA isn’t fair.
 
The Rockets spend a lot of time these days with the media defending themselves given the streak has occurred with mostly home games, against the majority of teams with losing records and in some big games like against Dallas and the Lakers with Dirk Nowitzki suspended and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum out with injury.
 
Duh. Yao Ming is out for the season, Yao being the one player the Rockets were certain they’d keep during the December turmoil.
 
This is no fluke, even if remains somewhat unexplainable and there are widespread doubts.
 
There are no Hall of Fame players on the Rockets. Perhaps Yao some day. McGrady’s an All Star, but probably a Hall of Fame longshot with limited playoff success, injuries and various career movements. Back in late December, they were the only two players on the team averaging in double figures.
 
Bonzi Wells was third, and trading him to the Hornets with Mike James for Bobby Jackson certainly eased some potential locker room issues even though Adelman is one of the best in dealing with wayward players and has had a good relationship with Wells. Though with a team like Houston working together like gears snapping into place, they don’t need any traps—or Wells—to fall into.
 
Luis Scola is a winner and a hustling hard worker, though the Spurs gave him up to save money. Jerry West couldn’t wait to move on Battier in Memphis because he wanted a talent. Rafer Alston appeared to have a breakdown in Toronto, though Sam Mitchell isn’t exactly like talking to your psychiatrist. Alston is a streetball legend who likes to be known as “skip to my Lou.” I’m sure there’s a good reason.
 
Luther Head is too small for shooting guard. Chuck Hayes is too small for power forward. Carl Landry also is and is a rookie. Bobby Jackson just got hurt. OK, OK, not yet. Dikembe Mutombo had his age computed at preseason physicals by the rings around him.
 
Though we should come to praise these Rockets and not bury them.
 
The ides of March? No problem for these Rockets.  That was right before win No. 22, and Kobe Bryant went down instead.
 
So how are they doing it?
 
There are several things they do well, particularly on defense, which was established under Van Gundy, so he has nothing to apologize for. OK, his suits, but that’s it.
 
The Rockets play good team defense, which is a function of many things, though mostly helping out one another. That’s what people in the NBA really mean about having good chemistry. It is not going out to the movies together or slapping towels in the locker room. Actually, no one does that but fans like to hear that it goes on.
 
The Rockets have no business being a good defensive and rebounding team, though they’re in the top five in those categories. They’re small up front without Yao and no one’s even accused McGrady or Alston of being defensive, except in criticism about their games and desire.
 
So it’s work.
 
Perimeter players! You have to stay in front of your man. Don’t allow dribble penetration (I love inside basketball talk). If you don’t, the big men don’t have to rotate and can box out and rebound. So little Hayeses and Landrys can rebound. Scola, he’d get a rebound between Wilt and Russell. He’s a playmaker, and the Spurs’ dealing him to a division rival looks like it could prove embarrassing come playoff time.
 
But this is what the coaches mean by chemistry, which the Rockets are currently the NBA guys working on the doctorate.
 
It’s sometimes tough to describe, like Justice Potter Stewart once said about pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
 
The same with team chemistry.
 
It’s knowing your assignment, knowing the game plan and helping.
 
The Rockets’ players help on assignments, cover from the weak side, double out or switch the pick and roll. No one but McGrady can truly make a play on offense, but everyone can help thwart a play.
 
So Shane Battier spends Sunday afternoon face guarding Kobe Bryant. It’s not illegal, though I think it should be. It requires effort and energy and it worked. The Rockets do what it takes and continue to compete.
 
We see those greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts teams occasionally. Usually, it’s because of defensive play.
 
The Chicago Bulls were one the last few years, running into the second round of the playoffs and sweeping the Heat and Shaq and Dwyane Wade without an All Star. They did it with defense and effort. It’s something of an insult to the rest of the NBA. After all, if that’s all it takes, then why can’t everyone?
 
Well, they can’t! Or they won’t. Or don’t.
 
For the Bulls, it didn’t last long.
 
But the Rockets have the fuel (you know you always need a space reference with them) to propel them like a booster.
 
Geez, I’ve got to get past corny.
 
That’s McGrady, the missing piece for those typical overachieving teams.
 
Though we doubt him often and curse him with the dreaded soft label at times, he remains the kind of player who can carry a team through a soft spot in a game or a quarter. Like when the Rockets were playing by far their poorest game in the stretch against the Hawks March 12, McGrady came out after halftime with 11 third quarter  points to hold off Atlanta virtually by himself.
 
That it was Yao who went out and McGrady who’s now the ironman also is news.
 
But McGrady draws a double team. He’ll make plays for teammates. He’s capable of big games, like 41 to beat New Orleans, 31 against the Mavs when Dirk was out. Sure, Alston had a big game against the Lakers, but this Rockets team isn’t beating anyone with its offense without McGrady.
 
They were supposed to with Adelman. He advocates a freer, open style players say they love. His Kings did because they had so many good passers. The Rockets talked happily about being freed from the Van Gundy walk-it-up chains, but they had become a crutch they missed and felt comfortable with.
 
So Adelman adjusted, the true measure of a coach.
 
Forget the back cutting Princeton offense. Few of his players, certainly his best ones, went to college, anyway.
 
They were 7-4 without McGrady in late December and January and now 10-0 without Yao. So there was something there.
 
Adelman accepted what they could do, and provided them the road map to what they would do. And what a strange and wonderful journey it’s been.

Having talked about the playoffs, the surprises and disappointments for the season for five months, it’s now about time when everyone starts talking awards. Who is deserving? Who is the best?

The MVP gets the most attention, and already there is a burgeoning debate among Kobe, LeBron and Kevin Garnett with a little Chris Paul thrown in. Kobe and LeBron square off for the best player attention and Garnett, the first half leader, gets the credit for resurrecting the Celtics. Paul is for the -how-are-they-doing-that Hornets.

Though there’s plenty of debate, the voters usually get MVP right.

The one they get wrong almost all the time is coach of the year.

This season it should be the Jazz’ Jerry Sloan.

What, you say, how could it be Sloan when his team last season won 51 games, its division and was in the conference finals?

Because he is the best coach who has done the best job this season. Which is what the award should be.

What the award comes down to, in part, because it is so difficult for so many of the voters to figure out just what the coach is doing, is, essentially, what predictions the voters got wrong.

The voters, mostly print and broadcast media, generally rate teams based on what they’ve seen before and what they expect for this season based on that. So if a team generally does better than expected, well, it must be coaching.

That’s how Sam Mitchell won last year, which was ludicrous. Same with Doc Rivers back in 2000 in his rookie coaching season, though Rivers has come a long way since then and is a legitimate coach of the year candidate this season. Also, Hubie Brown with Memphis in 2004. Those teams merely were underestimated by voters who hadn’t seen them before and didn’t take into account the personnel changes they’d made. Yes, all those coaches contributed and did good jobs those seasons, but I doubt any were the best coach at the time.

There’s a lifetime achievement element in my pick of Sloan as he never has won the award despite more than 1,000 coaching wins and just one losing season in the last 19, 20, actually, as the Jazz is just a few wins from Sloan’s 19th winning season in the last 20. C’mon gentleman and ladies, what are you watching!

Sloan, of course, would recoil at receiving an award for longevity. He’s upset enough when he receives any award he deserves.

But you have to consider what is great coaching since there is little secret to the pick and roll, except to the USA team a few years ago against Greece in the World Championships. Ah, but I digress.

Obviously coaches have to communicate, and Sloan has his unique form that is, shall we say, direct. Whatever, it’s worked as his players never fail to play hard and compete. He’s what everyone would call the tough guy, not exactly the so called players’ coach. Yet, his practices are relatively brief and he delegates more responsibility to assistants than perhaps any coach in the NBA. It’s not about credit and control for Sloan, but confidence. You’ll never see his name in the dictionary by ego, where many NBA coaches reside.

Though to many the ultimate test of a great coach is whether he can adjust and put players in position to succeed.

That’s mainly why Sloan, to me, is the coach of the year.

For more than a decade I watched Sloan’s Jazz with John Stockton and Karl Malone methodically wipe out teams with a series of crushing pick and rolls, relentlessly and continually, going again and again until the team got something. Opponents moaned about Stockton, perhaps the toughest six footer ever, calling him dirty. Big guys don’t like those interior screens put on them and Stockton never stopped, bumping, holding, pulling, grabbing, shouldering, whatever it took. And with that “Who, me?” look.

Malone? He was tough and mean. His blows were out there for everyone to see and they knew they were coming. More opposing power forwards got the flu in Salt Lake City than any other American city, Yes, Maloneitis.

And so they went and it’s now Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, a terrific point guard and power forward. 

Tough? Not that much. Mean? Not really. Defensive oriented? Not at all.

So here’s Sloan, who was the most in-you-face player when he played and had that type of team with Malone and Stockton.

And now his Jazz is an offensive juggernaut with a seven footer in Mehmet Okur firing up threes and needing a roadmap to find the lane. He’s got a smallish power forward in Boozer who is one of the poorest at his position in blocks and in defensive quickness. He’s got a terrific point guard in Williams who isn’t that enamored of defense, but will match anyone on offense. He plays one small forward who was run out of the East for a lack of defense in Kyle Korver and another in Matt Harpring who’d play it if he could, but his knees are like kindling.

The Jazz average more than 105 points per game, fifth in the NBA, offensive proficiency rarely heard of for the Jazz until the last few seasons with Malone and Stockton when league scoring was down. Their field goal defense is 21st. They’re 24th in rebounding, but second in assists.  They trail just the Warriors, Suns, Lakers and Nuggets in scoring average. You never want to get down in the trenches with any Jerry Sloan team. Yet, there’s no one in the West the Jazz can’t run with.

Jerry Sloan’s run-and-gun Jazz?

It’s really what the great coaches do.

Pat Riley was Showtime in L.A. and then Thugtime in New York. Whatever it took.

Phil Jackson believed in defense and equal opportunity from the Red Holzman days until Jackson came to the Bulls to find the game’s best scorer.

Gregg Popovich believed in throwing it down to his big guys and waiting for the double team and rotation for an open shot -wake me while I think about that offense- until he got road runner Tony Parker and manic Manu Ginobili. So it became Pop goes the Spurs.

There are several good candidates for coach of the year, and the Hornets’ Byron Scott probably is the early favorite with his team in the midst of the West race when many had them missing the playoffs. Yet, that was an injured and uncertain Hornets team on the move again last season. Rivers has been terrific with the Celtics in hanging in and pushing the defensive buttons. Stan Van Gundy has worked around several missing parts and one transcendent center to give the Magic purpose and Rick Adelman has weathered injury and uncertainty and changed with the desires of the talent to produce an unlikely contender after a slow start. All are deserving candidates and good coaches. And Jackson has remained steadfast and determined in believing in the Lakers and having his players respond.
 
Still, I’m on board for Sloan. Though don’t tell him because if he wins it will only make him mad.

But no coach has done better in adjusting to his talent, emphasizing its strengths and accepting its weaknesses and producing consistent effort and success. It’s simply what coaching is about and Sloan continues to do it as well as anyone.

Pssst. Pass it on.

It is what it is, as we like to say in the NBA. And you are who you are, which extends even beyond our world, though few around the NBA know that world exists.

And so it is with Michael Jordan as well, lately the part owner and basketball operations director of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Why Jordan is having such a difficult time having success in Charlotte is because Michael is just being Michael. He’s doing it as he sees it, and for Michael – for many stars, really – this job is so difficult because the construction of anything great requires subtlety as much as skill. And seeing both.

Because it’s about team building and not talent.

And they can be mutually exclusive.

Sure, you need talent, but the evasive part is the talent that meshes, that fits.

We see every day some team struggling with the combination. Now it’s the Phoenix Suns, who seemed like a championship contender days ago, and they began their new journey Wednesday with Shaquille O’Neal. And we hear now about chemistry and mix and the right group.

It was entertaining to listen to Kobe Bryant last weekend explaining the elements of building a team.

Bryant, of course, has had a bad year doing that, basically trashing his team last spring, trying to get himself traded to what we can clearly see now is a flawed Chicago Bulls team and finally accepting he had to stay with the Lakers, where his team is, sigh, now one of the favorites to win the NBA championship.

“I was frustrated,” Bryant shrugged about having lashed out last spring and demanded to be traded, to the point Bryant apparently was telling some in the media he’d never again wear a Lakers uniform. “We haven’t won in three years. You have an opportunity to get a player like Jason Kidd. Everybody thought I was knocking Andrew (Bynum). But the truth of the matter is Jason Kidd is one of the greatest point guards of all time. Why would you not want to do that deal?”

That was the trade the Nets tried during last year’s All-Star break – which the Lakers rejected and sent Bryant spiraling into becoming his own talk radio call out show by the spring.

“I’m glad I wasn’t the GM,” Bryant says now with a laugh.

I recall a similar scene with the Chicago Bulls of the late 1980s.

Jordan wasn’t getting anywhere despite what was clearly the best individual talent in the NBA. His was winning the oohs and aahs of the fans while his team was 1-10 in its first 10 playoff games. It’s a feeling you figure LeBron James, coming off his second All-Star MVP in the last three years, is getting now with his team hardly regarded by anyone as a contender even if it went to the Finals last season.

Phil Jackson, then as an assistant with the Bulls, had been pushing for the team to trade for Knicks center Bill Cartwright, a big man to at least hold off the big men in the East, which then was a physical big man’s conference. Eventually, the Bulls made the trade for Charles Oakley, a talented young forward and close friend with Jordan. Jordan was furious and for several years derided Cartwright, the trade and management for making it.

Just before the fourth game of the Eastern Conference finals in 1991 as the Bulls were on the way to sweeping the Detroit Pistons and winning their first of six NBA championships, Jordan came out and admitted he was wrong and how much the Bulls needed Cartwright to get by the Pistons‘ James Edwards, the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing, the Celtics‘ Robert Parish and the Cavs‘ Brad Daugherty.

It’s why owners and general managers have to be smart and not let their stars make trades. They see talent and how to combine it.

The Bobcats have been a major disappointment, if only in regard to their own public expectations.

Rookie coach Sam Vincent, who is in hot water with his players and could be out after one season (like Jordan’s first coach in Washington, Leonard Hamilton), talked about a top four finish for the Bobcats this season. I suspect it was less a prediction than an attempt at motivation. He virtually guaranteed a playoff spot, and while it never looks good when you are wrong, what was he supposed to do? Say they weren’t a playoff team. He’s a former Jordan backcourt running mate with the Bulls. It’s his first head coaching job, so maybe he gets another chance next season. Jordan also doesn’t want to appear to be running through coaches too quickly.

The problem is the makeup of the team.

Jordan sees stars and gets them, but they don’t necessarily fit.

The Bobcats have done a good job of developing Gerald Wallace, an athletic wing player. So what do they do? They add athletic wing player Jason Richardson. Certainly a talent, but the team gets into the my turn/your turn thing Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony share in Denver.

Players have to play off one another, a team being a fit like jigsaw puzzles, pieces with different skills in different sizes and shapes coming together to fit at a time.

Perhaps the best at it these days is the Pistons’ Joe Dumars, with whom the Bobcats made their other deal of late.

Give Jordan this: Though he gets criticized by other GMs, privately at least, for not working hard enough because he doesn’t scout or come around much due to to his worldwide celebrity and the potential distraction when he is on the scene, he has tried to address needs.

The Bobcats were faltering in the middle, so he traded Primoz Brezec and Walter Hermann, both with expiring contracts, for Nazr Mohammed. The Pistons were anxious to get Mohammed’s three years off their books, but Mohammed does little to complement Emeka Okafor as both will generally step out about 10 feet to make a shot. Neither is a true post-up player.

The guards, Raymond Felton and Jeff McInnis, the latter a cheap pickup, are both shooting guards trying to be point guards.

Jordan knows talent, and he has talented players. But he has difficulty distinguishing how you make it a team. Though he’s hardly alone. It’s much more difficult than it seems.