Does Randolph Want Out? It's been no huge secret that Warriors' rookie Anthony Randolph has had a tough run in Golden State this season. He has been in and out of the doghouse with head coach Don Nelson and his playing time has been all over the board. The situation seemed to have cooled after a contentious December, but it seems things are warming up again when word broke that Randolph had fired agent B.J. Armstrong. Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle has been tracking this story fairly aggressively, and caught up with Will Marsaw, Randolph's uncle who has been guiding him through the business part of the NBA since declaring for the NBA draft last summer.
"We certainly want it to be worked out so that Anthony can stay a Warrior for a long, long time, but there's got to be some fire to the situation," said Marsaw. "Our message wasn't getting across, so we're interviewing agents. ... We wanted somebody who could be very, very aggressive."
"There was definitely no personal issue with B.J. or WMG," Marsaw said, referring to Wasserman Media Group, the Los-Angeles-based agency that represented Randolph. "They did a good job for him. I just think approach-wise, we weren't on the same page."
"I'm not there in practice and I don't know what Nellie is doing."
In early December, Don Nelson reportedly met with Armstrong to discuss the situation, and it was reported at the time that Armstrong was told to go find a trade for Randolph if he wasn't happy in Golden State. Randolph told HOOPSWORLD a few days after that story broke that it was all a misunderstanding and that he and Coach Nelson had talked it out and everything was fine and the story seemed to die off. The word now is that Randolph wants extended time on the floor and some level of a commitment to his development, or he wants a trade to a team that will. Now, whether that is Randolph's personal view or the view of his advisors is unclear. The NBA Players' Association has a mandatory 15 day cooling off period before a new agent can officially begin representing a player who fires an agent. Randolph's new agent can begin working on this issue on February 12th, seven days before the NBA trade deadline. So stay tuned to this situation, it could become interesting.
Curry Responds To Reports: Pistons' coach Michael Curry wasn't having any of it yesterday, responding to reports from the New York Post which cited an unnamed player saying the Pistons had lost confidence in their first-year head coach.
"Who is it?" Curry said to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. "How do you address something without someone's name on it? It's part of change. I knew coming in and Joe knew coming in, as you make changes this is going to be part of it. When you lose, this is going to be part of it. Even when you win, it's part of it."
"Remember, I was on the staff here last year and we won," Curry said. "I was on that staff and anything that was addressed at Flip last year to me personally, was about me, too, because I was on that staff busting my ass just like Flip and everybody else."
"The reality is, what does that have to do with getting stops? What does that have to do with making buckets?" he asked. "Any time you all write something, it says, 'Curry said,' right? I stand on everything I say. If somebody wants something to say, put your name on it. Then you can defend it. That's the way I've always been.
"I don't have a problem with people seeing things differently than me. But stand on it."
"I can't speak for everybody else," he said, "but I am sure everybody's confidence is still up because we've got a long way to go. We ain't even to the All-Star break. If we lose confidence now, there isn't any reason to come back after the break.
"My confidence is at an all-time high, honestly, because I still feel good about the guys I play with and our coaching staff."
The Pistons are in the midst of one of their least impressive seasons in recent history, and seem poised to rebuild this summer. Pistons president Joe Dumars continues to tell reporters that he is not going to trigger any more major deals this season, but the temptation to move the ending contracts of Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace has got to be increasingly real, especially as the team struggles. League sources say Joe is being genuine, in that teams that have inquired about Iverson's ending deal have been turned away. With 17 days until the NBA trade deadline, it will be interesting to see if Joe can hold the line.
The Story in Chicago: The Bulls do not have a singular owner, in fact their ownership group is comprised of 28 partners with Jerry Reinsdorf serving as chairman. That's an important point to note when you start talking about signing players and firing coaches. While Reinsdorf has the authority to do just about anything he wants there are other private voices in this discussion. Reinsdorf has made headlines recently with his comments about his coaches in Chicago. Here is what's real on this story: Vinny Del Negro was John Paxson's third choice. They made a run at Doug Collins who turned them down, they made a run at Mike D'Antoni who was virtually signed and delivered but Reindorf's process soured D'Antoni and ultimately the Knicks' offer was an easier deal to make for Big Mike as there were no strings attached. The decision to hire Vinny Del Negro was a mutual "dare to be great" move. The belief was there was enough in Vinny that if he was surrounded by the right assistants, he could turn into the next coaching star. He was cheap, energetic and offered a fresh new perspective. That hasn't worked out very well for a couple of reasons. Vinny continues to fall into the same traps every first year coach falls into. Vinny's miscues are not new; they are simply far more public because he's coaching in one of the world's largest fishbowls. The second issue has to do with his "key assistants" the Bulls had hoped that adding experienced coaches like Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff were going to be real assets for Vinny and early on it seemed as though they were on to something. However, once the regular season grind hit, Bickerstaff - according to some players who commented on the subject - seems to have "quit" on Vinny and is not as engaged as many had hoped he'd be. The players say Del Harris does try hard but that the dynamic between the three is clearly not working, and that's where Reinsdorf's comments are coming from. There is little chance Vinny Del Negro is fired in the off-season. Reinsdorf is still eating Scott Skiles' contract and seems unwilling to eat Vinny's two remaining seasons. It's safe to say that Bickerstaff and Harris may be sent packing this summer if things do not radically improve, and that Vinny will likely get an additional season to straighten this thing out. John Paxson will get some heat from the fans for more than just the Vinny situation, but at the end of the day a GM can only do what his ownership will allow him to do, which is likely why Reinsdorf has been equally vocal in his support of John Paxson. It certainly is an odd and weird situation, and the solution does not appear to be anywhere in sight and that may be a directly related to how complex things are with the Bulls at the ownership level.
