It's Sunday which means it's time to take a look at what the wonderful world of the NBA taught us this week.
Brandon Jennings Already Talking Smack
Soon to be NBA point guard Brandon Jennings didn't waste any time letting the media in Sacramento know what he thought of fellow NBA Draft candidate Ricky Rubio after a workout saying: "The dude is just all hype."
What I find funny about that is you could apply that statement to most players in the NBA Draft every season. It's also interesting that the comment came from a guy in Jennings, who by most accounts, struggled last season overseas.
Jennings went on to say this about Rubio's performance against him: "He had zero points, two assists and two turnovers, so you tell me how that went."
I certainly like the candor with which Jennings speaks. Moreover, there has been a tendency in the last decade to overrate European players come draft time. This tendency prompted Philadelphia 76ers swingman Jason Kapono to say prior to the 2003 NBA Draft that he would have been a lottery pick if his last name had been "Kaponovich." Keep in mind this is coming from someone who had to watch every painful minute of the Nikoloz Tskitishvilli era in Denver, too.
Thing is, Jennings is nothing more than hype at this stage of the game himself. That's what the NBA Draft process is all about these days: Hype over substance.
Jennings later Tweeted that he was just trying to add intrigue to the draft process. That's the classic line of a guy who realized after the fact that he probably said a little bit more than he should have. Whatever the case, it does make things more interesting moving forward which is never a bad thing for someone in my shoes.
Jennings has fired the first shot, and when you talk you have to back it up. We'll see if Jennings can do that over the course of his NBA career.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this little dust-up between Jennings and Rubio is that I'm not convinced either will be the best point guard that comes out of this draft. I've got my money on Jonny Flynn and think Jrue Holiday has the potential to surprise as well. These guys have kind of been flying under the radar and not saying much, and it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
NBA Age Limit Creating a Mirage
Who does the NBA and the NCAA really believe they are fooling?
Look, we all know that NCAA players get paid under the table and have for years. It's not like this whole thing with Tim Floyd stepping down at USC and allegations that he paid O.J. Mayo was letting some big cat out of the bag, and it's not like Floyd or USC were the only ones who have ever engaged in this kind of behavior.
For the best players, college basketball is just a dog and pony show. Such was the case for Derrick Rose at Memphis two seasons ago where we are now hearing allegations of "wrong doing" emerging involving the actions of former Memphis and current Kentucky coach John Calipari.
The sad thing about all of this is that it never had to go this way. If the NBA hadn't instituted that ridiculous 19-year-old age limit, guys like Rose and Mayo wouldn't have to pretend to go to college for a year. And make no mistake about it, that's exactly what they were doing. These guys never had any intention of getting an education. They were playing college basketball only because NBA rules no longer permitted them to declare for the NBA Draft.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not blaming the players here. They are the victims of a rule that makes no sense. The whole reason most individuals go to college is to put themselves in a position to maximize their earning potential in the future by earning a degree. As such, I don't blame players one iota for leaving early when the top draft prospects are guaranteed millions of dollars. The problem with this whole thing is the fantasy world that the NBA and NCAA are co-creating in which guys like Rose and Mayo are called "student athletes."
Cut the crap. Either let the kids come straight to the NBA out of high school or let them go play college basketball without pretending to be students by manufacturing SAT scores and having other people complete their work for them once they show up on campus.
There will no doubt be some kids who want to go to college and earn a degree prior to moving on to the NBA. There are numerous examples of players who have done this over the years, and these young people are good candidates for college basketball. However, there also happens to be a large subset of individuals who are only playing college basketball now for a year because they are forced to by the NBA's rules, provided, of course, they don't opt to pull a Brandon Jennings and go overseas for a year.
Let's be very clear about this: College basketball is a business in which millions of dollars exchange hands every year. The "student athletes" don't see one dime of that money, at least not on the up-and-up.
That being the case, it's time for the NBA and the NCAA to stop with all of the shenanigans. If a kid wants to play basketball and earn a degree at the same time, college basketball can be a great option. If, on the other hand, a kid simply wants to play professional basketball let's not pass him through the college system and simply pretend he is a "student athlete" because that helps sell the NCAA's product.
The end result would be a win-win for all parties involved.
Talk Of Firing Brown Takes Focus Off The Real Problem
If the question is did Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown get outcoached by Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy in the Eastern Conference Finals the answers is a resounding yes. However, count me among those who is not buying this notion that Brown is on the hot seat in Cleveland as some reports indicated this week.
Let's not forget, we're talking about a team that won the most regular season games in the league last season and was presumed to be a lock to make it to The Finals. To all of a sudden cut the cord just doesn't make sense. It's one of those things that sounds good in theory but causes more problems than expected in practice. Making such a drastic shift in what will be Cleveland's last chance to convince LeBron James to stay is far too risky.
It might be fun for fans in Cleveland to throw out names of potential replacements, but the bottom-line is that adjusting to a coaching change takes time... the kind of time the Cavaliers simply don't have.
There's no doubt Cleveland has to do something differently on the offensive end late in close games. Running a four-low set every time for LeBron isn't going to get it done, but it's not like all of that was Brown's fault given the fact no one else on Cleveland's roster stepped up in the conference finals. Mo Williams, the man who was supposed to be Robin to LeBron's Batman, pulled a disappearing act when it mattered most. Upfront, the Cavs often looked old and overmatched. In many ways, running a four-low set was forced upon Brown given how every player not named LeBron was underperforming.
Point is, the Cavs had better focus much more on improving their roster this offseason as opposed to trying to place all of the blame on the coach. Blaming Brown might make some people in Cleveland feel better about the team's chances this season, but canning him would be nothing more than a distraction from the personnel changes that need to be made this summer.
Of course, since Cavs' officials went on the record with ESPN and other news outlets saying that Brown is not going to be fired, perhaps continuing this discussion is largely an exercise in futility, anyway.
Westphal Finally The Answer For Sacramento?
If you read what's written in this space frequently, you know that Boston Celtics assistant coach Tom Thibodeau was the man your friendly neighborhood columnist was arguing should get the job as the next head coach of the Sacramento Kings. This week, the Kings went in a different direction opting to hire Paul Westphal.
Westphal will be the team's fourth head coach in the last three years. The question now is whether or not he'll be any better than the last three.
At the very least, Westphal is different than his predecessors in that that he has a ton of coaching experience. Thing is, Westphal's last professional head coaching job was nine years ago with the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics.
Nine years is a long time. I understand that Westphal has been involved in the NBA for the last couple of seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers and then the Dallas Mavericks in a complementary role. However, being a head coach is a whole different animal.
All that said, one thing I think people are underestimating a bit with Westphal is his ability to teach young players the game. That's certainly a good thing for the Kings given all of the young talent that will be on the roster next season.
I had the chance to get to know Westphal while I was completing the first leg of my graduate work at Pepperdine University in the early part of this decade where Westphal was head coach at the time. I participated in open runs in my free time with guys like Yakhouba Diawara and Alex Acker and got a taste of Westphal's aptitude as a teacher.
There's no doubt Westphal knows the game and is a good communicator, but young players in the NBA these days tend to have a very short attention span when compared to their college counterparts at a small school like Pepperdine.
Westphal will have a small window of time to get the attention of his players. If he's successful, good things can happen in Sacramento. If not, he's still got the lowest base salary of any coach in the NBA being guaranteed just $3 million over two seasons, which means he will be just as expendable as those who came before him.
Here's for hoping Westphal finds success in Sac-Town.
Growth Still Needed for Dwight Howard
The way Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic approaches this offseason will tell us a lot about the 23-year-old center. He helped lead his team to The NBA Finals and had his beat all-around season as a professional this year. Granted, it appears that Orlando will come up short against the Lakers, but all things considered it was one heck of a season.
For all Howard did well this season there are still some glaring holes in his game. He can often be found getting beat down the floor in transition thus compromising Orlando's transition defense. He's also a guy who has a less than refined post game, and his troubles at the charity stripe have been well documented.
Every now and again during these playoffs Howard has made a very nice offensive move on the block. The problem is that I'm surprised when it happens. Howard needs to get to a point where a well-rounded post game is no longer surprising to see and is instead just a routine part of his arsenal.
Truth be told, Howard is probably about right where he should be developmentally speaking. Now we will see if he gets satisfied with success and decides that he is good enough to maintain the status quo or if he commits himself to becoming a more dominant and well-rounded player this summer.
Of course, Howard is saying all of the right things about needing to get better. That's a nice first step. However, more than rhetoric is necessary here. I want to see Howard shoot a nice little 10 to 12 foot bank shot like Tim Duncan, a consistent drop step and nice little jump hook with his offhand, and an ability to hit free throws at a 70 percent clip. If Howard can showcase these things by next October he will be a MVP candidate and the Magic will be perennial contenders for the foreseeable future.
