NBA Chat With Travis Heath 2/26/13

Join NBA expert Travis Heath for his weekly chat this Tuesday Feb. 26 at 4 pm est!

  1. Lucas

    Greetings doctor,

    From what you know of the situation between The Rockets & White, are you of the opinion that the situation was well handle it? Do you think there is room for people with mental disability in profession to work and grow with?

    Thank you for your time.

    • Travis Heath

      As I noted in my column some weeks ago, I think the Rockets didn’t handle the situation as well as they possibly could have. However, I also noted that this didn’t make the organization unique. The current paradigm of treating mental health in professional sports is antiquated. It’s a reactionary model as opposed to a proactive one. Teams wait until there is a problem and refer out for help instead of having qualified professionals already on staff who can begin building relationships with players from the minute they join the franchise. The part of the therapeutic process that is too often ignored is the therapeutic relationship. The absence of this is often detrimental to both the process and outcome of treatment.

      I’m happy that Royce is finally back on the court and hope it works out long-term for both he and the Rockets. That said, the league has a long way to go in addressing the persistent mental health needs of its players. But there again, I should note that it’s not just the NBA. It’s also other professional sports leagues and employers in general.

      Here’s a link to my article from a few weeks back for those who are interested: http://www.hoopsworld.com/royce-white-a-psychologists-perspective/

  2. Danny Two Step

    Young Travis,

    We give a lot of credit to Dirk for reinventing the 4 spot as a big man who can stand out at the 3 point line and knock them down. With that line of thinking, shouldn’t we give a lot more credit to Sam Perkins? He was doing that while Dirk was still a youngster.

    • Travis Heath

      Sam Perkins was one of the first so-called “stretch fours,” although that’s a bit of a misnomer because he often played the five. However, to compare him to Dirk is to miss some very important differences. First, Dirk has better ball skills. Second, Dirk is a better athlete. Third, Dirk is an expert at shooting off-balance and drawing fouls. While I always had an affinity for Perkins, he simply couldn’t do as many things as Dirk does. Dirk will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, while Perkins will be remembered as a solid complementary piece. Said differently, Dirk can do far more than just stretch a defense as Perkins did.

  3. Mr. Ballistik

    I’ve read columnists defend the Darko pick, citing scouting and workout reports as evidence of his talent. Conventional wisdom says that Larry Brown wrecked the kid’s confidence.

    What say you? Should/do teams focus on a player’s mental and emotional health? Or is it on the player to “suck it up”?

    • Travis Heath

      The 2003 NBA Draft was when the “Euro movement” was really hitting its stride. Guys like Nikoloz Tskitishvilli were taken in this same era (2002 if memory serves). In short, it was trendy to select European players. I think the Pistons fell victim to this a little bit.

      This is also a classic example of not selecting the best overall player. The Pistons’ front office was guilty of overthinking the pick based on the composition of the roster at the time as opposed to just taking the best available talent.

      Further, this notion of how a guy performs in pre-draft workouts is highly overrated. What most fans don’t realize is that the workout process is extremely limited. Agents dictate what player will and will not do. These workouts almost never show what a player is truly capable of, or perhaps more importantly, not capable of. Good organizations have already done their scouting long in advance of any workouts. The NBA “combine” is basically a waste of time with the exception of being able to sit down and actually interview a player. You can learn a lot in the interview, but likely won’t learn a ton about a player’s physical abilities. None of the workouts of lottery-caliber players come even close to mirroring what you would see in a game. The workouts are really nothing more than an opportunity for the coaching staff to kick the tires a little bit since they don’t get a chance to focus on the draft during the season.

      Finally, it’s quite possible that the way Larry Brown treated Darko impacted his confidence. However, if a former coach is able to completely break a player even after a change of scenery, that likely demonstrate a larger issue with the player that would have eventually surfaced at some point any way. Whether that issue has something to do with a player’s mental health as noted in the question varies by player.

      I firmly believe that treating every player the same sounds good in principle but is often a disaster in practice. People are motivated in different ways and through different tactics. It is a leader’s job to discover what works best for each individual personality. All that said, Darko just never had the mentality to be great. He was the type who would sulk at the first sign of adversity. There is only so much a coach can do in situations such as these. So yes, Larry could have handled it differently, but ultimately, Darko is the one who failed Darko barring some mental health issue none of us are aware of.

  4. Luís

    It’s amazing how the presence or absence of a player can affect the game of some of his team mates. Take the Wizards for instance, they looked like last years’ Bobcats before Wall, now they play like a playoff team. One example woulfd be Okafor, who has been averaging 11,7 points and 11,2 rebounds in less than 28 minutes a night since Wall returned(he’s contract seems much less absurd this way…). And Wall isn’t even playing how he can, yet. Do you think this presence/ absence affects the mindset automatically?

    • Travis Heath

      There is definitely something to the psychology of your best player returning that can exceed the actual physical impact he has on the floor. That said, Wall is also returning midseason to a team that was miserable without him. I think some of this has to do with the psychology of the Wizards’ opponents as well. By that I mean, it’s very likely teams are overlooking the Wizards based on how awful they were early in the season. I think it’s dangerous to believe, for example, that the Wizards are a playoff caliber team based off such a small sample size. Washington is definitely better with Wall, but the long-term performance will likely show that the Wizards still need a couple of pieces before becoming a true playoff contending team.

  5. Jim in CyberSpace

    I’m so psyched for March Madness…I Love Miami… I Love Marcus Smart and the Pokes.. I just kinda want a changing of the guard…for just one season.
    The problem is…it’s post All-Star break..the Big Boy’s are getting serious. Ya can’t watch everything? Gotta sleep take care of the family, job etc..

    • Travis Heath

      There are around 15-20 teams that could win it all this year at the college level. Can’t remember a year where the field was quite this open. Should make for quite a tournament.

      And yes, this time of the year is hectic with regard to so much great basketball. Add to the mix an 11-month-old daughter, moving to a new house and completing consulting gigs in Australia and New Zealand, and you have one of my busiest months on record. :)

  6. Wil

    Dr. Heath, I have some concerns with PTLD going into this final stretch run. I think Stotts has done a good job, so far, but now he needs to dial back a bit on the starter minutes, start to see what he has in his bench, and find a more sustainable role for JJ (whose best spot is back-up PF/C). Coaches seem to fall into a repetition compulsion where they keep doing something they think will work, even when it doesn’t. How do coaches manage short term winning mentality (even if it doesn’t lead to actual wins) to long term, systemic viability? Thanks.

    • Travis Heath

      Great question. Coaches are human like anyone else. Sometimes they get an idea in their heads and are determined it is going to work even when the evidence might not support it. Also, many coaches like to coach “by feel” as opposed to by the numbers. Dare I say, most NBA coaches feel this way.

      The short-term vs. long-term point is a fascinating one. No one makes it to the NBA level unless they are extremely competitive. Until they’re mathematically eliminated, coaches always believe they have a shot. In contrast, the front office often prefers that young basketball teams (as the Blazers are) develop the long-term vision. The difference is that a front office can increase job security by selling the owner on long-term development. However, the coach knows that if the owner gets impatient in such a situation he is likely the one who is going to get fired and not the GM or members of the front office. What that translates to is a coach always feeling a pressure to win now that the front office might not feel in quite the same way unless he’s in a contract year.

  7. Mike

    How do you think Mike Dunlap has done with the Bobcats? Think he will be brought back next season?

    • Travis Heath

      I’ve known Mike for a long time and like him personally. I also know what a great basketball mind he is. Heck, he doesn’t just have a mind for basketball. He’s a well read dude across myriad of subjects.

      In terms of the job he’s done, I would say about as well as one can expect given the collection of talent he was handed. The Bobcats are about as poorly constructed an NBA team as I can recall in recent memory. As Mike gets more talent, the wins will come. Hopefully they give him at least three years so improvement can be seen from season-to-season.

  8. Nuno

    Some days ago, started to read some rumours about dleague players mainly big mans, T. Olbrecht signed for Houston, do you think there are more that will be signed ? Jerome Jordan, Hassan Whiteside or others ?

    • Travis Heath

      A good friend of mine who is an executive in the NBA used to like to tell me, “Bigs are like money and girlfriends. You can never have enough of them.” This isn’t the way I would say it, but I always understood his point. I was never high on Whiteside or Jordan, but given the dearth of bigs in the league it wouldn’t surprise me if either was given a shot by a team looking to add size and length.

  9. john

    Will Andrew Bynum ever reach his potential, or do you think he peaked with the Lakers?

    • Travis Heath

      To me, the more pertinent question is will Andrew Bynum ever be able to stay healthy. A strong argument could be made that when Bynum was healthy last season, he was the best center in the game. If that turns out be his ceiling, I’m sure the Sixers would be thrilled. Thing is, it doesn’t matter what his potential or how close he is to reaching it if he can’t stay on the floor.

  10. kevin

    Who has a better chance of catching the 8th seed bucks, Tor or Philly and do you see it happening?

    • Travis Heath

      I would give the edge to the Raptors if forced to pick one of the two simply because of the wave of momentum the team seems to be riding since the acquisition of Rudy Gay. Whether or not one of the two actually catches Milwaukee will a depend on how Redick meshes with the pieces already in Milwaukee. My gut says he will fit in just fine and the Bucks make the playoffs, but you never know. There is always a risk with any trade that the pieces end up not fitting for whatever reason.

  11. hello Dr. Heath

    What do you make of the Nuggets keeping mozgov past the trade deadline? They had a nice offer of a 1st round pick available form the t-wolves. Now in free agency, the wolves or another nba team can make a bid at the restricted free agent and risk losing him for nothing.

    • Travis Heath

      I would guess Denver’s thinking would be along the lines of having extra bigs come playoff time is never a bad thing. Personally, I would have taken a draft pick given that it will be very hard for the Nuggets to retain Mozgov this summer given the team’s salary situation. However, you never know what might happen. Perhaps Denver moves a few pieces to consolidate talent and that opens up a spot for Mozgov. There is always the sign-and-trade option as well, although this is something that always sounds better in theory when discussing months in advance and can be harder to complete when the time actually arrives.

  12. Marcus

    Do you think we’ll see any big names get the amnesty this summer? Pau? Boozer? Amare?

    • Travis Heath

      The Knicks cannot amnesty Amar’e as they already used the one time exception on Chauncey Billups. As for the other two names, it sure seems as though Boozer is a likely candidate given all of the noise that has come out of Chicago. To me, Boozer has actually been fairly solid this year, but financially it very well might be in the best interest of the franchise to part ways. With Gasol, I would be surprised if the Lakers went in this direction for two reasons: 1) The Lakers have never been afraid to spend absurd amounts of money and have the television revenue to continue to do so and 2) Gasol will be an expiring contract next season and it’s likely the Lakers would be able to get something of value in return should they look to trade him instead.

  13. Danny Two Step

    Dr. Heath,

    I don’t know if you saw that UNM Lobos – CSU game this past weekend (Go Lobos!). Do you think Kendall Williams will make it to the nba? Will he be productive if he does? In other words, how do you project him?

    • Travis Heath

      I was actually in Moby to scout this game. Williams had a career performance, no doubt. His numbers coming into the game dictated that he’s not a great shooter. I’ve always seen him as a more of a scorer than a shooter. However, where CSU failed was in letting him get some open looks early. Once he got into that zone, there was no stopping him.

      In terms of where I see him going, I definitely think he’ll get a look at the NBA level. However, I think he would be better served to stay for his senior season. If he came out this season he would be a second rounder at best barring a dynamic performance in the tournament. Another solid season at UNM could change that.

      All in and all done. Thanks for the intelligent conversation. Hit me up on Twitter @DrTravisHeath for more conversation.