HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

Bruce Pearl is gone at Tennessee and now Celtics assistant Lawrence Frank could “Volunteer” to slip on the peach-colored blazer. HOOPSWORLD’s Alex Kennedy reported on his Twitter account that the former Nets head coach and Tennessee assistant was the “front runner” for the job.

CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely confirmed Kennedy’s report with multiple league sources and went on to say that Frank’s supposed interest in the job speaks to the likelihood that Doc Rivers returns as head coach next season.

Then today Blakely got in touch with a league source who said Frank was contacted by the school, but only as a consultant.

“All I know is that Lawrence is under contract with us for the rest of the season,” Celtics president Danny Ainge told The Boston Herald. “Right now he’s committed to helping us win our next NBA title this year.”

It’s hard to think of Frank coaching the Volunteers, but only because one associates manners and decorum with the South. Frank isn’t crude or offensive, but Nets beat writers were often treated to a lively, energetic guy who said whatever came to his mind and sometimes that involved a few four-letter words. If he ever did take a college job down South, it would be interesting to see if the writers had as much fun covering Frank as the Nets beat guys did.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Abdul-Jabbar Wants to Show Howard a Thing or Two

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is starting to back off his interest in coaching in the NBA, but there is one project that is somewhat enticing.

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer was promoting his critically acclaimed documentary “On the Shoulders of Giants” (which is about the Harlem Rens of the 1920s-1940s) with Ken Segiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when he was asked about his future on the bench.

“That’s starting to wane now,” he told Segiura. “I’m 63. I’ll be 64 next month. I haven’t gotten an opportunity at this point. I’d hoped that maybe I could have gotten into a college program, but it wasn’t there for me. The opportunities that I’m getting now as a filmmaker are appealing and I intend to pursue those.”

But when the subject of Orlando center Dwight Howard came up, Abdul-Jabbar couldn’t help but wonder if he could be of some help.

“I think I could have shown him a few things that would have helped his game a lot,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Such an incredible athlete. There are a few blind spots in his game just because he didn’t stay in school long enough to get all of that down, but just really an incredible athlete.”

Another highlight of the interview was when Abdul-Jabbar listed Dwyane Wade, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Chris Paul as three of his favorite players to watch to today because “they’re really savvy about how to play the game” and “They understand what the game is about, ball movement and playing to help their team in terms of winning basketball games.”

Abdul-Jabbar didn’t always have the best relationship with the media, but he’s always honest and very forthcoming. You should definitely check out the rest of the transcript.

Anthony Morrow Gets Defensive

Nets swingman Anthony Morrow isn’t known for his defense. Prior to the season famed ESPN analyst John Hollinger included the 25-year-old on his “short list” of top shooters, but also described Morrow as a “very poor defender.”

Morrow is still the same marksman he’s always been (43% from 3-point range this year), but he’s finally putting things together on the other end of the floor thanks to a new coaching staff and some time at a new position.

“That’s one thing that they put a huge emphasis on and I took the challenge at the beginning so that’s something I want to continue to take as a challenge,” Morrow told HOOPSWORLD of Nets coach Avery Johnson’s defensive methods. “He talks about it, but all of our coaches talk about it.”

As much as Johnson’s staff has pushed Morrow on the defensive end, he really began to look comfortable after rookie small forward Damion James went down with a foot injury. Johnson wanted to keep small forward Travis Outlaw as the sixth man, so Morrow slid over from shooting guard and the results have been impressive.

“I’ve just been in different situations this year where I’ve had to step my defense up because of the lineups we were using,” Morrow said. “I had to guard [6-8 Pacers forward Danny] Granger down the stretch. I just wanted to make it hard for him to get the ball. He’s one of those guys that needs space to try and get his jump shot off. Me, being kind of one of those guys, I understand that working like that for the ball gets pretty frustrating. You get pretty tired of it.”

Opposing small forwards have just a 13.4 Player Efficiency Rating against Morrow, according to 82games.com. That is almost two full points below the league average. And when you compare that figure to Morrow’s PER at the position (an astounding 23.6), it’s easy to see why his most productive minutes have been at small forward. 

Morrow is only 6-5 and doesn’t have the best foot speed, but he does have long limbs, which help him close out quickly on the perimeter. And now that he’s defending taller players, he’s starting to resemble another lanky 6-5 swingman—former Lakers star Michael Cooper.

Cooper made a living in the NBA defending guys like 6-9 Larry Bird and he never made 40% of his 3-point attempts in any season, but the comparison isn’t too much of a stretch because Morrow is finally learning to use his length.

Morrow, however, prefers to model his defensive game after some current players.

“I try to take from everybody,” he said. “Defensively Stephen Jackson, Ron Artest, he spoke to me one time about defense: ‘Keep working on your defense and getting deflections.’ That will put me on another level.

“There’s a lot of guys—a lot of guys that can defend the two or the three,” Morrow continued. “With some time, maybe with a little bit more weight on me later in my career, maybe I’ll be able to do that. Guys like Stephen Jackson, guys like that. I model my game after a lot of people. Not just offensively, but defensively too.”

There is a way you can tell Morrow is serious about improving his game and not just telling a reporter what he thinks fans want to hear. A lot of NBA players try to sound like they’re on an arduous journey whenever they try to expand their game. Finding a new facet on the court gets likened to finding religion or becoming a parent.

To Anthony Morrow, getting better at defense is something that he’s paid handsomely to do.

“It’s not difficult at all,” Morrow said. “I always worked on my game. It’s one of those things where I want to get better.”

FYI—My Twitter handle has changed to @alexraskinNBA.

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