(Photo courtesy of DGA Productions)
By: Greg Payne
Yesterday, I lost count of how many times I heard ESPN's secret organization of analysts mutter something along the lines of: "Cleveland acquired Shaquille O'Neal to combat Dwight Howard."
Then of course, there was Vince Carter migrating down to his native Florida, to team up with the aforementioned Howard to supposedly compete for next year's NBA Championship.
So, if you're keeping score, two of the Eastern Conference's top three teams from last season just made significant changes to their rosters. Hence all the buzzzzz. With Mike Brown sitting on a very hot seat in Cleveland (has any coach who's never won had more pressure on him? It's win or go home, as in pack your bags, you're fired, for Brown next season) and Howard (you would think) aiming to improve that despicable offensive repertoire, both Cleveland and Orlando should come out guns blazing next season, right?
And then there's Washington, who, with a simple swap of players, transformed into the fourth best team in the east, which is tremendous for the Celtics (who I'll mention in a minute), seeing as, for whatever reason, Washington has served as a 12-man kryptonite to the Cavaliers for the past several seasons, even when the likes of Gilbert Arenas, Brendan Haywood and Antawn Jamison were down with injuries and JaVale McGee was their starting center.
But, to my knowledge, no one has mentioned any of the previously discussed trades in order to bring down the Boston Celtics, who will be retaining the best starting five in all of basketball. Right now, Boston is simply floating along under the radar, possibly even creating some poor press with all of the trade talk that recently clouded Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen's futures.
Can Shaq even handle Howard? Let's say he can. (He can't). Can Shaq handle Kevin Garnett? Can Shaq step out 12-15 feet and guard a KG step back jump shot? Or a KG upfake and subsequent drive to the basket, culminating in a ferocious slam that both Gatorade and Comcast SportsNet will proudly display in their next commercial? Of course not. And who do the Cavaliers have to stop that? Anderson Varejao (assuming they can even re-sign him)? Puh-puh-puhlease.
But none of these teams are making moves to combat Boton's best players. Sure LeBron will always be a handful, but didn't last season's early postseason exit show just how important real teammates can be? Especially when facing a near superior opponent? So what are these teams doing to slow down Garnett? Or Allen? Or Rondo? And we haven't even added free agents to our bench yet!
Sure, the attention scale could shift to Boston once the weight of free agency comes knocking on their door, and I'm sure once one, two or even three quality players (because something like that WILL happen this summer) sign with us in the coming weeks, the focus train will be set to head our way.
But to me, Cleveland and Orlando can hog all of the attention for now. Heck, they can take it all season. We'll just play basketball. Because you know, once Cleveland drives over a few bumps in the road with Shaq at the helm, the critics will start weighing in. And you know once Carter starts air balling 35-foot three-pointers there's going to be some trouble (even on a team that LOVES the three-point shot).
And you also know that everyone will start talking about the Boston Celtics once our early season record looks something like 26-1 or 24-0 or 25-3. Unless we sign a player with a history of troubled baggage (Rasheed Wallace, anyone?), we should enter this season squeaky clean, like a well tuned engine, and if anything starts to sputter, there won't be any finger pointing with this group. Why? Because they've all been there before. And sputtering for this team typically means a two-game losing streak anyway...
So go ahead and have it, Cleveland and Orlando. Steal all the national headlines and the entire right side of ESPN's NBA Home page. Take it all. If this were divorce court, we'd give you everything. We'll just take back the Eastern Conference crown late in May as compensation.
Stay Tuned.
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4 comments:
excellant article! Couldn't be more on target! Perfect!
Everyone forgets that we won 62 games last year with injuries to KG, Powe, BB, RA, RR, etc etc etc. That's remarkable but we get treated by (the ESPN [Kobe/LeBron] Machine) media as "washed up".
Like you said, that's fine. We want our compensation in June!
Great read, as usual.
Thank you Nick, much appreciated. Do you think Carter to the Magic will work?
Homestly? I think it was a bad move for the Magic. Why do they need another perimeter player?
They need an inside presense that can draw double teams and have the basketball IQ to make the proper passes to the outside shooters.
PLUS- Carter is aging and his arrival in Orlando basically cemented Turkoglu's departure. Turk was Orlando's most consistant offensive force and 'go-to' guy in the playoffs.
Bad move. Your thoughts?
Well, remember back when we were facing Orlando and we all kept noticing how they appeared to lack a certain "killer instinct"? I think Orlando might think Carter can bring that to them. I agree Turk is probably on his way our now, unless he's just lobbying for more money from Orlando, but even he wasn't cut throat all the time.
I'm not sure Carter is as devastating in the final two minutes as some other players, but he's certainly a guy who can get his shot off whenever he needs to and I think Orlando needed someone like that.
And I think with Nelson coming back Orlando feels like they can almost let Turk walk because they'll be expecting some more All-Star production out of Nelson, which I think they will receive.
I'm not sure if I'm sold on the move, but they are pretty much a perimeter oriented team. Maybe they'll use Carter the way the Celtics use Pierce and then use Lewis the way the Celtics use Allen, you know? That was one thought I had earlier.
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