Sometimes you can be too nice to your players. Look at the Indiana Pacers. The players, to their credit, have responded. The Pacers are tied with the Nets for the best record in the East at 27-10.
But the Pacers are one player from being a serious title contender, and that player is Gary Payton. If the Pacers weren’t so nice, they probably could get him. There’s still a chance, though.
The Pacers and Seattle SuperSonics talked last summer about a Payton trade. The Sonics were interested in some of the Pacers’ excess of young forwards until they re-signed Rashard Lewis and thought they could be playoff contenders. Now the Sonics, slumping (8-16 in their last 24 games) and unlikely to make the playoffs, are facing a rebuilding project–one that isn’t likely to include Payton, whom coach Nate McMillan accused last week of being selfish.
“I’ve got two free-agent point guards who want minutes,” lamented McMillan last week of Payton and Kenny Anderson. “And I’ve got five big men who all play with a similar style. Until we make some moves, this is what we’re going to have to work with. When things aren’t going well on the court, we need to have guys coming together, communicating, talking about what is going to happen on the next possession. I’m not seeing it. We’re dealing with a vulnerable group of young guys and a veteran [Payton]. And who knows exactly what he’s thinking?”
Payton would be a perfect fit for the Pacers, who benched Jamaal Tinsley last week. Erick Strickland is the backup. The problem is that the Pacers, considered perhaps the league’s most player-friendly organization, gave contract extensions to Ron Artest and Jonathan Bender before the season, making them almost impossible to trade and leaving Indiana with an overload at forward with Artest, Bender and Al Harrington.
The Sonics, with a chance for salary-cap room to land a free agent, might not want to take on expensive players, though Indiana probably could put together a deal with Harrington, Tinsley and Austin Croshere. What might fit the Sonics better is swapping Payton for Reggie Miller because they make about the same money. With an overload on the roster and an incentive to get a higher lottery pick, the Sonics likely would want to release Miller. Perhaps as a sweetener, the deal could include the Sonics getting Tinsley, a No. 1 pick and cash.
Payton could be the prize to alter the power balance at the February trading deadline, and the Pacers could have a good shot at their first NBA title.
Monday GM, Part II: The Clippers’ dynasty of two seasons as playoff contenders looks like it’s coming to an end. They’re last in the Pacific Division, coach Alvin Gentry is hanging on only because general manager Elgin Baylor doesn’t care for top assistant Dennis Johnson as a replacement and Baylor decided last week to address the team about poor play.
The problem with the team is that it is filled with free agents. The first to go will be unrestricted free-agent center Michael Olowokandi. He is booed regularly at home and ripped the fans last week. Baylor responded that Olowokandi, averaging a modest 12.7 points, “needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. He certainly doesn’t help the situation.”
Maybe I can help.
The Clippers are going to lose Olowokandi. Their priority seems to remain being able to delay paying their players, but keeping a young core intact. So what about this:
The Bulls deal Eddy Curry and Marcus Fizer to the Clippers. With Olowokandi gone, the Clippers will need a center, and Curry doesn’t come up for a contract for three years. Fizer can replace Elton Brand, a restricted free agent. His agent is David Falk, who has a long history of his clients leaving the Clippers. Brand goes to the Washington Wizards, run by Falk client Michael Jordan.
The Wizards have been kicking themselves for not taking the Bulls’ offer in 2001 of Brand for the No. 1 overall pick, which the Bulls would have used for Kwame Brown. So have the Wizards complete the three-way trade by sending Brown to the Bulls with Tyronn Lue and Cherokee Parks to fill out the deal.
Jordan could even make a serious playoff run with Brand, and might even then want to play another season. The Bulls would get the player they wanted No. 1, Brown, and also have Tyson Chandler, who could combine to be a more appealing, young athletic front line. And the Clippers get their center in Curry and a replacement for Brand in Fizer. Then they can pay Lamar Odom and Corey Maggette, who’ll come cheaper than Brand.
Hot tip: Can Pat Riley make it any clearer to the Bulls? Come get Eddie Jones. The Heat lost in Denver last week, and Riley said he’d rather be coaching the Nuggets than the Heat.
“For next year [Denver’s position] is 10 times better than ours,” Riley said. “They get another lottery pick, and if they get two free agents, they’re ready to roll. That’s where we want to be. We can’t do that because we have a couple of max contracts.”
Report on Hill: Cleveland’s Tyrone Hill should be available to a team in need of frontcourt help. The Cavs are saying they need to get a good look at Chris Mihm, DeSagana Diop and Carlos Boozer. The Lakers remain a possible destination, though that would require giving up someone like Robert Horry. Lakers coach Phil Jackson has talked about getting more athletic. Denver might take Horry, on the last year of his contract, for Marcus Camby, who is due back from injury next week. Camby is the kind of shot-blocking power forward Jackson describes, but it would be risky with his history of injury.
They got next: On Wednesday in Sacramento, the Kings and Mavericks will meet for the first time this season. By then the Mavs could have French scoring star Antoine Rigaudeau, a slick 6-7 ball-handling forward. Credit Dallas for being aggressive in pursuing a player most teams figured wouldn’t come to the NBA. As for the Kings, Mavs coach Don Nelson says they’re the league’s best. “They’ve been good for a long time,” said Nelson, “but they haven’t been able to beat the Lakers in a seventh game. Normally when you look at teams it takes getting beat like that a few years, and then finally they kind of figure out what it’s all about.”
On Friday in Houston it’ll be Yao Ming vs. Shaquille O’Neal for the first time. Yao figures to be the Western Conference starting center with a lead over the Lakers’ O’Neal even among paper votes collected in the United States. O’Neal says he’ll be bringing Yao an apology for comments he made months ago on a cable-TV show when he spoke in mock Chinese. O’Neal was in the Lakers’ locker room last week repeating “Toy-inchee,” which is “I’m sorry” in Chinese.
Sell like Mike: Is Yao the real next Jordan? Yao’s first national commercial hits soon for Apple computers. Yao and Verne Troyer (Mini Me from Austin Powers) sit next to each other on a plane and each pulls out a laptop, a smallish screen for Yao and a giant screen for Troyer. “It was pretty funny,” Yao said.
The quote: Utah’s Mark Jackson hit Matt Harpring with a pass Wednesday for Jackson’s 10,000th career assist. The crowd broke into cheers, and Harpring said: “I shot it and the crowd started going crazy, and I’m like, `Wow, they must really like my jump shot.'”
