I didn’t think the Bulls would make the playoffs this season, but I thought they had a chance because they play in the Eastern Conference.
I didn’t think Minnesota would win the NBA championship, but with Shaquille O’Neal moving to Miami, the Kings seemingly in decline and the Mavericks losing Steve Nash, I thought the Timberwolves at least would be in the Western Conference finals.
With all the unlikely stories in the NBA this season, nothing is more shocking than the collapse of Kevin Garnett’s Timberwolves, ninth in the West and victims of a 40-point loss at home last week to the Suns.
The recent consensus in Minneapolis is it’s coach Flip Saunders’ fault. Before Sunday’s 103-100 loss to Boston, the Timberwolves were outrebounded in 10 straight games. They rank 29th in steals and free-throw attempts, suggesting a team that stands around, is not aggressive and shoots mostly three-pointers.
“I’ve been coaching in the NBA for 10 seasons and coached in the CBA for a long time before that,” Saunders said. “This is the first time in 18 or 19 years of coaching pro basketball where I’ve had a situation where my team has not overachieved.”
It seems unlikely Saunders will be let go with a $4 million contract for next season. But if he is, the Timberwolves won’t get a better coach. Few better would be available.
Latrell Sprewell shows all the signs of quitting. He blew off the team plane back to Minneapolis after a loss in his hometown of Milwaukee. He’s averaging 12.5 points, six below his career mark, but Sprewell has an insidious disease that infects the team. He doesn’t fight through picks anymore, his cuts are lazy and incomplete, he doesn’t finish the break and he stands around when shots are taken.
It’s the little things that don’t show up in the box score that cripple a team. He’s bitter about, among other things, not receiving a contract extension and the security given to role players like Trenton Hassell and Troy Hudson.
Sprewell could help some team, like Miami, a longtime suitor. But the Timberwolves don’t figure to take a long-term contract like Eddie Jones’. What some around the Timberwolves believe they should do if they cannot deal him is wait until after the March date for playoff eligibility and then cut him to improve team chemistry.
Sam Cassell also is upset about his lack of a new deal, but he is breaking down physically at 35. He’s down in scoring by five points a game and has missed 10 games with various injuries and, some insiders say, a blue flu of protest.
With the new defensive rules limiting perimeter contact, Cassell is a defensive disaster. When he was out earlier this season, the team played its best. Michael Olowokandi, arrested earlier this season and suspended for a fight, is booed every time he touches the ball. The promising start of Eddie Griffin has deteriorated into a series of uninterested three-pointers.
In addition, internal player tension has increased. Some curse when substituted, demand others play fewer minutes or take fewer shots and call for benchings.
Which leads to the big issue: With retooling inevitable, what if Garnett, the reigning most valuable player, wants out?
This is his 10th NBA season, and he’s no kid anymore. The “loser” label could stick for good in another rebuilding. Garnett blistered his teammates between the third and fourth quarters in Milwaukee with an expletive-laced plea for interest that was all but ignored.
“He’s watching the [garbage] that’s out there, and it doesn’t look very good,” Saunders said.
Against the Suns, former DePaul star Steven Hunter noted of the usually talkative Garnett: “He was awfully quiet. I didn’t see the same passion for the game. It showed on his face.”
Teams are now double- and triple-teaming Garnett regularly since his teammates offer little help and have almost no interest in rebounding.
“It felt like high school,” said Garnett, who’s doing his part. He leads the league in rebounding and assists, is in the top 20 in scoring and steals and is No. 1 in the overall efficiency ranking.
Some have criticized Garnett by saying he no longer makes others better. It’s little known that he’s bothered with knee problems–he’d never complain–and is furious and beyond frustration about the seemingly out-of-control situation.
Garnett is known as a perfectionist who seeks team harmony, and in Minnesota it’s anything but, with little sign of change.
Garnett’s groundbreaking $128 million contract was scheduled to expire in the summer of 2004. Everyone believed, with seven straight first-round playoff ousters, he’d leave for a big market after the 2003-04 season.
But Garnett re-signed for five years at a sharp reduction in pay before that season with the condition that the Timberwolves get him help. They did, and Minnesota had the best record in the West. But it was a short-term gamble with aging players that has backfired.
The Timberwolves never would trade Garnett–they’d rather trade everyone else–but what if he demands it?
How about to the Knicks? Oh, right, Stephon Marbury. Been there, done that. The Lakers? Maybe a package around Lamar Odom. The Mavs? They always have the assets to put together a package.
The Timberwolves would want him out of the conference, and with Jerry Krause gone, he could reappraise the Bulls. The Wizards now have enough starring pieces to give up. So does the Magic.
A Garnett trade seems unlikely. But at this time last year, so did O’Neal’s departure.
Seniority perk
Grant Hill will start the Feb. 20 All-Star Game for the Eastern Conference, and he plans to rely on his experience and seniority.
“When I was young and Scottie [Pippen] and I were the forwards and in the West the starters were Shawn Kemp and Charles [Barkley], neither of us wanted to guard Kemp because he was a beast, and Barkley was usually hung over,” Hill said. “So Scottie would stick me on Kemp. I’m the veteran now, and I’m going to put Vince [Carter] on the man I don’t want. But with the people we have on our team, I might not even see the ball.”
Distance dazzler
Plenty of griping is guaranteed when All-Star reserves are named this week. There always is.
But the biggest disservice, say some in Minneapolis, may be if Fred Hoiberg isn’t picked to compete in the three-point shootout. The former Bull has been the leading three-point shooter all season at better than 50 percent.
“I’d love to go out there and give it a shot,” he said. “The biggest reason would be to take my kids. My 5-year-old [Jack] now has some interest in sports. Before, all he asked me was about Power Rangers. It would be fun for him to go out there and meet the guys in his PlayStation.”
Hoiberg thinks he could lose out as a reserve, but reserves regularly go, and one season Craig Hodges was out of the NBA but still participated.
Wake-up broadcast
Jalen Rose went through a recent stretch of seven games averaging 11.2 points just in the fourth quarter, and Rose blames Raptors broadcaster Chuck Swirsky, who was one of Chicago’s sports-talk pioneers in the 1980s.
“I heard [Swirsky] say Rob Babcock would be the GM of the year if he could find a way to trade Jalen Rose,” Rose said.
Meanwhile, hot-headed teammate Rafer Alston returned from a two-game suspension after bolting from practice. It seems the guard admits he cannot control his temper and emotions.
As for Ron Artest, he now has turned to a supermodel. Not dating one; being one. The suspended Pacer is featured in an ad campaign for “the Roc” fashions with Naomi Campbell and Karolina Kurkova.
Bench pressures
Stress continues in the coaching business. Portland’s Maurice Cheeks says he’s been reading “Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success” and Marlo Thomas’ “The Right Words at the Right Time.”
“I need something that can pick me up,” Cheeks said.
So do the Trail Blazers, in light of reports that actual attendance at the 19,980-seat Rose Garden is under 10,000. That’s with local promotions, including getting a free ticket for buying eight gallons of gas.
The Lakers’ Rudy Tomjanovich took his job and shoved it, but not Utah’s Jerry Sloan, even in his poorest season and dealing with the death of his wife.
“I’m glad I came back,” Sloan said. “Even if you don’t like the results, to see what happens is exciting, contrary to what a lot of people think.”
Sloan even confronted the team last week, asking who wanted to be traded and saying he’d do what he could. No one answered.
Around the league
The NBA doesn’t have many Jewish players, but the latest in player style is skullcaps. And rather than a pious look, the NBA has decided it’s too gangsta. A lot of the popular wear supposedly has its roots in prison attire, like the baggy pants and shirts and skullcaps. It’s now part of the look banned by the NBA during interviews. . . . With mild temperatures last week in the Upper Midwest, the Rockets were staying in a hotel across the street from the Target Center in Minneapolis but still rode the bus. Joked Bob Sura: “We’re NBA players. We don’t walk.” Actually, league security rules prevent it. . . . Karl Malone did finally meet with Spurs officials over the weekend, but he remains uncertain about returning. . . . Former President George Bush recently attended a Rockets-Magic game in Houston and said upon leaving, “If I can scrounge up a couple of freebies, I’ll be back.” . . . First girlfriend Jeanie Buss has been all over Los Angeles radio stations urging boyfriend Phil Jackson to return to the Lakers. But she told the Los Angeles Times: “He’ll never marry me. It’s not me. He just doesn’t want to get married again. Phil is not the easiest person to get along with, and I know, because I spend a lot of time with him. But I think Phil and Kobe [Bryant] would be great together. Phil needs the challenge. He’s been driving everyone crazy who is near him. He doesn’t have enough to do.” On Jackson’s book, “The Last Season,” Buss said, “We might have to make that `Maybe Not the Last Season.'”
