30 teams in 30 days - Raptors

http://tsn.ca/nba/teams/news_story/?ID=176449&hubname=nba-raptors

Tim Chisholm
9/4/2006 5:43:42 PM

TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September.

Season Previews
Toronto Raptors



This fall the Toronto Raptors will be sporting a new look that removes the color purple from the team's pallet. Launching a new look, along with brand new home jerseys, couldn't have come at a more appropriate time since there is very little about this new-look team that resembles the crew who finished 27-55 last April.

Gone from last year's closing night squad are Charlie Villanueva, Mike James, Matt Bonner, Rafael Araujo, Eric Williams, Alvin Williams, Loren Woods, Andre Barrett and (due to injury) Pape Sow. President and GM Bryan Colangelo promised a swift and thorough alteration at the close of last season, but no one could have expected what came next.

This season's team will include nine (NINE!) new players: T.J. Ford, Andrea Bargnani, Kris Humphries, Fred Jones, P.J. Tucker, Jorge Garbajosa, Anthony Parker, Rasho Nesterovic and Uros Slokar. It marks one of the most dramatic roster turnovers in the history of the NBA. Ultimately though, this makeover makes it very difficult to handicap this team going into training camp.

First of all, everyone is abuzz about the influx of European players. Looking at the roster, Bargnani, Parker, Garbajosa and Slokar are all coming off of seasons in the Euroleague, and returning point guard Jose Calderon is only one season removed himself. That said, the fact that there are five imports is slightly deceiving. Calderon does have one season under his belt, and looked to be adjusting to the NBA game fine before injuring his heel and never really regaining his step. Slokar will not likely see much time on the court this year, and Anthony Parker is actually U.S. born and has logged three (albeit unspectacular) seasons in the NBA. That really only leaves Bargnani and Garbajosa as the players needing to pick up the NBA style of play, and given that both have very a high basketball I.Q., the Euro influx shouldn't worry people as much as it seems to.

The real question about this team comes down to how quickly they can gel as a unit. The talent is there, but if talent were all it took to win NBA games the Knicks would probably sit atop the league instead of in the basement as they currently do. Last year's squad got along great considering their dire circumstances, but the talent just wasn't there for it to matter. This year they have all sorts of multitalented players, but how those talents mesh is what's going to determine their level of success.

If this team does coalesce early in the season, then all of a sudden the playoffs don't seem like such a laughable goal. In fact, as I see it, if the Raptors can do four things this year, they should be safely hovering around .500 and well within reach of their first playoff berth since the Lenny Wilkens era.

First, Chris Bosh has got to learn to rebound more consistently. Last year's 9.2 boards per game is nothing to sneeze at, but Bosh showed this summer at the World Championships he is capable of so much more given his speed and athleticism. By his own admission, he's just got to work harder to clean the glass, especially on the defensive end. For this team to run like it wants to, they have got to rebound more consistently, and while Nesterovic and Bargnani will also have to do their part at the centre position, it's Bosh that's going to log the heaviest minutes in the frontcourt, and he has to become the dominant rebounder he insists he wants to be.

Second, Morris Peterson has to stay efficient with reduced playing time. Mo Pete broke out last year, shrugging off his career-long bout of inconsistency by logging career highs in nearly every category. This year, he wont be asked to play the nearly 40 minutes per game he logged last year, if for no other reason than the team has newfound depth in the backcourt with Parker and Jones. He will still play a key role on this team because of his defense, but he has to be able to keep his game consistent even if he isn't getting the kind of time he did last year or else the team could regress back to not knowing which Mo Pete is going to show up on any given night. If he can prove last year was no fluke, the team will be that much stronger for it.

Third on the list is how quickly Bargnani can make himself dependable enough to log consistent minutes. Make no mistake, for all the talk about bringing Bargnani on slowly and allowing him to ease into his role on this team, if this team wants to make a run at the playoffs, they are going to need his speed and offensive ability on the court at the centre position as much as possible. Nesterovic is going to be a nice starting piece who can rebound and block shots, but he will slow down this team's fast break offense. Bargnani needs to be on the court as much as is reasonable to keep the team's offense chugging along, not only because of his ability to finish on the break, but because he is the team's best shooting big man. He is going to be needed on occasion as a zone-breaker since the loss of Bonner and James leaves Bargnani as one of the lone three-point threats left on the team. He doesn't need to become Villanueva, who ventured into the paint less and less and the season wore on, he just needs to hit enough to keep the defense from sagging into the paint and hounding Chris Bosh.

Lastly, this team needs to find a swing player to start alongside Peterson. Last year the Raptors tried teaming Mo with Joey Graham, Jalen Rose, Charlie Villanueva and Eric Williams, none with much consistent success.

This year the team will have to select either Graham, Parker or Jones as the starting two or three, and it must come down to one of these players earning it, not coach Sam Mitchell settling on someone simply because you need to start five guys. Graham has fallen out of favor after an unspectacular Summer League in July and will have to fight with second-round pick P.J. Tucker for minutes, so he's an unlikely option. Parker has all of the tools necessary to be a perfect fit alongside Peterson, as someone who can shoot, finish and even defend some, but there are lingering questions about how quickly he will readapt to the NBA that keep him from being a no-brainer starter. That just leaves Jones, who ideally would be coming off of the bench because every good team needs a sparkplug to ignite the second unit, but if he is forced into the starting five it wouldn't be the end of the world. It would make the team's backcourt extremely undersized, but Jones' defense defies his size because of his strength and quickness. If he or one of the others can step up and earn the starting spot, however, it would add some much needed stability to Mitchell's roster.

Like I said, there is no handicapping this team going into this season. They have absolutely no resemblance to last year's team beyond the five returning players, and even they will be changed by the overwhelming influx of new bodies. This team has an interesting mix of talent, though, and if they can get past the arduous first two months of their schedule without crumbling, they just might be a team to watch in the East.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP

PG - T.J. Ford

Ford is the team's first 'true' point guard since Mark Jackson, and he'll be asked to be the catalyst for their new run-n-gun offense. There is no doubt that this is a match made in heaven in terms of the style of a player matching the style of a team, but that doesn't mean everything is peachy for Ford. He still has to learn to hit the mid-range jumpshot consistently to keep the defense spread out on the floor instead of sagging off of him and tying up Bosh or Peterson. His defense is also less-than-stellar. He's undersized to begin with, and he doesn't make up for it like Fred Jones does with strength or anticipation, so that could be a sticking point for him this season, too. But those are two things that can come with time if he works hard at them. As it stands, Ford is still the best point guard the team has had, really, since Damon Stoudamire, in terms of impacting a game. He won't be scoring like Mighty Mouse did in his heyday, but his control of the tempo of the game, along with his awesome playmaking abilities will do a lot to dictate the character of this team.

SG - Anthony Parker

Like I said before, this is a very hard position to predict, but I think that at some point Parker will slide into it and keep it. He is a very savvy veteran player, who can flat-out score when it's called for. His defense won't embarrass him and his basketball smarts will help this team a lot in tight situations. Keep in mind, Sam Mitchell's Raptors are rarely blown out of games, and in the last two years the bulk of the games lost were lost in the dying minutes. Having a player like Parker on the floor will do wonders for the team's late-game execution and could be that missing piece in the starting line-up that can hit the big shot at the end of games without completely dominating the ball for the final five or six minutes.

SF - Morris Peterson

Peterson has inherited the title of Mr. Raptor with the departure of Alvin Williams this summer. He is now the longest serving Raptor still on the roster, and with free agency coming this summer, look for Peterson to do everything in his power to prove he deserves a nice raise at seasons end. Before it comes to that, however, Peterson should continue to be the steady two-way player he developed into last year, and with Mike James now playing alongside Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, look for Peterson to take over the role of second scorer to Bosh. Peterson is entering the prime of his career, and he's going to do what he can to make sure the team is good enough for people to notice.

PF - Chris Bosh

No real surprise here. Everything about the construction of this team is geared towards maximizing Chris Bosh at all times for years to come. If Peterson is to be known as Mr. Raptor, then Bosh simply is the Raptors. This team's fate is directly tied to CB4, and that simple fact is the reason he didn't have to think twice about extending his contract this summer. Bosh wanted to take the reigns of this team badly, and now they've been handed to him with a glittery new trim. The question now is can Bosh go from being a stellar player on a sub-par team to being a superstar who elevates his team to his level of play. This year will do a lot to answer that question.

C - Rasho Nesterovic

If we're nicknaming Raptors here, then Rasho may as well be known as The Stop-Gap. This position is being kept warm for seven-foot rookie Andrea Bargnani, and no one is shy about admitting it. In constructing this team, Colangelo envisions many years to come with Bargnani and Bosh leading the charge in the frontcourt. However, that is in the years to come. This year the spot belongs to Nesterovic. Rasho has had the good and bad fortune of playing alongside the league's most elite power forwards in Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. It's been good because it has nabbed him an NBA title, but the guys he's lined up with have also vastly overshadowed him. Garnett would notoriously hound Rasho for not matching his intensity, and he lost his starting spot in San Antonio to Nazr Mohammed before being shipped to Toronto. However, none of that has anything to do with his time in Toronto, despite his critic's insistence. Right now, Nesterovic remains the first legit centre this team has had in a long time, perhaps ever. He is a fundamentally sound player who can rebound and block shots very efficiently. He does not need heavy minutes to have an impact, and even if he is rather unspectacular, he is literally light-years better than last year's option Rafael Araujo.

30 teams in 30 days - Celtics

http://tsn.ca/nba/teams/news_story/?ID=176067&hubname=nba-celtics

Tim Chisholm
9/1/2006 11:29:34 AM

TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September.

Season Previews
Boston Celtics



Paul Pierce is in for one wacky season.



The Boston Celtics have more or less overhauled their entire rotation since the start of last season, leaving Pierce as the only firm anchor from year to year. As it stands today, this roster probably has too much youth and too few basketball minds to really compete this season, but it'll be very interesting to see how this roster dictates the future of the NBA's most storied franchise.

A lot of that future will lie in what direction this team ultimately goes in with regards to its point guard slot. As it stands right now, ex-Blazer Sebastian Telfair looks like a lock to get the starting spot on November 1st, but anything after that he'll have to earn. Right now, the team has four small guards who will be vying for minutes at the one, and the Celtics anticipate giving each and every one a chance to take control of the position. All are guards who expect to get regular minutes this year, especially last year's starter Delonte West, who had such a solid year last season that he might force Wally Szczerbiak out of the starting lineup so he can play the big-guard position alongside Telfair.

So that leaves rookies Allan Ray and Rajon Rondo to essentially make the most of their backup minutes this year and prove they belong in an NBA rotation. Rondo is a guy the Celtics fell in love with leading up the draft, so much so the bypassed Marcus Williams to nab him. Ray was a late addition to the team, but nonetheless factors into their plans going forward. Neither one is a natural playmaker, and neither is West for that matter, meaning that as it stands Telfair is the only guard who looks to have an early edge at running the team's offence for the foreseeable future. The catch is that Telfair has a tendency to operate outside of the system, opting to make unnecessary passes for the sake of flash rather than simple fundamental passes that demonstrate an ability to read the whole game, not just the play at hand. He has trouble effectively running an offense for long stretches, which may force the team to go in another direction as the season progresses if Telfair can't keep the team motoring along.

The point guard battle is so central to the success of this team because right now the only player on the floor who can create his own shot is Paul Pierce, and while Pierce can often keep you in a game with his effort alone, last year proved you cannot win that way. Pierce is at his best when he has effective playmakers running the show for him like Kenny Anderson or Gary Payton. The responsibility is taken off of his shoulders to set the team's offense and he can freely operate within the Celtics game plan rather than having to operate it himself. Pierce, for all his talent, isn't always the best decision maker with the ball in his hands, which isn't really a knock against him, it just means that the team needs a steady floor general out on the court to maximize Pierce's talents. With that said, one of these guards is going to have to pick up that slack to make sure Pierce's prime isn't put to waste.

The next factor that this team has to balance is how to mix the young guys on the team with the veterans. Players like Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson will no doubt be given every chance in the starting frontcourt with Pierce, but both desperately need to display some measure of consistency that they lacked last year in order to stay there. If they can't, Theo Ratliff and Brian Scalabrine will be forced into playing increasingly heavier minutes as the season wears on. Now, if this were a playoff-bound team that wouldn't be such a problem because you'd already know which young guys can be counted on and where their games would need to be augmented by veterans, but when you are in the early stages of rebuilding, you want to make sure the young guys get a chance to show you what they can do, while at the same time throwing vets out there to grab a couple of wins so that the team doesn't get too used to losing.

“Yes, we're too young right now, and there are going to be winners and losers when it's time for minutes,” acknowledged the Celtics director of basketball operations, Danny Ainge. “To find appealing veteran players is hard, But I don't want veterans just because they're veterans,” he said. “Right now, I like my players.”

What the Celtics want to avoid is what happens to a lot of bad teams, who live and die by their youth. They insist they have to develop them for the future, but often they do so without providing them any veteran leadership along the way. The key is in using the vets as augmentation to your youth, though, not as a replacement when they don't cut it. If your youth can't learn to win games on their own, then they aren't the future of your team, and shouldn't be kept around just for the sake of trying to prove your detractors wrong. There are already many critics out there who say that Ainge is overvaluing his young personnel, so how quickly the young guys can come on and prove that they can lead the team to some victories is paramount for the future of this organization, both on the court and off. If it turns out the only way these guys can get wins is to ride Pierce, Szczerbiak and Ratliff into the ground, then the future of this team (and its management) will be short lived indeed.

The Celtics have definitely given themselves options for the future, and the question now is which of these options make themselves valuable enough to keep around to help reconstruct this once proud franchise back to supremacy.

PROBABLE STARTING FIVE

PG – Sebastian Telfair

It says a lot about this guy that the Blazers, after anointing him the future and savior of their team two years ago, have since traded him away for draft picks and Raef Lafrentz. He was never able to grasp how to run an offense effectively, and couldn't stay consistent enough to keep a starting position in his two years in Portland. This year, though, Telfair has a clean slate. His roster is far less dysfunctional and self-obsessed, and he has a coach that, while no where near as good as Nate McMillan, will allow him a bit more time to find himself than he was afforded in Oregon. Now it's up to him. Telfair is in complete control of his destiny, and if he wants to make the most of that, he's going to have to grow up a lot and realize that representing the streets may be what got him here, but it sure isn't what's going to keep him here. If he can start to apply some of his talents to fundamental basketball, he'll be in good shape.

SG – Delonte West

After last season, I think he easily deserves this spot over Wally Szczerbiak. He showed an ability to score the ball and keep his level of play high with increased minutes He's not a pure point guard, though, and sliding over to the two-guard spot should help him immensely since he won't have to worry about dictating the team's offense. The great thing about a guy like West is his adaptability. He doesn't need to be fed to impact a game, and he doesn't seem to feel as though he deserves more than he's getting. If he can beef up his defense and learn to get off his shot over taller defenders, he could make himself a very valuable role player for this team, be it starting or coming off of the bench.

SF – Paul Pierce

I find it hard to believe that last year was a career season for Pierce when he didn't even make the playoffs. I know that statistically he was out of sight, but with an increased role in the offense that's what should be expected of someone with his talents. I highly doubt that when his career is done, Pierce will look back at last season and call it a marquee year, no matter how many times other people insist it was. However, I'm not saying that Pierce took any kind of a step backward last year. He showed resilience last year that sets him apart from many in his generation, because when the going got tough, he worked harder and did whatever he could to keep his team in games. Last year's Celtics were a terrible team, and the only thing that kept that afloat was Pierce. While your Carters and McGradys of the world demand trades in these scenarios, Pierce demanded an extension on his contract, to make sure that he'd be there to turn this thing around. That kind of dedication deserves to be matched by management, who now has the task of putting the pieces around Pierce to help him win games. And hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

PF – Al Jefferson

I really want to like Al Jefferson. He's a great rebounder and an active body in the paint that has all the makings of a solid forward in this league. However, last year was a major step back for him as he couldn't seem to keep himself healthy and in the lineup, and then this summer he looked to be absolutely unimproved over his rookie season two years ago. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Summer League demonstrates very little about a player, but to watch Jefferson's teammates coalesce and play off of each other and improve each other's game and then see Jefferson holding them back, it was upsetting to see him unable to match their level of play. This is pretty much a make or break year for Jefferson. Presumably he's going to be healthy coming into camp after successful ankle surgery, and he has to remind people why he was supposed to be the future of the Celtics frontcourt. Sure, Antoine Walker's second stint in Boston might have set Jefferson back a tad, but his decline since then is completely his own doing.

C – Kendrick Perkins

A very pleasant surprise last year, Perkins was absolutely destroying at the centre position before he got injured midway through the season. He was able to come back and still be effective, and this year he has to show that he can be depended on game-in and game-out to provide the kind of effort it will take to prove that the team has its centre position locked up for the foreseeable future. Perkins has a great mentor on the team now in Ratliff, who can really help him with his footwork and defense, two areas where he could use the most improvement. As far as upping his per game stats, that's just got to come from him working more consistently each and every game. He showed the team last year what his potential is, now it's up to him to live up to it.

30 teams in 30 days - Nets

http://tsn.ca/nba/teams/news_story/?ID=176370&hubname=nba-nets

Tim Chisholm
9/3/2006 8:06:12 PM

TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September.

Season Previews
New Jersey Nets



As long as these are the last years in the Medowlands for the Nets, they might as well make them fun. As last year proved, the Kidd / Carter / Jefferson trifecta is definitely fun.

And that's about it.

First understand that I like the Nets. I enjoy watching them, I adore Jason Kidd, and I can even put up with Vince Carter and his motorcycle so long as he continues to attack the basket more than once a game. But this team is very poorly built and as long as the three of them are kept together they're not going anywhere in the East.

I'm not here slamming any of these three players or how they play together, though. Last year they lived up to all the lofty expectations set at their feet at the start of the season, and it got them both the Atlantic Division crown and berth in the second round of the playoffs. On top of that, barring injuries, I expect a repeat performance of that this year. Anytime you have a trio like that playing off of each other, you'll be in any regular season game.

The playoffs, though, are a completely different matter. No team that is three men deep is going anywhere in the playoffs, no matter how good those three men are. Sure, you can get away with it when you suit up against a different opponent every night, but when the Nets face off against the same team for a seven-game series, all lot of their flaws rise to the surface.

First of all, this team has so little depth I challenge even the most ardent NBA fan to list off their 12-man active roster. Having Kidd, Carter and Jefferson comes at a very steep price, and the Nets are paying for it in several different ways. Two maximum dollar contracts and one near-max deal are keeping this team from acquiring anything resembling NBA caliber talent to flesh out the rest of the lineup. Their best bench player is Eddie House, a notorious NBA journeyman who can put up points at times in the right system, but has no right ever being called a team's best sixth-man. His inconsistency is his most consistent attribute, and he'll be called on to play heavy minutes every game, and is expected to perform. Not a recipe for success.

Marcus Williams, the UConn point guard selected in this year's draft, is a possible bright spot coming off of the bench. Jason Kidd is just about the best mentor any point guard could ask for, and he should really help Williams round out his game. The questions remain, though, about his work ethic and attitude. High-profile players like him rarely slip in the draft unless there is a reason. Williams wasn't a sleeper - nearly every team worked him out at some point - yet he slipped into the early-20's, past several teams looking for a point guard, and that has to raise some eyebrows. Sure, it could turn out to be nothing, but I can't stress enough how rare it is to have a potential top five pick slip to the end of the first round and live to tell about it, especially one as highly-touted as Williams.

The biggest issue for this team, though, has been the same for years: There is no frontcourt. At least when Kenyon Martin roamed the paint they had one legit power forward on their roster. Today, Nenad Kristic is the closest they come to having an NBA pivot-man. Now, I know that statistically he had a good year last year, but this guy is a fraud. He isn't nearly as good as he's been made out to be, and Indiana and Miami made that abundantly clear in the playoffs. He has absolutely no command of his man on defense, and his entire offense exists of sticking twelve-foot jumpers. He is allergic to the paint, averaging six boards and three free throw attempts per game, and even then he shot below 70% from the stripe. He can't handle the ball, he can't rebound nearly well enough to carry a fast-break team, and he's the best they've got in the middle. After him is just an embarrassing assemblage of bodies that will get routinely destroyed in the playoffs by teams like Detroit and Miami, and even potential first round match-ups could include forwards like Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard, both of whom routinely abuse the Nets.

The thing is that Nets management is well aware of this disparity, which is why it'd be virtually impossible to imagine Vince Carter in a Nets uniform next year. He has an opt-out in his contract that he will undoubtedly exercise next summer unless he has a terrible season, and the Nets have made no ovations towards Carter about extending his contract any further than this year. It isn't an indictment of Carter as a player so much as Carter as a contract. Everyone knows that Jefferson and Carter are nothing without Kidd, and that it'd be a lot easier to spread some of Carter contract money around to flesh out the team than it would be to replace a playmaker of Kidd's caliber or a defender of Jefferson's.

But not to worry, Nets fans. You're still a lock to win the Atlantic and probably sneak out of the first round again, but when this team goes up against some real competition in the second round…well, you'll see why teams that are three-deep don't win championships.

Probable Starting Line-Up

PG - Jason Kidd

One of the finest point guards of all time, he may be slowing a bit with age, but his mind is a sharp as ever, and he continues to make every person he plays with startlingly better by sharing the court with them. Any hope this team has had or has going forward lie in the lap of Kidd, and that's a very fortunate position for the Nets to be in.

SG - Vince Carter

Is he soft? Yes. Is he afraid of contact? Yes. Is his second year in the league still his best? Yes. But even still Vince Carter fits this team like a glove. Jason Kidd does all the hard work getting his players easy shots, where they like them and have the best possible chance of success, and nobody thrives from that as much as Carter. The two were made the play with each other, and it's one of the largest reasons that the Nets are able to overcome a lot of their depth and frontcourt issues. With Kidd at his side, Carter is a scoring machine, and when Carter is scoring he puts out an extra effort to rebound and pass. He won't lead a team to victory on his own, but in New Jersey, he doesn't have to.

SF - Richard Jefferson

Another player who would see his stock plummet were it not for Jason Kidd. Jefferson is a very good player who is made great by Kidd. When he is open, he'll hit the jumper, and he can drive into the lane and score, but he needs to be set-up to do both of these things. His defense is his real contribution to this team, and it should not be overlooked that he is a marvelous defender without a shot-blocking presence in the paint to erase any mistakes. He is an honest defender, and not enough people give him credit for that. His defense could keep him a starter on virtually any team, but Kidd makes his offense work as well for this team. In a toss-up between him a Carter, Carter will be the one who gets ousted first to make room under the cap for some depth help because Jefferson does the little things that are a lot harder to replace.

PF - Jason Collins

The Nets are the only team in the league that would start this guy. He has not improved one lick since coming into the league, and the only reason he's still an active member of this rotation is because he comes cheap and he knows the offense. So much of this team's woes begin with the fact that they have to start this guy, and they'll be constant playoff fodder until that changes.

C - Nenad Kristic

If this team had a more talented power forward, Kristic would probably be a far more dependable player on this roster. As it stands, Kristic is a good, but not great, centre for a team in need of toughness and rebounding, and he can provide neither. Between him and Mikki Moore, the Nets probably have the worst one-two punch at the five out of any playoff team in the league, but so long as he doesn't get in the way of the Big Three and keeps sticking those open jumpers, he'll be the starting centre for the Atlantic Division Champions.

30 teams in 30 days - Knicks

http://tsn.ca/nba/teams/news_story/?ID=176151&hubname=nba-knicks

Tim Chisholm
9/2/2006 9:43:48 AM

TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September.

Season Previews
New York Knicks



I don't even know where to start. This is the kind of preview you write in your head a dozen different times before even putting a word down on paper because there are so many ways you can spin this team.

Ultimately, though, the reason I think that it is so difficult to settle on a way to describe this team is because talent-wise, this should be one of the best teams in the league. As ludicrous as it is to even suggest that this team should be the best at anything besides infighting, there is no denying that if this were a video game team, they'd be about as good a team as you could throw together.

Stay with me for a sec on this one. First, this is a team with Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Channing Frye, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford and Jalen Rose. All players who at one time or another has been considered the cornerstones of their team, with the exception of Frye, who could be considered the future of this team. They have Jared Jefferies, Quentin Richardson and Nate Robinson to throw at teams, and even David Lee showed flashes last year.

However, as we all know, the talent on this team, regardless of how good it may or may not be, is totally irrelevant. In reality, this is an absolute horror show that has no end in sight. The team is so far over the cap they are in danger of tripling the payroll of many NBA clubs. I can't even fathom how untradable most of the players on this team are and the ones that other teams would consider taking on are either too valuable to trade (Frye) or are expiring contracts that the Knicks have to hold on to and let expire if they are to have any hope of getting under the cap.

But all of this is not only common knowledge at this point, it's becoming downright boring. The fact of the matter is Isiah Thomas will probably squeeze a few more wins out of the team than the fifty-million-dollar man could last year, and just settling on a starting lineup would make this season more of a success than last. At the end of the day, though, this team just doesn't have the pieces to make any kind of serious run, regardless of whether or not Thomas' job is on the line (which it very much is).

First of all, this team lacks any kind of leadership that could be counted on to throw water on the fire when things get hot. All of the aged players on this team are only concerned with getting minutes and touches so that they can pad their stats. Players like Marbury and Francis may say all the right things going into the season about doing what it takes to win, but at some point those words have got to fall on deaf ears when they come from those two. Between the two of them they have played in 23 total playoff games, and have demonstrated time and time again that they do not have what it takes to elevate a team and make it win.

On the flip side, young guys like Frye, Curry and Robinson are surrounded by the ‘me-first' attitude that pollutes this locker room, and they may never recover from it. Robinson has already shown that he has precious little time for fundamentals or team play, Curry is not exactly famous for his good work ethic, and Thomas was angling to replace Frye in the lineup with Chris Webber as recently as August.

The point is this squad is in such disarray it isn't even worth looking at them seriously as a team this year. They are a team that has to be looked at years down the road as a means of unearthing any kind of hope that may exist beneath the surface. They need to rid themselves off all of their pollutants and start to acquire some positive role-models for the young guys not only so that they can begin to take the reigns of the team, but so that they can begin to learn what it is to have positive work habits at the NBA level.

This team in a lot of ways represents everything that the NBA is trying to recover from: Bloated, unearned contracts, me-first attitudes, stat-obsessed narcissists who don't play basketball so much as they hold it hostage. The league is working so hard to move away from this version of the league that has existed for much of the post-Jordan era, and in a way it might be best that all of these players seem to end up on one team. Sure, the league would love it if that team wasn't in its biggest market, but the thought of keeping all of these guys away from ‘real' ballers like LeBron James and Chris Paul is just fine in my books. If the old Willis Reed/Walt Frazer Knicks didn't represent my gold standard for NBA teams, I'd say good riddance and let this team rot. As it is, I await the day when this team is worth talking about outside of the tabloid pages.

Probable Starting Line-Up

PG – Stephon Marbury

He is Isiah's boy, and much of Thomas' reputation is tied to Marbury. He was seen as his golden acquisition back in the 03-04 season and he has since watched him become the laughing stock of the NBA. No one can deny that Marbury has oodles of talent, but he chooses to use his abilities for evil instead of good. He's hidden behind his stats for his whole career, never allowing his win-loss percentage to enter into the conversation. There is some solace to be taken in knowing that in ten years he'll be nothing more than a footnote in NBA history, but for now we must live with the knowledge that Marbury wastes as much talent every day as most NBA players would kill to have at their disposal for a whole season.

SG – Jamal Crawford

Crawford represents the only combo guard on the Knicks that didn't self-destruct last year. In fact, when Marbury went out with injury, Crawford stepped up and took control of this team. While he didn't have much more luck than Marbury in terms of wins, he did show that you can put the ball into his hands and trust that he knows what to do with it. On another team, he could probably be a perennial Sixth Man candidate. On the Knicks, he'll just do what he can to prevent his remaining passion for the game from being sucked out of his body.

SF – Jared Jefferies

Another good player stuck in a bad situation, but unlike Crawford he knew what Knick team he was joining when he signed up. A lot of his best traits, like his defense and hustle, will prove useless on such a scattered team, but any positive impact he can have with his work ethic will be a vast improvement on whatever passed for work ethic in these parts last year.

PF – Channing Frye

Going through the starting line-up, this team really doesn't look so bad. Had Frye not injured his ankle last season, he'd probably have had the distinction of being runner-up to Chris Paul for Rookie of the Year. As it was, his solid rookie campaign was cut short and that honor went to Charlie Villanueva. Frye reminds me a lot of Pau Gasol in his formative years; very talented, if a little lacking in intensity. He can score around the basket, hit the midrange jumper and rebound really well. The sooner the Knicks can surround this guy with some solid veterans the sooner they'll reenter relevance in NBA circles. When that might be, however, is anyone's guess.

C – Eddy Curry

Curry did little last year to prove that his contract year in Chicago wasn't financially motivated. Never known for working as hard as he should, Curry looked to finally be turning his career around before forcing a sign-and-trade to New York and reminding everyone why they had written him off years ago. He's such a talented offensive weapon when he wants to be, and he can do just about whatever he wants around the rim to score the ball. If he can report to camp in shape, maybe I'll be changing my tune, but as it stands I firmly believe that Eddy Curry is just a souped-up version of Michael Olowokandi. He oozes potential, but his inability to grasp basic fundamental concepts on the defensive end and his reluctance to work hard on every possession make him the kind of player that one day you just have to realize hit his ceiling a long time ago, and any hope for improvement is just a fool's dream.

30 teams in 30 days - 76ers

http://tsn.ca/nba/teams/news_story/?ID=176560&hubname=nba-_76ers

Tim Chisholm
9/5/2006 8:50:55 PM

TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September.

Season Previews
New York Knicks



One of the realities of the next couple of years in the NBA is going to be letting the contracts signed during the last couple of CBA's expire. Players like Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant are without a doubt incredible basketball players who probably, in the backwards world of sports, deserve the hundreds of millions of dollars they are being paid, but their teams as a whole are suffering for it. No team, though, is as handcuffed by this reality as the Philadelphia 76ers, who have not one but two old-CBA max-money players currently sitting on their roster. On top of that, these are two players who are exiting the prime of their careers while they are getting paid increasingly more money with each passing season.

What I mean by old-CBA contracts is that in previous Collective Bargaining Agreements, players were allowed to sign for much more money than they are now, which leads to players earning upwards of $20 million per year. What this does is severely hamper a team's salary cap situation, because one player ties so much of their cap up. In the case of the Sixers, you're talking about two such contracts in Allen Iverson and Chris Webber, meaning that the other players on the roster would, in theory, need to have more economical contracts in order to field 10 competitive players on any given night.

I only state this fact upfront because even though I understand that Allen Iverson and Chris Webber are hindering their team financially, the team's mediocrity rests solely on the shoulders of their scatterbrained GM Billy King.



Understand this: By now, the 76ers know what their team is as it is built today, and that is a lottery bound team with an outside shot of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. That's it. Andre Iguodala, Sam Dalembert, and not a whole lot else surround their aging centerpieces. Billy King is easily one of the least-savvy GM's around, being a guy who has neither an eye for talent nor any comprehension of player valuations. He is fast becoming famous for locking-up his own players to huge multi-year contracts regardless of whether or not they have done anything to deserve them. Keep in mind, this is a team that was eliminated in the first round two seasons ago and didn't even qualify last year. The roster, all the while, has not only remained virtually unchanged, it has actually been locked into place with extravagant contracts owned by Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Willie Green. This is not the kind of 'spread the wealth' team building I was referring to earlier when I mentioned the need for economical contracts.

What this means is that the only existing options this team has to improve are to trade Iverson, or load up on minimum-level contracts and hope that one of those players turns out to be the next Boris Diaw or David West, and considering King's ability to judge talent, that isn't a very likely option. That means that a trade for Iverson remains, as it has been for years, the only way for the Sixers to actually improve. It sounds counterproductive, trade away your best player to improve, but the fact remains that right now Iverson is the only contract on the Sixers roster that is both large enough to diversify cap space as well as bring back enough talent to rebuild. After all, no one is taking on any of the other loaded contacts, if for no other reason than they don't match the talent of the player who owns it, and without getting rid of some of these players, there is no money to sign free agents with.

This summer, Billy King finally began seriously shopping Iverson in an attempt to stockpile some talented, young bodies. A trade with the Celtics nearly went down on draft night that would have gotten them at least Gerald Green and the number seven pick (which turned out to be dynamo Randy Foye), not to mention another player for salary purposes like Wally Szczerbiak or, if Utah was involved as was at one point rumored, Carlos Boozer. When that trade never materialized, Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller from Denver were dangled in Billy King's face, also to no avail.

Ultimately, King felt that these offers did not represent market value for Iverson and were in fact teams trying to lowball a desperate team into giving up their best player cheap. Well, yes, that is exactly what these teams were trying to do, and if Billy King were a savvy GM, he would've taken the bait and ran.

Why? Several reasons come to mind. First, Iverson isn't getting any younger. He's missed 41 games the last two seasons, and a boatload of the games he did play he was still hampered by injuries that severely limited his play, a trait that is only likely to get worse as his body ages. Not many teams are going to be looking to offer much more for Iverson than they are now if he is too beaten up to play up to his contract. Secondly, in any deal that involves Iverson, and likely any possibilities that would follow, the Sixers receive multiple players in return, so not only does the team get to spread out his money a little, but they also get some depth in the deals.

However, the most compelling reason to pull the trigger on any remotely fair deal is that the alternative is wasting years with this current configuration of the team just because Billy King doesn't feel the offers he's receiving match the value he has placed on Iverson. The fact of the matter is this team, as configured, just isn't going to amount to anything. A change, any change, is at least inching in the right direction because until the Iverson era ends in Philly, they're going to be stuck in neutral waiting for him to retire.

The job of many a GM in the NBA has been lost because of a lack of acceptance that a current plan has been tried and failed. Iverson still has some years left in the tank, to be sure, and none of this is meant to be an indictment of Iverson, or Webber for that matter. As individuals, they could both elevate other teams that have quality pieces already in place to surround them with. In Philly, King just keeps going around in circles waiting for someone to show him the way. He doesn't seem to realize that since he is the one shopping the player, other teams have no reason to offer him fair market value, whatever that might be for an aging superstar. They can sit back and wait until King becomes so desperate that he unloads him for far below what GM's are even offering today.

The Sixers don't have much to look forward to this season, unfortunately, not any season down the road so long as King runs the show and insists on cultivating a dying plant.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP

PG - ALLEN IVERSON

What's left to say here? We all know he can be as explosive a scorer as the game has ever seen, but his reluctance to play within any sort of system that doesn't get him the ball 90% of the time is not only exhausting him and making his body more prone to injuries, it's hampering the development of his young teammates who could be in a position to take on some of the baggage if he just trusted them enough to let them try. It's not easy to be both a team's biggest asset as well as its biggest detriment, but ever since Iverson crossed the 30-year-old mark, that's exactly what he's become.

SG - Andre Iguodala

There is so much talent here, if only his team seemed interested in exploiting it. Iguodala is often told he needs to be more assertive on offense, but Iverson's and Webber's insistence on dominating the ball make it hard for Iguodala to do anything but force his offense when he is allowed to touch the ball for fear that he should be chastised for not asserting himself later on. He'll come along in time, and as bad as it sounds, it might just take a long-term injury to Iverson to get there, but Iguodala is going to be in line for a contact extension this summer, and there is no doubt Billy King will be there to make sure he gets it.

SF - Kyle Korver

A one-trick pony to end one-trick ponies. At least a player like Szczerbiak can hit open jumpers anywhere on the court, Korver is at his best behind the arc and nowhere else. He cannot create his own shot, he can't rebound or pass, and even though every team needs a gunner somewhere on the roster to spread the floor and break open a zone, most teams don't make that player one of their top-paid.

PF - Chris Webber

Still a superb passer and deadly mid-range jump shooter, but his ability to elevate is gone and his already-anemic defense disappeared completely when he joined the Sixers. If he were willing to play a role like Antonio McDyess off the bench, he could be a deadly option for the team, but since this team has no depth to speak of, and since Webber isn't known for his selflessness, that isn't very likely to happen. The only thing keeping Webber from being this team's biggest detriment over Iverson is that he is a willing passer and has proven in the past that he is willing to work in a system so long as it provides him with a suitable number of touches. His defense pretty much cancels out his offence when you consider how many points he gives up at the other end, but so long as he's on the roster, you can't afford to not play him, so you sort of take what you can get.

C - Samuel Dalembert

Coaches just hate this guy. So much talent is available to him, but he's just not interested in leaving it out there every night. Dalembert is willing to take the path of least resistance whenever it presents itself, and as a result he's never going to be anything more than he is today, which is a long, athletic question mark. There is nothing you can pencil in for this guy on any given night, making him entirely unreliable when trying to figure out a game plan. His shot-blocking stats are very misleading since it takes his several blown assignments on defense as well as four personal fouls each night for him to collect those 2.4 blocks. I hope he really enjoys them.