Ten questions on my mind as training camps start this week:
|  | | Pip at the point? Why not. Regardless, the Blazers are stacked. |
1. Where will Portland hold the victory parade? I hope it's not
downtown, because I get lost with all the one-way streets. Better they buy
out Nike's world headquarters, down the road 10 miles or so in Beaverton,
and have the party there.
You think I'm premature? I don't mean to be harsh, but you haven't
forgotten that the Blazers had the Lakers beat in Game 7 of the Western
finals, did you? That game was over, done, finito, when Portland spit the
bit. And since then, the Blazers have added close to 600 pounds of banging
and fouls to their middle by acquiring Shawn Kemp and Dale Davis. (Those
pounds, um, aren't split evenly. You do the math.) Along with Arvydas
Sabonis, Portland now has 15 legitimate center fouls to use on Shaq, and
doesn't have to involve Rasheed Wallace at all. No longer does Portland have
to put undersized Jermaine O'Neal and Brian Grant in the hole if Sabonis
gets in foul trouble. Meanwhile, Wallace and Scottie Pippen remain free to
come over and double big on Shaq as they did last season.
Rick Carlisle, a smart guy who should be somebody's head coach this
season, opines that the Blazers should go big this season -- making Pippen the
point guard full-time alongside Steve Smith. This would open up more minutes
at the three for Wallace, which would clear more time at the four for Kemp
and Davis. That is a monster lineup. Can you imagine having
to deal with all that length, and then have to try and catch Damon
Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells and Stacey Augmon off the bench? (Not that Damon
would be happy with this scenario. And that's the one caveat: if you thought
Mike Dunleavy had trouble dividing minutes last season. Put it this way:
pick the team's five best players, regardless of position.)
The Lakers are the champs, and they still have Shaq, Kobe and Phil -- a
formidable trio for anyone. But Portland starts the season a step ahead.
Which reminds me...
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| Grant |
2. Is Horace Grant good enough? The World Champs' run of futility in
getting a power forward reached four months before acquiring Grant from
Seattle in the Patrick Ewing trade. But let's get real; Grant wasn't their
first choice. Or their second. They tried to get John Amaechi from Orlando.
And Toni Kukoc from Philly. And Maurice Taylor from the Clippers. And Christian
Laettner from the Pistons. With Jerry Buss insisting he won't max out
contractually for anyone else now that he's paying Shaq and Kobe big
dollars, there aren't many players that L.A. can realistically pursue.
I hope I'm wrong; no one loves the Ho more than me. But he's not that
much younger than A.C. Green. And while he's a better offensive player, the
Lakers are most in need of Grant's defense. Can he still give you 30-plus
minutes a night guarding the likes of Rasheed Wallace, Tim Duncan, Chris
Webber, etc.?
Speaking of which...
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| Webber |
3. Are the Kings toast? Webber dropped hints all summer that he
wouldn't mind playing next season in Detroit, or New York, or anywhere, it
seems, other than Sacramento. Let's be frank: Webber would walk buck naked
from Sacramento to play in LaLa. He waited in vain for the Kings to add more
muscle underneath (Vlade Divac having disappointed last season), but other
than acquiring Doug Christie's perimeter firepower, Sacramento stayed pat.
Which means C-Webb will get to battle Shaq in the paint more than he cares
to. Webber in SacTown was always an iffy proposition; unless the Kings can
find another big man somewhere, it will be a short-term romance.
Along those lines...
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| Longley |
4. Seriously, what are the Knicks doing? Even before Luc Longley got
injured in the Olympics, the Ewing deal didn't make sense -- unless there was
another deal right behind it. The only benefit Glen Rice brings a team is
his scoring, and New York already has Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell to
do that. The Knicks needed post defense and rebounding. Dikembe Mutombo
brings an abundance of both, but the Hawks, at last check, wanted at least
three starters from any team that inquires about the Mount. And at least
publicly, the Hawks say they think they can still re-sign Mutombo. (Wait
'till they get the Falk Treatment.)
If Longley's out two months, that leaves Travis Knight and Kurt Thomas
in the hole for New York. Knight is a foul waiting to happen, and while
Thomas has been a tough customer the last two seasons, he has a habit of
blowing up at inopportune moments. It's going to be difficult to count on
him for big minutes. That leaves Marcus Camby, and even Vegas wouldn't give
you odds on him staying healthy if he has a regular diet of center play.
Ewing was a lot of things, but he was still someone who got enough respect
to get calls at the ends of games and get away with traveling on his post-up
moves.
And as long as we're discussing aging centers...
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| Smits |
5. Can the Pacers win without Rik Smits? No. But I can't shake the
feeling that the Dutchman will be back sometime soon. Isiah Thomas' plan
coming in was to give Smits a lot of time off during the regular season,
much as the Bulls used to do with Bill Cartwright to keep him fresh for the
playoffs. Do you think it's outside the realm of possibility that Smits is
on extended vacation? Neither do I.
Speaking of secret get-togethers...
6. What were the Timberwolves thinking? It will take Clintonesque
lawyering for Minnesota to escape what a league guy involved calls a "jaw
dropping" case of cap circumvention. A recap: Smith signed a one-year deal
with the Wolves for the $1.75 million veterans' exception in 1998, and re-signed
with Minnesota on another one-year deal last year for $2.1 million. Everyone
wondered why Smith didn't at least explore the open market. And now,
allegedly, we know why. The league is accusing Minnesota of a secret deal
with Smith that would have paid him up to $93 million. The crazy part is
that owner Glen Taylor -- again, allegedly -- signed the documents! Everybody
makes wink-wink agreements with their stars, but nobody actually
signs them!
"We're not dumb," a league guy says. "We know these things go on. But
none of us suspected these thing would be put in writing ...This is a real
bad situation for the franchise, to put it mildly."
The Commish has been waiting for years to make an example of somebody
for ignoring his cap rules. But there's never been a smoking gun before. I'm
told the Commish and union head Billy Hunter met last week to try and see if
there's any room for a settlement, but got nowhere. Awaiting the Wolves: a
$3.5 million fine, the loss of as many first-round picks as the league wants
to take, and suspension of any team personnel for up to a year who were in
on the caper. This is crazy.
And by the way...
7. Am I nuts to think the Mavericks might be good? Mark Cuban, the
Mavs' owner, got mad at me because I called him "insane" for flying all of
his assistant coaches and their families to Hawaii on a team holiday. I
meant insane in the best possible sense of the word, Cubano. I actually
believe you're doing good stuff in Dallas. Solid trades that don't eat up
future cap room and good work on draft night (Courtney Alexander, Etan
Thomas, Donnell Harvey and Eduardo Najera can, and will, help immediately)
add to the promising Michael Finley-Dirk Nowitzki nucleus. (Okay, Nellie had
something to do with it, too.) Will the Mavs make the playoffs? Dunno. But
there's a leaguewide buzz about Dallas that there hasn't been since the
early days of Ro Blackman and Derek Harper.
And since you bring up dynamic duos...
8. Can't Allen and Larry get along? Many eyes will be on State College,
Pa., in October when the Sixers start camp. That's where the most combustible
pairing since Felix and Oscar will start its fourth smash season. Does
anyone believe that Iverson and Brown will still be together at the end of
the season? Strangely, I do. Other teams blanch at Iverson's contract and
his, ahem, proclivity for lateness; plus there's a growing feeling around
the league that Iverson's effectiveness will decrease in coming years as he
keeps going into the paint and getting hammered. He's been beaten up in the
playoffs the last two years. Also, there's the bottom line -- the little guy
puts butts in seats, and that's what sways Ed Snider and Pat Croce. Maybe
it's over Larry Brown's dead body, and maybe there's another team out there
like the Pistons who are desperate enough to sell tickets, but it says here that AI stays in Philly.
But then again...
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| Brown |
9. Can the Hornets stay on the winning track? It also says here that
the Bugs didn't do as bad in the Heat trade as you may think. Yes, losing
Eddie Jones hurts, but Charlotte picked up P.J. Brown, one of the genuine
good guys and hard workers in the league. And Jamal Mashburn has become a
solid pro who'll score in double digits when healthy. (That, of course, is
the rub.) No one is going to get weepy about Anthony Mason and Ricky Davis
leaving town; if Paul Silas hadn't been around, things may have been much
worse last season. My question: why didn't the Hornets turn Elden Campbell
or Derrick Coleman into Allan Houston or Latrell Sprewell? You'll never find
salaries that are so close -- and, thus, tradable for one another. My answer:
same reason the Hornets didn't pay Jones, or Alonzo Mourning, or Rice.
They're cheap.
And thus, finally...
10. Can the Bulls ever pay enough for anybody of note to play in
Chicago?
Uh, no.
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