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 Wednesday, October 27
Only San Antonio can stop Duncan, Spurs
 
By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com

 It is a good thing voters in Bexar County, Texas, of which San Antonio is the county seat, go to the polls the same day the NBA opens its regular season to vote on authorizing additional tax dollars to build a new arena for the Spurs. Unless civil curmudgeons turn out in record numbers, the citizenry of the NBA's reigning title town figure to vote to tax tourists a few more dollars so the Spurs' owners can have a pleasure palace, complete with revenue-generating club seats and suites.

John Stockton
The Jazz are hoping that John Stockton can lead them to a division title.

Unless they do, the Spurs are gone, and with them, Tim Duncan, whose message to the voters when he opted not to sign a contract extension before the season was perfectly clear: Don't mess up my new house. San Antonians haven't faced a crisis this compelling since General Santa Ana and his troops formed up to storm that little mission that still sits downtown, near the San Antonio River. You know ... the Alamo.

And you know how that turned out.

A month into the season, though, and who knows how the Nov. 2 arena vote might turn out. Ask the citizenry of Denver if they would vote to fund a new stadium for the Broncos after their horrendous start this season.

No way.

Fans, you see, are fickle beyond belief.

This is not to say the Spurs won't defend both the Midwest and Western Conference titles they claimed last season. They will. It is to say they may struggle a little early while they are finding out how to replace one of their most valuable players, Sean Elliott.

Elliott will miss the season -- or the vast majority of it -- recovering from kidney transplant surgery. That he intends to attempt a comeback this season is remarkable, but no more so than the fact he played the entire playoffs last spring knowing he would have to have the kidney transplant in the offseason.

So what do the Spurs do without Elliott?

"We're not going to find anybody who can do for us what Sean Elliott did for us," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Were not going to do it. It won't happen. We've got to find somebody that embodies what he did to whatever degree we can."

Popovich gets passionate about Elliott because he was one of the few who knew of Elliott's condition during the playoffs and because he asked Elliott to take the defensive assignment on every playoff opponent's best scorer in every series.

None of the candidates to replace Elliott in the starting lineup -- Jaren Jackson, Malik Rose and Chucky Brown -- can defend great scorers like Elliott could.

Of course, once potential scorers get past whichever Spur is guarding them, they run smack into Tim Duncan and David Robinson. That hasn't changed, and it is the reason the Spurs will repeat as Midwest -- and Western -- champs. Duncan should have been last season's regular season MVP, and he was a runaway NBA Finals MVP. He is the league's best player. Period.

Robinson is becoming an elder statesman, and his back hasn't gotten any more limber with another year gone. But he remains one of the league's most athletic centers and best big men.

Picking the Spurs to win the division is easy. Figuring the rest of the Midwest is a crapshoot.

Houston hardly resembles the superstar-top-heavy unit it was last season, what with Scottie Pippen shipped off to Portland for a cast of thousands. Rarely does the team that gives up one player for several end up the better in the deal, but the Rockets did get some talent back from Portland for Pippen, including Kelvin Cato, the best backup for Hakeem Olajuwon that Rudy Tomjanovich ever has had. And Walt Williams was built to thrive in a fast-paced offense.

Oh, yes, the Rockets intend to run this season like never before, which has come as something of a shock to Olajuwon's system. The 35-year-old center would like the Rockets to slow it down and post him up a few times, and rest assured Tomjanovich will figure out a way to get that done.

And, of course, Charles Barkley is battling injuries as the season approaches, no doubt contributing to his insistence this will be his last NBA season.

Houston has the NBA's best rookie, though, and Steve Francis is going to get to play plenty, and in an offense in which he ought to thrive. There's your Rookie of the Year.

The Rockets also have Shandon Anderson and the Utah Jazz do not, which is why I'm placing Houston ahead of Utah in my projected Midwest final standings.

The Jazz are getting old. I know we've been saying the same thing for, oh, about five years, but this time it is true. Jeff Hornacek is playing his final season, and Karl Malone had to sit out most of the preseason with back stiffness. Plus, Greg Ostertag is still Utah's staring center.

Nevertheless, until Malone and John Stockton head off to retirement, presumably at the same time, Utah always is going to be one of the NBA's elite teams. They are that good. And just watch Malone's back loosen up as soon as the games really count.

Duncan may be the best player in the entire NBA, but only marginally so over the second-best player in his own division, Minnesota's Kevin Garnett, another legitimate MVP candidate. Garnett has grown since being drafted out of high school four years ago, both physically and as a personality and league statesman. He exudes charisma, more so than any player since that guy in Chicago with the wagging tongue retired.

Garnett is not 6-foot-11. he is a 7-footer with point guard handle and small forward skills. If the T-Wolves had a legitimate center and a more reliable perimeter scorer than Anthony Peeler, they might move past the Jazz and Rockets. They are hoping Wally Szczerbiak can learn how to cheat enough on defense to allow him to be that perimeter threat, but it's not likely to happen this season.

Denver general manager Dan Issel fired head coach Mike D'Antoni and took the job himself, a clear indication he thinks the Nuggets will be better. A lot of that belief rests on whether center Raef LaFrentz is fully recovered from knee surgery he had just eight months ago. Denver made a major offseason trade, getting Ron Mercer from Boston for Danny Fortson and figuring Mercer can perfectly complement power forward Antonio McDyess, a legitimate candidate for one of the remaining 2000 Dream Team spots.

The Nuggets, though, will rise or fall with Nick Van Exel, who signed a six-year contract extension worth $60 million. Issel is counting on the dough buying him sell-out defensive effort from a guard who never has paid much attention to that end of the court. Dallas has made more goofy roster moves since Don Nelson took over the basketball operations than the rest of the division, combined. Latest curiosity: Getting high schooler Leon Smith out of the draft and farming him out to the CBA. Little wonder, though. Nelson believes Shawn Bradley is a legitimate NBA center.

The St. Louis ... er, I mean Vancouver Grizzlies made yet another horrendous draft mistake -- remember Antonio Daniels? -- when they took Steve Francis in spite of the fact he didn't want to play in Canada, or on a team that already had a starting point guard like Mike Bibby.

Francis forced a trade to Houston, and desperate teams rarely get market value. The Grizzlies got three backups, and two of those, Michael Dickerson and Othella Harrington, will be starters. What does that tell you? British Columbians won't have to fret about the Griz much longer, though. New owner Bill Laurie owns the St. Louis Blues and the Kiel Center Arena in St. Louis. Guess what, Vancouverites? Enjoy your team while you can, if you can enjoy a team that will have finished in last place in the Midwest every season it played there.

Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com
 


ALSO SEE
NBA Preview 99

Preview '99: Welcome back to the NBA

Preview '99: NBA from A to Z

ESPN experts' picks for 1999-2000

Atlantic Division: Heat, Knicks to battle

Central Division: Improved Hornets take over

Pacific Division: Pippen, Portland ready to rule