The Portland Tribune's Dwight Jaynes says tanking is not simple: "A lot of times, even when it looks like a team is tanking, it probably isn't. A very famous coach, one who has won an NBA title and several hundred games in the league, told me he didn't think he could get his players to tank games even if management wanted him to do it. 'There's really no incentive for the players,' this coach said. 'A good many of them don't want the No. 1 pick on their team, anyway. I know that sounds crazy, but players know a top pick will eventually take a bigger share of the salary cap and more media attention away from them. And very often, that top pick will take an established player's job. So they don't want him as often as you might think.' And, in spite of what you hear from people who don't watch a lot of NBA games, teams play pretty hard even when their team is out of contention. There's a degree of pride involved, and players don't want someone else to embarrass them. The only way to tank is, coincidentally, what's going on right now with the Trail Blazers. Understand, please, I'm not in any way saying the Blazers are tanking games. I'm just saying the best way to do that is to systematically remove players from the lineup so what's left can't possibly win."
The Sonics haven't exactly bought the land for an arena in Renton, but they have gotten a step closer to buying it. The description of what has actually happened, as reported here, involves "snuggling."
The internet, which makes all information available to almost all basketball fans, has sapped a lot of the shoot-from-the-hip mystery from the NBA draft. And Bethlehem Shoals of FreeDarko is feeling it: "I have always thrived on the NBA draft, in part because it had become one of the most surreal, mystical rituals of all professional sports. If anything allowed for truthful manifestations of FreeDarko's most base principles, it was this month or so of hysteria, fantasy and occasional prophecy. This year, though, I will be denied this experience. Take, for instance, Julian Wright. I no longer have the right to invent him from thin air, or wonder wildly about what might be. No, I must humble up and admit that I don't know a f---ing thing about Julian Wright, but that he sounds really cool. . . and I plan to spend the next two months in the film room so I can cultivate some right to feel this way."
Kurt from Forum Blue & Gold: "The Lakers really miss Kwame. I say that not to pile on Bynum, but the young man has hit a stagnation point in his development. I think he'll overcome it, but he hurts us now."
We should all be on the Anthony Parker bandwagon now. (We should have been on it before, too -- it's not like he's new to the game.) Doug Smith of the Toronto Star writes about the hot Raptors: "Confidence manifests itself in many ways in the NBA, from brash behaviour to trash talking and chest thumping and letting everyone in the arena see cockiness and belief. The Raptors have none of that but what they have, what they showed in a brilliant fourth quarter here last night, is a quiet confidence, the kind of assurance that men of substance display, a knowledge that if they do what they are supposed to do they will prevail."
Word from Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen that Billy Donovan reportedly wanted to coach the Blazers years ago has Oregonlive Blazer Blogger Casey Holdahl all excited. To me, that Blazer team was never going to listen to a young college coach. But Thomsen's other news, that Hubie Brown almost got to take over for the tuned out Mike Dunleavy? That might have been something.
Yahoo's Steve Kerr says the team no top Western team wants to face in the first round of the playoffs is the Denver Nuggets. I recognize they play well sometimes, but I mean, really, is anyone more scared of the Nuggets than the other teams in the West playoffs? Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, Utah, or Kobe Bryant's Lakers (coached by Phil Jackson) are all scarier to me. And Dallas can't want to face Golden State either. To me a better, but not as sexy, line of argument might be that the Nuggets are scarier than the Clippers. (I'll give him this, though: The Jazz are not peaking at the right time.)
Trainer and coach Brian McCormick says Francisco Garcia is the smartest Sacramento King, and envisions Garcia as part of a Sacramento overhaul: "... if the Kings rid themselves of Bibby and Artest, and decide to start from scratch, I'd love to see the Kings draft Mike Conley, Jr. and hire Marc Iavaroni from Phoenix. Conley, Martin and Garcia would be a joy to watch, with Salmons and Price off the bench. It's not a championship team, but they would be fun and the fans would root for these guys. The success would ultimately be determined by who Petrie could get for Bibby and Artest."
ESPN Insider Chad Ford says most GMs favor Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, but there are still plenty of reasons to take Durant with the top overall pick. For one thing, he's a better basketball player! Then there's this: "I know it's blasphemy to compare anyone to Michael Jordan. We learn this every time someone compares Kobe Bryant to MJ. But I think Durant is the guy with the best chance of duplicating Jordan's influence on and off the court. At his size and with his unique skill set, he's capable of doing things that no one else in the NBA is able to do. He's driven. He's relentless. And some folks (including those at Nike) believe he has the potential to be the MJ-style face of the game in ways that LeBron, Kobe and others have not quite done. The last time we had a similar draft dilemma was in 1984, when everyone believed that Hakeem Olajuwon, not Jordan, was the best prospect. No one can fault the Rockets for taking Olajuwon No. 1 -- he won two NBA titles and is considered one of the five greatest centers of all time. But MJ brought home six titles to the Bulls and is considered the greatest to ever play the game."
Jonathan Feigen writes in the Houston Chronicle that Bonzi Wells is about to be cut loose by Houston. Picking the right agent matters, people. Wells can play. But his career is on the rocks in part because he and his agent bungled a significant offer from Sacramento last summer.
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