Q and A with Doug Collins

SI.com talked to TNT basketball analyst and former Washington Wizards head coach Doug Collins about the upcoming NBA playoffs.

SI.com: What's Phil Jackson's biggest task right now?

Collins: First of all, the Lakers are the kind of team that gets bored. They'll go through stretches where they'll win eight or 10 games in a row, and then lose three in a row or five out of six. That makes them a really interesting team. A lot of the championship teams -- like when Michael Jordan played for Chicago -- played at a high level all the time. The Lakers turn it off and on.

Come playoff time, they are going to be on. They don't have to play back-to-back games, so they can get rest for Karl Malone and Gary Payton, and travel won't be a factor. They have the best 1-2 punch in the league. If Shaq is on his game and Kobe is on his game, there is no other team that can match that kind of inside-outside combination. If one of them is off a little bit, they are vulnerable.

I think Derek Fisher and Devean George are important pieces here because the Lakers struggle against teams that have speed and can break them down off the dribble. San Antonio exposed them the last time they played. They are going to need Fisher, especially in the first round to help guard Steve Francis and keep him out of the lane. If they win that series, you're probably looking at more speed in San Antonio with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. And if they win that series, you could be looking at Sam Cassell or Mike Bibby. Devean George was playing very well early in the year when the Big Four were healthy. When those guys got hurt, he was less effective because he plays off the double-team to get open shots. George is a good athlete and they are going to need his speed on the floor.

SI.com: When the playoff matchups became finalized, which series immediately struck you as most competitive first-round matchup?

Collins: I think Sacramento-Dallas in the West is going to be good, and Miami-New Orleans in the East. Which team is going to be able to dictate the style of play? Miami is a little like Dallas. They're a little bit of a small-ball team and when they get out in the open court, they can create mismatches with Dwyane Wade, Lamar Odom, Eddie Jones and Caron Butler. New Orleans is a team that's going to have to win with the power game with Jamaal Magloire and P.J. Brown. And Baron Davis is going to have to break down defenses and get easy shots for his team. Dallas is going in on an uptick. Sacramento is limping into the playoffs. It's a rematch of last year's playoffs and it will be a fun, wide-open series.

SI.com: What's the one individual matchup in a playoff series that really excites you?

Collins: Jason Kidd vs. Stephon Marbury. Two point guards who were traded for one another. A former Net turned Knick in Marbury. And you have New Jersey sort of stealing the thunder from the Knicks over the past couple of seasons. I just think there's a lot of interesting little side plots and twists to the series. It'll be a fun matchup to watch.

SI.com: In your mind, are the Nets the same team that won back-to-back Eastern Conference titles?

Collins: To me, they don't play with the same swagger that they played with the last couple of years. There was an arrogance last year -- and I mean that in a good way -- where they knew they were good and they knew they were going to win. They have not had that this year. They've had injuries to Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin. They had the early release of Dikembe Mutombo. Alonzo Mourning had to retire. They had the firing of the coach (Byron Scott). There were a lot of things going on with that franchise. Take their record right now (47-35) and remember they had a 14-game winning streak. So if you take that streak out, that means for the 68 other games they played under .500. They were 33-35. I just don't think they are the same team they were last year.

SI.com: Seems like you favor Indiana or Detroit to come out of the East?

Collins: Yeah. In a series between Detroit and New Jersey, I would favor Detroit. Detroit has more weapons and they can beat you in more ways. The Nets, if you get them in a halfcourt game, you can defend them.

SI.com: Is there any scenario where you can see either Indiana, New Jersey or Detroit beating a Western Conference team in the Finals?

Collins: I think they can match up with any team other than the Lakers. If the Lakers get there in the Finals, that would be a very tough matchup because I don't think those teams have an answer for Shaq.

SI.com: Can a team like Dallas, which isn't committed to halfcourt defense, win in the playoffs?

Collins: It depends on who you are playing. If you are playing a power team, it's going to be tough. But they are not playing a power team. Sacramento is very much a perimeter-oriented team. Their big men create a lot for them in the passing lanes. Now if Chris Webber were healthy, I would say they have an advantage down low. But he doesn't have that same lift, and Sacramento is not going to pound you on the boards or pound the ball in the lane against you. They don't have dominant shot blocking. To me, those teams are very similar to each other.

Now you go to the next round and Denver is not a power team. Minnesota, I wouldn't consider them a power team. Then you look at the Lakers-Rockets and you have Yao Ming and you have Shaq. That's power there. Memphis is a little wide open but San Antonio is a team that goes through Tim Duncan inside. So when you look at the brackets, you have a wide-open game in the top bracket with Minnesota, Denver, Sacramento and Dallas. Then in the other bracket you have the Lakers, Houston, and San Antonio, probably the three best teams with the big men. If it broke well for Dallas, they could get to the Western Conference finals but I don't think they could beat San Antonio or the Lakers.

SI.com: Best game you either called or saw in person?

Collins: That Trail Blazer-Laker game earlier this week was pretty amazing. Kobe's shot changed the entire playoffs. The magnitude -- to get it into overtime and to win it in double overtime, he vaulted his team from fourth to second and changed all the playoff matchups. In terms of what that meant, that was pretty good.

SI.com: Can you see a scenario in which Memphis can win against the Spurs?

Collins: I don't see that happening. Memphis limped into the playoffs. They struggled to finish, and lost four or five games on the road. I know in the regular season they had some success against San Antonio, but come playoff time the Duncan factor will be the difference in the series.

SI.com: Awards time, Doug. Who is your MVP this year?

Collins: Kevin Garnett. People forget all the changes that were made in Minnesota. They got off to a slow start at 9-10 and he has just had a magnificent year in every phase of the game. I thought he was just a notch below Duncan last year and this year I thought from start to finish he was the MVP.

SI..com: Coach of the Year?

Collins: I wish you could give it to two people. I think Hubie Brown and Jerry Sloan are both deserving (Collins voted for Brown). What Hubie did this year is incredible. Just the teaching that he's done and the way he captured the respect of that team. It's been wonderful to watch. When I looked at the Jazz this year I didn't know if they could win 20 games. Well, they won 42 with no (John) Stockton or Malone, they lost Matt Harpring in January and they were in a playoff chase until the last two games of the season. You throw in the fact that the love of his life, his wife, Bobbye, is struggling with cancer. What he has done this year is incredible.

SI.com: Rookie of the Year?

Collins: I think you would be just in giving to both Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. What they have done has been spectacular. The thing that stood out to me about LeBron was that as many expectations as there were with Carmelo, it wasn't close to what was on LeBron. I don't know if there has ever been a player who has come into the league with that kind of hype. His poise was amazing.

SI.com: What team did you expect would be good but flunked out?

Collins: I thought Phoenix would be better. They finished the season on a high note last year and then got off to a slow start and decided to pull the plug and build for the future. I didn't expect Philly to be great but I didn't expect them to be as bad as they were. They really had a dropoff in their front line. Also, Aaron McKie is such a big part of that team and he's started to slow down a bit.

SI.com: How would Michael (Jordan) have done had he played another year?

Collins: He couldn't have done it. Just physically, his leg, he couldn't have done it. He had to really grind through last year just to be able to play.

SI.com: You'll be calling Game 2 of the Rockets-Lakers before calling in order: Sacramento-Dallas, San Antonio-Memphis and Miami-New Orleans. Then you'll stick with Sacramento-Dallas and Houston-L.A. for the remainder of those series. How do you approach preparing for so many different teams?

Collins: Well, I take every game as a different game. I have files that I keep on each team, and I've broken all the stuff by strengths and weaknesses. I look at what they've done against each other during the course of the year. What I do is say to myself, "If I was coaching the Rockets or Lakers, what would I do?" I watch the matchups and how things transpire. But on the air I try to bring options: It's not "This is what I would do," but "There are two or three things you can do in this situation and let's see what Jeff Van Gundy decides to do." That gives the fans something to think about it.

SI.com: The NBA Finals will be broadcast on ABC. Will you watch them in person or from your home?

Collins: Actually, I'll be having surgery then so I'll probably be in the hospital watching. As soon as I'm through with the Western Conference Finals, I'm having left knee replacement surgery.

SI.com: Finally, as a coach-turned-broadcaster-turned-coach-turned broadcaster, do you think spending a year between Marv Albert and Mike Fratello helped or hurt Jeff Van Gundy as a coach?

Collins: I think it helped him. I don't think people realized what a great sense of humor Jeff has. You see him as a coach and he's so serious, but Jeff is really a funny guy. As a head coach he's a very attention-to-detail, very serious man. But he really is a fun guy and I think people got a chance to see a different side of Jeff when he was between those guys.