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Late push New candidates emerge for postseason awardsPosted: Friday March 15, 2002 12:24 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum will answer your NBA questions every week during the season. Click here to send him a question. Jack, why do you think the Nets are faltering so much? Is Jason Kidd no longer
the leading candidate for MVP?
Matt, in my opinion, Jason Kidd has lost the upper hand in the MVP race. Too many bad shooting nights -- witness his 38 percent shooting from the field this year. (For the record, I like Tim Duncan for MVP at the moment.) Anyway, one could argue that the Nets had been overachieving and are only now coming back to Planet Earth. Remember, though, that New Jersey just came off a Western swing and no team from the East does well out there. I think the Nets will right themselves and get the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but for a variety of reasons I don't like their chances of getting to the Finals. One key reason is I think Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Orlando haven't yet peaked, while the Nets may be on their way down. Most of the talk for Coach of the Year has focused on Byron Scott and Rick
Carlisle, but don't you think Nate McMillan has been overlooked? He has the
Sonics playing great ball despite the losses of their two big men, Calvin Booth
and Vin Baker, for much of the season. He also deserves some of the credit for
how well Gary Payton has played. Any
thoughts?
I do think Nate has been overlooked as has Payton. With all the talk about Kidd and Steve Nash, I'm still not sure that Payton isn't the best point guard in the league. And here's another Coach of the Year candidate from that area -- Maurice Cheeks. He pulled a team together that was on the brink of self-destructing and now looks like it could cause some trouble in the postseason, especially if they meet the Kings, and not the Lakers, in the first round. Jack, I've got two questions for you. First, what do you think the odds are
that one of the bottom three seeds in the West can pull off a first-round upset?
Also, since you've been assessing Hall of Fame credentials, what do you think
about my favorite player -- Gary Payton? He's been one of the best point guards
in the league for a while now, and while he's never been mentioned as one of the
top players in the league at any time, I think this is simply because he doesn't
play the flashy game that the fans and cameras seem to love. I think he's a
lock for the Hall, but what do you
think?
Zach, see above. Payton is absolutely, positively a Hall of Famer. Having said that, I don't think the bottom three seeds in the West, including the G-Man's Sonics, have much hope to advance. My guess is that the last three seeds will be the Jazz at No. 8, the Sonics at No. 7 and the Trail Blazers at No. 6. I don't like Seattle's or Utah's chances at all, while Portland's chances depend on their first-round opponent. The best battle could be that 4 vs. 5 matchup between, it looks like, San Antonio and Minnesota. First of all, I loved the Charles Barkley story in last week's Sports
Illustrated, but the cover has created some
controversy. What did you think of the cover? Secondly, given all the moves that
the Hawks made, is their season considered a total bust? What do they need to do
to get back to the playoffs?
Will all of the philosophical talk about the cover, Dana, here is my position. A grown man thought about it, pondered it, questioned friends and finally decided that he wanted to do it. That's enough for me. The Hawks, frankly, are a great mystery. I guess they can plead injuries. They should go with that. My feeling is that Atlanta will try to get everyone healthy and stay with its current rotation, feeling that they have an All-Star in Shareef Abdur-Rahim, an up-and-coming All-Star in Jason Terry, a former All-Star in Toni Kukoc and maybe All-Stars in Nazr Mohammed and Theo Ratliff. But, boy, they better accomplish more next season or the heads of some execs could be on the block. Last week you
answered a question about which teams from the past could beat these Lakers. In
your reply, you left a club out -- the "Showtime" Lakers of the '80s.
Don't you think they would have breezed past this version? How great would it
have been to see Shaq and Kareem and Kobe and Magic match up?
Now you've asked a tough one. The Showtime Lakers, who I loved, would still have to find a defense to stop Shaq. Can you imagine the beating Kurt Rambis, A.C. Green, Maurice Lucas and Co. would have to put on O'Neal to do that? Particularly since Kareem would not have relished the idea of going against Shaq's brute strength. There were differences among those Showtime teams, don't forget. The best version I saw was probably 1984-'85 group. That edition probably could beat the current Lakers. But the late '80s team, with an aging Kareem? I'm not so sure. Being a Detroit fan, I was pleased to read your comments about how the '90
Pistons would have found a way to beat today's Lakers. What is your assessment
the Pistons of the late '80's? How do they stack up against the best teams from
the past 25 years? What about the Pistons' rivalries with the Celtics and Bulls
in the late '80s? How do you rate those rivalries among the best in
history?
The Pistons could stay with anybody for three reasons. One, they were brutal on defense. Two, they were smarter than anyone. And three, they had a variety of one-on-one offensive weapons. But they were, remember, a two-year phenomenon. When Michael Jordan found a way to beat them, he really beat them. The Pistons-Celtics rivalries were great, but remember that the Celts were not a supreme team when the Pistons finally broke through. Detroit's greatest accomplishment was keeping Jordan out of the Finals in all of those years before 1990. That was something special. But as much as I loved them, I do not rank them as high as the '85-'86 Celtics, the best Jordan teams of the '90s, and the one or two best Showtime Lakers teams of the '80s. Shaq, who is always mentioned as one of the best centers ever, is a great
player, but I think he's a liability at the end of close games where free throws
are crucial. My question is, how can someone who has played basketball their
entire life be that bad at free throws? Shaq practices every day and can
only manage 50%. What are your
thoughts?
Todd, you might as well have asked me to explain Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Shaq is not alone in this malady, remember. It was pioneered by Wilt Chamberlain, the greatest one-man offensive player in the history of the game and a career 51-percent shooter from the line. (Shaq was at 53 percent entering this season.) At this point it obviously has nothing to do with mechanics. Well, it does, but Shaq's poor mechanics at the line come from the head, just as Chamberlain's did. These are not merely good athletes -- these are world-class athletes who can't perform a simple task adequately. It has to be mental. Why doesn't anyone ever question the madness of King George Karl. He doesn't
play the one game-altering interior defender on his team 30 minutes a game (Joel
Pryzbilla). He regularly puts two defensive liabilities on the floor at the same
time (Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson), and then he complains about the defense.
Tim Thomas and Ray Allen are the best all-around players on the team, but often
they are the second and third options on offense. Can you help me understand
this?
I think Karl gets a pass, Cooke, because people see him as an old-schooler who isn't afraid to speak his mind and who will challenge multimillion dollar players. It does seem this season that he's at fault for some of the bad chemical smell emitting from Suds City. We'll see if the Bucks get it straightened out in the playoffs. If the Heat, after a 5-23 start, make the playoffs and/or advance in the
second round, will it be the greatest comeback ever? I consider Pat Riley not
just one of the best, but the best coach the NBA ever had. What do you
think? Who was better than Riley?
Ten years ago, Neil, I named Pat Riley as the best coach ever, better even than Red Auerbach (as a bench coach that is.) Riley's rep was tarnished a little because of the bully ball he played in New York and in Miami, but nobody wants to meet the Heat in the postseason. Best comeback ever? Hmm, I wouldn't say that about a team going from last place to eighth place, but it's been pretty damn good. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum will answer your NBA questions every week during the season. Click here to send him a question. |
