Some teams with some work to do

Late night. Early morning. At least there wasn’t some stupid-early wakeup call to catch some delayed flight.

Anyway …

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Watching the Blazers capitulate to the Suns with alarming ease, one thing was hammered home: Portland has no one who commands even a consistent double-team and if you don’t have that, it’s virtually impossible to get really flowing offensively and win games.

I like a lot about the Blazers – a healthy Brandon Roy is a joy to watch control a game and the wings are okay in an up-tempo game – but there is some work to do before they can take that proverbial “next step.”

LaMarcus Aldridge is a pretty good player but the Suns got away with playing him straight up for most of the night – as most teams do – and that allowed Phoenix to stay home on the rest of the Blazers, and not have their defence scrambling all the time.

Marcus Camby and Juwan Howard are vets who know how to play but they are hardly over-powering offensive forces and, for some reason, Rudy Fernandez has turned into Marco Belinelli – an exciting player with multiple skills who simply cannot get untracked for any length of time – and that’s been killing Portland.

I think the series could well be over in Game 6, even the raucous crowd at the Rose Garden may not be enough to salvage a game for the Blazers and then there has to be some moves made in the Pacific Northwest for Portland to maintain its place in the pecking order, let alone move up.

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What a disappointing end in Charlotte, wasn’t it?

First, there are all kinds of questions about the future of peripatetic coach Larry Brown, who may be eyeing are a return to Philly – where his wife and young family have lived all along. Forget all the denials floating around, there’s some substance to the chatter and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he leaves.

And then they go out with a whimper against the Magic, swept away and with many questions to be answered.

They have no low post presence whatsoever, with all due respect to Theo Ratliff, Tyson Chandler and Nazr Muhammed, and their point guard issues are serious with Ray Felton an unrestricted free agent and not all that good in the series, anyway.

And while it’s all nice and good to see Michael Jordan sitting next to the bench alternating between cheering and wearing a chagrined expression, you wonder how that team’s going to improve over the course of the summer.

After all, MJ’s track record as an NBA exec is, in a word, brutal.

Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Leonard Hamilton. That, my friends, is a litany of disaster that makes Rob Babcock look like Red Auerbach.

I don’t know what exactly is going to transpire in Charlotte but I don’t think there’s reason for any Bobcats fan to be brimming with optimism.

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We’ve been through a lot of the surprises in this year’s NBA playoffs talking about individual players and the Oklahoma City Thunder but, I have to tell you, nothing has really surprised me more than the Utah Jazz.

They don’t have the injured Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur blows out an Achilles and still they lead the Denver Nuggets 3-1.

They start a handful of guys relatively unheard of – I don’t imagine there are a lot of Kyrylo Fesenko fans among us – and Carlos Boozer has been banged up with some rib issues almost the entire series.

They get a tough, tough out in Denver in the first round and I’m sure a lot of people thought that series would be the most one-sided in West when Okur went out.

But, Deron Williams has been other-worldly so far and if there’s a better, all-around point guard in the NBA today, I’m going to have to be pretty heavily swayed.

The thing about Williams is that he’s almost a mirror image of his coach in that all he does is compete hard and get the job done. There’s not a whole lot of style but an immense about of substance to his game and he probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

But he wins. A lot.

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We got through the in-game blog thing last night with no issues and I’m glad to report there were about 500 hearty souls who checked in for the late game. Way to go.

And we’ll give it another shot tonight for the Spurs-Mavs at 9:30 p.m., and hopefully we get a good game.

See you then, right?

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When someone asked me last night during the game whether I could see a resemblance between Andre Miller and Richard Pryor and it brought memories flooding back.

Way back in 1999, when I was still in the “oh, boy, it’s the run-up to the NBA draft” stage of my career, when Miller came in for his workout, the first thing I thought – and so did Danny Devito of the Sun -- was he had to be related to one of the unsung great stand-ups of his generation.

But then it got weirder because a few days later, or sometime in that same process, the Raptors had in Jason Terry and a young Jason Terry bore a striking resemblance to Jerry Rice.

Neither of them looked enough like an NBA player, however, as the Raptors made their boldest draft-day move that year, swapping No. 5 for Antonio Davis and taking Alexander Radojevic with the No. 11 selection.

Wonder what would have happened had Miller not gone No. 8 and Terry No. 10 in that draft, though.

The No. 9 pick? Why, none other than Shawn Marion.

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The NFL draft is over, right? Must be since on the TV last night I saw an ad for the CFL draft sometime soon and if they drag out a red carpet and do 500 hours of TV coverage I may lose it.

And I wonder just who Canada’s version of Mel Kiper is? Do we have one?

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Hey, remember last week when one of the Irregulars brought it to our attention that the one and only Oliver Miller was playing in the PBL Finals for something called the Lawton Fort Sill Cavalry against the Rochester something-or-others in the championship series.

Well, check this official league release to find out just what Oliver was up to. Yep, suspended for the rest of the season for a contretemps with some fans in Rochester.

Go figure.

Anyway, it’s not only Miller (and if anyone here calls him The Big O they shall forever go on the poop list since it’s sacrilege) who’d be familiar to old-time NBA fans.

Yep, that’s the legendary Michael Ray Richardson who’s coaching the Cavalry, too.

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Comments

[Matt M]

Hey Doug. Just trying to keep myself from revising history soooo... Brandon Roy's knee was the main reason so many teams passed on him in the draft right? Hopefully it doesn't become a long term problem. Portland was one of my favorite teams outside the Raps. I would hate to see such a promising team never reach it's potential because of injuries.

Blogger's note: It was part of it

[John]

By "big O" you mean Orlando Woolridge?

[doug]

one thing these playoffs have illustrated for the most part is how tough it is to win on the road...tougher then in any sport, and i think part of it is, as i recall when i played a lot, is every court has different rims, some soft, some hard, some forgiving, some not...plus the shooting background, optics change from one place to the next...home teams know their own rims, court whereas visitors obviously aren't as familiar.....home court advantage in the NBA truly is home court advantage....

[Peter]

Had to look this one up.
You can learn something new here everyday!
:)
per·i·pa·tet·ic   [per-uh-puh-tet-ik]
–adjective
1. walking or traveling about; itinerant.
2. (initial capital letter) of or pertaining to Aristotle, who taught philosophy while walking in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.
3. (initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the Aristotelian school of philosophy.
–noun
4.a person who walks or travels about.
5.(initial capital letter) a member of the Aristotelian school.

[Matty-Pix]

Is there a name for the illness that makes you relate any NBA comments to potential Raptors trades???

Blazers needing someone to demand double teams = Bosh for Aldridge and Rudy.

Deron emerging as the league's premiere PG = Maybe Bosh is interested, for Boozer.

Bobcats need a PG = who can we get back for Jack or Jose.

Man, it is gonna be a long off season!

[Steve G]

BTW, Chuck wasn't great - more of a mushy romantic Chuck and Sarah episode - but it had its moments!

[Ryan]

After seeing the Radejovic comment, I have to wonder: do the Raptors have the highest draft ratio of non-American born players?

And is it purely coincidence?

[Jim Rootham]

Would you believe a Really Large O?

[Blake Kennedy]

Peripatetic was indeed awesome. Brought me right back to the second week of the first semester of NT Greek class:

peripatew - I walk around, as a euphemism for "I live" (very literal, those Greeks could be)

[Pipit]

Doug, do you know what channel will the Spurs and Mavs be shown tonight?\

Blogger's note: NBA.com says The Score

[doug]

speaking of the Big O i changed my opinion of him during the NCAA's , he is now in my opinion the best that ever played...as what he had to go thru to get where he went was unreal...they ran a feature during the NCAA's on his high school team...Crispus Attucks they were the first all-black school to win a state championship in the NATION...they weren't allowed to have their parade in the city as was the custom..the players were driven outside of town to hold their party because, said Robertson in the Indianapolis Star, "They said the blacks are gonna tear up downtown."...he was like the Jackie Robinson of basketball so to go thru that and still not only perservere but be mentioned as one of the all time greats to me is truly admirable

[Pipit]

Doug have you seen how poorly the officials are handling Dwight Howard. It seems like everytime a Bobcats player put his body on him on a hard drive eventhough Dwight is not moving and just raised both his hands, the officials are still calling a foul to Dwight. If this is the case then I can be an NBA player because all the time I will just bang my body to anyone. This is killing Dwight Howard's play because he's playing time is being reduced drastically and he's aggressive play is being regressed. Doug, will the NBA execs look into these? What's your take into this?

Blogger's note: To tell you the truth, most of the fouls I've seen called against Howard, he's actually committed

[Ben]

Doug,

I was at the opening game for the series between Oklahoma and Halifax, and my mind was literally blown to see not only Miller, but also Richardson coaching. Props for mentioning it!

Speaking of the PBL, have you heard any word about potential expansion? The owner of the Halifax team has been aggressively trying to get in the NBDL for years, and the team averages about a thousand fans more than the NBDL does. With teams in Maine and Mass, it seems much more legitimate than it was. Have MLSE been on any contact with the franchise?

[James Online]

If you watch Portland closely you'll see why Rudy Fernandez has yet to be effective in the series. He's shut out of the offense by his teammates. Few touches, even when wide open. In that sense, his situation is a lot like Marco's.

[GM]

You have numbers for the in-game blog, but do you have info on where the people are from? I know from the comments more than a few of us are from parts unknown (outside the GTA) so it's either not necessarily late for or extremely late for some. If it were late here, I might have been able to watch/read but alas I was playing the game.

Andre Miller as Richard Pryor? I hadn't noticed. I'll have to look more closely next time I see him. But Pryor was hardly "unsung". He's considered the greatest stand-up of all time by most people. (I have noticed, though, that Andrew Bynum looks like an elongated Tracy Morgan.)

[LeeZ]

Doug, to your knowledge has Bosh had a post-season sitdown yet with Brian?

[Josh]

I guess you could argue he DWill deserves even more props because he is THAT good but the ESPN guys have been lauding him all season as the best PG in the L, he was an All Star and even when Paul was healthy there was always a great debate about who was actually the better point.

Then I read the comment about Richard Pryor being an "unsung" great and that just seems wrong. If you've ever enjoyed comedy there is no way you haven't heard and laughed with Richard Pryor. Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, The Wayans family, Robin Williams and a host of others all owe 90% of their material and inspiration to the man! That and Pryor is easily the single most sampled comedian in hip hop, from De La Soul to NWA to 50cent to Mos Def. Though dead, the man is still very well known and respected.

[Alan C]

Speaking of home court advantage, when I was a kid in Pittsburgh, one of the local high schools used the old Duquesne Gardens as their home court. There were two beer signs, one behind each basket. The signs could flash, but only did when the visiting team was shooting towards them.

[Lorie]

Hi Doug, I tried to send this question from my phone but I got mysterious error messages after I hit send, so sorry if it shows up twice. But here is the question - again :) Do you remember the name of the movie that was made depicting (or maybe it was only loosely based on) The Big O's experience playing college ball?

Blogger's note: I don't, sorry

[J]

Matt M: The other "main" reason for Roy being passed on by Toronto, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, Minnesota and even Portland (for Aldridge) was the view that though Roy was probably the most NBA ready of the lot, he didn't have as high a ceiling as the other draftees. All the scouting reports I read listed him as a solid NBA player, and nothing close to the factor he is now.

[Lazaros O.]

You write "That, my friends, is a litany of disaster that makes Rob Babcock look like Red Auerbach". Ahem, why are you comparing a GM with a coach?

Blogger's note: If you are suggesting Red Auerbach was only a coach, you need some time with the history books

[Shawn]

Why would someone waste Doug's time and ask him what channel the game is on? A simple check of NBA.com (TV schedule) or your TV Guide would be able to tell you the answer...and in the time you waited for a response from Doug, you could have found the answer yourself! Is this an indication of how lazy we've become??

[Tim W.]

Wow! Danny DeVito is a man of many talents. Actor, producer, sports writer. I don't know where he finds the time!

[Nick M]

This may not fit into the Comedian thing, but my wife says Bosh looks like he could be a simpson character!

[doug]

to the blogger that asked about the movie based on Robertson..he may be thinking of Hoosiers as it was based on a high school team called Milan, that played Robertson's team Attucks when Robertson was a sophomore and they lost to Milan...and that game, season was the story Hoosiers was loosely based based on....