Three, we’ve seen, is too many.
The Bulls’ two-game winning streak won’t put fear in the Pistons–though with Shaquille O’Neal going through the motions in Miami and Larry Hughes injured in Cleveland, the East looks like a mess again. But what those two wins may have done is finally solidified the Bulls’ backcourt.
Kirk Hinrich never will be Isiah Thomas or John Stockton, but he should be a point guard. And as the Bulls get into position to do something this summer, Hinrich needs to be playing point guard as much as possible. Three talented small guards might be a nice luxury for a championship team with an inside presence–such as Thomas’ Pistons–but not for the Bulls.
Chris Duhon is back where he belongs, playing both guard spots off the bench. Clearly, the plan this season was to pair Ben Gordon with Hinrich. But Gordon’s early stumble left many in the organization questioning whether he was a luxury and they needed to get something for him while his value remained high. He’s not an ideal shooting guard at his size. But it was hard to see where the Bulls were going with Duhon at point guard and Hinrich at shooting guard and then small forward.
All this suggests–you knew this was coming–that the Bulls should deal Duhon. His presence, because he has proved to be better than anyone thought and has been a reliable guard, only retains the temptation to play him at the expense of Gordon or Hinrich. Jannero Pargo can be that classic sixth-man scorer.
Teams can use a quality point guard like Duhon. The Cavs sure can. They never have been thrilled with power forward Drew Gooden and could use a young point guard to develop with LeBron James. The SuperSonics have a couple of big men they’re probably ready to deal, Vitaly Potapenko and Reggie Evans, though Duhon is too much to give up for them.
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The Celtics reportedly tried to push Mark Blount on the Bulls recently for Othella Harrington and Eric Piatkowski. Dan Gadzuric seems a luxury for the Bucks’ payroll, and the Bobcats’ Melvin Ely has been talked about. The Pacers appear to have cooled on Jeff Foster; the Nets’ Marc Jackson wants out; the Magic’s Kelvin Cato and Tony Battie always are available; the 76ers’ Steven Hunter plays like he will be; the Wizards are about ready for a makeover; the Spurs have too many centers; the Clippers’ Chris Wilcox can be had; and the Nuggets’ injured Nene may be worth someone’s risk by next season. Darko Milicic, anyone?
Let’s get Ron Artest traded so the NBA can go back to business.
Meanwhile, in Detroit
The Pistons are putting together one of the best seasons in NBA history. They’re 26-5, a start that ranks among the best. When the Bulls won 72, they were 28-3 at this point. The Pistons are unlikely to win 70, but they could get close.
Yet the Pistons have been more invisible than any great team. They haven’t had a player win a player-of-the-week award and don’t have one player in line to start the All-Star Game. In the voting, Ben Wallace is second at center, Rasheed Wallace third at forward and Chauncey Billups fifth at guard. It’s also possible every starter could be named to the All-Star team.
Said Raptors coach Sam Mitchell: “How do you leave Tayshaun [Prince] out, Ben, Chauncey and Rip [Hamilton]? Really, how do you? And then you can make a case for Rasheed for what he does offensively and defensively.”
Flip Saunders, in his first season with the team, is almost assured to coach the East All-Stars with the Pistons so far ahead in the conference.
The Pistons and their fans remain, perhaps justifiably, paranoid about the perceived lack of respect and recognition. They note their group, unselfish and hard-working and without any thugs, is what the NBA says it wants to promote. The team that most resembles the Pistons is the Spurs. The two almost certainly are headed for a repeat matchup in the NBA Finals. Last season’s produced the lowest TV ratings and fan and media interest in years.
It’s the paradox the NBA faces with a team like Detroit racing to historic highs at a time the league’s top markets are in rebuilding modes. For the first time, this season could produce no playoff teams from the five biggest basketball markets and biggest winners. The Bulls, 76ers, Celtics, Lakers and Knicks all are struggling.
Cold day in Minnesota
The Bulls will be in Minnesota on Wednesday and will get a chance to see Kevin Garnett, well on the way to missing the playoffs again. If Garnett doesn’t demand a trade, one might assume he doesn’t really care about anything but the money. Said Garnett: “We’re a big question mark.” So is he. Thus, we can understand the desperation as Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he has asked his management to pursue Artest.
“The pros are that Artest would give you an offensive and defensive player all in one,” Taylor said. “He’s probably a more physical player than this team has had in quite some time. The cons would be, does he fit in with the team?”
Or any team?
Meantime, Fred Hoiberg, who played for the Timberwolves last season, has been cleared for basketball activities after heart surgery over the summer and said he is 50-50 to play this season.
Coach-speak
Uh-oh. Rick Pitino told the Boston Herald he might like to look at NBA rosters and see if a team was close to winning so he could return to the league to coach it. Of course, that might end that team’s chances. … And then there is Pat Riley, who said on ESPN last week that he hates the travel and wouldn’t coach next season. Until he said later he could and wouldn’t rule anything out. “What I said, there is some truth to that, and maybe there might not be any truth to that. However you want to deal with it, deal with it,” Riley said. It was reminiscent of an infamous quote from boxing promoter Bob Arum after reversing himself at a second news conference: “Yesterday I was lying; today I’m telling the truth.” Meanwhile, with the Heat swooning and O’Neal showing barely any interest in defending, Riley ripped the team loudly in a postgame tirade overhead outside the locker room, held a marathon practice, questioned Gary Payton’s mounting excuses and said, “The honeymoon is over with.”
Double dribbles
Grant Hill is out again, this time with a strained groin. With him raising the possibility of retirement when his contract expires after next season, several people around the league are saying the going-nowhere Magic should deal Hill and start rebuilding around Dwight Howard. That would include trying to move Steve Francis, who has seemed particularly uninterested of late. Hill said he wants to stay in Orlando, but with virtually no playoff success in his career, you’d think he’d like one shot at a playoff run with a good team. . . . Larry Hughes missed at least 15 games due to injuries in four of the last five seasons before signing a $70 million deal with Cleveland. Now he is out for two months with a broken finger. Should the Cavs really be surprised? . . . The Nets’ Jeff McInnis, the Wizards’ Chucky Atkins and Brevin Knight, whom Bobcats general manager/coach Bernie Bickerstaff said he’d give the option of being traded to a contender if a deal comes up, are names being mentioned in Memphis with Damon Stoudamire out for the season. . . . So what do you get LeBron James for his 21st birthday? James was showing off a radio-controlled toy Hummer he received from a friend last week. Of course, he was driving a real one in high school. . . . Rockets management had to love coach Jeff Van Gundy declaring last week in one of his regular rants, “We’re a very dull, boring, lifeless team.”
Last shots
One of Larry Brown’s hobbies is to work with college coaches around the country. Brown was at Marquette practices for two days earlier this season and drew up some defenses for coach Tom Crean, whose team upset Connecticut last week. Said Brown: “I didn’t do anything.” . . . It was Larry Bird who said it was “God disguised as Michael Jordan” when Jordan hit the Celtics for 63 in the 1986 playoffs. Lamar Odom must have read it as he said, “It’s like God put Kobe here for us to watch him play basketball,” after Bryant had 40 in the second half to beat the Clippers on Saturday. . . . Mavs owner Mark Cuban said his experiment with silencing the loud, piped-in music at a recent game drew a 10-1 negative response from fans e-mailing him. . . . In the stats-crazy sports world, the Jazz’s Andrei Kirilenko was being hailed last week after another 5-by-5 and for being the only player other than Hakeem Olajuwon with a 6-by-6, meaning he accumulated at least six in six statistical categories. . . . New Sonics coach Bob Hill said Johan Petro was protesting not playing by failing to bring the proper clothes to games. That way, if he was inactive, he was in violation of the league’s dress code and had to sit in the locker room during the game. So they made him a starter? . . . The Celtics’ Paul Pierce declared himself one of the Eastern Conference’s top 12 players. Which fits with his team hanging around 12th in the standings. . . . Wizards forward Etan Thomas, who likes to talk about his artsy side and has been an outspoken war critic, had to be restrained from going after the Knicks’ Maurice Taylor in the tunnel after a game. Taylor said: “I thought he writes poetry.”
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