So I’m at my doctor’s office the other day and not feeling well. Achy, scratchy and just sort of logy all over. I was sure it had to be neuritis or neuralgia.
No, Dr. Richard said. The symptoms were clear: I hadn’t proposed a Bulls trade in more than a month. Sure, with all that playoff excitement there just wasn’t time. But as the Chambers Brothers once said, “Time Has Come Today.” What, for 50 cents you want references to great literature? A week from Tuesday is the First Day of the Rest of the Bulls’ Life. Coffee mugs for everyone! It’s the day of the NBA draft lottery, which is when the Bulls will find out–because they have the Knicks’ first-round pick from the Eddy Curry trade–what pick they’ll have in the June draft.
An aside here. The inevitable rumors are coming out of New York: Larry Brown leaving, perhaps through a buyout, and Isiah Thomas taking over as coach. Before the Bulls hired Scott Skiles, Thomas contacted John Paxson about coaching the Bulls. Thomas envisioned a top team built around Curry and Jamal Crawford. So he traded for them. It hasn’t exactly worked out yet, but few would be surprised if Thomas took over as coach as was speculated before Brown was hired. Plus, Thomas has made it clear his goal is to return to coaching eventually. And a job has opened for Brown. Sacramento is a classic fit for him. The owners want a high-profile name and they like the attention. As owners of a Las Vegas casino, the Maloofs have plenty to spend and are among the few owners prepared to pay big money for a coach. Under those circumstances, Brown could take a buyout and not lose out on his big contract from the Knicks. Plus, Brown would get the defensive players he likes such as Ron Artest. Brown also would get a smaller media market with just one traveling beat writer instead of the New York press that turned his season into a near breakdown.
As for our problems here, let’s not get too carried away with our cuddly Bulls. Getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs in consecutive seasons doesn’t leave you that close to being a serious team. Getting the No. 1 pick would help a lot. The speculation remains the Bulls would take a big man such as LSU’s Tyrus Thomas or Texas’ LaMarcus Aldridge. Both look like they’ll be good players at some point in the future, but with the core of talent the Bulls have, why not make the future now? Stuff happens. You never can assume everyone will remain healthy or happy. If you have a chance, you take it.
Yes, here we go again: Kevin Garnett.
I believe the Timberwolves will not trade him. I believe they’ll trade for someone like Stephon Marbury to dress up the roster for the season ticket-holders and make it appear there’s a chance when, more likely, they’ll struggle to make the playoffs or miss them again. Meanwhile, they’ll be wasting what’s left of Garnett. I’ve long talked about getting Garnett, but even I admit he’s a risk now. He has played more than 30,000 minutes, a career for most in the Hall of Fame, and been mostly healthy. He probably only has a few good seasons left. He’s a much bigger risk now. But if the Bulls don’t have to break up their team to get him, Garnett would be worth the risk. He is the hard-working, unselfish type of player they covet and could help them make a major move next season.
Here’s the situation. It’s nice to have all these talented kids from the draft, but it never works because you can’t pay them all. Tyson Chandler’s contract averages $10 million per year, Kirk Hinrich comes up for an extension this summer and Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni due next summer. With Chandler making $10 million, who will ask for less? You add to that draft picks and free agents from this summer and it’s a payroll the Bulls could not afford as they’d owe a luxury tax that could cost them tens of millions of dollars. Only the Knicks operate that way.
So you try to make the Timberwolves an offer that is very appealing and perhaps get someone to get in Garnett’s ear and ask him if he wants a chance to end his career playing for a championship in the next few years, which the Bulls could do in the East. It’s not about to happen for Garnett in the West. So here’s the deal: Chandler, Gordon, the Bulls’ two draft picks–hoping they have No. 1 or No. 2–and the right to have the Knicks’ 2007 pick unless it’s No. 1 overall. (No. 1 likely would mean the chance to pick Greg Oden.) That would give Minnesota three No. 1s this year with two high lottery picks and two young players, one a potential star in Gordon. Face it: What’s the chance of Gordon happily accepting a backup role if the Bulls pursue a shooting guard, which they seem to have indicated they would with Gordon’s contract coming up? As a sweetener, maybe you take one of Minnesota’s bad contracts, like that of Troy Hudson or Marko Jaric. The Timberwolves have to be losing money with their payroll and a losing team in that market. They’ve made plenty of mistakes, so you figure they’ll just ride it out and continue to be a non-playoff team with Garnett. But at least make a run at them.
Plan B
There’s also Shawn Marion. The talk around the NBA is the Suns will be willing to listen very carefully for offers for Marion this summer with Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas due back, Boris Diaw fitting into Marion’s role and the possibility of re-signing Tim Thomas. They probably can’t re-sign Tim Thomas, which owner Robert Sarver says is essential, without some changes to avoid paying a luxury tax. Marion will average about $16 million for the next three seasons and isn’t the perfect player, especially in a half-court game. But the Bulls’ movement offense should give him a chance to flourish and he’s a hard worker and relentless defender. The Bulls are said to like LSU’s Thomas, who is most likened to Marion. So if the real thing is available, why not take a shot? Marion probably would cost the better of the first-rounders and a player, probably Chandler, who might fit in the Suns’ open-style game as Tim Thomas has. But the Bulls still could have money in free agency to get a center like Nazr Mohammed or Joel Przybilla. It’s probably worth a look. Why wait when the Bulls can make a serious move into contention next season and not dramatically change their core?
Plan C?
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The other big name that comes up often is the Pacers’ Jermaine O’Neal. There’s no chance they’d trade him in the division, and probably little chance they’d trade him at all. He’ll be 28 next season, and there are few stars available anyway. Much around him will change because the Pacers seem to have bottomed out from three years of Artest-related mayhem.
“There was just so much negativity going around, it got contagious,” said Stephen Jackson, who probably was the biggest offender. “People were talking about one another. The team wasn’t always together. It was an up-and-down rocky year.”
Even general manager Larry Bird admitted the players tuned out coach Rick Carlisle, and clearly one another. Figure Jackson to be gone for just about anything as well as point guard Jamaal Tinsley. Anthony Johnson and Sarunas Jasikevicius would take their places. O’Neal gives them a chance to get back into contention, and the Pacers don’t need to rebuild in the East because they’ll probably bring back Peja Stojakovic and aren’t that far away with some attitude adjustment.
Motown musings
With so many easy wins, the Pistons only have themselves to blame for being shown on TV early or on NBA TV–or in Saturday’s case being bumped to ESPN from ABC. Maybe that’s why they lost to Cleveland in Game 3. Said coach Flip Saunders: “We’ve changed the rules the last couple of years to get a game that’s more team-oriented, a game where you pass the ball and share the ball, where people aren’t standing around watching one guy. We are a team that does that and we always seem to be on the jayvee schedule.” . . . After Chauncey Billups was named all-defense second team, Rasheed Wallace announced in the locker room that if the statue for defensive player of the year was a man in the defensive stance, Billups’ trophy would have a guy reaching around a ball handler who had dribbled past him.
Double dribbles
The unsung–and unmentioned–hero for the Cavs is former general manager Jim Paxson, who made the deals for Drew Gooden and Anderson Varejao, cleared cap room by dealing the likes of Shawn Kemp and drafted LeBron James. . . . Just in case he calls you, James’ friends call him “LeBreezy.” . . . Ron Boone, the Jazz broadcaster and thus a team employee, was the only voter among 125 not to pick Chris Paul No. 1 for rookie of the year, denying Paul a chance to be the first unanimous winner since David Robinson in 1990. Boone’s top vote went to Utah’s Deron Williams, who finished sixth. His hometown call will continue to put pressure on the NBA to eliminate broadcasters from the voting because they work for teams. . . . The Spurs’ Michael Finley makes $18.6 million this season with $15.9 paid by the Mavericks from the league salary-cap amnesty program. . . . With Rick Adelman out in Sacramento, legendary former Princeton coach Pete Carril also was not renewed as a Kings assistant.
Final shots
So what do you do if your team underachieves like the 76ers, Knicks and Sonics did this season? All let go their top media-relations executives: respected veterans Karen Frascona in Philadelphia, Joe Favorito in New York and Marc Moquin in Seattle. As in, “Why couldn’t you get them to say nice things about us?” . . . NBA Commissioner David Stern hasn’t said “I’m sorry” so much since slicing the meat too fat in the family deli. Stern acknowledged last week it was a mistake to allow the TV networks to dictate that the Spurs-Mavs series should start 36 hours after the Spurs eliminated the Kings. He also said the seeding system will be changed for next season. Responded Spurs coach Gregg Popovich: “It’s been so well thought out this year. It may be even more amazing to behold next year.”
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