Nash Isn’t Enough

Posted on July 13, 2012 by wcornblatt

When the Lakers got Steve Nash, you’d have thought they signed Oscar Robertson. TV analysts went crazy, bloggers lost their minds and Celtics fans thought they were doomed. In reality, it’s a nice signing, but not what Los Angeles needs to win a championship.

It isn’t like they were on the cusp of a title last year and lost in a heartbreaker. They lost to the Thunder in a series where the Thunder played better, it was easy to see. The Lakers were simply overmatched.

Yes, their biggest hole was that they didn’t have a point guard that could distribute the ball and run the floor, Steve Nash can certainly do that. He averaged 12.5 points and 10.7 assists last year with the Suns, and has averaged 14.5 points and 8.6 assists per game over his career. Extremely solid numbers for a player that wont be called on to score as much now that talent surrounds him, but for the 38-year-old Canadian, does this finally mean a ring?

The Lakers are improved, but unless you think they’re going to flat out win a championship in the next two years, the move was a waste. They added a player at the end of his career to try to help Kobe Bryant, who’s also moving towards the end of his career. The problem is, the Thunder were so dominant that I can’t see the Lakers beating them even with Nash. They still lack the defensive integrity to stop such a youthful and quick lineup.

Nash was never a great defender. Russell Westbrook is just too explosive for Nash to guard him. The age of both Kobe and Nash means that they plan to win now. This team will look drastically different in three years, but unless they add another star, it was a futile effort to make a wavering team relevant again, and even though they might get more fans at the game or headlines in the papers, Steve Nash is just not a big enough difference to get them a championship.

Brown Not the Man for the Job

Posted on May 22, 2012 by wcornblatt

Technically, Mike Brown improved the Lakers. Rather than winning zero games in the Western Conference semifinals like last year, Brown won one. However, if you ask any L.A. fan, Brown’s first season as coach was a failure. His weird relationship with Andrew Bynum was supposed to tangibilize into the big man dominating the rest of the centers in the league. He certainly has that potential, but Brown’s time in L.A. this year felt like the teacher who you have to listen to, and once you leave class, his advice and teachings evaporate.

Mike Brown didn’t hold any real weight with the team. Even when Pau Gasol failed to perform like everybody knew he would, Brown wasn’t the one trying to motivate him. It was Kobe Bryant who was making public statements about his team’s effort, reaching for any last drop of motivation left with a team as disillusioned as Pau himself.

Kobe’s tactics were to no avail. He simply didn’t have the talent surrounding him that is required to win a championship, but it’s more than just surrounding talent. Brown wasn’t dominant enough to get the best of his team. Players like Ramon Sessions and Matt Barnes struggled vehemently, and that’s partially Brown’s fault. Phil Jackson had a cerebral way of draining his players of all they have, bringing out the hero in everybody when the time called for it. That’s what a coach does, it’s more than X’s and O’s and stats, which Brown has in spades. A veteran team like the Lakers needed a reason to win another championship. They needed Phil Jackson!

Last Second Shots

Posted on May 17, 2012 by wcornblatt

When Mario Chalmers tried to tie Game 2 of the Pacers-Heat series with a contested three-point shot, I knew the next day was going to be insufferable. Talk show hosts and bloggers alike would condemn the Heat for not putting the ball in LeBron James’ hands once again, and this time they might’ve been right.

Rather than allow LeBron to create, they settled with a very low percentage three attempt from Chalmers. It might not have been the ideal play, but it was certainly a change from the normal last possessions in the NBA nowadays. Usually, you square your star up, let him work in isolation until he clinks a contested shot off the back of the rim. If you’re lucky, there’s a pick and roll involved.

So I assumed Chalmers’ three was an anomaly; a weird broken play that only looked half-designed. However, in the waning moments of last night’s game, Mike Brown trusted his point guard and allowed Steve Blake to take a wide-open three with the game on the line, and they should let him do that every time. The Thunder knew they were allowing a solid shooter to take a completely uncontested three rather than put the ball in Kobe Bryant‘s hands. And it’s absolutely better for the Lakers than letting Bryant swing the ball in his hands waiting for the slightest inch of separation.

For some reason, brilliant NBA coaches stop drawing up plays in the last 15 seconds of the game. Perhaps it’s the fear of a broken play or turnover, but there is no shame in allowing your supporting cast to take a shot with the game on the line. It’s certainly better odds than letting your small forward or shooting guard take a shot when the entire opposing team recognizes that he’s going to shoot. The Heat certainly didn’t execute well, and the Lakers simply missed an open jumper, but I’m happy there’s a trend in the NBA of drawing up last second plays rather than allowing another iso to no avail.

How the Nuggets Can Win

Posted on May 10, 2012 by wcornblatt

The Nuggets are truly an odd team. They have no real superstars, and they’re at their best when in transition. They have lengthy big men that can swing a game either way. At their best, they’re a speedy team that will beat you down the court and spread the floor for their outside shooters. At their worst, they’re a shameful and stagnant half court offense with no scorers that can create their own shots. They’ve shown both sides of their personality, and find themselves down 3-2 to the powerhouse Lakers. They head back to Denver tonight in an attempt to send the series to a game 7, where anything can happen.

The key for Denver tonight isn’t simply outrunning the Lakers, but exhausting them. In the thin Denver air, it’s difficult for older teams like the Lakers to flourish. The youthful transition offense of the Nuggets is the perfect compliment to the detrimental air. Even if it’s ineffective early, the Nuggets run and gun offense will pay off if they stick to the plan. Ageless Andre Miller has had a knack for finding JaVale McGee, which will be essential to match L.A.’s length. McGee has shown he can be absolutely be dominant or a non-factor, similar to Andrew Bynum. Bynum can be taken out of a game early if his confidence wavers and he becomes disillusioned. It’s key for the Nuggets to come out strong and find a rhythm, and to not let Bynum or Pau Gasol get going. Kobe Bryant, by will alone, will have a strong game, he doesn’t want to play a 7^th game.

So here the Nuggets are, one game away from elimination, relying on JaVale McGee and Andre Miller to produce offense against a franchise with the most championships in NBA history. It’s unlikely and unpredictable, kind of like the Nuggets themselves.

Ron Artest, Mike Tyson and Controlling Craziness

Posted on April 23, 2012 by wcornblatt

When Mike Tyson knocked people out, crowds erupted. It wasn’t a clutch shot or impossible catch that ignited the audience. It was a man punching another man that made them jump out of human instinct, blood thirsty and raw, succumbing to the primitive need to watch physical violence. Football sugar coats it with Teflon helmets and politically correct jargon, but sports fans lick their chops just waiting for violent outbursts, and it’s been that way since gladiator battles in the Coliseum. We cheer and heckle loudest when tensions rise, not when civility reigns. It’s a vicious truth, we’re no better than the barbarians that would kill their athletes after a loss. We coddle our own self-loathing with rules and expectations of maturity in our athletes, but it’s such a fine line that there is always an outlier, raising controversy and scaring suburbia with the same intensity they demonstrate in the game.

Tyson certainly isn’t one of the great boxers in history. On a good day, he’s considered at the low end of the top 50. He was inconsistent and his downfall was like an Aristotle play. At the end of his career sat Tyson, head held low, straddling his stool sweating seemingly because of the crowd’s displeasure rather than the beating he took. It was an irony only a twisted mind like Tyson could appreciate. After years of polarizing audiences, dominating opponents and sparking riots in crowds, Tyson fell in front of the same opponent that made him a champion. The fans fought Tyson at times, and crowned him at others, but without an audience, Mike Tyson was just another fighter that had a very good career. Nowadays, Mike Tyson is still fighting crowds. His live, one-man show in Las Vegas is filled with stories and tales of debauchery perfect for the four-man crew on a bachelor party pretending they’re part of “The Hangover.” Who would think Tyson, the monster who genuinely brought out fear in viewers through a television screen, would be dancing and singing in a pathetic sequel? “Everyone has a plan till they get hit in the mouth,” Tyson once proclaimed, it was the perfect microcosm.

When Ron Artest threw an elbow at James Harden, I wanted to believe it was accidental and just a collision in the midst of a celebration, I’d be lying to myself if I believed that. He’d become so far removed from the image that defined him. Like Tyson, the world loved watching Artest’s comeback, embracing his quirky and eccentric personality like a manic Jack Russell Terrier. It’s funny juxtaposing a frightfully terrifying man with comic and childish scenarios. So as condescending as it was for Artest, I always thought it was good that people were focusing on making jokes about his strangeness rather than condemning him for his past inconsistencies. However no more fun for Ron, who will likely face a severe penalty for his unquestionably intentional elbow to Harden.

What Artest and Tyson didn’t get and still don’t is that that instilling fear is a temporary solution. Tyson’s quote shows just how skewed his perspective is. He refers to everybody having a plan then getting hit in the mouth, but the problem is that is his plan. Artest and Tyson see physical violence as a trump card in being the alpha male, and that might hold true on the streets, but look where it’s gotten them.

Tyson, a former heavyweight champion of the world, declared bankruptcy in 2003 and is now selling out worse than a Samuel L. Jackson movie. He’s another washed-up, hot-headed, broke former star working a show in Las Vegas. And Artest? Well who knows how long Ron will sit out, and even after he returns, his reputation as a thug is back. Artest and Tyson thrive off of our society’s obsession with violence, and they both probably went to sleep last night feeling like they were stronger, more successful, and more dominant than any of the opponents they’ve encountered in their days. Foolish pride is an obvious symptom of an over-violenced and uncivilized gladiator. I watched the video of the Malice at the Palace, enthralled and disgusted at the same time, like any spectator watching gladiators battle with fists. Then I closed my laptop, and went to sleep.