Stephen A. Smith
Why do we believe Phil Jackson doesn’t know what he’s doing? We are use to witnessing him orchestrating moves from the bench rather than the front office. The man is not a dummy his moves might not be as swift as Smith and others believe it should be. The main thing to consider is simple, journalist, fans and the general populace has no idea the intricacy’s of running an NBA team. Were PJ’s hands tied down with pre-existing player contracts? How about attracting free agents, ask the Lakers?
The lure of the big city (New York) playing for a bad team is not what Smith and others believe it to be. PJ is subject to mistakes as any other management person but to give the impression he’s paid too much money based on results is ridiculous. He shouldn’t get a free ride either give him adequate time to re-build the brand. I’ve got an idea since Smith and others know such more basketball than the experts I’d like to see this. When a front office position opens I’d like them to submit their application, it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and second guess.
Bits n Pieces
The Roy Hibbert experiment is over, some of you might remember how excited I was last summer? At that time I held the belief the Lakers had acquired a genuine center that would help them; boy did I miss the boat on that move. The Lakers heard my call all the way from Kansas City; first they drafted 19-year old 7-1 265 pound Ivica Zubac from Croatia.
The next move although questionable might work in the short term they signed 7-1 265 pound free-agent Timofey Mozgov. With holdover center Robert Sacre remaining Hibbert must have seen the hand-writing on the wall. Hibbert’s signed a 1-year contract with the Hornets in addition it’s time for the Swaggy P. show to move to another locale.
Is it possible nobody wanted Austin Rivers? Rivers pending free-agency might have led many to believe on the open market he might receive inquiries. A funny thing happened on the way to free-agency nobody bothered to seriously inquire about Rivers. He received a few inquiries but no team stepped up to sign him except the Clippers. The Clippers are the team his dad is the head coach and director of player personnel. Can we say nepotism in unison?
I found this interesting so I thought I’d share it with you, remember our discussion on mid-major players in the NBA? The 2015-16 season witnessed contained athletes from 18 conferences. The Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Horizon and Patriot were just a few of the mid-majors. I have no method to determine how many of the 27 remain on rosters by the end of the season.
Point guard
Can you say point guard----that’s the belief Sixers Coach Brett Brown uses in describing Ben Simmons possible future position. Magic Johnson arrived in the NBA in 1979 as a 6-9 point guard; Magic had all the skills to run an offense he just couldn’t shoot. He would retire from the NBA with a 19.5 career scoring average and .520 from the floor. Until the arrival of Magic point guards in the NBA were guys between 5-11 and 6-1. Laker great and NBA logo West was a shooting guard at 6-2 in the ‘60’s but that’s another story. A number of “tall point guards” would arrive in the NBA over the next few years. Penny Hardaway (6-7) drafted in 1993 was not the distributor in the manner of Magic but a much better shooter.
A threshold had been crossed no longer were point guards the “little guys” on the team. Over the years the degree of success experienced by big point guards has been mixed. The Warriors Shaun Livingston one of the last high school players to arrive in the NBA was projected to have an outstanding career but devastating injuries impacted his career. The Bucks have 6-6 Michael Carter-Williams playing the point for them. As for Simmons I could see him playing the point his skill handling a basketball is outstanding. At 6-10 he’s tall enough to see over defenses just like Magic and similar to Magic in that he is not a good shooter on his arrival in the NBA.
