duncan228
12-24-2008, 03:19 PM
NBA year in review: Celtics are back (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=nbayearinreviewcelticsar&prov=tsn&type=lgns)
By Sean Deveney
Top five stories
1. Celtics are back. Turns out, it didn’t take all that long to rebuild the NBA’s greatest franchise. The Celtics were one of the NBA’s worst teams in 2006-07, but a summer of shrewd trades (and a little of that old Celtic luck) brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to Boston to team up with Paul Pierce. After some postseason tribulations, the Celtics blew by the Lakers in the Finals to win their 17th championship.
2. Kobe ascendancy. For three years after the Shaquille O’Neal trade, Kobe Bryant put up big scoring numbers—he led the league in scoring twice—while his Lakers foundered. But a midseason deal that brought power forward Pau Gasol to L.A. for very little of value remade the Lakers and pushed the team into championship contention. Bryant still had big numbers, but he had team success, too, and that paved the way to his first MVP trophy.
3. Team USA redemption. After three straight disappointments in international tournaments (the World Championship in ‘02 and ‘06, and the ‘04 Olympics), USA Basketball, under the direction of former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, finally bore the fruits of a reorganized approach. Led by Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and a roster brimming with the NBA’s best players, Team USA cruised into the finale without a real challenge, then survived a showdown against Spain to take the gold.
4. Rose and a side of Mayo. Draft night put the Bulls, who lucked into the top pick thanks to the lottery, in the spotlight, choosing between top-rated point guard Derrick Rose and heralded forward Michael Beasley. The Bulls went with Rose, who figures to be a franchise cornerstone for years to come. Beasley has struggled, but another draft-night hero—O.J. Mayo—has joined Rose at the head of the rookie class.
5. Back in the Big Easy. A 56-win season was just one of the blessings for the Hornets this year. Their ability to finally crack into the Western Conference elite came at the perfect time, just as the team moved back to New Orleans permanently. The city hosted the ‘08 All-Star game and had the good fortune to watch all-around good guy Chris Paul become a first-team All-NBA player.
Five biggest surprises
1. Allen Iverson motors to Detroit. The Pistons, long known as a bunch that puts team ahead of individual, went far out on a limb to acquire one of the great individual players in NBA history, Allen Iverson. But the Pistons were getting desperate for change. Problem is, the player they traded (Chauncey Billups) has done much better than the player they got.
2. Josh Childress lands in Greece. There was a sense, as the negotiations between swingman Josh Childress and the Hawks wore on, that something big would have to happen to break the stalemate. Something big, indeed. Childress shocked the NBA by signing with Olympiacos in Greece, opening a new avenue for players who feel too restricted by NBA contract rules.
3. Elton Brand bolts. When the Clippers signed point guard Baron Davis from Golden State, he almost immediately began talking about how fun it would be to play with big man Elton Brand. Except that when the Sixers came calling with an enormous contract offer, Brand, a free agent, changed his plans, moving to Philadelphia and setting off a war of words between coach Mike Dunleavy and agent David Falk.
4. Coaching blues. It’s getting increasingly difficult for a coach to hang onto a job these days. Out of 30 NBA coaches, 14 were hired (or granted interim status) between the end of last season and the end of the 2008 calendar year. There are any number of theories as to why teams have become so quick with the trigger on coaches, but the simple one remains: You can’t fire the players.
5. Spectacular teams, spectacular trades, spectacular collapses. It’s been a steep fall for what had been two of the NBA’s marquee franchises—Dallas and Phoenix, teams that combined to win 128 game sin ‘06-‘07. But the Lakers’ acquisition of Gasol pushed up the pressure on the Mavs and Suns to make moves, and Dallas wound up trading for Jason Kidd, while Phoenix got Shaquille O’Neal. Didn’t work. Both teams were bounced from the playoffs in the first round, both teams parted ways with their coaches, and both teams are now only slightly above average.
Five stories to watch in 2009
1. The Finals collision course. If the anticipation over the Lakers-Celtics Christmas Day game is any indication, this rivalry has fully returned. Boston and L.A. are, once again, the class of their respective conferences, and the teams are, once again, social microcosms of their respective towns—the hard-working, blue-collar Bostonians, and the run-run-run finesse-oriented Lakers. A June rematch looks inevitable.
2. LeBron rising. After the Celtics, the next-best team in the East is far and away the Cavaliers. But it’s actually not such a great team—Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are the starting big men, Mo Williams and Delonte West the starting guards and there’s not much bench behind them. The difference, of course, is that the Cavs have LeBron James, the leading MVP candidate.
3. 2010: The posturing continues. Speaking of James, just about everyone plans to take a shot at the guy when he becomes a free agent in 2010. Teams have been falling all over themselves to create room to sign James, but it’s worth the risk, because even if you strike out on James, look at the consolation prizes: Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki and Tracy McGrady.
4. The Blazers arrive. Guard Brandon Roy is quietly taking his place among the today’s best players, and he is bringing the team with him. If you’re talking about championship contenders over the next 10 years, you have to start with Portland, where Roy has been surrounded by immensely talented young big men LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, as well as bench phenom Rudy Fernandez.
5. Mr. Stern and the meltdown. It’s still hard to say how the failing economy will hit different sports leagues, and David Stern was wise to spread the league’s sphere of influence as far around the globe as possible—it provides some cushioning for economic hits, sort of like diversifying your portfolio. But the NBA does seem to have some vulnerable flanks. Can already teetering franchises in Charlotte, Memphis and elsewhere survive a battered economy? Might the league be spread to thin globally? What happens in a situation where already signed contracts keep growing while the salary cap shrinks?
By Sean Deveney
Top five stories
1. Celtics are back. Turns out, it didn’t take all that long to rebuild the NBA’s greatest franchise. The Celtics were one of the NBA’s worst teams in 2006-07, but a summer of shrewd trades (and a little of that old Celtic luck) brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to Boston to team up with Paul Pierce. After some postseason tribulations, the Celtics blew by the Lakers in the Finals to win their 17th championship.
2. Kobe ascendancy. For three years after the Shaquille O’Neal trade, Kobe Bryant put up big scoring numbers—he led the league in scoring twice—while his Lakers foundered. But a midseason deal that brought power forward Pau Gasol to L.A. for very little of value remade the Lakers and pushed the team into championship contention. Bryant still had big numbers, but he had team success, too, and that paved the way to his first MVP trophy.
3. Team USA redemption. After three straight disappointments in international tournaments (the World Championship in ‘02 and ‘06, and the ‘04 Olympics), USA Basketball, under the direction of former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, finally bore the fruits of a reorganized approach. Led by Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and a roster brimming with the NBA’s best players, Team USA cruised into the finale without a real challenge, then survived a showdown against Spain to take the gold.
4. Rose and a side of Mayo. Draft night put the Bulls, who lucked into the top pick thanks to the lottery, in the spotlight, choosing between top-rated point guard Derrick Rose and heralded forward Michael Beasley. The Bulls went with Rose, who figures to be a franchise cornerstone for years to come. Beasley has struggled, but another draft-night hero—O.J. Mayo—has joined Rose at the head of the rookie class.
5. Back in the Big Easy. A 56-win season was just one of the blessings for the Hornets this year. Their ability to finally crack into the Western Conference elite came at the perfect time, just as the team moved back to New Orleans permanently. The city hosted the ‘08 All-Star game and had the good fortune to watch all-around good guy Chris Paul become a first-team All-NBA player.
Five biggest surprises
1. Allen Iverson motors to Detroit. The Pistons, long known as a bunch that puts team ahead of individual, went far out on a limb to acquire one of the great individual players in NBA history, Allen Iverson. But the Pistons were getting desperate for change. Problem is, the player they traded (Chauncey Billups) has done much better than the player they got.
2. Josh Childress lands in Greece. There was a sense, as the negotiations between swingman Josh Childress and the Hawks wore on, that something big would have to happen to break the stalemate. Something big, indeed. Childress shocked the NBA by signing with Olympiacos in Greece, opening a new avenue for players who feel too restricted by NBA contract rules.
3. Elton Brand bolts. When the Clippers signed point guard Baron Davis from Golden State, he almost immediately began talking about how fun it would be to play with big man Elton Brand. Except that when the Sixers came calling with an enormous contract offer, Brand, a free agent, changed his plans, moving to Philadelphia and setting off a war of words between coach Mike Dunleavy and agent David Falk.
4. Coaching blues. It’s getting increasingly difficult for a coach to hang onto a job these days. Out of 30 NBA coaches, 14 were hired (or granted interim status) between the end of last season and the end of the 2008 calendar year. There are any number of theories as to why teams have become so quick with the trigger on coaches, but the simple one remains: You can’t fire the players.
5. Spectacular teams, spectacular trades, spectacular collapses. It’s been a steep fall for what had been two of the NBA’s marquee franchises—Dallas and Phoenix, teams that combined to win 128 game sin ‘06-‘07. But the Lakers’ acquisition of Gasol pushed up the pressure on the Mavs and Suns to make moves, and Dallas wound up trading for Jason Kidd, while Phoenix got Shaquille O’Neal. Didn’t work. Both teams were bounced from the playoffs in the first round, both teams parted ways with their coaches, and both teams are now only slightly above average.
Five stories to watch in 2009
1. The Finals collision course. If the anticipation over the Lakers-Celtics Christmas Day game is any indication, this rivalry has fully returned. Boston and L.A. are, once again, the class of their respective conferences, and the teams are, once again, social microcosms of their respective towns—the hard-working, blue-collar Bostonians, and the run-run-run finesse-oriented Lakers. A June rematch looks inevitable.
2. LeBron rising. After the Celtics, the next-best team in the East is far and away the Cavaliers. But it’s actually not such a great team—Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are the starting big men, Mo Williams and Delonte West the starting guards and there’s not much bench behind them. The difference, of course, is that the Cavs have LeBron James, the leading MVP candidate.
3. 2010: The posturing continues. Speaking of James, just about everyone plans to take a shot at the guy when he becomes a free agent in 2010. Teams have been falling all over themselves to create room to sign James, but it’s worth the risk, because even if you strike out on James, look at the consolation prizes: Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki and Tracy McGrady.
4. The Blazers arrive. Guard Brandon Roy is quietly taking his place among the today’s best players, and he is bringing the team with him. If you’re talking about championship contenders over the next 10 years, you have to start with Portland, where Roy has been surrounded by immensely talented young big men LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, as well as bench phenom Rudy Fernandez.
5. Mr. Stern and the meltdown. It’s still hard to say how the failing economy will hit different sports leagues, and David Stern was wise to spread the league’s sphere of influence as far around the globe as possible—it provides some cushioning for economic hits, sort of like diversifying your portfolio. But the NBA does seem to have some vulnerable flanks. Can already teetering franchises in Charlotte, Memphis and elsewhere survive a battered economy? Might the league be spread to thin globally? What happens in a situation where already signed contracts keep growing while the salary cap shrinks?