NBA Preview: Southeast Division
by Gil Roth
Atlanta Hawks
This team’s been in rebuilding mode since the end of the 1999 season, when it was the worst second-round playoff team in NBA history. In the latest mode, the Hawks traded for Al Harrington, whom I used to believe was the best player on the Pacers, and Antoine Walker, a power forward who doesn’t rebound, handles the ball too much, and fires up epic amounts of three-pointers (until last year, when he was traded to the Bizarro world, and spent most of the season confused).
Harrington’s one of those ‘tweener high school draftees. With a few years of college, he might’ve refined his game and been a strong player in the league. Instead, he’s spent years bouncing between the forward spots on Indiana, never really seizing his chance to be a regular contributor. My opinion of him plummeted during the 2002-2003 playoffs, when Indiana got pantsed by Boston.
Ultimately, the Hawks are hoping Harrington will develop into the #1 option, and that Antoine Walker will walk at the end of the season. The latter event will leave the team with tons of cap space that free agents can use to get bigger contracts from teams that they actually want to play for.
This team will be terrible, but at least they won’t disappoint the fans; there aren’t any.
Charlotte Bobcats
Every couple of years, someone touts a squad as a challenger for Worst Team Ever, giving it a shot at winning fewer than 9 games (a mark set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers.
Last year, many figured that Utah, missing Stockton and Malone, would break the record. In fact, I was among that number. I was in Salt Lake City for a conference the week before the NBA season started, and I was stunned at the predictions in the SL Tribune. Their staff called a 30-35 win season. I was convinced that a crack epidemic had broken out in Mormon country.
Turns out I was wrong. Great coaching (combined with one of the most insanely multidimensional players in years) brought that squad within one win of the playoffs, which was a mind-blowing achievement.
Two seasons ago, people were figuring that squad would be Denver, but they managed 17 wins with a roster that appeared to be assembled by vandals. Turns out that it’s really hard to win only 9 games in a season.
Why do I bring this up? Because this expansion Charlotte team is this season’s candidate for The Worst Ever. They’ll probably finish with the worst record in the league this season, but I’ll pay $50 to Shawn Kemp’s paternity fund if the Bobcats actually win fewer than 9 games. Sure, Bernie Bickerstaff (he’s coaching and GM’ing, which almost never works) has put together a squad of no-names (along with #2 pick Emeka Okafor), with an eye to clearing more cap space and bringing in free agents as the team gains flexibility in the next 3 years.
The thing with this lineup is, a bunch of the players are guys who never got a chance to contribute on deeper, veteran squads. Guys like Tamar Slay, who would show up large in summer leagues, but was never going to get playing time ahead of Kerry Kittles and Richard Jefferson in NJ. Similarly, Eddie House was frequently bottled up by Pat Riley’s disciplinarian ways (which is a way of saying he didn’t play any defense). Now, he’s going to get the green light to fire away.
The one problem about those talented, potential-laden players is that very few of them are capable of becoming regular contributors. They’re very rarely on the bench because of depth issues; there’s usually something wrong with some aspect of their games. Bad defense, poor shot selection, and an inability to pass the ball out of double-teams are the usual culprits.
So, they’ll have some fun players to watch, and I think Okafor will grow into an Alonzo Mourning type of player in the next few years, but it’ll be a pretty ugly season in Charlotte. But not Record-Breaking Ugly, which is all that counts.
Miami Heat
They traded for Shaquille O’Neal in the offseason, which kinda sucks because I really enjoyed watching last year’s team. It was neat that Pat Riley gave Ron Jeremy his first NBA head coaching gig, but I also enjoyed watching Lamar Odom play well (albeit out of position) and not drug out.
But that’s all in the past. Miami’s now officially about the present. Shaq’s dropped a ton of weight, so it’s possible that he can play another 3-4 years, if he’s motivated (by a big contract extension, since he’s deal’s up after next year). He’ll be paired with Dwyane Wade, a second-year kid whom I loved watching the NCAA tournament two tourneys ago. Problem is, Wade’s game is predicated on getting to the hoop, and using his dribble-drive to set up his defender. I’m not sure how effective that’s going to be with Shaq clogging the middle, unless the big guy is willing to play high-post sometimes. He wasn’t willing to last year, because he hated Kobe.
The Heat’s other problem is that they traded away all of their depth to get Shaq. Since his contract’s so huge, the team’ll never have the cap space to bring in a significant free agent. So the rest of the roster’s made up of refugees. Still, they’ll see tons of open shots, because no one in the East can slow down Shaq.
One of those rejects is Christian Laettner, which is pretty funny. See, when Shaq was drafted #1 in 1992, Laettner was #3 (Alonzo Mourning went #2), and Shaq was just merciless every time he took on Laettner’s squads. CL went on to have one of the non-descript careers ever for a guy who was the best college player in a generation (and I hated Duke).
If you have a minute, check out his page on NBA.com and look through the “transactions” section; in the course of his career, Laettner’s been traded for some really wacky players. He’s on his seventh team, but the sixth team actually waived him before he ever played a game for them (maybe Golden State GM Chris Mullin took pity on his fellow Dream Teamer). I’m just saying it’d be funny if he has a career resurgence because of Shaq.
Given how terrible the new SE division is, there’s no doubt that Miami wins it (barring a major injury to Shaq).
Orlando Magic
These guys were the worst team in the league last year, so ownership blew up the squad, trading away the best physical talent in the league, in Tracy McGrady. Normally, you don’t trade a player of McGrady’s caliber and get a pass from the press, but the new GM seemed to be of the opinion, “We went 21-61 with you; how much worse will we be without you?”
The new lineup’s pretty interesting. With the #1 pick in the draft, they drafted a high school kid, which tells you that they don’t plan on winning for a while (Dwight Howard’s a good kid, by all accounts, but he’s no Le Bron). The backcourt of Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley can pour in tons of points, but won’t put on a lot of defensive clinics. The team had better win, because Francis is the poutiest guy in the world when he’s losing. Of course, he’s receiving something like $14 million a season, so he oughtta shut the heck up.
Orlando may actually be a middle-of-the-road team this year, if only because of the multiple scoring punches, plus the health of long-distance scorer Pat Garrity.
Allegedly, Grant Hill’s ankle is finally working correctly, but I’ll believe that when he’s actually put in 70-75 games this year. Until then, his ankle takes the place of Rik Smits’ feet, which were pronounced “healthiest they’ve ever been” during every off-season. By mid-January, he’d be limping around and going on the injured list. For some reason, no one ever made the connection that his feet felt good in the off-season BECAUSE HE WASN’T PLAYING BASKETBALL.
Anyway, I hope Hill is healthy, because he was a great player to watch in his prime. If he plays most of the season, then Orlando has a shot at getting the 4 or 5 spot in the playoffs. Then they’ll get wiped out because they don’t play any D.
Washington Wizards
In a stroke of genius, they decided that having two former Golden State Warriors in the starting lineup wasn’t enough, so the Wizards management traded for Antawn Jamison in a vain attempt at recreating the magic of the 2001-02 Warriors, which lost 65 games. The Wiz might actually only lose about 50-55 games this year, so they can’t even fail right. In Washington, this is considered a success. Keep in mind, this is a team that MICHAEL JORDAN couldn’t inspire.
(More previews to come tonight or tomorrow. I got a little off-track last night)