khandor’s sports blog

After “whiffing” yesterday … Dave Feschuk returns to form and goes yard with his column today, featuring the rambled musings of none other than “The Oakster”, himself:

Feschuk: The Oakley show rolls back into town
“You ain’t going nowhere with 7-footers shooting three-pointers. You can’t put four or five scorers on the floor at one time. You can, but you ain’t going nowhere. You got four or five scorers on the floor, ain’t enough shots in a game, in a quarter, for everybody to be consistent. You need your two scorers, outside threat and a post-up threat. You need your sixth man who can score. You need another guy that can just be an all-around energy guy, and you need another guy who can just, you know, play basketball.”

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Do yourself a favour and read the whole thing.

In each and every instance, what Charles has to say is 100% accurate.

The next time yours truly gets asked the following question:

“Who do you think would succeed as the next GM for the Toronto Raptors?”

The first name they will now receive has been clearly identified.

If former NBA players like Mitch Kupchak, Danny Ainge, Otis Smith, Kevin Pritchard, Geoff Petrie, Ernie Grunfeld, Jim Paxson, Danny Ferry, etc., can succeed as executives in this league … then, why, oh, why, can’t someone like Mr. Charles Oakley.

Yet another reason to like the job which Otis Smith [GM] has done, thus far?

NBA Countdown: No. 8 Orlando Magic
Reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in 14 years and second in franchise history was a wonderful accomplishment for the Orlando Magic-but there was no guarantee a championship would follow.The Magic will go into the 2009-10 season determined to defend their Eastern Conference title but looking different than when they won it. Yes, they still have All-Star center Dwight Howard as their foundation and high-priced Rashard Lewis (who’s suspended the first 10 games of the season after testing positive for an elevated testosterone level) shooting 3-pointers, but the Magic changed their late-game, go-to guy by switching from Turkoglu to Carter.

It’s why general manager Otis Smith didn’t take any bows, or even take the time to catch his breath.

And it’s also why he made one of the boldest moves of the summer, changing his carefully crafted team chemistry by trading for All-Star Vince Carter and letting go of free agent Hedo Turkoglu, a key player in Orlando’s recent rise.

“You can’t stand still in this league,” Smith said. “If you do, you’ll be going backward.”

The Magic also added free agents in power forward Brandon Bass from Dallas and small forward Matt Barnes of Phoenix. They even added point guard Jason Williams, who last played during 2007-08 with the Heat. Surprisingly, they kept backup center Marcin Gortat by matching the offer sheet Dallas gave him.

With the Celtics adding Rasheed Wallace and the Cavaliers trading for Shaquille O’Neal, the Magic tried to keep pace with the other serious contenders in the East.

“There are less than seven teams every year that really are trying to win a championship in our league,” Smith said. “Those three (in the East) are trying to win now, as opposed to saying ‘We’re OK where we are. Let’s stay the status quo.’”

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Otis Smith was hired by the Magic on May 6, 2006.

This is what the team’s roster looked like on that day:

Augmon, Stacey F
Battie, Tony PF-C
Cato, Kelvin C
Diener, Travis PG
Dooling, Keyon G
Francis, Steve G
Garrity, Pat PF
Hill, Grant G-F
Howard, Dwight C
Kasun, Mario C
Morris, Terence PF
Nelson, Jameer PG
Outlaw, Bo PF
Stevenson, DeShawn G
Turkoglu, Hedo F

This is what it looks like today, 41 months later:

Almond, Morris G
Anderson, Ryan PF
Barnes, Matt F
Bass, Brandon PF
Carter, Vince G-F
Foyle, Adonal C
Gortat, Marcin C
Howard, Dwight C
Johnson, Anthony PG
Johnson, Linton F
Lewis, Rashard F
Nelson, Jameer PG
Pietrus, Mickael G-F
Redick, JJ G
Williams, Jason PG

This is Orlando’s record of performance, since that date:

2008-2009
59-23/.720, 1st Atlantic, 3rd Eastern Conference, NBA Finalist 
2007-2008
52-30/.634, 1st Atlantic, 3rd Eastern Conference, Lost 2nd Rd
2006-2007
40-42/.488, 3rd Atlantic, 8th Eastern Conference, Lost 1st Rd

This was their record of performance the season before Smith arrived:

2005-2006
36-46/.439, 3rd Atlantic, 10th Eastern Conference, No Playoffs

3 full seasons into his tenure with the Magic, Otis Smith should be considered as one of the best GM’s in the NBA.

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By way of comparison, for the benefit of Raptors fans, this is what Toronto has accomplished under the direction of Bryan Colangelo [2-time NBA EOTY award recipient] during this same time-frame:

2005-2006 Roster [Feb 28 2006]
Araujo, Rafael PF
Bonner, Matt PF
Bosh, Chris PF-C
Calderon, Jose PG
Davis, Antonio PF-C
Graham, Joey F
James, Mike PG
Martin, Darrick PG
Peterson, Morris G-F
Sow, Pape PF
Villanueva, Charlie F
Williams, Eric G-F
Woods, Loren C

2009-2010, Current Roster
Banks, Marcus G
Bargnani, Andrea C
Belinelli, Marco G-F
Bosh, Chris PF-C
Calderon, Jose PG
DeRozan, Demar G-F
Douby, Quincy G
Evans, Reggie PF
Jack, Jarrett G
Johnson, Amir PF
Nesterovic, Rasho PF-C
O’Bryant, Patrick C
Turkoglu, Hedo F
Weems, Sonny G-F
Wright, Antoine G-F

Year #1-3
2008-2009
33-49/.402, 4th Atlantic, 13th Eastern Conference, No Playoffs
2007-2008
41-41/.500, 2nd Atlantic, 6th Eastern Conference, Lost 1st Rd
2006-2007
47-35/.573, 1st Atlantic, 3rd Eastern Conference, Lost 1st Rd

Year Prior
2005-2006
27-55/.329, 4th Atlantic, 1st Eastern Conference, No Playoffs

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In the NBA, the cold harsh reality is that there are only 2 distinct tiers of teams:

Tier 1
Those few that are actually trying to win the League Championship.

Tier 2
Everybody else.

Much R.E.S.P.E.C.T. to Otis Smith for “cutting to the chase” and improving the Orlando Magic each season, thus far.

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The amount of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. in this corner for Henry Abbott [TrueHoop] … the Don of NBA bloggers … is immense. That said … none of us is immune from making an occasional “unforced error”.

Case in point, from today’s Wednesday Bullets:

“Reggie Miller’s legendary push-off of Michael Jordan, that led to an open game-winning 3. Disappointing: How did his teammates not rush to congratulate him after that? He celebrated more or less alone, which always makes me wonder what the internal politics are really like.”

Here’s the vid clip, itself:

and, here’s what you should be able to notice about this specific sequence of events, which provides the answer to Henry’s question … without casting aspersions, unnecessarily, towards any of the Pacers:

* When Reggie’s shot went through the basket, the horn did not go off … nor did the red lights come on. Miller’s veteran teammates knew instantaneously that there was zero possibility time on the game clock had officially expired with the Pacers winning at that point.

* In fact, the game clock was initially stopped at 0.4 seconds.

* If the Bulls had decided to inbound the ball immediately, Chicago would certainly have had more than enough time left to get off a last second heave of their own … if the Pacers were distracted by a premature celebration … in a desperate effort to tie or win the game [trailing 94-96, at the time].

* If the Bulls had, instead, decided to call a time-out … which is precisely what they did … there was no need to celebrate anything at all, just yet, as the greatest scorer in NBA history would then have had more than enough time & opportunity to thrust another dagger into the open heart of another victim in his magnificent journey towards the Hall of Fame.

* When the game officials subsequently conferred to reset the game clock to 0.7 seconds … this only served to justify the initial reaction of Reggie Miller’s teammates to his spectacular shot, i.e. “Great. Now we’ve got to be ready to defend vs. MJ & Co. This game is far from being over!”

* Rick Smits, a veteran, shoots his hands up in the air, smiles widely, retreats to defend in the full-court, and then goes to congratulate Reggie.

* Derrick McKey, a veteran, retreats to defend in the full-court, turns his head to pick up the location of the ball, and then goes to the Pacers’ bench to prepare for the ensuing time-out.

* Antonio Davis retreats to defend in the full-court, turns his head to pick up the location of the ball, and then goes to the Pacers’ bench to prepare fo the ensuing time-out.

* Travis Best, still a relatively young player, immediately collapses to the floor, under the basket, in an isolated celebration.

* Mark Jackson, the future TV analyst, is on the bench and then goes to congratulate Reggie with open arms.

* His head coach, about whom Isiah Thomas observed: ” … and you look at Larry Bird, who’s been there plenty of times before; nothing to it, I’ve done that about twenty times in my career … come back over here, fellas,” remains implacable throughout this sequence of events.

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Q1. What does this sequence of events actually reveal about the “internal politics” of that Pacers team?

A1. That what they were really all about … was being atuned to WINNING!

Nothing more, and nothing less than that.

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Even someone like Henry Abbott can benefit from taking a closer look at the details of a situation like this rather than making observations which are not necessarily accurate.

FINAL SCORE: RAPTORS 98, Wizards 100
Complete Game Info

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The Wizards’ [15th place, 19-61/.238] immediate future is so much brighter, in comparison with the Raptors’ [14th place, 30-49/.380], that it’s not even funny.

STARTERS
Arenas vs Calderon
Young vs Parker [past his prime]
Butler vs Marion [past his prime]
Jamison vs Bosh [playing out of position]
Haywood vs Bargnani [not a dominating Center]

KEY SUBS
Crittenton vs Ukic [not yet ready for the NBA]
Stevenson vs Kapono [an albatross]
McGuire vs Graham
Songaila vs Humphries
Blatche vs O’Bryant [not an NBA-level player]

EXTRAS
James vs Banks [not an NBA-level player; an albatross]
Dixon vs Douby [not an NBA-level player]
McGee vs Jawai [not an NBA-level player]
Pecherov vs Voskuhl [not an NBA-level player]
Thomas vs ?

UPCOMING DRAFT PICK
No. 1-3 [overall] Selection vs No. 8-9 Selection [if not traded again]

Thinking back to where the Raptors’ player roster was in Jan-Feb/06, before Bryan Colangelo [Pres/GM] was hired, and comparing it to the current one:

Raptors Roster 2005-2006

27 - 55 .329 (pythagorean: 31 - 51 .382)

Name G Min Pts PPG FGM FGA FGP FTM FTA FTP 3PM 3PA 3PP REB RPG AST APG STL BLK TO
Chris Bosh 70 2753 1572 22.5 549 1087 .505 474 581 .816 0 13 .000 647 9.2 181 2.6 50 79 157
Mike James 79 2922 1604 20.3 576 1228 .469 283 338 .837 169 382 .442 262 3.3 460 5.8 72 3 206
Morris Peterson 82 3139 1374 16.8 478 1096 .436 241 294 .820 177 448 .395 381 4.6 190 2.3 104 15 126
Charlie Villanueva 81 2364 1053 13.0 435 940 .463 113 160 .706 70 214 .327 521 6.4 88 1.1 60 63 99
Jalen Rose 46 1238 557 12.1 180 446 .404 166 217 .765 31 115 .270 129 2.8 113 2.5 20 10 65
Matt Bonner 78 1711 583 7.5 209 467 .448 63 76 .829 102 243 .420 284 3.6 56 0.7 49 31 32
Joey Graham 80 1579 533 6.7 198 414 .478 108 133 .812 29 87 .333 244 3.1 60 0.8 37 13 92
Jose Calderon 64 1485 349 5.5 132 312 .423 78 92 .848 7 43 .163 141 2.2 288 4.5 42 4 101
Andre Barrett 17 261 78 4.6 35 97 .361 6 9 .667 2 13 .154 22 1.3 50 2.9 10 0 14
Antonio Davis 8 191 35 4.4 14 31 .452 7 20 .350 0 0 .000 36 4.5 7 0.9 3 1 8
Pape Sow 42 591 147 3.5 53 123 .431 41 57 .719 0 0 .000 146 3.5 8 0.2 21 19 30
Eric Williams 28 356 91 3.3 29 75 .387 28 38 .737 5 18 .278 50 1.8 15 0.5 7 2 15
Darrick Martin 40 340 102 2.6 34 97 .351 18 24 .750 16 40 .400 20 0.5 57 1.4 17 0 15
Rafael Araujo 53 618 125 2.4 55 152 .362 15 28 .536 0 2 .000 145 2.7 21 0.4 25 6 42
Loren Woods 27 324 62 2.3 28 59 .475 6 14 .429 0 1 .000 110 4.1 4 0.1 9 23 16
Aaron Williams 14 99 25 1.8 10 19 .526 5 6 .833 0 0 .000 15 1.1 1 0.1 4 3 5
Alvin Williams 1 10 1 1.0 0 3 .000 1 2 .500 0 2 .000 3 3.0 0 0.0 0 0 0
2006 No. 1 [overall], 1st Round Draft Pick
2006 No. 5 [overall], 2nd Round Draft Pick

is enough to put tears in the eyes of someone who really knows how to go about building a championship calibre NBA franchise, given the assets at their disposal 3 seasons ago.

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Where exactly each of these teams go from here will be determined by their respective General Managers, one of whom is already a 2-time NBA Executive Of the Year Award winner … the other of whom has yet to be recognized by his peers in this way [i.e. Ernie Grunfeld].

If the actual wager was …

Which one’s team is going to finish with more WINS during the 2009-2010 season AND go further in the NBA Playoffs?

on whom would YOU be willing to bet a sizable portion of YOUR own hard-earned money?