1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

ESPN Insider: Chad Ford thinks the East has the two best teams in NBA

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by DeAleck, Jul 19, 2004.

  1. DeAleck

    DeAleck Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2003
    Messages:
    3,204
    Likes Received:
    224
    Monday, July 19, 2004

    East has no middle class

    By Chad Ford
    ESPN Insider


    On Friday, Insider gave a preliminary breakdown of why the West wasn't going to be a cakewalk for the Lakers next season.

    A flood of e-mails followed asking the obvious follow-up question: With the world champions and most dominant player in the NBA now in the East, should we even bother talking about the West anymore?

    Yes and no. I think you can make the argument that the two best teams in the NBA next season will reside in the East. The Pistons and the Pacers, barring unforeseen changes to the NBA landscape, have it all. Great defense, great coaches, deep benches and a superstar or two to push things along.

    After that, however, the West will likely field the next-best 11 teams in the league depending on where you want to place the Heat. The Spurs, Timberwolves, Kings, Nuggets, Rockets, Mavericks, Jazz, Grizzlies, Lakers, Suns and Hornets are all arguably deeper and more talented than the Heat. After the Heat, I think every team in the West is deeper and more talented than the next-best team in the East (Knicks? Bucks? Nets?).

    That's thanks, in part, to a number of top players defecting from the East to the West this summer. Tracy McGrady, Kenyon Martin, Lamar Odom, Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer, Caron Butler and Brian Grant all went west this year. So far, Shaquille O'Neal and Steve Francis are the only significant players to go east.

    After adding a motivated Shaq, especially to the weakest division in the NBA, the Southeast, the Heat should make huge strides next season. However, their shocking lack of depth will be a major issue come playoff time. Right now they're a third seed in the East . . . but a distant third to the Pistons and Pacers because of a lack of depth.

    After that, it gets even harder to start picking decent Eastern Conference teams. There is no middle class. The Hornets were always near the top of the East, but they've migrated to the West. The fact that they have just marginal playoff prospects gives you an idea of where the strength of the NBA still lies.

    The Cavs, who appeared to be on the verge of the playoffs last season, lost Boozer, setting them back severely. The Raptors are seriously considering dumping their best player, Vince Carter, to a team in the West. The Magic are coming off the worst record in the league and have lost their best player. Adding Francis and first-round pick Dwight Howard will help . . . in two or three years from now. The expansion Bobcats don't have a chance. Neither do the Hawks, who have yet to land one significant free agent, despite a boat load of cash.

    Just by process of elimination, we've knocked out half of the East. So who else are contenders to join the Pistons, Pacers and Heat in the playoffs?

    The Knicks have a chance to be formidable, especially if they land Erick Dampier. Sources claimed over the weekend that they were very close to bringing him on a deal that would send Nazr Mohammed and Othella Harrington to the Warriors.

    The Nets lost Kenyon and appear to be unable to afford to bring in a replacement. Add in the fact that Jason Kidd is coming off knee surgery and they're likely to slip to the fifth or sixth seed.

    The Bucks, one of the surprise teams in the East last season, will have a good shot of repeating their success if T.J. Ford is healthy and the Wizards don't match their offer for Etan Thomas.

    Four teams will likely be in the scrum for the elusive eighth seed.

    The 76ers improved this summer, but not as much as you would've liked. First-round pick Andre Iguodala looks like a contributor, but their inability to land Mark Blount combined with the difficulty of moving Glenn Robinson for anything in return has hurt them. Like always, everything in Philly depends on Allen Iverson's health. The fact that he's playing in the Olympics, the kiss of death for most NBA players, is an ominous sign.

    Believe it or not, the Wizards might be contenders this season. They added Antawn Jamison to a talented frontcourt. If Kwame Brown takes another step, they'll be good enough to make the playoffs in the East.

    We've been predicting that the Bulls would make the playoffs for two straight seasons. Why should we do it this year? They had a great draft, will sign a solid contributor in free agency (Andres Nocioni) and have a motivated Eddy Curry (it's a contract year) and a healthy Tyson Chandler (it's a contract year).

    The Celtics are a mess, but given the state of the East it doesn't immediately knock them out of contention. After watching Al Jefferson in the summer league, I think there's a great shot he starts and becomes a candidate for rookie of the year. The fact that they re-signed Mark Blount won't hurt either.

    Why is Jeff Bzdelik smiling?

    The biggest winner in this whole Kenyon Martin sweepstakes isn't the Nuggets -- it's Jeff Bzdelik. We've been on the Bzdelik death watch since the end of the season. The fact that Nuggets didn't offer him a contract extension -- making him a lame duck head coach -- seemed to seal his fate.

    But with Kiki Vandeweghe going for broke and trading for Martin, Bzdelik should be able to breathe a little easier this season. Bzdelik got in trouble with Kiki in company in part because he chose to play veterans over young, up-and-coming players like Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White. The "win at all cost" attitude ruffled feathers in the front office then.

    Now, maybe they should be thanking Bzdelik. It's tough to imagine that Martin would've wanted to come to the Nuggets had they been stuck in the lottery last season. But with the team looking like it was ready to take the next step, Martin was willing to jump on the bandwagon and help it get there.

    The move also validates Bzdelik's win-now approach. Now that the Nuggets have spent their cash on Martin, it's doubtful they're going to tell him to bench K-Mart and Nene at the expense of young players like Skita. Instead, Skita, who's been playing great in the summer league, is probably gone. There isn't much room for him on the Nuggets' front line. The team still needs shooting guard. If Skita ends up getting traded, that concerns disappears too.

    With one of the most loaded rosters in the league, the pressure will be on Bzdelik to get this team a top-four seed in the West this year. If he comes through . . . he's likely to get that contract extension he's been pining so hard for.

    Divac improves Lakers chances

    The Lakers solidified their hold on a playoff spot out West over the weekend by convincing Vlade Divac to leave the Kings and turn down more money with the Clippers to play with Kobe.

    The Lakers, according to sources, are offering Divac their full $4.9 million mid-level exception. The Kings, on the other hand, were only offering Divac $2.4 million.

    With Divac in the middle, the Lakers' chances in the West are greatly enhanced. Even at the age of 36, he was still one of the best centers in the game last year. He still is, without a doubt, the best passing big man in the league. A combo of Divac, Brian Grant and Slave Medvedenko (who they are trying to re-sign) should put the Lakers in a much better position to compete.

    The Clippers and Kings, on the other hand, will take a hit. Kings owner Joe Maloof claims the team couldn't afford to re-sign Divac.

    "Based on everything we planned earlier in the summer, we had our minds set on a certain (salary-cap) number we didn't want to exceed," Maloof told the Sacramento Bee. "It's $60 million, maybe up to $62 million, so there was only a certain amount of money we could offer. I think Vlade loves Sacramento and he likes L.A."

    "I talked to Vlade (Sunday), and I've been talking to (agent) Marc (Fleisher) all along," GM Geoff Petrie said. "We do have a budget we're trying to adhere to, and even with some wiggle room, it's probable we're not going to get to the numbers we need to keep Vlade. I want him to do what's best for him and his family. I just don't think anybody who has been associated with Vlade ever could have any ill feelings. I think he's gone."

    The Kings had anticipated this happening, which is why they signed Brad Miller to that huge contract last season. However, without Divac in the fold, Miller no longer has a back-up and the Kings' chances in the West, given how injury prone Chris Webber is, takes a hit.

    The Clippers continue to prove they're willing to spend the money to contend. Their problem is that they can't get a free agent to commit. Sources claim that the Clippers will likely match Quentin Richardson's offer sheet from the Suns this week. But they still need to address the point guard position and back-up center with their remaining $8 million.

    Owners gone wild

    Two weeks ago, when this flood of ridiculous free-agent signings started to leak, we dubbed this offseason "GM's gone wild." Why, in the world, you might ask, would GMs be giving away these huge, six-year contracts to players when they know that David Stern is going to limit them to three or four years in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations?

    The answer is complicated, but according to a number of GMs around the league, it has very little to do with them and a lot to do with the owners. There has never been a time when there has been so much parity in the league. Owners feel like spending their cash could lead to big results. If the Pistons can do it, they've been arguing, why can't we?

    That's one reason why role players are in vogue and raw, athletic players like Stromile Swift and Darius Miles are still waiting to hear their name called.

    It's also why you've seen a number of seemingly huge mistakes this summer. It was Jerry Buss, not Mitch Kupchak, who insisted on trading Shaq. Sources claim that Kupchak fought with Buss over the decision, but in the end just didn't have the juice to persuade his owner to put the team's interest over his personal feelings.

    Ditto for poor Jim Paxson in Cleveland. Ten days ago we called for his resignation. Maybe it's owner Gordon Gund who should re-sign. Gund, as he stated in his letter, pushed for Paxson to let Carlos Boozer out of his contract so he could re-sign him to a bigger deal. According to sources, Paxson argued with Gund over the decision, claiming it was too risky. In the end Gund did what he wanted and the Cavs were screwed.

    One GM said that it's often the owners, not the GMs, behind the biggest errors in the league. "It just depends on the owners, but some of them just don't have as great a feel for what's going on the league. They've been so successful in all of their business endeavors that they feel they can just step in and fix things, it's rarely right. I feel bad for Mitch and Pax. If I was in their shoes, I may have threatened to re-sign if they made the moves they did. A GMs job is to protect the franchise. Sometimes that means protecting the owner from themselves. That's a tricky tightrope to cross but the truth is that GMs are the ones who get fired, owners never do."

    Luxury tax woes

    The free spending ways of some NBA teams could end up screwing all 30 by the end of the season. Another reason that teams have been spending freely this summer is the belief that there won't be a luxury tax for the 2004-05 season. Without a luxury tax, going over the roughly $55 million threshold isn't nearly as big a deal.

    The luxury tax is triggered when the league-wide salaries and benefits exceed approximately 61.1 percent of BRI (basketball related income). Next year the threshold increased to 63.3 percent. If the league-wide salaries and benefits are less than this amount, then no team pays a tax, regardless of the size of its payroll. If the tax is triggered, then it is paid by all teams that are over the luxury-tax threshold in the amount by which their team salary exceeds the tax threshold.

    Because the threshold was increasing by two percent, most teams, figured that the chances of the luxury tax being triggered for this season would be slim. However, with the huge contracts being signed, that's now in doubt. In the past several seasons, teams have been pretty frugal, keeping league-wide salaries and benefits down. If that number shoots up dramatically, the chances of the luxury tax kicking in improves.

    That's lead to a chilling of the market over the past few days. Teams had largely agreed to contracts with free agents before seeing the lower than expected cap numbers and with the assumption that the tax wouldn't be in place. Now that almost everyone is overspending, the entire league could be in trouble next season.

    The numbers don't lie

    We're starting to get a look at what players really signed for as the first contracts start rolling into the league office.

    Adonal Foyle may be the poster child for the problem stated above. His first-year salary starts at $6.5 million and goes up 14 percent each subsequent year. That means Foyle makes $9.23 million in year four (he'll be 33) and $10.14 million in year five (he'll be 34). All guaranteed. Over five years, his contract totals $41.6 million. He's also guaranteed a million in year six. If he's on the roster at training camp, another $10.5 million becomes guaranteed.

    Foyle's best season came in 2000-01, when he averaged 5.9 ppg, 7 rpg and 2.7 bpg in 58 games for the Warriors. However, he shot just 41.6 percent from the field that year. Not too hot for a center. He's played all 82 games of a season only once -- in 2002-03. That year he averaged 5.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg and 2.5 bpg.


    I am not a big fan of Chad Ford. I think his articles are OK, but I really don't think people should pay to read his stuff. So, here you go, guys.
     
  2. Lil Pun

    Lil Pun Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 1999
    Messages:
    34,132
    Likes Received:
    1,020
    Chad Ford article...'nuff said!
     
  3. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2002
    Messages:
    12,132
    Likes Received:
    567
    He's way too high on the Pacers. Especially when they've been so openly shopped their roster. Think Artest might be a little disgruntled?

    Evan
     
  4. Deuce

    Deuce Context & Nuance

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2001
    Messages:
    26,575
    Likes Received:
    35,637
    Once again, the West gets more and more talent and the East still stays bare.
     
  5. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 1999
    Messages:
    18,246
    Likes Received:
    3,195
    Indiana better than the Spurs? Good one.
     
  6. xiki

    xiki Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2002
    Messages:
    17,491
    Likes Received:
    2,883
    Well said.
     
  7. Desert Scar

    Desert Scar Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2000
    Messages:
    8,764
    Likes Received:
    11
    IMO Detriot, Minn and SA are the 3 best teams right now. That is 2 of the 3 in the West. Indy, Sac, maybe Houston or Miami, could join them as elite teams but they all start a step behind. D

    Indy had a great regular season but were not impressive in the playoffs where their offense was shown to be shaky.
     
  8. meh

    meh Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2002
    Messages:
    15,348
    Likes Received:
    2,223
    It's obvious that ESPN wants to hype up the east a bit, but don't want to sound too absurd.

    I think it's quite possible that the Pacers and the Pistons have the best records in the NBA, simply because they get to beat up on crap east teams twice as often as western conference teams. I think that's what Chad Ford is going to count on to "validate" his opinion that they're the two best teams in the NBA. When in fact neither team is likely to come out with the best record if both play in the west.
     
  9. pacertom

    pacertom Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    1,308
    Likes Received:
    127
    Since when?

    Harrington was shopped everywhere since he demanded a trade.

    Trying to trade players to land McGrady isn't exactly "shopping" them.

    Basically these guys were declared "untouchacle"

    1)Jermaine
    2)Artest (nixed efforts to get him in Dampier, Pierce, Vince Carter talks)
    3)Bender (would not give him up, even bundled with sack of crap Croshere, for Dampier)

    Even Tinsley and Fred Jones apparently came up in trade talks but were shot down by the Pacers.

    What you have is the winningest team in the league is also one of the youngest, but had a roster with 3 of its top 6 players being natural small forwards (Harrington, Artest, Bender) and no one playing 2-guard as their best position among their top 6 players on the team (the other 3 being Tnsley, Foster, and of course Jermaine O'Neal). They talked to a lot of people to move a SF for a SG, and suceeded.

    I don't think they were ever a serious player in the Shaq talks.

    Chad Ford is right for once!
     
  10. pacertom

    pacertom Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    1,308
    Likes Received:
    127
    Last year the Pacers beat up on the west-- they had a better winning percentage against the west than anyone, including the teams in the west.
     
  11. meh

    meh Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2002
    Messages:
    15,348
    Likes Received:
    2,223
    I don't see how that automatically means they'd have a great record in the west. They'd play the western conference teams a hell of a lot more, which would certainly influence on overall performance. Plus, their record against the west seems like an abberation. I never saw anything special with the team.

    I'd be EXTREMELY surprised to see them come close to the record they had last year against the west.
     
  12. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2002
    Messages:
    35,060
    Likes Received:
    23,967
    -- crappy teams.

    They were 11-1 against non-playoffs teams in the West; 9-7 against playoffs teams; 3-5 against top 4.

    That probably put them at around #4 in the West.
     
  13. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2002
    Messages:
    12,132
    Likes Received:
    567
    Um, how about since Rick Carlisle said to expect a roster shake up?

    Seeing how Bender and Artest were being offered in the McGrady and O'Neal packages, it's safe to say they aren't "untouchable."

    If you seriously believe they've significantly improved themselves since June or are confident about their chances to get the Finals, you're overworking the Homer angle.

    The holes at center and PG are fairly noteworthy.

    Evan

    [edit] I feel I should note; I'm not hating on their team. They're clearly among the elite in the East. I'm just not so certain that they've made moves to get them to that highest level of championship-caliber. Sort of like the Mavs, Blazers, and Kings from the last 4 years.
     
    #13 emjohn, Jul 19, 2004
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2004
  14. pacertom

    pacertom Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    1,308
    Likes Received:
    127
    And they had those holes last year and won 60 games. They also had a much more serious hole at shooting guard which they have filled.

    I think you underestinate Tinsley. He is not among the top 6 or so point guards, but he is still above the average and hardly a "hole".

    He's a pure PG, too, unlikely the shoot-first types that until Billups this year had been shut out for all eternity as owers of championship rings.
     
  15. Williamson

    Williamson JOSH CHRISTOPHER ONLY FAN
    Supporting Member Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2002
    Messages:
    15,229
    Likes Received:
    18,367
    Yeah, I think he's way too high on the Pacers too. They're a great team but to say they're better than the Spurs or the Timberwolves is definitely pushing it. J. O'neal is solid but he's no Duncan or Garnett.

    I actually think the verdict is still out on the Pistons even. Sure, they won it all but I just don't think they can do it twice. They matched up well with a Lakers team that was literally falling apart mentally. I don't know if they'd have fared so well against the T-Wolves with a healthy Sam Cassell or the Spurs.
     
  16. ChrisP

    ChrisP Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 1999
    Messages:
    851
    Likes Received:
    125
    :eek: :eek: :eek:

    I just don't even know what to say about this. Simply mind-boggling.
     

Share This Page

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now