Friday's NBA Court Awareness

Players and coaches are much more short-term than their general managers and owners. 

The former go game-to-game, rarely thinking beyond the next match, let alone the following season.  The latter group painstakingly plans ahead, trying vainly to predict every pitfall while plotting the ever-elusive path to a championship.

Thursday night’s Knicks vs. Mavericks game was a nationally televised demonstration of a team living for the now (Dallas) and a team already looking to the horizon (New York).

Forget the fact that Dallas won 99-94.  Forget that New York shot a subpar 41 percent on the night (32 percent on threes).  Forget that Dallas’ third-best guy (take your pick between Jason Kidd and Josh Howard) is probably closer to a franchise player than any candidate wearing a Knicks jersey.

If you had to choose one of the two aforementioned teams to inherit, you’d choose the Knicks, and not for their market value either.

First and most obvious is New York’s plans for a 2010 shopping spree.  Any winning now is strictly a bonus, because their expectations were at an all-time low entering the season, even with the hiring of Mike D’Antoni.

This means the Knicks are almost entirely (are you ready for this?) playing for fun. Two years of D’Antoni offense with zero expectations? That sounds like the Suns circa 2004-05, and everyone involved loved that.

That’s why guys like Chris Duhon (24 points, seven rebounds) Wilson Chandler (20 points) and David Lee (13 points, 15 rebounds) can ball their brains out on their way to contracts that will pay them for D’Antoni-inflated stats.

Dallas?  They’ve got the burden of over-ripe expectations.  They blew it in 2006, choked in 2007, and traded for Jason Kidd for life-support before the team is forced to blow it all up.  It’s not fun at all, and you can tell when you see the team play.

The Mavs aren’t good enough to contend now, and they’ve got zero hope for the future.  That’s why, on Thursday night, it was preferable to be in the loser’s shoes.

Other Notes:

• If I’m Rick Carlisle, I’m starting Brandon Bass (12 points, 11 rebounds) instead of Erick Dampier.  He’s strong enough to bang, and quick enough to run.  Start him and let the other teams try to run with a squad of Bass, Josh Howard, Kidd, Nowitzki and Jason Terry.
• Sure the Knicks are planning to spend big bucks in 2010, but they have to keep somebody, right?  My three keepers are Lee, Chandler and Duhon.  Sorry, Nate Robinson shoots with too much gusto and not enough accuracy for me to keep him.
• Eddy Curry stuck his nose out of D’Antoni’s doghouse long enough to play three minutes.  Two points and two rebounds for the former borderline All-Star…
• Tim Duncan scores eight points, and the Spurs win 106-84?  That’s a by-product of San Antonio’s unique ability to get quality players for chump change every offseason. 
  
• Matt Bonner (11 points), Roger Mason (18 points), Michael Finley (15 points), and Kurt Thomas (nine points and nine rebounds) formed the most effective and least expensive supporting cast for one night.
• It’s hard being a Clipper fan (again).  If L.A. had known Elton Brand was going to bail on them, they probably wouldn’t have signed Baron Davis (injured) and just rebuilt around Al Thornton (21 points and five rebounds).  Thornton is the only bright spot I see on that team, Eric Gordon included.
• In non-game related news, Portland Trail Blazers’ president Larry Miller sent an e-mail to the other 29 NBA teams warning them not to sign Darius Miles “for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers’ salary cap and tax positions.” 
  
• If Miles plays another two games this season, that’s $9 million in cap space out the window for Portland. 

 

Miller went so far as to warn the other teams litigation could come into play if the Blazers’ feel a team’s signing of Miles warrants such action. 

Given a fan’s desire for drama and intrigue, I’m dying to see if someone will actually sign Miles despite Miller’s litigation threat.

Would such a litigation actually conclude in time for cap space to be recovered? What would the punishment be?  Who would risk the heat of Miller, the courts and the press?  I love this game.