Pac-12 Basketball Roundup: What’s Wrong with Arizona, UCLA and Washington?
Why are the Arizona Wildcats, UCLA Bruins and Washington Huskies struggling in the watered down Pac-12?
Have you ever been on one of those rollercoaster’s that goes up, down, side to side and then takes you upside down for a while—until you finally freak out and realize you’re going in too many directions and that there’s no clear cut way?
Yeah, that’s what the Pac-12 basketball conference is like this year.
As a former player when the conference was the Pac-10, it was safe to say we were getting at least five teams in the NCAA tournament every year. We can certainly kiss that goodbye.
A conference that was once dubbed as a “super six conference”, along with the likes of the Big East and the ACC—it is now more of a: “Boy, I wonder what team will show up this week” conference.
People call me crazy of course, but I can’t help but think that traditional basketball powerhouses such as: UCLA and Arizona could be left out of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.
Sure, Arizona had a mulligan year during the 2009-10 season when current Coach Sean Miller brought stability back to the program by taking over the reins for Hall of Fame Coach Lute Olson (which was understandable seeing as how Miller had to implement a new system). He also brought in new recruits and has weeded out the troubled players that had plagued the program during Olson’s final days.
Arizona wowed us last season by making a surprise run to the Elite Eight by piling on the shoulders of Derrick Williams (now with the Minnesota Timberwolves). Expectations were once again set high heading into the 2011-12 basketball season in Tucson.
The way it’s looking, Arizona will most likely receive an NIT bid and play the likes of Maryland or some other team that won’t deserve to be in the NCAA tournament either. The Wildcats lost to the Washington Huskies Saturday in Tucson on a last-second block—only this time it was the Huskies that won the game on the blocked shot.
Their guard play has been struggling as of late. The Wildcats lack a true center and don’t have a go-to-player to take the last shot in crunch time of basketball games. Junior forward Solomon Hill has been superb, but he needs some help from guys like Nick Johnson, Josiah Turner and Jordin Mayes.
Speaking of those Huskies, they’re 14-7 and 7-2 in Pac-12 play. Looks like Lorenzo Romar has lit a fire underneath his squad as of late—but will it last?
Hard to tell what team we’re going to see in the final nine games of conference play. We could see the team that almost beat Duke at Madison Square Garden or we could see the team that lost to South Dakota State (What, you didn’t know about the real SDSU?) by 19 points on their own home court.
Washington is a scary team—they could be scary good or scary bad. For the Pac-12’s sake, let’s hope they become scary good so the conference can at least get two-solid teams into the dance. The Huskies play UCLA Thursday in Seattle—it could honestly go either way.
Washington is by far the most talented team in this watered down Pac-12, but clearly hasn’t played up to their potential—something Coach Romar has been harping on all season long.
Early on it looked as if the Huskies were headed for a long season with bad losses to the likes of Nevada and South Dakota State at home. But, it looks like the talented Huskies are starting to turn things around with Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten Jr and company.
UCLA is a whole different story, a season that started with such promise from Coach Ben Howland saying earlier this year that: “This will be a deep, talented team”.
The Bruins have gone from deep and talented to deep in trouble. Last season they had guards that were capable of playmaking with the likes of current NBA-ers Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee.
If they had come back to Westwood, this might be a different UCLA team. Throw their departure in with the enigma that was junior forward Reeves Nelson. How bad was it?
Head coach Ben Howland kicked Nelson off of the team and Nelson signed with a professional team in Lithuania. Just five weeks into his professional career, the associated press has reported that the Lithuanian team has sent Nelson back home to our continent.
The sad part is, UCLA has the talent like Washington—and they just can’t put it together. From an interior standpoint, UCLA has one of the biggest frontlines in the country with David and Travis Wear (transfers from North Carolina) and Josh Smith (6 11, 305 lbs.), but outside of the Wear twins—they haven’t received much production. Smith continues to get in foul trouble and has come into this season out of shape.
All he had to do was lose 25-30 pounds after last season, and he would’ve easily been one of the most dominant big men in college basketball. At his weight right now (325 lbs, and I’m being generous when I say that), he’s still a game changing post player. Any Pac-12 coach will tell you that. But if he trimmed up his weight and worked hard, then he would be in the upper-tier of big men across college basketball.
Senior guard Jerime Anderson has been a bust his whole college career. With his arrival at Westwood, expectations were through the roof. He hasn’t lived up to them. In fact, the most he’s shown us has been glimpses—if that. Lazeric Jones is a serviceable guard at best, but he’s not a starting guard in the Pac-12. Fortunately for Jones, this year he is a starting guard because the conference is so watered down.
Jones is not on the same level as past point guards like Jordan Farmar, Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday. He gives his team a solid effort, but he’s still missing a few elements that make him an elite point guard. Tyler lamb is another guard that’s serviceable, but he hasn’t made a true impact this year for UCLA.
The bruins are 12-9 and they head up to play the Washington schools this weekend. This could be trouble because Washington State plays hard at home and Washington is on the rise. With that being said, it looks like the Bruins will miss the tournament for the second time in the last three seasons—sad considering the history and tradition that goes with UCLA.
There’s no way to say why these three teams: Arizona, Washington and UCLA are struggling right now. They have the tradition, talent, and coaches to be better than they are. Despite these teams’ recent struggles, there is still half the league left to play.
It’s unfortunate that all three of these teams could potentially miss the NCAA Tournament, but in the recent words of UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland: “It is what it is.”
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UCLA Basketball: What’s Gone Wrong with Ben Howland and the Bruins
Ben Howland’s Bruins are in an utter state of flux.
Pure and simple.
For a program with the history and allure of UCLA, anything short of competing for Pac-12 Championships and making noise in the NCAA Tournament is a complete failure.
With a current record of 10-9, UCLA will be lucky to make the N.I.T.
Why is that?
Howland had led the Bruins to three consecutive Final Four appearances between 2006 and 2008. And, he did so while churning out NBA players yearly. Since that magical run, the team has seen a substantial drop in the quality of play.
Poor recruiting, a mass exodus of transfers who’ve performed exceedingly well at other schools and a stubborn persona has Howland in his current predicament—mediocrity.
UCLA has arguably been hit by defections to the NBA harder than any other program of recent years. Throughout Howland’s tenure at UCLA, he has lost nine players to the NBA before their eligibility was exhausted.
It is curious to note that, while a few of them were sure-fire first round picks—Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Jrue Holiday—, about half of those players—Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Trevor Ariza, Malcolm Lee, Tyler Honeycutt—chose to ultimately become second round picks and didn’t seriously entertain the idea of staying on campus for another season.
If you look at schools like North Carolina, for example, they currently have three projected first round picks—Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller, and John Henson—that chose to come back to school this season because they love their college experience so much.
At UCLA, it seems as if the players can’t leave soon enough.
This ultimately falls on Howland and his personality.
Sure, he isn’t known as the warmest person, and he is definitely not one to make concessions or suck up to players, but some sort of tact needs to be employed so frequent roster turnover doesn’t happen every year.
It is no real fault of his own, but his personality doesn’t exactly screams “enthusiasm.” As a result, recruits would much rather play for younger, more exuberant coaches—a la Sean Miller and Josh Pastner.
Now in no way am I discounting Howland’s coaching ability. He’s highly respected and a wonderful x’s and o’s guy.
But in the current landscape of the college basketball scene, a certain schmoozing is required in order to, not only appease your players, but to lure big-time recruits.
That’s just the nature of the beast.
Howland has tried to remedy this by hiring 32-year-old coach Korey McCray this season as an assistant in order to connect with kids more and to enhance sub-par recruiting.
Prior to UCLA, McCray had been running the very successful Atlanta Celtics AAU Program, with an impressive collection of alumni now in the NBA currently.
Secondly, the roster currently is a peculiar mess.
It is very top-heavy with big men and absolutely void of guard depth and, most glaringly, athleticism. No disrespect to the majority of Bruin opponents this year, but they should in no way out-athlete a UCLA Basketball team.
With the current personnel, they absolutely do not have the ability to play suffocating man-to-man defense, which is a Howland staple from his great teams.
The team has a hard time just staying in front of their man defensively. Due to Howland’s stringent style, however, he’s not always willing to adapt to his team’s deficiencies.
To make matters worse, their most talented yet troubled player Reeves Nelson was unceremoniously dismissed early in the season for an accumulation of “behavioral problems.”
Third, it seems as if Howland has changed his philosophy. What happened to the UCLA Final Four teams that absolutely played smothering defense with their scrappy play and tough mindedness?
Those types of teams got UCLA to three straight Final Fours, but they were unable to get over the hump. And by “hump” I mean the talent-laden Florida Gators with three lottery picks—Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah— and a Memphis team led by Derrick Rose.
Howland recognized that the overall talent level on the team needed to pick up, so he began targeting more national, highly ranked recruits as opposed to the diamonds in the rough that got him success in the first place—Mbah a Moute, Darren Collison, Alfred Aboya.
Well, he struck it out with the majority of those guys and, as a result, he passed up solid players on the west coast that have came back to bite him.
A few of those West Coast natives that would have been Bruins with any effort includes former Arizona State standout James Harden, former North Carolina big man Deon Thompson and current Cal star Allen Crabbe.
By turning his back on the majority of West Coast prospects, it has left Howland struggling for personnel. That’s a key reason as to why he’s accepted three transfers and two more junior college transfers in the last two seasons.
In addition to poor recruiting, he’s been absolutely slammed by transfers.
Currently, both Chace Stanback and Mike Moser start for nationally ranked UNLV. Stanback has been a double-digit scorer for two years, and Moser is averaging a double-double this season.
The talented—but much maligned—Drew Gordon transferred to New Mexico and has become their most talented player, good for a double-double every night. The athletic big man is considered a future NBA player, as well.
With all of the turmoil and personnel issues, Howland should get back to hitting the West Coast hard and stay local. The talent in California and the Pacific Northwest is definitely good enough to be competitive nationally.
However, the 2012 recruiting class for the Bruins does bring much needed help to Howland’s squad for next season.
He’ll be welcoming sharpshooter Jordan Adams from Georgia and the much heralded “Point Forward” Kyle Anderson from New Jersey. Anderson is considered a top-five player nationally.
For UCLA to get back to where they need to be, Howland has to channel what got him success in the first place—which is to play great defense and scrappy basketball.
Unfortunately for Bruin fans, this current squad neither has the toughness nor athleticism to do so.
In future years, Howland will have to get those long, athletic defensive-minded post players to play lock-down defense. He’ll also have to get guards who can consistently hit outside shots and penetrate the lane with regularity.
If that doesn’t happen, UCLA will continue to resemble (gulp!), the Steve Lavin days.
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Golden State Warriors: Where Has Dorell Wright Gone Wrong This Season?
One of the more pleasant surprises from the 2010-11 campaign for the Golden State Warriors was the play of small forward Dorell Wright.
In his first season with the Dubs, the gunslinger established career highs in average minutes played, points, rebounds, assists and steals—while playing all 82 games. He led the NBA in three-point field goals (194), setting a franchise record in the process.
Despite a high volume of attempts, Wright still shot 37.6 percent from behind the arc.
Amazingly, he became the first player in league history to score more points in his seventh season than the combined total in his previous six.
Needless to say, Wright did all the right things for Golden State last season, garnering a third-place finish for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. With cohesiveness playing another year alongside Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis, Wright looked to continue his progress in developing his all-around game.
So far, unfortunately, Wright has been left in the dark all season. In 13 games, Wright has regressed, sporting an 8.9 points-per-game average in 30.2 minutes of action each night. More alarming, however, are his shooting numbers: 37.5 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from three-point land.
This has many wondering what has gone so wrong for Wright so far this season? His performance has been particularly disturbing for head coach Mark Jackson, who has awarded more playing time to rookie wingman Klay Thompson and rotated point guard Nate Robinson off the bench for long stretches.
As a result, Wright’s numbers have sunk due in large part to fewer attempts from the field. Wright is only averaging eight field goal attempts per game, and 4.3 shots from downtown. Obviously, he’s not putting up the stats because his volume is turned down.
In fact, former Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade offered advice leading up to a matchup against the Warriors earlier this month, suggesting Wright simply be selfish and shoot the ball more. Sounds simple enough.
It would appear that Wright has heeded this suggestion in the past five games—averaging 14 points since the Miami game. But he’s still only taking only 10.2 shots per contest. This is slightly astonishing, considering Curry has not been in the Warriors’ lineup since January 4th, nursing his sprained right ankle. It would be assumed that Wright would take on more of the scoring load, especially from the perimeter.
But that has not happened in Curry’s absence, largely due to the fact that Ellis has taken it upon himself to carry the offense. Thus, the flight of Wright’s scoring has been grounded, as Ellis has averaged just over 20 shots per game since Curry went down.
Moreover, because Jackson has made the defensive side on the ball his team’s primary focus, Golden State has slowed down its offense as a whole. Fewer possessions begets fewer fast-break opportunities begets fewer three-point shots in transition.
The Warriors are averaging 18.5 threes per game this season—a decrease from last year’s 21.3 attempts. The slower offense has seemed to affect Wright the most, who is more apt to spot up than he is to put the ball on the floor and drive (he averages only 2.0 free throws attempts per game).
The season is still young, but with a compacted schedule, Wright needs to up his game for the young Golden State squad—particularly because Curry will be out indefinitely. Hopefully, for his own sake and for the overall benefit of the Warriors, he is able to right the ship and up his offense.
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NBA Trade Rumors: Trading Russell Westbrook Would Be Wrong Move for Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered Friday night with an NBA-best 10-2 record, but much of the attention early on has been displaced with Russell Westbrook’s sluggish start.
It seems the early season consensus is that the Thunder must trade Westbrook to win a title. That’s because he struggles at the point guard position and has clashed with star Kevin Durant.
The disagreements between the two stars shouldn’t be alarming. It isn’t rare for two competitive players to have disputes through the course of an 82- or 66-game season. For the Thunder to be a mainstay in the west, its future includes Westbrook.
Westbrook skeptics are quick to forget he was named to the All-NBA second team last year (in just his third season). At 23 years old, Westbrook averaged just under 22 points a game and eight assists per game last season.
Much of the hype at the point guard position is focused on Derrick Rose and Chris Paul in Los Angeles. But Westbrook posted a better player efficiency rating (PER) than Rose last year, according to ESPN’s John Hollinger.
His estimated wins added (17.9) trailed just Rose (19) and Paul (18.3). He added more than five wins than the next best, Deron Williams (12.5).
These stats are a much greater sample size to use than the 12 games played this season.
Yes, Scott Brooks would like his starting point guard to average more than five assists a game. But an overlooked aspect of Westbrook is that he’s still learning the position after playing shooting guard in high school and at UCLA.
Not to mention that Westbrook is already starting to turn his season around. He’s coming off two strong games this week against Memphis and New Orleans.
With talking heads on television and Twitterverse erupting with potential trades, here is a look at two potential trade rumors using ESPN’s Trade Machine. Both include Westbrook and neither one makes sense.
Celtics trade Rajon Rondo and Greg Stiemsma to Thunder for Westbrook, Cole Aldrich and Royal Ivey.
The Rondo-for-Westbrook deal is one that is heard the most often. Rondo seems like a perfect fit to give Durant the ball in positions to thrive while Westbrook becomes the next rebuilding piece as Boston’s “Big Three” continues to age.
However, Westbrook provides a scoring punch that Rondo simply cannot replace. Rondo has the luxury of playing with three future Hall of Famers and hasn’t been leaned on offensively the way Westbrook has.
Rondo frequently cannot finish games because he becomes a liability offensively and is a poor free-throw shooter.
Rondo’s scoring is up five points from his career average, but he is too inconsistent as a fourth scoring option to depend on for a large role.
A starting lineup featuring Rondo, Sefolosha, Durant, Ibaka and Perkins has just one true threat. Putting the ball in the basket has been a problem for the Thunder early in playoff games. This causes them to play catch-up much too often.
Warriors trade Stephen Curry to Thunder for Westbrook
ESPN’s J.A. Adande brings up this possibility in a recent column, bringing the sharp-shooting Curry into the backcourt feeding Durant.
While Curry is a much better shooter than Westbrook, Curry is not the defender that Westbrook is and has shown difficulties recently staying on the floor. He has reoccurring ankle injuries.
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Villanova Basketball: What Went Wrong vs. Syracuse?
In the end, Villanova wasn’t able to turn its season with a galvanizing victory over an undefeated, top-ranked team.
There were moments of toughness and of courage. Moments of youth and inexperience. Not enough of the former and too many of the latter.
Either way, Villanova basketball shows glimpses of its former self. Sticky defense. Scrappy rebounding. Fighting for loose balls and attacking the basket.
The Wildcats lost 79-66, a margin that seemed somehow closer than it was, but wider than it seemed.
There were five keys to Villanova making it a game, so let’s see how they panned out.
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Video: Wall Makes Lucas’ III First Start Memorable For The Wrong Reason
The Washington Wizards might be the NBA’s most dysfunctional team but that doesn’t mean they can provide the highlights courtesy of John Wall.
Wall’s latest victim to make his highlight reel is Chicago Bulls’ John Lucas III.
Lucas, who made his first start for the Bulls and played extremely well in the win (25 pts, 8 reb, 8 ast), had his personal moment ruined by Wall who decided to feature him in his latest poster with this sick dunk.
And to make matters worse for Lucas, check out his weak attempt at taking the charge. The guy just flakes out. And to make matters even worse for Lucas, he gets called for the foul! But then again, I’d probably get out of the way even faster if I saw Wall flying down the lane to crush one on me.
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Orlando Magic: Why Trading Brandon Bass for Glen Davis Was the Wrong Move
When Orlando Magic General Manager Otis Smith swung a deal to acquire the talents of former LSU Tiger Glen Davis in exchange for starting power forward Brandon Bass in a sign-and-trade, many fans were puzzled.
Not only was Smith shelling out a four-year, $26 million cumbersome contract to an unproven big man, but many were wondering what Davis brought to the table that Bass didn’t already possess.
So far, it looks like extremely little.
In the first eight Orlando Magic exhibition games, Glen Davis has averaged a measly seven points and four rebounds per game. That is a considerable amount lower than last season’s averages of nearly 12 points and five rebounds per game.
Brandon Bass, on the other hand, is playing the role of consistent front-court contributor while averaging a career-high 13 points per game to go along with six rebounds per match.
Sure, “Big Baby” did put up a season-high 20 points on a fantastic 8-13 from the field versus the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, but Davis’ start to his first season with the Magic can be summed up by one word: inefficient.
Since being drafted in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft, Davis’ shot selection has been more than questionable. Even though the former Boston Celtic has a refined post-up game, the fifth-year veteran still insists on shooting his inconsistent mid-range jumper. With the Celtics, Davis averaged 10.3 shots off the bench, most of them coming from the outside.
This season has been no different, as Davis is averaging an extremely poor 32 percent from the field.
Plus, it seems as if Davis is more interested in personal accolades than team achievements. A few months ago, the young power forward stressed his desire to make an All-Star team. Now that the big man has an increase in minutes, Davis is chucking up every shot in sight with hopes of earning that title.
But if there is one reason that this transaction was horrible for the Magic, it is the sad fact that the Magic lost a ton of athleticism, hustle and leadership with the absence of Bass. It is quite obvious that Orlando lacks in the aforementioned areas, and substituting in Davis was definitely not the answer.
When Orlando added Davis to the roster, the Magic thought they obtained a player who could help crash the boards and do the “dirty-work” with Howard. However, Davis has done the exact opposite and, instead, has been somewhat soft in the paint.
Despite being a backup to one of the most hard-working, intense leaders in Kevin Garnett, Davis has shown little to none of the qualities that made KG one of the best power forwards of all time.
The Orlando Magic’s Friday night game against the powerhouse Chicago Bulls was a perfect testament to Davis’ lack of hustle and leadership.
Going into the matchup against the 6-1 Bulls, the Magic knew they would have to come out with energy, determination and efficiency if they were to come away with the win. However, Glen Davis and the Magic accomplished none of these goals.
First of all, Davis shot a terrible 25 percent in the game and allowed countless offensive rebounds to the likes of Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer and Taj Gibson. In a league where rebounding is a necessity, giving up offensive rebounds is an absolute killer.
However, the real kicker of the night came when All-NBA center Dwight Howard jokingly acted like he was reviving teammate Davis after he fell going for a loose ball. Even though it was quite funny, would other championship-caliber teams be all smiles if their teams were losing by five in the fourth quarter?
In the end, Glen Davis is only 26 years old and still contains some potential to grow into a star in Orlando. But with each passing game, Brandon Bass seems to weigh more and more on the minds of Magic fans.
Follow Hunter Konsens on his brand new Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/KONS0
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Allen proving doubters wrong with longevity
If Ray Allen ever has an infomercial touting his workout secrets, it wouldn’t be a surprise if LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are quickly on the phone to those operators standing by.
The Miami stars have been observing Allen for years, and they’re continually amazed at what they’ve seen. The Boston shooting guard is 36 but hardly seems to have lost anything.
Allen is averaging 20.0 points and shooting an incredible 22-of-36 (61.1 percent) from three-point range through six games. Allen on Monday shot 6-of-7 beyond the arc and had 27 points in the Celtics’ 100-92 win over Washington.
“Ray Allen can play until he’s just tired of playing basketball,” said James, who a week earlier had watched Allen score 28 points while making 6-of-8 three-pointers against the Heat. “There’s no age limit for him. He has a fountain of youth he’s not telling anyone about. I tell him on the court, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’ He looks like 25 or 26… He’s in unbelievable condition.”
In his nine Miami years, Wade has seen Allen bury countless three-pointers. Allen is a career 45.1 marksman against the Heat, having made at least one three-pointer in 33 consecutive games against them.
“I think this summer we’re going to put a camera on him and see what he does,” said Wade, agreeing with Miami coach Erik Spoelstra having called Allen perhaps the best conditioned player in the NBA. “He’s unbelievable. It seems like he never gets tired… He’s a jump shooter and his legs are still there at the end of games. It’s amazing. It’s a testament to him and the way he takes care of his body.”
Well, Wade perhaps can hold off on hiring a camera crew. In an interview with FOX Sports Florida, Allen did offer some insight into his extreme training regiment.
Allen, a 16-year veteran, always has eaten well. But in 2011 he gave up red meat and tinkered with other aspects of his diet.
Allen in 2010 purchased a 10,000 custom-made ultra-light bike. He’s spent the past two offseasons as if he were training for the Tour de France.
But Allen did more than bike around Boston during the recent five-month lockout. He put himself though one of his most rigorous ofseason programs ever.
“My body changes so much and my metabolism slows down, so I try to find ways to challenge and trick my body so it has to figure out ways to recover and get stronger,” said the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Allen. “It’s interesting, like people go to those sweat lodges to see what your body can withstand or somebody who does a 100-mile marathon… Most people feel pain and quit. I’ve been interested in seeing what I can put my body through without putting myself through danger where I’m at risk for anything. It’s a challenge, and I try to be on top of it every day.”
No, Allen did not go Death Valley to run the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon. But he probably could have done it.
“I tried to duplicate what I would run in a game on a treadmill,” Allen said. “I did elliptical on the streets on the bike, getting my heart rate up to the point where I’m utterly exhausted.”
Now, Allen is merely exhausting opponents with his non-stop running to get open for jumpers. Spoelstra said Allen is “so well conditioned that he can go through your players and fatigue” them.
Allen has been doing that since breaking into the NBA with Milwaukee in 1996. He’s a 10-time All-Star, the NBA’s all-time leader with 2,634 three-pointers made and will one day be enshrined in Springfield, Mass.
But it could be a while before Allen shows up at the Hall of Fame. He’s talking about playing until he’s 40.
“My body feels good,” Allen said. “Whenever you’re with a great organization, it makes it easier and it makes it funner, and it gives me a great chance to play until I’m 40. I don’t know how many guys in the history of this league have done it.”
Those who have mostly have been big men. Michael Jordan played until he was 40 but he had retired twice before for a combined total of 4 seasons and moved from shooting guard to less-taxing small forward for his final two years.
Perhaps the only true comparison to Allen might end up being Indiana shooting guard Reggie Miller, who played until he was 39 and whose three-point record Allen broke last season. Allen still has three years to go to last as long as Miller, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
“I’m living on borrowed time right now,” said Allen, who does admit he’s not as athletic as he was a decade ago but said not much else has changed. “I look around at some of the greats to have played the game. You think about 12 to 14 years is a great career for anybody and at I’m at 16 (years) and still being able to play the game that I want to play.”
Allen will be a free agent next summer. When asked if he wants to re-sign with the Celtics, he offered a quick, “Yeah.” Does he think he can get another multi-year deal from them at 37?
“Yeah,” said Allen, in the second-year of a two-year, 20 million contract. “That’s what I want.”
Speaking of contract lengths, Allen now can look back and chuckle at when he was haggling with Seattle in July 2005 and the SuperSonics didn’t want to give him a deal longer than four years.
“I was 29 when I signed my extension and they didn’t want to give me five years because they didn’t think I would be good at the end of my fifth year,” said Allen, who was two weeks shy of 30 when he got a five-year, 80 million deal that summer. “So that’s when I (was to be) 34. So that’s why I say I’m on borrowed time because it’s great to be able to still be doing it and doing it at high level.”
No wonder Wade, 29, and James, 27, are so mesmerized by Allen. Perhaps the Heat stars might want to look into a 10,000 bike.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
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DeMarcus Cousins: Why Kings Management Is Wrong to Reinstate Pouty Big Man
The Sacramento Kings have made a foolish mistake to reinstate sophomore forward DeMarcus Cousins after the team told him to not come to the arena for Sunday’s home game against the New Orleans Hornets.
Head coach Paul Westphal said Sunday in a statement found on the Kings’ official Web site said that Cousins demanded a trade, but his agent said that did not happen.
The Kings coach also said the following in his statement:
“When a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling, unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely,” head coach Paul Westphal said.
So the Kings are going to let him come back to the team when he has problems like the ones stated in the above quote? Wow, that’s pathetic management and it will only lead to more problems.
The Kings are going on a two-game road trip Tuesday against Memphis and then at Denver the next night. They will host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday in the final game of a tiring back-to-back-to-back stretch. Without Cousins, who is by far the Kings’ best frontcourt player, they could lose all three of those games.
To a team like the Kings who don’t need to worry about winning and losing over developing talent, this is a mistake. If it takes Cousins missing a few games to learn a lesson and mature, so be it, even if the Kings lose all three of those games.
Cousins, who had a poor rookie season last year after being selected fifth overall in the 2010 NBA draft, has absolutely no business even thinking about demanding a trade or complaining.
His antics were not only disrespectful to Westphal, but to the entire organization. The Kings should suspend Cousins for a few games so he can learn that as a young player he hasn’t earned the right to speak up against people who know the game much more than he does, such as Westphal.
This is not how you set an example for how young players will be dealt with. What is going to stop another young player on the Kings from acting in a disrespectful manner like Cousins did?
Unfortunately for the Kings, having a player with Cousins’ maturity issues requires strong coaching and leadership from veteran players. Sacramento has neither of those, and the lack of any respected veterans is the real issue.
I don’t feel bad for the Kings though, they knew that Cousins had maturity issues as a freshman at Kentucky yet they drafted him anyway.
To be fair to Cousins, the Kings are a bad team and I’m sure it’s frustrating to play on a club that struggles on a consistent basis, but that’s no excuse to act the way he did.
The Kings needed to make Cousins learn a lesson and teach him how to act like a professional, but it seems like they are unwilling to make this happen.
Cousins is an incredibly gifted player, but he doesn’t have the right head on his shoulders. Complaining in your second year is wrong, and it’s up to the Kings to help him mature.
Nicholas Goss is an NBA Featured Columnist, follow him on Twitter.
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DeMarcus Cousins: Why Kings Management Is Wrong to Reinstate Poutey Big Man
The Sacramento Kings have made a foolish mistake to reinstate sophomore forward DeMarcus Cousins after the team told him to not come to the arena for Sunday’s home game against the New Orleans Hornets.
Head coach Paul Westphal said Sunday in a statement found on the Kings’ official Web site said that Cousins demanded a trade, but his agent said that did not happen.
The Kings coach also said the following in his statement:
“When a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling, unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely,” head coach Paul Westphal said.
So the Kings are going to let him come back to the team when he has problems like the ones stated in the above quote? Wow, that’s pathetic management and it will only lead to more problems.
The Kings are going on a two-game road trip Tuesday against Memphis and then at Denver the next night. They will host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday in the final game of a tiring back-to-back-to-back stretch. Without Cousins, who is by far the Kings’ best frontcourt player, they could lose all three of those games.
To a team like the Kings who don’t need to worry about winning and losing over developing talent, this is a mistake. If it takes Cousins missing a few games to learn a lesson and mature, so be it, even if the Kings lose all three of those games.
Cousins, who had a poor rookie season last year after being selected fifth overall in the 2010 NBA draft, has absolutely no business even thinking about demanding a trade or complaining.
His antics were not only disrespectful to Westphal, but to the entire organization. The Kings should suspend Cousins for a few games so he can learn that as a young player he hasn’t earned the right to speak up against people who know the game much more than he does, such as Westphal.
This is not how you set an example for how young players will be dealt with. What is going to stop another young player on the Kings from acting in a disrespectful manner like Cousins did?
Unfortunately for the Kings, having a player with Cousins’ maturity issues requires strong coaching and leadership from veteran players. Sacramento has neither of those, and the lack of any respected veterans is the real issue.
I don’t feel bad for the Kings though, they knew that Cousins had maturity issues as a freshman at Kentucky yet they drafted him anyway.
To be fair to Cousins, the Kings are a bad team and I’m sure it’s frustrating to play on a club that struggles on a consistent basis, but that’s no excuse to act the way he did.
The Kings needed to make Cousins learn a lesson and teach him how to act like a professional, but it seems like they are unwilling to make this happen.
Cousins is an incredibly gifted player, but he doesn’t have the right head on his shoulders. Complaining in your second year is wrong, and it’s up to the Kings to help him mature.
Nicholas Goss is an NBA Featured Columnist, follow him on Twitter.
Read more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
View full post on Bleacher Report – NBA
