AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 30
Monday, April 30, 2007
Been wrong before?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Being wrong doesn’t bother me at all.
(I am the same cat who back in 1987 thought the high-top fade would never go out of style. So I’ve been here before.)
But never in my wildest dreams did I think that the first round of the NBA playoffs would play out like the 2006 NCAA Tournament (Golden State=George Mason?).
The Pistons dismantling the Magic in four straight games was nothing if not expected. The Bulls (striking another blow for the team concept over the two stars and a bunch of junk approach) bouncing the Heat in four, though … didn’t see that one coming, the Mavericks on the brink of elimination to the Warriors … not on your life.
There won’t be any Mulligans around here. I’ll live with my first round picks and fry with the ones that were 100 percent wrong. It’s cool. Like I said before, I’m perfectly comfortable with being wrong (I’ve predicted Michigan would go undefeated in football every year since 1990 and been right just once).
But let’s be serious for a minute about some of the jaw-dropping things that went on the past few days.
Ben Wallace stroking seven of eight free throws? He hasn’t shot like that ever, let alone in a game (and he made seven straight).
Baron Davis channeling his inner-John Bagley (you old heads will remember him, he was a forerunner to the current crop of bulldozer scoring point guards) for four straight games? I’m not mad at the Warriors. This is how you’re supposed to act when you haven’t been in the playoffs in over a decade.
Jason Kidd turning back the clock to the pre-microfracture surgery JKidd that led the Nets to back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals? No one was sure it could happen. But Kidd is showing us that he is one of the game’s all-time greats even at this late stage of his (better be) Hall of Fame career. Steve Nash has the MVP’s that Kidd couldn’t sniff when he was doing basically the same thing Nash has done the past three years.
As I stepped off my flight from Orlando Sunday afternoon Smitty (Hawks TV analyst Steve Smith) finally sent me the text message I knew was coming. “You still like Dirk as your MVP?” We talked about it late in the regular season and even debated if Dirk was the best player on his team (a strong case could be made for Josh Howard after four games). I’m sticking with him based on his and the Mavericks’ performance during the regular season. But he wouldn’t be in my current top five for first round playoff MVP (Luol Deng and Baron Davis currently top that list).
Brady Quinn lost what one analyst projected could be $17 million Saturday by dropping to the 22nd pick in the NFL draft Saturday. Ouch. Maybe ESPN should make up the difference since they paraded dude around for 72 hours prior to the draft as this year’s golden boy/pet.
Now, back to basketball.
The NBA is announcing its All-Defensive teams this morning. I’ll be curious to see if Josh Smith makes any of the teams. Marcus Camby won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award based solely on his prowess as a shot blocker (he and Smith finished 1-2 this season and were the only two guys with 200 or more blocks during the regular season), so it only makes sense (to me) that Smith make the All-Defensive team for the same reason. - In a classy move, Camby sent out an email thanking all the NBA writers for voting him Defensive Player of the Year. I didn’t (technically, we’re not allowed to vote, AJC rule), but the gesture was impressive.
I talked about it last week and I’ll say it again, the playoff atmosphere is so drastically different to what goes on during the regular season that it’s almost embarrassing to me. Magic star Grant Hill made some good points about how important it is for teams aspiring to be real contenders to “comprehend the importance of the pace of the regular season.” Those games aren’t played with the same intensity but they mean so much in terms of playoff seeding and mental preparation for the postseason. The Magic had the will to compete. They just didn’t know how when it mattered most.
Finally, we’re 23 days away from Lottery Day for the Hawks. The only question I got more than “what are you doing here?” in Orlando was “Do the Hawks have a chance to get both of those top 15 picks?” The simple answer is yes, however slim it might be. Bu that’s all they’ve got is a chance. What’s perhaps even more important, as one team league player personnel guy I respect reminded me, is the work they do in evaluating and making the proper selection with the pick they will get (there’s a 98 percent chance they get Indiana’s pick). Whatever they do they can’t make a mistake (passing up either the right point guard or big man that’s there).
