Insider Special: Power Outage - Passing

[Guest]

NBA Power Outage: Passing time

By Terry Brown

Wednesday, January 15 Updated 11:20 AM EST

OK, I'll say it.

I miss the old Jason Kidd.

You know, the one who shot 39 percent from the field last year, 40 percent one season in Phoenix and 36 percent for a time in Dallas while averaging 14.1 points per game over his career.

Kidd

The one who would pull up for a jumper and those of us watching at home would immediately start boxing out because we didn't want that clanker to bounce through the television set, into our living room and break another lamp.

You know who I'm talking about. The guy who shot 32 percent from three-point range before starting this season and averaging a career-high 20.3 points per game at a career-high 45 percent from the field while handing out the fewest amount of assists since his rookie season more than nine years ago.

Last year, the New Jersey Nets' leading scorer averaged 14.9 points per game. Their second-leading scorer averaged 14.8. Their third-leading scorer, who just so happened to be Kidd, averaged 14.7.

They had seven players averaging more than nine points per game while the team, as a whole, averaged 23.9 assists per game.

Their eighth-leading scorer averaged 7.2 a game on 52 percent shooting.

Put it all together and those Nets scored 95.2 points per game, more than half of them coming directly from assists, 50.1 percent to be exact.

You didn't know who was going score, when they were going to score or how they were going to score.

That team won a franchise-high 52 games and advanced to the NBA Finals.

This year's team scores more, shoots better and is even one game better in the win column at this same point of the season than last year.

But this year's leading scorer, who just so happens to be Kidd, is 5.5 points better than the next one. The team averages 22.9 assists per game and its eighth-leading scorer averages 5.4 a game on 37 percent shooting.

Jason Kidd is going to dribble. Jason Kidd is going to shoot. Jason Kidd is going to score.

Put it all together and this Net team scores 46.7 percent of its points directly from assists.

And I just thought that they were a tad bit better when their career 40 percent shooter didn't have to score so many points.

PASS-FIRST TEAMS

1. Utah Jazz

Numbers: 52.1% (96.3 ppg on 25.1 apg)

Comment: If it ain't broke, then don't stop picking and rolling and rotating the ball to the open man. Stockton to Malone, I know. Stockton to Malone, you know. Stockton to Malone, we all know. But the Jazz have two guys, Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko, shooting 51 percent and 53 percent, respectively. They've got a third, Calbert Cheaney, who's shooting 49 percent from the field 50 percent from three-point range. As a team, they're shooting a league-leading 47 percent from the field. As a team, by no coincidence, they're also averaging a league-high 25.1 assists per game. As a team . . . did you hear me mention Stockton or Malone once? System, system, system. Right on down to the peach baskets and short-shorts. How else could you explain a 37-year-old backup point guard averaging 4.7 assists per game with the likes of Scott Padgett and Jarron Collins on the floor. Last year, it was John Crotty to Quincy Lewis. Next year, it might be me or you passing to the guy to your immediate right or left.

2.. Minnesota Timberwolves

Numbers: 49.7% (96.4 ppg on 24 apg)

Comment: Kevin Garnett leads this team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. So if he's going to fight his way through zone, quasi-zone, and regular man-to-man defenses that quickly turn into double teams and sometimes even triples before ever getting the ball and then first looking for a teammate with a better shot before ever taking one of his own, then the least any of his teammates can do is the same . . . minus the double and triple teams. Funny, but we've criticized this 20-10-and-5 guy in the past for not taking over games at the end and we'll probably do it again now that he's closer to 22-13-and-6.

3. Sacramento Kings

Numbers: 48.7% (100.1 ppg on 24.4 apg)

Comment: Two-handed chest passes by the book aren't enough. Bounce passes barely qualify. It's a game to these guys. Around the back, no lookers from power forwards to point guards, not the other way around, will get you, maybe, three or four handclaps from the home crowd. Show us something we haven't seen. But a simple one to the open man will get you high fives all around from the team, hugs, kisses and perhaps even your name tattooed on point guard Mike Bibby's body if we can find any more space. No team celebrates unselfishness like this one. And no team can say it scores the second-most points in the game with the second-most assists and the second-highest shooting percentage. Gee, it's kinda fun to play this game the way it was supposed to be played.

4. Seattle SuperSonics

Numbers: 48.5% (92.2 ppg on 22.4 apg)

Comment: Gary Payton leads the entire league in assists per game, total assists and is third in assists to turnovers quite simply because if he didn't, then this team wouldn't be worth the uniforms their names are printed on. And if Rashard Lewis and Desmond Mason aren't naming their kids Gary, Glove and GP junior, then they really don't know who's been putting food on their tables and milk in those bottles.

5. Los Angeles Lakers

Numbers: 48.2% (96.9 ppg on 23.4 apg)

Comment: Sit down and cross your legs if you want while humming with palms faced up and eyes closed, but it sure is nice when your leading scorer, who also happens to be the league's second-leading scorer, also averages 7.1 assists per game, and your second-leading scorer, who also happens to be the league's fourth-leading scorer, is shooting a league-leading 57 percent from the field. The chicken or the egg depends largely on the bubbly. The triangle may have been responsible for nine of the last 12 championships, but it's also been run by some of the worst teams in NBA history in Dallas and Chicago.

PASS-LAST TEAMS

25. San Antonio Spurs

Numbers: 40% (92.4 ppg on 18.5 apg)

Comment: We can only hope that Tony Parker hasn't peaked as a point guard. Last year, he averaged 4.3 assists per game and we couldn't wait for tomorrow. So far for the month of January, he is averaging 4.2 assists per game and we're wondering where yesterday went. His scoring is up. His shooting is up. But we were just kinda thinking in terms of principle and position.

26. Golden State Warriors

Numbers: 39.9% (98.6 ppg on 19.7 apg)

Comment: Head coach Eric Musselman has begged and pleaded and threatened to bench players if they didn't pass the ball. He substituted in 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins to make a point and gave him 20 minutes a game. But all they've done is go from 19.8 apg in November to 19.6 in December to 19.1 so far in January while still scoring more points than 25 of the 29 NBA teams with the league's sixth-worst field goal percentage. Are there are any 5-foot-3 guys available in the NBDL?

27. Toronto Raptors

Numbers: 39.6% (88.2 ppg on 17.5 apg)

Comment: Let's completely sugarcoat this and call up playground legend Rafer Alston from the NBDL and hope no one notices the 11 turnovers in three games.

28. Houston Rockets

Numbers: 39.2% (91.3 ppg on 17.9 apg)

Comment: Allen Iverson shoots too much. Kobe Bryant shoots too much. And now that Stevie Francis has the Houston Rockets playoff qualified by leading the team in scoring by more than five points, nearly doubling the next highest teammate in assists and averaging more than six boards a game despite being a point guard, he, too, is shooting too much.

29. Boston Celtics

Numbers: 39.1% (94.9 ppg on 18.6 apg)

Comment: At 5.3 assists per game last season, Kenny Anderson may not have been the best point guard in the world. But you'd have a hard time convincing the Celtics of that this year now that no one is averaging more than 4.4 while Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker shoot a combined six percentage points worse and Anderson wastes away on the Seattle bench at 2.8 assists per game in only 14.6 minutes. Has anyone seen the reset button?