Thursday Insider

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Nets health holding up for a change

By Terry Brown

NBA Insider

Thursday, May 15

Updated: May 15

12:05 PM ET

Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups went from scoring 101 points in three playoff games to just 3 in the following three games with only a busted ankle in between to show for it. Los Angeles Lakers small forward Rick Fox tore a tendon in his foot to put him on the bench permanently for the playoffs and just in time to watch his replacement Devean George bust his ankle before he could even have corrective surgery. Chris Webber blew out his knee on an alley oop pass that sailed untouched into the glass and completely changed the complexion of this entire postseason.

And these are just some of the injuries that we know about.

"I thought that some of our guys were banged up and needed the rest," New Jersey Net coach Byron Scott said in NY Daily News. "We also missed spending the weekend with our families, so that is why I gave them two days off. It is just nice to be home and rest and then (today) it is back to work."

So, with these playoffs expected to the longest in, at least, the last ten years, no franchise stands in a better position to win them from a physical standpoint than the one plagued the most by injuries in the past.

"Those teams are going to have some bumps and bruises," Scott said of the Sixers and Pistons who are playing for the right to meet the Nets in the next round. "That was a big factor when we got up 3-0 on Boston; these guys focused on getting it done and getting some time off, so no one gets hurt."

Martin

And New Jersey has seen its fair share of injuries littering its past. But forget about players who are not even on the roster anymore and look at the history of their current starters. Starting shooting guard Kerry Kittles has missed 128 games over the last six season including the entire 2001 season with a busted knee. Power forward Kenyon Martin went from frontrunner for Rookie of the Year to a fractured right fibula that put him out for the season and the running for the award with only 12 games to go in his rookie campaign in 2001. Even the most veteran of Nets, center Dikembe Mutombo, lost his starting position this season because of an injury that allowed him to play a career-low 24 games during the regular season. In 10 NBA seasons, Jason Kidd has gone unscathed of injury only three times and he's the good news.

"We weren't leaving Boston without a win," Kenyon Martin said in the NY Times. "We're trying to make our own mark. We're trying to rewrite the record books."

Of the seven remaining teams in the playoffs, the New Jersey Nets and Sacramento Kings have played the fewest number of games at 10, the biggest difference being that the Nets have already qualified for their Conference Finals while the Kings are down 3-2 in their semifinal series with the Dallas Mavericks, who have played 12 games already themselves. Plus, the Nets get to face either the Pistons, 12 games played, or the Sixers, 11 games played, after they beat up on each other perhaps another two times.

In fact, if you look at the ages of each team's top five players, the Nets are in even better shape. The New Jersey team has young legs under a starting rotation that has completed only 22 seasons. The next closest team, the Spurs, have 32 seasons under their collective belts with the Sixers being the most experienced at 43. Experience can indeed be a valuable asset in a title run but not if those wily veterans are watching the action from the bench in shirts and ties and ace bandages filled with ice.

And that has never been more important than this season. With the league expanding the opening round to the best of seven instead of a best of five, this postseason will become the longest in the last 10 years if not even more. The previous high in the last 10 years was in 1994 when 16 teams took 77 games to determine an NBA champion. The Houston Rockets won it that year after a seven-game series with the New York Knicks in the Finals but only after three of the four semifinal series also went a full seven games.

So far this postseason, the 16 playoff teams have combined for 68 games and we've only got one team out of the semifinals. Considering that the NBA Champion over the last 10 seasons has taken, on average, 20 games to win it all with 23 being the high, these seven remaining teams are in for some overtime.

In fact, if the Los Angeles are to repeat for a fourth time, it will take between 21 games, if they go undefeated the rest of the way, and 27, if they continue their habit starting slow and finishing strong in elimination games. The Pistons, Sixers and Mavs could also take up to 27 games to be crowned with the Spurs and Kings at 26. But the Nets, the only team to have swept an opponent this postseason, are looking at between 18 and 24 games.

Which, when you consider Chauncey Billups and Rick Fox and Chris Webber, can only make Byron Scott breath a slight sigh of relief.

"They're both so physical," Scott said in Newsday of the 76ers and Pistons. "Both of them are going to come into our series with some bumps and bruises, so we're probably going to be a little more healthy."

Rest for Weary

Greg Logan / Newsday

Nets rested and ready

Kristie Ackert / New York Daily News

Nets Take Awhile to Make Short Order of Celtics

Liz Robbins / New York Times

NBA Draft: And then there were 16 ...

By Chad Ford

NBA Insider

Send an Email to Chad Ford Thursday, May 15

Updated: May 15

11:16 AM ET

"As many as 13 international players in the first round?" a well respected NBA scout asked me in a phone call on Wednesday. "You've got a bad case of Euro fever, man. Do you understand that means that only 16 college players would go in round one? That's crazy man."

Perhaps. Given that the most international players ever selected in the first round is six, 13 does seem a bit excessive. That is, until you actually start breaking the draft down on paper.

That's exactly what I did with several top NBA scouts and executives last weekend in Barcelona. While most of them expressed reservations about the number of international players who actually would be selected in the first round, after humoring me with a little exercise, they struggled to come up with an alternative.

That's why Europe is literally teeming with NBA scouts and GMs right now. Thanks to increased exposure, better scouting or just a bumper crop of international studs -- some draft records will be shattered this year.

Don't believe me?

Let's take a look at this year's college crop first.

Here are the locks to go in Round 1:

LeBron James (No. 1 overall)

Carmelo Anthony (high lottery)

Chris Bosh (high lottery)

T.J. Ford (mid lottery)

Chris Kaman (mid lottery)

Mike Sweetney (lottery)

Dwyane Wade (late lottery to mid first round)

Kirk Hinrich (late lottery to mid first round)

Luke Ridnour (late lottery to mid first round)

Jarvis Hayes (mid first round)

David West (mid to late first round)

Reece Gaines (mid to late first round)

That's 12 college players who probably can rest easy on draft night. None of these players is expected to pull out of the draft.

A few more have a very good shot of landing in the first round.

Nick Collison (mid to late first round)

Mario Austin (late first round)

Mo Williams (late first round)

That brings the total up to 15 U.S. players who should make the first-round cut.

Now for the tough part. There are as many as 16 international players right now who are considered candidates for the first round. Ten of them appear to be locks if they keep their names in the draft (remember, international players under age 22 are considered "underclassmen" by the NBA and must follow the same process as college underclassmen or high-school players):

Darko Milicic (high lottery)

Mickael Pietrus (lottery)

Maciej Lampe (lottery)

Pavel Podkolzin (late lottery to mid first round)

Boris Diaw (mid first round)

Leandrinho Barbosa (mid first round)

Alexsandar Pavlovic (mid first round)

Anderson Varejao (mid to late first round)

Sofaklis Schortsianitis (mid to late first round)

Zaur Pachulia (mid to late first round)

If you're doing the math, that brings our total to 25 first-round "locks."

The one caveat here is that several international players will pull out of the draft if their agents aren't happy with their projected draft positions. Lampe, Podkolzin, Varejao, Pachulia and Schortsianitis will only stay in the draft if they're projected to go in the lottery or mid first round. Right now that seems to be a safe assumption for everyone but Sofaklis.

Three other international players stand a very good chance of landing in the first round:

Victor Khryapa (late first round)

Carlos Delfino (late first round)

Zarko Carbakapa (late first round)

Again, the caveat here is that Khryapa and Delfino are classified as underclassmen and could decide to pull out. I think it's unlikely either will.

That brings the total to 28 players in Round 1.

Several other U.S. players are currently on the first-round bubble:

Brian Cook

Marcus Banks

Josh Howard

Marcus Moore

Travis Outlaw

Travis Hansen

Rick Rickert

Kendrick Perkins

Ndudi Ebi

Three other international players are also on the first-round bubble:

Zoran Planinic

Malick Badiane

Slavko Vranes

That's 12 players for one last draft slot. For the unconverted, look at another way: If all the international underclassmen we identified (Lampe, Podkolzin, Varejao, Pachulia, Schortsianitis, Khryapa and Delfino) pull their names out of the draft, the number of international players projected to go in the first round is only down to six, tying last year's record.

That's the worst-case scenario for U.S. hopefuls, folks. More likely, a couple will pull their names and the rest will roll the dice. That leads to some interesting battles for those last few first-round spots.

On paper, players like Cook (Big 10 Player of the Year), Howard (ACC Player of the Year) or Banks seem like the logical picks. But something else is working against these kids this year.

With the luxury-tax finally ready to sink its teeth into the NBA's biggest spenders, more and more teams late in the first round are looking for international players they can stash overseas for a year or two. The team retains the kid's draft rights, the player gets more playing time than he would on a top-tier NBA team, and the player's salary does not count on the team's books.

The Nets had great success doing this last season with Nenad Kristic. The Jazz also have gone this route in the past with Andrei Kirilenko and Raul Lopez.

This year, teams with multiple first-round picks (Celtics, Magic, Pistons) and teams whose rosters already are stacked (Blazers and Mavs) are leaning in this direction. Several players like Khryapa, Delfino, Pachulia, Schortsianitis and Varejao are open to staying overseas next year if it gets them drafted in Round 1 this year. That gives them a major advantage over most of the U.S. kids.

No matter how you slice it, some underclassmen, high school seniors and even college seniors are going to be crying their eyes out on draft night.

Among the who's-who of college and high school basketball who look like they'll be potential draft night losers? As many as eight of the bubble players (Cook, Banks, Howard, Moore, Outlaw, Hansen, Rickert, Perkins and Ebi) we just projected, plus:

Chris Thomas

Jameer Nelson

Charlie Villanueva

Josh Powell

Dahntay Jones

Luke Walton

Jason Kapono

Ron Slay

Troy Bell

Marquis Estill

That has to be a sobering thought among the hard-core college hoops fans who still cling to the antiquated "Made in the USA" notion.

Divac unhappy with officiating in Game 5 loss

By Terry Brown

NBA Insider

Thursday, May 15

Updated: May 15

12:04 PM ET

Sacramento Kings center Vlade Divac has played 34,816 minutes in the NBA if you count the playoffs in 1,145 games over 14 seasons with 3 different teams in two conferences.

He knows what an NBA foul is and what it will mean for his team, down 3-2 in their semifinal series with the Dallas Mavericks, if he gets too many of them tonight at home with a potential seventh game to be played in Dallas.

"They're not going to call fouls on me here (tonight in Game 6)," he said in the Sacramento Bee after almost fouling out in the fifth game loss on the road. "Some of those calls were ridiculous."

In that game, Divac played a total of 13 minutes, picking up 5 fouls and 5 points along the way while his back up Keon Clark played 14 minutes, also picking up 5 fouls and 5 points along the way.

"I think three of his fouls were totally bogus," head coach Rick Adelman said in the Sacramento Bee. "I mean, seriously. That fifth foul, he barely touched Dirk Nowitzki on the pick and roll. If they're going to call that, we should have had six calls on them."

Divac

Of course, if anyone on the King roster should know better, it is Divac. He's been their spiritual leader for several seasons now, stepping up to the forefront during the regular season when the team was hit with injury after injury and then again this postseason when Chris Webber went down with a knee injury in the second game of this semifinal series.

Despite his advanced age and contemplations of retirement last season, he still averaged 29.8 minutes per game compared to his career average of 30.2. And during that time, he committed 3 fouls per game compared to 3.2 over his career.

That's not so bad,

He flops, he whines, he puts both hands around his face and looks in complete amazement whenever the whistle blows. But he doesn't commit as many fouls as other centers still in the playoffs. Sure, great defenders like Ben Wallace and David Robinson, both having won Defensive Player of the Year Awards, have averaged fewer fouls per game over their careers than Divac. But Shaquille O'Neal is at 3.4 fouls per game in 37.8 minutes over 11 seasons. Shawn Bradley is at 3.3 in 25.9 minutes in 10 seasons. And Jason Collins is at 2.7 in only 20.9 minutes over two seasons.

"The two fouls he had on (Steve) Nash, all Vlade did was turn to rebound," continued Adelman in the Bee. "Nash ran into him and fell down. Because the guy fell down, they made the call."

But, still, Vlade should know better.

During the regular season with an injured Chris Webber out, Divac averaged only 2.4 fouls per game. Against the Mavericks this year, he averaged only 3 fouls per game. But as soon as Webber went down in the second game, he went from committing three fouls in the first two games to 12 in the next three and the Mavs won 2 of 3 to push the Kings to within 48 minutes of elimination.

During the regular season, Divac committed 5 or more fouls in 11 games and the Kings were still able to prevail in 9 of them. But the Kings don't have even that slight margin of error. Five or more fouls in just one more game could be the last one for the series, the season and, perhaps, the career of the 7-foot-1 center from Serbia who reached the NBA Finals in only his second season and would desperately like to return a second time before retiring.

"We've got to be smart out there," the coach said. "Even though some of those calls on Vlade were bogus, they're still fouls. We need Vlade out there for 30-35 minutes."

Kings need Divac on floor

Joe Davidson / Sacramento Bee

Peep Show

By Terry Brown

NBA Insider

Thursday, May 15

Updated: May 15

12:03 PM ET

Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal is mad and he's not going to take it anymore. "I've been with Shaq from day one, since he's been here," Derek Fisher said in the LA Daily News. "And when he comes off a performance like last night, often times he's able to make whatever adjustment he needs to make psychologically to get through the pain or to get through whatever he's dealing with and be there for us. And I fully expect him to dominate (tonight's) game."

Hill

Philadelphia 76ers: Power forward Tyrone Hill has been told to not even stand up on his injured calf muscle, but there he is walking around, trying to convince coaches they should put him back in if not now, then later. "I'm not trying to end my career this way," he said in the Philadelphia Daily News. "If the Sixers want me, I'd love to come back. If they want me, I'd love to come back later and be part of the organization, maybe one day being the guy to help the young guys as they're coming up. But let's worry about that later. First, let's win this series, get to the Eastern finals, get back to the Finals, try to win a championship." Doctors have said that it will take between 3 and 4 weeks for him to heal. "It hurts, because it feels like you're letting your family down when they need you the most," he said. "And it hurts even more because you have no control over the situation. Coach [Larry Brown] didn't bring me back to be hurt."

Los Angeles Clippers: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that there has been no progress made in the search for a new coach for the Clippers. Only preliminary discussions have been held with interim coach Dennis Johnson, who replaced the fired Alvin Gentry last year. Other names mentioned are Paul Silas, Lenny Wilkens and Jeff Van Gundy as well as Isiah Thomas and Doug Collins who, the paper reports, are expected to be fired soon from their respective teams.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Unlike the Clippers, the Cavs seem to be making head room in their search for a coach. "I'm no longer a candidate for the L.A. Clippers' job," Silas said in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "They decided to go in another direction. Wherever I go, I want to win. It isn't critical if we win immediately but I can't stand losing." Other coaches mentioned are interim coach Keith Smart and University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins. "They have a lot of potential," Silas said. "The commitment of [owner] Gordon Gund and Jim Paxson to bring a winning club to Cleveland is what I like to hear."

Hill doesn't want end to come as a spectator

Phil Jasner / Philadelphia Daily News

Clippers Aren't Close to Naming Head Coach

Elliott Teaford / Los Angeles Times

Silas shows interest in Cavaliers

Branson Wright / Cleveland Plain Dealer

Angry O'Neal ready to roll?

Howard Beck / Los Angeles Daily News