NBA Notebook - Nov. 18
Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | Nov. 18, 2004
Admit it. You laughed when you read
my prediction that the L.A. Clippers would finish at .500 this season and play their crosstown-rival Lakers to a draw. You figured there was a better chance of
Carmelo Anthony getting invited to the Three-Point Shootout. Well, despite Tuesday night's loss to the Lakers, the Clip-show is 5-4 even with starters
Kerry Kittles and
Chris Kaman sidelined … or is it with starter Kerry Kittles sidelined?
Wilcox is making good on his opportunity to start.
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty
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I make that comment because, in Kaman's absence, the Clippers have been forced to find what looks like a better solution - playing backup forward
Chris Wilcox in the middle alongside
Elton Brand. Wilcox flashed serious potential in limited minutes each of the last two seasons, but his path to the starting lineup was blocked by Brand. Not anymore. As a starter in Kaman's absence, Wilcox is averaging 16.8 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting an unconscious 56.7% from the field. He's clearly one of this year's
breakout stars, and pairing him with Brand hasn't seemed to be a huge problem defensively.
As Sonics fans well know, L.A. has also gotten impressive performance from Kittles' replacement, Bobby Simmons. Simmons' 30 points against the Sonics in the season opener are a season and career high, but he's also dropped 20+ on two other teams this season and is shooting 55.2%. No wonder the Clippers rank third in the NBA in field-goal percentage (47.4%).
Going even deeper, the Clippers have gotten good production from journeyman center Mikki Moore, who is playing with his sixth different team in the last four years (not including the Sonics, with whom he spent training camp 2002 but was cut because of the number of centers already on the roster). Moore is averaging 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in less than 20 minutes of action while shooting 58.8% from the field.
The Clippers may not have entered this season with much fanfare - one L.A. columnist predicted they could challenge the Philadelphia 76ers record-low nine wins; they're already more than halfway there - but they might be as good as the other L.A. squad has been in recent memory.
Jazz In Tune
Another bold preseason prediction was the Utah Jazz, not the Minnesota Timberwolves, atop the Northwest Division. Well, neither of those teams currently leads the Northwest - it's your Seattle SuperSonics (who were exempted from my preseason picks), on the strength of a red-hot 8-1 start - but the Sonics are looking at their rear-view mirror at the 6-2 Jazz, not the 4-3 Timberwolves. It's early in the season, of course, but it looks like the spreadsheet knew what it was talking about when it picked Utah over Minnesota.
Kevin Garnett - 24.7 points, 15.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists - is off to his usual brilliant start and Latrell Sprewell has called off "Operation: Feed Family" long enough to shoot 49.3% so far this season, but the issue for Minnesota is Sam Cassell. Cassell, who turns 35 today (and a Happy Birthday to Sam I Am) has staved off Father Time for several years now, posting the best season of his career and making his first All-Star appearance a year ago. But age, along with off-season surgery on his hip, has slowed Cassell in the early going. He's shooting 40.5% from the field, averaging 12.6 assists, has made only one three-pointer and has an assist-turnover ratio barely above two. In order to stay a Western Conference contender, Minnesota needs more from Cassell.
Meanwhile, the Jazz - a slow start to their current road trip aside - have started well despite playing without point guards Carlos Arroyo and Raul Lopez. With Keith McLeod - who was abysmal as a rookie in Minnesota last year - and Howard Eisley - who, ironically, was abysmal as a rookie in Minnesota before being cut and signing with the Jazz - running the point, Utah scarcely missed a beat.
An extension hasn't changed how Kirilenko plays.
Kent Horner/NBAE/Getty
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There was much discussion of Anthony's slump last week, but really it wasn't so much a slump as "being scheduled for back-to-back games against
Andrei Kirilenko". The lanky Russian is averaging a ridiculous 4.9 blocks per game while shooting better than 50% from the field. But he might not be the Jazz's best player so far this season; that honor goes to
Carlos Boozer, who is proving to be a bargain for the money Utah paid him. Boozer is averaging 22.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game on 56.9% shooting.
Want a difficult use of a half-hour? Try to pick the Western Conference All-Star forwards. Here are some names:
Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Carmelo Anthony
Elton Brand
Pau Gasol
Rashard Lewis
Corey Maggette
Shawn Marion
Kenyon Martin
Lamar Odom
Zach Randolph
Chris Webber
Yeah, those are the guys who wouldn't make the team right now. (Assuming Garnett, Kirilenko, Boozer, Tim Duncan, Peja Stojakovic, Amaré Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki (as a center) would be selected.)
All of which is a nice segue to the fact that All-Star Balloting began online today. Vote early and vote often for the three Sonics on the ballot - Lewis, Ray Allen and Ronald "Flip" Murray.
Turnover Prone
The last two days, I've written in Insider Previews that Allen Iverson (4.88 topg) and Richard Jefferson (5.5 topg) are on record paces in terms of turning the ball over. Well, let's make it semi-official. Here are the highest turnover per game averages in NBA history (which really extends back only to 1977-78, the first year individual turnovers were tracked):
| Player |
Year |
Team |
TOPG |
| Pete Maravich |
1977-78 |
NOJ |
5.0 |
| Jeff Ruland |
1984-85 |
WAS |
4.8 |
| Charles Barkley |
1986-87 |
PHI |
4.7 |
| Gary Grant |
1989-90 |
LAC |
4.7 |
| Ray Williams |
1982-83 |
KCK |
4.7 |
| Magic Johnson |
1983-84 |
LAL |
4.6 |
| Jeff Ruland |
1983-84 |
WAS |
4.6 |
| George McGinnis |
1978-79 |
DEN |
4.6 |
| Artis Gilmore |
1977-78 |
CHI |
4.5 |
| Ricky Sobers |
1977-78 |
IND |
4.5 |
|
How do you know this is an old list? Two of the ten players played for teams who have moved since then, and both have been in their new city for at least two decades. Iverson slipped below record pace with a low-turnover game against the Sonics, but Jefferson is still going strong and could seriously threaten the record if Jason Kidd is traded shortly after returning to the lineup. He seems overmatched as the Nets only offensive option.
Sidenote: I noticed that three players had high seasons in the first year individual turnovers were tracked, and in all cases they went way down the rest of their career. That made me wonder if coaches started cracking down more on turnovers when they were assigned to individuals … but that doesn't appear to be a case. Teams averaged 1,646 turnovers in 1977-78, 1,623 in 1978-79.
Odds and Ends
Philadelphia's Kyle Korver is one of the league's most improved players. While Korver remains a three-point specialist, attempting 12 threes against the Sonics out of 13 total shots on Tuesday, he's improved his rebounding and ballhandling and is now a well-rounded enough player that Sixers Coach Jim O'Brien can leave him in the game for long stretches.
Williams is my surprise of the year.
David Sherman/NBAE/Getty
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Another player making a strong push for Most Improved Player early is Milwaukee's Maurice Williams. I thought Williams was a borderline NBA player last year in Utah, when he had an assist/turnover ratio of 1.5 and mostly played shooting guard. But Williams has shown remarkable playmaking ability thus far as the Bucks starter, averaging 8.3 assists per game (third in the NBA). Williams is still a weak outside shooter and prone to turnovers, but he's giving the Bucks similar production to what they got last year from T.J. Ford.
I'm as excited as anyone that Grant Hill is back on the court and playing well, but let's not act like this hasn't happened before. In less minutes, Hill averaged 14.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists on 49.2% shooting two years ago, but he was done 29 games into the season. If Hill is still going strong by the All-Star break, then that's a different story.
I can't imagine there was anyone at KeyArena on Friday who walked out thinking that Vince Carter is still a superstar player. The lift just doesn't seem to be there anymore, and Carter only had one play at most where he looked like the player he was three or four years ago. That's not to say Carter can't be a very good player - the Raptors offense was inept when he was out with foul trouble - but Carter will have to accept that he's not the player he once was. The airball he threw up on Toronto's penultimate possession of the game indicated otherwise. (Now watch him drop 40 on the Sonics tomorrow. This will be edited if that happens, I can promise you that.)
With Keith Bogans in the mix at shooting guard, the Charlotte Bobcats are a very competitive team. But they look so far to have gone one-for-two on their extension gambles. Primoz Brezec (14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 54.8% shooting) looks like a bargain, but outside shooting continues to elude Gerald Wallace (40.0% from the field, 0-for-1 from three-point range).
Due to … um … an HTML mistake, the preview analysis of the Phoenix Suns was misprinted. Instead of reading, "Best-case scenario - everyone stays healthy, the centers do just enough to justify their minutes on the floor, and the Suns end up scaring a team in the first round of the playoffs like they did with San Antonio two years ago,"
it should have read:
"The NBA's most exciting team, the Phoenix Suns will ride double-digit assists from Steve Nash and a monster breakout season from Amaré Stoudemire to a playoff berth in the Western Conference and challenge for home-court advantage in the first round."
SUPERSONICS.COM regrets the error.
