Working it out in Charlotte
A year ago, Bernie Bickerstaff was on his way to Chicago. There, he would assess the talented group of high schoolers preparing to play in Sonny Vaccaro's all-star game. The
And Bickerstaff had no team.
He does now. It has only won a dozen games, but it's his team and he likes it. The Charlotte Bobcats aren't making anyone forget the 1985-86 Celtics, but they also haven't made anyone reference the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. They've had wins over the Kings, Nuggets, and Pistons, and two over the Rockets. (The Celtics are 2-8 against that quartet.)
Expansion is a merciless business. Since the NBA started exploding in the late 1980s -- which, by the way, represents the beginning of the end of decent pro basketball as we knew it -- the first years for newcomers have been very difficult. To wit:
Minnesota, 1988-89: 22-60.
Miami, 1988-89: 15-67.
Charlotte, 1989-90: 20-62.
Orlando, 1989-90: 18-64.
Toronto, 1995-96: 21-61.
Vancouver, 1995-96: 15-67.
If the Bobcats remain on their current pace, they might match the Heat and Grizzlies.
Bickerstaff has one advantage over the six men who got to coach those entries out of the box: He also is the Bobcats' general manager. So it's on him, which, as you might surmise, is OK with him. He knew what was in store. This year has been about two things: playing competitively and stockpiling talent. He feels he has done both.
"Right now, as opposed to this team last year, we have some assets," he said. "We feel we can use those assets to address those needs."
While Bickerstaff enjoys the players and the coaching, there is one part of his job that he misses from last year: not losing.
"You don't lose when you build, and the losing is tough," he said. "It's not doing much for my record. But we have got it in perspective. The coaching has been fun because of the guys and because I knew what it was going to be like coming in.
"I'm enjoying it. But right now, I wish I had more time to look at talent because, in the end, that's going to be the lifeline for this organization. We could all be stars if we had the right people."
So far, the Bobcats appear to have a future All-Star in Emeka Okafor, who will challenge his University of Connecticut buddy, Ben Gordon, for Rookie of the Year honors. Primoz Brezec looks like a more-than-serviceable big man, especially in a league bereft of even barely-serviceable big men. Brevin Knight has been a godsend after being plucked off the proverbial scrap heap. Kareem Rush is intriguing, as is Gerald Wallace.
The one place where the Bobcats have had trouble, besides the standings, is in the stands. When the Lakers passed through eight days ago, it represented only the second sellout of the season. Two nights later, the Celtics drew a paltry 11,103 (and that seemed to be a generous head count). The team is averaging 14,592 per game, which is among the lowest in the league (but a figure the folks in Atlanta would kill to have).
Maybe the move downtown into the new arena next season will help; and owner Robert Johnson is offering refunds to season ticket-holders who don't like what they see next year. Former Celtics Everyman M.L. Carr is part of the ownership group in Charlotte, and he said Friday that it has been an eventful and successful inaugural season.
"Are we there yet? No. But we're on the right track," Carr said. "Bob [Johnson] has been here from the beginning and has been committed from the beginning and people understand that. The tone has been set. But there's also a proving ground out there. You have to win back the trust and the support of the community."
Winning takes care of a lot of that. The Bobcats don't figure to be winners on the court for a few more years at the earliest. But Bickerstaff has a group of players who work their tails off. That is what you hear from virtually every Bobcat opponent, and if Bickerstaff can maintain that, Charlotte may have something nice going on in the not-too-distant future.
Next Magic trick: make a coach appear
No sooner had Johnny Davis been sacked by Orlando than Phil Jackson's name surfaced as someone who might be interested in succeeding Davis. Jackson is getting mentioned everywhere. Personally, I think he ought to go for the University of Virginia job: great campus, great tradition, decent weather, and all that history.
Jackson once had some unflattering things to say about Orlando (described once by Dave Barry as a city near Disney World), and the fact that he's mentioned every time there's a head coach opening is reflective of both his resume and the dearth of others. The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi, however, told the Magic to empty the vault for Big Chief Triangle with the following: "NBA insiders say it probably will take $10 million a year to lure Jackson back into coaching. If that's the case, then that's what the Magic should offer. They paid $5 million a year for Doc Rivers, and he'd never won anything. Phil has nine rings, which means the Magic would be getting a bargain by paying him only twice Doc's salary."
No one expects interim coach Chris Jent to stick around in the hot seat. A logical choice would be Eric Musselman, who had a successful albeit sometimes controversial run with the Warriors. If Davis was deemed "too nice" and "the ideal assistant coach," then Musselman would make an excellent choice. Plus, he's been an assistant in Orlando (under Chuck Daly).
Sun may be setting on finalists in West
What is going on now in the Western Conference is unprecedented over the last half-century: We may see both conference finalists from last season -- the Timberwolves and Lakers -- miss the playoffs. Since 1955-56, including seasons when only three teams per conference made the playoffs, that has not happened. In fact, you have to go back to 1989 in the Western Conference to find the last time a single finalist (the Mavericks) didn't make the playoff field the following year.
In the East, we saw it most recently in 2002, when the Milwaukee Bucks' March/April implosion kept them out of the playoffs the year after they extended the Sixers in the conference finals.
This year, in fact, we could have three of the four conference finalists out of the playoffs, as Indiana is teetering on the edge in the East, especially with Jermaine O'Neal's shoulder injury. As of now, the defending champion Pistons are the only lock for the playoffs among the four conference finalists.
Etc.
Picking through the possibilities
While Magic Johnson (on TNT Thursday) expressed little hope that his Lakers would make the playoffs, the Celtics are squarely on the fence. If the Lakers make the playoffs, then the Celtics will get their pick and the Hawks will get Boston's, per the Antoine Walker deal. (Atlanta gets the worse of the two.) However, if the Lakers don't make the playoffs, the Hawks get nothing in June and the Celtics keep their own pick. Going forward, the Celtics will always get the better of the two picks (theirs and the Lakers') in the year the pick becomes available. The pick is protected through the first 10 in 2006 and through the first five in 2007. You think Atlanta wanted to get rid of Walker and get something for him?
School is almost out for them
Many of the league's movers and shakers will be in Chicago this week and in South Bend, Ind., next week for the first two big high school all-star games. High schoolers have been the No. 1 overall pick in three of the last four drafts, but there doesn't appear to be anyone this year who will make it four out of five. Then again, you never know. As of now, a handful of high schoolers are flirting with the big-time or are believed to be headed that way. Alphabetically, they are: Andray Blatche, a 6-10ish power forward who's playing at the South Kent Hoop Refinement School in Connecticut, the same institution that gave us Dorrell Wright last year; Monta Ellis, a 6-4 guard from Jackson, Miss., who is averaging 41 points a game and has committed to Mississippi State; Gerald Green, a 6-8 swingman from Gulf Shores Academy in Houston who was MVP of the big-time ABCD Camp last summer; Josh McRoberts, a 6-9 supposedly Duke-bound forward from suburban Indianapolis who is getting some late attention; Martell Webster of Seattle Prep, a 6-8 forward with a deadly touch who has committed to Washington; and Louis Williams, a 6-2 ath-a-lete from suburban Atlanta who has committed to Georgia. Pay no attention to the commitments. If they were enforceable, John Calipari would have won an NCAA title at Memphis.
The Green Mountain boys
At the other end of the draft spectrum, you have the two guys who led Vermont to three straight NCAA appearances and are -- gasp -- seniors. The outgoing (both in personality and current employment circumstances) Vermont coach, Tom Brennan, said Thursday that he feels Taylor Coppenrath,the 6-9 do-everything guy, is a first-round pick. We ran that by Celtics general manager Chris Wallace, who, because Coppenrath is a senior, can actually comment on the kid. "I figure he'll do all the camps like Portsmouth and Chicago and we'll see," Wallace said. "He has had an extremely productive career and he has a chance. There's a lot to like about him. He'll have to play well in the postseason because there aren't too many guys out there who are going to say, `Yeah, but I saw him go for 35 and 20 against Maine.' That's not fair, but that's how it is now. Just like football, where so much emphasis is put on the combines instead of the body of work you've compiled. But I could see him going late first or early second. I think he'll hear his name called." As for the other half of the venerable Vermont twosome, point guard T.J. Sorrentine, well, you know the saying: There's a country for everyone. There's a former Bucknell player named J.R. Holden who has done well overseas and plays for Euro superpower CSKA Moscow. He was on no one's screen coming out of college. "With guards," Wallace said, "so much of it is right place, right time."
Throw in the towel
Just to show that there's no love lost between M.L. Carr and Rick Pitino (who succeeded him in Boston), here is M.L.'s take on Louisville's NCAA chances: "They could have Shaq and Tim Duncan and they still wouldn't win it -- for obvious reasons."
One brick at a time
In his first eight games as a Cavalier, Jiri Welsch shot -- ouch -- 23.5 percent from the field. With the Celtics, he shot 42.8 percent. His new team will look to end an eight-game road losing streak against the Raptors tonight. The Cavs' last road win was Jan. 22 at Golden State.
Red-letter day for Sloan
Utah coach Jerry Sloan went into the weekend needing one victory to tie Red Auerbach for sixth place on the coaching victories list at 938. Ahead of Red are Lenny Wilkens, Don Nelson, Pat Riley, Larry Brown, and Bill Fitch. None of those, or Sloan, has a better winning percentage than Auerbach (66.2), although Riley (66.1 percent) comes pretty close.
A little Miami ice for Bryant
Think Kobe Bryant is feeling a bit overwhelmed? In losses last week to Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami, the Kobester shot 3 for 29 from the field in the second half. This was after he almost singlehandedly beat the Bobcats in Charlotte with 21 points in the fourth quarter. Kobe finished with 26 points in Thursday's "rematch" with Shaquille O'Neal and the Heat, which Miami won, 102-89. Afterward, Shaq summed up the situations of the teams thusly: "This is just another game to me. I would put this in my top 2,000 games. It's not a game I lost sleep over. It's not a game I got extra hyped for. It's just a good team against a so-so team."
Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
