Milwaukee Bucks Blog - The Bob Boozer Jinx : Joakim Noah

NBA Playoffs: Garnett not ready for prime time... Round 1 previews & related mumbo jumbo

J.D. Mo — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:43:00 GMT

The cold north wind shifts south at last in Milwaukee ... the sewers sing spring to their gratings ... taxes have been (almost) filed as those WE Energies trucks and vans start rolling up and down the block ... the Bucks count their lottery balls. ...

The neighborhood kids don't care; they're warm enough to take the pill outta hibernation and dribble down to the schoolyard, where they can be Kobe one day, Lebron the next ... Superman when feeling tall, D-Wade taking it to 'em all,

Ray Allen when shooting the three, saying where's my main man, KG?

Chris Paul just stole the ball.

Winter seems finally ready to leave, and the NBA playoffs have arrived, not a day too late. This is the best time of year for basketball in the world: the best players on the planet, going at it for nearly two months;

the best coaches (not counting Vinnie Del Coacho in Chicago, Michael Curry in Detroit and "that guy" the Sixers replaced Mo Cheeks' with);

the best refs (well, they really are better than the college refs, knowing the difference between a charge and a block, and the vast majority of what they call makes sense -- and when they screw up, NBA refs make college refs look like mere misdemeanor criminals);

and a Dark Lord Commissioner, David Stern, who'd like nothing more than the smaller market teams to lose to the bigger market teams, in 7 games, please. Tiny Portland, you're in for an uphill battle against the Houston Rockets. Chicago, this will not help you against the ever-popular Celtics. In the end, everybody knows that in these tough economic times, the best possible marketing scenario for the NBA is a Kobe vs. Lebron Finals showdown. It would also be the best NBA Finals since ... the 2008 Celtics-Lakers final.

The NBA is back, and the league is better than it's been since Jordan left Chicago for the last time. Getting to the 2009 Finals is going to be an intense drama-rama, especially in the East ... which brings this preview first to Boston -- where the playoffs tip-off Saturday, 11:30 am central -- and the Kevin Garnett injury saga.

Round 1 Previews - The East

Bulls vs. Celtics: Do you believe Doc Rivers when he says KG might not play at all in these playoffs? I don't. But we can, with most assurances, believe that KG won't play against the Bulls. In Boston, they're calling it a long shot that he'll play at all. This is good news in Chicago, of course, where Blog-A-Bull thinks Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah can find a way to not be intimidated by the other Celtics bigs, Kendrick Perkins and Leon Powe. Sorry Blog-A-Bull, but the Bulls frontcourt is weak, even with the addition of Brad Miller -- and don't underestimate the Celtics bench. Celtics in 5 ... 4 if Ray gets hot.

Pistons vs. Cavs: Just checked in on all my favorite Cleveland blogs, and guess what? Not a scratch about the Pistons series. Lebron, if you're still reading, just get Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace out of the playoffs ASAP. They've been the epitome of whiny, basketball selfishness all year and made the most of blaming their woes on Allen Iverson, who's done for 2009. The Pistons era in the East is over. Cavs sweep.

How about this quote on the Cavs chances from Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck:

"They earned home court, they earned the best record, they are clearly a championship-quality team, and in my opinion they have the best basketball player on the planet right now . . . Mo Williams."

Heat vs. Hawks: The battle of NBA Sodom vs. NBA Gomorrah for visiting teams. South Beach, Miami, vs. Atlanta nightlife. D-Wade vs. Joe Johnson.... Udonis Haslem vs. Josh Smith. ... Mike Bibby vs. who? ... Bucks killers Daequan Cook and Jamario Moon? The Hawks are banking on experience they gained in the 2008 playoffs in 7 games against the Celtics. The Heat and Hawks played four tight, low-scoring games this season. The avg.score was 84.5 to 82.5, three of the games won by the Hawks. But I don't think they can beat D-Wade in a 7-game series. And let's not forget South Beach and the Heat dancers, who deserve a nice, high profile in Round 2 against the Cavs. Heat in 7. Winner to play the Lebrons.

Sixers vs. Magic: Dwight Howard & the Magic may stumble a bit in this series, but the Sixers aren't playing very well. They earned the 6th seed by beating the Cavs in Cleveland Wednesday, on a night when Lebron James, Mo Williams and Zydrunas Ilgauskas all sat on the sidelines. Still, the Delonte West-Boobie Gibson-led Cavs came closer to beating the Sixers than our Bucks ever did this season. The Sixers needed OT to take the game.

One, that tells you how good the Cavs are these days -- all of them. Two, the Sixers are struggling, and admitting it. Andre Iguodala isn't happy. Hey John Hammond: Royal Ivey's in the playoffs for the first time. Magic in 5 ... make that 6. Call it a feeling. I think Iggy and Sixers get a little happy before the Magic finish them off.

West Previews still to come ...

Pot busts and other NBA goings on, some of them Bucks related

J.D. Mo — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:29:00 GMT

This was some mighty fine police work down in Gainesville, Florida:

"Do ya think the tall kid with the crazy hair is holdin?"

"Prolly. And look, he's violatin our municipal open container law. The gall of it awl. I bet he's one of them stoned NBA-ers."

"He is too. Ain't that that Noah kid who won us two straight titles?"

"Shore is. We could just write him a ticket for the open container. He ain't doin' nuthin', just drinking a beer."

"Nahh, let's run him down to the station. I don't want to stay out here 'til shift change."

"Alright. You got yer game on?"

"Let's git 'er done."

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The Charlie Villanueva damage patrol: With half of Ohio clamoring for the Cleveland Cavs to trade for Michael Redd and Racine Journal Times' Gery Woelfel reporting that, yes, John Hammond is scouting around for trades with Redd's name featured prominently, what does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel do?

The daily floats Charlie Villanueva trade talk in its Saturday edition (Friday online).

True, Charlie's was the other name mentioned in the "Woelfel World of Sports" report on Hammond's trade discussions, but how can the big name in Woelfel's story be ignored? It should be noted that Charlie's name came up as a player "other teams were interested in" not as a player Hammond was dangling out there, though by telling Woelfel Hammond might as well have dangled him out there.

Here's where I make excuses for the daily and wonder why Charlie V gave JS reporter Charles Gardner this story. With the team in flux this offseason and only Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian on the virtually "untouchable" keeper list, Redd has been smart enough not to talk to reporters. In fact, he's been media silent since fired coach Larry Krystkowiak went public about Redd's season-long disregard for his team -- in story that appeared on JSOnline the day before the Bucks announced the hiring of Scott Skiles (pay no attention to Krystkowiak's pal, Skiles, pulling strings behind the curtain to make that story happen).

Charlie V? Not so smart -- although he did take the opportunity to give JS the obligatory kiss-up-to-the-new-coach quotes. Charlie played at UConn with two of Skiles' Bulls players, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, who've given Charlie the skinny on his new coach: "They say he's a good coach. I think he's a very defensive-minded coach; he's a tough coach. It's exciting [for Charlie] for [Skiles] to be with the Bucks. He has won before, and we'll see what he can do this year." Get a media coach, Charlie.

Fans, though not surprised, have been somewhat caught off guard by the Charlie trade talk. How could we not be? Charlie will be a free agent after next season -- unless Hammond offers him an extension -- and his trade value is weirdly undefined at this point in his career. In response to this, Brett at the Bratwurst blog has proposed a number of impossible "dumb" Charlie V trades.

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October 2006, Gordon commits to Indiana ... And all heck broke loose on the Chicago Sun Times fanblogs. I don't pay too much attention to college basketball unless a Badger or Marquette game is on the toob, or during tournament time, and stories like the Eric Gordon recruitment story are part of the reason.

The fuss between Illinois and Indiana over Gordon, who would only play one year at Indiana before entering the NBA draft, painted the NCAA and the schools in shade after shade of ridiculous. The Alice in Wonderland set-up that the NCAA and the NBA has created for the best young players (the one-year rule) leaves everyone involved looking foolish, including the fans for caring too much about too little.

Gordon reversed his verbal commitment to Illinois to play for Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson, who had taken the Indiana job in March 2006. Gordon's change of schools occurred when Sampson was barred from leaving the university on recruiting trips or making recruiting calls, sanctions that stemmed from Sampson's "impermissable phone call" violations while coaching at Oklahoma. Investigators later charged that Sampson had made 100 calls during this initial year of sanctions. One has to wonder how many were calls from/to Gordon or Gordon's father.

The only reason I'm recounting all this is to wonder whether Sampson would still be at Indiana if Gordon hadn't changed his mind -- which was completely within his rights, obviously, as long as his dad said it was OK. The indignation spewed over Eric Gordon's one year of basketball (led by Illinois coach Bruce Weber) was not only an embarassment, it probably put Indiana on edge about Sampson. It certainly didn't help the coach's situation.

There's something very wrong about all of it, but nothing moreso than the realization that the shame felt by the parties involved was probably minimal. Why be embarassed by the ridiculousness of it all when you can just fire the coach?

The Bucks and Gordon? Sampson being a Milwaukee assistant does have some bearing on whether the Bucks draft Gordon. How could it not? Sampson's not likely keeping his high opinion of Gordon to himself, and Milwaukee becomes the place to be for Gordon -- if he's still available when the Bucks pick 8th. Almost every mock draft out there has Gordon going no later than the Bucks pick. If the Bucks are lucky, Gordon'll be the best player available when the Bucks pick.

The driving factor on whether Gordon becomes a Buck, however, will be what Hammond finds on the trade market. The pick itself and/or the player the Bucks select is on the table and could be in motion -- even if the player in motion is Eric Gordon.