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Still-growing Bynum gives Lakers a limitless future
By Scott Howard-Cooper
November 13 2009
The Andrew Bynum progression chart is a roller-coaster diagram. Great expectations as the No. 10 pick in 2005 and the youngest player to ever get in an NBA game, only to spend that rookie campaign out of the Lakers rotation. He had substantial forward movement his third season, only to hurt his left knee and miss the final 46 games and L.A.'s run to the Finals. A recovery his fourth season, 2008-09, to the top 10 in the league in shooting and blocks at age 20, only to hurt his right knee and miss 32 games.
So of course nothing is going to be conventional with the Bynum of 2009-10. He is back, again, and constantly improving, still, and even an early favorite for a spot on the Western Conference All-Star team at center. A very good preseason followed by a very good first six games that count, with two others lost to a strained elbow and sore triceps before returning Thursday night with 26 points and 15 rebounds against the Suns. But:
The Lakers have proven they essentially don't need him to win.
Bynum was still recovering from a torn knee ligament last spring, he averaged 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in the playoffs, and L.A. faced the planet's best center (Dwight Howard) in The Finals. All that, and still a parade.
Plus, Pau Gasol, ideally a power forward but the center in a Bynum-less lineup, is an established star and a perfect component for the triangle offense. Gasol, not Bynum, is a documented difference maker.
How strange, then, early in this season. Bynum continues to grow into a force and he is firmly entrenched in the system, somehow already in his fifth season in time-flies perspective. Yet it is Bynum who must fit in with the team that won 65 games last season while he missed 40 percent of the action. The same team that won the title while he logged just 17.4 minutes in the postseason and 22, 16, 23, 16 and 17 minutes in the L.A.'s five Finals games.
Bynum disagrees -- "No, I don't need to prove that I can fit in at all. I think I've already proved that. Coming back off the injury, I had [four] games ... to get ready for the playoffs. It's tough. You've got to get back in rhythm and everybody else is at the highest level. It's natural, I think, to go out there and struggle a little bit. I was happy that I was able to contribute what little I did -- try to defend Howard, use my fouls, help earn us a ring. I just can't wait to get back there in the playoffs this year, because hopefully I'm healthy and I'll be able to contribute."
But also still to be determined, even after all these years, is another important issue: How can Bynum and Gasol share the court when they both work best inside and need (and deserve) the ball on the block. After all, out of a possible 161 games in the regular season and playoffs since Gasol arrived in a February 2008 trade, the two have played together 72 times. Twenty-seven of those games were with Bynum getting sporadic minutes last season following the April 9 return from a second knee major knee injury.
What endless possibilities. All rich with drama, naturally, because that's how the Lakers do it. If Bynum and Gasol ever get a couple months together, really together, it could force both to make unwanted adjustments, while also making sure no one clogs the Kobe Bryant's lane to the basket. Or, in the obvious concern for the rest of the league, an entire season of health and growth for Bynum combined with the arrival of Ron Artest gives L.A. an entirely new power dimension that didn't exist last season.
"His teammates are going to find him," coach Phil Jackson said of Bynum. "And when you have a player like Kobe that draws the attention of two players, he's going to find Andrew. It's very hard to keep Andrew away from the basket. That's going to be a force to be reckoned with. Andrew's developed a lot of moves on his own and he has a desire to score, so he's going to score some points."
Bynum is at 21 points per game now, along with 11.3 rebounds and 58.4-percent shooting, so imagine what he could turn out to be.
And the 17.4 minutes in the playoffs, as he was trying to get back from the knee injury?
Bynum is at 39.3 an outing now.
"The knee's fine," he said. "I'm healthy this year. It's great to be able to say that. Hopefully I can stay that way. Shape wise, I feel like I can run with everybody. I'm trying to be ahead of the ball on both sides. For me, coming in lighter this year [has been a key]. I'm only 272. In previous years, I've been 285, 288. It's really helped to take load off my knees and I've picked up a little speed.
"My rookie season, I didn't play at all. I played 82 games once, but hit the rookie wall [as a second-year player]. And then I came back the third season and was ready, but got hurt and missed 40 games. Then the same thing happened last year. I think if I just stay healthy and stay playing at this level, everything will be fine."
Maybe for Bynum and the Lakers. Not so fine for everyone else.
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Hornets’ new coach must win over Paul
By Adrian Wojnarowski
November 13, 2009
The slacker son of the New Orleans Hornets owner went to Los Angeles with the team and began to grumble about the priorities of the coach. Yes, it was over for Byron Scott now. The old man had crowned Chad Shinn with a VP title and authority on choosing the Honeybees, and even he knew Scott failed to understand the urgency of his plight. With three games in four nights, his franchise in freefall, the coach was planning tee times in SoCal.
“Yeah, that bothered some people,” one Hornets source said.
This wasn’t out of character for Scott. His players wanted a more sophisticated playbook, management wanted longer hours and more diligent preparation and, well, Byron Scott wanted to hit the links. To be fair, this was Scott when he was the NBA’s Coach of the Year, and this was him now.
Embarrassed by the Lakers on Sunday, the Hornets beat the Clippers on Monday, and the team’s departure to Phoenix for Wednesday night’s game had been pushed back to accommodate the coach’s golf game. Scott played 18 holes with his last two allies in the organization, superstar Chris Paul and his brother/business manager, C.J. Paul.
Six years ago, Jason Kidd inspired a locker-room revolt to push Scott out of the New Jersey Nets. This time, Paul was still on his coach’s side, when everyone else had left it. “Chris is heartbroken and he’s angry,” a source close to him said Thursday. “Byron is the only coach he’s known in the pros, and he’s practically in mourning right now. The only thing that made this worse for him was that [Jeff] Bower took over.
“Jeff’s got a lot of work to do to win Chris over.”
That’s the case for the entire organization. After Hornets president Hugh Weber met privately with Paul and David West to tell them Scott had been fired, the team wanted Paul to stay, wait out the news conference and give a brief statement to the press. He wouldn’t do it. His best friend, West, stayed and declared publicly what he had been saying privately: The Hornets desperately needed a change, and West made no apologies for it.
Privately, West bluntly told friends: “We really don’t run any plays.”
For Paul, this wasn’t so much professional as it was personal. He takes things hard and feels them deeply. Truth be told, Paul is livid. C.J. Paul posted an apparent dig at Weber on his Twitter account: “I can’t stand when [people] that don’t know basketball make major basketball decisions. It turns out to be a disaster.”
As the Hornets’ general manager, Bower had been reluctant to replace Scott with himself, but there was no suitable interim on the coaching staff. Bower is a burly man with a shaved head who looks far more like a prison warden than a basketball coach. Bower’s no Showtime Laker, and he sure won’t try and sell himself to the Hornets as a sideline star. His job is momentous and his mandate unmistakable: To save this season, to save his job, Jeff Bower has to win over the best point guard on the planet.\
After serving as the Hornets’ general manager since 2005, Jeff Bower will now also coach the team.
Bower has come a long, long way into this job – a small-college assistant turned NBA advanced scout who kept climbing on merit, not connections. He worked his way into the Hornets front office, to the bench as an assistant and ultimately to the GM job. Two years ago, New Orleans was the NBA’s biggest success story. Today, Bower’s job is on the line. Things changed fast. Bower has made some costly misjudgments, but it offended several respected GM peers to see Weber, the Hornets’ fake tough guy who married into the job, so publicly grandstand at Bower’s expense during a news conference.
“How about the statement from Weber?” one Western Conference GM emailed on Thursday night. “ ‘Bower put this together and he’s going to be held accountable.’ I’m sure it was his vision to dump salary and give away all the pieces they did to reduce salary.”
Bower will coach the rest of the season, and ownership allowed him to bring back Tim Floyd, his old boss, as his top assistant. No one has to tell Bower how loyal Paul is; he’s seen it over and over. Yes, Paul loathes change. He grows attached to people, and holds on when maybe he should let go. As flaws go, it isn’t much. Paul was disconsolate when the Hornets traded Bobby Jackson. Once, he struggled with the release of a nonguaranteed training-camp rookie named Tre Johnson. It’s just his nature. In the end, Paul’s had two coaches since high school – the late Skip Prosser at Wake Forest and Byron Scott.
And to try to explain Paul’s angst over the firing of Scott, one source said, “Remember how he last lost a coach.” Paul had to read the eulogy at Prosser’s funeral two years ago. Prosser was a monumental figure in Paul’s life, and Scott worked hard to have the relationship with Paul in New Orleans that Scott never had with Kidd in New Jersey.
Yes, Chris Paul hates change, and the firing of Byron Scott is the most dramatic of his professional career. Eventually, Paul will come to understand that Scott had chances to save himself. When the Hornets were young and restless, bouncing between New Orleans and Oklahoma City, the franchise valued Scott’s evenness. He always makes you believe everything will be all right, but that eventually evaporated. They needed something more tangible, something they could touch, and Scott struggled to deliver it.
Now it’s Bower’s turn and it could just be a matter of time until he’s pushed out the door as well. He knows that, and it’s a big part of why he agreed to step out of the shadows and into the light. Jeff Bower doesn’t come out of Showtime Lakers but St. Francis and Marist. He shops for shirts in hotel gift stores and blasts ’80s cover bands in the privacy of his pick-up truck. Two years ago, he finished third to Danny Ainge and Mitch Kupchak in the voting for NBA Executive of the Year.
For his own job, for the sake of the franchise, Jeff Bower has 73 games left to win over Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Yes, Paul hates change, but he hates something else far more: losing. Between now and the playoffs, the planet’s best point guard doesn’t need a new father figure or a golfing buddy. Chris Paul needs a basketball coach.
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LeBron plans to switch jersey numbers out of respect for Jordan
By J.E. Skeets
November 13, 2009
Out of respect for the greatest basketball player of all-time — and/or in an effort to increase merchandising sales — Cavaliers star LeBron James says he will trade in his No. 23 uniform number for No. 6 after this season.
LeBron made the comments following Thursday night's win in Miami. Jordan, as you might have guessed, was in attendance to subtly remind the world about his new 25th anniversary sneakers. Do these guys have timing or what?
"I just think what Michael Jordan has done for the game has to be recognized some way soon," James said. "There would be no LeBron James, no Kobe Bryant, no Dwyane Wade if there wasn't Michael Jordan first.
"He can't get the logo, and if he can't, something has to be done. I feel like no NBA player should wear 23. I'm starting a petition, and I've got to get everyone in the NBA to sign it. Now, if I'm not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it."
It shouldn't take much for James to convince his peers. With an assist from Basketball-Reference, Tom Ziller at the FanHouse culls the names of players currently wearing No. 23 in the league. The list:
Devin Brown, Marcus Camby(notes), Toney Douglas (who has the gall to wear it in New York! New York!), Stephen Graham, Kevin Martin, Wes Matthews, Jodie Meeks, Jason Richardson, C.J. Watson, Martell Webster(notes) and Louis Williams.
Stars switching numbers is hardly unprecedented in the NBA. In 2006, Kobe Bryant switched his No. 8 for No. 24 and sold a few zillion jerseys in the process. When Jordan came out of his first retirement, after the Bulls had sent No. 23 to the rafters, he wore No. 45 for 22 games before switching back.
Why No. 6? Well, LeBron has his reasons. The No. 6 was James' Olympic number, Julius Erving, who rocked it, is second-favorite player ever, and LBJ's first child was born on Oct. 6; his second in June (the sixth month).
That's right; LeBron James, numerologist.
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Loss to Lakers fuels Anthony, Nuggets
By Marc J. Spears
November 13, 2009
DENVER — Less than three weeks into the season, and already Carmelo Anthony is hearing people mention him as a leading MVP candidate. Around the NBA, they’re talking about ‘Melo’s 30-point nights, about how his game has expanded, about how he’s finally realizing his enormous potential.
Anthony laughs when he hears this. He’s been a big-time scorer for years now. The difference isn’t in his game. It’s the perception of him that has changed.
Slowed by hand and elbow injuries, Carmelo Anthony was left off last season’s All-Star team.
All those first-round exits, all that off-the-court drama, finally have been pushed aside. These days, Anthony shines so bright that not even those old dark clouds can hide him.
“I don’t think I’m doing anything different than I’ve done in the past,” Anthony said in a recent phone interview with Yahoo! Sports. “I have no idea why everyone’s surprised. I’ve been doing the same thing for six years. I don’t know why people are acting like I just learned how to play this season.”
Anthony scored plenty during his first five years in the NBA, but his long list of transgressions sometimes overshadowed his game. While LeBron James and Dwyane Wade both advanced to the NBA Finals – and Wade even won a championship – Anthony couldn’t get past the first round. Last season, Western Conference coaches showed their disrespect (or dislike) for Anthony by leaving him off the West All-Star team – even though his greatest sins were a broken right hand and sore elbow which limited his scoring.
Anthony healed enough to end his string of one-and-dones. With Chauncey Billups at his side, Anthony helped lead the Nuggets into the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1985, beating the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks along the way. The Nuggets pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to six games in the West finals before losing the series. Anthony ended his playoff run as one of the postseason’s most dominant performers, averaging more than 27 points.
Anthony had always taken his first-round exits hard; after the Nuggets fell behind the San Antonio Spurs 3-1 in 2005, he cried at his locker for nearly 30 minutes. Still, that didn’t compare to the disappointment Anthony felt after finishing two wins shy of last season’s Finals.
“I was messed up,” he said. “I got so close. … To come up so close and fall short? I kind of took that hard.
“I didn’t have a chance to play with USA Basketball [last summer] so I had a lot of time to reflect on it. My goal at the end of the day is to win a championship. [The pain is] still in there. It never is going to go away.”
Anthony will be reminded of that pain when the Nuggets play the Lakers on Friday for the first time since their meeting in the conference finals. The Nuggets have stated loudly that they believe they beat themselves more than the Lakers beat them.
“Don’t get me wrong; they played extremely well,” Anthony said. “They did the right things to win the whole thing. But in my eyes and our eyes, it basically came down to a couple plays. And that’s how we look at it. We were right there. We were going back and forth with them. Some minor things happened, which happen sometimes. We just learned from that experience.”
After reaching the conference finals, respect has since been hard to come by for the Nuggets. The Lakers signed Ron Artest, the Spurs added Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess. Dallas brought in Shawn Marion. The Portland Trail Blazers landed Andre Mille.
The Nuggets?
They drafted point guard Ty Lawson, then were criticized for letting that stand as their most significant offseason acquisition. In the meantime, they lost guard Dahntay Jones and key forward Linas Kleiza.
Said Anthony: “People were saying in so many words that our season was a fluke.”
Anthony found motivation in the skepticism and reported to training camp weighing a svelte 228 pounds. He topped 40 points in two of the Nuggets’ first three games and is averaging 30.2 for the season. His aggressiveness also has been rewarded – he’s averaging just under 12 free-throw attempts per game. Most important, he feels healthy and refreshed.
His goal now is to get past the Lakers and take the Nuggets to the Finals.
“For me, all the pressure would go off,” Anthony said. “It would mean a lot. I was part of the rebuilding process. I came in when we won only 17 games the year before. I was part of that squad that turned everything around.
“My main goal is for the team to be successful. It’s not like I’m going into this like I want to be MVP, I want to do this, I want to do that. No. When we win, everybody can shine.”
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Homecoming in New Orleans?
As soon as Byron Scott’s firing from the New Orleans Hornets appeared imminent, Avery Johnson’s name quickly surfaced as a possible replacement. Johnson is beloved in his hometown in New Orleans and remains one of the most successful coaches available. He also is a former point guard, which could help him connect with Hornets star Chris Paul.
Johnson, however, hasn’t heard from the Hornets and he doesn’t expect to for the remainder of the season. Hornets general manager Jeff Bower replaced Scott and the team said it has no current plans to search for another coach. Still, Bower also isn’t looking past this season.
Would A.J. be interested if the Hornets did call?
“I’m always concerned with the city of New Orleans, whatever it is,” Johnson said in a phone interview. “The Saints. The Hornets. The rebuilding of New Orleans. Anything that concerns New Orleans I’m concerned with it. So in this situation, I just hope for the best.”
Johnson, who is working as an analyst for ESPN, is one of the New Orleans’ favorite sons after playing on St. Augustine High School’s 1983 state championship team then going on to lead the nation in assists at Southern University. The “Lil’ General” went from being an undrafted NBA player to enjoying a 15-year career that included a 1999 championship with the San Antonio Spurs.
Johnson went 194-70 as the Dallas Mavericks’ head coach in three-plus seasons before the team fired him on April 30, 2008. He was named Coach of the Year in 2006, the same season he helped guide the Mavs to the NBA Finals, where they blew a 2-0 lead to the Miami Heat. He has been a candidate for recent openings in Detroit and Memphis.
Johnson’s TV contract lasts through this season, and he said he’d love to return to coaching at the right time or maybe take a front-office role with some team.
“I miss coaching. I miss managing. I miss leading. I miss the interaction with players and fans and even referees,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he felt bad for Scott, who guided the Hornets within a game of the 2008 Western Conference finals.
“Byron was just Coach of the Year. What happened to Byron is what happened to Doc Rivers and what happened to me,” Johnson said. “You’re Coach of the Year one year and then you’re fired the next year or two. That’s what happens in our business.”
Johnson doesn’t have a personal relationship with Hornets owner George Shinn. But if the Hornets do call after the season, Johnson will listen.
“Then we’ll have to look at it,” Johnson said. “There is not one situation that has come across my desk that I’m not going to take a look at.”
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Frank safe in New Jersey
With Byron Scott fired in New Orleans, New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank would seem to be close to following his old boss in the unemployment line. Frank’s job status was in question at the end of last season, and the Nets entered Friday as the NBA’s only winless team with an 0-8 record.
NBA sources, however, continue to insist that Frank is safe for now. The Nets’ roster has been shredded by injuries, most recently leaving them with only eight players, just one of whom – center Brook Lopez – was projected to be a regular starter. All-Star point guard Devin Harris has played in only two games because of a strained right groin, starting small forward Chris Douglas-Roberts has recently been sidelined with the H1NA virus, power forward Yi Jianlian is out with a sprained right knee and shooting guard Courtney Lee has missed the past two games because of a groin strain.
Expectations also were already low for the Nets, who were facing a rebuilding season after trading forward Vince Carter to Orlando in June. Three of the Nets’ eight losses were by three points or less.
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Worried about Iverson
Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony enjoyed his time playing alongside Allen Iverson(notes) in Denver, and is now concerned about his former teammate’s future.
The Memphis Grizzlies gave Iverson an indefinite leave of absence to attend to some personal issues, but most people close to the guard don’t expect him to return to the team after he repeatedly expressed frustration about his reserve role. While Anthony has talked to Iverson on the phone recently, he says he doesn’t know Iverson’s future plans.
“It’s a tough situation for him, man,” Anthony said. “I had a chance to talk to him (when Memphis played at Denver on Nov. 1), and we sat down in the locker room for a long time and we just chopped it up. It’s a tough situation for him. I hate to see him go out the way he is going out.”
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Kaman rebounds for Clippers
While it’s admittedly early, Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman is quickly emerging as a strong candidate for the league’s Most Improved Player award.
Kaman averaged 12 points and eight rebounds last season while injuries limited him to 31 games. He entered Friday averaging a career-high 21.9 points with 9.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks.
Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy says the big difference is Kaman’s shooting. As in, he’s actually shooting.
“He’s always had this kind of mentality that I can’t get too many shots or I need to get closer to the basket,” Dunleavy said. “If you saw him from the time he came in, he had the ability to shoot left-handed 3-pointers and make them with a stroke that looks gorgeous. But for ever he’d get the ball and say, ‘I got to get the ball on the floor, and hopefully I can get closer to try and score.’
“We are always like, ‘Just shoot it. Go left, go right and go score. If you’re outside and you got a good open look, go shoot it.’ He’s just doing that more.”
Dunleavy is optimistic that Kaman and rookie forward Blake Griffin will play well together after Griffin returns as expected from knee injury in late December.
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Cavaliers found way to acquire Stephen Jackson?
One NBA general manager says he expects the Cleveland Cavaliers to eventually find a way to acquire Golden State Warriors forward Stephen Jackson, though a third team might need to be involved. One Warrior who doesn’t want to see Jackson leave: guard Monta Ellis. “Right now he’s with us still, and he’s still a part of this team,” Ellis said. “He can still put up numbers and still can help us win. So that’s all I’m focused on.” Ellis also doesn’t find Jackson’s ongoing trade saga to be a distraction. “I block it out,” he said. “I don’t read the paper. It’s garbage to me.” …Mike Dunleavy thinks his son, Indiana Pacers swingman Mike Dunleavy Jr., probably tried to return too soon from his knee injury. “They thought it would be opening day with the way he was playing and things like that and what he was doing,” the Clippers coach said. “But it’s the same type of thing. He probably rushed it, and did a little bit too much. He was frustrated when the setback happened, but he gets it.” … Two NBA scouts said heralded Mississippi State freshman forward Renardo Sidney, a 2009 Parade All-American, is hurting his chances of being a top prospect in the coming NBA draft. “He’s been way overweight for like a year now,” one scout said. The Bulldogs’ web site lists the 19-year-old at 6-foot-11 and 260 pounds. The NCAA also is investigating Sidney’s amateur status and has yet to clear him to play. …Every year there is confusion as to which players make the All-Star ballot and which don’t. Three things to consider: Each team must have three players on the ballot; last season’s statistics are heavily factored in the selection process; and the ballot is chosen early in the preseason, making it more difficult to judge rookies and young players.
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