Armchair Quarterback: NBA’s game of musical chairs begins
The basketball season has been over less than two weeks and already there’s been more action than you can shake a stick at. If nothing else, the rumors alone are enough to keep the NBA on the front sports pages across the country, with or without the Kobe criminal case.
In L.A., Phil Jackson has hit the road after the “Dream Team” Lakers fell short of a ring. His ultimate destination is still questionable, although we know he’ll go somewhere seeing he must win that elusive tenth championship. Stopping at one short of having a ring for each finger would be idiotic.
Rumors are perhaps Jackson will stop in Dallas to work with Cuban or even a trip to the east coast to take over the Knicks. However, one thing we do know is that any place he goes, the triangle offense will follow, meaning a complete overhaul of whatever system is being run at his new location. Franchises basically have to sell their birthrights for the Zen Master to come.
In the meantime, Gary Payton has volunteered his services for another year at L.A., claiming the triangle offense hurt his game. Hey Gary, look at the scoreboard. It’s triangle offense nine and the Glove zero. The triangle wins championships. I’m sure given Gary’s stellar performance this year, the Lakers are feeling all fuzzy about having him back (note the sarcasm).
Actually, the Lakers better just hope they can even hang on to being the best team in the city of Los Angeles if Shaq does leave. I mean it appears Shaq will be gone, leaving them with just Kobe, if he can manage to stay out of prison. Karl Malone appears to be ready to retire and isn’t an impact player anymore, and the rest of the Lakers are simply role players with no ability to carry their squad. Plus, the new coach will have to put a totally new offense into play. All this in the highly competitive Western conference.
While the Lakers look at an uncertain future, there’s is a lot of noise of a Shaq-Jackson reunion in Dallas. After all, Dallas has a lot of folks they can jettison to trade for and make room for Shaq. And face it, any team with Shaq on it is guaranteed to make at least the semifinals. Add that to a core group like they have in Dallas and it’s almost an automatic bid in the finals.
Then we have the very tempting coupling of Shaq and Lebron in Cleveland. Who wouldn’t want to see that? This would be a marketing coup for Cleveland; however, many question if Shaq would go to a small market team. I say he’ll go to a team who can win another ring for him. That’s why I think Memphis would be a perfect fit. They have, aside from Paul Gasol, no big mean to speak of. You put Shaq in there with Shane Battier and James Posey and they’ll make a run. Plus, I’ll be doing the Memphis trip a lot more often.
While Shaq’s future remains mysterious, there’s also big talk of a trade which would send Tracy McGrady to Houston for Steve Francis and a pair of role players. This would make Houston likely contenders overnight. I mean McGrady is arguably one of the top five players in the league. Pair him with Yao Ming on a team that already made the playoffs last year and you’ve got your contenders.
Personally, I stick with my gut reaction that Shaq and Kobe need to stay together in L.A. and bury the hatchet. Even without Jackson, they are the best one-two punch in the league. Get rid of Payton and bring in a take-charge point guard and the banner will be hanging in rafters of the Staples Center again.