|
Funny thing on the way to the All-Star break, the mediocre, predictable East gathered a little gloss and excitement and it came from a team that lives on a turnpike exit -- those Exit 16W New Jersey Nets.
|  | | Scott (middle) has been blessed with healthy players this year. |
Yes, the only team in the East that does not inhabit a city, the most laughed about, goofed about, disrespected Eastern Conference franchise of the last 20 years, has become the Cinderella feel good story of the season.
However, the East has had its share of sad stories:
The defending champion Sixers shook things up and were sentenced to struggle right from the start when they opened without Allen Iverson, Eric Snow and Aaron McKie. With all of the angst that goes into being Larry Brown, give him credit for staying the course and getting this team back on track.
|
MID-SEASON EAST GRADES
|
|
Nets A
Bucks B
Wizards B
Celtics B –
Raptors C +
76ers C
Magic C
Pistons C
Pacers C
Hornets C
Knicks D
Heat D
Hawks F
Bulls F
Cavaliers F
|
Atlanta never had a chance, losing Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoc and Alan Henderson for virtually the entire first half and having key reserves Chris Crawford and Emanual Davis go down for the count. The Hawks, with more than 180 player games lost to injury, are a train wreck of massive proportions.
The Bulls and the Cavaliers are also astonishingly bad teams but their misadventures are self-inflicted. The Cavaliers' Jim Paxson is without question the worst executive of the last three seasons and Jerry Krause is a co-conspirator.
But this has been a season of feasting as well.
Despite -- or maybe because of -- his brinksmanship style of coaching, George Karl has done a terrific job with a Bucks team that doesn't have a center or even a reasonable facsimile of one. And while we all wonder why they just can't get along -- Ray Allen pleaded for two days of peace and quiet but there is no way he can get it -- the Bucks are wonderfully healthy and have a very favorable schedule the rest of the season since they don't play another game in the West. What's more they have five more home games than road games on the schedule.
Philadelphia's in even better shape with six more home games than road games and with a team that is just figuring out to play the game as a unit. Brown is even saying nice things about Iverson, which could mean something, or absolutely nothing depending on the next game. And could Derrick Coleman be the Reclaimed Soul of the Year. Averaging 14.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, playing often enough to be considered a regular (36 of 46 by golly), Coleman is what Brown insisted he would be, a legitimate asset to his team.
Toronto has the talent to be a superior team to the 76ers and maybe even the Bucks, but do the Raptors have the resolve? It hasn't showed in Vince Carter's performance, which runs from mediocre to spectacular and back to mediocre again and far too often to set a meaningful standard. And while Hakeem Olajuwon will be back in plenty of time to make a late-season run with this team, the question is whether Lenny Wilkens will give him the freedom to take over when he gets the opportunity. Hasn't happened, yet.
Do you like the Celtics? As entertainment, yes, but it's hard to take a team seriously when it shoots three-pointers with utter abandon, regardless of time and circumstance. Besides, the Celtics simply don't have the muscle to play the post-season grind games. Don't take the Celts too seriously.
Orlando is going to fade. Tracy McGrady may be an exceptional talent and Darrell Armstrong a terrific competitor, but let's face it, you don't go anywhere with centers named Don Reid, Andrew DeClercq, Steven Hunter and -- at this stage of his career -- Patrick Ewing.
The Hornets are good enough to make it if Jamal Mashburn ever gets back in the lineup and David Wesley gets healthy in a hurry. Not allowing the frantic machinations of ownership to distract this team is a coup for coach Paul Silas.
The Pistons aren't good enough to hang around, although they play above their talent level. But Indiana is plenty good enough, even with Al Harrington through for the season, because young Jonathan Bender is close. But something's missing in Indiana. Rookie Jamaal Tinsley is a marvelous prospect -- ask the Hawks who passed on him. Jalen Rose is back in Isiah Thomas' good graces again -- we think -- but Reggie Miller appears to be loitering through the mid-section of the season.
Is it simply that there are a number of pretty good teams in the East but no one team good enough to play at a good level for more than a few weeks? Could be. But that all focuses back on the Nets.
If Kenyon Martin can control his penchant for whacking people and the Nets stay healthy, there is no reason the surprise story of the first-half of the season should not become the feel good story of the entire season.
FIRST-HALF SURPRISES:
The Nets are the most stunning success story the East has known in years. No one could have anticipated that the combination of factors -- the trade for Jason Kidd, the return to health of Kerry Kittles, the coaching of Byron Scott and the leadership of Rod Thorn -- would create a revolution in the NBA. Compare this to the turnaround in Philadelphia when Larry Brown took over.
MVP:
Jason Kidd is the MVP of the first half and you might as well write him in with indelible ink as the MVP of the season. Second in assists (9.9), third in steals (2.02), Kidd is all about winning and that's what the Nets are dong.
TOP COACH:
Let's make it unanimous here. The Nets could never have turned it around this dramatically unless Byron Scott did a brilliant selling job on how the game should be played. The Nets bought in from the outset of his second season and they apparently haven't wavered one iota while compiling the best record in the East and fourth-best in the NBA.
EIGHT TEAMS IN PLAYOFFS:
In this order, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, Washington, Indiana and Charlotte will make the playoffs.
Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
| |
|
