Heisler: Thunderkinder up past their bedtime

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Now to let the Young Guns shoot it out. …

If you’re going to hear that a lot the next week or two, some of these guns are a lot younger than others.

By 2007, when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had both been in NBA Finals, Kevin Durant had yet to be drafted; Russell Westbrook was an unheralded UCLA freshman who had played nine minutes a game; and James Harden was even less heralded as a high school sophomore.

Durant, Westbrook and Harden were hoop sophisticates next to 16-year-old Serge Ibaka, one of 18 children from a family in the Congo, who had just played his first season for a 20-and-under team in Spain.

If most people think James is still a young player at 27, he’s like the Godfather to the Thunderkinder.

“He is middle-aged, isn’t he?” Durant said during the season, grinning.

“I think I’m one of the younger guys. He’s one of the guys—he’s still young but he’s old, you know what I mean?

“I can’t explain it but he’s one of the guys who’s been in this league a while and done so much. Stuff he’s doing, you only wish you could do.”

Actually, Bron may wish he could do the stuff Durant does, or, at least, had Durant’s supporting cast, whether they’re post-adolescents or not.

If Oklahoma City, which is favored, prevails, it will do so with the second-youngest starting lineup to win an NBA title.

The youngest, Portland, started a team averaging 23.2 years of age in the 1977 Finals with Maurice Lucas (25), Bill Walton (24), Lionel Hollins (23), Bob Gross (23) and Johnny Davis (21).

Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka are 23-23-22, but Thabo Sefolosha (28) and Kendrick Perkins (27) pull OKC up to 24.6.

Despite their amazing precocity, the Thunder hasn’t won anything yet—and if this doesn’t turn out to be their year, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

What it would be is NBA tradition.

With rare exceptions like Portland, NBA championships have always belonged to the veteran teams.

The Thunder’s acclaim is nothing compared to that preceding Orlando into the 1995 Finals with Shaquille O’Neal (23), Penny Hardaway (23), Dennis Scott (26), Nick Anderson (27) and Horace Grant (29) in a lineup that averaged 25.6 years of age.

Expected to roll over Houston’s aging defending champions, the Magic blew a 20-point lead in Game 1 (Google Nick Anderson), went down the chute and was swept, 4-0.

A year later Chicago swept the Magic in the East Finals, Shaq headed West and there went the neighborhood.

Nevertheless, if anything bad happens to the Thunder in the next week or two, my guess is their guys will get over it.

The speed at which they’ve arrived, four seasons after starting 2-24, is mind-boggling.

Surprising, if not mind-boggling, is the fact that Scott Brooks, now a hot coaching property, will also be a free agent July 1, after last season’s negotiations for an extension resulted only in an agreement to see where they are this summer.

If the run to the Finals would seem to insure that owner Clay Bennett makes sure GM Sam Presti offers whatever it takes, Brooks’ name is on the board of every team now looking for a coach, or considering firing the one it has.

In Oklahoma City, getting better is a way of life. The players’ answer to every question includes the sentence, “We’re just trying to get better.”

Everyone says that stuff but the Thunder players do it, making annual quantum leaps from 23-59, to a playoff berth, to back-to-back West Finals berths to 55-28 and the Finals, in four seasons.

They weren’t supposed to be ready for the Spurs. Instead, they turned into the Spurs.

Brooks said watching San Antonio video impressed his players so much, they began trying to move the ball like that.

To that point, the Thunder was known for its unusual low-assist, high-scoring offense with Durant, Westbrook and Harden capable of getting their own shots and putting up big numbers.

Apparently, the most impressed Thunderkind was Westbrook, the (barely) converted point guard, who seems to have thought: “You mean, instead of trying to jump over guys at the hoop, I can just throw it to one of my guys?”

Westbrook’s 1.6 assist-turnover ratio was No. 43 among 44 point guards this season. In the first 10 playoff games, he averaged 4.5 assists. In the last five, he averaged 7.8 and it was sayonara, Spurs.

Get that?

They watched some video and went from doing it on their own to playing together!

This is obviously a team with a future, so even if it’s not now, look for the Thunder to keep getting (shudder) better… eventually… I think.

Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His power rankings appear every Wednesday during the regular season, and his columns and video reports appear regularly here. Follow him on Twitter.

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Heisler: Another Dear Donald letter: Welcome back

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Donald T. Sterling
Sterling World Plaza
Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210

Dear Donald,

Welcome back!

I know, you didn’t really go anywhere, even if your Clippers stopped being the Clippers we’ve known for all these years.

I mean, welcome back as the Clipper owner that those of us who write NBA columns or lines for Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien knew and loved.

Wasn’t this season fun, while it lasted?

As hyped as your guys were after getting Chris Paul, and as forgotten as they were when the Lakers revived, you actually made a run at displacing the local rulers of all they surveyed, finishing one game behind, and lasting one less day in the playoffs.

All but eclipsed, your gritty Cliplets made the second round—for the third time in franchise history—falling to the Spurs the day before the Thunder polished off the Lakes.

(The second time was 2006 under Mike Dunleavy. The first was in 1976, before you knew there was an NBA, when the Buffalo Braves won a first-round mini-series, 2-1.)

Unfortunately, every attempt to start a new tradition brings the moment when you have to make important decisions.

Not that you’re not aces. but with the departure of GM Neil Olshey, who put this team together for you and was left, unaccountably, to field offers as a free agent, you’re zero-for-your-31-year-NBA-career.

As you may have heard, Olshey just bolted for Portland, two days after your guys announced he had been re-signed.

Whether talks with your people hit a snag (as everyone’s talks so often did), or Paul Allen bowled him over with a bag of money, there’s one big question:

Why didn’t you extend Olshey months ago?

This was a guy you were paying $450,000, who would have taken three years at $750K per and felt like the king of the world.

He’d have taken less than that a year ago, when he asked for an extension after replacing Dunleavy, his mentor, without getting a raise, hoping to buy a house.

The answer he got was, show us what you can do and we’ll talk next spring.

Unfortunately, Neil showed more people than yours, getting Caron Butler to come for less than New Jersey offered, ignoring Chauncey Billups’ agent’s threat to let him clear waivers and beating the Lakers to Paul.

So, this spring’s dialogue turned out to be shorter than you were figuring on, huh?

Half the teams in this league have assistant coaches making $750K, but you’re not “most teams,” are you?

After 22 years as your GM, Elgin Baylor, a living NBA legend, was making $350,000.

Not that you’re not having a great off-season, but Olshey’s departure followed the decision to pick up Coach Vinny Del Negro’s option for next season—without extending him, either.

In the good news for Vinny, he still has a job.

In the bad news, you just made him a lame duck who’ll start next fall amid the same speculation he managed to surmount this spring.

Of course, this isn’t a good time for one of your front-office convulsions.

The source who told me two weeks ago that Blake Griffin was a 90% shot to sign an extension this summer says Olshey’s departure won’t change that.

(This assumes you offer Blake a max five-year $90 million deal, but I have faith in you. Some things, even you can do.)

Not that I’d be surprised to see Blake take fewer years, like, say, four, with an out after three.

Then there’s CP3, who’s up in 2013 and no lock to stay.

Enchanted to be here, Paul kept insisting the horrific Clipper tradition everyone kept asking about meant nothing to him.
Chris just found out it’s not a fairy tale they tell kids.

Considering what Olshey did, what he meant and the dollars it would take to keep him, this is way up there on your list of blunders, which is saying something.

Of course, losing CP3 and seeing this team scatter would be the maraschino cherry atop the sundae of your career.

An arch-conservative estimate would put your profit at $100 million since moving into Staples Center in 1999 (your idea, and a brilliant one)… which would be chump change compared to what you’ll make if you keep Chris and Blake.

There’s a local cable bidding war, kicked off when Time Warner gave the Lakers that $3 billion, 20-year deal.

The Angels got a mega-deal the same size from Fox, which had lost the Lakers.

The Kings, signed with Fox through 2015, just got an extension through 2024 at almost twice the money, going from $12 million to $21 million annually.

That leaves two local teams with cable deals running out in the next few years, yours and the Dodgers.

Unfortunately, in your case, leadership, which hasn’t been your organization’s strength, is an even bigger problem.

At least, you had professional advice, even if you didn’t always take it or show your appreciation.

Remember Elgin’s final years when you took away his courtside seats, moving him back four rows, behind an aisle?

At least you talked to him. When Dunleavy was in charge, you went months without taking his calls.

No wonder Olshey thanked you in his Portland press conference. He only got short-changed, as opposed to the things he saw happen to his predecessors.

Dunleavy built on what Baylor had done. Olshey, brought in by Dunleavy, built on what Mike had done.

Now with what could be a juggernaut, they’re all gone.

Not that you don’t have a wealth of front office talent ready to move up, but last season you cut the the basketball operation to two full-time employes, ahead of the lockout: Olshey and personnel director Gary Sacks.

Of course, you still have a great young team on the lot, for the moment… so let’s look at this as an opportunity!

Wouldn’t this be a great time to start a new tradition, going out and getting an experienced NBA hand and letting him run the show?

Hey, why not Dunleavy?

I know, it sounds crazy but he helped get you here and, even if you fired him in 2010, he’s still under contract through July 1, since you have already paid him (after an arbitrator ruled in his favor, $15 million worth).

So, Mike would have to work for free!

If that doesn’t sound good, I’ll leave you to it.

In the bad news, sooner or later it will always depend on you, so you’d better figure out what to do on those days when Chris or Blake don’t just drop in your lap.

Just know I’m here for you, as I have been, lo, these many grisly (well, for you) decades.

Best,

Mark (Heisler)

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Heisler: What’s the difference between the NBA and the WWE?

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Question: What’s the difference between the NBA and the outfit formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation?
Answer: Beats me.

Actually, there’s a huge difference between a game highlighting athletic grace and hand-to-hand combat between players assuming heroic or villainous personas:

The WWF doesn’t have a ball.

Otherwise, it’s getting too close for comfort for the NBA, even if league officials prefer to pull the strings from New York rather than issuing proclamations in the ring like Vince McMahon.

These playoffs look less like a basketball tournament and more like “CSI NBA” with all the ongoing incidents, reviews and suspensions.

This spring, the NBA has featured:

Elbow-fests (Game 5 of Miami-Indiana where Tyler Hansbrough made a play on the ball and Dwyane Wade’s head, Udonis Haslem targeted Psycho-T’s face and Dexter Pittman threw a wanton elbow at a Pacer–with :19 left and a 35-point lead–then winked at the Miami bench.)

Suspension-fests (Game 6 of Miami-Indiana without Haslem and Pittman, or the all-timer, Game 5 of San Antonio at Phoenix in 2007 with the series 2-2 and Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw out for leaving the bench after Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash into the scorer’s table.)

Technical-fests (Game 1 of Boston-Miami with the refs, presumably told by New York to crack down, T’ing up Celtics for making faces).

Free throw-fests (Game 2 of San Antonio-Oklahoma City, who combined to shoot 70 free throws after the Thunder started their comeback from 22 points, not by playing basketball but hacking Tiago Splitter.)

Someone is missing something, whether it’s the players (as NBA officials would say it is) or NBA officials (bingo!).

The NBA has yet to figure out there’s a problem if they let teams game the system by fouling intentionally, while drawing the line at flagrant ones.

In practice, it’s all part of the same continuum.

Intentional fouls lead to hard fouls, which lead to harder fouls, which lead to flagrant fouls.

After 20 years of David Stern’s laudable efforts to stamp out all violence, here’s where they stand:

–Actual violence has been all but eliminated.

There are no fights. What we call “incidents,” like Andrew Bynum elbowing J.J. Barea, wouldn’t have drawn a second look in the ‘80s.

Today, if Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis as he did in 1984, Stern would suspend him for life.

–A cycle in which the league is ever more involved, with ever more scrutiny on its referees, resulting in headlines blaring the latest incident, punishment, review and upgrade or downgrade, creating the misperception that there’s more violence, not less.

It’s not that players won’t learn, which is what NBA officials think and why they keep dialing up the penalties.

The players are doing what the coaches tell them.

The coaches are telling them what they always have and always will… unless someone changes the basic equation that makes fouling cost-effective.

The day Dr. James Naismith went up that ladder and explained you get two points for throwing a ball through his peach basket but only one for a free throw, everyone in the Springfield, Mass., YMCA gym smart enough to coach knew one thing:

Why let anyone shoot a layup if you lay him and let him get up and try to make two 15-footers?

One thing and one thing only will make coaches stop ordering players to take hard fouls:

Change the math that makes fouling at mid-court on a turnover, or under the basket, or hacking a bad free throw shooter a smart, cost-effective play.

How?

All intentional fouls—anything that’s not clearly a play on the ball—result in two free throws and possession.

If that won’t cut them out, it will cut them down with the standard raised to getting a hand on the ball, rather than trying to catch your opponent after low-bridging him so he doesn’t wipe out too badly.

This will also get rid of the abomination of abominations, turning games into foul shooting contests.

Ironically, it was Okahoma City’s Scott Brooks who just broke out Hack-a-Tiago, not San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, a new proponent who was once above such things but reconsidered when his team got old and still does it while maintaining he hates it.

Great.

I hope he does it in the Finals, in the fourth quarter of Game 7.

We need some changes, before Pittman checks Tony Parker into the scorer’s table and Tim Duncan and Man Ginobili miss Game 7 for leaving the bench.

Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His power rankings appear every Wednesday during the regular season, and his columns appear Wednesdays or Thursdays. Follow him on Twitter.

 

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Heisler: Nothing is forever — not even the Lakers

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Time to pass the torch—hey anyone know where we put it?

Ask Rudy Garciduenas, our equipment guy.

Oh, right. We laid him off before the lockout, with most of the support staff, all the way up to assistant GM Ronnie Lester.

I remember now! We haven’t had our torch since Dallas blew us out of the water a year ago.

Forget about passing it to the Thunderkinder. We already gave it to the Mavs, who were even older than we were.

You know what they say in the dynasty biz:

“Nothing is forever, not even us.”

LOS ANGELES — Not that this was a disaster, but for the Lakers, seasons that end in the second round are like cruises that end in the middle of the ocean.

Actually, they put on a happier face after the merciful end of their 4-1 loss to the Thunder.

Hey, it could have been worse. If this was best-of-9 instead of best-of-7, they would have had to bring in new players to replace all the ones who were gassed by Game 5.

Then they flew home and started work on their recriminations—er, future.

One thing you have to understand about the Lakers is they don’t rebuild.

The second thing you have to understand is that even in transition seasons—like this one—they think they’re still a championship contender.

This was their first step, tiptoeing the high wire that leads to their future—oops!

Not that their post-Phil Jackson era hasn’t started so well, but a lot of Laker players, officials and fans are now dreaming of Phil’s Return III.

In the real world, Mike Brown isn’t going anywhere, yet.

Lakers Jim Buss

Jim Buss, son of Lakers owner Jerry Buss

Jim Buss hired him, was torched for it by the local press, including moi, and may not be ready to give up on his first decision running his father’s team.

Of course, another season that ends in the second round—which looks like the way to bet–and Brown will be gonzo.

Nothing ever counts anywhere until the last thing that happens.

So it doesn’t matter, except as a poignant memory of the way they were, that the Lakers started the playoffs feeling like the Lakers again with their new Kobe-Pau-Drew-Ramon Sessions nucleus and even Metta World Peace looking like an NBA starter, when not serving a suspension.

Then Andrew Bynum, who had been merely punky until then, fired up the Nuggets, who turned a five-game romp into a seven-game escape.

And Pau Gasol, who struggled in his new role as No. 3 option, averaging 18 points, dropped to 12 in the playoffs and was called out by Kobe Bryant.

And Sessions went from looking like the Lakers’ missing point guard to missing, period, dropping from 13 points and 5.9 assists, shooting 45% in April to 10 points, 3.6 assists and 39% in the playoffs, watching Steve Blake, a shooter as opposed to a playmaker, finish games.

So who, exactly do they build around now?

Let’s start with what we know: Bryant isn’t going anywhere.

Bynum, another Jim Buss fave, isn’t going anywhere, despite his antics, even if he’ll be going into a contract year, nor should he be, since 23-year-old, 7-0, 285-pound All-Stars don’t grow on trees.

The only others who are safe are those who are under contract but have no trade value and can’t be amnestied.

So you’ve got a decent chance of seeing Josh McRoberts, Andrew Goudelock and Christian Eyenga in purple and gold next season, at least in training camp.

The curtain drops on Bryant in the interview room, charming, eloquent and positive as only he can be if he feels like it, vowing they’ll be back—as opposed to 2007 when he tried to bail, thinking the Lakers time as contenders was over.

“I’m not going for that shit,” he said Monday night, smiling his boyish smile, showing he hasn’t lost his edge with that expletive that went out over NBA-TV.

“I’m just not. Come hell or high water, we’re going to be there again….

“You can see over the last few years, it’s the usual suspects at the top because management has done a phenomenal job, the scouts have done a phenomenal job, and they will again.”

Has David Stern fined anyone for swearing on his TV network yet?

Happily, this is the NBA. In the NFL, Kobe might have been suspended for next season.

Anyway, things could be worse. The Lakers can count on building around Kobe, at least for another season!

And Kobe won’t have the other Lakers to beat up anymore, at least this season.

 

Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His power rankings appear Wednesday and his columns appear Thursday. Follow him on Twitter.

 

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Heisler: L.A. x 2 in Elite 8: Fun (yawn) while it lasted

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LOS ANGELES — L.A. uber alles….

As in days of yore, we are once more the center of the basketball universe with two (2) of the NBA’s remaining eight teams!

Actually, it only turned out to be one day of yore… from Sunday afternoon when the Clippers upended the Grizzlies in Game 7 to Monday night when the Lakers, who had just escaped the Nuggets in their Game 7, took the floor in Oklahoma City.

By Tuesday night when the Spurs wore down what remained of the Clips after the Thunder squashed the Lakes, we were down to being the city with the most endangered NBA teams (2).

Of course, it was (yawn) exciting while it lasted as Staples Center tried to figure out how to accommodate the Lakes, Clips and the NHL Kings this weekend.

Anyone for day-night NBA/NBA and NBA/NHL doubleheaders?

Thursday—Phoenix at Kings, 6 p.m.

Friday—Spurs at Lakers, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday—Spurs at Clippers, 12:30 p.m.; Thunder at Lakers, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday—Phoenix Coyotes at Kings, noon; Spurs at Clippers, 6 p.m.

To be honest, Southern Californians accepted their good fortune as their due, having been the center of the basketball world through this Millennium—all 11 1/2 years of it—as the Lakers won the most titles (five) and entertained/revolted fans everywhere with the most controversies (uncountable).

Of course, people here have yet to concede they’re no longer those Lakers, like Jim Buss, who insisted they were still contending for titles in this transition season.

Actually, they’ve been rolling and tumbling since mailing in another second half of the season before Dallas swept them last spring.

This season started with David Stern spiking their Chris Paul deal and continued amid signs of unrest as players adjusted to their new coach but somehow managed to keep it together—for which Kobe Bryant deserves a lot of credit–finishing strong after acquiring Ramon Session, their missing point guard.

Nevertheless, they were still Laker enough to pull a disaster out of thin air, blowing that 3-1 lead over Denver after Andrew Bynum informed the Nuggets it would be “kinda easy” to dispose of them in five.

Of course, winning Game 7 was a massive relief, after ESPN commentator/Laker VP Magic Johnson’s predicted that Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Mike Brown would be “run out of town” if they lost.

Let’s hope the Lakers enjoyed their day of massive relief, because it’s over, too.

Magic’s prediction may well have been too dire, as the team suggested pointedly, announcing it remained “fully committed to and supportive of Mike Brown,” noting the guy whose statue stands in front of the arena “in no way [reflected] the position of team ownership or management.”

By the way, Mike Brown was Jim Buss’s hire.

Of course, three more like Game 1 in Oklahoma City and Brown will come back next season as an endangered species, assuming the team is still fully committed enough to let him return.

An unseemly end would make a lot of other things that were unthinkable two weeks ago thinkable.

Drew for Dwight Howard, anyone?

If Bynum is Jim Buss’s fave and the Magic had no intention of trading Howard for him, the Magic may not just want to get something more than Brook Lopez for Dwight.

For the sake of commerce as well as competitiveness, the Buss’s expectations are even higher than those of talk show hosts.

If Jerry Buss proved his acumen many times over, it was because he demanded excellence but let his professionals, Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, run the show.

As far as basketball or reality, Dr. Buss, as the Lakers call him, erred on the naive side, as after their 34-48 season in the wake of Shaquille O’Neal’s departure, when he said he thought they’d be back in the West Finals in “a couple of years.”

That was the season they gave Rudy Tomjanovich six years at $30 million—as much as they had paid Phil Jackson to win them three titles. Rudy felt the expectations, looked at what he had to work with and lit out for Houston midway through his first season, leaving $24 mill on the table.

Only a year before, Laker telecasts had begun carrying the always-quotable Jackson’s pre-game press session.

Even if nice, soft-spoken Rudy T said nothing, they continued televising the sessions that season.

Watching the first one, I thought to myself, “Don’t they realize everything has changed?”

Nobody realized it. That’s part of the Busses’ genius. They don’t realize how bad things are, and won’t accept it if that’s how it turns out.

It doesn’t matter if the Thunder is big, tough, young, athletic and finished six games ahead of the Lakers. The Busses would regard a second-round loss as a disaster.

Nor will Brown, Gasol and Bynum be home free if the Lakes pull it together and beat the Thunder.

It doesn’t matter how great a job the Spurs have done of building yet another contender around Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan.

The Lakers passed the Spurs by a long time ago, as far as the Lakers are concerned.

If the Clippers aren’t as good as the Lakers—although the margin in the standings was only one game—they have the advantage of knowing it, and the ability of doing something about it.

The Clips have already lived their dream, winning the third playoff series in franchise history, going back to the Buffalo Braves’ 2-1 first-round victory over the 76ers in 1977.

Better yet, they’re not over the cap and won’t be if they get Blake Griffin to sign an extension, enabling them to pursue exception-level free agents like Ray Allen without worrying about the luxury tax.

If you missed it—and most have—the indomitable Paul, back at the level he reached before his knee injury two seasons ago, is a full peer of the best of the best like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Smurf or no smurf, CP3 is one of the game’s great finishers, explaining how the Clippers led the Grizzlies, 2-1, after being outscored, 285-260, aside from their closing bursts in Games 1 and 3.

Topping that, their bench, fifth-worst during the season, bailed them out with 25 points in the fourth quarter of Game 7.

As Magic could tell the Clips, your day will come, too.

Mark Heisler is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops, LakersNation and the Old Gray Lady. His power rankings appear Wednesday and his columns appear Thursday. Follow him on Twitter.

 

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