It must be October. The signs are everywhere.
The first sign of the season is chatter about a commitment to defense. Washington coach Eddie Jordan has been saying it for four years every October. And his players agree to communicate around picks, to rotate, and to play help or weak-side defense, but the Wizards still end up in the lower third of the league in preventing others from scoring. Well this season, Jordan is turning things over to a coach with defensive credentials. Randy Ayersbrings an impressive resume and is charged with fixing the Wizards' defense. Ayers spent six seasons with Larry Brown in Philadelphia where some of those defenses were among the league's elite. He took the Magic from 22nd-ranked in 2005-06 to seventh-ranked last season. Just a modicum of defense would help Washington fend off playoff challengers, but I don't see Ayers impacting the Wizards enough to prevent them from falling out of the top-eight in the East. The Wizards may not have the implosion potential of Sacramento out West, but I see a team with uncertainties. Starting with mercurial Gilbert Arenas, who will opt out after this season. He sets the tempo of this team and who knows how his get-out-of-dodge attitude will affect the club. And I'm still not sold on the truce between Brendan Haywood and Jordan. There seems to be a recipe for collapse here.
The second sign is a coach talking about pushing the ball. After the Joe Johnson-as-point guard experiment failed, the Hawks have been trying to get quicker, but lacked a point guard to direct them. The addition of Speedy Claxton last year was supposed to address that, but injuries put the choke on Atlanta's motor. After adding Acie Law and Al Horford in the draft, Atlanta coach Mike Woodson is looking at a roster of young athletes capable of forming two units of uptempo pace. Sekou K Smith of the Atlanta Journal Constitution watched the first attempt and was skeptical of team's commitment to sustain that level all year. There's no doubt about it, the Hawks have a deep team of young athletes, and so they could be a pretty exciting team to watch. The quicker they can get Horford playing the five in place of Zaza Pachulia, the quicker they can get to the running.
The third sign is a coach promoting a fringe player as a potential rotation player. Timberwolves coach Randy Wittmanis pushing second-round pickChris Richard for minutes at the four, despite a team with Craig Smith, Al Jefferson and Mark Blount all capable of large front court roles. True, Mark Madsen will be out for some time, but Juwan Howard is still on the team and there doesn't appear to be enough minutes for the rookie. Despite that, we love that Richard laid waste to a gym in Turkey. That kind of behavior will get him on NBA TV GameNight Live regularly.
Cleaning out some injury news from the previous week:
Sacramento's frontcourt took a hit with Shareef Abdur-Rahim and rookie Spencer Hawes suffering from knee injuries. Hawes' may be serious. Kings coach Reggie Theus
acknowledged surgery might be necessary. Mikki Moore and a healthy(?) Kenny Thomas will get more playing time because of the injuries. Looking deeper, keep an eye on Justin Williams, who averaged 9.4 points and 7.1 rebounds in 22:30 per game in 10 April games last year.
Sean May will undergo microfracture surgery on his right knee, ending his season early. The question isn't who replaces May at power forward, because Bobcats coach Sam Vincent wants Emeka Okafur playing there. The real question becomes who replaces Okafor at center. Right now, Vincent appears to favor a lineup with 2006 second-round pick Ryan Hollins. You might want to file this under the third sign of training camp, though. Is the inexperienced Hollins ready for this? In the Eastern Conference, the Bobcats are one of six teams that stake a claim to the final two playoff spots. If Okafor stays at center, then Vincent could use Fabio look-a-like Walter Herrmann at power forward.
The season-ending shoulder injury to Tony Battie is not only prompting changes throughout the Magic's lineup, but it's caused coach Stan Van Gundy to change his offensive approach. Because of the injury, which is a blow to overall team defense, and Orlando's thin front line, Van Gundy said he will set his versatile undersized athletes loose and not call every play from the sideline. He told Florida Today that he will commit to a running game, giving his players more freedom to create off movement and in transition. In return, of course, the coach wants a commitment on the defensive end. "This had better be exactly how we play," Van Gundy said. "Hopefully we'll be a lot better as the season progresses and at our very best by the end of the season. But I don't want the game to change. I'm convinced this is the way we need to play, and I think they have taken to it." So I guess that means we can forget about any chance of the statuesque Adonal Foyle getting significant minutes or being a starter in place of Battie. The pace of game Van Gundy envisions likely means Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis will start at the forward spots in a smaller lineup. The one last thing to figure out is shooting guard. Keith Bogans has shot well in camp and is a better defender than J.J. Redick. But Redick says he's committed more to defense this summer (the No. 2 Sign That It's Training Camp) and if so, Van Gundy would likely go with him at the two. He's a better shooter than Bogans and can take the pressure of Dwight Howard inside.
Robert Swift is suffering from tendinitis in his surgically repaired right knee. He's in a battle at center with Nick Collison and Kurt Thomas, who's missed some of training camp with a bruised thigh... The Nets signed Darrell Armstrong to replace, temporarily at this point, Marcus Williams as Jason Kidd's backup.
More Battles
A couple more training-camp battles I didn't tackle last week. Apparently, Lakers coach Phil Jackson has opened up the starting point guard and center spots. Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown are in the mix at center, but it's Andrew Bynum's job to lose. At point guard, Derek Fisher will start. The bigger question is who is the primary backup: Jordan Farmar, Sahsa Vujacic or Javaris Crittenton. The smart money's on Farmar... The 76ers have four of their five starters set. Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala will man the backcourt while Reggie Evans and Samuel Dalembert handle the front. Small forward will be a battle between Willie Green and Rodney Carney. A team in need of offense might be tempted to start Kyle Korver, but he thrived as an offensive burst off the bench last year. And his defense would leave the team vulnerable on the wing.