So, the playoffs are about to kick off and it appears the Bulls
have sealed the top seed after the Heat have essentially
conceded by resting their big three against Boston on Tuesday.
Chances are, they weren’t going to get the top seed after
losing last Saturday but this is an encouraging development for the Bulls. They
were on the verge of rolling over with a late-season lapse that would have had
them pairing up with the New York Knicks, who I don’t fear but would have made
things more interesting than the 76ers will in the first-round matchup.
More importantly, this might give the Bulls an opportunity
to pair off with the Boston Celtics (finished and undersized) or the Atlanta
Hawks in the second round (perennial playoff disappointment) instead of scary
and motivated Indiana Pacers, which surprised the Bulls last year.
Speaking of the Pacers, I know Tom Thibodeau will start
Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton for conditioning purposes, but I do think he’ll
take his foot off the gas this year with such an early chance to rest his most
important, most fatigued and most injured players.
This means Luol Deng should play 20 minutes and Brian Scalabrine…30
minutes. Sorry Sam Smith, those who paid for season tickets will and should
forget this home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in order to heal for what
should be a serious pursuit of a NBA title.
As I’ve been writing nearly all season—and I wish I could
write about something else—it’s really all about Derrick’s health. This doesn’t
need much more discourse, but it’s interesting to see if Derrick’s made any
progress at all. If he still looks tentative or slow, then this season was just
a cute distraction.
Derrick needs to be able to knife and explode through the
paint to give this team a shot—and not just against the Miami Heat. The 76ers
are athletic and long and will rebound. Without Derrick’s dribble-penetration—who
most certainly will be covered by Andre Igoduola in the fourth quarter—the Bulls
are reduced to a jump shooting team who isn’t going to get those gratuitous
putbacks against an opponent that doesn’t thrust itself at the offensive
boards.
At this point, the right thing to do is to probably play a
regular game with the starting five but a much reduced workload.
A lot of people might assume the Knicks and Heat series will
be close—especially as the Heat have ambled their to the finish and the Knicks
have come screaming through the front door. But I don’t see how the Knicks
steal a game from the Heat on the road, particularly since the Heat defend
better than anyone in the NBA in the playoffs. LeBron will clamp to Melo; Wade
and Bosh can split baskets.
Entertaining, yes. Close, I have my doubts.
Contact Mike Mitchell at
michaelkennethmitchell@gmail.com.
3 comments:
The Knicks are going to crush the Heat, don't ya think?
Bill P.
Minor qualm alert: I hate Sam Smith's repeated contention that coaches should play the players that fans come to see. I think you can easily dismiss this half-baked argument on legal/contractual grounds, since I'm too lazy to look up the general terms of player contracts I'm just going to talk out loud. *Presumably* the players have contractual obligations to their employers, the businesses that are sports teams. The businesses, however, have obligations toward the consumers that pay for their services. Now the fans/consumers pay to see, among other things, a group of players fulfill their contractual duties toward their employers. Whether they are excited or not by the way the players fulfill their contractual obligations toward their employers is an accident--it is dependent on conditions and circumstances beyond the paying power of the consumer. Your ticket does not entitle you to 4 tomahawk dunks and 48 minutes of Derrick Rose, all it does is admit you into a workplace wherein you can view your choice of workers work for their employers.
I think it's akin to an organization like McDonalds or something inviting the public (fans) to enter their offices for a fee, take a seat, and watch the accounting department (team) go to work. The accountants have a contractual obligation toward McDonalds to fulfill their duties, not to the fans.
That silly analogy aside, what I am trying to say is that fan experience is too subjective for it to be part of the fans' entitlement, assuming entitlement to high profile players and the like is contractually obligated, which I'm pretty sure it's not. For example, if Derrick Rose performs a finger-roll layup instead of a 360 dunk on a breakaway, are the fans entitled to a partial refund? What if John Lucas intercepts a pass meant for Derrick Rose and proceeds to brick a layup instead of passing to a wide-open Derrick Rose? Is that a breach of contract with the fans? How is that any different from a coach deciding to bench a high-profile player based on strategy or the long-term interest of his team? This is why Smith's argument is I think inconsistent, not to mention absurd.
The team as a business, since it markets itself as a business, has contractual obligations toward its consumers. Those include safety and the like while in the stadium, and fulfilling all obligations of the contract between paying consumer and the business. Whether or not the consumers are excited by the product the business has to offer is a subjective matter that cannot be legalized through a contract, which is what Smith's argument assumes.
don't know if that made any sense but had to get that off the chest.
Absolutely, it needs to be said.
More broadly, this also should recalibrate fans expectations when they buy a ticket. If they are season ticket holders, do they factor in the last few home games as throwaways for a championship contender? I would.
If it’s a lottery team, the same?
This ethos of playing for the good of the league is convoluted since the league is determined to make money, just as it pimps its players out for the Olympics (free of charge for the philanthropic aim of patriotism).
Entertainment value is really about competitiveness—and if the final game against the Cleveland isn’t competitive between Brian Scalabrine and Co., then oh well.
This brings me back to the San Antonio Spurs dynasty. It was among the least entertaining “winners” in recent memory, but that’s only because the league was bad—not them. It was the lack of competition, the lack of serious superstars. The dynasty Bulls would often win by putting 90 on the board and holding the other team to 79. But the league was filled with much more talent.
Sam often references when Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson would travel on a bus and play for the good of the league, but this was when the league was a niche sport for black America in the 1960s and '70s. It's a global juggernaut today.
Don't pretend the misgivings of the Bobcats and Hornets are the norm of the league, they're the dumb sister-in-law who overextend their credit cards or refinance to re-do their bathrooms when they owe money.
Rose just signed nearly a half billion dollars in contracts this offseason.
Fans shouldn’t complain when a coach rests Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers in the closing games of the regular season to avoid injury, they should be thankful that a coach is willing to be unpopular for the sake of a title—because that’s all that matters.
And that means, getting Derrick Rose’s legs back without him losing them.
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