Grind City Media’s Lang Whitaker and Kelcey Wright Johnson weigh in on the most pertinent news from around the NBA. What’s lit? What’s lame? Find out each week right here.
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 10:40 AM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: IMHO
And…we’re back.
Kelcey, we enter this week with the two best words in sports awaiting us: Game Seven. I have to admit, I was pretty surprised not only that the Nuggets have fought back to get us to a Game Seven, but that the Clippers have folded from having a commanding 3-1 lead to fall apart. The Clippers aren’t really known for their interior presence, but Nikola Jokic has looked like a combination of Hakeem Olajuwon and Wilt Chamberlain for Denver, and I’m not sure the Clippers have any answer for him.
We’re still a day away from game time, but do you think the Clippers or the Nuggets will advance to play against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals?
From: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 12:10 PM
To: Lang Whitaker
Subject: Re: IMHO
Lang,
I am a proud member of Nuggets Nation (at least since the playoffs started and I needed a team to root for). I tweeted “Don’t count the Nuggets out” after their Game 1 loss to the Clippers in this series and people thought I was nuts. But alas, the Nuggets made history by becoming the first team in NBA history to play a Game 7 in four straight playoff series – WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?!
Anyway, I’m hoping for a Denver vs. Miami finals. I hope you can guess why!
Let’s look over to the other side of the bracket while we wait for (yet another) Game 7. Miami vs Boston for a birth to the championship. If this series doesn’t go to a Game 7, I would be very surprised.
Jimmy vs Smart, Tatum vs Herro, Bam vs Kemba… who you got?
Honestly, even talking about the finals coming up is getting me so excited.
Talk again soon!
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 9:37 AM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: RE: IMHO
I was all-in on Milwaukee this season, despite the warnings from Brevin Knight, thinking that this was the year Giannis had enough talent around him and was going to be able to get past everyone else in the East and get to the NBA Finals. And then they had to play the Heat, who came out there in every game and looked like the team with more guts, a team that literally had no fear of the deer. You can parse the rosters any way you want, and I think you can make a pretty good case for the Bucks having a more talented group of players. But the Heat were clearly the better team in that series, playing a cohesive brand of basketball. They looked like they believed, in themselves and each other, and I think we tend to forget how important having trust and faith is when assembling a team.
All that to say, my head tells me Celtics in this series, but my heart is telling me Heat. You see it more often in baseball, where a team gets hot at the right time and makes a run through the postseason. It’s tougher in basketball, when you’re playing seven-game series and you aren’t as reliant on one or two players, the way baseball pitchers can dominate a series. But I wonder if Miami benefits from being in The Bubble, not having to worry about home court advantages or crowds or travel? (I suppose they also lose the advantage of having opposing teams trying to focus while staying in South Beach.)
(Also, just putting this down for posterity: I think the Clippers win big tonight in Game 7. Just saying.)
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, the Houston Rockets have broken quarantine and are headed home after losing the Lakers in the Conference semis, in a series that was never really much of a series. And the Rockets leave without Mike D’Antoni, who announced that he was taking his talents to free agency, to find a new gig elsewhere.
Kelcey, we’ve seen the Rockets try and try and try and try to get through the top out West, but they just haven’t been able to get through. Put on your GM hat and tell me what you would do with this Rockets team. Stick with small ball? Trade Russ? Trade Harden? Rebuild the whole thing?
From: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 3:03 PM
To: Lang Whitaker
Subject: Re: IMHO
Lang,
It was kind of sad to see the Rockets go down the way they did to the Lakers. For most of Game 5 (other than when Rivers knocked the ball off LeBron’s head), the Lakers were joking around, laughing, and having fun knocking down 1,000 three-pointers. Ok, only 19 3’s but they shot over 50% from beyond the arch, while the small-ball Rockets shot 26% — and right there is the issue with the small ball theory; when your shots are off and the opponent is on – it’s game over (not to mention losing the rebounding battle 50-31).
I don’t think the Rockets can afford to stay doing what they’re doing now that D’Antoni is out. Not to say he didn’t do a great job – compiling a record of 217-101 in regular season games – over the four years he was in Houston, but something’s gotta change and it’s gotta be immediate because the star players aren’t getting out any younger. I know that sounds crazy when LeBron is 35 and has never looked stronger, but Westbrook and Harden are both 31 and aren’t down for another long rebuild.
After the game, Harden said he feels that the team is only one piece away and that he wants to continue to build around Westbrook and himself. If I’m putting my GM hat on, I’m trading Westbrook and building around Harden (that opens up a lot of salary cap/luxury tax issues that the Rockets currently face). Honestly, I’m taking it old school and trying to create a Detroit Pistons Bad Boys team full of bruisers to surround Harden and hide him on the defensive end. I’d bring in guys like Steven Adams and Brook Lopez, and then bigs who can shoot like the Kevin Loves and Kyle Korvers of the league.
I don’t have the perfect solution for the Rockets, and obviously they don’t right now either. All I know is, they’re going to have to make some drastic changes if the goal is to win a championship in the next two or three seasons because the small-ball approach will only take them so far in the playoff race.
Your turn—you are Daryl Morey for the next ten minutes. What do you do with this team that seems to be overflowing with talent, but just hasn’t been able to make the jump to a deep playoff push?
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 3:17 PM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: RE: IMHO
Well, if anything, we’ve seen that Daryl isn’t afraid to be bold and strike quickly. So whatever he decides to do, he’s gonna do it big.
If I was the GM of the Rockets, I’d hit the reset button. Look, anyone in the West is going to have to go through LeBron at the top of the Conference for the next, what, 3-4 years? The Clippers are just as stacked, and right now, the Rockets are in tough territory when it comes to salary and future assets.
So here’s what I’d do: Time to trust the process. Daryl Morey should bring back his former assistant GM, Sam Hinkie, and do the whole “Trust the Process” rebuild that Hinkie tried to do in Philly. In Philly, while early returns were promising and the Sixers piled up assets, it didn’t really work out, because people got a little jumpy and tried to hit the fast forward button, which meant losing Hinkie along the way.
But why not try it in Houston? Send Harden to a team in need of a ball-dominant star, flip Westbrook to a big market like New York, and start hoarding assets and cap space.
I’ve always felt the worst place for an NBA team to be is in the middle. Either you’re at the top, or you’re at the bottom figuring out a way up, but being stuck in the middle is a tough place to dwell for a long time. That’s where the Rockets are right now. And they’ve got to figure out how to get to that next level. Sometimes you gotta go backward to get ahead.