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<< Previous Next >> -------------------- December 25, 2003 East and West surprises
by Chris Kaufman As the NBA season is almost two months completed there are a couple of teams that should be mentioned with some praise and a team that is clearly looking towards the future. The first team is obviously the Denver Nuggets. General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe has built a team with a bunch of NBA castaways and the soon to be Rookie of the Year Carmelo Anthony. However it is not Denver's individual talents that have them as the early surprise story in the NBA, it is their team statistics that tell the story. Denver is 1st in the NBA in blocked shots and 4th in forcing turnovers. The Nuggets are also 5th in rebounding and 3rd in steals. 2 players (Chris Andersen and Marcus Camby) are averaging more than 2 block shots per game. Denver will be tested at the end of the season if they wish to seriously contend for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. In the month of March they have eight road games and eleven of their last eighteen games of the season are on the road. Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik will obviously be a candidate for Coach of the Year, but his real test will begin in the playoff stretch with all of those road games and a very young team. If the Denver Nuggets are the surprise team in the West, the Indiana Pacers are certainly raising eyebrows in the East. Indiana has the best record in the Eastern Conference (as of 12/21/03) and they are doing it with defense. Indiana is 2nd in points allowed, 9th in opponents FG%, 6th in opponents FT%, and 10th in steals. New Head Coach Rick Carlisle clearly has them playing the best basketball outside of L.A. and it all started long before the season started. If you recall after Carlisle was named the head coach of the Pacers, the sentiment was that it was going to be hard for him to get along well with Jermaine O'Neal because O'Neal was not happy about the firing of Isiah Thomas. The first thing Carlisle did when he was hired was fly to Puerto Rico for the Tournament of the Americas where O'Neal was playing for the USA and smooth things over with O'Neal. Carlisle has O'Neal playing the best basketball of his young pro career. The rest of the team has bought into Carlisle's philosophy and they are one of the few teams with a winning record on the road this year. The Boston Celtics are clearly looking towards the future. Before trading Antoine Walker they were a legitimate playoff team. In 2002 the Celtics advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals and last year they upset 3rd seed Indiana in the first round. After dealing Walker right before the start of the season they are no better than a .500 team with a good (not great) player in Paul Pierce and a bunch of NBA Cast-offs. The trade to acquire Ricky Davis from Cleveland will help Pierce with some of the scoring load, but not significantly. The only thing that will keep the Celtics in the playoff chase is the fact that the Eastern Conference is terrible (only 4 teams are above .500 as of 12/22/03) and the Atlantic Division is the worst its ever been. The Celtics need a lead guard who can get Pierce the ball in scoring areas and be a little selfish by doing some scoring on his own, i.e. a Stephon Marbury or Mike Bibby type of player. The Walker trade makes them worse off then they were before Walker was there, but the intention was to open salary cap space for the summer of 2005. Let's hope that new Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge can withstand the criticism of this trade for now. << Previous Next >> -------------------- Chris Kaufman is a former Assistant Men's Basketball Coach at Division II Bryant College in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Email him at chrkaufman@hotmail.com Back to 2003-04 archive Back to top
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