In a Charlotte Observer story this morning, Bobcats coach Larry Brown tells beat writer Rick Bonnell that certain NBA rules have strangled the game's beauty. Brown most recently blew up at a replacement referee who wouldn't look him in the eye, but the coach is now putting on the pose that the game is not entertaining fans because of ... illegal defense rules?
Brown tells Bonnell that the league needs to force the game into a more "up-and-down" style, to reignite flow into the sport by allowing any type of defense and moving in the three-point line. Hey, maybe he's right. I'm not opposed to a free-flowing game. But my Hypocrisy Radar is bugging out, and you can't just ignore a Hypocrisy Radar.
WASHINGTON -- Gilbert Arenas may be eliminating the often outrageous, sometimes peculiar behavior that once added to his popularity, but the rest of his game is coming back just fine.
The explosiveness has returned.
The 28-29-point scoring average may be fading into history, along with the Agent Zero and the Hibachi personas, but a more valuable, more productive 20-point, 10-assist guy could be brewing inside him.
After much discussion, rumor mongering and ballyhoo, Yahoo! Sports reports that the Washington Wizards will make former Pistons and Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders their new head coach, reportedly agreeing to a four-year, $18 million deal.
That's not Yankees money or corporate bailout money, but for the Wizards, that's a pretty hefty chunk of change.
Flip Saunders has seemed like the sensible choice to step in for the Wizards for a while now, so it's no surprise that ESPN's Ric Bucher and CBS Sports' Ken Berger both report this weekend that Washington will meet with Saunders by the end of the week.
A creative offensive-minded coach who isn't too proud to use schemes to cover defensive inefficiencies, Saunders seems like the appropriate quality for a team trying to play its way back to the postseason. For Saunders it makes great sense, too. Of the few teams expected to hire a new coach, Washington arguably has the least treacherous road toward improvement. Simply making the playoffs would earn Saunders Coach of the Year consideration; in other situations, the cupboard is either less stocked or the expectations will be higher.
The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Tom Ziller.
An annual tradition regular as daybreak, as the season ends a pack of coaches are mercilessly hacked to pieces by fans, media and often their own bosses. A parade of potential replacements jumps aboard the carousel. They dance, they preen ... one of them wins. A year or two or (fingers crossed) three later, said doll gets torn apart. The cycle continues.
There was a switch this season, though: the bloodletting happened during the season, as a record eight coaches met the iron maiden between opening night and Valentine's Day. Is there anyone left to execute at season's end?
Well ... yes. Of course there is. After the jump, we tell you whom and guess their replacements.
Over the weekend, the Jazz announced that Jerry Sloan would be back for his 22nd year as head coach in 2009-10, the longest stint for any head coach in any of the professional sports.
On the exact opposite of the longevity spectrum, the Thunder and Timberwolves are mulling the futures of Scott Brooks and Kevin McHale, respectively, two of the newest members of the NBA's head coaching fraternity. Will they remain with Sloan in that elite group?
The rumors are light right now, but Eddie Jordan's sacking and the resultant ascension of exec-level Wizards man Ed Tapscott to the head coaching job seem more like an intermediate procedure than a final decision on who will run this team for the rest of 2008-09. Tapscott has a coaching career behind him, but he left the sidelines in 1990 and has been on the management side since.
The Washington Post's Ivan Carter describes Tapscott's most recent role as being considered an extra assistant coach who traveled with the team, but nothing in Tapscott's accordion file indicates he wants to be back on the sidelines for good. The interim role seems more like Ernie Grunfeld filling a hole with a trusted deputy.
That said, will the Wizards try to pull a big-name free agent coach?
One of the major complaints levied against Flip Saunders in Detroit, even through a season in which the aging starters played short minutes, was the lack of confidence in Amir Johnson. The wunderkind 21-year-old only got into 62 games and didn't hit 800 minutes on the season ... despite producing at a high level every chance he received.
"Amir does things without having to have the ball," Curry said. "He's able to pick up baskets through his activity, by running the floor and playing off the other four guys. He does all the intangible things, and through that he's able to create offensive opportunities for himself."
That seems to be the key in fitting the Pistons pieces together. The other four incumbents can score and create offense. Historically, last year's starting four Antonio McDyess (who will be the first forward off the bench) has been a good creator and scorer. Johnson figures to block more shots, create more turnovers, and crash the offensive boards better than McDyess. That's where the Pistons need help in the starting lineup.
It doesn't hurt that McDyess will be joined by Rodney Stuckey -- a gutsy, explosive guard -- and rough as rocks Jason Maxiell off the bench. Barring injury, Detroit really seems to fit together well.
Joe Dumars took the high road when announcing Flip Saunders' dismissal last week by refusing to dwell on Saunders' failings. One thing he did let slip, though, was how disappointed he was in Amir Johnson's playing time in the playoffs and the regular season.
Michael Curry will be introduced as Saunders' successor later today, and I don't think it's a stretch at all to assume a prerequisite for the job was sharing Dumars' hopes for Johnson to see more time in 2008-09. Why does a 21-year-old reserve merit so much attention? Because he's the most athletic player on Detroit's roster, and despite extremely inconsistent minutes, he's one of the most productive players in the entire league.
Wait, one of the most productive players in the league? Indeed, and that's not an exaggeration. This made it's rounds on the blogosphere a couple of weeks ago, but the blog Count the Basket compared seven different advanced metrics for evaluating player performance independent of playing time, and Johnson rated favorably in almost all of them:
Another eye-popper is seeing Amir Johnson, the 21-year-old Detroit power forward who's been riding the pine in the playoffs, ranked first in the league in Adjusted Plus/Minus. This actually isn't as great an anomaly as might be expected - Johnson rated rather well across the board. His consensus ranking was 15th. He was rated lowest by PER (64th), but he ranked 11th in Win Shares and 20th in Statistical Plus/Minus. Obviously one has to use some caution considering he played under 800 minutes on the season, but the fact that he rated well in several metrics could be a good sign for the future.
A to Z.
In a Charlotte Observer story this morning, Bobcats coach Larry Brown tells beat writer Rick Bonnell that certain NBA rules have strangled the game's beauty. Brown most recently blew up at a replacement referee who wouldn't look him in the eye, but the coach is now putting on the pose that the game is not entertaining fans because of ... illegal defense rules?
WASHINGTON -- Gilbert Arenas may be eliminating the often outrageous, sometimes peculiar behavior that once added to his popularity, but the rest of his game is coming back just fine.
Ready or not, here Flip comes. 
Flip Saunders has seemed like the sensible choice to step in for the Wizards for a while now, so it's no surprise that ESPN's Ric Bucher and CBS Sports' Ken Berger both report this weekend that Washington will meet with Saunders by the end of the week.
Over the weekend, the Jazz announced that Jerry Sloan would be back for his 22nd year as head coach in 2009-10, the longest stint for any head coach in any of the professional sports. 
The rumors are light right now, but Eddie Jordan's sacking and the resultant ascension of exec-level Wizards man Ed Tapscott to the head coaching job seem more like an intermediate procedure than a final decision on who will run this team for the rest of 2008-09. Tapscott has a coaching career behind him, but he left the sidelines in 1990 and has been on the management side since.
One of the major complaints levied against Flip Saunders in Detroit, even through a season in which the aging starters played short minutes, was the lack of confidence in Amir Johnson. The wunderkind 21-year-old only got into 62 games and didn't hit 800 minutes on the season ... despite producing at a high level every chance he received.
Joe Dumars took the high road when announcing Flip Saunders' dismissal last week by refusing to dwell on Saunders' failings. One thing he did let slip, though, was how disappointed he was in Amir Johnson's playing time in the playoffs and the regular season.
