Well it didn’t take long for the Wizards’ patience to run out on Eddie Jordan. When you start 1-10, it doesn’t matter if you’re missing two key players. Washington still have a talented team with potential all-stars Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison in the lineup.
The 1-12 ex-Sonics fired their coach as well, but can you blame PJ Carlesimo for not being able to win with a roster as badly put together as that one. Kevin Durant will one day be an all-star and Jeff Green is turning into a capable starter — which could translate into being a decent rotation on a good team. But when those are your only two good players, the expectations of something better than that.
Next up has to be the Raptors coach, Sam Mitchell. It’s become very apparent that the coach of the year award he won was a fluke and more so the talent that was brought in by the GM Bryan Colangelo. Mitchell can’t teach defence and apparently doesn’t know how to use his players properly. The very fact that Jason Kapono has no plays drawn for him where he can bomb threes is a travesty. With two huge presences inside (when Jermaine O’Neal is healthy – and surprise, he’s already hurt this season)
How’s this for astounding, but not really surprising: the top three scorers in the Association were all from the same draft class, 2003. Argue if you want, but that class, with LeBron, Wade, Bosh and Carmelo at the top, is the best to ever happen in all of sports. Even lower parts of the first round, with Josh Howard, Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw being taken in the 20s shows how great that class is.
And that last paragraph should tell you just how important the summer of 2010, when most of those guys become free agents, will be. It should also explain all of the stories that have even started flooding in now.
And finally, the Knicks were able to actually find a taker for half of their disasterous front-court, dealing Zach Randolph to the Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas. Now if they can deal Eddy Curry for anything, they’ll save not only on his salary, but on the tremendous cost of feeding him.