If there’s one thing Brooklyn knows these days, it’s how quickly these newfangled fads and trends can come and go. Are we still on board with Sriracha being good? I hope so. That stuff can make a chunk of days-old bread in an alleyway dumpster taste like, well, moldy Sriracha. Delicious.
Throughout the NBA’s history, trends in how to run a team have also flitted in and out. (You might be thinking, Crummy, you’re a damn pigeon, what do you know about NBA history? Pigeons live what, five years on average? Not me, buddy. On year 27 right now, and looking a lot better than Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin at this juncture. The world record is supposed to be 35. I might not get there, but it won’t be from a lack of drinking or smoking.)
And in the league right now, the fad of outright tanking is en vogue. Tanking, for the uninitiated, is a franchise putting a team on the floor that is so bad it simply has to lose based on science, with the goal of getting the highest draft pick possible at the end of a miserable season. The Philadelphia 76ers, the tankers-in-chief these last couple years, probably keep the team bus running outside so they can dip out in the event the refs take mercy on them and call the game early.
This increasingly brazen gaming of the system has created a new level of coordination between a team’s general manager and coach. In Philadelphia, for example, coach Brett Brown knows his general manager Sam Hinkie doesn’t want him to win basketball games. He’ll pick his spots to try to reel off a couple wins for the fan-base, but ultimately his job is not to win with his current team.
Heading into Wednesday’s game in Sacramento, the Nets lost eight of the previous nine games, including a game against the aforementioned Sixers.
At first glance, there would appear to be no reason Brooklyn shouldn’t join its neighbors to the south in a race to the bottom. Sure, if the Nets stay the course and regain some momentum, they might still scrape into the playoffs since they compete in the raging trash-can fire known as the Eastern Conference. But does anyone expect them to do anything in the postseason?
The sticking point, of course, is that the Nets weren’t built to lose. At the behest of his Russian overlord, general manager Billy King mortgaged the team’s future to try to win immediately upon arriving in Brooklyn. As a result, the Nets’ first-round pick this year is scheduled to be swapped with Atlanta’s, assuming Atlanta — which currently holds the best record in the East — ends up with the better record at the end of the season. Essentially, any losing the Nets do at the moment only increases the value of Atlanta’s draft pick, not Brooklyn’s.
That’s where trades come in, and the coordination between King and Nets coach Lionel Hollins needs to be ironed out.
All the rumors I’ve heard around the Rust Bowl indicate the Nets could ship off Deron Williams and Brook Lopez and get draft picks in return. But with D-Will working through injuries, it might take a while to convince another team that he’s healthy enough to jump in and help guide their squad for the rest of the year.
Lopez, on the other hand, is healthy and rolling. He’s averaged 15 points and 7 rebounds in just 25 minutes this month. The problem is, Hollins has made no bones about the fact that he doesn’t like Lopez, telling reporters that his star center — who now comes off the bench — needs to improve in rebounding, passing, and playing defense. So, uh, the game of basketball. Then, earlier this month, he called Lopez lazy for not hustling after a loose ball.
As an observer from the rafters for the last three years, I can confirm that none of what Hollins is saying about the Big Lug is untrue. But when you’re trying to trade a guy, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to badmouth him.
If I’m trading a cigarette for a swig of Thunderbird at a local storm drain, I don’t mention that it might be a menthol until after I’ve had my fill. Unless King and Hollins get on the same page, they’re going to keep tripping over each other like my cousin Sal and I after a night at Freddy’s.
So, my message to the brass at Barclays is this: get with the trends, guys. Decide if you want to win or lose this year and stick with it. There’s no use in being the only kid wearing an ironic bucket hat in five years.
