SONOFAGUN: Dunleavy’s Survival Defies Logic

Finally, there is proof that the Los Angeles Clippers just don’t care. About winning that is. The business angle has been relatively fine under notoriously frugal owner Donald Sterling. In the last half decade or so he spent a little more, the increased revenue from the Staples Center had something to do with that, perception being the best sales pitch of them all.

 

Ah, but you can only mask the lion at the gate for so long before moving onto the real business of sport, which is to win. So here you have the L.A. Clippers, once again the messy laughingstock of the league, just four years removed from all the reason for optimism in the world. A time for but a moment, it operated like the other Los Angeles team, the one that figured out long ago that winning is the second best sales pitch of them all. Fine pedigree is what people by into, want to be next to, and don’t mind spending money on so little Joey can see a winner too. Remember when the Clippers were like the Golden State Warriors of two seasons ago? Hell, now the Warriors aren’t even the Warriors.

 

Things change fast.

 

Clippers head coach and now full-time general manager Mike Dunleavy has watched most of it. Some would say he has also helmed most of it, and following the firing of NBA legend and 22-year Clippers executive Elgin Baylor last October the word was that Dunleavy had been authoring the player movement for some time on Baylor’s watch. Regular stuff in sports but the thing is - one mistake does not beget another. And how fast do you move to remedy that mistake if the goal is indeed to win?

 

In a season where eight NBA coaches were fired, only two of those teams that made in-season coaching changes finished with a worse record than the Clippers – the Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings. Since the “breakthrough” season of 2005-06 Dunleavy’s squad has been on a steady decline. After reaching the playoffs that year the club went on to record its first playoff series victory in 29 years before bowing out in the second round. Apparently that small blink of success can buy you a lot of time in Clipperland because it remains the only plausible hook Dunleavy has been able to hang his hat on.

 

The Clippers’ record has dipped in each of the last four seasons from 47 wins in 2005-06 to their current and most embarrassing 19-63 mark. They have also had a problem retaining key free agents or receiving something sufficient in return, a weakness that flared up to its greatest height when they lost power forward Elton Brand last summer as an outright free agent. Forward Corey Maggette was sent to the Golden State Warriors for point guard Baron Davis. They gave up little to snag defensive center Marcus Camby from the cash-dumping Denver Nuggets and figured he would team with Chris Kaman to form the Cali version of the twin towers. It never had the desired effect and Davis was in and out of the line up with injuries and attitude all season. When Davis did “play”, it wasn’t in all his glory. In Portland Dunleavy was fired in part because he could not control his players and discipline was lax. That hasn’t changed in L.A.

 

And the bad luck? Maybe it’s just another irony of time, but this dark cloud seemed to really take shape when promising point guard Shaun Livingston suffered a career threatening knee injury two seasons ago that co-sucked the competitive life out of the franchise. After Sam Cassell was done with his last hurrah the Clippers were supposed to belong to Livingston. It was his team for the taking. Now it’s been given to Davis, an aging point guard that wants out.

 

Alas, none of that represents real proof that the Clippers don’t care. The fact that Dunleavy is still the head coach of this team does. That he was “promoted” to GM to replace Baylor is an even bigger mystery given the state of affairs he has absolutely helped to construct… on more than one side of the ball. Maybe that 47-win season - the second highest win total in franchise history - is more of what passes for currency under Sterling. Perhaps with an office all to himself, Dunleavy can turn things around, but suddenly he has an old roster of underachievers on big money contracts. If he is waiting on the lottery balls to roll his way then it can be supposed that Sterling is simply walking his familiar and beaten path, which almost always leads to losing. He certainly won’t rush to the rescue of a club slowly crawling back into the muck of the NBA jungle. He won’t because it would be the right thing to do. With Clipperland also being known as “Opposite Land” it can only rightfully be expected that the madness will be allowed to continue.

FEATURE: Marion Shows and Tells His Worth

Brit Ballers on the Come-Up

Count Toronto Raptors forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu as a believer. With the international game still flourishing the next wave could very well come from Great Britain and their national basketball team program. If you haven’t noticed the Brits could have four NBA players on their roster as they try to make the necessary moves and improvements to compete seriously at the 2012 summer Olympics to be held in London, England.

Chicago Bulls teammates Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, Golden State Warriors guard Kelenna Azubuike and Mensah-Bonsu will all suit up for Queen and Co. as the British continue to piece together a respectable national hoops squad. In England the sport has seen steady growth along grassroots development, and while its polled interest and television numbers are still uninspiring, the culture is expanding. Last October a the Miami Heat did preseason battle with the New Jersey Nets in London, England’s 02 Arena and drew nearly 19 000. Next October the NBA will mark their third straight preseason in the United Kingdom when Deng and Gordon lead the Bulls into the 02 to take on the Utah Jazz. It’s all about globalizing on the business and playing field but for the players it’s about something else too.

“Gaining some respect,” is the quick answer from Mensah-Bonsu. “We’re a fairly new team as far as the international scene is concerned and we’re trying to establish ourselves. You’ve got teams like Spain, Italy, France… some of these teams have been together since these guys have been young. We’re new. I’ve never played with Ben Gordon before; I’ve never played with Kelenna Azubuike before.

“(With) Luol and all of us together, it’s a new team. It’s a very talented at the same time but we’ve got to establish that chemistry and hopefully we can put some of that talent to good use.”

While the four have become U.S. staples, they all pledge allegiance to the British flag when it comes to hoops. Mensah-Bonsu and Deng have already participated in the program together and Deng and Gordon are teammates with the Chicago Bulls, but whenever Gordon and Azubuike show up to train with the team in England it will be the first time the Brits have has so much NBA power in one sitting.

“I get to play on a national team with three or four NBA players,” said Mensah-Bonsu. “Not a lot of players can say that and not a lot of national teams can say that too. It’s something to look forward to.”

The NBA loves to sow its seed and the rising popularity of basketball in England is a good ride to hitch. They would also like to strengthen their presence in England to capitalize on the Olympics in ’12 after seeing the popularity and red carpet treatment they received at the Beijing Olympics. Their influence can be seen – in part – on the resurgence of the national program, which lay dormant for nearly a decade and a half before Deng’s stardom helped to resurrect it.  They’ve also qualified to take part in Eurobasket, their first ever invite to the tournament’s historic existence. It certifies in many ways the efforts spent rebuilding the program and that the plan is working by attracting some of the nation’s top athletes, wherever they reside.

“Last year only me and Luol played (and) I wasn’t an NBA player last year,” said Deng. “But now we can say we can say ‘we’ve got three or four NBA players on the team’.  Definitely, we’re going to be able to more than compete. We should raise some eyebrows too.”

ANDRADE: Hawks Bench Short and Sweet

When Atlanta Hawks forward Marvin Williams went down with a lower back injury on March 7 during a home win versus the Detroit Pistons, the team was battling for a hold on fourth place (and home court advantage) in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. Williams had been a big part of the Hawks’ new edge, a more developed compliment to the exquisite scoring of guard Joe Johnson and the ball pounding game of forward Josh Smith. Along with point guard Mike Bibby (who really benefited out of the gate with a full training camp in Georgia) and all the promise last season’s return to the post-season had provided was coming through. Williams himself was averaging 14 PPG and 6.4 RPG to go with a career-high 35.5% three-point shooting. He was also looking like their most versatile defender, clean as a wing stopper. Without him the Hawks lost a substantial part of their attack.

A month later the Hawks are holding the fourth seed and will likely finish there, sealing home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, thanks in part to the play of reserves Flip Murray and Zaza Pachulia. For Murray the role is familiar, one he has played under inconsistent minutes with teams in Seattle, Cleveland and Detroit. Insurance for whenever some scoring and creativity was needed, when the offense stalled or there was an injury. Minutes would increase, then decrease and sometimes not really come at all.

“It’s been the most consistent minutes I’ve ever played on a team,” said Murray during a recent pre-game chat with SWAY Sports. “It’s never been a problem about me going out there and doing what I have to do. It was a just about a situation whereas I could find the right team where I was going to get consistent minutes. I came here this year and the minutes were there for me and I’ve been playing a consistent minute role throughout the whole year. I think once a player gets that he feels comfortable whereas he can just go out the and play his game.”

He snickers and brushes off the suggestion that he looks more comfortable now then in any other time in his journeyman’s NBA career. Underneath though, Murray must find confidence in the fact that he knows his number is getting called every night as a big part of the rotation. That he knows he’s counted on in every game is huge for the mentals. This season, his first in the A-T-L, Murray is averaging 11.9 PPG on a career-high 45.5% shooting from the floor. It’s the same rate of production he had when he broke out in 2003-04 while with the Seattle Sonics. Murray hasn’t slowed his role and in 24 minutes of action he has become the top gun off the bench.

But he’s not alone.

Pachulia’s numbers don’t jump out at you. The 6.3 PPG and 5.7 RPG are respectable for his 19 minutes per, but Pachulia has become more efficient too. While his scoring is below his career-average he has become more efficient shooting with a 50.3% field goal mark. That’s a full seven points over from his number last year and three points more than his career best. The one-time Hawks starter is now back up to minute-eating Al Horford but accepting the inevitability of his role over time has really paid off this season, especially now with the absence of Williams.

Maurice Evans - another off-season acquisition - has been the replacement for Williams in the starting line up, playing eight more minutes per game. His numbers haven’t taken a giant leap but that is also in part to Johnson, Smith and Bibby taking on more of the burden themselves. And Evans has been asked to defend more too. Aside from his free throw percentage, which has taken a big hit in a starting role, Evans’ numbers are respectably up. His three-point shooting has been slumping lately but overall as a starter he has a 41.2% accuracy rate from downtown compared to just over 38% as a bencher. Simply put; they aren’t Marvin William-type numbers (Williams he’s not) but the role of a strong reserve is to also spot-start, stopgap start or whatever you want to call it. Evans has done that and as a reserve he operates at roughly the same rate of efficiency.

“Just being able to have guys like that when we’re injured,” said Smith about the value of Atlanta’s pine. “We’ve been able to get it done with a short bench because guys have been able to come in and give us big minutes. As long as we’re able to do that we should be alright.”

In fact, head coach Mike Woodson has often gone with what is basically a seven-man rotation with a little Acie Law thrown in for flair. The result has the Hawks slowly but surely tightening their grip on the playoff picture, headed towards a showdown with the Miami Heat. The biggest question is not whether they can continue to hold off the Heat in terms of playoff positioning, but whether or not they can beat them in the second season without Williams.

“We don’t really go that deep off the bench, you know?” said Murray. “A lot of other teams have two units and they’re playing ten people… we’re going about eight at the most.”

With the playoffs fast approaching some teams, namely the Miami Heat, might see the Hawks as wounded prey. Williams is not a given to return immediately and even when he does, at what strength will he be operating? It’s another bullet in the clip for critics who aren’t sold of the Hawks’ playoff prowess, despite them being a top five team in the East all season following a spirited first round, seven-game run at the Boston Celtics in 2008. Maybe they’ve forgotten that the Hawks won six straight games after Williams went down and are 10-6 overall since he was sidelined. Alas, with the C’s defending a title, LeBron James setting all kinds of records in Cleveland and Orlando’s arrival as a true eastern elite, the Hawks know they’ve been pushed off the radar.

“They’re not,” said Murray when asked if he felt any of the above-mentioned eastern powers was focused on them at all. “But it’s a whole different season in the playoffs. Anything can happen.

“That’s why its important for us to get that fourth spot so we can host a first round at home. Then we’ll see what happens from there. As far as being a sleeper… I doubt if anybody’s looking at us as a sleeper.”

But they could be.

No doubt Murray and Pachulia will have a lot to do with the Hawks’ fortunes in April and /or May. If Williams cannot return (reports suggest he could return by season’s end or early in the playoffs) then the pressure will surely intensify. The minutes will be taxing but with a lot of youth acting as depth on the Hawks roster, Woodson will be pushing his top reserves to the limit from here in.

“You’ll never here me complain about (more) minutes,” said Murray. “When we’re out there we just gotta make the best of it.”

NBA TAKE FIVE - Iverson Has Options

1. NO RIGHT ANSWER: So the Allen Iverson experiment ended as most predicted it would in Detroit - the Pistons finally relenting and admitting that in their system A.I. was a bench player, perhaps the most expensive in the league. His first foray from the pine resulted in him questioning his role and openly suggesting that he would rather retire than end his career as a bencher. By the time he had returned from a back injury last week Richard Hamilton was already re-inserted as the permanent starting two guard. Iverson had lost his job. The countdown to a blow-up between he and the Pistons’ coaching staff was on. But something happened that was both surprising yet not unexpected… all at once. The team pre-empted that potential attack by announcing that A.I. would not be returning this season due to lingering back aches, a smokescreen if there ever was one. Want to make a bet that A.I. won’t be on the bench come playoff time, you know, in support of his teammates? There are a handful of teams in the NBA whose make-up fits Iverson’s ball-hungry hands style of player but the Pistons were never one of them. They simply aren’t built that way and never will be as long as Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Hamilton are the core (which may not last beyond this season). Think Charlotte Bobcats, Los Angeles Clippers or even Houston where a) there isn’t a dominant collection of scorers making up for the lack of a true superstar or b) scoring fast and furiously is still a coveted trait. In the end though, if he ever wants a crack at the championship ring that has eluded him for his entire career he’ll have to swallow the franchise player tag and take a back seat to somebody. It wasn’t that Iverson couldn’t handle being a reserve in Detroit; it was that whether as a starter or reserve he could not defer enough to the other resident stars to make it work. His ability to do just that, wherever he lands next season, will go a long way in determining whether The Answer, in his final years in the NBA, becomes more of a problem than his famous moniker suggests… 

2. BIRDMAN FOR 6^th MAN: Who’s with me? Chris Anderson for 6^th Man of the Year? Laughing? Well before you get into full belly roll mode remember that it was just last January that Anderson was reinstated by the NBA Players Association after completing a two-year suspension having to do with positive drug tests. He came back with the New Orleans Hornets at that point last season and this season returned to the Denver Nuggets, his first NBA team back in 2001-02. In a mere 20 minutes per game he is second only to 35 minute-a-night center Dwight Howard in blocks with 2.39 swats per game to Howard’s 2.95. Of the top 10 shot-blockers this season those minutes represent the fewest of any. The Nuggets are also better than the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz, which feature Sixth Man candidates Jason Terry and Paul Millsap respectively. And while there is a better chance of an A.C. Green sighting at the Playboy Mansion than there is of Anderson actually winning this award, there is no denying the impact he has had on the Nuggets’ fortunes this season. He also snags 6.5 points on a selective 55% field goal shooting to go with six rebounds. Not blow-your-mind numbers by any stretch but they are career-highs across the board and very often what Anderson brings to the table cannot be measured in statistics. Too bad that is exactly how the 6^th Man Award (and most others) is measured. But hear this: If the Nuggets finally get over the hump and get out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in the Carmelo Anthony era, Anderson will have lots to do with it. 

3. WHOSE HOUSE?: Yao’s House! And if you’ve been listening to this corner over the past two seasons you would know that it has always been the stance around here. Simply put, Yao Ming is too steady, too good and too damn big to take a backseat to anybody; especially a no-first-round winning All-Star who reached his peak three years ago and has never led any of his teams anywhere. Yes, that is the common knock on Tracy McGrady and yes, big men like Yao rarely reach the promised land on their own without big time guard play, but… the Houston Rockets have shown over the last two seasons that they can be a better team without McGrady than with him. In fact, the only difference between Iverson in Detroit and McGrady in Houston is that T-Mac has history in H-town and therefore, it becomes a bit more of a game to demote him. He also has another year (and $23M) left on his now-bloated contract and with his injury history I’m not convinced enough teams will bite were he to be dangled in a trade, not for what GM Daryl Morey would want. Like Iverson, his franchise player days are numbered and on a team as deep as the Rockets his value looks worse. Like Iverson, he may have become more important to somebody’s cap situation than their floor plan, you dig? On the other hand, Yao’s value is high and every guard and dynamic scorer wants to play with a dominant big man. There is no downside and Yao is the selling point. With micro-fracture surgery on the horizon for McGrady, and a likely end to his once-blistering moves, the switch to make Yao the face of the Rockets has been hastened. His 19.6 PPG, 9.9 RPG and nearly two blocks per game helps and his impact cannot be denied. He’s kept the Rockets in the top four of the Western Conference this season with or without McGrady, and that might be enough to get Rick Adelman Coach of the Year, something T-Mac has never been able to do for anybody.

4. ROSE VS. MAYO: Despite what you heard this isn’t the two-horse race everybody thought it was going to be. In fact, this may turn out to be one of the best rookie classes ever after all the “experts” pegged it as weak prior to last June’s draft. Yes, Clippers’ guard Eric Gordon had some big outings that briefly put him into the conversation and count the NBA TAKE FIVE crew as believers in the Brook Lopez era in New Jersey, but this Rookie of the Year race is a three player competition now and for the first time in a while winning may actually have something to do with it. How else can you separate the pack of Oklahoma’s Russell Westbrook, Chicago’s Derrick Rose and Memphis’ O.J. Mayo? Westbrook made a strong case in the second half of the season that has put him near the finish line with Rose and Mayo. Here’s your statistical breakdown.

ROSE: 16.7 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.9 RPG

MAYO: 16.6 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.9 RPG

WESTBROOK: 15.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 5.1 APG

Crude, we know. And way too close to call based on that. So consider strongly that Rose is the only one out of the top ten rated rookies not named Michael Beasley to have his team in the playoff picture. He has also become Chicago’s best player. At the same time I can’t help but think of how good Westbrook is for the NBA and how beautiful the music he and Kevin Durant will make for many years together for the Thunder will be. Westbrook leads all three with eight double-doubles but Rose leads all with a 16.7 player efficiency rating, second only to the Nets’ Lopez. He also has the lowest turnover rate of the three but falls far behind them in steals and defensively in general. Still, Westbrook, like Mayo, plays on a terrible team long gone from postseason talks. Not that Chicago’s record is impressive (they’ll be one of only two teams in the playoffs with a sub-.500 record) but the influence of a playoff appearance could give Rose a big leap over his draft mates on the NBA learning curve. All three will be stars and for now the only thing really separating them is W’s. Rose it is.

5. UP OR DOWN?: Not that there is a whole lot of blame-laying going on in Toronto, the entire NBA knows there are too many nice guys in the locker room for that drama. Then again, that’s exactly why they the top contender as the most disappointing team in the league. No killers… and the question on if franchise player Chris Bosh will become one is legit. Even with a six-game winning streak that bridged March to April when Bosh finally put together a string of clutch performances, not to mention some impressive first quarter performances that led to a couple of blowout wins, the question hasn’t fully been answered. The Raptors have more than enough young and impressive building blocks (Bosh, Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani), the required three-point specialist in Jason Kapono and a GM in Bryan Colangelo that was supposed to fix some early season problems. Thing is, none of them were on top of their game this season, except for maybe Bargnani who rebounded from a terrible second year and seems back on track development-wise. And even though Colangelo basically undid all of his moves from last summer, most notably trading away center Jermaine O’Neal (whom he acquired from Indiana for T.J. Ford last off-season) to Miami for Shawn Marion, it came way too late for a serious turnaround to happen. Considering that Sam Mitchell was fired all the way back at the start of December and the Marion trade wasn’t completed until after the All-Star break, that type of inaction is inexcusable for a GM who spent the year preaching a commitment to making the postseason, and started the year by saying this was the best team he had ever assembled in Toronto. Instead the Raptors will miss the playoffs for the first time in three years and interim head coach Jay Triano has to wear it. Not sure if the tease of a six-game winning streak will be enough to keep Marion around, but the impending free agent has proved invaluable as a source of energy and rebounding and was the biggest reason Toronto gelled late. If he doesn’t stick or Colangelo can’t resign him, the $17M coming off the books when his salary expires at seasons end (along with more savings from four other ending contracts) will be substantial enough to add some firepower and depth. But given the Raptors lack of veteran star power they might be better of trying to retain the former All-Star. With six other free agents to-be on the roster, and two others under threat of team options for next season, the Raptors have mad space to fill, money to spend and exactly zero excuses heading into next season.

Stuckey Lies In Wait

With Chauncey Billups (along with Antonio McDyess) jettisoned to his hometown Denver Nuggets in the Novemeber 4, 2009 trade that netted the Detroit Pistons mercurial guard Allen Iverson, the questions in Motown have all circled around the point guard position. Enter second year guard Rodney Stuckey as the last and only true point guard on the squad. But with a boatload of former All-Stars in the starting lineup and Iverson expected to make his Pistons debut at point, where does Stuckey fit in?

“We’ll find out once he starts playing,” said Stuckey while the newly acquired Iverson was laid out in street clothes on a bench across the locker room. “We’re talking about A.I. He’s an All-Star in this league. It’s not like we got a scrub or anything, we got a player that can go. We know what he’s going to bring, we’ve just got to fit it together.”

No doubt rookie head coach Michael Curry has his hands full and possibly tied with Iverson, a perennial All-Star that demands big minutes and lots of touches. It seems like an about-face by general manager Joe Dumars, who has prided himself on building the most team-oriented game plan in the NBA. For a team that has reached the Eastern Conference final in each of the past six seasons it is an NBA oddity that they do not have a single player who averages more than 20 points per game. And yet Billups has led a group of Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace to multiple All-Star selections, sometimes all in the same year. With Iverson on board figure that to change.

That is, unless, Curry bites the bullet and puts one of his All-Stars on the bench to make way for the required services of Stuckey. Dumars knows that Stuckey was a great understudy with Billups as the former captained the ship for Detroit. Has he learned enough though, to step right in and take over?

“What ever I need to know he’ll tell me,” said Stuckey, still talking as though his mentor was still in Pistons blue and red. “But I’ve got ‘Sheed, Rip and Tay and now A.I. as well so they’re still going to help me develop.”

But how much pressure will Stuckey’s play and Dumars belief in him be on Curry to let Stuckey off the leash, given that the reasons for acquiring Iverson was as much, or more, about A.I.’s expiring $20M contract coming off the budget books this summer as it was about immediately changing a roster he believed had maxed out?

In his rookie season Stuckey was a bit player averaging 7.6 points, 2.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds in just 19 minutes a game. After a productive summer training program his production seems on the brink of taking a leap forward – being the truest point guard on the roster will at least give him the opportunity – but how much will it be stifled by the ball-hogging Iverson? Curry’s job is not to let that happened and shuffling the line up to accommodate his future point guard over A.I.’s rent-a-player status may be the only way to go. That will definitely ruffle somebody’s feathers and the only thing bigger than the Stuckey question will be if the Pistons will be able to survive the changing of the guards.

Of course, this is a moot point if Iverson can step in and accept that his days as a franchise player are done and somehow buy into the Pistons’ all-for-one mantra and then actual go out and play like it. Given his accomplishments he will be given every chance to do so. Stuckey for one doesn’t anticipate taking on a bigger role just yet.

“Like I said, we’ve got A.I.,” said Stuckey with a hint of concession. “I’m still going to come off the bench and continue to do what I’ve been doing (which) is to bring energy and lead the bench when I’m out there on the court.”

Stuckey has shown signs of being an exciting and fearless scorer and has exhibited strong signs of running a team. The Pistons brass remains high on his potential. When told that Dumars continues to rave about his play Stuckey was appreciative but acknowledged he still has a long way to go.

“Hearing things like that from Joe is always a good thing,” said Stuckey. “He’s a Hall-of-Famer. But there’s a lot that I need to learn still and things I need to do better.

“It’s going to take time but I’ll be there.”

How fast he gets there will depend heavily on how the Iverson experiment runs its course in Detroit and it will be a major factor in whether or not he continues to play off the pine or start. In that sense Stuckey is sort of like the man sitting behind the “break in case of emergency” glass.  It’s a situational double-edged sword if you will, because if Stuckey is starting sooner than later it will mean that something has gone terribly wrong with Detroit’s star-studded front five combination. It will mean that Iverson’s penchant for controlling the ball and the flow of the game has wreaked havoc on the Pistons’ ball sharing, screen planting, equal opportunity offense. It will mean more pressure for Stuckey to come in and make corrections.

And make no mistake. Stuckey is deep in the cut just waiting for the chance.

SONOFAGUN: Young Key To Sixers’ Success

“This summer I worked on my game a lot,” says a still baby-faced Thaddeus Young after a pre-game workout. The Philadelphia 76er ripped it up during exhibition play to start the campaign and it has continued into the early regular season. A product of Georgia Tech, he has been the most impressive player on the roster thus far.

Young came on strong for the 76ers during their furious finish towards the playoffs last season and was a main cog in their surprising post-season performance, battling the mighty Detroit Pistons in their eastern conference opening round series. Yes, the Sixers eventually bowed out in a 23-point blowout Game 6 loss but Young was impressive throughout, averaging 10 points, 4.5 rebounds and 26.3 minutes of burn. That’s a lot of trust to give a rookie but the 6-8 forward spent the year convincing head coach Maurice Cheeks with his play and eventually it landed him a starting job, a move that allowed the Sixers to beef up their up tempo game and get a little stingier on defense in the process. That boost of confidence gave him lots of ammo heading into the off-season and after the disappointing playoff ouster, Young went right back to work.

“Pretty much the whole summer I’ve been working on ball handling, shooting and just trying to stay comfortable within my range,” Young says of his off-season focus.

Early on it seems to have paid off, though the most important development in Young’s game came last year by accepting his place in the pecking order… for now. A lot of rookies struggle with not being “the man” anymore but his humble approach to last season, particularly as the second youngest player in the NBA, helped him absorb some of the finer points of playing in the pros.

“It’s a hard league to stay in,” Young tells SWAY Sports. “This is definitely a hard league to start games in. I just went out there and focused on the things I was good at, which was playing defense and rebounding. I knew coming into this that I wasn’t going to be the main guy anymore. I was used to being the main guy.

“I think I did a great job assuming a role… doing the things that the team needed me to do.”

The show of confidence the organization has showed him isn’t lost on the 20 year-old.

“They knew I was going to evolve to be something,” continues Young. “That’s the reason why they drafted me. It’s just come a little earlier than everybody thought.”

Still, it wasn’t enough to prevent the club from taking a huge gamble on free agent forward Elton Brand who signed an $88M contract with the 76ers in the summer. Young could be the most affected by the move as Brand is guaranteed to start at the power position, the spot Young occupied for much of last season and the one he seems to play best from. Brand’s presence also means a change of pace for the team who will need to slow down in order to maximize his skills (and recovering legs). Early on Young seems to have adjusted to the small forward position and he will have to get comfortable there as long as Brand is around. 

That said, before Brand was even a Sixer Young went to work on his three-point shooting. He was just 6 for 19 from beyond the arc a year ago but the shots looked good enough to convince himself and others that he could become a real threat from downtown, at least enough to keep defenders guessing. Now that improvement will be used to give Brand more room to operate in the paint and is another notch in the belt of his building an all-round game. Combined with his athleticism and defensive potential that development is well underway.

“I’ve been working with (assistant) coach (John) Loyer, (assistant) coach (Bernard) Smith and coach Cheeks,” Young explains. “They tell me… keep concentrating and keep doing what you’ve been doing. If you have the wide open shot take it because I tend to pass up shots. Just keep shooting.”

That hesitancy in his game hints at Young’s still developing assertiveness, and who knows what the presence of Brand will do to his confidence and development. For now though, it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon and if the Sixers can’t adjust - or are not as effective - in a slowed down version then expect Young to see some extra time at the power forward slot when Brand sits. Either way Young looks to be a fixture with the Sixers for the foreseeable future, a team that boasts an impressive mix of young and old with franchise player Andre Iguadala and veteran Andre Miller comprising the back court and veterans Brand and newly minted center Samuel Dalembert making up the front.

In the middle of them all stands Young, a player who is no longer under the radar and one who will be expected to improve on an impressive first season. The Sixers are also being hailed as a squad on the come up. Much of that has to do with Young, as will Philly’s continuing fortunes.

Kapono Stars in Slump-busting Win

In the back bowels of the Air Canada Centre, before Wednesday night’s date with the visiting Indiana Pacers, there was little talk of the losing streak the Toronto Raptors were mired in, mostly because the night was rife with subplots that felt juicer and more delicious to the salivating media.

The return of T.J. Ford, the banished ex-Raptor who proved more distraction than catalyst in his final half season in Toronto last year, proved to be less than tantalizing with a sub-par game performance (4 points, 4 assists) and, in typical T.J. form, a blame sharing address to the media at morning shoot-around. The sweet and sour trade circuit, which has been operating at a healthy clip in the NBA over the past two weeks, has included the names of many a Raptor. And by the end of the night there was head coach Jay Triano, registering his first win as Raptors bench boss, a 101-88 Raptor’s victory over the equally win-challenged Pacers. It was a delightful treat to be sure, a just dessert after inheriting a team on the verge of collapse, embarking on a tough December schedule and dealing with vocally wary players under his command.

“I think we’ve been taking steps in the right direction,” said Triano. “We had good intensity throughout the game and we got a lot of performance from different guys.”

Yet those storylines were merely the cocktail, appetizer and cleanser to the main meat of the night. On the downer of a five game slide that has landed them out of the playoff picture, the squad rebounded from a sound beating at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers just 24 hours earlier, a loss that had many - both outside and in - wondering if the cause of the season could be salvaged in time. And while the win over the Pacers might have provided a respite, nobody has been fooled into thinking the ills of this underachieving team have been cured.

“We’re not the best team,” said Calderon who bested Ford on the night with 14 assists (two turnovers) and 11 points. “It’s just one little step more. We’re going to have to keep working and keep getting better.

“We see good things. We see the team working the way Jay wants us to work and we’re getting better. We got to keep being patient.”

The biggest beneficiary of the decision to replace the fired Sam Mitchell with Triano could be forward Jason Kapono. With guard Anthony Parker sidelined with a sprained left ankle, announced just prior to tip-off, Kapono got the start in the backcourt alongside Calderon. All he did was drop 25 points on 11 of 16 shooting to lead all scorers, and his eight rebound contribution helped the Raptors at least keep up with the Pacers on the glass if not best them.

“As a starter you get into a rhythm and a flow quicker,” said Kapono in a rare post game appearance in front of his locker. “You know you are going to play more minutes. You don’t have to worry if you start off slow or miss a couple of shots.”

There may be more to the story. Triano hinted after the game that extending more responsibility to Kapono is the plan, possibly even leaving him in the starting line up. Kapono looks to see more time and patience under Triano for several reasons. The first is that Triano believes that Parker, after two seasons as the starting two-guard, is tired of the grind of having to guard the opposition’s most lethal offensive player while being asked to do his share of scoring as well. At last check he wasn’t the only NBAer with that a job description, so it could be read that he may not be up to that task night in and night out, or maybe just less-so at the age of 33. Don’t bank on that being the company line though. Parker is deservedly considered a better defender but Kapono’s team defense combined with his more versatile offense is also in keeping with what Triano needs out of his starting unit. After all, minute management is the real name of the game when it comes to match ups, and on most nights both Parker and Kapono will see a healthy share of fourth quarter burn.

Another ketch in the case for Kapono’s bigger role is that as a player Triano himself was a shooter, and shooters love other shooters.

“Jay, in his playing and coaching days, used a lot of pin-downs, screens and motion type sets,” said Kapono. “That has always been my best game.”

Parker shouldn’t be sidelined for long and when he returns its almost a given that he will again be the starter. Kapono at least, has emerged once again as another option while Triano searches for the right combination of Raptors to help right the sinking ship. With small forward Jamario Moon returned to the starting line up in place of Andrea Bargnani, that envelope is already being pushed, and with most around the team believing that a trade of some sort is imminent – Kapono’s name is oft-mentioned - the mixing and matching appears to have only just begun.

“My job is to show up to work and be ready to practice,” said Kapono. “Any trades and stuff like that… that’s not up to me. I’m just glad I have a job.”