Author: katadmin

Would Nene look good in silver and black?

The Spurs will have some  distinct needs once the free-agent period arrives. 

The likely retirement of Antonio McDyess and Tim Duncan’s decline leaves a big hole for the Spurs inside for a big, strong rebounder. 

Denver’s Nene is exactly that kind of player. 

Nene told the Denver Post that he’s likely to opt out of the final year of his current contract that pays him about $12 million per year. 

The Nuggets reportedly have offered him a three-year extension at about those numbers, but that apparently won’t be good enough to keep the rugged 28-year-old Brazilian 6-11, 265-pound forward/center, who averaged 14.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and shot 61.5 percent from the field. 

Nene feels he’s not appreciated by the Nuggets, who went 50-32 before they were eliminated in five games  by Oklahoma City in the first round. 

“I’ve been here for nine years,” Nene told the Post. “If that doesn’t work how you want it, you need to sit down and evaluate everything and see what you can do…. 

“If I play happy, if I enjoy the game, my game improves. I did my best for the team, for the city. I tried to do my best for the fans. But the (Nuggets) need to understand you need to see the return on the other side, or you need to look for it. You need to look for it sometimes. They don’t realize all of the sacrifices I made. When you don’t feel appreciated, it’s hard.” 

It’s uncertain whether Spurs majority owner Peter Holt would authorize the big payment that Nene likely would command. 

The Spurs would likely need for Duncan to exercise his early-termination option this summer and sign a longer-term deal for less  money to give the Spurs the financial flexibility to even think about signing a player like Nene — or anybody else of his level for that matter. 

But Nene might listen to the Spurs for a couple of reasons. 

His talents would fit exactly what the Spurs need after their 61-win season. 

He also would be  coming to perhaps the NBA’s most welcoming team to international players. Nene potentially would be reuniting with his old friend, rookie Brazilian power forward Tiago Splitter. 

It’s unsure if it would make him come to San Antonio for less money. He probably wouldn’t. 

But Nene likely would at least listen to the Spurs if they showed any interest in him. 

What about it Spurs Nation? 

Is Nene the kind of player you would like to see playing for the Spurs next season?

Mavs set to answer rest or rust question

By DOUGLAS PILS
dpils@express-news.net

The Dallas Mavericks seek to solve a never-ending debate Tuesday in the Western Conference finals.

Tipping off against the Oklahoma City Thunder or Memphis Grizzlies, it will have been 10 days since the Mavericks swept the two-time defending champion Lakers.

The riddle: Is it better to rest, or did Dallas lose valuable momentum only a six-game playoff winning streak can provide?

Pundits belabor the question. Players and coaches deflect it. Only the games answer it.

Since the NBA made the conference semifinals a best-of-7 test of wills in 1968, 18 teams have reached the conference or NBA Finals with a sweep while their next opponent fought to close out a six- or seven-game series.

The sweepers are 10-8 in the following series, and eight won NBA titles. However, the sweepers have lost the past three.

Last year, the Magic blanked the Hawks only to fall to the Celtics, who took six games to beat the Cavaliers.

In 2009, the Cavs routed the Hawks before losing to the Magic, who battled seven games with Boston.

In 2005, the Heat swept the Wizards, then lost in seven to the Pistons, who had a six-game win over Cleveland.

The last conference semis sweeper to advance past a team that faced a challenge was the 2003 Nets, who beat the Pistons after they had survived the 76ers in six.

Then the Spurs beat the Nets in the NBA Finals.

The Spurs are the most recent of the 10 winners to claim the title. In 1999, they swept the Lakers, then the Blazers, who had a six-game series with the Jazz, before hoisting their first Larry O’Brien Trophy.

As for the riddle, Dallas has nine players with 10 or more years in the league, so the rest theory seems to fit.

But consider how Dallas knocked out Los Angeles. It made 20 of 32 3-pointers in Game 4. Does a team smoking the nets at that rate really want rest? The chances of Dallas coming back anywhere near that hot seem remote.

Two characteristics of the eight teams who lost the next round and the two winners who failed to win the title are lack of championship experience and/or running into a team of destiny.

Aside from the four sweepers noted above who failed to win it all, the other six are the 1978 and 1985 76ers, the 1968 and 1989 Lakers, the 1996 SuperSonics and the 1998 Jazz.

Philadelphia in 1985 and L.A. in 1989 weren’t far removed from titles, but they fell to the Celtics, who were in the middle of four straight Finals, and Chuck Daly’s Pistons, respectively.

Point guard Jason Kidd, a 17-year pro and member of the 2003 Nets, is the closest thing Dallas has to championship experience, but it won’t face a team that has any in the Western finals.

That leaves the destiny part of the equation. We won’t know until later if the Thunder or Grizzlies fit the notion, but teams usually don’t leap from No. 4 or No. 8 seeds to titles.

Destiny could be Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki, 32, trying to erase his name off the list of great players without a title.

Hakeem Olajuwon was 31 when he got his first. Kevin Garnett was 31.

However, it’s more likely that the team of destiny — the one with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — will be waiting in the Finals, making the riddle’s solution pointless.

Mavs’ haymakers KO Lakers’ reign

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

DALLAS — The end of an era was sudden and painful for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Crushed by a fusillade of 3-pointers by Dallas Mavericks reserves Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic, the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers on Sunday suffered the second-worst playoff loss in their long history, a 122-86 humiliation that swept them out of the Western Conference semifinals.

As a result, the Mavericks are headed to the Western Conference finals for the fourth time in franchise history, and Lakers Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is headed to retirement with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Jackson’s teams have won 11 NBA titles, but never in his 20 seasons on NBA benches had one of them been swept from a playoff series.

Before Jackson confirmed his intent to retire during his postgame remarks, he called the Mavericks’ performance the best game any team had ever played against one of his teams in a playoff situation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team play to that level in a series in a game like they played this afternoon,” he said. “They were terrific.”

What the Mavericks did best was shoot from long range. Terry missed only one of the 10 3-pointers he launched and scored a game-high 32 points.

Recalling his 32-point performance that led the Mavericks to a Game 1 victory in the 2006 NBA Finals, Terry hedged about calling his uncanny shooting the best of his playoff life. He clearly understood its impact.

? “For the magnitude of this game, to close those guys out, yes, it was a great game,” he said, “so it goes down as one of them. And I’m very thankful that I had the hot hand tonight.”

Stojakovic, the veteran forward the Mavericks signed as a free agent after the Toronto Raptors released him in February, was even more accurate from 3-point range, making all six of his long-distance shots. He scored 21 points.

The Mavericks made 11 3-pointers in the first half, 20 for the game — both numbers matching single-game NBA playoff records.

Amazingly, Dallas’ season scoring leader Dirk Nowitzki attempted, and made, only one 3-pointer. For the first time in one of the Mavericks’ eight playoff victories this spring, he was not his team’s top scorer. He scored only 17 points, trailing Terry, Stojakovic and another reserve, point guard J.J. Barea, who finished with 22 points.

The Lakers had no answer for the Mavericks at either end of the court. Former NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant, a two-time Finals MVP, scored 13 first-quarter points but only four thereafter. He made six of his first eight shots, then missed nine of his next 10. The game’s most feared closer had only two points in the second half.

To Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, his team’s defensive excellence matched the 3-point shooting he called breathtaking.

“You hold this (Lakers) team under 40 percent, it means you’re moving your feet, you’re guarding, and you’re rebounding,” he said. “That fueled a lot of the good things that happened for us offensively.”

By game’s end, Jackson was embarrassed by the lack of composure of center Andrew Bynum and forward Lamar Odom. Both were thrown out of the game — Odom for committing a category-2 flagrant foul on Nowitzki; Bynum for a flagrant-2 on Barea, a foot shorter but far more impactful on a Mother’s Day afternoon.

“I wasn’t happy with the way our players exited the game, on Lamar’s and Andrew’s part,” Jackson said.

Jackson also accused some unnamed players of shrinking from the magnitude of the moment.

“Well, I felt there’s a couple of players who felt daunted by the energy of the game,” he said. “Their game was depressed. There were, personally, a couple of players who didn’t step into the performance that I’d like to see them step into.”

As a result, Jackson steps into retirement, an era ended with minimal resistance and maximum pain.