Fixing a Hole Where the Rain Gets In

There’s an old saying that goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well several teams around the NBA look to be broken and there do seem to be a few plausible, albeit unconventional solutions to fixing them. Here’s a look at a few of them and some solutions for fixing them.

→Miami- Shaq-less but also lacking unity

While it’s tough to call a team that is 6-3 broken, it’s important to note that that winning ratio is for only nine games. It’s also important to note that over those nine games Dwyane Wade has been averaging 24.3ppg, 7.9apg, 7.6 rpg and 2 steals a game. While those are incredible numbers, Wade is shooting only 44%, down from last years 47%, from two and 7% from 3. That means Wade is doing way too much for his team. Putting the team on your back for a few games is commendable but Wade needs to back off and let Antoine Walker and Jason Williams work into things a bit too. Both Walker and Williams have been forcing shots at times as they look like they’re having trouble understanding their role in the offense. Williams is also playing point and is averaging fewer assists than Wade, who is playing the two. This stat is again indicative of Wade shouldering too much of the offensive load. The easiest solution to this problem is to convince Larry Brown that his dream job is really in Miami, but since that isn’t particularly likely, since he won’t likely leave until Zeke at least attempts a few trades, the answer will have to come from somewhere else. While Stan Van Gundy is certainly a very good coach, now might be the time for Pat Riley to step down from his pedestal and take the reigns of the beast. Riley is able to manage talent and offense through defense, like he did with the Showtime Lakers. Given that Shaq is out for the next several months, the Heat could use this time to learn to play Riley’s ways and then just drop the “MDE” into the starting lineup.
→Knicks- Apparently they really don’t have a point-guard

It’s always nice when you can kill two birds with one stone; especially if one of those birds is Stephon Marbury. The Knicks have been helping the Bulls kill birds for the last several years, signing and trading for Jamal Crawford and Eddy Curry. It might be time though, to call on their friendly trading partners in Chicago one last time. The Knicks are obviously in need of a point guard salary cap relief. Chicago is obviously in need of a scorer. While they are able to stay in the games defensively, the Bulls are shooting themselves out of games. Stephon Marbury obviously wants to be a shooting guard and in Chicago, the Bulls have a roster capable of indulging him. The Knicks should offer the Bulls Stephon Marbury, Trevor Ariza and Channing Frye for Kirk Hinrich and Tim Thomas. Sure they just got rid of Thomas, but between his, Penny Hardaway’s and Antonio Davis’ expiring contracts, the Knicks could actually dream of reaching the salary cap sometime in the near future. It is a lot to give up Ariza and Frye, but they would be getting Kirk Hinrich, someone who posses all the tools necessary to be Larry Browns dream point-guard. The Bulls might do the trade because they get a proven scorer, in Marbury, some frontcourt help, in Fry, and a guy who could certainly become a lockdown defender in Ariza. This would also give Isaiah Thomas the chance to trade an expiring contract for Jalen Rose to almost completely resurrect the Bulls roster of two years ago, sans Tyson Chandler. This is apparently Thomas’ way of sticking his tongue out a Jerry Reinsdorf and the rest of the Bulls management who felt that John Paxon was a better choice for GM than Thomas when Jerry Krause resigned. While it sounds a little bit crazy for both sides involved, it just might be crazy enough to work. Especially since Brown can take a good team and make them great if he has a great point-guard like Hinrich. The Bulls could make it work with Chris Duhon and Marbury as the starting guards with Ben Gordon off the bench. Talk about a high-powered backcourt. By fixing the Bulls scoring issues, and the Knicks point-guard issues, this trade would kill two birds with the same stone.

→Lakers- Kobe shoots too much

Michael Jordan once said that he could score 32 a game by putting up only 8 points every quarter. While that’s still a lot of points, his idea was to do it efficiently and over time. Kobe Bryant could take a lesson from that. Over the years the Bulls won their championships Jordan averaged roughly 23 field goal attempts per game. That’s it, just 23 per game. Jordan’s secret wasn’t that he was a much better shooter than Bryant, in fact there aren’t very many people ever who are a better shooter than Bryant, Jordan just took smarter shots. He also penetrated more than Kobe is doing, especially earlier in his career. Already this season Bryant is averaging 28 field goal attempts per game. He’s also averaging only 31 points. Jordan never averaged that many FG attempts per game, he came close in 1987 putting up 27.8, but translated that into 37.1 ppg. Jordan simply wasn’t simply a great shooter; he was an obscenely efficient shooter. Bryant needs to limit his field goal attempts to shots that he knows are good. At this point in his career Bryant knows what shots are good and what shots are not. In games this year he has shot extremely poorly in the first half only to come back and dominate the second. Phil Jackson needs to keep Bryant within the offense during the first part of the game. If he were shooting 1-8 in the first quarter, a second quarter benching would certainly send a message to Bryant. While he’s a very good defender, the team can make up for that missing defense by not running plays for a player who’s going to miss seven shots. After a few games of riding the pine for inefficient shooting, Bryant would certainly get the message. He can be brilliant on the floor, its not Phil Jackson’s job to force him to be it by limiting his shot attempts and forcing him to shot more efficiently. Taking 5 fewer shots a game is certainly a good way to force a player to be smarter with his shots. Bryant also needs to revisit the types of shots he is taking. Instead of indiscriminately hoisting up lots of mid-range jump shots, he could hoist half those and take his game inside for the other half. Bryant has the ability to be an effective tool inside as a post up guard or a dunk option. It’s Jackson’s job to explain this to him. Maybe Phil could even have Jordan call Bryant to explain this concept. Just for the record, Allen Iverson is scoring 32 points a game on 24 attempts per game and the Sixers are surprising everyone and winning. Also for the record, Lebron James is putting up 26.7ppg and taking only 19 field goals a game. He too, is winning.

Although there happen to be many other problems around the league that need fixing, these are a few that could be done relatively easily. Look for Page4 to attempt to help the still winless Raptors and Hawks later this week.