In preparation of the 2014-15 NBA season, lead ESPN and ABC NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson discussed the start of the 2014-15 NBA season on a media conference call.
ESPN’s NBA season tips off Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. ET when the Chicago Bulls and the returning Derrick Rose visit the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony. Van Gundy and Jackson will join Mike Breen – the voice of the NBA – and reporter Doris Burke for commentary.
(This is Part One of a two-part article, read Part Two HERE.)
What do you guys make of the Bulls? Derrick Rose finally had a big game the other night. Where do you assess where he’s at and his recovery and what do you expect from the Bulls this year?
MARK JACKSON: I think for the first time in a long time, Derrick Rose looked like himself and obviously everybody was aware it was going to take some time. But he’s an explosive talent. He is a tremendous weapon. He makes them a totally different basketball team and he was in attack mode.
I think adding Pau Gasol makes a difference. You have two big guys in Gasol and [Joakim] Noah, that can make plays at the pinch post area, read off of each other, tremendous size, tremendous skill and the underrated fact that they’ve added shooting. And I just love Taj Gibson as that back-up big guy who can impact the game from the post, get to the line and defend at a high level. That’s a team that’s extremely dangerous and as an NBA fan, it is refreshing to see Derrick Rose back to himself. He’s a high-quality individual and tremendous for the game.
JEFF VAN GUNDY: And for me, I think anybody who is expecting Rose to consistently be what he was the other night against Cleveland, I think doesn’t understand how hard it is in the NBA to regain your edge.
I think when you are basically out two, two and a half years, it’s not easy, even when you’re as talented as Rose. And so that consistency of play, of recreating great habits on the floor, that will be difficult and it will be challenging. There will be some great moments and there will be some moments where he’s disappointed.
I think I agree with Mark about their front court depth. I think with [Nikola] Mirotic as well, their strength is if Rose gets back to who he is and their front court, I think Tom’s going to have a challenge to try to decide who he’s going to finish with, because Gibson, as Mark was talking about, is versatile defensively. There are going to be difficult choices down the stretch of every game. Which pairing do you finish with?
And then perimeter wise, my one question is how are they going to hold up on the perimeter at the two and three? [Jimmy] Butler is, to me, is the one guy who is a starter. I think everybody else would be better served coming off the bench.
So they’re really going to have to piecemeal their two and three positions. To me, I think they’re very top heavy in the front court and particularly when you think of them matching up with Cleveland, who is your other defender against James other than Butler? I think they’re going to have to try to get that question answered.
Can you recall a season going into it where we have a lot of wildcards? How is Cleveland going to come together and Rose in Chicago? It seems like there’s more so than in the last few years, things are up in the air trying to pinpoint who is going to do what and come playoff time?
VAN GUNDY: I don’t see it as a big question mark in the East. LeBron and [Kevin] Love and [Kyrie] Irving will be in the Eastern Conference Finals. I think Chicago will find their way there if their two and three hold up and if Rose is Rose again.
But out West to me there are like five teams you could say I could see them advancing to the Finals. So in the East, barring major injury, I can’t see Chicago or Cleveland not finding their way to the Eastern Conference Finals.
If you had to predict today, and I understand that the NBA is filled with a lot of variables, would you predict LeBron James will win at least one title in Cleveland? If yes, why? If no, why?
VAN GUNDY: Oh boy. I can’t say you can predict a title because I think that’s underestimating just how hard it is to win one. He’s been there five times. He’s gotten to another Eastern Conference Finals. He’s going to be in play. His teams will be in play because of his greatness and they’ve done a terrific job in Cleveland of adding Kevin Love.
So to me they’re going to be in the final four and if you’re in the final four you have a chance to win it. But I still see for the next couple of years the team, whoever advances out of the West, winning it. I think the teams in the west are also very talented and I think James is going to be in play for championships and you never want to bet against the best player, but I think you also can’t underestimate how hard it is to win one.
JACKSON: I’d say yes. He does win at least one title in Cleveland. He’s the best player in the world. They’ve done an outstanding job of putting great talent around him.
When you think about LeBron, Love, Irving, those are three of the best in the game, not just at their positions but in the game. You’ve got a guy in Irving that just won the MVP representing our country. That’s a talented, talented basketball team. And that’s not to mention the other guys on that team. So they’re very deep, very talented and I would say yes they will win one. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that’s going to be this year. But to me, it’s an easy call to say they’ll win one.
And I did hear Jeff say that for the next couple of years that the champion will come out of the West. The West is loaded. The West does have talented great basketball teams. But I’m not going to go that far to say that Cleveland or Chicago cannot beat the representative in the Western Conference.
With LeBron back in Cleveland, with Kobe [Bryant] coming back, with the Knicks having [Carmelo Anthony] back, plus franchises worth $2 billion all of a sudden and the new TV contract, it would appear the NBA is about as healthy as it’s ever been. You guys have been around the league for a long time. Do you share that view? Do you see this as kind of a high point in NBA history just going into this season?
JACKSON: I really believe it’s an extremely high point. And it’s a job well done by everybody involved – the players, how they represent the league, obviously ownership, coaches, management and an incredible job done setting the table by Commissioner Stern and then following up and finishing by Commissioner Silver. So an outstanding job across the board. And it’s an awesome time to be an NBA owner, player, coach, management. It’s just an incredible time.
And I think as a fan, there are so many stories because no longer can you say, well, this is a team that’s going to run away or these are the two teams. I think there’s so many teams that have a legitimate chance, even if you say like Jeff said earlier, the two in the Eastern Conference and five at least in the Western Conference, that’s seven teams with a legitimate chance to, at the end of the day, win it all and I think it’s great for basketball and it’s great as a fan.
VAN GUNDY: I agree with Mark. He listed a lot of reasons and people that have put the NBA in this great position and a lot of people who are about to benefit.
And I think the one thing that the NBA through this era of prosperity has to be very aware of is what they can do for the fan. Because prices continue to go up. Everything around the live viewing experiences continues to increase.
And I just think we have to keep the fan in mind. And I think sometimes when you’re in this prosperity era, where everything is going well, we can lose sight of who are the main reasons for our successes – the great players, the people who drive the business aspect, but it’s also the fans that continue to buy the product.
And I think we have to look out as all this money is getting passed around. How can we make it better for the fan? Is there a way to cut concessions or ticket prices to make it more affordable? I think it’s something we need to explore.
Jeff, beyond your idea you mentioned regarding fans, of all the ideas tossed around casually the last few weeks (LeBron suggesting a shorter season, NBA thinking about a 44-minute game trying, that in preseason). Are there any of these ideas or others which you haven’t mentioned that would be a good idea for the league and do any of these strike you as absurd?
VAN GUNDY: Well, I think this goes to the fan idea. I think fans oftentimes get an inferior product on back-to-back games, and I think that has to be the number one thing that gets addressed for the fans and for the players. – the elimination or the drastic reduction of back-to-back games. And I think it starts with the owners giving up preseason games. There’s no need and I’ll tell you how you know there’s no need for these preseason games – it’s because no one plays in them.
And yet we charge the same prices. And so let’s stop with the ruse that we need seven preseason games or eight preseason games to get a team ready. So let’s play two games, three games, and start the regular season two weeks earlier so we can eliminate some back to back games. Let’s not have as long a period at the All-Star break for back-to-back games.
So we can reduce them. And let’s extend the season a week or two in the regular season so that we can drastically reduce – or the goal should be to totally eliminate back-to-back games. I think that more so than the number of games of 82 or the length of a game of the 48 minutes needs to be changed. Because again, as a fan, they deserve our very best and you never want to give your players excuses, but to expect them to play great after playing the night before and flying three hours to a different time zone to have the same energy I think is a stretch and I think it leads to a lot of bad basketball and doesn’t give the product that we should be giving our fans.
JACKSON: And I’m in total agreement pretty much with everything that Jeff just stated. As a former player, I wouldn’t want to get rid of back-to-backs totally. But I would certainly minimize the amount of back-to-backs.
I definitely agree with Jeff as far as the preseason games being played. There’s no way in the world that the number should be seven or eight preseason games. That would certainly help scheduling and minimizing how many back-to-back games there are during the course of the season.
I’m in agreement that it should be two or three preseason games because you have training camp. You have the games. There’s plenty of time to get guys situated and get a system in and get yourself ready for a long season.
I like the idea of what they played with as far as extending the All-Star break. It gives guys an opportunity to enjoy their families, shut their bodies down. For the guys in the All-Star game, they really don’t have a break.
I think we should keep them in mind. But I’m in total agreement with what Coach just said.
I just wondered why you guys think the East has just been unable, besides Miami, to compete with the West in overall depth over the last few years? This year, like Coach Van Gundy just said, seems like the same thing. Why is that? Is it just a cycle? Why are most of the bad teams, the lottery teams in the East and what are your thoughts on the voting down the lottery reform and whether you guys think the Draft lottery needs a reform?
VAN GUNDY: I have no idea why the disparity for such a prolonged period of time. I have no idea. As far as lottery reform, I don’t think there should be any incentive at all to lose. I don’t think that you should get one advantage from losing. And so I’m for anything that takes out any incentive to lose.
I think the next part, where I agree with the players, particularly the star players, is that I think there should be a salary cap like we have. Whatever the number is. But I don’t think there should be like a player cap within that salary cap.
So if someone wants to pay LeBron James $40 million a year and have 40 more million for the rest of their team, I think that’s fine to me. I don’t understand why we don’t limit anybody else in the game really other than the best players. And I just don’t think that’s fair or equitable.
JACKSON: And I think like you stated in that question, it’s just a cycle. And this is a time when outside of LeBron, the best players pretty much have been in the Western Conference, with the best teams. And the East has struggled for some period outside of the success of the Miami Heat.
But I think with LeBron [staying in] the Eastern Conference, we’ll see teams in the Eastern Conference get better. When you look at some of the teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, they are getting better.
When you continue to add talent and draft picks, you’ve got no choice but to get better. And in agreement with Coach, it’s scary that we’re agreeing so early on, this is not the norm, but I certainly agree that teams should not be rewarded when you talk about the Draft being reformed for losing.
So I really believe that at the end of the day, it should be a situation where it’s a straight up lottery of some form where we’re not encouraging teams to find ways to lose games when it matters most during the course of the season.
Jeff, obviously Brooklyn set the payroll record last year and it didn’t quite work. Obviously taking a step back, they didn’t bring back Paul Pierce and lost Kidd and now rumblings about the owners selling. How do you assess the management of Brooklyn and its prospects going forward, given all the risks they’ve taken?
VAN GUNDY: Well I think, and it’s proven out in professional sports, stability wins. And everything starts at the very top and it gets passed down. So great ownership over periods of time will win out. And then having stability in your front office and having stability in the coaching end of it pays off.
So they have had some things where they haven’t been stable. I give them credit for even though the moves weren’t necessarily great moves, but for at least trying to give a great product to their fans. Trying to win.
Now, they didn’t work. It’s going to cost them in the future, obviously, with a lot of draft picks and things of that nature. But I’m going to be very interested to see how they play this year.
I like their team. I think they’re a playoff team. But a lot of it goes to health as it always does and are Deron Williams and Brook Lopez going to be healthy. And if they are, they’re going to have a chance to be a top four seed in the East.
I know you’re a big supporter of Kidd last season. What do you think of his move to Milwaukee and how it was handled by both him and the Nets?
JACKSON: Unfortunately, not being there, I don’t know how it was really handled. I only know how it was reported and I think from both sides it could have been dealt with better.
One thing I do know is that Jason Kidd has proven to be a very good coach. I think after the team struggling early on last year, they got it back together and Coach talked about stability being key to success, he also touched on health.
I think when you talk about Deron Williams not being 100 percent, when you talk about Brook Lopez obviously being out for an extended period of time, that was a team that found a way in spite of those injuries to get into the playoffs and have some success. And then I look at Jason now and that Milwaukee team is a young, talented, well coached basketball team that is going to be dangerous. And I like their direction. So obviously I’m a Jason Kidd supporter and I think that both the Nets and Jason could have handed it better. But I’m only speaking from what was reported, not from the facts.
What do you guys think of the Philadelphia 76ers? Last year they only won 19 games, 26-game losing streak, in a total rebuilding process and asking the fans to be patient. And they feel down the road that the team’s going to be very competitive, be able to compete with the best teams in the league. I’d just like to get your thoughts on the whole process and what kind of year do you see them having?
VAN GUNDY: They’re playing by the rules. And when you play by the rules, this is why I think there needs to be lottery reform. They’re trying to accumulate talent. And it’s hard to get a player or players who can be the best players on the best team and win it. There’s like maybe 12 guys that you see could be the best player on the team and still win a championship.
And so to get one, it’s either you’re going to sign one, which is very hard, like a LeBron James, which Cleveland did, which had extraordinary circumstances or back in the day when O’Neal went from Orlando to LA, or you’re going to draft them. And what they’re trying to do is give themselves as many opportunities as they can to get that generational-type player that can be Tim Duncan-ish and come to a place and for two decades make you relevant and put you in the championship hunt.
Now, so I understand what they’re doing. I also understand why they’re asking their fans to be patient. I can also, from a fan standpoint, see why you would never buy a ticket right now because it’s a substandard product. And I thought last year Brett Brown did one of the greatest coaching jobs I’ve ever seen. What did they win, 17 or 19? 19 games. He got them in great shape. They played with great confidence.
And even though they lost a lot last year, they didn’t play like a losing team. They came out, competed, played with great unselfishness, with a great attitude. I think they’re just less talented this year right now because Michael Carter-Williams is hurt. They lost Thaddeus Young who is a good player. [Joel] Embiid is hurt. So if they win 15 games they will have overachieved to the highest level.
JACKSON: I think the concern is as Coach said, substandard product right now. I watched three guys in the Draft work out and I would have taken two with the number one pick.
I love Wiggins, with all due respect, but there’s no question that Jabari Parker would have been my number one pick or it would have been Joel Embiid. I watched both of those players and they were absolute home run players, home run talent and work ethic, incredible. They’re headed in the right direction. It’s about getting healthy. When you talk about Embiid and Michael Carter Williams being healthy, you can see two guys at those positions that are going to seal it for a long time.
And my concern with the Sixers, they developed a losing culture, when you have that many young guys, they don’t know how to win and all they know right now is losing. At some point you’ve got to develop a culture of winning and winning habits and gaining some results so the guys can believe it. Because that can fester and be like a disease that you’ve got to rid those guys of in order to get a winning culture. So that would be my concern, if I was the Sixers right now.
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