Tag Archives: Steve Novak

by | April 27, 2012 · 8:45 PM

Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks First Round Prediction

Melo ISO, we will see that a lot

If there wasn’t some drama hog who lived in Orlando, this season’s headlines would have focused squarely on the tumultuous, and miraculous, year that the Knicks have had. They signed Tyson Chandler, they have been good, then bad, then terrible, then Linsanity struck, then Mike D’Antoni stepped down as the head coach before he could be fired, then Mike Woodson took over as head coach, then they signed J.R. Smith, then Jeremy Lin got hurt, then Carmelo Anthony played is ass off (he still is), then Amare Stoudemire came back from injury and that brings us to the present. Phew!

Now, the Knicks enter the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and are playing some of their best ball of the season thanks in large part to Anthony’s incredible play over the last couple of weeks. With the injury to Stoudemire, Anthony shifted to power forward and has excelled. His shooting range has drawn larger defenders away from the paint, freeing up passing and cutting lanes. When he has a smaller defender on him he has the ability to post them up or shoot over them. On the defensive end of the floor he is actually trying, and not just sort of trying, trying as hard as he can fronting larger players, swiping at the ball and hounding players of comparable size. This is a Melo we have never seen. This is the Melo that the Knicks traded half of their roster for.

Yes, the Knicks are back in a big way, so much so that Steve Novak celebrating with his discount double check move does not seem ludicrous. This is a team, that despite their myriad of injuries has persevered and one courageous storyline has superseded the previous one has it fell by the wayside. These Knicks just won’t die. Now they will face their next daunting challenge, only this one does not come from within the organization.

The Miami Heat are title favorites. They lost in the Finals last season and still carry that burden and bitter taste with them. Yet, they enter the postseason seeming uninterested. Miami sleepwalked through the second half of the season, resting various parts of their big three. During that span they rarely beat a team with a record over .500. It was as if they were just biding their time, knowing that they were assured of a playoff berth.

Despite their lackadaisical attitude after they All Star break, the Heat enter the playoffs as a second seed and are still one of the most feared teams in all of basketball because of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh. They have some tertiary players as well, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, and Udonis Haslem lead that bunch, but when it comes to the Heat, it is about their big three. It will be curious to see if they do have that switch that they can turn on to return to their demonstrative, Flying Death Machine form. They act as though they are about to flip that switch, but is it that easy?

Miami will challenge the Knicks’ defense at the rim, namely Chandler, with their athleticism and slashing. It will behoove them to get Chandler into foul trouble early because not only is he the anchor of New York’s defense, but he is also a superb rebounder and the Heat are terribly undersized. If Chandler does get onto early foul trouble often it will allow Miami to open up their spacing on the offensive end where they can effectively use Bosh in the high post and elbow to set screens and pick and roll or pop opportunities.

Frankly, Chandler will be in foul trouble, that’s just what he does. However, the Knicks work better with a smaller lineup. It allows them to get their 3-point shooter on the floor creating isolation situations for Anthony and Stoudemire. If a double comes, they can kick the ball out and their teammates can swing it around the perimeter for an open look. There will be several moments during this series where Novak is left open, though he should never be, and he will drain an important three.

As much as they would like to, the Knicks’ starters do not match up well with those of the Heat. Their bench will be the key to keeping the games close. Miami’s ball movement stagnates when their bench is on the floor which is why Erick Spolstra likes to keep one or two of his stars on the floor with his bench unit. The bench is the advantage for the Knicks, however it would be disastrous to rely on them for significant periods of time against the fourth best defense in the NBA.

It may take a game or two, depending on Wade’s injured finger, but the Flying Death Machine should return to form and terrorize the league once more. New York will try and run but the Heat, despite their sixteenth rank pace of 91.2 are some of the best in the open floor.

It was fun, New York.

Doyle Rader predicts: Heat defeat the Knicks 4-1

Travis Huse predicts: Heat defeat the Knicks 4-2

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by | December 24, 2011 · 1:27 PM

New additions, same Knicks

Even with Chandler, D'Antoni has his work cut out for him

The New York Knicks enter the protracted season with high hopes and deep playoff aspirations. Why should they not? This is a team that has, since the trade deadline in February, been one of the largest movers on the market. They have brought in star talent to contend now. However, with all the moves that they have made, are the Knicks ready to compete with the likes of the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, or the Boston Celtics? It appears that everything is riding on this season no matter the fact that it is shortened and they have a heap of new players to work into the rotation. The clock is already ticking and the start of the season is less than 24 hours away.

Though they did not make the biggest splash in the hectic free agency period, that honor goes to the Los Angeles Clippers for wresting Chris Paul away from the New Orleans Hornets, the Knicks did land the most coveted center on the market. Tyson Chandler, coming off his career defining championship season with the Dallas Mavericks, chose New York over a host of suitors. New York was a likely fit for Chandler because they could offer him the money he thought that he deserved; roughly $56 million over four years.

During his time in Dallas, Chandler proved to be the backbone of a stout and flexible defense that was quite adept at employing complex zone schemes which allowed Chandler to operate autonomously in and around the paint. As defensively porous as the Knicks were a season ago, a defensive rating of 110.1 which was good for eighth worst in the league, it is no wonder why they spent the money to acquire Chandler. They need defense, and badly.

Yet, one player cannot change the defensive structure of an entire team, it takes each individual on the court to put forth a concerted effort. Carmelo Anthony knows this and believes that the Knicks “can be a great defensive team.” As with anything, words are easier to come by than action.

Last season the Knicks’ best defenders, in terms of defensive rating, were Amar’e Stoudemire and Ronny Turiaf. Each checked in with a rating of 108. Cult hero Anthony Randolph had a lower rating than either Stoudemire and Turiaf but his time on the court was so negligible it renders the rating moot. Determining defensive ratings for players relies heavily on the defensive rating of the team so it is understandable why all the players would own bad ratings.

Mike D’Antoni, the head coach since 2008, is known for an offense first game plan. Defense is an after though, if it is even thought of at all. Chandler is not an offensive powerhouse and can take seven seconds or more to run the length of the court if he is caught under the defensive rim when the Knicks transition to offense. How will he integrate into D’Antoni’s uptempo system? It will be D’Antoni who will have to adjust to Chandler’s presence.

With the lackluster defensive talent on the Knicks’ roster it would behoove D’Antoni to implement similar zone schemes to the ones Chandler anchored in Dallas. From there an individual mandate and trust can be passed to each player when the team plays man-to-man. Trust will be one of the most important issues for the Knicks to cultivate this season if they are truly committed to improving defensively.

On the opposite end of the floor, D’Antoni’s team packs an offensive punch, with two players at least. Combined, Anthony and Stoudemire were used in 60 percent of the offensive sets. The next five players in terms of offensive usage are no longer on the team. In terms of scoring, the four players immediately behind Anthony and Stoudemire are also gone. Toney Douglas is the next player on the list, in both categories, that is still on the team.

Of course there is Chandler, but as stated above he is not going to be a go-to guy on offense. Instead, the Knicks will have to rely heavily on some new and returning players. This includes the aforementioned Douglas, who will quarterback the team, Landry Fields, Iman Shumpert (oh, how he is hyped already), Bill Walker, Mike Bibby, Jared Jeffries, Steve Novak, and Baron Davis. Davis, however, will not take the court for some time as he is dealing with a bulging disk in his back. Not only that but he has lost a step going into his thirteenth season.

This is a team with serious depth issues. This is none more apparent than at point guard. D’Antoni’s system relies on strong play from his point guard (see: Steve Nash) and his options going into the season are far from promising. Douglas is far from Nash and had a two-to-one assist to turnover ratio last season. Now that Raymond Felton is in Portland, Douglas’ ratio could become worse.  Since coming to New York, D’Antoni’s teams have committed the most turnovers. Until Davis is healthy, Bibby will be the backup point guard. Anyone who watched his play with the Miami Heat last season knows that his time on the court is met with groans rather than cheers. The turnovers will continue to be plentiful.

New faces are nothing new for the Knicks, they have also had the most player turnover of any team over the last four years. Therefore, the current Knicks situation is no different that it has been during D’Antoni’s tenure. Nothing in New York should ever be all that easy. Unfortunately for D’Antoni, this is the last year of his contract. If he cannot but all the new pieces together he could be in a long unemployment line.

To expect much of this team in a shortened season would be foolish. Despite their formidable frontcourt, there are too many places where they need to improve, especially defensively, and be able to integrate new players. Not only that but their lack of depth will really hurt them with the increased number of back-to-back games and the inclusion of back-to-back-to-backs. Finishing sixth in the East, as they did last season, would seem to be about right for the new-look Knicks of this season. The Anthony trade gutted this team of a young core and the effects of that will be seen this season. Knicks fans can take solace, though, now that Eddy Curry is no longer on the team. That is a win in and of itself.

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by | November 6, 2011 · 11:03 AM

David Stern issues Ultimatum to Union

Wednesday, bloody Wednesday

The latest round of mediation between the NBA, its owners, and the NBPA ended, after nearly eight and a half hours stretching into Sunday morning, the same way that every prior mediated session and talks have. There is still no deal. However, without directly referring to a proposed deal on the table as an ultimatum, NBA Commissioner David Stern did in fact issue one. A fact that was not lost on the union and its players.

Steve Novak of the San Antonio Spurs was one of  the first player to react using the term ultimatum on twitter, “U gotta love an ultimatum! How does basketball ever even get to this point?” He was not the only player to express his disbelief in the owners’ proposal, Tony Allen of the Memphis Grizzlies also tweeted after the terms of the proposal were made public last night, “57 53 49 : wow.”

The proposal that is on the table for the players to accept by the close of business on Wednesday, which Stern set as the cut-off point when the deal would be removed and the owners would again revert to their previous stance that the players should receive 47 percent of basketball related income and that a flex cap (read: hard cap) be in place, inches slightly closer to what the players have been asking for but does so in a way in which the owners proposal of a 50/50 split of BRI is the more likely outcome. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, the players received 57 percent of BRI. As Allen referenced in the above tweet, the union has come down from 57 percent to 53 percent, then 52.5 percent and now is faced with close to earning just 49 percent of BRI.

Under the current proposal, which is a band deal, the players could earn between 49 and 51 percent of BRI. However, union attorney Jeffery Kessler, who was representing the players at the talks with union president Billy Hunter under the weather, along with Derek Fisher scoffed at the proposal. Under it the players would receive 50 percent of BRI with the ability, if league revenue grows at a projected four percent annually or further “significant growth” Stern said, to earn 51 percent of basketball related income. If revenues were to remain stagnant or decrease the players would earn just 49 percent of BRI. The reason Kessler flatly rejected the proposal is because “the proposal that this is a robust deal at 51 is a fraud,” he stated. Under the deal the players could not expect to legitimately earn 51 percent and that it would take “the wildest, most unimaginable, favorable projections and we might squeeze out to 50.2.”

“They came in here with a prearranged plan to try to strong-arm the players,” Kessler added. “They knew today they were sticking to 50, essentially 50.2. They were going to make almost no movement on the system, and then they were going to say, ‘My way, or the 47 percent highway.”

During the mediation the NBPA issued a proposal of a 51/49 percent split of BRI in which one percent would go towards benefits for retired players helping them with heath care, insurance, and pensions. This proposal was never addressed by Stern and the owners.

Where the two sides could also not make headway was the issue of the luxury tax. The proposed deal on the table would fine each team over the tax limit on a one-for-one amount for every dollar over the tax a team spends. That is down from their previous offer of a $1.50 penalty for each dollar over the limit. The union wants to see a 50 cent tax on the first $10 million over the salary cap limit and then raise it to one dollar after that.

What the league is proposing would make it difficult, if not impossible, for championship caliber teams to retain certain players under their proposal. This would adversely effect teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Orlando Magic, and New York Knicks. In the case of Dallas, the reigning NBA champions, starting center Tyson Chandler spoke bluntly about this proposal earlier in the week as reported by the Dallas Morning News:

“With the collective bargaining agreement and some of the things that they’re trying to enforce, it would basically prohibit me from coming back,” Chandler told KESN-FM FM in Dallas. “It would take it out of my hands — and the organization’s — because it would almost be pretty much impossible for me to re-sign. I just think that can be the worst thing that can happen.”

“For years, the Lakers have been able to win championships and re-sign their players and keep them there so they can go out for another title,” Chandler said. “Now, to put that deal in place after we win ours, I don’t like it one bit.”

Mark Cuban, Jerry Buss, and James Dolan are probably none too thrilled with the potential ramifications of that scenario. But they are not the ones spearheading the move to limit the power of the players. However, teams just above the luxury limit will be given a reprieve under the owners’ proposal with their taxes cut in half.

Further, the two-sided disagreed on the length and money of the mid-level exception, which teams over the salary cap use to sign players. The players want an MLE that is worth $5 million for four years occurring every other year. The league’s proposal is $2.5 million for two years every other year.

Teams who are playing luxury taxes, the league insists, would also be exempt from any sign-and-trade deals like the one that sent LeBron James from Cleveland to Miami.

These hardline proposals from the league are the result of a few owners in small markets, which it was revealed this week are led by Michael Jordan. Hardline owners want to wrest the money-making power from the players and limit the ability of large market teams to willing spend beyond the cap to put together winning teams. The irony of Jordan leading the charge to clamp down on the players is that he is the man who embodied the move towards player control in the league. It was he that wanted more money as a player, it was he that the league bowed down to for a decade. During the 1990′s the NBA saw its highest ratings and ratings have almost come back full circle to those levels now. Yet, he is one of the owners strangling any potential growth the league could have seen this year. Strangling is a job for Latrell Sprewell, but he left the league long ago to feed his kids. Jordan’s position is understandable and his drive to constantly win and/or crush is opposition is well documented but a stricter set of regulations on the players and teams willing to spend is not in character with Jordan the player. He famously told Abe Pollin who owned the Washington Bullets and then the Wizards during the 1998 lockout, “If you can’t make a profit, you should sell your team.” How the tables have turned.

Now, the players have until Wednesday to decide whether to accept the deal, replete with the demands of the hardliners, that the league has proposed. It is not the deal that they want. It is nowhere close to what they will accept. Kessler stated as much after the mediation process ended and Stern singled out Kessler as the one who rejected the league’s offer.

This morning, Novak chimed in again on Twitter, “I was really hoping I would wake up and the owners were gonna say jk!U guys have already given us 200M a year! But no,I guess they want more.” Novak, a trillionaire in his own right, expresses the sentiment of just about every NBA player. They want to play but they do not want to kowtow to the owners demands. Now there are rumblings that a move to decertify the union are more than underway.

Union decertification, a step the NFLPA took early on during their lockout, requires 30 percent of players, about 130, to sign off on the idea. From there it would be another 60 days before a vote would take place for or against decertification. Boston Celtics’ forward Paul Pierce has reportedly taken the lead to decertify the union with many other players, including Deron Williams who tweeted, “I’ve been ready to sign a decertification petition since July? Can’t believe we are just now going this route! SMH,” and agents supporting the move. If the union is disbanded, which would require a favorable vote from at least 50 percent of the players, the players could then file an antitrust lawsuit against the league. A move to decertify could also give the players more leverage in the negotiations with the owners but it is uncertain just how anything will play out at this point.

Wednesday means nothing. It is just an arbitrary day that Stern chose before the league reverts its position back to what it was. It is merely a talking point for the media. The players have already rejected it. The owners have not changed their stance. They have not moved beyond the 50/50 split to meet the players. All this is, as it has been all along is a public relations war of attrition. There can be no winner in this lockout, yet that is what each side is angling for. Not even a Pyrrhic victory is attainable at this point. At the very least the lockout will grow uglier as it drags on. Small pieces of false hope are continually leaked from the meetings between the two sides. It is unclear why people believe them still. There is no hope. This is not even a tug of war. This is two sides hunkered down in their trenches prepared for a protracted engagement. It would be nice to have an NBA season this year, but at this point it does not look likely. Both sides know that and neither is willing to move with the owners more than willing to wait until the players surrender to their demands and because of that everyone has already lost.

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by | March 5, 2011 · 12:44 AM

San Antonio Spurs keep Winning

The Red Rocket will haunt Erik Spoelstra's dreams

Somebody should have told the Miami Heat that the San Antonio Spurs signed Charlie Sheen earlier this week. The signing was long over due, though, as Greg Popovich has been taking winning plays out of Sheen’s playbook for much of the season. Friday night Los Spurs channeled as much Sheen as they could as they squashed El Heat 125-95.

The drubbing began early on. In the first quarter San Antonio pounced on Miami on route to a score of 36-12 by quarter’s end. That point explosion was led by Matt Bonner who drained four three-pointers, all of which were uncontested as the Miami players rotated lethargically. If they even rotated at all on defense. Manu Ginobili found the mark from deep three times in the first as well. This game was over after the first twelve minutes had been played.

Miami, and especially LeBron James, tried to make a game of it in the second quarter as the Heat outscored the Spurs 38-26 in the frame. James paced his squad during the run scoring 15 of his 26 points in the second but the rally fell short and the Heat trailed by twelve points at the half.

An unexpected surprise in this game was the appearance of Tony Parker who had originally been expected to miss two to four weeks with a strained calf. Miami would have liked to see him in street clothes. Parker sliced the Heat defense, what little defense there was, anyway, and frequently got to the cup. He scored eight of his 15 points on layups alone.

Clearly, the Heat took exception to the embarrassment they were suffering and it spilled over onto the court. In the third quarter, as Parker was on a breakaway going in for a layup, Erick Dampier pushed Parker in the back sending him flying out-of-bounds. Dampier was quickly hit with a flagrant two foul and ejected from the game. Parker his both of his free throws after the foul.

Trillionaire Steve Novak entered the game shortly after the fourth quarter began and this game was officially over as both sides eventually cleared their benches.

San Antonio set a franchise record with 17 made three-pointers during the game, eight of which came in the first quarter. They were shooting 60.7 percent from behind the arc for the game. The Spurs shot 56.1 percent overall for the game. They knew what the outcome of the game was going to be and Tim Duncan let them know it on the bench in the first quarter as his told his teammates that it was “game over.”

Read his lips

Miami faces a situation now that is quite telling of who they are as a team. They have only won two games against the other top teams in the league. Clearly, the pieces surrounding the Trio are not working out, especially the bench. The Heat have the lowest scoring bench in the NBA.

Of late, it has been quite apparent that the Big 3 cannot do it all since they are essentially two and a half men. They need scoring help from elsewhere on the team but just are not getting it. Since each member of the triumvirate tends to operate better with the ball in their hands the offense can quagmire (giggity) frequently. An added concern, one that was brought up time and again when these players joined the Heat, was that this team has no real interior center to clog the lane. Dampier is certainly not the answer since his game is predicated on trying to get in the way and little else. Miami does not have a shot blocking threat to keep opposing guards from penetrating their defense.

No team is perfect, however. With their loss to the Spurs, the Heat have fallen to third in the Eastern Conference behind the Chicago Bulls. A playoff run is inevitable for Miami. There is simply no way that they can have a Mets sized collapse and miss the post season. The East bottom feeders are just too bad for that to happen.

However, the loss to the Spurs should send up warning signs. This team is in danger unless they can find a way to improve their play against the best teams in the league because each of them will appear in the playoffs. On Friday night, though, there was nothing that Miami could do. San Antonio had too much tiger blood coursing through their veins.

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by | January 10, 2011 · 11:12 AM

Mavericks sign Sasha Pavlovic to 10-Day Contract

 

Filling the SF void in Dallas

In an attempt to fill the void left by the recent season-ending injury sustained by swingman Caron Butler, the Dallas Mavericks have signed forward Sasha Pavlovic to a 10-day contract.

 

Pavlovic is in his seventh season after being selected 19th overall in the 2003 draft by the Utah Jazz. He has career averages of 5.5 points per game, 1.9 rebounds, and one assist. The Mavericks had an open roster space after waiving Steve Novak last week.

This is by no means the move that many expect the Mavericks to make to replace Butler. It is simply a move to fill a vacant position on the roster. Since Butler went down, Dallas has been playing with out a small forward on its roster. DeShawn Stevenson has been filling in at the three, as the Mavericks continue to play without Dirk Nowitzki, despite being better suited to play shooting guard.

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by | January 6, 2011 · 9:25 PM

Trillionaire Fired…err, Waived

Trillionaire Boys Club

On Wednesday, trillionaire Steve Novak received the news that no one wants to hear in this sluggish economy. Que Donald Trump: “You’re fired.”

Well, Novak was not exactly fired. He was waived by the Dallas Mavericks so that the team could free up roster space after Caron Butler had season ending surgery. In addition, Novak’s one-year contract would have been fully guaranteed had he remained on the team after January 10. The Mavericks’ roster now stands at 14.

Unemployment is never fun. Good thing he is a trillionaire.

Novak, if you did not know, is the active leader of the stat line known as Trillions. It is defined as:

one trillion (wun tril’-yun) noun. Denotes those occasions in which a player logs one minute of playing time without recording any other statistic. The term is derived from the player’s statistical line in a box score, which (sometimes) reads as a one followed by 12 zeros — the conventional English-language numeric representation of one trillion.

(Basketbawlful.com)

In all reality the actual number would now translate to a quadrillion with the amount of statistics categories recorded. It is a pretty embarassing stat in every facet.

Novak has 39 Trillions in his illustrious NBA career.

 

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