The bright, the fast and the heavy of October

Sporting News, The, Oct 27, 1997 by Dave D'Alessandro

Halfway through the preseason, and little has changed. The Bulls are doing what global powers have always done, by invading Republique Francaise and beating up on inferior competition. Teams are promising to run more this year. And every coach has announced that his team--news flash--has just completed the best camp we ever had in all my years here ...

There have been, however, a few interesting developments this month. Here are some random observations on the preseason:

1. The kids are all right. On consecutive nights, we had our first looks at Tim Duncan and Keith Van Horn last week and saw enough to arrive at the same conclusion regarding both: Wow. Duncan looks bionic, with the kind of agility, power and versatility that hasn't been seen since, well, David Robinson. Only Robinson admits Spurs teammate Duncan is light years ahead of where he was as a rookie.

Van Horn is not a good defensive player--he reaches too much, making him foul prone, and he'll need time to learn team concepts. Those are his only weaknesses. On offensive, he looks as though he can average 25 points per game immediately: pristine shooting stroke, parking-lot range, strong first step and uncanny court awareness. And, like the great ones, he appears to be playing at a different rhythm than everyone else. The Nets won't make the playoffs, but they have a player.

2. Mike Fratello wasn't kidding. You thought he was animated before? Wait until you see him now, trying to will his team to find another gear on every transition opportunity. He made good on his promise: The Cavs have pushed it like crazy--running off makes, running off misses--and the athletes he has assembled appear well-suited to the new style.

The early results are interesting: Cleveland, which averaged 87.5 points per game last season, was averaging 108.5 after its first four games (all wins), a startling difference even considering it's the preseason. The Cave have some burners to sustain that pace--specifically, Shawn Kemp, Bobby Sura, Wesley Person, Derek Anderson and Brevin Knight--for a while, anyway. But if Fratello can challenge his players to do this every night, he'll have elicited a transformation unlike few others in recent league history: He'd take what has been believed to be a slow, systematic, fundamentally flawed .500 team and converted it into a fast, sleek, fundamentally flawed .500 team.

3. Rickyball might take awhile. The Celtics lost their first three, which happens even to the best of teams (ask the Knicks), and Rick Pitino's system is taking hold at an understandably gradual pace. One night the Celtics might appear to have their defensive rotations down; the next night they seem to forget what they're doing. One night they cash in on their runouts effectively; the next night they fling the ball into Row G on the break.

Give it until, say, January. But even then don't expect the Celtics to be much more than a very interesting, scrappy, dangerous team. They're not a playoff contender, not with the dearth of big men that Pitino is having to deal with.

How do we know this? He has been heard wishing out loud that Pervis Ellison has a big year.

4. Tubby still has no credibility. Charles Barkley, who came to camp 25 pounds overweight, is going off on his teammates again. That the Rockets were run off the court by Phoenix, of all teams, has made him more obnoxious than ever. It's all predictable stuff: They're not in condition, they're spoiled by success, they're not playing or practicing hard.

"Around here it's always frustrating," Barkley says. "Everybody is always afraid to say what's wrong. But we're getting the reputation of a team that doesn't run back on defense. Right now, teams think they can run us out of the building, that we're too old and not in good enough shape to run." Teammates are responding with shrugs that say, "That's Charles," and are vowing to take him more seriously the day he returns all those mirrors he took down from around his locker.

5. No fun for Phil. We ran into a friend of Phil Jackson's last week, a guy who's not in the league, but one who talks to him every week or so. We asked him whether Jackson is pulling our leg with his predictions about slow starts and his comments about bad vibes, and lingering doubts.

"Oh, no," the friend says. "He means all of it. He really has some ominous feelings about this year the way it's began with the Scottie (Pippen) injury and the other stuff with Jerry) Krause. He thinks it's going to be a year-long smuggle." Fine. We'll still pencil the Bulls in for 60 wins, which, in Chicago, will earn you a comparison with the Cubs.

Prince of pessimism

Magic players are doing what had appeared to be impossible: They are making management begin to regret it dumped Dennis Scott. Orlando averaged 85 points in its first three games, nobody can hit a shot and there is no third scorer to complement Penny Hardaway and Rony Seikaly.

"It's going to be a smuggle every step of the way for us," coach Chuck Daly says of his team's scoring drought. "I can already see what's coming. It's a problem we'll have to address, but I don't sense any easy solution. This has been a concern of mine all along.... Somebody has to make some shots, and we're not making them, and I'm not sure this won't be a persistent problem all year long."