You know, I may be a bit of a homer here, but I really like the moves the Brewers made this offseason. Luis Vizcaino and Scott Podsednik for Carlos Lee? I mean are you kidding me? The Brewers killed the ChiSox on that deal.
Lee gives the team a formidable right handed hitter, not just power hitter, but hitter and thats something they haven't had in a while. Don't say Richie Sexson, because he was only a home run hitter. As for losing Vizcaino, lets face it the guy has never been the same since getting tourched in that series against the Cubs in the summer of '03. He has terrific stuff, it's just a mental thing with him.
Scott Podsednik may have been the face of the team, but after his struggles last year I can't help but point out the obvious here, maybe theres a reason why this guy spent EIGHT years in the minors.
Brady Clark just resigned, and for all he does he is an underrated player, does he start for you if you're a contender? Probably not, but lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Ben Sheets and Junior Spivey will be back, and as someone who covered this team last year, they did overachieve in the first half of the season, but the wheels fell off when Spivey went down. He was the guy who made that offense go, and now you get him back.
Look at their potential opening day lineup:
1. Clark/Krenzel: I give the edge to Clark to beat out the youngster in camp.
2. Spivey: If he can stay healthy he's an all-star caliber second baseman.
3. Overbay: Now he has protection in the front and back.
4. Lee: Finally a right handed hitter in this lineup, not named Wes Helms
5. Jenkins: He can't have back to back bad seasons offensively. Can he?
6. Branyon: Ok so he'll battle with Wes Helms, but I think Branyons their guy.
7. Hall/Hardy: I think Bill Hall goes in ahead of J.J. Hardy, but they do like J.J. a lot.
8. Miller: I love that signing, offensively he's underrated, calls good games and solid D.
9. Pitcher
That looks a heck of a lot better than last years lineup. The two concerns are depth and bullpen, well those are the two main concerns. Guys like Doug Davis and Victor Santos need to prove last year wasn't a fluke, if they can, I like how this team looks. Ricky Botallico was a solid signing, he'll probably be the closer to start, but I see Capellan taking that job. Speaking of that deal how do you think that phone conversation went for Doug Melvin..."Yeah so we'll take a young prospect for Kolb (probably a AA'er)"........"Ok how about Capellan?"......."Whaaaat, I mean are you serio..OK sure, sounds good, I'll tell Danny right now."
Friday, January 28, 2005
The Return of George
So I see my favorite Bucks coach George Karl has landed a gig as the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets. My intial reaction is that this is a perfect fit. You heard rumors of it over the summer, but it seemed as if Karl was waiting for something better to pop up, like the Lakers job. After he found out he wasn't a contender for coaching L.A. he seemed content on sitting this season out. But then along came the perfect job, and George couldn't help himself.
The common thread in all George Karl coached teams is athleticism. You can take it a bit further and include young, and underachievers, all three of these things you can find in Denver. George plays a frantic style of basketball, he likes to score points, and he likes to get up and down the court. He's a fan of playing non-traditional lineups and going with his five best guys rather than posistions 1-5.
The Nuggets are very comprable to the Bucks and Sonics when Karl took those two franchise's over, but I would argue Denver is further along in the learning curve and possess more talent than those two teams did. They already made the playoffs, now it's George's job to take them to the next level, which he is more than capable of doing, it's just getting to the final destination that has eluded Karl throughout his career.
In Seattle he took a team lead by a young Gary Payton and a young Shawn Kemp, added in a few perimiter guys and vets like Hersey Hawkins, Detleaf Schrempf, and Sam Perkins and took them all the way to the NBA finals before bowing out the Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
In Milwaukee George brought basketball back to the city for the first time in 30 years. He got more than any other coach had ever gotten out of Tim Thomas, and Scott Williams, and got Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson to co-exist, at least for a little while, and eventually took the Bucks to the conference finals.
But much like in Seattle, Cleveland, Spain, and every other stop Karl made on the map, the Bucks stoped listening to him. Not to name names here (Ray Allen) but some players even grew to despise George Karl to the point that the relationship became unfixable, and Milwaukee's perennial all-star and face of the team was traded.
Most coaches wear out there welcome, thats a given, but George has turned it into an artform. When George wears out his welcome on a team or player, it's to the point of no return, with the one exception being Gary Payton. The reason behind this is George acts like a child when he gets fed up with his team. He won't pull guys aside in the locker room and point out what they are doing wrong, he goes to the papers and other media outlets and bashes his guys, or gives them a backhanded compliement.
Then NBA is much different now than it was when Karl played or began to coach, and those styles won't work now. The players are the stars, not the coach and George has just as much of an ego as any player he coaches. He won't take any crap from some young punk, which isn't a bad thing, but you can't afford to do that in this generation of the NBA. The players do run the show, and as we've seen coaches get fired much more often than players do.
George is a guy who's style is perfect for college ball. He gets three to five good years out of his guys before they tune him out and he's gone. In college you only keep guys for two to three years, four if you're lucky. In college you can be the guy, or the main focal point of the University. Look at Coach K, or Roy Williams, or guys like Rick Pitinio, even Bo Ryan you could argue. Not in the NBA.
I think George looks at it now and sees teams like Phoenix and Seattle on top, two teams who play his style of basketball. He looks at that, coupled with the fact that other than maybe San Antonio there is no dominant-head and shoulders above the rest-team and thinks he can make some damage, and he probably can. Thats why he came back.
Denver has a good young point guard to run his offense, a young budding superstar, some big guys who can run the court, and a couple of perimiter guys. The perfect George Karl team. As I already said this is a great move for Karl. He'll get Denver out of the first round this year, and I wouldn't be shocked to see the Nuggets in the conference finals this year or next year, but mid way through that 2006-2007 season guys like Carmelo Anthony or Kenyon Martin will get rubbed the wrong way by Karl's antics, and that will mark the end of the George Karl reign in Denver. All right so maybe I'm a year off, he might last to 2007-2008, but thats it.
Don't get me wrong, I love George Karl. I'm thakful to him as a lifelong Bucks fan for all the things he did for the francise. George Karl saved basketball in Milwaukee, and at one point he was the most beloved man in Wisconsin, or at least second to Brett Favre, but it was a short ride for George. The Bucks did the right thing by firing him and seeing that it was time to start over, he may not admit it but even George knows that was the right move for the franchise. George Karl's tenure as a coach is like any new ride at Six Flags, it's awesome. It's a whole lotta fun while it lasts, but when you get off you can't help but think man that was short.
So good luck George Karl, I'm rooting for you, and hey given the lack of sucess with the Bucks this year I may just become a short term Denver Nuggets fan. Short term because as much as I hope I'll be proven wrong, I won't. I can already see how this run is gonna end. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
The common thread in all George Karl coached teams is athleticism. You can take it a bit further and include young, and underachievers, all three of these things you can find in Denver. George plays a frantic style of basketball, he likes to score points, and he likes to get up and down the court. He's a fan of playing non-traditional lineups and going with his five best guys rather than posistions 1-5.
The Nuggets are very comprable to the Bucks and Sonics when Karl took those two franchise's over, but I would argue Denver is further along in the learning curve and possess more talent than those two teams did. They already made the playoffs, now it's George's job to take them to the next level, which he is more than capable of doing, it's just getting to the final destination that has eluded Karl throughout his career.
In Seattle he took a team lead by a young Gary Payton and a young Shawn Kemp, added in a few perimiter guys and vets like Hersey Hawkins, Detleaf Schrempf, and Sam Perkins and took them all the way to the NBA finals before bowing out the Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
In Milwaukee George brought basketball back to the city for the first time in 30 years. He got more than any other coach had ever gotten out of Tim Thomas, and Scott Williams, and got Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson to co-exist, at least for a little while, and eventually took the Bucks to the conference finals.
But much like in Seattle, Cleveland, Spain, and every other stop Karl made on the map, the Bucks stoped listening to him. Not to name names here (Ray Allen) but some players even grew to despise George Karl to the point that the relationship became unfixable, and Milwaukee's perennial all-star and face of the team was traded.
Most coaches wear out there welcome, thats a given, but George has turned it into an artform. When George wears out his welcome on a team or player, it's to the point of no return, with the one exception being Gary Payton. The reason behind this is George acts like a child when he gets fed up with his team. He won't pull guys aside in the locker room and point out what they are doing wrong, he goes to the papers and other media outlets and bashes his guys, or gives them a backhanded compliement.
Then NBA is much different now than it was when Karl played or began to coach, and those styles won't work now. The players are the stars, not the coach and George has just as much of an ego as any player he coaches. He won't take any crap from some young punk, which isn't a bad thing, but you can't afford to do that in this generation of the NBA. The players do run the show, and as we've seen coaches get fired much more often than players do.
George is a guy who's style is perfect for college ball. He gets three to five good years out of his guys before they tune him out and he's gone. In college you only keep guys for two to three years, four if you're lucky. In college you can be the guy, or the main focal point of the University. Look at Coach K, or Roy Williams, or guys like Rick Pitinio, even Bo Ryan you could argue. Not in the NBA.
I think George looks at it now and sees teams like Phoenix and Seattle on top, two teams who play his style of basketball. He looks at that, coupled with the fact that other than maybe San Antonio there is no dominant-head and shoulders above the rest-team and thinks he can make some damage, and he probably can. Thats why he came back.
Denver has a good young point guard to run his offense, a young budding superstar, some big guys who can run the court, and a couple of perimiter guys. The perfect George Karl team. As I already said this is a great move for Karl. He'll get Denver out of the first round this year, and I wouldn't be shocked to see the Nuggets in the conference finals this year or next year, but mid way through that 2006-2007 season guys like Carmelo Anthony or Kenyon Martin will get rubbed the wrong way by Karl's antics, and that will mark the end of the George Karl reign in Denver. All right so maybe I'm a year off, he might last to 2007-2008, but thats it.
Don't get me wrong, I love George Karl. I'm thakful to him as a lifelong Bucks fan for all the things he did for the francise. George Karl saved basketball in Milwaukee, and at one point he was the most beloved man in Wisconsin, or at least second to Brett Favre, but it was a short ride for George. The Bucks did the right thing by firing him and seeing that it was time to start over, he may not admit it but even George knows that was the right move for the franchise. George Karl's tenure as a coach is like any new ride at Six Flags, it's awesome. It's a whole lotta fun while it lasts, but when you get off you can't help but think man that was short.
So good luck George Karl, I'm rooting for you, and hey given the lack of sucess with the Bucks this year I may just become a short term Denver Nuggets fan. Short term because as much as I hope I'll be proven wrong, I won't. I can already see how this run is gonna end. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
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