Brand Injury Lets Stefanski Off the Hook

One of the ironies of the Elton Brand injury is that it muddies any attempt to compare the DiLeo era with the Cheeks era. Or is it the DiLeo/Stefanski era? If the Sixers should struggle for the next month or so, it can be excused because of Brand's absence. If they should find their groove, would it confirm they are a better team without Brand, or that they run more effectively without brand, or that DiLeo's "attention to detail" is paying off? Or would it show that minus Elton, Mo Cheeks could have built on the success that earned him two contract extensions last season? Etc, etc, etc. In any case, it probably gives Stefanski some cover for the Cheeks firing since it's so hard to make any straight-up comparison.

Quick Takes:

The Boston Celtics are looking scary good right now and are on track to be on a 19 game winning streak going into the their Christmas day matchup with the Lakers. The emergence of Rajon Rondo as a scorer as well as a defender, playmaker and yes rebounder has provided Doc Rivers with offensive and defensive balance coaches dream about.

The NBA and the NFL each have seven teams with winning percentages under .300. This makes for a lot of uncompetitive games. Clearly both leagues have too many teams and not enough quality players. If parity is truly a goal of the leagues, they have a funny way of showing it. The NBA in particular should do some soul-searching. Last year, two perennial doormats - Memphis and Minnesota - provided key players (Gasol and Garnett) to the eventual championship finalists, the Celtics and Lakers, while receiving virtually nothing in return. It may be a truism that the rich tend to get richer but this was ridiculous.

Adrian Dantley

Adrian Dantley at long last has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Dantley is not well known to the younger generation and has probably been forgotten by many older fans. This may be due at least in part to the fact he played for seven different NBA teams from 1976-1991 - a journeyman superstar with no core constituency. In addition, Dantley was not flamboyant nor was he a self-promoter.

But Adrian Dantley's career was remarkable just the same. He was an exceptional collegiate player at Notre Dame where he is best known for helping the Irish end the multi-year winning streak of the legendary John Wooden/Bill Walton UCLA team of the 1970's. The raw numbers for Dantley's pro career are certainly impressive: over 23,000 points, career average of 24.3 points per game including several years with an average of more than 30 per game, led the league in scoring multiple times. Perhaps most striking was a lifetime field goal percentage of .540, this by a 6' 5" forward who played most of his game below the rim.

Dantley was not a great shooter but he was a great scorer; this is not as anomalous as it sounds. Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan were not great shooters but used their size, strength, ballhandling skills, and in Jordan's case, elevation, to obtain high-percentage shots, the prerequisite for prolific scoring. Jerry West once said that Elgin Baylor was a great scorer because he had more high-percentage shots than anyone else; West should know since he had a few himself. But while Adrian Dantley did not have the ballhandling skills of the "Big O" or the hang time or explosive quickness of Jordan or Baylor, he possessed keen intelligence, anticipation, Zen-like instincts around the basket, strength, and a deceptively effective first step - probably as efficient an offensive machine as the NBA has ever seen.

The Hall of Fame should have come calling years ago.

To DH Or Not To DH

Allowing a designated hitter in the American League and not the National League makes as much sense as if the NBA included the three-point shot in the Western Conference but not in the Eastern Conference.