Part II: Living in the Shadows - A Patrick Ewing Jr Story

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This story is not about how bad Patrick Ewing Jr. is now. It is about how he has not had a fair shot at being his own player. Since growing up he was expected to become a great basketball player.

The media has not given this player a fair shot. Ewing Jr. can contribute great things to NBA teams, but before he does that, he needs to be given one more chance to become his own player, not just Patrick Ewing’s son.

This story has followed Ewing Jr's path back into the NBA. A final shot. Part I led him from the Maine Red Claws in the D- League to the New Orleans Hornets and a guaranteed contract. From there he was traded to the Detroit Pistons where his playing time fluctuated. While there he had an opportunity to learn from one of the great pro's Grant Hill.

We join this story now at the offseason right before the 2012-13 NBA Season. Ewing Jr has opted out of his 2nd guaranteed season with the Detroit Pistons in search of a better playing role on another roster. The rollercoaster ride continues for Ewing Jr, surely, this is his last chance to make a name for himself.


Ewing Jr throwing it down for the Maine Red Claws


Rocking the rim for New Orleans


Hammer Time in Detroit

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1. New Orleans Hornets - Anthony Davis
2. Charlotte Bobcats - Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
3. Washington Wizards - Bradley Beal
4. Cleveland Cavaliers - Dion Waiters
5. Sacramento Kings - Thomas Robinson
6. Portland Trail Blazers - Damian Lillard
7. Golden State Warriors - Harrison Barnes
8. Toronto Raptors - Terrence Ross
9. Detroit Pistons - Andre Drummond
10. New Orleans Hornets - Austin Rivers
11. Portland Trail Blazers - Meyers Leonard
12. Houston Rockets - Jeremy Lamb
13. Phoenix Suns - Kendall Marshall
14. Milwaukee Bucks - John Henson
15. Philadelphia 76ers - Maurice Harkless
16. Houston Rockets - Royce White
17. Cleveland Cavaliers (Via Dallas) - Tyler Zeller
18. Houston Rockets - Terrence Jones
19. Orlando Magic - Andrew Nicholson
20. Denver Nuggets - Evan Fournier
21. Boston Celtics - Jared Sullinger
22. Boston Celtics - Fab Melo
23. Atlanta Hawks - John Jenkins
24. Dallas Mavericks (Via Cleveland) - Jared Cunningham
25. Memphis Grizzlies - Tony Wroten Jr.
26. Indiana Pacers - Miles Plumlee
27. Philadelphia 76ers (Via Miami) - Arnett Moultrie
28. Oklahoma City Thunder - Perry Jones III
29. Chicago Bulls - Marquis Teague
30. Golden State Warriors - Festus Ezeli

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When the Thunder rampaged over San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals, it felt a bit like the league had found its championship matchup for the next three or four seasons. The Spurs and Celtics were aging, the Lakers had peaked again as a second-tier team, Derrick Rose was set to miss most of 2012-13 with a torn ACL, and a bunch of would-be contenders — Memphis, Dallas, Denver, New York, the Clippers — were a notch or two below with no clear path for improvement.

Flash forward a few months, and the league looks very different. Three stars, including perhaps the league’s second-best player in Dwight Howard, changed teams in one trade, with the Lakers also nabbing an All-Star point guard. The Celtics reloaded despite little cap flexibility, while Brooklyn joined the Knicks as starry teams with big ambitions. It was a noisy summer. Let’s take a step back and look at how things changed, in the short- and long-term, amid the NBA’s championship hierarchy.

The Real Title Contenders

Miami Heat

Perhaps the strongest repeat favorite since the heyday of Shaq-Kobe. It took a potentially franchise-destroying injury to Chris Bosh at nearly the worst possible time, but the Heat discovered in May and June that their version of small ball, with LeBron James at power forward, should serve as the foundation of the team’s identity rather than as a change-of-pace tactic at the start of the second and fourth quarters. The alignment change, coupled with James’s new comfort as a post-up threat, took Miami’s offense up another level without compromising the defense in a significant way. Miami let this development guide its offseason, signing two perimeter threats (Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis) and precisely zero traditional big men guaranteed to be part of the team’s rotation in high-leverage moments.

There are challenges to come. Erik Spoelstra will play trial-and-error with lineups, and Miami cannot risk overtaxing James in the regular season. That might mean less small ball than the Heat end up using in the playoffs, and some banging against power forwards for Shane Battier and Lewis. Dwyane Wade’s knee will probably act up again, and the Heat may not have the luxury of going through the last two rounds of the playoffs without facing a team equipped to punish them on the block. But they enter the season as the clear favorite.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The big steps are done, but sometimes the smaller steps are the hardest — the subtleties of defensive positioning, lineup choices, and balance on both ends of the floor. The Thunder made progress on all fronts during the playoffs, when their offense nearly set records, the team remembered James Harden was actually on the floor in crunch time, Scott Brooks leaned more (but not enough) on his most productive small lineups, and the team’s aggressive defense at least limited the unstoppable Spurs. Getting Eric Maynor back should help more than Maynor’s individual numbers might suggest, since he allows Brooks to play small lineups featuring four threatening perimeter players instead of just two or three. The other young guys are only going to get better, and Serge Ibaka has shown glimpses of morphing into a more multidimensional pick-and-roll player.

But Miami overwhelmed this defense in the Finals. It has to be better, and if that improvement comes from playing Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha more, the Thunder won’t dethrone the champs.

Los Angeles Lakers

A team whose offense failed them early last season and whose defense failed them late has added the game’s very best defender and perhaps the NBA’s single greatest offensive force of the last decade-plus. There are questions, of course. There is no off-the-dribble dynamism among the backups for Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, and Nash is just about a 30-minute-per-game player at this point. The Lakers are counting heavily on Jordan Hill and Antawn Jamison, and perhaps Earl Clark at some point, to hold the fort when the stars sit, and it’s unclear if they can do so on either end. Bryant and Nash, both iron men, are well into the stage of their careers in which age- and injury-related declines are scary possibilities. Pau Gasol isn’t far behind. Fit and chemistry might be uneven as the stars learn the team’s new hybrid Princeton offense. Bryant, a gifted cutter and passer, must dial back his shot selection and tendency to stop the ball. How they respond to Oklahoma City’s dynamic small lineups in a potential conference finals matchup is unclear.

But holy hell: These four stars should be able to be on the court together for 35 minutes per night in high-stakes playoffs games, with all but Nash capable of logging many more than that. And Mike Brown’s staff should be able to stagger minutes so that no single star is left to carry too heavy a burden on bench units. They don’t get the favorite’s perch right away, not even in their own conference, but a team that had declined to second-tier status should happily accept something like co-favorite in the West.

San Antonio Spurs

It’s fine if you want to slide them into the next tier. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili are old, and neither is quite capable of serving as a full-time go-to scoring centerpiece against dialed-in defenses. The Western Conference Finals had the feel of one team figuring out how to beat the other, in part because the brilliant Ginobili, the Spurs’ best all-around player, couldn’t score big on a night-to-night basis.

But Duncan and Ginobili stay productive every year, and the Spurs could find enough incremental internal improvements to offset any Ginobili/Duncan drop-off. Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter should get even better, with Leonard perhaps developing into a top-shelf defender and a wing more capable of working off the dribble when the ball swings his way. Boris Diaw has a full season to help Gregg Popovich find the right balance in his big-man rotation, and Stephen Jackson is around to shoot and present small-ball options should that ideal big-man rotation never emerge. Nando de Colo and Patty Mills provide healthy competition for Gary Neal and could help Popovich limit Ginobili’s minutes.

And again: This team outscored opponents by an unthinkable 15 points per 100 possessions over 30-plus games last season, per NBA.com’s stats database. That kind of dominance earns some preseason respect, even if the Thunder left the Spurs’ defense and rotation in tatters.

An Outside Chance

Boston Celtics

Boston knows it went about as far as it could with the league’s best defense and an offense that ranked 24th in points per possession. Score at that rate, and it’s very hard to beat just one top team four times in seven tries — even when that top team is missing Bosh and has yet to figure out the best way to optimize its talents. Boston overcame its own injury issues, but those setbacks didn’t have the same impact of Derrick Rose’s ACL tear and Bosh missing the first four games of the conference finals.

Jason Terry is a borderline elite offensive player, the rare guard who combines star-level long-range shooting and off-the-bounce creativity. Avery Bradley will be back soon, and Boston’s starting lineup with Bradley in Ray Allen’s place scored at a league-best level. Courtney Lee is a solid two-way player who is money from the corners, and Jeff Green, bloated contract and all, might help in the right matchups.

This is a team built to face Miami — to play varied small lineups, have Green share LeBron-guarding duty with Paul Pierce, and hope its offense can score enough to give it a chance to win late. But it’s an old team, one vulnerable to injuries, and one that must prove there is anything better than a league-average offense here. If that’s all there is, they’ll still need some luck to upset Miami.


Dreaming of an outside Chance

Memphis Grizzlies

It shouldn’t feel over, but it almost does, especially with the Lakers passing Memphis in the race for the league’s scariest two-man frontcourt behemoth. The Zach Randolph/Marc Gasol tandem is still here, and if Randolph’s knee is healthy, we may finally get to see what Memphis can do with its four-man core all near 100 percent. The team outscored opponents by six points per 100 possessions last season — double its overall mark — when Randolph and Rudy Gay played together, a sign that the two can mesh just fine. They’ll play top-10 defense and force a ton of turnovers, and if Darrell Arthur recovers from his latest leg injury, he and Marreese Speights form a very nice backup big-man duo.

But this shooting-challenged team, starved for spacing, will miss O.J. Mayo’s off-ball movement and semi-threatening 3-point shot. It’s unclear if any of the backup guard brigade, both new and old, is ready to play heavy productive minutes. If Randolph can only return to something like 90 percent of his magical 2011 playoff form, Memphis needs Gay to step up as a passer and defender. The Grizz’s first-round loss to the Clippers last season was discouraging on both fronts.

Los Angeles Clippers

Chris Paul and Blake Griffin make a top-five offense almost on their own, but the Clippers need to address two major needs at once (defense and backup small forward) The two-guard situation remains dicey, and it’s fair to wonder if the Clips missed a chance to slot Lee there in order to placate Paul with the Jamal Crawford/Chauncey Billups pairing. Both can be productive players, especially Billups, but they’ll have trouble defending the best wings among the West’s elite (Bryant, Ginobili, Harden) and will cut into Eric Bledsoe’s time.

But that’s not necessarily a fatal weakness. An uncertain big-man rotation beyond Griffin would be. The Griffin/DeAndre Jordan combination was mostly a confused mess on defense last season. Lamar Odom holds promise as a two-way backup other teams might actually have to guard, but it’s unclear where he is mentally and physically, and whether he and Griffin can form a credible defensive front line if Jordan falters again.

Exciting Upside, Too Many Questions

New York Knicks

It isn’t just that Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire didn’t work well together. It’s also that the Knicks scored only 98.5 points per 100 possessions — roughly equivalent to 25th in the NBA — when those two shared the floor with Tyson Chandler, and that the number actually got worse when that trio played with Jeremy Lin, per NBA.com.

The Knicks have to repair this frontcourt fit issue before even considering loftier expectations, and they’d have had a much better chance had they nabbed Jason Kidd as an organizer even just two seasons ago. But Kidd’s game is in sharp decline, and the Knicks’ other key signings are either ancient or league-average types who don’t really move the needle. The good news: This team defended at a top-10 level all season, including under Mike D’Antoni, and sported a point differential roughly equivalent to that of a 50-win club. Depth on the wing should give Mike Woodson a chance to play Anthony more at power forward, where he can torch slower defenders and fares better on defense. This should be a solid playoff team, but it’s hard to see more.

Brooklyn Nets

There are folks around the league actually projecting this team to miss the playoffs. It’s a minority view, and one with which I disagree, but it’s out there. We have no idea if this capped-out-in-perpetuity bunch can stop anyone, or if it will get reliable bench play from someone outside C.J. Watson and MarShon Brooks.

This team will score, and the size of Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace gives the Nets the ability to play some smallish lineups. But a Brook Lopez–Kris Humphries frontcourt is a minus defensively, and minus defensive frontcourts generally don’t get you deep into the playoffs. They really needed to get Dwight Howard this summer and they didn't. The first step they can take is select a new coach who can get the most out of soft big man Brook Lopez.

Philadelphia 76ers

Andrew Bynum + shooters + two creative guards should be a reliable recipe for a top-10 NBA offense, a nice tonic for a team that couldn’t score after a hot start last season. But the pouty Bynum, an uneven defender, has never been the centerpiece of a team, and the Jrue Holiday/Evan Turner combination has always worked with another perimeter security blanket — Iguodala or Lou Williams, both elsewhere — around to create shots. Holiday and Turner both have nice potential, but neither has shown anything like lead-dog playmaking ability — something the Sixers will still need, even with Bynum dominating down low.

Spacing might be an issue for the starting lineup, and the front line is overstocked with center types now that Elton Brand’s departure leaves Thaddeus Young and the center-ish Lavoy Allen as the only true non-rookie power forwards on the roster. Young is making noise about possibly playing some small forward, but the Sixers have long thrived with him as an energetic small-ball four. Doug Collins and his staff will find some of the right answers, but it’s hard to see a contender here. The real mystery comes in the next couple of offseasons, when cap holds for Holiday and then Turner could take up most of Philly’s projected cap space — assuming they bring back Bynum at the max.

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Target Team's Current Starters

"Below is a list my agent and I have made of team's we will target to try an get contract offers/ try-outs for. Here are the current starters for these teams, they are all guys who we feel I have a similar or better ability level to. Hopefully the team's will be looking to upgrade and I will throw my hat in the ring with. I want a genuine chance to start, and at the very least a good 20+ mpg gig. I think that's where my ability level is currently at. If I get that I know I can improve from there."

76ers
Small Forward - Evan Turner
Power Forward - Thaddeus Young

Bobcats
Small Forward - Michael Kidd Gilchrist
Power Forward - Byron Mullens

Bucks
Small Forward - Mike Dunleavy Jr

Cavs
Small Forward - Alonzo Gee

Hawks
Small Forward - Kyle Korver

Hornets
Small Forward - Al Farouq Aminu

Jazz
Small Forward - Marvin Williams

Kings
Small Forward - John Salmons
Power Forward - Jason Thompson

Magic
Small Forward - Hedo Turkoglu
Power Forward - Glen Davis

Nets
Power Forward - Kris Humphries

Raptors
Small Forward - Linas Kleiza

Wizards
Power Forward - Kevin Seraphin

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Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni resigns

NEW YORK -- Maybe there's a big-name coach out there who can bring out the best in Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks.

Mike D'Antoni decided Wednesday he wasn't that guy. And so, he resigned, surprising even his bosses.

"It wasn't just Carmelo," interim general manager Glen Grunwald said. "I think it was our whole team not playing up to where we thought they could be and I know Mike was as frustrated as anyone about that and that's what led him to that decision, that maybe there needs to be a new approach and look at it."

Assistant Mike Woodson could be promoted to head coach, but the Knicks have the whole offseason to decide on a replacement. The Knicks finished 7th in the East, and were eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs by the Miami Heat.

"He clearly felt it was best for the organization if he were not to continue as coach of the team. He did offer to stay," Dolan said during a news conference. "After a long discussion, we did agree it was best for the organization to have new voice moving forward."

Dolan and assistant general manager Allan Houston arrived at the team's training center after the shootaround to speak with Grunwald and D'Antoni.

Grunwald called D'Antoni's decision to step down "a selfless move."

"I think he felt that he had done all he could and he didn't really see another way for him to really positively affect the team," Grunwald said, adding, "He felt that maybe it was time for another voice, another approach."

Woodson, the former Atlanta Hawks coach who was hired this summer as an assistant, is a longtime friend of Grunwald and former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas. Seemingly he is one of the early favorites to replace D'Antoni.

Perhaps a call will be made to Phil Jackson, John Calipari or Patrick Ewing. The latter, a former Knicks legend has just been relieved of his duty as Associate Head Coach with the Orlando Magic along with Head Coach Stan Van Gundy.

The fans will want a big name, and there isn't a bigger more valued name around for Knicks fans than Ewing. This could be his moment. He has put in the time with the Magic, been to the finals and done trojan work with Dwight Howards development.

"Every job that's open, including high school jobs and AAU jobs, my name hass mentioned," Ewing said. "I am ready and waiting to talk to everyone with interest. You know how to contact me."

As already mentioned there are a lot of coaching openings in the NBA at the moment:

The Orlando Magic have fired Stan Van Gundy.
The LA Lakers have fired Mike Brown.
The Detroit Pistons have fired Lawrence Frank.
The Charlotte Bobcats fired Paul Silas.
The Portland Trailblazers fired Kaleb Cabales.
The Brooklyn Nets fired Avery Johnson.
The Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Doug Collins has retired.