Phil Jackson

In an interview with Time, Jackson touched on a new angle to the debate that was a little surprising.

With Jackson possibly angling to get back into the NBA in a personnel position, he was asked which player from history he would take first if he was starting a team. The answer was not Jordan, the superstar who helped Jackson win six titles, but another guy with an ample collection of championship jewelry.

“In my estimation, the guy that has to be there would be Bill Russell,” Jackson told Time, according to SI.com. “He has won 11 championships as a player. That’s really the idea of what excellence is, when you win championships.”

So there you have it. Jackson would take Russell first, counting on that pick working out a lot more like Hakeem Olajuwon did for the Rockets and less like Sam Bowie did for the Trail Blazers. We’re guessing Jackson’s hypothetical team would be in “win now” mode, since the 79-year-old Russell probably doesn’t have the patience for a long, drawn-out rebuilding process.

Check out Jackson’s conversation in the video below.

As it turns out, total ignorance of the rules of basketball don’t keep Garfield from enjoying the sport. During a break in filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in New York, the star joined some kids on a neighborhood court for a quick game of 2-on-1. The bonus: He was decked out in the full Spider-Man outfit.

Check out Garfield making these kids’ day in the video below.

H/T coed.com

“We’ll have to evaluate and see what we’ll do the next time. I would say we’ll probably have him in next time.”

Frank Vogel said a lot of things in response to reporters’ questions on Wednesday night, but all his explaining and rationalizing did little to answer the only question that mattered: Why?

Why was Roy Hibbert, the Pacers’ 7-foot-2 defensive backbone and emotional leader, on the bench for two pivotal defensive possessions in overtime of the first game of the Eastern Conference finals? What possessed Vogel, one of the brightest young coaches in the NBA, to sit his team’s rim protector and open the lane for LeBron James to drive freely to the hoop not once, but twice?

Why?

“We expected it to be LeBron. We expected [Chris] Bosh to be a spacing option. If Roy were in the game, [Bosh] probably would have been the first or second option. If it didn’t come to LeBron … LeBron could one-bounce, draw Roy to the rim and have Bosh spot it up.”

Vogel seemed to believe that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra would have been able to exploit Hibbert’s presence with one of Miami’s many small lineups on the decisive play. In case you have not been caught up on what the situation was, the Heat trailed by one point as a result of three free throws by Paul George and were inbounding the ball with 2.2 seconds left.

The final play was anticlimactic, with James breezing by George, who had rushed out to protect against a jump shot. With Hibbert on the bench, Indiana had no one to contest James’ game-winning layup as time expired. In an instant, the Pacers’ best chance at stealing a game in this series may have escaped them.

But the drive-and-kick — or one-dribble-and-kick — scenario Vogel worried about was never really a threat. We know this not because of any wise coaching acumen, but because we’ve been around long enough to know how the space-time continuum works.

Let’s say the ball gets inbounded to James, defended by George. Assuming every Pacer more or less did his job — a safe assumption for the league’s top defensive team — stopping Bosh or any other Heat player from easily getting free for a catch-and-shoot would be relatively easy to defend simply by switching screens. If the Pacers closed off that option, James would have a little more than a second to drive or shoot. Then Hibbert could safely crash into the paint, knowing James has no time to send the ball back out to an open Bosh (or anyone else) for a jump shot.

“It’s the dilemma they present. Obviously, with the way it worked out, you know it would have been better to have Roy in the game. But you don’t know. If that happens, maybe Bosh is making the jump shot, and we’re all talking about that.”

With all due respect, Frank, sorry, but no. Unless James has figured out how to freeze time, which we shouldn’t put past him, he would be forced to generate a shot for himself against George and Hibbert, two of the Pacers’ best defensive players. That is the only option time would permit. Vogel obviously thought this thing through. His rationale concerning Bosh certainly would have made total sense if there had been more time on the clock. Had he thought it through a little further, though, maybe he would have realized what the Heat can and cannot do in 2.2 seconds and rethought his strategy.

(To make matters worse, Tyler Hansbrough replaced Hibbert and covered Bosh. Not only is Hansbrough a worse defender than Hibbert, he is a foul magnet. So even if Bosh wasn’t left open, there is a good chance he would have been going to the line for two game-winning free throws even if the play developed as Vogel imagined. Oh, and the Pacers switched anyway, which left Sam Young on Bosh about 10 feet from the hoop. How that is a better matchup, we’ll never know.)

All that thinking really was not necessary, however. Vogel is smart. But in some instances, smart coaches can be too smart. Hibbert, George and David West are the top three reasons the Pacers are here, in the conference finals, and on the game’s most crucial possessions, they need to be on the court. It does not take a spreadsheet and a scouting video to know that a coach has to trust his main players when the game is on the line.

Maybe, if Hibbert had been in the game, Spoelstra would have drawn up something quick-hitting and virtually unstoppable. Maybe it would have been something the Pacers had never seen before. But in that case, wouldn’t Vogel want one of his smartest players and his most imposing shot-blocker on the court to help his scrappy squad react appropriately? Don’t Hibbert’s instincts trump his lack of agility in that situation?

“We’ll have to evaluate and see what we’ll do the next time. I would say we’ll probably have him in next time.”

Vogel can evaluate, ponder and agonize all he wants, but this is really not very complicated. Somehow, he talked himself into thinking having Hibbert in or out of the game was a tough decision, when it really should have been one of the easiest calls he had to make all night.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Sadly, we will never know what those plays might have looked like had Hibbert been on the court. Oh, wait. Yes we do.

Thanks to a split-screen photo that has gone viral, fans get a look at exactly what Hibbert might have done. The photo shows James attempting his lefty layup unabated, side-by-side with Carmelo Anthony‘s dunk attempt in the Eastern Conference semifinals getting stuffed by the Pacers’ 7-foot-2 rim protector.

Check it out below.

Photo via Twitter/@SportsCenter

As George raced to the 3-point line to close out on LeBron James, who was receiving an inbounds pass with two seconds on the clock, there was an overwhelming sense that viewers had seen this situation before. George and the Pacers led the Heat by one point in overtime of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Twenty years of watching isolation-heavy basketball in end-of-clock situations has conditioned defenders like George to expect his man to attempt a statuesque, contested fade-away jump shot at the buzzer. So as James gathered the pass, George homed in on James’ right hip, hoping to crowd James’ shooting hand for the inevitable 20-footer.

What James did next illustrated why he is not merely the best player in the world, but is remaking the way the game is played. Rather than settling for a tough jumper, James spun past George, took two easy strides and flipped in the game-winning layup as time expired. It looked effortless, as do most of the things James does on a court, but even more so because fans have become so used to seeing stars do it the hard way.

Think about it: Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant. Dirk Nowitzki. Paul Pierce. NBA stars have made such a habit of holding the ball, watching the clock tick down and unleashing a low-percentage shot at the last moment that an inordinate number of NBA head coaches do not even bother to draw up plays for end-game situations anymore. Stashing two players in the corners and another player on each block usually suffices, while the so-called star operates at the top of the key.

James has been guilty of that approach in his career, to be sure, but that is not really his nature. He plays for the good shot. Sometimes that means passing the ball, which attracts criticism from folks who want to see nothing but hero-ball in the clutch. But those folks are losing the argument. The clearest evidence of that was the guy vying for attention with James on Wednesday.

If George had been born 10 years earlier, he might have been a completely different player. His model could have been Scottie Pippen, but think of how many true two-way wing players there were then. It’s harder than it seems like it should be, right? There are a lot of Glen Rice and Bryon Russell types, guys who were forced to focus on the one premier part of their games, and select few Mitch Richmonds. Maybe George would have transcended that thinking anyway. Or maybe he would have been tossed in a heap with other longish ‘tweeners who come into the league doing many things passably well, but few things great, and headed off to play in Europe after muddling around for five or six seasons.

(By the way, George was born in 1990. Good grief.)

James has changed the conversation. Now a 6-foot-8 stringbean out of Fresno State with no clear position is not a challenge for a coach, but an opportunity. George has gotten better in each of his three years in the NBA, and the bulk of the credit for any such improvement always goes to the player. But Frank Vogel and the Pacers were chasing a different paradigm. They were not content to label Danny Granger the scorer and George the stopper, because James forced people to thing bigger.

Now, thanks to James’ influence, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, widely regarded as the league’s two best scorers, are constantly on a quest to expand their games beyond piling up buckets — well, Durant is, anyway. The change is not limited to perimeter forwards, either. Players at every position are being evaluated in regard to their defense and all-around potential.

Victor Oladipo might be a top-five pick off nothing more than his defensive prowess and the hope that he might be able to develop a consistent outside shot. Marc Gasol, a former second-round pick, barely averaged 14 points per game this year, and he has come to be considered the best center in the game. Once upon a time, Gasol and George might have been relegated to role players. Thanks to James, knowledgeable fans now recognize brilliance comes in more than high scoring totals.

For most of the second half on Wednesday, George was a pretty good copy of James. He hit an unbelievable, last-gasp 3-pointer to send the game to overtime, and his three free throws set the stage for James’ final play. But while George was infinity plus infinity, James was infinity times infinity. A poor man’s LeBron is not such a bad thing, except when the real deal happens to be on the court.

The final play was so fitting that way. Trained by a lifetime of watching the NBA to expect one type of shot, George fell victim to the type of play that has assisted in his own rise. Despise James if you wish, but largely because of him, smart basketball is back in vogue. Next time, George might actually see it coming.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Now we know: Bulletin-board material.

Wade gave the Pacers some extra motivation for the Eastern Conference finals when Calyann Barnett, described as Wade’s “fashion consultant,” went on ESPN Radio and said the Heat star has planned out all his outfits for the playoffs — even for the NBA Finals. If that isn’t something that should fire up Paul George and the Pacers, we’re not sure what is.

“Before the playoffs even started, we went through all of [Wade's] looks,” Barnett said, according to Business Insider. “And every look is set already … and I already know what he will wear for the next game and the Finals.”

OK, so Wade thought ahead and lays out his clothes the day before, like a lot of us do. That makes sense, until you consider that this entails at least 14 planned outfits the rest of the way, for the conference finals and Finals, and 28 outfits total at the beginning of the playoffs.

Unless, of course, Wade has planned for less than seven per round, because he does not expect any series to go the distance. In which case, Wade’s fashion plan definitely belongs on a wall in the Pacers’ locker room.

Big changes are underway in Toronto, where such alterations have been necessary for some time. The arrival of Tim Leiweke, who oversaw the Los Angeles-based group that owned the Lakers, Kings and Galaxy until being hired last month as CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, promises those changes will not be confined to the basketball court — because they can’t be, thanks to the Raptors’ own missteps.

The Raptors have no picks in this year’s NBA draft, the result of some ill-advised dealing that netted them little more than point guard Kyle Lowry. They have a collection of bad contracts, a promising yet unspectacular young player in Jonas Valanciunas and some mid-career types like Landry Fields and DeMar DeRozan, who are far away from fulfilling the potential they once showed.

Worse, the team has an image problem. Perusing the sports pages of Toronto and Canada’s major news websites this week, the only mentions of the Raptors were post mortems pillorying the tenure of outgoing general manager Bryan Colangelo. The Blue Jays and Leafs aren’t the only sports team to let down their city lately.

The removal of Colangelo, who will remain as the team’s president, is a workable first step. Leiweke has promised renewed “accountability” and “new thinking” in the organization, and the team’s next G.M. should reflect that approach. Someone in the mold of Utah’s Dennis Lindsey or Philadelphia’s Sam Hinkie would be perfect, assuming such candidates don’t run away screaming at the sight of Andrea Bargnani and Rudy Gay.

Before any of that can begin, though — Gay and Bargnani are both around for at least two more years, hooray! — the Raptors’ rebuild needs to start in the marketing department, not the basketball personnel department. Leiweke, to his credit, accepts this.

“We absolutely have had conversations about the color and the makeup of our brand, our uniforms and our image,” Leiweke said, according to The Associated Press. “To me, we should be all about the Canadian flag and Canada. We are Toronto’s team, but I think we have to learn how to be Canada’s team.”

In an era when renaming teams is the hot new thing, the Raptors’ name should be the next to go. Chosen solely due to the dinosaur’s popularity in 1995 as a result of the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park, the mascot has no historic connection to the city and has not been entrenched long enough to establish a deep connection with the team’s fans. As dedicated as some Torontonians are in supporting their team, which was 13th in the NBA last season despite the Raptors tying for the league’s 11th-worst record, ditching the Raptors nickname would not be nearly as controversial in Toronto as similarly oxymoronic name changes would be in Los Angeles or Utah.

There is no evidence Leiweke has gone so far as to explore losing the “Raptors” moniker, but the fact that he is rethinking the franchise’s brand provides some burgeoning hope for the team’s fan base. This sort of long-term planning has been absent from Raptors leadership for too long, Colangelo’s 2005 NBA Executive of the Year Award notwithstanding. They keep getting saddled with flawed players like Gay, Bargnani and DeRozan on multi-year deals, but it is crucial for the Raptors to recognize that they need a vision for the organization, not just the roster. There is a disconnect between the amount of support the Raptors get from their community, and how much support outsiders perceive they get from their community that causes the Raptors to be viewed as an afterthought rather than as “Canada’s team.”

The Grizzlies’ move from Vancouver in 2001, as well as a series of exoduses by major players from Toronto, created the misconception that pro basketball in Canada was dying. It isn’t. It has simply been in stasis for most of the last decade as the Raptors franchise struggled to find its identity. Soon, it may get its claws into an identity its fans, its city and its country can appreciate.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

Check out Westbrook taking it all in in the photo below.

Photo via Twitter/@MySportsLegion

Not for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

For the rest of the 13 non-playoff teams playing lotto, seeing NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver pull their logo out of that envelope last may have been a mixed blessing. The prize is most likely Kentucky forward Nerlens Noel, who is expected to miss at least the first two months of next season after tearing his ACL. Even fully healthy, Noel is considered a project. As such, sleepers like Ben McLemore, Trey Burke and Otto Porter saw their names floated as possible No. 1′s, depending on which team landed the pick.

That dilemma does not exist for the Cavs, however. Unlike some of their competition (if it can be called that) for the No. 1 pick, such as the Magic and Bobcats, all of the Cavs’ eggs are not in this one basket. The Cavs have four out of the first 33 picks in what is considered a weak but wide-open draft class. Orlando has two picks in the entire draft. Charlotte has just one. The Washington Wizards, who were a surprise contender for the top pick when they failed to go at their presumptive eighth spot, have three picks but only one first-rounder.

That presents Cleveland with a luxury none of the other top contenders for the No. 1 pick would have enjoyed. They can afford to whiff on Noel, to an extent, and still hit for value with their second pick, slated to be No. 19. The last five 19th overall picks are encouraging: Andrew Nicholson, Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Jeff Teague and J.J. Hickson. And most of those drafts, like this one, were considered thin on talent.

(Before Hickson there was 2007′s 19th overall pick, Javaris Crittenton, whom scouts appear to have accurately portrayed as a good shooter. Hey, not every No. 19 pick can be a home run.)

The Cavs’ other two picks — the first and third selections of the second round — are probably more cosmetic than anything. This is not the NFL, after all. Cavs general manager Chris Grant likely has no illusions about finding anything other than D-League fodder down there. Still, 31st and 33rd are not 50th. Several intriguing prospects, like Glen Rice Jr., Isaiah Canaan and C.J. Leslie, are projected to be available then. There could be a longtime rotational role player to be found in one of those picks.

Certainly, the Magic’s representative would not have stormed off the stage in a huff if he had heard his team’s name called last on Tuesday. Even a dumb sportswriter knows No. 1 is better than No. 2. But there would have been great trepidation for the Magic, whoever they drafted.

Some trepidation has to exist for the Cavs, too. The uncertainty of any draft, especially this one, hardly lends itself to an abundance of confidence. This draft was always going to be a bit fun for Grant and his cronies, though. Four picks in a muddled field of players makes for some interesting options, no matter where the slots fall.

Now, one of those picks just happens to be first. In a year when nobody supposedly wanted the top pick, the Cavs will take it without complaint.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

The embattled head coach will not return for a fourth season on the team’s bench, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports. Despite leading the Clippers to a franchise-record 56 wins this season, Del Negro’s coaching style and acumen was called into question by many observers and even his own players following L.A.’s playoff loss to the Grizzlies.

Memphis coach Lionel Hollins and Golden State assistant Mike Malone are reportedly among the Clippers’ candidates, as is Stan Van Gundy, who was let go by the Magic after the 2011-12 season, but who has said he plans to sit out next season.

The Pacers, fresh off a tough victory against the New York Knicks, do not seem intimidated by the Heat’s aura, or by the star power of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and friends.

Instead, Indiana seems ready to embrace the challenge of facing this top-seeded Miami squad and trying to take advantage of some potential matchup problems. The unfortunate reality, however, could very well be that even those problems will not be enough to derail Miami’s momentum.

NESN.com NBA writer Ben Watanabe joined NESN Nation’s Dan Duquette on the podcast Monday, where the two previewed the upcoming Eastern Conference finals. They also broke down the Spurs-Grizzlies matchup out West, Greg Oden‘s chances of landing with the Celtics and which dinosaurs would have made the best basketball players.

Listen to the latest episode in the player below, or subscribe on iTunes to download it there.

Hopes were high, though, because the Celtics had the inside track for the first overall pick. (The Grizzlies, in just their second year of existence, were ineligible for the No. 1 pick due to expansion rules.) The prize of that draft class was Tim Duncan, a center out of Wake Forest who was widely considered a can’t-miss commodity. The Celtics had the best odds of landing the top pick and grabbing Duncan — so, of course, they ended up with pick No. 6 while the Spurs got the top choice.

Nevertheless, Josh Cohen at OrlandoMagic.com has imagined what Duncan, and several other top picks, might have looked like if the NBA draft lottery did not exist. If the worst team simply got the first pick and things moved on from there, Shaquille O’Neal would have started his career in Minnesota, LeBron James may have begun his career in Denver and Duncan would have been a Celtic.

Ignoring for a moment that Duncan could not have worn jersey No. 21, which is retired in honor of Bill Sharman, take a look at Cohen’s work in the photo below. Honestly, it doesn’t look that weird.

Photo via Facebook/Orlando Magic

Still, after playing in 92 games this season, including playoffs, Bayless should at least expect his coach to remember his name, right?

Apparently not. Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins was asked to talk about the play of his perimeter players after the game on Sunday, and while Hollins has little trouble recalling Mike Conley and Quincy Pondexter, he drew a blank when referring to ol’ What’s His Name.

Check out Hollins’ brain cramp in the video below.

“He still plays?” she asked. “How old is he now, like 50?”

That is patently absurd, of course. Duncan’s not a day over 49. And after he scored just six points in the Spurs’ victory over the Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday, the casual observer might assume Duncan has lost a step.

Duncan’s importance to the machine-like Spurs no longer rests in his point total, however. At his actual age of 37 (and 25 days), Duncan long ago stopped being a dominant scorer. But he is still capable of being one of the top defensive big men in the game, and while his teammates buried Memphis beneath a 3-point barrage, Duncan’s defense was as big a reason as any for San Antonio’s 22-point win.

Zach Randolph, who put Blake Griffin, David Lee and others through the grinder in the first two rounds, was held to just two points on 1-for-8 shooting in Game 1. The Grizzlies mustered 32 points in the paint, giving them a two-point edge over the Spurs in that category, but well below the more than 40 points in the paint they have averaged in the playoffs. In the opening round against the Clippers, the Grizzlies averaged 44.3 points in the paint en route to a six-game victory.

Yes, the Spurs hitting a team playoff record 14 threes on Sunday was huge, as was Tony Parker dicing up Memphis’ Mike Conley in ways Chris Paul and Reggie Jackson were unable to. But Duncan’s stout defense served as a quiet reminder that, contrary to popular belief, defense is everything in the NBA.

Four teams remain in the NBA playoffs. Three of them — Indiana, Memphis and San Antonio — were the regular season’s top three teams in defensive efficiency, which calculates the average number of points per 100 possessions a team allows. The fourth team, Miami, has LeBron James. So the lesson is simple: The best way to get to the conference finals is to be a top-flight defensive team or to have one of the singular basketball talents in generations. Not that the Heat were bad on defense, either; they were seventh in defensive efficiency during the season.

Make no mistake, the Spurs’ Game 1 win was a triumph of offense. Coach Gregg Popovich masterfully drew up a game plan to extend the Grizzlies’ defense outside of the comfort of the paint. Parker and Manu Ginobili ran pick and rolls beyond the 3-point line with seldom-used sharpshooter Matt Bonner, who buried four threes. The Spurs swung the ball from side to side to open up Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in the corners — Leonard finished with four threes, Green three. The Spurs were able to put up 105 points despite being out-rebounded overall and on the offensive glass, while generating only 11 points off 12 Memphis turnovers.

Over the long haul of a best-of-seven series — or a two-month postseason — such hot shooting cannot be counted upon, though. Ask the Knicks and Warriors how far their long-range bombers took them. The Spurs also looked pretty good in the first two games of last year’s conference finals, Parker noted, before they dropped four straight to the Thunder and shot-blocking menace Serge Ibaka.

In fact, there can be something less demoralizing about losing the way the Grizzlies did on Sunday. After an opponent hits three or four threes in a row, it becomes easier to shake off a loss as one of those days, especially when it comes at the beginning of what should be a long, drawn-out series. After the game, the Grizzlies were clearly disappointed with the defeat, but they mostly greeted the media with shrugs when asked about San Antonio’s performance.

“We just didn’t play well,” Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said, according to The Associated Press. “It’s not anything specific. It’s just that we were running too fast, we missed some layups, we were taking bad shots and our defense was really awful. And the Spurs played well.”

Other than that, it was smooth sailing for Memphis.

The one Memphis player who sounded legitimately flummoxed was Randolph. Shooters get hot sometimes, but there is nothing lucky about solid defense. Randolph could not shake off Duncan’s play as a one-game blip. The Grizzlies’ low-post beast has some things to figure out.

“I gotta be better,” Randolph told reporters. “Like I told my teammates, I gotta be better.”

Randolph is more than five years younger than Duncan and, at this point in their lives, far tougher to cover in the post. Still, as Duncan knows well, a player who can lock down on defense in the playoffs is always valuable. Even at 50.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

The Heat have been the championship favorite ever since they raised the Larry O’Brien Trophy last June, and it will be a tall task for either New York or Indiana to prevent LeBron James & Co. from reaching the Finals for the third consecutive year. But although they have been dominant, the Heat are not a mortal lock to win the Eastern Conference, and NESN.com NBA editor Ben Watanabe stopped by the New Hampshire Sports Night radio show to talk about why.

He also touched on what the future looks like for the recently eliminated Warriors and what Doc Rivers‘ return means for the Celtics. Click below to hear the full interview.

Now that the Grizzlies are heading to the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history and the Celtics have been eliminated from the playoffs, Boston can get behind Allen again. The Celtics showed their support for the Griz, whose motto is “grit and grind,” by sharing a classic video of Allen touring a Whole Foods grocery store during his time in Boston.

Check out Allen’s trek through the supermarket in the video below. Just don’t ask him what flaxseed is.

The future seemed bright.

Yet after that Warriors team fell to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals in 2007, a loss that itself came after an improbable six-game victory as an eighth seed over the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round, their state was never quite as golden again. The Warriors won 48 games the following year, but that was good for no better than ninth place in a brutal West that boasted eight teams with at least 50 wins. Within two years, team leader Baron Davis was gone, dynamic youngster Monta Ellis was battling injuries and the Warriors were back in the high lottery, where they have been ever since — until this season.

We bring this up not solely to rain on the Warriors’ parade. In the wake of their six-game loss to the Spurs in the semis, the Dubs’ bandwagon only seems to be growing. They are the team of the future. Every player of consequence is likely back next season, including a fully healthy David Lee and Brandon Rush. They gave substantial minutes to three rookies in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes presumably are only going to get better.

Forgive us for being a bit tentative in joining the chorus, though, because we have seen this before from this franchise and others. Yes, the ownership group is different, as any dedicated Warriors fan reminds us. Joe Lacob is (mercifully) not Chris Cohan, and there is legitimate hope for a new era with a young core of talent and a new arena on the horizon.

But …

There is always a but.

Things were actually pretty bright for the Warriors when Cohan took control in 1995, too. The team was a year removed from a 50-win campaign and plans were in place to renovate Oakland Arena. Yes, Lacob and Peter Guber seem more personable and accessible than their predecessor, but look back at the glowing profiles of the Maloof family shortly after they purchased the Kings in 1998. It now seems clear that Rick Adelman, Chris Webber and the rest of the upstart Kings were able to excel in spite of, not thanks to, the influence of the Maloofs. If the next few years end up being anything like the Maloofs’ first eight years in Sacramento, Warriors fans will take it, but that is far from the only possible scenario.

Ask the Sixers how things look in Philadelphia. This time last summer they were coming off a surprise trip to the Eastern Conference semis, two years into an ownership change and ready to do brave, new things. Joshua Harris and the Sixers were so confident, they hopped in on a four-team trade that brought them All-Star center Andrew Bynum. Now, they are in the process of replacing their general manager, coach and possibly Bynum as well.

The point is not that Lacob and company should not be trusted. There is nothing so far to suggest they will be as incompetent as Cohan or the Maloofs. But as the Bynum trade attests, seemingly wise decisions can backfire. Curry’s ankles continue to be a concern. Andrew Bogut has to prove he can avoid his annual freak injury. David Lee must continue to prove he is worth making north of $13 million through 2016, when he will be 32 years old and have a history of hip trouble.

Nobody in Golden State’s “core” is older than 29, and there is a big gap between Lee, 29, and Bogut, 28, and the next key player, 24-year-old Curry. If all goes well, the Warriors should be in the Western Conference title conversation for the next two to three years, at the least.

All seldom goes well in the NBA, however. No matter how favorable the circumstances, the Warriors still face tough odds to make this memorable season more than just a flash in the pan.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

George Hill

All joking aside, Hill would much rather have been on the court than spend the latest edition of this Eastern Conference slugfest perched on a porcelain throne. Post-concussion symptoms forced him to retreat to the soothing blackness of the bathroom on Thursday, though, and his status for the rest of the series throws everything into flux.

The Pacers were rolling along through the first four games against the Knicks, winning in their own ugly, yet convincing, fashion three times. When Tyson Chandler delivered a hard screen to Hill in Game 4 on Tuesday, the Pacers point guard seemed jarred, but nothing more. Hill canned a game-high 26 points in that game, the Pacers took a 3-1 series lead and Indiana looked to be headed to its first conference finals since 2004.

Sometime on Wednesday, though, Hill apparently began to experience headaches and dizziness. The team’s athletic trainer held him out of Game 5 on Thursday, and the importance of this one-time role player out of IUPUI suddenly came into stark focus. Without Hill, the Pacers struggled to do things as simple as make a post-entry pass and Raymond Felton, whom Hill had helped bottle up for the most part, reverted to his pick-and-roll mastery against the outmatched D.J. Augustin and Lance Stephenson.

Hill’s situation is not just uncharted territory for the Pacers. It is uncharted territory for the NBA. Since the league instituted its current concussion policy prior to last season, there have been numerous instances in which the policy has been used. Celtics swingman Mickael Pietrus, for one, had a long, hard recovery back from a concussion after falling onto his neck in Philadelphia.

This is a unique situation, however. A relatively high-profile player’s head injury will affect how his team needs to gameplan for a do-or-die playoff series. No one is going to tell Hill to sniff some smelling salts and get back in the game, nor should they. But there is no real, time-tested plan in place for the Pacers here. How they proceed will influence how teams treat concussions in the playoffs in the future, for good or ill.

Hopefully, no one is naïve enough to believe this is the first time an NBA player has suffered a concussion in the playoffs. This is simply the first time in this new environment, where head injuries get more scrutiny in all sports, that an apparent concussion could cause an NBA player to miss playoff games. In announcing its new policy in 2011, the NBA itself allowed that the process for a player getting cleared to play after a concussion “will likely take at least several days, if not weeks.” Of course, that is a problem in the playoffs, when a couple of weeks constitute an entire series.

Players’ reactions to the concussion tests have been mixed, mostly because athletes do not like to be told they cannot play. After the cognitive tests, players need to clear a series of physical exertion tests to assure concussion symptoms do not return after athletic activity. Hill’s life right now probably consists of a lot of sitting in dark rooms and riding a stationary bike.

Hill may not enjoy that life, particularly if his team continues to crumble in his absence. But it is hard to feel too badly for him. Like it or not, this is best for his long-term health, and the NBA should be commended for making this an institutional focus after years of treating head injuries with a shrug and orders to rub some dirt on it.

In the meantime, Pacers coach Frank Vogel has his own headaches, like teaching Gerald Green to make a post-entry pass.

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Mike Zarren, who has been believed to be a serious candidate for the general manager’s job in Philadelphia since last summer, reportedly turned down that job this offseason. Two league sources told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald that Zarren declined an offer from the Sixers.

Philadelphia eventually hired Sam Hinkie, formerly the executive vice president of basketball operations in Houston.

Zarren declined comment to the Herald, but this is not the first (or last) job the Celtics assistant G.M. and team counsel has been linked to. Zarren began his career in the NBA as an unpaid intern with the Celtics, and he is described in the team’s media guide as being a lifelong Celtics fan.

Ryan McDonough, the team’s other assistant G.M., was named last week as general manager of the Phoenix Suns.

Photo via Facebook/Philadelphia 76ers

Doc Rivers

Any Celtics fan looking for a deeper silver lining to this news, however, will be disappointed. Rivers will remain, giving the Celtics a decided tactical advantage on a solid three-quarters of their opponents in the league, but any definitive movement on Paul Pierce or Garnett’s situations is still mostly independent of Rivers’ decision.

Rivers’ return is promising news, so far as it goes, for those hoping for at least one more year with Pierce and Garnett. The coach’s departure probably would have meant Garnett, who makes no secret of his preference to play for Rivers and nobody else, had played his last game as a Celtic. In that, at least, they can take solace. Garnett is not definitely gone, so that is something.

Still, there is a massive difference between Garnett not being gone for certain, and Garnett unequivocally being back. Keep in mind that Garnett also had some strong things to say about Pierce after the Celtics’ Game 6 loss to the Knicks. If Pierce’s presence is not quite the deal breaker Rivers’ was, it clearly looms large in Garnett’s choice.

From the perspective of Danny Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, retaining Rivers is a no-brainer. Rivers is one of the top five coaches in the NBA, without question, and unlike Pierce, his contract does not count against the salary cap or the luxury tax. Even if Rivers’ coaching acumen falls off slightly, he is still more than worth the roughly $7 million in average salary he is reportedly making over the life of his deal. Whether the Celtics trot out for the opening tip next season with a familiar lineup or one that features new faces and more youth, that team will be better off with Rivers leading it than it would be with just about anybody else.

Pierce and Garnett’s situations are trickier. Unlike their coach, their salaries do impact what types of other things the team can do personnel-wise, and Pierce’s performance in the playoffs is not sufficient for a player due to earn more than $15 million. Ainge and the other members of the Celtics’ front office have far more difficult decisions awaiting them there.

Looking at this logically, there should not have been any real doubt whether Rivers was coming back. The argument that he might not want to keep coaching a team that does not include Pierce, Garnett or Ray Allen seemed to have a faulty premise. After all, Rivers signed his current extension following year four of what was supposed to be a three-year project with the “Big Three” — if he was afraid to coach without those three Hall of Famers, he probably would not have committed to five more years when said Hall of Famers were 35 (Allen), 34 (Garnett) and 33 years old (Pierce).

Allen is gone, of course, but the remnants of that championship era live on as long as Pierce and Garnett are still in green. Whereas Rivers’ exit would have shut the door on that era completely, his return leaves the door the slightest bit ajar. Whether Garnett and Pierce will be walking through that door remains as open-ended as it was before.

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