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By M.J. Darnell

A comprehensive weekly commentary on NBA basketball

FEED YAO NOW

The Rockets are a team capable of making some noise in the postseason, but if they want to move any closer to the neighborhood of the Spurs/Mavs/Kings, they've got to make it Yao's team.

Steve Francis can still call himself the franchise if he feels like it, but keep in mind that Cedric Ceballos once called himself the franchise, too. And the last time I checked, there weren't a whole lot of NBA GMs who wanted to build their offense around Cedric Ceballos.

Houston is close to becoming an elite team, but if they're going to make that move, it's going to be on the back of the big man. It's time to get him more shots. In games where Yao takes 12 or fewer shots, the Rockets are 14-16. When he gets off 13 or more attempts, they're 12-3. Feed the big man.

I like Steve Francis. I think he's got tremendous game, but to maximize its effectiveness, it's got to be in a complimentary role. Steve Francis does a lot of things incredibly well, but getting the ball into the post isn't one of them. Get Mark Jackson some more burn at the point, and play Francis at the 2. If Jeff Van Gundy doesn't want to do that, the Rockets should look into acquiring someone with point forward skills to distribute the ball.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?

I know you've seen and heard enough about the coaching changes in the NBA, but I can't let it go without mentioning that there are far too many people out there who think that Byron Scott shouldn't have been run because he got the Nets to the NBA Finals two years in a row.

First, let's not overstate the accomplishment itself. Don't think of it as getting to the NBA Finals. Think of it as winning the Eastern Conference. Kinda takes a little of the luster off, does it not? The Syracuse Orangemen would've had a decent shot at winning the East last year.

In the NBA, you've also got to get along with your star player, and Jason Kidd has had a lot more to do with the resurgence of the Nets than has Byron Scott. Don't get me wrong, players should not have a say in who is coaching them, but at the same time, Jason Kidd is not Ricky Davis. He isn't some new jack youngster concerned about his stats, his highlight dunks, and his his next shoe deal. He's a veteran that knows what it takes to win in the league. I don't believe that Jason Kidd went to management and asked that Scott be removed, but I don't think it was a secret that Kidd and Scott weren't on the same page, and if management had to sit down and choose between Kidd and Scott, they made the right choice.

Ultimately, Scott just did not have the respect of this team. When a coach loses a team, he's not getting them back. It's wonderful that they made it as far as they did under him, but when Rod Thorn brought Scott into his office and dropped the hammer, I hope he had "What Have You Done For Me Lately" by Janet Jackson playing in the background. Would that not be the perfect way to fire him? Call him into the office, look at him, and just hit play on the CD player. Janet lays it down, Rod Thorn starts dancing in his office chair, and Scott just goes and packs his things.

While we're on the subject, I'm rooting for Lawrence Frank to succeed. How can you not root for a guy who was cut from his high school basketball team three times, and has made his way to a head coaching job in the NBA? If there are guys in the league like Darius Miles who can play the game, but don't really understand it, there can certainly be guys who can understand the game but not be able to play it. Lawrence Frank is the anti-Darius Miles.

TIME TO 86 SOME SIXERS

The Sixers are a team in trouble. A.I.'s been in and out of the line-up with injuries. Glenn Robinson has been whining about playing time. The entire team's been plagued by inconsistency and a lack of effort. They've lost four straight and eight of their last ten. Randy Ayers may have already been tuned out. If the playoffs started today, they'd be forced to spend their off-season in envy of the team holding the 8th spot. The Knicks. Ouch.

Injuries have had a lot to do with it, but this is not a team that's built well. A lot of #2 scoring options have been tried next to Allen Iverson, but none of them have been threats in the post. Understandably, those are hard to come by, so if they can't get their hands on a guy like Rasheed Wallace, it's time to let A.I. do what he does offensively and the rest of the roster should be built for defense, defense, and more defense, with the occasionally three-point gunner mixed in.

THE BEST OFFSEASON ACQUSITIONS

4. Raef Lefrentz. Just kidding. You stink so far, Danny Ainge.

3. Antoine Walker. Unless at some point he bursts into tears because a fan is heckling him, the longer the season goes on, the better the Walker acquisition will look for Dallas. His scoring is down, sure, but he pulls down over 9 boards a game and dishes out over five assists. Walker is doing everything. Well, perhaps that's an overstatement. He's still bricking three pointers at an amazing pace and he'll never be God's gift to defense, but he does add a lot to this Mavericks team. Walker will be a key figure down the stretch in the West.

2. Brad Miller. He's replaced the best player on the best team in the league, and they've not missed a step. Would the kings have the league's best record if they were trotting out Tony Massenburg next to Vlade every night? He trails only Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson on the team in assists. He's gotten plenty of media love lately, so I'm not going to get into it too much, but this was a great acquisition for the Kings, for right now, and for a few years from now.

1. Sam Cassell. The Wolves finally have someone who can make the opposition pay for double and triple teaming KG. Minnesota still lives and dies with KG, but in the playoffs, there's been a lot more dying than living. Sam I Am has the potential to change all that. He's got a jumper that he can hit from anywhere on the floor and he can also distribute the ball as well as any point guard in the West. 20.9 points and 7.4 assists per game. The fact that he isn't starting the All-Star game is a crime.

THE WORST OFFSEASON ACQUSITIONS

3. Juwan Howard. His numbers aren't bad, but he just doesn't fit in with the Magic. They already have a younger, butter version of him in Drew Gooden. The Magic would be doing themselves a favor to cut their losses, see if they can swap him for a young guy who can shoot from outside and/or a draft pick, and let someone younger step in for him.

2. Hedo Turkoglu. He's just not giving the Spurs very much right now. 7.8 points in 22 minutes a game isn't going to cut it. I've been waiting and waiting for him to get with the flow of the San Antonio offense, but it's just never happened. Maybe I'm overstating, but the Spurs are going to have a very difficult time repeating if Turkoglu or someone else from the bench doesn't figure out how to come in and provide and offensive spark. Think the Spurs are regretting the decision to let Stephen Jackson go?

1. Alonzo Mourning. I'm not going to go Kenyon Martin and start making fun of the guy for his kidney problem, but I will let loose on the Nets for giving him the deal they did. I think it's safe to say it might have backfired a little bit on the Nets. They are now without Zo, without Dikembe, and are 3rd to last in the league in rebounding, and 6th to last in total defense. And not only that, their salary cap situation is screwed for years now. Someone should've told Rod Thorn about that kidney thing before he handed Zo a contract and a pen.

ANOTHER REASON WHY IT'S OK TO HATE THE LAKERS

Nine times out of ten, it will bother me immensely when someone that deserves to start in the All-Star Game gets outvoted by someone with less game. In the case of Shaq vs. Yao, however, it makes me smile like Patrick Ewing at the Gold Club.

It's not that I don't like Shaq. I do. He deserves the start, no question. He's the most dominant center in the game. If you need statistical evidence, he averages more points, blocks, steals, assists and rebounds than Yao. I'm not saying Yao is completely unworthy either, in fact, it's conceivable that next year, he'll outright earn the starting spot. But for now, it's still Shaq's. At least, it should be.

The only people who don't know this are the fans at Staples Center. The LA Times reports that of the 180,000 All-Star ballots distributed at the Staples Center, 4,000 have been returned, believed to be the lowest in the league.

What a very Laker fan thing to do. Let someone steal Shaq's All-Star spot because you can't take your eyes off of Dyan Cannon for long enough to fill out a ballot. I'm sure Shaq loves this. I'm sure he feels very appreciated by the late-arriving, fashionably-dressed, Nicholson-worshipping, botox-sucking, celebrity-sighting die-hards who would rather just hold on to their All-Star ballot on the outside chance that they might be able to get Reba McIntire or someone with a CBS sitcom to autograph it for them rather than actually filling it out in support of their team.

Read the second half of this week's Throwing Bows. Click here.