When even NBA teams are having money issues, it’s no surprise that the minor leagues are also suffering. Anecdotally, the crowds have been quite a bit smaller this season — I’m guessing that the discretionary income of people who might be D-League customers in better times is severely restricted or non-existent right now. I’m not really sure what the answer to this problem is, apart from better cost controls and more aggressive promotions and community outreach. The best-attended Arsenal games tended to be ones that had community involvement — large groups performing during halftime or otherwise involved in some sort of festivities.

With the support of the NBA, I don’t think that the D-League is in any danger of going away, but the ownership groups of some teams may have dug themselves holes that will be difficult to escape. An additional complicating factor is that the NBA’s collective bargaining contract restricts the interactions of NBA teams and their D-League affiliates — with some reforms, I feel that NBA teams would have more flexibility to assign players and use the D-League, and build a stronger relationship with their affiliates.

As a final note, I was pleased to see that former Arsenal player Marcin Gortat came through in a big way for the Magic in game 6 of their series against the Sixers, with 11 points and 15 boards.

It’s sort of strange — I feel that, overall, the team personnel this year was a little bit better than last year. Kedrick Brown, Cedric Bozeman, and James White all had solid years, and I really feel like Brown in particular improved his game quite a bit since last year. However, it seems like the team’s offense relied too much on a philosophy of more shooting from the guards this year — I feel like the team’s ball-handling took a dive this year, and it really hurt them down the stretch in close games. (And this is even after the team parted ways with Tierre Brown, who never met a shot he didn’t like…) There were a number of games where the Arsenal were close or slightly ahead in the final minutes, but had key turnovers on the offensive end that were the difference makers. The lack of solid ball-handlers, and guards who could drive and dish under pressure, seems like the biggest difference between last year’s team (which had a solid second half and very nearly climbed back to .500) and this year’s, which finished tied for the worst record in the league.

The one player who I feel was pretty much a total bust was Malick Badiane, who had “project player” written all over him. He didn’t have much of a shot, particularly once you got past about 5 feet from the basket, didn’t rebound well, didn’t pass well, didn’t have great court awareness (particularly on the offensive end without the ball), was only an okay defender, and was prone to committing poor fouls. In short, not a heck  of a lot of upside for a big man.

Sadly, it also felt like the team quit down the stretch — I’m not sure if they knew the news about the move, or if there was contention between the players and the coach, but there was a palpable lack of enthusiasm and team play as the season went on. I don’t have any sort of inside information on this matter, but it was pretty clear to me as someone who was at nearly every home game.

The expanded D-League playoffs are about to begin, but it’s hard for me to muster up a lot of enthusiasm about it. This is the first time that a team I followed and rooted for has simply ceased to exist, and without the prospect of a local replacement (I can’t support the D-Fenders, if only because of the Laker connection), I find myself in the strange position of feeling my fandom being taken away from me, instead of me drifting away from it.

Coming into the season, I thought the Arsenal were poised to get off to a good start. From the pre-season games, it looked like the Arsenal would have a better low post presence than last year, where I felt like they consistently got killed on the boards and didn’t have enough offense down low to be a consistent scoring threat. However, that was a bit of a mirage – the Arsenal started the season 1-5 and have struggled to catch up since. They are in a frustrating situation where they are playing just badly enough to lose many games – and while James White has been among the top scorers in the league (exploding for 47 points a few games ago), he is not quite dominant enough to be a go-to guy in the final minutes of a game. For example, in the loss last night to the Erie BayHawks, he got off his game thanks to some very picky foul calls early on, and didn’t have a great game overall. The Arsenal pulled close several times, but were never able to get over the hump and retake the lead.

The roster has undergone its usual makeover. Noel Felix came into the season looking much improved (much stronger, and having developed more of an outside shot), but tailed off after a good start, got injured, and then waived. Tierre Brown was the starting point guard for awhile, but I think his tendency to shoot first and pass later, which drove me bonkers, finally drove Sam Vincent bonkers too, and he was waived. A revolving door of guards in general has left the offense with some inconsistency and a lack of coordinated ballhandling on the offensive end. Kedrick Brown and Marcus Campbell are back, with their impact being similar to last season.

With regards to the rest of the league, the Idaho Stampede and the Austin Toros continue to be two of the powerhouse franchises. The Bakersfield Jam, the laughingstock of the league last year, is now one of the top teams following an off-season coaching revamp, and the Los Angeles D-Fenders have nosedived into the cellar after an impressive year last year. The races for the division titles are still fairly tight, with several contenders within striking distance in each division, and no teams (except perhaps Tulsa and Los Angeles) completely out of it yet.

It’s hard to say where the season will go from here. Defensively, I feel like the Arsenal have played well enough – not great, but good enough. They force turnovers and awkward shots at an acceptable frequency. What’s really been missing is a fluid offense, one where players are getting free and getting the ball in their hands, instead of one where they simply get the ball in James White’s or Kedrick Brown’s hands and have them try to create a shot or take a mid-range J. It’s unfortunate that the involvement of the Clippers and Hawks in the franchise has been nil, and that the team can’t look for help from the assignment system – that just means that they’ll have to continue scouring the market to try and find ways to upgrade the team for the last half of the season.

One final note: I haven’t checked it out yet, but there’s apparently an Arsenal podcast at radio-arsenal.com. I’ll have to give it a listen, and see if other fans have similar views about the team…

I did a little detective work and am now guessing that the new coach is Sam Vincent, ex-coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. His bio doesn’t quite match up with the details in the e-mail (only 1 D-League championship), but I don’t see anybody else in ESPN’s list of coaching changes who matches the description. Also, there was a recent article talking about the possibility of Vincent coaching the D-League’s new (and as yet unnamed) Reno franchise. My guess is that he got a better or more timely offer from Anaheim.

Sam Vincent, Anaheim Arsenal head coach 2008-2009: you heard it here first!

The loss to the Flash was a bit of a letdown, as the Arsenal were up by as many as 15, but couldn’t stop a furious rally down the stretch. After that game, I was worried that the Arsenal would be flat against the D-Fenders the next night, and the first quarter proved my fears were well-founded, with the D-Fenders jumping out to a 34-16 lead. The Arsenal clawed their way back, though, and crept ahead, keyed by a pretty decent night at the free throw line and a lack of turnovers. Overtime was where it was finally decided, at the free throw line. Dancin’ Marcus Campbell had a great game, finishing with 20 points and 23 boards, and, most surprisingly, shooting 80% from the free throw line.

Los Angeles wasted a great performance from Sean Banks, who scored 38 points, and somehow made 15-of-18 free throws despite having a horribly ugly, flat shot at the line. With that loss, they also fell behind the Idaho Stampede in the Western Division title race, and may miss out on their opportunity for a first-round bye in the playoffs. Perhaps my prediction of the Arsenal playing spoilers wasn’t so far from the mark — the Austin Toros, whom Anaheim took care of two weeks ago, still haven’t clinched their division yet.

The Arsenal finish the season on the road against the D-Fenders and then the lowly Bakersfield Jam, who have just barely eked into the double-digit wins category. I have to say that I’m sad that the season is almost over — I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go to almost all of the home games, and to see decent teams from a close vantage point. Fortunately for my basketball jones, the NBA playoffs this year are shaping up to be absolutely fantastic, and they’ll last a lot longer than the D-League playoffs…

The D-League Power Rankings do a pretty decent job of breaking down the playoff situation. The games against the D-Fenders are most likely to have an effect only on playoff seeding — however, the game against the Flash (if they are still in contention) may be make-or-break for them. It should be exciting to watch.

The D-League also announced the playoff structure for this year, with two single-elimination rounds followed by a 3-game Finals. The Arsenal, still under .500 for the year, won’t be in the playoffs, but with the season winding up, they could still affect the final seedings. They finish the season with a game against the Austin Toros, a game against the Utah Flash, and 3 games against the Los Angeles D-Fenders (currently vying for the West division crown with Idaho). The game against Bakersfield to finish out the season, though, might as well be a scrimmage…

I also discovered that Steven Smith is now playing in Italy, which is a shame since I felt that he was one of the team’s most consistent offensive threats.

The only other team without a representative is Albuquerque. (Rio Grande Valley’s representative, CJ Watson, won’t be playing because he’s currently on the Warriors’ roster, but he’s listed as part of the Blue Team.)