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Post by js on Apr 21, 2014 13:41:37 GMT -5
Since the 2014 NBA playoffs have now started, I thought it would be the right time to start up an observations thread with regards to the officiating.
I'll start it off by posting who's worked which series' respective game 1 so far and some of my own observations. As a disclaimer, I don't invest myself with missed calls and all that jazz (I'll leave that up to everyone else. I'm more interested in who works which games:
Indiana/Atlanta: Dan Crawford (CC), James Capers, Josh Tiven2 Miami/Charlotte: Marc Davis (CC1), Jason Phillips, Scott Wall2 Toronto/Brooklyn: Ken Mauer (CC), Brian Forte2, Ed Malloy Chicago/Washington: Monty McCutchen (CC), David Jones, Gary Zielinski
San Antonio/Dallas: Joe Crawford (CC), Bennie Adams, Bill Spooner
OKC/Memphis: Tony Brothers (CC), David Guthrie, Tom Washington5 Golden State/LA Clippers: Mike Callahan (CC), Ron Garretson, Sean Wright4 Houston/Portland: Scott Foster (CC), Bennett Salvatore, Derrick Stafford
1How is Marc Davis a 1st round crew chief? Don't get me wrong; I believe he's an upper level official, but is he really part of the top 8? 2I do believe that Saturday marked the playoff debuts for both Forte and Tiven and the first playoff game for Wall in a few years. 3I'd venture a guess that we'll be seeing the likes of Bill Kennedy, John Goble, and Zach Zarba at some point this week (hopefully). 4Callahan, Garretson, and Wright are working OKC/Memphis game 2 tonight. 5Brothers, Guthrie, and Rodney Mott are working Golden State/LA Clippers game 2 tonight.
To everyone who wants to, please contribute. |
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Post by FredFan7 on Apr 21, 2014 13:45:28 GMT -5
JS, thank you for joining and thank you for starting this thread! I look forward to your continued contributions not only here but in all sports!  |
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Post by russ on Apr 24, 2014 2:16:21 GMT -5
Good to see another NBA Officiating fan on the board. To update what has happened the last few days since JS posted.
- Marc Davis was the number 2 on Ken Mauer's crew on Tuesday with James Capers being the Crew Chief in Houston tonight. Capers was one of the Officials I thought would be the 8th CC during the first round (Malloy was the other)
-Mark Lindsay joined Brian Forte and Josh Tiven in working his first on court Playoff Game. Congrats to all 3 especially Tiven who is in just his 4th season and seems to be on the fast track much like Zarba and Goble.
- Now that every series had played 2 games it seems appropriate for some breakdown on the Officials we have seen. There have been 30 Officials used on the court thus far with 6 more who have only been alternates. Last season the first round had 33 on court Offcials with 5 alternates but those are not hard fast numbers and seem to change every year. There have been 9 different CC'c, 11 Number 2's, and 12 number 3's so far. I know that adds up to 32 and not 30 but Capers and Davis have been both a CC and a 2.
-There have been 6 Officials who worked last year that we have not seen yet (Sean Corbin, John Goble, Derrick Collins, Leon Wood, Eric Lewis, Pat Fraher). I would fully expect we will see Corbin and Goble in the next couple of days with Lewis and Collins probably just as likely.
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Post by russ on Apr 24, 2014 2:37:04 GMT -5
Specifics from the first round Games Number of games at each position in parentheses.
CC's:
Joe Crawford (7)
Monty McCutchen (7)
Ken Mauer (7)
Dan Crawford (6)
Scott Foster (6)
Mike Callahan (6)
Tony Brothers (5)
James Capers (4)
Marc Davis (1)
Jason Phillips (1)
2 spot:
Ed Malloy (6)
Derrick Stafford (6)
Bill Kennedy (5)
Jason Phillips (5)
Tom Washington (5)
*David Jones (5)
Marc Davis (4)
Ron Garretson (4)
Bill Spooner (4)
Rodney Mott (4)
James Capers (2)
3 spot:
****Bennett Salvatore (5)
Zach Zarba (5)
John Goble (5)
Michael Smith (3)
Sean Corbin (3)
Pat Fraher (3)
Eric Lewis (3)
****Bill Spooner (2)
Sean Wright (2)
Bennie Adams (2)
Scott Wall (2)
Gary Zielinski (2)
David Guthrie (2)
Tony Brown (2)
****Tom Washington(1)
****Ron Garretson (1)
****Rodney Mott (1)
David Jones (1)
*****Leroy Richardson (1)
**Mark Ayotte (1)
**Brian Forte (1)
**Mark Lindsay (1)
**Josh Tiven (1)
Alternates:
Tony Brown (4)
Mark Ayotte (4)
Brian Forte (4)
Mark Lindsay (4)
Josh Tiven (4)
***Kane Fitzgerald (4)
***James Williams (4)
***Nick Buchert (4)
Sean Wright (3)
Bennie Adams (3)
Leroy Richardson (3)
Gary Zielinski (3)
***Brent Barnaky (3)
Michael Smith (1)
David Guthrie (1)
Eric Lewis (1)
Notes:
*David Jones is the only one from this group who was not a regular season CC, although he did work a lot of games as a CC. This probably bodes well for him getting one of the next permanent CC spots. You don't have to have worked the Finals to be made a CC. Spooner, Phillips, and Mott among others were made permanent CC's before ever working a Finals Game, Phillips has since worked the Finals while Spponer and Mott still have not
**First on-court playoff appearance for Ayotte, Forte, Lindsay and Tiven. All four served as alternates last season.
***None of these 4 worked on the court.
****These Officials in this group were regular season CC's.
*****Leroy Richardson did not work on the court last season but has in past seasons
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Post by js on Apr 24, 2014 9:22:49 GMT -5
Based on the games that are going to be played tonight, there are some more things that are worth noting:
- Mark Ayotte is working his 1st postseason game on the floor tonight (IND/ATL with Brothers and Washington). - John Goble and Eric Lewis are working their 1st games of this postseason (Goble: OKC/MEM, and Lewis: LAC/GSW). Still no sign of Sean Corbin yet. - It would appear as if Tony Brothers is now among the top 7 officials in the league, seeing that he's on equal footing in terms of games at CC with last year's top 6 (Foster, McCutchen, both Crawford's, Mauer and Callahan). I don't think he'll be a CC in the 2nd round this year, but he probably will be within the next 2-3 years. |
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Post by FredFan7 on Apr 24, 2014 9:27:57 GMT -5
No Dick Bavetta? Is this the second year he's not worked? If he worked last year, he didn't work much beyond the first round....
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Post by js on Apr 24, 2014 9:53:07 GMT -5
No Dick Bavetta? Is this the second year he's not worked? If he worked last year, he didn't work much beyond the first round.... Yep. this is Bavetta's 2nd year not working the postseason.
I don't really know why because up until 2008, he was a regular in the postseason and the finals as a CC. Then starting in 2009, his workload started to decrease (yet he still worked in the conference finals) then it decreased more in 2010 (he worked only until 2nd round) then in 2011 & 2012, he only worked a few 1st round games, and now the last 2 years, nothing at all.
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Post by FredFan7 on Apr 24, 2014 9:57:31 GMT -5
I wonder if the Tim Donaghey book, in which he accused Bavetta of manipulating games, caused the NBA (rightly or wrongly) to reduce his playoff work.
Could be that now his skills have eroded to the point where he doesn't qualify? I do not officiate basketball (you can't pay me enough to do it) so I can't make an educated opinion.
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Post by js on Apr 24, 2014 10:33:58 GMT -5
I wonder if the Tim Donaghey book, in which he accused Bavetta of manipulating games, caused the NBA (rightly or wrongly) to reduce his playoff work. Could be that now his skills have eroded to the point where he doesn't qualify? I do not officiate basketball (you can't pay me enough to do it) so I can't make an educated opinion. I think that while Donaghey's book advanced things, it probably has more to do with skill factor and the officiating hierarchy that's been in place since Steve Javie retired at the end of the 2011 playoffs/finals.
With the new playoff refs (Forte, Tiven, Lindsay, Ayotte) the up and comers of the last few years (Goble, Zarba, Lewis, etc), the experienced becoming more experienced (Davis, Capers, Kennedy, Malloy, etc.), the established veterans (Stafford, Brothers, Callahan, and Mauer) and the entrenched top 4 (McCutchen, Foster, and the Crawford's), there's simply no place for Bavetta anywhere anymore.
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Post by lefty17 on Apr 24, 2014 12:51:01 GMT -5
Anyone think this is the NBA's way of telling Bavetta maybe it's time to hang up the whistle?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2014 15:38:55 GMT -5
Lefty, I agree with you.
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Post by russ on Apr 25, 2014 2:36:11 GMT -5
I have decided to keep my post about the specifics from the first 16 games up to date and it will now include the entire first round. So far it is up to date through Thursday nights games and I plane on updating it every night. I have also amended my notes to credit Ayotte with his first on-court assignment
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Post by russ on Apr 27, 2014 1:51:30 GMT -5
Everything is up to date through Saturday night. Since Thursday Sean Corbn, Pat Fraher, and Leroy Richardson made their first on court appearance. This is Richardson's first on court assignment since 2003 so congrats to him on a nice comeback season!
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Post by js on Apr 30, 2014 9:03:32 GMT -5
It looks as if Joey Crawford is taking some heat for what happened at the end of the Thunder/Grizzlies game yesterday
probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/04/30/referee-joey-crawford-interrupts-kevin-durant-game-tying-free-throw-in-overtime-video/
www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24545744/video-joey-crawford-ices-kevin-durant-on-key-free-throw
And to quote ESPN (espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/10859134/thunder-grizzlies-game-5-thriller): "Let's start with the mild controversy, which was Crawford. With 27.5 seconds left in overtime and the Thunder down by the 100-99 margin that would be the final tally, Durant held the ball with a second free throw on the way that could've tied the game. But then Crawford blew his whistle and took it away from him.
"I looked at K.D. and we were like 'what is Joey doing?'" Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. "We were both kind of confused as to what was going on."
Crawford had asked the scoreboard operator to indicate that both teams were in the bonus on the scoreboard. This is standard procedure in the last two minutes of any quarter when teams shoot free throws on the second foul. Referees like to be able to look at the scoreboard to determine if a team gets shots on a non-shooting foul. Crawford had just called a non-shooting foul on Allen and the Thunder were in the bonus but didn't immediately know it because it wasn't on the scoreboard.
But the board didn't change. After seeing it hadn't been fixed, (Bill) Spooner, the official closest to the scorer's table, repeated the request. When it wasn't corrected, Crawford stopped play and took the ball from Durant, essentially breaking his rhythm and causing a delay. Crawford stomped over and demanded the scoreboard be altered."
Could Crawford have waited until after the 2nd free throw or requested the change on the scoreboard before the 1st free throw? Yes. However, when you're the league's (presumed) MVP, you should be able to make that free-throw 12 times out of 10. Simply put, I don't think the Thunder lost because of Joey Crawford...even if he didn't help their cause. Hopefully, this is the last controversy that we have with regards to NBA officiating this year. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2014 13:38:16 GMT -5
This is a non-issue. Joey Crawford insisted, with some vehemence, that the clock operators put the correct number of fouls called on the clock, so that everyone would know who was in the bonus.
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