F(L)unked Out?

The Funk are choosing to ride the thin red line of success. Lately, that has meant losing. Whether or not that's been due to injuries and sub-par performances or the design of the team is hard to tell. Let's take a look. Due to small ball lineup, we'll be looking at the Funk with only five categories in mind, since REB-BLK-FG%-TO are purposely a wash and the Funk is ranked either last or next-to-last in all four of those categories.

PTS, AST: In the beginning of the season, the Funk were outscoring teams at will. Three of the top ten point producers in the NBA will do that for you. Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Michael Redd all average over 27 ppg and Carmelo is leading the league at nearly 31 ppg. Supplemented by Mehmet Okur, Kyle Korver, and the occasional outburst from Sam Cassell, the Funk were (and are overall) ranked #1 in PTS. The problem has been that Anthony and Redd has barely shared court time since late 2006. In the last five weeks, the Funk are only a middling 6th in PTS. Lebron's in a scoring slump and there seems to be no solid point producer behind the big three. The best PTS guy left? Earl Boykins at 18 ppg. Boykins has been great filling in for Melo and Redd but he won't keep scoring at that clip when Redd returns. The rest of the team is made up of decent scoreres, but nobody pushes past 14 or 15 ppg. Can the Funk return to PTS dominance once Redd returns?

Winning AST has never been a problem for this team. Ranked number one in this category and dominating in recent weeks. The trade for Raymond Felton has locked up this category and between the plethora of point guards on this team and Felton (7.4), TJ Ford's (7.8), and Lebron's (6.0) high assist averages, the Funk can, and will, out pass anyone. Bit of an overkill actually as the Funk are capable of doubling up opponents in AST most weeks.

STL, 3PT: The story is the same from behind the arc. The Funk have dominated from the three point line all season long. It's been a team effort, paced by Rafer Alston's 2.2 3PT a game. Outside of TJ Ford and Carmelo Anthony, everyone on this team puts in at least one three-pointer per game. The trade of Mehmet Okur (1.5), Kyle Korver (1.7), and Matt Barnes (2.0) significantly reduced the number of 3PT this team could put up but they are still strong for the forseeable future.

Steals have been a problem for the Funk though. Even from the get-go, this team was weak in STL, ranking only 6th on the season. This team needs a super STL stud to make sure that they're capable of winning this category every week. Theyr'e getting better recently -- ranked 4th for the second half -- behind Felton and Smush Parker's 3.0 STL per game, but they're not great in this category. They need to be. Some of the other teams in the league (The Poobic Heirs, Fat Jubas, Pooh Bears) have a much better STLs team.

FT%: Of late, this category has been horrific for the Funk. Lebron James, step right up. The sheer number of free throws Lebron takes can doom this team when his misses pile up. He's at 68.1% on the season. Nobody else is a terrible free throw shooter but outside of Carmelo, Redd, and Randy Foye, nobody is over 80% either. Scratch that, current starters Smush Parker and Steve Blake are 65% free throw shooters but both are fine FT shooters career-wise. All this translates to 4th in FT% on the season and 6th for the second half. This is the number one area of concern for the Funk heading into the playoffs.

Bench: Jon's been a busy bee on the waiver wire (league leading 36 moves) and located a few timely pieces such as Earl Boykins, Matt Barnes, Steve Blake, and Smush Parker. They're going to have to keep digging though, since this team is in flux and sorely in need of serviceable starters.

The current bench is some mixture of Adam Morrison, Gerald Green, Steve Blake, Earl Boykins, Randy Foye, Jose Calderon, and Jorge Garbajosa. Everyone's had their moments but for the most part, this is an injury fill-in bench. Morrison has been so-so in his rookie season, Green is unlikely to see so many shots with Paul Pierce back, and Blake's numbers will take a hit when Iverson returns. Who knows what happens to Boykins once Redd starts playing, but he probably won't be consistently starter worthy. Calderon holds value only as long as TJ Ford is hurt; which he isn't right now. Garbajosa was brought on board for his STL -- which are at a surprising 1.2 average -- but his other numbers are less than gasp worthy.

The bad news is that two or three of these guys will be starters each week for the Funk. The new starting role ceded to Randy Foye could set him up for a strong second half, but nobody knows if he'll remain the starter for long. After trading 5-for-2 (Okur, Korver, Dunleavy, Cassell, Barnes for Felton and Morrison) and losing valuable role players, this team is hurting for depth.

Cure: It's not all doom and gloom for the Funk however. Carmelo is having a breakout year and proving that he's not just a scoring machine. He contributes 6 REB, 4.4 AST, and 1.2 STL a game and has shown the ability to post triple-doubles in Denver's fast paced offense. Rafer Alston is the hidden star for this team since he contributes 13 PTS, 5.3 AST, 1.7 STL, and 2.2 3PT -- his 36.9% shooting doesn't hurt Funk at all. The biggest disappointment? Jameer Nelson, who contributes 13.3 PTS, 4.2 AST, and barely 1 STL/3PT. Not bad for a late round pick but he was taken in the fourth, ahead of other point guards such as Tony Parker, Deron Williams and Baron Davis. Ouch.

Two big problems right now; Lebron's FT% and the number of STL this team can pull out against top competition. The problem is that there's not a lot of tradable assets left -- is it time to consider moving one of the Big Three? There's been some discrete shopping around of Lebron but the fan base is wary of something like that since Lebron is in an admittedly down year and he should rebound after the All-Star break, or at least next year. Plus, it's hard to replace what Lebron does, no matter how bad he's doing. Do you trade the overall number one pick at the lowest statistical point in his career? Tough call.

This team does need to bring in something to buttress FT%, STL, and maybe PTS or 3PT. With only five categories that this team can compete in, they need to dominate all five every week to win. Perhaps this is the wrong way to play since many of Funk's early season success came from stealing FG% once in awhile with Mehmet Okur on-board. That won't be happening anymore. So, what now? Stay the course or diversify? Can a team this unbalanced succeed? Or will they collapse behind weekly losses in STL and/or FT%? Something is wrong about this team but we can't quite put our finger on it...