NBA Notes : The Name Pooh Has Ring to It for Bullets

With all the college competition the last couple of weeks, every NBA team has had more than one chance to look at the incoming talent pool. But if the Washington Bullets know whom they’re taking with their first-round pick, they’re not saying.

At least not poolside at the Bullets’ hotel here. Coach Wes Unseld was asked if Washington had the first pick overall in the June 27 draft, whom it would select.

“(UCLA guard) Pooh Richardson,” he said. “Pooooooh.”

“Wes likes his name,” said assistant coach Bill Blair, who has traveled in the last month to the Metro Conference tournament and both the Southeast sub-regional and regional finals.

The Bullets will not take Richardson. Like all teams, the Bullets are keeping their cards close to the vest, at least until they know what their draft position is going to be. But they do have a short list if they don’t make the playoffs and get in the lottery.

It includes, in no particular order of preference, Duke forward Danny Ferry, Louisville forward-center Pervis Ellison, Arizona guard-forward Sean Elliott, Michigan guard Glen Rice, Louisiana Tech forward Randy White, Oklahoma forward Stacey King, Georgia Tech forward Tom Hammonds and Florida State’s George McCloud.

A great perimeter shooter, McCloud is projected by many in the NBA as a point guard. “He could be a one (point guard), two (shooting guard) or three (small forward),” Blair said. “I don’t know which position is his best position.”

Hardships skewer the formula even more, and some of those names above could be replaced if, say, North Carolina’s J.R. Reid or Syracuse’s Derrick Coleman comes out.

Of mini-guards Charles Smith (Georgetown), Mookie Blaylock (Oklahoma) and Sherman Douglas (Syracuse), Blair said: “It’s according to how much somebody likes them, and if other people don’t like them. I think they’ll all probably be in the first round, but I don’t know where.”

Michael Jordan didn’t have enough to do, so he asked for the ball more. Of course, he got it, and the Chicago Bulls have been on a tear since Jordan’s move to point guard. They’ve won five in a row and are 7-2 in the nine games Jordan has replaced Sam Vincent, including four of five on their recent road trip.

Jordan’s numbers have been impressive -- 26.1 points, 12.8 assists, 9.1 rebounds. He’s had three of his six triple-doubles this season since making the move, and missed three more by a grand total of four rebounds and one assist. His points are, of course, down, but maybe more important, his minutes haven’t gone up. He was averaging a little over 40 minutes before the move, 39 a game after.

He’s still not sure if this is a long-term thing.

“For 82 games, I don’t know,” Jordan said to the Los Angeles Times. “We’re going to try to see what it feels like for the remainder of the season and the playoffs. So far, we’ve done very well. But it’s a little more demanding in terms of exhaustion, and my body is very, very valuable to me.”

Just remember: these wins came against the more fast-break oriented Western Conference, and don’t provide any indication of how the Bulls will do against the more physical Eastern Conference teams in the playoffs. ...

The Miami Heat has won just 13 games and people have laughed at the expansion team all season. But coaches are impressed with the work ethic Miami has displayed in not quitting despite its woeful record. And that’s not just in its win last week over the Knicks and in its first-ever three-game win streak.

One very telling statistic: the Heat was third in the league in offensive-rebounding percentage as of Sunday at .364, just behind Seattle, home of Michael Cage and Xavier McDaniel, and Atlanta, which only has Moses Malone. Miami’s overall rebound percentage is .506, ninth in the league and ahead of Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Lakers, to name a few. That’s a sign of a team that’s still working and not looking toward the lottery.

“They’re playing better than Charlotte right now,” said Denver’s Doug Moe, whose team is one of the Heat’s victims. ...

Former Utah coach Frank Layden thinks coaches are unappreciated.

“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “Take (former Pacers and Trail Blazers coach) Jack Ramsay, who coaches for 22 years in the NBA and is headed for the Hall of Fame. What do you think the coaching pension is in the league? Take a guess. Fourteen hundred dollars a month. That is the thing that gives you a barometer of where coaches fall in this league. The referees -- I’m not saying they don’t deserve what they get -- have a better pension plan than the coaches do. Coaches are on the bottom rung.”

He thinks that may have something to do with the burnout factor that has led to coaching maladies at Seattle (Bernie Bickerstaff) and Sacramento (Jerry Reynolds).

“The bottom line is this rubs off,” he said. “The coach says, ‘What am I going to do?’ ”