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It seems to me that Pau makes more sense with D'Antoni around. I know he doesn't love going big, but there will be plenty of chances for him to slide over to the 5 instead of having a real backup center. If he plays 15 minutes per game behind Dwight and 18 next to him, I think the team will be better anyway.
The Busses would have made a good network mini-series back in the 1980s, and they might fly as a reality show now. But there is not a lot of evidence that they are stupid when it comes to running the Lakers (Jerry's DUI was life stupid but not basketball stupid, and admittedly Jim certainly has plenty of years ahead of him to mess everything up).
I hope you're right; Pau is my favorite guy on the team. But he is slow, so a lot of people think that will be an issue.
Though it might not be that far off the mark: Phil Jackson thought it was his call
I can buy into the narrative from the earlier poster that he didn't really want the job, and played it so that the worst that could happen to him would be to have to coach a championship contender #zenmastered
Did you not get the memo?
Yeah, it looks like Love, Rubio, Barea, Budinger, and Pekovic will all be out of action for the next game against Charlotte. That would be an ok starting 5. My dad and I were gushing about Shved last night over the phone, then he threw cold water on it by pointing out that he'll just tear up his knee in the next few weeks anyway.
More than anything, he played like Wade down the stretch last night, and he was the whole offense. He had the ball in his hands constantly, always looked to get into the lane, did so easily most of the time, got to the line constantly, found open shooters when they were there, and made enough jumpers to keep the defense honest. He was on the court with Ridnour, Cunningham, Kirilenko, and Amundson, and he held off a charge by Dallas.
Also, Shved cut his hair for some reason. I think it was that the announcers kept confusing him with Amundson when they were on the court together.
And awesome in its collective whiteness.
It's short for Shvedsanity, which is sweeping the nation.
Edit: Wrong sport thread.
No point guard. Of course, neither Nash nor Blake was available. So who would you nominally call the PG there - Kobe?
1. First time seeing Kyrie Irving in person and it was thrilling. Every time he got the ball in isolation you could feel/hear the crowd hold its breath in anticipation of him unleashing his crossover. Defense was every bit as bad as advertised. It's tough to play D as a PG in this league at this point, but Irving was generally lazy on screens/chasing his man around. I felt like he had pretty good closeout technique the few times he engaged but he also failed to put a body on his man following the shot, leading to a few OREB chances for the Nets.
2. Brook Lopez was brutal. I love Anderson Varejao and think he's a very good, albeit never healthy, player. However, when Varejao is calling for the ball against you or grabbing the rebound and instead of taking it straight up pulling out so he can go ISO gainst you because he knows you have absolutely no shot at stopping him? That's a problem.
3. Joe Johnson did a whole lot of nothing before hitting a bunch of garbage time 3s. Was not impressed, but I've never been a big Joe Johnson fan.
4. CLE was down 25 or so in the 3rd but closed it to about 12 heading into the 4th. Byron Scott then sat Irving and Varejao for about the first 4 minutes of the 4th and that's where the game was lost because the CLE bench is truly terrible. Outside of Irving and Varejao there's just really nothing there, young or old, so I think we can look forward to Kyrie bolting as soon as he gets the chance.
5. The arena was exceptionally nice (I went to one of the Jay-Z concerts but this was my first basketball game there). Fans weren't into the game at all though and it wasn't a packed house. Loudest cheers in the introduction were for Williams, Irving and Varejao.
¹ As far as accepting the anxiety issue, anyway. For whatever reason, they haven't actually been playing him (I think he had migraines for a day or two, but they haven't used him otherwise, either), and perhaps that's part if not all of the tension.
Thanks for the report; I was curious. I'm hoping BKN turns into a spillover destination when you want to see a visiting team, or just a "filler" NBA game, but don't want to pay Garden prices. By mid to late afternoon yesterday, tickets were $40-$50 for lower corner on Stubhub, which is a good sign. The arena doesn't come across as electric on the YES broadcast, or really anything close.
I think fans are going to start seeing more of the Blatche/Evans combo as the season goes along. Cavs had 60 points in the paint last night, which is ridiculous.
Milwaukee is beating Indiana by 30 and while I do strongly feel that Milwaukee is a legit (lower level) playoff team, Indiana has not looked good this year and they need to get their #### together quick.
Also, Arnovitz has a piece up on Memphis maybe taking the next step, and they certainly picked up a nice W in OKC tonight.
-Scola (24&11;) and Boozer (28&14;) must love playing against each other. Their offensive moves are so much more effective against guys who always bite on the first fake.
-Beasley: Bad. Had a mini-run in OT, but oh so bad. Virtually no basketball instincts.
-Watching Hinrich play is slowly draining the life out of me.
-Butler needs to play more. Only 9 mins tonight, 12 per on the season. He's good enough defensively already, and the offense looks better than last year.
-Broken record time, but Noah (42mins) and Deng (46mins) are going to be ground to dust by the All Star break. I'd love to see Noah play in the All Star game this year, but quite frankly, he could use the time off.
-Looking at the box score and I see Jermaine O'Neal is on the Suns roster?!?! I feel like I vaguely remember this, but also think that could be something that might have also happened 5 years ago.
Phrases I wouldn't have expected to see...ever?
Which tells us everything we need to know about teams like Memphis and the Clippers taking "the next step" based on 7-8 games. Not to say that they might not, just that some people need to chill a bit on making rpnouncements about teams making the leap. Let's give it 20-30 games at least. No one has proven anything nefore November (or even December) ends unless they are like 15-2 or something. I feel like we go through this every year and everyone always forgets.
are the Timberwolves and manage to stay around .500 with the crapload of injuries they have faced. But your larger point is of course 100% correct.
Wolves sign Josh Howard to a 1 year Vet minimum.
1, the sixers had 4 turnovers on the game, which might be a franchise low, but they also shot 30% from the field, and you're not gonna do that and win. the pistons came in to this game allowing 100+ PPG. the sixers scored 76. just...awful.
2, evan turner and dorell wright: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks. i'm not quite sure whether this is a chicken or an egg type thing, but they both set season lows for minutes played last night.
3, dispencer hawesome update: 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist. i'd say that's 3% hawesome.
and lastly, the sixers defense is basically what the celtics offense was last year. they're allowing a very high percentage of shots to be made (44/36), but they're killing it on the glass (77% DRB%) and they're forcing a ton of turnovers (17 per game), and all told, they're 3rd in the league in D-rating. the offense is ####### horrendous, though.
and actually, since i made the statement a while back that this sixers team right now, without bynum, is basically about the same as last year's sixers, i'd now like to amend that to say this sixers team, without bynum, is basically the same as last year's team -- except, for the difference between lou williams and nick young. now, i really hope that nick young isn't this terrible for the entire season, but right now, the difference between these two teams is that lou came off the bench and scored 15 PPG, whereas young is coming off the bench and scoring 8.
The Sixers have my permission to lose tomorrow night at home as well. After that, feel free to start winning again. :-)
Haven't made the corresponding roster move, but it appears that Will Conroy's partial deal will be waived. Makes sense to dump Conroy- he doesn't help with the glut of wing injuries (the stretch where RA tried Shved, Lee, and Conroy last night was the worst stretch of the game) and what's the point of appeasing Brandon Roy if he's the worst player in the league?
It was really depressing to be behind by 14 all of last night, then stage a furious run, tie it up after a Chris Webber timeout turnover (I think that's the official name for that rule, right?) then give up a crazy jumper to Kemba to win with .7 secs left. The Cats made so many off balance long twos last night that I figured we were doomed from the start. It was a gut punch to come back and lose to the same thing anyway.
Hoping some combination of Pek, Roy, and Barea is ready for Friday.
They're just doing that to shut up Tyrone Terrell, right?
Yes, a lot of people think the Twolves are the whitest team just because they have a lot of white guys, but they could have an entire roster of Kevin Loves and Rubios and it wouldn't add up to the total whiteness provided by Jonas Jerebko and Kyle Singler.
The T-Wolves are imposters. They aren't white, they are European.
---
Perk ran out of there and down the tunnel quick after his ejection; maybe he was trying to get to ZBo before he left. Perk looks less scary and demented with a full goatee, btw.
also, mike woodson.
shaun livingston is back in the league - w/ dc, pargo cut to make room.
But, Amare.
Well if they keep this up or something close to this, he'll return when they're around 15-5 and I think Woodson will have enough power to make him a bench player. I can see him being useful in that role even if it pisses him off.
I wasn't lurking at Knickerblogger all season; I was going to say this sounds like the immortal Ruru but you didn't mention anything about Melo and assisted baskets, so it must be someone else?
Well if they keep this up or something close to this, he'll return when they're around 15-5 and I think Woodson will have enough power to make him a bench player. I can see him being useful in that role even if it pisses him off.
That's only part of it. The other part is if they think it's appropriate for him to be benched.
Crazy.
actually, this game was very similar to the bucks game from monday night, in that the losing team (the sixers then, and the jazz tonight) got behind by double digits early, fought back to tie the game a few times, but they used so much energy trying to close the gap that they didn't have enough left in the tank to get themselves over the top late in the game.
He wrote a nuanced piece on the Brown firing in which he concludes that it was "the right decision."
I would guess that a lot of guys here already reached the next conclusion, but he and Paine did a study on previous teams that went 6-0 out of the gate, and based on what I read, it seems pretty likely that the start is meaningful for the Knicks, and they will be better than I and many other people thought--maybe quite a bit better.
Finally, big couple of days for UCLA sports.
As of right now, Memphis seems like the team most likely to beat Miami in a 7-game series. I think if you want to beat Miami, you need to have very good and physical players at power forward and center. I think Randolph and Marc Gasol are the best combo in that regard right now. That's also why I think it'd be a bad idea for the Lakers to trade Pau Gasol for Josh Smith. Obviously, Miami isn't the only team that you'd need to beat to win a title.
Not necessarily. I think that there are probably times that real improvement shows up in 5-7 game stetches. The Paine/Pelton thing about the Knicks indicates this.
That said, there are a couple of numbers to watch with the Grizzlies. One key for Memphis is whether adding Bayless and Ellington has actually upgraded their 3p shooting. Last year, they shot .326 from the arc, 25th in the NBA. So far this year, even with the 2/14 last night, they are .363, 12th in the league. Bayless is 10/20; Ellington is 12/30, and Pondexter and Conley are hitting as well.
They have a good defense, they force TOs, and they are tough on the O glass. But last year they were 19th in ORTG. Right now they are 4th. Another area like that is FT shooting: last year, they were at .759. 13th in the league. So far this year, .824--2nd.
things:
1, in addition to shutting down irving, jrue holiday put up 14 and 9 assists.
2, dorell wright only got ~10 minutes, so he didn't do a whole lot, but evan turner had the kind of game that i expected to be his norm when he was drafted. 19 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds on 8/12 shooting. you had playmaking, rebounding, and efficient scoring from the field (even including a made 3 pointer!!! -- he's actually shooting 5/11 from beyond the arc on the season). i'm definitely past the point where i'm expecting that kind of performance night-in, night-out, but it's good to see he's at least capable of doing it once in a while.
3, dispencer hawesome: 14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks. i'd mark that up as 83% hawesome.
So, it may be a blip, it may be that he is being utilized in a role more suited to his skillset, or it may be some combination thereof.
His .324 3P% last year seems to have been an outlier, he was over 39% each of the first two years in Minnesota, which is obviously why Memphis wanted him.
They also played most of last year without Randolph. People seem to be forgetting this when talking about last year. I'll grant the FT% is probably unsustainably high.
I guess this will have to do...
Randolph matters a lot obviously, but Memphis' main weakness was perimeter shooting. If they have addressed it, they will be better.
I didn't watch the game so I can't comment but he did have the worst plus minus of anyone on the team at -20 last night.
Lin has actually been mediocre this season. He's shooting an awful percentage and has not been getting to the line very much. He is getting more assists, steals, and rebound than he was for the Knicks. He probably won't shoot this badly the whole season but I don't think he's going to score as much as he did last year for the Knicks.
So he will go to Minnesota and have a healthy and productive couple of years before completely disintegrating?
Yeah, I think they got some other guy to do that for them.
Also, in college ball news, Rutgers and Maryland are joining the Big Ten.
also, there are 6 teams in the eastern conference who are above .500, and 4 of them (NYK, BRK, PHI, and BOS) are in the atlantic division.
Great end between Denver and Memphis. Up one with under a minute to go, Gallo stole the ball then made a three at the other end to put the game away. Memphis has been a nice story so far, but I am happy to see Denver rebounding, too.
In retrospect, amazing he played that well with a broken finger. Off hand, but still. And yes, he is injury prone. Which is a shame.
Don't #### with the Jesus, man.
this is the play i was referring to. i'm sure there's at least one other point guard who could have made that play, but i'm not exactly sure who that would be.
It's amazing what good coaching and teammates will do.
Makes you wonder if John Wall could be better, too
also, it really helps that i have them all lined up in my rss feed, so i don't really have to go out of my way to read them.
The Synergy stuff, in my experience, is useful information regarding teams or players I don't see that often but frustrating in confirming or challenging opinions about those with which I'm extremely familiar. Then again, I'm not entirely confident in my evaluation of individual defense for players on a team I watch play every single game, so your level of doubt/skepticism could quite reasonably differ from my own.
Also, Synergy tracks plays but calls them possessions which is an irritant for me.
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