ESPN NBA

A great collection, including a favorite in which he seems to be inspecting a referee for lice.

The first time I really met writer Chris Ballard was at David Thorpe's Train Like a Pro. And it was near the very beginning of that experience that Thorpe and fellow coach Mike Moreau got to watching Ballard shoot, while whispering to each other about Indiana.

It was weird.

There was something about his form that they saw as determinedly Midwestern.

When Chris told them he had grown up in California, they literally did not believe him. For a moment there, it was like Thorpe and Moreau trusted their understanding of his shooting form better than Ballard's own ability to deliver the most basic facts of his life.

As they talked it out, however, everyone was happy. It turned out that Ballard had been taught how to shoot by his dad, who was indeed a Midwestern shooter.

Ballard's dad, Phil, is still playing, as it happens. He's 71. He has had troubles with his shoulder and his knees. But he keeps going. On SI.com, Ballard writes about what basketball means to his father:

For my older brother and me, hoops was the language of family. We never "talked it out" with Dad, a laconic, humble Midwesterner who can make a 45-minute drive in near silence feel comfortable. His idea of a heart-to-heart was preaching the prudence of bounce passes; our dialogue came in games of three-on-three on our makeshift backyard court, Phil taking it to the other dads. We spent countless twilight hours playing H-O-R-S-E at the park, and often the only sound was the hiss of the ball and the shiiing! of its arrival into the metal net. Who needed words -- wasn't the meaning clear?

As my brother and I got older, the connection held fast. There was the time, 15 years ago, when the two of us had a playoff game in a high-level Philly rec league and only three guys showed up. With no other options, we called home, where my parents were in the middle of a nice lamb dinner.

"Dad, any chance you can play tonight?"

"When?"

"Um, right now?"

Dad put down his fork and 10 minutes later he was at the gym, hightops in hand. Some people ask their fathers for a car loan; we ask ours to play the top of a makeshift four-man zone on a full stomach, a 55-year-old in sweatpants trying to stop dribble penetration from 23-year-old former college players. We almost won, too.

There are several different ways to judge speed -- with or without the ball, for instance. Or over the full length of the court, or slicing through the lane.

Any way you look at it, though, there is an ever-evolving list of players who are among the NBA's fastest.

A few years ago Tony Parker, Leandro Barbosa, T.J. Ford and Allen Iverson headlined any debate about the NBA's fastest player. Barbosa and Ford are still amazingly fast, but this is one category where the stars move along quickly. Youth is a huge advantage.

Within the last couple of years, Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis, Chris Paul and Derrick Rose have all been popular picks, but each of them has endured an injury or two, which has either taken them off the court, or at least slowed them down a hair.

With nods to Aaron Brooks, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Martin, Nate Robinson and LeBron James, any current list would have to focus on newcomers Ty Lawson and Darren Collison. And Collison says there is no debate. In the current issue of HOOP magazine, the Hornets rookie tells Josh Gordon:

I definitely think I'm the fastest player. I got a chance to watch Ty Lawson's game and he is probably up there. I'd definitely say I'm the fastest.

• Nate Robinson says he doesn't think of himself as short. (Insider)
• Josh Smith and Anderson Varejao are essentially non-shooters, but defenders still bite on the mid-range pump fake, which gives those athletes ways to get good looks at the rim.
• Digging deep into Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, in print and on the screen.
• PG-13 for language, but kind of funny: A joke report that Rasheed Wallace has decided against running the Boston Marathon.
• The Lakers reportedly aren't relying on the triangle as much as they have in the past. If they aren't using it, will anyone? Could the end be near for the offense that has accounted for ten titles?
• Is it time for Alexander Johnson to return to the NBA?
• It's not a good sign if your team's players are denying they're tanking. I mean, seriously, think about that. What argument would you have your players make? The winning point is something along the lines of: No seriously, we're playing hard, but we're just not good.
• A new, super-long Brandon Jennings commercial. It's fresh-feeling, and motivating. Although, I'm aware that Jennings is a big deal in Europe, where I can guarantee you basketball fans there will be upset by the slow-motion travel -- a shuffle of the pivot foot -- that occurs about 1:40 in.
• Worth saluting Luis Scola's game against the Nets, in which he made 20 of his 25 shots for 44 points.
• Watch how this very nice game-sealing Andrew Bogut backdoor play unfolded.
• The D-League wrestles with the question of whether or not it's good to have your home teams televised. I'd be interested to see some smart analysis, but I'd have to believe that being in the conversation is the most important thing for a newish league, even if it costs you a ticket sold here or there.
• HowlinTWolf: "Why isn’t [Ramon] Sessions playing more minutes than Flynn on a nightly basis? He doesn’t necessarily need to start but his production off the bench was superb tonight. He was playing defense -- [Tyreke] Evans actually started cooling off when Sessions came in the game in the third -- and he ran the offense correctly, all while hitting open shots from all over. He finished with an impressive 13 points, four assists and four rebounds in 27 minutes. As for Flynn, he had 12 points, five were during garbage time at the end of the fourth quarter, and didn’t record his first assist until the clock hit 1:20 left in the game."
• Great John Starks quote, on Reggie Miller: "Man, did this dude just did this?"
• A nice collection of Tyreke Evans videos from Sunday night's win Kings over the Timberwolves.
• Looking at the Nets' remaining schedule, and feeling optimistic they won't earn the NBA's worst record ever.
• I don't really understand the point of asking whether or not the Thunder are ready for the playoffs. Does that matter? They're going to the playoffs. When they get there, they will play basketball. If they play it well, they will win, and be happy. If they play it poorly, they will learn a lot, and fight another day.
• The Kirk Hinrich maneuver, which got him tossed and suspended, was, he says, unintentional. He kind of implies that, in fact, the ref initiated contact with him.
• Food for thought for the Magic: The Bobcats were without their best rebounder, Gerald "Crash" Wallace, but still outrebounded the Magic. Brett of Queen City Hoops: "Dwight Howard grabbed 16 rebounds -- yet the Bobcats out-rebounded the Magic 46-34 for the game. Theo Ratliff and Tyrus Thomas each had nine for Charlotte, and then the Stephens (Graham and Jackson) followed them with six apiece. The Bobcats were making a concerted effort to attack the glass (and to surround Howard to limit his rebounding opportunities) and it paid off with a 12 to nine offensive rebounding advantage. The Bobcats winning the rebounding battle without Crash has to be almost as improbable as the win -- if not more so."
• David Berri has some things to say that will anger Kobe Bryant fans.
• Pau Gasol, now without braces.
• If a picture's worth a thousand words, a picture of Mike Dunleavy's face might be worth 1,250. If that's true, here are 31,250 words. Let no one ever say the man didn't care.

Zach Lowe of CelticsHub has been wrestling with the Celtics' performance this season:

In late January, when the C’s were in the middle of a 4-7 stretch, I tried to calm the panic by pointing out that several recent champions had gone through 4-7 or 5-6 down periods in the regular season.

But 18-19 over what is essentially half the regular season?

Only in very unique circumstances do you find a title team that has gone through a “stretch” like that. If you’re looking for a precedent, you’ll find it with only the few “mediocre” champions in league history (such as the ‘78 Bullets or the ‘75 Warriors) or those who went through strange, injury-filled regular seasons only to peak in the post season (the ‘94 Rockets). Could the C’s qualify as such a team? Maybe.

Otherwise, title teams don’t play sub-.500 ball for half the regular season. They just don’t.

It may be time to ask: Should we reevaluate our expectations for this team? Will you be happy with another conference semi-final loss? Would a conference finals appearance be a wild success? I don’t know the answers to those questions, but with every discouraging loss -- Boston is 2-9 now against Orlando, Cleveland and Atlanta -- it feels less and less likely that this team will pull it together during the playoffs. Which, by the way, are almost here.

Bear with me as we head on a little detour: I was walking to work this morning, and thinking about defense. It's half the game, and it's not really measured accurately. If anyone ever told me that we weren't missing much, I'd counter with: Did Kevin Garnett only bring a little bit to Boston's defense in 2007-2008? He was hardly the only change -- assistant Tom Thibodeau, for instance, played a major role -- but that Celtics team went from the NBA's 16th best defense allowing 106.9 points per 100 possessions the season before, to the absolute best in the NBA, allowing just 98.9.

Some of that was getting young players like Al Jefferson off the floor. But without Garnett, does anybody even think the Celtics would have had a top five defense?

A lot of stat geeks will tell you that, by various different kinds of analysis, Garnett has been literally the best player in the NBA over the last decade or so, and that defense is certainly a huge part of what he brings.

Championships, though, are tough to come by, even for players who perform at that level for that long. Is one title enough to reward all of Garnett's effort? If the Celtics aren't contenders, is it possible he'll get more?

In the closing of his post, Lowe then gets into the really hard questions. If this Big Three Celtics are not going to win another title, why pay through the nose to keep it together? Who's going to carry this team next time they're in the Finals? Shouldn't you pay them, instead?

• Stephen A. Smith of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's been a difficult week, folks! I'll just put it out there. After revealing what's been heard for years about Allen Iverson's drinking and penchant for the casinos, I've received the kind of beatdown only Joe Frazier can relate to from the pummeling he suffered against George Foreman decades ago. I've been vilified and excoriated, called a turncoat and a sellout, unworthy of so much as a handshake from several members of Iverson's former team, the 76ers - the last people in need of more adversaries. The truth is, I deserve it. Despite the objectivity exercised while disseminating the news, it's impossible to be completely impartial about someone you've known for 14 years and are incredibly fond of despite the innumerable mistakes he's made. The thing is, if I'm honest enough to express these feelings about Iverson, to stand up and say none of us who care should sit idly by and act as if the combination of Iverson's history in the fast lane and his present family issues will be healed by silence, where are his so-called friends, the ones with the all-is-well expressions while knowing there's mounting evidence to the contrary? No one said Iverson is an alcoholic or a gambling addict. What was reported was that he's drinking and gambling too much, enough to concern quite a few people in the NBA."
• Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: "The Cavaliers have played eight and a half games without Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas now and they have lost just one time, and that was a game they played without LeBron James. Is it because O'Neal and Ilgauskas are really overrated, superfluous or non-impactful? Not exactly. It is because Anderson Varejao is going through the most prolific offensive streak of his career to fill in the gaps left by the missing centers. Sunday Varejao earned plenty of praise for his usual energetic play. His ability to keep loose balls alive and chase down rebounds was invaluable. The Cavs had a season-high 27 second-chance points and Varejao had six of those 17 difference-making offensive rebounds in the Cavs' 104-93 victory over the Boston Celtics. He also gave his standard defensive effort, being effective on pick-and-roll defense as well as smashing up against the Celtics' various big men who were trying and failing to score much in the paint. 'I thought one guy completely dominated the game and that was Varejao,' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. 'With loose balls, activity, getting under our skin.' "
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "Anyone who thought Kendrick Perkins handed the Cavaliers some bulletin-board material with his, 'They still haven’t done nothing we haven’t done,' comment would be disappointed. The Cavaliers, like their leader, are too even-keeled. If any offense was taken, it was internalized. 'Well, he’s right,' LeBron James said before the game. Leon Powe shook his head at the mention of what his former teammate said. 'Always -- he always makes me laugh,' Powe said. 'Perk don’t care what he says. But that’s not bulletin-board stuff around here. It’s not, because that’s the truth.' "
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: "In a month or so, when the playoffs start, nobody will remember this stinker of a loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday. Stan Van Gundy’s gut will be no doubt churning all night, but that’s how Van Gundy is wired. But even he and the players realize as long as they keep the No. 2 seed, this won’t matter. Now what matters is Rashard Lewis’ game and frame of mind. 'He is just not playing well at all right now,' coach Stan Van Gundy said. 'You know, it’s not just shooting. I mean, he’s not rebounding the ball. He’s just not playing with much energy. I don’t know.' Lewis is a mess offensively, recording three single-digit scoring games in his last six, including three in a row. He is 18-of-56 (32.1 percent) and 8-of-29 from 3-point range in his last six games. 'I have to get myself more involved and just be more aggressive,' Lewis said. 'I got to create something.' "
• Tim Buckley of the Deseret News: "They spent the previous night in a supposedly haunted hotel. Among the game's three referees was one many with the Jazz felt cost them a game last time they were here. And, piling on, they were missing three injured rotation regulars, including two starters. Utah seemed doomed, even before play got underway. More than medical matters or officiating or even ghosts, though, it was lights-out shooting by Oklahoma City that did in the Jazz during a 119-111 loss Sunday night at the Ford Center."
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: "Patience is wearing thin, changes are being made and as the Raptors free fall through the Eastern Conference standings, coach Jay Triano is taking a hard-line approach. A disastrous four-game, four-loss road trip ended with a 109-98 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers here on Sunday night and Triano has already begun the tweaks necessary to salvage this season. Jose Calderon replaced Jarrett Jack to start the third quarter and Triano hooked Andrea Bargnani more quickly than usual after Bargnani avoided boxing out any Blazer at all costs, and that could just be the start of something bigger. 'We've got to have a shorter leash with some of our guys,' Triano said after Toronto fell to 32-33 on the season, the first time the Raptors have been below .500 since late January."
• Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun: "Jarrett Jack is the anti-Hedo Turkoglu in Portland. Jack played the first three seasons of his NBA career in a Trial Blazers uniform and remains a big fan of just about everything about the team. The fans have always treated him well whether it was as a Blazer or an opponent. The building is 'easily in his top five in the league.' But it’s a unique feature of the Rose Garden that he really likes. 'If I was the owner of an NBA team, the first thing I would do is that,' he says pointing to a set of windows above the seating section at one end of the arena. 'See those windows up there. That’s a two bedroom apartment that the owner has.' And therein is the best thing about Portland. Owner Paul Allen is as committed to his team as any owner in the league. He’s at every game, sitting in the same seat and according to Jack is always upgrading the building."
• John Canzano of The Oregonian: "This was a business decision, and the small forward who averaged 19.5 points two seasons ago thought he was making a sound choice. And now, he's apologizing to the good people who follow the Blazers because he is sorry he let you down. Also, he wants his wife's name cleared around here in the event she ever wants to see Multnomah Falls or the Oregon coast. 'Don't know who made that story about my wife,' Hedo Turkoglu said. "She would love it here. Or anywhere. The last second Toronto came in and it felt like a good fit -- East Coast style. I thought I fit good. My wife never said she didn't like to be in Portland.' Turns out Mrs. Turkoglu should be booing ESPN, which issued that report. Or perhaps Turkoglu's agent didn't want to offend Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard for dumping Portland in the 11th hour and threw Mrs. Turkoglu under the bus as an excuse. Or maybe someone there just got it flat wrong. Whatever the case, the Northwest can apparently stop booing Team Turkoglu now. The Blazers have won four straight, and the disappointment of last summer feels far away. They've overcome the injuries, too. Only Andre Miller and Martell Webster have appeared in every game this season, and they're going to make the playoffs anyway."
• Brian T. Smith of The Columbian: "LaMarcus Aldridge referred to it as tunnel vision. The ability to tune everything else out -- distractions, criticism, negative and positive suggestions -- and focus in on the only two things he can truly control: himself and his game. It has taken the Trail Blazer power forward nearly four years to acquire the trait. Four years to put on what he refers to as a 'hardhat' and develop thicker skin. But the 6-foot-11, 240-pound Aldridge said he has finally grown tougher and stronger. And with the new skin comes a new level of confidence and determination. 'As long as my teammates know I’m doing what they need, that’s all that matters,' Aldridge, 24, said. 'Because you can’t really listen to the fans all the time, because they don’t know what’s really going on in house, and they don’t know what the team needs.' Aldridge understands what the Blazers need. He also knows who he is. He is fully aware of his rare blend of athleticism and talent that at times makes him an unstoppable, unguardable force on the court. He is also aware of the deep levels of still-untapped talent that lie just below the surface of his current game. Aldridge also acknowledged that he struggled through the first part of the 2009-10 season, buried beneath the weight of a new contract, heightened expectations and decreased responsibility. But after weathering the storm, the second overall pick of the 2006 NBA Draft now sounds like a man ready to take his talent to the next level -- and easily brush off any criticism that still falls on his shoulders."
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "Most point guards Anthony Carter's age are no longer point guards. They're assistant coaches or yachters or car dealers, telling stories about how they once had 12 assists against the Cavaliers, while asking what it'll take to get you into a Cavalier. But the 34-year-old Carter is still chugging down the court for the Nuggets, whose ace in the hole, it seems, is 'Ace.' With Ty Lawson battling a bruised left shoulder, (he's day to day), the ageless Carter is back to his backup role, the one he cherished during last season's Denver playoff run. 'I've got to take advantage of every minute I get out there,' Carter said. 'Those guys need me, and I know it's my job to get these guys going. So every chance I get, I'm trying to have a lot of fun, get them easy baskets.' It's hard to remember any team having more fun than the Nuggets during Saturday night's fourth quarter at Memphis, which began tied at 85. With A.C. at the point, the Nuggets went on a furious 22-8 run to start the fourth. And in eight minutes, the guard tallied six assists, as well as four points and two rebounds. 'That's what it's all about. We're not called 'Crucial Conflict' for nothing,' Carter said of the second unit's new nickname, coined in reference to a 1990s rap group. 'Once we get in there, we try to cause havoc and make things happen.' "
• Jonathan Abrams of The New York Times: "The Washington Wizards’ season has long been disappointing, disheartening and even felonious (see: Arenas, Gilbert; Trades; Salary Purging). But for a fan base seeking any glimmer of hope, there is one in the comeback of Shaun Livingston, the prodigy point guard whose career was derailed by devastating injuries. 'Everything is a day at a time with me, man,' Livingston said. 'I’m blessed to be where I am right now, playing basketball with my injury and everything else. I’m not trying to look ahead.' The comments arrived after Livingston secured 18 points and 8 assists in a loss to the Orlando Magic on Saturday. The statistics are not eye popping or glaring, especially measured against the high ceiling attached to Livingston. He entered the league in 2004 as the fourth overall draft pick by the Los Angeles Clippers from an Illinois high school, immediately drawing comparisons to Magic Johnson. But there is a reason why Henry Thomas, Livingston’s agent, called him nearly in tears after the game. The tally represents more than just numbers. They are the most points and assists Livingston has amassed since his gruesome injury in February 2007, in which he landed awkwardly on his left knee, damaging virtually every portion of it. In a medical roll call, he sustained tears of his anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, lateral meniscus, sprained his medial collateral ligament and dislocated his patella and tibia-femoral joint."
• Sam Amick of The Sacramento Bee: "For anyone who was watching closely in June before the Kings drafted Tyreke Evans fourth overall out of the University of Memphis, this moment was a fitting time to reflect on what could have been. By all accounts, Jonny Flynn would have been a King if Evans weren't still on the board. Alas, Evans was still there, with the Clippers taking Blake Griffin as expected, and Memphis and Oklahoma City having their own reasons to pass him by. The Kings' war room erupted with elation after the welcome surprise, as his was the name they wanted to call all along. They haven't stopped cheering. The Blueprint, as Evans' family plan for his hoops success is called, remains on track. Two games after his first triple double Wednesday against Toronto, Evans had 29 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Kings coach Paul Westphal opted against leaving Evans in for the mere fact of reaching the statistical achievement, taking him out with 6:04 remaining and the Kings up by 26 on a Timberwolves team that played without forward Kevin Love (left foot sprain) and center Darko Milicic (illness). ... As has been the case since Evans was a toddler in Chester, Pa., his brothers will be pushing him to continue improving. They said he'll train in Los Angeles this summer, with the main objective to improve his shooting and a number of other items on the to-do list as well. Keith Veney will be his shooting coach, adding Evans to his client list that has included Dallas' Caron Butler, Boston's Paul Pierce and Detroit's Ben Gordon, among others. Evans also will utilize a track coach to help with his conditioning and a boxing coach to push his physical ability and stamina to a new level. The plan calls for former NBA player B.J. Armstrong and professional trainer Rob McClanaghan to help with Evans' cause as well."
• John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: "After being ejected in the fourth quarter of the Bulls' road game Friday against the Miami Heat, guard Kirk Hinrich was defiant and followed referee Bennie Adams for an explanation. But Sunday, a day after the NBA suspended him for one game for making contact with Adams, Hinrich was more apologetic for leaving the short-handed Bulls even thinner for their road game Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies. 'I'm just disappointed,' he said after practice at the Berto Center. 'Anytime you have to miss time when you're healthy is frustrating. I was hoping that wasn't going to be the case, but there's nothing I can do about it now.' Hinrich admitted his anger got the best of him. 'I was just following him,' he said. 'I was still upset, and then he turned and stuck his elbow out and kind of bumped into me. And then I realized I better leave.' Of course, the damage had been done by then."
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "While the Sacramento Kings will have enough cap space to lure a free agent this summer, even the Kings are not overstating their hand. Perhaps that's not a bad idea. As fans there last week implored Raptors forward Chris Bosh to head west, Raptors teammates Jarrett Jack bellowed back to the stands, 'Ain't nobody coming here. Nobody even knows it's in California.' "
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: "The Indiana Pacers found another way to have a player go down with an injury. Swingman Mike Dunleavy was a last-minute scratch from the lineup against the Milwaukee Bucks after he suffered a right eye contusion when he was hit by a ball during pregame warm-ups Sunday. 'I went in for a layup and somebody shot the ball and it came off the rim right into my eye,' said Dunleavy, who looked like he had been in a fight after the game. The Pacers say they're not sure of the severity of the injury. 'He saw (Milwaukee's) ophthalmologist and we're hoping it's nothing serious,' Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. 'He was seeing a black spot out of his eye, so he was told he couldn't play.' "
• Jerry Crowe of the Los Angeles Times: "If you're a UCLA basketball fan of a certain age, your first glimpse of Artis Gilmore probably was at the Final Four. Forty years ago this week, looking every bit the heir apparent to former UCLA star Lew Alcindor as college basketball's dominant big man, the 7-foot-2 Gilmore led upstart Jacksonville to the championship game of the NCAA tournament. Once there, however, Gilmore and the Dolphins were cut down to size by Sidney Wicks and UCLA, the Bruins winning their fourth consecutive title and an unflattering image of Gilmore forming in the minds of skeptical fans from coast to coast. Gilmore had four shots blocked by Wicks, who gave away six inches in height but nothing in fire or moxie. Gilmore would go on to play 17 seasons in the ABA and NBA, scoring nearly 25,000 points and leading the Kentucky Colonels to an ABA title, but to some he never shook the initial impression that he was too nice for his own good, too sensitive to be great -- or at least as great as everybody seemed to expect. Perhaps that's why Gilmore, 22 years removed from the NBA, still has not been voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame despite numbers suggesting that he belongs."

There are only a handful of people with the authority to make consequential personnel decisions in the NBA. Last Tuesday, Neil Olshey joined that fraternity when Mike Dunleavy was fired, and Olshey was promoted to general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers' gig is a mixed bag. The team has set itself up well for 2010 free agent class and has a solid core of talent. In addition, they've built a gleaming training facility and Los Angeles is still a desirable landing spot for a pro athlete. On the downside, the Clippers are forever trying to unshackle themselves from their history of failure. The Clips have had only two winning seasons since they arrived in Los Angeles in 1984. Their volatile owner, though now willing to spend, is still an impediment to the maturation of the franchise.

By many accounts from around the league, the organization's decision to elevate Olshey won't change much of the Clippers' day-to-day managerial operation. Olshey is a known entity in front offices around the NBA, but fans in Los Angeles and elsewhere aren't very familiar with him. We reached Olshey by phone Friday night while he was crisscrossing the nation scouting conference tournaments to talk about what lies ahead for him as the newest general manager in the NBA.

The Clippers' press release stated that you "will assume the duties created by Dunleavy’s departure." How do you interpret that?
To be honest with you, I really don't interpret it. I've been on the road and I didn't want any distractions this week. You know how important this week is. I'm getting to see Kentucky play three days in a row. I'm going to see 19 games in five days. Short of trying to help [Clippers interim head coach] Kim [Hughes] and do everything I can to help the team finish strong these last 16 games, the next big decision for this organization is the draft. This is one of our last opportunities to see these guys in a competitive environment prior to workouts. That's why I didn't go back to Los Angeles and why I didn't hook up with the team on the road. When I get back, I'll sit down with [Clippers' president] Andy Roeser and we'll map out what a lot of this means, but for right now it's business as usual. I was sitting in Madison Square Garden scouting a Big East game when I got the call. The next day at noon? I was back at Madison Square Garden scouting the Big East.

Also from the press release, what does "a full commitment to dedicate unlimited resources" mean?
[Clippers owner] Mr. [Donald T.] Sterling has done nothing less than give us unlimited resources. We've made every trade we wanted to make. We've signed free agents to high-dollar figures. We've drafted the players we wanted to draft. Mr. Sterling let us make moves at the deadline to open up a tremendous amount of cap room, which we intend to use. He's also willing to spend money in other areas. We have the premier practice facility in the League. Mr. Sterling has spent the money; we just haven't delivered the goods and that's going to have to change.

Have you been empowered to hire an assistant GM?
I have not even had that conversation. To be honest with you, when you look at our model, not much has really changed from this perspective: Had Mike [Dunleavy] finished up the season as coach, there really would've been no difference. I would've been on the road scouting. Gary Sacks, our director of college scouting, would have been looking at players. All the guys who are out there watching games for the organization right now are the exact same guys who would've been out there watching games prior to any of the stuff that's happened. Part of the reason the organization has the faith in me it does is because of the freedom that Mike gave me. He knew there would never be anything done behind his back and everything would eventually make it to his desk. The job was never overwhelming for him because he was allowed to think big picture and think about the future of the organization, but he allowed me to handle the day-to-day. I think the presence around the league that created -- the ability to make deals under his guidance -- is why Andy Roeser and Mr. Sterling are willing to move forward with me.

We've spoken before about numbers and analytics. I was at the MIT Sloan Conference last weekend. There were 16 teams represented -- Denver, Dallas, Houston, Portland among others -- but the Clippers weren't one of them. Will the Clippers eventually be one of those teams that invests in this approach?
There's a ton of stuff there. But before we bow to the great software program, let's remember that Denver has succeeded for a lot of reasons. They moved Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups. That didn't have anything to do with basketball analytics. Let's not confuse that. Dean Oliver does a great job. And we have people who do this. Jason Piombetti, our scouting coordinator who comes from the Dodgers organization, does a ton of this stuff. We have our own database -- NBA, college, international, NBDL. We might not have a full-time guy sitting in a room running programs, but we use a lot of the same tools. There's a happy marriage between the two. Daryl Morey also has really good basketball people advising him as well. But I recognize that analytics isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity now. We combine all of it. We might not take it to the extreme that Daryl and [Rockets vice president of basketball operations] Sam [Hinkie] do, but we're not sitting in a room saying, "He can play and he can't." Also, the NBA's stat cube platform is as good as anything one of these stats guys can create.

But isn't there a difference between data and information? A team can have the platform, but can they interpret the data?
No question, but from a standpoint of knowing your points per possession with Rasual Butler in versus Al Thornton, or with Steve Blake on the floor -- a lot of that is used by us internally. The unrestricted free agents we brought in at the deadline to get a look at? When we evaluate them, it won't just be how they passed the eye test or the wins and losses. There will absolutely be a diagnosis using basketball analytics when we decide who we want back.

A lot has been said about the idea that very little is going to change in the Clippers' organization structure, but do you bring anything unique to the job?
There are few people in front offices around the League who have more interpersonal relationships with players than I do. There are about 100 players in the League who I have either coached, worked with individually, coached at either the Roundball Classic, the Reebok Summer Classic, or ABCD Camp for Sonny Vaccaro, coached or worked out before the draft, or came through while I was at SFX. There are also all the offseason workouts that Tim Grgurich and I did together back in the days when you could open up the gym and let guys work out. Many of the free agents in this class are guys I worked with individually or coached in some capacity in the past.

You're watching a lot of college basketball this week. Are college players coming into the pro game less refined? Back in the day, if a player lacked that kind of refinement, he was labeled a "project." Now it seems like, with a couple of exceptions, everyone is a project when they're drafted.
In some sense of the word, everyone is a project. I don't care where they got drafted, there are going to be holes in their game. Some guys aren't in the college game long enough to develop a full range of skills. If they show enough upside, all of a sudden they're in the NBA.

In the past decade, have NBA teams become more attentive to player development in order to adjust to that reality?
Probably about eight to 10 years ago, teams became more cognizant that you're drafting these players as assets and you need some help polishing them. So you'll have head coaches and assistant coaches working on the big picture game plan, you also need someone living in the gym with these guys working on their game. There are multiple examples in the League right now of guys who had holes in their game that were helped by the quote-unquote "workout" guy.

You were one of those "workout guys" and you speak with a real passion about the player development process. Is there a part of you that's a little sad that you won't have much time -- if any -- to do that kind of work?
Yeah, I think there is. From a work product standpoint, nothing is going to change. Obviously the thing that will change is visibility or accountability. But the beauty of having the facility for me is that, during the offseason, if I heard a ball bouncing, I'd go downstairs. I'd work with DeAndre [Jordan] or shag balls if Blake [Griffin] wanted to shoot free throws. I worked Marcus Camby out during the preseason process before we hired [assistant coaches] Tony Brown and John Lucas. One nice thing is that players know when they come into the organization, they don't look at me as another suit. These guys remember me. For instance, DeAndre Jordan was on my team at ABCD Camp. 99 percent of the reason we drafted him had nothing to do with what we saw at Texas A & M. It's because I watched him go head-to-head with guys like Josh Smith and Dwight Howard at ABCD camp.

What's the lousy part of the job?
The toughest part of the job is anything you have to do that hurts a kid. If you have to waive someone or let them know you don't want to re-sign them.

Kind of like that scene in Bull Durham?
Yes. "This is the toughest job a manager ever has." You bring guys in because you like them, but at some point the relationship has to be broken. Having to get rid of them or move them knowing them, knowing their families, knowing they bought homes, knowing they're a part of your life and they're not going to be any more is hard. Marcus Camby -- that was the right basketball decision for us given the circumstances, but it killed me from a personal standpoint because it fractured my relationship with Marcus a little bit. I love Marcus and respect him, so that was the hardest thing. You build up a relationship over a couple of years and then based on long-term business needs, you have to fracture that relationship.

I just learned the Nuggets went years under Doug Moe, starring Alex English, with hardly any dunks at all.

But for a team with a lost dunker's decade, they sure do well in the conversation of greatest dunks of all time. There's the whole catalog of David Thompson's Nugget dunks to consider, and then three of this season's best dunks: Carmelo Anthony on Paul Millsap, Ty Lawson on D.J. Mbenga and J.R. Smith on the moon.

All of that is re-capped nicely, and well worth your read, in a monster jam of a post over at Denver Stiffs.

And let me weigh in right here to say that the 'Melo dunk, mostly for its sheer audacity, is my favorite by any player in the NBA this season.

• Cavs: The Blog's John Krolik: "LeBron James is having one of the most efficient scoring seasons a high-volume scorer has ever enjoyed. This much is statistical fact. He has also made me lose at least a year of my life due to his shot selection, which has been widely maligned. This much is medical opinion. There are two schools of thought on LeBron’s shot selection: 'LeBron takes way too many bad shots and is hurting his team by doing so,' and 'LeBron’s True Shooting is 61.1%. Haters to the left.' Rather than put things in black-and-white terms, let’s take a look at LeBron’s shot selection."
• Brian Kamenetzky of ESPNLosAngeles assessing the idea that the Lakers will be great when they buckle down on defense: "Over the course of the season, the Lakers have been one of the best, if not the best, defensive teams in the NBA. All season long they've jockeyed with Boston for the top spot in defensive efficiency, which measures the number of points allowed per 100 possessions. (Through Thursday, L.A. is second at 102.4, just behind the Celtics at 102.1.) There's always room for improvement, but it's hard to do too much better than best. Meanwhile, as I noted after Sunday's loss to Orlando, the Lakers have far more serious problems on the other side of the ball. Not only are they performing below last year's output in both raw numbers (102.6 ppg this season vs. 106.9 a year ago) and fancy metrics (108.6 points per 100 trips in '09-'10, over four points less than last year, numbers via Basketball Reference), but the Lakers come up short relative to champions of the last decade as well. Well short."
• Jonny Flynn, talking to Marc Stein: "You look at a lot of the top rookies and they have a tremendous amount of freedom. They can go out and really almost do whatever they want. But Kurt [Rambis] is really teaching me the game of basketball. He's teaching me how to play in a system. And if you look at all the great point guards in this league, they know how to run a system and they can play pick-and-roll basketball. I already know how to play pick-and-roll basketball. Now I'm learning how to run a system."
• It can seem like when you make the NBA, you can stop worrying about money and just enjoy life. But there's a lot of evidence to the contrary, including the humiliating tale of Robert Whaley.
• The chest bump heard 'round the world.
• When they make a reality show where all the ESPN.com NBA writers live together in a house, the Kamenetzky Brothers deserve producer credits.
• Arn Tellem on Huffington Post: "Using the Ryder Cup format, I'd open up the Rookie Challenge to all players who were 24-and-under at start of season. This year the U.S. team might have included Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez and Brandon Jennings. On the international side, the team could have featured Danilo Gallinari, Omri Casspi, Yi Jianlian, Al Horford and Marc Gasol. And why not expand the roster to accomodate former draft picks, Euroleague stars and NBA prospects currently playing overseas. Fans would get to see such outstanding -- and heretofore mysterious -- talents as Ricky Rubio, Víctor Claver and Tiago Splitter, as well Donatas Motiejknas and Jan Veselý."
• The Wizards are playing three games in three nights.
• Luis Scola has been producing a lot more since the departure of Carl Landry.
• Orlando fans wanted Adonal Foyle. The game was a blowout. But Stan Van Gundy did not give the fans what they wanted.
• Watch Javale McGee jump!
• A long video made of nothing but Nicolas Batum blocking shots.
• Five things that feel wrong about Gilbert Arenas changing his number.

How any basketball game is won or lost is complicated. A zillion things go into it. And no highlight package can tell the whole story.

But this one tells us something about how the Warriors got outscored by 18 in the final quarter.

There are five plays here: A Brandon Roy jumper, two Roy layups, a Rudy Fernandez jumper, and an Andre Miller pass to LaMarcus Aldridge for a point-blank layup.

Three of the give buckets, in other words, came at the rim.

And here's why that's remarkable: Check out the Warriors' defensive set-up! At almost every moment, on those three plays when Portland scored in the paint, Golden State had five defenders in the paint. There were a minimum of four. The Blazers had open shooters all over the perimeter. That's what Golden State was conceding with their "pack it in" approach.

Yet somehow Roy and Aldridge manage to befuddle all those guys. Roy did a bit of the juking and tricking which made him famous. The Warriors are hardly the first to fall for his fakes. But he does get two big buckets in the paint, against five guys, without even getting above the rim.

More importantly, look at that last play in the highlights. Andre Miller drives baseline. There are five defenders in the paint. And ... nobody can stay with the high-scoring forward right under the hoop? Really?

It's like a martial arts movie: Can the hero really win a one-on-five battle? Not normally. But if the five are going to fight (or not) like that ... well then, maybe.

The other day the Nuggets' director of quantitative analysis, Dean Oliver, told me that he'd found teams with "quants" integrated into their decision process had won about 60% of their games.

David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal has checked on all 30 teams. First he found out if they have a full-time analyst, then he measured their records. He researched a slightly different question, but his findings were essentially the same as Oliver's:

According to interviews with every team, The Wall Street Journal found that half the league's teams this season have at least one of these statisticians who helps make in-game, draft-day and trade-deadline decisions. Many of these teams are among the NBA's best. The list accounts for all six division leaders, including the Orlando Magic and Dallas Mavericks, who have a data analyst traveling with the team. These 15 teams that have invested heavily in statistics have combined to win 59.3% of their games this season. The 15 teams without such analysts have won 40.7% of their games, and only three -- the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks -- are on pace to make the postseason.

Biderman then quotes Minnesota GM David Kahn pointing out that analysts, of course, couldn't do it alone, and if you took LeBron James off the Cavaliers they wouldn't win much.

Of course!

There are a ton of things NBA teams all have to have. Stadiums, money and tall athletic people top the list.

Just like when you're driving to work, you need a car, gas and roads.

However, that doesn't mean you don't value a new shortcut on your drive. If someone teaches you about some side road that avoids traffic, or a nice little back alley that saves a few minutes ... that makes a difference.

In the big picture, you're still driving to work, like everybody else. If you get a flat tire, you get a flat tire, and you're going to be late. But most days, some extra knowledge sure can help you get to work a little more efficiently.

The same picture is evolving in managing an NBA team. Some may say it's not worth worrying about all the particulars of analysis. But there's a strong case to made blowing off that kind of thing could leave you behind.

The discrepancy is big: A 59 -41 difference in winning percentages. In hoops, 59-41 is an old-fashioned blowout.

• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Based on the precedent set only a week ago, Dorell Wright likely will miss at least the next two games with the Heat. That’s the punishment the Timberwolves gave to center Al Jefferson after his recent DUI arrest. There is no issue with Wright being out at 3:30 a.m. If you got out of work after 11 p.m., there is a chance you would at least be up that late, especially with the next day off. Thursday essentially was a weekend day for the Heat, with no practice scheduled. But DUI is not a team matter, it’s a community concern. ... Just three weeks ago, Pat Riley saw enough in Wright that he persuaded owner Micky Arison at the trading deadline to forgo a potential $7 million in luxury-tax savings to retain the sixth-year forward, an impending free agent, for the balance of the season. Since then, the payoff has been limited. There is not a single unimportant day the balance of this season for the Heat. It would be nice if everyone got that message."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "After the Wizards lost their fifth game in a row to the Atlanta Hawks, the question that had to be asked had nothing to do with the performances of Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, or how they were going to stay energized playing three games in three consecutive nights. No, Mike Miller had to explain his thoughts now that Gilbert Arenas's desire to abandon No. 0 - and all of the Agent Zeroisms that came with it - to switch the No. 6 currently in Miller's possession. As expected, Miller had no problem with it. 'He gave me a call, asked me about it. I gave him the go-ahead,' Miller said. 'If he wants No. 6, he can have it.' When asked what number he'll wear if he and Arenas are teammates in Washington next season, Miller said he would probably go with his familiar No. 33, which became available when the Wizards traded Brendan Haywood to Dallas last month. Miller will be a free agent next season, so he added that he'll make the switch 'if I have the opportunity. We just got to play it out and see how it happens.' "
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "After the game the Hawks were pumping up the Wizards as tougher than they seem because they had been competitive in losses lately. 'We’ll take it,' Horford said. 'They’ve been struggling but I’ve seen them play close games against good teams. We weren’t taking anything for granted.' I understand the Hawks taking a victory any way they can get it against whichever opponent, especially after what happened at Miami and New York. And I know all heck would have broke loose with a loss so give the Hawks credit for surviving. But come on, man. It’s getting a little late for that 'all teams are tough, sometimes you have nights like this' stuff. The Hawks got outworked for most of the game by a team headed for the lottery. They let a bad offensive team have an easy time scoring for long stretches and let a so-so rebounding team dominate them on the boards. ... I keep coming back to Washington’s 49.4 percent shooting and 42-29 advantage on the boards. I can’t stop thinking about how listless the Hawks looked most of the night when they were supposed to be desperate. It’s like they think they are much better than they are despite plenty of evidence they aren’t as good as they can be. And I don’t care how many close games the Wizards have been playing. They are headed to the lottery and after that trade have maybe three guys who could get major burn for the Hawks."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: "Better keep Derrick Rose away from Dwight Howard. Howard was, and still is, hazardous to Rose's health. The Chicago Bulls point guard hurt his left wrist Thursday night after he drove into the lane, collided in midair with the Orlando Magic center and crashed to the Amway Arena court in a loud thud. Rose sat out the final three quarters of the 111-82 Magic victory. Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said that Rose has a sprained wrist and will have an MRI exam today. ... Thursday's sequence looked almost identical to the collision between Rose and Howard on Feb. 10 in Chicago in which Rose also went up for a shot, bumped into a jumping Howard and fell to the court. That impact left Rose with a bruised right hip and kept him out of the game's final 45 minutes as the Magic cruised to an easy victory."
• John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard wasn't exactly remorseful after knocking out Bulls point guard Derrick Rose again with a hard foul. After knocking Rose to the court and out of the game for the second time in about a month - Rose suffered a bruised right hip after a fall on Feb. 10 -- Howard was asked about Thursday's hit in the Magic's 111-82 victory. 'He went up and he fell,' he said. 'That's all I remember.' In fact, Howard even sort of blamed Rose for both falls. 'As a big man you never try to hurt anybody coming down the lane,' Howard said. 'Me and Derrick are cool. I think he's a great player, a great person. You never want to see him get hurt. I talked to him during the All-Star break and I told him, 'If you come down the lane, always come on two feet. That way you'll be on balance. If you come off one, all it takes is somebody's body to hit you the wrong way and you're gonna fall.' ... Magic coach Stan Van Gundy took the defense of his center a bit farther: 'You know, the thing on that play, looking at it, I don't even think Dwight fouled him. I think Rose fouled Dwight. He pushed off. But regardless, Derrick goes in there with such unbelievable force that it was the same [as last month]. He's going full speed and he's hitting basically an immovable object and he lands tough. I feel really bad. I hope he's not hurt badly.' "
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: "Jerry Stackhouse worked out for the Milwaukee Bucks coaches in Houston in mid-January, when the team was floundering at the end of a long western road swing. The Bucks liked what they saw in the 35-year-old Stackhouse, even though he had been home in Atlanta since the start of the season and had tried to stay in shape by working out with a local high school team. The match became a perfect union, with Stackhouse providing some needed offense off the bench and a veteran presence in the Bucks' locker room. 'We were already on a bit of an uptick with the way we were playing,' Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. 'All of a sudden we add him, a veteran with toughness. Then here comes John (Salmons). Things have fallen into place a little bit for us. During that period, it was very important. At that time, we didn't know we were getting John. We felt like we really needed to get better at that point.' "
• Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: "But there is clearly much more to Toronto's poor play than a rusty return by Chris Bosh and the comatose Hedo Turkoglu. And certainly, at the very least, there is this: Jay Triano is employing a flabby rotation that continues to tolerate repeated lapses from unfocused players who would be, under a less sympathetic coach, riding the pine. 'You've got to take away some of the freedom around here, what guys have,' said Antoine Wright, offering the coaching staff some unsolicited advice. '(The players') leash is not going to be as loose as it's been. If you're not doing what (the team) needs you to do, you're going to have to come out of the game. That's the only way to address (the situation) right now at this point in the season.' Wright's agenda has been no secret from the beginning of training camp, when he began lobbying for the spot in the starting lineup still occupied by rookie DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan has long been underperforming on defence, where he is known for a wandering attention to detail. (Go figure that he was the only Raptor to play all 12 minutes of Wednesday's disastrous third quarter, wherein the Kings shot an astounding 75 per cent from the field and outscored Toronto by a season-high spread 43-23.) So as shameless as his campaigning has been, inserting Wright into the first five is perhaps the simplest way to jostle the Raptors out of their current slumber."
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: "There can be no debate on the impact of the trade, which is looking more and more like the biggest heist since Pau Gasol (although Washington got exactly what it wanted out of the deal, too, which was financial relief to expedite the rebuilding). This week, we're going to pay homage to the less celebrated member of the threesome that came from the Wizards: DeShawn Stevenson. If you were watching the Minnesota game Monday, you saw Stevenson get punched by Wolves thin man Ryan Hollins. Stevenson did not take it well. He confronted Hollins and looked like he was ready to rumble. He had to be restrained by coaches and teammates. That's great stuff. A throwback to Jerry Stackhouse, the kind of player the Mavericks have been missing since ... OK, since Jerry Stackhouse. Great teams need a rabble rouser. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad guy, either. Stack was one of the good guys. So is Stevenson. But both of them were just a little bit flaky, which served their teams very, very well."
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "Every team other than the expansion Charlotte Bobcats has enjoyed at least one winning season over the last nine years and Larry Brown's team is on pace to finish at .500 with 41 wins. During that period, the Knicks have had Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkens, Herb Williams, Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas and Mike D'Antoni as coaches. They've had three general managers (Scott Layden, Thomas and Donnie Walsh) and too many underachieving players with bloated contracts to count. Perhaps that's why Mike D'Antoni chuckled when a reporter asked him if there are signs that the club is turning the corner. 'I can tell you July 1,' D'Antoni said, alluding to the start of the free agency. 'Right now, we're just trying to develop some young guys and be competitive. We have an interesting time ahead of us.' The Knicks (22-42) have the resources in terms of salary cap space to make a dramatic turnaround next season. They have the ability to sign two 'max' free agents, with LeBron James their obvious target. There is a growing sentiment among opposing team executives that at the very least the Knicks will sign Atlanta's Joe Johnson, whose agent, Arn Tellem, orchestrated the Tracy McGrady trade to the Knicks and has been friends with Walsh for 20 years. It's called a 'wink-wink deal,' and even though it is against NBA rules, the practice does exist and is nearly impossible to police. 'I think that's a done deal,' said one Eastern Conference GM."
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "Arron Augustin Afflalo was picked up in an offseason trade to provide a boost at the defensive end, is arguably Denver's hardest worker. The dividends have him hoisting 3s for one of the best teams in the West. Entering tonight's game at New Orleans, the Nuggets' starting shooting guard is making 45.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc -- third best among players with 50 or more treys -- and averaging 9.0 points per game, nearly double his total last year, when he was buried on the Pistons' bench. Not bad, considering few Nuggets thought he was starting material when Denver signed him. 'I don't think anybody did,' Carmelo Anthony said. Originally, Denver signed Triple-A for insurance. The thinking was Anthony Carter would start in the backcourt alongside Billups, and over time J.R. Smith would graduate to the starting role and Afflalo would spot in off the bench when needed. But Afflalo grabbed hold of the shooting guard spot in training camp and never let go."
• Mike Baldwin of The Oklahoman: "The whispers started when the Thunder got off to a 3-29 start last season. Could they challenge the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers for the worst record in NBA history? A year later, the same question hangs over the New Jersey Nets, Oklahoma City’s opponent tonight. Jeff Green feels their pain. 'I know how they feel,' Green said. 'I talked to Devin Harris the last time we played them. It’s hard. I told him I’ve been through it and the only thing you can do is keep working.' ... 'It’s no fun to go through a year like that,' Thunder forward Nick Collison said. 'It’s not our job to be concerned why or why they aren’t winning. That’s part of the business. I’ve been there.' "
• Chris Iott of Booth Newspapers: "Statistics can be funny things. For example, take the numbers put up Wednesday night by Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva. He had 19 points to lead all scorers in a 115-104 loss to the Utah Jazz, but the Pistons were outscored by 23 points when Villanueva was on the court. That minus-23 was the worst plus-minus for any player in the game. Jonas Jerebko had the top plus-minus for the Pistons with a plus-16. Villanueva has the team's worst cumulative plus-minus rating for the season: The Pistons have been outscored by 242 points when he is on the court. For a comparison, Ben Wallace, thought by many to be the top defensive player for the Pistons, has the best plus-minus on the team with a minus-30. Plus-minus is an imperfect statistic. When comparing players on the same team, it can be skewed by player combinations. In other words, a poor defensive player can drag down the plus-minus of the teammates he plays with regularly in the rotation. But the statistic still is worth something, Pistons coach John Kuester said. 'It can tell part of the story,' he said. 'There's no question about it.' "
• Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: "Mario Elie verbally spars with Donté Greene and needles Jason Thompson. When running a team in scrimmages, Elie coaches as if the season depends on every call. Elie is also still learning when to get on a player and when to hold back, something he didn't have to do as player. 'Sometimes I give it to them a little harder, and I've got to learn to give it to them smoother,' Elie said. 'It's just my passion for the game. I sort of come off a little tough sometimes, but at the end I love the guys and I just want them to be good.' Perhaps no King knows this better than Greene. The second-year forward instantly became one of Elie's targets for improvement. Elie challenged Greene to earn his playing time by playing good defense. And Elie had no problem getting in Greene's ear about his game. 'Mario likes to talk trash,' Greene said. 'Me being the competitor that I am, I talk trash and try to get back at him. It might get to the point where we stop talking the whole workout.' Greene isn't the first player to benefit from Elie's blunt approach. In his second season as a Warriors assistant coach, Elie began working with rookie Monta Ellis, who entered the league straight from high school. 'We used to play shooting games after practice, and he used to beat me,' Ellis said. 'He was showing me the ropes -- the ins, the outs, the cons, the pros. He told me I was going to be great in this league, and he wasn't going to rest until I was. Even now to this day, he tells me to keep my head up and continue to do the things I was doing my rookie year.' "

Inspired by one thing he read on TrueHoop, and another thing he read on Hardwood Paroxysm, Brian Tung has proposed a clever new statistic. He explains on his blog the Null Hypodermic:

The statistic I'm proposing is, what is the expected points scored on this possession when a player starts his usage, and what is the expected points scored on the possession when he ends it? The difference between those two is a measure of his offensive value for that usage.

Example: Chris Paul dribbles the ball up court, with everybody already set in a halfcourt stance. In this scenario, the Hornets score, let's say, 0.8 points per possession on average. (Lower than their typical points per possession because all the high-value transition points are eliminated.) He dribbles around, and locates David West open underneath the basket, and gets the ball to him, whereupon the Hornets expected scoring at this juncture is 1.5 points. (Not exactly 2.0 because maybe he geeks the dunk, gets fouled, or whatever.)

Let's suppose West actually does score the basket. The ledger for this possession is as follows:

• Initial expected scoring: 0.8
• Increment by Chris Paul: +0.7
• Increment by David West: +0.5
• Actual score: 2.0

Maybe what he's talking about is a little hard to envision. Picture a basketball video game where the ball changes color when it's very likely to become points. So, if it gets close to the rim on the fast break, it might get really red, or hot. On the other hand, if the ball-handler is double-teamed in the corner, maybe it would be blue, or cold. If a great shooter catches the ball in rhythm for a corner 3, it'd be red hot.

Basically, players would be rewarded for taking a cold ball situation, and making it hot.

In general, it would be very very tough to accurately hand out credit for the many different things players do.
For instance, if I'm Chauncey Billups, and overhear the other team plans to defend our first option a certain way, I might call an audible and do something totally different. In reality, I've done something potentially brilliant. But if a teammate doesn't understand what was happening, and screws up the play, all you'd see, most likely, was me dribbling around a lot. Which would not help my team.

That's a minor quibble, though. More to the point, the smart kids are learning more and more every day how to quantify what matters in hoops. As they learn, this strikes me as a smart framework to organize new knowledge. Instead of putting valuable new numbers into spreadsheets or lists, put them into a play.

As Tung explains near the end of this post, this framework can also lends itself to a new way to value certain crunch time plays. Shots that seem really big to fans -- a 3 to win Game 7 -- look like any old points in most systems. But here, they can be seen as momentous.

Most NBA teams sell themselves to fans as a good night out.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, on the other hand, are selling themselves as a good upcoming half-decade or so. They aren't making any promises about tonight. Consider, for instance, some recent Minnesota Timberwolves sales materials.

New basketball boss, new coaches, new players, new hope. And just when you thought the season was winding down we’re really cranking things up: A 2010 draft with two -- or possibly even three -- first-round draft picks, and massive cap room for this summer’s free-agency market.

Combine that with being one year closer to Ricky Rubio and maybe signing European big man Nikola Pekovic, and you have a recipe for another exciting offseason.

Nikola Pekovic, currently playing for Panathinaikos, is part of the sales pitch -- and yet not one current Timberwolf is. Could it be any clearer that this team is positioning itself for the long term?

That kind of thinking has been evident in the coaching, too. In recent days, the team has had private trainer Idan Ravin in to run some special sessions in addition to regular practices and shootarounds. It is yet another break from the norm.

Ravin is the focus of a whole chapter of Chris Ballard's The Art of a Beautiful Game, in which Carmelo Anthony explains why he calls the trainer Crouton: "Because his name rhymes with crouton, and he's a lot cooler than a regular cracker."

Ravin -- who has a reputation both for challenging, and connecting with, players -- took some questions on the phone on Thursday, and says he hopes to inspire the young Timberwolves.

Word from the players has been that the workouts these last few days have been tough!

Hopefully, if this has been hard for players, that's a good thing. It's good to break out of your routine. That keeps you from losing sight of the fact that it's not about this season. It's good to get excited about change. People only see the losing, but there's a lot more going on here.

I think it is important to see the lessons in losing. That's foresight. That's smart. For a lot of players this may not be going as planned. But if you can see the silver lining in the cloud ... there's a lesson to learn from everything.

I'm here to socialize you to a different mindset. There's so much growth that's possible over time with consistency of effort. It's seven months until next season. There's a lot you can do.

Is it uncommon to bring someone in like you at this time of year?

I've done it with several teams. My schedule didn't allow me to make it here earlier. But there are some very good guys here, and it has been really good.

In today's newspaper, there's an article about Kevin Love being frustrated. One of the things that came up is the fact that he was asked to guard Carmelo Anthony one-on-one for a bit last night, which nobody thought was optimal. Is that the kind of challenge you propose for players?

I think it's important to give players new opportunities. You're more versatile than you think. You have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

That's incredibly important.

I don't think you can ever grow when your whole world is laid out so that at 11am you do this, 11:16 you do that ... too much ritual can kill you. That routine gets old fast. You can say you want to get up at this time, or shoot at that time, but you better mix up what you're doing every week.

So, are you wearing out these players?

Are they working extra hard? No. They're doing new stuff. New things. If they're fatigued, I suspect it's more mental than physical. But the sessions are maybe 30 - 45 minutes, two hours before practice. Or a little bit in the evening. You can still play with a lot of effort. These are 21-year-olds, in a world where AAU teams play six games in two days. They might practice for an hour and 15 minutes, and then they get the rest of the day to be off their feet. These are not 12 hours in the gym. This is not China.

And learning new things can be exciting. It's like if I came into your office and taught you how to write with your toes, and you were good at it! You'd say you didn't know that was possible! We have to feel challenged, to keep growing.

How's the team?

There's some good promise there. Al Jefferson ... wow. He's got a lot of upside, let's put it that way. He's a 20 and 10 guy pretty much just using jump hooks. Have you seen him shoot with two hands? Jump-shots? And he could get to the line a lot more. He has just scratched the surface. We worked on free throws the other day, and then he had a 36 and 16 game. Afterwards, he said "Idan, that free throw stuff was great." The guy's going to be a killer.

Jonny Flynn is just getting started with what he can do. Corey Brewer, Kevin Love ... they've all just scratched the surface.

And Darko Milicic -- he's way more talented than anyone ever gave him credit for. He has been beat up in his first six years in the NBA. I wish I could sneak you into the gym so you could see what he can do. He really is seven-feet-plus. He's really bouncy. He's really running. You can see why it was a debate who should be first, second or third in that draft.

And you're a Carmelo guy!

Carmelo's my guy. But Darko's ta-len-ted. They're doing something smart here by welcoming him openly, and making him feel a part of what's happening. He's a good kid. There's nothing bad about him. What's the point of all the yelling and screaming and cursing and insulting that he has endured? Once you have lost your dignity and self respect, it's hard to be professional. Now he's somewhere where they are acting like they're happy to see him, and it's awesome.

It's good for people to be challenged. Kids get excited when they realize there's a lot still to be done.

This is just the beginning.

Spike Lee is almost defined by his love of the Knicks. He wrote a book about it, in fact, and essentially represents "the Knicks" in a story about that team's greatest rivalry of the last twenty years.

But he's from Brooklyn.

So what is the world like for him in a world with an NBA team based in Brooklyn? Is it really even possible the Knicks' best-known fan would ditch the Knicks?

It'll be interesting to see how the award-winning director plays it.

Curbed.com is doing a nice and slightly PG-13 job of liveblogging the Barclays Center groundbreaking in Brooklyn. Blogger Joey notes that the lobster roll sliders being served at the ceremony are very nice, that Mayor Bloomberg may or may not have taken a brief nap in his chair, that David Stern is reportedly a no-show and that ... there's a nice seat reserved at the press conference for Spike Lee.