By Henry Abbott
- Tim Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell: "When the Spurs inaugurated their summer of spending, a popular justification was the need to provide Tim Duncan with more help. His window–which is the Spurs’ window– of opportunity to win another championship was closing. The team needed fresh horses. But through 18 games, those horses have come up lame. Rather than getting a lift from the supporting cast, Tim Duncan is playing with MVP-efficiency and barely keeping the Spurs at a half-respectable .500. If the Spurs recover from their start of sputter and stall, Tim Duncan ought to be placed at the center of the MVP conversation. He’s threatening a career season, at least in terms of efficiency. And it’s all lost on a 9-9 start. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that no one else is playing well. Matt Bonner is a having a career year; DeJuan Blair is occasionally sensational. Tony Parker is not dominating, but playing competent basketball. I get all that, and I could further qualify. It’s just that the supporting cast taken as a whole is providing more drag than momentum-gathering boost. Tim Duncan is all dragster, and the team is mostly parachute."
- A stats-driven list of the biggest playoff upsets of all time.
- The Hornets have the potential to get a lot faster. Chip Douglas of Hornets247: "Bower’s got two young thoroughbred rookies, Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison, whose main attributes (speed, athleticism and finishing around the bucket) lend themselves to a fast-paced game. He’s got the best possible asset in a fast-paced offense he could have in Chris Paul."
- What is known about the thinking of Daryl Morey.
- Mark Cuban as professional wrestler. Guess the surgically replaced left hip is in good shape.
- The Joe Dumars quote that is now hanging on Will Bynum's agent's wall, from an interview with Keith Langlois on the Pistons' website: "I look at him as a game-changer and whenever you have a player like that, people are going to be interested. But let me be clear, sitting here right now, we have no notion of letting Will walk out of the door. We’ll re-sign him and he’ll be one of the core members here for a long time." (Via Piston Powered)
- Ron Artest, not shooting as much from the mid-range.
- Tales of the Cheesecake Factory.
- What was wrong with Nazr Mohammed in the past? Larry Brown says the problem was Larry Brown.
- The Cavaliers lose to the Grizzlies: "Down the stretch, the Cavs got more than a little bit predictable. LeBron scored the team’s final 13 points (only using 9 possessions, for a True Shooting% of 70%, and that includes the final 30-foot heave), but something has to happen to get more offensive balance, either with different guys initiating plays or guys focusing on getting open and hitting their shots rather than standing around and watching LeBron."
- Rob Mahoney on Hardwood Paroxysm: "It just feels right to live in a world where the Phoenix Suns are competitive again. They may be lacking in many respects, but to see Steve Nash lead this squad on break after break is a facet of the modern NBA that simply cannot be replaced. The unique combination of pure speed, versatility, and team coordination just can’t be rivaled, and though this year’s team may shine in a different hue than the models featuring Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, or Joe Johnson, I don’t think it makes them any less resonant. Mike D’Antoni may not have been a prophet, but he was certainly a philosopher. The trademark of D’Antoni’s Suns was always their mortality, and I think that legacy has lived on through this current team. The Seven Seconds or Less squads wear (or wore) their vulnerabilities on their sleeve, but their mortality comes as much from leading a particularly vulnerable existence as it does from finding exuberance in it. These teams, in all of their fast-breaking splendor and glory, know how to live. They know how to play a bit, too, but the defining legacy of the Mike D’Antoni era in Phoenix (which lives on today) should be the Suns’ artful display of basketball as life."
- Tyreke Evans for Rookie of the Year, in video. Outside the NBA: "This kid looks like a star right now. He scored 9 points in the last 2:02, getting to the basket at will and almost winning the game for the Kings by himself."
- I'm getting a lot of e-mails from people who have nice sympathy for me as a Blazer fan. What are they talking about? I'm getting e-mails from the team, too, and they couldn't be clearer that the team is having a lot of recent success. Some recent subject lines: "Greg Oden Undergoes Successful Surgery on Left Knee, Nate McMillan Undergoes Success Surgery on Achilles Tendon, Rudy Fernandez Undergoes Successful Procedure."
- Economist and "Mathletics" author Wayne Winston, on his blog: "Again we are so sorry to see Greg Oden suffer another season ending knee injury. The Blazers should be ok without him, however. The key to the Blazers success are the minutes with [Steve] Blake, [Andre] Miller and [Brandon] Roy on the court. Whether Oden is in or out the Blazers play 21 points better than average with these three guys in. The rest of the time the Blazers play only one point better than average." Worth pointing out, the Blazers started that lineup for a stretch of games when they played weak opponents, although Winston's numbers account for oppostion.
- On the New York Times Off the Dribble blog, Larry Coon talks about Kobe Bryant's amazing game-winner against Miami: "So what sort of training develops the skill needed to hit that kind of shot? While acknowledging that poise and experience had a lot to do with it, Bryant let us in on his true secret. Would you believe BMX biking? 'It sounds kind of weird, but as a kid growing up we used to ride our BMX bikes and take bets on stupid stuff, like who could take a rock and hit a telephone pole while riding past it,' he said. 'You gotta throw back a little bit, you know what I mean? That’s what I had to do, because I was falling left, so if I shot the ball straight it would have been way off. I had to shoot it back a little bit.'" Coon says Bryant lucked into that shot "in the same way that Picasso lucked into 'Guernica.'"
- A blogger put the latest Danny Granger news in his "season-murdering injuries" category.
- Next Tuesday marks the day that free agents signed over the summer can be traded.
- How getting older affects long-range shooting.
TRUEHOOP CONTRIBUTORS
Henry AbbottTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
J.A. AdandeTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Kevin ArnovitzTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris BroussardTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chad FordTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Israel GutierrezTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
John HollingerTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Beckley MasonTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Marc SteinTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
HoopIdeaTrueHoop @HoopIdea |
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