By Henry Abbott
- Tim Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell: "Life in San Antonio is fairly meaningless if it’s not lived in the winner’s circle. You don’t go neck deep into tax to finish a notch below. So either the Spurs need to dramatically improve their play, or the team’s button pushers will have to make a sharp, decisive move to correct the problem. It’s probably never been true before, but it is now. The Spurs’ future is on the line, at least the Spurs as we’ve known them for the last decade."
- Derrick Rose wants to reassure you that he is not blowing all his money on jewelry. “I’m cheap,” Rose tells GQ's Sarah Goldstein. "I only got like two earrings."
- Yet another article fretting over the bad things that can happen to players playing for their national teams. I'm not on board. My thought is that players are born with a certain allegiance to their nation. Maybe even a sense of service. That's there, period. It exists in the hearts of many players. Then, they get a job where they're paid to play several months a year. And, by the way, they're worth a ton of money to some team owner or fans. And all of a sudden they're being selfish if they use the time of the year when they're not paid to be in the NBA, to do what they were always going to do anyway? I fail to see the crisis here. They're basketball players. A lot of them want to play basketball. Sometimes they get hurt playing for their national teams, and it messes with their NBA obligations. Sometimes they get hurt playing in the NBA, and it messes with their national team obligations. C'est la vie. But don't tell me there's something terrible about a system where players play in the NBA from October to June, and for their national team a little in between. It's cool.
- Handicapping the World Championship contenders. By the way, this is a bigger and more important competition than the Olympics, at least in most of the world.
- Rahat Huq of Red94 on Tracy McGrady's debut, which included two new things, one good and one bad: "The first thing that stood out was the defensive effort. I can’t remember the last time I saw Tracy fully extend and contest every shot put up by his opponent. Naturally, he wanted to make a good impression in his debut. ... McGrady was not even in the play in any of the Rockets’ numerous fast break sequences in the 1st quarter. While he tried, he simply couldn’t keep up with his teammates."
- John Hollinger suggests (Insider) Blake Griffin may have already lost the Rookie of the Year award: "At best, he'll play about 50 games for the Clippers, and he'll probably play only 25-30 minutes a game given the depth of the Clippers' frontcourt. That would leave him with, at most, 1,500 minutes played on the season, which is likely to cost him the award no matter how well he plays. No rookie has ever won the award with fewer than 1,760 minutes, and no one has won while playing fewer than 50 games."
- Did you know there are whole websites about farts? Of course there are, I guess. Anyway, this one features video of LeBron James on the bench. Who knows if it's what it seems to be, but it sure looks like it.
- Just in time for Christmas, here's Paul Shirley's list of classic books that are not hard to read. (Stephen Curry says he has some downtime on the road ...)
- Following up a post yesterday, Hornets247 has video of Chris Paul doing a lot of dribbling. The thing you'll really notice is that knowing the offense is all about Paul makes things much easier for the Maverick defenders, who get good results from having all five guys watch him.
- Laker trainer Gary Vitti talks about his role as the go-between between the players and management. Tough gig.
- John Krolik of Cavs the Blog on Devin Harris' hard foul on Jamario Moon: "I’d just like to comment on Shaq and LeBron immediately rushing to Moon’s defense. Can you imagine being Devin Harris in that situation? That’s about 600 pounds of angry human being in your face right there."
- Devin Harris has not been his old self. Mark Ginocchio of Nets are Scorching investigates: "In reality, it’s Devin’s shooting that is most concerning and is the likely root of his regression. For a small point guard with durability issues, Harris has always been a fantastic finisher at the rim, shooting 56 percent on shots at the rim last season, and 60 percent the year before -- spectacular numbers for a point guard. This season, he’s shooting 50 percent at the rim, while his free throw rate remains on par from the season before, and higher than it was in Dallas. So he’s attacking the basket with the same veracity, but on plays when he doesn’t get fouled, he’s not finishing as much."
- Progress in the Nets' march to Brooklyn.
- Shane Battier, Steve Blake, Pau Gasol, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger and Kevin Love are on a team together, coached by George Karl.
- Would you take your 3-year-old to an NBA game?
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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