- Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe is away from the team to be with his ailing mother. In the meantime, the team is being coached by assistant John Loyer, who held the clipboard in last night's loss to the Heat. "We’ve been through the ups and downs with him and we’re comfortable with John," says Devin Harris in Ben Couch's article on the Nets' official website. "We know what he’s capable of. We liked the offensive sets he put in. He gave us a (good) movement. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but like I said, we’re comfortable moving forward with him if that’s the case." Just for a second, after I read that, I wondered: Holy cow, does Devin Harris know something we don't? Has Kiki Vandeweghe coached his last game? Doesn't it sound like Loyer might be there for the long haul? Rest assured, that was apparently just my own panicky read. The Nets say there's nothing to it -- and that Harris was vague only because nobody is exactly sure which day Vandweghe will be back -- but it will be soon.
- In First Cup, there's a reference to a Jay-Z lyric about Young Jeezy paying "LeBron" and Jay-Z paying "Wade." People get upset that this may be some kind of free agent wooing going on. Worth noting that the most popular interpretation of those lyrics (for instance, on this message board, but also countless other places) is that they have nothing to do with the players themselves. "LeBron" is a stand-in for his uniform number, 23. Likewise "Wade" means the number 3, and in an earlier Jeezy song, the word "Kobe" clearly also means 24. In context, it's a line about how much a rapper might pay for something. What exactly? Brace yourself for some PG-13 language, but reading the lyrics of those two songs and you'll find clear references to the life of a drug dealer. UPDATE: It could not be clearer than it is here.
- The Washington Post's Carlo Rotella recently wrote a great story about the D-League. In a follow-up conversation, he had all kinds of interesting things to say, including: "I was a little surprised to find how unanimous the players were -- at least the ones I talked to -- about their high school coaches as the ones who had the most influence on their game. Most didn't see college as the place where their game developed the most. The story they tended to tell was that their high school coach taught them the basics and then playing pro taught them the pro game, often abroad and often the hard way." Keep that in mind in the discussion of who should, and should not, declare for the NBA draft.
- Kevin Arnovitz has created a short list of candidates to be the Clippers' next head coach, but it's a good starting point for any NBA openings that might arise.
- A video investigation of how Rick Carlisle altered Dirk Nowitzki's offensive approach when Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics took away Plan A.
- Jeremy of Roundball Mining Company, a Nuggets blog: "The Bucks came into Denver a night after winning a double overtime game in Sacramento on the dreaded late game in the Pacific time zone one night, trip to Denver to play the next. The level of difficulty was increased even more as their best player, Andrew Bogut their most important player on both ends of the floor, only played 15 minutes because of foul trouble. The Bucks did not seem to care one iota. It did not matter who was in the game, the rotations were perfect, the offense was seamless and the effort was relentless. I kept waiting for the Bucks to tire and slow down, but they never did. They absolutely deserved to win that game, and I was amazed by the quality of their play. Honestly, I was a little jealous." The Bucks are 15-2 since the trade deadline, and some Celtic fans are starting to think it might be worth avoiding Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs.
- In a poll asking who is most important to the future of the Blazer franchise, embattled GM Kevin Pritchard is, at the moment, beating out owner Paul Allen and star Brandon Roy. If it's true that he's getting heat from above for taking too much public credit for the team's success, this poll is the kind of thing that I could imagine hurting Pritchard's chances of staying. Does Paul Allen really want to come in second here? Does any other opinion matter? Must-read deep thoughts about the state of the Blazers.
- The Spurs did an amazing job of keeping the ball out of Kevin Durant's hands on a key possession. Here's how they did it.
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 |
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