- Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times to fans of Kobe Bryant: "When are you finally going to get it? When are you Lakers fans finally going to realize that Kobe Bryant doesn't like you nearly as much as you like him? When are you going to get it into your painfully loyal souls that Bryant has taken everything you believe about him, casually wadded it up and tossed it on the floor as he heads out of town? You're not his soul mate, you're his sweat towel."
- Pack your bags for the draft: whoever Portland picks first overall will be whisked onto a plane later that night and showcased at a noon rally in downtown Portland the next day. Also, if you're wondering what a media mob scene around Greg Oden at the Portland airport looks like, here's a preview. Oden, for his part, admits to being groggy through the airport meet and greet thanks to an in-flight dose of Nyquil.
- Some pretty basic statistical analysis, expressed on a cool graph that shows some trends among NBA players. Interesting to see those few players who are all alone on the graph. Look at Jason Kidd! Look at Kevin Garnett! Look at Ben Wallace, and Kobe Bryant. I have a feeling that the 3.0 version of this could be really cool.
- Admit it, we love to compare new NBA players to old ones. Here's an attempt at comparing many of this season's top picks to established stars. (For instance, Greg Oden = Alonzo Mourning and Aaron Afflalo = Raja Bell.) Everyone wrestles with Kevin Durant, though. Dirk Nowitzki is one popular choice (a rare and appreciated instance of people thinking past racial barriers for these comparisons) but Kevin Garnett gets some votes too. To me, Durant's kind of like both but really like neither.
- Former NBA player Byron Houston is in trouble with the law. It's not pretty.
- John Jackson in the Chicago Sun-Times: "Had Minnesota management been willing to pull the trigger on a Garnett deal before the NBA trade deadline back in February -- when it should have shopped the perennial All-Star -- Bulls GM John Paxson likely would've put together an attractive offer that included Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, P.J. Brown (for salary-cap purposes) and what proved to be the ninth pick in next week's draft. Instead, Minnesota stubbornly held on to Garnett and foolishly gambled that firing coach Dwane Casey would spark a late playoff push. That proved to be yet another bad decision during McHale's decade of running the franchise. Garnett's value on the trade market has dropped considerably because he has the right to opt out of his contract after next season and become a free agent. No smart GM is going to pay a premium for a player he may lose for nothing in a year."
- Geoff Petrie says Larry Brown would not have been a good fit in Sacramento, telling the Sacramento Bee's Ailine Voisin: "Obviously he has a great record over time," Petrie said Tuesday night, "but I don't think it was the right time or the right place. He wasn't the right fit. When you start looking at all the factors ... we can't afford to have the depth of the situation that developed in Detroit or New York. We can't risk that. We decided to go with a younger coach."
- Daequan Cook suggests he had issues with his college coach, Ohio State's Thad Matta.
- Judges praise the reporting of the New York Post's Marc Berman while dismissing Latrell Sprewell's libel case against him. It was all about that incident when Sprewell hurt his hand on his boat and may or may not have withheld the the truth about how it happened.
- Even Mark Cuban's nostrils can anger people.
- I'm a little late to this, but here's ESPN Insider Chad Ford on Greg Oden's health: "According to a league source who has read the report, the concern was over the flexibility of the wrist. Apparently Oden still doesn't have a full range of motion. Oden also had a bulging disc in his back. The source I spoke with said that the back issue was probably minor, and the wrist problem created a bigger concern. I spoke with Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard about the injury on my podcast on Tuesday. You can click here to listen to his answer, along with his take on the Oden-Durant debate. While Pritchard plays the medical issues off as minor, they could sway the team in Durant's direction. To pass on Oden, the Blazers would need a reason. The NBA's medical staff might have given them one."
- Is this the year NBA draft junkies finally get to hear David Stern call Tiago Splitter's name?
- Brian McCormick shows you how to handle the rock.
- John Hollinger, writing for the New York Sun, is ready to fix the NBA's dismal ratings.
- Celebrating Spurs, on video.
- Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog: "Make no mistake, [Javaris] Crittenton is a point guard, but is utterly incapable of feeding his scorers. Anyone who followed Tech this season chewed their limbs while watching Crittenton, time and time again, miss Thad Young on a cut, or blow off an easy entry pass into the post in favor of an ill-advised drive, or pound a hole in Cremins Court the size of Stone Mountain dribbling away a possession looking for...what exactly? Something better than Young on the wing against a guy inordinately slower and smaller than him? Crittenton's decision-making instincts are appalling, demonstrated painfully by the Vegas game, and his 5.9/APG vs. 3.1/TPG number. Crittenton partisans will tell you that, at 6' 5", his size is ideal for an NBA point guard. The problem is that his shot isn't good enough to make a shorter defender pay, and he'd rather dribble into the trees than post up a defender. He racks up a lo
t of steals, but is a shameless gambler who doesn't always choose his spots judiciously, and doesn't know when to give up on a smaller, quicker guard and let the back of the zone take care of it."
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TRUEHOOP CONTRIBUTORS
Henry AbbottTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
J.A. AdandeTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Kevin ArnovitzTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris BroussardTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chad FordTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
John HollingerTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris SheridanTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Marc SteinTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
