ARE we having FUN yet? - 2012-2013 NBA regular season thread (part 3)

8. Houston 29-26 .527 13 ½
Portland 25-28 .472 16 ½
LA Lakers 25-29 .463 17

LOL REGGIE

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/226168/TNT-Apologizes-For-Reggie-Millers-Bleacher-Report-Error

Miller also called the Memphis Grizzlies his darkhorse in the Eastern Conference, despite the fact that they play in the Western Conference.

love this shoehorned in at the end of that article.

tbf that's quite the darkhorse

Reggie! Please get fired

Poor Reggie, think it's tough for him to succeed at anything that doesn't involve drawing fouls on jump shots.

Sad thing is that he brought up one of the few interesting tidbits of the whole telecast: when LeBron goes right, he almost always drives it to the hole; when he goes left, he almost always shoots a (lower percentage) jump shot.

RIP, Jerry Buss:

http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2013/2/18/4000992/lakers-dr-jerry-buss-has-passed-away-cancer

http://spike.mtvnimages.com/images/import/blog//2/0/2/2/2022731/201005/1273598918328.jpg

RIP PLAYA

that was quick

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BDZnyB9CQAEjlGp.jpg:large

Compupost, michael Jordan is the one that brought up that lbj going left/right thing. In that outside the lines article/interview.

Poor Reggie, think it's tough for him to succeed at anything that doesn't involve drawing fouls on jump shots.

Sad thing is that he brought up one of the few interesting tidbits of the whole telecast: when LeBron goes right, he almost always drives it to the hole; when he goes left, he almost always shoots a (lower percentage) jump shot.

― Faried, Spirit Manimal (CompuPost), Monday, February 18, 2013 10:56 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the thing is, and i would have to see the data on this, but i feel like jordan's completely wrong about this. lebron takes it to the rim ALL THE TIME when he goes left

dan mccarney ‏@danmccarneysaen
Dating back to last year, Spurs have won 66 of their past 81 regular-season games.

i feel like jordan's completely wrong

somehow I doubt mj has been doing seriously intense film sessions on lbj to isolate his tendencies.

it could just as easily be mj is messing with bron's head.

i'm pretty sure that the hundreds of people in nba organizations tasked with scouting lebron james have tipped players off to his tendencies before a story on michael jordan

Last night, Lil Wayne told the crowd that he has been banned from all NBA events at the request of the Miami Heat. It’s hard to believe that this is actually true, but that didn’t stop him from telling the NBA and everyone associated with the Miami Heat to go get fucked. The coup de grâce came when Wayne loudly proclaimed that he has boned Chris Bosh’s wife

http://deadspin.com/5985104/lil-wayne-says-he-humped-chris-boshs-wife

banned from all NBA events??????

hahahahaha

man bosh is having a rough weekend

bosh is the best, in every facet

Yeah, bosh is top 3 or 5 wkiw in the NBA.

rip dr buss, tru playa for real

i love hating some lakers but it's gonna be sad how badly jim buss is gonna run them into the ground over the next decade

^^^

http://105.imagebam.com/download/OQdcaPHS6ygsCBAIX5lHBQ/22000/219998055/MSOURCES.jpg

this time of the year

oh, david

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
Minnesota has been aggressive in offering multiple first-round picks for established talent, league sources tell Y!

rip dr buss, i personally am v much looking forward to seeing the lakers run into the ground

they would presumably be in great shape if Jeanie was running the ship but for some reason Jerry went with goofball mcgillicutty

it'll be really interesting to see if they have to sell. I would lol if after all his failures this is the team Ellison finally gets.

theyd have to f things up p bad to kill the cash cow but its possible I guess

let's talk more about david kahn's continued desire to drown the t-wolves future in lake superior for the rare opportunity of getting swept in the first round by the spurs

the most interesting thing about David Kahn's tenure is how the fanbase just shrugs off his failures. It's like if Matt Millen just cruised along.

the wolves have had awful management from the start so they just dont know any different

wolves are currently 7.5 games out of 8th place with dallas, la lakers, portland, houston ahead of them in the battle for that spot. so even getting swept by the spurs is just an insane longshot unless they add lebron.

tho i hear MJ could still play in the league so maybe khan can get him for his 2015 and 2016 first rounders.

One time within the last couple of years, when the small-market owners were pushing hard for revenue sharing, Buss waited for everyone to make their case before weighing in. He mentioned how one owner had juggled multiple businesses over that time — making hundreds of millions beyond basketball — whereas Buss had thrown his life into running the Lakers. Now that owner wanted Buss to share his NBA profits with him? Buss maintained that he wasn’t against revenue sharing; if anything, he believed the idea made sense. But could they at least agree that, had the other owner devoted all of his time and resources to his team like Buss did, his franchise would be doing better? What if they struck a deal — all the full-time NBA owners shared their NBA profits, but only if the part-time NBA owners shared the profits from their other businesses with the full-time NBA owners?

The room fell silent. He had totally defanged the other owner — not to embarrass him, but to prove a point. If the league was gravitating toward revenue sharing, he just wanted to make sure it was for the right reasons, not because a handful of unsuccessful, part-time NBA owners were trying to game the system their way. And yes, Buss eventually agreed to revenue sharing. But he made everyone think about it, too.

that sort of feels like those With Merely A Single Sentence This Brave Marine To His Snooty Professor That God Exists And Evolution Is A Farce emails.

"thrown his life into running the lakers"

the wolves have had awful management from the start so they just dont know any different

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 4:27 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah man the fans hated mchale, and the regime before him. But now they have this weird Stockholm Syndrome goin' on

Jesus people give Minny a break, if they'd been healthy this whole season they'd be right there in the mix. Plus their books are a hell of a lot cleaner than most teams.

lol @ Mephisto line:

HOUSTON—While competing in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest Saturday, contestant Gerald Green reportedly incorporated characters, dialogue, and set design from 16th-century English playwright Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus into his elaborately choreographed dunk routine. “Lo, Mephistophilis, for love of thee/Faustus hath cut his arm, and with his proper blood/Assures his soul to be great Lucifer’s/ Chief lord and regent of perpetual night!” proclaimed the spotlighted and costumed Indiana Pacers small forward before catching a full-court lob from the demon Mephisto—played by devilishly attired teammate Lance Stephenson—and driving to the hole. “View here this blood that trickles from mine arm/ And let it be propitious for my wish.” Upon completing the 10-minute-long scene in which the Elizabethan drama’s titular character exchanges his soul for Satan’s corrupt bounty, Green dribbled between his legs, scrawled his name in Lucifer’s black book, and launched toward the hoop from the free-throw line, whereupon the basketball clanged off the rim, forcing the 2007 dunk contest winner and his fellow castmates to return to half court and start the intricate routine from the beginning.

Kahn has made just enough good moves that I can understand why an optimist would want to believe in him

have we not pointed out how hideous that Simmons article was

He's made a ton of lulzy moves; but, as their books stand right now, they're built really well. Rubio/Love locked in until '15/'16 (Rubio w/ insanely good contract) along w/ Williams, who played the best NBA bball of his life over the past month. Shved super-cheap 3-yr deal, Darko hitting FA at end of year, Andrei signing looking really smart right now, etc.

So much of it hangs on Williams' development. If he makes the jump to a 16/8 type guy next year, then Williams/Rubio/Love is a pretty solid core to have locked up and playing together for the next three seasons. Shame they don't have Pek for longer @ $4m/yr, which ends this year.

i dunno. they still have to pay pek after this season (or lose him), kirilenko will probably opt out after his deal as well. chase budinger is a FA after this season too. love is gonna opt out in 2 more years. derrick williams still can't shoot... really nobody on that team can shoot. shved is more a "nice player" in a second or third best player off the bench way... they have brandon roy on the books for $5 mill next year (unless they can void his contract).

i think in the end kahn has made a bunch of egregious errors in drafting and even his good moves can be read in a way that is unfavorable to the team as it stands now

kirilenko will prob opt out after this year*

fucking love over is easily one of the singles stupides things any GM has done in the nba in the last decade imo

id say khan has done fairly okay otherwise, though

i guess. i mean if this is the best he can do -- and it sort of seems like it is seeing as he's going for it all this year -- you're still looking at a team in the bottom half of the playoffs who'd have no better than a 50/50 shot of even getting into the second round with a disgruntled star who is almost certainly going to look to bolt the franchise in free agency.

lol @ Mephisto line:

HOUSTON—While competing in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest Saturday, contestant Gerald Green reportedly incorporated characters, dialogue, and set design from 16th-century English playwright Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus into his elaborately choreographed dunk routine. “Lo, Mephistophilis, for love of thee/Faustus hath cut his arm, and with his proper blood/Assures his soul to be great Lucifer’s/ Chief lord and regent of perpetual night!” proclaimed the spotlighted and costumed Indiana Pacers small forward before catching a full-court lob from the demon Mephisto—played by devilishly attired teammate Lance Stephenson—and driving to the hole. “View here this blood that trickles from mine arm/ And let it be propitious for my wish.” Upon completing the 10-minute-long scene in which the Elizabethan drama’s titular character exchanges his soul for Satan’s corrupt bounty, Green dribbled between his legs, scrawled his name in Lucifer’s black book, and launched toward the hoop from the free-throw line, whereupon the basketball clanged off the rim, forcing the 2007 dunk contest winner and his fellow castmates to return to half court and start the intricate routine from the beginning.
― Faried, Spirit Manimal (CompuPost), Tuesday, February 19, 2013 10:00 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i got yellowcarded for making a dr faustus reference a couple years ago :(

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/8962344/lebron-james-probably-better-athlete-michael-jordan-was-isiah-thomas-says

thomas looks like he's probably smarter than MJ or magic

In re: revenue sharing and the Magic Buss anecdote. Lots of sports team owners have used their teams as business loss generators to offset profits from their other enterprises. This trend drove a lot of sports league expansions in the 1970s.

not enough fun

http://i1.minus.com/iXeDOjo6cVtNl.jpg

the wolves have had awful management from the start so they just dont know any different

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 4:27 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah man the fans hated mchale, and the regime before him. But now they have this weird Stockholm Syndrome goin' on

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 12:20 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we had lots of good reasons to be mad at mchale and the previous regime, everyone here thinks kahn is an idiot and his personality plays HORRIBLY in minnesota

i'm just sort of in a hole, this team is cursed, i'm kinda like it doesn't even matter what we do.

Blather alert!

If Jordan and James, each in their primes, were given three months of expert coaching and then competed head to head in the decathalon, James would certainly win. This is how I interpret "best athlete".

otoh, I think Jordan's competitive nature was more on a Kobe-crazy or KG-crazy level and he had a better developed psychological game than Lebron. This is part of why MJ is so all-time at one-on-one. Lebron wants to win games and get rings. Jordan wanted to crush every last spark of life and hope out of his opponent. That was even more important to him than the rings, I think.

Kahn has made just enough good moves that I can understand why an optimist would want to believe in him

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 19 February 2013 15:09 (7 hours ago) Permalink

the only unquestionably good move he's made is Kirilenko.

Shved had like 3 weeks where he was good; he's been a very poor player this season.

the only unquestionably good move he's made is Kirilenko.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:33 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

well the rubio gamble paid off too. remember that people said when they picked him that he was never gonna come over and that minny was gonna have to trade him to the knicks or whatever. the impact of that pick has been mitigated by several factors (ricky tearing his ACL being a major one) but that was still one that worked out in their favor.

i mean even the AK47 thing, like... giving a player an option after year 1 is a really stupid move imo. if he plays well he's going to bolt and you're gonna have to pay him an over-market price or he's gonna bomb and take the option and you'll be stuck with him anyway. maybe that was the only way that he'd even sign in minnesota, but if he's priced himself out after one year there, it didn't do all that much for them.

Rubio was the obvious pick at the time. And he's at best the 3rd best PG from his draft (I would argue he's 4th best).

a lot of the "ricky's never coming over" stuff happened after they picked him. Before he got picked there was just one quote about Ricky saying minnesota is cold IIRC.

At this point Rubio looks like an ok move. From the standpoint of selling tickets and thus keeping the franchise from dying I guess it's a good move.

but even if you grant him rubio and kirilenko as good moves, it's still the worst run of basketball management since Ted Stepien.

worse than isiah??

isiah picked David Lee in the 20s

30th, actually

but even if you grant him rubio and kirilenko as good moves, it's still the worst run of basketball management since Ted Stepien.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:57 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'd say that this has to be untrue

the suns post-amare have been way worse, for instance

or the wizards from the mega-arenas contract to the present day

or yeah isiah

kahn hasn't done anything as bad as the combo of trading a top 10 pick for randy foye/mike miller + javale/blatche flourish with other teams + picking jan vesely, nick young and jordan crawford + trading for okafor/ariza

beasley's contract with the suns this offseason is many magnitudes worse than anything kahn did, including picking johnny flynn & wes johnson

dude, no. Wasting some free agent money on Michael Beasley is not worse than completely blowing a top 5 pick.

Beasley is getting 6m/yr for 3 years, it's not a catastrophe

that's probably true but my point is that with any college player, you're making a gamble. players bust, it happens. i'm not excusing it, but signing michael beasley to a long-term deal in 2013 is about as inexcusable a move as i can think of.

Kahn inherited pekovic, love, Al Jefferson and a top 6 pick and has turned it into pekovic, love, and ricky rubio. I can't think of an executive who has so thoroughly failed to acquire any kind of talent over such a tenure. You give some of these GMs the assets and salary freedom Kahn had and all of them would have done more with it. How could you NOT do more with it?

yeah, i mean you're right. i still think that the suns executives post-kerr, ernie grunfeld and certainly geoff petrie have been as bad if not worse. at least kahn has what can reasonably be described as a playoff contending team if it weren't for injuries.

petrie might actually be the worst. dude has acquired as much "talent" as anyone and still hasn't been able to sniff even a pick outside of the top 10

Petrie built the Kings up into a juggernaut in late 90s/early aughts though.

June 26, 1996: Selected Peja Stojakovic (1st round, 14th pick) and Jason Sasser (2nd round, 41st pick) in the 1996 NBA Draft.

May 14, 1998: Traded Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe to the Washington Wizards for Chris Webber.

January 22, 1999: Signed Vlade Divac as a free agent.

June 28, 2000: Selected Hedo Turkoglu (1st round, 16th pick) and Jabari Smith (2nd round, 45th pick) in the 2000 NBA Draft.

June 27, 2001: Traded Nick Anderson and Jason Williams to the Vancouver Grizzlies for Mike Bibby and Brent Price.

idg how you think a team that:

- has no albatross contracts / hasn't made a panic max offer to anyone
- has a young duo who could be Top 5 at two very important positions + scored w/ Pek (who they'll probably lose to FA, no fault of Kahn's) + rejuv'd Andrei + Shved (who is a 1st year NBA player and has played way above that)
- has a few more effective role players / developing dudes
- has a coach w/ a good track record

is some gargoyle monstrosity / Kahn is the worst person in sports. People hated the Pek signing (and it was only $13m/3yr!) and thought that the Rubio pick was way too risky (tons of totally legit speculation that Rubio was just gonna chill in Spain for like four more years). Dude had to base his 2011 draft on getting cash to buy out his coach. Not to mention that this is basically Kahn's first run at doing any of this stuff.

He's made a few smh FA signings (Darko esp) / draft picks (Flynn) / trades (nothing jaw-dropping). He's clearly not the best GM! But, he's also a much better GM than most people give him credit for. Like, if your team has no awful contracts + a few great players + good value guys, I think that kinda exempts you from worstdom.

Like, Paxton, Unseld, Baylor, Thomas ... there are soooooooo many worse GMs from the past 30 years than Kahn.

Ugh had the craziest dream where I spent 15 minutes defending David Kahn.

- has a young duo who could be Top 5 at two very important positions + scored w/ Pek (who they'll probably lose to FA, no fault of Kahn's) + rejuv'd Andrei + Shved (who is a 1st year NBA player and has played way above that)

Pek and Love are from the Mchale/Hoiberg regime and Kahn was convinced they both sucked (especially Love). Shved is shooting 38%.

- has a few more effective role players / developing dudes

oh yay

- has a coach w/ a good track record

lol, and Kahn was integral? Kahn's handpicked coach was Rambis and he was a total disaster. Adelman was only hired after being assured he'd have some input into personnel (and because he had a great relationship with Love-- the guy Kahn thought was worse than Darko).

Why people think Kahn sucks: the only player from his first two years of acquisitions who remains is Luke Ridnour. He had two straight top 6 picks who will be out of the league at the end of their rookie deals (a historic achievement) followed by a number 2 pick who looks like a bust, he whiffed over and over on free agents (beasley, darko, hollins, sessions) and later round picks (hayward, ellington), and he drafted a guy who was ineligible to be drafted (Ngombo). I could go on.

But Shved totally passes the eyeball test! Rubio probably isn't shooting above 40% yet either.

David Kahn inherited a team whose best assets were Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic and Al Jefferson and proudly announced that they were going to be a fast-paced, running team.

Wes Johnson and Jonny Flynn totally passed the eyeball test too.

Relations between Kobe Bryant and his Lakers teammate Dwight Howard were beyond icy during the weekend’s All-Star game in Houston — with Howard mocking Bryant behind his back in the locker room, sources exclusively tell Page Six. Amid other reports that the Lakers’ chilly on-court chemistry was spilling into the locker room, we’re told that Howard “grabbed Kobe’s uniform, put it on, and imitated him in front of all the other players on the West team. He was joking and berating Kobe” to fellow NBA stars, including the Clippers’ Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant. The source added Bryant later arrived in the locker room, “said hello to everyone on the team except Howard, grabbed his stuff and moved as far away from Howard as he could.” Despite a recent clear-the-air meeting in Memphis, relations haven’t thawed.

i dreamed that Bulls were trading for Dwight, god what a nightmare

Wes Johnson and Jonny Flynn totally passed the eyeball test too.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 9:48 PM (34 minutes ago)

sorry, no. what eyes are u wearing

lol

compupost the problem w yr defense if Kahn is you're giving him credit for things he didn't do like draft love,I mean in fact as has been mentioned he actually fucked up the love situation, also lol Dwight what an ass

but also the idea that kahn is one of the worst GMs of all time is just patently absurd. there's at least 3 worse GMs in the nba currently.

to me the thing with kahn is that regardless of the outcome, the process not only does not inspire confidence, it does whatever the opposite of inspiring confidence is.

yup

but also the idea that kahn is one of the worst GMs of all time is just patently absurd. there's at least 3 worse GMs in the nba currently.

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:42 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wtf dude

David Kahn drafted a guy who was literally ineligible to be drafted

the idea that David Kahn is one of the worst GMs ever is extremely easy to support, not "patently absurd"

i already said that i think grunfeld, lon bsbby and petrie are worse. colangelo and joe dumars are in the discussion as well.

lon babby*

i mean he's bottom 5 for sure. grunfeld is prob worse all time tho.

billy king is also arguably worse over a career

maybe even right now, they're probably on the same level. even if king was being directed by ownership to buy everything, i'm not sure anyone had a single worse offseason than giving a max deal to fat deron williams and his jelly ankles, trading for joe's contract and dealing a first round pick to gerald wallace and signing him to a long-term deal.

good kahn moves: Kirilenko

ok/solid/tbd moves: Rubio, Shved, Ridnour

bad/horrible/washout moves: Lazar Hayward, Kurt Rambis, Darko Milicic, Wayne Ellington, Martell Webster, Ryan Hollins, Jonny Flynn, Wes Johnson, Tanguy Ngombo, Derrick Williams, Ramon Sessions, Michael Beasley, the Al Jefferson trade, Brandon Roy (!!!)

when Kahn does something as awesome as picking Peja 14th or trading Mitch Richmond for CWebb then I'll accept an argument that he's better than Petrie.

if anything, beasley is one of the smarter things he's ever done. he took a no. 2 pick off another team's hands for next to nothing and then let him go when it was clear that he had no business being on an NBA team

obv petrie has had a better career, but in kahn's tenure he's been worse

haha dude what are you even arguing then

Worst GM in NBA History (i.e. the last 4 years)

if the best argument you can make for kahn is that all of his myriad failures haven't had a long term impact on the team's cap space then I think that says it all.

well the petrie thing is in reference to me saying there are at least 3 current GMs in the NBA who i'd want running my team less than david kahn

kahn in desperation win now mode has still not fucked the wolves nearly as bad as colangelo has the raptors in his desperation win now mode

Kahn's bad enough to be called out as bad, but he isn't nearly as disasterous as Isiah Thomas was in NY.

yeah i don't see how that's even a question

john hammond (bucks gm) is also on kahn's level imo

John Hammond picked Larry Sanders 15th, so no.

he also picked joe alexander which is somehow actually worse than kahn's two stinkbomb draft picks

no, Joe Alexander is almost exactly as bad as Jonny Flynn or Wes Johnson

Alexander was also picked later than both of them.

Joe Alexander vs. Wes Johnson
Brandon Jennings vs. Ricky Rubio
Larry Sanders (15th) vs. Jonny Flynn (6th)
John Henson (14th) vs. Derrick Williams (2nd)

dude alexander played in 67 career games

Kahn's bad enough to be called out as bad, but he isn't nearly as disasterous as Isiah Thomas was in NY.

partially tho isiaih's thing was that he had the resources to be so historically awful. the wolves don't have the limitless pockets of the knicks.

bucks have been 171-187 during hammond's term. IN THE EAST. and he inherited a no. 1 overall pick (who he traded for monta ellis, who he's now desperately trying to deal for someone undoubtedly worse than andrew bogut). if you're an east GM and can only manage to make the playoffs once in six years, you should be fired.

dude alexander played in 67 career games

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 20, 2013 3:34 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he was a terrible player who was a total nba washout, just like Flynn and Johnson, the differences are marginal. Considering Alexander was picked later than both of them it's hard to say he's clearly worse. Would he have been better if he'd played more games at an awful level, like Kahn's horrible rosters allowed them to?

"he inherited a number 1 pick"

"look buddy, you inherited Michael Olowokandi, you need to make this work"

right, because andrew bogut is michael olowokandi

"inheriting a number 1 pick" is only a great thing if the guy isn't one of the most injury prone dudes in the world

if bogut never blows out his elbow they probably make the playoffs and he never gets traded for those guys who are clearly worse than the Number One Pick Bogut.

i mean kahn is worse, but it's not by an appreciable margin

hammond got extended for 3 more years in january, that's utterly insane

patently absurd

JACK

http://www.trillhd.com/video/2290/stephen-jackson-aka-stak5-we-on-it-feat-killa-kyleon-alley-boy

lol the final song on this Jackson mixtape has Durant dropping a verse.

no way

http://www.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes/20930/stephen-jackson-aka-stak5-jack-of-all-trades.html

ugh, Warriors 6 losses in a row :(( Bogut looks glued to the floor when he's playing.

yahoo box score says Biedrins had 7 personal fouls

haha

is that better or worse than this?

https://twitter.com/Nets_PR/status/304064907190628352

Thats some john madden ish right there

hah

thats a parody account tho

ah damn, the rest of the tweets looked real

was it all building up that one joke? pretty good if so

I don't actually know

Tyreke Evans has very quietly returned to being a good NBA player this year

in his contract year, too. i can hardly believe it!

he's got phoenix suns written all over him

yeah that sounds about right

idk they just paid dragic last summer.

they also tried to pay eric gordon $60 million

this is why Hammond got a new contract:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&type=per_minute&per_minute_base=36&lg_id=NBA&is_playoffs=N&year_min=&year_max=&franch_id=&season_start=1&season_end=-1&age_min=0&age_max=99&height_min=0&height_max=99&birth_country_is=Y&birth_country=&is_active=&is_hof=&is_as=&as_comp=gt&as_val=&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&qual=&c1stat=trb_per_mp&c1comp=gt&c1val=12&c2stat=blk_per_mp&c2comp=gt&c2val=4.4&c3stat=mp&c3comp=gt&c3val=300&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&c5stat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=ws

jermain o'neal is currently +124 according to yahoo's box scores. think their formula might be a lil off.

suns training staff really is off the chain

couldnt fix Beasleys broken brain though.

the blazers tried to pay hedo $51 million afew years back, but the raptors stole him away for a cool $53 million, iirc.

lol turkgolu was so overrated

that's def one of the worst FA signings of the past 10 or so years... that otis smith re-acquired him was so monstrously insane

http://24.media.tumblr.com/e9cf2b0bee02b9227dd5f1c5b64307f9/tumblr_mifug39B5y1qe47x3o1_500.jpg

me irl

hah awesome

Another source said there was All-Star break talk of Oklahoma City exploring Marcin Gortat and P.J. Tucker for Kendrick Perkins, Jeremy Lamb and a first-round pick.

jeremy lamb must be really good or really bad

Playing for KU in last year's tournament Lamb showed plenty of skills and intelligence. I really liked what I saw. His half year in the nba has been very inconclusive due to limited minutes.

huh just noticed its trade deadline eve. season's going by so fast!

yeah... has it always been so soon after the ASB?

well it's always before march and after the asb, and the asb is always m/l around valentine's day. I think maybe the break was a little late this year?

USA Today Sports reports Wednesday that Bill Duffy, agent for Rondo, said that Celtics president Danny Ainge has informed him that his client will not be moved

BREAKING Ainge proceeded to trade Bill Duffy for 2 members of the Phoenix Suns training staff; trade may expand to a third team and include dunking gorilla mascot

Sacramento has traded forward Thomas Robinson to the Houston Rockets, league source tells Y Sports.

The Houston Rockets have traded Marcus Morris to the Phoenix Suns for a future second-round draft pick, league sources tell Y! Sports.

monta for ilh's own danny grainer being strongly rumored as completed atm.

wait did the morris bros just get reunited

Kings send T. Robinson, F. Garcia, T. Honeycutt to Houston for Toney Douglas, Cole Aldrich, Patrick Patterson & cash, USAT has learned.

kings doing their best kentucky impersonation

what was the motivation for the kings to do this??

they do it for u jordan. now you can easily win the kahn x petrie debate

yeah i was gonna say. i feel like petrie was lurking last night and was like "well now i'll HAVE to trade the no. 5 overall pick after half a season for a restricted free agent power forward averaging 8/4 for his career, another 24 year old power forward averaging 7 minutes a game for his career and a competent backup point guard despite already having 3 of them"

Now Melo knows how the Nigerians must have felt.

interesting move for houston, toney was playing well

http://twitpic.com/c5elxe

he's decent for a back up PG but trading toney douglas is not gonna keep you from making a deal

no you're right, but lin's been so up and down and toney was taking his minutes earlier in the year. they're pretty thin at point now

lol chalmers is such a clown

The Nuggets are NOT trading Iguodala for Gasol, I've been told. Put the rumors to rest.
9:25pm - 20 Feb 13

hmmm

guys i just saw austin rivers make a pretty solid pro-level post move should i call my doctor

man, bron is making some ridiculous plays that his teammates are fucking up

anyone who thinks masai would do that should not follow the nba

the bosh funk continues

wtf was that

Chris Bosh and Al Horford are shooting a combined 53 percent tonight. Horford is 9-for-9.
9:40pm - 20 Feb 13

it's almost like someone is under orders to sabotage the kings

what's eating christopher bosh

pretty sure ray allen hasn't made a 3 since november

zachlowe_nba: Also for the record: Folks around the league seem largely aghast/shocked/confused by what Kings did here.

harden just hit a 50-foot prayer, now 30 points on 12 shots, 6/7 from 3

lin's boyfriend turned his ankle really badly btw :(

how did the kings have $10 mil in salary tied up in robinson, garcia, and honeycutt

OH MY GOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i6ikcAQmDg

kidd-gilchrist just shang tsung'd monroe

beverley is better than douglas

lin has pretty pretty solid lately too. PG obviously not a strength for rockets but it's ok without douglas.

yoooooooooooooo mkg

watching bron is getting odd

ha dayo i just came to post that same dunk

ikr?

like I'm gonna say a prayer for greg monroe before bed. I hope he makes it through the night.

wish the bobcats were good, would love to watch kemba and mkg develop over the next cpl of years

KYRIE

tonight was peak heat, with ray and battier drilling 3s. totally unstoppable.

uhhh harden is storming back on the thunder all by himself

weren't we supposed to re-evaluate whether he was a max guy after the ASB

ndirndihsshheudhdiehsieisnsorhodjeid harden

so nice

the heat ran one particular play through lebron @ the high post that is .... unstoppable

asik watches harden

hard-on

key threes from lin

being a rockets fan would be incredible fun

it's been pretty great. also fun to have an annual trade-deadline trade, ha.

literally any combination of hou, den, lac, sas, okc is going to be amazing playoff basketball

d will almost airballed a FT that would've put the nets up 4 with 3 seconds left

oh my fucking god he just fouled monta ellis who was shooting a turnaround fadeaway 3

lin/delfino/parsons/harden is such a hair combo

of course monta ellis misses the first 2 FTs

so clutch that guy

Harden 46 points on 19 shots.

is there a game score-type number for basketball? harden's game tonight would have to be up there

I said some unkind things about Harden's potential ceiling after he signed the Houston contract. I retract them now and publically apologize. I was wrong. I see that now.

damn KD put up a jason kidd line tonight

yeah look at bbref, it'll be up tomorrow. dunno how widely accepted it is

xp jordan

i assume we all follow @bballhoffman btw, brings the lols

@hoffmanbball Eric Snow was such a boring point guard. But that's okay, I am an actor.

dustin hoffman otm.

Sacto deal is pretty flagrantly a money dump

I wonder if the Seattle group signed off on it

if the only way you can dump money is by dealing a top 5 pick that you picked 8 months ago, you should really take a long, long look at what is going on with your franchise. and whether or not you should even have one. which, good timing, i guess.

the rumor on the rockets boards is that they acquired Robinson for a different team

matt:

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
The Seattle ownership group, which has a deal to purchase the Sacramento Kings, was briefed on trade before its completion, source tells Y!

the thing that makes no sense about the deal is that Patterson and Douglas play the 2 positions where the Kings don't need any help. I actually like Patterson a lot.

i read the seattle group was briefed on the trade xxxxp

the thing that makes no sense about the deal is that Patterson and Douglas play the 2 positions where the Kings don't need any help. I actually like Patterson a lot.

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:08 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark

don't try and make sense of the trade

if the seattle group has any sway on the front office right now then i'm going to write it off as them wanting as close as they can get to a total reset on the roster in the coming year. but that's unlikely.

Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo

Kings move was all about cutting costs and not something management enjoyed doing, a source said.

lol maloofs

i just... that's completely unacceptable

seriously what's the point of even having a team?

at that point

Kendall Marshall and Wes Johnson on the court at the same time right now

oh my god

http://m.deadspin.com/5985827/this-hawks-bro-is-so-amped-he-can-barely-move?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

guess who spotted that one? *dave cool emoji*

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/304424454728077312

nash's next assist puts him 3rd all-time, he'll pass magic.

guess who spotted that one? *dave cool emoji*

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/304424454728077312

― J0rdan S., Thursday, February 21, 2013 12:03 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

niiiiiice

wait so apparently the kings only saved $2 MILLION in this deal???? good god

whaaaaaaaaaaat

per k pelton

Instead, they prioritized saving money (about $1.3 million in payroll the rest of the season, plus $1 million in cash, according to USA Today) over a brighter future.

Lol

hey why not save every cent you can

@teamziller People I've heard from say no one but Petrie and Gavin Maloof have any clue what's going on.

"Suns may buyout Jermaine O'Neal to create room for Morris"

god simmons on espn live with a touchscreen trade machine, this is why cocaine was invented.

Damn haven't read anything about that Sac/Hou trade but srsly Sac? Adults need to step in and take the keys away from ownership immediately.

tomhaberstroh Tom Haberstroh
Kobe is 1-34 from 3-pt over his last 15 games. Dwight Howard? 2-33 over his last 505 gm.

After watching Knicks/Pacers last night, Knicks reaaaaaally need to find someone, anyone, to replace Kidd in the starting lineup. Dude can probably give a solid 15min/gm playing against scrubs, but defensively he has no business playing any important minutes.

McHale is the best:

Rockets coach Kevin McHale is clearly hoping the cap room is eventually spent on a big-time player, though he's not about to assume as much.

"I've never seen Cap Room score a basket yet though," McHale said recently. "I've seen old Cap, and his last name is Room, I've yet to see him put a hoop in, haven't seen him block a shot, haven't seen him get a rebound yet. But when Cap Room starts putting up numbers, we should be in great shape."

sarge, harden's game score last night was 44.2 (NB i have no idea how they calculate this). lebron's highest this season is 36.9. that game dirk had against OKC in the west finals a couple years ago, his was 46.5

t-rob & asik will get +60% on rebounds available every night

harden was just disgustingly good last night

mchale zingers aside it looks like they have a good chunk of money to go after a small forward this summer and still only end up in the luxury tax for one year (14-15) before having to decide what to do with lin & asik

morey will probably make a dozen trades between now and then but that could be a good 2-3 year run and then see if you can keep building around harden and maybe robinson

mchale camp is probably the best thing that could have happened to him

this is classic simmons:

At what point is someone going to break the news to Warriors fans that they could have had James Harden for Klay Thompson before the season? Should we do it in stages? One at a time? How should we handle this? We might have to do an oral history called "The Last Few Days Before Oklahoma City Traded James Harden." I still can't believe that Washington and Golden State evaluated that situation by saying, "Hmmmmm … no thanks, we're gonna roll with Bradley Beal/Klay Thompson over adding a franchise guy." Sorry, I interrupted, go back to breaking down Houston's playoff chances, please.

entire column is highly enjoyable http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8970449/the-trade-deadline-exchange-part-1

TRob didn't really look that bad in Sacto.

if nothing else he's a great athlete who can rebound, which is more than you can say about some other busts you can get for scrap

My shocking prediction of the Blazers finishing the season ahead of the Kings continues to unfold. Blazers lose six straight? No problem. Sacto panic-dumps a top 5 pick to stay the course.

the more i think about it, i don't think you should be allowed to own a team if you're gonna trade a top 5 pick to save somewhere between $1m and $3m dollars

after half a season

yeah shouldn't this be vetoed for "basketball reasons?"

(...) there's no question that he called his guys into an electrical closet and said, "Look, give me all your cell phones. It's not that I don't trust you. I do. I 99.9 percent trust you. But I can't even leave open the 0.1 percent chance that one of you will screw me over by leaking this deal to Stein or Woj. If we get the fifth pick in last year's draft for a bunch of crap, this will be the greatest moment of my career, and possibly my life. So please, give me your cell phones."

Orlando has traded J.J Redick to the Bucks, league source tells Y!

Orlando sends Josh McRoberts to Charlotte for Hakim Warrick are WE having FUN yet?!

The Hawks have traded Anthony Morrow to Dallas for Dahntay Jones, sources tell ESPN. WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO

Celtics acquire Jordan Crawford

for barbosa

Orlando sends Ayon and Ish Smith to Milwaukee as part of deal for Redick, source tells Y!

Dang man I thought Ayon looked kinda good last year.

JJ Redick, Gustavo Ayon, and Ish Smith to Milwaukee for Doron Lamb, Beno Udrih and Tobias Harris

this is a pretty great deal for the bucks it looks like

lol orlando sending ayon ???

Ayon is one of my favorite players

What are the Magic doing

Doron Lamb has looked REALLY bad this season

was expecting a jennings/reddick/ilyasova/josh smith/sanders reunion

Lamb was a mid-second rounder so it's not like he was hot shit to begin with.

some of these deals are so wacky

magic punishing jj cause he won a few games for them imo

Hakim Warrick for Josh McRoberts is a sick joke

I guess the Magic saw the Kings deal and were like you call that a salary dump?!

Oh wait, the Magic are actually not even gaining a money advantage in the deal:

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=a9m9xjm

i'm trying to talk myself into that deal from orlando's perspective but man that's a pretty underwhelming group of young players plus beno udrih

Milwaukee was going to turn around and send some guys to Atlanta for Josh Smith but Atlanta backed out.

as a Bucks fan can I just say HELL YES

sort of wish redick could have gone to a real team (eg nuggs) but i assume he'll split after the season

what a boring trade deadline as (almost) always, RIP NBA

i randomly kind of like the celtics getting jordan crawford, they just need someone to actually score a few points now and then and im sure he'll be happy to oblige

kevin you did not just go there

Crawford was dying buried behind wall and beal. He's a knucklehead but he can play, it'll be good to see him on the court.

I thoroughly enjoyed the half season of nick young, la clipper last year and the Crawford deal seems cut from the same cloth

Kevin Pelton gives Orlando a B and Milwaukee a C+ for the deal.

"(Tobias) Harris was a favorite of John Hollinger's Draft Rater in 2011 and has played well enough in limited action in Milwaukee that his top SCHOENE comparables include Gerald Wallace, Tim Thomas and Rashard Lewis (as well as Julian Wright, to temper that excitement)."

why are the heat wearing the bull's uniforms in Chicago, just makes no sense

sort of wish redick could have gone to a real team (eg nuggs) but i assume he'll split after the season

― k3vin k., Thursday, February 21, 2013 10:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I bet the Bucks wildly overpay him

also the Bucks have Mutombo 2.0 so they'll be a real team eventually

the Jazz are going to let Millsapp and Jefferson walk for nothing I guess?

i assume they'll try to re-sign one or both, or at least sign-and-trade one for some value

ronnie brewer getting traded for a 2nd rounder is so weird. thought his minimum deal was a steal when the knicks signed him, hasn't seen the court since shump came back

didn't see anyone talking about the latest from the bean:

"It's not a question of if we make the playoffs. We will," Bryant told Sports Illustrated. "And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone -- Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver ... whoever. I have zero nervousness about that."

did he say that from the stage at the jerry buss memorial service?

ronnie brewer getting traded for a 2nd rounder is so weird. thought his minimum deal was a steal when the knicks signed him, hasn't seen the court since shump came back

― k3vin k., Friday, February 22, 2013 2:16 AM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

needed roster room for KMart?

KEV BRON DID A 2 FOR 1

ha crap i missed it, like Haley's comet

i think pop has a crush on rachael nichols. he was giving her real answers in their between-quarter interview

reggie called him out on that

really enjoying rachel nichols' presence on tnt

http://cjzero.com/gifs/RachelNicholsDrink.gif

lebron was 11-15 for 27 tonight. he was 1-4 from 3.

every cool person has to escape ESPN eventually

except for scott van pelt

oh man we're about to get a great gif out of pop

this is a really ugly loss for the floppers

nice assist for Tiago Winsharer

this is a really ugly loss for the floppers

had no idea if you meant spurs or clippers here

Wait, we like Rachel Nichols? Something about her cadences really bugs me, always has.

Had Pop eatin out the palm of her hand

Yeh that was pretty awesome tbf.

Aw bummer about Stephen Jax wife having a miscarriage.

MIN FG% REB AST BLK STL PF PTS

#1
37.6 .663 7.6 6.7 0.7 1.9 2.1 30.2

#2
38.9 .565 7.6 7.3 0.3 1.9 2.0 30.4*

* #2 has taken fewer shots than #1

I bet the Bucks wildly overpay him

― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, February 21, 2013 7:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they have to pay somebody! it doesn't sound like they want to keep Ellis and they might let Jennings walk as well.

MIN FG% REB AST BLK STL PF PTS

#1
37.6 .663 7.6 6.7 0.7 1.9 2.1 30.2

#2
38.9 .565 7.6 7.3 0.3 1.9 2.0 30.4*

* #2 has taken fewer shots than #1

― Faried, Spirit Manimal (CompuPost), Friday, February 22, 2013 10:14 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whose numbers are these?

one is lebron, one is harden i think

must be in february?

also for the record, if tony parker played anywhere but san antonio, he'd be deep in the MVP discussion. what a year he's having

deep in the mvp discussion for who's next after Lebron?

Yep, Feb. stats, #1 is LeBron, #2 Harden. Mind blown this morning that by some measure Harden might be having a more efficient month than LeBron, who is having an all-time efficient month.

also for the record, if tony parker played anywhere but san antonio, he'd be deep in the MVP discussion. what a year he's having
― k3vin k., Friday, February 22, 2013 11:35 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eh, I don't think so. Feel like he'd be in the discussion if this were one of those Rose/Nash MVP seasons, where all it takes is good/great stats + being a leader on a great team; but, Bron/Durant just having such crazy seasons that the only reason you'd even mention anyone else would be to say, "[player x] is having an MVP-type season that's being overshadowed by demi-god production from Bron/Durant."

otm

2014 NYResolution: IGNORE TRADE DEADLINE, NOTHING REALLY IMPORTANT EVER HAPPENS UNLESS IT INVOLVES SHEED AND THE YEAR IS 2004, WHICH IT IS NOT NOW.

yeah he's clearly behind lebron and durant but narrative-wise he's an even better version of rose a couple years ago

"Report: Metta brings peace to cops in pajamas"

lol classic headline

also for the record, if tony parker played anywhere but san antonio, he'd be deep in the MVP discussion. what a year he's having

― k3vin k., Friday, 22 February 2013 16:35 (4 hours ago) Permalink

only if he played in chicago, Boston, LA or New York and it would still be bullshit MVP challop.

naw if he was leading the bobcats to the best record in the league i think people would care

but he wouldn't be leading the bobcats to the best record in the league

he's playing well on a team that's totally stacked with talent

Duncan is averaging 21-12-3-1-3 per 36

pretty sure Biyombo wouldn't be doing that

the spurs have 8 guys shooting 38% or better from 3 o_O

Diaw is shooting 56-43

resurrecting boris diaw might be one of pop's most magical accomplishments

This Bill Fitch interview w/ Simmons is really good. Would love if someone just set up a weekly podcast where old players, coaches, or management people just sat down and talked to themselves for two hour chunks.

utah is dumb.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/tony-parker-awesome-not-mvp-ok-210009489--nba.html

i think i've completely turned on barkley now

matt i just meant if the spurs franchise didn't have its "boring" stigma still attached to it that makes it completely ignored in the media

i'm not making an argument for parker to be MVP obviously. i'm saying as long as we live in a world where rose won MVP two years ago, people should acknowledge that parker is even better

Yeah but what about Chris Paul

Rose's MVP was a total outlier, a MVP award given completely out of spite

and like I said, Rose had the advantage of playing in Chicago

Rose had Ric "haircut" Bucher saying he was better than LeBron the year before he won MVP. Big media markets rule.

Think both of you either forget how insane Rose is on the court / didn't watch enough CHI games to appreciate how baller Rose was/is. Doesn't take anything away from Parker's season, though, which has been pretty amazing. Would be totally fine if the Spurs make the finals and they highlight Parker as someone rivaling Chris Paul for top pg.

d rose was a deserving MVP candidate that year. he totally won it because of anti-lebron sentiments but it wasn't outrageous or anything. he's was basically the entire offense of a team that had the best record in the NBA.

This Bill Fitch interview w/ Simmons is really good. Would love if someone just set up a weekly podcast where old players, coaches, or management people just sat down and talked to themselves for two hour chunks.

cosign

i don't see MVP being influenced by big marketness a whole lot. didn't help MJ much when Barkley and Malone one.
last winners have been from
Phily
San Anton
San Anton
Minnesota
Phoenix
Phoenix
Dallas
LA
Cleveland
Cleveland
Chicago
Miami

so...2 out of 12 from big markets?

i think if anything "exciting" player + good team record=MVP in those years when it's not given to guy a cpu would based on stats alone.

Top 5 TV markets:

NY
LA
Chicago
Philly
Dallas

So 1/3 are from the biggest markets. Only San Antonio is not in the top 17.

Miami and OKC are not big tv markets. Miami is invisible for football and baseball

d-mo alert!!!

kev, fwiw Barkley has been pushing "best player in the best team" bs for literally a decade plus, as long as he's been on TNT. It's nothing new from chuck.

Pacers almost doubling up here in 3rd quarter btw. Last two games have been pretty crazy.

kev, fwiw Barkley has been pushing "best player in the best team" bs for literally a decade plus, as long as he's been on TNT. It's nothing new from chuck.

― Clay, Friday, February 22, 2013 8:24 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no yeah i know he's just been grating on me lately and i was venting

granger will spoil this team :(

Hahhahahaha Lance Stephenson just made a benchable pass.

xp I really believe that the only way this continues is if Granger gets stuck w/ the 2nd unit.

Srsly giving off an 80s Celtics vibe now.

Also just brought out the cowboy monkey riding the dog.

#LeaguePassTeam yall.

the rockets, mane

the harden trade seems so incredibly lopsided. i mean you can't really fault presti cuz they had to deal him and i'm not sure who would even be equal value for harden (chris paul?), but jeez.

Don forget that the Warriors are wearing those sleeve jerseys vs the spurs on espn tonight y'all. Embarrassing beyond belief

Good god K :D

it's bad enough they have to face the spurs during a period of suck, but having to play them wearing those unis? agggghhh

for real

They need to win this kind of game tonight. Spurs on the back half of a back to back.

curious, is there a correlation b/t unisleeve shamecones and their L streak?

has to be it

ha i was going to say, if they beat the spurs tonight (after losing to them 16 times in a row), they should wear the wack unis for the rest of the season.

Sleeves are fine but the shorts don't match

I like the type better on these for sure.

the sleeves are v euro, really the spurs should be wearing them if someone must

Can't say I've seen pinstripe shorts with a plain top before. and the color of yellow is a few shades different. Real weird.

i thought i'd be fine with the sleeves but honestly but they're absolutely terrible.

they look like volleyball players or something

or a community college exhibition league team

professional handball players

way too much yellow, and the baggy pants with tight jersey is just never going to be a good look

Fugly game

Make a basket! Arg

really abominable officiating in lakerland tonight.

Got a game now. Lots of classic spurs flailing and flopping tonight.

Down 1 w 20 sec left

Yessss

I loooooove JJack

+1 vote for jarret jack six man of the year

Sigh

Harrison, dog

i know i'm a homer and all but seriously this officiating crew can eat horsemeat

Wish I could watch that one. La pdx is one of my fav rivalrys.

haha lillard got bopped so hard on the head by kobe on a game-ending three that he basically collapsed and... no call of course. sums it all up.

Sorry man.

Jack!!!

It's gotta be the sleeves.

Lol

Keep em

Jack w 30 - 10 and lee w 25 - 22

i miss jack dude is a warrior

<3 JJack; didn't realize it until now that he had a sneaky-good season last year w/ Hornets. First 30pt/10rb game off the bench since Magic (during his '96 comeback year).

Sweet Karch Kiraly two-handed block from PG last night (whom Whitlock, depending on the mood, calls either Lil Kenard or Baby Dragon :b)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXq7uEu7vQ

went to rox-nets last night yall

harden played about as bad as i could imagine in the first half, got mauled on his first two drives to the basket and didn't get a call, spent extremely large chunks of the rest of the half bitching at the refs and not really getting back on defense. he put it together in the second half and had a couple awesome drives and back-to-back threes

chandler parsons really does pass the eye test, i don't know how actually good he is as a defender but he seems really active, he's constantly scanning and ready to switch any time

that whole team was just bombing away from three, not surprised they hung 140 on the warriors a while back. since they just traded all their power forwards they mostly rolled out asik + 4 shooters, and at some point the nets had a really slow lineup out (dwill, bogans, humphries, blatche) and the rockets almost ran them off the floor

i could hear mchale talking to lin a few times but during that stretch he was just yelling "run!" the entire time

harden was still obviously the best player anywhere on the floor and a clear franchise guy- he just seems so dangerous anywhere on the court

they mostly rolled out asik + 4 shooters

W/o looking at their 5-player-combo stats, it seems like this is the way for them to go (assuming you're putting Patterson in the PF spot).

i could hear mchale talking to lin a few times but during that stretch he was just yelling "run!" the entire time

Yesssssss. Not sure if this is a league-wide thing / even true really, but one of the cooler things that seems to happen as a season progresses is that teams get more comfortable on the defensive end w/r/t rebounding/steal -> outlet -> running, and the teams that really put it together start to look devastatingly good.

can't remember if i got this from here or twitter

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8959417/portland-trail-blazers-coach-terry-stotts-relies-advanced-metrics-espn-magazine

about portland's and especially terry stotts's embrace of analytics. can post the text if someone wants

Would read

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Turning NBA Stats Into Wins

Henry Abbott explains why the Portland Trail Blazers have an advantage when it comes to getting the most out of analyzing statistics.
Tags: NBA, Portland Trail blazers, Henry Abbott, statistics
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Kobe Drops 40 Points On Blazers

This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's March 4 Analytics issue. Subscribe today!

WIZARDS GUARD JORDAN CRAWFORD jabs right, takes a hard dribble left and launches a 30-foot jump shot. At this point, the Trail Blazers can only stare and hope. The score is tied 95-95 with 1.8 seconds left on the clock, and as the ball arches higher and higher, no one in the Rose Garden is concerned about tonight's missed screens, blown assignments or defensive breakdowns. Not now. Portland fans just want the ball to bound away and force overtime. Alas, the jumper splashes through the net, the horn sounds, the crowd groans and Crawford winds up at the bottom of a DC dog pile.

Despite emerging forward Nicolas Batum's first career triple-double, the Blazers lose their sixth straight game, seemingly done in by a buzzer beater. But Portland coach Terry Stotts knows better. He understands that the best way to defend a last-second shot is to make sure it never happens. With a defensive stop somewhere in the second quarter or a couple of easy buckets in the third, Stotts might have been emptying his bench in the final seconds rather than helplessly tracking the flight of a game-winning jumper. That's how the analytical mind works.

At the season's midpoint, the Blazers have fallen to 20-21 following a mind-numbing run of similar games; each of Portland's last 10 contests has been decided by six points or fewer, an NBA record. So at practice the next morning, an unusually bright Tuesday in Portland in late January, Stotts intends to spell out what his young team should focus on in the second half. He turns to a video screen that says "little things" in red block letters. Then the clips roll. Shooting guard Wesley Matthews is slow to get back on defense, resulting in a Wizards dunk. Center J.J. Hickson doesn't make contact on several screens.

TERMS TO KNOW
Effecive field goal percantage Takes fg% and adjusts it based on three-pointers being more valuable than two-pointers. Exact formula: [FGM + (0.5 x 3PM)]/FGA.
Efficiency HoopsStats' measure of productivity is calculated as follows: (points + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks) - (missed FGs + missed FTs + TOs).
Half-roll drill Practice drill in which an offensive player sets a pick, then rolls to the free throw line instead of to the basket.
Plus/minus Measure of a team's point differential when a player, or group of players, is on the floor.
Any NBA coach would pinpoint those mistakes. But interspersed among the coachspeak is an uncommon emphasis on numbers. Assistant coach Kaleb Canales calls out Washington's eight made three-pointers. "That's not who we are," he says. "We only allow 6.5 threes per 48 minutes, 10th in the league right now." Matthews, Hickson and their teammates sit in rapt attention. Jay Triano, who runs the team's offense, freezes the video after a jumper by rookie point guard Damian Lillard. "That was a contested fadeaway two," Triano says. "Analytically the worst shot in the game."

In Portland these days, empirical evidence reigns, and in January the Blazers gave The Mag exclusive access to the organization's inner workings to see how advanced metrics impact what happens on the court. Through three games, several meetings and practices and countless hours at the team's headquarters, a picture emerged. Nearly every front office in the league uses some form of statistical analysis, whether it's Houston's army of number crunchers or a team's subscription to Synergy, the video scouting service. But most NBA coaches either only grudgingly accept even the most basic data or reject it entirely. Let's just say the analytics revolution has not yet spread to the NBA floor. As Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said recently, "I'm still trying to figure out when the Oakland Athletics won a championship with all the analytics they have."

Stotts, however, is not wired that way. Neither is Blazers GM Neil Olshey. In their first year at the helm, the two have created an organization that uses stats top to bottom. The new culture in Portland evokes the motto of Faber College: Knowledge is good. As a result, the NBA's fifth-youngest team is building more quickly than anyone expected. The drafting of Lillard -- the Rookie of the Year front-runner -- and the development of Batum, a 24-year-old do-it-all forward, have given the Blazers an upper-shelf troika led by All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge. Add it all up and it equals an unlikely Western Conference playoff chase.

Jonathan Ferrey for ESPN
Damian Lillard leads all rookes in points, assists and minutes per game.
WHEN A TEAM fires its coach and fails to land a big name, like Portland last year, it hires someone like Terry Stotts. On the surface, his résumé seems as generic as his name: college ball at Oklahoma, never cracked the NBA, played overseas and in the CBA, longtime assistant. Stotts' first head-coaching job came 27 games into the 2002-03 season, after the Hawks fired Lon Kruger. He survived just one more season. The Bucks hired him in the summer of 2005, but that gig lasted only nine games longer than his first one. In his four seasons as a head coach, he never had a winning record.

Look deeper, though, and Stotts is no standard retread. Most NBA coaches don't spend five years living in Guam as a child. They don't study zoology or get an MBA. And good luck finding any other NBA coach who developed his own formula for pace of play, as Stotts did as a Sonics assistant in the '90s. "I had a big old spreadsheet and input all the numbers by hand every 20 games," he says. Considering that he created it during basketball's Dark Ages, his formula bears a remarkable resemblance to today's method of tabulating possessions. Stotts, it turns out, was always analytically inclined. So you can see why he'd click with a guy called Wiz.

Wiz prefers his given name, which is Ben Falk; actually he'd rather you not know of him at all. The Blazers basketball analytics manager wants to stay in the background. But during a practice in January, when Stotts was praising his players for climbing from last in the league in defensive efficiency to 23rd, he seized the opportunity to put Falk on the spot. "Ben's got a lot of opinions," Stotts said. "So Ben, here's your chance to address the team."

Falk, nearly choking on his tongue, muttered, "Keep doing what you're doing." It's what you'd expect from a guy who looks like a shaggy Harry Potter, only with a yarmulke. But Falk isn't a stereotypical number cruncher; he doesn't even have a math background. Instead, he's a 24-year-old Orthodox Jew from the DC suburbs who, despite never having played organized hoops, has always been an obsessive basketball fan. He got a perfect score on the SAT and quotes everyone from Mark Twain to Calvin Coolidge. "I liked him immediately because he's not just a guy behind a computer," Olshey says. "He can't play dead in a cowboy movie, but he's a basketball junkie."

Originally an intern with the Nuggets the summer before his sophomore year at the University of Maryland, Falk worked remotely as a consultant for the Blazers until he graduated. Now in his fifth season, he is already paired with his fourth general manager, and Stotts is his second coach. Yet with his staff -- one part-timer and an intern -- Falk has maintained a relentless dedication to improving the Blazers' analytical capabilities and developing proprietary tools, the contents of which he won't disclose. What Falk will say is that before Stotts arrived in August, the bulk of his work was used by team brass for personnel decisions.

Now Falk spends almost as much time working with the coaches. He refers to most of the metrics he gives them as low-hanging fruit -- stats anyone can find on the Internet: plus/minus, effective field goal percentage, location-based shooting. The key, Falk says, is that Stotts listens, which separates him from the majority of NBA coaches. "Even if the stats are not mind-blowing," Falk says, "they can have a huge impact just by removing the bottleneck and having an open flow of information."

ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, as the Blazers host the Pacers, Falk's work is evident all over the court. You just have to know where to look. On Portland's second possession, Lillard runs off a screen and drills a jumper from the elbow. Then the 6'9" Hickson faces up and hits a baseline shot over 7'2" Roy Hibbert. On the next trip, Aldridge nails an 18-footer off a high pick-and-roll.

Normally the midrange two-pointer is one of the least efficient shots in basketball. An analytically proficient offense would instead generate attempts at the rim and open corner three-pointers (the corner three is a 39 percent shot over the past five seasons; other threes are just 35 percent). But the Pacers are the best defensive team in the league, particularly in the metrics that matter. They rank first in effective field goal percentage, allow the second-fewest shots at the rim and give up the second-fewest corner threes. Falk knows that basketball is a game of constantly shifting probabilities, so tonight the Blazers go against the stats. "Baseline percentages are only broad summaries," he says. "They may not always apply for a lot of reasons, including the other team's scheme and personnel. Against a team like Indiana, getting open shots for the right shooters, even if they are in midrange, can be a better-percentage play than forcing a tough shot at the rim."

[+] Enlarge
Jonathan Ferrey for ESPN
Terry Stotts is no usual NBA coach -- he spent five years living in Guam as child, studied zoology and got his MBA.
The game plan was hatched at Tuesday morning's coaches meeting. Stotts leaned over a long table, slid his reading glasses over his nose and began reading Indiana's defensive stats aloud. "They're scary," he said. "So what do we have on offense?" Triano suggested pick-and-rolls on the plodding Hibbert. When guarding a ball screen, Hibbert tends to hang back, protecting the paint. That opens a pocket between the arc and the foul line that a good shooter can exploit.

Another metric-minded coach might have simply delivered that data to his players and trusted them to adjust. But doing so runs the risk of paralyzing players, especially young players, by asking them to think too much, rather than act. Instead, Stotts and his staff scoured their menu of plays, searching for the juiciest options to free a midrange shooter. Then at practice on Tuesday, Stotts dialed up a half-roll drill. The purpose of practice, after all, is to create habits. And as the Blazers big men worked on setting screens, then rolling to the foul line instead of the rim, Stotts was subtly adjusting their instincts for Wednesday night. Instead of just feeding them numbers, the coach found a more efficient way to force an adjustment.

By halftime Wednesday night, Stotts' method is clearly working: The Blazers are 8-for-13 on long midrange jumpers and lead by 12 points. But the defensive plan proves less effective. Much of Portland's preparation went toward stopping David West. But in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter, the power forward scores eight points, on the way to 21 for the game. So Stotts summons Jared Jeffries. At 31, Jeffries is the oldest Blazer. In 11 NBA seasons, he has never averaged more than 6.8 points or 5.2 rebounds, but he also rarely misses a defensive rotation or sets a bad screen. As a result, Falk says Jeffries "contributes to winning," even if his impact is usually invisible according to conventional stats.

Jeffries had spent parts of two seasons with the Rockets, ground zero for NBA metrics. "Our scouting reports were pretty much all numbers," he said the day before the Indiana game. "But here we're so young, they don't give all the player breakdowns. Right now we're just trying to teach our guys basic NBA terminology." Digging his fork into fried rice at P.F. Chang's, Jeffries recalled the first time stats influenced his play. Prior to a Rockets game against the Hornets, he read that their power forward excelled as a catch-and-shoot player or off one bounce. But when he was forced to take two dribbles, his efficiency dipped drastically. So Jeffries focused on making his opponent put the ball on the floor that one extra time. The guy's name? David West.

Sure enough, mere seconds after Jeffries enters the game Wednesday night, West isolates against him at the left elbow. West catches the ball with his back to the basket; Jeffries crowds him, preventing him from turning and shooting. West dribbles hard with his left hand, leaning his upper body toward the basket at almost a 45-degree angle, but Jeffries cuts off his path and holds his ground. This forces West to take a second dribble, then elevate from a tight angle. Jeffries maintains his position to West's right, causing him to loft an awkward shot with his left hand. It clangs hard off the glass, and the Blazers collect the rebound.

From his seat 10 rows behind the Blazers' bench, Falk looks up from his phone, which he uses to monitor in-game stats, and smiles.

Meanwhile, Indiana's defensive scheme is collapsing. Barraged by the Blazers' midrange jumpers, the Pacers bigs inch closer to help on high pick-and-rolls. Lillard has been waiting for that. Instead of pulling up, he starts to attack the rim, finishing the third quarter with a pair of and-one drives. He makes three more layups in the fourth quarter as the Blazers close out a 20-point win. "First their bigs were way back," Lillard says afterward. "Once I made a few jumpers, they moved up a little bit just to where I could get around them and beat them to the rim. That was all I needed."

REMEMBER WHAT FALK said about information bottlenecks? That doesn't apply to Stotts. He's intellectually curious and open to new ideas. Problem was, he had never been exposed to a force capable of expanding his analytical horizons. Until he went to Dallas.

In 2009, while Stotts was offensive coordinator for the Mavericks, the team hired Roland Beech, creator of the metrics-based site 82games.com, as an assistant coach. His impact from behind the bench was immediate, particularly on Stotts. "Going back to Seattle, I did my spreadsheets," he says. "But when we hired Roland, that took it to another level. The ease with which he could do player combinations was probably the biggest thing. But he also charted our offensive and defensive effectiveness with pick-and-rolls and post-ups and off-ball screens and transition. He really broke down the game."

Most famously, Beech's data led to a key adjustment on the 2010-11 Mavs. Early on he noticed a sharp uptick in guard J.J. Barea's plus/minus when he played with Dirk Nowitzki. So coach Rick Carlisle adjusted his rotation to pair the two as much as possible. "And it helped us win a championship," Stotts says.

Dallas was clearly a turning point for Stotts. Not only did he incorporate key concepts -- including giving young players quizzes on focal points from practice -- he learned how to truly collaborate with a stats guy. Falk's role is to feed Stotts as much information as possible, so the coach then becomes something akin to a funnel. With an endless supply of stats, video breakdowns and scouting reports available before each game, he must ingest all of that knowledge, filter it, then decide how much to impart to the players. All the while, he must balance the oft-competing goals of player development and winning now.

For the math-inclined, there are certainties in basketball. Take the two-for-one for example. Simply put, teams always benefit from an extra possession, and shooting quickly to prevent the opponent from holding for the last shot is the analytically correct move. Far too many coaches ignore this. Not Stotts. And as the Blazers host the Clippers on Jan. 26, the final game of their five-game homestand, he offers a clinic on how to execute this subtle strategy.

Throughout the first quarter, the Blazers have maintained a quick pace, but with 57.1 seconds left, Stotts raises his arms, palms facing out. Portland runs 21 seconds off the clock before Matthews drives, draws a foul and hits both free throws. That leaves the Clippers with 36 seconds to operate, enough time for their own two-for-one. But as Stotts surmised, they don't even try to move that quickly. The Clips eventually turn the ball over, and even though Matthews misses at the other end, the Blazers have won the possession battle. Then they do it again to end the first half. At the break, the Blazers lead 51-45.

In the fourth quarter, however, the Clippers take control and lead by nine with 2:38 to go. According to a formula developed by Falk's team, that gives the Blazers just a 3 percent chance of winning. But sometimes numbers lie. Lillard hits a three. Hickson dunks. Matthews leaks out on the break for a layup and the foul. The Clippers go cold, and with 45.2 seconds left, Hickson knocks down a pair of free throws to cap a 10-0 run. Portland leads 101-100.

But the Blazers' work isn't finished. Clippers guard Jamal Crawford collects a jump ball and begins yo-yoing his dribble with 10 seconds left. The Blazers have seen too many games end this way. There are no stats to save the day. With four seconds remaining, Crawford crosses over Batum, steps back and launches a 19-footer. Stotts, Falk and 20,672 Portland fans helplessly track the arc on Crawford's shot. It bounds off the back rim and falls away as the horn sounds.

Another last-second shot. Another J-Crawford. Even another triple-double for Batum.

What are the odds?

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Brenner writes for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Insider. He covers the NBA and college basketball.

"Digging his fork into fried rice at P.F. Chang's, Jeffries recalled the first time stats influenced his play."

smh, I love u JJ but come on

Thx good stuff

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2935/meet-the-worlds-top-nba-gambler

good read but as always bob is just so damn coy about everything, i'd kill to read a legit biography

stotts article was great, thx! I've gotta see what I can dig up on this Orthodox Jewish nba junky stats oracle working for the blazers that I'd somehow never heard of before.

it's hilarious listening to opposing announcers call rockets games, they get so exasperated

delfino just hit back to back threes and on the second one the wiz announcer just goes "are you kidding, me?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmri0QZYKks

montejunas looks really solid

another talented player from the terrible 2011 draft

wiz announcers debating how much harden reminds them of gilbert arenas

rockets tied NBA record with 23 threes vs the warriors. have 12 with 2 mins left in the first half.

does Stephen A Smith know who Chandler Parsons is yet?

beverly is awesome

def. freeing up playing time for him and montejunas was a good move

too bad the t rob trade got held up, was hoping he'd play tonight

hunter staredown on beasley is fantastic

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8978920/andrew-bynum-philadelphia-76ers-not-close-return-according-coach-doug-collins

4 times against miami. :/

if you're gonna get on the bandwagon you need to work on spelling Donut's name jord

bruh i am the bandwagon

anyway bynum's free agency is gonna be the most fascinating in the nba since lebron

whatever 2011 draft hater xp

he's up this year right? will be a pretty crazy summer for sure

the 2011 draft really isn't that hot

uh huh

everyone underrated kyrie because he basically didn't play in college but other than that it's still not that hot. faried and kawhi and klay thompson were underrated but the top 10 of that draft is still pretty terrible.

the top 10 is all that counts I guess

guys like faried and kawhi was up in the teens in most drafts tho, that's nothing special

faried and kawhi and klay thompson and vucevic and parsons were underrated but other than THAT

dude there are guys like that in every draft

still sticking by your prediction of only one allstar from the entire draft?

i mean there are some *nice* players in that draft (or potentially nice players) but kyrie is the only franchise building block to come out of there. that's pretty poor!

still sticking by your prediction of only one allstar from the entire draft?

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, February 23, 2013 8:18 PM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark

i don't remember making that prediction, but really what other all-star do you see? faried might sneak in at some point.

dude we're not even 2 years in and like 6 of the guys are really good starters, one is a superstar. Even if Valanciunas, Motiejunas, Mirotic et al all bust against all odds it's still a solid draft. But hold tight to orig. evaluation I guess.

i think you have to put a lot of faith in guys like tristan thompson and valanciunas and kanter to make big leaps from like "okay, pretty solid player" to "borderline all-star" for that draft to start looking better than it does now.

dude there are guys like that in every draft

― J0rdan S., Saturday, February 23, 2013 8:17 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well that's the point right, it was a draft like most others rather than especially bad

i don't remember making that prediction, but really what other all-star do you see? faried might sneak in at some point.

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 24, 2013 1:19 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you made that predic. multiple times.

The chances of there not being a single all-star among Walker, Thompson, Vucevic, Valanciunas, Parsons, Faried et al. are very slim.

like, every draft from 07-10 (i didn't go back any further) has multiple players that are franchise building block, unquestionable max contract players. this draft has kyrie and a bunch of dudes that are nice pieces on good teams.

i mean i hate and don't watch college bball so i'm not one to talk, i have no idea how draft classes are until halfway thru year 1

Vucevic might win the rebounding title ffs

actually looking back it was hibachi who said the all-star thing, u did say this tho:

some of the international players may be able to save it yet, but last year's draft is looking like an epic black hole (kyrie aside)

― J0rdan S., Friday, 6 July 2012 06:33 (6 hours ago) Permalink

let's just rank the 5 best players from those drafts

07: durant, marc gasol, horford, noah, afflalo
08: d rose, k love, russell westbrook, brook lopez, roy hibbert
09: james harden, blake griffin, steph curry, jrue holiday, ricky rubio
10: paul george, greg monroe, john wall, demarcus cousins, eric bledsoe
11: kyrie, faried, chandler parsons, klay thompson, kemba walker (?)

really? there isn't one out of those last 5 drafts that looks out of wack to you? that's just a totally normal solid draft?

it takes more than a year for a draft to pan out dude

for example, Gasol and Rubio were in europe at this point!

okay. well unless one of the euro guys emerges, it's a bunch of solid rotation players and one superstar. that result would be completely out of step with the last 5 years.

this year's draft is gonna be worse tho

"Solid rotation players" i.e. full-time starters who are really good

10 and 11 don't look all that different to me either

i mean at least '11 has a franchise guy in kyrie; '10 has boogie cousins and paul george

Vucevic is averaging 14 and 13 per 36 at the age of 22, but I guess his ceiling is solid rotation player

"Solid rotation players" i.e. full-time starters who are really good

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, February 23, 2013 8:33 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark

i guess our definition of "very good" differs

paul george is a franchise guy. wall is too. cousins will be if that franchise turns itself around.

wall is a franchise guy but only if that franchise is washington

wall is a franchise guy for half the teams in the league if he stays healthy

i guess our definition of "very good" differs

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 24, 2013 1:35 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think "rotation player" is the bigger issue

"solid rotation player" kenneth faried

a solid rotation player is like Matt Bonner

wall's jumper looks fixed

faried is a pretty great player, yes. if he remains the second best player in that draft, there's a problem.

/i could hear mchale talking to lin a few times but during that stretch he was just yelling "run!" the entire time/

hah

Paul George is badly stretching the definition of franchise guy

^right, point remains that kyrie > any of the dudes from 2010 and a bunch of very good players on top of that. definitely not a historically weak draft

lesson as always you cant judge a draft til a while after the fact cause a couple guys panning out or not can swing the whole thing

so i guess these heat unis are just their regular road unis now. i'm ok w/ that

ya i like them a lot

to me it looks like the worst draft since 2002. 2006 isn't too hot either but we'll see. that's not any great shakes tho.

i think they should completely go back to that design

bron's finally gonna get a trip-doub tonight

JAVALE

d-mo corner 3

motiejunas blowing up.

harden!

harden iso hero ball is one of the best end of game plays in the nba

i hate to say it but ariza is the main reason rockets aren't down by like 8 right now.

Ariza just totally hedged Harden to his left wtf

yeah he totally forgot he was lefty

yeah that was weird

harden's gonna drill a 3 to win

wow asik fucked up

oh wow that'll do it

kinda crzy they didn't have a timeout

/wiz announcers debating how much harden reminds them of gilbert arenas/

this is an compelling comparison

http://med✧✧✧.gifb✧✧✧.com/medias/d1a15faa1cd24111b68b0c745b93a✧✧✧@2✧.g✧✧

GOAT http://gifboom.com/x/5da14f4c

lol

we need an all-wkiw team

bosh looks too much like this major shithead i went to highschool with that was on the periphery of my social circles and has been a professional strip club bouncer for the last 10 years for me to really want to kiw him. that's on me, but still.

god that dude really was a shithead though.

i really love watching gordy hayward play

a skinny, long-necked strip club bouncer?

it's portland dude

You guys, ease up on Jordan S, ok? He may not be a great contributor, but he's pretty solid in the ILH rotation.

forget it matt its portland

http://2guystalkingmetsbaseball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/chinatown.jpg

just draw a sparrow on that bandage and eat some donuts we're all good here

doesn't portland have a vegan strip club

haha they do http://www.yelp.com/biz/casa-diablo-vegan-strip-club-portland

You guys, ease up on Jordan S, ok? He may not be a great contributor, but he's pretty solid in the ILH rotation.

― Aimless, Saturday, February 23, 2013 9:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What is this post?

Mcgee made 8 shots tonight... 7 of which were dunks

yeah casa diablo. that's definitely a place that exists. it's weirdly pretty far out of town honestly. i know people who live for that place but, ugh, man, vegan strip club.

Hahahaha Danny Granger finally returned last night. Came off the bench and turned in a very Granger-like performance of 1-10, 8 missed jumpers (I think seven were from 15-20ft). Still worried that he'll sneak back into the starting line-up even though Lance has been ballin outta control / Granger might fuck up the chemistry.

That said, best highlight was Granger finally hitting a jumper followed immediately by a Detroit timeout. Everyone on the Pacers bench mobbed Granger-- easy to tell that everyone was pumped to see him back on the court. Even if Pacers don't need a volume-shooter, pretty clear that the team is incredibly happy to have him back.

Although kinda weird feeling to wish that your 5-time scoring leader / maybe best player should be coming off the bench and play behind your 2nd round rookie named "Pulp" Johnson who just got the call-up from the D-League last month.

grainger should embrace super sub role, it's a good look (ginobili, harden)

I hope Granger literally spent a lot of time sitting alone in his personal batcave, working through the emotional dilemmas that might impede becoming a super-sub 6th man. Supposedly he's ready to adjust to Paul George being the alpha guy; if he is -- and becomes the 2nd unit's main guy -- I'd say that's a best-case scenario. Moving Lance out of the starting line-up would kill the season I swear.

Ha see how pumped everyone is?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwzqLmnRgo

lol that's bizarre/hilarious

kobe goin ham and mike james going right back at him, haha

ok does dallas have some injured guys too, because otherwise im not surprised a team rolling out 37 year old mike james and rookie jae crowder in crunch time is kind of struggling for a playoff spot

oh nvm they were resting mayo and collison while the lakers are basically running all their old dudes into the ground

Stage is set for a classic Dirking ...

is the bank of cuban still open?

LEAGUE PASS ALERT GS / MINNY YOU MONSTERS

weird thing about lebron's historic season is that he's getting to the line WAY less than he used to. 6.6 attempts per game

doesn't matter i guess since he's approaching 80% (1) shooting at the rim

(!) obv

blazers v celtics or the oscars hmmm

j/k the oscars are dumb as heck

deron williams is really kind of awful

weird thing about lebron's historic season is that he's getting to the line WAY less than he used to. 6.6 attempts per game

― k3vin k., Sunday, February 24, 2013 6:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

doesn't matter i guess since he's approaching 80% (1) shooting at the rim

― k3vin k., Sunday, February 24, 2013 6:51 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the game is really too easy for bron right now the league needs to have him wear some weights on his arms or play barefoot or something

jon barry is incomparably stupid

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
Derek Fisher has reached agreement with Oklahoma City on a contract for rest of season, league sources tell Y! Sports.

why did they move eric maynor and keep derek fisher even

"He joined the Dallas Mavericks early this season and played nine games in December before suffering a knee injury. He asked the Mavericks to release him, so he could spend more time with his family. "

Human scum

la is too much for dwight howard's psyche.
i suspect he is feigning the seriousness of his injury to save face from incoming criticism.
this dude is joking around and smiling ubiquitously kinda like mcnabb was when the pressure mounted.
i expect this paper tiger to sign a max deal with a team like the hawks or some other place where no one gives a shit for him to notice.

Damn Fisher flexing those old timey Union Prez muscles!

Kobe Bryant ‏@kobebryant
Amnesty THAT

I feel like we need a rolling dwight howard thread

no we dont

he's becoming a cancer to this thread. it could take this entire thread over.

quarantine it before it's too late

let's talk abt my world changing season and playoff format
reg season is 58 games, a home and away game against each team in the league
top half of the standings enters the top bracket play 28 games against only each other (home/away)
top 4 seeds enter semifinals, 1 v 4, 2 v 3...best of 7 winners play for champs
bottom half of standings enter draft bracket, play 28 games home and away
best 4 records enter single elimination tourney for picks #1-4
the rest of the picks go in order #5-15 (worst team gets #15)

worst team in the bottom half that is

problem is that the worst teams do deserve the higher picks

like the bobcats last year weren't tanking, they were just horrendously bad. it would've been fucked up had they gotten the 15th pick in the draft.

I'm ok w this, most of the teams that get top picks fuck those players careers up bc they are terrible places, they should have other ways of making their teams better

I like m bison's new format that not only makes the season more competitive but also promises that #contraction will finally happen

like its cool that bobcats got a talented player like mkg, but they are at the bottom of the league again

last place team gets an automatic spurs assistant gm to take over the front office for one year

problem solved

but like, I think you are treating bobcats like the last 28 games would be precisely the same as the first 58. they'd be playing weaker teams and would be incentivized to make moves to put themselves in a better position to get a top pick. they'd still be bad, but maybe they string together a few and get something in the top 10

also trade deadline comes right before the playoff/draft round btw

while it is true that rewarding the worst record with a guaranteed top three pick produces a perverse incentive to lose, I don't think that such incentives are the core of the problem when a team has the worst record. the basic problem is it's a lousy team.

m bison just wants the Spurs to get a lotto pick let's be real

have they had one since Duncan?

iirc sixteen straight winning seasons, so probably not, although maybe they ended up w/ one via trade.

yeah obviously would be a trade

kawhi from the pacers or no?

that was prob the closest if not

Nah he wasn't lotto, think he was #17.

actually looking back it was hibachi who said the all-star thing, u did say this tho:

some of the international players may be able to save it yet, but last year's draft is looking like an epic black hole (kyrie aside)

― J0rdan S., Friday, 6 July 2012 06:33 (6 hours ago) Permalink

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, February 23, 2013 8:25 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

im not totally sure what i said about the 2011 draft honestly but i think i was pretty down on it; however over all star wknd i noticed that if it was still rookie vs sophomores a team of kyrie, faried, parsons, kawhi, klay thompson with guys like vucevic, lavoy allen and isiah thomas off the bench is a fairly solid squad

like, if guys still went to college for four years and we didn't send pros to the olympics that would be a decent group to go with

still not sure if that draft produces an allstar outside of kyrie though...faried, klay, maybe even kawhi could sneak in a few years from now when we start to lose some of the old fixtures

also the whole group is a year away from the crucial third year which is when a huge number of guys make big leaps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=7J5KrdAwukc

:(

he was elevating off his good knee there

Think I might quit my job and just evangelize for #HoopIdeas. Mostly conquered footyflopping; next project looks like screening stats :b

Ban Clay.

Any Rose vids posted before day-of-return is too soon imo.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m39y11k7ms1qarqwuo1_500.jpg

:(

haha

that's awesome.

Horford's been killing it lately. 19 and 18 on 9-12 shooting after 3 quarters

Andre Miller, Nat'l Treasure.

wonderful half for Team Javale

can we still lol dwight here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki721_Lz2WI

al jeff

rolling thread for chronicling the misadventures of dwight howard, nba center

lol @ dwight here

javale's FG% is higher than lebron's ftr, so javale > lebron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcWQqlchT8Y

Ha since Javale doesn't start I always start watching the Nuggs being impressed / having a lot of fun watching. Then Javale subs in and I turn off my phone and settle in. In that first half he had at least 3 blocks + maybe 3 goaltends, a few of which were suspect calls. Would love to spend a game just watching him on and off the ball-- every part of me believes his bball IQ is really low, but dude finds himself in so many high bball IQ situations, I wonder if he's just a weird savant.

I don't follow him/Nuggs closely enough, but I remember reading that Javale has some kind of asthma / chronic conditioning problem (same as Hibbert's, I think) ... will he ever be able to play more than 25 min/game? I assume that the altitude in Denver means he'll play even less for the Nuggs than other teams (his minutes are way down this year), just wasn't sure if there was another reason besides conditioning for playing so few minutes.

That said, having Dre/Javale on the 2nd team is so much fun to watch and gives the Nuggets one of the more legit 2nd units in the league. Also looks like Koufos is developing an actual sky hook!

Yeah, noticed the Koufos skyhook, though when he does it it tends to look like the ball has slipped out of his hands.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8989580/is-rockets-gm-daryl-morey-plan-working-houston

mchale says d-mo will start tomorrow night!

sorta love that morey basically forced mchale into this.

yeah i definitely like to think of the rockets as a movie where the old crusty coach warms up to them new fangled ways but that's probably not entirely true

definitely get the sense that the coaching staff was a little put out by morey shipping out both the starting and backup power forward in the middle of a playoff chase.

aaaand thomas robinson is getting lessons on the post w kevin mchale

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BD-ZtUgCEAEs3b0.jpg:large

awesome

who knows, maybe morey wanted them to play patterson and morris just to boost their trade value

@DonatasMot: It's not about start or not to start tomorrow. It's about win the game and get better! Thanks for support guys!:-)

he has a charming way about him on twitter.

via bob

http://i.imgur.com/y7ukhTL.png

rockets should prob trade Lin and replace him w a d and 3 type

so you're saying the rockets should trade lin for wad3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKtDSX0GnRg

uh apparently this happened tonight?

hope spottie and compupost are on speaking terms

lol at steph bouncing off hibbert twice

maybe not the best time for steph curry to involve himself

sweet rumble

so you're saying the rockets should trade lin for wad3

― Clay, Tuesday, February 26, 2013 9:10 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heh

another lebron choke durant MVP

bron will never win the big one

loooove wade haaaaate his hero ball

wow kings in miami OT, what a world

oh wow tyreke just straight clotheslined wade

craziest heat game of the year

bron with 40-8-16 on 14-23, 11-12 in 48 minutes.

dirk with a 20-20

bucks wiiiin :)

http://gif.mocksession.com/2013/02/billups/

http://www.nba.com/nuggets/video/2013/02/26/GallinariTrickShotmov-2398002/index.html

: )

"that thing is nice" :D

just from experience i think kemba leads the league in having the same amount of rebounds as assists at any point during the game

I'm at Disneyland so missed the game but my phone was blowing up about the brawl! CompuPost we were cool n all but you can eat a jar of pickled pink scrotums now faic. Hibbert was way out of line, kinda lol how he punked Curry though. Wasn't too bad overall, good to see some of that stuff once in a while as long as it doesnt go too far. Pacers got the last word tho since they won the game.

rockets should prob trade Lin and replace him w a d and 3 type

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 26, 2013 9:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lin is kinda awesome and he's on a super cheap contract. his numbers have ticked up all season... he 's hit 45% from three in feb.

i think the best course of action for them would be to replace delfino's spot with a serious wing player... delfino is good but if they could add a batum or kawhi type player to that rotation they would start to be pretty scary. aside from getting dwight howard or something.

i'm not really a fan of them signing josh smith... he would be killer on the break but would really much up their halfcourt offense. i don't think morey is gonna go for that tho.

muck*

lin is kinda awesome and he's on a super cheap contract. his numbers have ticked up all season... he 's hit 45% from three in feb.
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 27, 2013 7:43 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lin is clearly a below average starting PG this season. and he makes 8m a year, that's not "super cheap."

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&type=totals&per_minute_base=36&lg_id=NBA&is_playoffs=N&year_min=2013&year_max=2013&franch_id=&season_start=1&season_end=-1&age_min=0&age_max=99&height_min=0&height_max=99&birth_country_is=Y&birth_country=&is_active=&is_hof=&is_as=&as_comp=gt&as_val=&pos_is_g=Y&qual=&c1stat=ts_pct&c1comp=lt&c1val=.53&c2stat=ast_per_g&c2comp=lt&c2val=6.5&c3stat=gs&c3comp=gt&c3val=40&c4stat=pts_per_g&c4comp=lt&c4val=15&c5stat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=ws