Redemption. Determination. Validation.

These are things we all seek.

We seek them in all different aspects of our lives. We seek them in all different avenues of our lives. Most recently, I’ve noticed this search in one of the most cherished activities that I participate in – coaching JV basketball. I know I’ve written about this here before and I’m sorry if it’s getting bothersome but it’s such an invested part of my life (with the final week starting today) and I feel like it helps me make sense of the NBA events that go on.

With our basketball team, you can preach and pretend you know the way to hoops success all you want but if you don’t get the kids to produce tangible results on the court that they can see, it’s hard to prove that all of the work, drilling and practice is actually worth anything. When our team is down, they seem to be REALLY down. Every time we’ve lost a game during our season, we’ve followed it with a second straight loss. We can’t explain why, either. Often it’s a simple issue such as free throw shooting or playing help line defense. But there has been something that holds us from being able to bounce back right away from a loss.

This past week, our team had a chance to wrap up a JV league title with two wins away from our home gym. The two games were against teams we had already beaten at home. In fact, we’d beaten everybody in league up until this point in our campaign. We were 6-0 in league and had designs of going a perfect 10-0 in league. It was something that seemed inconceivable at the beginning of the season but was becoming and more real possibility with every bounce of the ball.

In our first away game of this past week, we were playing a team that nearly came back against us by hitting a ton of improbable three-pointers in the second half. We knew going into their gym, we were likely to suffer a similar barrage of long-range luck because they couldn’t handle us athletically and would be willing to jack up threes in order to upset us.  And that’s exactly what they did – they hit three-pointers in this rematch.

In the final minute of the game, we found ourselves with the ball and down two. Our freshman guard took the ball strongly to the hoop, got fouled and made the basket. He sank the free throw for a three-point play and put us up one with just under a minute left. After some questionable officiating that belabored both sides, the opposing coach received a technical foul, which helped us retain possession of the ball and have a chance to push the lead to three. Instead, we missed both free throws and followed those misses up with two more misses by another player. We were given a chance to ice the game and improve our record to 7-0. Instead, we missed our 13^th, 14^th, 15^th and 16^th free throws of the game.

The opposing team went down the court and made a three to go up two. We came back down, put the ball in the hands of our freshman once again and he scored on an aggressive baseline drive to the basket to tie the game. What happened next can only be described as a swift kick to the groin that took away our ability to breathe.

With just four seconds left, they advanced the ball to half court, inbounded the ball to their best shooter, and he drove up the left side of the court. With one of our guys draped all over him defensively, he motored to the left corner of the court. He jumped off one foot (the wrong foot), contorted his body side ways from the deep corner and threw up a running, one-handed floater, Jeff Malone style. Despite the fact that he shot it from the left corner while falling out of bounds, someone how it banked off the backboard and fell through the hoop as time expired.

At that point, there was nothing that could be done. We were beaten. Our perfect league season was murdered. Our chance to clinch sole possession of a league title that week was toast. A desperate team with nothing to lose beat us. We didn’t play with any desperation and it ended up hurting us. We were beaten by a H-O-R-S-E shot.

So what does any of this have to do with the NBA?

Everyone is trying to figure out the bottom half of the Western Conference playoffs. Everybody (including those who don’t have Patella Cake on the line) expect the Thunder to get in despite the fact that they have to prove they can beat Western Conference teams that aren’t the Warriors the rest of the season. Memphis is another feel good story that objective fans seem to be rooting for because their run this season has been so improbable. You also have a starless Houston team scrapping everything together and a Hornets team that will vault to the top of the feel good stories once Chris Paul comes back from his knee surgery.

So where does that leave the Portland Trailblazers? During the first month of the season, it seemed like they’d be gunning for their own perfect league record. Obviously, they weren’t going 82-0 or challenging the ’96 Bulls for the all-time record but what they were doing was coming together nicely. Their early set backs were significant but nothing that could be considered crippling to the overall success of this season.

Nicolas Batum wasn’t able to start the season with the team because of shoulder surgery. No problem. Rudy Fernandez needed to miss six weeks because of a procedure to alleviate nerve pressure in his back? That’s not an issue. Kevin Pritchard had built this team into a deep roster of “Most Likely To’s” and justified fan favorites. It didn’t matter that Travis Outlaw was going to miss three to five months with foot surgery because they have positional putty to fill these holes. Martell Webster was there to reemerge as the small forward of the future.

But then Greg Oden went down by breaking his kneecap (which was foreseen by everybody but me). At the time, Greg Oden had been a defensive stalwart in the lane. Was he still in dumb foul trouble? Yes. Was he still a step too slow at times? Yes. But his rebounding rate and the amount of block shots he was accumulating in foul trouble-ridden minutes was astonishing. Hell he’s still in Top 50 for blocked shots this season and he hasn’t played in nine weeks. Were 11 points and 8.5 rebounds setting the world on fire like I predicted? No but it was better production than most centers in the NBA were giving their respective teams.

After he broke his kneecap, Joel Pryzbilla decided to join the party too. He ruptured a patella tendon and was also lost for the season. This left Brandon Roy, Martell Webster, LaMarcus Aldridge and the Dre/Blake/Bayless triumvirate to fend for themselves with Jeff Pendergraph, Juwan Howard and Dante Cunningham as the interior presence. Even their coach is injured!

And yet much like Antwone Fisher, they’re still standing. They’re still here. Brandon Roy isn’t coming back until after the All-Star break? No big deal. Andre Miller just scored 52 against one of the eight best teams in the league and I wouldn’t be shocked if Jerryd Bayless had a 40-point explosion chambered for the next opponent.

Their ideal season has been taken away from them with blow after excruciating blow. It’s a sudden, random act of heartbreak that keeps finding new ways to infect the team. And yet they still hold a good record at home and are seven games over .500 right now. They keep getting handed these impossible H-O-R-S-E shots to beat and continue to bounce back.

After my JV team lost that game, we still had a chance to lock up at worst a share of the league title with our next game.

Based on our history of this season, we were slated to lose that game. We were going into a hostile, uncomfortable environment and they played an unconventional, hectic style that was feast or famine. Throughout most of the first half, it was nothing but famine for them. But in the third quarter, their hectic style started to break our kids a bit and you could feel the game about to unravel. Our freshman guard banged heads with a player on a loose ball and ended up splitting open the area between his eyelid and eyebrow so badly that I could see the shape of his eye through his wound. We were turning the ball over and not getting quality possessions.

But then something clicked. All of a sudden, the game started to slow down for our kids and even though we were being pestered, it seemed like we were a step ahead of everybody on the court. We broke the pressure, scored the ball and rebounded their misses. The offense ran properly. The defensive help was always there. The rebounding (led by one of our kids that outworked everybody on his way to 21 rebounds in a 32-minute game) belonged to us. We finished the game on a tear and ended up winning by over 20 in a game that we started to lose control of.

Our kids were doing everything we asked them to do. Free throws were buried. Help defense was a support system the team could rely on. We weren’t taking bad shots. Everything we had been working towards for the previous three months was coming to fruition. We were validating our own claims and stakes on the season at hand. We were redeeming the confidence in ourselves that a BS falling out of bounds, one-handed, running, banked-in three-pointer tried to take away. We were determined to finish our goals from the beginning of the season even if they weren’t exactly what we had envisioned.

The Portland Trailblazers are getting this same opportunity. It’s easy to look away from them like a broken toy and pretend we don’t care if they make the playoffs this year. We can look to other upstarts like the Thunder, Grizzlies and new-look Rockets as our picks to round out the playoff landscape.

However, ignoring this Blazers team because they seem too injured is a mistake. They’ll be there in the post-season because of three things that injuries have tried but failed to take from them.

Redemption. Determination. Validation.

T.J. Ford had sat for 18 consecutive games, before playing in the last two due to the absence of Earl Watson. He was solid off the bench and Pacers head coach Jim O’Brien admits he’s not sure what he’ll do with his three point guards.

“We’ll find out how this plays out,” O’Brien told The Indianapolis Star on Saturday.

via NBA Rumors – NBA Trade Rumors, Free Agency Rumors and More – Rumor Central – ESPN.

This is a perfect situation for a team with a glaring point guard problem (THE GRIZZLIES) to go out and acquire a guy on the cheap. A valuable starting-caliber point guard (even if he’s 28th, that’s better than 40th) who can score, manage the offense, and get out in transition. Injury issues are there, sure, but it might be worth the risk for certain teams (THE GRIZZLIES) to shoot the Pacers an offer to see what they’re looking for. The Pacers need young talent and space, but also can get suckered into mid-level players because they refuse to properly rebuild.

But as always, the problem is finding value to offer. Point guards naturally have a higher value demanded simply because there aren’t that many even ‘good’ point guards. Which means you end up overpaying or going with a retread. Then again, the Magic went with a retread and their retread beat an All-Star this weekend.

Still, for a roster so woefully conceived, having too many good point guards is a rare boon. If only they’d cash in on it.

Kirk Hinrich and John Salmons are available. I would be shocked if the Celtics had not already contacted Chicago about one or both of them, and several outlets have reported that the C’s have inquired about Hinrich.

The Celtics will NOT give up Ray Allen in any deal with the Bulls centering around Hinrich or Salmons. This should be obvious, but the Chicago Sun-Times (citing no sources of any kind, not even anonymous ones) gave this notion some credence it doesn’t deserve. If the C’s go for either play, they will offer a combination of expiring deals and wait out Chicago, hoping no contender offers anything better. Boston will only give up Allen for an impact player, and there just aren’t many of those that a) work under the cap; b) are available.

via A Shot at Some Definitive Trade Conclusions » Boston Celtics Basketball – Celtics news, rumors and analysis – CelticsHub.com.

So the Celtics have realized that Ray Allen is NOT an impact player anymore and therefore needs to be moved for them to stay in contention… but they’re only trading him for an impact player.

Riiiiight.

I get the argument. The expiring contract is the trade chip, not the player. But the only teams that would really be interested in acquiring Allen are teams looking to boost this season AND contend for a free agent. So, Chicago. If you’re willing to accept you’re probably not winning the title this year (not absolutely, probably), then you can go ahead and go into the offseason and try and acquire an upgrade. Except then Pierce and Garnett are a year more gone. The window’s either open or closed this year. If it’s closed, hang on to Allen, try and move a few other pieces and get your big market club in the market this summer. If it’s not, you’d better try and get the best overall deal you can and push for the playoffs this year. Hinrich and Salmons may not be impact players, bu they can be parts of a championship team. Eddie House was, for God’s sake.

FACE REALITY PEOPLE! Ronnie Brewer can’t get the Grizzlies past those teams as a bench player and he is the best option I have heard so far. CDR? Nice player and a home town connection which could put butts in the arena but is he going to be the player who gets us past Denver or Dallas? I don’t think so.

The reality is that missing the playoffs might actually work out best in the long run for the Grizzlies anyway. Sure the fans want to see the Grizzlies win a playoff game but they aren’t going to advance this season. Wouldn’t it make more sense to acquire another lottery pick and then next season be in a stronger position to get past the first round of the playoffs?

There are plenty of top quality players available in the draft. Memphis picking in the top 14 would be guaranteed a player who can step in right away and help score or defend off the bench. Carroll, Young and Thabeet will be a year older and Arthur will as well and he should be healthy too. The team will be a top contender next season – all season – without making a go for broke deal that sacrifices the future well-being of the team.

via Shopping Season: When to Buy? | 3 Shades of Blue.

With all due respect to Chip Crain and the boys in three shades, Memphis’ target is pretty specific based on the first half of the season. Not the lottery. Not the second round. First-round exit. Period.

It’s a terrific pinpoint of how different expectations can be and what those expectations mean for different clubs. For example, the New Orleans Hornets are precisely where Chip’s talking about. They’re not making it past the first round. Under no circumstances are the collective Army-of-Darkness-esque bones of the Hornets’ wings going to be enough to get out of the first round. Peja, Posey, Mosepher? Even if Thornton spontaneously bursts into flame and becomes J.R. Smith with a conscience and rebounding ability, that team isn’t going anywhere. Getting blasted out of the first round similar to last year does them no good, and would actually be harmful. This team has the appearance of a contending team, but in reality it’s not.

The Grizzlies? A first round exit is FINE. AWESOME. Because it gets Memphis excited about the team being in the playoffs. Getting wiped out in four? Who cares? They weren’t even supposed to make it! Zach Randolph was their big acquisition, for God’s sake! But if this team has a season where they make it to the halfway mark in the 8th spot, beat the Suns on national television, get people to start to buy in, and then fade away into suckitude again? That’s crushing. You ruin all the good will you built up with the hot start.

Is Ronnie Brewer going to get them over the hump and able to beat LA? Of course not! Nothing barring a miracle would grant that. But Brewer provides an upgrade that could get them into the playoffs and set them up for next year. The biggest reason a trade needs to happen now? Conley.

I wake up every day and ask myself this question:

“What starting point guard in the National Basketball Association would I not trade Mike Conley for?”

I’ve yet to come across an answer. Rafer Alston? By all means. Lou Williams? Heavens, yes. Jonny Flynn? Absolutely. Chris Duhon? … I’d have to think about it, but for not for very long. It’s a glaring hole at a position a running team desperately needs. Wasting time waiting on the “best deal” to come along is just going to wind up putting the pressure back on the Grizzlies. Why? They have nothing of value except Rudy Gay. Teams aren’t going to come calling, even for cap relief, and if they do, I doubt the Grizzlies will take it on.

Making the playoffs represents an opportunity for the franchise to move past the perception that they ruined themselves in the Gasol trade. It gives a little life to Memphis and gets the young’ns some experience, plus nets Heisley a little extra cash. Making a move now shows a commitment to winning, and that in and of itself is worth the investment. If you’ve got a chance to improve your team in this league, you need to take it, not settle and then yell “Just wait till next year!”

Just because you’re both bears doesn’t mean you’re the Cubs.

Welcome to Pro Basketball Talk at NBCsports.com, a new venture where we will be bringing you and savoring the next generation of memories.

What Pro Basketball Talk is about is bringing you one-stop-shopping for your NBA news — from games to the rumors to injuries to just celebrating the game and the players. The model is based on Pro Football Talk, the amazing and successful site Mike Florio and crew have put together. It is the preeminent football blog. We are bringing that model to the Association and we are going to work harder than the Houston Rockets on defense to live up to the incredible standard of PFT. I hope we can someday.

Want to know what happened in a game you missed? Of course we’ll have that and some insight into why it happened. We’;l let you know about the latest trades and trade rumors. We’ll talk Xs and Os. And we’re going to talk about the fun stuff — like Shane Battier’s new mustache. Which is right out of Reno 911.

We have Ira Winderman pitching in as well as a Dream Team of NBA bloggers (Matt Moore, Rob Mahoney and John Krolik). The one thing every one of us has in common is that we love the game. We are going to bring that passion to you.

So bookmark us. Follow the site on twitter. Comment and be part of the community. We will fill up your RSS feed with everything NBA — you’ll get your news fast, correct, with context and opinion sprinkled in, all topped off with a dollop of fun.

Welcome to Pro Basketball Talk. Take your shoes off and stay a while. Make yourself at home.

via ProBasketballTalk – Basketball – NBC Sports.

I am extremely excited this morning to announce that I’m joining NBC Sports’ new NBA Blog, Pro Basketball Talk as their weekend editor (and I’ll be around other times as well). You can find my first post here.  I cannot thank Kurt Helin enough for this opportunity, and for all the support I’ve received from my fellow blogger compatriots. Helin’s a legend out here in the Wild NBA Blogosphere, and when offered a chance to work on a brand new concept with him, I leapt at the chance. Plus, Paroxi-wife thinks this will provide her an opportunity to run away with John Kwraejajfaljdakfda from the Office, and she said I didn’t have any choice.

So what does that mean for HP?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Still here, still babbling, still at FH, still babbling. This was just another opportunity for me to expand and do some new things. If you like HP, you’ll probably dig PBT as well. Fast, angled, little edgy. Kind of like a taco salad with cold chips.That would make me the salsa. You know. ‘Cause I’m SPICE-AY.

Come join us, RSS, bookmark, tweet, etc. Hit me up, bros and women.

What you just experienced was a moving montage of each season since 1999-00, in terms of offensive efficiency and usage among active players. That was just for kicks. Now let me attempt to fully explain the power of this chart and describe its nearly limitless array of functions. Try not to jump ahead as I walk you through this. Come along for the ride.The color of the data points are not random. They actually represent each player’s minutes per game MPG for that season. You can see the colorful scale in the top right, beneath the MPG field. In this case, blue indicates a bench player and red indicates a player who rarely got any time on the pine. I weeded out all the seasons with less than 10 minutes of action per game to eliminate outliers.

So how is this useful? Take a look at Monta Ellis while in the year 2010 which you should be if you haven’t rushed ahead. You can find him all red-faced at the intersection of 30 USG% and 100 ORtg. He is the new Allen Iverson– the star Jack Russell terrier who racks up tons of points but does so inefficiently. Want another possession-waster? Look for a sunburnt circle west of 25 USG and south of 100 ORtg. That’s Trevor Ariza. Can’t see him? Click and on the intersection of 80 ORtg, 25 USG% and drag to create a box up to ORtg 100, 15 USG%. Bam! There he is in his orange glory. He’s still a valuable asset for the future even if he’s struggling in his new role.

via Hoopdata – NBA: Where Motion Happens.

I cannot tell you how amazing I consider this tool to be. Not just in terms of how pretty it is, but to be able to track, consider, and analyze players’ comparative performance across time in a visual format? It immediately brings a different perspective. Being able to see where precisely players’ growth spurt and decline begin is fascinating, and could allow us to keep those things in mind when looking at similar players. It puts things in context (try Bosh vs. Melo, PER vs. Time), and brings us to another level of understanding. It’s nothing that changes the way we look at the game, but it’s a phenomenally useful tool.

In short, GO CLICK NOW. KTHXBAI.

What CAA can provide its clients this summer is a synergy that perhaps other agencies can’t. Rose works with James, and Thomas helps guide Wade and Bosh, but they also will exchange information with each other about prospective suitors, as well as their own clients’ wishes.

“Being together, we can share that information and discuss all the various scenarios that are available,” Rose said. “It’s just going to be a benefit to all of our players. Ultimately, it’s going to be their decision. There won’t be any information that is left out or won’t be a part of the process.”

Said Thomas: “The most important thing to any negotiation process is having good information. Because we are together, our information will be as good as anyone out there representing free agents.”

Rival agents naturally see another side to the story: By spending so much time with James, Wade and Bosh, CAA will have a harder time handling the needs of its other free agents. “It just brings us back to the information flow,” Thomas said. “The access to information we have not only with ‘The Big Three,’ but all of our clients that we have in play this summer.”

via CAA stands at head of 2010 free-agent class – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.

Insane must-read by Spears at Yahoo!. At this point we’re looking at the only reason to doubt at least one combination of the big free agents is that is hasn’t happened before. Because we’ve got CAA managing multiple players, whatever Worldwide Wes’ involvement is, Jay-Z at the fringes, and the closeness of the players themselves.

It’s a fine line of abject conjecture and pointing out the inordinate number of connections that exist here. There are just as many connections to Cleveland, to Miami, so many ways we could be looking at a very similar league in six months.

Yes, the power of CAA exhibited in this article is not one that illustrates a master plan, it’s one built simply on this: all of the elements involved in this summer are open to greater possibilities. Nothing is off the table, and furthermore, everything will warrant a serious examination. This isn’t talk of passing fancy regarding a team-up of two or more of the major players, it’s serious discussion about the pros and cons of such a decision, what it would mean from a basketball, business, and personal level. There’s a lot of moving pieces, but most of those pieces fit in one manner or another.

This whole thing is just weird.

• RT @marcel_mutoni: Austin Carr is basically like a four-year old scribbling nonsense with the telestrator in his hands. #
• Wolves sideline reporter is named Incmikoski. Wow. That's epicl #
• Marc Gasol's hook shot is kind of superb. #
• Al Jefferson's pump fake? Also superb. Lots of superb in a game of non-superb teams. #
• RT @Busy_B: Man, the Cavs may have my least favorite announcing team on League Pass. #
• Ramon Sessions is your nightly "Point Guard I Wish Memphis Had Instead Of Mike Conley" #
• RT @Antwonomous: @HPbasketball Thabeet out tonight vs. MIN. He was arrested early Sat on suspicion of impersonating an actual NBA player. #
• RT @Erik_Jamaal: Joakim Noah is on the bench for the Bulls rockin' a seashell necklace… #
• RT @TheNoLookPass: Austin Carr just called Shaq, "Optimus Prime"? Mute. #
• Zach Randolph just ran point, bounce pass, and Rudy with the tradermark hook dunk KILL THE RIM #
• NOLA and CHarlotte are headed for leaguepassalert, but LeBron's got a better than even shot at 50. what to flip to on commercial? #
• RT @freedarko: Turning on LeBron because he's got 35 at the half is a losing proposition. He's conditioned to spread it around after that. #
• Are the Knicks just starting to lose effort? I've seen them play at least "okay" defense this year, but lately they're getting reamed. #
• RT @snavetrebor: Morris Peterson > Devin Brown #facts #
• WANTED: One OJAM jump-shot. Lost in late January. Please return to owner. KTHXBAI #
• Wolves. Go away. Damn. #
• Hey, Conley, that was a great job taking a bad angle on a layup. But at least you failed to finish effectively. Wait. #
• New Orleans will not go die! They will fight back! You will not deny them the chance to get eradicated from the playoffs again! #
• I'm pretty sure David West just missed a shot that was so far down, it touched the inside of the net. #
• James with 7 rebounds, 8 assists. @freedarko 's right, he'll be in facilitate mode the rest of the game. #
• I like how the Lakers are just like "Fine, whatever. WE give," sit Kobe and then deny Portland the satisfaction. #
• Conley gives me a nightly headache from facepalming. #
• Hey Conley, well, that was a terrible, terrible simple pass on the perimeter, but at least you failed to get back in transition. Wait. #
• RT @NetsRScorching: @HPbasketball I feel like Conley is becoming the Josh Boone of PGs… #
• Memphis is playing pretty well on offense if Conley isn't initiating, but Mayo's defense is horrific right now, and team wide's pretty bad. #
• RT @basketballista: I wonder where Harrington plays next yr #
• scratch off Jordan Hill from the "top ten bust picks of 2010" Now down to Thabeet and Rubio only. #
• Grizzlies are running out of energy, couldn't build a lead with the starters, and the bench has to come in soon. This is bd. #
• RT @JoshDhani: @HPbasketball Great point. Did you know that Thabeet only has four assists all year! #
• Wow, Nate, that was a horrific shot. #
• Love's down and grabbing his knee. #youvegottobekiddingmeGod #
• Love's going back to the locker room. Ye Gods. #
• Corey Brewer has taken over this game. Great game for the guy. Tie game. #
• Memphis hanging on by the hair on its chinny chin chin. Mayo, if you could start guarding Brewer? That would be awesome. Thanks. #
• Oh, an the Nets are dead #
• It's bad #
• major collision between two Nets, Hayes and Harris, and they're not getting up #
• Nets were killing themselves trying to get back into it, and the result is two injuries and an and-one for the Pistons #
• Harris may have dislocated his shoulder #
• RT @ESPN_Michelle: Come on! What did the Nets do to the Basketball Gods!?!?!? Jarvis Hayes and Devin Harris collision…enough is enough! #
• DeMarre Carroll has a dunk and his 18 footer fell once. Best game of the season? Best game of the season. #
• RT @ShotDrJr: To add insult to injury, Devin Harris and Hayes now go into the worst visiting locker room facilities in the NBA at Palace #
• very nice work from the wolves' announce crew. These guys are solid. #
• RT @BluesForARedSun: Even gravity hates the Nets. #
• RT @Knicksfanblog: he looked solid tonight RT @ThisIsTraps: So happy Jordan Hill looks like he's gonna be a good one. #Knicks #
• Everyonce can chillax, Love's back on the floor. Man, I was sure he popped an MCL. Whew. #
• DEMARRE CAROLL HIT A THREE?! @RobertDEdwards #
• Yeah, um, the Grizzlies are going to lose this game. They've got no legs and Wolves look fresh. #
• You know, if the Wolves could get a GM and a coach, I think they could be pretty good. #
• RT @mcten: Bryant was in uniform in the locker room approximately 30 minutes before it was announced he would not play #
• Jefferson is taking over. This is pretty awesome. #
• What's impressive about Conley is that he manages to struggle both going under the screen and switching. Defensively diverse. #
• "Sweet Caroline" Minnesota? Really? Really? That's what you've got? Not even the over-used "Shipping Up To Boston"? #
• RT @stackmack: Man, how bad was this Nets collision? Hoping those guys are both okay! #
• RT @chriswilson02: This Mike Conley is not an NBA point guard. #
• I'm shaking with how angry I am at Conley. #
• Al Jefferson will not let the Wolves lose this game. #
• Jefferson has 14 in the fourth with 3:30 to go #
• RT @RobertDEdwards: Mike Conley looks like he mistakenly ended up on the 5-deep of the downs list at the local rec center. #
• Ryan Gomes with a three, tie game. And why did the defense collapse? If you offered "MIke Conley can do nothing right" you are correct. #
• RT @chriswilson02: If Minnesota trades Jefferson, someone should punch David Kahn in the dick. #
• RT @peachtreehoops: i hope Joakim Noah invites me to the luau he is going to after the game. #
• I'm trying to think of where the Grizzlies should go for offense, and all I've got is "hope Rudy Gay does something neat' #
• RT @NetsRScorching: You know it's bad when someone asks the coach "do you know what body parts they hurt?" #
• Wolves lead 104-99. Gomes hits a three, a 20 footer, and Love hits a three. Three no-calls on Randolph. What are you going to do? #
• Wolves and Grizzlies are both on back to backs but Grizzlies have no legs. #
• The number of profanities screamed in the last forty five seconds is epic. And I saw this coming late third. #
• RT @chriswilson02: Thanks Grizzlies. City of Memphis loves nothing more than getting it's heart ripped out repeatedly. #
• Oh, shit, Durant's got Golden State. This is going to get sick. Set your DVR's, ladies and gents. #
• RT @BluesForARedSun: And now, T-Wolves playing the Way You Make Me Feel to actively mock @HPbasketball. #
• RT @HILHolla: @HPbasketball They need to play first to 175 wins. that would be epic. #
• RT @Antwonomous: @HPbasketball I set the over/under for Durant tonight at 51. I take the over. I say he goes for 52. #
• AMEN! RT @BulletsForever: I like Mike Conley more than most, but why doesn't Mem play him off the ball and let OJ Mayo create for everyone? #
• RT @johnschuhmann: If the Bucks hold on to beat the Pacers, they'll be just a game behind the Heat for 8th. Could Miami miss the playoffs? #
• OH GOD. RT @outsidethenba: Coby Karl, in his first NBA start, is guarding Kevin Durant. #
• RT @geofflepper: Thru 6 min, Durant has gone 1-for-4 for 2 PTS. Wilt can rest easy. #GSW #
• RT @wondahbap: Can someone please tell me when Pau Gasol turned into Kwame Brown? He drops everything right now. #
• Chicago's in the sixth spot. Wowzers. #
• RT @BluesForARedSun: Oh, Bonner. How I've missed your bricks and your rare, Brad Miller-esque basket drives. #
• RT @RUBasketball: @dailythunder Coby* D-League FTW. #
• So I'll have a post about it on Monday, but I wanted to announce I'm joining NBC's new NBA blog as weekend editor for @basketballtalk . #
• And no, nothing changes, HP stays where it's at and I'm still at @NBAFanHouse . #
• New from Matt at FH: Joe Johnson And The Ambiguous All-Star Duo: by Matt MooreFiled under: HawksJoe Jo… http://bit.ly/bB6upa @NBAFanHouse #
• RT @KevinDing: Odom just tied his career high with his 22nd rebound. Artest is one point shy of his season-high 22 points. #
• RT @EAbra: @HPbasketball @russbengtson http://twitter.com/NBA/status/8643032439 #
• Speaking of, I'll be covering #AS10 in Dallas for Hardwood Paroxysm and @NBAFanHouse . PICTURE ME ROLLIN'. #
• Tweeps can I get some thoughts on some new banner designs? Not attached to any of these. http://bit.ly/cPCu1M #
• RT @RicBucher: Owners now want a deal wherethey can take their bet back if they make a bad one. Life, business usually doesn't work that way #
• I need a graphic design artist for a new banner. hit me up at hardwoodparoxysm (at) gmail (etc) #
• Why am I watching Ghost Rider? Why? #
• So. I'm just now watching the Hawks-Bulls replay. HOLY FUCKING SHIT ROSE KILLED THE RIM (end of 1st) #
• Lil' feedback on these, please (we're thinking of having a rotating set of banners): http://bit.ly/cLJvXv and http://bit.ly/duC1rK #
• Gak, only two games today. #
• RT @Bankoff: RT @sbnation: Want To Make Guacamole For The Super Bowl? Get Started. Now. http://sbnation.com/e/1061701 #
• RT @talkhoops: Tyreke just pulled the Kobe move where he moves his shot into your arms and gets the foul. He's evolving…. #
• RT @talkhoops: Stop me if you've heard this before: Kings are blowing a lot of Tyreke Evans' assists… but he's not a point guard… #
• Hell of a game in Toronto. #
• Wow, Spencer Hawes. Just wow. #
• Bargnani dominating Hawes, striking a blow for globalization. #
• UUUUUUUGH. That one guy is doing play by play for the one big game on the national network. Ugh. #
• Love the SVG "Matt Barnes… WTF?" face. #
• Carter had a perfect dump off to Howard. And then just threw it up. h8u #
• Been saying Quisy would be a difference maker for this team. He's just what they need. #
• Great job JJ, you've done a fantastic job. So naturally the guy who doesn't pass to Howard and takes horrible shots is coming back in. #
• I really don't get why the refs fall for the Celtics' punch and flop tactics on Dwight. Come on. You KNOW they're both battling. #
• Oh, goodie, a Jason Williams-Vince Carter lineup. Can we throw in Barnes and Bass? Please? #
• Okay, I mocked JWill, but that was a nifty flipshot. #
• JVG is about to get the mute button. #
• Vince Carter gets outrebounded by a 30+ year old with a sprained foot. #wortheverypenny #
• Rondo has taken over. #
• Nickname: The Clinic? RT @RedsArmy: Rondo is putting on a clinic. Absolute best player on the floor right now and it's not close #
• RT @JoshDhani: *Surprised face* RT @treykerby KG is a liar. He wears 5 because 21 is retired for the Celtics. #
• RT @lwalton86: Adonal Foyle got a $42 million dollar contract in 2004 & his production level never lived up to the contract. #
• According to a commentator, if you score, it's bad defense, and if you don't score, it's good defense. Sigh. #
• I remember that six month period when Jameer Nelson was a good basketball player. That was neat. #
• JVG: "ORL has increased their defensive intensity." Would you say they got their "energy going at the defensive end?" #defenseisourbackbone #
• RT @BrettEP: Saying "AWWW" when Sheed misses a three is like doing the same when Shaq misses a free throw. Really? You're still disappointed #
• By the way, the gentleman in the upper deck of TDNorthbank dropped a pin. I heard it from the other room. #
• RT @BQRMagic: OK, so Stan and @erivera7 were right and I was wrong: leaving Dwight Howard in the game w/ 4 fouls was a good call. #
• That cross-court pass, fadeaway three was just nasty. #
• Eddie House is like "OOH, OOH, CAN WE SHOOT ALL THE TIME?!" #
• Sheed giving Howard the stinkeye. Um, Sheed, you have to actually BLOCK him to give him eye. #
• Aw, Rajon Rondo (THE CLINIC) with a sadface. :( #
• Ryan Anderson is a HUGE part of this Magic run. He's making Baby his bitch right now. #
• don't know if Anderson was giving him baseline because he's relying on Dwight weakside or if he just lost him. #
• LOL certain guy talking Howard up when Anderson got the block. #
• MIKAEL PIETRUS IS ALIVE #
• KG barking off his one completed dunk of five games. Sigh. #
• Give the ball to Howard. Now. #
• Or take a perimeter shot from cold as hell Jameer Nelson. You morons. #
• Redick is actually a really good rebounder. Huh. #
• That should have been six on Howard. #
• RT @BrettEP: Few things are as entertaining as watching the "dare Rondo to shoot" defense work to perfection. #
• Love Rashard walking Howard away from KG. #
• Important note: He's not "The Shooting Clinic" #
• Why is Vince Carter in? He had NOTHING to do with the runs. Why? Why?! #
• well that was a horrific foul by Jameer. Lewis is not coming off screens well this year (that I've seen) #
• Hey, Vince Carter, nice job of not only forcing your way into MORE defense, but taking a bad shot on top of it. Refs screw Howard on the ORB #
• Rashard Lewis OWNS this team. OWNS them. Has majority stock. Their logo should be him. He has them trademarked. #
• Working that pass out of the double team was a fantastic job by Redick. Weak trap, good escape by Redick. Carter would have thrown up a shot #
• Dwight Howard played through foul trouble and killed 'em. BIG UPS, #
• RT @RedsArmy: Are the Celtics getting drunk at halftime or something? I don't get how they come out so shitty every.. damn.. game #
• It's Lord of the Flies in the comments of the Celtics blogs right now. #
• Does Ray Allen go on the block now? #
• That Jay-Z intro was pretty freaking cool. #areyoupayingattentionnba #
• Pretty happy with this #SuperBowl . Like both teams. #
• RT @RobertDEdwards: Wow. CBS is having a major #audiofail That intro was completely wasted for the Colts. #
• someone who works for CBS' audio crew will be getting fired. That is sad. #
• Actually, Doc Rivers was in charge of CBS' audio today. Starts out fine, then completely fades to silence. True story. #
• I liked the commercial. But then, I like most things. #
• If this were the NBA, the Saints just ran a hard halfcourt trap on Peyton, and he threw to the open man for wide open mid-range j. #
• ah, the colts are using up all 15 of Addai's capable carries in the first half. Interesting tactic. #
• If this were the NBA, Peyton just drove and dished to a wide open corner three to put 'em up 15. #
• Badger playing fiddles? Monster FTW. #
• RT @djturtleface: It's a beaver — come on. RT @HPbasketball: Badger playing fiddles? Monster FTW. #
• This is a whole new age. Twitter has brought us a new age of people being able to be hipster-ish about commercials, in a global sense. #
• If this were the NBA, the Saints have gnone back to the pick and roll and brought in a big lineup. No more smallball. #
• RT @noamschiller: Am I the only one who is trying to find out if the Colts' lead right now is the result of a fast pace? #NBAfan #
• If this were the NBA, Dwight Freeny just came back from a knee sprain and blocked it into the fourth row. #
• monster fail. RT @iamMARSZ: BRING EM DOWN FREENEY!!! HAND DOWN MAN DOWN!!! #
• Zounds. @kmonty (paroxi-wife) has remembered Puppy Bowl. There go the commercials. #
• I think there's a Husky on #puppybowl with a glass eye. He might be a bond villain. #
• Judging from Twitter, it appears that people expected the SB commercials to cause them to laugh so hard their kidneys burst and kept laughin #

Who stands to lose the most? That’s the compelling subplot. Where do the players give and where do they stand ground? The players most responsible for selling tickets, television ratings and merchandise – the Kobe Bryants, LeBron Jameses and Dwyane Wades – could be the ones taking the biggest hit. The nine-man executive committee of players has just one star: Chris Paulnotes. The days of the insufferable David Falk trying to control the union are long gone, his bellows of “Michael Jordan is the league,” a distant echo in union meetings.

The idea of raising superstar salaries and paying the middle- and lower-class players less won’t wash in a one-man, one-vote union. “If they cut the highest 25 or 30 salaries by, say, 35 percent, you’re not going to have to change that much more for [the owners] to get what they want financially,” another player agent said. “LeBron can scream and shout all he wants, but this is a one-man, one-vote union. Once guys figure out that 400 or so players will benefit by the top few taking a major cut, what do you think they’re going to do?”

via NBA aims to crush union in labor battle – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.

So, we’re going to have a lockout. Which sucks.

I came to this conclusion today, after the infamous opening to Woj’s article:

Here’s how an NBA front-office executive described the document the commissioner’s office delivered to the union to start labor negotiations: “It’s just a photocopy of Stern’s middle finger.”

via NBA aims to crush union in labor battle – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.

Well, then. Naturally, Adonal Foyal came out and laid the groundwork for the union’s first “Aw, hells naw” response. And we’re off. The message Stern is starting out with is apparently from all accounts a pretty unpleasant one. The owners are using the economy as the impetus to usher in a sweeping era of reforms to try and bust the union into NFLPA-like submission. We’re talking shorter, non-guaranteed contracts, and a hard cap. A HARD CAP.

While my little heart is aflutter at the thought of Dolan, Buss, or Cuban not being able to spend four times as much as a small market club, even I’m pulling at the reins on this one. The luxury tax needs to be made more aggressive, not abolished. We’re at a point where we’re finally looking at being able to have room for all the great players with potential that just need time. A hard cap is going to make development picks (and potentially the D-League) an untenable element. It goes hand in hand with the other thing being bandied about, contraction. Look, you can talk about Seattle and 40 years and how much it sucks, but at the end of the day, at least we got what is turning out to be a pretty great fanbase in Oklahoma City. Tearing apart a team and simply having it evaporate hurts the fans, the league, the game. It’s dripping acid on the fabric of the league, and I’d hate to see that happen. That’s at the heart of all my talk about small market teams. Kids that don’t live on a coast should be able to love the NBA, too. It’s a dangerous path we’re on.

That said, the quote that started this conversation was what I thought was most fascinating. A realignment from superstar elitism to control via the masses. Joe Smith and Chuck Hayes having as much if not more power in the financial future of the PA than the King. How bizarre is that concept? This story will be fascinating to watch, but I fear the only way this ends is with the start of 2011-2012 being in January.

But then, I hated business classes in college. I was usually drunk at the time. College night for the win.

Kobe Bryant has ignored his ever-thickening medical file, playing through a broken finger, strained elbow, back spasms and, most recently, a sprained left ankle.

But it might be time for him to sit a game or two, a thought that crossed Phil Jackson’s mind while the Lakers’ coach watched him hobble around the court Wednesday against the Charlotte Bobcats.

“It occurred to me yesterday during the course of that game,” Jackson said a day after Bryant had only five points, his lowest total since a January 2005 game against Cleveland in which he scored two points before being carried off the court because of a severely sprained ankle.

via Phil Jackson ponders resting Kobe Bryant because of injuries – latimes.com.

The hubris is stunning.What, the broken finger, back spasms, cold, flue, and other ailments weren’t enough? What’s it going to take to hold the man out?

I say this in all honesty: I am stunned at Bryant’s performance this season. He’s not just “banged up.” The man is basically a car crash victim. And he’s pouring in points, still! Yes, he’s shooting too much, but can you blame him with the way Pau’s turned back into Dairy Queen Sunday Special, Odom’s MIA, and Bynum still has days he doesn’t know where he’s at? He’s the offense. So he’s taking shots. He needs to recognize when to go to his teammates and say “You need to take the ball and score, because my FINGER IS BROKEN. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? FINGER! BROKEN! YOU! SCORE!” But I can’t fault the guy. Who I can fault? The guy everyone’s falling over to anoint as he runs the second best player in the league into the ground.

Jackson always takes the long-view, the “none of this matters until the playoffs” approach. This team can win without the top seed, they don’t need homecourt. So why on Earth is he not going to his star player, who he knows so well, and saying “You’re sitting. You’re sitting now, and the All-Star game, and that’s it.” I’m sure the league would be very upset if Kobe didn’t play. But they’d be more upset if his body ends up having more severe problems and it impacts him in May.

Besides, wouldn’t shutting him down force the rest of the Lakers to step up? Wouldn’t it make it so Pau’s got to man-up, Odom’s got to wake-up, Bynum’s got to get up, and Artest has to… well, Artest is doing okay and not eating people, so I think he’s fine. Taking Kobe out isn’t going to develop a new alpha dog. It’s just going to teach the rest of the pack to hunt without him. Then when he’s health, he’ll be ready to take over and do what’s important: win the title. If there’s anything we learned from last season, it’s that LeBron can have February as long as Kobe gets June.

Shut him down.