In this episode, Matt talks to Trey Kerby about the Bulls missing Ben Gordon, who’s the chillest bro, and more. We check in with the guys from Canis Hoopus to see if they’re still mad about people saying Rubio’s not coming, and Rob Mahoney stops by to completely overestimate the Mavs.
Slightly NSFW, due to discussion of how crazy Crazy Pills is.
Oh, and check us on iTunes, baby. Big time!
Jazz fans: lend me your ears. I come to bury your hopes and dreams, not prod you into a violent outburst. But inevitably, because of the banner that so elegantly graces the top of this site, and because even the mention of Chris Paul is apparently synonymous with a full-blown crusade against Deron Williams’ honor, this post will enrage you. I’m here to tell you that such rage is a natural reaction to the fact that your team is on the fast track to nowhere.
Oh, burnnnn.
In a vacuum, I’ve got no qualms with the extension the Jazz have just given to Mehmet Okur. He’s well worth the money. But this move is nothing if not symptomatic of the greater force at work here, in particular the oh-so-powerful inertia. Holding on to Okur, Deron Williams, and Andrei Kirilenko, who form somewhat of a three-man cap-wrecking crew, only sends the message that everything is alright. Let me tell you, it’s far from it.
Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap are on the ropes, and potentially involved in a doomsday scenario that would leave Utah with nothing more than a black eye and Tyrus Thomas to show for it. Moore would forever curse my name if I dared utter a word against Tyrus, but one sentence needs to be bolded, underlined, circled, and highlighted: Tyrus Thomas is the antithesis of a Jerry Sloan player. As talented as Tyrus is and even keeping in mind the player he could one day become, I can’t help but shake a feeling that Sloan would tie him up in a cave and never let him see the light of day. Jerry Sloan’s a fantastic coach, but his experience and tenure don’t come without drawbacks; One of the curses of having a tradition or convention is being bound by those same traditions and conventions.
The real rub here is that even if the Jazz do hold on to either Boozer or Millsap, they’re stuck on a treadmill. This was a team that was thoroughly embarrassed by the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, and aside from a shift in salary obligations, nothing has changed. The Jazz still have the same flaws that plagued them yesterday and yesteryear, and those flaws won’t be remedied by standing still and hoping things work out for the best.
There will eventually be a day where AK’s strangehold on Utah’s cap comes to an end, and there will be rainbows and sunshine and good will towards all men. But in the meantime (two full seasons of meantime), the Jazz have done nothing to improve their standing aside from hope for Boozer and/or Millsap’s return, and pick up Eric Maynor and Goran Suton in the draft. Those picks were sound, but is this really the movement needed to elevate the Jazz from would-be contender status? The same status that had them as inferior to the 2008 Lakers, much less the moxie-infused 2009 model? I doubt it. In fact, I guarantee that it doesn’t. The Jazz have been left out in the cold of the Western Conference arms race, and that isn’t just a stab at Utah’s climate; despite the world getting bigger and bigger around them, the Jazz have either the resolve, the foolishness, or the lack of alternatives to stay just as they are.
Although they all generally have the same duty (run the offense!), different point guards in the NBA possess a variety of skills. Whether they are big or small, quick or fast, or aggressive or passive, they come in all shapes and sizes. As it turns out, some of the game’s best shooters run the point. Is the ability to shoot three-pointers well a key skill for point guards? Today I’ll take a look.
Using the lineup data at http://www.basketballvalue.com, I’ve split the lineups into three groups: those featuring a point guard who shoots 40% or better on threes, those featuring one who shoots 30% or less, and the remainder. For each group, I’ve calculated the average Offensive Rating. In addition, the lineups are split between those at home and those on the road. The results are in the graph below:
25.6% of home lineups feature a point guard shooting better than 40% on threes, and 30.05% feature one shooting less than 30%. On the road, those numbers are 25.62% and 30.32%, respectively.
It appears as though the ability of your team’s point guard to shoot the three well is very important. Overall, the difference is more than three points per 100 possessions. Similarly, if your point guard struggles with his outside shot, your offense will struggle.
Beyond that, I don’t want to say too much. It’s too easy to make bold statements without considering some of the underlying factors, so I’ll just present the data as is. Feel free to draw your own conclusions, though.
There are only two things that NBA Draft picks can become – success or failure.
It’s a simple fact of life and a simple fact of the NBA that potential is reached, not reached or exceeded. It doesn’t matter if it takes three months, five years, 10 years or 20 years. NBA players will either be regarded as one of the good picks or one of the bad picks. They’ll be a bust, steal, or no-brainer. They’ll sail the seven seas, find the Holy Grail, cause a nation to weep, drive fans insane or make people want to put their head through a wall just to avoid seeing that player miss his assignment on defending the pick and roll for the umpteenth time. Anything is possible.
Whoops. Sorry, KG.
Anything is posssssssibbbblllllleeeeee!
We have our steals in recent draft memory. Whether it be Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Danny Granger, Michael Redd, Paul Millsap, Gilbert Arenas or others, there is always the hope of a diamond in the rough that will be discovered and help your franchise shine. And we also have our busts in the draft. There’s Michael Olowokandi, Danny Ferry, Pervis Ellison, Marcus Fizer and Marcus Haislip.
Wait a second; let’s hold back on Marcus Haislip.
Marcus Haislip is coming back to the NBA. Not only is he coming back to the NBA but he’s also coming back as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. Normally, I’m not interested in guys who don’t make it here and then are jettisoned overseas, unless I come across one of their games on NBATV or some random DirecTV channel that I didn’t know I subscribed to (see: Omar Cook, Trajan Langdon, or Qyntel Woods). But with Marcus Haislip, I’ve always been a lot more intrigued with what happened to his NBA career.
I mean, where did it go? One day it was here and the next day it vanished – like David Copperfield, laser disc and the Sega Dreamcast.
He was a lottery pick for the Milwaukee Bucks; thrust into a forward heavy rotation in beers and brats country that consisted of various combinations including Toni Kukoc, Tim Thomas (back when he was regarded as a “one of these days, he’s going to make us look like geniuses” type of player), Anthony Mason, and Keith Van Horn. He played a grand total of 704 minutes in the birthplace of sweet, sweet Miller High Life before finding his way to Indiana to sit behind the fallout of the Ron Artest melee in Detroit. Needless to say, in 79 career games in which he cracked 20 game minutes just 15 times, Marcus never really got a chance to prove he wasn’t a bust.
So what does he do? He does what any young strapping lad with no job and very little direction does in their early to mid-20s. He heads over to Europe!
And what does he do in Europe? He finds a craft, hones it and bides his time like the Count of Monte Cristo. He moves through Turkey for two years before finding his home in Malaga, Spain. He becomes a highlight real of go-go-gadget dunks and Hakim Warrick-like blocked shots. He adds a three-point shot to his repertoire. He learns how to shoot free throws. He becomes a slashing power forward because he doesn’t score well from the block. He finds ways to adapt, blend in, and star for a successful club.
Now, he’s not the perfect swordsman that the Count of MC was. He isn’t a great defender outside of the occasional highlight swatation. He doesn’t really have low post moves. He rebounds at an extremely poor rate for a 6’10” jumping jack. He doesn’t exactly scream a lower-middle class version of Shawn Marion like the highlights might allude to.
But in San Antonio, he doesn’t have to be all of those things. He doesn’t have to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. He doesn’t have to be the Tim Duncan to Tim Duncan’s David Robinson. He just has to be an option. He just has to be energy off the bench for the often old and slow San Antonio frontcourt. He wasn’t given a fair shot before but with San Antonio, you have to feel like he’s being brought aboard for a reason. Maybe it’s just insurance in case Ian Mahinmi is still Ian Mahinmi or in case Tiago Splitter is as motivated to jump oceans as Fran Vasquez has been.
R.C. Buford often knows what he’s getting himself into, especially with foreign players. Marcus Haislip is inherently and biographically terrestrial to this country but he might as well be a foreign commodity. He was unknown and unwanted here. He busted out before he ever busted in. But redemption is his to have in the great state of Texas. Teaming with veterans and champions creates an environment of winning and permeates through the young players that want it badly enough.
In San Antonio, Marcus Haislip has proven that endurance and separation lead to a chance for atonement. He hasn’t proven anybody wrong and he hasn’t proven anybody right. But what he has done is currently erased the label of failure next to the 13th pick in the 2002 draft.
He’s a step back in the direction of success. Once again for Marcus, anything is possible.
In free agency, there are winners, there are losers, and there are the Raptors.
After coming to terms with the most popular girl in school, the Raps have also agreed to extend former number one overall pick, resident Italian, and Dirk Nowitzki’s shadow mainstay Andrea Bargnani for five years and around $50 million. That’s a chunk of change, and Bargnani, while solid, isn’t quite a chunk of a player.
Not to wave the HP banner too much, but Moore hit this one right on the head. This could easily be a move that inspires outrage from armchair GMs everywhere, claiming that Bargs doesn’t deserve this money and that the Raps are crazy for offering it. But Bargnani is a capable player and a contributor, and a young one at that. Forget the fact that he and Bosh play the same position and often fulfill similar roles and fill similar spaces. Those things are important, but when you’re the Toronto Raptors on the wrong side of this decade, you’ve got bigger fish to fry.
The Raps have Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, and now Hedo Turkoglu, but not much else. The obvious motive, as Matt outlined at FanHouse, is to get a crew fun and quirky and talented enough for Bosh to want to stick around. Still, the Raps’ need for real talent goes deeper than that. It’s not just about keeping Bosh, but also about keeping the good players in Toronto in general. I don’t think that Toronto is an unattractive market or a bad city by any means, but the team is running low on players that matter, and this extension could be considered just one of many moves (in the past, and to come) made by Colangelo to salvage what he can from the current roster. Even if Bosh decides to bolt for greener pastures, the Raptors are going to need assets. They’re going to need players to build around or at the very least, that can be liquidated for some value in a rebuild. I doubt Bargs will fetch a sweet price on the trade market, but at this point he’s one of the more valuable chips the Raptors have. That’s not something that you let go walking out your front door, even if the scoring is streaky and it would be kind to describe the defense in the same way.
That’s why the Raptors essentially get a free pass on this extension. They could have waited a season to get negotiations underway, but since it’s clear that the Raps intend to keep Bargnani in Toronto, it’s hard to argue with their timing. Even in what was supposed to be a pinched market, contributing scorers are getting some big money. Charlie and Gordon got PAID by the Pistons, Hedo likely got a contract well above his value, a second-string center will sign with the Mavs for the full midlevel, and others like Brandon Bass and Glen Davis are likely to get sizable deals despite limited roles. There are teams willing to pay anyone who can play, and Bargs can sure as hell do that. Where his ceiling lies, and how this contract fits that ceiling is another debate altogether. It’s one that lies somewhere beyond the black and white, and beyond the gray area in between. Teams desperate to hold onto their talented sub-stars are operating in a spectrum unto themselves, where the typical judgments and evaluations need not apply.
Alex Curtis-Slep is the author of NBATipoff and an avid drinker of cold, cold water. This is his first post here at the Paroxysm. Today he discusses the little-discussed Crawford trade for the Hawks and why they may have managed not to screw up this time. Enjoy. -Matt
The Celtics were facing a bit of an image problem. Kevin Garnett is the big bad wolf, Paul Pierce is the self-proclaimed “best player in the world,” Rajon Rondo kills poor, Kansasian combo guards with his bare hands, and Kendrick Perkins is some combination of a beast and…well, something else. Obviously those in Boston couldn’t really care less, provided that the team’s off-the-charts confidence/brashness/swagger/hubris correlates with some tangible success. In 2008, that meant good ol’ Larry building a small, trophy case sized vacation home in the Garden. In 2009, it meant a few near losses, bad timing on a few injuries, and watching the “rival” Lakers have their parade. Needless to say, that was a less than suitable result.
Regardless of what the Celtics’ counterparts were doing across the country, Boston needed to add something. A back-up center would be nice, and any scoring would be gravy.
But Danny Ainge didn’t really go with that game plan. Instead, he signed a starting caliber center that can score from all over the court and defend like hell. On top of that, the guy used to think the Celtics were devils, has a bit of a rep for his hijinx, and his cup overfloweth with whatever choice word you’d like to use to describe his self-confidence.
This is gonna be fun.
Despite the fact that Sheed’s exit from Detroit seemed kind of inevitable, I had him pegged as a Piston. Most players are identifiable by the one team with which they found the most success, the colors and uni that look natural and fitting on them. I thought the Pistons were that team for Rasheed, who was a bit of a malcontent with the Blazers and a short-term Atlanta Hawk and Washington Bullet. But with his latest act of deviance, Sheed signed with the enemy. From their first moments on the floor together, it was clear that the Pistons and the Garnett Celtics hated each other. All of that animosity must have evaporated along with Sheed’s passion for playing in Detroit, or else Wallace has officially become a merc. The highest bidder, the highest championship odds, whatever; Rasheed Wallace signing a two-year deal with the enemy isn’t just the end of his persona as a Piston, but also the beginning of a completely new stage. I wouldn’t say he’s a Celtic, but he’s also not a championship freeloader. Wallace is likely to be a key contributor for a championship-caliber team, albeit one that used to be the bane of his existence.
I have to wonder: the blessing and the curse of Rasheed’s game has always been his fire. He’s attached, he’s emotional, and when the dude cares about basketball, he’s a force. But a lot of what Wallace has always been able to achieve comes from the kinship he forms with his teammates. The battle-in-the-trenches and goof-off-in-the-locker-room mentality always appeared to be what fueled him. If he really has morphed into some mercenary warrior, devoid of the loyalty that has been a staple of his career since his Portland days, will Sheed ever be able to regain his former success? The same success that completely eluded him in a final, ‘going through the motions’ effort with the Pistons? It’s impossible to say at this point, but it’s worth a thought.
Sheed’s internal politics aside, this is a pretty great move for the Celtics. I don’t think it puts them head and shoulders above the rest of the title hopefuls, but it certainly cements Boston’s place among the league elite. Any chance of slippage or rust is countered by making such a big addition, and the fact that the Celtics were able to fortify the center position is even more helpful than you might think. Wallace might seem to be but a marginal upgrade over some combination of Leon Powe and Glen Davis, but he’s both put together and then some. The problem with both Powe and Davis is that their skills are held back by their lack of size. Wallace is tall enough to cast shadows over both, while well eclipsing their respective skill and talent levels. If Leon and Big Baby remain Celtics, then they’re as deep as an ocean up front. If not, then Sheed is more than capable of fulfilling their duties (while playing far superior defense) in a three big rotation with KG and Perk. Those are three big, bad men with three big, bad mouths on ‘em, and a strong enough group to challenge any team in the league.
Not all overpaid free agents are created equal.
In one realm, there are the Hedo Turkoglus of the world. The confirmations of Turkoglu’s initial deal with Portland already had the internets launching into one giant diatribe about the contract’s length and price tag, but on some level, it made sense. In a bizarre, Otis Smithian way, handing over your checkbook for an ideal fit isn’t as foolish as it seems. The Blazers targeted their guy, and it happened to be one that fulfilled their primary offensive needs. On top of that, there was a real market for Turk, or at least enough of one that an over-the-top offer to Hedo was likely necessary to ensure Portland their prime target. The Blazers needed to capitalize on some of their cap room this summer, and Turkoglu seemed a good a target as any, especially considering what Houston did to them in the playoffs by handcuffing Brandon Roy.
Turkoglu’s value was defined by the market, by two teams driving up his price by entering a bid of a bidding war. Portland desperately wanted another piece to bolster their growing core, and Toronto desperately needed another reason for Chris Bosh to stay. It shouldn’t matter that the Turkish Jordan ditched out on a verbal commitment with Portland. That’s reason A-1 why the free agent moratorium is absolutely idiotic, but he doesn’t write the rule books. He got a bigger offer in a tough economy from a city better suited to his family. There was no franchise loyalty at play here, but two teams participating in a bidding war that was called prematurely.
In the other real, we have Ben Gordon. Gordon obstinately refused the affectionate advances of the team that drafted him, and was rewarded for his stubbornness by being allowed to set his own market value. According to Gordon, what many thought was a two-team bid for his services was even less than that. Chicago wasn’t part of the equation, which left Joe Dumars to bid against himself and the monsters that Gordon and his agent had created. The result was a bad, but not atrocious, 5-year, $55 million deal that all but gobbled up the Pistons’ future. There was enough room to ink Charlie Villanueva to his career-making deal, but the Pistons of the future will no doubt be built on Ben Gordon’s shoulders. The same Ben Gordon who stands as a constant defensive liability, who shoots your team in and out of games, who held a team that badly needed his scoring ransom for his services, and who will lead the troops into Waterloo. That’s what we in the (architecture?) biz like to call “structurally unsound.”
The moves to nab Hedo are understandable, because there was some real interest there. Free agency is just fun like that sometimes. But when the Pistons essentially entered free agency to outbid themselves, isn’t Joe Dumar forfeiting the engineering principles of the modern Pistons? Joe D went bargain hunting for the entire starting lineup of the 2004 NBA Champion Pistons: Chauncey turned out to be a steal for the midlevel exception, Ben Wallace was a trade throw-in, Tayshaun Prince was a diamond in the draft day rough, an unhappy Stackhouse was swapped for Rip, and Sheed was picked up for a buffalo nickel on the dollar. Signing Villanueva and Gordon to their sizable deals hardly follows in that same tradition, and could doom Detroit to a decade of mediocrity.
So there’s a reason why Toronto won’t get the same criticism that Detroit has. Their move was an act of desperation to hold on to a semblance of legitimacy, the cost of which was determined by demand for Turk and his big game antics. History may not treat Turk’s signing kindly (HE’S THIRTY!), but the Raptors overcame competition and obstacles to add a pretty sweet player. Probably not $53 million sweet, but sweet nonetheless.
Marc Stein, circa June 20th, 2008 (emphasis mine):
Let’s face it. The Lakers are suddenly answering to a “soft” label and have undeniable defensive and toughness issues on the perimeter that Pierce repeatedly exploited. Factor in Jackson’s proven ability to handle personalities like Artest, Artest’s friendship with Bryant and the Lakers’ known interest in acquiring him before Gasol’s arrival and the Sacramento swingman becomes a natural target.
But there are basketball issues involved — does Artest fit in offensively in Jackson’s triangle? — and bigger obstacles than the X’s and O’s to making that move. Artest told ESPN.com earlier this week that he’s “99 percent sure” he won’t be opting out of the final year of his contract by the June 30 deadline. Assuming he doesn’t change his mind, Artest would thus be available to the Lakers only via trade, which would then require two old rivals to come together on a deal …
Artest followed up our Tuesday interview with an e-mail Thursday in which he said: “Even if I was to opt out, which probably won’t happen, I will never accept a mid-level exception. So people trying to figure out possibilities should get that out of their heads.”
Translation: Artest is strongly against opting out largely because he knows that the Lakers (and any other interested party) likely would offer him a free-agent contract starting at no higher than the mid-level, which was $5.4 million this season. He’d rather play next season at $7.4 million for Sacramento or whomever — knowing that the Kings are virtually certain to get various trade offers if he elects to play out the final year of his contract — then see what kind of deal he can command on the 2009 free-agent market.
I would pay any amount of money to watch 2009 Ron Artest have a sit down with 2008 Ron Artest (via time travel or some inter-dimensional neutral ground, naturally) and try to convince him of the merits of signing for the midlevel exception. Hell, I’d probably pay a significant amount to watch Ron convince himself in the mirror.
I don’t know if you heard, but the Lakers won the championship. Yeah, they were pretty good. So naturally, they went out on the free agent market this summer (prior to re-upping two critical pieces in Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza, mind you) and added the single most combustible ingredient available. I hope the police have stayed frosty since the post-title riots, because Ron-Ron has just prescribed all of Los Angeles a lifetime supply of crazy pills.
At least that’s the theory. And I say theory because this is Ron fricking Artest, and until he signs that contract in blood, I’m going to continue to think of him in free agent terms. Ron’s lunacy has earned that much respect, and we’d be wise to honor it.
That said…WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?! This would seem to be an arrangement from which neither party really gains. Artest seemed to have a pretty good thing going in Houston, and though Yao’s likely out for the season, Ron would have plenty of room to flex his alpha dog complex. The man needs the ball on the offensive end, which leads some rather random results. It’s what happens when talented players live and die by the contested, fadeaway jumper. With the Rockets, there is no question that Artest was the man on the offensive end. There’s no Yao or T-Mac in sight, meaning most of the playmaking responsibilities would fall on the shoulders of Artest and one Aaron Brooks, who still has quite a bit to learn in the way of being an NBA point guard. Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, and even Carl Landry and Luis Scola are not guys that are likely to complain about their touches on the offensive end. Artest probably didn’t have the green light to shoot 30 times a game, but he is undoubtedly one of the more talented offensive players on that roster.
Beyond that, Artest only makes sense offensively in situations where his skills can be utilized without damaging the team concept. Los Angeles, home of the triangle offense, is not that place. Artest’s tendency to stop the ball, throw possessions into the wind, and take what can only be described as “Ron Artest Shots” can’t fly well with Phil, with Kobe, with Pau, with Tex Winter, or with just about anyone who has come to know and love (or at least respect) the most dominant offensive unit in the game. The Lakers are just too damn good offensively because of the triangle, not in spite of it as some Jordan-esque logic might suggest. They were able to dissect a fantastic defensive team in the Finals because the talent was there and the system was there. Artest brings plenty of one, but substitutes the other for generally poor basketball IQ and the possibility of going bonkers at any particular time. Sweet.
On top of that, the Lakers seem to be severing their ties with Trevor Ariza. Signing Artest is doing more than showing Ariza the door. It’s pushing him out, throwing his stuff out on the lawn, and handing Ron a molotov cocktail. Feelings are going to be hurt, and for a player that claims that he just “wants to feel wanted,” that means quite a bit. The true delight comes in the fact that Ariza could function within the system at a level we can never expect Artest to. Trevor made a habit out of deferring on offense, and perfect a few offensive skills in his ability to hit the three from select spots and his tremendous finishes. The Lakers needed that against the Celtics, and they got it against the Magic. It wasn’t the only reason why the Lakers have one title instead of two, but it definitely played a role. This team clearly competes at a different level with Ariza on the floor, and that’s a credit to just how hard he’s worked on his game.
As for Lamar Odom, he’s likely to be just as confused at this situation as we are. Lamar is a guy who needs the confidence of his teammates and his coach to be successful, and forcing him out of the starting lineup with Crazy Pills is probably not the way to go. Artest is a bit similar in his need to be nurtured a bit by his team, putting the Lakers in a pretty strange situation if Odom does return. Both need to play and both need to feel respected, lest you risk losing a pivotal contributor. But Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum need their minutes, and Kobe’s pretty much guaranteed his. When it comes to the roles within the organization and their relative levels of prestige, something’s got to give. If you’re a Lakers fan, you can only hope that something isn’t Lamar’s confidence or Ron’s sanity.
