Hallo! Welcome the return of the links! Submit your peasant lives to their greatness!
- Durantula is not so hot on the +/- criticism. You know, a lot of people talked about how close he is to his mom and the similarities between him and Vince Young when I was in Austin. The Texas athlete breeds phenomenal ability and the occasional sensitivity to the barbs of criticism. Even though the TrueHoop article wasn’t criticism. (BONUS: Daily Thunder does a kickass job of evaluating +/- and defending his superstar without copping to the “Plus/Minus is stupid” tactic, which is like saying, “Game Theory is stupid.” It’s just another way of trying to gain insight.)
- In the process of trying to maintain level heads in Blazerland, Dave from BE digs into the value and meaning of culture within a locker room.
- I find Pierce’s quote about parity really interesting. Not because Truth is finally able to look down on the rest of the league, which must be nice after all those years of being the mediocre team, but because of the real story behind it. Revenue sharing and boosting the smaller market teams’ ability to pay players is going to be a central point for the CBA discussions. Even though the NBA has a better system than baseball (one that actually works, imagine that!), there’s still a glaring disadvantage for small market teams that haven’t been lucky enough to build support (San Antonio, Utah) with wins. The players’ union has identified this as an area that they need to attack in CBA discussions (bully for Nate Jones for calling that). Parity is bad for players on great teams in terms of wins and losses, but bad for the union as a whole and could be what the players use as leverage if the owners come calling for salary restrictions, which the players obviously don’t want to give up.
- I hated the Andre Miller signing. Hated it. I wouldn’t say I’m an Andre Miller hater. He’s fine. I don’t hate him. I nothing him. He’s a good player, if you asked me to weigh in on the good/bad scale. But with that cap space, with those assets, with this market, you went after Andre Miller? Really? And now things seem to be headed in an outright negative direction. Portland is a place for open hearts, open minds, and open passing lanes. Not grizzly point guards moping around and tinkering with the offense. I think the overall effect will be a “better” team results wise, but the beginning of the death of the Grand Era of Blazer Rise. Which is okay. We all have to grow up sometime, after all.
- Another way to describe this would be “How To Kill Five Guys And Get Paid To Do It.“
- SLAM Online wins for Tyreke Evans new nickname (though we’ll undoubtedly give him one that won’t stick and we’ll only use. That’s how we roll.) ‘Reke Havoc.
- This was the best non-Jones podcast I’ve listened to this year.
- For those of you wondering if I’m still staunchly anti-Bynum, the time has past. I asked for people to allow him time to arrive before anointing him the new and rightful King Of the Down Low Jungle. His work ethic is still for crap, but Jesus, what’s the point of being really big if you have to work hard? Anyway, he’ll be excellent this season. What’s worse is that he can actually do more damage coming off the bench.
- Wait, is Brandon Roy really concerned about getting the ball? Brandon, do you see me sitting around saying “I wonder if I’ll go bald?” No. You know why? My hairline is not receding, it’s already laid down its arms and gone home to make up stories about its valor, and you could land a LOLopter on my head. Take the evidence in front of you. You’ll get the ball, man. Hell, McMillan’s idea of a final out of bounds play is the same as Vinny Del Negro’s. “GIVE IT TO THE SMALL GUARD GUY! THE SMALL GUARD GUY! SAVE US, SMALL GUARD GUY!”
- “Rockets seek aggressive Ariza as he adjusts to new role.” Let’s edit that, shall we? “Rockets seek aggressive non-sucky Ariza as he adjusts to new role not having Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum as teammates.” There.
- Keep it simple, Speights.
- Boom Got Them Censorship.
- The idea of Farmar getting out of LA makes me giddy. I’ve liked him since he came into the league via D-League assignment, and the fact that he’s on Numb3rs (Shut up, it’s a good show! It does graphic things that make me think of Ziller!) makes him even better. And what with the “SHANNON BROWN CAN DUNK! THEREFORE HE SHOULD START AT POINT!” silliness ramping up, this seems more likely than ever.
- The Celtics are not shy about their chances this season.
