OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER OFFICIAL GOOD LUCK GARDEN GNOME – eBay (item 390124639809 end time Dec-28-09 14:28:12 PST).

via Daily Thunder

Heeeeerrrrreeee, kitty kitty kitty…

Hit it boys!

Lion Face: Kobe Bryant
The dude has a broken finger on his hand. He often uses his hand for basketball related activities. One might even call it his strong hand when referring to how he performs these basketball activities. And yet, he still took a decent defensive team like the Bulls and torched their perimeter length and athleticism for 42 points. Well… sure, he did all that scoring but he probably took an insane amount of shots to get to those 42 points, right? Wrong. Try 15/26 shooting from the field, 14/21 shooting on two-pointers and he didn’t shy from contact by evidence of his 15 free throw attempts. He played through pain the way stars are supposed to play. If Vince Carter had this broken finger, he would have had reconstructive surgery on the finger that would have rivaled the complexity of the procedures in Face-Off. For this, I’m willing to ignore his eight turnovers. KOBE RULEZ!!!!111!!!

Lemon Face: Spencer Hawes
I just don’t get it with him. What does he do on the basketball court? He’s flat out soft. He doesn’t score inside even though he can. He settles for jumpers even though he doesn’t make them. He barely rebounds. He can’t defend anybody in the post. His passing is a nice skill but he never utilizes it. And he’s supposed to be a building block for this young Kings team? He was torched by LaMarcus Aldridge tonight after being embarrassed by Al Jefferson in the last game. He also grabbed just two rebounds in 28 minutes, shot 2/7 from the field and was a -24 on the court.

Lion Face: Shaqzunas O’nealkaus
This center-hybrid combined for 32 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals, six blocks and 14/18 shooting. It was like watching Goliath and fat Al Roker combine forces for the greater good of protecting the city of Cleveland. I don’t expect nights like this to replicate often for the center-hybrid of Shaqzunas O’nealkaus so we might as well celebrate it while we can.

Lemon Face: Larry Hughes
Remember when Larry Hughes was playing great point guard for the Knicks? I barely do too. He finally came back down to Earth in Charlotte with eight points on 3/10 shooting and six turnovers in 20 minutes off the bench. If I know Knickblog like I think I do, Gian is putting together a video showing just how terrible Larry Hughes was in contrast to this video.

Lion Face: Michael Beasley
He outplayed Chris Bosh and matched him point for point in this game. He finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds. He was extremely efficient with 11/19 shooting and 6/6 from the free throw line. He had 14 of the Heat’s 36 points in a pivotal second quarter in which Miami pulled away a little and gave themselves some breathing room. Oh, and Michael Beas also had this sequence:

Lemon Face: Toronto Raptors defense
Seriously Toronto defense, go kill yourself. You’re putting all of these nice, fine Canadians into some jigsaw, Saw type of torture machine every time you hike up the shorts, sit down in a defensive stance and then allow a ton of points on a lot of easy shot attempts. Please check yourself and quick wrecking this Canadian pride.

Lion Face: Joakim Noah
20 rebounds, M’er F’er!

Lemon Face: Joakim Noah
Well, 14 rebounds were on the offensive glass and he was 4/16 from the field shooting so he probably didn’t have THAT impressive of a night on the boards. Maybe I got a little ahead of myself…

Lion Face: Joakim Noah
YEAH RIGHT! He also had six blocks!

Lemon Face: John Salmons
You’re such an inconsistent, frustratingly bad player that I don’t really want to mention how awful you were. Actually, you weren’t even so much bad as you were inconsequential on the court. So I’m going to forget that you scored two points in 29 minutes (and were roasted by Kobe Bryant) and finish this LF/LF on a high note with four straight lion faces:

Lion Face: Tim Duncan
34 points in 35 minutes on 14/22 shooting to go with his 14 rebounds.

Lion Face: Ginger McNasty

Chase Budinger didn’t just have this alley-oop throw down; he also had 16 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. That’s getting it done against a pretty good Pistons backcourt.

Lion Face: Jerryd Bayless
Jerryd Bayless got the minutes against the Kings and made the most of them. He clinched the game for Portland with the final six Blazers points that turned a 89-86 lead into a 95-88 win. He almost impossible to keep out of the lane and he did a fantastic job of forcing the issue, putting the defense on their heels and unleashing the fury on the Kings in crunch time.

Lion Face: Geraldine Wallace
Gerald Wallace is a joy to watch.

The triangle, created by the post, wing and corner players, revolves around seven guiding principles: the ball handler reading the defense; correct decisions based on the defense; penetration through a pass into the post; separation of 15 to 20 feet for all the offensive players; movement through sharp cuts; interchangeability in positions; and balance for defensive transition.

The triangle differs from more traditional N.B.A. offenses because it presents more options for the five players on the court. There are no set plays, just many possibilities. And when all else fails, the triangle summons a player like Bryant or Jordan to create his own scoring opportunity. Jackson installed the offense in Chicago with Winter as an assistant to neutralize the Detroit Pistons’ defensive strategy of isolating and physically challenging Jordan. Rambis served as an assistant under Jackson and alongside Winter in Los Angeles.

via In Triangle Offense, Cuts Are Sharp and So Is Learning Curve – NYTimes.com.

The real crux of this article for me, though, is this section:

The offense can seem to be mystical and mythical. To some, it is easily digestible. Others claim it is too lethargic for the fast and frenetic N.B.A. Despite the triangle’s success — 10 of the last 19 N.B.A. champions showcased the offense — few possess the time, trust or diligence to install it.

Their reasons are plentiful, and skeptics are quick to point out that Coach Phil Jackson captured all 10 of those titles with Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant at his disposal. (For three of them, he had Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.)

This has to be weird for Lakers and Bulls fans. You can say the player was transcendent, but then the system isn’t as incredible. Y0u can say the system is so ingenious, but then the player’s greatness is marginalized. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but…

NO.

I’m sorry, but you have a system that allows for the best player on the floor to make decisions that lead to him using the fact that he’s the best player to be the best player. And this is rocket science?

So when a coach running the triangle HAS the best player in basketball, he wins a championship, and when he doesn’t have the best player in basketball, he doesn’t win the championship, yet there’s no correlation between winning a championship and having the best player?

But then, Kevin Garnett was the best player for years and didn’t win one. History’s rife with those situations. Maybe that’s what Jackson does best, via the triangle. He doesn’t prevent greatness from happening. And in the meantime, he uses greatness to make players that are average to below-average seem like great players.

Maybe Rambis will be the first one to make it work without elite talent. Maybe he’s just getting his legs under him. After all, they beat the Jazz last night. But they beat them with Flynn, when the point guard isn’t a central component. We’ll have to see if his devotion to the paradigm is stronger than the pull of desperation.

GUILTY PLEASURES

11. Milwaukee Bucks

10. Sacramento Kings

These teams feature the two best rookies in the league (Brandon Jennings and Tyreke Evans), but there’s more to them than those guys. Some underrated pleasures: Andrew Bogut’s incredible basketball IQ, Milwaukee’s aggressive defense, Jodie Meeks having no conscious on his shots, Jason Thompson’s aggression, Omri Casspi’s smooth game and Paul Westphal’s ability to just let his young guys play. There’s a certain harmony to both of these teams that I just love. If only they had more talent.

(Wait, more talent? Doesn’t one of these teams have a guy who scored 55 points as a rookie? What am I talking about?)

via NBA ‘Watchability’ Scale: Ranking Every Team Based On Entertainment, Not Talent – SB Nation.

Not much comment here. I could come up with my own list, but it would just be a list of every team sorted by market size, in descending order. Anyway, Prada does a fine job over here, even if he does let his Wizardship get in the way of the Cavs and severely underrates the Hawks.

The point is, Jerryd’s main competition for minutes is not Steve Blake, it’s Roy and Miller. He has to catch up to one of them in order to increase his playing time significantly. In doing so he also has to overcome that star or veteran gap in the minds of the coaches. It’s not impossible, I guess, but you can see why the going is slow, especially since Bayless trails both handily in nearly every category listed.

In fact I will go out on a limb at this point in saying the chances of Roy, Miller, and Bayless existing long-term on the same team are small. Steve Blake’s presence in the equation changes it not a whit. You could cut Steve tomorrow and you’d still have the same issue. Eventually one of these guys has to be let go.

Does this mean Jerryd’s situation is hopeless until that happens? I’d say no, for a couple reasons.

First, I think it’s obvious that Jerryd was unsuccessfully typecast as a point guard during his early tenure. This is something we called from the beginning. You have to let players play to their strengths if you’re going to play them. You can teach them beyond those natural strengths, of course, but you can’t suppress the strengths in doing so and find success. Judging by the way Jerryd is playing and the time, position, and role he’s finding himself playing in, it seems the coaching staff is learning or has learned this about him. When he does play he’s driving, scoring, and providing a credible offensive threat. The removal of the burden of setting up plays has freed him. He looks more fluid, confident, and ironically is more in tune with what’s going on out on the floor than he used to be. They may trade him in favor of a pure point guard if that’s what they think they need but they won’t be putting him back in that box. That means his play should remain strong and has a chance to get stronger.

via The Bayless Quandary – Blazersedge.

Hey, look, the exact same stuff we’ve been saying for a year and a half. Neat.

This, in a nutshell, is what the Blazers did. They saw the best talent available was a young, devastatingly quick guard with a mean streak like no other. They recognized their ability to horde tremendous talent and cover for injury or a pick or two not working out (unless it was Greg Oden, of course), and selected him to fill their need at pure point, fully aware that he wasn’t a pure point. Not only that, but becoming a pure point ran contrary to everything that defined the young guard. Most teams draft a player and try and put him in the best position to succeed. The Blazers have never done that with Jerryd Bayless. Should they look at what’s best for the team first? Absolutely. But not if you’re banking on a scenario which you knew to be unlikely in the beginning.

They drafted Bayless and said at Summer League “We have a small guard, his name is Brandon Roy and he’s the future of this team. Jerryd will learn to play point or he won’t play at all. ” And when Bayless failed to make that transition, which isn’t something you learn, it’s something you are, or rather, it’s something you’re not in a lot of ways, they punished him. The Blazers punished Jerryd Bayless for being who he is.

When it became obvious that Jerryd wasn’t going to suddenly burst out of the telephone booth as Chris Paul, did they trade him, after letting him boost his stock? Did they work him into a second lineup as the instant offense that could provide the starting line a break? Did they do anything that would be not only in the best interest of the player but of the team? No, they stuffed him down and then brought in Andre Miller.

At least now they’re letting him raise his value. Because he has no future on this team. None. And if you want to blame Bayless for being too selfish to shift, that’s fine, but to do so is to undermine his considerable ability. There are very few cases where I can say that someone would be better off in Golden State. But Jerryd Bayless would be better off in Golden State.

And at this point in his career, it’s likely his best approach. Understand that by going quickly and decisively, Bynum elimates many of the defensive strategies that are used against post players. Many times Bynum’s move comes before a double team can be established. He’s already executing his move when guards try to dig down on him or when players try to come from the weakside to double team. Also, because of his counter moves, there are times when those late double teams don’t even come to side where Bynum is executing his shot. Going quickly also elimates some of the openings that are byproducts of our offense. Bynum rarely hits the dive man from the weakside because he’s already going into his move which then makes the cut of his teammate is inconsquential. Going quickly also means that you’re less likely to see Andrew kick the ball back out or skip the ball to the opposite corner (other staples of our offense) because the defense hasn’t dicated that pass nor have our offensive players actually established those positions on the court.

via Forum Blue And Gold » The Black Hole?.

This article is a great example of why the Bynum v. Marc Gasol All-Star quandry is so baffling. Bynum demands double-teams, which he’s not letting come, so he’s not passing, which he’s not good at, and scoring, which he is. Gasol’s not demanding double -teams, but is still passing, but he’s good at it, so it’s effective. (Gasol’s Assist Rate is almost double Bynum’s). Gasol’s better at everything savvy=based (see: charges drawn), but Bynum’s the more spectacular athlete. I’d give it to Gasol based simply on how much Bynum benefits from the attention paid elsewhere, but it’s damn close.

Watching Bynum go at guys early in a game will get your blood boiling. It’s too bad he’s never on the floor long enough at the beginning to really take over, but I suppose that will, as with all things, come with time.

The C’s play their starters together more than any team in the league. After 22 games (so not including the Bulls game on Saturday night), the C’s starters had played 468.48 minutes together. No five-man group in the league has played more. And No. 2 on the list—the Grizzlies starting five (415.65)—is probably the most overworked starting unit in the league. The Grizzlies four core starters (Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo and Zach Randolph) are all playing more minutes per game than any Celtic.

Do the math, and that 468.48 minutes works out to about 21 minutes per game, meaning the C’s starters are on pace to spend about 1,744 minutes together on the floor this season.

And that, my friends, is a ton of minutes for one unit to play together. Last season, the most-used line-up in the NBA played just 981.32 minutes—a bit more than half the minutes the C’s starters are on pace to play together this season.

Oh, you want to know which unit led the league with 981.32 minutes together last season?

via Where Does the C’s Starting Five Rank? » Boston Celtics Basketball – Celtics news, rumors and analysis – CelticsHub.com.

Now, the point is not that Doc’s overworking the Celtics, far from it. They play a nice distribution of minutes, dont’ get too overworked, and get their rest in. But the issue is that Doc doesn’t handle a rotation. He just relies on his starters to get the job done. I mean, essentially, the backup units are only used to try and tread water. While that’s true for a majority of teams, the level to which it’s true for the Celtics is interesting.

In the playoffs, rotations get shortened and fewer players play. So that works to the Celtics’ advantage. But not being able to exploit different strengths of different lineups can be a challenge, and that’s before you get to the requisite rest concerns. So watching as the Celtics’ entire world hinges on Doc playing his veterans that don’t really need him the most minutes in the NBA is in itself notable. The Celtics have the highest point differential in the NBA. But if the Lakers are up 20+ in the fourth, they send in the garbage squad, watch Shannon Brown dunk, and their lead dwindle slightly, adjusting if the other team dares make a run. The Celtics just keep pushing, because they don’t know what else to do.

I Have No Idea How To Justify This Game (Pacers at Magic, 7:00PM EST)
Much like the movie Hudson Hawk, I can’t really figure out how to get you to want to watch this game. There is no Danny Granger and with no Danny Granger there is very little point to watching a Pacers game. Unless, Brandon Rush decides to play like he’s one of the Barry’s (Drew, Brent or Jon) instead of one of the Rush’s (himself, Kareem, JaRon) and unless Roy Hibbert becomes Spencer Haywood or even Brendan Haywood, this team isn’t very watchable. Here would be my one caveat for this game: Orlando is going to shoot threes. It’s a lot of fun to watch them spread the floor and let it fly from deep. Considering the fact that they’re playing against a Push It Real Good type of team in the Pacers (2^nd in pace), Orlando might attempt 40 threes in this game. And that means they could challenge their own NBA record of 23 makes in a game.

Something’s Gotta Give (Warriors at 76ers, 7:00PM EST)
There is a certain clash here that only Craig Sager’s wardrobe would understand. The Sixers are the 27^th slowest team in the NBA, despite all of their freakishly freaky athletes. And the Warriors are the fastest playing team in the NBA. So someone will have to give in to the other’s style of play and no matter which team it is, I’m confident in saying the Warriors will lose this game. I find it hard to believe the 76ers are this bad of a team. 12 losses in a row is a bad feat no matter what level you participate in but if you look at the talent in that rotation (sorry, not you, Willie Green), they look like a team that should challenge for a .500 record nearly every season. On the other side, you have a Warriors team that is poorly coached and void of consistent talent. Corey Maggette plays like the second best player on the team. I think the 76ers will give in to the Warriors style of play and it should snap them out of this poor streak. And then we can picnic on the beach and laugh about Mikki Moore.

Rec League Matchup, Only Good (Celtics at Grizzlies, 8:00PM EST)
We’ve all been there in one way or another. You’ve got the young, fresh out of high school group of guys who get together a recreation league basketball team and decide to play over the summer. Their legs are quicker. Their jumpers are higher. Their crossover is sexier. Their hair is gelled in a satisfying coif. And they look at the team of old guys in the league who have bulky knee braces, history of being taken off the court in a wheel chair, and hair coifed in a way to hide the receding hairline. The young guys assume it’s their time and will run the old guys off the court. The old guys have been through this same situation for the past couple of summers and know they can outsmart the young guys with those crafty old guy tricks of the trade.

It’s The Catalina F’ing Winemixer (Hornets at Mavericks, 8:30PM EST)
This probably isn’t your game of the night with the next matchup on this slate of games starting just 30 minutes later but watching Chris Paul and Dirk Nowitzki trade daggers for 48 minutes seems like it will be a great time. Dirk Nowitzki makes game-winners like Chipotle makes a burrito bowl. You’ll take it home with you and enjoy every morsel of it. And Chris Paul is so good at point guard that I still can’t watch a full game of his. I physically can’t do it. It’s a sensory overload. But tonight, I’m willing to make an exception.

It’s Like A Mixture of Fergie and Jesus (Thunder at Nuggets, 9:00PM EST)
The Kevin Durant-LeBron James matchup was fun last night but the Kevin Durant-Carmelo Anthony matchup should be even better tonight. LeBron can dominate a game in so many ways that he usually ends up winning these little battles between the up-and-comers due to his overall game. Well, as good as Carmelo and Durant are as basketball players, they’re definitely not the complete Voltron-type machine LeBron is. And that’s what will make this game tonight all the more fun to watch. You’ve got two scorers, playing at an unfathomably high level, and have their guns unholstered (is that a word?) for this shootout. It’s like watching Bernard King and Dominique Wilkins if they were given a Red Bull-PCP cocktail eight times before the game. This shootout is going to be fun.

Please Don’t Shake My Baby (Wolves at Jazz, 9:00PM EST)
I finally got to see the Wolves (my favorite team) in person the other night when I covered the Kings-Wolves game in Sacramento. Even though just a week or so ago I watched the Kings play back-to-back games against the Knicks and the Nets, I’m confident in saying the Wolves are the worst team I’ve seen this year. And now they’re on the road against the Jazz. I’m going to need a drink while I watch this. Any suggestions?

A Case of the Should-Bes (Wizards at Clippers, 10:30PM EST)
The Wizards should be really good. They have an All-Star point guard. They have quality scorers in the post. They have exciting, young wing scorers. They’re deeper now than they were when they were good. They have a good coach who has always won in his career. The Clippers should be good. They have an All-Star point guard. They have a quality scorer in the post. They have good rebounders. They have young, exciting wing scorers. They have a good terrible coach. Both of these teams SHOULD BE good! Both of these teams SHOULD BE better than they are. Both of these teams SHOULD BE playoff contenders. This game SHOULD BE good tonight. Chances are you turn it off to watch the showing of Passenger 57 on Starz.

Desmon Farmer of the Reno Bighorns was today named NBA Development League Performer of the Week for games played during the Week of Dec. 7. Farmer is the first Bighorn to earn the honor this season and the third player overall. For the week, Farmer led Reno to back-to-back wins over the Utah Flash and Bakersfield Jam. The USC product averaged 26.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 41 percent 15-of-37 from the field and .317 6-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc. On Saturday, Dec. 12, Farmer recorded the NBA D-League season’s first triple-double when he scored 20 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and dished out 11 assists in the win over the Jam.

via D-League Press Release

Look, I get the push against guys from the D-League that aren’t great at defense. I do. I appreciate that. And I certainly understand the turnover concern. But Farmer has been on summer league teams. He’s been in camps. He’s done his time. And he fills up the sheet when he’s on the floor.

He’s had cups of coffee with San Antonio and the Pacers and the Sonics. But the Spurs never have room for anyone, and the rest were before the league had experienced success at the NBA-level. He’s got potential to be a solid end-of-the-bench contributor with the possibility of a great fill-in in case of injury.

Reno is stacked. Just stacked. They’re absolutely loaded right now, and are starting to get it together, finally.

It has become quite clear how badly the loss of Gordon has affected Chicago’s offense. It’s not even Gordon’s 20 PPG the Bulls miss, per se. It’s the threat of him. I mentioned last week that NBA basketball is a game of split-seconds. Gordon provided everybody on the Bulls extra split seconds they can’t get on their own. When he was running around helter-skelter trying to get open, players on the opposing team knew it. Sometimes they only glanced, sometimes they were forced to turn their heads or jump out to show a little help. Gordon never racked up gaudy assist numbers, which led many people to conclude he didn’t create for his teammates. But, as it turns out, he did. Just not in a way that is measured by box scores.

via Sometimes the truth hurts… » By The Horns.

McHale does a great job of outlining how messed up the Bulls are, joining the “This team sucks” wagon that’s so full it’s like a refugee caravan at this point. It’s like Grapes of Wrath only I hope no one’s doing it under a blanket with Grandma nearby.

I agree with what McHale thinks, as there’s no way for you to look at the Bulls and not say “Wow, they could really use Ben Gordon.” So when I say this, understand that it’s not a counter. I’m not arguing that Ben’s not needed on the Bulls.

…you know there’s a BUT coming, right?

BUT (there it is)…

Here’s Gordon, per 36: Field goal percentage, down by .08%. 3point % (where the Bulls really need him), down by nearly 6%. Free throw shooting, down by 5%. Down in rebounds by a board. Down by assists by .1. Down in blocks by .2. Down in turnovers, so that’s nice, by .5. Up in fouls by .5, down in points by .4. Up in usage by .4. Up in PER, mostly because of the usage thing. So, yeah, his impact on the Bulls is missed in things that aren’t covered on the Box Score. But in Detroit, he’s missed in things actually ON the boxscore. Also, in games where Gordon plays more than 26 minutes for the Pistons, they are 4-9.They’re 1 and 4 when he scores more than 25 points.

But the Bulls’ offense sucks, too, so what are you going to do?

(Post-note: I’ve got no problem with anyone saying “It’s early! Ben will recover!” That’s entirely possible. I actually think his contract was reasonable and he’s a great scorer. But if you say that, you also need to accept the possibility that Hinrich and Salmons will come out of their slumps and the Bulls will improve. Odds aren’t even, but they’re not way out of whack, either.)