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Stories, Not Buildings: The Rise and Fall of Lin and Rubio

April 12, 2012 in by with 3 Comments

Photo by Gilderic Photography on Flickr

Worlds collide when a comment from tweet-God and suspected Corgi Netw3rk sparks a giant email exchange over the arcs of our teams’ feted and injured point guards, Jeremy Lin and Ricky Rubio.

Steve McPherson: So I’m interested in starting up this conversation because you responded to Steve Marsh’s excellent Grantland article on Ricky Rubio by saying, “The way he talks about Minnesotans feeling about Rubio is how NYers feel about Lin.” What I find interesting about that is that in a city where the baseball team is the most storied and dominant in the MLB, in a market that’s supposed to be the biggest for players, in an arena that’s called the “Mecca of basketball,” the Knicks are this sort of woebegone franchise that hasn’t won a championship since 1973. As a Wolves fan, it’s easy to feel semi-cursed and kind of ignored because, well, Minnesotans sort of have that attitude naturally, but New York is the center of the universe, right? I have plenty to say about Rubio and what he’s inspired for Timberwolves fans, but I’m interested in kicking off with your take on what Jeremy Lin has meant to Knicks fans, in both his rise and his loss for the season.

Netw3rk: The Knicks’ relationship to their fans is different from that of other New York sports teams because the Knicks are (for the time being) the only basketball team in town. When the Yankees are successful, Mets fans are unhappy; same for the Giants/Jets. So the ambient glow of Yankee championship trophies does very little to assuage the darkness in Madison Square Garden. What the glow does do is antagonize, annoy, and otherwise stoke the appetite for Knicks-flavored schadenfreude in the country at large. People love to see the Knicks be bad and the Knicks oblige.

Unlike the NBA’s other the big market teams, the Knicks are most often defined (to the periphery of the universe, anyway) by their failures: The Charles Smith Play, 2 for 18, Ewing’s finger-roll, the suspensions in the 1997 playoffs, the Ewing trade, McDyess’ knee injury, Layden, Isiah, Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, Jerome James, the sexual harassment lawsuit, the Larry Brown lawsuit, James Dolan, and on and on. The greatest Knick of my lifetime, Patrick Ewing, is practically a byword for coming up short. Kevin Garnett may have only gotten the Wolves out of the first round once, but no one named an idiotic theory after him.

Maester Aemon visiting the Cloisters, presumably.

And so into this environment materialized Jeremy Lin. Other messiahs arrived in New York anointed, self-proclaimed, and wearing expectations like a maester’s chains. Lin arrived equal parts unregarded and written off, at a moment when Knicks fans were staring another losing season square in its beady-black eyes. Something unexpected and good was finally happening to us. As the world-wide hype machine cranked up in an effort to cap the Linsanity gusher, I (and I suspect many Knicks fans) began to feel very protective of Lin. Marsh’s description of Minny fans’ similar emotions towards Rubio immediately struck a nerve for me. Like Rubio to Minneapolis, Lin was ours and we gripped him like a life-preserver.

Steve McPherson: I think this idea of the fans of any major sport in New York being split into those who root for the hard-luck team and those who root for the dynasty is fascinating. And the Knicks present a pretty interesting quandary in that respect. It seems to me that more than ever now—when people can follow pretty much any team they please via the Internet and premium TV packages—fans self-select themselves into these groups. For example, there’s an acquaintance I have who I’ve known as a Steelers fan for a long time, but one day it came up in conversation that he was from Texas. So I asked: “How is it that you’re a Steelers fan?” And he said his dad was in the military so they moved around a lot. Thus, he explained, he’s a Steelers, Yankees, Lakers fan. And I said, “Oh, so you’re a front-runner.” I mean, some people out there like rooting for a winner.

But that’s not me and I don’t say that as a way to posit that my fandom is better than his. I’m just psychologically wired to pull for the underdog—as I suspect are a lot of Mets and Jets fans. (Consider Jon Stewart’s hangdog Mets fandom.) Like last season in the playoffs, I was pulling for Memphis to beat OKC in the second round, but once OKC won, I started pulling for them to beat Dallas. And I think that kind of fan is uniquely primed to appreciate figures like Rubio or Lin because we want so badly to see success that feels not only earned but hard-won. Let’s face it: the Lakers don’t need you. The Heat don’t need you. And Minnesota fans like to be needed, even when their teams, frankly, suck.

It’s funny how you talk about Lin going from unheralded to celebrated and how this sparked a protective streak in Knicks fans because in some ways, Rubio’s curve was the inverse of that. There were all these high expectations for him that got tempered by his final mediocre season in the Euroleague and so when he arrived, there were probably more naysayers than boosters but Minnesota fans earnestly wanted him to succeed. And when he did, and almost right away, there was a sense that there was something special about him. I mean, let’s be clear: this team doesn’t go without Kevin Love. Period. I admire Love. I respect him. When he puts the team on his back as he did in March, it makes me appreciate what a unique talent and amazing player he is. But he doesn’t give me butterflies with his play the way Rubio did. I went to Target Center expecting magic early in the season and I was never disappointed. It was so much like that first really good relationship you have, where you feel this person exceeding everything you thought possible all the time in so many different ways. Rubio made it all right to feel again.

And I suspect Lin did some of the same thing for Knicks fans. Because as much as the team’s been built up in the last year with Anthony and Stoudemire, they have been distinctly built, and what we love are stories, not buildings. Lin brought, if anything, a better story than Rubio to the NBA, and for both of them, the tragedy of injury in some ways seems perversely fitting for those stories. But Minnesota is basically done now. We’re onto next year while the Knicks are clinging to that final playoff spot like grim death. If you’re writing the next chapter of the Lin story, where does it go? Does he return heroically in the playoffs? Or do the Knicks fade and fizzle? Do imagine Lin will even be on the Knicks next year?

Jeremy Lin, post-surgery

Netw3rk: While Lin has referred to himself as a “fast healer,” I’m hoping that—regardless of however Wolverine-ish he may feel—that he and the Knicks staff hold him out until they are sure he’s ready. Luckily, New York is on its fifth phase of the season, the potent “Woodsanity” phase, buoying the team through the unifying power of Mr. Potato Head.

What would I write for the next chapter of Lin’s story? That’s a tough question to ask because the story up to now has been pretty absurd. I guess if I had to imagine up some Linfanfic, I’d see him coming back for the playoffs since that would mean New York would’ve beaten either Chicago or Miami. In which case, Lin coming back would be a cherry made out of a giant ruby on top of a sundae made out of diamond-encrusted sports orgasm frosted with the tears of my enemies.

I think you nailed it with your description of the undulating curve of Ricky Rubio expectations. I went from a true believer to, if not a naysayer, certainly a maybe-sayer over Ricky’s disappointing Euroleague numbers. Speaking for myself, I think a lot of that had to do with not seeing him. Pre-NBA Ricky buzz seemed to peak during the 2008 Olympics and that was my first opportunity to watch Ricky play entire games on an actual television instead of six minute YouTube clips. There is something about certain players: just in watching them move about the court, you begin to understand that they know how to play. Ricky has that and, just speaking as a basketball nerd, that was exciting. If he drove to the basket he knew where his shooters should be; knew where his cutters were coming from. His body language alone said, “Yeah, I belong on a basketball court with Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.” Once the Olympics were over, I didn’t see him play until this season; Euroleague games being difficult to follow from the ol’ U S of A. As soon as I saw him play his first game as a Timberwolf, I knew he was what we thought he was.

Just like Ricky’s, I had been following Lin’s career, but mainly because I am genetically obligated as an Asian-American to do so. His duel with John Wall was exciting and either quickly forgotten or dismissed when recalled as just one of those flukey things. What I remember about his Warriors’ campaign is a play where he didn’t pass the ball to Monta and then turned it over and Monta glaring steak knives at him and then Lin scuffling off to the bench. Needless to say, when the Knicks acquired him, my expectations were pretty darn low. Any buzz at all was generated from the prospect of having a point guard that would be not as claw-at-my-face terrible as Toney Douglas. So, to go from “meh” to “OMG this kid just dropped 38 on the Lakers at the Garden with the Garden going nuts and holy cow that spin move is this real or has my 2K12 create-a-player come alive?” was head spinning. What he did during the Linsanity period was take all the negativity and expectations and put it all on his back. It was no longer “How badly will the Knicks lose tonight and how badly did Dolan et al. screw up the Melo trade?”, it was “What will Jeremy Lin do tonight?” That respite from the traditional “Knicks as bumbling/tragicomic/nest of vipers” storyline was literally the most fun I’ve had watching the Knicks since ever. I put Linsanity up there with the Knicks’ 1999 postseason run. Reason being, both came out of nowhere.

Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess. He’s young enough to overcome his trademark weaknesses of not being able to go left and turning it over. Hopefully (rapping firmly on a piece of lumber) the knee surgery is nothing but a blip. I can’t imagine the Knicks not re-signing him as he is a nigh-bottomless goldmine and, oh yeah, a pretty good basketball player.

Steve McPherson: I’m impressed that the Knicks have at least five phases—in Minnesota, we typically have two: cautious optimism and resigned despair. The former usually lasts the first two weeks of the season and the rest is pretty much the latter. At least this year, we may have added “Midwestern jubilance” to the middle of the season before succumbing. Midwestern Jubilance is also the name of the new fragrance I have coming out later this summer.

If Lin can come back in the second round and write another chapter for himself as heroic as the one he wrote earlier this year with Linsanity, it will truly be something special. Fitzgerald saying there are no second acts in America will really be put to the test after Lin already pulled off the comeback from being cut by Golden State and Houston. An epic playoff return would be, by any conservative measure, his third death-defying act. I’d love to see it happen.

You’re so right that Rubio exudes something when he’s on the court and, at the risk of raising the ire of my more stats-minded colleagues, I think it might be something you just can’t measure. It will be too small a sample size to draw any real conclusions, but I’m interested to see how the Wolves do even just having Rubio back on the bench (that is, if Rubio even comes back to the bench, which I’m now doubting). I think there’s something about him that inspires confidence, that makes players want to do their best for him. That’s not an easy quality to find these days, and I’m curious if it might have to do with another thing from Marsh’s article where he quotes Rubio’s shooting coach, Jarinn Akana, as saying, “”The number-one important thing in the U.S. for any kid—I don’t care who you are or where you come from—is to shoot the ball and score. When you play pickup, that’s all you do.” Marsh also talks about how Rubio started playing pro so early that the best way for him to fit in was to get the older guys easy looks. What it all points to is Rubio taking a path to the NBA that is vastly different from players in the States who have always been the best (and often biggest, when they’ve redshirted at various levels) player on their team, the one who’s responsible for taking the last shot.

I’ve found myself wondering this about Lin as well. Even though he’s obviously more of a scorer than Rubio (and took that last second dagger against the Raptors), I feel like perhaps his experience of being glared at by Ellis and being sent down to the D-League and getting cut made him reconfigure his game in some ways that ultimately positioned him for success. I mean, consider the guys who are always the most athletic, the most high-scoring at every level until they get to the NBA and then just can’t figure out how to contribute in other ways.

But you got to see Lin more than I did. What’s your take on how his circuitous path to the NBA shaped the game he unveiled back in February? It certainly had a touch of the Robert Johnson myth of a kid being just OK, disappearing for a while, and coming back with what seemed an almost supernatural ability.

Netw3rk: Well, perhaps there is a crossroads somewhere in Erie, PA, where one can sell one’s eternal soul. When it comes to the basketball nature vs. nurture debate, I fall pretty squarely into nature. Rubios (and here I will use the sports media trope of referring to athletes as if they were cans of soup) are born, not made. Yes, Ricky’s on court experiences helped solidify his pass-first mentality, but you don’t pass like that unless passing like that is how you self-identify. Kobe was going to be a scorer before he ever played an organized game. So, I get what Akana is saying but I’m not so sure. I’d bet that at some point in their basketball lives, any human being capable of becoming a pro was the smallest/youngest/weakest player on the court. In my opinion, how they responded to that had less to do with placating the bigger/older/stronger players than to do with innate basketball DNA. I think it’s like how a musician is drawn to the music they always pictured themselves playing rather than becoming the musician that their teacher wanted them to become.

In this way, I think Lin’s path is illustrative of his innate confidence and, to some extent, stubbornness. Didn’t get accepted by a major college program? Doesn’t matter; I belong here. Undrafted? Doesn’t matter; I belong here. Can’t crack the rotation? D-league? Monta glaring at me? Can’t go left? Turnover prone? And so on and so on. He simply refused to believe that he wasn’t, and could never be, good enough. Now, there are lots and lots of players who will similarly refuse to believe they aren’t good enough. Lin just happened to 1) be right, 2) be ready for his shot and 3) get lucky enough to get one.

Steve McPherson: I think you’re really onto something with the stubbornness and confidence angle with Lin. As much as we profess to value flexibility and understanding, there’s a lot to be said for willfulness when it comes to getting the job done, to going out there and not taking no. I remember hearing something recently, probably on NPR, about this idea that parents shouldn’t worry too much about children who are stubborn because that stubbornness might just help them later in life when they need to negotiate a contract or go after a job.

On nature vs. nurture, though, I think I may be standing on the other side of the fence. I don’t think, for instance, that Darko Milicic was ever the smallest or weakest on the basketball court, and I think that might be part of the problem for him. It seems that playing basketball was less something he chose and more something that was thrust upon him, and so he’s never really owned it. And speaking to the musician point, I know, for instance, that I started getting into classic rock—Cream, Hendrix, etc.—because the guys I wanted to play with in high school were into that stuff. It then helped that my parents were into it. I just don’t know that I had a vision of what I wanted to be as a musician that early on. And so I feel like playing a sport might work the same way: you react to the situation you find yourself in, as Rubio reacted to being preternaturally gifted but also young by setting up the more experienced players.

Not pictured: Anthony Randolph

But to back out of that argument, it’s also interesting that somehow, even though we’ve talked about Rubio and Lin not being the kind of players who impose their will on the game, they actually do impose their will on the game in a very distinct way. One need only look at the way the Wolves have played since Rubio went down to see how much the way he played was a balm for so many players who look again like refugees from the Island of Misfit Toys. It seems like both Rubio and Lin did something very simple and similar for their teams this season: they made them feel good about being a bunch of guys playing a game. A lot of it came from their on-court skills, but just as much came from their on-court demeanor and the way their personal stories dovetailed with the fates of their franchises. Recent injuries have put obstacles in the road, but it’s hard not to be optimistic about these two players.

Any final thoughts?

Netw3rk: The nature vs. nurture debate is so fascinating precisely because we can never know. I suspect the answer is some amalgamation of our two ideas with a bunch of things we could never imagine. On the one hand: sure, Ricky’s experiences as a Muppet Baby pro-basketball player helped shape his incredible altruism and court vision. On the other hand: if that’s the case, why aren’t there hundreds of other Rubios pouring out of the European continent like some Gothic horde?

On the imposing of wills: point guards are suited to controlling the pace of a game more than any other player on the court. They are like a team’s steering wheel. Lots of people have gone on and on about how this is a great point guard era blah blah blah and it’s true. The number of noteworthy point guards in the league right now is incredible; certainly more than at any time since I’ve been watching basketball. Magnifying those players’ abilities are the semi-recent hand checking rule tweaks and the revolutions in offensive play spearheaded by now former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni. Speaking for myself, it is an immense relief to have Lin on the roster. As incomplete a player as he is, you can’t really succeed in today’s NBA without a point guard, and New York finally has one. It will be a greater relief when 1) he is fully healed and 2) he is re-signed.

These are my absolutely final thoughts, forever:

  • I hope that our point guards’ knee parts regenerate better than new.
  • While I have no idea what Lin’s ceiling will end up being, I’m pretty sure Rubio’s ceiling is “Perennial All-Star.”
  • I would be more than satisfied if Lin ended up averaging 12 to 14 points and 7 assists while shooting a decent percentage.
  • I like to imagine that Ricky’s private physician is Pau Gasol.

Knicks Center Tyson Chandler Is Probably Better Than You Think, No Matter What You Think

April 12, 2012 in by with 1 Comment

Tyson Chandler is not the most talented center in the NBA, and he’s often not the most outstanding player in the moment, but he’s a damn good NBA player. In fact, no matter how good you think he is, Tyson Chandler is probably better than you can reasonably project. When the New York Knicks acquired the 7-foot-1 big man in a sign-and-trade on a four-year, $56 million contract in December of 2011, they got quite a deal. That’s just the truth, and it goes well beyond his defensive value.

Honestly, there’s no better time to start appreciating one of the NBA’s best centers than right now. The subtlety of his impact creates an atmosphere where his game can easily be obfuscated by those old, trusty basketball tropes and idioms. He “does all the little things.” He’s “a consummate team player.” The Knicks “couldn’t survive without him.” All of that is absolutely true, by the way, but none of it can quite capture what Chandler does on the court. If every NBA GM had an opportunity to reprogram the undisciplined, ultra-athletic seven-footer hanging around on their roster, they would use Chandler as the blueprint for a successful rebirth.

It starts with defense. The Knicks haven’t jumped from 21st to 5th in defensive efficiency this season by accident. It’s almost inconceivable that Chandler could play alongside some potentially porous combination of Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis and still transform the Knicks into an elite defensive unit, but that basketball miracle has come to fruition this season. In fact, the general trend that more good things happen with Chandler on the court has been in development for years. Here’s a rough-chop look at his defensive impact with four different teams over the past four seasons:

Chandler knows his role on the court and plays to his strengths. He’s not faster or quicker than the opposing point guard penetrating into the lane, but he often beats that man to the spot with his anticipation, awareness and length. Opposing big men struggle to break his disciplined approach and steal easy baskets under the rim. He knows defense is his calling card, and clearly stated his goals during the introductory press conference back when some guy named Mike D’Antoni used to coach the Knicks:

“I know what my job is in coming here. I know I came here to defend. I’m going to defend the rim and I’m going to rebound. I’m going to get extra shots. I know if we play on both ends, and we play as a team, the sky is definitely the limit.”

With a record hovering around .500 and an eye on the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket, I’m not sure New York has to worry about the sky limiting their ascent at this point, but defense is not the problem. As noted by ESPN’s John Hollinger, Chandler is single-handedly turning the Melo-STAT pairing into some viable semblance of a core by taking care of the point prevention thing along with Iman Shumpert and Landry Fields. Even so, fans have been more likely to chant Lin’s name than Chandler’s this season. Such is life for the big man.

The Dallas Mavericks unquestionably benefitted from Chandler’s superb defensive abilities during their championship run last season, but even then he finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, didn’t even place that high on ballot of Mavericks beat writer Eddie Sefko and received zero first-place votes. Chuck Hayes (2), Grant Hill (1), and Keith Bogans (1) received more first-place votes for 2011 DPOY, so it seems fair to say that Chandler isn’t always turning heads with his brand of basketball. But who cares if he doesn’t turn heads, because he transforms teams. Hollinger is absolutely on point with his recent endorsement of Chandler for 2012 Defensive Player of the Year (insider only).

Now what if I told you Chandler was in the midst of one of the most efficient offensive seasons in the history of the NBA?

It would be a mistake to suggest that he is some sort of offensive centerpiece, but to overlook his contribution on that end of the floor is criminal. Resident basketball sage and Hardwood Paroxysm godfather Matt Moore couldn’t have put it more perfectly when he wrote about Chandler as the perfect “clean-up man” for New York back in December of 2011:

Interesting differential in years where the Spurs killed people and where they didn’t. In years they did, Duncan had what I call the “clean-up man.” It’s someone who just waits, grabs, and lays it in. Because the double-team on Duncan was so rough, that Duncan would miss long, rebound to the other side, and there’s Fabricio Oberto. Just waiting. And watching.

Chandler causes more problems because he’s better than those clean-up men. He’s a legitimate threat. He has the hands to catch and finish, can jam back the putback over a smaller defender, and has enough offense to create a few buckets here and there. He’s like the deluxe version of the clean-up man. And that kind of role addition is a game-changer for teams.

Amen, Matt. Amen. First let’s take a look at his impact on team rebounding through the same lens applied to his defense:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chandler grabs plenty of rebounds on his own, but he’s always around the rim and contributes with innumerable box-outs and tap-outs as well. The percentage bumps in rebounding paint his value with a broad brush, but a closer look at the details just enhances the beauty of his art.

Consider the following facts regarding Tyson Chandler’s offensive game:

(1) He owns the highest True Shooting percentage of any active NBA player (60.8% TS).

(2) He is on pace to post the highest single-season True Shooting Percentage of any player in NBA history (here is the full list on Basketball-Reference).

(3) As first noted by Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times, he is also primed to claim the third-best single-season field goal percentage in NBA history (here is the full list on Basketball-Reference).

Tyson Chandler: the ULTRA deluxe clean-up man. The title sounds slightly pejorative, but that’s not the case. It also looks like another glossy basketball trope, but it comes far too close to reality for dismissal on those grounds. Of the 610 points Chandler has scored this season, 608 of them have come from either the free throw line or within the paint. You read that correctly. He has 275 points from the free throw line, 335 points in the paint and one lone 16-foot jump shot from the third quarter of a Feb. 3 game against Boston Celtics. It’s not as if he’s missing a ton of jumpers either, as you can see from his 2011-12 shot chart (via Basketball-Reference’s Play Index+ tool and then NBA.com/Stats):

Could Chandler do more on pick-and-pops? Probably. He shot a more than respectable 21-44 (48.0 percent) from 16-23 feet last season with the Mavs, but that can’t hold a candle to his fifth-highest rate in the NBA on basket cuts (1.47 ppp) and ninth-best mark when diving to the rim as a roll man on PnR (1.23 ppp), which comes via MySynergySports.com. I like to think that he isn’t willing to sacrifice interior impact on putbacks, tap-out rebounds and drop-step finishes for a few more points and the tenuous prospect of slightly better spacing. The craft is already perfected. Practical talents and wise decisions have compounded so often that he appears to dictate the merger of the right place and right time on a regular basis. Tyson Chandler may not conform to the NBA’s marketed brand of “spectacular” but he’s probably better than you think, no matter what you think.

You’re Wrong: Olympians Getting Paid?

April 11, 2012 in by with 3 Comments

Conrad Kaczmarek and Eric Maroun both share love for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they differ on whether or not players should be paid for playing basketball in the Olympics. To settle this debate, they took their viewpoints to e-mail. What you see below are the results.

Eric: Earlier today, Dwyane Wade came out and threw out the idea that players should be paid for participating in the Olympics. Nevermind the fact that he was agreeing with comments Ray Allen made earlier in the week expressing the exact same sentiments; Wade is a member of Team John Dillinger so the heat is on him (see what I did there?). Wade’s basic argument is that for a team expected to make a deep playoff run, preparation for the Olympics, the Games themselves, and training camp for next season shortly thereafter provides very little R&R time. While it’s not all about the money, in his mind, players making that commitment should be compensated for the work that they are putting in.

Wade threw out the idea of generating the money through jersey licensing. I wouldn’t mind this idea, and I’d totally be on board with a setup similar to the United States’ bicameral legislature. Here’s what I am proposing. Every player on Team USA gets a base amount for simply making the team ($100,000? $250,000? The specific details can be worked out later). This puts all players on a similar level the way that the US Senate affords two representatives to every state. On top of that, each player could get a percentage (5%? 10%? 20%?) of their jerseys that are sold. Safe to say, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant jerseys are going to outsell those of Tyson Chandler should they all make it to London. It would be like the US House of Representatives where seats are allocated based on population; in this case, the more popular the player, the more money he will receive. I see this as a reasonable, fair compensation for dedicating their time, effort, and bodies to the Olympic team.

You disagree with the idea of players being compensated for playing in the Olympics. Tell me why I’m wrong.

Conrad: Alright so I’d figure that I better start my rebuttal off by pointing out that you are undeniably wrong. If the readers take nothing else away from this post, I just hope that they realize how wrong you are. That being said, I think there is a number of reasons why I disagree with Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen’s comments. I understand the point about making a bigger commitment when you’re already short on time. That time is valuable for NBA players in the offseason and I certainly don’t intend to underestimate that value. I guess my biggest gripe with his argument is that it simply isn’t mandatory. There will be people who want to harp on the honor of representing your country on the international stage and such, but that’s not my concern. While there is some validity to that angle, my main point is that they simply don’t have to do it. If your time is so valuable that you cannot possibly give up two weeks without compensation to play in the Olympics, just don’t do it. If representing your country is such an inconvenience that you can’t do it for free, just don’t do it. There’s nothing that forces the top tier players to make that commitment.

Eric: If this was 1992, I would totally be with you. However, if the past decade or so has shown us anything, it’s that we can’t simply pick a team of 12 guys, send them across the pond, and let the gold medals land on their necks. The competition has caught up to the USA, and unfortunately, the days of routing Angola by 68 are over. Our goal is to win, and as a country, we need to do what we can to send the best representation of USA basketball to the Games as possible. If that involves taking some of the money that’s being made off of merchandising (or other avenues) and funneling it back to the players who are doing the work, so be it. I don’t see the problem here.

Are there a number of role players that would jump at the chance to represent their country in the Olympics for free? Sure. Are there elite college level players that would do it? Of course they would. Hell, they play for free for a lot less than national pride as it is now. But that’s not the point. I’m sure that there are plenty of people that would do my job for less money, but that doesn’t make me wrong for wanting to get paid for the work I do. I’m with D-Wade and Jesus S. on this one.

Conrad: So how much money are we talking here? We’ve established that you need the elite of the elite to win on the international level now, so how much money do those guys make? Is this compensation just some sort of gesture to make them feel like they aren’t wasting their time or is it something that is actually going to make a difference in their bank accounts? Now before you dismiss that as something that doesn’t matter — of course it matters. Does $250,000 make a ton of difference to Dwyane Wade? He makes $15 million+ a year. I just don’t see the lack of money as being a deal breaker for most elite NBA players. Getting money for playing in the Olympics would be nice, sure. Getting money for doing anything is nice. These guys play charity games in the offseason all the time, why not do it for your country once every four years?

Eric: Without having access to the financials of the Olympics, or more specifically USA Basketball, I cannot estimate what the actual payouts what can be. But in true debate fashion, I’ll answer a question with a question: What WOULD it take in your mind to make a difference in their bank accounts? No matter what the figure is (assuming we’re being realistic), if it can’t be taken out of the USA basketball account, there are certainly other avenues to explore that would result in that money appearing somewhere. But I don’t even think that the actual bottom line is the issue here. It’s the principle that they want to be compensated monetarily for their work.

These guys play in charity games because it’s for a good cause. Not only are they raising money for those less fortunate, but there is no fallout if you’re on the losing side because the ultimate goal is to have fun and entertain, not win. In contrast, the USA’s 2004 Olympic “Nightmare Team” was skewered for getting hammered in Athens and being the only time a team of US professionals didn’t take home gold. There is obviously a higher level of play at the Olympic level, and higher stakes are involved. Plus, the preparation required to play in one, or even multiple, pickup games pales in comparison to that of preparing for the Olympics. It’s akin to comparing the Rookie-Sophomore game to an NBA playoff game, except they might actually play more defense in the Rookie-Sophomore game.

If these guys could roll out of bed, throw on their shoes, drive to the arena, and play a couple games during the week and call that the Olympics, I’d be arguing that they should be doing it for free. For the weeks of training, workouts, and travel involved though, they absolutely deserve to get paid. Now, if they feel like the money they were to get doesn’t matter to them and they choose to donate the money to charity, more power to them. At least put them in position to make the choice though.

Conrad: Your last sentence is exactly my point. Put them in position to make the choice? They are in that position. No one is making them play. LeBron James said himself that he’s just honored to be picked for the team. I figure that’d be enough. If there were NBA players turning down the Olympics because they weren’t making money, I think it might be time to consider a change. The fact of the matter is that most players probably agree with LeBron (lol wut?) and don’t feel that they need to get paid to represent their country. If Wade doesn’t want to play because he wants a couple hundred thousand in exchange for his time, that’s fine. Let James Harden or Eric Gordon take his spot. I just don’t believe that enough guys feel this way that the USA would be unable to find elite talent.

Eric: I meant put them in position of being able to choose whether they keep the money for themselves or donate it to charity. I understand that no one is forcing them to play and there are willing participants to take their place, but the fact remains that money is being made off of the work that they are putting in and they are not seeing a dime of it. It’s ridiculous at the college level that football and basketball teams generate a massive portion of the yearly athletic revenue for schools, yet the players, excuse me, STUDENT-ATHLETES, are prohibited from profiting off of their work in any way. Same principle applies here. The Olympic players are the ones that people pay to see play the games, buy the jerseys of, and watch on TV. They should be entitled to a cut of that.

Conrad: The same principle doesn’t apply here because: A) there are various other ways for these guys to go make money during that time. If they want to go pursue endorsement deals during those 2 weeks (once every 4 years), then they can do that and probably make more money. B) The college players have no other (reasonable) opportunity to play basketball. I’ve long been a proponent of paying college players (or at least letting them go to the NBA out of high school), but this isn’t the same thing. You aren’t restricting the players’ earning potential. It’s just saying “hey, here’s an opportunity to volunteer and represent your country”. No one makes them do it. If you want to do it, do it because it’s volunteer work. I’d close this argument by saying two things. First, Dwyane Wade went on Twitter today and pretty much retracted some of his statements. He said he never claimed that he wanted to be paid, just thought that players should be paid (whatever that means). And second, and more importantly, you are so wrong. The wrongest of the wrong. Beyond wrong. A drunk baby could formulate a better argument than you could. So, yeah.

Eric: I have serious concerns with the parent that gave that baby alcohol, but that’s a discussion for another time. It’s pretty apparent that we aren’t going to change each other’s minds on this, so I will leave you with the following. As a Cleveland sports fan, I know that you remember Josh Cribbs’ Pay The Man motto from a couple of off-seasons ago. In a sign of solidarity with Wade and Mr. Shuttlesworth, I am starting the Pay The Men campaign. Of course, it was either that, or “You’re wrong,” which for the record, is accurate.

Lester Hudson And The Joy Of Tanking

April 11, 2012 in by with 2 Comments

Photo by tim_cornett via Flickr

There have been seemingly infinite posts written in the past few weeks on tanking. Some on this site, countless others on other sites. The vast majority of which paint a target on the negative side of tanking, and each writer has his own ideas on how to fix it. Should the Bobcats be rewarded for throwing out a team night after night that makes fans openly wonder if the University of Kentucky could beat them (side note: they cannot)? Is it “fair” that some teams exist in the “too good to get a high draft pick, too bad to make a serious run at a title” situation recently dubbed  the Treadmill of Mediocrity? What can be done to ensure that fans are getting their hard earned money’s worth when they head to the arena? All of these are valid questions, and they rightly have served as the match on a powder keg of debate. What few people have talked about however, is the brighter side of tanking. Namely, the opportunity to see young guys, often D-League call-ups, fight for their chance to make an NBA roster is often the only reason worth tuning into a game between two bottom dwellers like the Cavs and the Nets. After all, it’s opportunities like this that have given us the joy that is Lester Hudson.

Hudson was drafted by the Boston Celtics with the 58th pick in 2009. Coming out of the basketball powerhouse known as the University of Tennessee-Martin, Hudson…wait, did I say basketball powerhouse? Per basketball-reference.com, here is an exhaustive list of NBA players from UTM: Lester Hudson. Prior to this past week, Hudson’s greatest basketball accomplishment was recording the first ever quadruple double in the history of Division I basketball, a scintillating 25 point, 12 rebound, 10 assist, 10 steal performance in only his third game at UTM. Since then, he has acted as a yo-yo bouncing between rare action in the NBA and various D-League affiliates. In just three short years, Hudson has been claimed by the Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, and Cleveland Cavaliers. He has spent time in the D-League with the Maine Red Claws, Dakota Wizards, and Austin Toros. For good measure, he spent most of the 2011 calendar year in China playing for teams in Guangdong and Qingdao. Depending on whether you want to be optimistic or pessimistic, he has either been one of the most wanted or unwanted men in the league over the past few seasons. Personally, all Hudson wanted was an opportunity to prove that he belong in the Association. Luckily for him, a rash of backcourt injuries to the Cavs (Kyrie Irving, Booby Gibson, Anthony Parker) meant that opportunity came knocking. Hudson didn’t just answer the door; he ripped the damn thing off of its hinges.

Yes, it is only a three game tear that Hudson is currently experiencing, and if Jeremy Lin has taught us anything this year, it’s not to overboard with falling in love over a handful of spirited efforts. However, it’s hard not to be impressed by what Hudson has been doing. Since April 6, he has posted a lines of 23-2-7 against the Raptors in a win, 26-4-3 against the Nets in a loss, and 25-8-6 in last night’s win over the Bobcats. Though just looking at the numbers indicates he stuffed the stat sheet more last night, the Nets game was clearly his most memorable performance to date. Of his 26 points in the game, 18 came in a stunning fourth quarter. Down 109-106, the Cavs had a decision to make. Take the loss, pick up some lottery ping pong balls and go on their merry way or try to make something happen. It’s the former decision that is the very definition of tanking; it’s the latter decision that creates moments for an unknown player to shine. Choosing to go for broke and riding the hot hand, the Cavs got the ball to Hudson with only a few ticks remaining on the clock and his ten day contract. Channeling his inner Ray Allen, Hudson let fly a half-fadeaway, half-falling toward the baseline shot:

When the ball had dropped through the net, it was Hudson’s sixth three point of the night and sent the game to overtime. With his game long performance, particularly his out-of-nowhere fourth quarter, he transformed the thinking in the IZOD Center and in television sets across the country from “Who is that?” to “How did he do that?” One can only assume that John Starks was wondering “Did this dude just did this?” All of the sudden, nothing made sense. Black was east; up was white. A suburb of Cleveland even renamed their city after him based on his performance! OK maybe not that last one; the city of Hudson has been around since 1799 which predates the Cavaliers franchise by a mere 171 years. Still though, he has been the talk of the town ever since. He’s become the Midwest version of Linsanity, Hudsonity, if you will. Lester Hudson has proven that he is here to stay, and the Cavs stood behind him by giving him another ten day contract following the Nets game – a contract that will almost assuredly be extended through the end of the season in the near future.

Shockingly, it wasn’t too long ago that the Cavs were legitimate contenders for the eighth seed in the East. The debate soon started afterwards on whether it would be more beneficial to make a run at the playoffs and build a “winning culture” or bottom out and try to get as high of a draft pick as necessary. An injury to Rookie of the Year in waiting Kyrie Irving coupled with a nine game losing streak quickly provided the answer in March as the Cavs, some would say, turned tanking into an art form by plummeting to the fourth worst team in the league at one point. For some fans of other teams out of the playoffs, April can be a taxing time, pun completely intended. It’s difficult to watch one’s favorite team’s veterans trot out a lackadaisical effort night after night and get blown off the court. For those lucky enough to be afforded a glimpse into the possible future of their team though, it can be a fun and rewarding experience. Maybe the games don’t have the intensity of a Heat-Celtics game, and maybe the quality of play isn’t the greatest, but seeing guys like Lester Hudson doing everything they can to make the most out of the chances they are given is a rewarding experience itself. It’s been a fantastic week for Hudson, and I truly hope he can keep it up going forward into next year. In just the past few games, he has put up a number of box score accomplishments that none of us saw coming, but beyond the box score and YouTube clips, there is one incredible thing that Lester Hudson has done; he’s made a 19-36 team exciting to watch. That may be his greatest accomplishment of all.

Jared Dudley: From Fudgie The Whale To Dread Pirate Roberts

April 10, 2012 in by with 1 Comment

Photo courtesy of the artistic genius of HP's own Amin Vafa

8. The evolution of Jared Dudley

Players don’t have to make huge leaps or evolve into stars to make themselves more valuable. The Suns’ Dudley is a great example. Once a spot-up shooter, Dudley has gradually gotten better at running off screens for catch-and-shoot plays and even posting up smaller players when he draws a switch. He’s a creative finisher near the rim, capable of using up-and-unders and funky angles on the glass. Kudos to one of the NBA’s Twitter All-Stars, who becomes more well-rounded every season.

via The Point Forward » Posts Monday Musings: Mavericks’ failures this season go beyond Lamar Odom «.

Over the course of his five-year NBA career, Jared Dudley has made the transition from human manifestation of Fudgie the Whale to professional basketball’s Dread Pirate Roberts.

If your only exposure to Fudgie the Whale is a Patton Oswalt stand-up routine, you might not know that Fudgie is a cake (though if you’re a Simpsons fan, you know it’s the kind of thing you give to “a whale of a wife”). Yes, a delicious, heavyset dessert is the best comparison for Jared Dudley when he came into the league. Fudgie was often marketed as a cake for Father’s Day — yes, that was a thing in the 70s and 80s — but, by rotating the cake 90 degrees, cake artists (the most fulfilling of life’s careers, I assume) could turn Fudgie into a leprechaun, a rabbit or Santa Claus; Fudgie could be all things to all people, depending on the season.*

*He also taught children of those decades an important lesson — everything that is adorable or celebrated for a holiday should be turned into sugary confections and devoured. Thousands of years from now, anthropologists will compare our cetacean obsession to Aztec ritual sacrifices. Of this, I am convinced.

But at his sweet, decadent core, Fudgie was a whale. One could pretend his tail was bunny ears or Santa’s hat, but that’s not fooling anyone. Such was the case with Dudley, a rather rotund combo forward, as a rookie. Not athletic enough to effectively play small forward but too short (at a listed 6’7″) to realistically play the four, he seemed doomed to Fudgie status. Nominally, this positional purgatory meant he provided a certain semblance of versatility and flexibility. In practice, he was a sea-going mammal trying to hide his tail in an NBA jersey and shorts.

I wonder what an anthropomorphised Fudgie would look li... DEAR SHAMMGOD, IT'S TERRIFYING. (Photo by fudgiewhale via flickr, which I guess makes it a self-portrait in horror)

Then Dudley was traded to Phoenix. Upon his arrival in the desert, he went to work shedding excess weight and refining his game. Credit Steve Nash, credit the Suns’ training staff or credit Dudley himself; in any case, the man made of cake reshaped his body and his potential as a basketball player. Playing alongside Nash undoubtedly bolstered Dudley’s performance and numbers, but the improvement in Dudley’s game was immediate. He posted then-career highs in points and rebounds per 36 minutes in his 48 games in purple and orange, and his win shares per 48 minutes hit .126.

That number is a perfect depiction of what Dudley has become. Since the trade, his WS/48 has never exceeded .129 or dipped below .125. He is essentially 25% better than a replacement level player (defined here as one who provides .100 WS/48). His production, in raw, statistical terms, really hasn’t increased over his years in Phoenix. His total rebound percentage has hovered slightly over 8%. He’s practically an average player as gauged by PER, consistently posting an efficiency rating around 15. As Phoenix’s offensive options have faded over the last two seasons, Dudley’s usage percentage has increased, but just barely. He’s added the ability to step up and fill Grant Hill’s shoes as a perimeter defender to some extent when Hill has missed time, but he’s nowhere near the level of defender that Hill is.

It’s that willingness to do whatever is asked of him and whatever the team needs on a given night, though, that’s truly marked Dudley’s improvement. He’s the Suns’ Dread Pirate Roberts. His role in each game is defined by his teammates, his opponents and the ever-changing situation on the court. One never knows what exactly he’ll bring — or be asked to bring — to the table; his duties are masked, like Wesley’s face, to protect the innocent and to disguise his utility and true purpose. When coach Alvin Gentry chose to start Vince Carter ahead of Dudley last year, he took it in stride and performed admirably off the bench. When the Suns were struggling to find consistency in their rotations at the start of the year, Dudley willingly came off the bench to try to provide a spark to the second unit. Over the course of five games, from January 18th to the 27th, Dudley’s starting spot was given to Ronnie Price.*

*Those five games seem like a bad fever dream at this point. Was there really a stretch of the season where Nash and Price started alongside each other? That had to have been a hallucination, right?

That experiment failed fairly miserably — the Suns went 2-3, including a loss to the Raptors, and Dudley shot 38.7% from the field — but Dudley’s “As you wish” mentality cements his place in the NBA as the ultimate glue guy. Need someone to crash the boards? As you wish; he has two double-digit rebound games so far this season, and against the Wolves on March 12th, he helped pick up the slack by equaling Channing Frye and Marcin Gortat’s combined nine rebounds.

Is your lockdown defender sidelined by old age and leg injuries, putting you in need of a replacement to wear the mask as the team’s best wing player? As you wish; since Grant Hill has been out of the lineup for the past eight games, Dudley has been tasked with guarding the opponent’s best wing scorer or ballhandler and has generally acquitted himself well, though he was fortunate that Kobe Bryant, Hater Of The Sun, was out when the Lakers came to town on Saturday.

On your way through the Fire Swamp to avoid Humperdinck’s army and looking for someone to guide you? As you wish.

What both the Suns and fans of the team have found is that when Dudley utters those three words, what he really means is that he loves this team and its fans. And that makes it extremely easy to love him right back. He’s not the best player in the world, but he’s one of my favorites.

Now who wants some cake?

The Hardwood Paroxysm Awards: Rookies, FAST Don’t Lie, and THE Perimeter Stopper

April 10, 2012 in by with 1 Comment

Because there can never be enough awards, acronyms, recognition, or roundtables, HP proudly presents the HPAs. In true HP style, the Matty goes to…

Widely considered a “weak” draft class coming in, there’s been several nice surprises creating more depth from the Class of 2011 than expected. In hindsight, who gets the Matty for Most Underrated Rookie Coming In?

Jared Dubin: It’s got to be Isaiah Thomas, right? The guy was the 60th pick in the draft and now he’s a starting point guard and one of the most fun players to watch in the entire league. He’s not just a niche player like his size may suggest, either. Thomas can get into the lane, finish over the giants who await him there (61.3 at-rim FG% as of this writing), dish it to open teammates and hold his own on defense as well.

Amin Vafa: I know he was #1 overall, and he’s going to win ROY by a landslide, but I have to say Kyrie Irving. A lot of people thought he wasn’t going to cut it with his 11 games of NCAA experience. And no one, especially not anyone in the Cavs organization, thought he was going to be ready to be a franchise guy from the get-go. The Cavs are looking good in the years to come, thanks in large part to him.

Scott Leedy: Is it possible to say Ricky Rubio? It feels like so much time passed after the initial “OH MY GOD RICKY RUBIO IS GONNA BE SO GOOD” phase that by the time he was set to arrive in the states most people had written him off. Many questioned his Euro stats, his inability to shoot, and inconsistent playing time both for the Spanish National team and his Euro-league squad. Once Ricky showed up and started dropping incredible pass after incredible pass it became clear the initial hype was more than warranted.

Andrew Lynch:  I’m going to preface this DDL-style and say that every player in the league is rated, not over- or underrated. With that said, I’m going with the Manimal, Kenneth Faried. He leads all rookies who have played more than 500 minutes this season in WS/48 (.201), and he’s so “underrated” that he struggled in the early going to even get consistent playing time. His energy (cliché alert!) is infectious, and it manifests itself in his rebounding. His 19.3% Total Rebound Percentage is formidable, and his 15.9% Offensive Rebound Percentage is second in the league only to Nikola Pekovic.

Anytime you’re the man right behind Pek, you get my vote — for pretty much anything.

Sean Highkin: If the 2011 draft were done over again, Isaiah Thomas wouldn’t make it out of the lottery, let alone fall all the way to the last pick of the last round. The fact that he won Rookie of the Month the same month as the no. 1 overall pick, Kyrie Irving, says a lot.

Best Offensive Rookie?

JD: Kyrie Irving. Ricky Rubio was giving him a run for his money, but then the Basketball Gods decided they hated all of us. Irving is a spectacular, hyper-efficient scoring talent who is underrated in his ability to run an offense as well. If the Cavs had anyone outside Irving and – ugh – Antawn Jamison who could score, he would have averaged well more than 5.7 assists per game. For much of the season, Kyrie was seriously challenging to go 50/40/90 with his percentages, which would have just been unreal. As it is, he’s just the 4th rookie ever to go 45/40/85. This kid is special.

AV: Isaiah Thomas. He is so freakin’ fast, and he’s fearless getting to the rim. After having an absurdly dominant big-man who can score at will in the paint, I think having a super-quick small guard who can score at will in the paint is an awesome offensive weapon in a pinch. Play broken? No matter! Let the little guy run it through! Analysis!

SL: As good as Rubio was before the injury, it has to be Kyrie Irving. He’s relentless and already has an incredibly ability to get to the rim. Furthermore he’s had a couple spectacular late game performances that are rarely seen in a rookie, let alone at point guard, the league’s most difficult and complex position. Oh, and let’s not forget that spin move, what a glorious spin move it is indeed.

AL: At the risk of invoking the wrath of Conrad, I’m going with Isaiah Thomas. My inclination was to pick Kyrie Irving (duh), but he and Thomas are actually tied for the lead among rookies in offensive win shares, at 3.2. He also just outpaces Irving in Points Per Possession (per Synergy Sports), .96 to .94. Thomas has done it in slightly fewer minutes than Irving, so he barely gets the nod here. Please don’t hurt me, Cavs fans.

SH: Has to be Kyrie. I knew he’d be good, but I didn’t think he’d be this good this fast. Everything about his play and the way he shepherds the Cavs’ offense is remarkably poised, especially when you consider he only had 11 games of NCAA experience.

Most Impactful Rookie Defender?

Via Super Cool Zs, Zach Harper-Jared Dubin, DDL

JD: YES. My blatant campaign to give an award to Iman Shumpert worked! I’m shocked none of you called me out on this in the e-mail chain. Shump, along with Tyson Chandler and Jared Jeffries, has been one of the main catalysts in the Knicks’ rising from a bottom 10 defense in the league to a top 5 one. Though he needs some work on team defensive concepts like defending the pick-and-roll and staying home on spot-up shooters, he’s become an absolute lock-down 1-on-1 defender already. Through Friday, players isolating on Shumpert made a field goal ONLY ONE PERCENT MORE OFTEN THAN THEY TURNED THE BALL OVER. How high is this kid’s ceiling defensively? #ShumpShumpShrug

AV: Rubio. I don’t think anyone expected him to be such a fantastic defender, but ask Adelman and any attentive Wolves fan what the defense has been like since Rubio’s been out, and they’ll tell you that he is sorely missed. Dude’s a phenom, and I’m so glad we finally get to see him in action (well, aside from the injury and stuff).

SL: After what he did to Derrick Rose on Sunday it has to be Iman Shumpert. Shump already has some of the best hands I’ve ever seen in this league, combine that with a relentless, bull dog like attitude, and the requisite foot speed to stay in front of some of the league’s quickest guards and you have a lock down defender in the making.

AL: Shumptastic voyage is the people’s champion in this category. …Jared represents “the people,” right?

But seriously, Shump is the only rookie whose defensive win shares is 2.0 or higher, which gives him a claim to the title of “best rookie defender.” Combine that with the impact that he’s had — alongside the acquisition of Tyson Chandler and the Phoenician rebirth of Jared Jeffries — on the Knicks’ defensive improvement, and this is Shump’s Matty to lose.

SH: Iman Shumpert. Outside of Tyson Chandler, he’s the first guy that comes to mind when talking about the improvements the Knicks have made on defense from last season to this one.

Editor’s note: Is this the birth of “Shumping”? ™ WaitWUT…

Gail Goodrich recently said, “Certainly the game today, the players are quicker and faster. I think they’re even smarter. How did the game change? We averaged 121 points a game. You can’t average that [today] because the defense is back.” Who reels in a Matty for Fleet And Swift Transition Player of the Year?

JD: LeBron James. He leads the league in both points off turnovers and fast break points per game by a healthy margin and doubles as the most intimidating player in the league to stare down as he’s leading the break. His athleticism, finishing ability and insane court vision make him damn near impossible to guard in the open court.

AV: As much as it pains me to say it, this has to be a tie between Wade and James, right? God, that break is crazy good. It ain’t called a Flying Death Machine for nothing. Honorable mention goes to Leandro Barbosa, since I love picturing him running ahead of a bunch of other fast objects as depicted in The Free Darko Macrophenomal Pro Basketball Almanac.

SL: I have to give this award to the combination of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. I’m not sure there’s anything more breathtaking in sports right now then when those two are barreling down upon a helpless opponent, building a head of steam, creating the ever powerful anticipation that comes along with the seemingly limitless possibility they carry in their every move.

AL: I AM THE LEBRON JAMES TRAIN OF STEEL, AND I AM HERE FOR YOUR TRANSITIONS. ALL OF THEM.

SH: It’s the predictable answer and the same one everyone else has given, but LeBron is on a different level in transition from anyone else in the league.

Tony Allen sweeps grit

How about your Best of the Backcourt Stoppers?

JD: Tony Allen and it’s really not all that close.

AV: I’ll say Tony Allen, but mostly because he growled at James Herbert.

SL: Tony Allen, seriously just watch him for one night, the guy is a relentless, ball-hawking, pain the the opposing team’s ass. Might LeBron and Iggy be better? Sure it’s possible, but for now at least I’ll take the NBA twitter kingpin every day of the week.

AL: Does Kobe count? Because, you know, he stops the Lakers offense all the time!

Jokes, Lakers fans. Jokes. It’s Tony Allen. And I!!! think he would agree!

SH: The best)) perimeter defender is! the one who )grits and grinds the most!!!

Metta World Pass

April 10, 2012 in by with 0 Comments

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45GdbMfNSOk&feature=youtu.be w=700 h=400]

Really cool play from the Lakers tonight. LA was up by 3 points on the Hornets with 28.5 seconds to go in the game and just 3.2 seconds left on the shot clock. They were without Kobe Bryant, their best shot creator, so Mike Brown drew up a play that gave Metta World Peace – the trigger man – multiple options to choose from.

With Peace taking the ball out of bounds underneath the basket on the left hand side, the Lakers stationed Andrew Bynum on the left block, Steve Blake on the right block, Pau Gasol just above the left elbow and Ramon Sessions at the right elbow.

Right away, Peace is presented with three options. After Blake clears out from the right side of the lane and heads toward the left corner, Sessions cuts from the right elbow to the middle of the lane. He’s technically Peace’s first read on the play, but it doesn’t look like the play is really designed for him to get that pass. Bynum posts up his man on the left block as option number two, and Blake heading to the corner is the third option.

Having not received the pass from Peace on his cut to the basket, Sessions changes course and sets a cross-screen for Bynum, who loops around for a possible alley-oop lob or bounce pass from Peace to get him in good position underneath the hoop.

Both Sessions’ man and Bynum’s man stick with Bynum off the pick. This creates separation between Sessions and his man as he heads toward the perimeter, aided by a pin-down screen from Pau Gasol. This is what’s commonly known as the “screen the screener” play. On this particular sequence it’s the outlet option for Peace; a last resort if nobody comes open quickly and if the lob to Bynum is covered as well. It’s the fifth possible pass he can make on the play. But it’s the one he made and it’s the one that sealed the victory for the Lakers. Gasol’s screen created just enough space, Sessions drained the 3 stretching the Laker lead to 92-86 and they held on to win by 2 points.

A Hero Comes

April 9, 2012 in by with 3 Comments

Photo by Pensiero on Flickr

There are many, many logical and sound reasons to conclude that what we call “hero ball” is a terrible way to try to win basketball games. Speaking statistically, paying attention to the ins and outs of advanced metrics, a player working in isolation in the clutch is at best a shakey proposition. At worst, it not only loses the game, but pisses off teammates. And yet it happens all the damn time.

Take the game this past Easter Sunday between the Knicks and the Bulls. Once the Knicks blew their gargantuan lead, they found themselves down three with thirty seconds to play. And they drew up a beauty of a play that you can read all about here, but for now, just watch it:

Just look at that: solid screens, fake action, Melo being generous with the rock, an unexpected player getting a wide open look. And the shot doesn’t go in.

By way of contrast, let’s watch Carmelo Anthony’s game winner in overtime:

This is by any definition hero ball. Just a spot up three-pointer by the team’s best player and it won them the game. This was, by the way, after an earlier Anthony three that was just as flagrantly heroic tied the game to send it to overtime.

And we loved every single minute of it. Anybody who’s ever argued for the sanity and reason of running well-designed plays should admit that they were as floored by this as any casual fan who still judges players by their rings. We loved it because we’re more Kirk than Spock, more Han Solo than C3PO. We don’t want to know the chance of successfully navigating the asteroid field is is approximately three thousand, seven hundred twenty to one. We don’t want to hear that the odds of getting out of here are  approximately seven thousand eight hundred twenty four point seven to one. When the game is on the line, we don’t want a fancy plan. We want:

And I’m not citing those pop culture examples just for fun. See, our stories teach us to go against the odds. They tell us that against all reason, one hero must emerge from the rabble and lead the good guys to victory against every expectation we have for failure. When people say they want the ball in Kobe’s hands with the clock winding down, it’s not even really because they think he has a better chance of hitting that last shot than another player. It’s because the story demands that he take and make that last shot.

None of this is to say that attempting to make mathematical sense of the game or indeed that any attempt to bring more reason and clarity to the game is ill-advised. The game needs to evolve, to become something new in response to new ideas. But isn’t its wild ridiculousness what lies at the core of our love for it? Isn’t this ultimately why sports are so great in the first place? Truly great games like the Knicks-Bulls tilt this past Sunday stand on the border between the real world and fiction. The stories inside them lash out at the rules that give the game structure, at the probabilities and plans and diagrams. Hero ball doesn’t make statistical sense, but it makes narrative sense for people who grew up on stories of heroes overcoming fantastic odds. Can it demonstrably be show to hurt your team’s chance to win? Absolutely, but one need look no further than the trials of LeBron James to see that there are a lot of people who would rather see him lose with the ball in his hands than make the smart play.

Basketball is not just a sport, not just a reflection of percentages and points and metrics. It’s a reflection of our culture, of both its best and worst aspects. Every buzzer-beating three affirms it in our blood: we might take a Steve Novak jumper home to mom and dad, but we want to stay out all night and party with a Carmelo Anthony iso.

Weighing In On HoopIdea: Tanking vs. Rebuilding, The Thunder Model & Changing the Lottery

April 9, 2012 in by with 3 Comments

There is a difference between tanking and rebuilding. Both involve losing as part of the overall strategy, but they really aren’t the same. What the Golden State Warriors are doing this season is what I consider to be “tanking.” They are intentionally trying to lose more games this one season so they can keep their draft pick, which is only top-7 protected. This kind of tanking isn’t thought very highly of. Intentionally putting an inferior product on the court in an effort to lose games isn’t fun for anyone, especially fans, and especially if it’s not as part of a dedicated long-term rebuilding strategy (more on this below). The Portland Trail Blazers, with their moves at the trade deadline, also seemed to be engaged in this practice, only they’ve managed to go 7-7 since the deadline and have torpedoed their hopes for two potential top-5 picks (One of which would come from the Nets provided it doesn’t land in the top 3. But even they have won 6 games since their deadline deal for Gerald Wallace).

Both of these situations are different than the one in Charlotte, where the Bobcats are engaged in a long-term rebuilding project that involves “being bad to get good.” The ‘Cats made the playoffs two seasons ago as the East’s 8th-seed, but after trading Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson and others are now the worst team in the league. This has been a truly terrible season for fans of the team (especially Bobcats blogger Ben Swanson, who has watched something like 25 games in a row without seeing a win). But, as Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe put it on Twitter the other day, what should Charlotte have done with that nucleus?

That team was never going to contend for a championship, and while they could have been a middling playoff team for a few seasons, entertained their fans and made some money out of it, it ultimately wouldn’t have been worth it because there would be no payoff at the end. Admirably, Charlotte’s much-maligned front office recognized this fact, blew the team up and started over from scratch. While it is admittedly not so much fun for the fans of the team to watch the product on the court this season – and might not be next year if they don’t land franchise-changer Anthony Davis in the lottery – it’s better for the Bobcats’ long-term future that they have cleared their books, begun stockpiling young players and draft picks and seem to be prepared to be patient with the rebuilding process.

There has been a lot of chatter about how the so-called Thunder Model – the stockpiling of young players, draft picks and cap space I described Charlotte using above – isn’t repeatable. I both agree and disagree with this line of thinking. While the results of the Thunder’s rebuilding project aren’t easily repeatable (because, seriously, how many times do you get lucky enough to land four top-5 draft picks within a 3 year span, nail 3 of them with surefire All-Stars – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden – and pick up the league’s best shot-blocker – Serge Ibaka – in the mid-20s? And how many times can you turn the fourth top-5 pick – talented but flawed tweener forward Jeff Green – into the last piece of the puzzle to be your starting center – Kendrick Perkins?), the process and ideas behind the Thunder’s rebuilding project absolutely are.

Sam Presti and his staff valued the acquisition of young players, draft picks and cap space above all else and the patience in using that cap space, waiting for exactly the right player at exactly the right time to splurge on, even while the team was getting better fast and many prominent media members were practically begging him to make a move, was the most important part of the plan. Just because you have a lot of room under the cap to spend money doesn’t mean you absolutely need to. Just look at what happened to the Pistons after they threw money at Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, the two biggest names in an otherwise weak free agent market a few years back. Spending money on the wrong players can paralyze a franchise for years (Also see: 2000′s New York Knicks). The Thunder got lucky with lottery balls, even luckier with their selections and doled out their money smartly. That’s how you build a team from the ground up. Yes, it takes an insane amount of luck. But unless you’re the Lakers, Celtics, Knicks or Bulls, you’re going to need either an insane amount of luck or Pat Riley to go from bad to good as quickly as the Thunder have. We can deny that fact all we want, but it’s true.

Where the tanking debate really gets interesting is with ESPN TrueHoop’s HoopIdea and their crusade to either change or abolish the draft lottery and the draft altogether. This is the rare issue on which I don’t really have a strong opinion. I’m perfectly fine with the current system the way it is, but I’m also fine with changing the system because I’m all for any changes that can even possibly make the game better. I’m fine with the current system because it provides an avenue for bad teams to get better – something many of us seem to have forgotten we were extremely concerned about while the lockout was in effect – without guaranteeing them a reward specifically for being bad. With all the anti-tanking ideas out there, it’s easy to forget that the current lottery system gives the team with the worst record just a 25% chance of getting the first overall pick in the draft. In other words, they have nearly three times as much of a chance at not picking number one as they do of actually picking number one.

As an aside, I do vehemently disagree with prevailing thinking among hardline anti-tanking folks that the current lottery system rewards being bad. It doesn’t. It simply provides those teams who lose most with a larger chance at an indirect reward in an effort to improve competitive balance. Again, this was a huge issue in the lockout. On the other hand, I also vehemently disagree with the prevailing thinking among the “we can’t change the system” diehards that changing the system will punish teams specifically for being bad. It’s not like the NBA will be saying, “Hey, Bobcats. You’re terrible! We’re punishing you with the 14th pick.” It only seems to be a punishment because it’s a worse position to be in relative to where they are now.

Changing the system from the current arrangement, whether by unweighting the lottery system, using the “reverse order lottery” where the team with the best record that misses the playoffs gets the first pick, or abolishing the draft altogether could – again, could, not will - remove what has been proven as one of the best avenues for rebuilding a team. Securing multiple high lottery picks to get young, cheap, good players in the draft is one of the core tenets of the so-called “Thunder Model” referenced earlier. The problem is that part of that model involves losing, which sucks for the fans of the team. So the idea is to find a way to give teams a better shot at improving, even while they’re already getting better, rather than necessitating that they be bad to get good. It’s also important to think about the teams that get left behind in the current system, those fringe contenders who can make the playoffs but aren’t really competing for a championship. They’re in limbo and they need a way to improve too.

Changing the system can benefit those teams that are stuck in limbo; like the Bobcats were just a few years ago, and the Blazers were this year, and the Sixers or Rockets or even the Knicks may be in the next few years. Finding ways to get those fringe playoff teams to move up a level could be beneficial for the league. But just as those teams are wanting for ways to improve now, who’s to say that the really bad teams won’t soon be out of ways to improve if the system is changed? That push and pull, and the realization that there will always be bad teams, always be teams that appear to be stuck without a way to improve, always be fans or writers who are unhappy with the way the system works, is why I’m so Switzerland-esque neutral on this particular issue.

HP Round Table: 2011-2012 Team Awards

April 9, 2012 in by with 0 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtNHuqHWefU

As we near the end of the season, the time of hazily determined awards and resulting outrage draws near. Instead of falling in line with the idea of normal awards, we’re creating some of our own at Hardwood Paroxysm. But don’t worry, the possibility of ensuing bickering is still very real. Joining me today for a round table regarding team awards are fellow HP collegaues Conrad Kaczmarek, Noam Schiller, Jared Dubin, and Amin Vafa.

1) Which team has been the most watchable this season?

Conrad: I’m not gonna include the Thunder here, because they are the answer to one of my questions later on. Instead, I’ll probably go with the Los Angeles Clippers. Here’s the thing: Chris Paul is an absolute god on the basketball court. I could just watch him dribble for hours on end. Add that to DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin throwing down unreal alley-oops and you’ve got the most watchable team in the league. Apparently it’s really cool to hate on the Clippers and make snarky comments about how much of a disappointment they have been and that the Lakers are still the bestest because of da RINGZZZ, but I’m not jumping on that bandwagon. The Clippers are as entertaining as I expected. Chris Paul + any sort of playmaker = awesomeness.

Noam: There’s no way to answer this question without splitting the season into pre-Rubio and post-Rubio portions. Absolutely nothing was prettier on the eyes than the young Spaniard leading yet another Timberpups possession en route to a hopeful 8th seed. After ACLs came tumbling down with our hopes and dreams, Minnesota left the award to yet another “new look” version of the Spurs, who employ a unique combination of well-known faces willing to defer and new faces eager to contribute, stirred together by the masterful wand of one Gregg Popovich to create a synergous treat.

Jared: Somewhat surprisingly, it’s the San Antonio Spurs. Gregg Popvich’s team has never been what one would call “fun” in years past, but this season has been different. San Antonio’s constant cutting and motion is a joy to watch. Though their defense has been league average for much of the season, it really clamps down in crunch time. Tony Parker is having what may be his best season, Tim Duncan is still doing Tim Duncan things (albeit in less minutes) and their cadre of undrafteds and unwanteds like Matt Bonner, Gary Neal and Danny Green fills in the blanks. They’re sitting atop the Western Conference with just a few weeks left in the season, and they’ve done most of their work without Manu Ginobili too. Fun, fun, fun team.

Amin: I’m going to answer this with 3 teams: 1) The Thunder, for their chemistry and their start-to-finish effort. They’re never not showing effort, and if they lose a game they shouldn’t (say, to Washington), then they bounce back and learn from their mistake. 2) The Cavs, for playing way better than anyone thought they would this season. They’re going to be drafting just around where we thought they would before the season started, but the effort and growth all the new additions to the roster showed (+ how valuable Varejao is to the front court of this, or any, team) brings real hope for the future. 3) The Lakers, for still being contenders while being so maddening in their effort, play-calling, and drama. They are the most watchable if you enjoy schadenfreude.

Connor: I’ll go with the pre-Rubio injury Minnesota Timberwolves. Never has the pick-and-roll been so fun without needing frequent dunks. The play of Ricky Rubio wasn’t infallible, but it always felt purposed. Then, there was the highlight passes. When Kevin Love hit a game-winning three to beat the Clippers in January, it felt like the Wolves had finally arrived, and before Rubio’s injury, they absolutely had. And it was wonderful to see. Here’s to 2013, and a healthy Ricky Rubio.

2) Which team has been the least watchable? 

Conrad: The Lakers. I can’t stand watching Kobe chuck contested jumpers while the most skilled big man in the world sits there without getting adequate touches (that’s Pau Gasol, not Andrew Bynum, by the way). They just play boring basketball, in my opinion. Kobe Bryant seems to suck all of the fun out of that team for me.

Noam: The Golden State Warriors. Yes, the Charlotte Bobcats are a trainwreck bereft of any NBA caliber talent, but they are also just young and unfamiliar enough to grab my attention on occasion. The Pistons, who have held this title for two years running, have just enough Greg Monroe in them for a slight bump. The Warriors, though? With both members of the Monta-Steph dispute out of commission, Andrew Bogut still on the shelf, and plus/minus linchpin Epke Udoh all gone, the only motivation to watch this team is whether or not Dominic McGuire will do something befuddlingly amazing. It just isn’t worth it.

Jared: I can’t really decide between the Bobcats, the Wizards and the Nets. Charlotte, while one of the worst teams in NBA history, has the train wreck factor going for it. Everyone stops and watches when something that horrific is happening (#PrayForCardboardGerald). The Wizards, until they traded JaVale McGee and Nick Young, were just a hodge-podge of terribleness. Playing with those two and Andray Blatche, yeesh, it’s a wonder John Wall managed to stay neutral this season and not completely regress. And the Nets… well, the Nets are really bad on the court and somehow even worse off it. The Gerald Wallace trade continues to make no sense.

Amin: Oof, this is a toughie, mostly because it sucks to not want to watch a team. But I’ll go ahead and say the Bobcats. While they started the season almost beating the Heat (yay free NBA League Pass!), their roster is too thin to compete most nights. I hope their future is bright. But losing to the pre-Nene Wizards? Yikes, guys. Big yikes.

Connor: I’ll say the Detroit Pistons. I don’t choose them because the team itself is that difficult to watch (Jonas Jerebko is fun), but because their arena always seems sort of empty during home games (of course, some of these game were against the Bobcats), and that makes me sad.

3) Which team has surprised you the most this season?

Conrad: Probably the Hawks. With the injury to Al Horford, I thought they were toast. Somehow, however, Atlanta has stayed afloat and is very much in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. I have an irrational love for Josh Smith and I think it’s awesome that the Hawks have been doing so well despite losing their best player. Runners up for this award would be the Spurs and the Celtics. The Spurs are quietly beating everybody while the Celtics pulled some voodoo and came back to life when everybody thought they were dead.

Noam: The Utah Jazz. I love almost every single piece on their roster, but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine them being this good this fast. Tyrone Corbin somehow turned what should have been a rebuilding season into a potential playoff run. That’s nothing short of incredible.

Jared: The pleasant surprise of the season was the Minnesota Timberwolves. Until Ricky Rubio went down (SAD FACE) they were right in the playoff picture, which is kind of miraculous since they don’t really have anybody of consequence on that roster beyond Rubio, Kevin Love and the surprising Nikola Pekovic, who is a candidate for Most Improved Player. Rick Adelman has been a terrific influence on this roster and got them playing better than I ever imagined he could. Even without their own draft pick this season, the future is bright for the T’Wolves for the first time in a while.

Amin: The Spurs. I thought their title window was long gone, and here they are, fighting for the top seed in the West, giving every team a matchup nightmare. I don’t know how they did it, but I hope they stay healthy so at least we can know what they were capable of at their strongest.

Connor: The Spurs, and I don’t know why I’m surprised. Before they ran into the Grizzlies in the playoffs (a terrible matchup for the Spurs) last year, they were a formidable one seed with talent, albeit aging talent. Over the last few years, most people have assumed the Spurs are too old to win a championship, including me. And yet, they’re still young enough to continually surpass regular season expectations.

4) Which team has underwhelmed and disappointed you this season?

Conrad: The Kings. I think DeMarcus Cousins is a phenomenal talent and I figured Tyreke Evans would have a huge bounce back year. Unfortunately, for all of the talent on that team, they just cannot put it together. I went into this season expecting that I would want to watch tons of Sacramento games, but that hasn’t been the case. They’ve been thoroughly underwhelming and make me question if they will ever turn their collection of basketball players into a successful team. TEAM!

Noam: The New Jersey Nets. It’s not their fault that Brook Lopez barely managed to show up for 5 games before shutting everything down, and I honestly believe that a healthy Brook could have been the difference between playoff contention and whatever it is that you call this monstrosity. But even when you factor in that adversity, the Nets have seemingly done everything in their power to make things worse, from involving a whopping 21 different players in actual games this season, to sending away the draft pick that should have been the only reward to be reaped from this year.

Jared: It’s a toss-up between the Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers. Dallas is still good, but they really haven’t found that extra gear. I can’t see them going too deep in the playoffs. Everyone figured their defense would fall off after the loss of Tyson Chandler, but it’s stayed in the top 10. It’s their offense which has mysteriously disappeared. I’m not really sure how a team with this much offensive talent is 23rd in the NBA in offensive efficiency. And Portland… well, I suppose Ray Felton and Jamal Crawford happened, but I didn’t expect this group to completely collapse and fall out of playoff contention altogether pre-deadline. By that point though, I admired their decision to tank the season… only that didn’t exactly go as planned either. Disappointing in more ways than one.

Amin: The pre-Nene Wizards were hard to watch because they HAD some talent and were just so dysfunctional it hurt. Hopes were high with some good draft picks and a healthy and leadership-ready John Wall, but everything just unraveled so quickly. Poor play, poor conditioning, poor veteran leadership, poor defense, stagnant offense. The Nene trade is a step in the right direction (though it deviates from the original rebuilding path). I can only hope the future is brighter ahead.

Connor: I’ll go with the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are both very talented and terribly inconsistent. Some of that can be blamed on Lamar Odom’s tough season or the loss of Tyson Chandler, but that’s only a half-excuse. A team with Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, a great defender in Shawn Marion, and solid, surprising play from both the guard and center positions shouldn’t be fighting for a 6th to 8th seed, let alone a chance at missing the playoffs completely. Every other game, the Mavericks look like defending champions. But in the next game, they’ll look like a team easily dispatched by the Sacramento Kings.

5) Which team has the most likable group of players? (Note: You can’t choose your own team.)

Conrad: It’s the Thunder and it’s not particularly close for me. I love Kevin Durant. I love James Harden. And I absolutely love Russell Westbrook. They look like they just enjoy playing the game and they aren’t arrogant jerks about it. I like when teams celebrate and have fun winning, without crossing the line and becoming obnoxious. Those guys seem like they are just genuine ballers. I love OKC.

Noam: The Miami He.. nah, it’s the Denver Nuggets. Every single member of the squad is both good and unique enough to make you feel fuzzy inside, but flawed enough to remain relatable. Ty Lawson is the fastest but the smallest, Gallo’s never-ending confidence is straddled by his unfortunate disabled list forays, and JaVale McGee is a physical specimen who just doesn’t get it in the funniest way possible. This team goes a legit 15 deep, and every single one of them is a hoot.

Jared: Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant might be the most likable player in the league, James Harden’s beard is feared but everybody loves him, Serge Ibaka swats everything, it’s impossible not to like the way Nick Collison plays the game, and I’m one of like 9 people in America who DOESN’T hate Russell Westbrook. So, yeah, it’s OKC.

Amin: Well since I can’t say the pre-Nene Wizards (John Wall, Rashard Lewis, Kevin Seraphin, Nick Young, Javale McGee, Andray Blatche, Jordan Crawford, Jan Vesely, Trevor Booker, Roger Mason, Mo Evans… all great and hilarious dudes), I’ll go with the Pacers, because 1) they seem like a bunch of really nice and hardworking dudes, and 2) they are such a stark contrast from their Malice-era counterparts in terms of tenacity and lunacy. Plus, Roy Hibbert reads Jared’s writing, so that’s pretty cool. Oh, and Parks and Rec. Yeah, totally the Pacers.

Connor: I love what the Goran Dragic-led Rockets (a quietly fun team all season) have been doing lately, but I’ll say the Utah Jazz. From the apparent friendship between Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson to the improving play of Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors, the Jazz have come to be a likable, overachieving young team with good chemistry.

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