Hardwood Paroxysm | Unbiased opinions from extremely biased people

SPRINGFIELD ARMOR ACQUIRE MAJOR WINGATE … I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

Just so we’re clear on why I love the D-League? The Armor just acquired Major.

Here’s a picture of The Major (as he will henceforth only be called):

Basic stuff: 6-10, former Tennessee Volunteer (I cannot make this stuff up), has done the Euro-tour, out of South Carolina, no relation to Reginald Wingate.

I don’t know about you, but I think the Red Claws need to go out and sign the first guy they can find named Crustacean, just so we can have a post-ironic matchup of the ages when the two meet up on Friday. Prepare yourself for a barrage of “An Officer and a Gentleman”/”A Few Good Men” references whenever he does anything. Just getting that out there.

The “Mexican” Fast Food Intervention

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 3 Comments

But then I check Twitter and see several people in my feed making fun of the Hornets bench for trying, and man, that got me fired up. â€œIf they had played that hard the whole game they wouldnâ€™t have been down 20!â€ â€œLakers fans shouldnâ€™t be embarrassed because they cheer louder for tacos than the gameâ€“ the Hornets should be embarrassed for losing!â€ Etc. One of these people was an ESPN writer, which is kind of inexplicable to me.

You people did notice that this wasnâ€™t exactly the lineup that lost the game? The Hornets had three guards out there under 6-4, and were playing 6-9 Darius Songaila at center. I mean, thatâ€™s not exactly an NBA lineup. Thatâ€™s serious small ball, and they were pushing the pace.

via This is Madness: Rookies and Tacos | Hornets Hype.

TickTock6 with her usual charm makes several good points about this, not the least of which is this. If you’re a good fan, you know, smart fan, cheer hard, come early, stay to the end, celebrate the good times, mourn the bad times, then you need to tell your fellow fans. Don’t cheer or boo for food promotions. Cheer for a good performance. Boo a poor one or at the opponent. This Taco/Chalupa nonsense must end.

I’m always told “Well, yeah, a lot of the Staples crowd are idiots but the good fans are great!” So I’m talking to all twelve of you. Tell your fellow associates to cheer for a great team kicking the crap out of the other one. Hey, it’s supposed to be fun, I get that, so enjoy the tacos if you’d like. It’s okay to even root for them as a side-bonus, or to try and get the team to hold them if they’re at 99. That’s fine. But don’t boo the other team trying to get better just because it may cost you more junk food. I’m not just talking to Lakers fans, here. If your team has a promotion, let’s treat it as a side thing, and not the goal at the end of a game. Be a good fan, and set a good example for not being a complete douchebag.

Finally… YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA! You have excellent Mexican food at every turn! Do you understand the lengths and risks I must endure to find good Mexican in Kansas City, after living in Austin, Texas for four years? They call Queso “Cheese Sauce” for God’s sake!Â Go find yourself a real taqueria! It’s Jack-In-The-Box for Chrissake!

Talkin’ Bout Practice… Against Air.

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

The tough thing about basketball is unless you are competing against someone else on your playing level, it is hard to get better. No matter how many shots you shoot, and how much footwork you do, it is still not the same without that competition. How do I know if my â€œslippery eelâ€ thank you Nick Horvath will work if I am practicing it against air? I can make a thousand by myself, but once I try it in a game I might have â€œMoltenâ€ written across my foreheadâ€¦WOOSH!! That is the sound of that joke flying over half of my readersâ€™ heads. Molten is the name of the ball used for international competitionâ€¦câ€™mon people keep up. Trying to find that competition is not always easy. Most professional players are already playing somewhere. Colleges no longer have open gyms and are knee deep in their seasons already. I try to meet up with players I went to high school with and get a couple of games in a few times a month. Other than that I head over to a local college on Saturday mornings to play against a group of former professional basketball players who are now successful businessmen and doctors. I donâ€™t know if I should feel confident since I am still trying to play, or diffident since these guys are all wildly successful. Either way the drought of consistent fall basketball puts a guy like me at an instant disadvantage even with all my hard work.

via Waiting For Godunk: The “Weighting” Game.

Kind of puts Iverson’s whole thing in perspective, doesn’t it? Practices are treated as so irrelevant in the NBA because of the schedule and attitude, but so many guys who aren’t in the league need it. It’s why the D-League’s so important. Even without getting toppermost of the toppermost talent on the floor, at least it gets development coaching and a competitive example.

By the way, if Owens keeps this up I’m going to start a PayPal donation fund to send him to IMG for a week. He wants practice, I’ll give him practice.

/would seriously, literally die at IMG.

//all hail Thorpe

Put Alonzo Gee On Your Radar

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

For the Toros, Alonzo Gee is very good. Very good. Yes, I just repeated myself. 25 points on 10-17 shooting along with four rebounds, and one of the best things about his game is that he knows what he can and can’t do. He doesn’t take a bunch of long twos or outside shots that he’s not going to make (ahem, Dar Tucker). Gee is an explosive player, and it’s clear why the Spurs like him. They have an eye for talent, that team; they should take advantage of it somehow. I said that some non-Gee Toros would have to come through in this game, and boy did they ever. Curtis Jerrells finally had an overwhelmingly positive games, with eight assists and only one turnover to go with 5-8 shooting. Justin Bowen also played very well with 18 points and six rebounds. Dwayne Jones had eight points and 13 rebounds, but then he should have. He’s a veteran by this point with several years spent working on his footwork and positioning (though the footwork on his offensive game is still pretty bad), so he should be able to take advantage of still-raw players like Hardin and Mullens.

via Last Night in the D-League; Just KeepÂ Shooting – Ridiculous Upside.

This Gee kid is legit. Saw him last night and at 6-6, he’s going to be a nightmare for teams in the Toros/Spurs system. Throw in only 1 turnover in 38 minutes of play last night, and I’ve got to put this kid at or near the top of the Call-Up charts.Â It’s hard for me to do because he does all the things that teams DON’T look to the D-League for (scoring, shooting, not just being a body), but his shooting numbers are good enough to make you think Anthony Morrow with a bigger body size.

Dwyane Jones worked like a pro last night, too. I’ve seen him take games off where he looked like a D-Leaguer, but last night he was attacking and dominating the interior like a pro should, especially against Mullens.

Poor, poor Mullens.

Also, as a sidenote, you’re not going to find a better D-League announce team than Marc Hoenig and Malik Rose. Yes, that Malike Rose. Check out Marc’s Twitter here.

Missing Kevin Durant

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 1 Comment

The flashy stat in OKC may be Kevin Durant’s 27.4 points, behind only Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James among the league leaders, but the better story is that Durant is playing 80 percent of the minutes for a team ranked fourth in the league in defensive efficiency and fifth in points allowed. It’s a limited sample — Durant has been off the court a total of only 154 minutes this season — but the Thunder allow just 99.1 points per 100 possessions when Durant plays compared with 115.4 points per 100 possessions when he doesn’t. Throw in significant jumps, for the second straight year, in Durant’s rebounding and assist rates, and even persistent critics, like yours truly, have to concede he’s a budding MVP candidate.

More to the point, the Thunder’s upgrade on defense (they were 23rd in points allowed last year) should forestall long losing streaks. Factor in a rough early gauntlet that has already included two games apiece against the Lakers and the Magic, and quality wins over Orlando, San Antonio and Utah, and Presti’s rebuilding job, ably abetted by coach Scott Brooks, looks to be a year or two ahead of schedule.

via Suns, Kings likely to see early success even out over season – Britt Robson – SI.com.

Robson chimes in with his latest piece on which of the early upstarts is likely to falter. He doubts the Suns (three-point shooting), Bucks (offense), and Kings (team). But he’s in the Thunder and Rockets’ corners.

**************

So I think it’s pretty clear from Twitter and the blog and all how much I watch of the league. I watch a lot. Not a Dwyer amount. But a lot. I’ve seen all 30 teams at least six times by now, most way more than that. And I watch the Thunder more than usual. You want to know something bizarre?

I’ve only seen Durant score, like, five field goals. No kidding. It’s just one of those things. I’ll have the game on and someone on Twitter will say something funny, or the dog will need to go outside, or the wife will holler to remind me of item number 8,795 on my to-do list, and then I’ll look up and just hear “Kevin Dur-ANT! Wow!” or some variation thereof. And now and again I’ll rewind it to see it, but usually I just say “Oh, I’ll catch it next time.” Except I don’t. I just keep seeing his pull-up threes that clang or turnovers. So to me, Durant has played like crap this year. Which is, of course, absolutely not true, he’s been sublime.

Contrast this with the fact that I literally go back through play by play to see where and when Jeff Green scored so I can watch every single move. I watched one Thunder 3rd quarter four times just so I could watch where Green was before he scored.

Maybe I should reassess my priorities. But I think it’s really weird that in the course of the game, I’m managing to NOT catch the fourth best scorer in the league.

The Answer Has Come Home

December 2, 2009 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

Itâ€™s official now, Allen Iverson informed the 76ers on Wednesday morning that he will accept their one-year, non-guaranteed offer. The contract is for a pro-rated veteranâ€™s minimum of $1.3 million. And you know what, the reunion of the two sides that served each other so well for a decade is more than just a great story; it makes basketball sense and provides fringe benefits for both sides

The Philadelphia 76ers have desperately needed back-court help all season and Lou Williamsâ€™ injury was the nail in that coffin. Former franchise icon, Allen Iverson, desperately needed a home. Itâ€™s a match made in heaven or maybe hell, weâ€™ll see.

via Philadunkia Â» PRAYERS ANSWERED.

Philadunkia with a terrific piece on Iverson who came to terms with the Sixers today.

There are maybe, maybe three teams that could have signed Iverson where I would think it was a good idea. New York, Charlotte, and Philadelphia. This feels right, whereas Memphis felt so, so wrong. He returns to the city that gave him his career. A city as hard-edged as he is. A team that desperately needs scoring, which is the biggest (only?) thing he can provide at this point. Iguodala-Brand-Young-Speights-eh. IVERSON-BRAND-IGUODALA-YOUNG-SPEIGHTS-ROAR!

There’s no downside here. The rest of the team is full of pretty good defenders. There’s no weird cultural split. He’s not coming into a tighknit group like like in Detroit or a team trying to find itself like in Memphis. That was the mistake. Iverson doesn’t need to find himself. He knows who he is, who he’s always been, and that’s who he’ll always be. People thinking he might become a team player? A role component? Get it out of your heads.Â It won’t happen. He’s going to look to score, to dribble, to dominate the ball. And that’s fine. Because it takes pressure off the rest of the team, and the rest of that team is pretty talented.

We’ll have to see if he and Eddie Jordan can co-exist, but given Jordan’s work with Arenas, Iverson can’t be that hard… can it?

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