Adrian Wojnarowskis of Yahoo! Sports: “Bryan Colangelo and Sam Mitchell never had much of a relationship, much trust, but the beginning of the end for Mitchell, the deposed Toronto Raptors coach, had to be gathering his players and demanding to know ‘the snitches’ responsible for ratting out his round of golf on the eve of elimination in last season’s playoffs. The Raptors could’ve practiced in Toronto and left later that Saturday between Games 4 and 5 of the Eastern Conference playoffs in April, but Mitchell wanted an early wake-up call and an early flight to Orlando. He would later say it was because he wanted his players to get extra shooting on the Amway Arena rims, but the rush to catch more daylight hours left an appearance that the motivation was less shooting, more swinging. ‘I think the ship had already set sail with the players and Sam, but that didn’t help,’ a league source said.”
Wages of Wins: “The problem is really quite simple. Jermaine O’Neal – who used to be a ‘good’ player – has not played well. And his performance in 2008-09 is consistent with what we have seen since the middle of the 2006-07 season. As you may recall, O’Neal suffered an injury at that point, and his production suggests he has never fully recovered. Essentially the Raptors have lost three productive players and then added a player who only has memories of being a good NBA player. Consequently, we should not be surprised that this team has struggled. What’s surprising is that the person who assembled this team expected a different outcome. Remember, we have evidence that Colangelo was asked by his owner to read The Wages of Wins. And yet, despite this assignment, Colangelo expects the team he constructed to be better.”
Ian Thomsen of CNNSI.com: “The Trail Blazers are rising fast because Roy is slowing them down. ‘He has a pace about him that is a calming pace for me and the players,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said. ‘It’s like he doesn’t show emotions or being rattled.’ Of the league’s young wing players, the 6-6 Roy is among the least impressive athletically. But it’s a loser’s daydream to imagine how good Roy might have been if blessed with the hops of Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade. Superior athleticism might have turned into his crutch. Roy is the most valuable piece of the league’s most promising young team not because of his athletic instincts, but because he has spent his short career taking the time to think things through. Roy watches his peers not with envy but rather in search of ideas he can steal.”
Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com: “It’s no secret that Brandon Roy is considered the unquestioned leader of the Trail Blazers locker room, but when you’re playing on a team as young as Portland’s, there are plenty of opportunities for mentorship. That’s where LaMarcus Aldridge comes in. Despite being just a third-year player himself, Aldridge, along with Roy, has the credibility that comes along being one of the cornerstones of the franchise’s future. But aside from that, Aldridge has proven himself as a trusted source of basketball knowledge; a player who has the smarts and understanding of the system to guide teammates on the court when necessary. Rotations get missed and assignments confused, and when that happens, Aldridge is there to help out. It’s a role he’s more than comfortable in assuming.”
Greg Oden: “We are on a week long east coast road trip, as of now we are 3-0. We play Boston tomorrow and Toronto on sunday. Those are two really good teams, they will be really tough to win and being at there place. The road trip has been good so far besides basketball they are some really good cities that we have been too. In Detroit i got to see my mom so that was good. Then in New York i just like it, me and Steve Blake went out to dinner and i got to see some of the places that were on this weeks episode of Gossip Girl.”
20 Second Timeout: “The ex-players on TNT and NBA TV are not at all sympathetic to Stoudemire’s complaints. Chris Webber said that if he could have played with O’Neal and Nash then he would have won a ring; that led to a funny retort from Kenny Smith about whether Webber wanted to say something to former teammates Vlade Divac and Mike Bibby, who of course played the same positions alongside Webber in Sacramento that O’Neal and Nash respectively play in Phoenix. Webber also made the excellent point that unless you are averaging at least 10 rpg as a big guy you cannot say that you are the man. Charles Barkley echoed that last sentiment and added that a true franchise player never has to declare that he is the man; he simply dominates games and everyone else falls into line. Smith pointed out that Stoudemire is already leading the team in minutes and scoring and that the only reason his numbers are down from last year is that Phoenix is playing at a slower pace, hence there are fewer possessions.”
X’s & O’s of Basketball: Breaks down Utah’s Flex Continuity Offense
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “Prompted by a conversation today, I decided to try to answer another question: What does it cost on average for an NBA player to log one minute of game action? Believe it or not, it’s not that difficult to come up with a pretty good estimate. For starters, there are 1,230 games each season, multiplied by 48 minutes a game, two teams in each game, and five players on the court for each team. That means there are 590,400 available minutes to be played in the NBA each season. If you add up the salaries of every player currently on the active roster of an NBA team – - and trust me, you’ll burn out a calculator trying to do so – -you get $2.058 billion. That’s 30 teams with an average payroll of $68.6 million. If you divide the two numbers – - $2.058 billion in player salaries by 590,400 minutes – - you arrive at $3,487 per minute. Next time you watch a game, ask yourself if the five players on the court just gave you $17,436 worth of effort in that minute.”
Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer: “Anyone who’s played for Larry Brown knows his two mantras on efficient offense: A point guard must be obsessed with finding easy baskets for teammates. The offense runs inside-out, not outside-in. At least for now, you can check off those points on the Charlotte Bobcats’ to-do list. Point guard Raymond Felton and center Emeka Okafor have been something else these past two games. Felton had 14 and 12 assists in victories over the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder. In those same games, Okafor finished with 24 and 25 points. Calling that a cause-effect relationship is like reminding there’s no rain without storm clouds.”
Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: “Fisher said teams have adjusted to some of what the Lakers like to do defensively. Instead of allowing the Lakers to push point guards to the sideline, teams are running high screen-and-rolls with their centers and power forwards, forcing Gasol and Bynum farther from the basket. That, in turn, has stretched the Lakers’ defense and given opposing point guards lanes to drive. ‘It seems like every night it’s another guard that if you don’t watch out he can dominate a game by not only scoring points but getting a high number of assists as well,’ Fisher said. ‘That’s when we’re going to have problems.’”
Need4Sheed: Rasheed Wallace gives a tour of Detroit’s new practice facility [Video]
Tim MacMahon of The Dallas Morning News: “Shaq has done a ton of yammering in the ears of Erick(a) Dampier throughout the course of their careers. For some reason, the best big man of this generation was awfully quiet during this trip to Dallas. ‘We just go back and forth,’ Dampier said after the Mavs spanked the Suns, ‘but there wasn’t much talking tonight.’ Hmm, that might have had something to do with the fact that Damp dominated the matchup, like the Big Fill in the Blank used to do during their Lakers/Warriors days. Shaq was a non-factor with four points (1-6 FG) and five rebounds. Damp stuffed the box score with nine points (4-6 FG), 14 rebounds, three assists and three blocks.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “The Orlando Magic are expecting Jameer Nelson and Keith Bogans back on the floor tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Amway Arena. They are also looking for the return of J.J. Redick’s jump-shot, which appears to have sustained multiple fractures. It has been missing for a while, too. The whereabouts of Redick’s shot is among the great unsolved mysteries, ranking right up there with Stonehenge, UFO sightings and Paris Hilton’s new CD. It’s as if the basketball gods are playing a trick on him. Anybody seen J.J.’s ‘J’? ‘I feel like my defense is better than my offense,’ Redick said.”
Sactown Royalty: “I’m a big believer in points margin as a team-level indicator because, well, it works. Wins and losses obviously tell you a lot the quality of teams. But you can trick the W-L ledger — with some lucky close wins, a mediocre team can look decent; with some unlucky bad losses, a good team can look average. Using margin, we pump the differentiation. And as I said, it’s a great indicator. Boston blew everyone out of the water with its 2007-08 points margin. It’s not a hard concept, either: It’s your points minus your opponent’s points. (Understand why is an effective tool yet?) If we were to take the Kings points margin after 20 games and compare it other Kings teams of the past 15 years, we’d find it’s the second worst mark behind 1996-97. The Kings have been outscored by 147 points this year, which means the average Kings performance to date has been a 7.35-point loss.”
Sam Amick of the Sacrmento Bee: “With a seven-game losing streak to worry about and the prospect of being fully healthy for the first time just days away, most of the team’s veterans came out in support of Theus after Thursday’s practice. Shooting guard Kevin Martin was chief among them, calling it ‘unfair’ that this team and this coach have been judged so harshly by fans and the media in light of the numerous injuries suffered this season. ‘It’s not (the coaching staff) losing games,’ said Martin, whose left ankle injury kept him out 12 games before his return Tuesday. ‘They’re putting their hard hours in, giving us their scouting report night in and night out and they’re not playing the games. It’s on us. ‘This talk about (Theus) being gone whenever just needs to go out the window, because we’re all excited about playing for him. I want him here, Brad (Miller), the vets, they want him here. He’s our coach.’”
Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star: “Three years ago during a predraft workout at Conseco Fieldhouse, one player stood out among the blur of activity. Rick Carlisle remembers. The former Indiana Pacers coach couldn’t take his eyes off him. Team president Larry Bird, without mentioning names, later acknowledged the Pacers had found their guy. Oh, they found much more than that. Danny Granger has blossomed into the face of the franchise and one of the NBA’s premier scorers. He is averaging a career-high 24.4 points. Reggie Miller did that. Once.”
Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News: “Turn back the pages of the NBA record book. Keep turning. Go back to 1995-96, when Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, both from the draft class of 1984, finished Nos. 1 and 2 in scoring. Go back to 1951-52, when Paul Arizin and Bob Cousy, both drafted in 1950, were Nos. 1 and 3 in scoring. Keep going back until the first draft in 1947. It has never happened. Never in NBA history have the top three scorers in a season all come from the same draft class. But it could happen this season. Yes, it’s early. But the top three scorers, Miami’s Dwyane Wade (28.4 average), Cleveland’s LeBron James (27.4) and Toronto’s Chris Bosh (26.6) are all from the class of 2003.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “With Derrick Rose turning the Rookie of the Year race into a one-man show, the 2008 NBA Draft may wind up being the second-coming of the 2004 NBA Draft. Heading into the 2004 Draft, debate went back and forth about the first two selections. Emeka Okafor or Dwight Howard. Howard or Okafor. As former Charlotte executive Bernie Bickerstaff tells it, the Bobcats did not definitively know until the afternoon of the draft which way the Magic was going to go at No. 1. Then, even after Orlando went for Howard and left Okafor at No. 2 for Charlotte, there was plenty of second-guessing. The rest of the story is that Howard has emerged in a class of his own, while Okafor has materialized as a steady presence, certainly a long-term NBA contributor. That could be how the 2008 NBA Draft turns out. Heck, the Bulls already are pushing Rose for this season’s All-Star Game. The Heat? Uh, not so much with Michael Beasley.”
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “In a story posted on the league’s official website, NBA.com, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy essentially called Wade that this week. ‘His ability to carry the ball right now, he’s getting away with that,’ Dunleavy said. ‘He [carries] left to right, right to left, but he just does it fast so nobody sees it, I guess.’ Dunleavy, who cited Wade as playing in ‘a class above the rest,’ compared what he views as Wade’s palming violations to a signature move of former NBA scoring standout Bernard King. Wade was called for palming violations in consecutive games last month against the Raptors and Wizards while attempting change-of-direction dribbles.”
Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer: “They have third-best record in the NBA (behind Boston’s 18-2 and the Lakers’ 15-2). They have faced what the NBA rates as the league’s 11th most difficult schedule so far as they are 7-2 against teams with winning records. ‘I don’t know how many games we’ll win, but I truly believe we are a championship caliber team,’ said coach Mike Brown. ‘We are good enough to win games on our own floor, and on anyone else’s floor. We are smart enough to know we still have things to learn, that we have to get better.’ Brown insisted that it isn’t ‘conceited’ to talk championship, that whatever great expectations fans have for this team, his are just as high.”
Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com: “Isiah Thomas was a great player. He earned first- or second-team All-NBA honors 5 times, led the league in assists twice, and had many indelible moments in the crucible of the playoffs (remember his MVP performance in the 1990 Finals, or his 25 3rd-quarter points on a badly sprained ankle in Game 6 of the ‘88 Finals?). In fact, in the postseason — when most players’ numbers decline due to the increased strength of opponent — Isiah’s numbers actually improved markedly, from 6.78 career regular-season WS/3000 min. to 8.68 in the playoffs. Face it, the man was tough, and he was one of the clutchest scorers in NBA history. But why is it a foregone conclusion that his body of work outpaces that of Stockton? Stockton led the league in assists 9 times in a row from 1988-1996. With 15,806 career helpers, he’s easily the league’s all-time leader — he has almost 5,500 more than runner-up Mark Jackson. Eight times he was 1st- or 2nd-team All-NBA. He made the All-Defensive team 5 times; he led the league in steals twice. In a rarity for a guard, his career FG% was .515 (by comparison, Thomas’ was .452). He missed out on the mythical 20,000-point club by a mere 289 points. Perhaps Stockton’s most amazing trait, though, was his durability: while Thomas played 979 career games and was oft-injured late in his 13-year career, Stockton suited up for 1,504 contests (3rd all-time) and missed only 22 games in 19 seasons!”
