The Fundamentals

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:  “Here’s where the Sixers were getting decimated: Their own FG% dropped a stunning 2.47% from the end of last season to this one (to 43.40%) and their scoring average plummeted more than 3 points per game, from 96.6 to 93.3.That’s after adding Elton Brand, who is shooting a dismal 43.7% from the field this year, made even more unbelievable considering he’s a 50.3% career shooter. He’s only averaging 15.9 points a game, which is more than 4 below his career average. Clearly, something is not working with Brand, Andre Igoudala and Andre Miller on the offensive end. And this speaks to my real favorite NBA stat. FG% defense is No. 2, but FG% differential is the truest stat in the NBA, the stat of coaches, execs and smart people everywhere. FG% differential tells you how well a team is doing in the back-and-forth: How efficient are you? How tough do you make it on the opponent? How balanced are you?”

Sean Deveney of the Sporting News:  “Four major moves. A total of 28 games below .500. Two coaches fired. In all four cases, the players involved have been awful. Maggette seems to have forgone defense altogether with the Warriors, and is shooting 41.3 percent from the field — including 9-for-50 (18 percent) from the 3-point line. O’Neal has struggled, too, averaging 12.2 points and 7.6 rebounds, while shooting a career-low 42.3 percent from the field, which seems impossibly bad for a center. The freewheeling Davis clashed with control-freak Dunleavy almost immediately, and the Clippers offense has struggled as Davis has shot 38.9 percent from the field. And Brand may be the most disappointing of the lot, because much was expected of this year’s Sixers. A strong finish last year got the team into the playoffs with a 40-42 record, and upgrading from Thaddeus Young/Reggie Evans to an All-Star like Brand at power forward seemed to put the Sixers just below the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. But Brand is in the midst of his worst season. He is averaging a career-low 15.9 points and seems to have no clue as to his place in the offense — he is shooting 43.6 percent, especially bad for a guy who has been over 50 percent for his career.”

Ivan Carter of the Washington Post:  “To a few Wizards veterans, the most humiliating aspect of Thursday night’s 122-88 home loss to the Boston Celtics was not the ugly final score, or even the sight of so many Celtics fans cheering for their team as it left the floor long after Wizards fans hit the exits. It was the lack of fight displayed by some of their teammates. Those frustrations spilled out after the game in the locker room, where yelling could be heard from the hallway. Specifically, some veterans did not like the effort, attitude and body language of some players, particularly a few of the younger ones. ‘That was unacceptable,’ Caron Butler said yesterday in reference to the loss and the casual reaction a few Wizards appeared to have to it. ‘To be sitting here at 4-16 and acting like it’s okay, that is not going to happen. No way.’”

Sean Meagher of OregonLive.com:  Charles Barkley with some sound advice for Greg Oden [Video]

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Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News:  “Asked about his increased responsibilities, Kuester responded almost sheepishly, saying: ‘We have a great group of coaches who have very bright minds about the game, and we have intelligent players. This was just something Mike [coach Mike Brown] wanted to focus on. People don’t realize how good he is with the offense, beside being one of the best defensive coaches I’ve ever been around.’ Kuester has made the rounds in the NBA, putting in time with the Boston Celtics, the Sixers, the Detroit Pistons, the New Jersey Nets and, last season, the Orlando Magic. Her has been around such veteran stars as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish; younger top players such as Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter and Rip Hamilton; an emerging star in Dwight Howard and now . . . LeBron James. ‘He has a chance to be the best I’ve been around,’ Kuester said. ‘I say that, because he has such an understanding at both ends, a great feel for things. Really, he has a chance to be the best of all time.’”

Chris Lau of The Detroit Free Press:  “Perhaps more than anyone, Curry is investing the most in Rodney Stuckey. Stuckey entered the season as the backup point guard, and officially became a starter Tuesday at Washington. He has been tabbed as the Pistons’ point guard of the future. Suddenly, the 22-year-old is the leader of a lineup that includes future Hall of Famer Allen Iverson , longtime Pistons leading scorer Richard Hamilton, four-time All-Star Rasheed Wallace and rising playmaker Tayshaun Prince. ‘He’s going through growing pains of trying to run a team,’ Curry said before Friday’s game against the Indiana Pacers. ‘You got a guy with 20,000-something points on this wing and the leading scorer of the team on that wing — he wants the ball. He wants the ball, Tayshaun wants the ball, and ‘Sheed wants the ball.’”

Geoff Lepper of 48minutes.net:  “Lost amid all the hoopla over Monta Ellis sitting down for a 12-minute discussion with the media after Thursday’s practice was the fact that Golden State coach Don Nelson said that he was going to continue, long-term, his two-game experiment with greater ball movement. After two practices in which players were ordered to pass the ball a minimum of four or five times before shooting in half-court sets and two victories that featured none of the stagnation of the previous 20 games (15 of which were losses), Nelson declared an end to the days of allowing Golden State’s offense to dissolve into an endless procession of isolation plays for the likes of Corey Maggette, Stephen Jackson and Kelenna Azubuike. ‘I wasn’t enjoying watching the team, the way that we were playing,’ Nelson said. ‘I think the game of basketball should be fun, and you can only have fun if you move the ball and we play together. And I can only have fun coaching when my players do that. The ball basically was stopping too much, and that’s got to change. And it’s gonna change.’”

Fred Kerber of the New York Post:  “Carter, one of the more maligned stars in general perception – from being soft, to being a quitter, to being behind the Lincoln assassination – gladly shares the role. ‘We make it easier for each other,’ Carter said of his bond with Harris. ‘From the beginning, that’s the position he wanted to be in. He said, ‘I want to help this team, I want to be a leader.’ ‘ Harris has done that – and has some people talking ‘most improved’ and others asking, ‘What was Dallas thinking?’ Harris acknowledges that of all Carter has imparted on him, one trait really impressed him. ‘His calmness. You know how he’s always so calm? Both of us adopted it. We try to keep it more balanced and even keel,’ said Harris, who echoed Anderson that Carter held out a welcoming hand from the moment of arrival. ‘He was like that immediately.’ That impressed coach Lawrence Frank. Face it, some stars hate sharing the spotlight. Now the pair ‘set the tone for everything we do,’ Frank said.”

Jeff Caplan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  “The Dallas Mavericks’ 12-9 record sounds a lot better than it looks. That’s because after nine games the Mavs were 2-7 and the transition to coach Rick Carlisle’s up-tempo, motion offense appeared uncomfortable at best. During the dark stretch, Carlisle questioned his team’s fight and Dirk Nowitzki challenged the effort. Since then, the Mavs have won 10 of 12, doing it mostly without the injured Josh Howard, who is out indefinitely, and Jerry Stackhouse, who wants to be traded. ‘I think it’s going to be something we’re going to look back at because of the way we started and because of what we’ve had to do,’ guard Jason Terry said of the rough start. ‘Encountering adversity early on in the season, and when we get to the playoffs, we’ll be able to look back at it and say, ‘Hey, that’s one of the things that ‘ made us stronger as a team.’”

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star:  “The game-to-game grind of having to play some the league’s heavyweights has momentarily stopped for the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers begin a stretch tonight in Milwaukee in which eight of their next 11 games are against teams with losing records. The question is: Can they take advantage of the friendly schedule? ‘We hope so,’ forward Jeff Foster said. The Pacers, who are in the midst of a four-game trip, don’t play a team with a winning record until Dec. 23 when they take on the New Jersey Nets, who they’ve beaten twice this season. New Jersey was without starting point guard Devin Harris in both games.”

Colin Ward-Henninger of The Examiner:  “Thursday night I was able to clearly see the difference between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics. The Celtics led the lowly Washington Wizards by 20 points for most of the game. Late in the third quarter, the Wizards went on a run, cutting the lead to 10. Between the third and fourth quarter, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Sam Cassell got in the team’s face as if to say, ‘are you really gonna let this team compete with us?’ The Celtics came out like a house of fire and had pushed the lead to nearly 30 midway through the fourth quarter. By the end of the fourth, the team was laughing and joking around on the bench. So what does this prove? Every team in the NBA, even the bad ones, goes on a run. The sign of an elite team is being able to sustain the run and answer it with a run of your own to put the opponent away. The Lakers don’t seem to know how to do that. Whether it’s heart, focus, or just plain effort (maybe all three), something is missing with this team.”

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Tom Ziller of FanHouse:  “Sarver said D’Antoni agreed before the 2007-08 season that he’d consider adding a defensive coordinator to the bench once Marc Iavaroni left for Memphis. Kerr brought then-free agent Tom Thibodeau to town. (Thibodeau was a long-time Jeff Van Gundy assistant and had been interviewed for a few head coach jobs that summer.) Sarver said D’Antoni rejected Thibodeau and instead promoted his brother Dan D’Antoni to lead assistant. Thibodeau, of course, eventually landed in Boston, where he implemented what became the league’s highest-rated defense. Did D’Antoni feel threatened by the Thibodeau suggestion? If Sarver and Kerr knew he was stubborn and didn’t like having a boss, why did they think he’d approve of having the boss’ hand-picked #2 on his staff? Of course, I imagine Suns fans will be less than ecstatic that D’Antoni put his own autonomy in higher regard than the team’s plight.”

KTAR.com: Robert Sarver responds to Mike D’Antoni [Audio]

Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News:  “The possibility of Nash leaving Phoenix early resulted from a compromise during his signing with the Suns in 2004. Nash wanted a six-year deal when he left Dallas. But after Mavs owner Mark Cuban raised concerns about Nash’s ability to stay healthy, the Suns took that as a red flag and decided they didn’t want to go past five years. They settled on the team option, with just under $7 million guaranteed if Nash were to be waived. So Nash, no longer an MVP-caliber player but certainly still among the league’s top point guards as he approaches his 35th birthday in February, could be on the move in a matter of seven months. In that scenario, New York looks like the logical destination because of his close relationship with D’Antoni. But the Knicks don’t get their cap relief until the following summer, in 2010. But who’s to say that Nash, who already has a Manhattan residence he uses in the offseason, wouldn’t agree to take less at the outset, with the understanding he’d be taken care of later?”

Marc J. Spears of The Boston Globe:  “No one in the NBA has a swagger like the defending champion Celtics right now. But with that swagger comes a mature humility that keeps them from tooting their own horn. So when it comes to the question of whether today’s Celtics are better than last season’s title team, the players and coach Doc Rivers don’t seem comfortable answering. And that’s even after Boston opened this season with a franchise-best 22-2 record, the latest notch being a 94-82 win over Western Conference power New Orleans last night. But when you ask some of their distinguished NBA peers outside the organization, the answer is a strong yes for numerous reasons. ‘Everyone now has more confidence,’ said Cleveland coach Mike Brown in a phone interview. ‘They are more mature with the championship.’”

Marc J. Spears of The Boston Globe:  “While Yi’s statistics pale in comparison to those of Garnett and James, the native of China has been aided strongly by votes from his homeland. Garnett was the overall vote leader last season, but Orlando center Dwight Howard led yesterday with 775,933. ‘Too much is put into the fan vote as starters,’ Allen said. ‘We know there are a lot of great, talented players in the NBA. If you look at the baseball model, I think one year Sammy Sosa was MVP and the next year he wasn’t good enough to make the All-Star Game. Based on our model, on popularity you’ll make it. You’ll start. ‘It should be a percentage of the [fans'] votes to guarantee who the starters are. You guys, the media, watch more basketball than anybody. [The media] should have a big say-so. From [the media] to the fan voting and then maybe you throw the GMs in there. That to me would give an accurate representation of who the five starters should be.’”