The Fundamentals

Dave McMenamin of NBA.com:  “While attendance figures for much of the rest of the league dwindle, in large part because of a shaky economy, in Portland, everything is rosy. Simply put: Blazermania is back. The phenomenon that swept the city back in the late 1970s and sprung up again in the early ’90s is enveloping the city like Greg Oden’s massive paws around a rebound. Portland fans, who set a professional sports record by selling out 814 consecutive Blazers games (April 5, 1977 to Nov. 20, 1995) are returning in droves. The Trail Blazers have the third-highest average attendance in the league (a tad over 20,500 a game). The only teams that fill their buildings more than Portland (at 95.9 percent of capacity) are last year’s Finals participants, the Lakers and Celtics.”

KnickerBlogger.net:  “D’Antoni’s system increased his stats to the point where a PG in a traditional system might not be able to reach. However Nash still had to perform at a high level to attain those stats. Saying the system turned a regular starter into an MVP is a stretch whether you’re applying that to Steve Nash or Tom Brady. Arguing D’Antoni’s system was ideal for Nash to win games and put up eye popping numbers seems reasonable. Arguing that Nash’s numbers were inflated by the offense that the team ran is also logical, and that he might not have been the best player in those two seasons is rational. Simmons could have written an article that showed that Nash and D’Antoni were fortunate enough to cross paths having a synergistic effect on each other. Instead he uses old cliches and false analogies in attempt to assert his opinion.”

Sean Deveney of the Sporting News:  “I made what I thought was a fairly obvious comment about the Cavs in my previous power poll, pointing out that the bench is a concern for the Cavs. That, apparently, was taken as an insult to the good people of Cleveland, because I got a flood of emails, some of the nasty variety. It’s very surprising to me that anyone who watches the Cavs regularly (as I do, John) can think the team should not be worried about its bench. It’s a terrible bench, and the only reason it might not come back to haunt the Cavs is that Boston is also struggling with depth issues. Daniel Gibson is shooting 39.1 percent from the field. Sasha Pavlovic is shooting 39.2 percent. Wally Szczerbiak is a defensive liability, but he, at least, can sink 3-pointers. Oh, wait, no he can’t: He is shooting 30.6 percent from the arc. Varejao has limited skill, but he is the only Cavs reserve from whom you know what you’re getting every night. These are not my opinions. They’re facts.”

Jeff Caplan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  “Since their 2-7 start, the Dallas Mavericks have done an exceptional job of racking up wins against teams with losing records. Friday’s 96-86 win over Philadelphia moved the Mavs to 18-5 overall since those first forgettable nine games and an impressive 14-1 against teams below .500. The only loss came on Dec. 19 when Devin Harris lit them up in New Jersey. At the other end of the won-loss spectrum, the Mavs are 4-4 since the first nine games against teams in the top eight of both conferences, plus Utah. ‘Whomever we’re playing on a particular night is the team we need to beat,’ Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. ‘I don’t like talking about sub-.500, over .500. I think it’s disrespectful to the teams that are below.’ Still, if the Mavs (20-12) continue to take care of business against teams lower in the standings, they’ll crack the double-digit barrier for games above .500 for the first time this season early next week.”

Bullets Forever:  Defense is causing the good vibes

Charley Rosen of FOXSports.com:  Who are the NBA’s most underrated players?

Ryne Nelson of SLAM:  Vince, Melo Sink Game-Winners [Video]

Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register:  “Lakers assistant coach Frank Hamblen has a lofty goal for a team to achieve his definition of a dominant defensive game: combined steals and blocked shots reaching 15. The Lakers had five steals and four blocks by halftime (and wound up reaching Hamblen’s plateau with 10 steals and six blocks). For the season, they are right on the cusp of the ideal defensive activity, averaging 14.8 combined steals and blocks, and there’s no doubt who their leaders are there. Ariza’s five steals Friday night got him to 1.9 per game this season – even though he plays barely more than half the game – and Bynum’s three blocks got him to 1.9 per game this season, too.”

Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  “James Singleton has been like several Dallas Mavericks role players this year. Playing time comes and goes and the reserves are never quite sure what to expect. But compared to this time a year ago, Singleton is in basketball heaven. He played for TAU Cerámica of the Spanish ACB league and said he was miserable. ‘I have never seen a team so controlling in my life,’ Singleton said. ‘Every facet, they controlled. What time you went to sleep. What you have to do on the road. What you eat. Everything.’ Throw in a major knee injury in September 2007 and life was difficult.”

Marc Berman of the New York Post:  “The New York Knicks begin a four-game southwestern swing, visiting the Thunder for the first time Tuesday. Oklahoma City has six sellouts; they average 18,544 fans and approximately 96 percent capacity. It is in incredible figure for the nation’s 34th-largest television market, ahead of just New Orleans and Memphis in the NBA. The Knicks play next to Broadway and average just 624 more fans - at 19,168. Though Oklahoma City’s claim to fame is a stretch of bars and restaurants called Bricktown, the Thunder have a better, younger core to build around, possibly even back-to-back Rookie of the Year winners. Kevin Durant won the award last season and now rookie point guard Russell Westbrook is entering the picture, rated third in the NBA.com rookie rankings.”

Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer:  “The 76ers are the NBA’s worst long-range-shooting team at 29.1 percent. Yes, they are the only NBA team below 30 percent. Yes, they were worst in the NBA last season, too. No, it’s not unusual to see a 1-for-9 three-point shooting line in the postgame statistics. And still, they shoot. Before last night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, the fourth of six straight on the road, Kareem Rush, who sees the court rarely, if ever, took his around-the-world set of three-pointers. Following Rush for pregame shots were guard Lou Williams and swingman Andre Iguodala. Rush will tell you that he may not play, but when he does, he wants to be ready. All this three-point shooting before games - and all those misses during them - lead one to believe that perhaps no amount of practice can morph these Sixers into potent outside threats.”

Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star:  “Rafer Alston, a member of the soap-opera cast otherwise known as the 33-win 2004-05 Raptors, was getting a little whimsical last night thinking back to those days. ‘There was a lot of friction in that locker room. We had pretty much me-first guys,’ Alston, now the Rockets’ starting point guard, was saying. ‘We had guys in contract years. We had Donyell (Marshall) in his contract year, MoPete in his contract year … So instead of going out and getting the wins, you’ve got guys who were like, `Hey, I’ve got to get my numbers.’ … You have to think team first, and you have to think you second, sometimes you third.’ It was revisionist history, and it wasn’t exactly fact-checked (Morris Peterson actually wasn’t in his contract year in 2004-05, although with Peterson that never seemed to matter). And yes, the recollections were coming from the unique circuitry of Alston’s one-of-a-kind brain, whose mercurial output during his Toronto tenure was often selfish and childish and sad to watch.”

Ken Berger of CBSSports.com:  “The Heat, for one, are slightly over the luxury-tax threshold and are trying to avoid paying tax this season. So if they signed Marbury to the $1.2 million veteran’s minium, they’d have to shed a player to satisfy that goal. As for Boston, president Danny Ainge, of course, has been doing his due diligence on Marbury. Boston’s recent stumbles only underscored concern about lack of depth with the departure of James Posey for New Orleans and retirement of P.J. Brown. According to a person familiar with the situation, Ainge feels strongly that Marbury was not at fault for the way his Knicks career has ended. He doesn’t blame Marbury for balking at a chance to play after being told he wasn’t in the team’s plans. But Ainge also has concerns about where Marbury is physically after sitting out the entire regular season and the last two months of 2007-08 following foot surgery. Ainge confided recently that he doesn’t fully understand what transpired between the Knicks and Marbury over the last couple of years; it’s been a complicated relationship, with plenty of blame to go around. Basically, Ainge has an open mind about Marbury, with a healthy dose of skepticism.”

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:  “I actually thought in the past two games since the Saturday night off against the Jazz, McGrady moved more and better than he had been. He was aggressive. He played with energy, even defensively. He missed shots, but that can be excused if they are good shots. It happens. On Friday, however, he started with another poor shooting game and quit. That is inexcusable. He moped around the floor most of the night. In the third quarter, he stood at the top of the 3-point arc (when he got that far) and just moved the ball, abdicating any responsibility in the Rockets’ offense. He said later that he grew frustrated that he did not get enough shots to get in a rhythm. He said the spacing was bad. He said there was poor execution. Perhaps that was his way of taking responsibility for his poor play - he let others’ mistakes frustrate him. That is sort of like the celebrity apology, ‘If someone was offended, I apologize.’ Even if we accept that explanation, as excuses go, it’s pathetic.”

Alex Raskin of HOOPSWORLD:  “Beasley is struggling with his secondary status. At Kansas State, he outshined his blue-chip teammate, Bill Walker, by averaging 26.2 ppg and 12.4 rpg. However, this year, when Beasley scores at least 20, the HEAT are only 1-3. ‘I’ve been around,’ added Haslem. ‘I’ve seen a lot and I’ve learned a lot. With him coming in, being such a talented player, he’s going to be challenged a little more than he’s ever been challenged before. My job is to make it as easy as possible, but at the same time, make it kind of hard because it’s not going to be easy.’ And it has not been easy. Beasley has gone from the biggest fish in Manhattan (Kansas) to being ridiculed in Miami. ‘It’s not fun all the time,’ explained Beasley. ‘I have to do rookie stuff… They make you do stuff when you’re tired. After practice, after shoot-around, when we’re in another city, they’ll make you do something like walk to Popeye’s and get everybody food. Sometimes they won’t eat the food, but they’ll make you pay for it.’ When asked if the process was humbling, Beasley said, ‘Yeah. A lot.’”

Adam Lauridsen for the San Jose Mercury News:  “Back to accountability: as we’ve all rehashed now for the last few months, the leading candidates for having their wings clipped in an accountability moment — Rowell, Nelson, Jackson — have been handed the franchise, extended, and given free rein.  Meanwhile, we punish one rookie (Randolph), cut another (Hendrix), refuse to find any way to adjust our system to make use of the one player resembling a natural point guard on our roster (Williams), get solid performances from other youngsters only to reward them with repeated DNP-CDs (Morrow, Kurz), repeatedly return to an offense based on isolation jump shots no matter how many times the team gives lip service to a new approach, and apparently shut out our GM from current basketball decisions but don’t actually fire him, so we’ll be left with someone to dump at the end of the season.  That’s not to mention our defense, which to my eyes is based first and foremost on hoping that your teammates will cover you when you blow your assignment.  The way the team is playing right now, I have a hard time recommending that anyone dedicate two and a half hours to watching the still evolving mess on the court.”

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:  “The Warriors, as currently constructed, probably have enough talent to win 30 to 33 games, and that’s not even counting in a possible Ellis return (as I’ve said, I think there’s a good chance Ellis will never play for the Warriors again), and a Corey Maggette return (as I’ve said before, I think Maggette is a non-significant player). There’s enough talent to beat the dregs of the league, which is how you get to 30 or so victories. There are a lot of dregs. So why are the GSWs headed to 24 wins or lower? Because the leadership of this team is all wrong–not just SJax, who is frustrated and not playing defense, and not just Nelson, who obviously isn’t coaching very thoroughly. When things start to go badly for a team, they look to the team leadership–and to the front office–for direction. If the direction is there (for instance, San Antonio always starts slow but knows not to panic, and always steadies the ship), things don’t fall apart. If there’s a void at the top, things ALWAYS fall apart.”

Harvey Araton of The New York Times:  “When did Barkley, an I-man in his own right, become a broadcasting shock ex-jock whose opinions are accepted as serious commentary when he is so lacking in personal credibility? What makes Barkley — who recently attacked Auburn, his alma mater, for not hiring an African-American football coach — any more of a voice of reason on race than Don Imus? When was Barkley anointed such an authority on professionalism that his criticism of LeBron James was aired and legitimized as if it had come from the almighty — and not a player whose career greatest hits include spitting on a fan and throwing a bar patron through a plate-glass window? Earlier this season, Barkley accused James of being “disrespectful to the game and disrespectful to the Cavaliers” by acknowledging in interviews the possibility of a free-agent free-for-all for his services in 2010. Compared with Barkley, James has been an N.B.A. altar boy.”