Weekly Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up, your source for all the happenings and tidbits from the previous week in the NBA, all in rambling bullet-point form.

- There’s been a lot said about the now infamous LeBron “Crab Dribble” this past week. Here’s the thing: It was a travel. There’s absolutely no doubt that LeBron took 3 steps on that play. I’m not going to argue that. My problem with the big deal everybody has been making about this? EVERYBODY TRAVELS!!! The travel call in the NBA is completely arbitrary now, it’s not what’s listed in the rulebook. The switching of the pivot foot is completely ignored now, to the point where guys regularly catch the ball well inside the arc, pivot around a bit, then magically find themselves outside the three-point line. You’d be hard pressed to find a game where guys don’t take 3 steps to get to the rim at least 30 times. As a poster pointed out on here last week, carrying is rampant among guards in this league. Look, I don’t particularly care about this, if that’s how they’ve chosen to call games, whatever. I’m ok with not having whistles blown on every play. However, what I do want is consistency. Just come out and say “we’re not going to call a carry unless you tuck the ball under your arm and run with it.” Come out and tell us “we don’t care about players switching their pivot foot.” That’s all I ask for. But don’t pretend like the rulebook still applies as it is currently written, we can all see that’s not true.

- I’d like to clear up a misconception that I’m seeing in quite a few places, and in the process defend the vastly underrated Marcus Camby (whom I have long championed). The general consensus around the league seems to be that Denver has wildly improved as a defensive team, and if they could regain their explosive offense of years past they’d really be a threat. I’ve heard a lot along the lines of “Marcus Camby was too soft to play post defense, and Nene is an improvement on both ends.” Now, on the surface, this makes sense. Denver scored 110.7 PPG and gave up 107 PPG last year, and those numbers are 104.3 and 100.3 respectively this season. Pretty clear, right? Well, if you’ve ever read any of my stuff, you know what’s coming. The difference is pace, not performance. Denver has played a lot less possessions this season under the steady hand of Chauncey Billups, and that has translated into lower PPG averages. If we look at defensive efficiency, we find that Denver’s offense is scoring 110.5 points per 100 possessions, compared to 110 last year, and they’re allowing 106.4 points per 100 possessions, compared to 106.3 from last year. So, in actuality, all these changes in the roster have made very little difference, right? Well, not exactly. We have to consider that the league as a whole is almost always less efficient during the first part of the season, as players adjust to new teammates and get back into their rhythm. The league efficiency average last year was 107.5, so far this year it’s 106.7. So while Denver’s numbers look almost identical to last year’s numbers, they tell us something different when we look at them with respect to the rest of the league. The Nuggets were the league’s 11^th best offensive team last year, and the 10^th best defensive team. This year, they’re the 5^th best offensive team, and the 15^th best defensive team. So, despite some strong defensive performances to start the year, Denver owes its success this year to its offense, not its defense.

That all brings me to the much-maligned Camby. We’ve just shown that Denver’s defense has been less effective this year, despite adding a healthy Nene, giving significant minutes to defensive specialists Chris Andersen, Dahntay Jones and Renaldo Balkman, and trading Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups. Despite all those defensive improvements over last year’s team, they haven’t been able to make up for the loss of Camby. Meanwhile, in LA, the Clippers defense has improved (19^th in defensive efficiency and -1.6 to league average last year to 17^th and -.1 this year) despite defensively inept Zach Randolph and rookie Eric Gordon playing heavy minutes, and Chris Kaman missing 19 games so far.

I realize I’ve ranted on too long, so I’ll sum up. Denver’s defense: Not as good as you think. Marcus Camby: Elite defender. Got it?

- I was at the Celtics-Bobcats game on Tuesday, and watched the Celtics-Cavs game last night, and the thing that really stood out to me is that Boston wasn’t moving the ball around on offense like they have in the past. The crisp interior passing and ball movement that we’ve seen so often from this team just hasn’t been there during this cold stretch. It shows in the stats too. They have 7 losses in their last 9 games, and in those losses they’re assisting on just 57% of their field goals, as opposed to 61% the rest of the year (if that doesn’t seem like much, it’s the difference between being 5^th in the league in that category, and 15^th). The other thing that stands out when watching the Celtics is that Rajon Rondo is barely scratching the surface of what he can do. Whenever he drives, he’s looking to pass, despite often having open midrange looks most of the time. If he had a consistent floater, it would take them to a completely different level on offense. As is, you can shut them down by daring Rondo to shoot and shutting down his passing lanes, because he’ll turn the ball over (witness the 9 TOs against Charlotte). Now, it’s probably not panic time in Boston. It’s a long season, and losing streaks happen, but there are some chinks showing in the Champs’ armor.

- Anybody think LeBron isn’t the MVP now? Anyone? After absolutely eviscerating the best defense in the league and playing both stifling individual defense and dominant help-side D, is there any question? In other news the Cavs are now 1^st in the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and they beat the defending champs without their starting center. Yeah, I think they’re pretty good.

- The Jose Calderon Watch is on. He’s shot 72 free throws so far this year and hasn’t missed one. Micheal Williams holds the record for consecutive regular season free throws made, with 97. Let the countdown begin.

Maestro Award

The Maestro Award is my recognition of the best performance from the previous week

And the award goes to…who else? LeBron James. You’re not going to find too many regular-season performances as impressive as what James did Friday night, given the caliber of defense he was facing. 38-7-6 on only 25 shots, along with 4 steals, 3 blocks, and stifling defense on Paul Pierce (holding him to 11 points on 4-15 shooting with 5 TOs).

Honorable Mention – The terribly underrated Danny Granger, for his fantastic performance against Phoenix, capped off by a huge buzzer-beating three.

xphoenix87 is a contributing writer for BallerBlogger.com. x is a college student who dreams of one day writing about sports for a living. Since that’s not gonna happen, he’ll do this instead.