» April 24, 2009 7:56 PM | By Brandon Hoffman
- Steve Aschburner of SI.com: “If not for Dumars’ gamble in 2003, the Pistons might well be a team of the present in these playoffs, rather than one split between its past and its future. Anthony could be clicking with Billups just the same — Smooth and ‘Melo, together in Motown — and an organization that got to six Eastern Conference finals, two NBA Finals and one championship could be chasing those things again, rather than facing first-round elimination for the first time since 2000.”
- Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News covered the Lakers for the Los Angeles Times during the Shaq-Kobe years and comments on whether Kobe forced Shaq out of LA in an inteview with The Big Lead: “I was up here by the time that came down, but there’s no doubt that Kobe never had to say the words ‘get Shaq outta my face.’ Kobe had communicated that long and repeatedly for years. He had the opt-out situation. And Kobe is not somebody to mess around with in any situation–even when I got along with Kobe, before the craziness of the last five or six years, he was a cold, cold guy. I mean, the things he used to do to poor John Celestand in one-on-one games after practice? I never felt sorry for a pro player… until I saw what Kobe did to Celestand. Every day. So it never had to be said. Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak knew: To keep Kobe (from signing with the Clippers), they had to move Shaq. Kobe was fine with Shaq as long as Kobe thought he needed the Big Fellah to win a title. Period. And Kobe stopped thinking Shaq was a mandatory piece about a year before the trade.”
- Austin Burton over at Dime penned a good article on Brandon Roy. Here’s an excerpt: “Brandon Roy spent last summer working out at a gym in Seattle. It’s been his regular routine. Sometimes, as early as the day after his season ends, he goes back up Interstate-5 to Seattle and gets with Garfield and UW teammate Will Conroy (a point guard with the D-League’s Albuquerque Thunderbirds) and childhood friend Jamal Crawford, and the three embark on a summer-long reign of terror on the Emerald City’s playground circuit, in between honing their pro games at local health clubs. Roy tells the story: ‘I was working out this summer at this gym. I worked out every day for three months, and it was the last day I was working out. A guy came up to me and was like, ‘I know this might be crazy, but I worked out with you for three months, and I never would have guessed you were anybody special. I heard people talking about you and I went home and asked my son and he went crazy. Like, You worked out with Brandon Roy for three months and you didn’t even know? You never once let off you were better than anybody in the gym.’ ‘That made me feel good, because that’s what I like; to go places and be a good person, not this star,’ Roy says.”
- Darren Rovell of CNBC.com: “Six years removed from LeBron James signing a deal that averaged $13 million a year, sources are telling CNBC that it’s not likely that any NBA draft pick this year will make more than $1 million a year off a shoe deal. Since shoe companies can only really hit paydirt off a signature shoe, Nike, Adidas and Under Armour are now in the driver’s seat. Dwyane Wade’s initial bargain deal with Converse in 2003 ($400,000 a year) is going to seem expensive when looking at this year’s picks. One agent told us that shoe companies that would have offered kids $250,000 a year two years ago, could now offer $25,000.” (Via RealGM)
- David Aldridge, writing for NBA.com, kills it again with an article about how the rule changes have affected defensive philosphies: “Since 1990, the NBA has instituted a series of rules changes to increase the offensive player’s flow and make physical play costly. First came increased penalties for flagrant fouls (1990) and fighting (1993), the implementation of the “five points” rule that called for automatic suspensions of players who amassed a certain number of flagrants (1993). Hand checking was eliminated in 1994. Using the forearm to defend players facing the basket went away in 1997. In 1999, the league eliminated contact by a defender with his hands and forearms both in the backcourt and frontcourt, except on offensive players who caught the ball below the free throw line extended. Defenses were also prohibited from “re-routing” players off the ball. This freed up perimeter players who used screens to get open. Nor were defenders able any more to grab or impede offensive players setting screens. In 2001, the defensive three-second rule eliminated defenders camping out in the lane away from their offensive man to help. The rules changes did what they were supposed to do — open up the game. Scoring average has increased from an average 95.6 points per game in the 1997-98 season to this year’s 100 per game. Overall field goal percentage has increased from 45.0 percent in ‘97-’98 to 45.9 percent this season. Three-point percentage has gone up, from .346 11 years ago to .367 this season. And fouls have gone down, from a league average of 1,837 fouls in 1997 to 1,726 this season. The statistical-based Basketball Prospectus wrote at the beginning of this season that the game’s pace — defined as possessions per game — had increased from its nadir during the lockout season of 1999 (around 88 possessions per game) to around 91 per game in the 2007-08 season.”
Category: Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Points in the Paint, Portland Trail Blazers
Tags: Brandon Roy, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Dwyane Wade, Joe Dumars, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Points in the Paint, Portland Trail Blazers, Shaquille O'Neal
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