BallerBlogger.com » Points in the Paint

» June 17, 2009 9:44 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Paul Pierce: “Lakers vs orlando. Looked like a german sherperd vs a poodle that’s ok the rotwieler celtics will b back in 2o10.”

Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo! Sports reveals that Kobe Bryant employed a private scout during the playoffs: “There had been a long New York Times magazine story on the Rockets and how their general manager, Daryl Morey, uses a Moneyball-esque formula in basketball. They had statistical theories on how to defend Bryant, how to best limit him and Procopio wanted to make sure Bryant read the story. Bryant already had. He misses nothing. Bryant wanted Procopio to dig up everything he could on the ways opposing coaches and scouts – in Houston and beyond – believed Bryant could be vulnerable. ‘If these people think this stuff works, then I want to see what they’re looking at and make my adjustments accordingly, if this is how they decide they want to play me,’ Bryant told Yahoo! Sports in a private moment last week. ‘I’ll willingly accept that, to see if I can’t shut that down. I wanted him to take a look at the research and see if there’s anything that’s worth me preparing over or studying.’”

Richard Soloman of the Houston Chronicle: “I can’t believe I’m even entertaining this debate. One reason I don’t get into these discussions with many people, is comparing players usually comes across as dissing one, and I don’t really diss great players. I prefer to celebrate greatness. Shaq is one heck of a basketball player and will end up having a great career. But I can’t believe anybody out there who paid any attention (or has much basketball knowledge) really believes Shaquille O’Neal is a better basketball player than Hakeem Olajuwon. Seriously? All they can even remotely argue is that Shaq was a more dominant player. Which is incorrect.”

Michael Wallace of the Miami Herald: “Beasley appears to be adjusting well to the initial stages of his conversion from power forward to small forward. The team plans to continue to play him at both positions, which is why Beasley is being strongly encouraged to put on about 10 pounds this offseason. He will add the weight yet improve his quickness and versatility. He also won’t have a shortage of motivation. Beasley will likely find himself on the outside looking in when it comes to a spot at the USA training camp. The team will bring together 24 of the top first, second or third-year players to form a pseudo pipeline for future USA national teams. Judging by the names that have emerged, it looks like USA basketball went out of its way to pick around Beasley.”

Darren Rovell: “The Los Angeles Lakers might have won four championships over the last decade, but its fans certainly didn’t act like it. They apparently didn’t care about the economy either. Sales from the NBA Store in New York City and on NBAStore.com reveal that the Lakers obliterated the previous 48-hour record for championship merchandise sales. In fact, Lakers fans bought so much gear that league officials said that sales doubled the record that was previously held by last year’s Boston Celtics.”

Bill Ingram of HOOPSWORLD: “For the past few months the Phoenix Suns have had an interesting Catch-22 going on. Robert Sarver’s Western Alliance Bank (WAL) has taken hit after hit in conjunction with the US economy, meaning the business that’s supposed to pay the bills for his hobby hasn’t been able to support his hobby as it once did. As evidence, take a quick peek at what WAL’s stock has done over the last 52 weeks. Over that time period the stock has fluctuated from a high of $27.66 a share to a low of $3.72 a share, and is currently hovering between $6 and $7 a share (he has lost 330 million in write downs and operational losses over the last three quarters). At the same time, the Suns traded for Shaquille O’Neal, put themselves over the NBA’s luxury tax threshold, and . . .by the way . . .missed the playoffs. Word has it they needed to sellout three postseason home games just to break even. There was, of course, a major injury Amar’e Stoudemire’s eye which played a role in missing the playoffs, but nonetheless, when Sarver turned to his hobby to help make up for his ‘real’ job’s troubles, his hobby let him down.”

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