I wonder if they’ll invite him back…
Author: John Paulsen (Page 280 of 937)
After a rather lackluster first season with the Spurs, Richard Jefferson made his presence felt in a positive way, posting 19 points and seven rebounds in the Spurs’ impressive 102-88 win in Dallas last night.
It was the kind of performance that the Spurs were expecting on more of a regular basis from the 29-year-old swingman, but after coming over in a trade from Milwaukee, Jefferson averaged just 12-4-2 on the season. But he did play pretty big minutes (31.1 per game) and shot pretty well from the field (47%). Digging a bit deeper, from his player page at 82games.com, he was a member of each of the Spurs’ top 20 five-man units and he outproduced his opponent by 1.6 in terms of PER. It’s tough for Jefferson to score consistently seeing as that he’s the fourth option when Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are on the floor as well.
To put his game into perspective, Jefferson scored 19 or more points just 11 times this season in 81 games. And his fine performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Game 2 is so important to the road team when they lose Game 1. A win completely shifts the momentum of the series heading back home, while a loss would have put the Spurs’ playoff chances on life support.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Back when the Thunder were 3-29 last season, the notion of the playoffs coming to Oklahoma City any time soon was unimaginable.
But it was that same miserable stretch that made general manager Sam Presti confident that coach Scott Brooks was the right man to lead his team into the future.
While Oklahoma City struggled to the worst start in the NBA, Presti was impressed by the way Brooks stayed the course and never tried to force immediate changes in hopes of making the Thunder better. He has now taken the youngest roster in the league and turned the team into a 50-game winner and a playoff team just one season after the horrendous start.
For that best-in-the NBA turnaround, Brooks was recognized Wednesday as the NBA’s coach of the year. He received 71 of 123 first-place votes and 480 points to finish ahead of Milwaukee’s Scott Skiles (26 first-place votes, 313 points) and Portland’s Nate McMillan (9, 107).
I thought that the race between Brooks and Skiles would be closer. Before the season, the over/under for Bucks’ wins was 28.5 while the Thunder had an over/under of 34.5. Milwaukee exceeded its total by 17.5, while Oklahoma City was +15.5. Granted, the Eastern Conference isn’t as strong as the West, but that was taken into account when the oddsmakers made the initial line. To Vegas, the Bucks were a bigger surprise, and let’s not forget that Skiles led his team to 46 wins without a transcendent, on-the-rise player like Kevin Durant or even a single All-Star. And he lost Michael Redd early in the season.
Brooks did a hell of a job this year, but I think Skiles’ overall season was a bit better. But maybe I’m just a Bucks homer.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Originally posted 4/17/2009. Updated 4/21/2010.
When it comes to the first round of the NFL Draft, is one position safer than another? For example, if the Rams have three holes to fill (they have more, but bear with me) – quarterback, wide receiver and defensive tackle – and they can’t decide amongst the three players, is one position a safer pick than the other two?
I compiled a list of the 345 players that were picked from 1997-2007 (assuming that it takes three seasons to get a decent idea of what kind of player a draft pick is going to turn out to be) and asked our NFL guru, Anthony Stalter, to rate each player on a scale of 1 to 5…
(1) Out of League
(2) Reserve
(3) Starter
(4) Star
(5) Superstar
The Out of League, Star and Superstar categories are pretty self-explanatory. To qualify as a Starter, the player must be starter-caliber for the majority of his NFL career. A Reserve is a player that is a backup for the majority of his career, so he may have started at one point, but on the whole he’s a backup. For the younger players, Anthony had to project a little bit. For example, a player is a starter in his third year – does he project to be star or superstar, or will he simply be a starter for the majority of his career?
Last week, Phil Jackson said that Kevin Durant gets too many calls and the third-year superstar took umbrage. Now it’s a thing and Durant is showing irritation when he gets asked about it repeatedly.
The easy-going Oklahoma City Thunder star became riled up when responding to yet another question about his reaction to Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who last week criticized officials for how the call the game for Durant.
And so when Durant was asked once again whether he overreacted to Jackson, Durant, well, overreacted.
“Do you think I overreacted?” Durant asked the reporter, who responded by saying he didn’t know.
“Are you one of them?” Durant continued. “Nah, I didn’t overreact. Why, because I’m a third-year player I can’t say nothing back to Phil Jackson? I’m standing up for myself and what I believe in. I really don’t say nothing to too many people in this league who say stuff about me and our team and how I play and how we play. But I felt I had to say something back.
“I’m always quiet. I’m always nice and (respectful) to other people, not just on the basketball floor but off the basketball floor, like you guys. But I felt at that time I had to take up for myself. It is what it is. It’s over with. It had nothing to do with this series.”
Phil Jackson has taken residence in Durant’s kitchen and it doesn’t look like he’s leaving anytime soon. Had Durant simply said something like “Phil’s a great coach and he’s entitled to his opinion” and left it at that, the story would have died quickly. Instead, he got defensive and it became a bigger story that is going to follow him around for the rest of the series, maybe longer.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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