ESPN’s Ric Bucher discusses why Jerry Sloan left and what role, if any, Deron Williams played in Sloan’s decision.
Author: John Paulsen (Page 85 of 937)
With his second of three three-pointers on the night, Ray Allen broke Reggie Miller’s all-time three-point record (2,560) against the Lakers, but Kobe Bryant was too much in the second half, and the Celtics fell, 92-86.
After struggling all season against the league’s top teams, the Lakers needed a “signature win” and they got it in Boston despite a rough start. L.A. trailed by 15 points in the middle of the second quarter, but closed with a 13-6 run to cut the lead to eight at halftime. A 10-0 Laker run to start the third quarter, and Boston’s lead was gone. The teams traded blows until a well-rested Kobe came off the bench with the Lakers nursing a three-point lead and 5:04 remaining in the fourth quarter, and effectively put the game away with 10 points in the final five minutes.
What does this win mean? Laker fans can take their fingers off the panic button, for one. Had the Celtics won by a wide margin, the Lakers would have been more likely to shake the roster up before the Feb. 24 trade deadline. With the win, they’re likely to do nothing at all, or possibly tinker with some of the players at the bottom of the rotation.
I still don’t understand why the Lakers wouldn’t pull a trigger on a Bynum-for-Carmelo swap, but Steve Kerr said last night that by giving up Bynum, they’d be giving up their height advantage. And who am I to argue with Kerr, who broke up that Suns team (to acquire Shaquille O’Neal) that was two bench-clearing suspensions away from upsetting the eventual-champion San Antonio Spurs in 2007? Kerr also wonders how difficult it would be to insert Carmelo into the triangle offense, but with the way Ron Artest is playing (i.e. not well), Anthony would be a huge upgrade. Even if it took him a while to fit in, he couldn’t be any worse than Artest.
Bynum definitely helps the Lakers against the Celtics. I just think Carmelo would help them more against everyone else they might play in the postseason. Plus, he’s not the injury risk that Bynum is.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how Reggie Miller felt about Allen breaking his record. Here’s what he said just before it happened:
“It just shows you, when people ask me, ‘you’ve got to be a little bit upset or bitter?’ Why? First of all, all records are made to be broken. I had a conversation with Ray earlier tonight and he was like, ‘when I was a rookie and I came to Market Square Arena and I saw you for three, three and a half hours before (the game) shooting, that’s how I wanted to patent my game.’ I’m just so happy for him because this is one of the best guys. He’s so humble, he’s so giving, he’s a great family man and I’m excited. This is great. This is great for the game of basketball. You know why? We’re focusing and talking about shooting, Steve. You know how many hours (we went) and we had keys to the gym, we’d go early. No one talks about shooting anymore.”
Those are two pretty classy individuals right there.
Per Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears…
Sloan’s relationship with point guard Deron Williams had grown progressively worse over the course of the season, league sources said, and the coach had tired of dealing with the team’s best player. The frustration escalated on Wednesday night when Sloan and Williams clashed in the locker room at halftime.
“He decided right there in halftime that he was done,” a league source told Yahoo! Sports. “He felt like ownership was listening more to Williams than they were to him anymore. He was done.”
One source said Sloan had become tired of Williams “blaming everything on everyone else.” Still, Williams, who can become a free agent in the summer of 2012, has remained the Jazz’s best and most consistent player after the departure of several key teammates. Williams has always had a reputation for wanting to win badly and being a strong leader.
This is a surprise. Sloan owns a career 1221-803 (.603) record and led the Jazz to 21 winning seasons in his 23-year tenure in Utah, including thirteen 50+ win seasons. Yes, he was fortunate to be able to coach John Stockton and Karl Malone for many of those years, but I would argue that without Sloan, that duo would not have been nearly as effective as they turned out to be. Sloan’s teams always play hard, as he has a knack for getting the most out of his roster.
It’s an absolute travesty that he never won the Coach of the Year award, though he was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach in 2009. It will be interesting to see if the 68-year-old decides to coach elsewhere or if he hangs ’em up for good.
And the beat goes on…
Fred Kerber of the New York Post writes that the Nets could soon reenter the fray.
But around the NBA, there is a strong undercurrent that the Nets, while idle now and certainly not viewed as favorites in the hunt, are anything but done if there indeed is a trade in the Carmelo Anthony saga.
Though multiple sources said there is nothing going on at present, there exists a growing feeling the Nuggets will contact the Nets again while playing the drama out until the Feb. 24 trading deadline.
I don’t know about this one. Mikhail Prokhorov had a meeting set up with Carmelo when he elected to instruct management to stop pursuing a trade with the Nuggets. Why would he start the saga again? What’s changed?
Meanwhile, the Denver Post is reporting that Carmelo may be willing to sign an extension with the Nuggets if he isn’t traded by the trade deadline.
Anthony said he would “take a real hard look” at signing a three-year, $65 million contract extension that has been on the table since June if he is not dealt by the Feb. 24 trading deadline.
The team’s all-star said he hasn’t heard any updates from management about a possible trade, though team officials are talking to potential suitors throughout the league. Though Anthony has always said he was keeping his options open, he hadn’t talked publicly about possibly signing until Wednesday.
“As the days go on, that’s something that I think about, that nothing might happen, that I’ll be here, whether I have to deal with the free-agency market or re-sign the extension here with the Nuggets,” he said.
Asked specifically to clarify whether he might sign the extension if not traded, Anthony said, “Yeah.”
What? The Nuggets’ extension has been on the table for months and Carmelo has refused to sign it. Now that we’re just over two weeks away from the trade deadline, he’s suddenly willing to think about re-upping with Denver?
I don’t buy it. This has to be a ploy to get the Knicks (or Lakers) to step up and make a good trade offer. The Knicks may be sitting back thinking that they can get Carmelo as a free agent in the summer, but if he floats the idea that he may stay in Denver, it would encourage the Knicks to get something done now.
As for the rumored Carmelo/Bynum swap with the Lakers, Bynum isn’t thinking about it, per ESPN:
Bynum said that he has not been in contact with anyone within the Lakers organization about the possibility of being traded.
“I think they would [contact me] if it was more than a rumor,” Bynum said. “No one’s really said anything.”
Bynum has never been traded, so I’m not sure if his “they’d tell me” line of thinking is entirely accurate. Like anything else, management will wait as long as they can before informing a player/employee about something of this magnitude. They wouldn’t want to disrupt his morale until a move was definite.
But again, the Laker rumor was probably just a ploy by Anthony’s camp to encourage the Knicks to get something done. Of course, if I were Laker GM Mitch Kupchak, I’d trade Bynum for Anthony in a New York minute.
Rumors and innuendo are fun to discuss, but at this point, I just want something to happen so we can put Carmelo Anthony’s future to bed, at least for a while. I’ve said all along that the Nuggets should have traded him last summer instead of waiting until midseason when all the trade talk would become a distraction for the team. The Nuggets are just 30-23 and are in the #7 spot in the West. They’re on pace for 46 wins, and considering the franchise has been a 50-win team over the past three seasons, the rumor mill is clearly having a negative impact on the franchise.
Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra noticed something about Chris Bosh’s post up game, and he has advanced stats to thank for it. (TrueHoop)
Data from Synergy tells us that Bosh did, in fact, perform better on the right side of the court last season with Toronto, especially in isolation situations. When Bosh attacked from the left in isolation, he scored 59 points on his 80 tries — and that includes free throws, not just field goal attempts. Synergy calculates his efficiency on left-side isolations to be .738 points per play, which ranked 43rd among 48 qualifiers last season. Not so good.
But on the right side, he was much more effective. He scored 86 points on 86 right-side isolations, nearly 25 percent better than on the left side. And on post-ups? Bosh was better from the right side as well, though the contrast is not quite as dramatic as it is for isolations.
“If you look at the numbers, he’s pretty consistent, he’s a little better on the right side, but not by a glaring amount,” Spoelstra said. “It just allowed us to be a little bit more consistent for everybody else to know where we are starting the offense.”
What does Bosh have to say?
“Stats are stats, man,” Bosh laughed. “I couldn’t say anything. I was like, ‘I can post up over there [on the left side].’ They said, ‘Well, this says you can, but it’s not the same [as the right side].'”
Bosh obliged.
“I didn’t fight it. I like getting the ball in the post, so to keep that going, I just said ‘Coach, that’s fine.’”
Teams use advanced stats to differing degrees. Houston’s GM Daryl Morey has long been known as one of the foremost users in advanced stats in the NBA. But this is the first time that I’ve heard of a specific example of a coach admitting that advanced stats have altered his game plan or approach.
It was only a matter of time, really. The NBA is a cutthroat league and if there’s an edge to be exploited, you better believe that coaches will catch on.
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