Category: NBA (Page 199 of 595)

      Is Kobe on the decline?

      April 26, 2010 /

      In a piece entitled “The slow death of a competitor,” HoopsHype’s Roland Lazenby discusses how much mileage Kobe Bryant has on his body.

      In his 14th season, Bryant heads into Tuesday night’s pivotal first round Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder having played better than 44,400 minutes of regular season and playoff basketball.

      If somehow the Lakers manage to survive and and advance, Bryant could wind up with better than 45,000 minutes on the odometer after this season.

      Jordan, long considered the standard because he drove the Bulls to a championship as a 35-year-old NBA guard, played a total of 48,485 minutes over his 15-year career, the final 5,000 of which were frustration filled.

      I don’t think there’s much of a question that Kobe is at the tail end of his prime. Perhaps he’s even started the slow, inevitable decline that most superstars experience as they get into their 30s. Since he’s playing a few more minutes, his stats haven’t dropped much since last season, though his PER (21.95) is at an eight-year low.

      He shot just 30% in three April regular season games, and is shooting 38.4% against the Thunder. Maybe his finger is bothering him, or maybe it’s the defense of Thabo Sefolosha (and Kevin Durant), or all of the above. Game 2 Kobe dropped 39 points and got to the line 15 times. After the Lakers lost Game 3, Game 4 Kobe deferred for much of the game, taking only 10 shots and scoring just 12 points as the Lakers tried to exploit their size advantage.

      But this is nothing new. Kobe has pouted his way through playoff games in the past. (Anyone remember that Suns series a few years back?) The problem with the Lakers is not Kobe Bryant. The biggest thing standing in the way of a second-straight title is this team’s lack of hunger. Led by Kobe’s insatiable appetite, last year’s Lakers would not be denied. But now that they have their rings, getting motivated is not as easy, especially when there are a dozen or so teams with comparable talent and better chemistry waiting in the wings.

      Ron Artest is a disaster offensively, Andrew Bynum is coming off an injury, and Derek Fisher is showing his age. Lamar Odom is averaging a career low in playoff points, rebounds and FG%, and at times looks like he’s ready to start his summer with Khloe Kardashian.

      In short, these are not the same Lakers we saw last year. The good news — for Laker fans, anyway — is that there is time to straighten this out. The sky is not falling. Game 5 at Staples is a good opportunity to start. If they can get their swagger back and win the series, another Finals appearance is well within reach. The West is talented, but Utah is thin on the front line, Dallas is on the verge of collapse, San Antonio is aging and the Suns are…well, they’re the Suns.

      Then again, if OKC is able to win Tuesday night and go on to win the series, we could see a veritable sea change in L.A. Artest, Bynum, Fisher and even Phil Jackson could be headed for new zip codes this summer.

      And to think, this is just the first round.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Who is the best three-point shooter in the NBA?

      April 26, 2010 /

      After the season, I like to tackle questions like these. To me, a good three-point shooter has to shoot a high percentage and make a good number of threes per game, so I put a few requirements on the eligibility of players:

      1. They must have played in a minimum of 60 games during the season.
      2. They must make a minimum of 38% of their 3PT attempts.
      3. They must make a minimum of 1.0 threes per game.

      Here are the results:

      (As always, click on the graph for a larger version.)

      Most impressive shooter? It has to be the rookie Stephen Curry, who quickly adjusted to the longer distance in the NBA and finished with the fourth-highest percentage of eligible players. He was also in the top 10 in makes per game.

      Biggest surprise? Probably Jason Kidd. A career 35% shooter from deep, Kidd has been well over 40% since joining the Mavs. He’s hitting more of his threes because he’s able to play off of Dirk Nowitzki and can spot up instead of trying to hit threes off the dribble.

      Best big man shooter? Channing Frye, who hit 2.12 threes a game at a 44% clip.

      So who is the best shooter in the NBA? Well, it depends on your criteria. Accuracy and number of makes are important, but it’s even more impressive when the player in question is the first or second option on his team (like Aaron Brooks, Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce, John Salmons, Steve Nash — or Jason Richardson — and Stephen Curry), and can still make a lot of threes at a high percentage when the defense is game-planning against him.

      You be the judge.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Poll: Does a Cavs championship mean that LeBron will re-sign?

      April 26, 2010 /

      Every so often we examine the results of our weekly poll. Last week, we asked the following question, and 204 readers responded. Here are the results:

      (Click on the picture for a bigger version.)

      I’m a little surprised that almost a quarter answered that a Cavs championship would lead to LeBron’s departure because it seems counter-intuitive. If winning is the most important thing, and he just won a title with this roster, why would he bolt?

      I understand the argument that he would have just brought a title to Cleveland, so now he can leave, but this isn’t a prison sentence, is it? The idea is to win multiple championships, right? Why start over somewhere else?

      If the Cavs do win the title, I can only see LeBron leaving if he, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all agree to take a little less money to meet up in New York, and that scenario is a longshot at best.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Are the Mavs done?

      April 26, 2010 /

      With their 92-89 loss in Game 4, the Dallas Mavericks find themselves down 3-1 and facing elimination. This is hardly what owner Mark Cuban expected after pulling (expensive) trades for Shawn Marion, Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood in the past nine months and watching his new-look team win the #2 seed in the West. But the Spurs aren’t your ordinary #7-seed.

      If you would have told Cuban that his Mavs were going to hold Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to just 31 points on a combined 9-of-34 (26%) shooting in Game 4, I’m sure he would have felt pretty good about his team’s chances. But with George Hill’s 29 and Richard Jefferson’s 15, along with some old school San Antonio defense that held Dallas to under 42% from the field, the struggles of the Spurs’ Big Three didn’t matter much in the end.

      With two of the next three elimination games in Dallas, the Mavs do have a chance to pull out this series, but they’re in for some tough sledding. Vegas now puts the Mavs’ odds of advancing at around 4-1, which sounds about right.

      The question that Cuban doesn’t want to think about, at least not yet, is what does he do with this expensive lineup if it can’t even get past an aging Spurs team in the first round?

      Part of the problem is that, at least against the Spurs, the Mavs can’t play their five-best players at the same time. Assuming Rick Carlisle wants his most trustworthy shot-maker, Jason Terry, at the two (alongside Jason Kidd), then that pushes Butler back to his natural position (small forward). So unless he puts Dirk Nowitzki at center, there’s no room for Marion, who spent much of the fourth quarter riding the pine. It doesn’t make sense to pull Haywood when he was doing such a nice job on Duncan, and Carlisle wisely doesn’t want Nowitzki guarding Duncan for long stretches. Regardless, the Spurs are controlling the matchups and forcing one of the Mavs’ best defenders to the bench.

      If Dallas goes on to lose this series, we’ll be talking about what this playoff implosion means for a franchise that had a pretty good season. Cuban could elect to tweak the lineup around the edges, make a big change or two, or blow the entire thing up.

      But, for now, he is just hoping that his team can win Game 5 and make this a series again.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Bucks GM John Hammond wins Executive of the Year

      April 25, 2010 /

      Hammond received 12 (of 30) first place votes. OKC’s Sam Presti finished second with nine votes.

      Here’s a list of the major (and minor) moves that Hammond made over the last year or so:

      – Traded forward Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs for forwards Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas and center Fabricio Oberto.

      – Selected guards Brandon Jennings (10th overall pick) and Jodie Meeks (41st overall pick).

      – Signed forward Ersan Ilyasova.

      – Traded forward Amir Johnson and guard Sonny Weems to the Toronto Raptors for guards Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic.

      – Signed guard Jerry Stackhouse.

      – Traded forwards Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander to the Chicago Bulls
      for guard John Salmons and 2011 and 2012 second-round picks.

      Hammond acquired/drafted three starters — Jennings, Salmons, Delfino — and three rotation players — Ilyasova, Thomas, Stackhouse — in the span of eight months that led to a 46-36 record and the #6 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. He also shed Richard Jefferson’s contract, which got the Bucks out of luxury cap terrority.

      Milwaukee projects to have about $32-$35 million in cap space next summer; they may elect to use a portion of that to re-sign John Salmons, who has played great since coming over from Chicago at the trade deadline.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News

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