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Tag: 2009-10 NBA season (Page 30 of 61)
In this morning’s post, TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott laments about something that is very wrong with the game of basketball…
You know what’s wrong with basketball? Not guns, not gambling, not any of that. The biggest problem in basketball is free throws. If there was some way to severely reduce the amount of standing around in games, I think games would be a lot more fun to watch in TV or in person.
Here’s a suggestion: On a shooting foul, instead of a player getting two shots and a live rebound, the player gets one shot and his team gets the ball. This would reduce the number of times a player is fouled going to the hole because there would be very little upside to making a player “earn it” from the line if his team retains possession after the free throw attempt. It would also eliminate the tired/boring Hack-a-Shaq approach for the same reason.
The only time when this wouldn’t work would be at the end of games. If a team is trailing by two points, it could be to the defense’s advantage to intentionally foul with very little time remaining thinking that, after the free throw, it would be tough for the offense to get a shot off to win the game. How about in the final minute of each quarter, the rule would revert back to the current system — two free throws for each foul? That way, the end-of-game situations wouldn’t drastically change from what we know now, and end-of-game fouling would be reduced (at least up until the final minute) as teams are forced to play defense instead of hoping that the opponent misses some free throws.
Thoughts?
Photo from fOTOGLIF
“[The Cavaliers] were the hungrier team and I think that they sense that they want to win a championship, they want to go after it, so they’re playing with a sense of urgency that we played with last year. We have to make some adjustments, we have to make some improvements. Our mentality has to change a little bit playing against these teams. These teams are physical, tough-minded and hard-nosed type of teams and we need to make some decisions.”
— Kobe Bryant, via ESPN Los Angeles
Dave McMenamin titled this post, “Bryant Lashes Out At His Teammates,” but I have no problem with anything that Kobe said. It’s 100% true. The Cavs are hungrier and there is no getting around it. It will be very difficult for the Lakers to match that hunger since they just won the title last year. So to beat the Cavs, they have to play tougher and execute better. Pau Gasol looked like a big white bedsheet on a clothesline, flapping around in the wind. And Lamar Odom is not known for his toughness either. Both players have to finish their shots inside and rebound well to offset the Cavs’ hunger (or any other opponent for that matter).
That said, let’s not forget that Kobe missed 19 shots last night and went just 1-5 in the fourth quarter. If he shoots 45-50%, the Lakers probably win that game.
“I don’t think Gasol should be in it at all. He’s only played like 20 games (he played Thursday in his 25th out of 42 Lakers games) this year. I think there should be a number of games you should play. I think you should have to play like 80 percent of the games. It shouldn’t be 50 percent over a guy who plays 90 percent and who has better numbers. Not just me. Zach Randolph, a power forward, he has better numbers (than Gasol). But he’s not on the Lakers.”
— Chris Kaman, via FanHouse
Players don’t usually comment about whether or not another player deserves to play in the All-Star Game, so there might be some blowback on Kaman.
He is averaging 20-9-2 with 1.4 blocks per game and 50% shooting from the field. But it’s hardly Gasol’s fault that he got injured, and he’s played well when healthy (17-11 with 54% shooting). He has played in almost 60% of his team’s games, and if he plays in the 10 games before the All-Star break, then he would have appeared in 67% of his team’s games. Is that enough? Seems to me that 60% or two-thirds would be enough. We are talking about the team with the best record in basketball.
Kaman goes on to say that he realizes it’s the Lakers, but if the Clippers had Kobe Bryant they’d have a better record. But it works both ways. If the Clippers had Kobe, Kaman wouldn’t be averaging 20-9. He can’t have it both ways.
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