Once again, before venturing into another week of NBA action here's a look back at a few NBA issues from last week:
An Idea That I Copied From Someone Else:
I don’t wade through the morass of the BigFooty Main Board very often, but there is one thread on there worth keeping an eye on: The Race for the Flag in Squiggly Lines.
So impressive is the graph work on that thread, I’ve decided to plagiarise it, albeit in a much less sophisticated and mathematical manner (and sans squiggle).
What I’ve basically done is graph each NBA team based on their Offensive and Defensive Ratings (slightly weighted for relative Point Differential and Strength Of Schedule) to give a visual representation of how the teams are currently performing at both ends of the court.
Basically, the higher the team is on the chart the better they are Offensively. While the farther they are to the right, the better they are Defensively.
I’ve also included the last 10 NBA Champions on there as a guide.
How ‘Bout Them Raptors?!?!
The chart shows a handful of teams that already have a combined Offensive and Defensive Rating comparable to those of past Champions, perhaps an indicator of just how premature it is to create a chart like this (and the fact that I didn’t give any weighting to home games vs road games).
One such team amongst the thicket of trophies is the Toronto Raptors, who currently sit atop the Eastern Conference standings. DeRozan and Lowry are quietly doing their thing and the team’s depth has been on show.
Lou Williams has added a dose of unabashed offense off the bench and James Johnson is the ultimate wildcard: A spectacular rather than solid player who you just have to hope maintains a manageable ratio Great Plays to Knucklehad Errors.
With so many frontcourt options available, coach Casey has handled the minutes split between Amir Johnson, Valanciunas, Patterson and Hansbrough with the dexterity of a circus performer spinning multiple plates at a time.
Are any of those plates starting to wobble? I’d suggest Valanciunas (playing a career low 22.8 mpg) is looking a tad unsteady, his lack of agility (particularly on D) causing Casey during to look elsewhere during crunch time and slowing Jonas’ journey towards reaching his potential.
With playing time being so thoroughly chopped up between the big men, there is a chance that individual players will start grumbling that they should be getting the lion's share of those minutes.
But the Raps are winning and such discontent hasn’t surfaced…yet.
The Philadelphia 76ers: How Low Can You Go?
Much was made of Philadelphia's thrashing at the hands of the Mavericks. Losing by 53 points is no easy feat and an instant reaction would be to assume that the 76ers defense really, really sucks.
And while that’s true to a certain extent, the bigger problem is at the offensive end where they are the league’s worst at putting points on the board and a glaring outlier on the chart.
Philadelphia was this close to beating the Rockets if not for some late Harden heroics and a tech foul against Brett Brown (was Brown kicking the ball a brain snap or a stealth tanking technique?)
It’s easy to dismiss the roster of Philly as being sub-NBL level, but lets not forget that these are real people out on the court trying their hearts out. Perhaps if we knew their back stories and the hardships involved, we would not be so quick to criticise the 76ers players.
Here is one such tale...
Random Quiz Question:
Currently the 76ers sit at 0-9. The worst record to begin a season in NBA History was by the New Jersey Nets, who started off 0-18 in the 2009/10 season.
Can you name the starting 5 of that team?
And keeping with the 76ers theme...
Obligatory K.J. McDaniels Highlight Of The Week:
Other Notes From The Chart:
A) The Cavs found their offensive rhythm this weekend with a close win over the Celtics (arguably aided by the refs) and a blowout over the Hawks. Cleveland will need a vast improvement at the defensive end however if they want to be Championship contenders.
B) “Look at the ball movement by these guys.”
This was a throwaway comment by Walt Frazier during the Knicks-Jazz game on Saturday, but it's a comment that wouldn’t have been made about the Jazz last season.
Utah have greatly improved on last season's pedestrian Offensive Rating of 100.6, and though it couldn’t help lead them to anything better than a 2-3 record during this week’s road trip, they were competitive in all 5 games.
C) Defending Conference Finalists the Pacers and Thunder find themselves in similar positions: struggling to generate offense while their best scorers sit out injured.
This was best reflected in last week’s game between Indiana and Miami, as the Pacers desperately tried to hang on to a slim 4th quarter lead against the Heat. The last 5 minutes included the following Indiana offense:
D) The Lakers are awful defensively. No surprise there. But what might come as a surprise is the League’s best defensive team: the Houston Rockets. Will James Harden have the last laugh?
Overlooked Play Of The Week:
Just Manu being Manu…
And Briefly…
What To Watch For This Week:
Mon: Milwaukee @ Miami. An early start after an overnight stay in Miami. Will this spell disaster for the Bucks?
Tue: Houston @ Memphis. A meeting between the teams with the 2 best records in the West.
Wed: New Orleans @ Sacramento. Potential contenders for the 8th spot in the West. Plus, Davis vs Cousins.
Thu: San Antonio @ Cleveland. Lets see how LeBron's new mob deals with the Spurs.
Fri: Inside the NBA. Still the funniest NBA show around.
Sat: Lakers @ Dallas. Look at the chart. Look where Dallas' Offensive Rating is located. Now look at where the Lakers Defense is rated.
Sun: Philadelphia @ New York. Is this where the 76ers losing streak ends?
An Idea That I Copied From Someone Else:
I don’t wade through the morass of the BigFooty Main Board very often, but there is one thread on there worth keeping an eye on: The Race for the Flag in Squiggly Lines.
So impressive is the graph work on that thread, I’ve decided to plagiarise it, albeit in a much less sophisticated and mathematical manner (and sans squiggle).
What I’ve basically done is graph each NBA team based on their Offensive and Defensive Ratings (slightly weighted for relative Point Differential and Strength Of Schedule) to give a visual representation of how the teams are currently performing at both ends of the court.
Basically, the higher the team is on the chart the better they are Offensively. While the farther they are to the right, the better they are Defensively.
I’ve also included the last 10 NBA Champions on there as a guide.
How ‘Bout Them Raptors?!?!
The chart shows a handful of teams that already have a combined Offensive and Defensive Rating comparable to those of past Champions, perhaps an indicator of just how premature it is to create a chart like this (and the fact that I didn’t give any weighting to home games vs road games).
One such team amongst the thicket of trophies is the Toronto Raptors, who currently sit atop the Eastern Conference standings. DeRozan and Lowry are quietly doing their thing and the team’s depth has been on show.
Lou Williams has added a dose of unabashed offense off the bench and James Johnson is the ultimate wildcard: A spectacular rather than solid player who you just have to hope maintains a manageable ratio Great Plays to Knucklehad Errors.
With so many frontcourt options available, coach Casey has handled the minutes split between Amir Johnson, Valanciunas, Patterson and Hansbrough with the dexterity of a circus performer spinning multiple plates at a time.
Are any of those plates starting to wobble? I’d suggest Valanciunas (playing a career low 22.8 mpg) is looking a tad unsteady, his lack of agility (particularly on D) causing Casey during to look elsewhere during crunch time and slowing Jonas’ journey towards reaching his potential.
With playing time being so thoroughly chopped up between the big men, there is a chance that individual players will start grumbling that they should be getting the lion's share of those minutes.
But the Raps are winning and such discontent hasn’t surfaced…yet.
The Philadelphia 76ers: How Low Can You Go?
Much was made of Philadelphia's thrashing at the hands of the Mavericks. Losing by 53 points is no easy feat and an instant reaction would be to assume that the 76ers defense really, really sucks.
And while that’s true to a certain extent, the bigger problem is at the offensive end where they are the league’s worst at putting points on the board and a glaring outlier on the chart.
Philadelphia was this close to beating the Rockets if not for some late Harden heroics and a tech foul against Brett Brown (was Brown kicking the ball a brain snap or a stealth tanking technique?)
It’s easy to dismiss the roster of Philly as being sub-NBL level, but lets not forget that these are real people out on the court trying their hearts out. Perhaps if we knew their back stories and the hardships involved, we would not be so quick to criticise the 76ers players.
Here is one such tale...
76ers Centre Henry Sims went undrafted after graduating from Georgetown in 2012. Before joining the 76ers, he spent time with the D-League team 'Canton Charge' (named for the town of Canton, Ohio not Canton, China) during which he faced his most difficult moment as a basketball player and a human being...
The final game of the D-League season saw the Charge needing to win to qualify for the playoffs. With time winding down and his team trailing by 1, Sims received the ball in the post with a chance to win the game. However, Sims was unaware of the clock situation and failed to launch a shot before the buzzer.
And thus, for his airheaded mistake that cost Canton the win, Henry was given the nickname “Dim” Sims.
Despite this setback, Sims fought his way into the NBA on the back of hard work and determination. “Although I still get called 'Dimmie' by the odd heckler, I’d nevertheless like to think I’m a true inspiration to all the NBA hopefuls out there” says Sims.
Random Quiz Question:
Currently the 76ers sit at 0-9. The worst record to begin a season in NBA History was by the New Jersey Nets, who started off 0-18 in the 2009/10 season.
Can you name the starting 5 of that team?
G: Devin Harris
G: Courtney Lee
F: Chris Douglas-Roberts
F: Yi Jianlian
C: Brook Lopez
G: Courtney Lee
F: Chris Douglas-Roberts
F: Yi Jianlian
C: Brook Lopez
And keeping with the 76ers theme...
Obligatory K.J. McDaniels Highlight Of The Week:
Other Notes From The Chart:
A) The Cavs found their offensive rhythm this weekend with a close win over the Celtics (arguably aided by the refs) and a blowout over the Hawks. Cleveland will need a vast improvement at the defensive end however if they want to be Championship contenders.
B) “Look at the ball movement by these guys.”
This was a throwaway comment by Walt Frazier during the Knicks-Jazz game on Saturday, but it's a comment that wouldn’t have been made about the Jazz last season.
Utah have greatly improved on last season's pedestrian Offensive Rating of 100.6, and though it couldn’t help lead them to anything better than a 2-3 record during this week’s road trip, they were competitive in all 5 games.
C) Defending Conference Finalists the Pacers and Thunder find themselves in similar positions: struggling to generate offense while their best scorers sit out injured.
This was best reflected in last week’s game between Indiana and Miami, as the Pacers desperately tried to hang on to a slim 4th quarter lead against the Heat. The last 5 minutes included the following Indiana offense:
- A Chris Copeland clear out on the left block. Copeland awkwardly backs his way into the paint where his off-balance shot is eventually blocked.
- Lavon Allen misses an easy 5-footer along the baseline.
- Donald Sloan fails to break down the Heat’s pick and roll defense, which results in an end of shot-clock heave.
D) The Lakers are awful defensively. No surprise there. But what might come as a surprise is the League’s best defensive team: the Houston Rockets. Will James Harden have the last laugh?
Overlooked Play Of The Week:
Just Manu being Manu…
And Briefly…
- The atmosphere at The Palace of Auburn Hills for the Pistons/Jazz game was, for lack of a better term, lifeless...
To liven things up, the Pistons staff were chucking out t-shirts to the crowd. A common thing to do during timeouts you say? Well yeah, but in Detroit this was happening DURING the game.
As a result you could see entire sections of the crowd looking away from the court, instead waving and begging for merchandise to be thrown in their direction. Meanwhile the Jazz and Pistons continued playing, their game a seeming afterthought.
Pretty poor stuff.
As a result you could see entire sections of the crowd looking away from the court, instead waving and begging for merchandise to be thrown in their direction. Meanwhile the Jazz and Pistons continued playing, their game a seeming afterthought.
Pretty poor stuff.
- Stephen Curry has stepped up his “Steal the ball off the inbounds after a make” game.
- When you hear the term “Dual Point Guard Lineup” you usually think of Bledsoe/Dragic. But the 2 most prolific Dual Point Guard Lineups at the moment are Kyrie/LeBron and Holiday/Tyreke.
- Moreso than Phoenix, these two backcourt lineups have an even distribution of “your turn/my turn” ball handling and playmaking duties. A delicate situation, but it's working for both teams so far.
- In you case you missed it, this feature on Ryan Anderson and his girlfriend’s suicide is worth reading: http://www.si.com/nba/2014/11/13/ryan-anderson-gia-allemand
- We saw Baynes/Bogut match up against each other early on in the week. Baynes showed that he can set solid screens; with the way Bogut sags far, far back on pick-and-rolls, such screens created multiple wide open mid-range opportunites for his teammates.
- By the way, the 2 Aussie big men have never played in a major international tournament together...lets hope it happens at some stage.
- The Warriors fans are great and all, sure, but in that loss to the Spurs the mass walkout began with their team down 12 with 2:25 to go. Is this acceptable or not? It seemed a bit early to me.
- Earlier this week Channing Frye was allowed to drive all the way from the 3 point line into the paint for an uncontested dunk. Yes, Channing Frye! A drive and dunk! His teammates couldn’t believe their eyes...
- In related news, Frye did this in a game against the Knicks.
- In more related news, Amar’e was (supposed to be) the weakside help defender.
- Gotta give credit to Steve Blake for his fantastic defensive effort on Kemba Walker in Portland’s close win over the Hornets.
- And earlier this week, there was of course Blake’s confrontation with Kenneth Faried. Too bad Steve Blake wasn’t at the G20 Summit…I’m sure he would have shirtfronted Putin.
What To Watch For This Week:
Mon: Milwaukee @ Miami. An early start after an overnight stay in Miami. Will this spell disaster for the Bucks?
Tue: Houston @ Memphis. A meeting between the teams with the 2 best records in the West.
Wed: New Orleans @ Sacramento. Potential contenders for the 8th spot in the West. Plus, Davis vs Cousins.
Thu: San Antonio @ Cleveland. Lets see how LeBron's new mob deals with the Spurs.
Fri: Inside the NBA. Still the funniest NBA show around.
Sat: Lakers @ Dallas. Look at the chart. Look where Dallas' Offensive Rating is located. Now look at where the Lakers Defense is rated.
Sun: Philadelphia @ New York. Is this where the 76ers losing streak ends?
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