Fasten your seat belts!
This is what I'm talking about, baby!
This is how you make a mix!
Take a hit song which relates to the person you're making the mix for and go from there.
The song is "I Tried" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (From Cleveland) and Akon.
It really makes you feel for LeBron James and his struggle to win a championship.
The second song (with a few bad words) is "Till I'm Gone" by Tinie Tempah and Wiz Khalifa, which basically vows that James will "be back one day."
Hot stuff.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Showing posts with label Miami Heat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miami Heat. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Dallas KOs Miami
Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks, who defeated the Miami Heat four games to two to win their first championship in franchise history!
No one who saw Dallas play in the '90s could have ever imagined that this day would come.
But Dallas played with the heart of a champion and won a series which will go down as one of the most memorable and entertaining of all time.
It was so good that I wish it didn't have to end.
The heavyweight fight analogy is the only way to describe what happened.
Miami came into this series like the undefeated heavyweight champ who had won all of his fights by knockout in the first five rounds.
And when LeBron James hit that fade-away, 25-foot three-pointer at the end of the third quarter in Game 1, judging by Dallas' body language as they walked off the court, you wondered if they wouldn't be Miami's next quick knockout victim.
James' two powerful and sensational dunks to finish Dallas off that game were like a fighter flashing his skills and showboating against a dazed opponent, and by early in the fourth quarter of Game 2, Dallas was clearly on the ropes.
But they somehow landed a lucky punch (might have even swung with their eyes closed) and cut the champ.
And when they saw the champ was cut and bleeding they realized he wasn't so invincible after all, and the champ's aura of invincibility, his greatest advantage, disappeared forever.
Toward the end of Dallas' unbelievable comeback in Game 2, you could see that the dynamics of the series had completely shifted.
Dallas had gained confidence and had its swag on full throttle, and when Dwyane Wade's shot missed at the buzzer you knew that if nothing else Miami would be in for the fight of its life if they wanted to win this time.
The two teams sparred for the next two rounds (Game 3 and Game 4), with round four being a battle of wills like few we have ever seen.
Both teams were exhausted by the end, and it ended up being less about basketball and more about courage, determination, character, heart, guts, endurance, will power, mental toughness and every other sports cliche you can think of.
Whoever wanted this game would have to pull something out of themselves that maybe even they didn't know they had.
And with Dirk Nowitzki playing with a fever which sometimes reached 102 degrees, Dallas was the team that did it.
Dallas looked up after four rounds and saw they were even on the scorecard when every other contender had been knocked out by then, or at best was on the verge of being knocked out.
And what happened next is what typically happens to champs who routinely knock their opponents out early: They don't have the stamina to last into the later rounds.
Dallas took the fight to the champ in the next round (Game 5) and put its entire array of punches on display in the process, from the quick jab (JJ Barea) to the body blow (Brian Cardinal), and at the same time was able to consistently land their knockout punch (the three-pointer) for the first time.
By the time the second half of Game 6 arrived, Miami was out on its feet.
All of the outward indicators which told you the fight was still on where there, the crowd, the announcers, the two teams still going at it, the fact that it was only round six; but Miami had nothing left.
Even the body language had turned completely around by then.
When Shawn Marion got an offensive rebound over Dwyane Wade and scored on a put-back in the third quarter, Miami's body language said it all.
And the look on Dwyane Wade's face after he scored over Dirk Nowitzki and was fouled early in the fourth quarter said even more.
There was no swag, no mean glare, no nasty snarl, nothing.
Guys in the NBA who make a play like that almost always celebrate it, and Wade should have been chest-bumping, giving high-fives to fans behind the basket and posing in front of the nearest camera to let everyone know that he is the mf'er.
But there was none of that.
Wade didn't have the look and swag of someone about to lead his team to a championship in the next two games; he had the look of someone who wanted to be knocked out.
And over the next several minutes, Dallas did knock him and Miami out and put them down for the count.
And when it was all said and done, the invincible champ was flat on his back, knocked out cold by a more skilled and more experienced fighter with more endurance and a much better trainer.
Coming into the series, I felt Dallas had the following advantages: Rick Carlisle, Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, shooting and their bench.
And Miami had these advantages: youth, the talent of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
But Erik Spoelstra took away Miami's youth advantage by playing James too many minutes.
A young guy playing extra-heavy minutes against an older guy playing the right amount of minutes is more or less a wash, and you could argue that the extra-heavy minutes took away the talent advantage too because fatigue drains talent.
And whatever talent advantage which might have been left was stomped away by the paint dominance of Tyson Chandler and his ability to redirect ventures into the paint and take away dunks and layups.
Before the Oklahoma City series I wrote that Dallas was better at playing winning basketball than Oklahoma City was, and they were better at it than Miami as well.
What I mean by winning basketball is Dallas passes the ball around until they get a good shot, and then and only then do they shoot the basketball, with no regard for who ends up taking the shot.
That's winning basketball!
But a lot of teams can't play like that because they don't have enough guys with the skills to pass the ball without committing turnovers, the unselfish mentalities to not care who scores or the experience to read complicated NBA defenses.
Dallas has all of the above and more, and that is why they are the best team in the NBA.
There are so many lessons from this win, one of which is how much better Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry got late in their careers.
Nowitzki is much better with his shot selection. Kidd is a better shooter. And Terry is a better passer and playmaker.
Dallas doesn't win it all without those individual improvements.
And from playing Corey Brewer against Los Angeles to benching Peja Stojakovic in favor of Brian Cardinal to starting JJ Barea, everything Rick Carlisle did in the playoffs turned to gold.
Kevin Pelton wrote that Carlisle out-coached the opposition in every playoff series, and I would have to agree with that 110 percent. He put on a coaching clinic and made all the right moves at all the right times against every opponent.
Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd carried Dallas on defense. And Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and JJ Barea carried them on offense.
Throw in a little DeShawn Stevenson, Brian Cardinal and Brendan Haywood and what you got was a total team effort which was a joy to watch.
Finally, Mark Cuban, Donnie Nelson and their support staffs deserve credit for putting this team together. And the coaching staff deserves credit for developing it.
Now that Cuban has the blueprint, there may be no stopping him.
When you consider how far this franchise has come, enough can't be said about Cuban and Nelson and the jobs they have done.
On to Miami, they deserve credit for getting this far and coming so close to winning it all.
Dallas is simply better than they are.
To those who want to throw Erik Spoelstra under the bus, I won't argue with you on that one.
At the same time, I would like to see him with a better team before I make a final judgment.
Miami needs a Tyson Chandler.
We all knew they were weak at center before the season started, and while Joel Anthony does a good job, remember that he is only 6-9 and the only true shot-blocker Spoelstra used.
That means when Spoelstra chose to play Udonis Haslem up front next to Chris Bosh, Miami was essentially playing small ball with no interior presence in the paint who could block or alter shots at the rim, a formula for disaster.
I've railed against small ball so much that I don't feel like touching it right now, but you all know how I feel about that coaching decision.
Bosh and Haslem averaged .5 blocks apiece and were no match for Nowitzki or Barea on their drives into the paint.
After helping Miami get here with his defense on Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose, Mike Bibby couldn't break out of his shooting slump or contain JJ Barea.
And LeBron James could have been better, but I won't kill him for his performance.
I give all of the credit to Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson ("Blow the Whistle"), Brian Cardinal and the rest of the Mavericks.
As Zach Lowe pointed out, they put James in a vice; and there was little he could do surrounded by three to five guys at a time other than play the team game and pass the ball to the open man.
Their defense clearly had him flustered and confused.
But remember that he is only 26 playing against a more experienced, deeper and better-coached team.
In all likelihood, he will one day shred those same schemes as he gets older and as Miami surrounds him with better and more consistent and versatile contributors.
I never expected James to carry Miami to a championship by being Michael Jordan.
And I've always known that basketball is a team game, so this series wasn't a reminder of anything to me.
And Miami plays a team game. It's just that Dallas plays it better.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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No one who saw Dallas play in the '90s could have ever imagined that this day would come.
But Dallas played with the heart of a champion and won a series which will go down as one of the most memorable and entertaining of all time.
It was so good that I wish it didn't have to end.
The heavyweight fight analogy is the only way to describe what happened.
Miami came into this series like the undefeated heavyweight champ who had won all of his fights by knockout in the first five rounds.
And when LeBron James hit that fade-away, 25-foot three-pointer at the end of the third quarter in Game 1, judging by Dallas' body language as they walked off the court, you wondered if they wouldn't be Miami's next quick knockout victim.
James' two powerful and sensational dunks to finish Dallas off that game were like a fighter flashing his skills and showboating against a dazed opponent, and by early in the fourth quarter of Game 2, Dallas was clearly on the ropes.
But they somehow landed a lucky punch (might have even swung with their eyes closed) and cut the champ.
And when they saw the champ was cut and bleeding they realized he wasn't so invincible after all, and the champ's aura of invincibility, his greatest advantage, disappeared forever.
Toward the end of Dallas' unbelievable comeback in Game 2, you could see that the dynamics of the series had completely shifted.
Dallas had gained confidence and had its swag on full throttle, and when Dwyane Wade's shot missed at the buzzer you knew that if nothing else Miami would be in for the fight of its life if they wanted to win this time.
The two teams sparred for the next two rounds (Game 3 and Game 4), with round four being a battle of wills like few we have ever seen.
Both teams were exhausted by the end, and it ended up being less about basketball and more about courage, determination, character, heart, guts, endurance, will power, mental toughness and every other sports cliche you can think of.
Whoever wanted this game would have to pull something out of themselves that maybe even they didn't know they had.
And with Dirk Nowitzki playing with a fever which sometimes reached 102 degrees, Dallas was the team that did it.
Dallas looked up after four rounds and saw they were even on the scorecard when every other contender had been knocked out by then, or at best was on the verge of being knocked out.
And what happened next is what typically happens to champs who routinely knock their opponents out early: They don't have the stamina to last into the later rounds.
Dallas took the fight to the champ in the next round (Game 5) and put its entire array of punches on display in the process, from the quick jab (JJ Barea) to the body blow (Brian Cardinal), and at the same time was able to consistently land their knockout punch (the three-pointer) for the first time.
By the time the second half of Game 6 arrived, Miami was out on its feet.
All of the outward indicators which told you the fight was still on where there, the crowd, the announcers, the two teams still going at it, the fact that it was only round six; but Miami had nothing left.
Even the body language had turned completely around by then.
When Shawn Marion got an offensive rebound over Dwyane Wade and scored on a put-back in the third quarter, Miami's body language said it all.
And the look on Dwyane Wade's face after he scored over Dirk Nowitzki and was fouled early in the fourth quarter said even more.
There was no swag, no mean glare, no nasty snarl, nothing.
Guys in the NBA who make a play like that almost always celebrate it, and Wade should have been chest-bumping, giving high-fives to fans behind the basket and posing in front of the nearest camera to let everyone know that he is the mf'er.
But there was none of that.
Wade didn't have the look and swag of someone about to lead his team to a championship in the next two games; he had the look of someone who wanted to be knocked out.
And over the next several minutes, Dallas did knock him and Miami out and put them down for the count.
And when it was all said and done, the invincible champ was flat on his back, knocked out cold by a more skilled and more experienced fighter with more endurance and a much better trainer.
Coming into the series, I felt Dallas had the following advantages: Rick Carlisle, Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, shooting and their bench.
And Miami had these advantages: youth, the talent of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
But Erik Spoelstra took away Miami's youth advantage by playing James too many minutes.
A young guy playing extra-heavy minutes against an older guy playing the right amount of minutes is more or less a wash, and you could argue that the extra-heavy minutes took away the talent advantage too because fatigue drains talent.
And whatever talent advantage which might have been left was stomped away by the paint dominance of Tyson Chandler and his ability to redirect ventures into the paint and take away dunks and layups.
Before the Oklahoma City series I wrote that Dallas was better at playing winning basketball than Oklahoma City was, and they were better at it than Miami as well.
What I mean by winning basketball is Dallas passes the ball around until they get a good shot, and then and only then do they shoot the basketball, with no regard for who ends up taking the shot.
That's winning basketball!
But a lot of teams can't play like that because they don't have enough guys with the skills to pass the ball without committing turnovers, the unselfish mentalities to not care who scores or the experience to read complicated NBA defenses.
Dallas has all of the above and more, and that is why they are the best team in the NBA.
There are so many lessons from this win, one of which is how much better Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry got late in their careers.
Nowitzki is much better with his shot selection. Kidd is a better shooter. And Terry is a better passer and playmaker.
Dallas doesn't win it all without those individual improvements.
And from playing Corey Brewer against Los Angeles to benching Peja Stojakovic in favor of Brian Cardinal to starting JJ Barea, everything Rick Carlisle did in the playoffs turned to gold.
Kevin Pelton wrote that Carlisle out-coached the opposition in every playoff series, and I would have to agree with that 110 percent. He put on a coaching clinic and made all the right moves at all the right times against every opponent.
Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd carried Dallas on defense. And Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and JJ Barea carried them on offense.
Throw in a little DeShawn Stevenson, Brian Cardinal and Brendan Haywood and what you got was a total team effort which was a joy to watch.
Finally, Mark Cuban, Donnie Nelson and their support staffs deserve credit for putting this team together. And the coaching staff deserves credit for developing it.
Now that Cuban has the blueprint, there may be no stopping him.
When you consider how far this franchise has come, enough can't be said about Cuban and Nelson and the jobs they have done.
On to Miami, they deserve credit for getting this far and coming so close to winning it all.
Dallas is simply better than they are.
To those who want to throw Erik Spoelstra under the bus, I won't argue with you on that one.
At the same time, I would like to see him with a better team before I make a final judgment.
Miami needs a Tyson Chandler.
We all knew they were weak at center before the season started, and while Joel Anthony does a good job, remember that he is only 6-9 and the only true shot-blocker Spoelstra used.
That means when Spoelstra chose to play Udonis Haslem up front next to Chris Bosh, Miami was essentially playing small ball with no interior presence in the paint who could block or alter shots at the rim, a formula for disaster.
I've railed against small ball so much that I don't feel like touching it right now, but you all know how I feel about that coaching decision.
Bosh and Haslem averaged .5 blocks apiece and were no match for Nowitzki or Barea on their drives into the paint.
After helping Miami get here with his defense on Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose, Mike Bibby couldn't break out of his shooting slump or contain JJ Barea.
And LeBron James could have been better, but I won't kill him for his performance.
I give all of the credit to Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson ("Blow the Whistle"), Brian Cardinal and the rest of the Mavericks.
As Zach Lowe pointed out, they put James in a vice; and there was little he could do surrounded by three to five guys at a time other than play the team game and pass the ball to the open man.
Their defense clearly had him flustered and confused.
But remember that he is only 26 playing against a more experienced, deeper and better-coached team.
In all likelihood, he will one day shred those same schemes as he gets older and as Miami surrounds him with better and more consistent and versatile contributors.
I never expected James to carry Miami to a championship by being Michael Jordan.
And I've always known that basketball is a team game, so this series wasn't a reminder of anything to me.
And Miami plays a team game. It's just that Dallas plays it better.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Invincible: Miami, Tinie Tempah And Kelly Rowland
These are some videos to get you ready for the NBA Finals.
The first features some highlights from Miami's season and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh coming together.
The second is from Miami's first-round series against Philadelphia, with "Invincible" by Tinie Tempah and Kelly Rowland.
It's a beautiful song and a beautiful film.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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The first features some highlights from Miami's season and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh coming together.
The second is from Miami's first-round series against Philadelphia, with "Invincible" by Tinie Tempah and Kelly Rowland.
It's a beautiful song and a beautiful film.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Saturday, May 28, 2011
Mavericks And Heat: NBA Finals Preview
It must first be pointed out that I have been a strong supporter of both teams from the very beginning.
I may be the only sportswriter in America who named Dallas as a contender before the season started.
And while everybody had Miami as a contender, not all of them stuck with Miami after they started 9-8 like I did.
I have been all over both coaches (Rick Carlisle criticism, Erik Spoelstra criticism) because they both deserved it based on the decisions they were making at the time.
But never did I back off my claim that each team had the talent to win it all.
The closest I came to writing Miami off was when Boston traded for Jeff Green, but after Miami countered by signing Mike Bibby I put them back in the game and gave them a near 50-50 shot to win the East.
I still think a fully-healthy Boston is the best team in the East, but as we all know with injuries, sugar-honey-iced-tea happens.
And going all the way back to September, I never liked Chicago as a legitimate contender because of the limited amount of talent on their roster, though I gave them an equal chance to win the conference finals because anything can happen.
As far as me questioning Spoelstra's ability to lead Miami to a championship, it's amazing how much better a coach can look once a few extra guys start contributing.
With Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller knocking down shots and snatching rebounds, Spoelstra suddenly looks like Red Auerbach.
Other than his disastrous decision to try to play small ball against Chicago in Game 1 and LeBron James' heavy minutes, I have little problem with anything he did in the conference finals.
He has the Cadillac on cruise control right now, with the AC blowing, listening to some Al Green or something.
With Miami in position to win it all, as they told everyone they would, other writers are coming to grips with the sad reality that the man and the team they love to hate could be hoisting a championship trophy soon; and it's not sitting well with them.
As I said before, I couldn't care less about "The Decision."
I wouldn't give a damn if LeBron James went on national television and announced his decision to leave Cleveland while talking out of his ass like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
It has nothing to do with basketball.
I cover the game, not the soap opera, the petty gossip and the ridiculous nonsense outside of the game, like "The Decision," James' mother getting arrested, Allen Iverson's Lambo getting impounded, how many children someone has out of wedlock or who Kris Humphries or anybody else is dating.
It's asinine.
And I thought Miami's introduction was fun and entertaining.
What else was I supposed to do in July? Watch baseball?
I haven't made any predictions in the playoffs so far and won't do so in this series.
Each team has advantages and disadvantages which could go either way when they collide against each other over the course of several games, and which way they will go is anybody's guess.
Both teams have a legitimate chance to win it all, and I can't tell you what the deciding factors will be in determining which team that will be.
But it should be fun to watch and find out.
Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Dallas are the good guys.
LeBron James and Miami are the villains, the Evil Empire.
Will Dallas be able to fend off Miami and save everything which is good and pure about basketball?
Or will LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead the NBA to hell in a hand-basket of super teams and big-market or warm-weather monopolies?
Tune in Tuesday at 9:00 to find out as two teams from opposite parts of the country battle for the future of the NBA.
I don't really believe that, but it's how the series is being billed by some people.
Note: This is an article I wrote on the valuable lesson I learned after picking Detroit and other teams to do well and watching their disappointing play during the season.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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I may be the only sportswriter in America who named Dallas as a contender before the season started.
And while everybody had Miami as a contender, not all of them stuck with Miami after they started 9-8 like I did.
I have been all over both coaches (Rick Carlisle criticism, Erik Spoelstra criticism) because they both deserved it based on the decisions they were making at the time.
But never did I back off my claim that each team had the talent to win it all.
The closest I came to writing Miami off was when Boston traded for Jeff Green, but after Miami countered by signing Mike Bibby I put them back in the game and gave them a near 50-50 shot to win the East.
I still think a fully-healthy Boston is the best team in the East, but as we all know with injuries, sugar-honey-iced-tea happens.
And going all the way back to September, I never liked Chicago as a legitimate contender because of the limited amount of talent on their roster, though I gave them an equal chance to win the conference finals because anything can happen.
As far as me questioning Spoelstra's ability to lead Miami to a championship, it's amazing how much better a coach can look once a few extra guys start contributing.
With Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller knocking down shots and snatching rebounds, Spoelstra suddenly looks like Red Auerbach.
Other than his disastrous decision to try to play small ball against Chicago in Game 1 and LeBron James' heavy minutes, I have little problem with anything he did in the conference finals.
He has the Cadillac on cruise control right now, with the AC blowing, listening to some Al Green or something.
With Miami in position to win it all, as they told everyone they would, other writers are coming to grips with the sad reality that the man and the team they love to hate could be hoisting a championship trophy soon; and it's not sitting well with them.
As I said before, I couldn't care less about "The Decision."
I wouldn't give a damn if LeBron James went on national television and announced his decision to leave Cleveland while talking out of his ass like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
It has nothing to do with basketball.
I cover the game, not the soap opera, the petty gossip and the ridiculous nonsense outside of the game, like "The Decision," James' mother getting arrested, Allen Iverson's Lambo getting impounded, how many children someone has out of wedlock or who Kris Humphries or anybody else is dating.
It's asinine.
And I thought Miami's introduction was fun and entertaining.
What else was I supposed to do in July? Watch baseball?
I haven't made any predictions in the playoffs so far and won't do so in this series.
Each team has advantages and disadvantages which could go either way when they collide against each other over the course of several games, and which way they will go is anybody's guess.
Both teams have a legitimate chance to win it all, and I can't tell you what the deciding factors will be in determining which team that will be.
But it should be fun to watch and find out.
Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Dallas are the good guys.
LeBron James and Miami are the villains, the Evil Empire.
Will Dallas be able to fend off Miami and save everything which is good and pure about basketball?
Or will LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead the NBA to hell in a hand-basket of super teams and big-market or warm-weather monopolies?
Tune in Tuesday at 9:00 to find out as two teams from opposite parts of the country battle for the future of the NBA.
I don't really believe that, but it's how the series is being billed by some people.
Note: This is an article I wrote on the valuable lesson I learned after picking Detroit and other teams to do well and watching their disappointing play during the season.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Friday, May 20, 2011
Classic: Dwyane Wade and Lupe Fiasco
I posted some Derrick Rose highlights with Kanye West this morning.
But since Dwyane Wade is from Chicago too and is also playing in the playoffs, and there are other Chicago musicians around with hit songs, I thought it only fair to find something showcasing Dwyane Wade.
And I was very fortunate to come up with a nearly flawless video of Wade's 2010-11 season with music by Chicago's own Lupe Fiasco, "The Show Goes On."
It has almost everything from Wade's season that you would expect.
And what would a good Dwyane Wade highlight reel be without his famous, "This is my house!" antics?
The footage I found of Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose the past couple days inspired me to start HBIQ Cinema and HBIQ Legends Cinema.
Some highlight reels go beyond being just highlights and turn into total entertainment experiences.
So I'll use the HBIQ Cinema label for them and use HBIQ Cinema as a place where you can go to watch them and just be entertained for as long as you wish.
HBIQ Legends Cinema is for players no longer in the NBA like Michael Jordan.
But be warned: In what has to be some sort of internet record, the Michael Jordan highlights I linked to just last month have already been removed; so you might want to watch these as quickly as possible before they disappear forever.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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But since Dwyane Wade is from Chicago too and is also playing in the playoffs, and there are other Chicago musicians around with hit songs, I thought it only fair to find something showcasing Dwyane Wade.
And I was very fortunate to come up with a nearly flawless video of Wade's 2010-11 season with music by Chicago's own Lupe Fiasco, "The Show Goes On."
It has almost everything from Wade's season that you would expect.
And what would a good Dwyane Wade highlight reel be without his famous, "This is my house!" antics?
The footage I found of Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose the past couple days inspired me to start HBIQ Cinema and HBIQ Legends Cinema.
Some highlight reels go beyond being just highlights and turn into total entertainment experiences.
So I'll use the HBIQ Cinema label for them and use HBIQ Cinema as a place where you can go to watch them and just be entertained for as long as you wish.
HBIQ Legends Cinema is for players no longer in the NBA like Michael Jordan.
But be warned: In what has to be some sort of internet record, the Michael Jordan highlights I linked to just last month have already been removed; so you might want to watch these as quickly as possible before they disappear forever.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Friday, May 13, 2011
Eastern Conference Finals Preview
NBA officials and television executives are probably still drunk after all of the champagne they popped when the Atlanta Hawks didn't advance to the conference finals.
MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago's media market going against the star power of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for David Stern and the NBA was no doubt an orgasm-producing outcome.
And either of those teams advancing to the championship will be great business for all parties involved, not only for this season but for future seasons as well.
Many think Miami will roll over Chicago. But don't be fooled by what we just saw in the last round.
Atlanta has as much talent as almost any team in the NBA and is a good coach away from being a legitimate contender. And Miami benefited significantly from injuries to Shaquille O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal and Rajon Rondo.
After seeing how the series played out, I would take a fully-healthy Boston team over a fully-healthy Miami team in a seven-game series.
Unfortunately for Boston, it didn't work out that way.
There is nothing to be gained from looking at Chicago's 3-0 sweep of Miami during the regular season.
LeBron James didn't play in the first game. Mike Bibby (not on the team yet) didn't play in the second. Joel Anthony didn't play in the third.
You could go back and forth with these playoff (or regular season) matchups for five hours and end up more confused than when you first started.
I wouldn't dare pick a winner in this or any other series.
The only thing I can say for sure is that it will be great television.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago's media market going against the star power of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for David Stern and the NBA was no doubt an orgasm-producing outcome.
And either of those teams advancing to the championship will be great business for all parties involved, not only for this season but for future seasons as well.
Many think Miami will roll over Chicago. But don't be fooled by what we just saw in the last round.
Atlanta has as much talent as almost any team in the NBA and is a good coach away from being a legitimate contender. And Miami benefited significantly from injuries to Shaquille O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal and Rajon Rondo.
After seeing how the series played out, I would take a fully-healthy Boston team over a fully-healthy Miami team in a seven-game series.
Unfortunately for Boston, it didn't work out that way.
There is nothing to be gained from looking at Chicago's 3-0 sweep of Miami during the regular season.
LeBron James didn't play in the first game. Mike Bibby (not on the team yet) didn't play in the second. Joel Anthony didn't play in the third.
You could go back and forth with these playoff (or regular season) matchups for five hours and end up more confused than when you first started.
I wouldn't dare pick a winner in this or any other series.
The only thing I can say for sure is that it will be great television.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Spoelstra Survives
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made it past the second round and did it quite easily thanks in part to some fortuitous injuries to key members of the Boston Celtics.
I was critical of him heading into the second round for a few reasons that I didn't fully detail at the time.
My main problem with Spoelstra's coaching is that it looks like he is letting Tom Haberstroh and the guys at Heat Index coach the Miami Heat.
Haberstroh has been critical of Miami's starting five.
He planted the seed about Miami's starting lineup featuring Mike Bibby and Zydrunas Ilgauskas near the end of the regular season and started beating the drum during the Philadelphia series.
The next thing you know, Bibby and Ilgauskas were benched four minutes into Game 5 against Philadelphia, never to return.
All of a sudden, Bibby and Ilgauskas were Siamese twins, linked in a joint performance where their value couldn't be determined individually but only in concert with one another.
Spoelstra didn't take the time to see which one was the problem.
He reacted quickly and benched both in what looked like a move to appease his critics more than anything else.
But it turns out Haberstroh hadn't done his full research.
The Bibby-gauskas twins weren't the problem at all; it was Ilgauskas alone. And Haberstroh had some more numbers to back it up.
It so happened that Miami was lethal when Mike Bibby and Joel Anthony played together with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, even against Philadelphia and going back to the regular season.
In there was this astonishing statistical nugget: That unit had played only nine minutes together against Philadelphia and only 35 minutes together during the season.
Haberstroh released this story before the Miami series against Boston.
Four games into the series, Spoelstra was reacting again, this time removing Ilgauskas from the starting lineup in favor of Anthony.
There are two problems here, the incomplete information it looked like Spoelstra reacted to the first time and the fact that he had a strong lineup which he hadn't yet discovered.
Isn't Erik Spoelstra the coach of the Miami Heat?
Shouldn't he know who his best units and players are without me (see Joel Anthony) or someone else having to tell him?
Isn't that what he is paid for?
And how is he going to lead a team to a championship when he can't filter good information from bad in making the best decisions for his team?
Every team Miami faces isn't going to be as small as Philadelphia or as injury-riddled as Boston. At some point Spoelstra is going to have to win some games against some legitimate competition.
And when that time comes, I'm still not sure that he'll be able to get it done.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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I was critical of him heading into the second round for a few reasons that I didn't fully detail at the time.
My main problem with Spoelstra's coaching is that it looks like he is letting Tom Haberstroh and the guys at Heat Index coach the Miami Heat.
Haberstroh has been critical of Miami's starting five.
He planted the seed about Miami's starting lineup featuring Mike Bibby and Zydrunas Ilgauskas near the end of the regular season and started beating the drum during the Philadelphia series.
The next thing you know, Bibby and Ilgauskas were benched four minutes into Game 5 against Philadelphia, never to return.
All of a sudden, Bibby and Ilgauskas were Siamese twins, linked in a joint performance where their value couldn't be determined individually but only in concert with one another.
Spoelstra didn't take the time to see which one was the problem.
He reacted quickly and benched both in what looked like a move to appease his critics more than anything else.
But it turns out Haberstroh hadn't done his full research.
The Bibby-gauskas twins weren't the problem at all; it was Ilgauskas alone. And Haberstroh had some more numbers to back it up.
It so happened that Miami was lethal when Mike Bibby and Joel Anthony played together with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, even against Philadelphia and going back to the regular season.
In there was this astonishing statistical nugget: That unit had played only nine minutes together against Philadelphia and only 35 minutes together during the season.
Haberstroh released this story before the Miami series against Boston.
Four games into the series, Spoelstra was reacting again, this time removing Ilgauskas from the starting lineup in favor of Anthony.
There are two problems here, the incomplete information it looked like Spoelstra reacted to the first time and the fact that he had a strong lineup which he hadn't yet discovered.
Isn't Erik Spoelstra the coach of the Miami Heat?
Shouldn't he know who his best units and players are without me (see Joel Anthony) or someone else having to tell him?
Isn't that what he is paid for?
And how is he going to lead a team to a championship when he can't filter good information from bad in making the best decisions for his team?
Every team Miami faces isn't going to be as small as Philadelphia or as injury-riddled as Boston. At some point Spoelstra is going to have to win some games against some legitimate competition.
And when that time comes, I'm still not sure that he'll be able to get it done.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Saturday, April 30, 2011
Second Round Preview
I hope you're not coming here for any predictions.
The first round of the playoffs told you all you needed to know about why I refuse to make any.
The games are simply unpredictable.
Bless anyone who tries to make a living betting on these games!
They are stressful enough with nothing at stake.
Every first-round series was incredible, as far as the quality of play, and this round looks to be even better.
Each series is full of intrigue, and it is impossible to pick a winner or pick the series which will be the most competitive or the most entertaining.
But we'll have the answer to every question in two weeks.
BOSTON AND MIAMI
More and more, Erik Spoelstra is proving that he is not a championship coach.
He did a much better job driving the Chevy he had last year than the Cadillac he has now.
This series may tell us all we need to know about him.
If Miami goes down in six games, it might be time for Pat Riley to start searching his coaching database to bring in a winner.
Rajon Rondo finally revealed what was obvious when watching him play at the end of the season, that he wasn't 100 percent.
He was better against New York in the first round but still didn't look all the way back yet.
Hopefully, another week off did the trick.
Boston is the favorite in the East until they are eliminated from the playoffs.
DALLAS AND LOS ANGELES
This series is another real treat.
Dirk Nowitzki versus Kobe Bryant, two of the greatest players of their era, for the first time ever in the playoffs.
And don't forget about Rick Carlisle against Phil Jackson.
Carlisle has been on the doorstep for several years now but has never broken through.
This is another opportunity.
I remember watching the last time Dallas and Los Angeles met in the playoffs in 1988.
Anything close to that battle would be unbelievable.
ATLANTA AND CHICAGO
The injury to Kirk Hinrich is the perfect example of why you develop your bench by giving them consistent playing time during the season, an area Larry Drew failed miserably in this season.
As I said before, I'm down with the Jeff Teague Movement.
But I'd feel a lot better about him had Drew played him consistently during the season and in the first round against Orlando.
And there's no guarantee Drew will play him against Chicago.
I would take Atlanta's talent over Chicago's talent every day of the week, but Drew hasn't used that talent right all season long.
So there's no reason to think he'll get it right now.
At the same time, Atlanta is a smart team seasoned with valuable playoff experience; and Drew deserves credit for that.
Chicago's half-court offense was a mess against Indiana, meaning Derrick Rose had to walk on water to win the series.
More miracles will be required unless Chicago's supporting cast steps up.
MEMPHIS AND OKLAHOMA CITY
The Memphis-Oklahoma City games were some of the most entertaining, hardest-fought games of the regular season.
Kevin Durant versus Tony Allen was worth the price of admission alone.
This series is literally a blank slate. There's almost nothing to go by.
Kendrick Perkins didn't play in the one game they played after the trade deadline, so it's hard to tell what will happen without seeing Memphis go against Oklahoma City's full rotation.
One thing for sure is that this is a bad matchup for Russell Westbrook.
He is a high-turnover point guard going against a turnover-forcing defense, a formula for disaster.
But Mike Conley could come out and have more costly turnovers than Westbrook.
That's just how unpredictable the games are, and they have always been that way.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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The first round of the playoffs told you all you needed to know about why I refuse to make any.
The games are simply unpredictable.
Bless anyone who tries to make a living betting on these games!
They are stressful enough with nothing at stake.
Every first-round series was incredible, as far as the quality of play, and this round looks to be even better.
Each series is full of intrigue, and it is impossible to pick a winner or pick the series which will be the most competitive or the most entertaining.
But we'll have the answer to every question in two weeks.
BOSTON AND MIAMI
More and more, Erik Spoelstra is proving that he is not a championship coach.
He did a much better job driving the Chevy he had last year than the Cadillac he has now.
This series may tell us all we need to know about him.
If Miami goes down in six games, it might be time for Pat Riley to start searching his coaching database to bring in a winner.
Rajon Rondo finally revealed what was obvious when watching him play at the end of the season, that he wasn't 100 percent.
He was better against New York in the first round but still didn't look all the way back yet.
Hopefully, another week off did the trick.
Boston is the favorite in the East until they are eliminated from the playoffs.
DALLAS AND LOS ANGELES
This series is another real treat.
Dirk Nowitzki versus Kobe Bryant, two of the greatest players of their era, for the first time ever in the playoffs.
And don't forget about Rick Carlisle against Phil Jackson.
Carlisle has been on the doorstep for several years now but has never broken through.
This is another opportunity.
I remember watching the last time Dallas and Los Angeles met in the playoffs in 1988.
Anything close to that battle would be unbelievable.
ATLANTA AND CHICAGO
The injury to Kirk Hinrich is the perfect example of why you develop your bench by giving them consistent playing time during the season, an area Larry Drew failed miserably in this season.
As I said before, I'm down with the Jeff Teague Movement.
But I'd feel a lot better about him had Drew played him consistently during the season and in the first round against Orlando.
And there's no guarantee Drew will play him against Chicago.
I would take Atlanta's talent over Chicago's talent every day of the week, but Drew hasn't used that talent right all season long.
So there's no reason to think he'll get it right now.
At the same time, Atlanta is a smart team seasoned with valuable playoff experience; and Drew deserves credit for that.
Chicago's half-court offense was a mess against Indiana, meaning Derrick Rose had to walk on water to win the series.
More miracles will be required unless Chicago's supporting cast steps up.
MEMPHIS AND OKLAHOMA CITY
The Memphis-Oklahoma City games were some of the most entertaining, hardest-fought games of the regular season.
Kevin Durant versus Tony Allen was worth the price of admission alone.
This series is literally a blank slate. There's almost nothing to go by.
Kendrick Perkins didn't play in the one game they played after the trade deadline, so it's hard to tell what will happen without seeing Memphis go against Oklahoma City's full rotation.
One thing for sure is that this is a bad matchup for Russell Westbrook.
He is a high-turnover point guard going against a turnover-forcing defense, a formula for disaster.
But Mike Conley could come out and have more costly turnovers than Westbrook.
That's just how unpredictable the games are, and they have always been that way.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Week In Basketball
The Miami Heat signed point guard Mike Bibby this week after he was let go by the Washington Wizards.
It was a great signing by Miami, and they should definitely look to make it long term by keeping Bibby beyond this season.
Although he should have known way better than to go double-team and leave Gilbert Arenas open behind the three-point line, reports of Bibby's defensive demise have been greatly exaggerated.
And we all know what he brings on the offensive end with his execution and big-shot making.
Contrary to reported expectations, Bibby has been an upgrade on both ends of the court for Miami and significantly increases their chances of going all the way this season.
Last week I wrote that Boston was the "clear" favorite in the East.
Boston would still be considered the favorite, but the addition of Mike Bibby by the Miami Heat brings it a lot closer to 50/50 and makes it not nearly as clear as it was just seven days ago.
Before the season, I was one of the very few not on the Oklahoma City bandwagon. It was noted that while the bandwagon was huge and had many guests and visitors, I was not one of them.
Now that they have traded for Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed and are playing the right players at the right positions (you know, no more small forwards at power forward), Oklahoma City has moved itself into the conversation as a legitimate contender.
Russell Westbrook is the key to this whole thing.
He can't go charging into the crowded paint at 200 miles per hour or commit other costly turnovers in the closing minutes of close games. Westbrook has to learn to play the game at different speeds and not play with reckless abandon at all times, particularly when a good play call is what is needed.
Westbrook mastering the fast game (open court) and the slow game (half court) gives Oklahoma City its best chance of being a serious threat to the other top teams in the NBA.
I'm still not buying Thabo Sefolosha as a starter on a championship team, but Nate Robinson, James Harden or Daequan Cook may be able to provide them with what they need from the shooting guard position.
MR. BIG SHOT
The story of Chauncey Billups is one of the most amazing stories ever.
Born out of the ashes of Boston's failed attempt to land Tim Duncan and fortified on one of the most unsung championship teams in recent memory, Chauncey Billups has probably seen it all in his career.
And over the course of his career, he has earned his respect as one of the best point guards in the NBA.
Even 10 years into his career, you would have found me among his harshest critics. Chauncey Billups just didn't play point guard the way I had come to expect it to be played.
I grew up on Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Rod Strickland, Tim Hardaway and Kevin Johnson.
And Billups just didn't fit the mold.
He didn't push the tempo. He didn't have eyes in the back of his head. He didn't make passes which made you wonder how he saw the guy open. He didn't cross people up and make them look silly with his dribbling skills. And he didn't drive into the paint and finish over bigger players with an infinite variety of highly-creative layups.
How is this guy even a point guard? And why is he in the NBA?
Rick Pitino must have wondered the same thing because 51 games into Billups' rookie season, Pitino shipped him off to Toronto in a trade.
That trade kicked off a sequence which would see Billups traded three times in two years and eventually end up in Minnesota, where he signed as a free agent in 2000.
While he started to put things together in Minnesota, it wasn't until his next stop in Detroit that Billups' career really took off.
Playing with an unheralded group that it seemed no one else wanted, Billups won a championship with Detroit in 2004.
He led Detroit to the conference finals every season, but after losing there three years in a row, he was traded once again and ended up in Denver, where it looked like he would finish his career playing for his hometown team, that is, until the Knicks called and wanted to include Billups in a deal to send Carmelo Anthony to New York.
Now a Knick, Billups continues his journey through the NBA and has taken on the role of mentor to some of the younger point guards in the league, as described by Mike Breen during Billups' debut with New York against Milwuakee.
He has much to share because over the years, Billups has picked up the attributes which make a great point guard and managed to add at least one of his own.
He had his ups and downs early, but numerous big shots and big wins later, Billups is still going strong.
He may not be Tim Duncan, but he is Chauncey Billups.
And he has shown repeatedly that is more than good enough.
THROW A BONE
Is it just me, or do big guys seem to play better after they have gotten a few touches?
Andrew Bynum is much better after he gets a few touches, and I swear it looks like there are two Andris Biedrinses out there after he gets the ball a few times.
The same could be said of defensive players.
Dennis Rodman retired years ago, and Joel Anthony is only allowed to play for the Miami Heat. They are two of the few players who don't mind playing without someone passing them the basketball.
Without one of them, a team is going to have to share the ball with its big man in order to get the most out of him.
In a way, you can understand where they are coming from.
Who wants to run around all day and never touch the basketball? And for a big man who works hard to establish good post position, only to be ignored again and again, this can be even more frustrating.
A point can be made that if big men want touches they should hustle for loose balls and offensive rebounds and get them that way, and that is a good point.
At the same time, what would it hurt passing the ball to the big guy every now and then, even if it's only once every five possessions or so, especially when you know it is going to energize him?
It may be inconvenient, and yes, most of them can't do anything with it once they get it; but every once in a while you have to throw these guys a bone just to keep them involved and let them know they are part of the team.
And to make sure they protect the paint when someone drives down the lane.
When teams look out for their big men, their big men look out for them.
CREDIT DUE
I have to give credit here to someone I've been reading who has really helped me see the game better.
Jonathan Tjarks and his material have gone a long way in keeping me sharp and on top of things.
I may not agree with everything he writes, or even a majority of it; but it is interesting and often insightful.
Here is the breakdown of what I've been reading and thinking over:
(1.) Colin Cowherd was the first person I heard do this when he went over Kobe Bryant's career in between Shaquille O'Neal leaving and Pau Gasol arriving. It wasn't a pretty sight. So Tjarks' emphasis on outstanding big men and their importance to winning championships was more food for thought on the subject.
(2.) I always watch defense, but Tjarks using the phrase "defend his position" or "defend a position" made me look more closely at how someone specifically matches up at the position he plays and focus more on particular matchups.
(3.) While I don't agree with his overall argument about Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash and why their careers took off after they were separated, it does make me pay close attention when two or more poor defenders are on the floor at the same time and what impact it has on the game.
(4.) And his take on big men who can pass and little men who can rebound was something else to think about (see 4 and 5 in the five-tool player), just an interesting way to see things that I have never really thought about.
Note: I first discovered Tjarks on a link posted by Zach Lowe at SI.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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It was a great signing by Miami, and they should definitely look to make it long term by keeping Bibby beyond this season.
Although he should have known way better than to go double-team and leave Gilbert Arenas open behind the three-point line, reports of Bibby's defensive demise have been greatly exaggerated.
And we all know what he brings on the offensive end with his execution and big-shot making.
Contrary to reported expectations, Bibby has been an upgrade on both ends of the court for Miami and significantly increases their chances of going all the way this season.
Last week I wrote that Boston was the "clear" favorite in the East.
Boston would still be considered the favorite, but the addition of Mike Bibby by the Miami Heat brings it a lot closer to 50/50 and makes it not nearly as clear as it was just seven days ago.
Before the season, I was one of the very few not on the Oklahoma City bandwagon. It was noted that while the bandwagon was huge and had many guests and visitors, I was not one of them.
Now that they have traded for Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed and are playing the right players at the right positions (you know, no more small forwards at power forward), Oklahoma City has moved itself into the conversation as a legitimate contender.
Russell Westbrook is the key to this whole thing.
He can't go charging into the crowded paint at 200 miles per hour or commit other costly turnovers in the closing minutes of close games. Westbrook has to learn to play the game at different speeds and not play with reckless abandon at all times, particularly when a good play call is what is needed.
Westbrook mastering the fast game (open court) and the slow game (half court) gives Oklahoma City its best chance of being a serious threat to the other top teams in the NBA.
I'm still not buying Thabo Sefolosha as a starter on a championship team, but Nate Robinson, James Harden or Daequan Cook may be able to provide them with what they need from the shooting guard position.
MR. BIG SHOT
The story of Chauncey Billups is one of the most amazing stories ever.
Born out of the ashes of Boston's failed attempt to land Tim Duncan and fortified on one of the most unsung championship teams in recent memory, Chauncey Billups has probably seen it all in his career.
And over the course of his career, he has earned his respect as one of the best point guards in the NBA.
Even 10 years into his career, you would have found me among his harshest critics. Chauncey Billups just didn't play point guard the way I had come to expect it to be played.
I grew up on Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Rod Strickland, Tim Hardaway and Kevin Johnson.
And Billups just didn't fit the mold.
He didn't push the tempo. He didn't have eyes in the back of his head. He didn't make passes which made you wonder how he saw the guy open. He didn't cross people up and make them look silly with his dribbling skills. And he didn't drive into the paint and finish over bigger players with an infinite variety of highly-creative layups.
How is this guy even a point guard? And why is he in the NBA?
Rick Pitino must have wondered the same thing because 51 games into Billups' rookie season, Pitino shipped him off to Toronto in a trade.
That trade kicked off a sequence which would see Billups traded three times in two years and eventually end up in Minnesota, where he signed as a free agent in 2000.
While he started to put things together in Minnesota, it wasn't until his next stop in Detroit that Billups' career really took off.
Playing with an unheralded group that it seemed no one else wanted, Billups won a championship with Detroit in 2004.
He led Detroit to the conference finals every season, but after losing there three years in a row, he was traded once again and ended up in Denver, where it looked like he would finish his career playing for his hometown team, that is, until the Knicks called and wanted to include Billups in a deal to send Carmelo Anthony to New York.
Now a Knick, Billups continues his journey through the NBA and has taken on the role of mentor to some of the younger point guards in the league, as described by Mike Breen during Billups' debut with New York against Milwuakee.
He has much to share because over the years, Billups has picked up the attributes which make a great point guard and managed to add at least one of his own.
He had his ups and downs early, but numerous big shots and big wins later, Billups is still going strong.
He may not be Tim Duncan, but he is Chauncey Billups.
And he has shown repeatedly that is more than good enough.
THROW A BONE
Is it just me, or do big guys seem to play better after they have gotten a few touches?
Andrew Bynum is much better after he gets a few touches, and I swear it looks like there are two Andris Biedrinses out there after he gets the ball a few times.
The same could be said of defensive players.
Dennis Rodman retired years ago, and Joel Anthony is only allowed to play for the Miami Heat. They are two of the few players who don't mind playing without someone passing them the basketball.
Without one of them, a team is going to have to share the ball with its big man in order to get the most out of him.
In a way, you can understand where they are coming from.
Who wants to run around all day and never touch the basketball? And for a big man who works hard to establish good post position, only to be ignored again and again, this can be even more frustrating.
A point can be made that if big men want touches they should hustle for loose balls and offensive rebounds and get them that way, and that is a good point.
At the same time, what would it hurt passing the ball to the big guy every now and then, even if it's only once every five possessions or so, especially when you know it is going to energize him?
It may be inconvenient, and yes, most of them can't do anything with it once they get it; but every once in a while you have to throw these guys a bone just to keep them involved and let them know they are part of the team.
And to make sure they protect the paint when someone drives down the lane.
When teams look out for their big men, their big men look out for them.
CREDIT DUE
I have to give credit here to someone I've been reading who has really helped me see the game better.
Jonathan Tjarks and his material have gone a long way in keeping me sharp and on top of things.
I may not agree with everything he writes, or even a majority of it; but it is interesting and often insightful.
Here is the breakdown of what I've been reading and thinking over:
(1.) Colin Cowherd was the first person I heard do this when he went over Kobe Bryant's career in between Shaquille O'Neal leaving and Pau Gasol arriving. It wasn't a pretty sight. So Tjarks' emphasis on outstanding big men and their importance to winning championships was more food for thought on the subject.
(2.) I always watch defense, but Tjarks using the phrase "defend his position" or "defend a position" made me look more closely at how someone specifically matches up at the position he plays and focus more on particular matchups.
(3.) While I don't agree with his overall argument about Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash and why their careers took off after they were separated, it does make me pay close attention when two or more poor defenders are on the floor at the same time and what impact it has on the game.
(4.) And his take on big men who can pass and little men who can rebound was something else to think about (see 4 and 5 in the five-tool player), just an interesting way to see things that I have never really thought about.
Note: I first discovered Tjarks on a link posted by Zach Lowe at SI.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Saturday, December 4, 2010
Around The Association
This was LeBron Week, so I guess it's time to chime in and say something about the Miami Heat.
The media have swooped down on Miami like vultures on a fresh carcass and done everything from fire the coach to trade one of the team's key players.
It has become really cool all of a sudden, like wearing a leather jacket and smoking cigarettes in the '70s, to say something bad about LeBron James or the Miami Heat.
DON'T SPEAK TOO SOON
Part of this hysteria is really nothing but overreaction.
Dan Patrick had the greatest observation of this phenomenon. He often talks about how football fans and reporters overreact and think they are going to the Super Bowl or think the season is over after their team wins or loses the first game or two of the season.
It is unfair to judge Miami at this point due to the number of players who have not been available.
Mario Chalmers battled an ankle injury and didn't play 20 minutes in any game until November 27 and has done so only four times so far this season.
Miami is 3-1 in those games.
I saw Chalmers play for about five minutes in the second half against Washington, his second game playing at least 20 minutes. There was more ball movement for Miami in those five minutes than there had been all season combined without Chalmers on the floor.
The Heat also obviously misses Mike Miller.
My only criticism of Erik Spoelstra is the limited playing time he has given Joel Anthony. For what it's worth, Miami is 7-1 when Anthony plays at least 20 minutes.
It probably has something to do with the fact that he leads the team with 1.2 blocks per game despite averaging only 18 minutes.
To those shoveling dirt on Miami's grave, you may want to tone down the rhetoric, unless you want to look really stupid in a few weeks.
BEATING A DEAD HORSE
The impact that injuries are having on this season can't be emphasized enough.
Golden State is the latest team to be bitten by the injury bug.
Golden State started the season as one of the best teams in the league at 6-2. Then David Lee injured his elbow and missed eight games.
The Warriors lost one of Lee's backups (Brandan Wright) to a back injury two games after Lee went out. They were already playing without top pick Ekpe Udoh, who hasn't played all season due to a wrist injury.
The result has been an incredibly thin front line which has seen the team limp to a 2-9 record in its last 11 games (1-7 without Lee).
It got so bad that Keith Smart had to resort to starting Vladimir Radmanovic at power forward for a few games before he ditched the idea and went back to Dan Gadzuric.
Neither idea worked, and the team is now struggling to find itself.
THE DEFINITION OF CLUTCH
There has been a change in how clutch will be defined when games are analyzed.
Clutch will now be defined as the last two minutes of the game or overtime when no team is ahead by more than three points.
It was changed from the last five minutes because the five-minute mark just doesn't feel big enough or important enough when watching close games and because it is much easier to track the last two minutes of a game as compared to the last five minutes.
Players who make shots during this time will be judged based on whether their team is behind, tied or leading with the following priority:
(1.) Trailing
(2.) Tied
(3.) Leading
Priority will also be given based on the time the shot takes place, with the following order of importance:
(1.) 0-10 seconds
(2.) 10.1-24 seconds
(3.) 24.1-30 seconds
(4.) 30.1-1:00 minute
(5.) 1:01-1:30 seconds
(6.) 1:31-2:00 minutes
So a player who hits a go-ahead shot with two minutes left won't be considered as clutch as a player who hits one with 10 seconds remaining.
Game-winners will be defined as shots with 10 seconds or less in the fourth quarter or overtime which give a team the lead for good. This matches how Elias Sports Bureau defines and tracks game-winners.
Game-winning shots will be prioritized in the following order:
(1.) Lead-changing game-winners
(2.) Game-winners
(3.) Game-clinchers
Game-clinchers or icers or daggers aren't really game-winners because they come when the team is already ahead. But something had to be created for players who put games away like this.
Lead-changing game-winners are defined as the most clutch due to the player having so much on the line.
For a player who misses a shot with the score tied, the worst which can happen is that the game goes into overtime.
But a player who misses a shot when his team is behind loses the game. He then has to answer all of the questions about what happened and live for a minimum of 24 hours with the fact that he let his team down.
It is such a pressurized situation that players who step up to the challenge deserve more credit when they pull it off.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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The media have swooped down on Miami like vultures on a fresh carcass and done everything from fire the coach to trade one of the team's key players.
It has become really cool all of a sudden, like wearing a leather jacket and smoking cigarettes in the '70s, to say something bad about LeBron James or the Miami Heat.
DON'T SPEAK TOO SOON
Part of this hysteria is really nothing but overreaction.
Dan Patrick had the greatest observation of this phenomenon. He often talks about how football fans and reporters overreact and think they are going to the Super Bowl or think the season is over after their team wins or loses the first game or two of the season.
It is unfair to judge Miami at this point due to the number of players who have not been available.
Mario Chalmers battled an ankle injury and didn't play 20 minutes in any game until November 27 and has done so only four times so far this season.
Miami is 3-1 in those games.
I saw Chalmers play for about five minutes in the second half against Washington, his second game playing at least 20 minutes. There was more ball movement for Miami in those five minutes than there had been all season combined without Chalmers on the floor.
The Heat also obviously misses Mike Miller.
My only criticism of Erik Spoelstra is the limited playing time he has given Joel Anthony. For what it's worth, Miami is 7-1 when Anthony plays at least 20 minutes.
It probably has something to do with the fact that he leads the team with 1.2 blocks per game despite averaging only 18 minutes.
To those shoveling dirt on Miami's grave, you may want to tone down the rhetoric, unless you want to look really stupid in a few weeks.
BEATING A DEAD HORSE
The impact that injuries are having on this season can't be emphasized enough.
Golden State is the latest team to be bitten by the injury bug.
Golden State started the season as one of the best teams in the league at 6-2. Then David Lee injured his elbow and missed eight games.
The Warriors lost one of Lee's backups (Brandan Wright) to a back injury two games after Lee went out. They were already playing without top pick Ekpe Udoh, who hasn't played all season due to a wrist injury.
The result has been an incredibly thin front line which has seen the team limp to a 2-9 record in its last 11 games (1-7 without Lee).
It got so bad that Keith Smart had to resort to starting Vladimir Radmanovic at power forward for a few games before he ditched the idea and went back to Dan Gadzuric.
Neither idea worked, and the team is now struggling to find itself.
THE DEFINITION OF CLUTCH
There has been a change in how clutch will be defined when games are analyzed.
Clutch will now be defined as the last two minutes of the game or overtime when no team is ahead by more than three points.
It was changed from the last five minutes because the five-minute mark just doesn't feel big enough or important enough when watching close games and because it is much easier to track the last two minutes of a game as compared to the last five minutes.
Players who make shots during this time will be judged based on whether their team is behind, tied or leading with the following priority:
(1.) Trailing
(2.) Tied
(3.) Leading
Priority will also be given based on the time the shot takes place, with the following order of importance:
(1.) 0-10 seconds
(2.) 10.1-24 seconds
(3.) 24.1-30 seconds
(4.) 30.1-1:00 minute
(5.) 1:01-1:30 seconds
(6.) 1:31-2:00 minutes
So a player who hits a go-ahead shot with two minutes left won't be considered as clutch as a player who hits one with 10 seconds remaining.
Game-winners will be defined as shots with 10 seconds or less in the fourth quarter or overtime which give a team the lead for good. This matches how Elias Sports Bureau defines and tracks game-winners.
Game-winning shots will be prioritized in the following order:
(1.) Lead-changing game-winners
(2.) Game-winners
(3.) Game-clinchers
Game-clinchers or icers or daggers aren't really game-winners because they come when the team is already ahead. But something had to be created for players who put games away like this.
Lead-changing game-winners are defined as the most clutch due to the player having so much on the line.
For a player who misses a shot with the score tied, the worst which can happen is that the game goes into overtime.
But a player who misses a shot when his team is behind loses the game. He then has to answer all of the questions about what happened and live for a minimum of 24 hours with the fact that he let his team down.
It is such a pressurized situation that players who step up to the challenge deserve more credit when they pull it off.
Comment or e-mail: thenbaoutsider@yahoo.com
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Friday, July 30, 2010
Basketball IQ Sneak Preview
There isn't very much news in the NBA these days now that summer league has ended and most of the major free agents have picked their teams.
Tracy McGrady working out for the Chicago Bulls was the most interesting thing which happened this week.
They still are undecided on signing him.
Yawn. While rumors and speculation are great and special entertainment, only things which are concrete--agreements and signings--will be covered here.
So here are some stories being anxiously anticipated, stories which will be covered when something concrete happens, along with other stories which will likely be covered in coming articles.
THE NEXT BIG THREE
This is the biggest story left to be covered. Nothing is more exciting--and frustrating--than waiting to see where Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas will end up.
The Bulls not signing McGrady only means they aren't serious about winning a championship. Their thinking also hints that as an organization they don't have what it takes to win one.
Let's look at how ludicrous their thinking is: They only want McGrady if he is (1) healthy and (2) willing to come of the bench, this according to Marc Stein.
What?! What kind of team would bring a healthy Tracy McGrady off the bench?
A dumb ass team not ready to win a championship, that's what kind.
It was then reported that they wanted to look at other guards like Eddie House before making a final decision on McGrady. Eddie House.
The Bulls aren't ready.
Keep in mind that McGrady is nowhere near the 2-year mark on his microfracture surgery which took place in February 2009. The general rule with major knee surgeries is that the player will be back playing in one year but won't be fully-recovered until two years later.
Having just turned 31, McGrady has plenty of basketball left in him as long as he is patient with his injury and takes care of his body.
It will be believed that Gilbert Arenas is staying with the Washington Wizards when he is on the court with them on opening night.
Other than that, his new team awaits; and maybe Allen Iverson will end up somewhere as well.
THE SUPER FRIENDS
The Miami Heat didn't have enough of a roster to evaluate their chances of winning a championship, and I couldn't care less that LeBron James announced his decision to go to South Beach on national television, so no story was written about Miami's free agency signings of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Now that the rest of their team is rounding into shape, they can be evaluated along with almost everybody else.
OFF-SEASON WINNERS
This will feature teams which have improved themselves with the draft and free agency and other moves made since the end of last season. Surprise teams will be covered as well, my favorite.
The Minnesota Timberwolves will most definitely be covered here, if for no other reason than to tick this guy off.
Most everything the Timberwolves have done this off-season has been terrific, especially getting rid of gluttonous ball-hog Al Jefferson.
In his three years in Minnesota, Al Jefferson had a field goal attempt-to-assist (FGA:A) ratio of 10.6:1.
That means that Jefferson shot the ball 10.6 times for every 1 assist he made. For his career, his FGA:A ratio is 10.9:1, and last season it was 8.2:1.
For a comparison, let's take a look at Kobe Bryant, surely one of the most notoriously gluttonous ball-hogs of all-time, right?
For his career Kobe Bryant has a 4.1:1 FGA:A ratio.
In 2005-06, when Bryant earned his reputation as a mad gunner, he averaged a career-high 27.2 FGAs per game.
His FGA:A ratio? 6:1, or two less than Al Jefferson's career-low just last season.
Allen Iverson? For his career it is 3.5:1. When Iverson averaged a career-high 27.8 FGAs per game in 2001-02, it was 5:1.
Not fair, you say, to compare guards to a big man like Al Jefferson?
Darko Milicic's career ratio is 6.6:1.
Playing with the same teammates last year in Minnesota and shooting essentially the same field goal percentage themselves, Milicic's FGA:A ratio was 4.3:1, compared to Jefferson's 8.2:1.
Milicic also averaged .1 more combined blocks and steals than Jefferson even though Milicic played about seven fewer minutes per game.
Still think David Kahn is crazy?
Other notoriously gluttonous ball-hogs include Eddy Curry (16.4:1 career), Zach Randolph (8.6:1 career) and Rudy Gay (8.5:1 career).
ADVANCED STATISTICS
In a determined effort to bring the NBA out of the Stone Ages when it comes to player and team analysis, advanced statistics like the one mentioned above with Al Jefferson will be used to help commissioner David Sternrock out of his dark cave.
There will also be an area, yet to be named, dealing with clutch performance. In general, clutch will be defined as the last five minutes of the game, or overtime, with neither team ahead by more than three points.
POWER POLLS
Finally, there will be four Basketball IQ Power Polls throughout the season:
(1) Season-Opening Power Poll
(2) Mid-Season Power Poll
(3) Playoff Push Power Poll
(4) Playoff Power Poll
They will be done (1) about two weeks into the season; (2) after about 41 games; (3) after the trading deadline and (4) before or during the first round of the playoffs.
There will no doubt be lots of fun and entertaining games and stories to cover as the NBA looks to capitalize on its high ratings from the Finals with the competition challenging the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA's new super team in Miami.
In another area of the league, you'll have rookies trying to find their way in the league and make names for themselves.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be eagerly attempting to prove they can bark with the big dogs, and the Los Angeles Clippers will be trying to change history with Vinny Del Negro, Baron Davis, Blake Griffin and Chris Kaman.
These are just some of the stories which may be covered in the weeks and months ahead as we speed toward another playoff push and look to celebrate and crown another NBA champion.
Note: numbers rounded up starting at 7.
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Tracy McGrady working out for the Chicago Bulls was the most interesting thing which happened this week.
They still are undecided on signing him.
Yawn. While rumors and speculation are great and special entertainment, only things which are concrete--agreements and signings--will be covered here.
So here are some stories being anxiously anticipated, stories which will be covered when something concrete happens, along with other stories which will likely be covered in coming articles.
THE NEXT BIG THREE
This is the biggest story left to be covered. Nothing is more exciting--and frustrating--than waiting to see where Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas will end up.
The Bulls not signing McGrady only means they aren't serious about winning a championship. Their thinking also hints that as an organization they don't have what it takes to win one.
Let's look at how ludicrous their thinking is: They only want McGrady if he is (1) healthy and (2) willing to come of the bench, this according to Marc Stein.
What?! What kind of team would bring a healthy Tracy McGrady off the bench?
A dumb ass team not ready to win a championship, that's what kind.
It was then reported that they wanted to look at other guards like Eddie House before making a final decision on McGrady. Eddie House.
The Bulls aren't ready.
Keep in mind that McGrady is nowhere near the 2-year mark on his microfracture surgery which took place in February 2009. The general rule with major knee surgeries is that the player will be back playing in one year but won't be fully-recovered until two years later.
Having just turned 31, McGrady has plenty of basketball left in him as long as he is patient with his injury and takes care of his body.
It will be believed that Gilbert Arenas is staying with the Washington Wizards when he is on the court with them on opening night.
Other than that, his new team awaits; and maybe Allen Iverson will end up somewhere as well.
THE SUPER FRIENDS
The Miami Heat didn't have enough of a roster to evaluate their chances of winning a championship, and I couldn't care less that LeBron James announced his decision to go to South Beach on national television, so no story was written about Miami's free agency signings of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Now that the rest of their team is rounding into shape, they can be evaluated along with almost everybody else.
OFF-SEASON WINNERS
This will feature teams which have improved themselves with the draft and free agency and other moves made since the end of last season. Surprise teams will be covered as well, my favorite.
The Minnesota Timberwolves will most definitely be covered here, if for no other reason than to tick this guy off.
Most everything the Timberwolves have done this off-season has been terrific, especially getting rid of gluttonous ball-hog Al Jefferson.
In his three years in Minnesota, Al Jefferson had a field goal attempt-to-assist (FGA:A) ratio of 10.6:1.
That means that Jefferson shot the ball 10.6 times for every 1 assist he made. For his career, his FGA:A ratio is 10.9:1, and last season it was 8.2:1.
For a comparison, let's take a look at Kobe Bryant, surely one of the most notoriously gluttonous ball-hogs of all-time, right?
For his career Kobe Bryant has a 4.1:1 FGA:A ratio.
In 2005-06, when Bryant earned his reputation as a mad gunner, he averaged a career-high 27.2 FGAs per game.
His FGA:A ratio? 6:1, or two less than Al Jefferson's career-low just last season.
Allen Iverson? For his career it is 3.5:1. When Iverson averaged a career-high 27.8 FGAs per game in 2001-02, it was 5:1.
Not fair, you say, to compare guards to a big man like Al Jefferson?
Darko Milicic's career ratio is 6.6:1.
Playing with the same teammates last year in Minnesota and shooting essentially the same field goal percentage themselves, Milicic's FGA:A ratio was 4.3:1, compared to Jefferson's 8.2:1.
Milicic also averaged .1 more combined blocks and steals than Jefferson even though Milicic played about seven fewer minutes per game.
Still think David Kahn is crazy?
Other notoriously gluttonous ball-hogs include Eddy Curry (16.4:1 career), Zach Randolph (8.6:1 career) and Rudy Gay (8.5:1 career).
ADVANCED STATISTICS
In a determined effort to bring the NBA out of the Stone Ages when it comes to player and team analysis, advanced statistics like the one mentioned above with Al Jefferson will be used to help commissioner David Sternrock out of his dark cave.
There will also be an area, yet to be named, dealing with clutch performance. In general, clutch will be defined as the last five minutes of the game, or overtime, with neither team ahead by more than three points.
POWER POLLS
Finally, there will be four Basketball IQ Power Polls throughout the season:
(1) Season-Opening Power Poll
(2) Mid-Season Power Poll
(3) Playoff Push Power Poll
(4) Playoff Power Poll
They will be done (1) about two weeks into the season; (2) after about 41 games; (3) after the trading deadline and (4) before or during the first round of the playoffs.
There will no doubt be lots of fun and entertaining games and stories to cover as the NBA looks to capitalize on its high ratings from the Finals with the competition challenging the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA's new super team in Miami.
In another area of the league, you'll have rookies trying to find their way in the league and make names for themselves.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be eagerly attempting to prove they can bark with the big dogs, and the Los Angeles Clippers will be trying to change history with Vinny Del Negro, Baron Davis, Blake Griffin and Chris Kaman.
These are just some of the stories which may be covered in the weeks and months ahead as we speed toward another playoff push and look to celebrate and crown another NBA champion.
Note: numbers rounded up starting at 7.
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Saturday, May 22, 2010
Fantasy GM: Quentin Richardson
First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with fantasy basketball. I've always imagined that I could be the general manager of a NBA team and lead that team to all sorts of championships.
But that will never happen, so I decided I would fulfill my fantasy by writing articles about various NBA teams and what moves I would make to build those teams into champions.
I also have favorite players around the league, and every now and then I get sick and tired of seeing some of my favorite players play on teams which I know will never compete for a title.
So I'll also try to find nice fits for certain players and try to get them on teams which can at least make a run in the playoffs.
The first player who I would like to find a home for is Quentin Richardson.
Richardson has been one of my favorite players since he played for the Clippers and was catching alley-hoops from Earl Boykins with Darius Miles.
Until this past season with the Heat, Richardson had played in the playoffs only once in his entire career, in 2005 as a member of the Phoenix Suns.
He deserves better. Richardson goes hard and shouldn't have to suffer through a career playing on average teams.
There are several teams out there which could use Richardson's skills.
The best fit for Richardson would be the Oklahoma City Thunder. He would be a significant upgrade over Thabo Sefolosha, who started every game for the Thunder last season
But there were times during the Thunder's first round series with the Lakers when the Lakers weren't even guarding him. He was a non-factor and really didn't contribute much in the series.
Richardson, on the other hand, couldn't be ignored so easily.
He shot a career high .397 from three-point range last season and also has all kinds of post moves which teams, for some reason which is beyond me, never attempt to utilize.
He has played the two and the three, so playing next to Kevin Durant would be no problem even though Richardson has played mostly at small forward.
The Thunder also would not lose anything defensively.
Richardson was not much of a defensive player when he was with the Clippers, but he started to make improvements when he joined the Suns.
I remember the first time I saw Richardson take a charge with the Suns. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Is this Q?
By the time he arrived in New York as a Knick, Richardson was a fully-committed defensive player.
I watched him battle the best in the business during his four years with the Knicks, LeBron, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony, you name it.
And while he was torched at times, he never gave an inch; and you have to admire a guy who battles the league's top scorers like this and isn't one of the first options on his own team, leaving him no ability to go back at them.
That is the true definition of a team player, especially when you consider the fact that he has tremendous scoring ability.
I remember when he was with the Clippers, and they played the Knicks at the Garden.
Richardson was being defended by Latrell Sprewell, one of the top defenders in the NBA from the guard position. He took Sprewell to school quite a few times.
He even posted Sprewell up and scored on him and made it look easy. I couldn't believe it.
I think this was the Feb 5, 2002, game which the Clippers won, which might explain why Sprewell, the very next time the Knicks played the Clippers at the Garden, went off for 38 points and went 9-9 on threes.
Richardson had a respectable 19 points in the loss. He had 30 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block in the first game.
Another good fit for Richardson would be the New Orleans Hornets.
They have a promising, young shooting guard in Marcus Thornton, plus Chris Paul, David West and Emeka Okafor.
Richardson would give them a nice starting five.
All they would have to do from there is figure out how they want to work their bench. Richardson could also start at the 2 next to Peja Stojakovich. Either way, it comes out to a really good team.
Other teams which could use Richardson: Cleveland, five years younger and contributes in more ways than Anthony Parker but doesn't shoot the three as well and doesn't have as high a basketball IQ; Dallas, would look and play great next to Butler and Nowitzki if Cuban wants to spend the money; San Antonio, teams wouldn't dare leave him open like Dallas did Richard Jefferson in the playoffs; Portland, I would say he's a better player than Nicolas Batum; Indiana, Pacers would be ready to roll with him in the starting lineup next to Danny Granger.
One thing about Richardson which is interesting is how his career stats don't tell the whole story.
He has had only three seasons which he played more than thirty minutes per game. In those seasons, he averaged 15.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal per game, respectable numbers.
I don't think Richardson should re-sign with the Miami Heat unless Pat Riley makes a serious commitment to winning.
Riley, or "Pat the Rat," as he is affectionately known in New York, needs to get it together. Dwyane Wade is too good of a player not to be on a team which competes for a championship every year.
I had enough of this bull with the last generation of superstars!
Allen Iverson in Philly, Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, Tracy McGrady in Orlando and more.
It is ridiculous!
Jermaine O'Neal has disappeared to the point of insignificance; Beasley looks lost; Chalmers doesn't even know how to shorten his next dribble after he drives past someone; and Arrojo is a good backup starting at point guard.
Riley knows a team must do whatever it takes to win, and if he is not willing to do that, then he needs to let Dwyane Wade go to a team which is willing to do whatever it takes and allow the Heat to fall back into "expansionism," as Shaq might say.
As the old saying goes: If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. In the NBA, the big dogs do whatever it takes to win championships.
Dwyane Wade is also partially to blame for his own demise in this situation. He played parts of their playoff series against Boston with the same look on his face that LeBron James had in Game 5 against the Celtics.
I understand how Wade feels playing against a stacked deck, but as my brother always says, "It's only one way to play."
And that one way is all-out at all times.
Michael Jordan faced the exact same situation in 1986, but I didn't see him walking around with his head down and a pitiful look on his face.
He went right at them! And even though the result was the same, at least Jordan made the Celtics' Hall-of-Famers of that generation know he was there every minute of every game.
Besides going hard, there were other things Wade could have done to help his team win. The Heat could have easily won Game 3 had Wade simply boxed out Rajon Rondo.
Rondo was flat out killing the Heat with offensive rebound after offensive rebound, killing, game-changing offensive rebounds.
With a few simple box outs, there is literally no telling what would have happened in that series.
Back to Quentin Richardson, there are aspects of his game which he needs to work on, the most important of which is his ball-handling. I never see Richardson dribble the ball more than three or four times before he has to pick it up and get rid of it.
There is no excuse for this. If Anthony Mason could dribble the ball like he did with the Knicks, there is no reason why Richardson shouldn't be a better dribbler.
This would help his entire offensive game because he would be able to generate points by creating his own shot off the dribble instead of having to rely on catching a pass from a teammate while already in scoring position.
He could also crash the offensive boards like he used to with the Clippers and create points that way as well.
When Richardson misses his first couple of shots, usually three-pointers, he tends to stop shooting; but with better handles, he would be able to drive the ball and get himself into better scoring position and get easier shots to get himself going.
With a few dribble-penetration moves and an improved mid-range game, Richardson could become an All-Star.
I'll be the first to admit that offensively, Quentin Richardson can drive you crazy! One night he looks like George Gervin; the next night he looks like George Jefferson.
I often ask myself ... What is it which makes a player like Kobe Bryant great and a player like Quentin Richardson average?
I have yet to find an answer.
When you look at Richardson's skills, there is really no reason why he shouldn't be scoring in the twenties every night; but for some reason which I can't figure out, he's lucky to score fifteen on most nights?
The only thing I could come up with is that he doesn't work hard enough on his game. Maybe he works hard, but he doesn't work hard enough.
I don't know.
What I do know is that too often I see him miss shots which I know he can make, shots he used to make when he was with the Clippers.
That little eight-footer off the glass used to be money. Now, he misses it from five feet.
I don't know what is going on, but what I do know is that Quentin Richardson is a hell of a good basketball player to have on your basketball team, flaws and all; and any team which needs a SF/SG would be wise to sign him.
Hopefully, it will be a team which goes deep into the playoffs.
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But that will never happen, so I decided I would fulfill my fantasy by writing articles about various NBA teams and what moves I would make to build those teams into champions.
I also have favorite players around the league, and every now and then I get sick and tired of seeing some of my favorite players play on teams which I know will never compete for a title.
So I'll also try to find nice fits for certain players and try to get them on teams which can at least make a run in the playoffs.
The first player who I would like to find a home for is Quentin Richardson.
Richardson has been one of my favorite players since he played for the Clippers and was catching alley-hoops from Earl Boykins with Darius Miles.
Until this past season with the Heat, Richardson had played in the playoffs only once in his entire career, in 2005 as a member of the Phoenix Suns.
He deserves better. Richardson goes hard and shouldn't have to suffer through a career playing on average teams.
There are several teams out there which could use Richardson's skills.
The best fit for Richardson would be the Oklahoma City Thunder. He would be a significant upgrade over Thabo Sefolosha, who started every game for the Thunder last season
But there were times during the Thunder's first round series with the Lakers when the Lakers weren't even guarding him. He was a non-factor and really didn't contribute much in the series.
Richardson, on the other hand, couldn't be ignored so easily.
He shot a career high .397 from three-point range last season and also has all kinds of post moves which teams, for some reason which is beyond me, never attempt to utilize.
He has played the two and the three, so playing next to Kevin Durant would be no problem even though Richardson has played mostly at small forward.
The Thunder also would not lose anything defensively.
Richardson was not much of a defensive player when he was with the Clippers, but he started to make improvements when he joined the Suns.
I remember the first time I saw Richardson take a charge with the Suns. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Is this Q?
By the time he arrived in New York as a Knick, Richardson was a fully-committed defensive player.
I watched him battle the best in the business during his four years with the Knicks, LeBron, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony, you name it.
And while he was torched at times, he never gave an inch; and you have to admire a guy who battles the league's top scorers like this and isn't one of the first options on his own team, leaving him no ability to go back at them.
That is the true definition of a team player, especially when you consider the fact that he has tremendous scoring ability.
I remember when he was with the Clippers, and they played the Knicks at the Garden.
Richardson was being defended by Latrell Sprewell, one of the top defenders in the NBA from the guard position. He took Sprewell to school quite a few times.
He even posted Sprewell up and scored on him and made it look easy. I couldn't believe it.
I think this was the Feb 5, 2002, game which the Clippers won, which might explain why Sprewell, the very next time the Knicks played the Clippers at the Garden, went off for 38 points and went 9-9 on threes.
Richardson had a respectable 19 points in the loss. He had 30 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block in the first game.
Another good fit for Richardson would be the New Orleans Hornets.
They have a promising, young shooting guard in Marcus Thornton, plus Chris Paul, David West and Emeka Okafor.
Richardson would give them a nice starting five.
All they would have to do from there is figure out how they want to work their bench. Richardson could also start at the 2 next to Peja Stojakovich. Either way, it comes out to a really good team.
Other teams which could use Richardson: Cleveland, five years younger and contributes in more ways than Anthony Parker but doesn't shoot the three as well and doesn't have as high a basketball IQ; Dallas, would look and play great next to Butler and Nowitzki if Cuban wants to spend the money; San Antonio, teams wouldn't dare leave him open like Dallas did Richard Jefferson in the playoffs; Portland, I would say he's a better player than Nicolas Batum; Indiana, Pacers would be ready to roll with him in the starting lineup next to Danny Granger.
One thing about Richardson which is interesting is how his career stats don't tell the whole story.
He has had only three seasons which he played more than thirty minutes per game. In those seasons, he averaged 15.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal per game, respectable numbers.
I don't think Richardson should re-sign with the Miami Heat unless Pat Riley makes a serious commitment to winning.
Riley, or "Pat the Rat," as he is affectionately known in New York, needs to get it together. Dwyane Wade is too good of a player not to be on a team which competes for a championship every year.
I had enough of this bull with the last generation of superstars!
Allen Iverson in Philly, Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, Tracy McGrady in Orlando and more.
It is ridiculous!
Jermaine O'Neal has disappeared to the point of insignificance; Beasley looks lost; Chalmers doesn't even know how to shorten his next dribble after he drives past someone; and Arrojo is a good backup starting at point guard.
Riley knows a team must do whatever it takes to win, and if he is not willing to do that, then he needs to let Dwyane Wade go to a team which is willing to do whatever it takes and allow the Heat to fall back into "expansionism," as Shaq might say.
As the old saying goes: If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. In the NBA, the big dogs do whatever it takes to win championships.
Dwyane Wade is also partially to blame for his own demise in this situation. He played parts of their playoff series against Boston with the same look on his face that LeBron James had in Game 5 against the Celtics.
I understand how Wade feels playing against a stacked deck, but as my brother always says, "It's only one way to play."
And that one way is all-out at all times.
Michael Jordan faced the exact same situation in 1986, but I didn't see him walking around with his head down and a pitiful look on his face.
He went right at them! And even though the result was the same, at least Jordan made the Celtics' Hall-of-Famers of that generation know he was there every minute of every game.
Besides going hard, there were other things Wade could have done to help his team win. The Heat could have easily won Game 3 had Wade simply boxed out Rajon Rondo.
Rondo was flat out killing the Heat with offensive rebound after offensive rebound, killing, game-changing offensive rebounds.
With a few simple box outs, there is literally no telling what would have happened in that series.
Back to Quentin Richardson, there are aspects of his game which he needs to work on, the most important of which is his ball-handling. I never see Richardson dribble the ball more than three or four times before he has to pick it up and get rid of it.
There is no excuse for this. If Anthony Mason could dribble the ball like he did with the Knicks, there is no reason why Richardson shouldn't be a better dribbler.
This would help his entire offensive game because he would be able to generate points by creating his own shot off the dribble instead of having to rely on catching a pass from a teammate while already in scoring position.
He could also crash the offensive boards like he used to with the Clippers and create points that way as well.
When Richardson misses his first couple of shots, usually three-pointers, he tends to stop shooting; but with better handles, he would be able to drive the ball and get himself into better scoring position and get easier shots to get himself going.
With a few dribble-penetration moves and an improved mid-range game, Richardson could become an All-Star.
I'll be the first to admit that offensively, Quentin Richardson can drive you crazy! One night he looks like George Gervin; the next night he looks like George Jefferson.
I often ask myself ... What is it which makes a player like Kobe Bryant great and a player like Quentin Richardson average?
I have yet to find an answer.
When you look at Richardson's skills, there is really no reason why he shouldn't be scoring in the twenties every night; but for some reason which I can't figure out, he's lucky to score fifteen on most nights?
The only thing I could come up with is that he doesn't work hard enough on his game. Maybe he works hard, but he doesn't work hard enough.
I don't know.
What I do know is that too often I see him miss shots which I know he can make, shots he used to make when he was with the Clippers.
That little eight-footer off the glass used to be money. Now, he misses it from five feet.
I don't know what is going on, but what I do know is that Quentin Richardson is a hell of a good basketball player to have on your basketball team, flaws and all; and any team which needs a SF/SG would be wise to sign him.
Hopefully, it will be a team which goes deep into the playoffs.
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