- I agree with Kim Hughes that timeouts tend to be overvalued in last possession situations. Transition and general chaos always favor the offense, especially when the ball is in the hands of someone as effective in the open court as Baron Davis. As Hughes points out in Ramona Shelburne’s item, “Eric Gordon was wide open up top.” That would’ve been the right pass, and a far more open look than anything that could’ve been generated by a timeout. The trick to playing this scenario Sloan-style is having a guerrilla set, of sorts — a loose idea of where guys should be on the court off the push.
- Might as well put the kibosh on those Chris Kaman trade rumors for now. Kaman played only 12 minutes and says that his ailing left arch is “progressively not getting better,” which is Kamanian for getting worse. Then again, Jason Richardson’s bum knee hasn’t proven to be an impediment to the speculation.
- DeAndre Jordan’s blog continues to be a fun read. Jordan recounts this from Monday night’s game against New Orleans: “A fan named Marc asked me what Posey said to me before I took my two shots. He pointed to me and said, ‘I didn’t foul him.’ I said, ‘Yeah you did. It’s right there on the Jumbotron.’ He said, ‘No I fouled Marcus Camby.’”
- PERologists, look whose rating just crossed 16.00 after hovering in the single digits for the first month of the season? Amazing what a little bump in the “usage” category can do for a player — both for his stat line and for his confidence. The figure to watch for Gordon is the True Shooting Percentage number [58.4%], not necessarily his regular, old FG% [41.0%]. Gordon will never hit the majority of his FGAs, but he has an instinct for getting to the line and, clearly, can drain the 3PA.
- Finally, an enormous thanks to Jeff Pickett for his stellar post following Wednesday night’s game. There’s no one more enjoyable to watch, discuss, muse, and mouth off about NBA basketball with than Jeff. And, as a Portland native and Blazer diehard, his insights on Randolph provided for a far better read than anything I could’ve produced.
Morning Roundup
on November 28, 2008 at 6:39 am
12 Responses
Bill Simmons is wrong about NBA issues at least as often as he’s right, but I’ve got to say his take on the essential nature of Clippers fandom in his latest piece is pretty damn funny.
Posted on November 28th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Ha I love jordans blog
Posted on November 28th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Uhm, I just want to say as a diehard born and raised Clipper fan… I am not happy with the Randolph trade. For the Clippers I like the move, but I am moving to New York City on Monday, and now Tim Thomas is going to be playing there and I’d rather watch the WNBA than see him play basketball for a couple more years. I must get NBA league pass, because I can’t deal with Tim Thomas. Anyways, while I may not be in LA anymore, I am a Clipper fan for life and will be keeping tabs, especially via clipperblog…thanks Kevin and all y’all!
fuckin’ thomas…glad isiah thomas is gone, but now tim thomas….that’s worse!
jgroove Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Trust us. Nothing is worse than Isiah Thomas. Tim can’t make any moves in the front office, remember?
And the Knicks still have a shot at making the playoffs, it won’t be that bad.
andrew Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I dont think so.. I mean zach randolph was their best player (as sad as that sounds) and crawford was their 2nd best player. And by best player i mean best scorer. They might make the playoffs but they wont win a lot of games to do so.
Posted on November 28th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
“For the Clippers I like the move, but I am moving to New York City on Monday, and now Tim Thomas is going to be playing there and I’d rather watch the WNBA than see him play basketball for a couple more years.”
The sad thing is that pre-trades, the Knicks were going to win 45+ games and make the playoffs while playing exciting D’Antoni ball.
Now it’s all about trying to beat out Memphis and Minnesota for the second worst record in the league to get the #2 draft pick behind OKC. And for that, Tim Thomas may be kinda the perfect player…
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 1:58 am
“And the Knicks still have a shot at making the playoffs, it won’t be that bad.”
You’re nuts.
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Presently they got a better shot than us.
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Tim Thomas even messed up what would have been one of the most interesting playoffs series’ ever, when he hit that three pointer for the Suns to send what would have been a close-out game for the Lakers into overtime. That guy can’t do anything right!
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Not that interesting. We would’ve won in 4.
Craig Reply:
November 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Us winning in four is what would have made it interesting. Especially after the Laker’s fans had bought up extra tickets to what would have been Clipper home games.
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Anybody else hoping Chris will hurry up and heal so that we can trade him for Tyrus Thomas? (There’s no way that Kaman, Camby & Zbo stay on the same team for more than 2 weeks, is there? Esp. with D’Andre on the bench…) I’m fine with any young, fairly talented high-potential player that doesn’t play SG or SF. With Tyrus we’d have a PF capable of defending and subing in when ZBO is looking particularly unsuited to Dunleavy’s defensive schemes.
Posted on November 29th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
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