- 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.
