NBA
Minutes away from joining a Warriors practice, J.J. Hickson was told he was a Trail Blazer
It's a caveat you hear quite a bit in NBA circles, but it rarely is applied. A newly bought-out player can become a free agent "if he clears waivers." And, with most teams stuck over the salary cap or close enough to it to where the addition of a free agent's already-agreed upon salary would make claiming someone on waivers NBA-illegal, most players clear waivers. Mostly because the sorts of players stuck in these would-be transactions are veteran luxury types, like Derek Fisher who cleared waivers and signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
J.J. Hickson is a veteran, but he's young enough at age 23 to be both coveted as a potential project to work with, and a disappointment because of his lacking play on the defensive end despite four NBA seasons to his credit. The latter is why the Sacramento Kings, though rebuilding around youth, dumped him last week. The former is why the Golden State Warriors wanted to sign him; and why he was on the court with the team as they prepared for a game in New Orleans, ready to take part in a shootaround, when he was told that he didn't clear waivers, and that the Portland Trail Blazers signed him instead, and that he had to get on a plane to Oregon. Way to be presumptuous, NBA.
Here's how Hickson recalls it, as quoted by the Oregonian:
"I was walking out to go shoot, get some shots up before the game, and they (previously) said I couldn't go on the court until the deadline," Hickson. "So I was going out to go out and get some shots and they told me I couldn't go on the court because I didn't clear waivers."
The "deadline" Hickson is referring to is the 48-hour period where 29 other NBA teams are asked to consider taking his full contract on, denying him the chance to clear waivers. It rarely happens in this league, even for players featuring relatively minimal rookie deals like Hickson's $2.35 million deal for 2011-12. J.J. would have been afforded minutes and the opportunity to score in Golden State, but he'll get the same on a rebuilding Portland team that is essentially running next fall's training camp right now.
The problem is that Hickson was afforded that chance in Sacramento, and declined to do too much of it.
The athletic forward can score, he's shot over 50 percent twice in his career, and is just a year removed from averaging 17.6 points for every 36 minutes he spent on the court in Cleveland. He fell off considerably in Sacramento, though, managing just over half of last season's per-36 mark and shooting 37 percent from the floor.
What compounds that is the fact that Hickson is one of the league's poorest defenders at his position, continually out of place in rotations and often with his head turned. That level of production sustained, with the Kings, making him wholly expendable to Sacramento. The Warriors and eventually the Trail Blazers, presumably, are hoping he can at least find the scoring touch that made him a valuable commodity in his first three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Because they have League Pass, we're assuming the Blazers and Warriors are aware of his defensive shortcomings.
Well, the Blazers at least.
Hickson, to his credit, was in good spirits following the surprising addition. It's not the worst thing, to be allowed to play professional basketball in Portland make a good deal of money doing so, but it can't be sloughed off that Hickson went from being free to choose his employer to being essentially and surprisingly traded to the Trail Blazers (in a sense) within the span of an afternoon.
Here's a clip of J.J. re-telling his curious Wednesday:
Lawrence Frank bites off Dwane Casey, who bit off Mike Brown, who bit off Gregg Popovich, about rock-pounding
It's been another rough season for the Detroit Pistons. At 16-30, they find themselves with the fifth-worst record in the Eastern Conference, occupying the Central Division's basement and playing out the string, seemingly eons removed from the NBA title and annual deep playoff runs of last decade. But while this season, like last, will end without playoff games in the Motor City, the team has shown more signs of life under first-year coach Lawrence Frank than it did under "dead man walking" John Kuester.
Second-year center Greg Monroe has continued to blossom into one of the NBA's best (and least-recognized) young talents. After some less-than-stellar campaigns, Rodney Stuckey has by and large outperformed the contract extension he received this offseason. Jonas Jerebko's got that Swedish Lou Amundson thing happening. Even Ben Gordon has shown flashes, turning back the clock with a ludicrous 45-point game on Wednesday night.
While Gordon's game came in a JaVale McGee-helmed loss, the team's playing tougher — Detroit's last two losses have come by a combined five points and they've hung around in more games of late than they had earlier in the season. Frank's emphasizing that silver lining, drawing on a well-worn story to explain to Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News why he's not despairing over those tough tight defeats:
Frank was asked when losing close would no longer satisfy him.
"Oh, never, really," he said. "It's almost the stonecutter hammering away at the rock. It's one, two, 100 blows and there's no crack in it. Then on the 101st, the rock splits and that's the stage we're in."
If that bit of allegory sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you are the world's greatest philosopher. Or because you remember Dwane Casey citing the same parable as an explanation for introducing a 1,300-lb. boulder to the Toronto Raptors locker room after taking over as the team's new head coach.
Or because you remember Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown having it written on his office wall when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Or because you remember Gregg Popovich drilling the wisdom into the skulls of his San Antonio Spurs since the late '90s. Or because you were real heavy into the Jacob Riis Usenet group/message board scene back in the early '90s. (The Web was so much purer then. Less B.S. and more B.B.S., you know?)
Basically, every coach ever has used this quote to emphasize the importance of hard work, perseverance and focusing on the long-term process of developing good habits rather than changing things at the first sign of failure in search of immediate results. It's a good lesson for any enterprise, but especially for organizations like the ones Frank and Casey took over this season, which have no hope of becoming title contenders anytime soon and have to keep an abiding faith in future returns while undertaking a multiyear rebuilding project.
But by the same token, c'mon, Lawrence Frank. Sure, you know what Jacob Riis said, but clearly you don't know what 311 said. Or what Ghostface said. Find your own quote to rally your team around, man. If you suck your thumb, yo, suck your thumb, yo.
How about this: "Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect." Pretty good, right? That nugget comes from Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell, an American entrepreneur who knows a thing or two about hard work (and building a successful professional sports program).
Or this: "You've got to work hard for your success, and you've got to have a steady presence. That's the secret." Kid Rock stuff always works really well in Detroit.
My main point is, just because coaching is a fraternity of shared ideas, the NBA is a copycat league and so on and so forth, that doesn't mean you have to just recycle the same stuff. If you're going to use the stonecutter thing, you're at least going to have to put your own spin on it, and you're definitely going to have to top Casey's giant boulder. I suggest making Steve Guttenberg a star again. That will show you're committed to the premise.
Video: John Wall dribbles out the clock and hits the non-buzzer beater, Washington loses
Poor John Wall. Not only did he have to spend most of his second NBA season playing a series of Washington Wizards that played less-than-cerebral basketball, but he struggled out of the gate in 2011-12 to improve upon his significant gifts in his second year out of Kentucky. That's changed of late, with the point guard's 48 percent shooting, 18 points and 8.6 assists per game in 25 contests spread out over February and March, but the biggest thing people have seemed to take from that turn is Greg Monroe's unlikely defensive maneuver on Wall from February's Rookie/Sophomore Game.
And now, sadly, they have this to take:
It's a tough gig, determining which tough shot to take with the seconds winding down and your coach declining to run a play. Hero ball isn't the best move when you're down two points with just seconds to spare, but Wizards coach Randy Wittman went with Wall, and it resulted in a few too many extra dribbles. Guarded by the astonishingly quick small forward Paul George, John just didn't have a chance.
Well, OK, he had some chances. But this is why you go quickly, when you're down in a game. John wasn't explicitly dribbling out the clock in the hopes of denying the Pacers (who came back from 22 points down in this win), but you have to go ugly early in these situations, and extend the game as long as possible in order to pile up the chances. It doesn't make for fun basketball to watch, all full of intentional fouls and timeouts, but it's the way to win in this league.
Just one month left in the season, young John. Then you get to start over and pretend that 2011-12 never happened.
Pacers boss Larry Bird could be stepping down at the worst possible time
The Indiana Pacers smartly decided not to add much to their slimmed-down payroll during the trade deadline, despite having the cap space needed to make a run at a player making an eight figure salary, and the group is better off for it. The team added double-figure scorer Leandro Barbosa for a song, smartly signed free agent center Kyrylo Fesenko this week, and appear ready to fully commit to the East's fifth seed, with most of its regular season schedule to be played at home.
And now, amidst a series of deft moves, the New York Post is reporting that team president Larry Bird won't be back next season. Ah, horsefeathers.
Bird has been with the squad since 2003, and officially running the show for the last few years, mostly presiding over middling seasons that did culminate in his team's first playoff berth in five years during 2010-11. Of course, the Post's Peter Vecsey has long had quite the clear (some would say "transparent," even) pipeline to Pacer news, so it wouldn't be a shock at all if this turned out. Here's Vecsey:
"A handshake promise was given [owner Herb] Simon last summer by Bird that he would consider re-upping for another season, but that has been ruled out. It's believed Simon is aware of such and has a petite list of prospective replacement candidates."
Vecsey goes on to point out that Simon would prefer to hire a big name as a replacement candidate rather than going in-house, potentially not with Pacer front office assistant and former Portland Trail Blazers executive Kevin Pritchard. In his piece, Vecsey names Chris Mullin (ugh) and Reggie Miller (that's … pretty awful) as names to look out for.
All this comes at an unfortunate time for the Pacers, winners of two straight and with a very workable schedule to preside over for the rest of the season. If we're completely honest, losing Bird is probably for the best. He hasn't really acted as the finest GM we've ever seen during his run both working under Donnie Walsh or without DW. He stocked the cabinet too full with questionable players in the years following the Pacers/Detroit Pistons brawl in 2004, alienating the team's fan base so much that they haven't really warmed up to the Pacers (the team is second to last in attendance, again) despite what will be two straight playoff appearances.
Bird hasn't done an expert job, to be sure, but to replace him with Mullin or Miller? That's a clear step down, which should have the few Pacer fans that deign to show up at the team's Fieldhouse worried.
Walsh would appear to be a viable candidate to take over again, but Vecsey's column seems oddly aware (nudge-nudge) of Walsh's options, to a precise degree. The former Pacer and Knicks boss is still technically on the New York payroll this season, and Vecsey has tossed his name into the ring as a candidate to replace Otis Smith in Orlando, or Ernie Grunfeld in Washington.
Whoever does show up will have some franchise-altering decisions to make, almost immediately. The Pacers will have well over $20 million in cap space to work with during the offseason, and the team is in need of a clear upgrade at the point guard position, where Darren Collison has disappointed in his two seasons at the helm. To an NBAnik, that's a little frightening considering Mullin's past with the Golden State Warriors (where he was too happy to extend player deals without accurately gauging his incumbents' real value in the open market) or Miller's inexperience. Frankly, given the lack of preparation Miller appears to show up for work with during his time behind the mic on TNT, we're not entirely convinced he would want to give up that gig for the relatively grueling (and anonymous, without the weekly TV appearances) job of an NBA general manager.
All this changes if Simon picks the right man for the job, or if Bird has another change of heart (Vecsey reports that Larry was ready to retire last season, but was talked into coming back for one final campaign). The Pacers have a solid if unspectacular core that has relied on the smart leadership of coach Frank Vogel to contend for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and the ability to add an out-and-out superstar in the offseason via a free agent deal or cap-utilizing trade. Even if Indiana's roster doesn't scream "championship" right now, that could change with a few smart moves.
Who's going to be around to guide those moves remains to be seen. Hopefully the Pacers think more about wins in the ledger, instead of a splashy name to put fannies in those seats. They weren't coming out when Larry Legend was in charge, Pacers brass. There's your clue.
Al Jefferson’s buzzer-beating putback puts Kings away, gives Jazz fifth straight win
Another night, another failed box-out leading to a tip-in win for a team in the Western Conference playoff race.
On Thursday, the Utah Jazz were the beneficiaries on the boards, as center Al Jefferson, unfettered by defenders, corralled a missed Devin Harris runner and put it in with 0.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the Jazz a 103-102 win over the Sacramento Kings.
And it was a missed runner. Don't you dare believe those lying, assist-hungry point guards. From the Associated Press:
Devin Harris claimed he was trying to pass the ball to Utah teammate Al Jefferson, who was alone under the basket with time winding down.
Jefferson wasn't so sure but he wasn't going to argue [...] "I honestly thought it was a short shot," said Jefferson, who shot 13 for 19 from the floor. "I was at the basket by myself and that was the only way he could get it to me. It was a perfect pass."
The play was ruled a missed shot by Harris and a putback by Jefferson on the official score sheet.
I'm sure Harris appreciates his center trying to give him an assist, even if he's not going to get one himself.
The bucket capped off a perfect 5-of-5 night at the rim for Jefferson and came on a play that, depending on your perspective, could be attributed to either a Sacramento lapse or Jazz coach Ty Corbin's design.
Following a bowling-ball drive to the hoop for a layup by Kings guard Marcus Thornton (16 points on 7-of-18 shooting) that gave Sacramento a 102-101 lead with 4.1 seconds remaining, Corbin called a timeout, advancing the ball past half-court and letting rookie Alec Burks trigger play from the right sideline. Jefferson steps out toward the top of the key to represent that he's setting a screen for Utah guard Gordon Hayward, who is running away from the ball. On the back side of the play, Harris sets a back screen for power forward Paul Millsap, bumping off Sacramento's Jason Thompson and giving Millsap an opening to run to the near corner to provide a safety-valve option on the inbounds pass.
As Hayward curls down the left side of the lane, Jefferson squares up and heads to the basket, pressing Kings center DeMarcus Cousins down between the circles. Having set his screen for Millsap, Harris sprints toward the 3-point line for Burks' inbounds pass, with both Hayward and Jefferson providing impediments to slow down defender John Salmons. Harris curls at the free-throw line, catches Burks' pass and drives the right side of the lane with Salmons in pursuit.
All that pre-snap movement ensures that three Sacramento defenders — Thompson, guarding Millsap in the near corner; Thornton, whom Hayward has drawn off the left block on the back side of the play; and Tyreke Evans, who guarded in the inbounds pass and stayed with Burks up top — are occupied in areas where they can't really affect what's happening. It's a four-man game at this point — Harris with the ball, Salmons trailing him, and Cousins and Jefferson in the paint.
With a shade over three seconds left, Harris starts to raise up for his attempt, putting Cousins in the position of having to make a decision — do I step toward the shooter to help Salmons and contest the shot, or do I stay with Jefferson? In that split-second, the sophomore big man chooses poorly — sure, the on-rushing length of Cousins may have influenced the point guard's release and led to the shot coming up short, but Salmons had recovered his lost ground and was already in the process of doing an excellent job of contesting Harris' floater.
Meanwhile, his double leaves Jefferson — who won a game against the Toronto Raptors in a very similar fashion right around this time last year — all alone underneath to clean up the miss. By the time the other Kings defenders can converge on the paint, they're all on the outside looking in, watching Big Al win the game. (Frankly, DeMarcus, I expect better from a coach with your resume.)
You might blame Cousins for abandoning his post; you might credit Corbin for drawing up a late-game play that would create either a clean look for his point guard or a one-on-one opportunity for his center and a chance at an offensive rebound. Either way, it's fair to say that Jefferson's only offensive board of the night — Sacramento's front line dominated Utah on the glass, with Cousins and Thompson combining for 33 rebounds, including 18 offensive boards, as the Kings outrebounded the Jazz 55-45 — was a pretty big one.
In fact, Al's offensive rebounding numbers, which have never been great for a four/five type, have been down all year; he's grabbing 7.4 percent of his team's available misses, according to Basketball-Reference.com. He had a strong showing on that end in February, averaging 2.8 offensive boards per game in 15 Jazz contests, but his glasswork has dipped a bit in March, with Jefferson averaging 1.7 nightly offensive rebounds in his 11 appearances this month.
Then again, considering the Jazz went 4-11 in February and now stand at 9-4 in March, having won five straight (including games against the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers that Jefferson missed for personal reasons) to draw within a half-game of the eighth-place Houston Rockets and stay in the thick of the Western Conference playoff chase, I'm guessing coach Corbin's not sweating the dip too much, especially on nights when he leads all scorers with 26 points on 13-of-19 shooting and blocks four shots. (Just how thick is that West chase? As The Basketball Jones' Tas Melas tweeted this morning, ninth-place Utah trails the fourth-place Dallas Mavericks by just 1.5 games in the standings.)
The putback punctuated an exciting fourth quarter that saw the Kings worked to erase an eight-point deficit entering the final 12 minutes, drawing even on a Chuck Hayes basket just inside the seven-minute mark. The teams traded buckets from there, with the lead changing hands 10 times in the last six-plus minutes.
The nip-and-tuck play culminated in a wild stretch of end-to-end action in the final two minutes that saw Jefferson, Harris and Burks each make big plays for Utah to hold off the hard-charging Thornton, who scored Sacramento's final six points but fell short of answering Big Al's tip-in with a contested 3-pointer on the other end.
Is the clip above not rocking for you? Feel free to peruse the tip-in elsewhere, thanks to our friends at the National Basketball Association.
Video: Samuel L. Jackson introduces the New Orleans Hornets starters
On Wednesday, we ran a notice that Oscar-nominated actor Samuel L. Jackson, in New Orleans filming Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," would be introducing the starting lineups at Thursday night's Hornets game vs. the Los Angeles Clippers. After Will Ferrell's work in the same role early February, Jackson had a lot to live up to. Watch the video above and decide for yourself how he did.
It's a different take than Ferrell's, less reliant on absurd comedy. And while Jackson's famous "Ezekiel 25:17" speech from "Pulp Fiction" (NSFW language at the link) doesn't work quite so well when he's not in full Jules Winnfield costume, it's not a bad way to introduce a basketball team as a bunch of badass mofos. There's no word as of yet what Monty Williams has printed on his wallet, but it's probably pretty awesome.
It's a little disappointing, though, that Jackson didn't use references to some of his other movies to introduce each individual player. I'd have loved to see Trevor Ariza called the best "Jumper" since Hayden Christensen, or Jarrett Jack referred to as "the man, just like Eugene Levy." Those Hollywood blockbusters deserve attention.
Video: Jason Smith got cheered for hip-checking Blake Griffin
The days of the plain old hard foul in the NBA are pretty much done — these days, any kind of major contact earns a flagrant foul. It's the new standard, enough so that fans have been conditioned to understand the calls and not complain too much when no play for the ball earns an ejection. It's just the way of the contemporary basketball world.
On Thursday night, Jason Smith of the New Orleans Hornets committed what was pretty clearly an ejection-worthy flagrant on Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin. With just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Griffin took a pass from Chris Paul in transition with an open lane to the basket. Smith challenged the play, but instead of going for the ball he sent Griffin sliding with a strong hip-check. It didn't seem like there was any intention to injure Griffin, but that question is immaterial to the issue — by the rulebook, and all modern views of what a flagrant foul looks like, it was the kind of play that gets the offending player kicked out of a game.
Except, instead of realizing that the play was unsafe, Hornets fans cheered Smith for the foul. You can watch the video above, via our friends at the Yahoo! Sports Minute, and see for yourself.
It's been a tough season in New Orleans, and the determination that the Hornets showed on Thursday night in their surprising 97-90 win deserves attention. But this foul, no matter the intent, was the kind of thing no one should want to see on a basketball court at any level. Smith had a good game (17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and eight rebounds in 28 minutes), and it's understandable why Hornets fans would feel pride in their team at this point in the game — on some level, they were cheering Smith's will to win rather than the act itself.
Still, a justified ejection isn't exactly worthy of cheers. Save those for the plays that gave the Hornets their best win of the season. As anyone who watched the game knows, there were plenty of them.
Video: The Wolves sing Britney Spears’s “… Baby One More Time”
Throughout this season, we've called your attention to the excellent work done by the Minnesota Timberwolves' viral video team. There's been the inspired "Where in the World Is Nikola Pekovic?", the perhaps even more inspired "Darko Listens to Pop Music," and the simple but effective team-effort karaoke of NSYNC's "Tearin' Up My Heart."
On Thursday, the Wolves released their newest karaoke sensation: a team-wide performance of Britney Spears's 1998 hit "... Baby One More Time." It's a fun time, especially because (a) Martell Webster seems really into it, (b) Ricky Rubio says he's heard the song but doesn't know the words, (c) Michael Beasley still barely enunciates when he sings, and (d) Nikola Pekovic is entirely confused. This is how it's done.
My only worry is that the Wolves are now oversaturating the viral video market, turning their team into fodder for pageviews rather than establishing them as an up-and-coming squad that's most fun when they're on the basketball court. Goofiness can only be a brand for so long — just ask the Washington Wizards.
On the other hand, when said videos involve Pekovic looking disgusted at the mere existence of Britney, it's hard to complain too much. If they figure out a way to get Pek and Darko to dress up as the Festrunk Brothers, I'll never complain again.
Larry King says Dwight Howard had agreed to a Nets trade
Remember that whole Dwight Howard situation last week? First he was staying in Orlando, then he was going, then he was sticking around again, then he had agreed to a deal to form an Ed Hardy traveling team, and then he finally waived his right to opt out of his contract this summer, ensuring that we can go through this whole kerfuffle again next year. I can't wait!
There's been fallout from that back and forth, though, and we're only now beginning to figure out exactly just went down. One report suggests that Howard had already accepted a trade to the Nets and was on the brink of making it official. Except, it didn't come from Yahoo!'s own Adrian Wojnarowksi, RealGM's Jarrod Rudolph, or any of the other reporters who were on top of the Howard saga. Instead, it came from American broadcasting institution Larry King. Larry's Twitter account, you're on the air (via Nets Are Scorching):
You read it here. Dwight Howard had agreed to be traded to the Nets, but had a last minute change of heart and stayed with the Magic.
My source is reliable. If Dwight wants to comment, I can't tell Dwight what to say.
Damn, that's a real challenge coming from a man who once called jockeys the best athletes in the world. The good news is that there's an easy resolution to this media dust-up: both King and Howard are huge fans of Ed Hardy apparel.
It's fun to poke fun at King for his fashion sense and bizarre commentary, but he's an insanely well-connected media member who's built up a sterling reputation over the course of many decades. He likely has a very good source inside the Nets and/or Magic organizations, so it's fine to take him at his word. Plus, this news jibes with the minute-by-minute reports we received before the trade deadline. Everything here makes sense.
However, we can only wonder who that source is. My money is on Jay-Z. My spies tell me they saw a performance of "Cavalia" together a few weeks ago.
The strongest voice in the Boston Celtics locker room, weirdly, belongs to Mickael Pietrus
Boston Celtics -- hell, we'll call him this -- legend Kevin Garnett is a free agent this summer. So is Ray Allen, the NBA's all-time leader in made three-pointers. Paul Pierce has another year left before his contract can become mostly unguaranteed, and Rajon Rondo has been involved in trade rumors quite literally since the day he was drafted by another team back in 2006. As Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears pointed out on Thursday, the Celtics are living in a state of impermanence.
As the season swings back and forth, and the team trades inspiring wins with ugly losses, it seems appropriate amongst this group of knowing veterans that an evocative voice in the locker room would stand up. And, as you'd expect, a clarion call has bounced off those locker room walls several times this season. And, as you wouldn't expect in a million years, that voice belongs to Mickael Pietrus. You heard me. According to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald, the journeyman forward has been calling out the C's all season long:
"Pietrus singled out teammates by name. He was careful to be respectful, but he was also critical. As the new guy he undoubtedly raised a few eyebrows, but that didn't stop Pietrus from standing up in a room that is ruled and policed by the most veteran group of future Hall of Famers in the NBA."
Murphy goes on to point out that Mickael didn't just stop with the speech he gave his team on February 10th, following an embarrassing loss to the lowly Toronto Raptors. He's been pressing the boys -- the men -- since then.
(I don't want to be too insensitive when I point out that the idea of Mickael Pietrus' heavy Guadeloupian accent (as evidenced here) could leave some on the other end of his pet talks a little giggly, but the way he articulates what it means to be a professional, and a winner? As, again, evidenced here? I'd line up behind this man. Even if his shot selection leaves a little to be desired.)
The Celtics, according to Murphy, weren't keen on confirming his well-sourced accounts of Pietrus' derring-do. Boston captain Paul Pierce, according to Mark, "responded with a suspicious frown and shook his head when asked about Pietrus' pep talk." That's par for the course for NBA teams, to keep such things in house. It's about as par for the course as it is for sportswriters to use the phrase "par for the course."
Boston will make the playoffs, you know. They're a few games up on those battling Knicks and Bucks, and they've worked this before. The team looked nearly as middling during this time of year back in 2010, and responded with a run that led to a seventh game of the Finals and a close loss while working without their injured starting center. These things can happen again, even if the squad pulls Miami in the first round. They're smarter than you. And, as Marc pointed out earlier on Thursday, they know how to appreciate these things.
The team still can't score. The C's are 27th in the NBA in offensive efficiency. It relies on Rajon Rondo's engaging if unreliable shooting touch and Paul Pierce's declining fortunes in the clutch. It leans on Kevin Garnett, out-muscled by some small forwards, in the pivot. And Mickael Pietrus is giving locker room speeches.
Doesn't matter. Doubt them at your own peril, Eastern Conference.
Create-a-Caption: Luke Walton is having trouble learning Byron Scott’s system
All right, Luke Walton, for the BILLIONTH time — if you want to get any playing time, you can't be the first one without a seat in our game of Musical Chairs at the start of every half. I can explain it more slowly if you need me to; I guess you're not a real big sports guy?
Wait, let me guess: You didn't play these kinds of games growing up because your dad said they were too exclusionary and everyone got to share the bongos for an exactly equal amount of time and blah blah blah. Whatever, Luke. You can tell us all about it while you're standing in a banana suit and not playing.
Best caption wins some real solid Musical Chairs strat. Good luck.
In our last adventure: Everybody with a camera, microphone and digital recorder loves Yao Ming. He is the Giant Chinese Raymond.
Winner, Azv321: "I'm not kidding. The head really *is* the best part. I'd never lie to Charles."
Runner-up, Mr. Jones: During the ruckus, a reporter stepped on Yao's toe. He's out for six weeks.
Rick Adelman joins the rest of us in not having much faith in Darko Milicic, which is a bummer
One of the best stories of the first half of the season was the emergence of Nikola Pekovic as the Minnesota Timberwolves' starting center. The bruising 26-year-old Montenegrin has been a revelation for coach Rick Adelman, overpowering opponents down low, beasting on the offensive boards and pairing with All-Star power forward Kevin Love to give the resurgent Wolves a frontcourt pairing capable of battling even the best out West.
Of course, for every rising star, there's also a setting sun. In this case, it's gotten pretty dark for former Minnesota starter Darko Milicic, whose injury earlier this season opened the door for Pekovic to play Wally Pipp, and who has been all but cast aside since Pekovic's arrival on the NBA scene.
In theory, then, Pekovic's recent foot and ankle injuries — which led to him being sent back to Minnesota for treatment on Wednesday, meaning he'll miss the last two games of the Wolves' road trip — it could have been a nice bit of duality for Darko, a chance to prove turnabout's fair play by providing some fair play of his own. It didn't work out that way, though.
After not playing for eight days, receiving DNP-CDs against the New Orleans Hornets, Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers and being removed from the active roster against the Phoenix Suns, Milicic returned to the mix following Pekovic's injury. It was an inauspicious return; he played just six "disappointing" minutes in Sunday's loss to the Sacramento Kings, then went right back on the inactive list for the Wolves' Monday night win over the Golden State Warriors.
When Minnesota rolled into Texas to take on the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Spurs, Darko "remained on the sideline and out of favor" with Adelman, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
"He hasn't done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job," Adelman said of Milicic. "He's gotten himself out of shape. He hasn't been as driven as you'd like so when a situation like this happens, it's time for someone to have their opportunity and get back in there. Today, [Derrick Williams] going to get his chance and Anthony Randolph is going to get his chance and we'll see if any of those guys can step up."
The numbers, not surprisingly, support Adelman's assessment.
In 29 appearances for Minnesota this year, Milicic has posted the worst Player Efficiency Rating since being a woebegone and towheaded teenage mutant ninja Piston. His per-minute production in every category is down from last year, and it wasn't very good last year. His individual defensive performance on isolation and pick-and-roll plays have been OK this year — he ranks 93rd and 79th in the league on defending those kinds of plays, according to play-by-play data from Synergy Sports Technology — he's not a lockdown stopper, especially when he's not really trying. If he's out of shape and not hustling on D, Milicic pretty much gives Adelman nothing.
As a result, Darko stayed stapled to the Minnesota bench as the short-handed wolves trotted out a small-ball lineup heavy on Love, Williams and Anthony Tolliver. And proceeded to get smoked.
Not that Darko would've made much of a difference there, of course. Sure, the version of Darko that the Detroit Pistons hoped to see when they drafted him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft — the legit 7-footer with range, touch and flow — might have. But that dude has never actually existed in real, tangible form in the NBA. Just in Chad Ford's projections and Joe Dumars' dream sequences.
The version that Minnesota general manager David Kahn thought he was getting when he signed Darko to a four-year, $20 million extension back in 2010 would have helped, too. That rangeless, touchless, flowless 7-footer — whose once-boundless potential was well-bound by that point, but could still clog up the middle, protect the rim pretty well and pass it a little bit (albeit nowhere near as well as the GM thought) — could've been useful against a Spurs team that grabbed 17 offensive boards, outrebounded the Wolves 56-41 and attempted 43 shots at the tin.
Of course, that guy was never really there, either. Save for a stretch of sound defense as a 21-year-old with the Orlando Magic in 2006-07 and a more solid all-around turn as a 23-year-old with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2008-09 — both of which came in a reserve's minutes and neither of which really indicated a starter's potential — Milicic has never actually "done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job."
He's not very good from the field or the line. He doesn't rebound well for a center. Kahn's delusions aside, he never passed well enough to be compared to former Adelman frontcourt linchpins like Chris Webber, Vlade Divac or Brad Miller. His career offensive win shares number — an estimate of how many wins a player has contributed, based solely on his offense, since entering the NBA — is negative. And he'll never be a Ben Wallace or Metta World Peace type whose defensive contributions are excellent enough to overshadow spotty-or-worse offense.
That's why it was weird for Kahn to make a $20 million commitment to him, that's why Wolves fans were thrilled to see Pekovic take over the starting spot in the middle, and that's no one batted an eyelash when Milicic didn't see the court for a week. And that's why, when Zgoda wrote that Adelman said he doesn't have much faith that Darko can go out and do the job, most readers probably thought something along the lines of, "No [EXPLETIVE], Sherlock."
Darko has had two things going for him throughout his eight-plus years in the league — his age and the fact that pretty much everyone needs a big guy to sop up minutes, even if he's a stiff. He turns 27, the age at which many (if not most) pro ballers reach their athletic peak, in three months, and the one coach who we hoped might have the key to unlock his dormant potential — as A Wolf Among Wolves' Benjamin Polk wrote before the season, Adelman "seems like Darko's last chance" — has no faith he can do the job.
Maybe Adelman's comments and decision are meant as a motivational ploy to shake the Serbian center from his doldrums, as SB Nation's Scott Schroeder suggests, but that feels kind of like wishful thinking at this stage of the game, and I'm all out of pennies with no wells in sight. Kahn's foolish extension probably means Darko will hang onto his job for one more year, but the deal's not guaranteed for 2013-14, so it feels for all the world like it's all over but the shoutin'.
Some of us probably still want to believe, but the time has come for putting away childish things; we'll never see a Darko that matters. Faith is a strong, resilient thing, but you can't keep it forever.
Rick Adelman joins the rest of us in not having much faith in Darko Milicic, which is a bummer
One of the best stories of the first half of the season was the emergence of Nikola Pekovic as the Minnesota Timberwolves' starting center. The bruising 26-year-old Montenegrin has been a revelation for coach Rick Adelman, overpowering opponents down low, beasting on the offensive boards and pairing with All-Star power forward Kevin Love to give the resurgent Wolves a frontcourt pairing capable of battling even the best out West.
Of course, for every rising star, there's also a setting sun. In this case, it's gotten pretty dark for former Minnesota starter Darko Milicic, whose injury earlier this season opened the door for Pekovic to play Wally Pipp, and who has been all but cast aside since Pekovic's arrival on the NBA scene.
In theory, then, Pekovic's recent foot and ankle injuries — which led to him being sent back to Minnesota for treatment on Wednesday, meaning he'll miss the last two games of the Wolves' road trip — it could have been a nice bit of duality for Darko, a chance to prove turnabout's fair play by providing some fair play of his own. It didn't work out that way, though.
After not playing for eight days, receiving DNP-CDs against the New Orleans Hornets, Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers and being removed from the active roster against the Phoenix Suns, Milicic returned to the mix following Pekovic's injury. It was an inauspicious return; he played just six "disappointing" minutes in Sunday's loss to the Sacramento Kings, then went right back on the inactive list for the Wolves' Monday night win over the Golden State Warriors.
When Minnesota rolled into Texas to take on the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Spurs, Darko "remained on the sideline and out of favor" with Adelman, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
"He hasn't done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job," Adelman said of Milicic. "He's gotten himself out of shape. He hasn't been as driven as you'd like so when a situation like this happens, it's time for someone to have their opportunity and get back in there. Today, [Derrick Williams] going to get his chance and Anthony Randolph is going to get his chance and we'll see if any of those guys can step up."
The numbers, not surprisingly, support Adelman's assessment.
In 29 appearances for Minnesota this year, Milicic has posted the worst Player Efficiency Rating since being a woebegone and towheaded teenage mutant ninja Piston. His per-minute production in every category is down from last year, and it wasn't very good last year. His individual defensive performance on isolation and pick-and-roll plays have been OK this year — he ranks 93rd and 79th in the league on defending those kinds of plays, according to play-by-play data from Synergy Sports Technology — he's not a lockdown stopper, especially when he's not really trying. If he's out of shape and not hustling on D, Milicic pretty much gives Adelman nothing.
As a result, Darko stayed stapled to the Minnesota bench as the short-handed wolves trotted out a small-ball lineup heavy on Love, Williams and Anthony Tolliver. And proceeded to get smoked.
Not that Darko would've made much of a difference there, of course. Sure, the version of Darko that the Detroit Pistons hoped to see when they drafted him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft — the legit 7-footer with range, touch and flow — might have. But that dude has never actually existed in real, tangible form in the NBA. Just in Chad Ford's projections and Joe Dumars' dream sequences.
The version that Minnesota general manager David Kahn thought he was getting when he signed Darko to a four-year, $20 million extension back in 2010 would have helped, too. That rangeless, touchless, flowless 7-footer — whose once-boundless potential was well-bound by that point, but could still clog up the middle, protect the rim pretty well and pass it a little bit (albeit nowhere near as well as the GM thought) — could've been useful against a Spurs team that grabbed 17 offensive boards, outrebounded the Wolves 56-41 and attempted 43 shots at the tin.
Of course, that guy was never really there, either. Save for a stretch of sound defense as a 21-year-old with the Orlando Magic in 2006-07 and a more solid all-around turn as a 23-year-old with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2008-09 — both of which came in a reserve's minutes and neither of which really indicated a starter's potential — Milicic has never actually "done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job."
He's not very good from the field or the line. He doesn't rebound well for a center. Kahn's delusions aside, he never passed well enough to be compared to former Adelman frontcourt linchpins like Chris Webber, Vlade Divac or Brad Miller. His career offensive win shares number — an estimate of how many wins a player has contributed, based solely on his offense, since entering the NBA — is negative. And he'll never be a Ben Wallace or Metta World Peace type whose defensive contributions are excellent enough to overshadow spotty-or-worse offense.
That's why it was weird for Kahn to make a $20 million commitment to him, that's why Wolves fans were thrilled to see Pekovic take over the starting spot in the middle, and that's no one batted an eyelash when Milicic didn't see the court for a week. And that's why, when Zgoda wrote that Adelman said he doesn't have much faith that Darko can go out and do the job, most readers probably thought something along the lines of, "No [EXPLETIVE], Sherlock."
Darko has had two things going for him throughout his eight-plus years in the league — his age and the fact that pretty much everyone needs a big guy to sop up minutes, even if he's a stiff. He turns 27, the age at which many (if not most) pro ballers reach their athletic peak, in three months, and the one coach who we hoped might have the key to unlock his dormant potential — as A Wolf Among Wolves' Benjamin Polk wrote before the season, Adelman "seems like Darko's last chance" — has no faith he can do the job.
Maybe Adelman's comments and decision are meant as a motivational ploy to shake the Serbian center from his doldrums, as SB Nation's Scott Schroeder suggests, but that feels kind of like wishful thinking at this stage of the game, and I'm all out of pennies with no wells in sight. Kahn's foolish extension probably means Darko will hang onto his job for one more year, but the deal's not guaranteed for 2013-14, so it feels for all the world like it's all over but the shoutin'.
Some of us probably still want to believe, but the time has come for putting away childish things; we'll never see a Darko that matters. Faith is a strong, resilient thing, but you can't keep it forever.
Kobe Bryant calls the boos raining down on Lamar Odom ‘just stupidity’
As someone whose life revolves around covering games that we learned to obsess over as children, I understand that perspective is in short supply in the field of detailing for a living and loving for a lifestyle the art of pro basketball. With that in place, I cannot understand the motivation for wanting to boo the crap out of a slumping millionaire athlete with his own reality TV show, a guy who has gotten to play in either Los Angeles or Miami for the duration of his 12-year professional career before last December, and someone who plays a style of ball so gorgeous and engaging that the game seems to come effortlessly to him.
It's still stupid to boo Dallas Mavericks forward Lamar Odom, though. And former teammate Kobe Bryant agrees, as the two took to the court as opponents on Wednesday night. "That's," Kobe said, referring to the boos Odom heard during Dallas' blowout loss to the Lakers, "just stupidity." Bryant went on, as quoted by ESPN Dallas:
"It's tough," Bryant said. "He comes to a team that's pretty much set, you know what I mean? So it's hard for him to find his niche. The fans, they don't really understand what he does or how he can do it, you know what I mean?"
Yeah, we do.
On every level, it's easy to understand where the fans are coming from. Lamar Odom was signed to a very expensive contract in 2009 to act as a relative luxury for the Lakers; a sixth man making second-option cash. But because the Lakers are strangely scared of the luxury tax, the team dealt him for absolutely nothing last December, throwing both Odom and GM Mitch Kupchak (who you know did not want to make a deal that would cripple his team's already-nonexistent depth) to the wolves in an attempt to explain away Odom's fragile emotions in the wake of an agreed-upon but eventually squashed deal that would deal Lamar to New Orleans in a deal that would send Chris Paul to the Lakers.
"We thought he was going to retire," the Buss family they asked Kupchak to claim. And anyone who bought the idea that would see Lamar Odom leaving eight figures' worth of money on the table to walk away from the game he loves in a huff is an absolute moron.
So the Lakers, in a bid to save both Odom's payroll and the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax his contract would cost them, traded him to the Mavericks. In return, they received a nice, tidy, narrative. Los Angeles dealt the basic cable TV Z-star to "the defending champions." Not only the "defending champs," but, "the team that swept Los Angeles from the playoffs the year before." The Lakers didn't receive a trade exemption in the deal as they did a disarming batch of excuses.
Because of these pre-emptive strikes, Odom was left to suffer through the slings and arrows. The guy showed up out of shape, he can barely finish around the rim anymore, he's played terribly on both ends, all while working amongst a group of like-minded vets that would seem to know how to work effortlessly around his significant basketball smarts. As someone who has counted Odom amongst his favorite NBA players since 1999, it's heartbreaking. And as someone, as we've all done, who has watched a highly-paid player mope his way through an entire season on our favorite team, it's upsetting.
But enough to get up from your seat, and boo? Don't we have internet message boards for that?
If anyone is boo-worthy, this season, it's Lamar Odom. If anyone is worthy of our understanding, and the reminder that these billion-dollar 6-11 dudes with slick handles are just as human-y human as any human you've ever human'd with, it's Lamar Odom. Silently sitting on your hands won't help. Cheering him mindlessly might, but more than likely it will sound like white noise to him. Booing definitely won't do a damn thing but make it worse. Did you ever want to do better for the person that just spanked you, verbally or physically?
(S&M enthusiasts are asked to decline to respond to this in the comment section. You know who you are, "Michelle.")
It's an absolute no-win situation that was placed on several factions that know nothing but winning, over and over. The Mavs are the defending champs, and Odom's all-around gifts (if properly utilized; and coach Rick Carlisle's business card reads "Rick Carlisle, Properly Utilizing Since 2001") should have fit in perfectly as the team attempted to take advantage of spring and summer and win a second title.
Beyond that, there's no win. Odom felt at home both in Los Angeles (a city he's played in for all but one of his NBA seasons prior to 2011-12) and in the Lakers' triangle offense. Even if Kobe barely deigned to run it late last year, and Phil Jackson was let go following last season. It's hard to adapt, even when you're joining a group that boasts a significant basketball IQ, and a welcoming spirit. It's hard to change at 22 years of age, or 32.
And boos don't change anything. They've never made anything better, and they make no sense. We all get to shape our own stories, these days. We can create our own websites, our own Twitter handles, and our own message board and/or talk radio personas. Can't we articulate these frustrations in a more efficient manner?
Can't we go pound-hopeful, with Lamar Odom, in hoping that he comes through with the best May of his basketball career?
Maybe the Toronto Raptors should wait until they are good before wearing camouflage jerseys again
Back before the Christmas Day start of this pell-mell, lockout-shortened season, Kelly Dwyer shared the news that the Toronto Raptors planned to salute Canada's armed forces by becoming the first NBA team to wear camouflage jerseys during their March 21, 2012, matchup with the Chicago Bulls. Wednesday was March 21, and sure enough, it happened. Let it never be said that the Toronto Raptors are not men of their word.
They are not, however, men of exceptional basketball-game-winning talent, as evidenced by the 15-32 mark they brought with them into their tilt with the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls. They are now 15-33.
When you start 1-of-11 from the field in the fourth quarter of a shockingly winnable game against a Bulls squad without reigning league MVP Derrick Rose, get outscored by 19 points in the final frame and lose by 12, people are going to notice. Even when you do it while wearing uniforms evoking a method of concealment allowing otherwise visible things to remain unnoticed. Actually, judging by this morning's post-mortems, especially when you do it while wearing those uniforms.
The mainstream media went pretty straightforward with their Raps goofs. Doug Smith's column in the Toronto Star ran under the headline, "Toronto Raptors disappear for fourth quarter in 94-82 loss to Chicago Bulls." Similarly, Robert MacLeod's gamer for The Globe and Mail followed the heading, "Camouflage-clad Raptors disappear in fourth quarter." Dwane Casey's team "completely disappeared during a 4:11 span of the fourth quarter that will go down as their worst stretch of the season," according to James Bisson of the Canadian Press.
We got a little bit of variation in the blogosphere because, y'know, Web 2.0. Matt McHale of Bulls blog By The Horns put the disappearance theme down, flipped it and reversed it: "The Raptors were wearing camouflage uniforms in honor of Canadian Armed Forces Night, but they couldn't hide during that final period."
Sharply monikored blog Holy Craptors offered a two-fer, hitting the "disappear" theme in its post's headline before following up with a lede that called the Raptors' fatigues-inspired kit "appropriate, because I'm sure that by the end of this one, all those poor members of the army were pretty fatigued by the home team's performance." Over at HoopsAddict, Ryan McNeill went in a different direction, congratulating the Raps for "tanking" on Canadian Forces Night.
It's plain to see (visibility joke) that getting punked while wearing leafy alternates opens the door to getting made fun of more than usual, so maybe the Raps should pump the brakes on this particular method of supporting the troops next year. (Unless, of course, sales of the camo gear are brisk — as Joseph Casciaro writes at RaptorBlog, 20 percent of all proceeds "will go toward the Canadian Military Families Fund." If people are buying 'em, wear 'em all the time.)
Then again, Toronto could be better next year — with Lithuanian center/possible wizard Jonas Valanciunas set to mount up next season, another (likely high) lottery pick coming in the 2012 draft, about $17 million in cap space available and a full year of Casey's coaching possibly nudging the young Raps toward the top of the league in defensive efficiency after moving from league-worst to middle-of-the-pack in Year 1, the squad could be much more competitive in 2012-13.
Still, just in case, a brand of camo that better blends in with the surrounding environment could help. A "more hardwood-y" hue, perhaps, or one that you need special glasses to see without getting a headache. Just spitballing.
Meet the new JaVale McGee: A heady, offensive-rebounding game-winner
JaVale McGee has proven over the course of his four-year NBA career that he is capable of performing spectacular physical feats on the basketball court. What he has not yet proven is whether those feats can regularly translate into wins. In his first on-court action as a member of the Denver Nuggets following last Thursday's three-team trade, he offered the suggestion that they can.
McGee's tip dunk of a missed Arron Afflalo free throw with five seconds remaining gave the Nuggets a 116-115 home win over the visiting Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night. It was a game that Denver basically had no business winning after blowing a 25-point first-half lead and allowing Ben Gordon to turn in what PistonPowered blogger Dan Feldman called a "seemingly ... impossible performance" with 45 points on 22 shots and an NBA-record-tying nine 3-point makes without a miss.
And yet, at game's end, McGee's hustle sent the Pepsi Center faithful home happy. From the Associated Press:
"I just went hard and pushed [Greg Monroe] under the rim and I was wide open. It bounced and bounced and I was trying not to goaltend it and I just dunked it. It was definitely exciting, my first game winner. I'm definitely excited to be in Denver, my new home." [...]
"I'm sure it's a proud moment for him, coming here and in the first game that he plays in, to win a game," Nuggets coach George Karl said of McGee. "It's pretty classy, a pretty good chapter."
Of course it was classy, George Karl. JaVale McGee exudes class. His alter ego's name is Pierre. You can't get any classier than that.
Now, it bears mentioning that McGee's game-winner had an awful lot to do with a crushing fundamental miscue by Monroe, Detroit's emerging star center.
As Afflalo let his second free throw fly, Monroe was slow to get off the block, failing to turn his hips and shoulders toward the backboard to impede McGee's path to the glass. That momentary lapse was all McGee needed to slip past the Georgetown product and stake a claim to the real estate at the front of the rim.
To Monroe's credit, he recognized and regretted the error, writing on Twitter after the game that his effort was "unacceptable." And Monroe's far from a habitually lazy rebounder; he grabs right around 24 percent of available defensive boards, a rate that ranks in the top 20 among players who average at least 20 minutes a night and have played at least 20 games. Late on Wednesday, though, he hesitated, and he who hesitates is lost.
While we pin deserved blame on Monroe, though, let's not damn McGee with faint praise. He deserves credit for doing a number of things right to put himself in position to make the game-winning play.
In a postgame interview, McGee acknowledged recognizing before the shot went up that the Pistons had decided not to bracket him with two bodies on the boxout. Once the ball was in the air, he hustled off the line, forcing Monroe to push him, leaving the Detroit center off-balance. McGee then took a quick step backward, which ProBasketballTalk's Kurt Helin pointed out gave him an opportunity to gather himself and created space for him to explode to the rim. (JaVale's memory's a bit off; he didn't push Monroe under the rim as much as blow past him, leaving Monroe on the outside looking in.)
After that, as Nate Timmons wrote in his recap at Nuggets blog Denver Stiffs, despite finding "himself alone floating in the air and ready for the put-back dunk," McGee showed patience and "waited for the ball to clear the cylinder before" making contact, ensuring that he wouldn't be whistled for an illegal touch and that the bucket would count. Then, he dunked it on the way down, which is something we all know that JaVale can do really well, but still had to go right for the Nuggets to take the lead.
One more thing had to go right for the Nuggets to keep the lead: Gordon had to miss his attempt at a game-winning answer at the other end. He did. This, as SB Nation's Brian Floyd noted, surprised his teammates and made them very sad.
After the game, McGee told reporters, including Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post, that he "didn't think Arron was going to miss the free throw, but if he did I was going in hard and I might be able to get the tip-in or at least a tip-out." There's never been any question about McGee's ability to go hard; the questions have always been about whether he'd ever start going hard in the right direction. (Sometimes literally.) On Wednesday night, he was, and that helped seal a Denver win.
The 24-year-old — God, he's still only 24 — still has a long way to go to convince NBA fans that he's pointed the right way, but on a talented Nuggets team with an established head coach at the helm, multiple options to replace him at the five if he doesn't straighten up and fly right, and the pressure of a playoff hunt to give him purpose, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the NBA's greatest oddity could finally find some normalcy. Stranger things have happened. JaVale McGee's been involved in most of them.
Is the clip above not rocking for you? Feel free to peruse the game-winning follow elsewhere, thanks to our friends at the National Basketball Association.
The physics behind Danilo Gallinari’s amazing behind the back pass
It was declared on Sunday afternoon by Yahoo! Sports to be "the fastest behind-the-back pass we've seen in a while" but for Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari, the play was more than just a highlight reel. It was a feat of physics.
The moment came with 2:46 left in the Nuggets 98-91 win over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night as Gallinari controlled a cross court outlet pass, somehow he kept his body inbounds and then, moments later, fired the back pass to teammate Kenneth Faried for a layup.
Dr. Jon Eric Goff, Associate Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College sees the play as more than two points in a Nuggets win. He sees the angles that made the two points very special and unique.
"My best estimate is that Gallinari is halfway between the line joining the two baskets and the 94 feet-long out-of-bounds line. Given that the width of the court is 47 feet that would put Gallinari 12.5 feet from Faried's catch location," Dr. Goff said.
"Gallinari moved about two feet during the roughly .45 seconds the ball was in flight. That means the ball was thrown at a speed of roughly 27.8 feet per second, which is about 19 miles per hour. The forward part of the velocity is about 4.4 feet per second, which is around three miles per hour. The ball's net velocity is thus about 28.1 feet per second or 19.2 miles per hour."
Dr. Goff, who also authored the book Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports, said that the most astonishing part of the play wasn't just how the ball was delivered but how it ended up in Faried's hand. The quality of the pass is not to be outdone by the fact that Gallinari served it up behind his back.
"Freeze the video at the 10 second mark. The ball appears in the still frame between Gallinari and Faried. There are two velocities at play when analyzing the pass. At the time Gallinari let go of the ball, he is moving away from the baseline — he is perpendicular to the base line. His hand imparted a velocity to the ball that is parallel to the base line; that velocity is much larger than the other velocity," Dr. Goff said.
"The ball's velocity as seen by someone in the stands is the vector sum of the two aforementioned velocities. In other words, the ball's velocity has a component that is along the base line and another component that is perpendicular and away from the baseline. What makes the pass perfect is that little bit of velocity that is perpendicular to the base line. Not only is Faried getting the ball fed to him from the side, there is a small component of the ball's velocity that is actually toward Faried, away from the baseline. A perfect pass!"
Perhaps as impressive as the no-look assist was Gallinari's body control when he caught the long pass at the start of the fast break. He expertly controlled the ball as he kept his right leg in bounds, which allowed his body to stay upright and maintain composure to resume his dribble.
"The ball is in his right hand while his left arm is extended in the direction of the base line. His right leg is off the court so as to not step out of bounds," Dr. Goff said.
Gallinari's body is in what Dr. Goff calls a "V shape" with the opening of the V in the direction of the base line. This is necessary because the friction from the ground on his shoe halted his motion and kept him from going out of bounds
"He needs his center of gravity to the right of his foot. There is thus a gravitational torque that tries to rotate Gallinari clockwise. The two torques essentially cancel, which keeps Gallo stable as his moves along the baseline."
Video: Russell Westbrook is not Blake Griffin
Stalwart Oklahoma City Thunder blogger Royce Young wrote at Daily Thunder late Wednesday that this third-quarter attempt to annihilate Blake Griffin "was the most Russell Westbrook thing ever." The premise is sound. Trying to finish a fast break with an angry dunk, trying to assert authority and dominance against a Western Conference opponent, trying to upstage the league's most prolific on-your-head dunker and trying to avenge teammate Kendrick Perkins, whom Griffin grimly immortalized earlier this season ... these all seem like very Russell Westbrook things to do.
The execution, though? Taking off a couple of feet too far out, getting stoned by a heels-down-outside-the-charge-circle Griffin, falling way short on the non-dunk throwdown, getting whistled for an offensive foul and coming up empty on a three-on-two transition opportunity? That feels much more like the most JaVale McGee thing ever.
Then again, maybe that's the elusive missing element in Westbrook's game that we've all been trying to identify these past couple of years — a dash of JaVale to go in that Kevin Johnson-Allen Iverson-Dwyane Wade-Stephon Marbury mixture. This dunk attempt might have just unlocked the Russell genome. Let's all put on our labcoats and shake hands.
Hit the jump for more on Westbrook's Hall and Oates situation — I'm going to keep making that joke until you guys are singing Hall and Oates in your cubicles, I promise you — and the rest of Wednesday's top sports stories, thanks to our friends at the Yahoo! Sports Minute.
Westbrook didn't have a great offensive game in the Thunder's 114-91 home win over Griffin's Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, finishing with 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting, three rebounds, four assists and four turnovers. He did, however, do a dynamite defensive job on Clippers point guard Chris Paul, holding the All-Star starter to just 13 points on a 3-of-12 mark from the floor. Westbrook's teammate, Kevin Durant, led all scorers with 32 points on 18 shots, nine rebounds and five assists in the win.
Is the video above not rocking for you? Feel free to peruse the charge elsewhere, thanks to our friends at nbahighlights9999.
Days of NBA Lives: Wherein Gordon Hayward stays himself
At this point, most of the NBA is on Twitter. It's a wild world of training updates, questions as to which movies they should go see, and explanations of their Call of Duty prowess. Every so often, though, you also get a picture into the more interesting aspects of NBA life. This feature is your window into that world.
Gordon Hayward: Does anyone in slc know a place that repairs pc laptops
Jordan Hamilton: If u think about it....Most jokes state a bitter truth
Josh Childress: What are the chances that Mike Redd and I wear the same outfit??? Geez http://lockerz.com/s/194545407
David Robinson: Looking forward to the @spurs Bruce @bowen12 jersey retirement tonight. He always played with intensity, just glad he never guarded me.
Nazr Mohammed: Just drove all the way home from the airport and can't remember nothing about the drive. How did I get here?!?! #Routine#HopeIWasntSpeeding
You can also follow Eric Freeman on Twitter at @freemaneric.
Video: Player of the Week Drew Gooden gets his own sincere highlight video
In a typical week, the NBA's Player of the Week awards are ignored, mostly because giving LeBron James or Kevin Durant a small award means little. Every so often, though, a role player takes advantage of injuries to play like a star for a few games. In those cases, the Player of the Week award becomes a delightful aberration, almost as if God decided to take over the controls of a video game and cast aside basketball logic for a while.
This week, Milwaukee Bucks forward Drew Gooden earned that recognition on the strength of a 3-0 record for his team and averages of 18.0 ppg, 9.7 rpg, and 8.0 apg. Those stats include an improbable triple-double against the Nets last Wednesday, the sort of line that looked like a typo when it was first passed around the web.
To honor Gooden, the Bucks produced the amazing highlight video "Oh My Gooden," complete with multiple-angle clips, random switches to black-and-white, and an over-photoshopped image of Gooden facing off against recently waived Cavaliers big man Ryan Hollins. It's a goofy video, but also so sincere that it's hard not to love at least a little bit. Every player deserves this kind of recognition at some point in his career. Someone make an equally serious mix for Acie Law, please. We have to start somewhere.