Basketball is fascinating to me. You can break stuff down to numbers but
sometimes there are just indefinable tangibles that defy explanation. The Timberwolves are so much better with
Rubio despite all his offensive flaws.
He just knows how to run a team and it settles everyone down and gets
them into their sets. They’re 5-4 with
him this season and 0-4 without him in the line up. He’s an extremely under rated defender. The Timberwolves need to cut down on their
veteran players though. I understand
they are trying to make the playoffs but there is too much Martin and Prince on
the court. They need to be playing young
guys more and assessing what they have rather than thinking about the
playoffs. In fact, one more year of
drafting someone good and they could be set for the next decade. They need to trade some of these veterans in
order to take a step forward…
The Rockets just look like they’re barely trying. I do think their talent is a bit over rated and
that Kevin McHale might have done a better job last season than he was given
credit for especially considering how many injuries they had. It’s tough when James Harden is the alpha on
your team. He just has so many lazy possessions
both on offense and defense. He loses
his man regularly and settles for way too many forced 3 pointers. It’s strange to fire a successful coach 11
games into the season even considering the number of terrible collapses they’ve
suffered already. What’s the point in
firing him though without a replacement lined up? J.B. Bickerstaff is Kevin McHale’s guy and he
is not going to do anything different.
The game plan is going to be exactly the same. I can’t really see the advantage in firing
McHale other than sending a message to your players that they need to try
harder. I just don’t see Bickerstaff
getting any more out of these guys than McHale did. Daryl Morey is being a bit delusional if he
thinks this is a championship team and if he thinks Bickerstaff is the man to
bring him a championship. I really think
Harden and the Rockets are suffering from the curse of the Kardashians. Harden has taken such a big step back so far
this year…
I’m really impressed with what Rick Carlyle is doing with
the Mavericks. That guy can coach his
ass off. It makes me a bit sad that
DeAndre Jordan didn’t follow through and go to Dallas. They might have actually been contenders this
year. Carlyle is so good that JaVale
McGee got into his first game of the year and looked like a professional basketball
player. He was trying and actually
looked like he was in the right spots and knew what he was doing. Crazy.
In just under 11 minutes he had 8 points and 6 rebounds on 80%
shooting. I get the feeling DeAndre just
wasn’t ready for the pressure of a big contract in a new place. There would have been expectations. Having stayed in LA he can coast along
playing defense and getting rebounds and shooting exclusively dunks off
lobs. Everyone is so happy that he
stayed that he really isn’t expected to improve much. Against Phoenix with Paul and Griffin out DeAndre
could only muster 11 and 9 with a -27 +/-.
That was his opportunity to post up and take a bunch of shots and he
just couldn’t do it. I don’t know if
it’s his inability to demand the ball or his teammates unwillingness to pass to
him but I just don’t get it. He just
doesn’t seem too concerned about having a bigger role. Dirk Nowitzki is still a game-changing
player. His shooting this season has
been fantastic. I’m noticing he added
some arc to his shot which makes it even harder to block. That’s a smart move for an older player who
is getting absurdly slow. The more arc
the less separation you need to get the shot off especially when you’re 7 feet
tall.
Denver’s Malone seems like a pretty good coach. Why did Sacramento fire him? Denver doesn’t have a ton of talent to put
out there but they try hard and vaguely have a game plan. My biggest problem with Malone is that he’s
been playing way too much J.J. Hickson.
Against the Warriors though he finally put Hickson on the bench for all
but 9 minutes. That’s 9 minutes too much
as far as I’m concerned but it’s a start.
For Denver, unless they think it’ll lead to improving a trade asset
there’s just no reason to play older players.
There is zero chance they’re going to make the playoffs. Side note: Ty Lawson talked a lot of trash
before the season about how Stephen Curry didn’t have to work hard against any
point guards in the playoffs last season.
They flashed a statistic during this game that Curry has shot 59% FG and
72% on 3s for his career against Denver in 21 games. If true that does not reflect very well on Ty
Lawson. Perhaps he should think about
keeping his mouth shut…
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