- John Krolik of Cavs: The Blog points out that the Cavaliers got where they are in part by losing LeBron James, but also by getting essentially nothing from the draft. "Eyenga, Gibson, and Hickson are the only rotation players the Cavs have managed to draft post-LeBron's arrival, and Jamison is the only rotation player, current or former, that the Cavs managed to get for a traded pick. That’s a miserable showing for six years of drafting." Two first-round picks in that period were lost to a trade for Jiri Welsch. Even worse, some of the rotation players they did draft, like Jason Kapono and Shannon Brown, they essentially gave away for nothing.
- An interesting point: The best defenses in the league get lots of defensive 3-second calls, and flirt with vastly more than are called. In other words: get those defenders in the lane, disrupt a zillion easy shots and challenge the referees to ruin the game by calling it 30 times.
- Kevin Durant on Twitter: "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world." Fredette refresher.
- Is there, out there in this world, a serious argument to respect the Whoopi Goldberg movie "Eddie"? There is.
- Land O' Lakers features that video interview with Phil Jackson that has the headline "End of the road for Phil." He talks about how he'll retire from basketball at the end of this season. Again. Anyway, note the amusing comment from exhelodrvr: "That headline makes it sound like at the end of the season, you're going to tell us that they 'drove him out to his uncle's farm in the country and let him go where he'll have lots of room to run and play.'"
- Forbes says 17 NBA teams lost money last year. Michael Ozanian: "The bad economy and a few suspect markets (Minnesota, Sacramento, Indiana among others) drained profitability during the 2009-10 season due to lower ticket receipts. Operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) fell to an average of $6.1 million, 22% lower than the previous season and the lowest figure since the 2002-03 season. Worse, 17 teams lost money, the most since the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. Several franchises like the Detroit Pistons and the New Orleans Hornets are on the market, but can’t find buyers at the right price. However, if NBA commissioner David Stern gets his way, an imbecile would be able to make money running a team. Stern wants to lop $750 million off of player costs, lowering the portion of basketball-related revenue that goes to players from 57% to around 40%. If Stern succeeds, even teams like the Hornets, who were thought to be headed for bankruptcy before the NBA rescued the franchise, would immediately rise at least 30% in value because potential buyers would know they don’t run the risk of writing checks to cover operating losses."
- Based on Forbes' insight, some fancy charts showing the import of a great owner.
- Which high schools produce the most NBA talent? A ranking process is underway.
- Down three points with 10.6 seconds left, Lionel Hollins drew up a play to go for a quick 2, which almost worked beautifully.
- Dirk Nowitzki says he probably came back a bit too early, but is optimistic about a quick and full recovery nonetheless.
- You talk to your lawyer, and tell them private things. They take notes. Then ... they type up those notes and file them, oops, as public documents in an unrelated case? Why is everything in Gilbert Arenas' life so bizarre?
- Amazing Manu Ginobili flop. Also, I beg you: When making lists of NBA floppers, do not forget Chris Paul.
- Do not jump off a trampoline and head first through the hoop like this guy. Really. Don't do it.
- Nobody steals the NBA basketball like Tony Allen does.
- A zone defense's main benefit, often, is to confuse the offense.
- Kendrick Perkins is a great defender. Right?
- Timofey Mozgov breaks down a day as a Knick, pointing out that the required practice schedule is fairly easy, but the required knowledge and conditioning requires dedication far beyond normal practices.
- That Derrick Rose may be great, but he's no Landry Fields, according to David Berri.
- How Gregg Popovich got Richard Jefferson open for a corner 3.
Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24269/thursday-bullets-199
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