I've ever seen. This is James Harden vs. Clippers. I really haven't seen worse than this. Sometimes he was just standing their like he was waiting on line at Wal Mart. link - ( New Window )
Most of it is just simple see your man and the ball, basketball defense 101. Shit you learn the first time you play organized basketball when you're 8. It's not like he was getting roasted off the dribble.
Year after year, teams win with good defense and specifically their best players playing, or at least attempting to play, good defense. If you want to win, you got to buy in defensively. There's really no way around that, but apparently Harden doesn't get that.
He's not going to be making any all defensive teams this year, but even by his standards that was an atypical and uncommon effort. It's early in the season, guys conditioning isn't up to par yet, it was a fast paced game, he looked like he was buying breathers on some of those defensive possessions.
A lot of young big scorers don't have their "come to jesus" moment on the defensive end of the floor yet when they're Harden's age. The ones who do were fortunate to be brought up in a defensive culture, which Mchale obviously hasn't cultivated yet in Houston. Some never have that moment. Some try but are inherently limited by their athleticism or frame.
Given how good Harden is offensively, he doesn't need to be an all nba lockdown defender to still have massive value and for the Rockets to contend. Plenty of teams are good defensively with a suspect perimeter defender or two getting heavy minutes for them. But he can't be having breakdowns within the team structure where guys are just running free off the ball because he's doing god knows what
but when's the last championship team led by a player who was apathetic on defense? Celtics and Bird? I don't remember Bird as a defender.
Harden doesn't have to be prime Artest, but you got to show your team, which outside Asik, Howard and Beverely are pretty lousy defenders, that you, as the teams best player, are committed to defense and therefore winning.
But I'll also quote Jeff Van Gundy when he often likes to state team defense is about two things above all. Coaching and rim protection.
It's about the culture the coach sets, you either have a defensive culture or you don't. And they certainly have the rim protection with a healthy Dwight. Big man defense is just much more important than perimeter defense. Dwight Howard is more impactful to a successful team D than Jordan, Lebron, Pippen, go through your list of best perimeter defenders. Those guys can help limit one player, Dwight Howard can take an entire offense out of the paint.
If they';re not top 10 defensively theres a problem with McHale
I dont expect a W at Indiana. But I am going to hope for some progression from some of their players. Derrick obviously has to play and get better. Hopefully a few less turnovers and a few more Jumpers made.
But curious to see how Deng/Butler guard George, who is all-world right now. And Hibbert/Noah should be a fun matchup as well.
I don't particularly enjoy watching Indiana or Chicago, but I am looking forward to seeing them play each other. This should be a really good rivalry this year and for the next few years, with potential for playoff-like games in the regular season.
Based on last night, I'd say that Utah is a 1st-pick contender that hasn't gotten enough recognition - they're horrible. Hayward and Kanter are pretty good offensively, but they've got a lot of bad players getting major minutes. And Kanter got absolutely destroyed by Lopez on the block - not sure if he's that bad defensively or Brook just had a really good game.
has looked all year. In the pre-season and the first couple of games he looked improved from last year. He just didn't look like he was even trying. A lot of people have trouble with the JJ Redick types who run all over the floor off the ball. It's tough to ask Harden to be a 25 PPG scorer who also averages 5+ APG and dominates offensively to also chase around a guy like Redick all game long. Especially early in the season when you're likely to get tired more easily. He played really lazy D in that game but he has been improving so I'll look at it like a blip in the radar for now. He still has a lot of room to improve though, he'll never be a good defender but he can be average if he balances out the energy he spends on the two sides of the floor.
could develop into a sweet rivalry. It has all the makings. Geographic proximity, a similar team culture and identity. It's been somewhat of a sleeping Giant for two successful franchises over the past 20+ years that has never really come to fruition.
The Bulls were the team of the 90s, Indiana had an excellent run as an Eastern power throughout the decade. Yet they only met in the playoffs once, the 98 series where Indy almost pulled off the upset. Just flukey the way it worked out that way. They met in 2011 again but the Pacers were just a sub .500 8 seed just getting a program off the ground, not nearly yet in the position they are today.
I'd love to see these teams meet over 7 games in the spring.
Did anyone see the thing about Wiggins last night?
Coach Self benched him for a portion of the game and afterward stated it was because he didn't feel Wiggins "brought it" effort wise. It's not a big deal, but it does echo some of the other stuff we've read from anonymous scouts and execs on him. Sort of floats through games, doesn';t always assert himself etc..
Tuesday they play Duke on ESPN. That's my first crack at him
but I get a feeling he's overhyped. I've never heard anything great about him other than his athleticism, and he got beat up head to head against the second best HS player. Again, I'm no expert on him, but I have a feeling he's going to end up being looked on as really overhyped.
had a 30-21 game last night. I haven't seen enough Magic games since he began breaking out late last year, but every time you look at a boxscore hes putting up a big line.
Wiggins' combo of first step + vertical + length is unheard of
I'm the biggest T-Mac fan on this site and even I'll tell you that T-Mac didn't have the quickness of Wiggins and also had a vertical a couple of inches shorter than Wiggins too. And T-Mac's the guy he's being compared too recently, but physically he should be ahead of even T-Mac in his prime.
He's definitely being hyped more for his physical tools than his overall game. He's a guy who barely shot above 60% from the line in HS. He really needs to work on his shooting. But his physical tools are easily the best we've seen from a wing player since LeBron. He really needs to improve his shooting and apparently his 2 way effort. But all the tools are there. I'm just not so sure that Bill Self was the right guy for him to go play under. I've always felt Bill Self was the Les Miles of college bball. Both a bit of a compliment and insult.
had a 30-21 game last night. I haven't seen enough Magic games since he began breaking out late last year, but every time you look at a boxscore hes putting up a big line.
I watched in on my computer. He dominated. Clips couldnt throw it in the ocean though. Reddick was off and Blake shot nothing but jumpers.
I predicted this would be my fun team to watch this year. They have done nothing to disappoint so far.
its alarming. It's still early but wow. No one expected him to be prime KG and he hasn't been in years, but he has been despicably bad. He was still a reasonably valuable player as recently as last season. This has to be the worst 5 game stretch in his career (or at least since he broke out after entering the league as a teen)
to have at least 30 pts 10 rebs and 5 blks. He is off to a crazy start. If he keeps doing what hes doing for another few months, we might have to start calling him a top 5-6 player right now
of people likely not understanding the scenario... the guy is on a minutes watch, missed the preseason, and they are feeling eachother out. look at the minutes per game of each player on the nets. they are playing 11 guys trying to get a sense of what works. AK played 11 minutes last night, pierce sat out the entire 4th quarter, they are babying KG.
Looking at box scores is great and all, and KG has been brutal missing his 15 footers, but good lord... have some understanding of what is going on before judging deron so far this year. and frankly the "imagine if melo" or comparing every net scenario to "what if the knicks"... good lord... makes me want to puke.
the nets arent trying to be a 1 man band... so he is not going to have numbers... likely good numbers for him end of year will be 16 points and 8 assists... the only player likely to have impressive scoring numbers will be lopez, and he is playing 27 minutes a game so far as well.
the subbing pattern last night was just awful... and at the end of the game they had the "who should we go to look" with awful movement and spacing, that is indicative of a team feeling eachther out with new players + new coach.
they also have struggld against quick backcourt teams... which lucky for them is more the bottom barrel east conference... not the top teams who they match up better with
but lets be real here. Deron williams era with the Nets to date is massively underwhelming, forget about just this season. He and Carmelo Anthony came here one day apart, and like a lot of people I thought D-Will was the better acquisition at the time. That looks foolish now, because his game has totally fallen off, call it injuries, call it whatever.
The Nets acquired a top 3-4 PG, and he hasn't looked like that for any prolonged stretch other than the 2nd half of last season. And he backed that up with an underwhelming playoff series that his team had no business losing. A series where he was at certain moments played to a standstill by Kirk Hinrich and had a lesser impact than Nate Robinson
I bring up Melo vs. Deron because they play in the same market and Melo has always gotten a ton of shit for certain things while Deron kind of goes under the radar. Part of it has to do with the Knicks being bigger than the Nets. But that's why I pointed it out, it's a little unfair to me as a person living in NY to see how much more shit Melo gets. They were rated as equals with a lot of NBA experts saying Deron > Melo when the trades happened. So far Melo has played at a higher level.
I know Deron had ankle issues that held him out of the pre-season, but since he's always banged up you can't just ignore the injury and assume he'll be back to All-Star form in a week or two. Especially since he has been so inconsistent recently.
He had an amazing 2nd half last year despite a so-so playoff series, I thought he'd be able to carry that momentum into the start of this season. This little ankle issue has made sure that won't happen.
The bottomline is that despite all the roster moves and Brook's emergence into a very good player, this team is only going to go as far as Deron Williams takes them. Biggest year of his career so far.
They acquired a 2nd team all NBA player. A guy who many would even argue was the best PG in the NBA (even though he was never better than CP3, many high profile people would put their name on that claim, including Mark Jackson when he was leading the national telecasts for ABC)
with the bulk of what people are saying in terms of the stint with the nets not being what was expected, and being a general disappointment. Most of that has been injuries... which is just unfortunate. the 2nd half of last season he was excellent, he got hurt this offseason + the change in the composition of the team. essentially with MANY new faces and a new offense he didnt even get a preseason.
i think its beyond stupid to evaluate his season at this point. I agree its the biggest year of his career so far. I also feel that this team wont be playing elite basketball until they realize the offense should run through deron and brook and the rest of the guys are compliments... but that is yet to happen.
And Melo 100% gets too much crap here, but that has nothing to do with deron. and linking it is just silly. he has had a competent supporting cast and been healthy for half of a season during this stint... and he was excellent. the first round of the playoffs were an epic failure, but lets see how it evolves this year.
What's the deal with the Rockets scapegoating/freezing out
which is why Blake had a pretty decent look even though Howard contested it. And Lin supposedly didn't run the right plays in crunch time or something. Howard, Harden, and McHale were all angry at Lin. Howard and Harden both supposedly yelled at Lin in the locker room.
The leadership on the Rockets was a ? at the start of the year and remains a ? now. Howard is not a leader. Harden has limited experience as a leader. McHale has won 2 playoff games in his head coaching career. Leadership and experience might come back to bite them in the playoffs.
But I also think this is an overhyped situation because of the names involved. Dwight Howard and Jeremy Lin. Any story is going to be overhyped if it involves one of those two, this story involved both of them. I guarantee you that the Miami Heat Big 3 rip into Chalmers behind the scenes. It's ridiculous how much they yell at Chalmers on the court, they treat him like a bitch. Sometimes star players just get on their teammates, especially if it's an inexperienced PG who has to run the team.
Dwight and Jeremy have built a nice connection in the PnR game with each other, their on court chemistry offensively has been good. Even if Dwight's people are leaking "we want a better PG" rumors (if they even are), Lin's been good enough.
are going to be a weird team to analyze this season because they're so balanced. They've been pretty bad thus far, so it makes some sense to look for problems and assign some blame. Even if they were winning though, it would be easy to envision games or even multi-game stretches where certain big-name players put up modest (or even bad) stats).
Right now the only consistent offensive force is Lopez, who has been fantastic. Everyone else dips in and out. Pierce would be 2nd and he's been pretty good. Deron does need to make more of an impact either through scoring or creating. The rest of the guys are going to be in and out of games, almost operating like huge name, overqualified role players who might score 18 one night and 6 the next.
Even after watching almost all of the games, I'm a little surprised to see how bad Garnett's #s are. He seems like he's doing better than that - maybe it's just because as a fan you like having him on the team, looking cool in the uniform, giving high fives, being vocal, etc. Offensively, he's basically been a jump shooter - I'd bet there aren't many players in the league who have a higher % of their shots as 18-21 ft jumpers than KG this year. And obviously he's not hitting enough to be effective. Plus, they're really, really limiting his minutes - he barely played against Utah once the Nets got a big lead and he didn't even play most of OT yesterday, which is very rare for big-name players, even older guys on minutes limits.
They've played one good game out of 5 (Miami). The Utah game was just a complete talent mismatch. They can't continue to lose these road games against mediocre opponents. But it's 5 games and there have been some good things out there, so I'm not ready to change my pre-season opinions just yet
Ive been taking advantage of the NBA league pass free preview, so i haven't been forcefed the Nets as a viewing option yet until now.
Indiana tonight. Indy 6-0, putting up beyond unfathomable defensive numbers (opponents shooting 37% and only allowing 90 pts per 100 possessions, 84 per game) with Paul George averaging over 25 a game (though coming off a couple rough shooting nights off a very efficient start).
Possible small sample overreaction, but I'm completely buying them as having a good shot at the 1 seed and a legitimate threat to beat Miami - not in an upset, but as the actual better team.
The way they're playing right now, Miami would need epic LeBron games and really good shooting to beat Indiana. The Pacers defense is incredible and now that Hibbert is allowed to jump into players as long as he keeps his arms relatively straight it has become very difficult to score on them. Great job of branding at the defensive end with the whole "verticality" thing by Hibbert/Indiana. Obviously, it's very early though.
this is an entirely different team if Bargnani can provide quality minutes at both the 4 and the 5. I'm not expecting that last night was a baseline (obviously), but it seems clear that he came into camp still feeling the aftermath of the pneumonia, and unsure of how to assert himself on a new team.
If he can go around 15 minutes a night as the back-up center when Chandler returns, and maybe 15-20 minutes at the 4, he is going to create some serious matchup problems.
That also gives Woodson the option of going bigger or smaller based upon matchups. Then, the team's considerable depth at the 1-3 begins to have an impact. I have real faith that a healthy JR is going to be a bear to guard by anyone, and eventually I see JR and Shump getting time on the court together at the 2-3.
Can they beat Miami/Indiana? Nah. But they would be back in the running for the fourth seed--third if Chicago doesn't come around. The Nets are good, but not imposing right now.
Lopez better than advertised, Williams worse, and Garnett maybe at the end of his career. Too early to tell on that, but the signs aren't great. Everyone hits a wall eventually. Pearce was sick last night, so he gets a pass.
Copeland has played 5 minutes this season, with one assist and no other stats. I'm glad for him that he got his one good contract--playing (or not playing) for someone else.
link - ( New Window )
Year after year, teams win with good defense and specifically their best players playing, or at least attempting to play, good defense. If you want to win, you got to buy in defensively. There's really no way around that, but apparently Harden doesn't get that.
A lot of young big scorers don't have their "come to jesus" moment on the defensive end of the floor yet when they're Harden's age. The ones who do were fortunate to be brought up in a defensive culture, which Mchale obviously hasn't cultivated yet in Houston. Some never have that moment. Some try but are inherently limited by their athleticism or frame.
Given how good Harden is offensively, he doesn't need to be an all nba lockdown defender to still have massive value and for the Rockets to contend. Plenty of teams are good defensively with a suspect perimeter defender or two getting heavy minutes for them. But he can't be having breakdowns within the team structure where guys are just running free off the ball because he's doing god knows what
Harden doesn't have to be prime Artest, but you got to show your team, which outside Asik, Howard and Beverely are pretty lousy defenders, that you, as the teams best player, are committed to defense and therefore winning.
But I'll also quote Jeff Van Gundy when he often likes to state team defense is about two things above all. Coaching and rim protection.
It's about the culture the coach sets, you either have a defensive culture or you don't. And they certainly have the rim protection with a healthy Dwight. Big man defense is just much more important than perimeter defense. Dwight Howard is more impactful to a successful team D than Jordan, Lebron, Pippen, go through your list of best perimeter defenders. Those guys can help limit one player, Dwight Howard can take an entire offense out of the paint.
If they';re not top 10 defensively theres a problem with McHale
I dont expect a W at Indiana. But I am going to hope for some progression from some of their players. Derrick obviously has to play and get better. Hopefully a few less turnovers and a few more Jumpers made.
But curious to see how Deng/Butler guard George, who is all-world right now. And Hibbert/Noah should be a fun matchup as well.
Based on last night, I'd say that Utah is a 1st-pick contender that hasn't gotten enough recognition - they're horrible. Hayward and Kanter are pretty good offensively, but they've got a lot of bad players getting major minutes. And Kanter got absolutely destroyed by Lopez on the block - not sure if he's that bad defensively or Brook just had a really good game.
The Bulls were the team of the 90s, Indiana had an excellent run as an Eastern power throughout the decade. Yet they only met in the playoffs once, the 98 series where Indy almost pulled off the upset. Just flukey the way it worked out that way. They met in 2011 again but the Pacers were just a sub .500 8 seed just getting a program off the ground, not nearly yet in the position they are today.
I'd love to see these teams meet over 7 games in the spring.
Tuesday they play Duke on ESPN. That's my first crack at him
Some good games on tonight. Bulls/Pacers will be fun to watch.
Also Boozer leads the league in FG%.
He's definitely being hyped more for his physical tools than his overall game. He's a guy who barely shot above 60% from the line in HS. He really needs to work on his shooting. But his physical tools are easily the best we've seen from a wing player since LeBron. He really needs to improve his shooting and apparently his 2 way effort. But all the tools are there. I'm just not so sure that Bill Self was the right guy for him to go play under. I've always felt Bill Self was the Les Miles of college bball. Both a bit of a compliment and insult.
I watched in on my computer. He dominated. Clips couldnt throw it in the ocean though. Reddick was off and Blake shot nothing but jumpers.
I predicted this would be my fun team to watch this year. They have done nothing to disappoint so far.
6.4 rpg
30.4% FG
22.4 mpg
I haven't seen enough of their games live to comment on his defense, and hes only playing 22 minutes. But holy crap
This is going to be a defining year in Deron's career. Off to a really bad start.
Looking at box scores is great and all, and KG has been brutal missing his 15 footers, but good lord... have some understanding of what is going on before judging deron so far this year. and frankly the "imagine if melo" or comparing every net scenario to "what if the knicks"... good lord... makes me want to puke.
the nets arent trying to be a 1 man band... so he is not going to have numbers... likely good numbers for him end of year will be 16 points and 8 assists... the only player likely to have impressive scoring numbers will be lopez, and he is playing 27 minutes a game so far as well.
the subbing pattern last night was just awful... and at the end of the game they had the "who should we go to look" with awful movement and spacing, that is indicative of a team feeling eachther out with new players + new coach.
they also have struggld against quick backcourt teams... which lucky for them is more the bottom barrel east conference... not the top teams who they match up better with
The Nets acquired a top 3-4 PG, and he hasn't looked like that for any prolonged stretch other than the 2nd half of last season. And he backed that up with an underwhelming playoff series that his team had no business losing. A series where he was at certain moments played to a standstill by Kirk Hinrich and had a lesser impact than Nate Robinson
I know Deron had ankle issues that held him out of the pre-season, but since he's always banged up you can't just ignore the injury and assume he'll be back to All-Star form in a week or two. Especially since he has been so inconsistent recently.
He had an amazing 2nd half last year despite a so-so playoff series, I thought he'd be able to carry that momentum into the start of this season. This little ankle issue has made sure that won't happen.
The bottomline is that despite all the roster moves and Brook's emergence into a very good player, this team is only going to go as far as Deron Williams takes them. Biggest year of his career so far.
i think its beyond stupid to evaluate his season at this point. I agree its the biggest year of his career so far. I also feel that this team wont be playing elite basketball until they realize the offense should run through deron and brook and the rest of the guys are compliments... but that is yet to happen.
And Melo 100% gets too much crap here, but that has nothing to do with deron. and linking it is just silly. he has had a competent supporting cast and been healthy for half of a season during this stint... and he was excellent. the first round of the playoffs were an epic failure, but lets see how it evolves this year.
The leadership on the Rockets was a ? at the start of the year and remains a ? now. Howard is not a leader. Harden has limited experience as a leader. McHale has won 2 playoff games in his head coaching career. Leadership and experience might come back to bite them in the playoffs.
But I also think this is an overhyped situation because of the names involved. Dwight Howard and Jeremy Lin. Any story is going to be overhyped if it involves one of those two, this story involved both of them. I guarantee you that the Miami Heat Big 3 rip into Chalmers behind the scenes. It's ridiculous how much they yell at Chalmers on the court, they treat him like a bitch. Sometimes star players just get on their teammates, especially if it's an inexperienced PG who has to run the team.
Dwight and Jeremy have built a nice connection in the PnR game with each other, their on court chemistry offensively has been good. Even if Dwight's people are leaking "we want a better PG" rumors (if they even are), Lin's been good enough.
Right now the only consistent offensive force is Lopez, who has been fantastic. Everyone else dips in and out. Pierce would be 2nd and he's been pretty good. Deron does need to make more of an impact either through scoring or creating. The rest of the guys are going to be in and out of games, almost operating like huge name, overqualified role players who might score 18 one night and 6 the next.
Even after watching almost all of the games, I'm a little surprised to see how bad Garnett's #s are. He seems like he's doing better than that - maybe it's just because as a fan you like having him on the team, looking cool in the uniform, giving high fives, being vocal, etc. Offensively, he's basically been a jump shooter - I'd bet there aren't many players in the league who have a higher % of their shots as 18-21 ft jumpers than KG this year. And obviously he's not hitting enough to be effective. Plus, they're really, really limiting his minutes - he barely played against Utah once the Nets got a big lead and he didn't even play most of OT yesterday, which is very rare for big-name players, even older guys on minutes limits.
They've played one good game out of 5 (Miami). The Utah game was just a complete talent mismatch. They can't continue to lose these road games against mediocre opponents. But it's 5 games and there have been some good things out there, so I'm not ready to change my pre-season opinions just yet
Indiana tonight. Indy 6-0, putting up beyond unfathomable defensive numbers (opponents shooting 37% and only allowing 90 pts per 100 possessions, 84 per game) with Paul George averaging over 25 a game (though coming off a couple rough shooting nights off a very efficient start).
The way they're playing right now, Miami would need epic LeBron games and really good shooting to beat Indiana. The Pacers defense is incredible and now that Hibbert is allowed to jump into players as long as he keeps his arms relatively straight it has become very difficult to score on them. Great job of branding at the defensive end with the whole "verticality" thing by Hibbert/Indiana. Obviously, it's very early though.
If he can go around 15 minutes a night as the back-up center when Chandler returns, and maybe 15-20 minutes at the 4, he is going to create some serious matchup problems.
That also gives Woodson the option of going bigger or smaller based upon matchups. Then, the team's considerable depth at the 1-3 begins to have an impact. I have real faith that a healthy JR is going to be a bear to guard by anyone, and eventually I see JR and Shump getting time on the court together at the 2-3.
Can they beat Miami/Indiana? Nah. But they would be back in the running for the fourth seed--third if Chicago doesn't come around. The Nets are good, but not imposing right now.
Lopez better than advertised, Williams worse, and Garnett maybe at the end of his career. Too early to tell on that, but the signs aren't great. Everyone hits a wall eventually. Pearce was sick last night, so he gets a pass.
I swear, as a Celtics fan, I feel like I almost enjoyed that win as much as any win in the Big 3 era.
Will Howard start crying in Houston playing in the forward spot?
Philly looks like they can rebound pretty well.
Yeah, they dont need Dwight.