khandor’s sports blog

For the benefit of Raptors fans …

who can’t seem to get enough of Jonas Valanciunas [i.e. Selection No. 5, 2011 NBA Draft].

BTW … The quality of these 2 youtube videos is absolutely terrific!

Things got a tad out of control yesterday, in the 2nd game of Georgetown University’s tour of China.

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Georgetown basketball exhibition in China ends in brawl

There were an estimated half-dozen individual altercations on the court, and eventually some Chinese onlookers joined the fracas, including one wielding a stanchion. As the brawl spilled beyond the baseline, an unidentified Bayi player pushed Georgetown’s Aaron Bowen through a partition to the ground before repeatedly punching the sophomore guard while sitting on his chest.

The turbulent ending to Thursday night’s contest marred what had been billed as the second game of a two-day “China-U.S. Basketball Friendship Match” in Beijing. Georgetown intended for the team’s 10-day trip to China to be an athletic, cultural and educational exchange designed to promote the school internationally.

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Yikes!

there was no ‘Big Man’ …

in the grand history of basketball …

who was appreciably better than Arvydas Sabonis.

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What ifs will stick forever in rating Arvydas Sabonis

The year was 1995, and Rick Carlisle – then an assistant coach on P.J. Carlesimo’s staff with the Trail Blazers – beckoned me into his office in the Rose Garden.

For 15 or 20 minutes, we watched video of Arvydas Sabonis at age 17, helping the Soviet national team to victory over Bobby Knight’s Indiana team at Bloomington in 1981.

On the screen was a slender Sabonis, incredibly long and sinewy, running the court, scoring in a variety of ways, rebounding and passing with a rare adroitness.

For most who saw Sabonis play before he suffered his first Achilles’ tendon injury at the tender age of 21, the question is this:

What if?

What if the native of Kaunas, Lithuania, had been able to go through his long career injury-free? What if he had not had to play, in his own words, “on one-and-a-half legs” through the latter stages of his career?

Carlisle is among those who wonder.

“When he was 17, 18, 19 years old, Arvydas was a physical specimen like I had never seen before,” says Carlisle, who coached the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA championship in June. “He was a 7-3 guy who could run like Bobby Jones and and shoot like Larry Bird. He was unbelievable.”

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Kudos to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame …

for selecting him for induction.

Sebastian Pruiti has published another good post devoted to the play of Jonas Valanciunas [C, No. 5 Selection/2011 NBA Draft/Toronto Raptors,via Lithuania].

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How Jonas Valanciunas Opens Things Up For His Teammates

[PLEASE NOTE: Sebastian provides 4 separate videos clips to illustrate his observations.]

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What you see below, however:

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Sebastian,

Play 1 shows one [#3] of the 7 strengths of Jonas’ current individual game, i.e. his ability to finish strongly at the rim in pick & roll situations.

Play 2 is an average action that most solid NBA Big Men would be able to complete effectively.

Play 3 is an average action that most solid NBA Big Men would be able to complete effectively.

Play 4 shows one of the things which Jonas still needs to improve upon … i.e. his ability to pass successfully out of post-up situations … given his decidedly mediocre-poor Assist:Turnover numbers [i.e. 9:16 for this event; and, 0.2:1.4 in the Euroleague this past season] to this point in his young career.

For the information of others … For Valanciunas: Strength #1 is his ability to run the floor in transition [both, defensively and offensively]; Strength #2 is his ability to rebound the basketball; Strength #4 is his ability to finish offensive rebounds and recovered loose balls around the basket; Strength #5 is his ability to block shots; Strength #6 is his ability to make his FTs; and, Strength #7 is his highly competitive Leadership.

In all likelihood he is going to be a very solid NBA player for a 10+ year period of time.

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is the comment which was left at Sebastian’s blog, a few minutes ago, by yours truly.

In general, Sebastian Pruiti does a good job breaking down what happens on a basketball court in the NBA or other elite level situations. In this instance, however:

The Three Errors That Cost Argentina A Spot In The Finals

his analysis is way off base.

This is the comment left there, a few minutes ago, by yours truly.

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Sorry Sebastian but, in this instance, your analysis is way off base.

1. The fault for the turnover in the first sequence lies solely with the PG. When he cuts away from the basketball to start his movement and then changes direction to come back towards the in-bounds passer he is actually going to be open to receive a safe pass, but … instead of finishing his cut towards the ball he executes a 3rd cut on the same sequence and deceives the in-bounds passer who starts to make the chest pass to him and then is unable to pull the pass back once the PG inexplicably starts the 3rd cut in the action. This turnover is the PG’s fault not the Big Man who is beginning to run his assigned lane in offensive transition.

When the PG is covered 1-v-1 after a made FT there is no elite level coach in the world who would have his Big Man stay in the back-court to provide “help” for his PG to receive an in-bounds pass and bring the ball up the floor. Truly elite level PGs at this level of competition are able to destroy this type of simplistic full-court deny defense … if their 3 remaining teammates clear out and get the heck out of their way, especially, with no defender pressuring the in-bounds passer.

2. The fault for this turnover does not lie with the player who made the first pass down the floor to a Big Man that is uncomfortable handling the ball in the open court on the break. When you say that, it reflects an Americanized mental approach to the game which is not consistent with the way the Argentinians and the Europeans play the game today … since their Bigs are EXPECTED to be versatile enough to handle the ball properly in this specific situation, given the amount of repetition they get at this skill everyday in practice. By-and-large their players are taught/instructed to head man the ball to their open teammates, regardless of their size and position because even if this player is a Big he will have been trained to make the proper play with the pass or the dribble. Unfortunately, in this instance, however, you are absolutely correct that the Big Man who caught the pass-ahead does NOT make the correct play and gives up the ball much too early … which fails to get the defender to commit and puts his other 2 teammates in an awkward situation, eventually resulting in a turnover when the player in the middle of the break with the ball fails to execute a bounce in the lane which would still have resulted in an easy catch by No. 5 [the PG, I think, who makes critical mistake #2] and, in all likelihood a made basket rather than this turnover.

3. Each of the switch defense scenarios coming down-the-stretch did not produce the results which the Argentinians were looking for … however, it is wrong for you to focus on this aspect of this defensive tactic, in isolation, without also looking at:

i. The many times this tactic worked for them throughout the game;
ii. An analysis of why their coaches decided that this defensive tactic was still the best one for their players to employ given what their individual strengths and weaknesses are at the defensive end of the floor;
iii. An analysis of what the Argentinians were able to accomplish at the offensive end of the floor when they committed to using the players who they were able to employ throughout the game given their ability to use this specific defensive tactic properly because of their size limitations in relation to the Serbians, and the other teams in this tournament.

The Serbians did a terrific job executing against the Argentinian switch defense by being patient, making the right reads, and then hitting clutch shots.

If the Serbian coaches felt that this tactic was their best chance to succeed in this game what they could have done instead is use another tactic for the initial part of the game, or at different stages of the match, in order to better disguise how they intended to play defense against the Serbians coming down-the-stretch. While this approach MIGHT have been able to throw the Serbians off their game in the final stages so, too, might it have resulted in an earlier blowout for the Serbians, as they would have had an opportunity to take advantage of the Argentinians defensive short-comings for a greater period of time from an earlier point in the game.

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Enjoy the read on a lazy summer Sunday!

What sorts of things c/should specific types of NBA players be doing at this time to generate the best possible CBA from negotiations with the group of owners who have decided to lock them out?

Exhibit A

Deron Williams’ sweet move

• Now there’s real pressure on Mikhail Prokhorov, and implied pressure on every owner with valued stars, to get the NBA season started on time. There’s nothing like watching the future of your franchise take the floor night in and night out in a chippy overseas league. If Williams gets injured in Turkey, it’s bad for Williams, but it’s dreadful for the Nets, who are hoping to use Williams to lure fans to a new arena in Brookyn a year from now, not to mention a big free agent like Dwight Howard. Without Williams, the Nets’ roster is pretty sad, and Prokhorov’s investment in basketball endures a major setback.
• The Nets can ill afford hardball. Before they can make Williams the centerpiece of the next phase of their existence, they need to woo him into signing a contract extension.

In this instance, it is likely going to be the owners’ group that cracks apart before the players’ association.

If you are a Raptors fan …

it is going to be very easy to cheer for this young man, once he makes it to the NBA …

Croatia 88
Lithuania 75
Box Score

win or lose.

That said …

The best player on the floor in yesterday’s game was Croatia’s own dominant young Big Man, Dario Saric, who is 6-9, highly skilled, multi-dimensional, only 17 years of age and the player who led his country to the 2010 European U16 Men’s Championship [with a Gold Medal Game victory over Lithuania].

Although you might think that this blog entry, based on the title, is going to be about this fine movie:

you’d be wrong, because it isn’t about the story of ‘Melvin and Carol’, at all.

It’s about a fantastic finish in the Spanish pro league …

where – in a 1 possession game - not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but – an astounding 5 game-changing plays were made in the final 45 seconds, including, 1 well-timed blocked shot, and 4 dagger-to-the-heart made three-point shots.

Why is just another reason why …

One of the players who excelled at the recent FIBA Men’s World Championships was Linas Kleiza [SF, 6-8, 245]. 

While leading Lithuania to the Bronze Medal, he was selected to the all-tournament team; and, after playing in the Euroleague last year – for Olympiakos – is scheduled to play for the Toronto Raptors during the upcoming NBA season.

Q1. Is the way Mr. Kleiza played in these World Championships how Raptors fans should expect to see him perform … with game averages of 19 pts, 7.1 rebs and 1.4 ast … once he dons his uniform for the dinos?

Hmmm …

A1. Probably not.

The list of individual players with the task of matching-up against Mr. Kleiza during the World Championships looks something like this:

and indicates that the level of competition which he faced on a game-to-game basis was far below what he should expect see when he returns to the NBA this season, e.g. in terms of size, strength and explosive quickness, in conjunction with the ability to slash to the basket, shoot the ball from distance, play on the block, rebound and defend, at the Forward positions:

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At its fundamental core, NBA hoops is a game of individual match-ups and mis-matches, operating within the Team Concept, and the “games” of various specific players do not necessarily translate well – i.e. in terms of overall Offense, Defense and Rebounding – when shifting over from the environment which exists in FIBA competition.

As expected by this corner …

The potent combination of superior athleticism [in general], first-class defense [i.e. both individual and team], adequate perimeter shooting, solid veteran leadership [i.e. by both Chauncey Billups/G and Lamar Odom/F] and the high calibre performance of Kevin Durant/F, specifically, was more than enough to propel the USA to its first FIBA Men’s World Championship, since 1994 [in Toronto].

Complete Game Stats and Summary

When the Americans play unselfish basketball, shoot the rock from distance with a fair degree of proficiency, and assert themselves defensively, as a marauding collective unit, there is no other country in the world today which is capable of beating them.

Unlike 20 years ago, however, there are now a fair number of other nations around the globe at least capable of giving them a solid, highly competitive game for a full 40 minutes, on a consistent basis, including the likes of Turkey, Lithuania, Spain, Serbia, Argentina, Brasil, Greece, etc.

In conjunction with the fact that Basketball is [now] taking over the world, statistically, it certainly augers well for the continued growth of the “roundball” game over the course of 21st century.