khandor’s sports blog

If you take a closer look at two plays from last night’s game between Milwaukee and Washington:

i. At the 0:13 mark of the video clip … when a clear travel violation by JaVale McGee is not called by the Center Official, who is looking directly at the play;

ii. At the 1:07 mark of the video clip … when a highly questionable travel violation by Roger Mason is called by the Trail Official, despite the Lead Official, who is looking directly at the play, as well, making no call whatsoever:

you should be able to see that what was said earlier this season by Mark Cuban was an accurate description of the current state of officiating in the NBA, despite the League Office stating otherwise.

Where does your favourite team rank at the halfway point in the regular season schedule?

Related:

What it takes to win the NBA Championship

There are three main phases to the game of basketball:

i. Offense;
ii. Defense; and,
iii. Rebounding.

Developing an accurate understanding of the overall NBA talent which exists on the roster for each team at the beginning of the season is a fundamental aspect of properly evaluating the day-to-day goings-on across the league over the course of the season.

INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF TEAM ROSTERS IN NBA’S EASTERN CONFERENCE [as of Sun-Dec-25-2011]

Back in Milwaukee, Abdul-Jabbar talks about movie, life

Abdul-Jabbar’s aloof facade, the one that froze out fans, reporters and just about everyone else, began melting about the time he started building a life outside basketball. Hard to believe, but he’s been Citizen Kareem for two years longer than the 20 seasons he broke almost every NBA record.

“How do you think I feel about it?” he said with a laugh.

He was 27 when he requested a trade to New York or Los Angeles so that he might enrich a personal life that revolved around jazz and his religion.

“It’s some time that I did some growing up,” he said of his six seasons with the Bucks. “When you get out of college, you think you’ve done everything when you haven’t done anything. A lot of fond memories. Great fans here.

“Geez, I remember my rookie year, we lost to the Knicks in five games in the conference finals. The team had chartered a plane to take us back from New York to Milwaukee. The plane sets down at 2-2:30 in the morning and we had 500 fans there at the airport. That’s pretty unique.

“My whole time here we had that kind of support. Management was great to me. There’s nothing even remotely remembering bitterness about my stay here. I had a good stay here. That will be my memory of being here.”

As a Muslim, Abdul-Jabbar has been outspoken about the death of Osama bin Laden. On his website, he wrote about his relief that a distinction was made between faith and “a righteous fight for peace. Bringing justice to a mass murderer is something that people of all faiths can understand and support.”

“The people who have become terrorists are basically fascists,” he told me. “They think they’re right and everybody else is wrong and that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is expendable.

“They’re scary. The easy way to understand it is like the Ku Klux Klan. They claim to be Christians, but they’re terrorists, plain and simple. And that’s what’s happening in the Islamic world, unfortunately.”

In 1968, he said he felt like the only Muslim in Milwaukee. Times change, but challenging times do not.

“You live your life and you have to make certain adjustments for reality, but it’s my moral anchor,” he said. “The difference between right and wrong is very clear. There are only two types of people in the world, good people and bad people. Once you understand that, you can get by and get along.”

Yours truly has a considerable amount of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for a talented “writer”, like Kelly Dwyer, who happens to use the wacky world of the NBA as on outlet for his artistic skill-set.

Where the problem arises, however, is when certain writers, stats gurus and other observers attempt to provide their “analysis” of how a specific basketball team actually functions, as a collective unit, in a positive, neutral, or negative way … and, unfortunately, completely miss the proverbial boat.

To wit:

Fact 1

This is what Brandon Jennings was quoted as saying, about the state of the Bucks franchise, last Friday:

BUCKS BEAT: Many officials concerned about their status

“Some guys have the mind-set of winning on the team and some guys just don’t. We traded a lot of pieces I feel like we should have kept, but that’s part of the business and you’ve got to roll with it.’‘

Fact 2

This is part of what Kelly Dwyer wrote in his article about Brandon Jennings & Co.:

Brandon Jennings is not happy with his new teammates

“Yeah, man. You can’t mess with success. There was a reason they feared the deer, and the reason was … Luke Ridnour?

Because last year’s roster and rotation is really only missing Ridnour, and 15-minutes-per-game big man Kurt Thomas.”

Fact 3

This is what Milwaukee’s line-up looked like last year:

i. In the immediate aftermath of the ‘trade deadline’, when

they beat the Miami Heat;

ii. At the end of the regular season schedule last year, when they beat the Boston Celtics, on the final day of the season;

iii. When they were eliminated from the Eastern Conference

Playoffs, in Game 7 of the 1st Round, by the Atlanta Hawks.

Fact 4

Milwaukee’s roster last season, after the trade deadline, included the following players:

Brandon Jennings, John Salmons, Carlos Delfino, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Andrew Bogut, Ersan Ilyasova, Luke Ridnour, Royal Ivey, Charlie Bell, Jerry Stackhouse, Darnell Jackson, Francisco Elson, Kurt Thomas, Dan Gadzuric and Primoz Brezec 

each of whom was instrumental to the Bucks’ success at one point or another. 

Fact 5

This is what the Bucks’ line-up looked like last night, when they lost at Orlando [72-78] … which means that a current list of the additions and subtractions from their roster last season actually looks like this:

ADDITIONS
1 Earl Boykins [best described as a veteran scorer]
2 Corey Maggette [best described as a veteran scorer]
3 Drew Gooden
4 Keyon Dooling
5 Larry Sanders
6 Chris Douglas-Roberts
7 Michael Redd

[plus, Jon Brockman who was out of the line-up yesterday]

SUBTRACTIONS

1 Luke Ridnour [best described as a non selfish veteran]
2 Charlie Bell [best described as a non selfish veteran]
3 Dan Gadzuric [best described as a non selfish veteran]
4 Francisco Elso [best described a non selfish veteran]
5 Royal Ivey [best described as a non selfish youngster]
6 Darnell Jackson [best described as a non selfish youngster]
7 Primoz Brezec
8 Jerry Stackhouse

If you consider the respective skill-sets and other important personal attributes of the players who the Bucks have added to this year’s team … based on MORE THAN just their individual “production numbers” … compared to the COHESIVE collection of players they had last year … especially, amongst their set of Reserves [i.e. players No. 9-15] … it should be relatively easy to see the CORRECTNESS of what Brandon Jennings was talking about, when he was quoted on the current situation in Milwaukee.

From a ‘basketball analysis’ perspective …

It is a basic – but crucial – error in basketball judgment to think that the contributions of the non-rotational players on a given roster are NOT absolutely fundamental to the success or failure of a team in the NBA.

After ending their 13 game losing streak this past Friday, the Raptors are set to take on the Bucks this evening, in Milwaukee.

If the respective line-ups for these two teams looks like this:

then, even though the Dinos are minus 5, in the “individual match-up” categories, there is a solid chance that Toronto will be able to get the cover, given the internal difficulties which Milwaukee has experienced recently, e.g. Exhibits A & B … if Jay Triano can elicit strong performances from DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson, Andrea Bargnani and Leandro Barbosa.

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Published Wagering Line

Opening: MILWAUKEE BUCKS -7.5

Current: MILWAUKEE BUCKS -7.5 [as of 2:45 PM today]

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KSS PROGNOSTICATION

Toronto +7.5 is a sound proposition this evening.

At this point of the NBA regular season schedule, each team has played at least 30 games.

Given the history of the NBA … and what it actually takes to be able to win 4 consecutive best-of-seven games series in the playoffs … there is now a strong possibility that the 2010-2011 League Championship will eventually be won by 1 of the 8 teams shown above in “neon green”.

To everyone who takes the time to visit this little corner of the blogosphere …

Happy New Year!

Although the Indiana Pacers [10-10/.500] are one of the most improved teams in the NBA, so far, this season – i.e. last year, at the 20 game mark, the Pacers’ W-L record was 7-13/.400 – in reality, they should be even better than their record to-date indicates.

Q1. How come, you ask?

A1. Primarily … because, as an in-game tactician, their head coach [i.e. Jim O'Brien] – all too often - leaves a great deal to be desired.

Exhibit A

If you look at this specific video clip of highlights, from last night’s at-the-buzzer loss to the Bucks, in Milwaukee, you should be able to see exactly which set of 5 players each team had on the floor during the final possession of the game.

For Milwaukee:

Jennings/PG, Salmons/OG, Mbah A Moute/SF, Ilyasova/PF, and Bogut/C

For Indiana:

Collison/PG, Rush/OG, Granger/SF, Foster/PF, and C/Hibbert

precipitating the following Individual Match-ups:

Collison/PG vs Jennings/PG
Rush/OG vs Salmons/OG
Hibbert/C vs Mbah A Moute/SF [inbound passer]
Granger/PF vs Ilyasova/PF
Foster/PF vs Bogut/C

as the Bucks ran their set play – i.e. a simple cross screen then back screen action involving Jennings [screener], Salmons [screen user-1] and Bogut [screen user-2] – from the left sideline in their front-court.

While it makes a great deal of “basketball sense” for the Pacers to use Roy Hibbert [7-2] as the inbounds defender [i.e. taking advantage of his "height" and "reach" vs Mbah A Moute], in this situation, it makes very little sense to have Jeff Foster [6-11 and "savvy", but with a limited "reach" and overall "athleticism"] matched-up vs Andrew Bogut [7-0], especially, when:

i. The Bucks’ center is initially positioned at the Top Of The Key [i.e. where he is poised to set a stationary screen for Ilyasova and, then, use a back screen from Jennings, in order to get to the basket himself];

and,

ii. Your team has superior defensive players on the bench – e.g. Solomon Jones/C [significantly more athletic], or James Posey/SF [also highly experienced] – who are better suited to check Mr. Bogut, in this specific situation, given the time & score.

Although Jeff Foster is a solid, veteran Big Man, who has seen every defensive situation imaginable, over the course of his 12 seasons in the NBA … given his limited use this season, and the fact that he was not used in this game between the 42.0 second mark of the 3rd quarter [Ind 79, Mil 78] and the 0.5 second mark of the 4th quarter [Ind 95, Mil 95] … he was NOT the correct defensive match-up for the Pacers to use on the final possession of the 4th quarter.

i.e. Scenario 1 – If O’Brien wanted to go with a veteran player vs Bogut, then, he should have used James Posey – i.e who was last “subbed into” the game at the 2:33 mark of the 4th quarter and was the player ”subbed out” in favour of Jeff Foster - even though he is under-sized vs Bogut, since there was no time available for a post-up situation. Scenario 2 – If O’Brien wanted to go with the best physical match-up vs Bogut, then, he should have used Solomon Jones – i.e. who did not play in this game after the 2:13 mark of the 2nd quarter, in spite of having an individual ”stat line” which read as follows: FGM-FGA/2-3, Pts/4, Rebs/2, Diff/-3, and MP/6.

Despite the fact that certain ”stats gurus” might like to suggest that the “real effects” of a particular head coach’s work, in the NBA, are highly over-rated … or that certain coaches are actually “worth” a specific number of wins per season, based on a statitistical measure which tracks individual player performance, related to that team’s overall number of wins … the simple fact of the matter is that … this is not the case at all, when you examine closely just how many individual games are lost, within a given season, by the one person who is actually responsible for deciding which set of 5 players are on the court together for their team at any specific point in time – relative to his counterpart for the opposition – and the very “real effects” the outcomes of these games have on their team’s place in the final standings. 

In this regard, Jim O’Brien is now 0-1, this season, according to yours truly.

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Related:

Buzzer beater breakdown

Indiana doesn’t protect the rim, gives up the game winner with 0.5 left

When Toronto’s basketball brain-trust made the decision to complete the two trades which they made this past weekend that obtained the following 2 players:

Jerryd Bayless [PG/OG] and Peja Stojakovic [SF]

in exchange for the following 3 players:

Jarrett Jack [PG/OG], David Andersen [C] and Marcus Banks [PG]

it accomplished several inter-related things:

1. Opened up a roster spot that will probably be used to sign Erick Dampier [C];

2. Solidified Jose Calderon’s role with this year’s squad, as the Starting PG;

3. Opened up increased playing time for the No. 9 [overall] Selection from the 2010 NBA Draft – i.e. Ed Davis [PF-C] - who is due to re-join their active roster shortly after completing his rehabilitation assignment to the D-League;

4. Improved their chances of competing for a lower tier playoff spot in the Eastern Conference [i.e. No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8] this season;

5. Reduced their chances of finishing in the basement of the Eastern Conference this season;

and,

6. Effectively eliminated their opportunity to obtain Harrison Barnes [G/F, 6-8, 210], as a franchise-changing player who will be available this summer … as a likely Top 3 Selection in the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery.

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This is what the NBA Standings look like today, in the aftermath of yesterday’s thrilling victory by the Raptors [5-9/.357, T-12th] over the visiting Celtics [9-4/.692, 2nd];

and, this – i.e. please click on the link - is a comparative evaluation of the rosters for the different teams in the East that should now be able to effectively compete for the last 3 playoff spots this year, as the regular season continues to unfold.

Where the Raptors once had a legitimate chance to obtain a dominant player in next summer’s NBA Draft Lottery, today, this is no longer the case.

Unfortunately …

Personnel moves like these are yet more instances of this franchise opting for a “short term” boost in on-court performance with increased financial flexibility, rather than following a detailed, costly and highly integrated “long term” plan which is designed to gradually improve the organization over a period of years, while also increasing their opportunity to achieve major success, as one of the authentic dominant teams in the NBA.

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Update:

Please see this specific blog entry - from Tuesday, November 24, 2010 - for a more expansive version of why these two trades from this past weekend have improved the NBA talent level on the Raptors’ current – and future – roster this season. 

Opening Night high-lights of the Tip-off to the NBA Pre-season