khandor’s sports blog

Although this specific clip might be the first time Larry Brown Sports is featuring a video of a noteworthy NBA player displaying his prodigious soccer skills:

it should not be viewed as a “first-time” experience for sports blogs, in general:

vs

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

“The Beautiful Game” has long been considered a legitimate training ground for erstwhile aspirants of “The Hard-court Version.”

After sliding down into the NBA’s Draft Lottery last year …

What exactly has happened with the Phoenix Suns this season to propel their team back toward the top end of the Western Conference?

1 Robert Sarver … once vilified as a “spendthrift” owner, to the worst degree … is now perceived as a “champion of the people.”

2 Steve Nash is still a terrific offensive Point Guard and a first-class leader.

3 Grant Hill is still a consumate professional.

4 Amare Stoudemire is still a dynamic force at the Center position.

5 Leandro Barbosa is still a whirling dervish capable of providing instant offense.

6 Robin Lopez – drafted [No. 15] by S-Kerr summer 2008
7 Goran Dragic – acquired via Draft Day trade [No. 45] by S-Kerr summer 2008 
8 Louis Amundson - added by S-Kerr summer 2008
9 Jason Richardson – acquired via trade by S-Kerr 2008-2009 season
10 Jared Dudley – acquired via trade by S-Kerr 2008-2009 season
11 Earl Clark – drafted [No. 14] by S-Kerr summer 2009
12 Alvin Gentry – appointed head coach by S-Kerr 2008-2009 season
13 Taylor Griffin – drafted [No. 48] by S-Kerr summer 2009
14 Channing Frye – added by S-Kerr summer 2009
15 Jarron Collins – Added by S-Kerr fall 2009
16 Dwayne Jones – added by S-Kerr 2009-2010 season

* Bold – individuals who are sound defensively and in terms of rebounding.

October 24 2008, this is what was written in this space about Steve Kerr, the current GM of the Phoenix Suns:

Making the correct decisions in the Valley of the Sun

April 28 2009, this is what was written in this space about the immediate future of the Phoenix Suns, under the direction of Steve Kerr:

Where the Suns go from here, under Steve Kerr

12 months later …

After sweeping their 2nd Round Playoff series againgst arch-nemesis, San Antonio, today, Phoenix is basking in the glow of a return trip to the Western Conference Finals … courtesy of the fine work done by STEVE KERR. 

If you do not happen to know exactly who Steve Kerr is … and what his personal history happens to entail … then you should take a minute to read THIS and, then, understand fully that – in the opinion of yours truly – he has the make-up [i.e. the basketball pedigree, the list of basketball-related accomplishments and the personal attributes] of someone who is going to be an outstanding General Manager in the NBA for an extended number of years with his commitment to a Balanced Approach to the game.

Related:

Phoenix Suns News

Merci beaucoup, KD …

and, the Least Most Ridiculous Man in the World.

Deron Williams and the Jazz know what they’re doing

“With Chris Paul sidelined, is any point guard playing better than Deron Williams?”

There are a few things I try not to do. Among them:

• I try not to wake up my wife and kids when they’re sleeping.
• I try not to call people who have little children late at night.
• Realizing I’m a journalist, not a coach, I try not to make statements that rely strictly on my own cobbled-together basketball judgment.
• I try not to curse.

Last night I came this close to breaking all those rules …

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Given the already stated preference of this corner, when forced to choose between CP3 and D-Will …

It’s the Age of the Point Guard, in today’s NBA [Dec 18 2009]

it is now a simple fact that the age-old …

QUESTION of …

Who is the best Point Guard in the NBA today?

… needs to be asked and, then, answered, in a different way than it’s ever been asked before … 

considering THE WAY a certain member of the Cleveland Cavaliers has been conducting his on-court business since approximately Jan 11 2010.

LeBron James’ Complete Game Log

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THE CORRECT ANSWER is … LeBron James.

[... which is something this corner has been advocating for at least the last 2+ years quite some time ... i.e. Best Point Guards in the NBA: An Update, Jan 30 2008]

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PS. In sharp contrast to other NBA experts/analysts/fans/etc. … there is a good reason why many of the statements and observations which appear on this blog do, in fact, rely mostly on “cobbled-together basketball judgment” rather than elaborate prose and/or the use of unnecessarily complicated new-age statistics. For those of you who took the time to read what Henry Abbott wrote in his introduction, it’s important to always be aware of How the Principle of Opposite functions in The Game of Hoops.

This corner of the blogosphere has been saying for at least the last 2+ years that Deron Williams is, in fact, a better PG than the Annointed One, Chris Paul …  

However, despite the affection which exists here for the members of the TNT Crew, please let it still be known, to one and all, that there is also a VERY BIG difference between making a comparative statement like that, and subsequently christening D-Will as the No. 1 PG, overall, in the entire NBA today … whilest other top dogs, like:

Chauncey Billups
Steve Nash
Tony Parker, and
Jason Kidd

are still running, at near full-throttle, in the pound, and other still-as-yet wet-behind-the-ears young bucks, like:

Rajon Rondo
Devin Harris
Russell Westbrook
Derrick Rose
Rodney Stuckey
Monta Ellis
Tyreke Evans, and
Brandon Jennings

are just beginning to prowl.

Indeed, in the grand history of the game, you might not be able to identify any other era during which quite THIS many [and potentially even more than just the 14 names listed here] very-good-to-perhaps-great Point Guards roamed the floors of the NBA, all at once, on an every day basis.

Forget the business about supposedly using the “slow white gute guy at the YMCA shot” …

Pick & Roll/Pop basketball simply doesn’t get executed any better than THIS.

re: How an astute NBA observer might expect the first part of the schedule to unfold for the Raptors this year

Game 18 – vs Phoenix [Sun Nov 29]

Originally, this was a game which yours truly thought the Raptors could/should/would win during this initial stretch of 20 games to start the season … that is … until the individual match-ups were examined in closer detail, especially, in the light of last night’s exhibition games vs Boston [aka, Hedo Turkoglu's debut with the Raptors] and Portland [for Phoenix].

The pre-season injury to Robin Lopez is going to impair the Suns’ ability to match-up physically in the post with a number of teams in the league this year. However, at the same time, Suns’ opponents are going to have their hands full coping with the different/unusual 5-man combinations which Phoenix will now be able to put on the floor together, playing at a very high tempo [e.g. last night Phoenix closed their game with Nash + Barbosa + Dudley + Frye + Stoudemire]. 

When healthy, this group of Suns is going to be too much for the Raptors to handle, given that:

1 The only match-up advantage in Toronto’s favour is Chris Bosh; 

2 The Raptors’ defense and rebounding will continue to struggle this season with the addition of Turkoglu; and,

3 The Suns are now capable of shooting the lights out with the 3-ball.

Raptors expected W-L Record: L, 6-12

Finally … a stats guru speaks who is at least on the right track.

How stats apply to individual match-ups for elite level NBA coaches
WW: Tracy McGrady is a player who has never helped his team as much as people thought. Allen Iverson — for one or two years he was really good.

The best player of the decade, though, I’d say, was Kevin Garnett. We have a rating over the last eight or nine years, and Garnett comes out number one. And I think everybody else [other stat experts] has that too, so that’s nice.

Although I don’t like Garnett. When I watch on TV, he’s turning too edgy. Chippy attitude.

Another guy who is totally overrated is Amare Stoudemire. I mean, he’s a stat stuffer. Troy Murphy gets great stats, but never does much for the team.

(UPDATE: Winston amends this statement: “With Golden State Troy Murphy was a stat stuffer who did little to help the team but with Indiana the last two years he has improved to where he is an above average NBA player.”)

There’s a bunch of guys like that.

Andre Iguodala, though. Whenever he’s on the court for Philadelphia, they’re great. Whenever he’s off, they suck. God knows why he’s a good player. I watch him play, and I don’t know. (More on Iguodala.)

Jason Kidd is a little like that, but you can see why he makes guys better. But not Iguodala.

HA: Sometimes I feel like I can see Kidd’s greatness, but other times, at this stage of his career, I can’t. 

WW: Kidd can’t guard a fast guard. They go right by him like he’s standing still. They always did. Against Chris Paul … Jason Kidd might as well be standing still on defense.

But the interesting thing: Devin Harris can nail Tony Parker. But Steve Nash can beat Devin Harris. But Parker can beat Nash.

It’s not transitive. We can show that. That’s really interesting. That shouldn’t be. But it is. There are probably a lot of other things like that.

If coaches see other examples of things like that, we can back them up with data. Del Harris really got to like us, I think, because a lot of times our numbers confirmed what he thought. It’s hard to argue with the numbers when you’ve got a full amount of data on it.

Last year [Maverick assistant] Terry Stotts did a really great job asking us questions. Before the Spurs series, they asked us about Antoine Wright.  He’s not on the team anymore, thank god. OK, he had a bad rating in our system. But the fascinating thing was, when he played small forward, he was good. When he played shooting guard, he was terrible. So we can break that down. I can find every combination where he was small forward and he was good. Every combination where he was shooting guard he was terrible. 

Against the Spurs, they used him as a small forward and he was great. Every time he played for Howard at small forward, they killed the Spurs.

Things like this … I needed the coach to ask me the question because I would have never thought of it. You don’t just throw the numbers at the coach, because, I mean, 500,000 numbers! But if the coach understands what he’s doing, and says “I think Antoine Wright can play small forward can you tell me if that’s true?” That’s how you use the stuff.

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THIS is the direction in which basketball analysis NEEDS to go.

Sincere thanks to you … Wayne Winston!

PS. It’s the job of an elite level basketball coach to answer correctly the questions which Wayne Winston doesn’t happen to have the specific training, knowledge base and experience to discern properly on his own … e.g. What really makes Andre Iguodala as good as he is given what the “average” stats/numbers have to say about his level of play?  Those who can DO THAT are the ones with the type of Basketball Analysis/Acumen you SHOULD BE listening to in order to better understand, How The NBA Game Actually Works, Based On Individual Match-ups.

PPS. Class for NBA 101 is now finished for today … or, in fact, for some of you, at least, it may just be starting … from scratch.

PPPS. Btw … What Wayne Winston had to say in this piece about there being no distinction necessary between the use of players like Brandon Bass [#4/PF] and Dirk Nowitzki [#5/C], on the court together, regardless of their position, and the effect/thinking of Mike D’Antoni, just happens to be wrong.

re: How an astute NBA observer might expect the first part of the schedule to unfold for the Raptors this year

Game 10– @ Phoenix [Sun Nov 15]

The Suns are a much more stable team this season, provided they have a healthy Stoudemire at the Center position, with 8 of their first 10 players as returnees from last year’s squad. If Earl Clark turns out to be as good as this corner thinks he is going to be … i.e. a starting calibre #3/SF, who can score the ball, defend and rebound his position effectively … Phoenix will have a very solid rotation that’s 10-men deep and capable of playing well at a high tempo for the entire season. In this specific spot on their schedule, the Raptors will most likely be over-matched in a high scoring shootout.

Raptors expected W-L Record: L, 4-6

Enjoy this 23 minute interview which aired this past weekend …

CBC video: Steve Nash, One On One

Captain [Canada!] Planet is like no other baller in the universe.