Earlier tonight, I managed to catch a good deal of the Warriors-Kings game. It was a tough one to pick a rooting interest in: the Warriors have been “my team” since my family left Toronto in 1999 (for Baltimore, and I’m not going to root for a team from DC), but Greivis Vasquez is my favorite basketball player by a pretty wide distance, and I’ve grown accustomed to always rooting for Greivis’ team. Also, their new coach has a great last name.
I settled on “Greivis has a great game, but the Warriors win,” which turned out to be half right. Greivis got just 14 minutes and scored six points with three assists on 2-8 shooting, but the Warriors picked up a win behind 36 from Steph Curry.
Another King who didn’t do so well was Derrick Williams. He scored just four points and missed his only three, while his seeming competition, Patrick Patterson, went 8-8 from the field with two threes for 18 points. The Kings have to be hoping that Williams just wasn’t a fit in Minnesota and he’ll be better in Sacramento, and there’s definitely reason to hope for that. Players with offensive games as versatile as his don’t grow on trees.
Oh, another thing that happened today: Andre Drummond put up 31 and 19. A certain someone (me) picked him for Most Improved Player in the preseason. We’ll see where he lands on our next MIP rankings. Hopefully it’s high so I can look smart.
Now let’s get to the latest from around the NBA:
Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal has an idea for Anthony Bennett and the Cavs: “The top overall pick in the draft is shooting 22 percent. His 10 turnovers equal his 10 baskets. He has shot as many 3-pointers (17) as Alonzo Gee in less than half as many minutes. He has only made three of them. The first 16 games have been a disaster for Anthony Bennett. Entering Saturday’s home game against the Chicago Bulls, Bennett played fewer minutes and scored fewer points than undrafted rookie Matthew Dellavedova and equaled C.J. Miles’ turnover total in 80 less minutes. Nothing the Cavs have tried thus far with Bennett has worked. So here’s an idea… Start him. Crazier yet, start him at small forward, a position where he has hardly ever practiced in his life. At this point, what do the Cavs have to lose? Another game? Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said he has considered the idea. The day after they drafted Bennett, the Cavs made it clear he was strictly a power forward this season. Privately, a number of people within the organization envisioned his long-term future in the NBA as a small forward, but Bennett was a raw 19-year-old who had only ever played power forward and center. The Cavs wanted to keep things as simple as possible during his transition to the NBA, so they committed to keeping him at power forward for this season.”- Another guy who’s not hitting his shots is J.R. Smith. Peter Botte of the New York Daily News talked to him: “Smith scored 11 points but shot just 1-for-7 from 3-point range as he struggles to rediscover his stroke following summertime knee surgery and a five-game suspension for violating the NBA’s drug policy. Smith, last season’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year, is shooting a career-low 32.8 percent from the floor, and even worse from beyond the arc (28.6 percent). The Knicks are 1-9 since he returned from suspension entering Sunday’s game against New Orleans at the Garden. “My jumper just hasn’t been there,” Smith said. “That’s situations where I got to make my teammates better, get guys open shots and keep driving to the hole. But one thing, I’m not going to stop shooting.” Asked if his surgically repaired left knee has affected his shooting stroke and his overall play, Smith admitted: “Somewhat, but it’s all right, I’m still playing…It’s taking time. I’m not one to make excuses, but I got to play better. If it’s hurting that bad, then I shouldn’t be playing. I’m out there and I’m going to try to give it all I got.” “
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The Clippers say guard JJ Redick will miss 6-8 weeks with a right hand bone fracture.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) December 1, 2013
Somehow, every experiment the Heat try seems to work. Birdman, LeBron as a center, Mario Chalmers, and now Michael Beasley. Here’s Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald: “With Beasley playing the role of defensive stopper, the Raptors scored four points in the final minutes of the game, and the Heat got out of Toronto with a victory despite scoring just 33 points in the second half and 12 points in the fourth quarter. “He can have a significant role for us,” Spoelstra said on Friday, offering publicly his strongest show of support for Beasley since he was signed this summer. “That role may be limited minutes, but it can be a significant role. It could be bigger minutes. We have a whole season to figure that out.” Based on Beasley’s inconsistent minutes, it’s clear Spoelstra still hasn’t figured out exactly how to fit the versatile forward into the rotation, but the most important thing for the Heat is that the Beasley experiment is working.”- A quick update on the Heat’s other experiment, Greg Oden, from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “He is (practicing), and the lack of insight is by design, something agreed to when he signed. When he’s ready, he’s ready. The Heat essentially are making him off-limits to the media as if he was an injured player. When he plays, then, by rule, the team will have to make him available for comment.”
- One team for whom nothing seems to be working is the Knicks. Here’s Alan Hahn (via Sulia) on what they can do to improve: “The name that is dominating the early rumors is Omer Asik of the Rockets. The disgruntled center can be had, but Houston isn’t just giving him away. In fact, the Rockets are setting the market high for Asik, with a demand of two first round picks in any deal. That eliminates the Knicks, who have given away enough first rounders over the last few years. They can’t move one until 2018. Even if they did, Asik’s luxury tax hit next season is the same as Jeremy Lin’s ($15 million), which would make it an expensive transaction. It’s more likely the Knicks will target more of an “energy” big, if they can land one. Kenneth Faried, a recently rumored name, certainly would fit that mold, but the Nuggets have shown no interest in making a deal.”
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I was told that Matt Barnes is still about two weeks away from a return. J.J. Redick will likely miss eight weeks.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) December 1, 2013
Lionel Hollins got left out in Memphis. Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes about it: “Nice as the time off has been, however, Hollins is ready to return to the NBA. “I believe I’ve established myself as a head coach and I’d like another opportunity to show that [my success] wasn’t a fluke,” Hollins said. “I feel like I’ve proven I can take a young team and develop it, then sustain what I’ve done by what I did in the last five years in Memphis.” Hollins was let go by the Grizzlies despite winning a franchise-record 56 games and leading Memphis to its first Western Conference Finals appearance last season. The reasons were philosophical in nature, after a season in which Hollins didn’t always publicly embrace the moves or direction set by the Grizzlies’ new ownership and front office. “We want to have the kind of organization where we get people in a room … who are going to disagree about what we should do and what the personnel moves should be,” Grizzlies president Jason Levien said in a radio interview with WHBQ after Hollins was let go. “We want to really dig in and get messy when we’re in that room talking about what the decision and direction should be. And then once we come to a decision, whatever that personnel decision is, we want to walk out of the room arm-in-arm, locked together in how we’re going to proceed.””
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Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.