We’ve come up with a well-deserved nickname for the Class of 2013. The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. The perpetual clanging coming from this group makes an auto body shop sound like a library. Among rookies averaging 10 minutes per game, Brooklyn big man Mason Plumlee is the only one making more shots than he misses. Cody Zeller, who is 7 feet tall, has gone 11 straight games making less than half his shots. Not one of the top eight scorers is shooting
Last week, we discussed how the race for Rookie of the Year is wide open because of injuries to several of the top picks. No. 3 Otto Porter, No. 6 Nerlens Noel and No. 10 C.J. McCollum still haven’t taken the court this season. But a couple of first-round picks – both point guards – made their NBA debuts this week. On Monday, it was Dallas Mavericks guard Shane Larkin, who suffered a broken ankle in the last practice before summer league.
Last season, our Rookie Rankings were a Who’s Who. This season, it’s more like a Who’s That? Just two weeks into the season, we are startled by the number of lower picks who have played their way into the rankings – or, more accurately, the number of high picks on the outside looking in. Just to make sure our imagination wasn’t playing tricks on us, we went back to the second week of the 2012-13 rankings to see the breakdown of low picks
For the last decade, the 11th pick in the NBA draft has been a crapshoot. In 2011, the Golden State Warriors rolled a “yo” with Klay Thompson, who has shown All-Star potential. The previous year, however, the New Orleans Hornets selected Cole Aldrich, who has shown D-League potential. For every Jerryd Bayless, there’s an Acie Law. For every J.J. Redick, there’s a Terrence Williams. And let’s not forget the immortal Fran Vasquez, who wants to come to the United States about as
Unpredictable. Chaotic. Climactic. Frenetic. Turbulent. These are just several words to describe Thursday night’s NBA Draft at the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn. For the first time in a while, nobody had any idea what was going to happen. And from the first selection down to the humongous blockbuster trade that went down, the theater and drama of the 2013 draft more than made up for the lack of an impact player among this year’s talent pool. With very few surefire
At this point in basketball season, we’ve got to touch upon the NCAA Tournament and the annual madness, mayhem and delight that come along with it. We’re an hour late with this post; the first two games are already underway. Let the madness begin! [Read more…]
There is an old saying that you can’t teach scoring. Ask any NBA general manager what they need more of, and the answer is almost always scoring. With the Sloan Sports Analytic Conference reaching a mainstream following, the need to understand statistics and data is at a premium. Despite many complicated numbers and formulas to uncover gems and underrated players, one truth exists: Teams value players that create extra possessions. In a given playoff game, each team may have 80 possessions.