They would make a pretty good pair… fuckyeanba: Zach Lowe comprises the best links from around the web today in SI’s The Point Forward Blog because I don’t have the time (sorry readers—he’s a better writer than me anyway). [PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire] • At ESPN.com, Ian O’Connor and John Hollinger both ask the same question: If New York really wants Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, two of the top six or seven (at worst) players in basketball, shouldn’t they be willing to trade Carmelo Anthony or Amar’e Stoudemire to get one? • At CBS Sports, Matt Moore comes up with an enticing idea:  The Hornets and Magic, under assault from more glamorous markets, should team up by having the Hornets deal Paul to Orlando, giving the Magic both Paul and Howard — and a realistic chance at a ring. • Eddy Rivera of Magic Basketball likes that idea just fine, even with the risk it carries for the Magic. The idea falls apart if Paul tells the Hornets he’s open to teams beyond New York — teams like the Clippers and Lakers, who have prime assets to send back. • Everyone wants to know which type of team benefits, and which might be hurt, in a compressed season like the one we’re about to have. Earlier this week, I argued that we really don’t know, though everyone has their theories, and that many of the conclusions folks drew from the compressed 1999 season amounted to hindsight excuses for their own team’s demise. I got some stats-based help on that piece, and Aaron McGuire, one of the guys who helped me, dug even further into the numbers and says I might have missed something: Will teams that played at a slower-than-average pace last season, and thus are used to that style of play, have an advantage this season? • Holy cow, what a post-Thanksgiving smorgasbord: John Schuhmann of NBA.com, unleashed upon the resumption of semi-normal NBA business, has produced a stats-based recap of every team’s 2010-11 season. All the goodies are here — improvements, declines, five-man lineup performance data and lots of other goodies. • After the players filed their antitrust suit, Jim Quinn, a lawyer with four decades of experience representing NBA players (but not directly involved in the lockout to that point), privately called both sides and encouraged them to return to the table. At NBA.com, Steve Aschburner gets to Quinn to explain why he waded into the mess when he did, and Quinn seems to admit a bruised ego had at least a little to do with it. • You’re going to be happy to have this back in your life, NBA junkies: Sebastian Pruiti, using video to break down some of the best out-of-bounds sets each team runs. • It is a bad thing, generally, that Rajon Rondo is an inaccurate and reluctant jump-shooter. This is inarguable, and it’s one reason the Celtics’ offense slipped below the league average last season in points per possession. When the Celtics run a pick-and-roll involving Rondo, defenses almost always go under the screen, squeezing the paint and preventing Rondo from turning the corner. In general, this is a bad thing, but as this fantastic film breakdown at Red’s Army shows, Rondo and his teammates have gotten very creative in turning this defensive strategy in Boston’s favor. One thing you see here again and again: By going under screens, the defense basically surrenders the area right above the foul line, allowing Rondo to go to work much closer to the basket than, say, Steve Nash or Stephen Curry. And once he’s there, he’s really only one big step from the middle of the paint, where help must come. • At Grantland, Gabe Feldman, a law professor at Tulane and sports law expert, answers a bunch of questions about the NBA lockout and asks one really good one: Will the speed with which the players dissolved their union and then reconstituted it help sports leagues convince judges in future disputes that the tactic is a sham? • Henry Abbott of TrueHoop eloquently states the case for superstar movement: Seeing those same kinds of decisions in the hands of players, however … that angers people. The idea is that they have not earned that. But they have. They absolutely have. If by some combination of luck, skill and work you ever find yourself in the eye of a $5 billion storm, guess what: You’ll get to pick your city and coworkers, too. What’s weird in the NBA isn’t that superstars have power and exercise it. What’s weird is that for so many decades they did not. NBA player earned the right to free agency in 1972, but unlike stars in other industries (Hollywood, music, Wall Street) have been restrained in exploring their market power. Now that’s starting to change, which sure might make fans anxious. Nobody likes to get dumped. And this excerpt doesn’t even touch on the fact that, through the draft and rules for rookie contract extensions, NBA teams typically control the first half-dozen years – at least — of a superstar’s career. Those are prime years. • ESPN.com’s Marc Stein says Arron Afflalo may be the most coveted free agent outside the top four big men (Tyson Chandler, Nene, Marc Gasol and David West), and drops this nugget about Gasol: I’m told, for example, that Indiana — one team that really hasn’t been mentioned as a potential suitor for the Spaniard — rates Gasol above Nene and is strongly weighing whether to slap an offer sheet down for him. You’d have to do something with Roy Hibbert in that scenario, since the Gasol-Roy Hibbert combo just isn’t quick enough to play heavy minutes together. • More really good work from Ian Levy in trying to figure out which coaches make the best use of their five-man lineups. • Will Luis Scola be an amnesty candidate down the line – i.e. years from now? • Should the Warriors use the amnesty provision on Andris Biedrins, due $27 million combined over the next three seasons? I’d wager pretty heavily that one of the teams under the cap would place a bid on Biedrins, relieving Golden State of some of that $27 million. • Some advanced stats say good things about Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, a restricted free agent the Bucks say they’d like to keep. • Before the Chris Paul/Dwight Howard events of the last 72 hours, a school of thought had emerged that Utah may have acted rashly in dealing Deron Williams well ahead of his free agency. The new CBA makes extend-and-trade and sign-and-trade transactions more difficult, this school of thought went, and had the Jazz known this would be the case, perhaps they would have taken their chances holding onto Williams. But Tom Ziller says what has happened over the last few days proves the Jazz were right to trade Williams when they did – and that other teams should take note. • Carmelo Anthony once swore he would never have surgery unless he had absolutely no choice. That changed over the summer. • Andrew Bynum, reportedly a bit lighter and quicker, thanks to some boxing training. • Gerald Green, still trying to make it work in China. • Pau Gasol’s life as a Bill Murray movie. • If you write something the Blazers organization (i.e. Paul Allen) doesn’t really like, you might want to watch out for attacks from seldom-used, semi-official Blazer Twitter accounts. • Brandon Rush is the latest NBA player to claim a hacked Twitter account. This is an epidemic, apparently.

They would make a pretty good pair…

fuckyeanba:

Zach Lowe comprises the best links from around the web today in SI’s The Point Forward Blog because I don’t have the time (sorry readers—he’s a better writer than me anyway).

[PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire]

• At ESPN.com, Ian O’Connor and John Hollinger both ask the same question: If New York really wants Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, two of the top six or seven (at worst) players in basketball, shouldn’t they be willing to trade Carmelo Anthony or Amar’e Stoudemire to get one?

• At CBS Sports, Matt Moore comes up with an enticing idea:  The Hornets and Magic, under assault from more glamorous markets, should team up by having the Hornets deal Paul to Orlando, giving the Magic both Paul and Howard — and a realistic chance at a ring.

• Eddy Rivera of Magic Basketball likes that idea just fine, even with the risk it carries for the Magic. The idea falls apart if Paul tells the Hornets he’s open to teams beyond New York — teams like the Clippers and Lakers, who have prime assets to send back.

• Everyone wants to know which type of team benefits, and which might be hurt, in a compressed season like the one we’re about to have. Earlier this week, I argued that we really don’t know, though everyone has their theories, and that many of the conclusions folks drew from the compressed 1999 season amounted to hindsight excuses for their own team’s demise. I got some stats-based help on that piece, and Aaron McGuire, one of the guys who helped me, dug even further into the numbers and says I might have missed something: Will teams that played at a slower-than-average pace last season, and thus are used to that style of play, have an advantage this season?

• Holy cow, what a post-Thanksgiving smorgasbord: John Schuhmann of NBA.com, unleashed upon the resumption of semi-normal NBA business, has produced a stats-based recap of every team’s 2010-11 season. All the goodies are here — improvements, declines, five-man lineup performance data and lots of other goodies.

• After the players filed their antitrust suit, Jim Quinn, a lawyer with four decades of experience representing NBA players (but not directly involved in the lockout to that point), privately called both sides and encouraged them to return to the table. At NBA.com, Steve Aschburner gets to Quinn to explain why he waded into the mess when he did, and Quinn seems to admit a bruised ego had at least a little to do with it.

• You’re going to be happy to have this back in your life, NBA junkies: Sebastian Pruiti, using video to break down some of the best out-of-bounds sets each team runs.

• It is a bad thing, generally, that Rajon Rondo is an inaccurate and reluctant jump-shooter. This is inarguable, and it’s one reason the Celtics’ offense slipped below the league average last season in points per possession. When the Celtics run a pick-and-roll involving Rondo, defenses almost always go under the screen, squeezing the paint and preventing Rondo from turning the corner. In general, this is a bad thing, but as this fantastic film breakdown at Red’s Army shows, Rondo and his teammates have gotten very creative in turning this defensive strategy in Boston’s favor. One thing you see here again and again: By going under screens, the defense basically surrenders the area right above the foul line, allowing Rondo to go to work much closer to the basket than, say, Steve Nash or Stephen Curry. And once he’s there, he’s really only one big step from the middle of the paint, where help must come.

• At Grantland, Gabe Feldman, a law professor at Tulane and sports law expert, answers a bunch of questions about the NBA lockout and asks one really good one: Will the speed with which the players dissolved their union and then reconstituted it help sports leagues convince judges in future disputes that the tactic is a sham?

• Henry Abbott of TrueHoop eloquently states the case for superstar movement:

Seeing those same kinds of decisions in the hands of players, however … that angers people. The idea is that they have not earned that.

But they have. They absolutely have. If by some combination of luck, skill and work you ever find yourself in the eye of a $5 billion storm, guess what: You’ll get to pick your city and coworkers, too.

What’s weird in the NBA isn’t that superstars have power and exercise it. What’s weird is that for so many decades they did not. NBA player earned the right to free agency in 1972, but unlike stars in other industries (Hollywood, music, Wall Street) have been restrained in exploring their market power. Now that’s starting to change, which sure might make fans anxious. Nobody likes to get dumped.

And this excerpt doesn’t even touch on the fact that, through the draft and rules for rookie contract extensions, NBA teams typically control the first half-dozen years – at least — of a superstar’s career. Those are prime years.

• ESPN.com’s Marc Stein says Arron Afflalo may be the most coveted free agent outside the top four big men (Tyson Chandler, Nene, Marc Gasol and David West), and drops this nugget about Gasol:

I’m told, for example, that Indiana — one team that really hasn’t been mentioned as a potential suitor for the Spaniard — rates Gasol above Nene and is strongly weighing whether to slap an offer sheet down for him.

You’d have to do something with Roy Hibbert in that scenario, since the Gasol-Roy Hibbert combo just isn’t quick enough to play heavy minutes together.

• More really good work from Ian Levy in trying to figure out which coaches make the best use of their five-man lineups.

• Will Luis Scola be an amnesty candidate down the line – i.e. years from now?

• Should the Warriors use the amnesty provision on Andris Biedrins, due $27 million combined over the next three seasons? I’d wager pretty heavily that one of the teams under the cap would place a bid on Biedrins, relieving Golden State of some of that $27 million.

• Some advanced stats say good things about Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, a restricted free agent the Bucks say they’d like to keep.

• Before the Chris Paul/Dwight Howard events of the last 72 hours, a school of thought had emerged that Utah may have acted rashly in dealing Deron Williams well ahead of his free agency. The new CBA makes extend-and-trade and sign-and-trade transactions more difficult, this school of thought went, and had the Jazz known this would be the case, perhaps they would have taken their chances holding onto Williams. But Tom Ziller says what has happened over the last few days proves the Jazz were right to trade Williams when they did – and that other teams should take note.

• Carmelo Anthony once swore he would never have surgery unless he had absolutely no choice. That changed over the summer.

• Andrew Bynum, reportedly a bit lighter and quicker, thanks to some boxing training.

• Gerald Green, still trying to make it work in China.

• Pau Gasol’s life as a Bill Murray movie.

• If you write something the Blazers organization (i.e. Paul Allen) doesn’t really like, you might want to watch out for attacks from seldom-used, semi-official Blazer Twitter accounts.

• Brandon Rush is the latest NBA player to claim a hacked Twitter account. This is an epidemic, apparently.

Tags: Dwight Howard nba chris paul