The NBA Thread

[jbissell]

I absolutely LOVE Roy Hibbert.

I love that he's friends with Ben Schwartz after his guest spot on Parks.

[Cotton]

Apparently he's a Tim & Eric fan also: https://twitter.com/#!/Hoya2aPacer/status/162420876787191808


side question: What are the best nicknames for current NBA players?

I love Gerald Wallace as "Crash", but Tyler Hansbrough's "Psycho T" might be my favorite of all time. Guess that's most of a college name.

[Greggulator]

You guys should check out Matt Bonner's "Coach B" stuff. It's really surreal. I have inside sources who say he's a big Tim and Eric fan. He also may or may not have listened to The Best Show.

[Rick in Salt Lake]

Another week's gone by: (Assuming the Lakers beat the Pacers tonight) 1) Dallas 2) Chicago 3) Orlando 4) Lakers 5) Clippers 6) Indiana 7) Boston Oklahoma City 9) Houston 10) Miami 11) San Antonio 12) Utah 13) Denver 14) Philadelphia 15) Atlanta 16) Memphis 17) Sacramento 18) New York 19) Golden State 20) Toronto 21) Minnesota 22) Portland 23) Phoenix 24) Milwaukee 25) Detroit 26) Cleveland 27) New Jersey 28) Charlotte 29) Washington 30) New Orleans

I'm not sure the Jazz's record isn't inflated as they played almost all of January at home. I suspect over the next few months, when they play more road games, they'll level off somewhere around 500.

On the post game show last night one of the Jazz players admitted that they sometimes just stand around and watch Millsap and Jefferson. Not a good sign...

[Mr. Spacely]

Oh, my God. This Lakers season is so painful and boring. It's like they're the Knicks now. Still, at least the Celtics are doing-- oh, wait. Now, they're blowing out good teams short-handed.

Sigh.  I better go buy that Deandre Jordan Clippers jersey.

[Greggulator]

James Harden rules.

Everyone knew OKC was going to be great this year, and that Harden was likely going to have a breakout year. But what he's been doing in his minutes on the court is mindboggling. The player he most reminds me of is Manu Ginobili, who is one of my all-time favorite players.

He's in his third year and he's already at what Manu's pretty much averaged his entire career. Who knows if he'll keep it up but I can't see him slipping too much.

They're both so incredibly charismatic on the court. They're a bit different -- Manu's so great at finding odd angles whereas Harden's just a total force of nature. His haircut perfectly matches his game.

[Drew D]

I love that Harden is doing well...I remember a lot of people thought he might be a bust, but I thought he had such a different game than the rest of that group of college stars.

-Anyone else think that the end of the Heat-Bulls game was compeltely bonkers?  That jump ball after the weird double whistle, the missed free throws, nuts.

[dave from knoxville]

Here's what my power ranking metric's got this week

1   Indiana
2   Miami
3   Chicago
4   Dallas
5   LA Clippers
6   Boston
7   Oklahoma City
8   LA Lakers
9   Denver
10   Minnesota
11   Houston
12   Atlanta
13   Orlando
14   Golden State
15   San Antonio
16   Utah
17   Portland
18   Toronto
19   Philadelphia
20   Milwaukee
21   Sacramento
22   Cleveland
23   Phoenix
24   Memphis
25   New Jersey
26   New York
27   New Orleans
28   Detroit
29   Washington
30   Charlotte

It's still not perfect, but I've got evidence that it's learning. So watch out, NBA playoff poolers.

[Pregnant Pause]

You don't realize how horrible Orlando's supporting cast is until you watch them.  Larry Hughes, Chris Duhon, Q, Big Baby, Hedo, good God.  Otis Smith has done a terrible job.  That Gortat for Hedo trade looks worse everyday. 

[JON IN PHL]

You don't realize how horrible Orlando's supporting cast is until you watch them.  Larry Hughes, Chris Duhon, Q, Big Baby, Hedo, good God.  Otis Smith has done a terrible job.  That Gortat for Hedo trade looks worse everyday.

Wait...do they really have Larry Hughes? How did Otis lure him out of whatever cave he has been huddled in for the last 5 years?

[Pregnant Pause]

You don't realize how horrible Orlando's supporting cast is until you watch them.  Larry Hughes, Chris Duhon, Q, Big Baby, Hedo, good God.  Otis Smith has done a terrible job.  That Gortat for Hedo trade looks worse everyday.

Wait...do they really have Larry Hughes? How did Otis lure him out of whatever cave he has been huddled in for the last 5 years?

As Tom McGinnis said last night, the Smoothie from St. Louis is in the building.  Shooting 22% with 10 turnovers is 100 minutes.  Way to entice Howard to stay Otis Smith. 

[buffcoat]

Charlotte is now the worst team in the league by a wide margin.  Congratulations, Wizards!

It's the story of how a once proudly mediocre and simply unnecessary franchise became a possible challenger - I've seen teams with even worse starts that seemed to have more heart - for one of the worst teams in NBA history.

[Mr. Spacely]

Sometimes, late at night, when I'm not having friendly laundry-folding dreams about Jon Wurster, I think about contracting the Bobcats.  The only problem is I can't come up with another team to do away with in order to get an even 28. I guess the Hornets, though I'd love to see them move to Seattle.

[Gilly]

I've watched almost every Wolves game this year and the ball is moving around like I've never seen in MN even when Garnett was here. Yet, they still are close to last in assist ratio while improving in almost every other Hollinger stat from last year. I can't wrap my head around this especially when Beasley has been out so nobody is there to stop the ball from moving.

[Greggulator]

Sometimes, late at night, when I'm not having friendly laundry-folding dreams about Jon Wurster, I think about contracting the Bobcats.  The only problem is I can't come up with another team to do away with in order to get an even 28. I guess the Hornets, though I'd love to see them move to Seattle.

Contracting might help a bit in terms of talent. But one of the things I love the most about the NBA is that they're not afraid to have teams located in cities with no other franchises. And they almost ALWAYS work!

To wit:
1) Portland's sold out pretty much every game they ever had, save for the Jailblazers years where fans stayed away for fear of having a player kill them.

2) Utah's been a model franchise and hasn't been dreadful in eons. They might not always be a playoff team, and they haven't been a contender in a while, but they're never awful.

3) San Antonio is *THE* model franchise of the past 15 years.

4) OKC is everyone's favorite team and are poised to go on a huge run for the next half decade.

5) Sacramento's hit hard times but they were everyone's favorite team fora  few years. Orlando always does fairly well attendance wise, even in lean years, and will do so even after Dwight leaves. And Memphis has done well with their recent run of success.

The NBA was apparently looking at a team going to Louisville within the past few years. They have a new arena and Kentucky loves basketball. It's actually kind of weird that they don't have a team there, being that the Kentucky Colonels were a great franchise in the ABA but didn't move on to the NBA (I think because the owner ended up grabbing the Celtics for a few years but I forget that part of Loose Balls.) There are also places like Hampton Roads and Las Vegas which could have a team.

And then there's also Seattle, Vancouver, Kansas City and Anaheim with arenas already in place ready for a team.