NBA 2013-2014

[smokymountainrain]

Andrew Bynum with 20 and 10 and 5 blocks tonight. Good for him.

[smokymountainrain]

Andre Drummond had 31, 19 and 6 steals today.

[cougjunkie]

You don't see this very often. Joe Johnson sued his baby mama to prove he was the father and for the right to take care of his son. He bought her a car, is voluntarily paying 5k a month for a house in NY so they are close to him and paying her $2500 a month in child support. He is also paying all moving expenses, medical bills, and private school tuition. He then told her if he gets traded or signs with another team he will do it again and move them.

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[smokymountainrain]

You don't see this very often. Joe Johnson sued his baby mama to prove he was the father and for the right to take care of his son. He bought her a car, is voluntarily paying 5k a month for a house in NY so they are close to him and paying her $2500 a month in child support. He is also paying all moving expenses, medical bills, and private school tuition. He then told her if he gets traded or signs with another team he will do it again and move them.

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Somebody needs to remind Joe Johnson he's professional athlete.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

LeBron had one of the best months he's ever had in his outstanding career, his team went 12-2 in the month, had the #1 rated offense and one of the top defenses in the league...and he didn't win player of the month. Paul George was really good in November too. But his PER was a full 6 points lower than LBJ's. Better WARP. Almost 100 points better in TS% and eFG%. That's nuts.

Right now Miami is 2nd in off rtg and 6th in def rth. Indy is 14th in off and 1st in def. LeBron is clearly the reason Miami's offense is #1. You could also reasonably argue that he is the primary reason his team is 6th in defense. Without George that Indy offense could be bad, but they are still only 14th even with solid players around him, partly because of all of the emphasis they put on defense. But George would be the 2nd most important individual player to Indy's defense.

With these individual awards, LeBron is so good you can't justify picking someone over him if it is just who is the better player. And because he is the anchor on his team on both ends of the court, and his team is one of the best in the league on both ends, you also can't justify picking him in a more valuable category. But very early signs point to Miami having to have the best record in the league or he won't get MVP.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Two rookie double-doubles in the same game, albeit in double overtime. Oladipo with 26/10/10 and 3 steals, MC-W with 27/12/10 and 3 steals.

[Donuthole]

Two rookie double-doubles in the same game, albeit in double overtime. Oladipo with 26/10/10 and 3 steals, MC-W with 27/12/10 and 3 steals.

Those double-doubles bear a striking resemblance to some triple-doubles i've witnessed.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Those double-doubles bear a striking resemblance to some triple-doubles i've witnessed.

Indeed. Kind of like the triple double that Carlino was unabashedly chasing tonight. I blame Matty Basketball.

[smokymountainrain]

Spurs and T'Wolves are slated to play a game in Mexico City tonight. What could possibly go wrong? An electrical failure, perhaps?

[cougjunkie]

Spurs and T'Wolves are slated to play a game in Mexico City tonight. What could possibly go wrong? An electrical failure, perhaps?

And a fire!

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[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Andre Drummond is a monster down low. In the past 3 games he's averaging 21.5 ppg and 18.6 rpg, along with 3.3 spg and 2.0 bpg. Paul George will turn 24 before Drummond is 21. He's even about 6 months younger than Anthony Davis.

They don't space the floor a ton, but he looks like a great compliment to Monroe. Putting Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings on that team on such long deals was so stupid. They'd be better off with JJ Reddick and Jose Calderon.

[MarkGrace]

Portland beats Indy and okc in back to back games. Funk readying his spot on the bandwagon...

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Great stuff on ESPN about Beasley and how Miami is changing the way he plays, from a guy who loved hoisting mid-range jumpers to someone living off corner 3's and shots in the paint. Indiana scored big when Lance Stephenson became a big contributor on their team. Miami's counter with Chris Anderson and now Beasley might be enough to keep them on top in the East.

But the Heat spotted the problem: Beasley was miscast as a small forward. The Heat drafted him as a big man, groomed him as a big man and now they're rebuilding him as a big man. And that process takes time and a heavy dose of tough love. Everywhere from his contract to his minutes, the Heat made it clear to Beasley from the start that there would be no guarantees. Everything would be earned, not given.

To that end, Erik Spoelstra didn't give Beasley a single minute of in-game action over the Heat's first four games. But Beasley was working behind the scenes. The coaching staff used the practice time to refresh Beasley on the Heat's defensive principles and re-establish him as a scoring stretch 4 who'd also set picks and create for others without the ball.

"500 screens a day," Spoelstra said while watching Beasley set screens over and over in the Heat's last practice. "We've been drilling ad nauseum on how we want him to play and to get other people the ball in other actions. He can make our team better, often times by screening much like LeBron does. Those two guys can be arguably our two most talented screeners off the ball"...

Over the last few seasons, the ball was put in Beasley's hands and his job was to create off the dribble. That license yielded a host of pull-up long 2s and more headaches. Not so anymore. Watch a Heat game and you'll see Beasley setting multiple screens on any given trip down the floor. This helps to funnel Beasley into high-efficiency destinations either by rolling to the rim or flaring to the 3-point line. In Tuesday's game against the Detroit Pistons, Beasley shot 3-for-3 on corner 3-pointers and 6-for-10 inside the paint. That is the ideal.

Beasley's love affair with the midrange game is waning, too. For the season, just 29 percent of his shots come from the mid-range according to NBA.com data, down from 40 percent last season. The Heat haven't specifically demanded Beasley to avoid the least profitable area on the floor, but they've emphasized the importance of getting to the money areas: at the rim, at the line and beyond the arc.

Like practically everyone else on the Heat roster, Beasley's having his most efficient season yet, shooting a LeBron-like 54.7 percent from the floor, 52.9 percent from downtown and 79.2 percent from the line. It's early, but Spoelstra has already trusted Beasley enough to have him anchor lineups without any of Miami's big three on the floor. And those Beasley lineups have been winning ones so far. Spoelstra has evidently believed in Beasley, but James' trust might be the biggest factor to his success.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

And another home run at Grantland: Goldsberry sits down with LeBron to talk about the Heat offense. James continues to make it so easy to see why funk hates him so much.

In November, I visited Miami to talk about the team's offense with James. As always, he is constantly thinking a few moves ahead and meditating on progress. At 28 he is squarely in his prime but remains obsessed with improvement, both as an individual player and as a member of a team. Of all the things to appreciate about the four-time MVP, one aspect has still gone relatively uncelebrated: The best individual player in the world is also one of the most thoughtful teammates another basketball player could have.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...volved-offense

[MarkGrace]

Sounds like the same thing Spoelstra did with James. I know he spent a lot of time with Bron getting him to review shot charts and understand where his best spots were on the floor and trying to get him to those spots. Bron shot >50% from the floor just once in Cleveland, but his years in Miami, in order, have been 51%, 53%, 56.5% and 59.5%. Those last couple seasons are just ridiculous -- you usually only see those kinds of %'s from big guys that do nothing but dunk.