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Morning Shootaround — March 5

March 5, 2013  ·  7:45AM

Missed a game last night? Wondering what the latest news around the NBA is this morning? The Morning Shootaround is here to try to meet those needs and keep you up on what’s happened around the league since the day turned.

The one recap to watch: Box scores rarely tell the whole story of a given game and such was the case in last night’s Raptors-Warriors game from The Oracle. A click over to said box score reveals Andrew Bogut‘s return to the Golden State lineup and a somewhat ho-hum stat line: four points, eight rebounds and two turnovers in 29 minutes. But what’s lost in the box score is seen on the court as Bogut helped the Warriors get a sense of what their full starting five is like while also providing some defense that the Warriors have lacked the last few weeks. Steph Curry and David Lee were the box score stars in this game, but don’t discount what Bogut adds to the Warriors.

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News of the morning

Stoudemire ready for more minutes | Nuggets, Korver a match someday? | Jazz’s Williams may play vs. Cavs | Bobcats’ Thomas stays home | Sixers CEO chimes in on Bynum

Stoudemire wants more playing time — We mentioned in this space yesterday that some were questioning Knicks coach Mike Woodson’s strategy in Sunday’s loss to the Heat, particularly the amount of minutes reserve big man Amar’e Stoudemire was playing down the stretch in that game. After Stoudemire logged 31 minutes and led New York with 22 points in a comeback win over the Cavs on Monday, it appears Stoudemire can handle more playing time. Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com reports that a source says Stoudemire is more than set to take on a bigger role if asked:

… According to a source close to the Knicks, Stoudemire is “ready” and “healthy” to play more minutes to help the team.

“He’s in tip-top shape,” the source told ESPNNewYork.com. “He wants to play; whatever it takes for [the Knicks] to win.”

On Sunday, Stoudemire only got in for 21 minutes — sitting out the last eight — in the Knicks’ losing effort against the Heat. Down the stretch he was needed because when the Heat applied more aggressive defense on Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks didn’t have an inside scoring threat. Tyson Chandler was in the game, but he’s not one to create his own opportunities.

If Stoudemire’s body is ready, it would be important to increase his minutes now, to better prepare him for increased playing time in the postseason. That’s usually what happens during this critical period of the season, as coaches shorten their rotation to focus on their best players.

“Now is the time to be giving him extending minutes to see how his body reacts to it,” the source said, “especially when you’re not on [a] big winning streak. … Something has to shake up.”

Head coach Mike Woodson is still banking on basic perimeter play and 3-point shooting, which worked in the first two months of the season when the Knicks started 18-5. But since then, they’ve been mostly playing .500 ball, and there are still too many outside shots from Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton and J.R. Smith. In fact, against the Heat, while Smith shot 3-for-14 from 3-point, Stoudemire took just seven shots from the field, making five.

The source said the Knicks are “not a real hard team to figure out right now.”

Nuggets interested in Korver — The trade deadline is long gone, so any hopes of the Nuggets acquiring Hawks sharpshooter Kyle Korver in a trade (including this smart one suggested by John Schuhmann way back when) are out of the picture. But that doesn’t mean Korver wouldn’t be a natural fit for the high-octane crew coach George Karl is assembling in Denver, writes Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post. In fact, Karl in his pregame comments last night (before Denver hosted Atlanta) couldn’t help but gush about Korver’s skills:

Korver, an unrestricted free agent in his 10th year in the NBA, is expected to be one of the Nuggets top targets in the offseason as the team actively courts players who can fill that shooting void. Denver won’t be the only team looking to gain his services, but if the money is right (Korver makes $5 million this season) the situation might be hard for the sharpshooter, who grew up in Pella, Iowa, to turn down.

Shots figure to be much easier to come by in a system where guard Ty Lawson’s driving is so respected that he sucks defenders into the lane, and other players capable of hitting from long range – Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Corey Brewer – make it so that he would be difficult to devote additional resources to slowing just Korver down in the manner that the Nuggets are expected to try tonight.

“You don’t have a lot of pin-down offenses anymore, for some reason the game’s gone to pick-and-roll and away from the execution of a pin-down,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “You’ve got (J.J.) Reddick and some guys that come off of pin-downs but this kid right now moves without the ball as good as anybody in the NBA, and he will get his opportunity to be the first option in 10-15 minutes of the game that we’re going to have to be responsible and see how he’s shooting it. And then you can’t give them the open three, you can’t give him the ‘oh, what happened’ three. You’ve got to be ready. He’s a big part.”

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“He’s an unbelievable shooter, he’s so gifted with that,” Kosta Koufos said. “He just has a positive outlook to everything. That’s why he’s been so successful in the league. He’s just been working hard, day-in and day-out.”

Koufos raved about Korver as a teammate.

“He’s great guy,” Koufos said. “He’s what you think of a professional. He comes in, works hard, he’s very motivational, very positive, a great player. He’s one of the better teammates I’ve ever played with.”

Jazz hoping to get Williams back soon — Utah, the No. 8 seed in the West, has stayed in the thick of the playoff chase and gone 18-14 since Dec. 22. Why is that date significant? That’s when starting point guard Mo Williams was lost so he could have surgery to repair torn ligaments in his thumb. Guard play has been a problem for the Jazz during Williams’ absence, but he practiced with the team in Milwaukee on Monday and could play again as soon as Wednesday in Cleveland. Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune has more:

Williams said Monday at the Jazz’s shootaround in Milwaukee that he could return to games as early as Wednesday, when the Jazz play at Cleveland, where he played from 2008 to 2011.

“We’ll see,” Williams said. “We’ll see. That would be great to play in front of those fans.”

The 30-year-old point guard had two pins removed from his thumb on Feb. 13, and his rehabilitation began in earnest after the All-Star Break, and if Al Jefferson were the final judge, Williams would be cleared to play.

“He said he was a little winded,” Jefferson said. “I told him I couldn’t tell.”

But the Jazz are being cautious with the veteran.

“As he gets close, he’s getting a little frustrated with trying to get himself to get better fast and be ready to go,” coach Tyrone Corbin said. “It’s a process until the body responds and getting stiffness out and feeling comfortable with and not being hesitant with the hand.”

…

Corbin said he has not yet decided how to integrate Williams back with the Jazz, whether he would start right away or come off the bench to ease back into his leadership role.

“We have to get readjusted to him as he has to get readjusted to how the guys are playing now,” Corbin said. “It’s been a long time. … There will be an adjustment period hopefully we can make it as short as we can.”

Alec Burks has seen a substantial increase in opportunity and productivity since Williams went out, and has averaged 8 points in the 30 games he’s appeared in since Dec. 23. In February, he averaged 9.8 points and shot 44.9 percent from the field.

Bobcats tell Thomas to stay home — Around the trade deadline, there were reports of veteran guard Ben Gordon getting into a disagreement with first-year coach Mike Dunlap. While Gordon is still with the team, his role in the rotation has been diminished. Now another player the Bobcats have had troubles with in the past, Tyrus Thomas, has been told to stay home — although not for disciplinary reasons. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer says the Bobcats told Thomas to stay home during Charlotte’s West coast road swing to work on his conditioning and other aspects:

Charlotte Bobcats power forward Tyrus Thomas was told not to accompany the team on its four-game West Coast trip by team management.

Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said Monday that the front office felt Thomas’s time would be better spent in Charlotte, doing some physical rehabilitation and individual on-court work, rather than on the road with his team.

Thomas, the Bobcats’ second-highest paid player this season at $8 million, has fallen out of the rotation entirely of late. Monday’s road game in Portland was the 10th straight game that Thomas was designated as inactive and the 12th-straight game in which he did not play.

When the Bobcats acquired another power forward, Josh McRoberts, at the trade deadline, McRoberts was activated for his first game before he had participated in a Bobcats practice or shootaround.

The Bobcats have a considerable financial obligation to Thomas going forward – $8.6 million for the 2013-14 season and $9.4 million for the 2014-15 season, both guaranteed.

Sixers CEO: Bynum trade ‘should have worked’ — We’ve detailed the plight of Andrew Bynum and the Sixers plenty around here during the season, so there’s no reason to get into Bynum’s back story or the latest news. The main takeaway with Bynum is that the Sixers haven’t gotten what they thought they would out of him this season due to Bynum’s lingering knee injuries. Still, the Sixers’ brass is coming out more and more to talk about the trade and a more or less lost season, with the latest name to step to the podium and pontificate being Sixers CEO Adam Aron. He had the following to say to John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com:

“This is a move that should have worked,” Aron said. “But, unfortunately, he got an injury in September and it’s been compounded since, post-trade and we haven’t seen a day. The fans hopes were justifiably high that the Sixers had made a move, a bold move, that would catapult us back into the top teams in the NBA. It hasn’t worked.”

“The issue for this season is not whether Andrew Bynum has surgery, it’s what are the condition of his knees?” Aron said. “We thought he was going to play opening day. His doctors gave us a four-week delay, then another four-week delay. In December, we went out publicly and said he would be out indefinitely because we just didn’t know when he would be back. If you go back in time just three weeks ago, Andrew himself was telling everyone that he thought he’d be actively playing after the All-Star break. He did practice with the team about 10 days ago. There were high hopes and he was working out hard in February behind the scenes at the practice facility. But when he practiced with the team five-on-five his knees started swelling up and that was a big setback.”

Late last week, when Bynum was asked whether his knees are degenerative, he didn’t directly answer the question, saying instead that “50 percent of the people in the United States” are in the same situation. Are Bynum’s knees degenerative?

“I can’t get into his exact medical condition,” Aron said. “But I can say this, which is obvious to all of us: All season long he’s had bone bruise issues. He’s had cartilage problems. It’s March. He’s still not playing. He hasn’t played basketball since last May. Clearly, Andrew is dealing with some knee problems that have prevented him from playing in the NBA.”

Aron said “four doctors cleared the trade in August, and six doctors have actively been treating him and examining him all year long.” The Sixers’ CEO insisted that the team, until now, was confident Bynum would play this season.

“We certainly thought he was going to play in August,” Aron said. “That’s why we made the trade. Even in early October, we thought he would play on opening night. Then there was a delay. Then there was [another] delay. Even when we announced that he was out indefinitely, inside the team we thought he would play in January or February. He himself, in February, said he would play in February. But here we are in March and the team is disappointed. Our fan base is disappointed. And that’s the story of the season.”

ICYMI of the night: One reason Monta Ellis is the 15th-best scorer in the NBA?: it’s because he can always find creative ways to get the ball in the basket, like this:

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Landscape Unchanged As Deadline Passes

February 21, 2013  ·  4:24PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The 2013 trade deadline will be remembered more for the lack of movement than for any deal that was made. We had a handful of transactions in the final hours before the deadline, but the best player dealt this week was a guy who has started a grand total of 52 games over seven seasons.

That would be J.J. Redick, who is heading to Milwaukee in a six-player trade. The Bucks are also getting Gustavo Ayon and Ish Smith from Orlando. The Magic will receive Beno Udrih, Doron Lamb and Tobias Harris in return.

Redick is a role player, but one who should help the Bucks, who have struggled on both ends of the floor as they’ve lost eight of their last 10 games, dropping below .500 for the first time since early December. Now in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, they’re just three games in the loss column ahead of ninth-place Philadelphia.

The Bucks were reportedly the leaders in the race for Josh Smith, who is surprisingly staying in Atlanta … for the next few months or so. The Hawks apparently did not have a deal they liked, and will have to hope for a sign-and-trade deal in July if they want something in return for Smith. Our own Sekou Smith says that the Hawks will have “no chance” to re-sign Smith.

Atlanta did make a minor move, sending Anthony Morrow to Dallas for Dahntay Jones.

As much as the lack of a Josh Smith move was a surprise, so was the fact that the Utah Jazz stood pat. With Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter waiting in the wings, the Jazz have both Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap on expiring deals. We don’t know if the Jazz had an opportunity to upgrade their backcourt this week, but maybe, like the Hawks, they’d prefer to let one (or both) of those guys walk in the summer.

The Boston Celtics made a minor deal, but held on to both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for the stretch run. They’ll be adding Jordan Crawford to their backcourt, sending Jason Collins and the contract of Leandro Barbosa to Washington in exchange for the volume scorer who has been out of the Wizards’ rotation for the last couple of weeks.

Other moves:

  • The Heat sent Dexter Pittman and a second-round pick to Memphis.
  • The Bobcats traded Hakim Warrick to the Magic for Josh McRoberts.
  • In order to get under the luxury tax line, the Warriors are sending Jeremy Tyler to Atlanta and Charles Jenkins to Philadelphia.
  • The Raptors traded Hamed Haddadi and a second-round pick to the Suns for Sebastian Telfair.
  • The Thunder sent Eric Maynor to Portland.
  • The Knicks sent Ronnie Brewer to OKC for a pick.

In addition to Smith, Richard Hamilton (Bulls), Andrea Bargnani (Raptors), Kris Humphries (Nets), Ben Gordon (Bobcats), DeJuan Blair (Spurs) and Evan Turner (Sixers) aren’t going anywhere. The Denver Nuggets didn’t get a shooter, the Brooklyn Nets didn’t get any of their targets (Smith, Millsap, etc.), and the Los Angeles Clippers will try to get past the Spurs and Thunder with what they have.

The new collective bargaining agreement certainly had a role in the inactivity. The new, steeper luxury takes goes into effect next season, so contracts that don’t expire this season are a heavy burden to bear. Two years from now, the repeater tax goes into effect, so there’s plenty of incentive for teams to get under the tax line this year as well.

And now that the deadline has passed, we can get on with the remainder of the season, knowing that the landscape hasn’t changed one bit.

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No Shock: KG Is A Difference-Maker On D

January 4, 2013  ·  1:06PM

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HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Points, rebounds and assists are nice, but plus-minus is the most important stat in basketball.

Teams win games by outscoring their opponent, and plus-minus reflects how much a team has done that in a player’s minutes on the floor. If a player isn’t scoring, he can help his teammates score and also prevent the opponent from doing so.

But in basketball, with nine other guys on the floor affecting what each player does, plus-minus always needs context, and lots of it. Who is a guy playing his minutes with? Who is he not playing his minutes with?

Furthermore, sample size is important. Single-game plus-minus can help tell a story about key sequences or the impact of a player or two on a particular night. But if you really want to get a good idea of how a team performs when a player or group of players is on the floor, you’ve got to look at a large chunk of games.

At this point in the season, we can get a pretty good idea of where teams are strong and weak. Through Thursday, 224 players have logged at least 500 minutes for one team this season.

On Wednesday, we looked at the players with the biggest on-off court differential in regard to their team’s offensive efficiency. Today, we look at the defensive end of the floor.

Measuring the difference in a team’s offensive efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions) when a player is on the floor vs. when he’s off the floor, here are the league’s five biggest difference makers, as well as a pair at the bottom of the list.

For all of them, the discrepancy between their team’s defensive numbers with them on and off the floor is as much about the guys replacing them as it is about what they’re doing themselves.

1. Kevin Garnett, Celtics

On/off floor MIN DefRtg
On floor 905 96.3
Off floor 613 110.7
Diff. -14.4

Because the Celtics use a unique substitution pattern with KG, you can get a pretty clear idea of the impact he makes. No other Celtics regular has played more 63 percent of his minutes with Garnett.

You probably figured Garnett would be at or near the top of this list, but 14.4 points per 100 possessions? That’s an amazing number, and it’s an indictment on Brandon Bass (382 minutes with Garnett off the floor), Jared Sullinger (331) and Chris Wilcox (297) … and Paul Pierce (391) and Rajon Rondo (432).

It’s also an endorsement of both former Celtics center Greg Stiemsma and guard Avery Bradley, because the Celtics’ defense only fell off 0.5 points per 100 possessions when Garnett stepped off the floor last season.

Bradley’s return (he made his 2012-13 debut on Wednesday) offers some hope, but interior defense will continue to be an issue whenever Garnett rests. (more…)

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Blogtable: ‘Cats, Cavs, Wizards

January 2, 2013  ·  11:43AM




Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 10: The best team in the NBA | Show us you’re worth it | Best, worst: ‘Cats, Cavs or Wizards

At the end of the season, who has the best record: Charlotte, Washington or Cleveland? Worst?

Steve Aschburner: Ah yes, the single-digit sweepstakes, the NBA equivalent of lobsters trying to claw over each other to get out of the pot. My guess for the final ranking of the Eastern Conference’s three worst teams is 1) Cavaliers, 2) Wizards, 3) Bobcats. Cleveland has two guys – Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao – who have played at an All-Star level, something neither Washington nor Charlotte can boast. The Wizards are anticipating a bump when point guard John Wall returns, though their head coach – Randy Wittman – probably is shakiest of the three fellows leading these clubs. The Bobcats remain in developmental mode, with victories nice, but playing time and seasoning as higher priorities for their young players. No team, frankly, is playing less to win this season than Charlotte – and that mission likely will be accomplished.

Fran Blinebury: With a healthy Kyrie Irving back in the lineup, I like Cleveland in this race of bottom dwellers. But that’s assuming the Cavs don’t unload Anderson Varejao at the trade deadline.  The worst of the bunch is clearly the Wizards, a train-wreck of a franchise that long ago went over the basketball cliff.

Jeff Caplan: I want to say Cleveland will have the best record of three solely because of Kyrie Irving. He’s a phenomenal talent, but he has so little help. So I’m picking Charlotte to have the best record of this woeful trio. Even though they lost 18 in a row, as crazy as that sounds. I think they have a better overall roster and the pain from  the seven-win season remains with them. As for the Wizards, I am impressed how hard this team plays yet nets so few results. Unless John Wall returns soon and is spectacular immediately, this group will remain in the cellar.

Scott Howard-Cooper:  Washington. There, I said it. The Wizards need to make up four games to move to the front of your illustrious pack. That is very much within reason because (a) they are planning to have John Wall and Nene healthy the second half of the season, and (b) the Cavaliers and Bobcats are the competition. Cleveland will challenge for the lead as well. Worst: Charlotte. While the long losing streak is not a true read – the Bobcats are better than that – the roster has more holes than the others.

John Schuhmann: I can’t begin to tell you how many times I was asked this exact question at my holiday get-togethers. Such a hot topic in the streets! Cleveland will finish with the best record of the three, because Kyrie Irving is the best player on any of these teams and the Cavs have played the toughest schedule in the Eastern Conference thus far. And Charlotte will finish with the worst record of the three, because they’re just awful on both ends of the floor. The Wizards have been good enough defensively to keep them in some games, and maybe John Wall will be back soon.

Sekou Smith: Based on the presence of Kyrie Irving alone the Cavaliers should be the pick. But the Bobcats, even with that nasty losing streak on their first quarter report card, still sit ahead of both of the Cavaliers and Wizards in the standings right now. As much as they’ve been ridiculed here and elsewhere for their struggles, it’s hard to see how two teams that couldn’t make up ground on a team in the midst of a staggering 18-game losing streak are all of a sudden going to pass the Bobcats up now that the worst is presumably over. And to their credit, the Bobcats battled during that losing streak. They were not just taking beatings without putting up a fight. That kind of intestinal fortitude will come in handy over the next three and a half months of action.

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Bobcats Start 2013 With A New Streak

December 31, 2012  ·  7:57PM

 

CHICAGO – As time dwindled, the Charlotte Bobcats’ lead over the Chicago Bulls looked proportionately bigger and bigger. During a timeout with 2:43 left Monday afternoon at United Center, it was Charlotte 82, Chicago 73 and you had to think that the Bobcats could almost smell it.

The question was, did they remember what it was?

Coach Mike Dunlap and his team could be forgiven if they didn’t, seeing as how their previous taste of it – winning – had come more than six weeks earlier. That was back on Thanksgiving weekend, a double-OT victory at Washington on Nov. 24, and here the Bobcats were on the brink of a new year, trying to walk out of 2012 with their heads up. Rather than, y’know, skidding out, an 18-game winless streak stretched to 19 and counting.

They made it, closing out the Bulls 91-81 and pinching off another run of futility. The Bobcats suffered through losing streaks of 16, 23 and 18 games in calendar year just completed, yet by winning Monday they assured themselves of four blissful days of 2013 with some, yikes, momentum.

“What streak do you mean, one win in a row?” said Dunlap, for whom deadpan comes naturally.

What a way to start a season and an NBA head coaching career: Charlotte made some quickie, quirky league history by matching its victory total from the previous season faster than any other team. Which is to say, the Bobcats gained their seventh victory in their 12th game, an accomplishment made possible by the 2011-12 edition’s puny 7-59 mark.

That high mark came in the Wizards game but was followed 48 hours later in Oklahoma City by the franchise’s most lopsided defeat, a 114-69 failure against the Thunder. From there, things spun out of control, from a 30-point shredding by San Antonio and a one-point heartbreak at the Lakers to their blown lead of 21 points at home against New Orleans Saturday.

From the outside, they were a team whose agenda ranked “player development” higher than “winning tonight” among its priorities. On the inside, though, the Bobcats were tested – and apparently passed all those tests – in their chemistry, unity and overall absence of finger-pointing.

“We’re a desperate team right now,” Charlotte guard Gerald Henderson said. “A losing streak is tough on you. We had tactical stuff we wanted to take care of, but we just wanted to fight more than anything.”

Definitely the Bobcats were the more aggressive team. They limited Chicago to 35.1 percent shooting and beat the Bulls on the boards 52-49, holding Joakim Noah to just four. They also survived 18 turnovers worth 21 points and 17 missed free throws that would have haunted them had the outcome gone differently.

“Yeah, but we won,” guard Kemba Walker said. “Everybody in the whole world knew how much we needed this win.”

Oh, so they did remember what that was.

“When you go through an entire month of not winning,” Dunlap said, “it really eats at you. Especially for the young guys – they need some confidence. … We’re happy to come in here [and win against] the Bulls. It’s a double-bonus because I have that kind of respect for this team and this coach [Tom Thibodeau].”

Double-bonus for Charlotte, double-whammy for Chicago. One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor, as NBA fan Paul Simon wrote, and the streak-buster for the Bobcats felt like a back-breaker to the Bulls.

This is a proud team in a bad way at the moment, desperate for Derrick Rose to return. Chicago’s attack has gone in the dumpster, averaging 85 points in its past four games. The Bulls never led at any point Monday and when they finally pulled even at 65-65 through three quarters, the Bobcats scraped them off with a 10-0 start to the fourth. Thibodeau’s guys shot 6-of-26 in the period, compounding lousy offense with shaky defense; Charlotte shot 47.1 percent, getting as many field goals as the Bulls (33) in 24 fewer shot attempts.

It was clear afterward that the Bulls felt worse having dropped three of their last four – including a 17-point mess at Atlanta and a Christmas night stinker at home to Houston – than the Bobcats did at any point in their streak. They had just lost by 10 to a team that got outscored by 13.3 ppg across its 18 defeats.

“We’ve got to get ourselves out of this funk,” forward Taj Gibson said. “No one is going to feel sorry for us.”

The conclusion in Chicago was that the Bulls must have taken the Bobcats lightly, trailing all those losses and even playing this one without rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (poked in eye Saturday).

“I don’t know if those guys took us lightly,” Walker said, bristling a bit. “We executed our game plan. We played well. I thought we could have beat anybody today.”

From losers of 18 straight to bravado befitting a brand new undefeated year.

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Nets Look To Williams To Push The Pace

December 29, 2012  ·  2:48AM

BROOKLYN – It’s hard to take much out of 48 minutes against a team that has now lost 17 straight games, so no grand conclusions will be drawn from the Brooklyn Nets’ 97-81 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday, their first game after the dismissal of head coach Avery Johnson.

Interim coach P.J. Carlesimo did his job, the players did theirs, and the Nets avoided the embarrassment of losing to an awful, awful team on their home floor. If the Nets’ didn’t win by double figures, there would really be something to talk about.

Until the third string allowed a 27-point, fourth-quarter lead to whittle down to 12, the Nets’ offense looked sharper than it had all December. But such a performance should be expected against the worst defense in the league, no matter who the coach is.

There were no real changes to the system and only a minor change to the rotation. There was a subtle difference in the Nets’ approach, however. Instead of walking the ball up the floor, Deron Williams looked to get it across the mid-court line as quickly as possible, even off made baskets. And that led to a more fluid and free-flowing offense.

The Nets ranked 29th in pace before Friday’s game, averaging a hair over 90 possessions per 48 minutes. Their offense was slow and deliberate, and they were too often taking too long to get to any kind of offensive action that could generate an double-team or an open shot.

All the isolations that Williams had issues with were ran were more out of necessity – in situations where the shot clock was running out and there were no other options – than design.

Even when the Nets ran Jerry Sloan’s “flex” offense that Johnson implemented to placate Williams after his pro-Sloan comments last week, it sometimes took too long before Williams could get the ball in position to make a play.

The Nets do have the personnel that can succeed at a slower pace. Brook Lopez can do work in the post and Joe Johnson can flourish in isolations or in the post as well. And really, this team is never going to play anything like the Houston Rockets.

But they can certainly play faster than they have thus far. And that can only make things easier on their offense.

So, in taking over for Johnson, Carlesimo told his team to get the ball up the floor quickly and keep the ball moving. In the brief time he had to work with them in the wake of Johnson’s dismissal, it was about all he could do to change things up. But it was a needed change and it worked … against the Bobcats.

“We would prefer to push the ball, because Deron is so good pushing it and creating,” Carlesimo said before his Nets coaching debut. “We’d like to push it and get it to Brook [Lopez] down low. We’d like to push it and get it ahead to Joe [Johnson] or [Gerald Wallace] or our other players.”

If the Nets are to turn around their season and get back to a top-four standing in the Eastern Conference, improvement has to start with Williams. Friday’s win was just one game, but Williams was indeed the key to an encouraging performance.

With the point guard pushing the tempo and aggressively looking for his shot, the Nets scored 33 points in the first quarter, their second-highest mark of the season. By halftime, Williams had 17 points himself, the most he’s had by halftime since last March.

“I just think I need to be aggressive,” Williams said afterward, “because I’m not playing well right now and I’m being too passive. And I don’t think that’s good for my team.”

In terms of possession count, Friday’s game wasn’t played at a much faster pace than a typical Nets game. But that was somewhat a product of the 24 possession-extending offensive rebounds that the two teams combined to grab. And it was clear that the Nets were getting into their offense a lot quicker than usual.

“We got a lot of easy baskets today,” Williams said. “The ball was moving today. It wasn’t one of those games like in the past where it was somebody’s turn and then somebody else’s turn. It was kind of moving out there.”

It wasn’t exactly a breakthrough performance (have we mentioned the Nets were playing the Bobcats?), but it was a step forward, for both the team and its star.

“He made his shots, which is great,” Carlesimo said of Williams. “But I thought he pushed it for us. He got us up the floor. He got us into things.

“I thought he played an excellent game. He really did.”

“This was one game, and a game we figured we should win,” Williams added. “We have to come ready to play tomorrow. That will be the test.”

Well, not really. On Saturday, the Nets play the Cleveland Cavaliers, the only team in the league that ranks in the bottom five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. After that though, they visit San Antonio on Monday and Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

Though those teams will test the Nets’ regressing defense more than their regressing offense, it’s all tied together, because it’s easier to push the ball up the floor when you’re not taking it out of the basket.

***

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Blogtable: Fixing The Bobcats

December 26, 2012  ·  10:26AM




Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 9: The trouble with DeMarcus | What to do with the Bobcats | Teams falling, teams rising

Play GM of the Bobcats: What do you do? What can you do?

Fran Blinebury: Join the ACC.  Everybody else is.

Jeff Caplan: Resign? Run away? At this point I just don’t see many options. So many bad signings have been made, players out of position. There are few tradeable commodities. Remember, this group gave away Tyson Chandler.

Scott Howard-Cooper: There isn’t much to do. No matter how bad it looks in the middle of a ridiculously long losing streak, the Bobcats aren’t far off a reasonable win pace. Somewhere between 25 and 30 victories would have been fair, and that is still a reachable number. The only real move to make that would bring much in return would be to decide the Bismack Biyombo project is not going to end well. The answer is to stay the course, understand the Bobcats aren’t as bad as the last few weeks would indicate (just as we now know they aren’t as good as the hope from the first couple weeks), get another top lottery pick and work the offseason.

John Schuhmann: I stay patient and hope for another top-three pick in next year’s draft. I like some of the pieces I have, especially Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but I obviously need more. No team is going to take Tyrus Thomas off my hands, but I will shop Ben Gordon to those playoff teams that desperately need shooting, looking to back get more young players or draft picks, along with contracts that don’t go beyond next season. Speaking of shooting, I’ll also hire a shooting coach to work with MKG for the next few years.

Sekou Smith: Somehow a new set of rosary beads just doesn’t seem like enough. And to think we were singing the Bobcats’ praises after the first two and a half weeks of the season. It’s all about luck at this point. And I mean luck in the sense that when the lottery plays out in the spring, the Bobcats need to get lucky. And when the underclassmen start declaring for the June Draft, the Bobcats need to get lucky and make sure the right player(s) declare. And then on Draft night, whether they have the first option or the second or third, they get lucky and make the right choice and that choice turns out to be the Kevin Durant or Dwight Howard or Derrick Rose the Bobcats need to help them get off the mat and become a legitimate team in the Eastern Conference. There is no amount of planning that can fix what ails these Bobcats. There are just too many factors working against them right now for conventional fix it methods. Right now it’s all about Lady Luck.

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Report: Hornets Set For Name Change

December 4, 2012  ·  9:58PM


HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The name on the front of the jerseys will reportedly remain the same. The NBA franchise in New Orleans is not going anywhere.

But the same can’t be said for the nickname that the franchise brought to town from Charlotte. The Hornets could soon become the Pelicans … that’s right, the state bird (technically it’s the brown pelican) is set for global stardom as the new nickname of the franchise with new ownership in charge.

The Hornets’ new owner, Tom Benson, who also owns the New Orleans Saints, owns the rights to the Pelicans nickname, per a report from Yahoo! Sports that first announced the pending name change.

If it happens as planned, the change in New Orleans could trigger not only a mascot and color scheme change in the Pelican State, but also some changes back in Charlotte, where Bobcats owner Michael Jordan said the Hornets nickname would be welcomed if available:

“It’s definitely an interest down the road, but right now it’s the New Orleans Hornets,” Jordan told the Charlotte Observer. “We would definitely entertain the opportunity. That’s as much as we can say right now. We’ve heard the community ask the question, and we would listen.”

More from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports with more details from the Hornets’ side of the potential change:

The Hornets also considered the nicknames Krewe (groups of costumed paraders in the annual Mardi Gras carnival in New Orleans) and Brass.

Louisiana is the Pelican State. The brown pelican is the state bird and appears on the state flag and seal, and official state painting. Moreover, the Pelicans played minor league baseball in New Orleans in all but nine seasons from 1887-1959 and in 1977.

Gayle Benson, [Tom] Benson’s wife, told Fox Sports New Orleans recently her preference for new team colors was navy blue, red and gold.

The Hornets came to New Orleans in 2002 from Charlotte. New Orleans has also had an NBA team called the Jazz, which moved to Salt Lake City in 1979.

Since the fine folks in Utah have no intention of parting ways with the Jazz nickname, the Bensons had to come up with something. And for the people of the state of Louisiana, the Pelicans is a much more representative moniker than the Hornets. It’s a state-pride thing.

We’re all for region-appropriate nicknames and everything; the Oklahoma City Thunder — who moved from Seattle and left the name “SuperSonics” behind — is a spot-on name. But some nicknames need to be left alone for eternity.

The Los Angeles Lakers are named for the lakes of Minnesota, where the franchise began as the Minneapolis Lakers. That nickname is off limits.

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Some Records Aren’t What They Seem

November 29, 2012  ·  1:08PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – On Monday afternoon, the Charlotte Bobcats were 7-5. On Monday night, the ‘Cats lost by 45 points in Oklahoma City.

The result may not have been a big surprise given how bad the Bobcats were last season. It also wasn’t a big surprise given how inflated that 7-5 record was.

Wins are wins and losses are losses, but all 7-5 records aren’t the same. When you add context, specifically point differential and strength of schedule, to a team’s record, you can get a better idea of just how good they are.

Six of the Bobcats’ seven wins were by four points or less. And though you give them credit for executing better than their opponents in those close games, you also have to acknowledge that results in close games should (mostly) even out over time. Indeed, the ‘Cats lost by three in Atlanta on Wednesday.

And before that game in Oklahoma City on Monday, Charlotte had played the easiest schedule in the league. So, even at 7-7 after Wednesday’s loss, the Bobcats still have one of the most inflated records in the league. They’re tied for eighth place in the Eastern Conference, but their chances of staying there are pretty darn slim.

Who else might be better or worse than their record says they are? Here are a few teams of note…

Not as good as their record

1. Philadelphia (9-6)
The Sixers are tied for the eighth-best record in the league, but they have the 15th best point differential per 100 possessions, having been outscored by 15 points over their 15 games. Eight of their nine wins have been by 10 points or less and they’ve been blown out three times.

This is a complete reversal of the Sixers’ fate last year, when they were absolutely awful in close games. They were the eighth seed in the East last year, but had the fifth-best point differential in the NBA. Yes, they benefited from Derrick Rose‘s injury in the first round, but they weren’t nearly as mediocre as their seeding indicated.

So, if you look at it in a macro scale, the Sixers are more than due for some late-game fortune. But they’ve also played the second-easiest schedule in the league. They’ve played 10 of their 15 games at home, and they’ve played five against the Cavs, Pistons and Raptors.

We’ll see exactly whose record is more inflated on Friday, when the Sixers visit Charlotte.

2. Utah (9-7)
The Jazz were a playoff team last year and should be improved with their talented youth and new 3-point shooters. Maybe they are, and their point differential (11th in the league at +1.3 points per 100 possessions) is on par with their record. But they’ve also played the easiest schedule in the league thus far.

Though they’ve played 10 of their 16 games on the road, the Jazz have also played 10 of the 16 against teams under .500. That includes six games against the four teams (New Orleans, Sacramento, Toronto and Washington) at the bottom of each conference.

3. Memphis (11-2)
It’s hard to knock the team with the best record in the league, especially when they’ve got wins over the Heat, Thunder, Knicks and Lakers. The Grizz have the league’s third-best point differential (+7.7 points per 100 possessions) and aren’t benefiting from a bunch of close wins like the Bobcats.

Furthermore, if you just look at opponent winning percentage, Memphis has played a relatively tough schedule. But when you factor in location and days of rest, they’ve actually played the third-easiest schedule in the Western Conference.

Eight of the Grizzlies’ 13 games have come at home, and they’re the only team in the league to have played just one back-to-back. They’ll play their second this weekend when they host the Pistons on Friday and visit the Spurs on Saturday.

Better than their record

1. Toronto (3-13)
This is an obvious one, given the Raptors’ failures in close games. They’re 1-8 in games determined by eight points or less. They have the second-worst record in the league, but have only the seventh-worst point differential, even after getting blown out in Houston and Memphis this week.

The Raps have also played the second-toughest schedule in the league. They’ve played a league-high six back-to-backs already and have faced only one opponent on the second night of a back-to-back.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Raps are a playoff team, but they’re certainly a better team than their record suggests. And they can be expected to turn their season around somewhat, perhaps in the second half of December and early January, when eight of their games in a nine-game stretch are against the Rockets, Cavs, Pistons, Magic, Hornets, Blazers and Kings.

2. L.A. Clippers (9-6)
The Clippers are tied with the Sixers for the eighth-best record in the league, but they’ve been almost six points per 100 possessions better. They’re one of only five teams that ranks in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, but they’ve lost four games by seven points or less.

The Clips have played nine of their 15 games at home, but they’ve also played a pretty tough schedule, with only two games against truly bad teams (Cleveland and New Orleans). Of course, they lost both of those.

Their schedule really lightens up over the next few weeks. Ten of their next 12 games are against teams currently at .500 or worse. And the other two are at Utah and Milwaukee. You could argue that they don’t face a real tough opponent until they play the Nuggets on Christmas night.

3. L.A. Lakers (7-8)
Even when you put Steve Nash‘s injury, the coaching change, and all-around drama aside, the Lakers should be better than 7-8. They have the league’s sixth-best point differential (+5.5 points per 100 possessions) with a losing record, thanks to blowout wins over the Pistons, Warriors and Mavs.

The Lakers’ schedule hasn’t been too tough, but they’re the only team in the league that has yet to play a team on the second night of a back-to-back. They’ll get their first chance to do so on Friday, when they host the Nuggets. The Portland Trail Blazers already played eight games against teams on the second night of a back-to-back.

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Knicks Lead Most Improved Offenses

November 15, 2012  ·  1:31PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Offense was supposed to come back this season.

Last year, we had abbreviated training camps, out-of-shape players and a condensed schedule. And the result was a drop in offensive efficiency of 2.6 points per 100 possessions.

This year, we should be seeing a recovery. But through Wednesday, the league is scoring 100.1 points per 100 possessions, just a tick better than it was through the same number of games last year (99.9). Shooting is better, but trips to the line are down.

Still, there are several teams have taken a step forward offensively. And a few of the teams on that list are a surprise.

Of course, everything comes with the caveat that it’s early. Some teams have had easier schedules than others. And just one or two good or bad games can skew the numbers a bit.

Most improved offenses (points scored per 100 possessions)

Team 2011-12 Rank 2012-13 Rank Diff.
New York 101.4 19 111.3 1 +9.9
Charlotte 92.3 30 100.7 14 +8.3
Miami 104.3 6 111.0 2 +6.7
Dallas 101.0 20 105.0 4 +4.0
Brooklyn 99.7 23 103.5 7 +3.8

For the five teams at the top of the list, improvement has come in different ways. But for all five, it appears to be mostly sustainable.

New York Knicks

Season eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank 2PT% Rank 3PT% Rank
2011-12 49.2% 12 26.6% 18 16.6% 27 .306 6 48.7% 8 33.6% 21
2012-13 53.3% 3 21.3% 28 11.6% 1 .245 23 47.8% 12 42.6% 1

eFG% = (FGM (0.5*3PM)) / FGA
OREB% = Percentage of available offensive rebounds obtained
TmTOV% = Turnovers per 100 possessions
FTA Rate = FTA / FGA

The Knicks have played only five games, and three of them were against teams (Miami, Dallas and Orlando) in the bottom 12 defensively. But they twice scorched the Sixers, who rank fourth on that end.

The improvement has been about hot shooting from the perimeter, but also about taking care of the ball, something we premised a month ago. The Knicks’ offensive regression last season had a lot to do with turnovers, because when they didn’t have turnover machines Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis running the point, they had no point guard at all.

So, while we can’t expect the Knicks to keep their turnover rate this low all season, there’s reason to believe that the offensive improvement is somewhat sustainable.

Of course, there’s no avoiding the Amar’e Stoudemire question. Last season, the Knicks were 6.5 points per 100 possessions better offensively with Stoudemire on the bench (104.6) than they were with him on the floor (98.1). That was the difference between being a top-five offense and a bottom-five offense.

With Stoudemire on the floor, Carmelo Anthony shot 40.9 percent and 30.4 percent from 3-point range. With Stoudemire off the floor, Anthony shot 45.0 percent and 36.6 percent from beyond the arc.

How it will work out this season remains to be seen. But until Stoudemire returns, the Knicks’ offense should remain near the top of the league.

Charlotte Bobcats

Season eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank 2PT% Rank 3PT% Rank
2011-12 43.9% 30 23.6% 27 15.4% 16 .276 14 43.9% 30 29.5% 30
2012-13 45.7% 24 30.0% 7 14.4% 6 .277 15 46.3% 18 28.9% 28

The Bobcats had nowhere to go but up, but it’s doubtful that anyone thought they’d be an above-average offensive team.

Like the Knicks, the Cats are doing a better job of taking care of the ball. But with new additions Brendan Haywood and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist leading the way, they’re also working the offensive glass for extra points. In fact, they rank second in the league (behind Denver) with 16.9 second chance points per game.

Shot selection has also been key. We noted last month how the Bobcats had the worst selection in the league last season, taking 39.6 percent of their shots from mid-range (between the paint and the 3-point line). This year, only 28.5 percent of their made shots have come from mid-range, below the league average. They’re also taking a greater percentage of their 3-pointers from the corners.

Kemba Walker‘s game-winner came from mid-range on Wednesday, but he’s been part of the solution, taking the ball to the basket and getting to the line more than he did as a rookie.

Interestingly, the Bobcats are assisting on far fewer shots than they did last year. In fact, they’re one of only two teams (the Sacramento Kings are the other) that has recorded assists on less than half of their field goals. Only 12 of Walker’s 49 makes have been assisted.

The Bobcats would be better with more ball movement, but their improvement seems mostly sustainable, because nobody in Charlotte is playing well above his head.

Miami Heat

Season eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank 2PT% Rank 3PT% Rank
2011-12 50.5% 6 26.6% 19 16.1% 22 .307 5 49.6% 4 35.9% 10
2012-13 54.8% 1 23.4% 23 14.5% 7 .290 13 51.8% 2 42.1% 2

While the Bobcats have gone from awful to all right, the Heat have gone from great to nearly unstoppable. (Offensively, at least. No team has regressed more defensively than Miami.)

Taking care of the ball has been key (sense a theme here?), but so has 3-point shooting. With the Heat playing “positionless” basketball full-time now, they have one extra shooter on the floor.

We knew Ray Allen (20-for-37) would shoot well with LeBron James drawing double and triple-teams. But James is also shooting well (13-for-28) from beyond the arc, and Rashard Lewis (13-for-23) is proving that his career isn’t over. Maybe just as important is that Dwyane Wade (29 percent for his career) has basically stopped taking threes.

The 3-point shooting should regress some as the season goes on, but the Heat aren’t getting everything they can out of Wade. So they should remain a top-three offensive team all year. And more important will be how well they defend, especially when they go to their bench.

Dallas Mavericks

Season eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank 2PT% Rank 3PT% Rank
2011-12 48.9% 15 23.4% 28 14.8% 9 .246 27 48.2% 11 33.9% 20
2012-13 51.8% 4 22.5% 26 15.1% 10 .299 9 48.3% 10 41.8% 3

This one is more surprising than the Bobcats, considering the absence of Dirk Nowitzki. But last season was the first time since they drafted Nowitzki in 1998 that the Mavs had a below-average offense. And his regression was part of the problem.

O.J. Mayo‘s 3-point shooting — he’s a ridiculous 31-for-53 through nine games — is most responsible for the improvement. But Mayo isn’t just bombing away. He’s also getting to the line (39 attempts), and he’s been joined their by backcourt-mate Darren Collison (36).

There’s no way that Mayo can stay this hot, but Nowitzki will eventually be back. And if he shoots better than he did last year, the Mavs can sustain their offensive improvement.

Brooklyn Nets

Season eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank 2PT% Rank 3PT% Rank
2011-12 47.3% 24 27.8% 10 16.1% 23 .269 17 45.7% 27 34.2% 18
2012-13 50.0% 7 29.4% 8 16.1% 17 .325 5 49.9% 4 33.6% 18

With the additions of Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez (who played only five games last season), this is the least surprising team on the list.

Last season, the Nets ranked 30th in restricted-area field goal percentage at 54.6 percent. This season, they rank first at 67.4 percent. Part of that improvement has been aided by the Cavs’ awful defense, but Lopez’s presence has also helped. He’s been the focal point of the offense and leads the team with 24 buckets in the restricted area (11 more than any other teammate). And among 170 players around the league who have attempted at least 50 shots from the field, he ranks 13th in free throw rate, at 0.449 FTA/FGA.

Johnson has struggled early, never finding any kind of rhythm until the second half of Tuesday’s win over Cleveland. Deron Williams is also shooting a career-low 26 percent from 3-point range. And with Gerald Wallace having played only one game, the Nets’ offense should only get better.

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