Posts Tagged ‘Reggie Evans’

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Nets Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do

January 11, 2013  ·  1:52PM

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HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Who’s the only undefeated NBA team in 2013?

It’s the Brooklyn Nets, who are 4-0 in January and 6-1 under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.

As it looks more and more like the Nets won’t be hiring a new coach any time soon, it’s looking more and more like Carlesimo deserves an extended stay on the bench anyway.

Five of the Nets’ six wins have come against teams — Charlotte, Cleveland, Washington, Sacramento and Philadelphia — with a combined record of 51-126. But their 17-point win in Oklahoma City pretty much legitimizes the run under Carlesimo.

The run has been mostly fueled by offense. The Nets have scored 109.5 points per 100 possessions under Carlesimo, the league’s second-best mark in the time he’s been coach.

Nets efficiency, 2012-13

Coach W L Pace Rank OffRtg Rank DefRtg Rank NetRtg Rank
Johnson 14 14 90.3 29 102.9 11 104.0 21 -1.1 16
Carlesimo 6 1 91.1 23 109.5 2 102.6 13 +6.9 5

Pace = Possessions per 48 minutes
OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

There’s been a slight uptick in pace, a change that was needed and seems to be helping the offense. But it’s not like the Nets are flourishing on the break. They’re averaging 9.0 fast break points per game under Carlesimo after averaging 8.9 under Johnson.

They’ve had a bigger increase in second-chance points (14.1 to 15.9) because they’ve rebounded better. Increased minutes for Reggie Evans has played a part, but so has a more aggressive Brook Lopez. The center had an offensive rebounding percentage of 9.5 percent (2.4 offensive boards per game) under Johnson, but has pushed that up to 15.2 percent (3.3 offensive boards per game).

An additional offensive board per game isn’t a huge increase, but the little things can mean a lot, especially when they add up. In addition to rebounding better, the Nets are also getting to the rim a little more, getting to the line a little more and shooting a little better from the perimeter.

The improved shooting has come from the starting backcourt. Joe Johnson and Deron Williams have combined to take 2/3 of their shots from outside the paint this season. That’s not a good ratio, but both have improved dramatically from outside the paint under Carlesimo.

Joe Johnson shooting from outside the paint

Coach FGM FGA FG% %FGA EFG%
Johnson 109 286 38.1% 67.6% 47.9%
Carlesimo 32 73 43.8% 73.7% 54.8%

EFG% = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA

Deron Williams shooting from outside the paint

Coach FGM FGA FG% %FGA EFG%
Johnson 80 252 31.7% 66.8% 40.5%
Carlesimo 25 59 42.4% 64.8% 54.2%

Williams’ career effective field goal percentage from outside the paint (47.4 percent) is right in the middle of the two marks above. So an improvement had to come at some point. Johnson’s career mark (46.8 percent) is much more in line with what he was shooting under Avery Johnson.

The good news is that the Nets are actually playing well with Williams on the floor. When they were 14-14, he was a minus-37 and they were much better defensively when he was on the bench. Under Carlesimo, the Nets are a plus-55 with Williams on the floor and are actually better defensively with him on the floor.

And here’s the issue with the Nets’ defensive improvement. They have rebounded a little better under Carlesimo and they’ve forced an extra 0.4 turnovers per 100 possessions. But they’ve also allowed their opponents to shoot better and get to the line more.

So how are they allowing 1.4 fewer points per 100 possessions? Well, their opponents are shooting just 68 percent from the free throw line against the Nets under Carlesimo after shooting 75 percent (the league average) against the Johnson-coached Nets.

Another concern from the Nets is the increased turnovers they’re committing. They’ve committed 16.4 under Carlesimo, the fourth-highest rate in the league in the two weeks he’s been coached.

Things are going well right now and with all the offensive talent the Nets have, they should be a top-five team on that end. But some of the ways the Nets are improving aren’t so sustainable, and more answers must be found on both ends of the floor.

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Posted in NBA.com/Stats / Comments (12) /

Williams Makes Kidd-like Impact

November 27, 2012  ·  2:36AM

BROOKLYN – Jason Kidd was not in the building when the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks met for the first time ever at Barclays Center on Monday night. Dealing with back spasms, Kidd couldn’t make the trip across the bridge.

But Deron Williams was there, and he had a little Kidd in his game on this night, leading the Nets to a 96-89 overtime victory with a season-high 14 assists.

Williams admired Kidd growing up in Dallas, and when it comes to size and strength at the point guard position, there’s certainly a comparison to be made. But skill-wise, they’re pretty different. And when it comes to making brilliant, how-did-he-see-that-angle passes that set up teammates for easy buckets, nobody in the post-Magic era compares to Kidd.

On Monday, though, Williams had that (no pun intended) magic in his hands.

When he needs to shoot the ball, those hands have been failing Williams of late. Dealing with injuries to his wrist and elbow, he shot just 6-for-17 on Monday and has made just four of his last 25 3-point attempts.

His numbers were far from overwhelming on Monday. But the vision Williams showed — he had as many assists as the Knicks had as a team — more than made up for the errant shots. It was a close to a Kidd-like performance as you’re going to see from another point guard.

Eight of Williams’ 14 dimes were for buckets in the restricted area — high-percentage looks that helped the Nets accumulate 48 points in the paint in what was an offensive struggle at times. Williams found Brook Lopez in transition, Gerald Wallace cutting backdoor, Lopez rolling to the rim and Kris Humphries under the basket for an easy dunk. He even had one pass that was so good that Reggie Evans (17 field goal attempts in 239 minutes this season) had no choice but to put the ball in the basket.

A couple of Williams’ assists came on simple passes around the perimeter, but most were difficult, thread-the-needle dimes through traffic — the kind of highlights that Kidd would be proud of.

“He gift wraps buckets for me,” Lopez said afterward. “He makes my job so much easier.”

Perhaps, until he’s healthy and his shots are falling, Williams needs to be more of a distributor. He certainly has enough talent around him where he doesn’t need to carry much of the scoring load. And he also has the size to take point guards into the post and pick defenses apart from the low block, where many of his assists came from on Monday.

The atmosphere at Barclays Center for the first Brooklyn-New York game was electric. And though the winner of the game was not given a key to the city, it did have importance beyond the standings on Tuesday morning. Both these teams feel like they belong behind the Heat on the Eastern Conference contender list. And it’s games like this that will get them there.

It was one of 82, but Williams wasn’t afraid to admit that this one was a little special. And though Carmelo Anthony (35), Tyson Chandler (28) and Lopez (22) were the game’s leading scorers, it was Williams who made the biggest impact.

“Deron is a big-stage player,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “He really dominated the game.”

Knicks-Nets was always Kidd’s showcase. When he played in these games for New Jersey, he owned the Knicks and Madison Square Garden. The Nets were 23-4, including a postseason sweep in 2004, against New York with Kidd in uniform. He was (and still is) a special player on any given night, but you always got Hall-of-Fame-level Jason Kidd when the Knicks were the opponent.

Knicks-Nets has a whole new feel to it now that it’s a borough-vs-borough affair, and now that Kidd is wearing the blue and orange. And maybe it’s Williams’ time to make an impact on the rivalry. He got off to a pretty good start on Monday.

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Posted in HT News / Comments (16) /

Flopping Fines Start Now

October 29, 2012  ·  6:35PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – So who’s going to be the first player to be officially warned by the league for a flopping violation?

Flopping penalties
Violation Penalty
Violation 1 Warning
Violation 2 $5,000 fine
Violation 3 $10,000 fine
Violation 4 $15,000 fine
Violation 5 $30,000 fine
Violation 6 Subject to discipline reasonable under the circumstances, including an increased fine and/or suspension.

In order to curtail flopping, the NBA has put a system in place to warn and fine players who disrespect the game by over-emphasizing contact. Flopping calls won’t be made on the court, but violations will be issued by a committee headed by the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, Stu Jackson.

Here’s the official wording from the league and what will earn players a flopping violation…

“Flopping” will be defined as any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player. The primary factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would reasonably be expected given the force or direction of the contact.

Physical acts that constitute legitimate basketball plays (such as moving to a spot in order to draw an offensive foul) and minor physical reactions to contact will not be treated as flops.

The video above, including an absolutely hilarious example from Tony Parker, let’s you see what the league is talking about.

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Dirty Is As Dirty Does, NBA-Style Too

August 7, 2012  ·  11:48AM

Team USA was shocked – shocked! – when Argentina point guard Facundo Campazzo turned Carmelo Anthony’s 3-point jump shot into a close-out cheap shot, hitting the New York Knicks’ shooter in the groin in the third quarter of the U.S. team’s 126-97 victory Monday at the 2012 London Olympics.

Puh-leeeze.

Frankly, the most shocking thing about the play and the furor it ignited in the moment and afterward was that Campazzo didn’t explain to reporters that he learned his technique by watching NBA global telecasts. Where better to learn some of the game’s dirtier tricks than from the those who not only have mastered them but elevated them to high art and, in some cases, deployed them all the way to Springfield, Mass.?

While Anthony briefly writhed on the floor, center Tyson Chandler, coach Mike Krzyzewski and others barked and glared at Campazzo and the Argentina team, including Suns forward Luis Scola. All of these guys, though, know their way around such cheap-shot maneuvers because those are prevalent, rampant even, in the league in which they play stateside. (Coach K? He had a guy who once stepped on a fallen player’s chest.)

Some of the greatest players in NBA history have been on the dark side of sainthood if an elbow here, a shove there or a slap where it really hurts could tilt defeat into triumph. Michael Jordan never met a rule he didn’t try to bend. Karl Malone and John Stockton were known to apply impact to opponents’ various nether regions, especially when cutting through the lane. And Tim Duncan and David Robinson were more than happy to win rings while teammate Bruce Bowen stepped repeatedly underneath descending shooters’ feet and ankles. (more…)

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Posted in HT News, London 2012 / Comments (18) /

Shut up and make your free throws

June 1, 2012  ·  4:11PM




OKLAHOMA CITY – Hack-a-Shaq. The Brazilian Whacks.

By any name, it provokes an immediate and emotional reaction.

Just ask Gregg Popovich.

“I hate it. It’s ugly,” said the Spurs coach. “But it’s within the rules and so I’ll use it.”

It’s the intentional foul, basketball’s version of stomping down hard on the brake and bringing a free flowing game to an immediate halt.

Popovich employed it in the previous round of the playoffs when he sent Clippers Blake Griffin and Reggie Evans to the foul line.

Scott Brooks of the Thunder pulled it out from under the bed in the third quarter of Game 2 when he had his team foul Tiago Splitter away from the ball on five straight possessions midway through the third quarter.

Splitter made a perfect split, hitting five of 10 free throws.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (6) /

No Wise Guy, Pop Shows His Wisdom

May 20, 2012  ·  2:07PM





LOS ANGELES – When somebody asked him to explain his reasoning for deliberately fouling Reggie Evans in the fourth quarter of Game 3 on Saturday, a puzzled look crossed the face of Gregg Popovich,

“Because he’s not a good free throw shooter,” said the Spurs’ coach.

When the chuckling in the room finally stopped, Popovich went on.

“Look, I’m not trying to be a wise guy,” he said. “I just don’t know what else to tell you. We weren’t going to foul Chris Paul. I’m sorry to be a wise guy, but I fouled him for a reason. It’s not pretty. Basically, it’s ugly, but it’s part of the game. My job is to win.”

Nobody can argue with the winning part. With four NBA titles already in his pocket, Popovich will push his Spurs for their 18th consecutive win and their second straight series sweep in the 2012 playoffs tonight when they try to close out the Clippers.

While this has certainly been the spring of Tim Duncan’s resurgence, Tony Parker’s blossoming and the continued frantic stylings of Manu Ginobili, Popovich has left nothing to chance. In addition to repeatedly sending an opponent to the foul line who treats free throws as if they were trying to shoot basketballs through the eye of a needle, Popovich was also thinking about his veteran players who have to return to the court today for a back-to-back. By playing Sledge-a-Reggie, Popovich was slowing down the game and giving the likes of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili a chance to ease up on the wear and tear.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (33) /

Paul Shows His True Value As Clippers Drop Grizzlies, Move On To Face Spurs

May 14, 2012  ·  8:50AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Now you know why the Lakers were in such an uproar when that Chris Paul trade fell through.

With a playoff series on the line in a Game 7 on the road in Memphis, a beat up and worn out Paul dragged the Los Angeles Clippers to the finish line against the Hang Time Grizzlies by sheer force of will. Then, the Clippers’ bench gave the final push Sunday at the FedEx Forum in the 82-72 win that sealed their date with the San Antonio Spurs in one Western Conference semifinal.

Through three quarters, however, it was all Paul. It was his toughness and relentless attacks on both ends of the floor that set the tone for the visitors and kept the home crowd from overwhelming the moment.

“I felt like we should have won earlier,” the always confident Paul said after leading the Clippers to just their third playoff series win in 41 years. “But it doesn’t matter. As long as you win, I think it is a step in the right direction for our franchise.”

He was so confident he bought plane tickets to San Antonio for his wife and son on Saturday. You don’t operate with that kind of confidence unless you know your will to win is greater than that of your competition. And time and again in this series, Paul showed himself as the superior competitor to anyone else on either side.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (75) /

Grizzlies Big Men Ground And Pound Their Way To Game 6 … And Game 7?

May 10, 2012  ·  10:33AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – We won’t bother asking what took the Hang Time Grizzlies so long to figure this out. All that matters now is that we’ve all see it in action and have seen the results.

When the Grizzlies ground and pound, playing through All-Star big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, they look like a completely different team against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Sure, they still have to deal with a Game 6 in Los Angeles and that pesky win-or-go-home scenario all teams face when they trail 3-2 in a best-of-7 series. But they reached Game 6 by leaning on Gasol and Randolph, listening to the children (or at least Randolph’s daughter) to stave off elimination in Game 5 last night.

If they want to see a Game 7 back on their home floor, they must continue to do more of the same. Because as good as Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and the rest of the Grizzlies’ perimeter operators have been all season, you win games in the paint in the playoffs. Trying to beat the Clippers that way is what led to the 3-1 deficit — well, that and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin outplaying them during critical stretches in the first four games.

But with injury concerns for the Clippers’ two best players, Paul has a hip flexor and Griffin a knee strain, the Grizzlies have a chance to refocus their attention inside and attack where the Clippers are most vulnerable. (Paul has already said he’ll be ready to go for Friday night, while Griffin’s status will be determined after he is examined again today.) The Clippers’ big men (Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Kenyon Martin and Reggie Evans) cannot match the Grizzlies’ bigs if that’s where the battle line for Game 6 is drawn.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (26) /

Reggie Evans And The Hollywood Flop

April 23, 2012  ·  4:28PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Don’t even bother with the envelope.

The award for the best flop in a game, practice or layup line goes to …



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Can You Quantify Chemistry?

March 3, 2012  ·  10:42AM

BOSTON – The individual basketball ability of a particular player isn’t too hard to quantify. But what about a player’s ability to complement other players?

Some people at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference this weekend tried to determine the best way to put a team together. Two research papers regarding NBA chemistry were presented on Friday, each using a different method to figure out what types of players mesh well.

Robert Ayer, an MIT MBA, first presented a paper (click for pdf) called “Big 2’s and Big 3’s: Analyzing How a Team’s Best Players Complement Each Other.” Using data going back to 1977, Ayer grouped players in 14 different categories like “Limited, role-playing centers” and “Wing 3-point shooters.”

Then he determined the best two (or three) players from each team and measured if that team overachieved or underachieved according to their overall talent level, while also taking coaching into account. By doing that, he could figure out which Big 2 and Big 3 combinations helped their teams overachieve most.

Ayer’s conclusion was that the best Big 2 combination was from Category 8 (“Multi-faceted, high scoring wings, with high assists for their position and are great 3 point shooters”) and Category 12 (“High scoring post players, high rebounds, high block”). Current examples of those players would be Joe Johnson and Dwight Howard.

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