Phoenix worry: Amare Stoudemire knee trouble. (Nothing major, but still ... if it were nothing to worry about at all, he would have played, right? Also, if Stoudemire does not prove to be durable, everyone will say the team should have shipped him out of town for Kevin Garnett when they had the chance. There have been lots of warnings about Stoudemire's knees.)
Ben, who runs an Orlando Magic blog, emailed: "In light of Madison Square Garden's recent sexual-harassment lawsuit, don't you think it would have been wise for them to change their text-message address to something other than 'misogyny' with a few letters removed from it?"
Chris McCosky of the Detroit News wants to warn the nation about this terrible scourge of "blogs." Somehow the message would be a little more powerful if it was delivered by someone who didn't also have a blog. (It would also be better if he had all his facts straight: not to nitpick, but in the same article McCosky makes various mistakes, for instance calling Shannon Brown, Patrick O'Bryant, and Dorell Wright third-year players, when in fact two are second-year players, and one is a fourth-year player.) McCosky's key point: "Journalism employs trained professionals. We actually have to go to school for this stuff. We take our jobs seriously. There are rules and standards that we are beholden to. There are ethics involved. We actually talk to, in person, the people we write about. If we rip somebody in an article, you best be sure most of us will confront that person the next day and take whatever medicine we need to take." All that stuff applies to me, yet McCosky's headline tells the world that, as a blogger, I'm not a journalist. Guess what Chris: You and me, we're in the same boat. We're both journalists who use blog software because it's a highly effective way to share information.
Now building a statue of Rick Adelman in his front yard: Tracy McGrady. The promise of Adelman's offense is some good spacing and movement, which for a multi-talented scorer like McGrady ought to mean some quality scoring opportunities. Three games into the season, he's averaging 32 points per game on 50% shooting, and he has been tepid (4-14) from three-point land.
Watching Atlanta put a little scare into Detroit last night, I was struck by the love/hate relationship I have with Tyronn Lue. He plays his brains out, and he's strong enough and determined enough that for long stretches his size is not a problem. In that, he is a hero to little people everywhere. And his defense on Allen Iverson is a key reason the Lakers beat the Sixers in the 2001 Finals. But the Hawks are apparently scared to let Lue guard a big aggressive guard like Chauncey Billups full-time, so they tried to hide him on Jarvis Hayes a little, and Hayes just killed him in the post for two key buckets down the stretch. Meanwhile, when the Hawks have the ball, they are essentially a bundle of multi-faceted threats -- usually Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, and Al Horford -- waiting to explode on the older, slower defense. The players move around, and scoring opportunities arise, but with Lue handling the ball, a good chunk of his open teammates seem not to get the ball until they are covered. Therefore, down the stretch the offense was mainly Joe Johnson creating for himself. 82games.com confirms that over all of last season, the Hawks' rate of assisted field goals was 3% lower when Lue was on the floor compared to when he was off. What does all this mean for Atlanta? Maybe not all that much -- Anthony Johnson will be back soon, and Acie Law will eventually learn to stay out of foul trouble.
As far as I know, this is the first in-depth radio interview with newish Blazer president Larry Miller, and I have to say that as a Blazer fan, I am optimistic. He seems to have both feet on the ground, a strong sense of what the Blazers are about, and a nuanced understanding of how the Blazers fit in the global market.
Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Maybe it's worth noting that the NBA Development League's Utah Flash didn't draft a player taller than 6-foot-7 last week. It could be a good indication that the Flash expect to have Jazz second-round pick Kyrylo Fesenko with them much of the season. Sloan said Sunday that he was leaning toward having Fesenko go through a second round of training camp in the D-League. The Jazz are still working through some parts of Fesenko's adjustment to America, including getting a driver's license and work visa."
The Bucks are doing their best to make Yi Jianian feel right at home in his new country, if maybe a tad embarrassed and alone.
Remember the 2004 expansion draft? The Kings left Gerald Wallace unprotected. (Offensively challenged Cleveland left one of the greatest shooters in the game today, Jason Kapono, unprotected, too -- wouldn't they love a Mulligan on that one?) Just goes to show how different players can seem more or less valuable at different times. I'm guessing that right now, the Bobcats wouldn't trade Wallace for any of the players the Kings protected that year. The 2004 Sacramento roster starred Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby, Brad Miller, Doug Christie, Vlade Divac, and the like.
With Elton Brand out, I figured there was no way Sam Cassell wouldn't end up taking things over in Clipperland. I picked him up late in my fantasy draft. But Mike Dunleavy is not cooperating, and sat Cassell for the entire fourth quarter.
The Pacers are 3-0. Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy are scoring very efficiently in Jim O'Brien's system. If this is not an aberration -- if the Pacers are really much better than last year -- then I wonder if that means the team and Jermaine O'Neal could fall back in love with each other.
Jerry Sloan, I guess, is not using some of the fancier video and statistical tools out there. Tim Buckley of the Deseret Morning News reports: "'I don't have (a computer), and I wouldn't know how to turn it on if I had one,' said Sloan, who maintains a farm in his native Illinois. 'The only thing I'd be interested in looking at is tractors anyway.' Truth be told, Sloan's wife, Tammy, purchased a new computer just last week. 'I told her it would take me 40 years to figure this out, and I don't want the ... aggravation,' he said. 'I don't need it. I'm too old.'"
Golden State of Mind coming to grips with a dismal 0-3 Warrior start: "The first week of the season is (finally!) over for the Warriors and I can't remember a time in the entire decade plus that I've been a Warriors junkie where I've seen them play such pitiful defense for three consecutive games."
Young Blazers building that team feeling. Injured rookie Josh McRoberts writes on his new Yardbarker blog about watching TV at Greg Oden's house: "Today was a tough day for me because my team lost to the evil empire that is the New England Patirots. I was born and raised in Indianapolis, so I'm a diehard Colts fan. It hurt to see them lose at home when they dominated the game for so long. I watched the game over at Greg's house with him, our friend Brandon, and G's uncle. Taurean Green came and watched with us too, not as a fan but as a loud-mouthed, bandwagon-riding hater. I don't know why he was there; other than to talk nonstop about how the Colts were going to lose and to give me a hard time about wearing a Bob Sanders jersey. It's going to take me a few days to get over it, and I owe a few guys on the team dinner so I'll hear about the loss for a while. I guess there's always next week though."
An electric 2002 ESPN the Magazine interview with Kevin Garnett by Chris Palmer. For instance: "Q: Word on the street is that you're soft in the fourth quarter. KG: F--- you talkin' about? That's not what I hear. Q: What do you hear? KG: That KG is the m---------ing s---. N----s know. My peers in the league know what I'm about."
Knick fans are seeing some improvement, but there is still work to be done. Knickerblogger writes: "The Knicks are awful on defense -- especially on the perimeter. Without further inspection it's hard to pinpoint the exact problem, but I've concentrated on Marbury tonight and he's definitely one of the culprits. His biggest weakness is staying focused on the defensive end. A handful of times tonight he collapsed towards the middle, and lost track of his guy. Unfortunately Marbury's man would be found by his teammates for an open trey. New York let Cleveland shoot 54.5% from three, and Minnesota 52.9%. Those are awful numbers, and must improve."
Save Our Sonics and Storm: "It was reported today in the media that Save Our Sonics and Storm distributed flyers at the Sonics home opener last night asking for people to 'flood David Stern's Voice Mail.' We want to be VERY clear that NO ONE associated with our group produced or distributed these flyers. The use of our logo on the flyers was done so without our permission and is unacceptable. While Commisioner Stern has made some comments that some feel were not flattering to Seattle both he and the league have done nothing to indicate they will approve a move of the Sonics and Storm out of the region as long as the team is bound to a lease or while an arena solution is in the works. We very much want to have a positive relationship with the league and work on solutions that are in both of our best interests so at this point contacting the Commisioner in unconstructive ways is counter productive to our goals." Also, please take some time to get to know Clay Bennett better.
Combined, over all of last season, the Celtics, Pacers, Pistons, Bobcats, Clippers, Hornets, Rockets, and Spurs won 51% of their games. So far this season? 100%.
Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog: "Not that I'm breaking any news, but Kevin Durant is a matchup nightmare. At any given moment on the floor, he's the most agile guy out there, the best shooter, the longest, and, like, the third best ballhandler out of 10."
The Heat are 0-3, and now the schedule gets much worse. Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel: "An 0-5 start certainly is possible, with the Spurs and Suns up next. And one certainly couldn't dismiss 1-9, considering four of five are on the road after the first five. ... Times like these make one realize how good Dwyane Wade has made the Heat offense look these past few years. It makes one realize how much this league is about playmakers. And how the Heat's current available crew doesn't nearly match up to the league's best."
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