ICYMI... TOGETHER is BIG! Check out our latest #BIG spot, starring @justryod3 & Monta Ellis of the @bucks! #Milwaukee youtu.be/_HaBya2k2vcDan P
— NBA (@NBA) February 24, 2013
- TWO’S A COMPANY, THREE’S A—WHOOPS, WRONG TV SHOW: What to do with Milwaukee’s now overcrowded backcourt.
The Milwaukee Bucks, to their credit were
the talk of the NBA trade deadline
and not only were they the closest to landing veteran
forward Josh Smith, but they did
pull off a trade for
coveted guard J.J. Redick.
Much to my chagrin, they accomplished this without giving up a draft pick and also
stole little-known center, Gustavo Ayon:
a player who has excelled in small minutes with the New Orleans Hornets and Orlando
Magic, previously. The addition of Redick will bring reliable 3-point
shooting and, surprisingly, some size at the guard position as the existing
backcourt of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings are both speedy,
yet smaller than Redick.
One cannot even begin to comprehend how much of an improvement Redick is at 3-point shooting than Monta Ellis. The aforementioned, speedy guard is shooting a capricious 22.7% (42 of 185) from downtown and, yes, that’s not a misprint. It doesn’t take a math genius to know that Ellis averages worse than 1 for 4 from 3-point land, in every game this season. No wonder Scott Skiles lost his marbles and wanted out of Milwaukee! Brandon Jennings, who also shoots a meager 40% from the field, like Ellis, at least connects from downtown at a clip of 37% which is slightly above league average. Don’t get me wrong, I find Monta Ellis intriguing but he strikes me as the guy that everyone wants on their team but isn’t sure how he fits into a system that isn’t built solely around him (Tyreke Evans fits that description too).
Here’s the last 5
years of Bucks’ regular season record:
Bucks
Regular Season Records
YEAR
|
W
|
L
|
PCT
|
2012-13
|
26
|
28
|
.481
|
*2011-12
|
31
|
35
|
.470
|
2010-11
|
35
|
47
|
.427
|
2009-10
|
46
|
36
|
.561
|
2008-09
|
34
|
48
|
.415
|
Other than the almost .500 finish
in a shortened-season last year, they have only topped 40 wins once in the last
five years and counting this year’s as well, if their record holds at the same
rate. Somehow, Coach Jim Boylan
will have to balance his three guards to maximize their potential, keep
Redick’s minutes up (he was averaging 30 in Orlando), and find out which two
guards the Bucks’ brass will have to keep for next year. Redick and
Jennings current contracts will end after this year and Monta has one more year
going into 2014. One strategy would be to ultimately decide that Jennings
and Redick are the future and make a more balanced combination than any of the
two with Ellis (Kind of like Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry?—Ed). I
tend to like this idea because there seems to be redundancy skill wise between
Ellis and Jennings and furthermore, Monta’s expiring contract in 2014 of $11
million is very attractive to any team who can afford it. Only time will
tell but I can hardly see a future where the Bucks keep all three.
- THE DISASTER OTHERWISE KNOWN AS ANDREW BYNUM
For as bad as Dwight
Howard has looked this year, the L.A.
Lakers still crushed that deal. Ok fine, he’s been “bad” Dwight
Howard compared to Dwight Howard “standards” (still averages
16.5pts/12reb/2.5blks). But at least we still have something to compare
against his more dominant years and we can still find reason to argue where he
will play next year. The operative word is where, not if or when.
Andrew Bynum, on the other hand, is a mystery as to when he
will play this year or if teams think he’s worth the trouble
anymore. His best, on-the-court skill these days is finding those
ridiculous suits for 7-foot centers and, of course, growing an immaculate
afro. Seriously, do a quick
search on this topic.
Let’s look at the raw
numbers: Andrew Bynum was a Laker for 7 years and played in 392 out of 554
possible games to a tune of just under 71%. Add in his 0/54 this season
with the Philadelphia 76ers and this
yields 392/608, or 64% of all possible games he could have participated.
That is some seriously scary stuff for a guy who doesn’t turn 26 until October
27th of this year. I just don't see Bynum playing
in that many games this year and if I were his agent, I would advise against
him playing. The worst thing Bynum could do is either come back too early
and re-injure his knees or come back and not be all that productive trying to re-
acclimate himself in a hostile, environment that is the Philadelphia,
sports scene. Might as well keep teams dreaming of what he can be
when he's healthy and move on from a tainted situation.
- AMAZING RECORD; ALOOF RECEPTION: The San Antonio Spurs
I was recently asked a
question that has come up repeatedly over the years: why do the San Antonio Spurs get so little
attention and why are they considered "boring"?
At first I resisted
the offer to resort to that question because every true basketball junkie knows
about this team and has become accustomed to. The Spurs are great, they
have been great for a long time, and they have one of the
most underrated coaches ever in Gregg
Popovich. They have won enough recent titles so I don't feel
obligated to feel sorry for them. So I put it to the side and left it
alone trying to concentrate on All-Star
weekend.
Upon resuming the
regular season I wanted to take a glance at the standings and see the general
landscape of how the playoff schedule might shake out. And that's when it
happened and I began to track the next week or so. The Spurs as of
February 26th are sitting at 45-13. How
is this possible? Even for Spurs’ standards, that’s quite an impressive
record for their aging “Big Three.” So it must be the defense, right? Well,
yes, they are the 9th stingiest defense in the league giving up 95.8 points per
game. However, they’re really doing it
on the offensive end as well, producing 104.3 points per game the (4th) best in
the league! The Spurs (+8.4) trail only the Thunder (+9.1) in point
differential and, yes, that means they are ahead of the vaunted Miami Heat (+7.1).
In month of February so far, Tony Parker leads @nba in pts in the paint/gm (14.0ppg). Very impressive stuff from the @spurs PGIt is simply incredible given Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker are 36, 35, and 30 years-old, respectively. There's one shining rank statistically that may shed some light: the Spurs rank #1 in assists in the NBA at 25 per game (Tony Parker is the engine and Pop knows it!-Ed).
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) February 26, 2013
So let’s take a look
at the Spurs 5-man units and see what their best lineups are:
Top Five-Man Floor Units
#
|
Unit
|
Min
|
Off
|
Def
|
+/-
|
W
|
L
|
Win%
|
1
|
Parker-Green-Leonard-Splitter-Duncan
|
222.8
|
1.08
|
0.85
|
+104
|
15
|
2
|
88.2
|
2
|
Parker-Green-Leonard-Diaw-Duncan
|
139.8
|
1.10
|
0.98
|
+32
|
9
|
7
|
56.2
|
3
|
Parker-Green-Leonard-Diaw-Splitter
|
121.5
|
1.14
|
0.99
|
+32
|
6
|
5
|
54.5
|
4
|
Parker-Neal-Green-Blair-Duncan
|
105.0
|
1.01
|
1.07
|
-13
|
4
|
6
|
40.0
|
What we can see in the
top-three, 5-man units is the Spurs really have their main rotation rounded out
and that on paper, the types of players they put out on the floor seem to set
up a really nice amount of spacing. For the record, I stopped after four
units since these are the only four units that have play at least 100 minutes
together. Parker creates, Danny Green
hangs out at the wings, Kawhi Leonard roams
looking to set picks and rebound, Duncan has his butt on the blocks, and Tiago Splitter can play high and low
for screens and post ups. It's a really nice fit and even when they sit
either Duncan or Splitter, they have Boris
Diaw who has always been a big body who can pass and facilitate on offense.
One thing that seems impossible is that Manu Ginobli isn't on any of
these lists, but at 23 minutes per game, he seems to really be playing the
super 6th man so probably not surprising.
So are the Spurs
boring? Well that's just a matter of opinion, but to me it's just great basketball.
