Just three games last night, but there’s lots to talk about… I’ll keep it short, though, since there’s a lengthy feature underneath this.
Chicago impressed me on both ends last night in its 110-98 win over the Blazers. Fun stats from hoopdata: The Bulls shot 14-26 from 16-23 feet and Luol Deng got his 40 points (!) on an 83.9 TS%. Insane. Thibodeau has the defense looking very, very good. I couldn’t believe how invisible Brandon Roy was.
The Kings are soon going to learn what the Blazers learned yesterday: they can’t afford to rely on late-game comebacks. Sacramento started off its 111-108 win over the Raptors playing the most porous defense I’d seen since… the beginning of the Kings/Cavs game on Saturday. The Raps should have won the game, but they only really played well defensively in the first quarter. They masked their poor D with good O for most of the game, but in the fourth the Kings played better and the crowd got louder and they Raps threw the game away. It was lots of fun to watch Reggie Evans grab 39282489 rebounds and DeMar DeRozan aggressively attack the rim, though.
I haven’t got a chance to watch much of last night’s Cippers/Spurs game yet, but I’m LOVING Richard Jefferson’s resurgence. I knew he coudn’t be as bad as he was last year again, but the guy’s averaging 17 points on 71.5 TS% (!!!!) right now. That won’t hold up, but still. And even though the Spurs won the game, Eric Gordon won the night – holy crap. One last note – Craig Smith, I know you didn’t MEAN to viciously take out George Hill last night, but you fully deserved your flagrant-2 and you can’t be high-fiving fans after a play like that. BAD RHINO!
Okay, before I get to today’s feature: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Matt Moore’s rant on the ludicrous Mike Conley extension is brilliant. I am going to read it a thousand times.
The 2010-2011 All-OTN Team
Last year, I thought it’d be fun to follow a team full of underdog types through an NBA season. The plan was to pay special attention to them in games – not difficult because I only picked guys I’d pay attention to anyway – and keep track of their progress throughout the year. If someone wrote about one of them, I’d link to it. If one of them had a great game or a spectacular play, I’d excitedly share the news. The idea was to feel a part of any success these guys had, the way you do when you follow the careers of the guys on your hometown team.
Instead of picking guys who are trying to establish themselves as role players, this year I’ve picked second-year players who are looking to make the leap from role player to more than that. I went with sophomores because last year’s rookie class is full of examples of why I love the NBA. This was meant to be a weak class. Picks weren’t worthless, but they were meant to be worth less. After Blake Griffin went down in the last game of the pre-season, we were supposed to hand the Rookie of the Year award to Tyreke Evans and be done with it.
Obviously, it didn’t shake out that way. Evans did win the award, but Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, and Darren Collison proved themselves to be major contributors capable of running NBA teams. And, in what might have been even more of a surprise, the draft turned out to be DEEP. There were rookies all around the league making an impact. Look at all the relevant names on this list.
So, I’ve decided this year’s All-OTN team will be full of sophomores. The guys I’ve chosen are all full of energy and enjoyable to watch. They’re definitely rotation-worthy players. I think they’re starting-quality, but none of them have a starting spot guaranteed this year. Only the power forward managed to even crack the All-Rookie Second Team last season. Here we go:
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