Jim Rogash / Getty Images

John Bennett’s been on the OTN team for a few weeks now, as the host of The Outside The NBA Podcast. This is the first edition of his weekly column The Lookahead, where he’ll preview the games he’s most looking forward to. He just joined Twitter and you should harass him because doesn’t worship Hubie Brown. -Ed.

1. Thursday’s TNT Doubleheader: Boston @ Miami & Lakers @ Denver

Miami looked completely lost in its season opener in Boston. Wade was understandably horrible as he played 3 minutes in the pre-season, and they barely ran an offense. That will not happen this time and while the crowd won’t be as ridiculous as it was in the Garden, it should help the Heat when Boston’s D tries to clamp down.

The Nuggets won both times the Lakers visited Denver last season. Maybe this time Ty Lawson will dunk on Theo Ratliff.

This is a new year, though, and the Lakers’ new pieces have blended smoothly into the rotation. Everyone seems to be playing their roles perfectly and it’s resulted in a 7-0 record. Pau’s touch passes are as crisp as ever. He’s so good at them it makes me think he should be the setter on Spain’s volleyball team come London 2012.

2. Portland @ New Orleans, Saturday

This off-season I punched the Hornets franchise in the face. I mean, Trevor Ariza’s a great defender and when he shoots the 3 well, he can be a dynamic offensive player… but really, that’s your move to keep Chris Paul?

I won’t say I ever doubted Chris Paul’s ability but I did doubt his body. Paul hasn’t missed a beat and shows no sign of injury. He also punched me right back in the face by leading the Hornets to a 6-0 start to the season.

I felt this was a bubble playoff team at best. 6 games in, they look like a legit threat in the West and have beaten some very solid teams.
Jerryd Bayless faces his former club for the 1st time. It should be a solid battle of backup PGs in Bayless and Amon Johnson.

3. Portland @ Oklahoma City, Friday

Looks like too many mainstream prognosticators labeled Oklahoma City the 2nd best team in the West. They’re 3-3 and their defense has slipped to 23rd in the league.

I think they’ll break out of their current funk by the time these two teams meet. I also think that Portland goes into this game with a bit of an attitude. All the attention going to OKC when Portland went 50-32 (same as the Thunder) last year with massive injury issues. Here’s hoping they’re upset about being overlooked, giving this game a real playoff feel to it.

4. Golden State @ Milwaukee, Saturday

MONTA ELLIS! MONTA ELLIS! MONTA ELLIS! Loving the new and improved Monta Ellis.

The last time these two played in Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points. G-State is a completely different team than they were last year, though. They have a new head coach who cares, and a retooled roster. And the Bucks have one of their main scorers from last year, Mr. Corey Maggette.

5. Milwaukee @ Atlanta, Wednesday

This is a rematch of last year’s first round series. It’s a statement game for the Bucks as they lost last year in 7 without their big Aussie.

I can’t tell you why, but I have a feeling Drew Gooden has a great game. Don’t ask me, it’s just a hunch that by all accounts makes absolutely no sense since Josh Smith should theoretically destroy the Kansas grad on both sides of the ball. Only bring this up if I’m right.

6. Washington @ Chicago, Saturday

I fully expect John Calipari to sit back and drink a beer while marvelling at two of his former players fail to contain one another. Any way we could have the eight other players just hang out on the sideline while John Wall and Derrick Rose play a 48 minute game of 1-on-1?

Monta did this to you because he thinks Mike Conley's contract is foolish. (Dino Vournas / AP Photo)

So much is happening in the NBA right now and I’m all over the place. There were 12 games last night and I was flipping like a crazy person until NBA TV Canada finally joined the Bucks/Celtics broadcast with a couple of minutes left in the second quarter. I saw the end of the Suns/Spurs game and I’ve it got that going from the beginning on LPBB right now.

Bucks/Celtics was fantastic. Bogut might be the easiest non-Ibaka player to root for in the NBA, as long as you pretend the Ziller thing never happened. He’s a little slower than last year, but that makes him more endearing and he’s got this crazy beard now. When KG punked him, I started watching the game completely differently. My “the C’s aren’t actually hateable, look at Rondo, look at their Halloween pics!” thing went out the window and I cheered for the Bucks just as hard as I assume Woj did.

This doesn’t mean I hate KG, and I still don’t know what to say about the Charlie V. business. Just, uh, I’m dangerously close to becoming a full-on Bucks FAN rather than just someone who enjoys watching the Bucks more than most other teams. I feel more invested in them than the Raptors and even the Thunder, right now. All my friends in Toronto are going to kill me.

ANYWAY, Carlos Delfino played 49 minutes and finished some fantastic Skiles plays including an impossible-looking turnaround corner three to keep Milwaukee in the game. He also turned it over when he jumped to make a pass under the basket aaaand when he tried to inbound it to Bogut on the potential game-tying play at the end of OT. This represents the Carlos Delfino experience pretty well. You just have to accept that you’ll LOVE some things he does and occasionally want to strangle him. Very good player, overall.

I’d love to go more in-depth on all of the games, but I really need to get to this Monta thing. Sooo, quickly:

Apparently the Thunder can’t shoot or defend and Ryan Gomes is a Durant-stopper. Also, Eric Bledsoe went all crazynuts and I’m going to have to watch this game in full on the weekend because none of this makes sense to me.

The Raptors should not have fallen down by 19 in the first quarter if they intended to compete against the Jazz in Utah. It’s nice that they fought back, but annoying to waste the one night where Andrea Bargnani grabs more rebounds than anyone else on the court. Oh, and Amir Johnson only played 5:51 and it wasn’t even because of foul trouble. Major sad face right here.

Elton Brand and Richard Jefferson are making me feel stupid and vindicating me at the same time. All through last season I insisted they were actually good players and were just being held back by coaching (Brand) or due to turn it around at any moment (Jefferson). Going into this season, I adjusted my expectations to “well, they’ll probably be a bit better than they were last season, but I was wrong when I kept backing them.” Both vets are KILLING IT so far and I’m not even going to put their stats here or discuss the implications because we’re just over a week in and that’ll probably doom them both.

Another note on RJ: In 45 seconds, he hit three three-pointers from the left corner. His ability to hit that shot was why he seemed like such an awesome acquisition a year ago. Unfortunately, that ability mysteriously vanished in 2009-2010.

Now, finally, Monta Ellis. Against Memphis last night: 39/9/8/4 stl/3 to/12-26 fg/14-19 ft. He’s now averaging 30 points on 62.2 TS%. Yeah. It looks like the stories about him being a changed man are wonderfully true. There was so much written about his weird, lost season last year where he worked his ass off and scored inefficiently while being “coached” by Don Nelson… and I couldn’t really even argue with the negative stuff. I just hoped that the turnaround would come. It has, and apparently it’s not just because the franchise/team isn’t a horrible mess anymore – it’s mostly because of his wife. Check this quote, from after his 46-point season opener against Houston:

“I’ve got to tell you, this young man has made a turnaround in his life, and once your life is in order, things start to work perfectly for you. His relationship (with new wife Juanika) and his life is in great order. … I can’t say how glad I am to be coaching this guy at this particular point in his career.” – Keith Smart

And, speaking of the season opener, the great Bethlehem Shoals made a simple request last week and I’ve filled it. I’d already been planning to integrate video into the site starting this week and Shoals’ idea of a MONTAge set to Bill Withers seemed like as fine a first project as any. This is where I’d embed the video, if embedded videos didn’t look really weird on the blog for some reason. So click here and enjoy, people.

Luis M. Alvarez / AP Photo

There were seven games on the schedule last night, but the Knicks and Magic didn’t play because Madison Square Garden is not safe. I’ll start with the one game that came down to the wire:

The Wizards beat the Sixers 116-115 in overtime. It wouldn’t have made it to overtime if not for Cartier Martin (representing the D-League) tying the game with a last-second three-pointer that could easily have been an and-one. John Wall could not have been introduced better in the Wizards’ home opener and proceeded to put up a monster line: 29 points (on 16 shots), 13 assists, a franchise record-tying 9 steals, and, gulp, 8 turnovers. Since there are always fun numbers in overtime games, check out some other stats: Lou Williams started 0-8 but finished with 30 points on 16 shots (15-17 FT!), Elton Brand had a super-efficient 21 and 9, and Jrue Holiday had 14 points and 13 assists. I wanted a second overtime, but I was happy that Wizards fans got this win and EXTREMELY happy for Mr. Martin.

The Hawks beat the Cavs 100-88. Great to see Marvin Williams score 22 and get fourth-quarter burn. For Cleveland, J.J. Hickson was awesome. He hit a bunch of mid-range jumpers to start, which opened up his game. He’s coming along quite nicely. Wish I could say the same for Ramon Sessions, who is way better than he’s showing right now. He and the returning Mo Williams combined to shoot 9-31 and dish out only 5 assists. I thought it was over when the Hawks scored 40 points in the first quarter, but Cleveland worked its way back. Byron Scott said he loved the effort.

Portland beat Milwaukee 90-76 in an unsurprisingly slow-paced (87 possessions) game. The Blazers couldn’t hit anything at the outset and the Bucks started off on a roll. It looked like Carlos Delfino was going to do what Luol Deng did to the Blazers a night earlier, but the difference was that Wesley Matthews came in and stopped Delfino like he couldn’t stop Deng. The Bucks’ offense pretty much died near the end of the first, which was when the Blazers’ came to life. 6 turnovers and 0-4 shooting behind the arc was not what I was hoping for from Brandon Jennings after his awesome triple double on Saturday.

There were three blowouts yesterday: Boston 109, Detroit 86; Miami 129, Minnesota 97; and Lakers 124, Grizzlies 97. I won’t discuss these ones, but I will share three great dunks.

Credit to Zach Harper, Ben Golliver, and @jose3030 for the videos in this post.

Before I get to today’s feature, where I’ll quickly take stock of every team in the league after one week of basketball, I want to share a couple of links:

The Wall Street Journal profiled Anthony Morrow, which is awesome because he’s the best damn shooter in the world. There are a bunch of Steve Kerr quotes within.

And I don’t know how this got by me a few days ago, but CelticsBlog interviewed the great Jackie MacMullan. Really great read on her early days in the business, the 80′s in the NBA, Kevin McHale, and a couple of current Celtics.

Week 1 Catch-up

The Hawks are undefeated and they are getting to the line, but they haven’t been tested and it doesn’t look like Jeff Teague is who they hoped he would be.

Rajon Rondo has 67 assists in 4 games and his Celtics are rebounding their way to wins, but Nate Robinson has been bricking everything and they still need to cut down the turnovers.

D.J. Augustin’s been better than expected, Boris Diaw is still playing more than Tyrus Thomas, and Charlotte’s defense is almost the league’s worst after being the league’s best last year.

Derrick Rose is leading the league in usage rate, James Johnson does stuff now, and Keith Bogans has played more minutes for Chicago than Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer.

J.J. Hickson looks suited for his bigger role, Antawn Jamison has been all kinds of disappointing, and Ramon Sessions has been about 1/100th as good as I thought he would be in Cleveland.

The Mavericks have been awesome defensively against weak competition and Dirk Nowitzki is too good for Halloween costumes.

Arron Afflalo’s force people to spell his name right and Denver’s playing very good defense, even Al Harrington!

Rodney Stuckey’s getting assists now, the Pistons’ bench is outplaying their starting five, and they’ve looked fairly good in each loss before the C’s game last night.

Andris Biedrins and Brandan Wright get to play now, Monta Ellis is lovable again, and the Warriors really need Stephen Curry’s bum ankle to heal.

The Rockets have lost all three games, two of them close, but Kyle Lowry’s back and Erick Dampier will arrive shortly.

Roy Hibbert’s dominating from the high post and McBob is dunking on everyone in Indiana.

Blake Griffin is everything we hoped he’d be, but his team is still Clippering its way to losses and Baron Davis thinks that, before this season, “getting in shape was never a problem.”

Lamar Odom is shooting 6-8 on threes and 27-38 overall on the season and the Lakers are making me think they could go another month without a loss.

The Grizzlies looked good in half their games, they need Zach Randolph back, and you’re going to have trouble watching Mike Conley play without thinking about his contract.

The Heat are playing incredible defense and they’re going to win tons of games, but we’d like them to start running – the blowout against Minnesota last night was their only fast-paced game.

There are still too many missed jump shots in Milwaukee, but Brandon Jennings had perhaps the best game of his career the other day.

Kevin Love is averaging 15.5 points and 11.3 rebounds and has yet to play over 30 minutes in a game this season.

The Nets look nothing like they did last year and Derrick Favors is not a bust.

Chris Paul has the Hornets undefeated against three playoff teams and Marcus Thornton had 17 points and 7 rebounds in 30 minutes in San Antonio the other night.

Gallo’s been awful, Chandler’s been awesome, and the Knicks are going to need some time to put it together.

The Thunder have not been playing the awesome defense we saw last year, but that should change.

After the Magic lost by 26 in Miami, I can’t wait for the rematch that’s three weeks from today.

Elton Brand’s averaging 16.3 points and 9 rebounds, Evan Turner’s had three 7-rebound games, and the Sixers haven’t won a game yet.

The Suns can’t rebound or stop anybody, but Goran Dragic’s PER is 25.8.

Armon Johnson’s been a pleasant surprise and you have to watch the Blazers play against Oklahoma City tomorrow.

Tyreke-Cousins-Casspi is my favourite young trio and I’d much rather talk about the Kings’ much improved offense than their inconsistent, often-terrible defense.

Hope you’re as excited as I am to see more from Tiago Splitter and Gary Neal for the Spurs against Phoenix tonight.

In Toronto, Andrea Bargnani and Reggie Evans are perfect for one another.

The preseason may have tricked us into forgetting that the Jazz need time to gel, but Paul Millsap deserves your attention right now.

John Wall’s a must-watch, but I wish he had better teammates and wish the “new and improved Yi Jianlian” would put on a Wizards uniform.

Eric Wagman and Zombie Julian Guy-McCarvill

Runtime is 41:10.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

…erm, not really. My schedule is going to remain the same as it was last year. I’m going to watch basketball at night, read about basketball during the day, and write about basketball in between.

The format’s going to be new, though. The majority of my writing will live in this space: LeBlog James. This is where I’ll recap what I’ve watched, make observations, drop stats, recommend links, share gems from my Twitter feed, etc. It’s also where I’ll post a feature every day. It’s not exactly going to be a recap column and it’s not exactly going to be a “James rants about the NBA” column. It’s a blog. By me, James. LeBlog James. It’ll generally be posted in the afternoon.

The podcast will keep going as its been for the past few weeks – recorded Thursday before the doubleheader, posted Friday. It’ll continue to sound a billion times better than it did last year, as we’re using the studio at the College of Sports Media.

John Bennett, who’s hosting the podcast now, is going to be on board as a writer, too. Julian Guy-McCarvill will have a weekly column that’ll no doubt be full of statistics and hate. Eric Wagman will be writing and podcasting at least until he leaves Canada to become a spy – I hope someone pisses him off early this season as much as Turkoglu did last year.

Aaaaanyway, let’s get to last night’s fun. It was a great, great second night in the NBA. Even better than the first, I’d say. As awesome as it was to see the huge nationally televised games and the Blazers’ 4th-quarter explosion against Phoenix on Tuesday, there’s nothing like some extreme League Pass ADD on a Wednesday featuring 13 games that are all worth checking out. Can’t tell you how much I missed the simultaneous good finishes and #leaguepassalerts.

Here’s a long list of things I loved about Wednesday, starting with this picture:

• Prokhorov is obviously hilarious. That was a fun finish in Newark, too. 13-3 run in the final 1:40 and Anthony Morrow (sweetest shot in the league) nailed a late three that made me yell. Other happy news from that game: Derrick Favors was GOOD… And, TBJ! Hells yes. So pumped for the TV debut this evening.

• Favors wasn’t the only rookie to start strong after a disappointing preseason: Evan Turner had 16/7/4 against the Heat. He crossed over Dwyane Wade nicely, too. And Wade? 30/7/4. Nice bounceback.

• Reggie Evans was a beast. He had my favourite line of the night: 33 mins, 0 pts (0-2 fg), 16 reb (4 off), 2 stl, 1 blk, 5 fouls. He also had a great quote: “I ain’t no diva. I don’t have no blond hair, red hair. I’m Reggie Evans.” He annoyed the crap out of Amar’e, until STAT realized at the end of the game that he should be able to score whenever he wants. And he did, so the Knicks won.

• I had the Raptors feed, but wish I’d heard Clyde Frazier’s call when Jarrett Jack stepped out of bounds: “That’s inexplicable. Actually, it’s despicable”.

• Cleveland WON! Great, great, GREAT for their fans. I kept feeling like Boston was going to pull it out at the end, but the Cavs held on. Insane energy in that building. Must have been tough for the C’s to go from their raucous supporters in the first game to this hostile crowd in the second.

• Big Baby looked improved for the second night in a row. He’s definitely slimmed down, and he’s hitting turnaroud J’s.
• Derrick Rose had numerous incredible finishes around the basket. His layups are often as impressive as his dunks.
• Joakim Noah’s crazy line: 18/19/2/2/2. And from the same game, KD and Russ dominated the fourth quarter for the win. KD finished with 30; Westbrook had 28/10/6 and this huge dunk.
• Serge Ibaka played 32 minutes to Nenad Krstic’s 16.
• The first dunk of Wes Johnson’s career was quite something.

• Carl Landry put up some numbers: 22/11, including 7 offensive boards – awesome because his offensive rebounding rate has been declining since his rookie year.

• Jennings’ 10 assists to 1 turnover. Bogut getting 15/15 in his return, and still taking the blame for the loss. Chris Paul looking brilliant as ever: 17/16/4, with 1 turnover.
• Roy Hibbert made Noam Schiller’s MIP pick look like a great call. 28/9/3 blocks against Tim Duncan. Also, Josh McRoberts getting everyone all excited on Twitter. He made his first 5 shots, including a three and this alley-oop.

• Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki reminding us that some things don’t change: Timmay had 23 on 10-12 shooting, with 12 boards against Indy. Dirkus Circus had 28 on 11-13 shooting, with 13 assists against Charlotte. Almost forgot Jason Kidd, too: 18 assists and 1 turnover.
• T.J. Ford played well in an NBA game!

• Arron Afflalo had led the Nugs with 12 first half points to break the game open against Utah. And SHELDEN WILLIAMS had 16 rebounds.
• And what I liked most of all: Clippers/Blazers and Rockets/Warriors at the end of the night. One on my computer, one on my TV. Really excited for the west coast games this year. Blake Griffin was breathtaking and needed the ball more in the end. Hubie Brown was FAWNING over him. The Blazers had a dominant fourth quarter again, going on a 15-0 run while shutting the Clips down with a zone. Nice to see Camby still so active and good defensively, even though he’ll be turning 37 in March. Nice to see Batum make me look smart for saying he’s going to have a huge season. Enjoyed Brandon Roy’s TWO buzzer-beaters in the first half.

• All the wacky stats that come with a 132-128 game. Steph Curry: 25/11. D-Lee: 17/15/6. Scola: 36/16. Kevin Martin: 28 points on 14 shots, 17-17 from the foul line. Chuck Hayes: a career high 16 points, with 8 rebounds and 6 assists. And Monta deserves his own bullet point:

• 46 points. 18-24 FG. 9-12 FT. 1 turnover in the win. Incredible, incredible night. Efficient Monta is someone we should all love. And how efficient was he? 78.6% True Shooting. I’d have stayed up all night making a highlight video if I didn’t have to be at school right now. I’ll get that done later if no one else beats me to it. LOVED the slooooooooow mo replays on the Warriors broadcast, too

And quickly, ‘cause the first week of the season is the time for optimism and appreciating that basketball is back, a few things I didn’t love at all:

• Amir Johnson played just 12:34 and picked up 4 fouls.
• Bill Walker and Roger Mason shot  a combined 0-9.
• Marcus Thornton playing only 11:14, which was less than Willie f’ing Green.
• Derrick Rose’s inefficiency: Even though he looks improved, his production has the same problems: he needed 31 shots to put up his 28 points. He missed all four of his three point attempts. And he only got to the line 4 times, compared to Russell Westbrook’s 13.
• Kevin Love played only 23 minutes and sat the entire fourth quater. Kurt Rambis said it was because Anthony Tolliver was playing well, not because Love was doing anything wrong. I like Tolliver, but ugh. Not this again.

That’s it for me today. TNT doubleheader tonight! Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck in the studio! John Wall! Podcast will be up tomorrow. LeBlog James will properly get started, features and all, next week.

Pat Sullivan/AP

We know Houston’s trade deadline deal was very, very good. Few would argue that Carl Landry is a better fit than Kevin Martin and it’s not hard to understand the value of a 22-year-old big man with potential and future first-round picks, especially considering the track record of the man who has the power to use them.

It’s important to note, though, that Daryl Morey would have done the Landry-Martin swap even if he had not received all those goodies from the Knicks. If we’re to believe the reports that surfaced late last Tuesday night, the Rockets were prepared to receive Sergio Rodriguez and Kenny Thomas (and their expiring deals) from Sacramento to complete the trade if New York was not going to be involved.

Noam Schiller analyzed this version of the deal and came to the same conclusion as I did: it’s good for the Rockets. Martin is a better player than Landry and he fits better with their other core pieces. But here’s the thing: Martin makes way more money than Landry, at least until the end of next season. And while I prefer Martin overall, I wouldn’t argue he’s THAT much better than Landry. In fact, I agree with Tom Ziller when he says that Carl Landry is essentially the power forward version of Kevin Martin. They’re both extremely efficient scorers who play below-average D and don’t create for others often.

Here’s where it gets tricky. If you’re a GM, should you prefer the power forward version of Kevin Martin or the shooting guard version? Conventional wisdom in the NBA dictates that you never trade big for small. Yet the most revered GM around has done just that, with players who have similar strengths and weaknesses, and he reportedly would have done it even without getting other assets as sweetener.

Morey, as a guest on The B.S. Report, said the following about the deal: “We lost a lot with Carl, but we felt like between Jordan Hill, draft picks, and a good trading situation that we could address that situation a little bit easier than picking up a 2-guard like Kevin Martin.”

As I heard this, my mind immediately jumped to the scarcity of excellent 2’s in the NBA. I’d very briefly brought this up in a previous post, as a reason why Marco Belinelli’s below-average defense off the bench might not hurt the Raptors too much. This blockbuster trade just gives me an excuse to think about it again. To get an idea, here’s a table of the players who have a PER above 17.0 and play at least 20 minutes per game (sorry, DeJuan), sorted by position.

PER By Position

• First glance: Wow. That’s unbalanced, right? You have your mega-stars in Wade, Kobe, and Roy, and then there’s a drop-off. Only 7 shooting guards are in the table, compared to 20 power forwards and 18 point guards. We always hear about the lack of good centers, but they outnumber the SG’s. And as for the other wing position? Only 10 make the cut.
• Let’s get this out of the way, though: PER isn’t perfect. I think it overrates big men a little bit, it doesn’t account for defense (which is why you don’t see Varejao or Perk here), and it’s not meant to be a substitute for watching basketball games. It’s pretty good, though, as far as catch-all stats go. I’d go on, but I’d prefer to direct you to Matt Moore’s post from this morning.
• Kevin Martin, part of the inspiration for this post, doesn’t even make it. You should treat him as if he did, though, as he’s right there at 16.9. Martin is generally a standout in this metric – in the three seasons previous to this one, his PER sat at 19.2, 21.0, and 20.1, respectively. This season, he’s regressed in his free throw attempts and his shooting from distance. I expect his numbers will start to climb back up soon.
• I expect a similar improvement from Monta Ellis down the line, who is also at 16.9. He undoubtedly is a quality player, but is having one of the strangest seasons in recent memory. His inefficiency is dragging her PER down, but we know that he is capable of being an efficient scorer because we saw it in 2007-2008.
• I should mention that SG’s also suffer here because of down years from Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, Jason Terry, and Rip Hamilton. At Ben Gordon’s age and considering the injury-plagued season he’s had, there’s a good chance he eventually gets back to the 17.0 mark he had last year in Chicago, but the others are questionable. We’ve seen very good and very bad performances from those veteran SG’s, so we can’t be sure if they are going to return to that 17+ mark. Also, it’s worth noting that there are good players at other positions who don’t make the cut: Lamar Odom, Rashard Lewis, Chris Kaman, Stephen Curry, Rudy Gay, Caron Butler, Jameer Nelson, Paul Millsap, Kenyon Martin, Andrea Bargnani, and Mehmet Okur come to mind.
• You can quibble with the positions if you like. I used the ones listed at hoopdata.com (which is also where I got the stats). The only player I switched was Marcus Camby, who is listed at power forward but is playing center now for the Blazers. You can argue that Tyreke Evans and Nate Robinson should be shooting guards, but I can just as easily argue that Andre Iguodala and Joe Johnson are small forwards. Positions are blurry now. Even though LeBron is listed as a SF, it’s obvious that his true position is simply “LeBron.”

With all those caveats, I think that the PER table does a pretty good job showing the scarcity of quality two guards in the NBA. To further illustrate this, take a look at who Kelly Dwyer would have chosen for the All-Star game this season.

The wild cards for the East reserves: Al Horford and Josh Smith. The snubs: David Lee and Paul Pierce. Oh, and he would have had Rajon Rondo starting in place of Allen Iverson. For the West’s wildcards, he chose Deron Williams and Zach Randolph. The snubs? The Gasols and Nene. He also mentions Greg Oden, Kevin Love, Carl Landry, and Carlos Boozer as playing All-Star quality basketball. None of these players are shooting guards.

Here’s the point: the league doesn’t have many two-guards who do two-guardy things at an All-Star level. If I’m a GM, I ideally want my starting 2 to be able to shoot, slash, and get to the line at a very high rate. Hopefully, he’d play good defense as well. There just aren’t a lot of players like that right now. I’m not arguing that a good two-guard is more important on the basketball court than a low-post scorer and I’m not saying Minnesota should dump Al Jefferson this summer for a wing.¹ I’m not arguing, either, that this is particularly different from other eras.² What I’m saying, though, is that because of the dearth of quality shooting guards around, they have more value. We should start thinking about overpaying good shooting guards the same way that we think about overpaying good centers.

All of this means that if your favourite team employs O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, or DeMar DeRozan, you should be rooting extra hard for him to become a star if only to make your GM’s job easier. It also means I’d happily take the shooting guard version of Kevin Martin over the power forward version of Kevin Martin.

Ned Dishman/Getty Images

We’re finally back with the fifth episode of The Outside The NBA Podcast and it feels good. Julian, Wagman, and I start this one off by dredging through the Gil/Critt mess. Then, we name the official player of the podcast. We briefly touch on Ron Artest before getting into the Andre Miller situation in Portland and discussing all of the teams at the bottom of the standings (except Indiana, for some reason). Since there was only one game last night, this is actually current. Hell yes. Runtime is just over 66 minutes.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Oh, it has been far too long since the last BfB. Holidays and all, you know. I can promise these will be more frequent now, though. Anyway, seven games on the schedule last night and three of them turned out to be fairly big upsets. Fun!

The All-OTN Team

Will Bynum: His team didn’t play last night, and I’m kinda worried about his playing time and his role after watching Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, and Tayshaun Prince return to the Pistons’ lineup on Sunday at the Air Canada Centre. HOWEVA, I have something for you: an awesome look at his high school days from a documentary, discovered by Piston Powered.

Shannon Brown: 10 Pts (4-5 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT), 2 Reb, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF in 15 mins.

No highlights for you today, unfortunately, but that’s a nice line in limited action. What pisses me off, though, is that Sasha Vujacic played 19 minutes in this game. Plus, when we reached garbage time with 6 minutes to go in this surprising 118-103 loss to Phoenix, Brown played and Vujacic didn’t. So, the minutes discrepancy is even greater if you’re talking about meaningful minutes. That’s not okay.

Jared Dudley: 19 Pts (6-10 FG, 3-4 3PT, 4-6 FT), 7 Reb (2 Off), 3 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF in 28 mins.

Dudley was the player of the game for Phoenix, as he led the bench unit that took apart the Lakers. That scoring total ties his career high and that efficiency brings a big smile to my face. The Suns’ announcers called his performance “amazing”, “off the charts”, and said “he is so fun to watch”. Agreed. He hit several big threes, grabbed key rebounds, made great passes, drew fouls around the basket, and played smart defense, much of it coming against a guy named Kobe Bryant. I loved every second of it. Here’s his post-game tweet and his first ever appearance on NBA TV’s arena link:

Serge Ibaka: 6 Pts (2-3 FG, 2-3 FT), 9 Reb (4 Off), 1 Ast, 0 TO, 2 PF in 17 mins.

Going up against the Nets, this wasn’t Serge’s most spectacular game. The rebounds stand out, though. The talent-deficient Nets can’t afford to let teams get offensive boards if they want to win and Ibaka got 4 of ‘em. The Thunder rolled to their 3rd straight win, 105-89. This rookie’s best highlight came immediately after checking into the game, where he came flying out of nowhere to get a put-back lay-in. His lowlight was when Keyon Dooling dunked on him. Sadly, Tony Battie dunked on him too. Meh, there’s still plenty to like here and his team won the game they were supposed to win.

Rookie Watch

Brandon Jennings: 24 Pts (9-18 FG, 2-5 3PT, 4-6 FT), 2 Reb, 7 Ast, 5 TO, 3 PF in 41 mins.

His play was the only thing to be happy about when it comes to last night’s game if you’re a Bucks fan. And I’m kind of a Bucks fan. I witnessed him score 7 points in about a minute in the first quarter and he scored 9 straight points in the third quarter as well. The third quarter run wasn’t enough to get his team out of the hole they had dug themselves earlier, though. What hole, you ask? Well, the Bobcats outscored Milwaukee 33-14 in the second Q. Blah. I still love the Bucks, but Jennings can’t do EVERYTHING for them if they expect to win. His teammates shot 35% from the field in this one.

Jeff Pendergraph: 11 Pts (4-5 FG, 3-4 FT), 5 Reb (2 Off), 1 Blk, 0 TO, 2 PF in 19 mins.

He wasn’t supposed to play these minutes, but you know the deal in Portland. Good for him, I say – last night’s effort shows that Pendergraph intends to make the most of his opportunity. Portland fans have to be a bit depressed about losing 103-94 to the Sixers, but they should take some solace in the fact that their unheralded rookie managed to score 11 points on 5 shots in just his fourth game back from injury. I need to see more of him to get a better feel for his game, but I can tell already that he’s got the right attitude. Much like the next two guys on this list, he provides energy and toughness. The skill stuff? Not sure yet, but I’m optimistic.

Omri Casspi: 11 Pts (4-9 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-4 FT), 6 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO, 3 PF in 36 mins.

You just have to love this guy. Unfazed by his 1-6 start from the floor, he contributed in other areas and hit his last three attempts with his brother watching from the stands for the second straight game. This included a thrilling dunk a couple of minutes into the third quarter and a HUGE three-pointer with 2 minutes left in the 4th. As is usually the case, his man and help defense was a positive for Sacramento in this 106-101 victory over Denver.

Jon Brockman: 6 Pts (1-3 FG, 4-4 FT), 10 Reb (4 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Blk, 1 TO, 5 PF in 17 mins.

Whoa, two Kings rookies here and neither one is Tyreke Evans! Ha. If you didn’t know, ‘Reke sat this one out with an ankle injury, making this W all the more impressive. Brockman was a big part of the winning effort, as you can see by those rebound and block numbers in limited action. I love watching this guy and think every team needs someone like him. You know the type – dirty work and defense. You can tell that other bigs don’t like facing off with this particular rookie and you can tell that he doesn’t give a shit. It’s unfortunate that his exuberance sometimes leads to more fouls than you’d like, but you kind of have to accept that for now. At least he helps make up for it with his knack for drawing fouls on the opposition when he goes up for rebounds and puts up shots on the inside. Without Brockman, I don’t think the Kings would have made it to overtime against the Lakers the other night. Doubtful that they would have pulled out this win without him, too. And I’m quite sure there’s no one else on this roster capable of blocking a Nene dunk.

Stephen Curry: 0 Pts (0-4 FG, 0-1 3PT, 0-1 FT), 2 Reb, 0 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 3 PF in 11 mins.

I take no joy in pointing this out, but he was -16 in that time too. If you’re talking about the toughest night of Steph’s young career, this has got to be right up there with the time Nellie benched him against the Knicks in mid-November. Normally, I’d be pissed off that he didn’t get more time even if he was playing poorly, but it’s hard for me to do that on a night like this one, where the Warriors defeated the Celtics 103-99. I just hope Curry can enjoy the huge win with his teammates, even with the way he played.

James Harden: 3 Pts (0-10 FG, 0-4 3PT, 3-4 FT), 6 Reb (3 Off), 1Ast, 3 Stl, 1 Blk, 2 TO, 3 PF in 23 mins.

This was very strange to watch. I’m not sure what was wrong with the bearded rook last night, but he couldn’t get anything to fall. It didn’t matter if the shot was open or contested, whether it came on the perimeter or around the basket – nothing would go down. The shots I’ve seen him make all year were bricks. The rest of his game wasn’t affected too much, despite what the low assist total might imply. He played the same type of ball we’re used to, but just couldn’t buy a bucket. Luckily, all he’s concerned about is the win. I am sure he’ll bounce back.

Fun With Stats

Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd combined for 4 points on 1-10 shooting in 35 minutes. This should give you some insight as to why coach Scott Skiles opted not to play them in the second half.

Zach Randolph filled up the stat sheet with 23 points, 19 rebounds, 2 assists, a block, and a steal in Memphis’s 116-111 overtime win over Washington. Oh, and Z-Bo went 9-9 from the line, including hitting two free throws to tie the game with 0.3 seconds left in regulation. What’s crazy is that I expect this production now. Check out the numbers he’s been putting up lately! In the same game, Gilbert Arenas filled the stat sheet with 30 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, and 5 threes.

The Grizzlies only have a winning record overall against 4 NBA teams: the Wizards, Raptors, Clippers, and Bobcats. The last time the Wiz won a game in Memphis? November 3, 2004.

Vladimir Radmanovic pulled down 10 rebounds in 18 minutes. Yes, that Vladimir Radmanovic. I don’t understand it either.

The Celtics had 25 turnovers in a game they lost by 4 points. The Nuggets shot 20-35 from the free throw line in a game they lost by 5 points.

Philly shot 58% against Portland. 104 points might not look like a crazy offensive night, but this was an 87-possession game. That’s 119.5 pts per 100 possessions. The Suns lead the league in that category with an average of 111.8. This was a combination of very solid offense from the Sixers and poor interior D from the Blazers, as Philly managed to go 23-31 at the rim and 7-11 from inside of 10 feet. (Hoopdata’s box scores are awesome.)

Brandon Roy has managed at least 23 points in 13 straight games now. No player has a longer 20+ scoring streak going.

With 8 wins on the road this season, the Thunder have matched last year’s total. Also, the team is now 11-2 when KRS-TIC scores 10 points or more.

For the 19th consecutive game, the Nets were outrebounded.

The Lakers really seem to be missing Ron Artest. With Luke Walton sidelined as well, their lack of depth was exposed last night – the Suns’ bench outscored L.A. 52 to 31.

The Suns have now defeated the Lakers, Celtics, and Magic this season. These are the top three teams in the league, record-wise.

Impressive

Gerald Wallace: 21 Pts (7-13 FG, 0-1 3PT, 7-9 FT), 14 Reb (2 Off), 4 Ast, 1 Bl, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 3 PF in 43 mins.

21, 14. Ho-hum. This is what it’s come to with G. Wallace, which is crazy. He is just piling up stats and he’s as fun to watch as he’s ever been. Unless you’re rooting for the other team, that is. I appreciate the hell out of the way he hounds you on defense, outjumps and outworks you for rebounds, and gets out on the break. Last night, I just wished it had a less demoralizing effect on Milwaukee.

Kevin Durant: 40 Pts (15-22 FG, 0-2 3PT, 10-12 FT), 5 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 3 Stl, 5 TO, 1 PF in 40 mins.

I feel for you, Trenton Hassell. You’re smart enough to know there’s no one on your team better fit to guard Kevin Durant. You’re smart enough to know how to best defend KD, given your size and athletic ability. You’re also smart enough to know that it probably won’t make a difference. Your best effort won’t be close to enough if Durant is playing as he should be, which he was. 40 points on 22 shots? Incredible. And none of it seemed forced. Hell, none of it seemed particularly difficult. The Nets don’t have anyone that comes close to matching up with him and their team defense is just poor. KD scored in every way imaginable. Beautiful to watch.

Nick Collison: 11 Pts (5-7 FG, 0-1 3PT, 1-1 FT), 10 Reb (4 Off), 1 Blk, 3 PF in 29 mins.

Before I leave the stats behind, I should mention that he was +25 on the evening and he would have been 5-6 if not for a full-court heave at the end of the third quarter. Now, remember when I said every team needs a Jon Brockman type? Collison is that guy for the Thunder. He’s less reckless and thus less exciting than Brockman, but he’s ahead in the mental game at this point. If you’re still focused on his stats, then add two charges taken, numerous solid picks, and a few nice passes that didn’t result in assists. I’m telling you, he was big.

Yi Jianlian: 29 Pts (11-20 FG, 0-1 3PT, 7-9 FT), 7 Reb (3 Off), 2 Stl, 3 TO, 4 PF in 42 mins.

I must say I was intrigued to see Yi after Mark Ginnochio of Nets Are Scorching showed me that he looks like a different player these days. Little did I know he was going to tie his career high last night and engage in a scoring duel with Kevin Durant (18 to KD’s 22) in the first half. What I liked most was Yi’s aggressiveness – in the first half, he was persistent in getting to the basket and had some nice finishes. He hit some perimeter jumpers, sure, but I’m more interested in the fact that he converted some dunks and hook shots. I’ve been pretty critical of him in the past, but would like nothing more than to see him shut me up. The way to do that? Keep this up and keep getting stronger.

Robin Lopez: 8 Pts (4-4 FG, 0-2 FT), 5 Reb (3 Off), 1 Blk, 3 PF in 21 mins.

At the end of the first quarter, Lopez led the Suns in scoring. The announcers called his work “sensational” and said it was “the best stretch of his career”. I’m not one to argue, there. His good work continued throughout the game, as he used his size to disrupt the Laker bigs better than anyone else on the Suns’ roster could. Had a nice block on Kobe, too.

Elton Brand: 25 Pts (11-16 FG, 3-5 FT), 9 Reb (4 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk, 4 PF in 30 mins.

Hell yes! I feel a sense of pride when Elton puts up awesome numbers like these. I’ve said it before: this man has plenty left in the tank. He’s just been used improperly this season. Last night, though, the Sixers made a point of getting him the ball on the inside and Portland did not have an answer for him. Playing with Speights helps because he can be the 5 on offense and playing with Iverson helps because AI can set him up. Expect much more of this if Eddie Jordan allows it to continue. 30 minutes is still not enough if you ask me.

Allen Iverson: 19 Pts (7-11 FG, 5-7 FT), 4 Reb, 5 Ast, 2 TO, 3 PF in 31 mins.

19 points on 11 shots? Efficiency! Iverson! Again, hell yes! This isn’t just about the numbers, though. Qualitatively, there’s a lot to impressed with as well. He started off the game by hitting a few shots, but that didn’t make him try to dominate the game. Instead of forcing up contested shots or going on-on-one, he pushed the ball and shared it with his teammates. He looked quick, confident, and happy. I don’t know if a lot of people were paying attention to this game, but I loved it. Felt a bit bad rooting against the injury-ridden Blazers, but I really wanted AI and Elton to get this one. I remain convinced that this Sixer team is significantly better than its record.

Andres Nocioni: 21 Pts (6-7 FG, 3-4 3PT, 5-6 FT), 6 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Blk, 2 TO, 3 PF in 25 mins.

This was probably best game I’ve ever seen Noc play. He was essentially perfect on offense and he worked hard against Kenyon Martin and, briefly, Carmelo Anthony on defense. With their stud rookie sitting out, the Kings needed someone to step up and provide scoring punch – Andres’s dead-eye shooting was huge. In all honesty, I can still hardly believe what I saw. GREAT night for him.

Donte Greene: 17 Pts (6-9 FG, 1-3 3PT, 4-4 FT), 1 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 1 PF in 23 mins.

1 rebound for a 6’10 forward, but I’m impressed? Yeah. He really was good in all other areas. From the tip, Greene set the tone for the Kings – in the first two minutes, he scored 7 points, blocked a Carmelo Anthony shot, and drew an offensive foul on the Nuggets’ star small forward. His defense remained solid all night – 34/8 sounds good for Melo until you see that he needed 42 minutes and 35 shots to get there. Greene was a big part of this – he did a great job of making Anthony work and avoiding fouls. I’ll forgive him for the lack of rebounding this time. I’ll forgive him for the dumb heat-check in the first Q. I’ll even forgive him for the thoughtless gamble he made when he tried to intercept a pass he had no chance of getting to. Hm, now it sounds like I’m hating on him. Trust me, I’m not. Very solid game.

Monta Ellis: 37 Pts (15-26 FG, 1-3 3PT, 6-8 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 4 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 3 PF in 48 mins.

For the fifth time this season, Monta played the entire game. The Warriors needed it to beat the Celtics, it would seem. Anyway, this was just a fantastic effort. He puts such pressure on your defense, even if your defense is one of the league’s best. To put up these kind of numbers against Rajon Rondo is extreeeeemely impressive. You know Monta is most dangerous with his penetration and finishing ability, but his jump shot was falling this time out – he made 9 out of his 12 attempts from 16-23 feet. (Again, Hoopdata’s boxscores are AWESOME.)

C.J. Watson: 11 Pts (4-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-4 FT), 0 Reb, 7 Ast, 7 Stl, 1 Blk, 3 TO, 1 PF in 37 mins.

Wow, wow, wow. 7 steals! Forget about the last one; that came on a long pass on the last possession, when the game was out of reach. Those first six, though? All of ‘em came in the second frame. Crazy, right? I was excited when I flipped to the game and he picked off a Rondo pass and went the other way for a layup. I was even more excited when he did the same thing on the next possession. Sitting Steph Curry was definitely the right decision with the way Watson was playing. You have to love the steals, but he did a great job defensively in ways that won’t show up in the stat sheet as well – he worked his ass off chasing Ray Allen around screens and managed to slow the sharpshooter down a bit. With the way his off-season went and the way everything’s gone with the Warriors this season, I couldn’t be happier to see him have a game like this.

Rajon Rondo: 30 Pts (11-18 FG, 1-3 3PT, 7-9 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 15 Ast, 3 Stl, 6 TO, 3 PF in 46 mins.

Yet again, Rondo was the best Celtic on the floor. I won’t pretend that I was rooting for his team this time, but I enjoyed every one of his points and assists anyway. I still haven’t quite figured out how exactly he is able to do whatever he wants on the court even with guys playing a few feet away from him when he catches the ball on the perimeter. I love that he shot 7-9 from the line and I love that he uses pump fakes more often and more effectively than almost anyone in the league.

Quoted

“There’s no such thing as being too intense.” – Stephen Jackson, when asked about his technical foul/being vocal

“Once I got my second wind I was all right. The first couple minutes I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest.” – Allen Iverson

“Having Allen back helps. He’s a finisher. He can get to the line and get the ball to guy at the right time. We’ve missed that.” – Elton Brand

“You just expect everything. With them, you don’t know what kind of crazy lineups they’re going to have out there.” – Doc Rivers, on the Warriors

Tweeted

@BothTeamsPlayed: Ummmm…..seriously, who’s the dude in this Yi costume?

@gswscribe: I will not be bringing my wallet into the locker room after the game. @quietstorm_32 might steal it

@johnschuhmann: Do we really know what AI’s got left in the tank? When’s the last time we saw him play injury-free & without rust?

@HPbasketball: Lakers, Nuggets, Celtics all lose? CHAOS REIGNS. #onenightonly

@freedarko: If Monta’s not an All-Star, I’ll puke myself to death. Can you win Most Improved twice?

@cdouglasroberts: I’m going to be cheering like Roni Turiaf tonight. All I need is the Pastor Troy beard & chin. Yes yess.

@cdouglasroberts: Tonights game put me in a horrible mood!!! I hate watching from the sideline. I already don’t have any patience. Can’t wait until practice!

@cdouglasroberts: We need to change our thinking & approach!! I hate where we are! I MUST practice tomorrow. PERIOD!

@cdouglasroberts: Had to go get some eggnog. I’m going to go to the market tomorrow to buy the REST! Fridge full. I’m on that! Family Guy is on too. Yes yess!

To Watch

Amar’e posterizing Mbenga:

A wild play that begins with a Devin Harris steal and ends with Courtney Lee slamming home an alley-oop:

Kevin Durant’s sweet baseline dunk:

Awesome NBA singing Part 1, starring three young Sacramento Kings:

Awesome NBA singing Part 2, starring Danilo Gallinari:

To Read

Kevin Durant blogging about his new teammate, Eric Maynor.

Adrian Wojnarowski tells us what’s going on with Tracy McGrady right now.

Zach Harper takes a look back at how astonishingly good Tracy McGrady used to be.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

I let myself down last night, failing to keep my eyes open after the Boston/San Antonio game tipped off. Apparently you shouldn’t go for late-afternoon/early-evening drinks with co-workers when you haven’t slept properly in weeks. After waking up on my couch at 12:00 AM with freaking hockey on the TV, lesson learned. I’m not going to compound this failure with a failure to complete the third BfB, though, so bear with me as I sort through last night’s action despite missing the majority of it live.

The All-OTN Team

No one in my fab five played last night, unfortunately. The small forward on the team did bring a smile to my face, though:

Rookie Watch

DaJuan Blair: 18 Pts (9-11 FG, 0-1 FT), 11 Reb (5 Off), 2 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF in 21 mins.

What a beast. The point total is a career high and his inspired play will make everyone forget about the embarrassing moment where he tipped the ball into his own basket to give the Celtics 2 points. In the last two games, he’s totalled 29 points and 21 rebounds (12 offensive). Care to guess how many minutes he played in those games, total? 38. Utterly mind-boggling. Love that he had a huge game on national TV, although it kind of sucks that it was in a losing effort. Despite grabbing 23 more rebounds than the Celtics, the Spurs’ inferior shooting and higher turnover total resulted in a 90-83 loss. Oh, and here’s something from the Sports Guy, who recently made his glorious return to Twitter:

Ty Lawson: 6 Pts (2-4 FG, 2-2 FT), 1 Ast, 1 TO, 1 PF in 21 mins.

Quiet night in this 114-96 blowout victory against the Heat, but it’s worth noting that both of his field goals came on floaters. This is such an essential shot for smaller players in the NBA. As I mentioned with Brandon Jennings yesterday, if you can get to the hoop, hit open jumpers, AND hit contested floaters, you’re almost unstoppable. And just like with Blair, he’s making other teams and their fans jealous:

Stephen Curry: 11 Pts (4-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT), 5 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk, 4 TO, 3 PF in 32 mins.

2 assists and 4 turnovers? Damn. I still believe in you, Steph. I remember your 14-point, 7-assist debut against Houston and you better believe everyone in that opposing locker room did, too. Just make some adjustments and forget about this tough 111-109 loss. Oh, and stay aggressive.

Fun With Stats

Monta Ellis: 24 Pts (9-27 FG, 0-2 3PT, 6-8 FT), 6 Reb (1 Off), 8 Ast, 2 Stl, 9 TO, 5 PF, 7 BA (Blocked Attempts) in 47 minutes.

What a weird, weird line. Steph’s 2 assists to 4 turnovers have nothing on Monta’s 8 to 9. I guess when you play all but 32 seconds of a 106-posession game, you’ve got plenty of opportunities to rack up field goal attempts, assists, and turnovers if you’ve got the ball in your hands most of the time, but… damn. That’s crazy. A bit of a rough night, efficiency-wise, to say the least. It would have been nice if he had capped it off with a game-winner, but unfortunately that 9th turnover came on a frustrating travel with 2.1 seconds left in the game, as he slipped when he caught the inbounds pass.

Rajon Rondo: 12 Pts (6-11 FG, 0-1 3PT), 6 Reb, 12 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 Blk, 3 TO, 4 PF in 36 mins.

I don’t know if this really means anything but he was +19 on the night, as well. Easily the game’s leader in that stat. You should be used to these kinds of stat lines for Rondo, though, and since I only saw highlights of the game I don’t have much in the form of analysis for ya. I do have a rant, though: Last night, I made a quick list of guys who I root for harder because other people hate them. Rondo inspired this list. It’s odd that I root for him – I’m a Raptors fan and kind of hate the Celtics. The attitude on that team pisses me off. Believe me, I respect the hell out of them, but I was screaming at the TV when they were playing the Bulls in that amazing first round series last season. Especially when KG was mouthing off from the bench. I know I’m not alone – they’re a team that’s eminently hateable, but everyone generally respects Garnett, Pierce, and Allen’s play. My problem is that there are STILL people who hate on Rondo’s game, not just his attitude. It might just be a vocal, ignorant minority but it’s a piss-off. I fail to see how anyone who has watched the Celtics since last season began can discredit his talent. He’s not just good because he’s playing with good players. He’s not hurting his team with his sub-par outside shot. Yes, he has a sub-par outside shot, but the fact that he’s playing like an All-Star despite this is a testament to how great he is at almost every other aspect of the game: look at his defense, his rebounding, his passing, his efficiency, and his ability to penetrate. He gives you absolutely amazing production from what is arguably the most important position on the floor. So don’t hate his game, thanks.

I want to close out the stats section with a quick mention of something the great Dave D’Alessandro uncovered yesterday (check the link for the Keyon Dooling quote about Lawrence Frank at the bottom, which jives with just about everything I’ve read about Frank lately):

Through 18 games, Jason Kidd is 37-for-78 (.474) from downtown.

_

Through 17 games, Rafer Alston, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devin Harris, and Courtney Lee are a combined 30-for-106 (.283) from downtown.

_

Again, we’d like to call this the worst 3-point team of the last two decades, but we can’t. That’s because their .270 norm from international waters is actually better than Minnesota’s .260.

That is ugly. Crap. Let’s move on to the opposite of that…

Impressive

These four guys impressed me last night during the Rockets/Warriors game because they showcased all-around games that weren’t always there.

Carl Landry: 22 Pts (8-10 FG, 6-6 FT), 9 Reb (2 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 3 Blk, 3 TO, 4 PF in 26 mins.

You really can’t ask for more than that production in 26 minutes. That’s incredible. I know the Warriors’ interior D is very, very, veryveryvery weak, but you have to give Landry props here. What I love about his play is that he’s improved as the year has gone on. I knew he was going to be an efficient scorer on the block, but have been pleasantly surprised with his defense and his rebounding. And by defense, I don’t just mean the blocks and the steals – he’s really working on that end, which wasn’t always the case before. It’s a bit funny that Adelman is still bringing Carl off the bench, as he’s developing into their go-to guy in key situations. I linked to this awesome article on him the other day – if you missed it, you should give it a read now.

Aaron Brooks: 25 Pts (8-15 FG, 5-8 3PT, 4-4 FT), 2 Reb, 7 Ast, 2 Stl, 4 TO, 5 PF in 35 mins.

Ooooh, an undersized scoring point guard. Of course I’m into it. 14 of those points came in the 3rd quarter alone, by the way. Brooks has improved his three-point percentage by 3.4 this year, whilst averaging more attempts than ever before. His efficiency in the last 3 games has been phenomenal (21 pts on 15 shots, 22 on 11, and now 25 on 15). What catches my eye, though, is the assists. 7 of them. If he can keep that up or improve it, it would really help this Rockets team. We all know you can score, Aaron – finding easy looks for your teammates is the next step. (Update: Somehow when I wrote this I forgot to mention that Brooks scored the game-winning free throws last night. Well, he did. Now you know.)

Anthony Morrow: 21 Pts (8-13 FG, 4-8 3PT, 1-1 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 5 Ast (!), 4 PF in 40 mins.

Morrow matched Brooks’s 14 points in the third and was a major part of the Warriors’ offense last night. What’s great about this is he’s showing he has the potential to be more than just the sweetest-shooting three-point threat in the league. The five assists are a sign that his team would be served to use him as more than just a spot-up guy and his biggest basket was not a three: down by 2, when he had the ball in his hands and Shane Battier (obviously) made the proper decision to take away his three-point shot, Morrow performed a nice crossover, got to the basket, and converted a difficult lay-in off the glass to tie the game. Shame about the 13.3 seconds that followed.

Vladimir Radmanovic: 20 Pts (8-13 FG, 4-7 3PT), 8 Reb (3 Off), 6 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 TO, 0 PF in 35 mins.

First, he dunks on Nene, and now this. I am having trouble comprehending what I’m seeing. What an all-around game! Look at those rebounds, assists, and steals. So nice. What’s wild is that his last basket came with 6:09 left in the third quarter. After that, he went scoreless for the remainder of the period and Don Nelson didn’t insert him back into the lineup until there was 2:55 left in the fourth. He checked into the game as Carl Landry hit two free throws to score Houston’s 9th and 10th consecutive points. The lineup that allowed this? Curry, Watson, Ellis, Morrow, and Maggette. You’re crazy, Nellie.

Quoted

“Yeah I can win it. I don’t care if (Michael) Jordan was in it.” – DeMar DeRozan, after being asked if he could win the dunk contest if LeBron James was competing.

“I just get the feeling now that this team really wants to be great. Every day that we’re in the gym we’re going hard and doing what we can to get better. This team wants nothing but to be great. We’re improving in a lot of different areas and if we keep that up I think we have a chance to be really good again.” – Dwight Howard, on his fantastic Magic team, from his blog.

“If you go to a team that’s not really winning, like the New Jersey Nets, they haven’t won a game yet. I might go crazy if I haven’t won a game. I’m a competitive person. I’m glad I’m on a team that’s winning like we are right now.” – Ty Lawson, from a great piece comparing the drastically different situations Lawson and Steph Curry are in right now.

“Someone has to take those shots. That’s just the way the NBA game goes. You’re not going to be able to get a high-quality, open 3-point look at the basket or a layup every time down.” – Shane Battier, of course referencing the two most efficient shots in basketball from an excellent article about Trevor Ariza.

Tweeted

@YUNGBUCK3: Oh yea forgot to till yall I was at the white house, chillin with Obama. He actually know who I am. That’s crazy.

@gswscribe: Monta Ellis didn’t talk after the game. He was the first one out of the locker room, whisking past media after we exited Nellie’s postgame
@gswscribe: I caught up w/ him for one question. “How do you feel?” He shook his head no. Wasn’t sure if he meant not good or not talking.

@BothTeamsPlayed: Wait? Vlad Rad scored 20 points? Is it 2004 already? (Moments after this, I saw Jamaal Magloire get a layup and I was convinced it was actually 2004.)

@ShamSports: Heh. Just realised that Al Harrington’s nickname is Free Candy. Tyrus Thomas’ nickname is Free Money. Now the trade MUST happen.

@TheJetOnTNT: Hey shout out Charles ! Pray for his fam. Cuz granny passed! Will be missed
@TurnerSportsEJ: if ya’ll didn’t catch pre-game , charles lost his grandmother today…83.. a great lady. If you’re the praying type, toss one up. Thanks

To watch

Allen Iverson’s emotional press conference back home in Philly:

Rad Man’s backcourt alley-oop to Monta:

Kyle Lowry’s huge block on C.J. Watson:

To read

The Disappearing Portland Defense, by Kevin Pelton

I think the Blazers do have the personnel to improve on D if they would just play smarter/harder on that end, but it’s got to be a bit worrying that they’ve gotten worse as the season has gone on.

Loose Balls, Thursday, by Knee Jerk NBA

KneeJerk backs up the “Damon Stoudamire on steroids” Brandon Jennings assessment that I made, except he leaves the steroids bit. He also talks about the Blazers’ D, AI, and Ron-Ron.

When Hope Is All That’s Left, By Holly MacKenzie

A great, but depressing look at the state of the 0-18 Nets. Before reading this, I felt worse for CDR than anyone else in the league. Now, T-Will is right there with him, followed by Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston, then the rest of the team. They’ve got the Bobcats and Knicks coming up – they’ve gotta win one, right? Right? I hope so.

The season so far, in quotes, by Scott Carefoot

The selected quotes make me happy but the way they’re applied to this year’s Toronto Raptors makes me sad. Or angry. A bit of both, really. What’s worst is that I can’t argue with a damn thing Carefoot said.

Andrew Bogut and The “Oi!” of Six, by Chris Tomasson

Terrific look at one of the cooler things I’ve seen an NBA player do. I’ve always wondered where the college-like chanting was coming from at Bucks home games. Now I know.

Ahh, G-State. The G-Men. Okay, maybe not the G-Men, though I think they’d trade their issues for one Plaxico bullet wound. Where do I even start with these guys? They have so much talent it’s ridiculous. They play entertaining ball. They have a great crowd. There’s so much to love, yet they continue to self destruct. First, their captain and rock, the ever-sane Stephen Jackson, publically declares he doesn’t like the direction of the team and wants a trade. Gets fined. Now he gets fouled up, T’d up, sent from the bench and suspended for a few days. Also, their next best player, Monta Ellis, has publically questioned whether he and new stud draft pick Stephen Curry can play together. Fans are as thrilled with this as they were when they heard about a potential Monta Ellis salary dump in September.

Speaking of salary dumps, they sold Marco Belinelli to the Raptors for just over $1.5 million in the summer (yes, they got Devean George, but the Raptors gave the Warriors cash to cover his contract this season). Not to say Belinelli’s an all-star or anything, but unless we’re talking soccer the phrase “sold a player” should be reserved for when asking for a loosey. They were rumoured to be interested in Amar’e, until Stephen Curry fell to them at #7 in the draft. Now, they’re being linked with Bosh again, but that’s pure speculation. There’s no way Colangelo is interested in trading Bosh until closer to the deadline at least. And as a Raptors fan, I certainly hope it’s not for a package “centered around Andris Biedrins”. Brandan Wright’s hurt and out for a few months. Sure, they have Anthony Randolph, but Coach Nelson is notorious for sitting young players for… well, no good reason at all. They’ve got Andris Biedrins locked in for four years at $9 million a year (And Raptors fans were complaining about Turkoglu’s contract!), Corey Maggette for four years, increasing every year from almost $9 mil this year to almost $11 million in 2012. Those two, plus Jackson and Ellis take up $40 million of salary space in 2012! They’re already several million over the cap, and, as it stands, do not figure to be a big player in free agency for a while unless they find a way to dump one of their four biggest contracts. So why do I like these guys? Why do I support this Picasso of a mismanaged and chaotic team? As a fan of the Toronto sports teams, I am a card-carrying masochist, which helps, but I can also see talent and charisma. And even with all of their problems, the Warriors just ooze talent.

In addition to Monta and Captain Jack, they have personal favourites Ronny Turiaf (don’t ask) and Corey Maggette (I’m a masochist, remember?). They have summer league sweethearts Anthony Morrow and Anthony Randolph. They have Speedy Claxton and Andris Biedrins (I can like them and hate their contracts), and most importantly, they have Stephen Curry. Ask anyone who watched the NCAA Tournament in 2008 about Stephen Curry and their faces light up. There aren’t many shooters who can throw a team on their back and carry them, yet Stephen Curry almost carried tiny Davidson all the way to the Finals; losing in the elite eight to after upsetting Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. The team that beat them: The eventual champion Kansas Jayhawks, who won by 2 points after the potential game winning 3 didn’t drop (Curry dished, he was in double coverage). It was an awe-inspiring run. Just ask LeBron. Generally, there aren’t too many rookies who excite me. Curry, though, is something special. If nothing else, I’d be tuning in to Warriors games JUST for Curry and he doesn’t even have close to the most potential on the team. Anthony Randolph has the tools and potential to be a STUD in this league. Yes, I said it. With his skill set, if he is given a real chance by Don Nelson he could a superstar in the making like Kevin Durant (the last rookie to excite me like Steph does).

What can’t the guy do? He can shoot, he can break men down, he can pass, he can dunk, (oh can he dunk), he can rebound, he runs the floor, and he can block shots. His length and speed are things to marvel at. His nose for the ball is something that can’t be taught. His willingness to get down and dirty and do whatever’s necessary to win is endearing. I don’t even have anything else to say about him, other than if Don Nelson doesn’t let this kid on the floor he should be committed. Or shot. Either way, he shouldn’t be allowed within 500 feet of any school, gym or NBA arena. Same story with Anthony Morrow. He may not have the pure raw talent like Randolph, but he can ball and needs to be given a shot.

What other positive things can I say about the Warriors? Well, as much as it may be to their chagrin, both Captain Jack and Monta are still in the Bay Area. Say what you will about Stephen Jackson, the cat can still play. Someone should tell Nellie that he’s not a point guard or a power forward, but he still is a hell of a player on the wing. And don’t forget that Monta missed training camp and half of last season after a little workout mishap, uhhhh contract violating high speed motorcycle accident, errrr falling off a moped. I still don’t understand how you can shred your ankle on a moped. Anyway, that’s beside the point. I’m not here to talk about the past; Monta’s back, healthy, and he will have a full training camp and hopefully a full season. This can’t be a bad thing.

In fact, the thought of seeing Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Stephen Jackson, Anthony Randolph and Andris Biedrins together makes me turn into the Lonely Island guys when I think of it. I dunno if Nellie will let that happen, but hey, a guy can dream. And let’s not forget they still have Acie Law (another personal favourite), Morrow, Claxton, Maggette, Turiaf, and Mikki Moore on the bench. Yowzers. Yes, I said it: Yowzers. By now it should be apparent why I can support this club. They are the Raptors West. They can score 110 points a game, they can give up 110 points a game. The only difference between the two clubs is pure talent. The Raptors have good players, yes, but the talent coming out of Golden State is truly remarkable. There’s a reason I called them a Picasso. A Picasso is a chaotic mess, but it’s a thing of beauty. It’s taking pieces of a puzzle, scattering them in a random order and turning it into art. The Warriors are art on the court, a thing of beauty. As a fan of the game of basketball, I can’t wait to see what they can do this year. They had enough talent to make the playoffs last year, and this year they’ve improved the club. Sure, there’s a few ifs; mostly relating to IF Nelson actually plays the young talent he’s been blessed with, and IF they don’t make some stupid salary dump, but with that kind of talent they can’t lose! Can they? You’ll have to tune in to find out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, win or lose.