– Why Cleveland Cavaliers Defense Can Be Better Than You Think (from Grant Hughes, Bleacher Report):
” LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, but that doesn’t mean we should discount this title contender’s potential on the other end.
To be fair, it’s easy to see why the consensus says the Cavs will be elite on offense: Irving is a ball-handling maestro, Love is the game’s most prolific floor-spacing big and James is the most complete offensive force in basketball.
Blindfold those three, and they’ll still figure out how to get the Cavaliers offense into the top five by the end of the 2014-15 season.
The Cavs have an embarrassment of secondary offensive riches as well. Mike Miller is still nails from deep, Shawn Marion can still cut and swoop like a man 10 years his junior and Tristan Thompson, limited as he is, can clean up the mess on the offensive glass.
Don’t forget Dion Waiters, who could use a lesson in restraint but is a tough cover nonetheless.
We get it; Cleveland is going to score.
It might be pretty darn good on D, too.”
Read and view it here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2224018-why-cleveland-cavaliers-defense-can-be-better-than-you-think
– Rebounding is key to Cavaliers’ plans (from Matthew Florjancic, WKYC):
” According to Blatt, rebounding is a tactical part of the game, and it is something he looks forward to developing with his players.
“The good thing and the fortunate thing is rebounding, particularly on the defensive end, is very, very tactical and a very clear-cut science,” Blatt said. “You box your man out, either to allow your teammates to take the ball or you box him out and go get it yourself.
“Offensive rebounding, there is a tactic behind it, but it has a lot to do with your nose for the ball, your ability to read where the ball is going to fall, and your relentless effort in going after the ball. I think we’ve got a few guys like that. That’s an art. It’s not necessarily tactically planned. We’ve definitely got guys that can just go get it, and they did.”
Read it here: http://www.wkyc.com/story/sports/nba/cavaliers/2014/10/07/rebounding-is-key-to-cavaliers-plans/16876939/
– Two young Timberwolves hope intense training regimen helps reshape careers (from Andy Greder, twincities.com):
” After a rookie season that included time in the NBA’s Development League, Muhammad was ready for a change. So was teammate Anthony Bennett, another highly rated rookie who struggled during a long, injury-plagued first season in Cleveland after the Cavaliers made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft.
The Wolves suggested “Chameleon Training,” an intensive regimen under trainer Frank Matrisciano. Muhammad, Bennett and veteran reserve center Ronny Turiaf signed on. Muhammad dropped 20 pounds in five weeks and showed off his washboard abs on social media. Bennett, a 6-8 power forward, dropped 7 pounds to 243.
The most challenging task?
“Everything,” said Bennett, who spent three weeks in the program. “I can’t pick out one thing. It was intense.”
Read it here: http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_26681194/two-young-timberwolves-hope-intense-training-regime-helps
– Amar’e Stoudemire feels like forgotten man with Knicks, wants to get back to his ‘dominant self’ (from Peter Botte, New York Daily News):
” Derek Fisher called the 6-11 forward ‘invaluable’ to what the team is trying to do in the triangle offense. Stoudemire says his ‘body feels great’ after a few injury-plagued years.”
Read it here: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/forgotten-amar-stoudemire-rebound-difficult-year-article-1.1966569
– Hawks high on Muscala’s development (from Chris Vivlamore, myajc.com):
” In 20 NBA games, Muscala averaged 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10.7 minutes. He spent much of his summer working out in Atlanta and coach Mike Budenholzer has noticed a difference — but there is still work to be done.
“There is a little bit of a calming and confidence-type growth,” Budenholzer said. “He plays so hard, which is a huge skill. It sounds easy but it’s important, and it’s going to allow him a chance to be good. You also have to have a confidence and a poise when you are playing really hard, which is not easy and it kind of counterintuitive. I think he’s calmed down a little bit. He’s confident. He knows how to play hard and how to still function on the court and get positive things.
“Playing without fouling, screening, he still has a lot of areas in understanding the nuances of the offense and ball movement and trusting the system and the teammates. He’s still got a ways to go.”
Read it here: http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/basketball/hawks-high-on-muscalas-development/nhdcQ/
– There’s a method to Thibs’ madness (from Nick Friedell, ESPNChicago):
” There are 5.3 seconds left in overtime of an otherwise meaningless preseason game against the Detroit Pistons, and Tom Thibodeau is coaching as if it were Game 7 of the NBA Finals. With his team down by two points, the Chicago Bulls head coach is screaming at little-used second-round pick Cameron Baristow to deny the basketball.
“Five! Five! Five!” Thibodeau barks at the officials while holding five fingers in the air.
The ball is inbounded just before the officials blow their whistles. The Bulls have to foul. Pistons big man Greg Monroe hits his free throws and pushes the lead to four points with just 0.9 seconds left. Game over, right?
Not for Thibodeau.
He decides to use a 20-second timeout to draw up a play that results in a long-range jumper for second-year man Tony Snell. The Bulls lose 111-109, but as usual, Thibodeau has drained every possible learning moment out of the game. He has shown his team one more time that every step counts. There are no wasted teaching moments for a team that wants to win a championship”
Read it here: http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/20298/theres-a-method-to-thibs-madness
– Road To Recovery: Warriors Wing Brandon Rush (from Warren Shaw, Dimemag.com):
” In this installment of our Road to Recovery series we catch up with Brandon Rush from the Golden State Warriors. He’s been a very good role player throughout his career who owns a 40 percent career average shooting from deep. But now he wants to carve out any niche the Warriors may need without any real agenda of his own.
After playing just 38 games with the Utah Jazz last season in an attempt to recover from the ACL injury that robbed him of all but 2 games in 2012-13, Rush is back playing for the Dubs despite being traded from them the previous summer. He took some time after a Warriors practice to discuss with us his rehab process, his troubles in Utah, why he returned to Golden State and all that is in store for him as the NBA season draws near.”
Read the Q & A here: http://dimemag.com/2014/10/road-recovery-warriors-wing-brandon-rush/
– Elfrid Payton impresses as Magic open preseason with 108-101 OT win over Heat (from Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel):
” “I thought he had great composure on the floor, and I love watching him play,” Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. “He has just a great feel for who to get the ball to, when to get into the paint. He did a great job tonight of just orchestrating and being a leader on the floor.””
Read it here: http://ht.ly/CpLt7
– George Hill’s aggressive play fuels Pacers (from Candace Buckner, indystar.com):
” The start of any Indiana Pacers season would not be complete until a story is written about point guard George Hill embracing his aggressive side. The regular season rite of passage should include all the favorite components such as teammates adding their insight as to how the Pacers are a different squad when Hill goes off, and even the subject himself stating how a boost of confidence precedes his rare takeover moments.
So here comes the inaugural “George Hill played aggressive” script.
…(I)f Indiana expects to compete when the games begin to matter, this plot twist must be more than the sporadic filler.
More than any other time in his Pacers career, Hill has to make aggressiveness a habit. He can’t just show this side – scoring on a variety of pull-ups, floaters and putbacks – every now and then. The absence of last year’s starting wings, Lance Stephenson and Paul George, have left craters in the Pacers’ system. However, Hill can help fill the void by playing as he did Tuesday night, reacting instinctively to the rhythm of the game for his own shots while still helping his teammates get looks.”
Read it here: http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2014/10/07/indiana-pacers-george-hill-aggressive-for-a-start/16893071/
– K. J. McDaniels a pleasant surprise on defense in the early going (from Jake Caplan, Philly.com):
” I feel like I do [surprise opponents with my shot-blocking ability],” (KJ) said after yesterday’s practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where the team readied for tonight’s preseason game against the Charlotte Hornets at the Wells Fargo Center. “They’re not expecting a ‘two’ guard to go block shots, but I feel like I’ve got to have my teammates’ back, so I go out there and do whatever I need to.”
” And most importantly is guard your man, be tenacious defensively. And I think that that is in [McDaniels]. If we wants to know where his bread is buttered, that’s where it is, is on the defensive side.”, said Coach Brett Brown
Read it here: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20141008_McDaniels_a_pleasant_surprise_on_defense_in_the_early_going.html
– There’s nothing abnormal about the Jazz (from Gordon Monson, Salt Lake Tribune):
” There’s transition basketball, transition defense and transition offense, and then there’s transitioning a team. That’s what the Jazz are doing here. They themselves are in transition. Everything is moving from the old to the new: new season, new coaches, new schemes, new priorities, new players, new lineups, new rotations, new hopes, new ways of thinking, new ways of playing, new ways of being.”
Read it here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/jazz/58498666-87/story.csp
– Marcus Smart wise beyond his years on defense (from Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston.com):
” “I think he’s capable of helping us a lot,” Bradley said. “He puts pressure on the offensive player every single time down the floor, and he doesn’t gamble. That’s crazy because he’s young, and a lot of young guys like to gamble. He just plays great, solid defense.” ”
Read it here: http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4714898/smart-wise-beyond-his-years-on-defense
– Biggest Adjustments Detroit Pistons Must Make This Coming Season (from Jakub Rudnik, Bleacher Report):
” After their fifth consecutive season with 30 or fewer wins, the Detroit Pistons are certainly looking to make big adjustments for what they hope will be a turnaround season.
Major changes in the front office, coaching staff and roster already guarantee this team looks much different than it did a year ago. Stan Van Gundy takes over as team president and head coach, and he has already begun reshaping the team to fit his preferred style of play with the acquisitions of six new players.
But there are still a good number of holdovers in the team’s core, and they’ll need to combine with the newcomers and make big on-court changes in order to have a chance at making the playoffs in the spring.
There’s new talent in Detroit, as well as a top-tier head coach. But will this team come together and embrace what it needs to do to be successful?”
Read it here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2224401-biggest-adjustments-detroit-pistons-must-make-this-coming-season
And two more on the Pistons, including takes on last night’s games:
Read them here:
http://www.detroitbadboys.com/2014/10/8/6945369/greg-monroe-josh-smith-bench-stan-van-gundy
– Nuggets must bank on Kenneth Faried (from Mark Kiszla, Denver Post):
” What’s most amazing about Faried isn’t the spring in his legs or 24/7 energy. It’s a relentless urge to shock the basketball world. He came into the NBA as a rookie in 2011 with one definable skill: rebounding. His defense on the floor was shaky. Other than a dunk, his offensive repertoire was nonexistent. At this time a year ago, rookie Nuggets coach Brian Shaw seem stumped as to how to utilize Faried as anything more than an energy guy off the bench.
But Faried averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds down the stretch last season, then found a roster spot on Team USA, where the most valuable thing he gained was not gold but the trust of Mike Krzyzewski, the most-respected basketball coach on the planet. The two most-powerful words in coaching are: good job.
Coach K told Faried: “Hey, you can do anything, Kenneth.”
“I think Kenneth is an underrated offensive player. He’s a guy who is starting to get comfortable with getting his own shot on the block with a hook of his left shoulder, and not just being a player whose points come off transition,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said.”
Read it here: http://www.denverpost.com/kiszla/ci_26683359/nuggets-must-bank-faried
– Glimpse of new Warriors emerges (from Monte Poole, CSNBayArea.com):
” The early play was more choppy than impressive. But once the teams settled into a rhythm and simply played basketball, a glimpse of the new Warriors began to emerge.
They will be, a very, very different team on offense.
That’s what first-year head coach Steve Kerr has promised, and some of those differences were highly visible in his unofficial debut, a 112-94 preseason win over the Clippers on Tuesday night at Staples Center.”
Read it here: http://www.csnbayarea.com/warriors/rewind-glimpse-new-warriors-emerges
– Andrew Wiggins: An NBA Scouting Report (from Rafael Uehara, BBallBreakdown.com):
Read and view it here: http://bballbreakdown.com/andrew-wiggins-scouting-report/2014/10/07/
– Brett Brown sees daylight at end of 76ers’ dark tunnel (from Paul Flannery, SBNation):
“I feel that trying to coach with a very long lens is important,” Brown said. “I see daylight here in this program. Michael’s three-point shot, Nerlens’ progression at the foul line, Tony Wroten’s assist-to-turnover ratio, all those types of things are development things that are our measurements this year. That’s our report card and it’s done with a very long lens.”
Read it here: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/10/8/6943417/brett-brown-philadelphia-76ers-coach-rebuild
– Rockets Bench (from Jonathan Tjarks, Pattern of Basketball):
” One of the main points of interest for me in the Rockets-Mavs preseason game on Tuesday was all the new players on Houston’s second unit. Of the nine guys who came off the bench for them, five were not in the NBA last season and one of the ones who was (Troy Daniels) spent most of the year in the D-League. After losing Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, a few of those guys are going to have to play big minutes for them this season.
But those questions will be merely academic if the Knicks can’t improve a defense that ranked 24th in the NBA last season with a puzzling system of switching and double-teaming at inopportune times. The Knicks didn’t add much, if any, individual defensive talent during the off-season, so they will have to build a new system if they want to improve defensively.
Guard J.R. Smith said the new plan is based on pressuring opponents toward the sidelines. “We’re going to push everything to the sideline and keep people out of the middle,” said Smith, explaining the biggest difference between Fisher’s philosophy and that of former coach Mike Woodson. “Last year, it was more about trying to force people to the middle of the floor.”
Read it here: http://online.wsj.com/articles/knicks-avoid-middle-ground-1412728887
They are asking Sam Dalembert to replace Chandler and that will go about as well as it went
Nope, not close.
There are a few extra things that go into the determination of a team’s “team salary” amount, and by association that team salary amount’s proximity to the salary cap thresholds. And of these extra things, the most important, obvious and prevalent are things we know as “cap holds”. There are two types of cap hold – a free agent’s cap hold, and a draft pick’s cap hold.”
Read it here: http://bballbreakdown.com/what-is-a-cap-hold-and-why-might-one-matter/2014/10/06/
– The Most Consistent 3- pt Shooters In The NBA (from Arturo Galetti, BBall Breakdown):
” I gathered all the play by play data for last season. I looked at all the three point attempts for the season for each player and I divided them up into threes at less than or equal to 30 feet from the basket or heaves over 30 feet. I also looked at make streaks and miss streaks for those non-heave threes. Finally, I looked at the standard deviation of five shot samples for each player. I then worked out three base numbers:
- Non-Heave 3Pt FG%: Percent of makes from three when the shot is 30 feet or less
- Make/Miss Streak Ratio: Average numbers of consecutive non-heave makes divided by Average numbers of consecutive non-heave misses
- Bad day 3Pt FG%: Non-Heave 3Pt FG% minus the standard deviation of the consecutive five shot samples for each player
I then used these numbers to build a composite ranking. If I keep it to just the players with at least 80 non-heave attempts for last season we get a very interesting looking top 30″
Read it here: http://bballbreakdown.com/the-most-consistent-shooters-in-the-nba-the-list-will-surprise-you/2014/10/06/
– Dajuan Wagner aims to play again in NBA (from Phil Anastasia, Philadlephia Inquirer):
” Lately, Wagner has done more than wonder about what might have happened had he stayed healthy. He has committed to an intensive workout program that he hopes will lead to a resurrection of his career at the age of 31.
A chiseled 200 pounds, the 6-foot-2 Wagner believes he has begun to regain the explosive athletic ability that was as much the source of his success in the sport as his jump shot, ballhandling and court sense.
After another training session on a recent afternoon at the Adrenaline Sports Performance facility in Cherry Hill, where he is part-owner, Wagner said he is determined to push himself to see if he can play again at the highest level of the sport – in the NBA.”
Read it here: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers
Basketball Intelligence 