6.18.10 3:35 am by Alex
Ron Artest has had an almost inconceivably up-and-down NBA career. He’s dealt with circumstances – most notably the famous brawl in Michigan – that could have ended his career, but still supplied us with plenty of entertaining moments. After coming to Los Angeles via free agency during the off-season - a move some questioned – it all paid off for Ron tonight, as the Lakers clinched their second championship in as many years. Artest, who has struggled at times during the series, came to play tonight, with 20 points, 5 rebound, 5 steals and solid defense. He seems to have turned the corner in is life and is handling his previously out of control emotions better, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still a character. As an addendum to my previous post on Artest, here are the best moments from Ron Artest in the 2009-2010 season:
Ron Artest Says – Ron Artest says he used to drink Hennessy at halftime, Ron Artest says he suffered memory loss after concusion, Ron Artest says the media coverage of Tiger Woods is unfair, Ron Artest says Trevor Ariza’s a better player.
The Haircut – Not the first time he’s had unique hairdos, but this one was probably the most colorful. It’s supposedly “defense” in Hebrew.
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8.03.09 2:13 pm by Matt
During All-Star 2009, LeBron threatened to “clean up” the Dunk Contest. He hinted that if the rules were tightened up and he talked some fellow superstars into it, he’d participate.
Here’s the thing: sure, LeBron can jump high. REALLY high. But there’s just a limit to how high people can jump. Through the legs and a variant thereof is the go-to move in the finals every year, which leads to boredom, which led to a push toward creativity, costumes, and chicanery of all sorts.
Since LeBron and his superstar competitors can only repeat the through-the-legs so many times, I’m here to bring some ideas to the table for an All-Star filled Dunk Contest.
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7.07.09 12:02 pm by CM
Editor’s Note: I said we would be doing CM’s Quick Hits every Monday, but I totally lost track of what day it was yesterday. My apologies. We’ll get back on schedule next week. Again, be sure to check out CM’s blog “Our Same Difference“.
- If you weren’t cheering for Andy Roddick Sunday during his epic final against Federer, you are not American. Him winning would have been as big as Chestnut bringing the binge eating title back to America one more time, and on forth of July weekend no less. USA USA USA.
- The Lakers pulled a fast one on the league this week. Watch the Ron Artest to the Lakers deal to lead to 70 win season, just like the Worm Rodman experiment in Chicago. In addition to making their team exponentially better with Artest, and Bowen being traded to the Bucks, do any contending teams have someone to stop Kobe?
- Celtics picked up Sheed, going for the same lightning in a bottle scenario that the lakers are trying. This will blow up in their face. Sorry Boston. Better luck next year.
- All Major League Baseball teams wore red hats this weekend. They looked stupid as hell, and the only one who can pull off a red baseball hat is Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame.
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6.22.09 2:06 pm by Will
Disclaimer: Yes, I know that the Magic lost in the Finals. Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard deserve a lot of blame for that, but in truth, they just weren’t as good as the Lakers. They also weren’t as good as the Celtics or Cavs, but they still won because of their unique offense. I guess they got unlucky, or the Lakers were that much better than all of the teams that the Magic had conquered so far. Anyway, Because Orlando’s offense was so interesting and effective, I felt that it deserved to be studied, so here ya go. – Will
Every couple of years, every sport is faced with something that changes the game, and the way teams react to it will dictate how they will fare in the future. One of the primary game-changers in football was the Spread Offense. The Spread is employed when teams come out in the shotgun, mostly employing 3, 4, or 5 reciever sets. This offense allows for fluidity and many offensive options, and has served as the basis for some of the most influential and inventive offenses in football, Urban Meyer’s offenses at Utah and Florida that utilized the mobility and decision making of Alex Smith and Tim Tebow, Rich Rodriguez’s Spread Option at West Virginia, Hawaii’s offense that made Colt Brennan the most successful QB in the history of NCAA Football, Texas Tech’s “Air Raid” offense used to beat Texas this year, the Wildcat offense used by the Dolphins, and the now-defunct A-11 offense that you probably read a couple of articles about this year. The Spread Offense is (pardon the pun) spreading, and has to be recognized and planned for by defenses. Playing with the spread involves increasing a team’s overall speed, because they have to be able to take advantage of the vertical seams that are created in the defense. Defending the spread also requires increased speed, in order to fill these channels. Disparities in team speed can be disastrous for the slower team, as could be seen in the case of the 2007 BCS Championship Game, where the zippy Florida Gators trounced the hulking favorites, Ohio State, 41-14.
One may ask, when reading that first section, “What the hell does this have to do with the Orlando Magic, Will? How does a football offense relate to the offense the Magic employ?” Patience, dear reader. As a Celtics fan, I was hugely frustrated by the way Orlando played basketball. They didn’t attempt to duplicate the Celtic’s excellent ball movement, and Ray Allen’s amazing ability to come off screens, or Kendrick Perkins’ solid post moves. No, they were content to feed the ball to Dwight, have the defense collapse around him, and have him kick it out to an open Rashard Lewis/Hedo Turkoglu/Rafer Alston/Mickael Pietrus/Courtney Lee/J.J. Redick for an open three, which inevitably dropped in. Sure, Hedo and Lewis would occasionally hit midrange jumpers, and Pietrus would throw down a dunk or two, but most of the Magic’s O was built upon the three. On the inside, Perkins defended Howard fairly well, but oftentimes when Dwight didn’t get doubled he wouldn’t deal with the semantics of a skyhook, an up an under, or any other low post moves. He’d just dunk. However, his presence is even more important on the defensive end of the court, and he ran away with the blocks title and was a beast on the boards. Howard’s defensive domination allowed the Magic to play Rashard Lewis at 4 and Hedo Turkoglu at 3, who aren’t exactly Bill Walton and Scottie Pippen on the defensive end. ‘Shard and Turkoglu make up for their defensive uselessness by being great three point shooters.
As unique as this 4-out 1-in offensive system is to the NBA, it, like the spread offense, rose to the pros after being used successfully in college. It is a distant cousin of Memphis’s Dribble-Drive offense, which you can read about here. Pittsburgh and Villanova, who met in the Elite Eight this year, were probably the most well-known of those that used the 4-out 1-in, and they both used it very effectively. Pitt in particular had very similar personnel to the Magic, with a dominating inside presence, (Dejuan Blair) and a stable of solid perimeter shooters (Sam Young, Levance Fields, Brad Wanamaker, Jermaine Dixon, Ashton Gibbs.) Anyway, there are a few reasons I made the comparison between Orlando’s offense and football’s spread offense. One reason is that they are ostensibly similar, as they both spread out the defense and take advantage of the increased space. Another is that they have a similar etymology, coming up from the college ranks to be used in the pros. A third is that they both require very specific personnel. The spread requires speedy receivers, and a quarterback who can be both a field general and a mobile threat, a la Tebow, Brennan (sorta), and Graham Harrell. The Magic’s offense also requires 3 or 4 three point threats on the court at once, and a defensively dominating center who demands a double team. Because Orlando was so effective in the Conference Semis and Conference Finals with this offense, when I was thinking of ways to improve it, I couldn’t come up with any strategic improvements, but only better players to pull off the roles. So I decided to share my idea of what a perfect team running Orlando’s 4-out 1-in spread offense would look like. I have figured out everyone’s role and found a player who could play it better. Of course, I stayed under the Magic’s current salary, $68,713,618. I also tried to make it realistic, as there’s no way that you could have a team of all-stars, even if their salaries worked out. People would start bitching about playing time and fighting over groupies, and it would just be a mess. (I’m not including Jameer Nelson in this, as they played much better without him during the playoffs.)
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6.16.09 10:28 pm by Pat
Editor’s Note: We’re introducing another new writer with this post. This is Pat. Pat is not a Lakers fan.
As I sit here and watch as the Lakers and Magic come to the inevitable conclusion of the Lakers hoisting the trophy, I find myself getting angry and frustrated that Houston, Denver, and now Orlando have failed to take them out. Then ABC flashes to an up close of Kobe Bryant sticking his bottom teeth out like his jaw is dislocated and my Kobe-hating meter is now off the charts. I have never been a fan of Kobe or his frequent ball-hawking style of play. I respect his talents and believe he is a top ten all time player, and getting a ring this year without playing second fiddle to Shaq cements his place in history as one of the best to play the game. Similar to Bryant himself, Kobe fans are often smug and arrogant and for some reason insist that he is the best player ever despite there being little, if any, statistical evidence to back this up. That being said, I decided to write some reasons/facts that fellow Kobe-haters can use as ammunition against the LA fans who undoubtedly will be signing his praises even louder this offseason.
1) Kobe is 4 for 6 in NBA Finals appearances, and he was the second best man on the team for three of his four rings. Kobe had the luxury of playing for arguably the best coach ever during the majority of his career and he played with the most dominant physical force to ever play the game in Shaquille O’Neal. During the 2003-2004 season, Kobe was playing with three other future Hall of Famers (Shaq, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton) and was regarded at that point as the best player on the team and rightfully so. Shaq’s numbers had dipped and Malone and Payton were nowhere near their prime, but the team was undoubtedly stacked and Kobe failed to deliver in the finals. In his second run as the top man on the team, he lost once again to the Celtics. This year by defeating Orlando, Kobe earned his first ring as the go-to man for his team. You need to give him his props for that, but he doesn’t have the other three without Shaq.
2) Kobe’s supposed legendary ability to hit the game winning shot is more hype than truth. If you look at this site, you can see that Kobe, despite taking the most game winning shot attempts out of an extensive list of NBA players, did not hit the most game winners and shot just .250%. Those statistics include the 2003-2004 season up to February 4th of this season. ESPN and ABC want to make Kobe out to be the next Jordan in terms of clutch shots and have done all they can to promote this idea. The fact of the matter is the more attempts you take, the more you will eventually hit. You don’t see the misses replayed over and over, but the makes are made into some sort of iconic shots.
Kobe fans may point to his better record in terms of game winning shots in the playoffs, as can be seen on the same page. However, after watching his performance in this year’s playoffs, including his game 2 game winning attempt that was blocked by Hedo Turkoglu (as Kobe was triple teamed and failed to pass to a number of wide open teammates…but that’s another story), I am confident that his shooting percentage will drop once this year’s playoffs are factored in. Anyone who tries to deny that Kobe takes to many shots, and even more so at the end of the games, just needs to look at the numbers.
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