2013 NBA Season

[texasdave]

Here is a little trivia that I found interesting. Jeremy Lamb is in his second NBA season. He played sporadically in his first season and is now playing about 20 minutes per game in season number two. He has yet to miss a free throw as a professional. 27 for 27. Now that is not a huge number of free throws. But if you consider he only shoots one here and there, I think it is notable that he has yet to miss from the charity stripe.
He is only 20 and is averaging nearly 10 PPG this year in roughly 20 minutes of playing time. He is going to be a scorer in this league.

[Kingspoint]

Here is a little trivia that I found interesting. Jeremy Lamb is in his second NBA season. He played sporadically in his first season and is now playing about 20 minutes per game in season number two. He has yet to miss a free throw as a professional. 27 for 27. Now that is not a huge number of free throws. But if you consider he only shoots one here and there, I think it is notable that he has yet to miss from the charity stripe.
He is only 20 and is averaging nearly 10 PPG this year in roughly 20 minutes of playing time. He is going to be a scorer in this league.

OKC embraced the D-League. They are using it like a true minor league system, one of less than a handful of team's doing so. They just don't sporadically send players down there. They use the entire 40-game season, as they did with Lamb last season, to teach them the OKC system, work on fundamentals, and get on the floor for real playing time, instead of wasting away on a team's bench getting their only experience through practice. Ask Iverson what he thinks about practice. OKC uses it for rehab just like an MBL team does. Some teams have taken the next step by purchasing franchises so they can have control of style of play, but they have failed miserably in sending their assets to the system to get the needed experience, with the Blazers being a perfect example not sending Leonard, Crabbe, and Barton down, three players devoid of fundamentals of basketball, who are wasting away on the Blazers bench with less than 80 minutes combined among them through 27 games, one-third of the season and a quarter of the D-league season done already.

[Revering4Blue]

How the Spurs and Thunder keep getting it right.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/...tting-it-right

What happened to the Eastern Conference? Is next year's draft so good that outside of Miami and Indy the rest of the conference is playing to lose?
-- George, Denver

George - I'm glad you asked this. Because it's been great sport for many to smack the Eastern Conference around without getting down to the reasons why. Chicago is without Derrick Rose. Brooklyn played much of the season without Deron Williams and have had Paul Pierce and Jason Terry out as well. Bradley Beal has missed numerous games for the Wizards. The Knicks lost Tyson Chandler to injury. Injuries have decimated some of these teams, rendering them largely helpless on most nights.

Then there are the young teams — Cleveland, Orlando, Detroit and Charlotte among them.

Then there are the teams surprisingly competitive, but not good enough to turn it into winning records, like Boston.

The East has been a combination of all of these things — injuries and youth chief among them — and it's taken its toll on the quality of basketball played over there. There is much more talent in the Western Conference, no doubt, but the East isn't nearly as bad as it appears to be right now. And let's all remember at the end of the season the only team that matters is the champion, and that team has been the East's Miami Heat two years running.

http://www.denverpost.com/nuggetsmai...de-an-all-star

[Revering4Blue]

Nets center Brook Lopez is out for the season after suffering a broken foot, news that was first broken by CSNNE.com’s Gary Tanguay and has since been confirmed by many others.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...or-the-season/

[Kingspoint]

Not great news for the Lopez family for Christmas.

On the Robin Lopez front, as soon as teams start figuring out how to defend his Trail blazers by getting them off the 3-point line (they are never going to stop shooting threes better than everyone else in the league), the Blazers are going to hit their first bump on the season. How Portland responds to that, Offensively, will determine how long that 'first' bump lasts. As the season moves along their Defense will continue to improve to the point that they will finish 10th to 20th in most Defensive metrics. That first bump should come soon. Teams can't continue to let them shoot freely front the three areas.

[Tom Servo]

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...or-the-season/

[improbus]

My observations on the season so far.

1) LeMarcus Aldridge is turning into a closer to the basket version of Dirk. His turn around is killer. He is shooting well above league average in all of the midrange zone, with the exception of the left wing.

2) The Knicks...goodness...I have never seen worse rotating help defense than when they have JR Smith and Bargnani on the floor together. There is a whole genre of GIF's to immortalize them. BUT, the big difference isn't missing Chandler like everyone thinks. Their overall defensive numbers are very similar. Instead, it is their atrocious shooting. JR is shooting 34% (which is Rubio-esque-more on him later). Bargs is shooting 44%, Felton 39%. I expect them to go on a tear through the underbelly of the East soon when they start making shots. BTW, Carmelo has been quietly awesome.

3) Minnesota is a really strange and highly flawed team. They are horrendous at protecting the rim. Love is a David Lee-eque defender and Pek has T-Rex arms. Rubio is on pace to be the worst shooting in the modern NBA (since 1960.) They have real problems.

4) Miami is on a quest to shoot over 50% as a team on the season. The last team to do that was the 08-09 Suns. They are also the league worst rebounding team. They get 6.4 offensive rebounds a game. I've gone back a decade and haven't seen a team that bad.

More to come later.

[improbus]

Some more stuff:

5) The Blazers are mimicking the Knicks hot start from last year. They are shooting over 40% from 3 on the season, which has pushed them to score over 108 per game. Expect a regression to the mean, especially because they are a below average defensive team.

6) Anthony Davis is living up to his hype. He is averaging 19 points, 10 rebounds, 3.3 blocks, and 1.6 steals per game, all while shooting 51% from the field and an outstanding 81% from the line. Anyone who plays fantasy has been loving Davis.

7) What Western Conference teams should be panicking and which shouldn't. Take the Warriors, who are 15-13 and not in the playoffs at the moment. On the surface, it looks like they are in trouble. But, they are 12-12 vs. the West, meaning they have only played the extremely weak Eastern Conference 4 times.

Here is a handy list of overall records and games vs. the East in order of position in the West.

Portland - 23-5: 11
OKC - 22-5: 8
San Antonio 21-6: 10
LAC - 20-9: 12
Houston - 18-10: 11
Phoenix - 16-10: 5
Dallas - 15-12: 10
Denver - 14-12: 9
GS - 15-13: 4
LAL - 13-14: 8
Minny - 13-15: 12
NOP - 11-14: 9
Memphis - 11-15: 8
Sacramento - 8-18: 7
Utah - 8-22: 10

So, Golden State should have a nice run against the East to boost their record and Phoenix has been especially impressive, winning games in the West.

[Kingspoint]

5) The Blazers are mimicking the Knicks hot start from last year. They are shooting over 40% from 3 on the season, which has pushed them to score over 108 per game. Expect a regression to the mean, especially because they are a below average defensive team.

Except that there is no "mean" for this team. While the rest of the NBA regressed to your "mean" after starting the season shooting above 40% for 3's, the Blazers did not.

This team will only get better. How they have played so far is just scratching the surface of how good they will be. They will get better as the season unfolds.

While the Knicks started 18-5 last year, it was done mostly with players who were past their primes, not young and on the rise as the majority of the Blazers' players are right now. 21 of their last 24 for the Blazers far surpasses the best the Knicks were last season. While the team isn't going to win 68 games, or anything like that, as the pace certainly can't be kept up, they aren't going to fold like a tent the way the Knicks did last season. These Blazers are among the elite of the NBA. The Knicks simply weren't that good last season with players like Felton and Carmelo who are poor team players.

The Blazers' biggest problem is that they only go nine deep. After that, it's a huge dropoff. Meyers Leonard cannot give any positive minutes to this team this season (or probably next, either, for that matter).

As teams start attacking the Blazers by getting them off of the 3-point line, the Blazers will have to face a bump that will be their first big test of the season.

All other tests they've passed with flying colors. Beat San Antonio. Beat Golden State on the road. Own the best record in the NBA. Own the best road record in the NBA. Beat OKC. Beat Houston. Beat Indiana. Won close games. Won by large margins.

But, most importantly,....and if you haven't seen them for at least four or five games from beginning to end then you can't honestly give an opinion about them that has any bearing whatsoever, the Blazers play shutdown defense when it matters. It's this defense why they have the best record in the NBA, not the 3-point shooting. They dominate third quarters defensively and Offensively. No team in the NBA responds their Head Coach the way that Portland does to Terry Stotts or makes better half-time adjustments.

The Blazers are among the elite of the NBA rebounding the ball.
The Blazers are among the elite of the NBA when it comes to patience (Top-4 in the NBA in Assists-to-Turnover ratio). This is a sign of a veteran team, yet it's a young team that plays like this, and they are just getting to know each other, these nine players that make up their core.

Some believe that he who scores the most wins the game. The Blazers lead the NBA in Offensive Efficiency per possession and per game.

Provided there aren't any catastrophic injuries, the Blazers should end the regular season as a Top-4 seed in the West, finally advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. Matchups will dictate how far they go after that, but the uniqueness of this team separates them from the normal progression required to advance in the NBA playoffs (lose in one round before you can advance in that round the next season).

One-third of the season complete and the Portland Trailblazers have the best record in the NBA and have beaten every team they've played that could challenge for that title. They play Miami this Saturday and the Clippers this Thursday.

[improbus]

Except that there is no "mean" for this team. While the rest of the NBA regressed to your "mean" after starting the season shooting above 40% for 3's, the Blazers did not.

This team will only get better. How they have played so far is just scratching the surface of how good they will be. They will get better as the season unfolds.

While the Knicks started 18-5 last year, it was done mostly with players who were past their primes, not young and on the rise as the majority of the Blazers' players are right now. 21 of their last 24 for the Blazers far surpasses the best the Knicks were last season. While the team isn't going to win 68 games, or anything like that, as the pace certainly can't be kept up, they aren't going to fold like a tent the way the Knicks did last season. These Blazers are among the elite of the NBA. The Knicks simply weren't that good last season with players like Felton and Carmelo who are poor team players.

The Blazers' biggest problem is that they only go nine deep. After that, it's a huge dropoff. Meyers Leonard cannot give any positive minutes to this team this season (or probably next, either, for that matter).

As teams start attacking the Blazers by getting them off of the 3-point line, the Blazers will have to face a bump that will be their first big test of the season.

All other tests they've passed with flying colors. Beat San Antonio. Beat Golden State on the road. Own the best record in the NBA. Own the best road record in the NBA. Beat OKC. Beat Houston. Beat Indiana. Won close games. Won by large margins.

But, most importantly,....and if you haven't seen them for at least four or five games from beginning to end then you can't honestly give an opinion about them that has any bearing whatsoever, the Blazers play shutdown defense when it matters. It's this defense why they have the best record in the NBA, not the 3-point shooting. They dominate third quarters defensively and Offensively. No team in the NBA responds their Head Coach the way that Portland does to Terry Stotts or makes better half-time adjustments.

The Blazers are among the elite of the NBA rebounding the ball.
The Blazers are among the elite of the NBA when it comes to patience (Top-4 in the NBA in Assists-to-Turnover ratio). This is a sign of a veteran team, yet it's a young team that plays like this, and they are just getting to know each other, these nine players that make up their core.

Some believe that he who scores the most wins the game. The Blazers lead the NBA in Offensive Efficiency per possession and per game.

Provided there aren't any catastrophic injuries, the Blazers should end the regular season as a Top-4 seed in the West, finally advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. Matchups will dictate how far they go after that, but the uniqueness of this team separates them from the normal progression required to advance in the NBA playoffs (lose in one round before you can advance in that round the next season).

One-third of the season complete and the Portland Trailblazers have the best record in the NBA and have beaten every team they've played that could challenge for that title. They play Miami this Saturday and the Clippers this Thursday.

I love the Blazers. But, I don't expect a team that shot 35% from 3 last year to continue shooting at this number.

Of all the teams that are "elite" offenses, the Blazers (along with the Clippers) go to the rim the least. They take around 35% of their shots at the rim. None of the other elite offenses go there less than 40% of the time. In fact, the only teams that get to the rim less are the Knicks and Clippers. That makes efficiency harder to maintain.

Wes Matthews isn't going to shoot 50% for the season when he hasn't shot over 45% since his rookie year.

I think they will end up with around 55 wins or so.

[Kingspoint]

Blake Griffin plays the best game of his career with 34 points and 12 boards, DeAndre Jordan grabs 19 boards, and yet, Chris Paul becomes the first player to ever lose a game who recorded a line of at least 30 pts, 10 assists, and 5 steals (actually had 36/16/6).

Trailblazers now 7-1 in games decided by 4 pts or less, 14-0 when leading at halftime, and 6-1 vs teams with at least 20 wins. Unfortunately, the Blazers only go eight deep. This will catch up to them if they don't trade for a big man.

[Kingspoint]

Miami is up next.

[Kingspoint]

Miami is up next.

Going to be anti-climatic if LeBron misses the game. He was dead-eye the last minute of OT vs the Kings. Almost brought them back from a near insurmountable deficit.

They really missed Anderson out there vs the Kings.

[Revering4Blue]

The NBA Could Replace The Draft Lottery With 'The Wheel' — A System That Sets The Draft Order For The Next 30 Years

http://www.businessinsider.com/nba-l...-wheel-2013-12

[Tom Servo]

Cleveland is releasing Andrew Bynum.