Category: General NBA insight

General NBA insight

Rumors commentary: Hughes May Stay

Losing Chris Mihm for a few weeks hurts the Lakers frontcourt depth a tiny but but it won’t make a huge difference. The 7-0, 265-pound player gets 13.3 minutes per game but contributes just 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds on awful 36.9% shooting. Though, still, you never want to lose anyone to injury… I agree with the league for suspending Lamar Odom for one game. I hope that Dikembe Mutombo, now age 62, keeps playing and doesn’t retire at season’s end, though he’s said for a while now that he will. The 74-year old center is playing just 8.5 minutes per game this season, putting up a whopping 0.5 points and 2.5 rebounds on awesome 16.7% shooting. Clearly, the 83-year-old has some game left in the tank… Larry Hughes is shooting 33.5% from the field and 27.3% from three-point range. He does make his free throws, though, nailing 86.5% of them. He’s scoring just 9.7 pppg, the lowest average since his rookie season. His career FG% is 41.1%… I think the Hornets and Bobcats should combine into one team, and move to Oklahoma City… New Orleans clearly can’t support an NBA team right now. Me, my friend Mike, you, and a random hot chick chosen from the background of an MTV music video could stand centercourt, do the “Crank Dat Superman” Soulja Boy dance, and draw the same number of fans that have been going to home Hornets games.

This light, unedited editorial is a response to today’s NBA rumors stories. You absolutely need to hit the insidehoops rumors page every single day — with one main morning update, and more stories later in the day as they develop. Also hit that page to see the photo caption that accompanies the commentary. And of course, read the read of insidehoops.com as well.

Wizards-Pistons connections

Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace was selected 4th overall by Washington Bullets in the 1995 NBA Draft…Pistons guard Richard Hamilton was selected 7th overall by the Wizards in the 1999 NBA Draft…Pistons free agent signee Jarvis Hayes was selected 10th overall by the Wizards in the 2003 NBA Draft…Wizards guard Antonio Daniels and Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace were teammates during the 2002-2003 season with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Jamison career stat note

With 27 points and 13 rebounds last night in New Jersey, Wizards forward Antawn Jamison increased his career totals to 13,010 career points and 5,180 career rebounds — becoming one of just 11 active players with 13,000+ points and 5,000+ rebounds in his career.  Injured Heat players Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning are two of the other 10 players.  In fact, of the 11 active players with 13,000 career points and 5,000 career rebounds, six of them (Jamison, O’Neal, Mourning, Antoine Walker, Juwan Howard, Rasheed Wallace) played for either the Wizards or Heat at one point during their career.  Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are the lone active players with 13,000+ points and 5,000+ rebounds that never played for Miami or Washington.

InsideHoops interviews Andrew Bynum

I was recently with Andrew Bynum. Here’s one piece of the interview:

InsideHoops.com: I remember when you were a rookie I asked if you were maybe going to try to learn Kareem’s sky-hook. Did that ever happen?

Andrew Bynum: Naw. I tried to pick it up, but still haven’t gotten it yet. We shoot it every day. I shoot it against Vlade [Vladimir Radmanovic, who is sitting next to Bynum during this interview] repeatedly. It looks good against Vlade. I got him scared.

See the full Andrew Bynum interview.

Rockets rarely win without T-Mac

The Houston Chronicle reports: Without Tracy McGrady, the Rockets are 0-3 this season, 2-12 the past two seasons and 11-42 since he joined the Rockets for the 2004-05 season. McGrady has left three games with injuries this season — a sprained elbow, a sprained ankle and the sore left knee. But in the previous game McGrady missed, the Rockets took the Nuggets to two overtimes in Denver before losing on a last-second shot.

Rumors commentary: Bynum improving

After seeing Andrew Bynum several times over the last week and a half, including once live, I understand why some still feel he’s got star, possibly superstar potential. He’s still got a ton of development and game refining to do, however… Word is, Gordan Giricek has locked himself in a room with no phone and is just surfing InsideHoops.com 18 hours a day, rocking back and forth while muttering stuff under his breath about Jerry Sloan, being a good defender, and how great InsideHoops.com is. Or, I could be making that up… The Bulls coaching job, at least for the rest of the season, appears to be Jim Boylan’s to lose. Better to keep someone from the current staff who knows the player strengths and weaknesses than bringing in someone new… Scott Skiles was fired because the team was losing but also because he and many key players weren’t getting along. It was simply time to move on… Jason Williams feels like a prostitute. I definitely feel badly for him. The dude has a rough life. I know that very few InsideHoops.com readers would quit their current jobs for an opportunity to make millions of dollars being a famous sports star… Eddy Curry is a nice guy who appears to lack killer instinct. He’s also extremely big, and it’s hard for him to become as quick, agile and explosive as people want him to be. He can leap if there’s room to leap, but otherwise, he’s just a really huge dude blessed with size but not too much else… Stephon Marbury sure is taking a very long time to return to the court… Inglewood, up to no good.

This light, unedited commentary accompanies today’s stories on the world famous InsideHoops.com NBA rumors page. Read that page each morning, and check back during the day as new stories develop. Also, talk with other fans on the web’s prime fan talk destination, the InsideHoops basketball message board.

Rumors commentary: Cavs shopping Hughes

A healthy Jason Williams could help the Rockets a little, but that’s not a real solution. The main problem with the Rockets is that Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, great individual players, don’t seem to be raising the level of play of their teammates and aren’t working particularly well together. J-Will, if healthy, would help a little but that’s not a real fix. The thing is, I’m not sure what the real fix is, either. Maybe just more time? Give them another money to adapt to new coach Rick Adelman, maybe… Larry Hughes, if healthy, should be a team’s third or fourth best player. Probably fourth. If he’s your second best player, that’s simply too much for him. He can be good. But he isn’t great… Now, put an Andre Miller on the Cavs and I bet Hughes gets better shots, and winds up making more of them. Though, ideally the Cavs would add a PG like Miller but one who can also hit threes, stretching the floor and opening a bit so Hughes can slash… The Bulls don’t want to give up on Scott Skiles, especially because it’s really the players’ fault, not his… The Knicks need play David Lee alongside Zach Randolph, and David Lee alongside Eddy Curry, and keep Curry and Randolph on the floor at separate times… Robert Swift scares babies… Kobe Bryant’s display against the Knicks was awesome. He scores even when the defender does a good job. This isn’t news, of course… It’s too early to write Andrea Bargnani off. His second year has been disappointing, but it’s still just his second year. I’ll start judging his career in about two seasons. Until then he’s till a promising guy who is 7 feet tall but shoots like a SG.

This raw, light, unedited commentary accompanies today’s stories on the world famous InsideHoops.com NBA rumors page. Read that page each morning, and check back during the day as new stories develop. Also, talk with other fans on the web’s prime fan talk destination, the InsideHoops basketball message board.

Blazers on amazing roll

CBS Sports (Tony Mejia) reports: Portland continued its unlikely run, winning its ninth consecutive game by rallying from a 7-point fourth quarter deficit against Toronto behind Brandon Roy’s 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Roy is headed towards a third consecutive Western Conference Player of the Week award and has the Blazers in the playoff hunt through the quarter point of the season. “He’s not just having a hot streak,” coach Nate McMillan said. “What we’re seeing out of him is what he is capable of doing.” Given his production and the steady development of LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw and Martell Webster, it’s scary to think what the Blazers would be doing if top draft pick Greg Oden were healthy. As it stands now, they’re right in the chase for the top spot in the Northwest Division.

Mourning always fought hard

Yahoo (Adrian Wojnarowski) reports:  Everyone told Alonzo Mourning to walk away with the Miami Heat’s championship two seasons ago. What else was left? Perhaps the parade down Biscayne Boulevard would’ve been a perfect storybook ending for everyone else, but ’Zo’s journey had been so different, so dramatic, maybe it wasn’t perfect for him. His life, his story, had never been neat and tidy this way. So yes, the disturbing tearing of tendons and muscles on Wednesday night was a horrible scene. Mourning crumpled to the floor clutching his knee, his basketball season, his career, over. And then, there was ’Zo. They wanted to carry him off the court, but he bit his lip, climbed to his feet and declared that he’d be damned if they were going to wheel him out of the gymnasium. He threw his arms around his teammates, and Alonzo Mourning, the last tough guy, limped to the locker room.