Archive for April, 2010

Last night against the Portland Trailblazers, mostly every NBA fan expected the Suns to get the Blazers. Brandon Roy wasn’t there, so it seemed easy. Not so fast there. The Blazers rolled, surprising Phoenix 105-100. Just what the hell happened here? Did Phoenix seriously just do this? Did they actually lose to a team without their star player? But Portland got them. But this also brings up something else. Will the Suns do it again? Are they going to pull of the same old bullcrap every single year? Last season, the Suns didn’t even manage to make the playoffs with [...]

One of my first posts here at Hickory High was called Efficiency. It was in response to a quote from Daryl Morey, calling Kevin Martin one of the game’s most efficient scorers. His statistical rationale was that Martin had played two full seasons in which he averaged 8.0+ FTA/game and shot over 40% on 3Pts. He was the only player over the last 30 years to have accomplished that feat. In my post I took a look at incoming and historical college players who had approached or surpassed those benchmarks. Now that the playoffs have begun, I wanted to review this perspective [...]

I don’t want it to seem like I am out to singlehandedly destroy Eric Bledsoe’s draft stock . . . but . . . I’m not sure how to finish that sentence. I guess I just don’t want anyone, mostly Larry Legend and the Pacers, fooled into thinking he is the point guard of the future. I summed up my thoughts on Bledsoe playing the point last week. I thought I would add to it a little today. After this I promise to leave him alone . . . unless the Pacers bring him in for a workout. I keep [...]

We on fire Up in here, it’s burning hot We on fire – Chorus, On Fire by Lloyd Banks More like…Carmelo Anthony is on fire! Anthony made a great showing against the Utah Jazz, dropping 40 points on them. He just makes it look easy. It was shot after shot, dribble after dribble; no matter what happened, he was simply just unstoppable. Last year, the Nuggets felt a little too much of underdogs, especially against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. This season of the playoffs, it’s totally different. Carmelo will stop for nothing. This season is [...]

The Pacers finished the season on a good run, but it wasn’t enough, finishing 30-52 (tenth in the Eastern Conference). But the run at the end of season may mark something for next season. But before we look into next season, the Pacers need to focus on what to do in the offseason. As they try to bring a larger fanbase after the struggling seasons lately under Jim O’Brien. And now he has back for another year. This may very well be his last chance for coaching with the franchise. If he fails to reach the postseason coming the 2010 [...]

We all know that great Vince Carter 4-10 years ago. Flashy, slash-and-dash, fast, freakish, monster, dunking nightmare, etc. And now, for the first time in his career pretty much, he’s that X-Factor. The veteran. The old guy. He’s not as fast, we know. He’s not as freakish, not as much as a dunking king as he used to be. But he still has a lot left in the tank. And he has something to prove. And for the first time in his career, he has a shot at the Finals with a strong team making noise: the Orlando Magic. Carter [...]

Okay, seriously, I am getting tired of these rumors of the Pacers moving. I really don’t think it’s going to happen at all. It’ll never happen. NEVER! I have so many reasons, so let’s start now. Yes, yes, Indiana has been going to financial troubles and there are those rumors of them that they might be threatened to leave town. Financial troubles are getting so bad that if Herb Simon can’t pay for the team and the building costs by June 30th, it’s all over. Everything has to be done in 30-40 days, says Jim Morris. But I just don’t [...]

The teams mostly everyone expects to win during the series won today, leading 1-0 in the first round of the NBA playoffs as the Cavaliers stopped the Bulls 96-83 and the Hawks downed the Bucks 102-92. CHI-CLE The Cavaliers were just simply better than the Bulls if you look at it. They got LeBron, Shaq, and Antwan Jamison. They have more depth, more strength, and are just simply better team all-around. The Cavaliers look to not fail this time. They made it to the Finals before, but choked. They got swept by San Antonio.  And they haven’t been dominant in [...]

Early March brought a lot of excitement to Pacerland when Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus let it be known that he had begun working as a consultant for the team. I was overjoyed to see the Pacers giving advanced statistics a larger place in their organization. It is hard to tell what, if anything, Pelton might have contributed so far, but I am hoping that we will see his fingerprints on some of the Pacer’s moves come Draft Night. I noticed today at The Painted Area that Pelton made some unique projections at the beginning of the year, all of which [...]

Now that the season has mercifully ended, we have a few weeks to kill before the Draft Lottery. Once the Lottery hits it will be all hope and rays of sunshine, so we have until May 18th for the unhappy task of reviewing this past season. I thought I would begin by handing out some awards for this year’s campaign. Most Valuable Player – Danny Granger Year FG% 3PT% Pts/40 Reb/40 Ast/40 Stl/40 Blk/40 A/TO PER WS/40 08-09 44.7% 40.5% 28.5 5.6 3.0 1.1 1.6 1.10 21.7 8.3 09-10 42.8% 36.1% 26.3 6.0 3.0 1.7 0.9 1.09 19.8 7.8 I included Danny’s [...]