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Minnesota Timberwolves

C’mon. They’re Not *THAT* Bad

by Jared Wade on January 12, 2010 at 9:43 pm

Alright, Sports Illustrated. I’m fully aware of how bad the Pacers are.

But, c’mon, Chris Mannix … it’s going to take at least 5 more years for Indy to reach 253 losses. (His power rankings have now been fixed, but you can check them out anyway. Power rankings are by definition stupid, but I like Mannix so his are at least insightful for what they are.)

(Screenshot via @dv140)

pacersbad

At least the Pacers are still up 55 games on the Wolves in the loss column. Plus, I think they have the tie-breaker if it comes down to that for home court advantage in the Finals.

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Wolves Offer Al Jefferson for Danny Granger. Larry Bird “Immediately” Turns It Down

by Jared Wade on January 10, 2010 at 6:07 pm

According to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!, the Wolves offered up the promising big who is still recovering from ACL surgery for Indy’s franchise SF, who is himself still recovering from a torn plantar fascia.

Talentwise, this could have been one of the more “our talent for yours” rather than financial-based trades in the NBA of late, but Larry Bird isn’t having any of it. Nor should he, in my opinion. Even though Danny’s struggling badly this season, his two-way ability and his pure shooting stroke are significantly more valuable to an NBA team than Al Jeff’s ability to score and draw a double-team in the post.

And apparently Wolves GM David Kahn feels the same way.

While Pacers president Larry Bird remains determined to build around Granger, sources say Kahn has become increasingly dubious on making Jefferson a cornerstone for the Timberwolves.

So far, Kahn has tried to undo almost everything from the Kevin McHale regime, and trading Jefferson would be another significant step in that direction.

Woj has some other info on any other potential Pacer deals before the trade deadline.

The Pacers, who are tied for the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference, could be dealers before the trade deadline, but league executives believe Indiana has all but ruled out any moves that would include Granger or center Roy Hibbert. After missing a month with a foot injury, Granger returned to the Pacers’ lineup on Friday. He has become one of the league’s best young scorers, averaging 24 points a game.

Seems pretty obvious. Talentwise, Granger obviously isn’t untradeable. But considering that he represents the one truly positive thing that has occurred in Indiana since November 2004, any deal that allowed Danny to leave the state would probably have to be a much better offer than any other team is likely to make.

big-al

Larry Bird not targeting Al Jeff. Get it? “Targetting”? Cause there’s a Target logo in the photo? See it? Whatever. You try writing this crap everyday.

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Game #35 Preview: Danny Goes Wolf Hunting

by Jared Wade on January 8, 2010 at 5:33 pm

Indiana Pacers @ Minnesota Timberwolves
Friday, January 8
8:00 PM EST
Target Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota

————-

granger starting pacers

Granger’s back (says Mike Wells).

The Pacers destroyed Minnesota just a couple of days ago as Roy Hibbert embarrassed 10,000 lakes and Luther Head dropped 20+ points in his second straight game (which turned out to be the second of four games where he scored 18 or more).

So there’s not really a ton to go over that we don’t already know. The Wolves have only played one game since then and they lost to the Warriors. At home. The Pacers had that embarrassing 43-point loss in Madison Square, but they got back on track against Orlando. And now they have Danny and Troy Murphy back.

So, ya know what that means?

TGIWMF

Thank God It’s Wolf-Murdering Friday.

(I’m not going to bother to copy over all the stats for this one. The rankings haven’t changed much in a week, so if you care to see just how bad both teams are in numeric terms, just check the post from last Saturday. In fact, if you missed it, you should actually check it out since it has a pretty good “State of the Wolves Q&A” with Zach Harper, who knows more about Minny’s sad, sad squad than most.)

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Pacers Weekend Recap: Breaking the Losing Streak and Getting Embarrassed

by Jared Wade on January 4, 2010 at 1:19 pm

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

But mostly, yeah, it just sort of sucked.

I actually dozed off on the couch pretty early in the second half of the Timberwolves game on Saturday (perhaps subconsciously forcing unconsciousness so I didn’t have to watch the inevitable Minnesota comeback?), so the first game of the weekend seemed to be, to me, a giant success.

Those first 24 minutes were by far the best I’ve seen the Pacers play so far this year.

But no matter how well you play in the first two quarters of a game, if you let a 28-point half-time lead turn into a 4-point lead with a minute to play, your performance doesn’t deserve too much praise. Sure, any win that breaks an 8-game losing streak is an overwhelming success, but it would have been nice to see the team be able to step on the collective throat of such a bad team when they had them lying on the ground so battered and ready to die.

(On average, Minnesota scores 10.3 fewer points per game than their opponents, a number only worsted by New Jersey’s 10.7 points fewer. By comparison, the Pacers are also atrocious at 28th in the league in margin of victory, but still “only” score 6.3 ppg less than their opponents. In short, the T-Wolves are really, really, really bad.)

I can’t add any perspective to the dismal second half, but the team played about as well as it possibly could in the first half. Everyone scored a ton and the ball movement was blissful. The jumpers were flowing like wine and everyone from Roy Hibbert to Dahntay Jones was scoring around the hoop.

So even if the game turned back into normal stand-around slog ball on offense and the defense started to allow all kinds of easy buckets, the first half at least gives the team some good film to watch and build off. They at least have some tangible evidence to look at and say “Hey, maybe we can actually score points if we pass well, move around and take good shots.”

Because that first half was great. It was a joyous occasion.

Something that was decidedly not a joyous occasion, however? Last night’s game with the Knicks.

I actually went to Madison Square Garden for that giant waste of time and had there not been a special $9 Beer Night going, I probably would have left even earlier than I did. The line of the night came in the late third quarter (right around the time Pacers were falling down by 40) when I overheard a fan who was clearly upset he paid money to attend this game say “I know Reggie Miller left, but still.”

That pretty much sums it up.

And, unfortunately, much like the first half of the Minnesota game, there really isn’t a lot else to analyze, so I’m not going to waste your time pretending there is. The Knicks drove into the paint with such ease that, five minutes into the game, the whole New York lineup was so comfortable and empowered on offense that every jumper started to go down. The Pacers defense rotated so poorly that almost none of these shots were contested, which was particularly negligent since the team also closed out so poorly that they were beat off the dribble countless times by a simple pump fake or hesitation. Neither one is acceptable, but if you’re giving up wide-open jumpers you should at least not get beat off the dribble, too.

Good teams protect the perimeter and the paint. Bad teams should be able to at least protect one or the other. If you can’t protect either, you’re just not trying.

One thing I do need to note, however, is that Roy Hibbert in particular was an embarrassment. Al Harrington penetrated from the perimeter several times only to be met by Hibbert. And it appeared that all it took to make Roy completely lose all sense of balance or proper defensive positioning was an eyebrow fake from Al. David Lee also walked right by Roy on several occasions, which were eerily similar to the many times he was smoked by Brad Miller the other day.

Of course, the most egregious embarrassment came when Danilo Gallinari drove the lane and victimized Hibbert with an insane facial. That play pretty much summed up Hibbert’s night defensively.

To be fair, of course, that play wasn’t something we can put on Roy individually since Mike Dunleavy and Josh McRoberts should both be just as embarrassed about the “defense” they played on Danilo out on the perimeter. Obviously that play was simply a collective failure to defend in the half court.

And ultimately, that’s all this game was: a collective failure to compete.

So I’ll spare you any more reading on a game that didn’t even deserve watching let along reading (or writing) about, and just leave you with this highlight of The Rooster going cock-a-doodle-doo all over Hibbert’s dome.

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Game #32 Preview: Zach Harper Talks Wolves

by Jared Wade on January 2, 2010 at 5:16 pm

Minnesota Timberwolves @ Indiana Pacers
7:00 PM EST
Conseco Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Indiana

———–

I’ve only seen about four Minnesota games all season, so rather than pretend I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the Wolves, I’ve contracted Zach Harper to answer a few questions on Indy’s opponent tonight. Zack writes about the Sacramento Kings at Cowbell Kingdom and writes about the NBA generally at Talk Hoops and Hardwood Paroxysm. But his real fan passion lies with the Wolves, so he knows them just about as well as anyone. Enjoy.

cherokee parks

Jared: The Wolves are only 2-5 in their last 7 games, but if you look at the opponents that doesn’t sound quite as bad. They beat both of the two teams that they “should have” beat (Wizards, Nets) and they lost to four teams they really have no chance to beat (Magic, Spurs, Atlanta and Boston). How have they looked overall during this stretch?

Zach: Isn’t it pathetic that a 2-5 stretch is cause for hope? Sadly, it IS cause for hope, mainly because we’re seeing Al Jefferson start to get some of his dominance back. When you have Kevin Love and Al Jefferson as your best frontcourt combination, you’re going to assume that there will be a lot of points in the paint given up by your team. But with the way Kevin Love is rebounding this season (he’s arguably the best rebounder in the league as a second-year player) and the way Al Jefferson contained Dwight Howard during this stretch, you start to think that you can live with hoping they’ll be decent defenders.

They also took the Jazz down to the wire in one of those games, which would have meant 3-0 against them so far this season. Jonny Flynn is still playing well enough to trick you into thinking you don’t need Ricky Rubio right now. Corey Brewer is pretending to have a jumper right now, which is really nice. There are a lot of nice-enough building pieces, and seeing them play a more spirited brand of basketball is nice to see. Especially after how they started the first 20 games of this season.

Jared: Kevin Love has now played in 16 games since missing all of November with a broken hand. And in those 16, he has 15 double-doubles. Looking at his game log makes him look like one of the most dependable-to-produce guys in the league. 15.1 ppg, 12.6 rpg and 2.6 apg. That’s beyond legit. How happy are you to see all this, and is he really this good?

Zach: I’m very excited to see this. Much like with Randy Foye, we’re always going to compare Kevin Love to the rookie we traded to get him. So when O.J. Mayo looks like the second coming of Joe Johnson most nights, you put added pressure onto Love and hope he can perform.

I know I just stated it, but I do think he’s the best rebounder in the NBA. My proof of this is looking at the type of athlete Dwight Howard is and looking at the body and type of athlete Kevin Love is. Should they be matching each other rebound for rebound on a nightly basis? He’s just so intelligent that it gives you serenity knowing that the ball is in his hands. He’s a decent enough scorer from the perimeter and he’s a good passer, which a greater understanding of the triangle offense will prove. I think he really is this good — and probably better. He’s a better version of David Lee. He’s not going to stop much inside but you can trust the ball in his hands for 94 feet.

Jared: What’s the best commercial featuring a T-Wolf? KG has a lot of good ones (”Tastefully Done” with Steph, the foosball one with Brandi Chastain, the Styles P one where he’s playing in the rain, “Ayo, give me some help“), and my favorite indeed features him — but it’s really more about Cherokee Parks and, ultimately, how cool Googs was/is. You really can’t beat The Fun Police’s classic “And your facial expressions when you dunk are VEERRRRY limited.” Discuss.

Zach: Here’s my ranking of the ones you mention here:

#1. Fun Police
For many reasons. But most importantly, it symbolized how fun the emergence of the KG era was. There was fun and excitement buzzing around the fans. Googs had a barbed wire tattoo before it was fashionable with douche bags and bad Baywatch spin-offs. Plus, look at the acting chops of Cherokee Parks. Hell, look at the fact that Cherokee Parks was in a NATIONAL commercial. This embodied Kevin Garnett. The ultimate teammate. You think Kobe Bryant was putting Cherokee in a national Nike spot? Jordan? I didn’t see Grant Hill getting a pass from Cherokee between drinking Sprite and dunking on at a park.

#2. Foosball.
It was dry wit. It was topical. It was Kevin Garnett playing foosball. I had a foosball table at the time. I would have LOVED for KG to play foosball at my house and then try to get girls to take off their shirts.

#3. Ayo, give me some help.
This was pretty much the equivalent of the Wolves from 1998 to 2003. No help for KG. Duncan and the world trying to stop him. The only thing missing is Wally Szczerbiak trying to steal the ball from his own teammates.

#4. Styles P.
I downloaded this mp3, had it as my ringtone and listened to it as much as any song before I played basketball. To say there was a Kevin Garnett obsession with me is to define the word understatement. Plus, I only wore And 1’s at the time. So this was like ice cream mixed with porn but not in the gross fetish sense of the combination.

#5. Tastefully Done.
If Stephon Marbury hadn’t been selfish and ruined the 2K version of Stockton/Malone, this would probably be number one for me. But I don’t like to talk about Steph any more. Sore subject.

Jared: Even though Al Jefferson has only missed 2 games this year, he is still only in the “post ACL surgery” stretch of his recovery. Before he went down with that knee injury last year, he was looking like a guy who really could (sorta) validate trading KG and rebuilding from scratch. Has he gotten back to the point where he is fully dominating the block again or is he still pretty far below how good he was last year?

Zach: He’s definitely not dominating the lower block again but after seeing his performance against Dwight Howard, I think he’s getting back there. The Wolves are being smart by not forcing the ball into him and relying on Al to carry the team while still working out the kinks of his surgically repaired knee. There are nights in which he’s a step or two slow. And the Wolves recognize that early. I’d expect by March he should be back to validating the trade as much as he possibly can. Then when next season comes, he’s going to make post players wish it was 2009 again.

Jared: Jonny Flynn looks pretty good so far and is known to drop 20-25 points every once in a while. Are Wolves fans enjoying that pick and does the kid looks like someone they’ll want around four years from now? Is he a guy who might light up TJ Ford and Earl Watson tonight, I guess is what I’m really asking here? And for clarification’s sake, I — of course — mean “will he light them up more so than everyone else does?”

Zach: I’m probably the wrong person to ask about Jonny Flynn. Much like the Kurt Rambis hiring, I feel that it’s a nice pickup but I don’t see it being the building block to a title contender. Flynn is everything you could want in a point guard when you’re a fledgling franchise with no real hope in the near future. He’s quick. He can jump. He can score like crazy. But he’s a shooting guard trapped in a point guard’s frame. And with the rights to Ricky Rubio in our safe deposit box that we can’t find the key to, it’s even more frustrating trying to talk yourself into him.

As for tonight, he’ll probably destroy Ford and Watson and keep tricking us into thinking we can make the playoffs with this guy running the show. I’d feel a lot better about him if he was backing up a Spanish kid rather than trying to figure out the next motion in the triangle.

Indy vs. ‘Sota: By the Numbers

Pacers vs. Wolves
9-22 (13th) Overall Record (Conf Rank) 7-27 (15th)
6-9 (Home) Home / Road Records 3-13 (Road)
1-9 Record Last 10 Games 4-6
Lost 8 Current Streak Lost 3
2-3 Last 5 Head-to-Head 3-2
-5.65 (28th) Avg Scoring Margin -10.00
97.1 (22nd) Points Per Game 95.0 (26th)
101.1 (26th) Offensive Rating 99.0 (28th)
43.1% (28th) FG% 44.1% (24th)
47.0 (26th) eFG% 46.4% (27th)
102.7 (22nd) Opponent's PPG 105.0 (26th)
105.9 (15th) Defensive Rating 109.4 (24th)
45.1% (13th) Opponent's FG% 47.1% (23rd)
48.5 (11th) Opponent's eFG% 51.6% (26th)
97.0 (2nd) Pace 95.9 (3rd)

Off Rating: pts / 100 possessions Def Rating: pts allowed / 100 possessions
eFG%: FG% accounting for 3PA being worth more Pace: avg possessions per game

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New Pacers Logo?

by Jared Wade on October 31, 2009 at 1:54 am

I’m not sure if you are one of the tens of regular readers of Both Teams Played Hard, but we spent like half the summer doing an exceedingly slow roll out of our NBA Logo Ranking Project, which picked apart each team’s logo from #30 to #1 and was generally a waste of everyone’s time. It was a foolish endeavor, but there were some good bloggers involved and it kept a couple of my friends entertained for a few months so it was worthwhile. Plus, it kept me from having to write about even foolisher things that people like to pretend are news during the offseason like NBA players saying “controversial” things on Twitter, Ricky Rubio’s true feelings on the state of Minnesota and the ongoing pretend officiating apocalypse.

One of the my favorite entries came from Project Spurs‘ Jeff Garcia, who mocked the Orlando Magic’s dumb logo and suggested an Arrested Development-themed replacement. If you’re an Arrested Development fan, chances are you’ll think it’s pretty funny. Or at least clever. But if you’ve never seen the show, you will have no idea what the whole thing is about.

Anyway…

Because of my recent logo fascination, I was very glad to see ESPN’s Page 2 put forth it’s own “New and Improved NBA Logos” for all 30 teams. The Nuggets, Nets and Wolves are all particularly good. And while the Pacer one might not be all that funny, it is pretty clever. Nationally, no one really knows what to think about Indiana, and it seems that even local fans are just as divided on whether or not this team will be among the worst in the league — as they have looked the last two games — or whether they might be able to sneak into the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Here’s their take, with the whole before-and-after, side-by-side effect. Really, the only thing else that’s missing from the question mark is a picture of Mike Dunleavy’s knee. Still, pretty well done.

Pacers Logo Page 2

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TrueHoop Network 09-10 NBA Season Preview

by Jared Wade on October 26, 2009 at 1:36 pm

I promised you Voltron and Voltron you shall have.

Here are all of the TrueHoop Network season previews for the individual teams. As an added bonus, Henry Abbott will have some more stuff up later in the day over at TrueHoop, Matt Moore has his piece on undersized guards at Hardwood Paroxysm and Haubs has his “10 NBA Questions for the 2010s” at The Painted Area.

And let’s hope the network’s 32-win prediction for the Pacers proves low.

TEAM BLOGGERS SAY WINS*

Bret Lagree | Hoopinion

“The Hawks have not built, nor do they appear to be building, a championship contender. … Joe Johnson is poised to be a free agent in the summer of 2010. Johnson is not a franchise player, yet he’s the Hawks’ best player.”

45

Zach Lowe | CelticsHub

“It seems reasonable to say anything short of an 18th championship would be a disappointment.”

58

Brett Hainline | Queen City Hoops

“Great defense + equally bad offense = average. With an improving division around them, that equation does not get them their first playoff berth. But at least they won’t suck.”

36

Matt McHale | By the Horns

“During the offseason, the Bulls lost free agent Ben Gordon, whom many people considered the team’s best or second-best player (after Derrick Rose). Memo to Chicago fans: Don’t sweat it. Seriously. Gordon will be replaced by John Salmons, who not only gave the Bulls almost as many points per game (18.3 versus 20.7) but was slightly more efficient in how he scored them.”

43

John Krolik | Cavs the Blog

“After last season’s playoff heartbreak, Danny Ferry has changed up the equation … However, Shaq could disrupt the delicate offensive and defensive chemistry the Cavaliers rode to 66 wins and the conference finals, despite the fact he will be the best player LeBron has ever played with if he continues to play like he did last season. The big question for the Cavs this seasons whether they overreacted to two clutch 3s by Rashard Lewis, or made the risk they needed to take to finally get LeBron a ring.”

61

Rob Mahoney | The Two Man Game

“’Rebuilding’ teams seek financial flexibility and the acquisition of young, productive assets. Quality squads amass veteran talent, no matter the cost, in pursuit of a title. Defying all logic, the Mavs have simultaneously moved in both directions.”

50

Jeremy Wagner | Roundball Mining Company

“The only players still on the roster who exceeded expectations in 2008-09 were Nene and Birdman. It is reasonable to expect every member of the Nuggets, other than thirty-something Chauncey Billups, to improve.”

53

Dan Feldman | PistonPowered

“However the minutes shake out between Chris Wilcox, Kwame Brown and Ben Wallace, they won’t be as good as Rasheed Wallace. But Sheed wasn’t that great last year. He looked old and disinterested, so the drop here won’t be too steep.”

36

Rasheed Malek |Warriors World

“Under the ownership of Chris Cohan, the Warriors have made the playoffs exactly one time and have gone through numerous coaches, players and executives. Going into this season, Larry Riley is the man in charge taking over for Chris Mullin.”

28

Anup Shah and Brody Rollins | Rockets Buzz

“The speed revolution has overtaken some of basketball’s peers, most notably football … Is basketball headed in the same direction? [Aaron] Brooks provides an excellent case study. Beginning the year as the Rockets number one threat on offense with Ron Artest’s departure and injuries to Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Brooks will have every opportunity to prove that size really doesn’t matter.”

39

Jared Wade | Eight Points, Nine Seconds

“It’s hard to believe that anything short of the postseason will remove the dark cloud over Conseco. … Ultimately, it will come down to one thing: [Mike Jr.] Dunleavy’s knee.”

32

Kevin Arnovitz | ClipperBlog

“[Blake] Griffin and [Eric] Gordon may not be saviors, but they’re something. Griffin’s skills and his tenacious work ethic (the guy runs up sand dunes in his free time) will be a boon to a team desperate for cultural overhaul. Gordon offers an enticing combination of spot-up shooting and forays into the paint. He finished third in true shooting percentage among starting off guards in his rookie campaign, something that can only help a team that ranked dead last in offensive efficiency last season.”

32

Kurt Helin | Forum Blue and Gold

“God, is it good to be hated again.”

64

Chip Crain | 3 Shades of Blue

“The 2009-10 version of the Grizzlies have put together a starting five where every player scored 30 points or more in a game last year. The oldest starter is only 28 years old (Zach Randolph) and the youngest won’t turn 22 until after the start of the season (O.J. Mayo). They are young, talented and hungry for success. So why do most people focus on the two players not on a rookie contract this season?”

20

Matthew Bunch | Hot Hot Hoops

“38.6 minutes. 30.2 points. 49.1 percent shooting. Five rebounds. 7.5 assists. 2.2 steals. 1.3 blocks. That’s what [Dwyane] Wade averaged last season. You’re going to keep that guy out of the playoffs? Good luck.”

44

Jeremy Schmidt | Bucksketball

“If the Bucks get anything out of their three small forwards, if they can keep [Andrew] Bogut and [Michael] Redd healthy and if they get a season worthy of the number ten selection out of Brandon Jennings at the point, the playoffs will be within reach. But that’s a lot of ifs.”

29

Patrick Hodgdon | Howlin’ T-Wolf

“”Ever since his arrival, David Kahn has had seemingly one mission, other than to look like the smartest guy in the room at every turn, and that is to get as much cap space for next summer as he possibly can. … The obvious question lies in whether or not the Wolves will actually be able to lure one of the better free agent players to come to Minnesota.”

23

Mark Ginocchio and Sebastian Priuti | Nets are Scorching

“Lingering doubts about Brooklyn could spoil any change the Nets have of landing a top free agent next summer.”

29

Niall Doherty and Ryan Schwan | Hornets247

“Enter Emeka Okafor. He’s a near match to a healthy Chandler, is more durable, and doesn’t look like he’s having muscle spasms when making a post move.”

47

Mike Kurylo | Knickerblogger

“2010 could be New York’s return to winning.”

31

Royce Young | Daily Thunder

“The Thunder may not win more than half their games, but with over half the roster unable to get an alcoholic beverage still, steady improvement and progression is the name of the game.”

34

Zach McCann | Orlando Magic Daily

“Take away either Hedo Turkoglu or Courtney Lee and the Magic aren’t getting to face the Lakers in the Finals. No way. But does that mean the Magic were wrong to let them go? Were the Magic foolish to allow a borderline All-Star and a possible future All-Star leave the team when both clearly wanted to stay in Orlando? Absolutely not. I believe the Magic are an entirely better team than they were four months ago.”

59

Carey R. Smith | Philadunkia

“The travesty of a deal that Billy King gave to Samuel Dalembert remains easily one of the worst contracts in NBA history. Hopefully this season Dalembert, his inflated self-worth and his contract will be dealt for a couple of expiring contracts and some much-needed cap space.”

39

Michael Schwartz | Valley of the Suns

“Two years ago the Suns were chic championship picks. Last year, the Suns were (accurately) thought to be a fringe playoff team. This year there are almost no expectations outside of their locker room. … There will be no mistaking what the Suns are this season: a lightning-speed team that will score points in bunches and likely give them up almost as quickly while struggling badly on the boards. But they will once again be the most exciting team in basketball.”

46

Max Handelman | Beyond Bowie

“The Blazers effectively bumbled their way to a 54-win season despite a mediocre performance from Greg Oden, the loss of Martell Webster for the season, and at times starting three rookies. This team is only getting better, kids.”

53

Zach Harper | Cowbell Kingdom

“Enter Tyreke Evans — a bulldozer-sized menace who will test the strength of every team’s defense at its entry point. He immediately creates matchup problems against teams with traditional point guards and will look to have a similar impact as fellow Memphis alum, Derrick Rose.”

22

Timothy Varner | 48 Minutes of Hell

During the Celtics heyday, Red Auerbach boasted a winning percentage of .719. In the modern era, Pat Riley’s Showtime Lakers played to the tune of .733. Phil Jackson’s Jordan Bulls dominated the 90s with an otherworldly percentage of .771. Jackson’s three-peat Lakers? .735. In his 12 seasons with San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, whose cynical disdain for the regular season runs more than skin deep, has, nevertheless, posted a winning percentage of .707. That’s the company the Spurs keep. What should we expect this season? 58 wins and a run at the title. Same as every other year.”

55

RaptorsRepublic

“How is a rookie(ish) head coach going to integrate nine new players into a new system with two new assistant coaches?”

41

Spencer Ryan Hall | Salt City Hoops

“With young Wesley Matthews providing the good luck charm, Boozer in a contract year, Deron Williams with a chip on his shoulder, and a new longer-haired version of Andrei Kirilenko the Jazz have no reason to be anything other than beastly this season. And I mean that in a good way. Every prediction from the Jazz camp, however, comes with the ominous caveat ‘If we can stay healthy.’”

46

Kyle Weidie | Truth About It

“Flip Saunders has never gotten a team ‘there.’ That worn out cliché always runs rampant, plaguing almost every coach who hasn’t won … until they win. Red Auerbach (647), Larry Brown (1,900), and Dick Motta (738) all took their lumps before winning a championship (games coached before title season). Don’t be surprised when what you think is impossible becomes a reality. … 2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger. Factor in Gilbert Arenas’ stomach tattoo and the fact that the Wizards play their home games in D.C.’s Chinatown, and all the cards are in place.”

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* As predicted by a consensus of all TrueHoop Network bloggers.

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