Eight Points, Nine Seconds » Talking About Practice

Podcasting on CP3, Stern, Memphis and Indiana

Jared Wade — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:51:05 +0000

This discussion between me and Zach Lowe of SI is more centered on the first two than anything else, but there is a few minutes on the Pacers. Feel free to not want to listen to the things I have to say but Mr. Lowe is an insightful guy. Don’t let his association with me bias your thoughts about him. Just give it a shot.

UPDATE: I also offered some thoughts on the post-trade Clippers to ESPN, who was asking whether or not I thought Chris Paul makes them actual contenders.

Yes. The Mavs lost their defensive cog, the Thunder’s best players still need to figure out how to co-exist in crunch time, the Lakers lost Lamar and the Spurs are 700-years-old. There is no West favorite so the Clips can potentially make the Finals. And if you can make the Finals, you’re a contender.

Oddly enough, I even forgot to include the Grizzlies.

These guys are going to sneak up on everyone on their way to a two-seed.

No related posts.

Podcasting the David West Deal

Jared Wade — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:05:17 +0000

Me and Tim had a little chat yesterday about the David West signing. We will likely be doing this more often this year. Stay tuned for future episodes. But for now, you can listen below, head over here to listen or subscribe to Talking About Practice to listen on iTunes.

Hopefully there will be a Jamal Crawford, OJ Mayo or other mystery acquisition to talk about soon.

Hey Everybody – Listen to Me Talk

Jared Wade — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:03:48 +0000

I did a few podcasts last week that may be worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing.

The first one, Episode 3 of my podcast Talking About Practice, is actually not Pacer-related at all, per se, but it does get into some subject matter that we have been and will continue talking about around these parts. Essentially, what it comes down to is efficiency.

See, basketball is a simple sport. On each possession, the offense tries to score. And the defense tries to stop them for doing that. The more times the offense succeeds, the better chances they have to win. So they are trying to maximize those possessions and use them as, wait for it, efficiently as possible. The defense’s goal would thus be the inverse.

Basically, we're talking about a whole new level of looking at the game and trying to figure out things like when (in the shot clock), where (specifically on the floor) and why (players do what they do to make) offenses succeed.

No team has embraced this concept as much as the Houston Rockets and they have gone to great lengths to determine how NBA offenses can become more efficient and, conversely, how defenses can prevent them from doing this. Shane Battier is the poster child for this concept, and he has used the vast array of film, game charting data and advanced statistical analysis that the Rockets franchise — and most NBA franchises these days — now rigorously gather and crunch to significantly enhance the way he plays defense.

Basically, we’re talking about a whole new level of looking at the game and trying to figure out things like when (in the shot clock), where (specifically on the floor) and why (players do what they do to make) offenses succeed. Only it’s all much, much more complex than that and is so advanced that private game-charting/video companies like Synergy Sports and even teams like the Rockets really won’t even tell the outside world about everything they are doing. It’s too proprietary and too confidential.

Us mere mortals discuss this efficiency stuff in terms of eFG% and Defensive Ratings. And that’s what we do around here to some degree — while also fully realizing that these new stats are just tools to help us explain some of the stuff that happens on the court and not some sort of Holy Grail. In the grand scheme of things, even these more-refined resources are still too-blunt tools incapable of replacing the softer analysis that can only come from actually watching the game in depth.

So, all that was a long way of saying that me and Chris Ballard, who is a columnist for Sports Illustrated columnist and wrote the wonderful book The Art of a Beautiful Game talked a lot about this stuff. We start off talking about some of the other stuff in his book, but get into all that Rocket/Battier stuff about 20ish minutes in.

(You can also subscribe to Talking About Practice via iTunes and listen that way. Ratings/reviews appreciated.)

The second podcast was the latest edition of The 8th Seed. This is something me and seven other NBA bloggers have been doing since this summer. Most of it is irreverent jokes and genuine potty-mouth tomfoolery. But there is some actual basketball insight in there. The Pacers-relevant part about comes at the 64-minute mark and while I’d love for you to listen to the whole thing, that 5 minutes of me talking Pacers is pretty much my current feelings on the team. And I’m planning to explore the whole Dahntay Jones dynamic I get into there more in-depth in a column here whenever I find the time.

Related Links

If you’re into the Rockets/Battier/Ballard stuff, here’s a few other things you should familiarize yourself with. I’m still trying to figure out how to and to what degree we should include some of this stuff into the Pacers discussion at 8p9s. I mean, I don’t want to lose you guys who think all this stuff is stupid. But some of it is definitely valuable. So I suggest you check out a few of these things below. (Although Ballard’s book is just about the game in general aside from one chapter.)

First up is Ballard’s book. The Art of the a Beautiful Game is really, really good and is probably the best, cheap present you could buy for yourself or any hoops head you know this holiday season. I did an extended review you can read here. Also, here’s an excerpt from his chapter on rebounding about Jeff Foster that you might like.

Jeff Foster, the Pacers’ relentless (and offensively challenged) center, had an unusual incentive. As a teenager at Madison High in San Antonio, his coach told the then thin and tall Foster that he wasn’t getting enough rebounds. So Jeff’s father, Stephen, made a deal with him. Instead of an allowance, he’d be paid for his board work: $1 for every rebound he got in a game, $2 for each one above 10 and $3 after 15. Soon enough, he was cleaning his dad out. Though, considering Jeff’s future, it was a bargain: In 2008-09, Foster made $6.175 million playing for the Pacers, or $12,156 for each of his 508 boards.

The one article you need to read about advanced game charting/stats is Moneyball author Michael Lewis’ New York Times Magazine piece on Battier from last Spring. This article essentially took this whole discussion and exposed an underground world of hoops analysis to the common fan. I actually preferred Ballard’s chapter, but that is kind of like saying I prefer ice cream to birthday cake — both are excellent.

Next up comes this NBA.com piece about how things like Synergy Sports, 82games.com, Basketball-Reference and all the other, similarly ambitioned endeavors are changing the sport. This stuff just gets crazier and more advanced by the day.

Lastly is the stat page that Mike Kurylo of KnickerBlogger (who you might remember from the Pacers/Knicks preview on 8p9s) has dubbed his “Layman’s Guide to Advanced Statistics.” This guy has been focusing on this stuff for a long time now as anyone, and he really knows how to break it all down in (relatively) plain English.

Game #15 Preview: Stay Out of Monta’s Way or You’ll Pay. Listen to What I Say. How About I Just Go Eat Some Hay? I Could Make Things Out of Clay. Lay by the Bay. I Just May. What D’ya Say?

Bird on His Long-Term Plan, The Brawl

Jared Wade — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:13:53 +0000

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe recently tracked down Larry Legend for an interview that led to a feature on Bird in yesterday’s paper. Since it’s written for Boston readers, it focuses mostly on Larry’s Celtic past and the most entertaining part coming from, as John Karalis of Red’s Army notes, a story about Bill Walton drinking Wild Turkey by himself all night and into the morning in Larry’s kitchen after the 1986 Cs won the NBA Finals.

For Pacers fans, the most interesting quote comes about the front office’s oft-discussed long-term plan to finalize the franchise turnaround since the fallout from the Malice at the Palace.

As for his 2009 Pacers, Bird said, “We’re rebuilding and people tend to forget that. We have a plan, and after next year we’re going to have a lot of money and I want to get a core of guys here to build with and hopefully take seven or eight of ’em with us going forward, and if we can do that, I think we’ll be better.’’

The Pacers are still recovering from the melee at The Palace of Auburn Hills in 2004.

“It changed everything,’’ said Bird. “It hit harder here than you can ever imagine. It not only killed our fan base, but everything we tried to do that year to win. We felt we were very talented. It just stopped on that night. We had a decent bench and good players and felt we were going to make a great playoff run, but it all stopped.’’

Interesting.

I’m sure he’s alluded to it before, but this is the first time I can recall Larry saying something as straight-forward as “we’re going to have a lot money” in the 2011 Summer, which suggests that there probably won’t be any big moves happenign before then. Just given the fact that, aside from Danny, the bulk of payroll is full of non-expiring deals for at least marginally overpaid players that no other GMs particularly want (MDJ, Troy, TJ, Jeff) or young, low-salaried players that the Pacers probably aren’t shopping, I wasn’t expecting any major moves until Troy, MDJ, TJ and Tinsley’s deals come off the books anyway. But it’s interesting to hear Bird talk publicly about his plans to have “a lot of money.” I’m sure he’s mentioned such sentiments before, so I’m not saying this is some be revelation or anything, but it is a little nugget of info to remember.

Unfortunately, 2011 is a ways away, and the club will be largely treading water until some sort of significant talent infusion occurs, but Pacers fans have waited this long — what’s another 18 months? Ultimately, it’s the only operating philosophy that makes sense.

In other news, speaking of the Celtics, I spoke in depth about Larry’s former team with the aforementioned John Karalis of Red’s Army on the latest episode of my new podcast “Talking About Practice.” The podcast is officially being done for my NBA-wide blog Both Teams Played Hard and will cover the entire Association, but my goal is to try to make it as Pacer-related as possible as well. For many episodes, I’ll try to get a guest who can talk about our upcoming opponent or people who can just talk Indy in general. Karalis for instance discusses the Pacers win over Boston during our conversation.

You can click the “Talking About Practice” graphic to the right ( ———> ) for the RSS feed for the podcast, check back regularly at BTPH (there will be a very good Episode #3 up on Monday) or subscribe through iTunes.

Let me know what you think or what types of Pacer discussion you would like to hear about.

Ron Talks About the Brawl