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We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

Plenty of shocking things have happened both on and off the court in the past week, but let’s get started with the action on the floor.  After the Spurs dominated the first two games of the series, the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka miraculously returned from an injury that was expected to keep him out for the entire playoffs and Sam Amick of USA Today Sports had the details of his recovery.  The details of his recovery made many very uncomfortable as Ibaka created “God and ice” for his unusually quick recovery.  It was interesting to see people deal with a religious explanation for a recovery that seemed defy logic and things took an interesting (but probably expected) turn as people searched for a logical reason for the speedy recovery.

If the Thunder are able to advance to the Finals, much of the credit for the team’s success will likely be given to Ibaka’s miraculous return and not the masterful coaching of Scott Brooks.  This is not surprising.  Brooks has long been derided for not getting the most of out of his squad, but with his team just two victories away from a second Finals appearance, SBNation’s Paul Flannery wondered if perhaps Brooks should be getting more credit for the work he’s done in Oklahoma City.  Though Brooks may not be basketball’s best tactician, Flannery argues that Brooks should be applauded for creating an environment in which talent has been allowed to flourish and still won quite a few games.

The polar opposite coach of Brooks may be found on the other sideline in Gregg Popovich.  Popovich has long been lauded as one of the game’s best coaches and regularly deserves a significant amount of credit for the work he does with the Spurs each season.  To figure out how Popovich has developed into one of the league’s best coaches, ESPN’s Marc Stein put together a massive timeline of Popovich’s journey to San Antonio.  The piece did a great job connecting the dots to present day and showing exactly how Popovich obtained the different jobs he’s had throughout his career as well as all of the great coaches (Larry Brown, Don Nelson and Dean Smith) he was influenced by along the way.  The only disappointment is the lack of details of his rumored time as a spy for the United States government.

On the other side of the bracket, the Heat have finished up their series against the Pacers and moved onto the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year.  Though no one would have predicted it before the series, the insertion of Rashard Lewis into the Heat lineup allowed them to completely change the series once they returned home to Miami and Miles Wray of Hoop365 explained why one change was so significant.  Though much of the attention in the final few games of the series will likely focus on Lewis’ offensive contributions, Wray explained that his addition to the lineup allowed the Heat to be much more aggressive defensively.  Wray did a great job breaking down why his addition also helped out some of the Heat’s other players on offense as well.

The player most affected by Lewis’ insertion into the lineup was Chris Bosh, who was given a more favorable matchup against Pacers center Roy Hibbert with Lewis on the floor.  Bosh was able to take advantage of his matchup with Hibbert because of the significant changes he has made to his game in the last four years and Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry took a look at just how staggering those changes have been.  With the help of a couple amazing graphics, Goldsberry showed that though Bosh has been one of the league’s best midrange jump shooters since his move to Miami, this season’s move out a few more feet to the three point line has represented a significant change in the way Bosh scores and just how much Bosh has transformed his game to become a better fit for his team.

On the other side of the floor, Paul George has dealt with something completely different than Bosh as more and more has been expected from George in the last few years as he has gained more attention for his play.  With this change in mind, Scott Rafterty of Hardwood Paroxysm took a look at a fair way to judge George going forward.  With George’s sensational play in the beginning of this season and last postseason, Rafferty wrote that people started to judge him in the same way people judge superstars Kevin Durant and LeBron James. In his mind, this is not fair to George as he is simply not a superstar, at least not yet.  So, rather than judging him as such, Rafferty believes people should have more realistic expectations and look at George as a great player who may someday be a great second option, but not as a superstar that will lead his team to a championship.

While it would be great to focus on the action on the floor this time of the year, off-the-court stories continue to steal attention from the great basketball being played.  Arguably the biggest story of this postseason has been the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers and the possible legal battle that may ensue from the transaction.  Though one would have thought the story would become more clear in the last week, it has actually become even more convoluted as more people and issues get involved.  ESPN has the latest on the sale and covers the following topics: the sale of the Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer, a billion dollar lawsuit from Donald Sterling, Sterling being ruled mentally incapacitated, his wife Shelly selling the team, multiple letters to the commissioner, and finally the posturing of NBA players regarding a lockout after the current CBA due to the massive value of NBA franchises.  Did you get all of that?

That’s all for this week.  And as always…Reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Almost to the Finals appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

One week of conference finals action has provided more questions than answers going forward, so let’s get into this week’s best reads.  The Heat looked lost in Game 1 of the Finals defensively and Hickory High’s Seth Partnow took a look at why their defense looked so much better in their second game against the Pacers.  Partnow did a masterful job showing how the Heat’s less aggressive schemes allowed their individual players to become more aggressive defensively.  With the help of some great graphics, Partnow diagrammed how the Heat were able to attack Indiana ball-handlers by simply changing the location of their traps.

Also at Hickory High, Andy Liu examined how LeBron James was able to take over down the stretch of the Heat’s Game 2 victory despite suffering from what looked like extreme fatigue.  Though only two games into the Eastern Conference Finals, it looked as though James was physically exhausted and was forced to dig deep in playing all 24 minutes of the second half.  In the face of a two game deficit, James dialed it up and Liu broke down the plays that won the Heat the game down the stretch.  Liu observed that James “combines the skillset of a role player with the superstar’s understanding of his surroundings”, which might be the most impressive thing about James as a basketball player.

On the other side, the Spurs have dominated the Thunder in the first two games of the Western Conference Finals mainly due to Serge Ibaka’s injury.  While many have focused on the Spurs’ domination, Grantland’s Brian Phillips examined the career of the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook.  Westbrook is one of the league’s most fascinating players and the story of his development into an NBA superstar is no less fascinating.  Phillips dug deep and found some great anecdotes about Westbrook’s first dunk (in his final HS game), his high school fashion, and early comparisons to Leandro Barbosa.  Westbrook has taken quite a journey on his way to stardom.

While Phillips looked at the development of Westbrook, SBNation’s Doug Eberhardt took a look at the development of screens in the NBA.  A popular notion among the casual fan is that the NBA is deteriorating because of the lack of fundamentals and players that grow up playing AAU basketball where they’re not learning how to play team basketball and set good hard screens.  Eberhardt did his best to show that this simply isn’t true as NBA screening has significantly changed in the last decade.  In his breakdown, Eberhardt used GIFs to illustrate the different types of screens that get set in the NBA and used Tim Duncan and the Spurs to show just how nuanced screen setting has become.

Also, in San Antonio, a new star is beginning to be born.  Not Kawhi Leonard, but rather Kawhi Leonard’s hands.  Game after game, broadcasters have fawned over the size of Leonard’s hands and the ease with which he can palm the basketball and make basketball plays.  The New York Times’ Scott Cacciola took a look at the enormous size of Leonard’s hands and some of the reactions he’s received from players and coaches around the league.  In examining Leonard, Cacciola also mentioned that the success of players with large hands like Leonard and Dwyane Wade has led to some scouts fetishizing the size of NBA prospects’ hands at the combine.

Speaking of NBA prospects, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated interviewed a number of the draft’s potential lottery picks to get a better idea of their thoughts going into the draft process.  Some of the most interesting answers came from Arizona’s Aaron Gordon, who mentioned a complete overhaul of his free throw shot and his ability to play whatever position his coach needs in the NBA.  Many NBA scouts also questioned the position UCLA’s Kyle Anderson will play in the NBA and Mannix talked to him about that as well.  Lots of interesting quotes from a lot of prospects with unique draft prospectives.

Finally, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight broke down an issue very important to executives drafting in the lottery (as well as the Bulls this summer): when to sign an NBA player to a max level deal.  In this breakdown, Silver analyzed the value produced by NBA players and how much value is necessary to necessitate signing a player to that type of contract.  In his analysis, Silver found that a very small percentage of NBA players are actually worth a maximum level contract.  In fact, he reasons that only players within the top 95-99% of NBA players deserve a max contract with the top 90-94% being the only other part of the league deserving of consideration.

Before we go, take a look at the GIF that perfectly combines two of my loves (Rocky IV and the NBA) and perfectly sums up the Thunder-Spurs series thus far.

The post What We’re Reading: Road to the Finals appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

The second round of the playoffs is underway, but we must take a closer look at the first round before moving forward.  Tim McGarry at the USA Today compiled the stats and argued that this year’s opening round might have been the best in NBA history.  This year’s first round featured 50 games, which is the most in NBA history.  It also featured the most upsets (24) and overtime games (8).  Before being upset at some of the blow outs in the second round, just remember how lucky we were to witness the first round.

One of the best story lines is the development of the young point guards in Portland and Washington, D.C.  With their development in mind, the Point Forward got their contributors together and asked if they’d rather have John Wall or Damian Lillard for the next ten years.  The group overwhelmingly chose John Wall.  Wall was selected for many reasons, but one of the biggest was his age.  Though Wall has been in the league longer, he is still younger than Lillard.  Also, many of the writers thought that though Lillard has exhibited better skills in a few areas, Wall could easily become a better player in those same areas because he has steadily improved in each of those areas.

A big surprise in the Spurs-Blazers series hasn’t been Lillard, but instead the disappointing play of LaMarcus Aldridge in Game 2.  While Aldridge was outstanding the first round and great in Game 1 against the Spurs, he was nearly non-existent in Game 2 and much of the reason was the defense of Tiago Splitter.  Scott Rafferty of Hardwood Paroxysm took a closer look at Splitter’s defense on Aldridge and why Splitter was so successful.  Aldridge was just 2-f0r-13 in Game 2 with Splitter guarding him and has been 8-for-25 on the series because of Splitter’s ability to close out jump shots and then move his feet as Aldridge attempts to get to the basket.

Like Splitter, the Thunder’s Nick Collison is regularly underrated for his skills on the basketball court, but apparently he’s also underrated for his abilities as a writer.  With the help of Sports Illustrated, Collison wrote about his experiences with his teammate Kevin Durant.  Collison has been the only player to have played alongside Durant for his entire seven-year career.  Though this is pretty much the definion of a fluff piece, it was still cool to get to hear everything from Collison’s perspective.  Collison truly understands his role on the team, but also how his role gets extenuated because of Durant’s special talents.

In the Eastern Conference, the Heat signed Greg Oden to make a difference in the playoffs, but it just hasn’t turned out that way.  Oden has struggled with his health and has been unable to get onto the floor this season.  His friend and former teammate Mark Titus went to Charlotte at the end of the first round to talk with Oden about his experiences in Titus’s former role, benchwarmer.  Oden was very open and even admitted that he knows that he’s “one of the biggest busts in NBA history”, but it hasn’t affected his mood.  For a while, he thought he would never even be able to work out and train with a NBA team, so he sees what he’s been able to do this season as an accomplishment, rather than a disappointment.

Turning away from the playoffs, let’s take a look at the market for head coaches.  SBNation’s Satchel Price explored the best options for the Golden State Warriors’ open head coaching position, but it also served as a good overview of the popular choices for each of the open head coaching positions.  Price took a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the three hottest candidates (Steve Kerr, Stan Van Gundy, and Tom Thibodeau).  Along with that, Price mentioned a few of the other possibilities among former NBA coaches and college coaches as well.

Finally, in the longest and quite possibly best piece of the week, Jonathan Abrams compiled an oral history of the classic 2002 Lakers-Kings Western Conference Finals.  Abrams talked with almost all of the involved parties with a few exceptions (Kobe Bryant, Chris Webber, and Rick Adelman) and dug deep into a series that has grown in infamy since it ended 12 years ago.  Abrams brought up some interesting things that many people forget about both of those teams and just how much those teams hated each other.

That’s all for this week.  And as always…Reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Best Playoffs Ever? appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

The first week of NBA playoff action has been full of surprises and one of those biggest surprises is the Pacers’ struggles as the Eastern Conference’s top seed against the Atlanta Hawks.  Much of the attention has rightfully gone to the matchup problems the Hawks cause for the Pacers, but another significant reason for the Pacers’ lackluster performance thus far has been the team’s inactivity on offense.  In an attempt to break down the team’s inept offense, Jon Washburn of 8 Points, 9 Seconds examined every screen the Pacers set in the second game of their series.  This exercise proved fruitful as Washburn found significant differences between the screens set in the first half and second half of Game Two with the second half being the Pacers’ best two quarters of the postseason thus far.

Until Friday night, the Bulls had also struggled against a lower seed losing their first two games against the Wizards, but behind the hot shooting of Mike Dunleavy, the Bulls were able to win Game 3 on the road.  Though Dunleavy was the story in Game 3, the New York Times found Joakim Noah to be the story earlier in the week as Scott Cacciola wrote about Noah’s journey from a prep school in Brooklyn to NBA superstar in Chicago.  The attention grabbing portion might have been Noah bringing a machete to school for a presentation, but the coolest part of the story was seeing how selfless Noah has been his entire life, even as a teenager.

While Tim Duncan is another big that will do anything necessary for his team to win, he has never been mistaken for Noah as he tends to be a bit more dispassionate, or at least that’s how he’s been characterized.  Triangle Offense’s Graydon Gordian took a look at how this characterization of Duncan is just not true.  Gordian argued that though Duncan has been incredibly consistent throughout his NBA career, this consistency should not be mistaken for a robotic player.  In fact, the exact opposite is true as Duncan has played with great passion night in and night out.

Everyone knows about the significant impact Duncan has made in San Antonio, but very few people have heard about the Spurs’ addition of Chip Engelland.  Grantland’s Bill Barnwell dug a little bit deeper in San Antonio and told the story of the Spurs’ secret offensive weapon.  Engelland, the Spurs shooting coach, has been with the team since 2005 and making a significant difference since the moment he started in San Antonio.  Barnwell found out that Engelland has helped transform the shots of Spurs regulars like Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard as well as newcomer Marco Belinelli.

Belinelli improved so much this season that he actually ended up in Kirk Goldsberry’s year-end review of the leagues best shooters.  With the aid of some nifty graphics, Goldsberry broke down the league’s top scorers and best shooters from all over the court.  Though many familiar faces show up on each graphic, there were some surprises as Kyle Singler, Khris Middleton, Gerald Green and Trevor Ariza were all featured.  Though it was hardly a new development, seeing that LeBron James shot 75% from 7.5 feet or less was still mind-blowing.

While Goldsberry focused on the best shooters and scorers of the regular season, Will Cohen of ESPN Stats and Info took a closer look at the playoff’s best performers in clutch situations.  Performers is the best description for his research because rather than just look at shooting percentages, Cohen also took a look at each playoff team’s leader in PER as well.  Cohen also used graphics to show each player’s usage rate to demonstrate just how often each of these players are counted on by their respective team to perform in clutch situations.  Interesting stuff.

Though most everyone will be focused on the action on the court for the next few months, a few teams may start looking to the sidelines of these playoff games in the search of a new coach.  In an attempt to find the next batch of NBA head coaches, Kevin Arnovitz talked to executives, GMs, and coaches around the league.  With the success of Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta, a connection to Gregg Popovich has become an even more attractive trait for a potential head coach and made current Spurs assistant Jim Boylen a popular choice.  Two Chicago Bulls assistants, Ed Pinckney and Adrian Griffin, have also become popular coaching candidates because of their understanding of NBA defense through their work with Tom Thibodeau as well as the perception that they’ll be better with players than Thibodeau.

SB Nation’s Mark Deeks’ also took a look towards the offseason, but did so in a much more specific fashion by only analyzing what this offseason might look like for the Philadelphia 76ers.  One of the Sixers’ greatest strengths this offseason is their wealth of draft picks (projected #2,#10, #32, #39, #47, #52, and #54) and Deeks suggested that the Sixers need to move some of their picks to get more first round talent.  Another interesting point Deeks made was that bad teams have to strike a delicate balance between rebuilding while losing and losing the interest of a fan base, which is something the Sixers will need to start considering.

That’s all for this week.  And as always…Reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Playoff Insanity appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

THE PLAYOFFS ARE HERE!!!!!

We’ll start this week with Zach Lowe’s breakdown of each playoff series.  Lowe asked a couple important questions about each series that will likely decide the victor of each series.  Though Lowe predicted the Nets will beat the Raptors in six games, one of his more interesting observations was about the edges the Raptors might have against the Nets.  One of Lowe’s more interesting predictions was the Pacers struggling with the Hawks and actually taking six games to win their opening series against the lowly Hawks.

In his playoff preview, Tom Ziller took a look at one of the reasons (Playoff Teague) why the Hawks might make their first round series with the Pacers exciting, along with 22 other things he’s looking forward to this postseason.  There likely aren’t many people sharing the same sentiment, but Ziller mentioned looking forward to seeing and hearing what Sir Foster, the Hawks’ organist, has prepared for the playoffs as well as watching the Heat desperately trying to stop Al Jefferson.  Along with those more unusual things, Ziller is also looking forward to some of the more popular story lines including Howard and Harden in Houston, Dwyane Wade’s playoff performance, and Blake Griffin’s new and improved game in Los Angeles.

Also, in Los Angeles, J.A. Adande wrote about the major problem with the newly popular idea that the NBA should just place the 16 best teams in the playoffs regardless of conference affiliation.  Adande believes that though it would be great to reward the league’s best teams, the playoffs would lose some of their luster because of the lack of rivalries.  Instead of teams that have played each other multiple times facing off in the first round, the playoffs would feature bland matchups between teams that don’t really know or care about the opposing squad.

Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins wrote a fantastic profile of a player not at all foreign to the ill will of opponents, Patrick Beverley.  Jenkins did a fantastic job digging up everything that Beverley has gone through on his way to the NBA.  This includes quitting AAU Basketball because he felt like the tournaments were meat markets and then leading Illinois High School Basketball in scoring with 37 points per game at Marshall High School in Chicago.  After getting suspended for a year from Arkansas, Beverley decided to go overseas where he was discovered by Daryl Morey and the rest of the story has been pretty well told.  Jenkins’ research on Beverley’s younger days really makes the piece stand out.

Another person who had taken an interesting route to the NBA is Toronto Raptors’ General Manager Masai Ujiri and TSN’s Michael Farrell told Ujiri’s amazing story this past week.  With the Raptors bursting onto the playoff scene looking to get their first series win since 2001, Ujiri has deservedly received a large majority of the credit.  Ujiri originally had dreams of playing in the NBA while growing up in Nigeria, but after playing professionally overseas until the age of 30, he became a scout.  After a lot of hard work, he became the general manager of the Denver Nuggets and now holds the same position for the Raptors.  Ujiri’s story of perseverance is just incredible and was very well told by Farrell and his crew at TSN.

Ujiri and other general managers will be sure to keep an eye on Rajon Rondo this offseason as his future in Boston remains uncertain.  The Boston Globe’s Baxter Holmes was able to catch up with Rondo this past week and ask him about the past season as well as his future.  Though Rondo is typically good for some entertaining quotes, this interview was relatively tame as he attempted to avoid many of the questions that could have created headlines.  The most interesting tidbit might have been regarding Rondo’s insistence on keeping his charity work private because of his belief that publicizing charity work actually cheapens the work done by celebrities.

While some general managers work on the trade market for Rondo, others will be spending their offseason stressing about finding the league’s next superstar in the NBA Draft.  At this point, everyone has seen the scouting reports of every player and know their strengths and weaknesses, but Eric Weiss of Draft Express revealed that while physical skills are the biggest part of the evaluation, NBA teams may start looking more and more at the psychological makeup of potential players.  By analyzing data from 358 draftees from 2007 to 2013, Weiss believes he has uncovered some trends in the behavioral anatomy of some of the draft’s steals and busts.

While watching the playoffs, you’ll realize that every team defends the pick and roll differently and at times different players on the same team will defend pick and rolls differently as well.  If you’re curious what each team is trying to do, SB Nation’s Doug Eberhardt broke down each type of defense with graphics explaining each specific movement in the defensive scheme.  Eberhardt perfectly explained everything you’ll ever need to know about Ice, Hedge, Show, Long Arm, Blitz, and Push.

That’s all for this week.  Enjoy the first week of the playoffs.  And as always…Reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: The Playoffs are Here! appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

Some strange things occurred in the NBA this week.  Let’s start with what might have been the strangest: Corey Brewer’s 51 point Friday night outburst.  On Friday night, Corey Brewer scored 51 points in the Timberwolves’ 112-100 victory over the Houston Rockets, which Ryan Feldman of ESPN Stats and Info is calling the most unlikely 50 point performance of all-time.  Brewer was just the sixth player in NBA history to score 50 points in a game without scoring at least 30 points in a previous game as well .  Along with the points, Brewer added six steals to join Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Rick Barry as the only four players to score 50 points in a game while also recording six or more steals.

Another strange headline from this week came from Miami on Tuesday night when Mason Plumlee blocked LeBron Jame’s game-winning dunk attempt.  That was not a typo and neither is this: Mason Plumlee leads all rookies in PER this season.  Devin Kharpertian of the Brooklyn Game took a closer look at Plumlee’s Rookie of the Year resume knowing full well that Plumlee will receive almost no consideration for the award.  Though Plumlee has not put up the gaudy statistics of Michael Carter-Williams or Victor Oladipo, Kharpertian writes that he has become a key rotational player for a playoff team, which is something very few rookies ever get to claim.

A measure that may help show Plumlee’s true value is the newly introduced Real Plus-Minus statistic.  The mathematics behind the statistic can be very confusing, so Kevin Ferrigan of Hickory High (and Bulls by the Horns) took a look at just how the statistic is calculated.  Ferrigan made some interesting observations that help show that though the statistic may be getting closer to revealing a player’s “true” value on the floor, it is imperfect and has a few flaws.  Some of the flaws covered by Ferrigan include an inclusion of data from the previous season, a reliance on box score statistics, and a height bias.

Though Real Plus-Minus might not be perfect, it should help people see the value of player’s that do some of the little things and don’t just score a ton of points.  Truehoop’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss wrote that the increased usage of defensive statistics will make it harder to ignore a player’s defensive value.  Strauss encountered quite a bit of cynicism among Warriors Andre Igoudala and Andrew Bogut who both seemed to think that their contributions on the defensive end will remain difficult to measure and believe that their contributions will likely go largely unnoticed.

A player whose greatness has gone larger unnoticed is the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki who passed Oscar Robertson earlier this week to enter the NBA’s Top Ten in career scoring.  While Nowitzki might have done it quietly to some nationally, his impact has been felt since the moment he arrived in Dallas and Tim McMahon of ESPN Dallas took some time to ask those who have known him best in Dallas to talk about his progression.  His fantastic oral history gave some of those who greatly influenced Nowitzki (Nash, Cuban, Nelson, and many more) the opportunity to talk about his career and attempt to put his impact in perspective.

Though the two players couldn’t be more different, Kawhi Leonard is one day hoping to make the same type of leap to superstardom that Nowitzki made early on in his career.  Jack Winter of Hardwood Paroxysm wrote about Leonard’s development this week and how Leonard didn’t develop quite the way everyone expected him to after last year’s NBA Finals.  Winter mentioned how “kneejerk NBA Finals judgments” made people think that Leonard would step in for Manu Ginobili this season and become the third member of the Spurs’ Big Three, but Leonard wasn’t up to the task early in the season.  As the season has progressed though, Leonard has shown that he is ready for a greater offensive output in San Antonio.

While Leonard takes on a heavier offensive load for the Spurs, the Nuggets Kenneth Faried is doing much of the same in Denver.  Grantland’s Zach Lowe broke down just how much more aggressive and diverse Faried’s offensive playbook has become this season.  After reading Lowe’s piece, watching a Nuggets game became a much difference experience as your eyes are immediately drawn to Faried’s early post action and low post position.  Faried’s more rounded play has definitely helped him shift away from the perception of being “just an energy guy” which he mentioned to Lowe in the piece.

We’ll end today with a mixtape of Gerald Green dunks set to Jock Jams, which is just awe-inspiring.

That’s all for today.  Remember…reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: One Strange Week appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

This week, we will be featuring an abbreviated version of What We’re Reading.  With the Final Four getting underway later today, we’ll focus on just four stories.

Our first story will focus on some college players as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck took a closer look at the 2014 NBA Draft Class.  Beck writes that this draft class is simply not quite as special as it once seemed because the draft class has been over-hyped.  With the help of a few GMs and scouts, Beck broke down each of the players near the top of the draft and found that though each of the players might be “solid” NBA players, there just isn’t any can’t miss prospects.  The college season has exposed many of each prospect’s flaws and made many GMs who planned on tanking for a superstar very nervous.

During his high school years, Shabazz Muhammad was heralded as the next NBA’s next big superstar, but a lackluster season at UCLA brought him back down to Earth and the middle of the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves in last year’s NBA draft.  Much like this year’s heralded draft class, Muhammad moved from a can’t miss prospect to simply a solid player.  After struggling to start the season, Hardwood Paroxysm’s Derek James writes that Muhammad is now figuring out his role as an NBA role player.

Another player who has transitioned from an exhilarating prospect to role player is the Brooklyn Nets’ Shaun Livingston.  Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game interviewed Livingston this week to talk about his new role with the Nets and how he has become an important cog in the Nets’ rotation.  Kharpertian spoke with Livingston about some specific plays that Livingston made and actually had him break down some plays on video.  The video breakdowns are a cool feature that allow you to see what Livingston is actually thinking out on the floor during plays.

In our final piece of the week, Paul Flannery of SB Nation traveled to Los Angeles to talk with his old friend from Boston, Doc Rivers and much more.  Flannery had talked at length with Rivers while covering the Celtics in Boston while Rivers coached the Big Three, but it was as if the two had not missed a bit upon Flannery’s arrival in Los Angeles.  Their conversation covered many topics, but the majority of their conversation centered around the Clippers and how Rivers will try to make them championships like Rivers’ Celtics squad.  Though he wants the Clippers to reach that same level, Flannery found that Rivers rarely mentions his old team with his new squad and tries to keep the two experiences separate.

That’s all for this week.  Remember…reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Final Four Version appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

As the NBA season comes to end, there are many important questions to ask when it comes to the contending teams in each conference.  The most important question might come from Oklahoma City as the Thunder attempt to figure out if their supporting cast is going to be ready for this postseason.  James Herbert of SB Nation wrote that for the Thunder to make a run this postseason the trio of Reggie Jackson, Perry Jones III, and Jeremy Lamb will have to step up their games.  Lamb and Jones III have seen diminished playing time since the All-Star Break and their ability to produce with sporadic playing time when called upon in the postseason will be a major factor in the Thunder’s postseason success.

Last season, the Thunder’s postseason changed dramatically when Russell Westbrook tore his meniscus in the first round of the playoffs when he collided with Patrick Beverley.  Beverley was immediately made out to be a villain because of the supposedly “dirty” play and when news came out this week that Beverley might miss the remainder of the season with a torn meniscus, Twitter started to explode with ALL CAPS claims of karma and poetic justice.  Hardwood Paroxysm’s Jordan White wrote that anyone that tweeted something about Beverley’s injury representing some sort of karmic justice should seriously question their actions because cheering a player’s injury is seriously messed up.

Another thing many people thought was pretty messed up was FiveThirtyEight’s Benjamin Morris’ piece claiming that a NBA steal is worth around nine points.  That is correct.  Through a series of calculations, Morris found that NBA steals are extremely overlooked and are actually worth nine points.  Morris argued that the reason steals are so valuable is because they are not events that would necessarily occur in every game, but rather events that need to be created.  He explained that points, rebounds, and assists will all occur in a basketball game no matter what because of the nature of the game, but steals only occur when a player makes them happen.

Apparently, stories like Morris’ scare many people around the league because an unnamed “former NBA star” spoke to Chris Broussard about his concerns that the popularity of basketball statistics has led to more “stat-based personnel hires” rather than ex-players becoming general managers.  Broussard wrote that this unnamed former player believes that a greater emphasis is being placed on statistical acumen than “basketball knowledge” and decades of observation in film and field work.  The former player’s main concern was the downgrading of something he called basketball PhDs.

Upon hearing the news, Tom Ziller wrote a most impressive takedown of the ex-player’s concerns.  Ziller took a look at the statement and attempted to figure out what this ex-player was referring to.  He admitted that recently some teams have hired people who favor analytics and use them in their decision-making process, but also looked at each of those people’s basketball history.  In digging deeper, he found that almost all of them have either been basketball lifers or have only worked in basketball since graduating college, but he reasoned that this is apparently not enough for the ex-player and his expectations.

The most enjoyable reads from this past week might have come from SBNation’s Retro Week as multiple members of their staff took a look back to the 1990s and wrote some really cool pieces.  One of the most enjoyable reads came from Paul Flannery as he broke down the Seattle Supersonics of the early to mid 90s led by Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton.  Though they never won an NBA championship, Flannery wrote about wy they are one of the decade’s most memorable teams.  Another great piece from the Retro Week series was Mike Prada’s breakdown of the differences in rules between the current NBA and the NBA of the 1990s.  To illustrate the difference, Prada asked if Michael Jordan would have been as successful in this era and if LeBron James would have been effective in MJ’s era.  The piece poses some great questions and breaks down why it is just so hard to break down players from different eras.

We’ll end this edition of What We’re Reading with a debate between Rasheed Wallace and Rick Mahorn.  As the Pistons prepared to recognize the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Bad Boy Pistons, the two got together to debate which team would have won had the two teams squared off.

That’s all for this week.  Remember…reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Questioning the Numbers appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

The biggest news of this week was the hiring of Phil Jackson as New York Knicks team president.  There were plenty of stories written about the signing, but the best take might have came from Grantland’s Zach Lowe.  Lowe wrote that Jackson can make a difference in many different ways, but only if the Knicks start to run their organization a bit differently.  Lowe mentioned that surprisingly the Knicks do many of the same things as the league’s smartest teams, but their upper management overrules many of the smart things that they do.  For the Knicks to get to the next level, Jackson, as well as the rest of the staff, needs the trust of James Dolan to successfully run the Knicks.

In Detroit, many have questioned Rasheed Wallace’s ability to become a competent coach in his post-playing career, but Wallace has done a great job this season to squash many of those concerns.  SBNation’s James Herbert took a look at how Wallace has attempted to transition from outlandish and emotional basketball player to suit-wearing and calm assistant coach and found that Wallace hasn’t really tried to change anything.  On the sidelines, Wallace has remained the notoriously outspoken player that became the league’s all-time leader in technical fouls as a player, but he has also used the knowledge that was evident during his playing days to help some of the Pistons young big men take the next step as players.

Somehow a year older than Wallace, Steve Nash tried to comeback to the Lakers this season, but ultimately just couldn’t get back on the floor with a nerve problem in his back.  With the realization that he many never play in the NBA again, Nash has become very  candid in in his dealings with the media and his interview with Bruce Arthur was no different.  Nash talked a lot about how frustrating it was too be in great shape, but not be able to stay on the floor because of a nerve issue.  Something as simple as brushing knees with another player can sideline Nash now because of how interconnected the nerves in his back are to the rest of his body.  Nash tells Arthur that much of the reason for his documentary series on ESPN is a need to release his creativity since he can no longer do so on an NBA floor.

One player that has not struggled to show off his creativity on an NBA floor this season is Sacramento Kings guard Isiah Thomas.  This week, James Herbert also took some time to talk with Isaiah Thomas about his life before the NBA as well as his role as a leader on the Kings.  Thomas talked about his unique fanhood as child living in Seattle, but having a father that was a diehard Lakers fan, which led to a fanboy moment when Shaquille O’Neal started working with the Kings and texted Thomas for the first time.  One of the more interesting things Thomas talked about was that he feels like a leader in every situation he is in on the court and though he doesn’t consider himself a veteran, he felt it was his responsibility to call a players-only meeting with DeMarcus Cousins earlier this season.

Though he hasn’t received quite as much credit as Thomas has for his ability as a leader, Andre Igoudala has helped the Warriors change their identity this season and Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard attempted to explain how that has happened.  Ballard wrote that many have questioned Igoudala’s effectiveness because of his relative lack of offensive output this season, but explained that looking at Igoudala’s offensive numbers would be a mistake.  When Ballard asked Igoudala about his offensive numbers, Igoudala responded that he willingly gives up shots because he has already gotten his contract and wants guys like Klay Thompson to “get his money” by putting up some more points.

Speaking of guys looking to “get their money”, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders broke down the numbers of the NBA’s “One and Done” Era.  In doing so, Koutroupis found that out of 63 freshmen that were drafted, eight of the draftees have made it to the NBA All-Star Game.  On the other hand, nine of the 63 players are now out of the league and six of them never even played a single minute in the NBA.  The list of players is interesting to look at just to see the wide variety of players that were drafted after a single season in college basketball, ranging from NBA All-Stars all the way to players that never even got a chance.

Though he was not a “one and done” player, Blake Griffin did leave school early and eventually became the 2011 Rookie of the Year for the Clippers after sitting out a season with an injury.  Since his first season, Griffin has been much maligned for “only dunking” and not developing as a player, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Much has been made this season about his development as a shooter, but this week Scott Rafterty at Hardwood Paroxysm took a look at Griffin’s incredible skill in transition.  Many see Griffin catch lobs in transitions, but few credit Griffin for running the floor and establishing early position to get easy layins, as well as actually handling the ball adeptly in transition.

Griffin’s development this season has led many to believe that the Clippers could actually do some damage in the playoffs and Marc Stein revealed that an Eastern Conference scout now sees the Clippers are a real threat in the Western Conference.  This anonymous scout’s take was one of four Stein posted this week in a series trying to see where teams stand as we approach the playoffs.  The scouts Stein talked with also mentioned: the Bulls bothering the Eastern Conference’s elite teams, the Rockets’ championship chances, and Phil Jackson’s fit with the Knicks.

That’s all for this week.  Remember…reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: Relevant Old Guys appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via NSNewsflash

We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, every Saturday, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

On Monday night, Lebron James scored a career-high 61 points against the Charlotte Bobcats and the internet exploded.  People were ranking the best individual games ever, asking if James’ 61 points was more impressive than Kobe Bryant’s 81 point game, and all sorts of other foolishness.  One of the better pieces took a look at why James’ 61 point game likely wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago.  Matt Moore of CBS Sports took a look at the stunning evolution James has made as a player and even put that evolution into a GIF that shows James’ shot charts from every year of his career.  In that GIF, as well as in Moore’s breakdown, James’ evolution becomes apparent.  Though he was blessed with incredible athletic ability, James has also improved consistently every season to become the world’s best basketball player.

On Tuesday, Moore wrote another great piece defending the Bobcats defense.  A month before the Bobcats gave up 61 to James, they let Carmelo Anthony get loose for 62 points, which has led many to claim that the Bobcats have a weak defense.  The opposite is actually true as the Bobcats have been one of the league’s best defenses according to points per possession and points per game.  Many critics immediately bring up the fact that they play in the Eastern Conference, but Moore dug a little bit deeper and found that the Bobcats actually did very well against Western Conference as well.

James’ scoring barrage made many people reconsider the MVP race as many had given the trophy to Kevin Durant after his scoring  exploits earlier this season.  One of those people was Royce Young at CBS Sports who questioned the mindset of each player and their respective teams.  While the Thunder regularly sit Durant during the fourth quarter of blowouts, the Heat willingly allowed James to chase a career high in the fourth quarter against the Bobcats while up 20.  Young suggests that the Heat allow James to stay in the fourth quarter to chase stats, but the reality may actually be that the Thunder have a bit stronger and younger supporting cast.

In his discussion of the MVP race, Young brought up that though there are two clear-cut candidates for the award, the rest of the discussion gets very confusing.  At the beginning of the year, it looked like Paul George would take that third spot, but he has struggled in the last few months and SB Nation’s Kevin Zimmerman examined why that has occurred.  Zimmerman noted that George was unbelievable from midrange in the first few months of the season, but his percentages quickly dropped in 2014.  Zimmerman theorized that George’s decline has been a huge reason why the Pacers offense has regressed as well in the past few months.

Another hot shooting streak came to an end as Kyle Korver’s streak of consecutive games with a three pointer came to an end at 127 games on Wednesday.  Bo Churney of HawksHoop described the significance of the streak.  Obviously, Churney viewed the streak as a representation of Korver’s tireless work ethic and his abilities as a shooter, but he described that it meant much more to the team as a whole.  Korver’s streak would not have been possible without the off-ball screens and playmaking of his teammates.  Churney also mentioned that it showed Hawks fans that the team’s management team is capable of targeting and signing capable players in free agency and then developing newly acquired players into significant members of the squad.

Speaking of development, the last week has featured a couple high profile basketball people discussing the most effective way for young players to develop.  Mark Cuban asserted that many college players would benefit from playing in the D-League more than they would from playing an extra season at the college level.  Larry Brown, former NBA coach and current SMU head coach, quickly answered back that Brown’s comments were the “worst thing I’ve heard”.  Brown went on to say that players should be learning more than just basketball because “life after basketball is a real long time.”

A perfect example of why both Cuban and Brown care so much about player development is DeMar DeRozan.  In his fifth season with the Raptors, DeRozan put it all together and got elected to the NBA All-Star Game.  Sports Illustrated’s Rob Mahoney showed how each season has helped DeRozan develop new skills that he has used to become the player he is today.  In the past, DeRozan would settle for midrange jumpers because he was too weak to get further in the lane, but as he’s grown stronger he can now get all the way to the basket while also getting to the free throw line.  Mahoney noted that DeRozan likely knows he is doing a little too much right now, but Toronto’s roster composition is calling for it and he is doing all he can to help the team.

We’ll wrap up this edition of What We’re Reading with an entertaining interview with Jeff Pearlman, author of Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.  Pearlman talked with Ryan Glasspiegel of The Big Lead about Magic Johnson’s announcement, Kareem’s struggles in the public eye, Jerry Buss’ business dealings and Buss’ extravagant personal life.  Pretty entertaining read.

That’s all for this week.  Remember…reading is FUNdamental.

The post What We’re Reading: MVP Discussions appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.