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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.

As mentioned in last week’s What We’re Reading, David Stern has stepped down as NBA commissioner and Adam Silver has officially taken over as of today, February 1, 2014.  With Stern’s departure, there were a number of pieces written about him this week and one of the best came from David Aldridge.  Aldridge interviewed a staggering number of executives, players, and Stern employees to compile a masterful oral history of Stern’s thirty seasons as commissioner.  Aldridge did a fantastic job putting the quotes together and telling the story of Stern’s time as commissioner with praise from some and questions from others.  Stern’s thirty years were not without controversy and Aldridge was able to take a look at each of the controversies as well as the triumphs of Stern’s time as commissioner.

While Aldridge’s piece would likely be viewed as praise of Stern by most, Jason Whitlock took a different look at the situation and took this chance to look more critically at Stern’s tenure as commissioner.  Rather than crediting Stern for the game’s growth, Whitlock asks if Stern didn’t just get lucky as commissioner as he benefited from transcendent stars like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.  Whitlock posits that the league underachieved with Stern as commissioner and should actually be doing considerably better than it is today.  He even goes as far as to call Stern “a self-important dictator”.

With Stern stepping down as commissioner, it is time to look ahead with Adam Silver and Howard Beck of Bleacher Report did just that.  Beck got together with some of the other writers at Bleacher Report and “surveyed a spectrum of NBA stake holders—players and coaches, executives and owners, analysts and agents” to find out what they thought the league should look like in the near future.  Those surveyed had many interesting ideas about a variety of topics including tanking, scheduling, the NBA draft age limit, global expansion, and the next television contract.

In Boston, fans were looking to the past while also keeping an eye on the future, but on a much smaller scale.  As Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett returned to Boston for the first time since being traded to Brooklyn this offseason, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports described the emotional scene at Boston Garden.  Many might question why fans in the Garden were crying as the tribute video was shown, but Wojnarowski did a wonderful job detailing just how much each of those players, especially Pierce, meant to the city of Boston.

As the crowd looked to the past, on the floor, Rajon Rondo was looking forward to his future in the NBA as a Celtic.  Rondo suffered a career-changing ACL injury last year and took some time with Jessica Camerato to discuss the injury and his new outlook.  In the interview, Rondo told Camerato that he had started to compare himself to He-Man as he was able to take on a larger physical toll as the main creator for the Celtics before the injury and that the injury would force him to question himself in ways he had never been forced to before.

Injuries to other point guards have forced their teammates to step up around the league and one place that has happened is in Los Angeles as Blake Griffin has taken on a larger load with Chris Paul injured.  Paul’s injury has put a brighter spotlight on Griffin and Seerat Sohi at ClipperBlog took a closer look at what makes Griffin special.  For years, Griffin’s critics have talked about his lack of a post game and his inability to to defend, but Sohi brilliantly used statistics and some game film to show just how much better Griffin is than the perception many fans have of him.

In Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant has also taken on a much larger role with Russell Westbrook injured and put up some mind-blowing numbers in the last few weeks.  While many were marveling at Durant in more of a point guard role, Jose Martinez at Complex Sports decided to take a look back at the time Michael Jordan played point guard for the Bulls in 1989.  Martinez wanted to make sure to remind everyone that Durant wasn’t the only person that could put up gaudy numbers as a point guard as he recapped how Jordan was able to record triple-doubles in ten of 11 games near the end of the season as a point guard.  If you needed a reminder of just how good Michael Jordan was, this should do the trick.

Aaron Afflalo has taken on a larger role as a playmaker in Orlando for the entire season and the results have been fantastic as he’s put together a season worthy of All-Star consideration.  Ramona Shelburne of ESPN profiled Afflalo and attempted to figure out what has been the reason for his breakout season.  As she interviewed Afflalo, she found that he believes he has had the talents he is showcasing this season all along, but no team has ever asked him to take on a larger role offensively.  Instead, his previous teams have asked him to be a great defender or a spot-up shooter.  This season, the Magic have asked him to be the man and he has responded by averaging over 20 points per game with gaudy shooting percentages.

Finally, as the 2014 offseason is approaching, many have started to talk about where Carmelo Anthony will end up and much to the delight of many Bulls fans, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report gave 7 reasons why Anthony won’t end up in Los Angeles.  The first and most important reason why he likely won’t be a Laker is Kobe Bryant.  In his pregame media session in New York, Ding pointed out that Bryant didn’t seem all to excited to join forces with Anthony and then also pointed out that the two players are likely not a good fit alongside each other.

We’ll end this edition of What We’re Reading with a hellacious dunk from Terrence Ross on Kenneth Faried in video form, as well as this mind-boggling picture.

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

The post What We’re Reading: Taking a Look Back 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.

Though we are not at the All-Star Break yet, every team in the league has played at least half of their games and Zach Lowe at Grantland decided to name his NBA All-Star team this week.  Lowe didn’t factor in any of the fan voting or a player’s career achievements, but rather named a squad by determining which players have had the best season thus far while following the same positional rules as the actual All-Star game.  In the Eastern Conference, many were likely surprised to see him list Kyle Lowry as his starting point guard.  While in the Western Conference, none of Lowe’s picks for starters were particularly surprising some might be upset that Lowe used one of his wild card spots on DeMarcus Cousins.

One of the people that might be surprised by Lowe’s selection of Cousins is Sam Amick of the USA Today.  Cousins is always an interesting topic for many writers, but this year the stories have all remained relatively positive as the Kings organization has said Cousins is making massive developments as a leader.  Though some of this may be true, Amick could not stand by as the true story was going untold.  Amick wrote a particularly scathing piece earlier this week detailing the continuing problems Cousins has with maturity and the lack of growth he has actually made.  He seemed to believe that the events have remained quiet because the Kings rely on Cousins for so much and writers have seemingly tired of writing about Cousins’ indiscretions.

In a piece that nearly epitomizes exactly what Amick wrote about, Jonathan Abrams wrote a profile of Cousins detailing Cousins’ life from his childhood all the way to his time in Sacramento.  As always, Abrams does an incredible job and talked to a ton of different people that have helped shape Cousins along the way.  Some of the most interesting quotes come from Cousins and his discussion of what it means to be a leader.  In the end, Abrams concluded what most of us already knew: Cousins is a supremely talented player, but his career path going forward will be up to him and no one else.

Like Cousins in Sacramento, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant will dictate what the Lakers will become going forward.  Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding caught up with the Lakers and attempted to figure out why Gasol and Bryant reject Mike D’Antoni’s small-ball system.  Ding talked with those three, as well as Erik Spoelstra, to figure out why Gasol and Bryant reject the system when the last two seasons have proved the validity of utilizing a small-ball system in the NBA.  Last season, it wasn’t just the NBA champions that utilized small ball, but also the team they beat in the Finals, the San Antonio Spurs.  Ding’s ultimate conclusion was that though there might be a lot of different names for this style of basketball, it is really all about playing “team ball” and there is no doubt that “team ball” is effective in the NBA.

Many in Los Angeles were unhappy with the D’Antoni hiring and instead wanted Phil Jackson to be the Lakers coach for a second time.  In promoting the paperback edition of his book, Jackson stopped by Fox Sports Live and had some interesting things to say.  In the interview, he talked about his impressions of the Lakers and his belief that he would be hired as the next Lakers coach in his meetings with the team.  Though his discussion of the Lakers was interesting, his most interesting anecdote might have been about the meeting Kobe Bryant had with Michael Jordan in 1999.  Jackson arranged for a meeting between both players and Kobe’s first words to Jordan were pretty much exactly what you’d expect them to be.

Jordan was also featured prominently in Tom Ziller’s post recapping the 30 biggest moments from David Stern’s 30 years as commissioner of the NBA.  Though it rarely gets mentioned, Stern is retiring in just one short week on February 1st on the 30th anniversary of being named commissioner.  Ziller decided to take a look back and document some of the greatest moments Stern presided over as commissioner and there has been some great ones, but also some very bad ones, which led to Stern making some decisions that completely changed the way the league looks today.

One of those moments was the NBA’s ownership of the New Orleans Hornets and the Chris Paul fiasco.  Just a few years later, New Orleans is in a position to once again trade one of their players and this time that player is Eric Gordon.  Bleacher Report’s Ian Levy decided to take a closer look at Eric Gordon and see just what type of player he has been in New Orleans.  In New Orleans, Gordon has missed over 100 games, which has led many to think of the Gordon they remember as a member of the Clippers rather than the Gordon that actually exists today.  At this point, Gordon is a shell of his former self and though he is putting up much respectable numbers, they are nowhere near the level that you would expect from a player being paid the way Gordon is being paid.  Levy’s analysis is top-notch.

We’ll end with more top-notch analysis, but this analysis will come from Kirk Goldsberry at Grantland.  Goldsberry took out his charts again this week and showed why James Harden is such a unique player in the NBA today.  Harden is unlike other players in that he does everything that he can to get to the foul line and gets to the foul line with startling regularity.  One of the most interesting graphics showed where Harden gets fouled on his shooting attempts and some are close to the free throw line, which shows Harden’s propensity to use long strides and euro steps to get himself to the basket.

We’ll end this week with a sad story as beloved satanic deity Pierre the Pelican will be receiving a makeover.  That’s right, everybody.  Wave goodbye to Pierre.

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

The post What We’re Reading: The Real Boogie 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.

We’ll start in Oklahoma City as Kevin Durant scored a career-high 54 points (on only 28 shots!) Friday night in the Thunder’s 127-121 victory over the Golden State Warriors.  Earlier in the week, Kevin Arnovitz profiled the Thunder’s new starting lineup without Russell Westbrook and why it has been so effective.  Though Durant has been putting up monster numbers offensively, the new starting lineup has been effective because what it does on the defensive side of the ball.  While Westbrook tends to gamble on steals, Jackson simply plays within his responsibilities defensively and it has led the Thunder to be much more stingy on defense.

Another title contender making changes on the defensive end is, surprisingly, the Miami Heat.  While the Thunder’s changes defensively came because of an injury, the Heat’s changes are because of Greg Oden’s return to the floor for the first time in three seasons.  Couper Moorhead of Heat.com wrote about the happy feelings abundant in Miami with Oden’s return, but also took a look at Oden’s pick and roll defense with the help of a few .gifs.  Though it is a minuscule sample size, Oden’s return could lead to Miami completely changing their defense strategy with him in the game.

This week, Oden’s teammate LeBron James made some interesting comments and Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports thinks he knows why.  Before their game in Washington, James told reporters that he gets “jealous” at times with how many shots Durant gets to put up in Oklahoma City.  Doyel believes that James’ comments were nothing more than James angling for another MVP award.  He believes that James’ comments were calculated and a ploy to keep him in the discussion for MVP rather than let Durant run away with his first MVP trophy.

Earlier in the season, it looked as though James’ major challenger for the MVP award would not be Durant, but rather Paul George of the Indiana Pacers.  George looked like the second best player in the league in the month of November and while many were ready to anoint him a superstar, few looked at how he was putting up his impressive numbers.  Over at Hardwood Paroxysm, Jack Winter took a look at George’s numbers as part of his Open Shots column and detailed why George’s shooting has declined so much since his hot start in the first month.  Winter found that George was shooting at near “Nowitzkian” levels from the mid-range and that it was just not sustainable from George for an entire season.

While George has regressed in recent months, Rudy Gay has moved in the opposite direction and become a very effective mid-range shooter as a member of the Sacramento Kings.  Kirk Goldsberry at Grantland compiled the numbers and showed that when looking at the usage of certain players it may be necessary to enact “The Rudy Gay Principle”.  In his piece, Goldsberry mentioned that years ago Dean Oliver theorized that every player can be an effective player up to a certain usage point and once they exceeded that usage point, they would regress.  Goldsberry believes this is exactly what happened to Gay in Toronto as he was simply asked to do too much.

In Minnesota, Ricky Rubio has really struggled this season and many people are trying to figure out why.  Dan Devine of Yahoo! Sports took a closer look and mentioned that Rubio may want to be a little less hard on himself.  In comments from Rubio and Adelman earlier in the week, Devine detailed the fact that Rubio might just be struggling because he’s dwelling too much on his mistakes and simply not allowing himself to be the normal joyful and fun Rubio we’ve seen in recent years.

Rubio has really struggled this season, but not nearly as bad as Anthony Bennett has struggled in Cleveland.  Drew Garrison of SB Nation took a closer look at just how ugly this season has been for Bennett.  Many people know that Bennett has struggled, but most have likely not realized just how terrible this season has been for Bennett and Garrison did a phenomenal job showing just how bad it has been.  If he continues at his current level of play, Bennett will own the worst season by a player selected first overall by a wide margin.  Yikes.

While some don’t comprehend how bad Bennett has been, many fans just don’t understand how good Dwight Howard has been this season.  Ricky O’Donnell at SB Nation examined how Howard’s actions in the last couple years has negatively affected the way most fans perceive him as a player.  Most people didn’t realize just how good Howard was in Los Angeles last season and how much better he’s been in Houston this season.  O’Donnell argues that Howard is undoubtedly the best center in the league and it’s not particularly close because of the profound impact Howard has on both ends of the floor.

Another player dominating the league this season is Portland’s Damian Lillard.  At Sports Illustrated, Lee Jenkins wrote a great profile on Lillard and how Lillard is carrying on the proud tradition of Oakland point guards.  Jenkins looked at how the tradition of strong point guard play started with Brian Shaw, then passed to both Jason Kidd and Gary Payton and now lives on through Lillard.  Lillard credits Oakland for making him the player he is today and for showing him what should be expected of a point guard every game.

We’ll end today with another player who has been shaped by his hometown.  Lance Stephenson is having a great season and looking for a little help from voters to get himself to the All-Star Game in New Orleans.  Sir Lancealot is looking for your help!

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

The post What We’re Reading: Changing Perceptions 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

After almost a week of silence, Joakim Noah finally talked to the media about the Luol Deng trade over the weekend and had quite a bit to say.  Noah mentioned that trade definitely hurt, but the team would need to move on.  Throughout the interview, Noah mentioned how proud he was to be a part of this Bulls team and how he understood that the team represented the city each time they took the floor.  Noah also remained adamant that the Bulls will not be tanking and that trading Deng is just another piece of adversity for the team to deal with going forward.

SB Nation continued to take a look at tanking and this time it was Tom Ziller’s turn as he took a look at “tanking” teams and what sets them apart.  For a tanking team to be successful, Ziller found that they need to be lucky enough to acquire a great talent in the draft and then smart enough to successfully build a team around that player.  He mentioned that you will find some luck in just about any team that has found success in recent years, but also a quality GM that put together a plan following that luck.  Ziller was able to find some really interesting numbers and show that “tanking” doesn’t magically create a great team.

Teams looking to tank this season received some good news on Monday as Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski reported Australian prospect Dante Exum met with eight powerhouse representation agencies and gave them the strong impression that he will enter the upcoming NBA Draft. Wojnarowski reported that the agents he spoke with believe it is inevitable that Exum will enter this year’s draft, but that he has been careful throughout this process and has made sure to maintain his NCAA eligibility, in case he would not feel ready to enter the draft.  Exum makes quite a few general managers drool and could even be a top five pick in this year’s draft.

Jonathan Tjarks looked at a couple of the other top NBA Draft Prospects and outlined three games in which you should judge Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Jabari Parker.  For Wiggins, Tjarks believes Iowa State and Oklahoma State will prove to be key matchups because their style will really highlight Wiggins’ strengths and weaknesses.  Tjarks believes Florida and Tennessee will provide the toughest tests for Randle’s strength because of their large front courts, while Missouri will provide a test of Randle’s defense at the next level with athletic wings that can shoot the three.  Finally, for Parker, Tjarks highlights games against NC State and Florida State as true tests of Parker’s defensive ability and strength as both teams provide a tough test for Parker’s skill set.

Doug Eberhardt at SB Nation covered a skill each of those prospects will have to master in the NBA in his breakdown of “two nine”.  In his breakdown, Eberhardt explains that “two nine” refers to the 2.9 seconds that defensive players can theoretically spend in the lane before being called for defensive three seconds.  He shows how the “two nine” works and how some of the league’s best interior defenders find ways to stretch out their time in the lane as long as possible.  Though “two nine” seems like it should only affect defenses, Eberhardt goes on to explain that “two nine” has greatly affected offenses and actually made them quite a bit more complex.

This past week, James Herbert of SB Nation spent a little time with a player who likely understands the “two nine” concept very well, Andrei Kirilenko.  In his Q&A with Kirilenko, Herbert touched on some interesting topics with Kirilenko including the frustrations of dealing with injuries as a team.  Kirilenko has extensive experience with this as he suffered through an injury-riddled season with the Timberwolves last season and an unlucky start to this season with the Nets.  Herbert also talked with Kirilenko about playing with John Stockton and Karl Malone in his first two NBA seasons and the influence that those two players had on him as a player.

Finally, at Hardwood Paroxysm, Derek James took a look at a Q&A session LeBron James randomly decided to hold on Twitter and just how much LeBron has changed in the last few years.  In the Q&A, LeBron was extremely candid and even made fun of his performance in the 2011 NBA Finals.  James noted that the transformation of the perception of LeBron among basketball fans has been staggering as LeBron has shifted in the mind of fans from a pariah who was questioned after every single game to the league’s supreme ruler.

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

The post What We’re Reading: Noah Finally Speaks 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

Today, we’ll start with some masterful writing from Paul Flannery at SB Nation.  Flannery took a look at how the Pacers have gone about attempting to win back “the heart of Indiana” after the debacle of the Pacers led by Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson.  Flannery detailed how each of the players on the team contributed to the rebuild and how each of them are an integral part of the team’s identity.  It might take a little while to read this longform piece, but it was well worth it.

After that long piece, we’ll go to a video to help make things a little bit easier.  We’ve had some breakdowns from Coach Nick at Bball Breakdown before, but this time Coach Nick had a chance to interview Damian Lillard and discuss the pick and roll with him.  Though an interview with Lillard has the potential to be a boring recap of the action, they discuss some really detailed stuff and you really get a look into what Lillard is thinking on the floor.

Lillard is having a great season shooting the ball, but he has not shot the ball quite well enough to get himself on to Kirk Goldsberry’s list of best shooters thus far this season.  Over at Grantland this week, Goldsberry used the ShotScore metric he developed earlier this year to figure out who the league’s best shooters are this season.  Though seeing Lebron James at the top isn’t a surprise the other four leaders were a bit of a surprise.  Along with the best shooters, Goldsberry took another day to look at the league’s worst shooters.

It should come as no surprise that Josh Smith is featured prominently in Goldsberry’s list of the league’s worst shooters and Ricky O’Donnell at SB Nation decided to take a closer look at Smith’s first season in Detroit.  O’Donnell took a look at the high volume of three pointers Smith has taken as well as the low percentage he is shooting from the three point line, but he also examined the shoddy effort Smith has given on the floor.  Though Smith certainly deserves some of the blame, O’Donnell writes that Pistons fans may want to point their fingers at Joe Dumars since he decided to go with a win-now quick fix approach by signing Smith.

Another poor shooter, Rajon Rondo, was in the news this week as he told Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he is targeting the Celtics’ January 17th game against the Lakers for his return.  In the story, Rondo also talked about how boring it has been for him on the sidelines because his mental approach hasn’t really changed and he feels like he should be able to dominate, but can’t because of his conditioning.  An interesting aspect of the story was Rondo insisting to local media that he doesn’t have a target date for his return later in the same day the report from Spears was published.

In more depressing news, two more point guards went down with injuries this week.  The Pelicans’ Jrue Holiday will reportedly be out for a month with a stress fracture in his right tibia, which is another tough break for a Pelicans team that just can’t seem to get anything to go right this season.  The Suns’ Eric Bledsoe also went down this week and Kevin Zimmerman at Valley of the Suns took a look at what it might mean for the Suns going forward.  Bledsoe presents an interesting case for the Suns because he will be a restricted free agent at the end of this season, but his future will now be uncertain with the injury.

Bledsoe has helped the Suns perform extremely well this season even though many thought the Suns would be tanking in order to get a high draft pick in the upcoming NBA draft.  The lack of tanking in Phoenix and throughout most of the league led Mark Deeks at SB Nation to question the idea of “tanking”.  Deeks questioned what it really means to “tank” and if any team in the league is actually doing that right now.  He brings up some interesting points in showing that though there has been a recent uproar against tanking, there aren’t really many teams that are “tanking”.

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

The post What We’re Reading: Transforming Organizations 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

Today, we’ll start right here in Chicago as the Bulls made a blockbuster trade last night dealing Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Andrew Bynum and three draft picks.  Brian Windhorst broke the story late last night and has quotes from both Gar Forman and Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant.  In his story, Windhorst makes mention of the trade rumors involving Bynum and the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as why the Lakers could not form a package that could compare to the Bulls deal.  Our own Avi Saini assessed the impact of the trade early this morning.  Be sure to keep your eye out on Bulls By The Horns all day for more coverage of the trade.

Though trading a player as talented as Luol Deng isn’t always ideal, it can sometimes be necessary with free agency looming.  Another team in a similar situation is the New York Knicks with their star Carmelo Anthony.  Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck detailed why he believes it is time for the Knicks to do the exact same thing the Bulls did and trade Anthony before the trade deadline.  The terrible moves the Knicks have made has left the cupboard pretty barren and Beck believes the best way for the Knicks to start over is to trade Anthony and shot-blocking extraordinaire Tyson Chandler for young players or draft picks.

Like the Knicks, the Bucks are struggling mightily this season, but do not have an attractive star player to trade away.  Instead, they have center Larry Sanders, who recently signed a large contract and even more recently started a fight in the Bucks locker room.  No full story was written about the incident, but Jeremy Schmidt at Bucksketball compiled some of the tweets from the night and put together a picture of the scene.  He went on to wonder if Larry Sanders is a problem or if he is just a victim of his circumstances in Milwaukee.

While Larry Sanders has become a pariah in the media, Giannis Antetokounmpo has become a media darling.  Along with his insane potential, Antetokounmpo willingly flashes a smile and seems to be a teenager genuinely enjoying being in the NBA.  Since the season started, Antetokounmpo has been writing blog posts for NBA Greece and a Greek commenter at BrewHoop has been nice enough to translate his posts into English.  In his most recent post, he wrote about starting games in the NBA, recording his first career double-double, and wandering around NBA cities with Sanders or fellow rookie Nate Wolters.

Another great surprise this season has been the Portland Trail Blazers.  Before the season, many saw the Blazers as a fringe playoff team in the Western Conference, but no one saw them being the best team in the league and Jordan Conn of Grantland went to Portland to figure out if the Blazers are “for real”.  Conn found out that being “for real” might not actually be a real thing.  He wrote how the three main keys to this team (Terry Stotts, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Damian Lillard) have all dealt with question marks throughout their time in Portland, but have never stopped working towards their goal of putting a winning team on the floor.

On Friday night, Ryan Anderson got into a collision with Gerald Green and hit the floor hard in Boston.  He laid motionless for a few minutes before being taken off the court on a stretcher.  The Pelicans announced Tuesday that Anderson suffered a herniated disk and will be out indefinitely.  They weren’t willing to speculate whether or not he would be able to return this season.  This is just another tough break for the Pelicans as they just can’t manage to stay healthy this season.

One of the weirdest stories of the last year is former Bull Dennis Rodman’s continuing friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un and it just continues to get weirder.  Rodman recently took seven former NBA players as well as four “streetball” players to North Korea to put on a basketball game for the leader’s birthday and one of those players, Charles Smith, is feeling remorseful about making the trip.  In an interview, Smith said that the event “has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman’s comments.”  David Stern has smartly made it a priority to distance himself and the NBA from the event.

Another thing Stern is attempting to distance himself from is the league’s financial obligation to the Spirits of St. Louis.  When the ABA and NBA merged, the owners of the Spirits (brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna) negotiated an agreement that would pay them one-seventh of the national television revenue that the Nets, Spurs, Pacers, and Nuggets received as long as the league continued to exist.  Since the 1976 merger, the Silnas have been given about $300 million.  On Tuesday, the league is planning to strike a deal that will pay the Silnas $500 million upfront and would end the perpetual payments due to the Silnas.

Finally, we’ll wrap up today’s What We’re Reading with Jimmy Butler gleefully singing along to Taylor Swift after the Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.

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

The post What We’re Reading: Let’s Make a Deal 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

After an extended absence, we’ll start with a profile of Suns coach Jeff Hornacek from Matt Moore of CBS Sports.  People keep expecting the Suns to fade at some point this season and Moore used his access with the Suns to find out why that might not happen.  Along with Hornacek, Moore interviewed Gerald Green and Goran Dragic and found that the Suns’ philosophy is completely different from one year ago.  In just a single season, Hornacek has completely transformed the Suns’ strategy offensively and defensively and Moore’s profile shows the thought and care that has gone into that transformation.

Another surprise this past week has been the development of former Suns lottery pick Kendall Marshall.  After getting traded by the Suns to start the season and then cut by the Wizards, Marshall has found a home on the Lakers and Rob Mahoney of the Point Forward breaks down why Marshall has been able to find success.  Friday night was a coming out party of sorts as Marshall put up career highs in points (20), assists (15) and rebounds (6).  Mahoney showed in a couple clips that Marshall had improved greatly in a few areas of concern (scoring and decision-making), but was also quick to point out that not every game Marshall plays will be against the Jazz’s hapless defense.

It doesn’t seem possible, but Kyle Korver has somehow improved as a shooter this season and Korver wrote an interesting piece about his process as a basketball player.  It isn’t often that a NBA player articulates his thoughts in such a thoughtful way, so this was a great opportunity to see how a professional basketball player actually thinks.  Over the years, his shot has turned into something that has become nearly perfect and Korver details how he can feel even the slightest imperfection in his mechanics while shooting.  Really interesting stuff.

Scott Rafferty at Hardwood Paroxysm showed how a great shooter like Kyle Korver can help coaches create distinct advantages for their team on the offensive end.  Instead of Korver, Rafferty broke down how Ryan Anderson’s shooting acumen led to a few easy buckets for Anthony Davis this past week.  In the highlights, the only thing anyone saw was Davis embarrassing Joel Freeland, but a closer look at the play showed that the play Monty Williams drew up made the Blazers’ help defenders make a very difficult decision.

Anthony Davis is a great young player, but he’s not the best power forward in the league quite yet.  At least, according to Andrew Lynch at Hardwood Paroxysm, he isn’t and neither are many of the other players you’d suspect to find on the list of the league’s best power forwards.  Lynch instead argues that the best power forward in the league right now is Lebron James because James plays a majority of his time on the floor with the Heat as a power forward.  He also admits that most basketball debates right now come with the tacit implication that James should not be included in the argument because he’s just about the best everything right now.

One of the supremely underrated power forwards that would likely not be a part of most debates about the league’s best power forward is David West.  This past week, Zach Lowe of Grantland spent some time with him and asked him some questions about the season as well as his path to the Indiana Pacers.  Lowe spent some time asking about West’s decision-making process after leaving the Hornets and how close he actually came to becoming a member of the Boston Celtics.  Another interesting portion of the Q&A session came in his discussion of the Pacers’ strategy against the Heat and what he sees his role being in attempting to exploit possible mismatches.

Continuing the power forward talk, Chris Broussard published a report stating New York Knicks officials have discussed proposing a trade that would send Carmelo Anthony to the Clippers for Blake Griffin.  This is quite the interesting report because there is no mention of the teams discussing this trade, but rather just the Knicks discussing this possibility internally.  It seems like a pretty crazy idea, but Broussard is quick to mention that Chris Paul has wanted to play with Anthony since 2010.

Chris Paul is the most recent star to suffer a major injury and Tom Ziller at SB Nation believes it couldn’t have happened at a better time.  This may seem unusual considering the Clippers are in a battle for home court advantage in the Western Conference and any injury could be monumental, but Ziller details just how weak the Clippers schedule is in the next month.  The Clippers could very easily end up with a record very similar to the one they may have recorded with Paul in the lineup.

Jonathan Tjarks decided to take a look at one of the top prospects in this year’s draft, Julius Randle, and found that Randle may not excel at the next level.  Tjarks doesn’t spend a lot of time looking at game footage, but rather Randle’s measurements.  He compared Randle’s wingspan to the rest of the league’s starting power forwards and found that Randle’s 6’11” wingspan would measure dead last in the entire league.  Tjarks also looked at Zach Randolph, the player Randle is most often compared to, and found that though Randolph’s height and weight might be similar to Randle’s, his wingspan is at least 7’4″.

We’ll end today’s What We’re Reading with quite possibly the most perfect interview ever recorded.  Here is Swaggy P embracing his inner Mamba and impersonating Kobe Bryant for an entire interview.

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

The post What We’re Reading: The Return 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

The biggest news early this week came from Zach Lowe at Grantland as he revealed the NBA is in very preliminary discussions to change the draft system from a lottery into a preset wheel.  The wheel would turn the NBA Draft upside down as teams would know exactly where they draft for the next 30 years rather than have their draft position determined each year by their wins and losses.  Lowe was sure to remind readers multiple times that the proposal already has many support the idea, but also many that oppose it as well.

A team that would be deeply affected by the elimination of the lottery system would be the Sacramento Kings, who have managed the second-worst record in the Western Conference thus far.  New head coach Mike Malone has no illusions about his team thus far and said of his team, “We’re a bad basketball team right now.”  Malone relieved that he believes his team has already hit rock bottom four or five times this season during a four minute venting session following his team’s loss to the Pelicans Monday night.  Ben Golliver at SI’s Point Forward was on the scene and had all of the highlights from Malone’s rant.

Another team struggling to improve this season is the Brooklyn Nets and Tom Ziller at SB Nation broke down exactly what options the Nets have going forward.  The depressing truth is that they have very few options.  Ziller took a look at all of the moves Billy King has made and found that essentially King bet on himself and the Nets over and over again this offseason.  In the next five seasons, the Nets have given other teams the rights to switch first round picks with them, which means if the Nets don’t get much better, they will be forced to swap their draft picks (one of their only opportunities to get better) with teams picking much lower.

Speaking of trades, the Rockets’ self-imposed deadline to trade Omer Asik on December 19th has came and gone and Asik is still a member of the Houston Rockets.  Though the Rockets were unable to move Asik, Mark Deeks at SB Nation detailed why he believes the Rockets still have leverage.  Deeks believes that since Asik has proven in the past to be a very capable starting-caliber center in the NBA and that the poor offers the Rockets received before their December 19th deadline were due to the deadline and Asik’s actual value as an NBA player.

Meanwhile, Patrick Harrel at The Dream Shake detailed why no one should care about a trade rumor connecting the Rockets and Nets.  Last week, a bunch of rumors came out about the possible destinations for Asik and one of the more interesting rumors was the Rockets’ proposal of Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin for Deron Williams in Brooklyn.  Harrel dismissed the rumor mentioning that it was likely nothing more than Morey simply calling teams and making an offer, not some sort of serious trade talks.

In other trade rumors regarding shot-blocking centers, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reports that “perhaps no NBA player is as available as Milwaukee Bucks center Larry Sanders”.  Amico reports that the Bucks still like Sanders and aren’t in a rush to move him, but that they would be willing to listen if anyone were to call regarding his availability in a trade.

SB Nation has enlisted the help of Doug Eberhardt (a skills development trainer who has worked with Mike D’Antoni and Lionel Hollins) to explain some NBA jargon this season and this week Eberhardt covered the “nail”.  The “nail” is a spot located at the very middle of the free throw line and is a spot emphasized by the league’s best defensive coaches.  Eberhardt took a look at why the “nail” is such an essential part of NBA defenses and how something so simple can be used to help elite defenders.

As the end of the season approaches, some are starting to compile their “Best of” lists and one of the more interesting of those lists can be found at SI’s Point Forward by Ben Gulliver and Rob Mahoney.  Mahoney and Gulliver covered their best NBA moment, most memorable quote, favorite move/trade/pick, top storyline, and NBA Sportsman of the year.  If you’re looking for a reminder of everything great about the last year in NBA basketball, this is a pretty great place to start.

In our final piece this week, Sean Highkin of the USA Today took a behind the scenes look at the “Inside the NBA” crew in their Turner Studios in Atlanta.  The access Highkin was able to get made for an interesting read a great look at what everyone at “Inside the NBA” is actually looking to do each and every broadcast.

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

The post What We’re Reading: Stocking Stuffer 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, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.

Earlier this week, much was written about Rudy Gay and his new team in Sacramento, but no one had really heard from Gay about the trade.  Sam Amick of the USA Today changed that with his piece this week about Gay and his ability to mesh with the Kings.  Gay was adamant in the interview that the noise outside of the organization does not distract him and that he only worries about what is said within his own organization.  Amick also spoke to Gay’s new coach Mike Malone and how Malone will attempt to keep the team focused on the goals they had developed for the team before the season.

Doc Rivers is another coach looking to adhere to the goals set in the offseason and that was no different in his return to Boston.  Paul Flannery at SB Nation wrote about Rivers’ return to Boston and just how special that return was on Wednesday night.  Rivers left Boston on bad terms and some were unsure of his reception by the crowd for his return, but Celtics fans welcomed him back with pen arms.  Rivers was quite emotional for the return and Flannery did a great job capturing the scene in Boston.

On the other side of the country, Ken Berger at CBS Sports found out some interesting details about Dwight Howard’s diet.  In the first part of a three part series about nutrition in the NBA, Berger examined the significant changes Howard was forced to make in his one season in Los Angeles.  Berger found out that Howard was consuming “the equivalent of 24 Hershey bars a day in candy and soda” and Howard’s diet was having quite an effect on his motor skills.  Berger also followed up with a one-on-one interview with Howard to find out about the profound changes Howard was forced to make in his daily routine.

Sam Alipour of ESPN the Magazine also did a one-on-one interview this week.  His interview was with Warriors guard Stephen Curry.  The most interesting part of the interview was when Alipour asked about Curry’s biggest fear and Curry responded injuries.  He claimed he wasn’t worried about failure or the pressure of the big moment, but rather the fear of his body holding up as he put it on the line each and every game.  Curry also mentioned that he has attempted to model his game as a point guard after Steve Nash.

Perhaps the week’s strangest one-on-one interview came from James Herbert at SB Nation as he took some time to interview the Spurs’ Matt Bonner. Bonner is an eccentric man and the interview was no different.  The interview did feature some probing questions about his career in both Toronto and San Antonio, but also questions about how he came to star in a baby carrots advertisement, his experiences at a Rick Ross concert, and his joint birthday party with Stephen Jackson.

Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to measure the impact of a stretch four like Bonner and Jack Winter at Hardwood Paroxysm attempted to examine the value of one of Bonner’s contemporaries, Ryan Anderson.  Winter took a look at the scene in New Orleans as the return of Anderson has completely transformed the Pelicans.  Though Anderson doesn’t have the talent of teammate Anthony Davis, the impact he makes on the floor is substantially greater.  Anderson’s presence on the floor has made the Pelicans significantly better in a relatively short time.

Another player, who is short on physical skills, but can make a tremendous difference on the floor is Omer Asik and his situation just continues to linger on in Houston.  Marc Stein took a closer look at the situation and reported that the Rockets have imposed a deadline of December 19 to carry out a trade because that is the final day that they can acquire a player that can still be traded before this year’s trade deadline.  Stein also reported that the Rockets are looking to move Asik to the Eastern Conference to keep him away from their star center Howard.

Another center with an uncertain future is Pau Gasol in Los Angeles and Scott Howard-Cooper took a look at the possibilities Gasol will have in the offseason.  Many assume that Gasol will just be resigned by the Lakers and end his career with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, but that might not end up being the case.  One interesting idea Howard-Cooper mentioned was the possibility of Gasol joining the Grizzlies in the offseason to play with his brother Marc.

Kevin Nesgoda at Sonics Rising also had an interesting idea this week in his proposal of removing conferences from the NBA.  Recently, a lot has been made of commissioner-in-waiting Adam Silver’s comments about possibly removing the divisions from each conference.  Nesgoda proposes that Silver takes an even larger step and removes conferences, so that the playoffs will feature the best 16 teams in the entire league rather than eight teams from each conference.

The final piece this weekend comes from Patrick Sauer at SB Nation.  Sauer took a closer look at Kurtis Blow’s classic song “Basketball” and put together a pretty impressive oral history on the song.  Blow speaks at length about the decisions behind the lyrics in the song and the possibility of recreating “Basketball” with updated lyrics and some possible guest appearances from current NBA stars.

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

The post What We’re Reading: New Faces, New Places appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.