simplybasketball:

Brendan Haywood with his new NBA Championship Belt.

Sheed’s tradition must be revived.

(via sbnation)

1:20 pm - 14 Jun 2011 - 344 notes
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Filed under: #basketball #Brendan Haywood #Dallas Mavericks

A list of players in the 2011 NBA Finals ordered by overall true talent. That is to say, this is not a list of who played best in these seven games, but rather an ordering of these players in the general NBA firmament. The exact order isn’t quite as important as the overall talent distribution.

1. LeBron James
2. Dwyane Wade
3. Dirk Nowitzki
4. Chris Bosh
5. Tyson Chandler
6. Jason Terry
7. Jason Kidd
8. Udonis Haslem
9. Shawn Marion
10. J.J. Barea
11. Mike Miller?
12. Joel Anthony?

Perhaps I’m overrating Tyson Chandler’s contributions, but the point is that the Heat had three of the four best players in the series, and then after that — at best — you’d have to go down to No. 8 to find their next-best player, an it could easily be argued that the Heat’s fourth-best was the series’ tenth-best player.

9:14 am - 13 Jun 2011 - 2 notes
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Filed under: #basketball #Miami Heat #Dallas Mavericks #Dirk Nowitzki #LeBron James #Dwyane Wade #Chris Bosh

Pre-baseball Jordan thrived with that same bull’s-eye, logged those same minutes, and never wore down. He also made us feel like he would commit multiple murders — not one murder, multiple murders — just to win an important game. On Miami’s team, only Wade makes you feel like that. It’s true.

This is just silly, and we shouldn’t have to keep doing this. Sometimes, a player will have a bad game and his team will lose when they have a chance to put their foot on their opponent’s throat, even when they have the best player in the series. Of course, Jordan would never shoot 9-25 from the field while earning only four free throws in a Game 6, would he? He’d never shoot 7-22 and “allow” his team to get blown out at home in Game 2 of a series, would he? Jordan would never find himself limited and effectively contained by his opponent’s point guard after the opposing coach finally got around to putting his best defender on him, culminating in a 5-19 shooting night in a game the Bulls would win because of their own stifling defense, would he?

It’s infuriating to read crazy basketball thoughts coming from someone who’s spent so much time watching and thinking about the pro game. I mean, if Dallas puts Marion on Wade, that’s not just stupid but professionally suicidal. What the hell?

1:30 pm - 9 Jun 2011
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Filed under: #basketball #LeBron James #Bill Simmons #Miami Heat #Michael Jordan #Dallas Mavericks

Every single player in this year’s NBA Finals is getting a raw deal, and it’s Michael Jordan’s fault.

From 1991 through 1998, Jordan’s teams lost one playoff series, and that was in 1995 to Shaquille O’Neal, Anfernee Hardaway, and the Orlando Magic, after Jordan returned from his baseball sojourn and had played in only 17 regular season games. In other words, it took a stacked team six games to beat a rusty Jordan and the Bulls. It is essential to Jordan’s legend that the only playoff series he lost* was to Shaq and Penny without the benefit of playing into form.

Continue reading this post...

4:59 pm - 8 Jun 2011 - 2 notes
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Filed under: #basketball #Michael Jordan #LeBron James #Dirk Nowitzki #Dallas Mavericks #Hakeem Olajuwon #Tim Duncan #Miami Heat

Though Chandler presents a limited offensive arsenal, he’s also factored positively into Dallas’ offense with his shudder-inducing screens, rebounding, and presence as a lob threat. Wade spectacularly rejected a less than full throttle dunk attempt from Chandler, but generally speaking he’s been far more difficult to stop around the rim without fouling than Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer were in the Heat’s previous series. Chandler is shooting 57%, but his greater contribution may be in all the fouls he’s drawing without picking up any himself.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a player be so effective on the boards, so physical, without fouling. It vaguely reminds, dare I say, of Rodman. After Chandler survived Game 3 with only two fouls—and none in the first half—while drawing a half dozen looseball fouls, I kept an eye on his play in Game 4. I saw Chandler battling, and perhaps exaggerating contact, but very rarely doing anything I would construe as illegal. He has found that line at the edge of legal contact, and is consistently going all the way there.

Perhaps it’s too much to ask MSM folks to make these observations on deadline, as it kind of requires a different kind of viewing skill set.

2:17 pm - 8 Jun 2011
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Filed under: #Tyson Chandler #basketball #Dallas Mavericks #Miami Heat

Sharp gets it.

On defense, Chandler did what he’s done all series. He set the tone in the lane, roamed under the hoop as part of Dallas’ zone defense, and most important, he was able to be a convincing obstacle in front of LeBron James coming off pick-and-rolls. It’s not just a fluke that LeBron had the worst game of his playoffs against Chandler. To date, Tyson Chandler’s the best big man the Heat have faced. And he just keeps coming through.

League average ORtg was 107.3 — that is to say, teams scored about 107 points per 100 possessions this season* — which means that they were successful on about half their possessions, as a league. That implies that basketball is a 50-50 game, that a team’s total defense can have about as much impact on the game as its total offense. Chandler, the individual, won’t get lauded or criticized the way Jason Terry will for scoring 17 points or 12 points, even though Chandler’s defense is easily as important to the Mavs’ success, and his production over the course of the season probably outpaced Terry’s.

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*This number differs on different sites, but the point remains the same.

2:12 pm - 8 Jun 2011 - 1 note
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Filed under: #basketball #Jason Terry #Tyson Chandler #Dallas Mavericks #Miami Heat

Only two of my regular media stops mentioned Tyson Chandler’s contributions to the Mavericks’ win last night: PBT and NPR. Props to PBT, especially, for being the only ones I’ve seen mention that Chandler was probably Dallas’s most productive player.

Apparently, with LeBron, Dirk, and Dwyane involved, there’s no space to praise 13 points, 16 rebounds, and hellacious defense in 43(!) minutes.

9:30 am - 8 Jun 2011 - 2 notes
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Filed under: #Dallas Mavericks #Miami Heat #Tyson Chandler

Dirk Nowitzki. Don Nelson. Steve Nash.

Middle school center-part! Nellie in a tie! Frosted tips!

Via SportsIllustrated.com

10:17 am - 31 May 2011 - 265 notes
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Filed under: #basketball #Dirk Nowitzki #Steve Nash #Don Nelson #Dallas Mavericks