The Outside World is a weekly recap of the best basketball writing and analysis the internet has to offer.
– You like dunks? Me too. How about the Top Ten from this season courtesy of the Oklahoma City Thunder?
– The guys at Hoopism continue to come up with amazing and unique graphic representations of statistical data. This one shows where each team is most vulnerable on the defensive end.
– Memphis was roundly crushed in the media for the max extension they gave Rudy Gay this summer. He’s having a career year, and Matt Moore is ready to call Gay an emerging star.
– Brandon Roy’s knee: pushing the boundaries of modern medicine.
– Jan Vesely was projected as a Top Ten pick in last year’s NBA Draft, but opted to stay in Belgrade for another season. Here’s a little reminder that he’s doing little to decrease his draft stock.
– The field for the dunk contest was announced yesterday: Blake Griffin, Javale McGee, Serge Ibaka and Brandon Jennings. Other than Griffin it seems like a strange group to me, but what do I know. I was unable to generate much traction among my 19 Twitter followers for my idea of a single elimination tournament featuring two man squads representing each team. The logistics would be a nightmare but it would generate a ton of interest plus give each fanbase something to root for. Also, imagine the matchups! Griffin and Eric Gordon vs. LeBron and Wade. Sonny Weems and DeMar DeRozan vs. Josh McRoberts and Paul George. JaVale McGee and John Wall vs. Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. Any other ideas?
– Thursday night Kevin Martin scored 45 points on 18 shots for the Rockets. You read that right, 45 points on 18 shots. As a player he’s got shortcomings, as a scorer you’d be hard pressed to find one more efficient. Zach Lowe wonders if all that scoring efficiency is enough to earn an All-Star spot in the crowded Western Conference.
– There are a lot of opinions about who’s the point guard in the Eastern Conference. Lately, Jrue Holiday has been inserting himself into that discussion.
You can also find Ian at Hickory-High.com and Indycornrows.com
Jrue Holiday is making some noise? Two quotes from that article stand out:
“…in his last seven games Holiday has averaged 20.2 points on 56 percent shooting, and 7.4 assists.”
“Sixers’ coach Doug Collins told Holiday to stop doing what he thought the coach wanted and to look for his own shot…”
That has to be a good sign. Never knew what to think of Holiday, but if he as a young guy is trying to please the coach, it shows he values a system and respects the figurehead. Now it seems like he knows the system well enough to see where he can individually impact his team. Awesome. Haven’t watched him play yet in NBA and now I’ll be looking for the Sixers.
I will really tick someone off saying this, but I wonder what impact Coach K and his staff had on Rudy Gay this summer. I did mention in comments on a post about the Worlds this summer that it was nice to see a star like Gay accept a secondary role. He played the 4 a lot and took on the role of interior passer and rebounder and boy did they look good with him in the game. And did they ever need him to do that because they were undersized.
Did the Trail Blazers cut a deal with the devil that I missed somewhere along the line? First Greg Oden and now Brandon Roy?Dr. Jack Ramsey and the ’77 Blazers live on.
I think Holiday has been great all year, even when he wasn’t producing statistically. He plays hard, is surprisingly athletic, and doesn’t show a lot of those bad habits in terms of forcing shots and drives like a lot of young point guards do.
I think Coach K did have a big impact on Gay. Calhoun at UCONN strikes me as the type of Coach who teaches basketball. Coach K is such a motivator. He teaches but also gives players the drive to put in the work when they aren’t standing right in front of him in practice. I just wish he had the same effect on Danny Granger.
ILevy – So I guess the ‘Melo trade is taking form:
https://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/nba/01/09/carmelo.anthony.deal/index.html?eref=sihp
How is this really going to work out better for ‘Melo or does he just want out of Denver that bad? It doesn’t look like a quality team to me unless the Nets plan to squeeze every last drop out of Billups and Rip Hamilton. . The Nets are giving up Favors, who everyone was so high on during the draft, I know Avery Johnson is not thrilled with him right now, but give the kid time. He was a true freshman just last year! At least they will be getting rid of Troy Murphy’s $11 millioncontract. You read that: Troy Murphy makes $11 million.
Being a Pacers’ fan I’m well aware of how much Murphy makes, as we were paying it the past two and a half years.
I don’t think the Melo deal is good for New Jersey at all. To be honest I don’t think any Melo deal is good for New Jersey, he’s not worth what they are going to have to give up to get him. They’ll get a short term boost as Hamilton and Billups are re-invigorated for a month or so. I still don’t think they make they playoffs in the East this season, which is saying a lot. Over the next few years they look like a 0.500 team to me.
I guess you could see one advantage would be they’ll sell a lot more tickets.
Ian – great gravatar.
Ian – Would love to hear your opinion on some of these guys in a discussion we had this summer:
https://pickinsplinters.com/2010/08/14/expanding-nbas-50-greatest-players-to-65-conclusion/
Rey – It looks like a lengthy discussion. I’ll check it out sometime this week and maybe include some thoughts in the Friday post.