The Straight Hoop

Back in October, Kirk Goldsberry had an amazing piece ( Which warrants a read ) that introduced the concept of the Shotscore. By taking into account shot positions, the leagues expected output at that position and the players actual output at said positions, we may understand the great scorers in the league. By using this metric we gain an interesting perspective on the leagues best scorers. By analyzing the Shotscore with the newly installed SportsVU sports cameras we can gain a greater insight into a number of different aspects of a game. For instance, lets think about the shot selection of Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is obviously among the best players in the league and the criticisms of him has died down in recent seasons. That doesn't mean that there wont ever be some eyebrow raising when Westbrook takes more shots than Kevin Durant. And those eyebrows should be furrowing because Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant and he is, by that Shotscore metric, the second best scorer in th

Every championship team has one. The player that just makes sense. A player that bridges the gaps in every other players game. The Heat have Shane Battier, OKC has Thabo Sefolosha, and the Spurs have every role player ever. Without these role players established championship contenders would find there window for a championship significantly smaller. These players need more recognition outside their home arena. So here's to you Lance Stephenson, for your evolution into one of the most role-iest of role players. The Pacers have been absolute monsters through the early goings of this season and Lance Stephenson's role can not be understated. The Pacers starting lineup has posted Of Rtg of 114 and a Def Rtg of 80 points per 100 possessions through 5 games. Lance Stephenson has taken his game to the next level, building off of the career year he had last season. The most interesting aspect of Stephenson's evolution is just how well it jives with how the Pacers operate. Pace

Trades are an understood part of the NBA. Player swaps and moves become second nature from some. These are mostly rotation players swapping teams and contract flotsam to balance everything out. This is the normal and see it every season. However, every once in a while the trade of a superstar happens and captures the collective basketball consciousness of everyone even remotely interested. These trades can be a drawn out nightmare or quick, unexpected thrillers. Either way, there will always be questions. Which brings me to a trade that has been discussed from multiple angles and shifted the destiny of a potentially dominant team. Yes its the Harden trade everybody; the most interestingly disappointing trade in a long time.  . Now, I have already go on record to say that OKC might have not gotten fleeced by Daryl Morey and that what they got is pretty good compensation for the budding star of Harden. Completely change my mind. Never been more wrong about anything NBA relat

Competing in the NBA is such a multifaceted idea. One of the most compelling story lines in the NBA is how late season seeding will shake out. An interesting aspect of the playoffs is what they actually mean for each individual team. For most situations it would seem the expectations of the 1 seed would be vastly different than the 8 seed. But then there are the Bucks. With a win now owner the mere act of making the playoffs is a win. Unfortunately, when you are perpetually in "Win now" hoping to be playing meaningful games past April may not be the best idea. In the Bucks case though, those first round playoff exits seem to be season goals. I would go as far to say that the ceiling for every Bucks team constructed under this win now philosophy would be the East's seventh seed. I would also go as far to say that finishing with that low seed is the worst place for a team in the Bucks position. For one, the talent drop off from the 1,2,3,4,5 to the 6,7,8 seeds is about as

So much for the new CBA putting a stop to super teams right? With Rocket's signing of Dwight Howard it's looking like another mega-team has emerged in Houston. One of the most interesting aspects of this purposed "super-team" is how its offense will work. With James Harden and Jeremy Lin, two ball dominant guards, and Dwight Howard there is the makings of a serious pick and roll team, its just up to McHale to suss out the details. Lucky for him, I have been thinking a lot lately of what their offense could look like in this coming season. For starters, this team should be picking and rolling other teams to death. The interesting twist becomes who should be handling the ball in these PnRs. Here is where it gets interesting. Harden is a PnR savant and Lin is no slouch in this area either so both could capably run this offense. The problem arises when Harden is the ball handler in these situations. Lin becomes VASTLY less effective when he doesn't have the ball in

So recently, I've been thinking a lot about the NBA as a business, largely due to the news that Chris Hanson backed a group apposed to the new arena in Sacramento. My first reaction to this news was a mixture of disappointment and understanding. It's strange really, I'm not at all surprised that he would try something like holding up the arena deal; he has at least 30 Million reasons to be bitter about how this whole situation went down. But still, its a move that makes me feel almost as dirty as if we would have actually gotten the the team. The only difference is that with this bad move does not come a team. If anything it may have hurt our chances to get a team. This is basically a perfect case study of when a fan tries to consolidate the worlds of being a huge fan and the business world of sports. In a lot of ways this is like attempting to mix water and oil. The interesting thing about Chris Hanson is that he resides in that weird area where the oil and water try to

So I've been thinking about all the players I irrationally like and have decided to write about who I'm really going to buy into for the 2014 season right around the corner. Being the responsible, frugal person that I'am I will be looking for the most "bang for my buck" players. That means I will be looking at relatively under the radar players that I think will be decent to very good players. So basically I'm jumping on multiple bandwagons. Let the Wagon jumping commence! So I am all in on the Frenchman Evan Fournier. Coming straight out of Saint-Maurice, Fournier sports a skill set that I'm particularly fond of. He has the groundwork for everything you want in an off-guard, ball-handling, shooting, passing, and great size at 6'7. Playing for the arguably the deepest team in the league, Fournier was only afforded about 11 minutes per game, but man did he put those minutes to use. While he was a little turnover prone, he shot the ball extremely well

Been thinking some about if Seattle were to get a expansion team a little lately. As great as that situation would be, I'm not sure potential fans of the team realize the reality of what exactly will be happening on the court. Long story short, we will be pretty bad for a while. In the NBA, you either build through the draft or free agency. As appealing Seattle could be to free agents, I'm not convinced big name free agents will be willing to sign with the building of a franchise. That means we need high draft picks and to get those draft picks we actually need  to be bad. Nobody likes being bad, especially the kind of bad we will need to be, but when the Ls start piling up we need to be able to find the small victories. That will largely come in the form of player development. Watching a player rotate on time more often, or a decent post move will have to sustain us the first few years. I like to think of these small victories as Wins within the Losses; and if it still isn'

So Free Agency is starting to wind down and most of the high profile players have chosen a destination for their talents. Some of these moves, while not necessarily bad, have been pretty strange. Some of the teams that facilitated these interesting at best moves were hamstrung by previous decisions, have fun with Monte Mavs fans, and others were interesting splurge moves. Either way, it has been super fun to think about the coming season and the hilarity that will be the Bucks season. So I've thought about it a lot and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like the Pistons signing of Josh Smith. That isn't a slight on Smith, it's just that I don't like his fit in Detroit. With Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond pegged as the front court of the future for Detroit I have to imagine that the Pistons plan on starting Smith at the 3. A front court of Smith, Monroe, and Drummond would be monstrous defensively and on the boards. On offense however, this arrangement

This offseason has been pretty fun so far hasn't it? From the Draft to the recent free agent signing of Zaza Pachulia, everything that could happen seems to have happened. I mean, who saw Zaza signing a $15 million contract with the Bucks? If anyone raises their hand to that question they should be buying all of the lottery tickets right now. But I digress; let us first look at some of the moves from this off-season that I thoroughly enjoyed.           The 2013 draft. All of it. It was a night of crazy slides and surprise picks. I mean Anthony Bennett going first to Cleveland? How amazing is that. I may hate the pick but it is still enjoyed the announcement of that pick thoroughly. I mean, I have to think that they would be able to trade down for assets and still pick Bennett. But what do I know, Cleveland has been on fire when it comes to draft pick surprises. From Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, and Anthony Bennett, Cleveland has been able to keep people guessing. I guess

Me: So there has been some talk about Eric Bledsoe being moved for a while now. From what I can gather some teams believe that he could be their point guard of the future. Kevin: The dude is a stud defensively and has shown that his offensive game can grow. While CP3 was out last season he showed some serious promise. He is a hot commodity right now. Me: He for sure is a valuable player. I'm not sold on him as a starter though. He reminds me of Darren Collison a bit. Kevin: Darren Collison?!?!? They are two completely different players. One can be a serious factor on defense and do a little bit of everything and the other is Darren Collison. Me: I know, I know, but hear me out. Remember back in the 2009-10 season when Chris Paul went down with an injury and thrust Darren Collison into the starting lineup for 37 games? He showed some serious promise too. He averaged 18 points, 9 assists, and 3 rebounds with shooting splits of 48-42-85, per Basketball-Reference. Those are som

With the only realistic way of the NBA returning to Seattle being expansion, I have been thinking about how an organization can succeed as an expansion franchise. As we can see with the past expansion teams, success is not guaranteed. There are a number of different factors that play into the future of any franchise; solid ownership and drafting well are both essentials for sustained success. With expansion however, there are some extra potholes fledgling franchises need to avoid. Without further adieu, here is a couple of moves new franchises should make to not be the new Bobcats of the league. Solid ownership is a must for any franchise, especially the new ones. Success starts at the very top of organizations and has a way of making its way through to the lower levels, like a legit "trickle down" theory. A good ownership group provides a general vision for the organization as a whole and will make the necessary moves to put the franchise in a successful position. A good o

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Sacramento. They did what we couldn't do up here, which makes sense. While the common theme of relocation is present in this tale of two teams, the details of them are a smidge different. Either way, here we are again, exactly where we were. No team and no idea if and when another one is coming. It would be nice to hope for one, but I feel it would only end in a manner similar to this. When I had heard a couple of billionaires had planes to bring back the Sonics, I approached it with cautious optimism. I didn't want to get to invested in this whole situation, knowing it could end the way it did.  And yet here I am; crestfallen is a good way to put my feelings right now. The more I heard about prospective arena deals and team valuations, the more excited I got. The more I believed that having the Sonics back in town was a possibility. The city of Seattle has Chris Hansen to thank for that. I expect an open letter to all the f

I really like where the Blazers are going. They have a solid core in LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, and Damien Lillard. The only things keeping them from being next years Golden State Warriors is horrible defense (specifically Damien Lillard), playing in a stacked conference and a potentially stacked division, and a decent enough bench. With that being said, I thought it would be fun to dissect one of he leagues deepest teams in the Clippers and see exactly what goes into a good bench. From there, we can find how the Blazers can build there broken bench into a bench of the highest quality. Because whenever Sasha Pavlovic is getting any minutes ever something needs to be done. So lets start with at the second point guard off the bench for the Clippers, Eric Bledsoe. Eric has enjoyed a breakout season for the Clips and teams will be looking to steal the guard away to have him run there team. I'm not sold on Eric's potential as a full time starter, but he is a phenomenal

Dunking Raptor.         Basketball in Toronto is at a very interesting place at the moment. The Raptors have acquired some interesting talent to build around and are not done making moves. It seems like Toronto is ready to part ways with forward/sometime center Andrea Bargnani. I was one of the super optimistic people thinking that this season could be a career season for the 7 footer; to say I was too optimistic would be a huge understatement. Before Bargs went down with an injury he was shooting 39% from the floor and grabbing a whopping 4.3 rebounds per game. Now Bargs has never been known for his rebounding and I knew this coming into this season, but foolish me, I began drinking the Italian Kool Aid from the beginning in large part to a huge import player coming to the team this season. More on him later. But shooting 31% from three and taking around 4 per game is not a recipe for success. However, this is a down year for him and at best he could be a great stretch 4 in the ri

    I was 17 when the Sonics left Seattle, and frankly, I didn't care all that much. I know what that sounds like, an NBA blogger (Technically I am one of those right?) not caring that there home team being pilfered right from under there nose doesn't make all that much sense. Keep in mind, I was 17 and had bigger thoughts on my mind. Like who am I going to prom with and what will I do after high school. But I will say that the drafting of a skinny kid who couldn't bench 185lbs did peak my interest in the NBA. Just not enough to invest any significant time following the NBA at all. Ironically, my interest in the NBA started a little bit after the Sonics moved towns. The deeper I got into the NBA and the more successful OKC become, the hurt of losing a team I didn't fully appreciate began to settle in. I didn't understand the sadness and outrage of losing a team that had been moderately successful at the best. Now I understand more than I ever thought I would at 17.

   Two key cogs in the Pistons engine. That's how engines work right?        The more I look at this Piston team the more I'm starting to like it. They have some serious pieces in place for the future in the front court. I really like the idea of a lineup with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe at the 5 and the 4 a lot. Greg Monroe still gets his offense from the low block but with an improved elbow jump shot Monroe could develop into a great high post big. And Monroe's passing has only been getting better. He is averaging a career high 3.2 assists which is good enough for 5th best out of centers. While his turnovers are super high right now, 108 is the most for centers in the top 50 of assists, he still is only 22 and has plenty of time to cut down on those. The second half of the Pistons big lineup would be Drummond. Detroit took Drummond largely on potential and Drummond has shown flashes of the athletic monster he could be. His quickness and jumping ability has transla

Welcome to the Future indeed How good has the Thunder been as of late?  Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have the Thunder humming offensively with the best offensive rating in the league while also sporting a top ten defense. Kevin Martin has been exactly what he has been advertised as and Hasheem Thabeet hasn't been the absolute worst backup center. Surprising, I know. While Harden is emerging as a top-15 player down in Houston, the Thunder haven't missed a beat and seems ready to, at the least, compete for the Western Conference title. The scary thing is they should be even better in the coming years. "But Kevin, everyone knows the Thunder are only going to be getting. There core players are all under 26." Yes, I know this dear reader of my blog. But what I am saying is with the assets gained from the Harden trade, the Thunder's supporting cast has a chance to become something really special. Right now, the Thunder are stacked with young prospects and co