The Straight Hoop

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 peopl...

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...