Pick and Scroll
Nathan Begley | Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 9:45AM Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.
• Don Nelson is seven victories away from becoming the winningest in NBA history, and no one really cares.
• Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune covers everything—from Aldridge’s 4th quarter scoring and the battle at small forward, to analyzing Portland’s chance at home court advantage in the playoffs, and tracing their current losing streak in Oakland. It’s a great little article packed with good info.
• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting story about Warriors’ rookie Stephen Curry putting in the work to become a great shooter. In the middle of the article, Ostler mentions that to this point, Stephen Curry has not yet had his jumpshot blocked. I’d love to see Nicolas Batum change that.
• So Curry is getting some late season hype as a potential Rookie of the Year candidate, the dark horse to challenge Tyreke Evans. Well, let’s take a look at what Curry is: Imagine if last-season’s Rudy Fernandez was a point guard. Imagine he could put the ball on the floor better and shot long jumpers and three-pointers better, but couldn’t finish at the rim as well and had to create his own offense more often. That right there is Stephen Curry in a nutshell. What Curry isn’t, however, is a serious contender for ROY. The only reason to bring Curry into the discussion at all is to stir up discussion. Of course, the fast pace of the Warriors makes for some gaudy stats, but once you use a pace-adjusted metric like PER, it’s easy to see they don’t belong in the same discussion. The PER gap between Evans and Curry is roughly equal to the gap this year between Brandon Roy and Luke Ridnour. Curry is a fantastic spot-up shooter—better than Rudy, better than most of the league—but he only remains a decent rookie point guard. Tyreke Evans is a superstar in the making, joining an illustrious pantheon of Oscar Robinson, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan as the only rookies to average 20 points, five assists, and five boards. By any pace adjusted metric, Evans blows Curry out of the water. A vote for Curry would be nigh unto Chuck Swirsky’s infamous vote for Andrea “Soft” Bargnani—and against Brandon Roy—back in 2006.
• If the Blazers lose, Dwight Jaynes doesn’t want to hear any of that “excuses” crap.
• For the Oakland perspective, check TrueHoop Network sister blog Warriors World. In my heart, I will always think of the modern day Warriors as Baron Davis crushing it over AK47, “We Believe” T-shirts creating a sea of yellow in the Oracle, and shocking Dallas in the first round. It’s heartbreaking to see what has happened to a team that inspired so much passion. Hopefully, a new coach and front office will soon turn this storied franchise around.
• Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian chronicles Portland’s struggles in Oakland.
• Sheed from Bust a Bucket breaks down the matchups for tonight’s tilt.
• Over at TrueHoop Network sister blog, Harwood Paroxysm, Tom Haberstroh tackles the true value of an assist.
• I told ya’ll Nic Batum was shooting the lights out.
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