Cuban looking to fans for new uniform design
Mark Cuban is calling his approach to designing new uniforms for his Dallas Mavericks “crowd-sourcing.” Ultimately, of course, a fan getting to be involved in the NBA fashion world will be trying to come up with something “crowd-pleasing,” as well.
The Mavs owner announced Monday a “re-do” of the club’s uniforms for the 2015-16 campaign. Dallas has been innovative in this area before. (Remember the greyish “Hefty-Bag” uniforms quickly discarded in 2003? And the P-Diddy influence after that in the all-green unis?)
“The Mavs are going to re-do our uniforms for the 2015-16 season,” Cuban writes on his blog, “if we get a unique and original design. What’s the best way to come up with creative ideas? You ask for them. So we are going to crowd-source the design and colors of our uniforms.
“You know what an NBA uniform looks like. You know what the Mavs colors are for today and the past. We want some new ideas that stay true to our logo and at le
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Heat, Bulls both looking for Game 2 improvements (Yahoo! Sports)
MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Heat have been in this less-than-ideal spot before.
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What Andrew Wiggins Should Be Looking for in His Choice of School
The college basketball recruiting world is now completely focused on Andrew Wiggins as people await his college decision. However, choosing a school is not an easy one.
According to 247 Sports, the small forward is the No. 1 recruit in the country and has narrowed his choice of programs to Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Florida State. Each one offers something different to make a top player want to go there.
However, Wiggins must limit his focus on things that are important.
For a player of his caliber, college will just be a one-year stepping-stone to the NBA. We do not have to be naive enough to believe he is choosing a school based on academic programs. He should join a team where he has the best chance to improve for the future.
Looking at each school equally, these are the factors that should play the biggest role in where Wiggins eventually signs his Letter of Intent.
Coaching to Develop His Game
As good as Wiggins is coming out of high school, he is not perfect. His athleticism and scoring ability give him loads of potential, but he still has room to grow as an all-around player.
Spending one year at the college level will allow him to further develop other areas of his game. If all goes according to plan, he will be able to fill up stat sheets in every category in the NBA.
He needs a coach that has proven the ability to get the most of his players and turn them into players that will succeed at the next level. Each remaining option excels at this, though in different respects.
Leonard Hamilton has given less-heralded players a chance to play in the NBA due to great defensive coaching. Chris Singleton and Toney Douglas are good examples of this, although the coach has not dealt with too many 5-star players.
Roy Williams has seen dozens of players get drafted, although the ones that leave early have tended to struggle in the NBA. Guys like Marvin Williams and Brandan Wright have not lived up to expectations since leaving North Carolina.
Similarly, Kansas’ Bill Self has done a much better job developing players over the long term. While Ben McLemore is expected to be taken in the top five of the 2013 NBA draft, both Xavier Henry and Josh Selby have struggled.
The person that has had the most success at getting great players to succeed is John Calipari at Kentucky. Obviously, he has had more opportunities as an excellent recruiter, but the results speak for themselves.
Wiggins can follow in the path of John Wall, Derrick Rose, DeMarcus Cousins and others who have successfully moved onto the next level after spending a season with Coach Cal.
Getting Enough Touches
When you are among the top players in the country, a coach is going to find time for you. However, the amount of opportunities on the floor will depend greatly on the amount of talent around you.
Great players usually want to play with other great players, but this tends to be competitive as everyone wants to showcase their own ability. Additionally, coaches want to make sure everyone gets enough time on the court to keep emotions high.
On a team that is competing for a title, a coach will also have a shorter leash when a young player makes a mistake. This could lead to either a loss of confidence or a more conservative style of play after being afraid to mess up.
North Carolina should feature plenty of veteran leaders next season that are certain to remain the focal point of the offense. Even with playing time, Wiggins would likely play more of a secondary role.
Kentucky will utilize mostly underclassmen, although the high-profile prospects are likely to fight for shots as each plans to showcase their talent for NBA scouts.
Kansas and Florida State, however, should give Wiggins plenty of freedom to shine. The Jayhawks lose all five starters from a year ago, and the Seminoles could use anyone who can score on the offensive end.
Either of these teams will allow the player to improve on the court and learn from mistakes as he goes.
Having a Good Comfort Level
Going to college is a dramatic change for many high school kids around the country. While Wiggins has already made one big move from Canada to West Virginia to play at Huntington Prep, there is still a big change when moving on to the next level.
Having familiarity with the people around you can make the transition much easier. This will lead to more success on the basketball court as the player has much more confidence.
The incoming recruiting class at Kentucky should be close by now after spending time together at numerous all-star games over the past few months. Wiggins played in the McDonald’s All-American Game, Jordan Brand Classic, Nike Hoop Summit as well as other events.
Along the way, he likely spent time with Kentucky commits Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Julius Randle and others.
However, it is hard to compare these connections with that of Florida State. Both of Wiggins’ parents were student-athletes for the Seminoles, while current teammate Xavier Rathan-Mayes has already committed to the school.
Being with one of these programs would help make his college experience that much better.
Conclusion
Obviously, Wiggins has to make his own decision about where he wants to go. However, these are the factors that should be considered the most while he attempts to end this process.
If this is the case, Florida State and Kentucky appear to have an advantage over the competition.
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Chicago Bulls Looking to Bounce Back Against Brooklyn Nets in Game 2
The Chicago Bulls dropped Game 1 to the Brooklyn Nets 106-89 and will be seeking to right the ship when the teams face off in Game 2 on April 22.
While the Nets played extremely well in Game 1, all hope is not lost for the team from the Windy City.
Let’s take a quick look at what the Bulls can do to improve their chances of sending the series back to Chicago tied at 1-1.
Better Defense
While the Bulls struggled offensively all year, their defense often kept the games close, which enabled them to pull off 45 victories this season despite the rash of injuries.
In Game 1, their defense was almost nonexistent as the Nets outscored them 60-35 in the first half, including a 35-21 edge in the second quarter, while shooting a ridiculous 16-for-20 from the floor.
Per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, a frustrated Tom Thibodeau offered this assessment when asked where things fell apart defensively for his team:
“From A-Z. Defensive transition, middle penetration, poor paint protection, poor help, poor on the ball technique, lack of multiple-effort mentality, you name it,” he said.
Defense is the Bulls’ calling card, and unless they find a way to turn up the intensity, this series will be a short one.
Points in the paint
If you are like me, you cringed throughout most of Game 1 because of the ease in which the Nets were able to take it to the Bulls down low.
How bad was it for Chicago inside the painted area?
It was brutal, to say the least, as the Nets pounded the Bulls 56-36 while connecting on 28-of-38 of their shot attempts from close range.
That is simply unacceptable for a team that prides itself on forcing its opponents to settle for the mid-range perimeter shots.
If the Bulls are going to have any success going forward, they will have to defend the paint with a greater sense of urgency.
Slow down Deron Williams and Brook Lopez
While the Nets had six players who scored in double figures in Game 1, Williams and Lopez did the most damage.
Williams recorded 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go along with seven assists and three steals. The Bulls had a difficult time containing the former Illini star as he either blew by defenders for easy baskets or created scoring opportunities for his teammates.
With Joakim Noah seeing limited action, Brook Lopez hurt the Bulls’ front line, scoring 21 points and grabbing five rebounds.
In order to be successful in the playoffs, you have to find a way to contain the opponent’s marquee players, and the Bulls definitely fell short of that goal in Game 1.
Get Luol Deng involved
Did anyone notice that the Bulls’ All-Star forward actually played 38 minutes in the series opener?
While the entire team never established a rhythm offensively, Deng played poorly on both ends of the floor, which is something that does not happen too often.
What is even more concerning is that Deng had several good looks at the rim early in the game, but he seemed to get frustrated when the shots were not falling.
Deng scored just six points on 3-of-11 shooting, while allowing Gerald Wallace to pour in 14 points.
Per ESPN, Deng had this to say about his match up against Wallace:
He’s a good player. He had a good night tonight, but it’s one of those things. I play hard, I battle, so I’m just looking at it as I had a bad game tonight. We lost one, but we’ll bounce back next game.
I often give Deng a pass when he has a bad game because he does so much for the team every night.
Nevertheless, he has to find a way to have an impact because the Bulls will not win this series if the team’s leading scorer is rendered ineffective.
In the final analysis, the Bulls were manhandled in Game 1 without question, but the good news is that a series is never decided after just one game.
However, if the Bulls do not come out with a much greater effort in Game 2, they will find themselves down 0-2, a position that will be next to impossible for them overcome.
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Pau Gasol Looking More and More Like L.A. Lakers’ Best Postseason Playmaker
It’s a good thing that Pau Gasol rediscovered his elite facilitating form at the end of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ regular season because the team is going to need its best playmaker to shoulder an even heavier load in the playoffs.
When Kobe Bryant‘s ruptured Achilles forever rearranged L.A.’s offensive scheme, Gasol ably stepped into the role of its primary distributor. He totaled 13 assists in the Lakers’ two games following No. 24′s injury.
Gasol’s ability to step up with Bryant out was critical, but it’s also important to note that the Spaniard had already been absorbing a greater share of the playmaking duties before Bryant went down.
Since returning from a torn plantar fascia at the end of March, Gasol has played 13 games. In those contests, the power forward’s possessions have ended in assists over 25 percent of the time. For a little context, that rate puts him firmly in point guard territory, alongside guys with similar numbers like Damian Lillard, Brandon Jennings and George Hill.
Broken down another way, the Lakers posted an offensive efficiency rating of 108.1 in the five games Gasol played in March and 109.4 in the eight he played in April. Both of those figures blow away the team’s season mark of 105.6.
There’s no question that Gasol—especially when he’s passing—makes the Lakers a vastly better offensive team.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Gasol has proven to be such a capable facilitator; his offensive game has always been predicated on a mixture of passing skill and innate unselfishness. Even amidst an otherwise disappointing campaign, Hoopdata.com shows that Gasol’s season assist rate trumped that of every other elite power forward.
His talents as a passer seem inborn and his creativity leads to a unique focus on finding the best shot available—regardless of who ends up taking it. Some of his dimes could even have qualified as artistic achievements.
Contrast the organic ease of Gasol’s passing with Bryant’s more deliberate approach to facilitation and it’s obvious that Gasol is a passer by nature, while his teammate became one for stretches because he felt he had to.
And even though Bryant piled up career-best assist numbers during the Lakers’ season, Gasol’s assist ratio of 20.8 percent on the year was still markedly higher than Bryant’s 17.9.
More specifically, Gasol’s skills make him a key in the Lakers’ pick-and-roll attack. His ability to receive the pass from the ball-handler, get to a dangerous area in the lane and then survey the floor for a secondary defender makes him vital to L.A.’s most important offensive set.
When he catches the rock in the paint, he has been particularly good at drawing Dwight Howard‘s defender up toward the foul line, which has allowed Gasol to fire a quick lob to D12 at the rim.
Scoring is a second option for the unselfish Gasol in these situations, but when Plan B is a 10-foot jumper for a mid-range shooter as good as he is, that’s not a bad backup to have.
In addition to his skills in the pick-and-roll, Gasol makes an emphasis to find Howard as much as possible. Often, the results are spectacular.
His eye for his largest teammate is another critically important piece of the Lakers’ postseason offense. In order to keep Howard engaged on both ends, the big man needs to enjoy a healthy dose of offensive opportunities. Gasol understands this and frequently feeds Howard with lobs and interior passes.
With Steve Nash likely to be hobbled or out entirely, Gasol is going to be in charge of running the Lakers offense against a vulnerable San Antonio Spurs team. Because Howard can’t get his own shot and no other Laker has the ability to consistently create for himself, that’s going to be a tall order.
The Lakers have no choice but to run everything through Gasol. Fortunately, it turns out that they’ve been at their best lately when they do just that.
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Looking back at last year’s ALL-USA hoops first team
How last year’s American Family Insurance ALL-USA first team fared this season.
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Kevin Love looking forward to return
Just when Kevin Love was getting ready to try to salvage something positive from a lost seasons, one more injury cropped up to end it all.
A few days after having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, Love vowed to come back stronger than ever from a massively disappointing season for him and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
”This was supposed to be such a big year for us and myself and everybody included in this organization,” Love said on Saturday before the Wolves hosted the Suns. ”It (ticks) me off in a lot of ways.”
Coming off of a breakout season in the NBA and playing a pivotal role in Team USA’s run to the gold medal in London, Love was poised to vault into the elite in this league, and take the Timberwolves with him.
But he broke his right hand twice — once just before the season started and then again in early January — and was limited to just 18 games. And as he was preparing to return after having surgery on his hand in January, Love felt discomfort in his
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2013 NBA Free Agents: Looking Ahead to Players Destined for Max Contracts
Taking a look ahead, the 2013 NBA free-agent class is not a pretty sight.
While littered with talented players, there’s a general feeling that the “marquee” player won’t be available this offseason, particularly because both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul leave money on the table by leaving their Los Angeles franchises.
Heck, Andrew Bynum makes more money staying in Philadelphia.
With that in mind, there’s a good chance NBA general managers are going to get over-eager during the summer free-agent flurry. The new CBA has curbed some of the excessive spending, but you see it without fail every offseason—someone is getting a max contract.
Expect the zeros to start piling up when contract talks begin with the 2013 class of NBA free agents. Here’s a look at several guys that are automatic candidates to receive a max contract from a hungry NBA GM—whether they deserve it or not.
Max Contract Locks
Dwight Howard/Chris Paul
We’ll group Howard and Paul together in this list of max free agents for one reason—both would be putting a lot of uncertainty on their long-term careers by leaving Los Angeles for a new city this offseason.
Paul would surprise us all by leaving the Clippers.
The best point guard in basketball (yes, I said it) is one of the biggest reasons why the Clippers are celebrating a 50-win season in 2012-13, along with young stars Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and the rest of the role players that chip in for the Clips on a nightly basis.
The Clippers are quietly building a new future, and CP3 is at the center of that building effort. There’s little doubt the team will pony up whatever it takes to keep him in town, and if they don’t, another team will.
Same goes for Dwight Howard, going about his business with double-digit point and rebounding totals in another season. The Lakers are thirsting for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, but Howard is the future of this franchise once Kobe Bryant decides to retire (which might not be anytime soon, granted).
For Howard and Paul, who already two of the league’s highest paid players (via HoopsWorld), leaving money on the table doesn’t seem like a smart business decision. By the same token, the uncertainty of the free-agent process these days also avoids any talk of re-signing being a forgone conclusion.
One thing is clear—both are free agents, and both will drain every penny out of management for their services when the time comes.
Brandon Jennings
Jennings is near the end of his rookie contract, and the Bucks will have a chance to match any offer that any other team throws his way.
However, Jennings is the best free agent point guard on the market besides Chris Paul, and teams will have a chance to do something similar to what the Houston Rockets did with Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik’s contracts in the summer of 2012.
By offering a contract that has less money in the first two years and then has closer to $15 million or more in the final two seasons, any team looking to secure Jennings long-term could dissuade Milwaukee from matching this kind of “poison pill” contract.
While those possibilities exist, and Jennings is certainly a candidate to receive max money (somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million per season), there’s a good chance he could re-up with the Bucks and become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2014 (via Yahoo! Sports).
By doing so, the Bucks would lose all leverage in negotiations, and at the same time be in the position to make Jennings a trade candidate at the deadline next year. It’s a precarious position for both sides, but with a limited market (especially at guard), expect Jennings to get max money.
Max Contract 50-50′s
This tweet should tell you all you need to know about the Josh Smith max contract situation (via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News).
Bondy’s sentiments likely fall in line with a majority of folks, but there’s a good faction of people (including GMs, as Bondy suggests) that want to make Smith the face of their franchise moving forward. As we’ve discussed, the market is going to be thin, and if you couple that with a somewhat “weak” draft, the potential for a max deal for someone that doesn’t deserve it is high.
Upon closer look, though, Smith has played in 73 games for the Hawks this season, avoided injury yet again and is averaging 17.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in over 35 minutes per game in Atlanta.
The Hawks tried to move him at the deadline to no avail, instead opting to keep the salary cap space that will be accrued when free agency opens this summer. Smith has been quoted as saying he’s looking for a max contract (via Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and that will probably be the basis for any and all negotiations.
Despite your personal opinions on Smith’s ability to live up to a max deal, he’s likely getting it.
J.R. Smith
We all know what J.R. Smith is—he’s a volume shooter.
Unfortunately for the free-agent market, Smith is also having the best season of his eight-year career with the New York Knicks, averaging over 17 points on close to 42 percent shooting from the field.
With the shooting guard market set to include O.J. Mayo, J.J. Redick, Kevin Martin and Nick Young, there are going to be options out there. Smith also holds a player option with the Knicks—something he might not want to give away after a great season both from an individual and team perspective in the Big Apple.
However, Smith won’t get a chance like this again.
He’s 27 years old. He doesn’t have an added amount of NBA mileage (despite being a high school draft pick) due to coming off the bench for most of his NBA career. And he is in the best offensive period of said tenure in the league.
Smith probably won’t ever get the chance to cash in again, even less so if he waits until other free agents can opt out (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Danny Granger, Evan Turner, among others).
While certainly an off-the-wall name based on shooting percentage and value, Smith’s ability to be clutch down the stretch and get hot at any time could be worth up to $11 million a year for some folks.
Max Contract Dark-Horse Candidates
Utah Jazz PF Paul Millsap
Utah Jazz C Al Jefferson
Sacramento Kings G/F Tyreke Evans
Philadelphia 76ers C Andrew Bynum (injury)
Milwaukee Bucks G Monta Ellis
Dallas Mavericks G O.J. Mayo
For a complete look at the players scheduled to be free agents in the summer of 2013, check out this piece from ESPN.com.
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Heat head to Boston looking to make it 23 in a row (Yahoo! Sports)
No extra motivation needed when the hated Heat come to Boston.
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Gilbert Arenas enjoying China, not looking to return to NBA
Gilbert Arenas has gone the way of many former NBA stars and turned to China to revive his basketball career. Things must be going pretty well for him, because he made the cover of SLAM China. Arenas’ interview with SLAM didn’t reveal a whole lot, except that he has gone back to wearing number zero, and he seems to be doing well. Gil even told SLAM that he’s not looking to get back to the NBA. From SLAM’s interview: SLAM: So do you have long-term plans in China? What do you see for yourself in the future here? GA: 32 games a year. Maximum 36 minutes. That’s all I need at this point in my career. So as long as China teams want me, I’ll be here. SLAM: Do you have any plans or hopes to tryout with the NBA again? GA: Nah! [Shakes head vehemently] Because after this season I can enjoy my family. You know my kids are getting older. Being in the NBA, you don’t really get to enjoy your family life because you’re always on the road, you’re always gone. So, no. After this season will be the first tim
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