Links To The Present: December 8th, 2009
2009-12-08
-To begin with: Brian Windhorst with an early-season roundup of what the Cavs have been doing this season. I disagree with him on the offensive impact Shaq has had, especially when the numbers seem to indicate he’s really been disrupting the flow on that end, but he’s spot-on about everything else, including Shaq’s better-than-advertised (and, for me, expected) defensive impact.
-Finnian, along with just about everybody else, is not a fan of the dancing. Awesome, another mini-controversy. Look, I hate watching the dancing as much as everybody else, and think it absolutely sends the wrong message, but I’m not the one playing. He’s a grown man, and it’s his right to make himself look how he wants to. This is also not a new thing for LeBron. My last thought on this: can anybody else imagine a controversy that revolved around LeBron actively and consciously making himself less palatable in the eyes of mainstream America?
-Stuff like this Rockets broadcaster yelling at referees is the kind of thing that makes people so eager to believe a guy like Donaghy. What makes it worse is that this incident doesn’t seem all that ridiculous coming from a local color guy. As someone who’s had league pass for a little while, I can tell you that complaining about calls is a pretty common broadcaster pastime, and it takes away from how their viewers end up seeing the game.
-On a related note, I rarely link to the mothership, but TrueHoop’s posts completely debunking many of Donaghy’s claims are a must-read.
-Great stuff from Eddy Rivera of Third Quarter Collapse using some very slick Synergy Sports analysis.
-Finally, check out BlazersEdge for some wonderful coverage of a terrible situation. Be thankful for the team you have, folks. See you tomorrow.
That Truehoop blog was stupid and ridiculous.. they made stupid points based on isolated statements..dont defend the NBA just cause you work for ESPN now john.. your one of the best bloggers out there and both me and you know the way the game is officiated is fishy
100% agree about the the local color guys/analysts. Just got League Pass for the first time and caught Sunday’s game with the Bucks announcers and I wanted to poke my ears out. One-sided analysis that was way too emotional. Plenty of rhetoric about Lebron’s supposed long history of showing up other players and being unsportsmanlike. Then they actually gave some ridiculous examples of guys who “don’t need to do that” and included Kobe and Wade, two people who preen every bit as much if not more. That, after the classy gesture of playing “New York, New York” in the pregame.… Read more »
Completely agree about local commentators. Before I got League Pass, I always thought people were overreacting when they complained about homerism. Now, ugh… It’s very, very, very frustrating.
I agree with Brian and disagree with you.
On court/Off court stats are not the best indicator – results do not take into account:
(1) Who is on/off the court with you.
(2) Who is on/off the court for the opposing team when you are on/off the court.
You have not yet countered Brian’s points about how assists are up, how Hickson is living off the attention drawn by both James and O’Neal and so on.
You are a good analyst, and a simple link to 82games.com maketh an analysis not…