Posted by Rob Mahoney on February 7, 2012 under Commentary | 
Jason Kidd jumped on The Ben and Skin Show on 103.3 FM ESPN Radio on Tuesday to discuss injury, age, and recovery, and ended up hitting on a familiar theme with the humble hosts:
Ben Rogers: Back in the day, everyone used to say Mark Cuban was the greatest because the players get to have a Playstation in their locker. But now, isn’t it more about — look, you guys are using cutting-edge technology to get the most out of yourselves to prolong your careers, to be fresher, to recover faster, to heal faster. Between the hyperbaric chamber and liquid nitrogen cryotherapy, are you amazed by how far things have come technology-wise from when you first got in the league?
Jason Kidd: It’s night and day. We still use ice baths and also at the game we put ice on our knees and whatever other joints are hurting, but you can see the technology of cutting-edge medicine — of being able to get in these different chambers and see your body heal, and also be able to perform at a higher level as you get older. That was a perfect example of what we did last year as an older team being able to win a championship.
Kidd’s response is all well and good, but the more interesting concept here is Rogers’ framing of medical technology and innovation as a selling point for players. If trainer proficiency has been made into a factor in recruiting and retaining free agents (as was the case with Grant Hill choosing to return to the Phoenix Suns, for example), then why can’t cryotherapy — a magical tool of rejuvenation and recovery — serve a similar function? It may not factor heavily into the decisions of young players, but as the reputation and awareness of cryotherapeutic treatments increases, these kinds of medical technologies could provide a nice cherry on top of an altogether well-run organization.
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Posted by Rob Mahoney on February 3, 2012 under Commentary |
Al Harrington has played in 14 NBA seasons, and for a vast majority of that time he’s been a key component of some highly diverse offenses. He’s played in all kinds of systems maintained by all kinds of coaching administrators. He’s played under Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Rick Carlisle, Mike Woodson, Don Nelson, Mike D’Antoni, and most recently, George Karl.
Which makes it very interesting that in his conversation with Henry Abbott on today’s installment of the NBA Today podcast, Harrington chose to gush about Carlisle — who was with Harrington in Indiana first as an assistant under Bird and later as a head coach — over some of the other, very capable coaches (including his current one) on that list:
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Posted by Rob Mahoney on under Commentary |
The All-Star Game is a fine exhibition, and a spectacle worthy of the league’s ever growing popularity. It brings entertainment. It brings some inevitable disappointment. It rolls up a weekend of fun into one easily digestible and ultimately forgettable package, with only a few exemplary dunk contest highlights enduring beyond the weekend’s end.
It’s not something worth getting all that worked up over, one way or another. The fans — who vote for the game’s starters via pure popular vote — sometimes make mistakes. The coaches — who select the game’s reserves — occasionally leave out a worthy candidate or two. These things happen, and we move on. We forget that there was ever an issue until the next year’s selection process creates a similar pseudo-controversy. It’s just the way of it, and I wouldn’t count on it changing any time soon.
That said, there is an odd sense of regret in the notion that Dirk Nowitzki shouldn’t — by any criterion — be considered an All-Star this season. It’s not that his case is weak; a case for Dirk simply cannot be made. Nowitzki hasn’t been a quality shot creator this season, nor has he been able to capitalize on looks created for him by others. His struggles have reduced him to an often ineffective complementary piece, and even with a list of prior accomplishments longer than his seven-foot frame, looking past Nowitzki’s issues this season is beyond unfair to the glut of qualified forward candidates in the West.
If Nowitzki is indeed excluded — as he should be at this point — his absence will generate more than a few headlines. Flames will be stoked, and discussions will be had. Just don’t forget that these things happen, and we move on. The cycle never changes, even if the names always do, and whether Dirk ends up an All-Star or not is only an inconsequential bit of trivia for his Wikipedia page.
Posted by Connor Huchton on January 31, 2012 under Commentary |
Connor Huchton is a contributor to Hardwood Paroxysm, an editor of Rufus On Fire, and a part of The Two Man Game family. You can follow Connor on Twitter: @ConnorHuchton.
As the season began, Rodrigue Beaubois found himself on the fringe of the Mavericks’ rotation. He managed to earn spot minutes for a Dallas team with considerable guard depth, but played too sporadically to earn a consistent role. But rather suddenly, Beaubois was given occasion to return to a level of importance he hadn’t seen since his rookie season; when Vince Carter injured his foot in mid-January, followed soon by an injury to Jason Kidd, a opportunity arose for Beaubois to distinguish himself once again as being worthy of a greater billing.
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Posted by Connor Huchton on January 27, 2012 under Commentary |
Connor Huchton is a contributor to Hardwood Paroxysm and Rufus On Fire, and a part of The Two Man Game family. You can follow Connor on Twitter at@ConnorHuchton.
Jason Kidd exemplifies longevity. His athleticism and strength have slowly dissipated, but even at age 38, his value remains. His game has matured superbly, and at this stage in his career, Kidd is the picture of adjustment.
He may no longer look to attack the basket (his at-the-rim field goal attempts slowly dwindled to last season’s measly 0.6 attempts per game), but Kidd has managed to find strength in weakness; his reduced foot speed has led to greater focus on competent three-point shooting and facilitation from the perimeer. In both of these facets, Kidd excels, and he contributes through made threes, crisp passing, exemplary rebounding, and timely defense.
But so far this season, Kidd has struggled to continue his helpful – if declining – play. His utter inability to make three-pointers (25.8% 3PT) has rendered his already minimal scoring almost completely nonexistent. 66 of Kidd’s 78 field goal attempts have been three-pointers, meaning that his failure to capitalize on these shots has led directly to his general scoring ineffectiveness.
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Posted by Ian Levy on January 24, 2012 under Commentary |
Ian Levy is the author of Hickory High, a contributor to Indy Cornrows, HoopSpeakU, and a part of The Two Man Game family. You can follow Ian on Twitter at @HickoryHigh.
Every NBA offense begins with the same purpose - put the ball in the basket, preferably repeatedly and in a manner that’s not too straining. The pieces and approaches that are chosen to strive for that goal take an infinite number of forms. Through 18 games, the Mavericks’ offensive form has shape-shifted through a variety of ghastly and ghoulish looks.
This season, the Mavericks have scored 100.3 points per 100 possessions — the league’s 22nd most efficient offense. That’s a drop of 9.4 points per 100 possessions from last season, when they scored 109.7 points per 100 and registered the eighth most efficient offense in the league. The offense has regressed, significantly, in almost every area:
| 2011-2012 | 2010-2011 |
| eFG% | 47.3% | 52.5% |
| TO% | 14.4% | 13.6% |
| ORB% | 23.6% | 24.1% |
| FT/FGA | 0.224 | 0.222 |
Taking a look at the four factors, we see a team that’s getting to the line at roughly the same rate (still way below the league average), while shooting less accurately, turning the ball over more often and recovering fewer of their own missed shots. The fact that they’ve been able to start the season by winning 11 of 18 games is a testament to how much defensive compensation they’ve done.
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Posted by Rob Mahoney on January 23, 2012 under Commentary |
Monday night will mark Dirk Nowitzki’s second missed contest as the team withholds him from game action, though in the backwards spirit of the lockout season, Nowitzki’s injury-related absence isn’t exactly what it seems. From Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas:
Carlisle said Nowitzki needs “an uninterrupted eight days of work to resolve some physical issues and conditioning issues.” He emphasized that the break is designed to help Nowitzki, who is expected to return Jan. 29 against San Antonio, get into better game shape.
The Mavs coach said Nowitzki would prefer to keep playing but coaches and training staff decided it would be better for the team if he is restricted from game activity for the next week. Carlisle stressed that “this is not a rest situation” but “quite the opposite.”
Every rehabilitation effort requires an intense workload, but seeing a star player miss games to work out some minor injuries and improve their conditioning isn’t exactly a common occurrence in the NBA. That said, the Mavs deserve a lot of credit for playing the long game, and for not overreacting to their underwhelming record with a desperate grab for wins. This team is nothing without Nowitzki, and as much as the team’s offensive struggles can be pinned to the poor performance of Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Lamar Odom, or the rust of the team in general, all of those problems function as a half-truthed red herring. Clearly those other individual factors have played a role in Dallas’ offensive failures, but no single element has made a more profound impact than the lapse in offensive relevance for Dirk Nowitzki.
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Posted by Rob Mahoney on January 19, 2012 under Commentary |
Courtesy of Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas, Mavs fans can now focus their frustrations on the ailing joint of Dallas’ favorite son:
Once again, the offense couldn’t get it going. Making matters worse is that legendary safety valve Dirk Nowitzki isn’t coming through when others can’t connect. The 7-footer was 6-of-18 for 17 points.
And for the first time, Nowitzki acknowledged that the right knee he’s been covering with a protective sleeve has been causing him problems virtually since the start of the season.
“It’s OK, better than it was three weeks ago, so that’s very good,” Nowitzki said. “But it’s still just stiff and I can’t move the way I want to, but it will be OK. I’m going to keep on working, get a stronger base, get my legs strong where they were in June and hopefully I’ll be back to my normal self.”
The Mavs have endured some shoddy shooting performances from Nowitzki to start the season, and at long last we have some bit of explanatory evidence beyond “he’s still not in shape,” and “he’s just missing shots.”
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Posted by Connor Huchton on January 17, 2012 under Commentary |
Connor Huchton is a contributor to Hardwood Paroxysm and Rufus On Fire, and beginning today, he’ll be a semi-regular contributor here at The Two Man Game. You can follow Connor on Twitter at @ConnorHuchton.
A daunting problem faced the Dallas Mavericks on the eve of a new season, only months removed from a championship: how would a franchise now at the pinnacle of its existence replace a player that was the key to the team’s surprising 2010-2011 run? The organization had decided to let Tyson Chandler brave the overreaching free agent waters elsewhere, largely for long-term cap reasons, and now lacked assurance at the center position. How could the Mavericks hope to reach any semblance of their recent success without the keystone of a championship defense?
Possible answers presented themselves in various, (albeit less impressive) ways. The Mavericks signed Brandan Wright (a power forward capable of playing center) and Sean Williams to one-year deals as a play for both depth and potential, but made little progress in their other attempts to find a player outside the organization who could serve as a solution to their Chandler-less woes. This left a substantial burden of minutes on foul-prone Brendan Haywood and oft-unused young center Ian Mahinmi.
Prior to this season, Mahinmi struggled to find a place in a rotation — both in Dallas and elsewhere. Though his minutes per game have risen with every season (3.8, 6.3, and 8.7, respectively), he’s never been able to garner consistent minutes. The issue hasn’t been Mahinmi’s inability to produce – he was actually quite impressive on a per-minute basis in two seasons with the Spurs – but instead an inability to conquer depth as he developed in his first years in the league. After finally carving out a consistent role for himself last season (in his third year in the league) as the Mavericks’ third-string center, an opportunity for a bigger role and ample playing time presented itself to Mahinmi.
In the relatively short period since, Mahinmi has established himself as both a viable and impressive center option for a Mavericks team in desperate need of such a player. Despite a substantial jump in minutes per game, from 8.7 to 19.6, Mahinmi’s efficiency has risen significantly. These improvements aren’t generated from solely one positive change in Mahinmi’s game. Rather, a series of substantial enhancements have raised his PER from last season’s relatively average 13.7 to this season’s impressive 16.5.
The upgrades in Mahinmi’s play begin on the offensive end. The greatest change for Mahinmi has come at the rim, where his shots are most often generated. Mahinmi is making 78.4 percent of his attempts at the rim, up from 67.2 percent last season. Instead of resorting to simply flinging attempts skywards when under duress, Mahinmi appears more relaxed and controlled, and has been able to contort and finish with ease in difficult situations as a result. He’s also made strides a bit further away from the basket, as Mahinmi’s occasional mid-range jumpers have paid dividends against defenses that hardly expect him to be capable of making such a shot. Confidence isn’t unstoppable on its own, but it’s a valuable addition to an improved form and a year of basketball learning.
Though Mahinmi’s defensive improvements are both harder to recognize and less extensive than his offensive contributions, these slight changes can provide key value over the course of a long season. Mahinmi’s total rebounding rate and steal rate have increased by slight margins (along with a decreased foul rate), while his other attributes have remained relatively steady in increased minutes.The Mavericks’ defensive system relies on a strong interior defensive presence. Mahinmi’s increased offensive abilities have enabled him to stay on the court for longer periods of time, allowing him to provide this defensive presence, a quality essential to the Mavericks’ markedly improved scoring defense in recent games.
The Mavericks find themselves somewhat dependent on Mahinmi, and he has thus far risen to the team’s need. Though small sample size is an oft cry in early season evaluations, the consistency and wide-ranging nature of the beneficial changes in Mahinmi’s game leads one to believe that a full regression to the mean is certainly not imminent. Mahinmi is still a relatively young player, so these developments can hardly be considered unexpected. A “leap” from Mahinmi seemed important to continued Mavericks’ contention before the season began, and that leap has appeared prevalently in the season’s first 12 games. If Mahinmi’s current play proves itself sustainable, as most known measures validate, the Mavericks could find the team’s center play acceptable and the future, both long-term and short-term, brighter than expected.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on January 13, 2012 under Commentary |
Lamar Odom’s integration in Dallas has been a slow, frustrating process for most parties involved. That much can be gleaned from Rick Carlisle’s disappointment in press conferences and Odom’s body language alone, before we even begin to dig into the specifics of his poor on-court performance. But even with that in mind, I don’t think many people expected Odom’s current perspective to be quite as dour as it came across in a pull-back-the-curtain piece by Chris Mannix of SI.com:
Ironically, it was a positive comment from Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle — “I thought Lamar played with a lot of energy,” he said — that brought a reporter to his locker. When told of Carlisle’s comment, Odom shrugged, his head dropping beneath his shoulders.
“I’m trying to,” Odom said, his voice trailing off.
Has it been tough?
“When you have relationships with people and there are hard times, you know how to deal with one another,” Odom said. “When you don’t, it’s obvious.”
…
The Mavericks desperately need an effective Odom if they hope to make a run at another title. At his best, Odom is among the game’s most versatile players, a two- or three-position big man who can score inside and out. He’s the reigning NBA Sixth Man award winner who, at 32, is still in his prime. His teammates genuinely like him, even if they don’t all necessarily know him.
Can Odom find a way to succeed in the Mavericks’ system?
“It’s hard for me to say,” Odom said. “I thought my game was equipped to play anywhere and everywhere. I’m not prepared, I guess, to play. I don’t know if there is anything more to say.”
By now, most players know the drill: hide the ego, stick to the safety of cliché, and avoid honesty at all costs.
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