Friday Bolts – 6.5.15
Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com: “To the extent the league has problems, issues that prevent owners from paying NBA players what they’re worth on the open market — and we’ll hear plenty about them in due time — why is it up to NBA players to solve those problems? If we all know some teams aren’t well run, why does it fall to players, for instance in the last lockout, to give up salary to give all teams a chance at turning a profit? When is it the owners’ duty to figure out a way to make it work?”
Anthony Slater with some Thunder thoughts on the Finals: “Who else would get a turn on LeBron? Probably Andre Roberson and Kyle Singler (should he re-sign) and maybe a little Dion Waiters. If Perry Jones returns, maybe he’d be a brief change of page. None of that looks ideal. It never is when gameplanning for LeBron. But the Thunder would seem to have far more issues in containing LeBron than this Warriors team, whose Green-Barnes-Iguodala wing combo is about as good as you can find against a player like LeBron. This, of course, is a worry the Thunder can only dream of facing. It means OKC would be back in the NBA Finals next season, an extremely tough task but not a far-fetched scenario. And if the Thunder were to make it, it’s hard to envision LeBron’s Cavaliers not awaiting them.”
Dee Gordon played youth basketball against KD. Cool?
Berry Tramel: “But here’s another reason the Warriors have an advantage. More good players. Cleveland took some major steps in shoring up its roster by adding Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith at mid-season; getting two Knickerbockers (and an ex-Knick) is always dicey, but the Cavs had to do it. And still, the Warriors’ roster is deeper and more efficient. Golden State comes at you in waves. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are possibly the greatest-shooting backcourt in NBA history. But Barnes is a 40-percent 3-point shooter, too. Leandro Barbosa is a 38-percent 3-point shooter. Igoudala and Green are scorers in a variety of ways. Shaun Livingston is a change-of-pace backup point guard. Andrew Bogut is an enforcer in the middle. David Lee is a two-time all-star who rarely gets to play. It’s a deep and talented team. There’s a reason Golden State won 67 games.”
This NBA on NBC mashup is great.
Arn Tellem is joining the Pistons. That’s pretty big news.
Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com: “The Warriors are lucky to escape Game 1, but they’re also quite good, both in terms of talent and strategy. They backed LeBron James off, refusing to allow him acceleration toward the hole. Then, they invited LeBron to beat them all by himself. He’s skilled enough that he came so close to achieving just that. But in the end, the defense and its game plan prevailed. A king cannot rule well if his subjects starve.”
Adam Silver on Hack-a-Shaq: “The data shows that we’re largely talking about two teams, throughout the playoffs,” Silver said. “In fact, 90 percent of the occurrences of Hack-a-Shaq involve the Rockets and the Clippers, and for the most part, it’s two players. Seventy-five percent involve two players, DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard. So then the question becomes, should we be making that rule change largely for two teams and two players?”
