Wednesday Bolts – 9.17.14
Jim Pagels of Five Thirty Eight on international play improving players: “Of course, there are a few limitations to this analysis. First, Team USA members aren’t randomly selected, and it may be that the coaching staff now picks players they deem to be on the rise. It’s also worth noting that the Simple Projection System is a metric designed for use on the average NBA player, so it may need tweaking when applied to the stars of Team USA. Also, the system is probably too conservative about adjusting for a player’s age. Still, it appears instruction from Coach K and training and playing with peers atop the basketball universe may have positive, long-lasting effects. That may be reason for NBA teams to think twice before holding players out from international competitions.”
Kevin Pelton of ESPN Insider on future rankings: “Four of the five teams between 10th and 14th in the projections come from the Eastern Conference. It’s from this group (Charlotte, Indiana, Toronto and Washington) that the third-best team in the conference over the next three seasons will come, and they’re close enough that decisions over that span and old-fashioned luck may determine which one. Of them, the Wizards have the best chance of making a big leap if they can create max cap space in the summer of 2016 and land Kevin Durant as a free agent.”
Daniel Leroux of Mid Level Exceptional on the tax: “The league missed out on a potential dynasty in Oklahoma City because ownership was unwilling to make frequent stints in the luxury tax part of their future. In fact, as it turned out they largely could have avoided it since the salary cap has gone up quickly enough to mostly outpace their salary increases. I ended up turning largely away from that because the new TV deal should dramatically change the economics of teams as a gigantic revenue increase that players only get half of. That means if teams largely keep their operating costs stable they will be making a ton more money. I fully expect fans to respond vigorously if teams like Chicago and OKC continue their penny-pinching ways when the bottom line looks that much better.”
LeBron says Kyrie Irving can be the league’s best point guard.
Jason Concepcion of Grantland with redacted scouting reports: “James is a great guy to hang out with and a great teammate. Always complimented my Buffalo Jeans. We’d be out until four, five o’clock sometimes, games days, whatever. I’ve seen him drop 30 on teams the night after waking up at five in the afternoon. As for his defense, he told me that sometimes he just gets to thinking about things, like Game of Thrones theories or what we’re going to do later after the game, and he zones out. Like, there’s a video floating around that’s like a compilation of James staring out into the distance or whatever as the other team just runs by him for layups and what not. Me and Dwight used to joke that it looked like when the batteries in your controller die. I did talk to James about it a few times. I was like, “James what’s up with your defense?” and he didn’t say anything, just stared out the window. So I asked him again and he was like, “What?” So I go, “What’s up with your defense? Sometimes it looks like when the batteries in your controller died.” Then Jeremy Lin sat on a one of Dwight’s whoopie cushions and that distracted him so I never got an answer.”
