Two links from GMIB, in my mind related to the Shoals GQ piece linked above.

First on the Spurs machine and the remarkably unselfish play of Tony Parker in game 3.

LINK

quote:
San Antonio’s ball movement creates sure scoring balance, and in Game 3 eight different Spurs players wound up contributing five points or more (and 11 scored total). The rotating cast of seemingly interchangeable parts draws deserved praise for both Gregg Popovich and his “system” above all else. Within the system catch-all is a specificity of meaning without singling out any particular player; even casual fans of the NBA have some grip on the particulars of Spurs basketball, and it’s through that understanding that this all-time team is generally appreciated

quote:
Parker, meanwhile, finished with a mere 15 points and four assists while shooting the lowest percentage of any Spurs starter.

Even still Parker is the kind of player who can help shape a game without filling the box score. It may have been Leonard and Green who punctuated the Spurs’ runs, but it’s by Parker’s steady hand that those surges in scoring were maintained in the first place. Parker was perfectly balanced in his initiation of the offense in Game 3, which is in itself an achievement against a Miami team that applies a lot of schematic pressure

And a link on James, the Great Man Theory of history, and how we reconcile that as hoops fans.

LINK

quote:
One of the deepest contradictions about loving NBA basketball, at least in the post-Jordan years, has been negotiating our uneasy relationship with great man theory in 2014, nearly two centuries after the thought was first articulated, and subsequently, bemoaned. At this point, fans are conditioned to be distrustful of individualistic basketball and are programmed to react quite poorly to it. Long gone are the days of Allen Iverson chewing up 22 seconds of the shot-clock, or Kobe Bryant’s surgical breakdown of a hapless defender marooned on a hardwood island. “Hero-ball” has long been decried as a vestige of a less-civilized age, and “iso plays” are coded as “incompetent coaching” at this point in the game.

quote:
Yet, at the same time, very few fans, casual or caustic, can name the greatest teams of all time, besides the standard-issue 1995–96, 72-win Chicago Bulls, and even from there, most could not name team members far beyond the “great men” that make that team marketable

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 7/29/14 at 9:05 am to corndeaux

Time to fire this one up again.

Great great read on Kyle Korver from Lowe today.

LINK

The video clips of plays for him are outstanding. Anderson is a guy who knows how to find space and has some of the gravitational pull Korver does. You can do some of the funky things he shows w/ guards in the post with Evans and Holiday.

Also a read on why Monroe is still unsigned.

quote:
Monroe’s definitively not a stretch four, but he’s not really a pick-and-roll big, either. In fact, it’s become increasingly difficult to tell what, exactly, the former Georgetown standout really is, in the purest positional sense.

And that’s precisely the problem. At least when it comes to his value.

quote:
any team willing to offer near-max money would either have to a) be committed enough to a specific team-building philosophy that 15-and-10 over the next four years would make the strategic nut, or b) so solidly in the salary black that 20-and-12 was worth the roll.

LINK

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