It’s been a very erratic start to the season, and mildly intriguing stories are popping up everywhere.
The Sixers and Pacers are off to flying starts. I wonder which one will last. The Heat and Wizards, conversely, have struggled. I wonder which is more likely to turn it around. The Bulls have could probably be getting more out of Derrick Rose.
Michael Carter-Williams and Anthony Davis have been really, really good so far in the young season. Max Ogden writes about it. It’s a young season, but there’s plenty to read about already. Here’s the latest NBA news.
The Heat are 1-2, and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com says it’s partly because of chemistry issues: “Having lost two of their first three games entering Sunday’s matchup with the Washington Wizards, Heat stars Dwyane Wade and LeBron James admitted that some minor chemistry issues have contributed to the shaky start. “Let me give you an example,” Wade said prior to Sunday’s game, which the Heat won 103-93 to even their record at 2-2. “If you’re in a relationship with a woman for a long time, you start getting comfortable. You stop doing the little things that you should do, that you did in the beginning. It’s just like a relationship. We got a little comfortable. Now we have to get back on that edge a little bit.” Neither Wade nor James referred to one another directly, with both suggesting the entire team needed time to get reacquainted coming off last season’s championship run.”
Derrick Rose is also off to a slow start, and it’s starting to become noticeable. Sam Smith of Bulls.com has more: ““I don’t think he’s playing poorly,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said about Derrick Rose, who had the basketball game equivalent of a bad cheese steak, or just a cheese steak, with 13 points on four of 14 shooting and eight turnovers, three in the last three minutes. “I think our team is playing poorly right now. We have to straighten that out. When things are going well, they go well together. When things aren’t going well, we do that as a team, too. We have some issues that we have to correct. We just have to work our way through it.” It was a discouraging loss for the Bulls, who led by 20 points in the first half, still by 18 four minutes into the third quarter and even by eight with seven minutes left. And to a 76ers’ team, notwithstanding their win over Miami the night after the Heat swamped the Bulls, that not only was playing the second of a back to back with the Bulls coming in rested, but who were regarded coming into the season as perhaps the poorest team in the NBA. But the 76ers led by impressive rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who outplayed Rose with 26 points, 10 assists and three steals, outran, outhustled, and out scrapped the Bulls pretty much all over the floor to pull out the win. The 76ers are 3-0 while the Bulls are 1-2.”
A slow start can be overcome by the Heat or the Bulls, but the Wizards? Michael Lee of the Washington Post reports: “Beal referred to himself as “a victim” of bad body language on a night in which he missed 14 of 18 shots from the field – and his lone free throw attempt – and finished with just 10 points. Throughout the game, Beal would hold out his hands to show that he was open, then drop his shoulders if the play went somewhere else. When his shot didn’t fall, Beal lowered his head and was slow to get back on defense. The more he tried to fight through it, the further he fell into quick sand. “I’m a victim of it. I’m not ashamed to say it,” Beal said, when asked if the bad body language of the players contributed to the loss.”
Interesting note on Dave Joerger, from Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News: “New Memphis coach Dave Joerger hasn’t thrown any of his statistics-driven bosses out of practice, as his predecessor, Lionel Hollins did when he clashed last season with his new VP of basketball, John Hollinger. And during his rookie season, Joerger probably isn’t going to get into any heated arguments with his superiors over how much stats should influence his lineups and strategy. However, unlike Hollins, Joerger has already complied with his bosses’ wishes to change some of the offense to how they think it should be run, based on statistical analysis of players’ performances. He’s thrown out a few staples from Hollins’ old playbook, while adopting his bosses’ approach of dividing the offensive end of the court into quadrants and finding out through stats where his players are most effective. Joerger, a five-time championship coach in the CBA and other minor leagues, has one of the most difficult jobs among the league’s nine first-time head coaches. Hollins was immensely popular with his players, some of whom, starting with Zach Randolph, are not the easiest in the world to coach.”
Kevin Durant is 0 for 10 on catch and shoot – 9 of them three’s. Welcome back Russell
— David Locke (@Lockedonsports) November 3, 2013
Shoe news! This is from Jeff McDonald at the San Antonio Express-News: “Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard may not yet be the face of the Spurs’ franchise, as coach Gregg Popovich predicted he might one day be. But Leonard is officially the feet of Nike’s iconic Jordan Brand. The 22-year-old signed a deal to sport the Air Jordan shoes — the line produced for and made famous by Hall of Famer Michael Jordan since 1985 — and other Jordan Brand apparel. Leonard has sported Air Jordan shoes in his two-plus seasons with the Spurs, but his attraction to the brand goes back to before he was an NBA player. “I’ve been wearing Jordans really ever since I started playing,” Leonard said before the Spurs played at Portland on Saturday night. “I’m excited he decided to bring me along.””
The most important basketball story you’ll read this week comes from Seth Stephens-Davidowitz of the New York Times. Here’s an excerpt: “AS the N.B.A. season gets under way, there is no doubt that the league’s best player is 6-foot-8 LeBron James, of the Miami Heat. Mr. James was born poor to a 16-year-old single mother in Akron, Ohio. The conventional wisdom is that his background is typical for an N.B.A. player. A majority of Americans, Google consumer survey data show, think that the N.B.A. is composed mostly of men like Mr. James. But it isn’t. I recently calculated the probability of reaching the N.B.A., by race, in every county in the United States. I got data on births from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; data on basketball players from basketball-reference.com; and per capita income from the census. The results? Growing up in a wealthier neighborhood is a major, positive predictor of reaching the N.B.A. for both black and white men. Is this driven by sons of N.B.A. players like the Warriors’ brilliant Stephen Curry? Nope. Take them out and the result is similar.”
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Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.