• The Houston Chronicle is sticking it to Tracy McGrady.
• TrueHoop reader Brennan makes a really interesting point, which I'll paraphrase. We have all seen this a thousand times. Two opponents are chasing a ball as it heads out of bounds. One leaps for the ball, as the other steps out of bounds. The leaper gets the ball, and throws it off the other guy, who is by this time undeniably off the active playing surface. The referee then awards the leaper's team the ball, and in general I think I understand why. But consider this: What if the leaper had thrown the ball off something else that was out of bounds? What if he had thrown it off some broadcaster, a coach, or a large bucket of sport beverage? In general, throwing the ball off something that is out of bounds means your team loses the ball. But if that out-of-bounds thing is an opposing player, your team gains the ball. A little funny, huh? UPDATE: TrueHoop reader Jason chimes in: "I was taught (from high school basketball, so take it for what it's worth) that the ruling on possession depends on where the player who is hit with the ball (let's call him Player #2, and call the thrower Player #1) is at the time of the contact. To clarify -- if Player #2 is leaping in the air at the time, but left the ground with any part in bounds, and the ball makes contact with him then, he was considered in bounds, and so the ball, careening off him and out of bounds, is off him, and so possession goes to Player #1's team. However, if Player #2 is firmly already out of bounds -- i.e., standing with both feet out of bounds -- when the ball hits him, it is just like the ball hit any other out of bounds object, so it was last touched by Player #1, and possession goes to Player #2's team. Now, in reality, it happens so quickly that I think referees just tend to reward the effort of Player #1, but I've been in a game before where a Player #2 was savvy enough to step fully out of bounds when Player #1 jumped in the air, before contact, and fortunately the ref was savvy enough to make the call, possession to Player #2's team." THE FINAL WORD: An anonymous TrueHoop reader was nice enough to look up, you know, the actual NBA rule: "Rule No. 8(II)(c): The ball is caused to go out-of-bounds by the last player to touch it before it goes out, provided it is out-of-bounds because of touching something other than a player. If the ball is out-of-bounds because of touching a player who is on or outside a boundary, such player caused it to go out. The "why of Rule 8(II)(c) is a different question, but at the very least this ought to answer your question: If you throw it out off of another player who's standing off the court, it's your ball, since by this rule the other player caused it to go out of bounds."
• Andrew Bogut has an entertaining blog on his website. (Registration required.) He does funny stuff, for instance referring to the Cleveland team as "the LeBronaliers." From a recent post: "Let me tell you why I like Milwaukee. After my brunch meal of an egg sandwich or some sort, I asked the waitress for a cappuccino. She then informed me they just had regular coffee so I told her that's ok and not to worry about it. I guess as she went to the bar a patron must have over heard her asking the boss if they could do a cappuccino. Then get this, this gem of guy goes a couple of doors down in the freezing cold, buys a cappuccino and sends it up to my table. I couldn't believe it. It's not about the money at all, it's the gesture, and I highly respect and appreciate that there are still great people in this world. As I left I went and talked to him for a couple of minutes and thanked him for the drink. I offered him a drink in return but he told me not to worry about, he was just a fan that enjoyed watching us play. People knock Milwaukee all the time, but I don't think you could tell a story like that if you lived in a bigger city. Great stuff."
• Yesterday's talk of former NBA player Rodney White prompted SLAM's Lang Whitaker to send me a link to a 2003 Bob Raissman New York Daily News article about the time in 2003 when a Knick game was delayed for quite some some time owing to White's vomiting on the court. Raissman relates what happened, during that delay, on the radio, where Mike Breen and John Andariese had the call. Great stuff: "'First 50-point game. First 20-20 game. First triple-double. First hurl on the court. Some of the great moments in Garden, and NBA, history. And we had the pleasure of witnessing it. ... You know, John, I remember the first time I threw up in public. I was just a wee bit of a baby.' Andariese: 'I think everybody involved here tonight is undergoing a new experience in their life.' Breen: 'John, it was the quantity that was so eye-opening. The color was rather interesting as well.' Andariese: 'Now you're out of control. I'm taking over the broadcast.' Breen: '... I'm glad we had a chance to share this moment together.'"
• Did I interpret correctly where Phil Jackson said that the reason his team would not win 70 games was because of their time zone? The travel from West to East, he seemed to imply, was troublesome in how it prevented good rest. Could somebody please write 5,000 words analyzing this? We'll need to hear from sleep experts, as well as look at the historical records of Western teams on the road.
• Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Carlos Boozer was approached in the locker room before the game by a Miami reporter and gave him the brush-off when it came to a question about the Heat. I guess Jazz fans have to take that as a good sign. 'I don't worry about that,' Boozer said. 'That's just speculation. I think everything this summer will work out this summer, depending on what happens. During the season, we're just going to focus on the season. I live there, so that's why rumors start to flow.'"
• You should really check out the Raptors Stat-o-Meter 3000.
• Joel Przybilla is leading the league in field goal percentage, and much more importantly (he doesn't shoot much) he and Greg Oden are both ahead of Dwight Howard, leading the league in the percentage of rebounds they grab while on the court. Now coming off the bench, Przybilla has to be considered an early candidate for sixth man of the year.
• The other day I talked to a guy who is close to several NBA players. I asked him to estimate the percentage of NBA players who are depressed. I guessed 60. He said more like 95. It's probably a topic for another post, on another day, when I understand that better. But it occurs to me that one who is not is Martell Webster. The kid showed up for camp in the best shape of his life, then got a stress fracture, was replaced in the starting lineup by a rookie, and has watched the team get really hot. Despite all that, he's on the bench cheering, he's saying he's fine not playing for several games even when he's healthy, and telling Caseyl Holdahl of Blazers.com stuff like: "When you think about it, kids commit more hours in school than we do to basketball all day. We come to practice for two hours and I get the rest of the day with my family. I feel blessed. We don't deserve it, but I make sure that I play hard and I have no regrets. The most important thing is your family, but this is your job so you have to take care of this first. But two hours a day? Why would anyone complain about that?"
• Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel with several interesting Heat observations: "The Heat is 3-1 since the insertion of Joel Anthony into the starting lineup. More than the effort Anthony has been delivering, the 3-1 record says this is a team that could thrive with an upgrade in the middle. Love the hustle from Anthony, a truly nice guy, but you don't consistently win with three rebounds a game from your starting center. ... I have never seen a team so physically blitz the pick-and-roll as what the Jazz got away with Wednesday night against Mario Chalmers. If the officials continue to hold their whistles, Chalmers could be in for a nightly bruising. It was tackle basketball. ... It's kind of fun watching Jamaal Magloire out there. You know he's going to break something, whether it's himself, an opponent, or a part of the basket. There is nothing subtle about the man."
• ESPN's John Hollinger writes that the Thunder are on pace to tie the worst record in NBA history. But he doesn't think they'll get there. He points out that young players like Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook tend to play better in the second half of the season. He adds that a lot of their poor play has been tied to worse-than-career average showings from veterans Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison, Damien Wilkins, and Earl Watson: "It's possible that all four players suddenly became awful, but it's far more likely that it's just a 20-game fluke and their numbers will return to something more normal. Because those four are likely to see their numbers rebound, and the three youngsters also are likely to put up better numbers as the season goes on, that gives us seven key rotation players who are likely to play a lot better than they've done so far. And that, in turn, leads us to the conclusion that the Thunder will be better than they've shown so far. Not good enough to do anything of significance, probably, or even to avoid the worst record in the league. But at the end of the day, it seems to me they'll easily surpass the nine-win threshold of historic awfulness and finish with about 18 to 20 victories."
• Wizznutzz knows and does not care (a little PG-13) about the spelling errors here and tardiness there. And it's hilarious: "Washington hoops coaches get replaced all the time. They are like 'DR WHO': mysterious strangers who change bodies every few years but are really all the same ancient wandering man who has racked up losing seasons across space and time for infinity. They dont even look that different really. Ed Tapscott especially, u take away the ampler tummy and ampler geri-conk and theres EJ, staring back at you. At least Gar Heard wore that distinctive knit scarf."
• An anonymous TrueHoop reader: "I don't know how closely you looked at the Forbes list of franchise values, but this one jumped out at me: Cleveland, 5th overall at $477 million. How much of that is directly due to LeBron James? Without LeBron, would Cleveland be an average team, at $379 million? Probably not -- Cleveland-Akron is only the 14th-largest 'combined statistical area' in the country, according to wikipedia, which makes it smaller than the Seattle or Denver or Minnesota areas and about the same size at St. Louis. And basketball-wise, the Cavs without LeBron would be a very bad team with no marketable stars. I could easily see them being worth about the same as the T-wolves ($301 million) or even the Bucks ($278 million). So is LeBron James worth $200 million? Could be. If so, he'd be the most underpaid guy in the league."
• Basketbawful points out that Goran Dragic, the guy the Suns touted as their point guard of the future, did not get off the bench in a game that Steve Nash sat out with flu-like symptoms. It's super early, but that's not a great sign. 
• Britt Robson of the Secrets of the City on the 4-13 Timberwolves: "The more diligently one covers the Minnesota Timberwolves recently, the more difficult it is to find honestly positive or kind things to say."
• Sebastian Telfair won a bet with Al Jefferson. Jefferson couldn't see the point in paying, pointing out that he had the ability to beat up Telfair if need be.
• Rip Hamilton says he lets his dogs out of the house and runs with them until they tire, which is a long time. That sounds cool. But most dogs run around in spasmodic loops, leaping and grabbing each other as they go -- stopping occasionally to knock each other over. It's not like going for a five-miler, you know. Is that really what Rip does? It seemed somehow absurd. But then I realized, that's pretty much the same template for an NBA game. Good idea, Rip.
• Dwight Jaynes with an interesting idea: "In my more than two decades of covering the league I've been fascinated (and irritated) by how many players will just dribble out the clock, pass it to someone else or time their shot attempt for just AFTER the buzzer in order to avoid taking a missed shot on their state line in the box score. If you took one of those shots just every other game, it's a potential 41 extra misses over a season. That's going to hurt your field-goal percentage a lot. But you know what I mean -- your team is going into the fourth quarter trailing by 2 points and has the ball in backcourt with 1 second left on the clock. A long 3-pointer at the horn would change the momentum of the game and give your team the lead to start the fourth period. But no, your point guard just kind of dribbles the clock out or launches a half-hearted attempt just after the clock expires. He doesn't want that missed shot (that's what it is, 90 times out of 100) on his stat line. What I've long proposed is that scorekeepers should be instructed thusly: on any buzzer-beating shot from past half court, do not count it as a field-goal attempt unless the shot is made. It's not really a "shot, anyway. Just forget about it, or put it in a separate category. Come on, logically speaking, it's no indication at all of what kind of shooter a player is. It's not statistically significant. Just put it in a little box, all its own -- call it desperation heaves. You could even, then, keep track of who the best players are in making those shots. And if you did that, you'd see some miraculous shots made. Shots that would ignite an arena. These guys can actually make more of them than you think. They're just not inclined to take them -- which hurts the game and the league." Another alternative: Realizing it helps their team, players could just man up and shoot the damn ball. 

Forbes ranks the value of NBA teams, and as of last year, the news was generally excellent. The average team profit last season was the highest in at least a decade. The average team is worth a whopping $379 million.

The effect of market-size is undeniable, however. Most would agree that the Knicks could hardly have been managed more poorly over the last few years, yet the New York team remains the most valuable. Meanwhile the Hornets have been a model of turnaround, at least on the court, yet rank close to the bottom, doubtless thanks to a lack of economic might in the New Orleans area.

A couple of notable exceptions to that trend: The San Antonio Spurs snuck into the top ten, while the Los Angeles Clippers managed to be near the bottom in franchise value.

There's also a great story about Portland owner Paul Allen hitting a free throw that made the Blazers players whoop and holler. Portland is the team whose value has increased the most over the last year.

I learned new things about the Memphis Grizzlies, Indiana Pacers, and Sacramento Kings, however. Kurt Badenhausen, Michael K. Ozanian and Christina Settimi report:

The Memphis Grizzlies retain all of the revenues from their home, the FedEx Forum, which opened in 2004. Yet fans have tuned out the Grizzlies. Attendance is down 24% since the building opened, and the team has racked up $48 million in losses since 2004. The team cut ticket prices 22% this year to help curb the attendance free fall, but it continues unabated. Less than 12,000 fans per game are showing up this season, last in the NBA. We value the Grizzlies at $294 million, 27th in the league.

Other teams on the decline include the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings, which both saw their values drop 9% this year. Both teams were model small-market NBA franchises for years, with passionate fan bases and winning squads. The Kings sold out every game from 1999 until last year's opener.

But attendance fell off a cliff last season, down 18% as the team stumbled and fans grew tired of the Maloof brothers' pleas for public money to fund a new arena for their team. Pacer fans also stopped supporting their team, which posted a losing record for a second straight year and had players frequently showing up on the police blotter. Attendance plummeted 20% to last in the league.

To some degree, our NBA team values take into account the turmoil in the financial markets, but without recent transactions (the last sale was Bennett's purchase of the former SuperSonics in 2006), it is impossible to gauge the exact impact the recession has had on prices. But if the economic downturn continues to worsen, it is quite possible that 2009 could be the first time in a decade the value of the typical NBA team declines.

• Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: "Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors GM, and Sam Mitchell, the deposed coach, saw almost everything differently. But perhaps the chief team-hurting contradiction of their nearly three years together in Toronto was philosophical. Colangelo is a Western-bred enthusiast of the run-and-gun game; Mitchell kneels at the altar of lockdowns and rebounds. So maybe it made sense, given the lack of unity in their union, that their team played a disconnected hybrid of both styles. The Colangelo-Mitchell Raptors, in the end, neither ran much nor played more than the occasional lick of defence. So Mitchell finally got fired yesterday, outlasting most projections of his longevity by a few years and several millions in salary. And today, with Jay Triano at the helm, the Raptors will begin again, trying their luck at the track meet."
• Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: "After the game nearly the entire Cavs team stayed in the shower area for an hour. They were leaning against walls, sitting on counters and enjoying adult beverages all in towels. They were talking, making fun of each other, hanging out. It may seem like normal locker room behavior, but it isn't. Maybe these guys go hang out with each other in groups after the games at restaurants or their houses. But in my six years covering the Cavs I'd never seen that after a game. You have to preface everything you say about these Cavs with 'it's still early,' but I have not seen chemistry like this before. The season is long, trying times are certainly ahead, but the team is more than just winning, they are enjoying doing it with each other."
• Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle: "If you're wondering why Tracy McGrady is not playing through the pain, you're not alone. Doctors have told the Rockets he can't make the knee worse by playing. It simply comes down to how much pain he can tolerate. Daryl Morey met with both McGrady and Ron Artest about playing with their injuries. Artest is playing despite a high ankle sprain that had him limping through portions of Wednesday's game. McGrady said the pain had become more than he could deal with. ... Yes, McGrady and Artest are different. I know what you're thinking. McGrady's making $21 million. He should play through the pain. That's an easy theory, except that none of us knows exactly how he's feeling. We just don't. Let's be clear about this. The Rockets have absolutely no doubt that McGrady wants to play. 'No doubt,' Morey said. 'He's not happy about the way he was playing. He's frustrated.'"
• Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe: "They pushed past the Pacers last night. Tomorrow night, it'll be Portland with Greg Oden. One tomato can after another. Sure, the Cavaliers are better than they were last season. Sure, the Lakers have Andrew Bynum this time around. But the Celtics are putting the league on notice: You had your chance last spring. No stopping us now."
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: "Now, Brandon Roy can finally say it. He and the Trail Blazers want Boston. There are no more games to potentially overlook, no more film sessions to grind through, because after Wednesday's 98-92 win at Washington -- the Blazers' sixth in a row -- Friday's matchup in Boston against the World Champion Celtics has arrived. 'This is what we want,' Roy said. 'This is where we want to be. I want it not only for this team, but for me personally. To see where I'm at, you know? To see where this team is at, to see where I can get this team to.' What you are hearing, Portland, and what the rest of the NBA is seeing, is an All-Star morphing into a great player. Or at least a great leader."
• Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "Sorry, Lakers fans. The Chicago Bulls' record-setting 72-10 campaign won't be topped this season. At least that's what Phil Jackson said Wednesday, and he'd probably know a thing or two about such success. He was the Bulls' coach when they set the NBA standard for victories in 1995-96. ... 'I don't think there's any chance that we're going to get anywhere close to 70 wins,' he said. 'I'm not going to say that we can't win 60, but I don't think that there's a chance [at 70] -- and that's if everything goes well health-wise. Traveling in the West is just too difficult. Changing time zones, it just makes it very difficult to be consistent night in and night out on the road.'"
• Sarah Rothschild of The Miami Herald: "TNT analyst Charles Barkley might be in Dwyane Wade's 'Fave Five,' but he apparently isn't such a fan of Wade's supporting cast with the Heat. 'He's Michael Jackson playing with a bunch of Tito Jacksons, but he's balling anyway,' Charles Barkely said Wednesday on 790 The Ticket. Wade said he was unsure how to interpret Barkley's comments. Forward Udonis Haslem at first said he did not want to say what he truly thought because he had a lot of respect for Barkely. Then Haslem said: 'My name isn't Tito, my name is Udonis Haslem. We've got Shawn Marion, Joel Anthony, Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley, Mark Blount; the list goes on and on. Nobody on this team is named Tito.' Wade's reaction? 'I have a good relationship with Charles,' said Wade, who is in T-Mobile commercials with Barkley. 'That's his job to come out and say things like that. Whatever he wants to say is fine with us.'"
• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: "Tim Duncan has endured some sprained ankles and plantar fasciitis along the way. But this season, he's playing more and scoring more, appearing as fit as he has since his MVP years, and he also looks freer. Give some credit to Popovich for this. He's preached to Duncan for years to not hesitate when he has an open outside shot. This season, Duncan is doing just that. There was something else going on early, too, when Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were out. Instead of being bored by the early season, as he sometimes was in the past, Duncan had a spark. Why? He probably enjoyed being The Option again. And he probably liked the challenge of trying to scratch out wins with a makeshift group."
• Paul Willis of the Rocky Mountain News: "This is how Nene likes it. While the Nuggets' monthlong hot streak has been credited almost solely to the arrival of Chauncey Billups and the improved all-around game of Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets center quietly is becoming the player they always said he could be. While Billups and Anthony continue to eat up the headlines, Nene has averaged 15.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.68 blocked shots, all of which would shatter his single-season bests. But perhaps most telling about the 6-foot-11 Brazilian's emergence is his 64.2 percent field-goal percentage, which leads the NBA but is on pace to be the best since Artis Gilmore shot 65.2 percent for Chicago in 1981-82. 'Now is my time,' Nene said. 'I've been through a lot of things to get to this position I am now.'"
• Jerry Brown of the East Valley Tribune: "After getting his technical fouls under control last season, Amaré Stoudemire is on another roll. After being ejected in Sunday's loss to the Nets, Stoudemire got his second in two games against the Hornets this season while disputing a second-quarter call with referee Scott Foster. Stoudemire now has six technical fouls this season, second only to Boston's Kendrick Perkins (nine). 'I still have things under control, just a few words here and there, nothing major,' Stoudemire said. 'This year, it seems like I can't say anything. I'm in the hot spot as far as the bulletin board goes. 'Watch out for Stoudemire.' I guess I have to take it slow until I get off the board.'"
• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Warriors are a strange basketball team. The last two seasons, they were strange and wonderful. This season, they're just strange."
• Barker Davis of The Washington Times: "When last season's consensus No. 1 prep player, Brandon Jennings, headed to Italy instead of college, becoming the first high school player to choose that path since the NBA instituted its minimum-age requirement after the 2005 draft, some observers dubbed Jennings the pioneer of a new era. 'I think we're going to have a revolution,' said former shoe executive Sonny Vaccaro, who advised Jennings during his decision-making process. 'And Brandon Jennings, a kid from Compton [Calif.], is going to start it.' A month into Jennings' European experiment, the reverberations of said "revolution" have given way to deafening silence. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard has all but vanished from basketball's collective conscious. Jennings is the fourth member of Lottomatica Roma's backcourt rotation. Buried in the depth chart behind guards like former All-Big East performer Allan Ray (Villanova) and former Ivy League player of the year Ibrahim Jaaber (Penn), Jennings exited the team's first eight games averaging 4.9 points and 3.0 assists in 17.3 minutes. ... Instead of enjoying a high-profile role at Arizona, where he would have served as the Wildcats' primary perimeter complement to versatile forward Chase Budinger, he's struggling to earn minutes for a 4-4 squad in the Italian League. As a result, his draft stock is falling."

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes:

The Suns pharaoh of factoids, Vince Kozar, brings us this breakdown of Suns' turnovers: They average 9.7 in first halves and 6.8 in second halves. 

What in the heck is that about?

UPDATE: Kevin Arnovitz weighs in with the theory that pace slows in most games in the second half. Can anybody deliver evidence to that effect?

Another theory: Does Shaquille O'Neal play more in the first half?

• Andrew Bynum says that the Lakers didn't get any rebounds after Phil Jackson took him out last night, and he implies that may have led to the loss. He has a point. By my look at the play-by-play, after Bynum sat with 5:31 left in the fourth, the Pacers proceeded to grab nine of the next 11 rebounds. However, Phil Jackson might counter that Bynum came back in with 12 seconds left ... just in time for Troy Murphy to win the game by, you guessed it, getting an offensive rebound and coaxing it into the hoop.
• Top ten Derrick Rose highlights.
• With all the talk of Knick cap space, and superstars, it is well worth reading Kelly Dwyer's smart look at the time, a dozen years ago, when there was Knick cap space allegedly targeted for one Michael Jordan. (They ended up getting Allan Houston instead.) Also, Kelly makes the point that the league is too sophisticated to allow players to be compensated in sneaky ways, outside the salary cap, but I make no such assumptions. Remember Joe Smith. If there were many such situations, how would anyone find out?
• Greg Oden is not thinking about dominating in the post. That's OK, I guess. The New York Times' Joshua Robinson reports today that Nate McMillan wants him primarily thinking about just four things: "... working hard, learning how to set screens, defending the basket and rebounding." But last night there was a moment when he caught the ball deep with one defender on him. That defender was ... Quentin Richardson. Without even a look at the hoop, Oden passed the ball a country mile away and didn't get it back. Even if you're determined not to make yourself the center of attention, is there a coach in the world who doesn't want to see the big man cram that home over the little guy?
• Remember when the Pistons picked Rodney White in the first round, and he never really seemed to fit in in the NBA? After not playing much, White was just released by Maccabi Tel Aviv, and if you look at the team's official roster, they now feature Elton Brown, who has killed in the D-League and nearly stuck with several NBA clubs.
• TrueHoop reader Bob says: "I read a comment today on ESPN that was bugging me. The comment basically said, 'LeBron may be the league's darling, but Kobe is still the best player. I'd rather have him take a last second shot over LeBron any day.' Why do so many people evaluate best player based on who you would want to take a last second shot? A lot of games, I'm sure if you switch out Kobe and LeBron, the Lakers don't need a last second shot. Up until this year, I would have agreed that Kobe was a better player than LeBron. But LeBron has shown improved defense, an improved mid-range jumper, he's taking less three pointers, and he's hitting more free throws. He's putting up the same stat line he's been at for the last few years but doing it in five fewer minutes per night. But people still don't want to call him the best because Kobe is the better last second shooter. I think the better question is who would you rather want to have the ball at the end of a game. Then the argument is different. If the Lakers are down two, you know what you're getting from Kobe. Most likely a 20-22 foot fallaway jumper with two hands in his face (which he will knock down a good chunk of the time). But LeBron has shown time and time again that his team will get a great shot at the end of games. Remember Game 1 of the 2007 Eastern Conference finals? Nobody is making the LeBron should take the last shot argument if Donyell Marshall knocks down a wide open 3 with nobody around him (or if someone like Delonte West or Wally Szczerbiak is taking the shot). And that right there is what makes LeBron a better player. He has always been willing to defer the spotlight to his teammates because he trusts them. And now with shooters like Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West, and Mo Williams instead of Flip Murray, Donyell Marshall, and Damon Jones, doesn't the thought that you have to defend all 5 guys in the final seconds make Cleveland that much more dangerous of a team?" I'm also not sure fans of James should cede the notion that Bryant is the better guy to make the final play. In stats from last year on 82games.com, in "crunch time" (defined there as time when neither team is ahead by more than five, and there is less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter or overtime) Kobe Bryant had slightly better free-throw and three-point field goal percentage, but James was superior in every other category, including points, overall field goal percentage, plus/minus, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, and turnovers.
• Seth from Poasting and Toasting with a great little hypothetical from last night's Knicks game: "Quentin Richardson got whacked in the face, and nearly looked like he was going to have to come out, leaving Nate McMillan to pick someone off the bench to come in and take the free throws. If you're not familiar, that's the case. When a player is too injured to shoot his own free throws, the opposing team gets to pick someone off the bench to come in and take the shots. Here's my question. What if this had happened during one of the games that Stephon Marbury was suited up, but didn't play, perhaps because he'd refused to do so? The other team would definitely pick him, right? Would that visit to the line not be the tensest, most awkward two free throws ever taken in an NBA game? How would D'Antoni react? How would Steph react? What would happen after the free throws were taken? This has officially moved into the number one slot on my 'things I would do if I had a time machine' list. Saving the dinosaurs can wait."
• A lot of what happens in celebrity coverage happens in sports coverage, and it all makes Roger Ebert cranky.
• Some basketball players are reluctant to spend a lot of time working on their off-hands. Here's a golf story, about right-handed Seve Ballasteros playing entire rounds of golf left-handed. That's hours without using your good side. Can you imagine? If you did that in basketball, you'd improve quickly. And in basketaball, it would actually be a skill you could use with regularity. Steven D. Levitt of the Freakonomics blog wonders why Ballesteros would do that: "My golfing friend conjectures that maybe playing left-handed on occasion helped Ballesteros learn to hit those creative shots which won him so many championships. For instance, when your ball stops right next to a tree trunk, sometimes the only option is to flip a club around and try to swing left-handed. It is extremely difficult, because not only are you swinging left-handed, but you are using a club meant to be hit right-handed. My accomplished golfing friend has practiced this shot quite a bit, and says he once hit it 60 yards this way, but he averages about 20 yards. He asked Seve that day how far he could hit it when in that situation. 'About 150 yards,' Seve said. 'It depends if I want a fade or a draw.'"
• Clever video: The Assassination of Michael Jordan by the Coward Kobe Bryant.
• A review of Americans performing in Europe for the first time this season. Josh Childress and Earl Boykins get so-so ratings. Rod Benson gets even worse.
• Has anyone ever had a more intense face, while dribbling, than Craig Ehlo in this photo?
• A coach tells what he looks for in the post-game box score.
• Lorenzen Wright is worried about his former teammate Rodney Rogers, who has been hurt in an ATV accident.
• Patience. People in the media, like fans, are learning to value better kinds of statistics. But it was never going to happen overnight.
• ESPN's Anna K. Clemmons catches up with former player and musician Wayman Tisdale who has had some unbelievable health challenges: "After the first round of chemotherapy was unsuccessful, a second round was scheduled. 'The doctor had never given anyone chemo that was my size,' Tisdale says. 'They just calculated how much chemo to give me and said, 'We hope it doesn't mess up your kidneys. If it does, sorry.'' To push through, the 6-foot-9 'gentle giant' recalled the challenges he faced during his basketball career. 'I had some coaches that literally didn't want me to make it, and one in particular was [Team USA coach] Bobby Knight,' Tisdale says. 'At the time, I frowned on that ... I look at it today that had I not persevered through a lot of the stuff he put me through, I probably wouldn't be here today. I thank God for that dude because he pushed me.' When the second round of chemotherapy still didn't work, doctors said that amputation was the most viable option to eradicate the cancerous cells. Rev. Carlton Pearson, a friend of the family for almost 30 years, spoke to Tisdale soon after. 'Here's a man who's lived much of his life off his legs,' Pearson says. "If ever there were a time he would've been somber & but he wasn't, he was just as up in his spirit. I've never seen Wayman lose his joy.' ... A few weeks later, Tisdale talked to one of his closest friends from the NBA, Sam Perkins. 'He and his wife went through a lot of adversity and they made it through,' Perkins says. 'We were talking about shoes that day and he said, 'Well, I guess I'll just be shining one shoe.''"

My friend Mike asked me that last night.

Once the team brings the ball over half court, why is it forbidden to pass or dribble it back across mid-court the other way?

I mean, would the game of basketball be worse off if they just abolished the backcourt violation rule? Is there something I'm missing?

Mike's guess was that this rule was a relic from a time before the shot clock, and there may have been a worry that Bob Cousy would dribble all over the court for five straight minutes to protect a lead. By confining the Cousy's of the world, you force some more offense vs. defense interaction.

But nowadays it is so ingrained in me: Ooooh, don't make that pass! It's basketball lore.

But what's the point? Why not just have players pass or dribble the ball wherever they want to pass or dribble it?

Best case scenario nothing much changes and there are slightly fewer annoying stoppages of play per season. Worst case scenario somebody really learns how to exploit it, and offenses are favored more than they used to be. ... Which, of course, would not be bad at all. Favoring offenses has been a goal of many recent rule changes.

UPDATE: TrueHoop reader Luke weighs in:

I'm a longtime basketball fan and player, and I'm also a high school basketball referee. I've only been a referee for three years, but I've studied the basketball rulebook a lot and try to understand not just what a rule says but why it is in place and how it affects the game. I think your friend Mike is probably right about the origin of the rule. I think you have a valid point in that it initially seems to be pointless.

However there are two different considerations here.

First, if they eliminated the backcourt violation they would have to also eliminate the 8-second rule (10 second rule at all other levels). This affects the defense considerably, because it means that it is much more difficult to get a good result out of a full court press or trap. Think about it: It takes a really aggressive and coordinated press to get a steal or force a turnover -- but even a so-so trap on a ballhandler can result in an 8-second violation. As well, it renders a half-court trap entirely moot, because the offense isn't confined to the frontcourt. It is true that you might not even notice the difference most of the time -- but at the end of a game you've just taken away most of a team's defensive options to get back in a game when they're trailing. If a team is behind, they 1) use a full-court trap 2) use a half-court trap 3) foul. If there was no backcourt violation, and no 8-second rule, then you've considerably limited the effectiveness of options 1 and 2, if not made them entirely moot.

Second, this would be a major rule change, really a fundamental rule change in a lot of ways, and one that affects the flow of a game and even a possession considerably. If, hypothetically speaking, the NBA eliminated the two rules, can you imagine NBA coaches trying to get their players to adjust to the significant change? In my opinion, to change rules like these, all levels of basketball would have to make the same rule changes and institute them all at the same time -- NBA, College, and High School. What are the odds of that happening? I think coaches and referees -- the people who predominantly make up rules committees -- would vote down that proposed rule change anyway because of the disadvantages to the defensive schemes listed above.

I understand why it might seem that without an over and back rule, you'd also eliminate the rule about having eight seconds to get the ball across half court, but I would not assume that must be so. That rule seems to serve an actual purpose, which is to speed up the game. But the over and back rule has only the purpose of making a certain gimmicky defense easier? I could envision a world where you had to get it across the line, but were then free to pass or dribble into the backcourt. It's not impossible.

The other thing is that we can't assume that, without this rule, we'd have the same games we have now, just without some of the stirring comebacks. Instead we'd have subtle new offensive opportunities at all times throughout the 48 minutes of the game. Scoring, in general, would be easier. It's a leap to say that in such an environment comebacks would be rarer. Maybe they would be, but maybe not.

The most interesting thing about this to me so far is that I have heard from several people who make the case that removing the over and back rule would hurt the game. But so far nobody has made a case that the rule's original intention -- whatever it was -- is relevant or smart. This is definitely one of those legacy-of-the-game things. And to some degree all kinds of enterprises need to honor tradition. But at the same time "we've always done it this way" can be a tool to avoid doing the hard work of coming up with a vision of how things could be better.

UPDATE: A high-school girls' coach, Neil, says: 

"... full court traps can still be very effective without the backcourt violation. Unlike the boys, we do not have a backcourt violation. On top of that, the shot clock is 35 seconds as opposed to 30 or 24. With that said, I have always been a pressing coach and will use it 50-100% of the time. Even if the ball isn't stolen, you see the offensive players rush passes and shots which leads to turnovers and poor shot selection."

• Marc Berman of the New York Post: "'My father is looking down on me,' Stephon Marbury wrote in an e-mail to The Post last night. 'I know he is proud of the way that I'm trying to be a better man. I'm not perfect and I'm trying to be better than what I was yesterday. I want to say to all of the people who sent their condolences last year, thank you and God bless. You will always have a place in the Marburys' heart.' Marbury still is trying to stay in shape and did all sorts of exercises -- dumbbell work, nautilus, ab hangers, knee thrusts -- at the White Plains gym in his first day in exile. It is an awkward time for Marbury, who is hoping the Players Association has the ban lifted. The union believes such discipline needs 'just cause.'"
• Chris Perkins of the Palm Beach Post: "Attitude is what it's all about with the Heat. 'Guys on the team have a chip on their shoulder for whatever reasons,' coach Erik Spoelstra said. 'I don't know if that comes individually. I don't know if that comes from me, but it's a good dynamic to have.' It's a dynamic that has enabled the upstart Heat to post a surprising 2-2 record on this five-game West Coast road trip, a swing that ends with Wednesday's 9 p.m. game at Utah. That same stubborn pride makes Miami think it should be even better. 'We should be easily 3-1 on this trip right now,' forward Shawn Marion said."
• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "DeShawn Stevenson broke his normal routine and took some extra shots before the game. He also heeded the advice of his mother, who told him he needed to grow back his beard to regain his shooting touch. The beard hasn't grown back fully, but for at least one night, Stevenson proved to children everywhere that you should listen to your mother. 'Yes. I'm keeping the beard,' Stevenson said. 'We got one on the road against a team we thought we gave away the first game. This is a new month. We are 1-0 on this month.'"
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: "Delonte West is putting up some of the best numbers of his career: 11.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 0.9 steals per game. His shooting accuracy has been uncanny: 51.4 percent from the field, 43.7 percent from the 3-point line and 75 percent from the foul line. 'We've come together sooner than expected,' West said. 'The entire team has meshed well.' He said the Cavs have not only played well, they genuinely like each other off the court. 'We have a team full of comedians,' West said. 'We have some kindred spirits on this team. The coaching staff is the same way. With a mixture like that, it's fun to come to work.'"
• Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel: "Disjointed offensively, the Bucks desperately need Michael Redd's scoring. But they also need the spacing he will provide with the three-point threat they have lacked to begin the season. As for whether Redd is too selfish offensively for a tighter framework, he was never willfully selfish. Besides, who other than the departed Mo Williams was going to score before? Redd did throw up a bad shot in the fourth quarter when he returned off the bench Saturday against Cleveland, and Scott Skiles talked to him about it. 'A guy who can score always has a tough balance, when to score and when to pass,' Skiles said. 'It can be very simple. If you're open you shoot and if you're covered you pass it.' This is a crucial opportunity for Redd to show he can be that guy."
• Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "A defensive player? If the Grizzlies thought they were getting a physical defender when they signed Darko Milicic in 2007, they must not have watched him play. He can contest the occasional shot and even block a few -- he's an adequate defender -- but he's not getting dirty down on the block. ... Milicic always has fancied himself as a 7-foot facilitator, more of a point-forward than a center. Here's what this is really about: Darko wants to play in Europe because the game is more open and flowing. There is less physically demanding, half-court play. He can run up and down, dunk, hit those stand-still jumpers off kick-outs and not get beat up. In the NBA, Milicic takes a beating. He tries to play that finesse game around the rim and defenders just pound him. They would rather send him to the free-throw line than let him lay in a finger roll."
• Martin McNeal of the Sacramento Bee: "Before Reggie Theus gets toasted, here's a little butter: The Kings are the softest team in the league. For a moment, there was a thought of softening that statement. On second thought, that statement is on point. For those who believed Ron Artest had to go, well, here is what's left. No doubt, the injury-related absences of Francisco García and Kevin Martin have hurt the Kings. Yet there's no way a team permits the opposition to score so many easy baskets unless it is soft. Neither the presence of García nor Martin will affect that. It's not about a scheme or a system. It's about having tough players on your roster."
• Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: "It wasn't just that they lost 132-93 -- the fifth-biggest margin of defeat in franchise history -- but how they had lost that irked Sam Mitchell and the players. From the first minute of the first quarter, it was if they couldn't be bothered to compete and that's what was so galling. 'We have to get our heads out of our butts and go play,' said the coach. Mitchell was speaking but he was echoing sentiments that had surfaced in a players-only session immediately following the game. The coaches gave the room over to the players, who aired out some of their grievances. 'As professionals, we should be ashamed of ourselves,' said Jermaine O'Neal, the veteran centre who returned after a three-game absence."
• Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal: "Yes, the Grizzlies are piling up losses. Yes, some of the players are -- let's put it nicely -- equivocal in their support of Marc Iavaroni and his staff. But what did anyone expect from this team, exactly? What part of three-year plan didn't you understand? The Grizzlies start THREE ROOKIES, remember. They'd struggle to win the Sophomore-Rookie Game. It's not some accident that the Grizzlies are terrible. It's a direct result of the team's considered decision to build for three years from now. ... Of course it is. Hard, as in impossible. But right now some of you are saying, 'OK, I knew they'd be bad. But why do they look so dysfunctional?' Answer: Because bad always looks dysfunctional in one way or another. If the Grizzlies weren't dysfunctional -- if they had a cohesive offense, for example -- they wouldn't be bad."
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: "The ball just sat there, kissing one side of the rim and then the other, two, maybe three excruciating seconds that felt like an hour. Marquis Daniels' desperation reverse layup never had a chance, but now, with the Indiana Pacers-Los Angeles Lakers game in the balance, Troy Murphy's tip was bouncing on the iron, almost lounging there, teasing ... And then it dropped in. Mayhem. Did he say mayhem? With the Pacers? At Conseco Fieldhouse, a place that has lately been to mayhem what Amy Winehouse is to sobriety."
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: "The Celtics now have an astounding 39 techs in 19 games. The Suns are the next closest team in the league at 25, and only four other teams even have half as many. The Spurs and Jazz have only four. While technical foul talk has quickly become an exasperating topic - just ask Kendrick Perkins (league-leading 9 techs, including one Monday night for reacting to a call that actually went in his favor) -- it has been a persistent, and bizarre, chain around the ankles of the conference's best team (17-2) which is now riding the league's longest winning streak at nine games. 'I don't know what it is,' said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, at a loss as he tiptoed the line between accountability for his team and unspoken frustration with the officials, following a short workout yesterday. 'We just somehow have to do a better job ... (Monday) night was just ... anyway.'"
• Jason Quick of The Oregonian: "While many Blazers couldn't wait to take in the sights and sounds of New York, Joel Przybilla couldn't wait to leave. 'I hate New York,' he said. 'Can't do anything without bumping into someone. Like today, we leave shootaround and it takes us 45 minutes to get back to the hotel.' But what really gets Przybilla's goat is how much everything costs. For example, on Tuesday morning, Przybilla ordered room service for breakfast. 'Ordered pancakes, a plate of fruit, an orange juice and a pot of coffee,' Przybilla said. 'My bill was $126. I'm not kidding you.' It may have cost him $126, but whatever was in the pancakes worked. Przybilla was one of the most valuable Blazers in Tuesday's 104-97 win."
• Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel: "Here's the deal: Each person (while supplies last from Friday through Sunday) who purchases a Subway $50 gift card or multiple cards that total $50 from a participating Subway store will receive one adidas sneaker signed by Hedo Turkoglu. ... When asked if he could have dreamed of people wanting his shoes when he was young, Hedo said, 'As a kid you just thought about having one pair of shoes for yourself.' What about growing up to be a celebrity? 'I don't like calling it 'celebrity.' I respect the fans and feel fortunate that people like watching what I do,' he said. 'And it's not just the holidays. I'm thankful all the time. Thankful for the support of the fans, thankful for it all.'"

• TrueHoop reader Christopher, reacting to an earlier link to a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tribute: "OK, here's my take on the SkyHook: It may have been the single greatest offensive weapon in sports history. Really -- not only because of the truly sick number of points he scored, but for its singularity. Yes, he had a jump shot, but it made one cringe. Defenses key on great players in all sorts of ways, taking away this move or that threat, but everyone on that all-time list had a VARIETY of weapons -- Kareem brought forth the same one night after night, right there for all to see. Everyone knew the rhythm (I can still hear Chick Hearn saying "Kareem gets the ball low on the right side. Fakes to his right and SWINGS left... ) and knew EXACTLY what he was going to do and where he was going to do it, but were powerless to stop it. What, in any other sport, is analogous? I've been making this point to friends for years, and they usually come up with something like Ryan's fastball or a Montana touchdown pass or a Wilt dunk, but those miss the point entirely -- they were great parts of a more complete arsenal. Kareem killed this entire league for years with a single weapon, and no one ever solved it."
• Not just Barack Obama -- all kinds of basketball players will be taking over the White House. It is a revolution.
• Oh my word. I have created something of a monster with talk of trading LeBron James. So many trade ideas from readers.
• General soreness? I have no idea what it feels like to walk in Tracy McGrady's shoes, but sitting out three more weeks with a diagnosis a five-year-old could make ... that's not helping anyone disprove the doubters. Does anyone besides McGrady have these kinds of lines in AP stories?: "McGrady visited renowned orthopedist James Andrews on Monday. The team said Andrews confirmed the initial medical assessment by team doctor Tom Clanton that McGrady is suffering from general soreness in the knee."
• How did the Lakers let the Pacers hang around long enough for something weird to happen? Especially on a night when Danny Granger had a Nets-era Stephon Marbury stat line, shooting 10 of 27? Nobody saw that coming. I love the NBA, where anything can happen. I also guess this is what happens when you let the other team have nine more rebounds and nine more assists, while getting a little chilly (six of 19) from the 3-point line.

Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Jonathan Feigen talks about Rick Adelman's dislike of zone defense (via Eric Musselman):

... Adelman has been hesitant to play zone defenses.

"Sometimes it throws a team out of whack," Adelman said. "As we went to it, they missed two shots and got them right back, and that's the problem with the zone."

The Rockets have improved on the boards throughout the season, moving up to fourth in defensive rebounding percentage.

"I have not zoned a lot," Adelman said. "I never liked it. I think it's good to change up once in a while or take someone out of their comfort zone. I've always found, in the NBA especially, it kind of lets people off the hook as far as their responsibilities for defending. Now you're telling them, 'No, you're just playing a spot.' It lets people just stand around, instead of having responsibilities for their man and helping their teammates."

I'm sure Rick Adelman could explain this in more detail, and it might make more sense. But as stated, this strikes me as a little hard-headed. 

The fact is that there are a lot of things in life that don't require running around and sweating, but are nonetheless effective. Deploying your players so they are taking away easy baskets seems like a more important priority than making sure everyone looks busy, doesn't it?

On the other hand, I take it all back. I hope Houston never uses a steady diet of zone -- because that way offenses will keep being surprised when teams like my favored Blazers use the zone.

• If you haven't seen this yet, you have to watch the highlights of Miami's 130-129 OT win over the Warriors. Dwyane Wade was the hero, but Michael Beasley, Udonis Haslem, and Chris Quinn all made HUGE game-saving plays. Jamal Crawford scored 40. The Warriors -- in a real funk now -- made all kinds of bad mistakes. Hash of Golden State of Mind writes: "Oh man. That was no good for anyone involved. There aren't very many times where I end up thinking, 'Damn, I wish they had just blown us away instead' but this might be one of them."
• SLCDunk quotes C.J. Miles of the Utah Jazz talking to David Locke from TheFanSports.com: "[Deron Williams] definitely stole my car too by the way. He stole your car? Came to my house, left his car, took my car. Which car did he leave you? The Maserati." Not bad!
• Devin Harris, comfortable among the cheerleaders. (Via the Howeva Files)
• Last week Jason Levien made the jump from NBA agent to NBA front office, with the Sacramento Kings. It has not been done much. But you know one guy who did it? Ed Tapscott, current interim head coach of the Washington Wizards. Mike Jones of the Washington Times on how Tapscott came to work for Ernie Grunfeld: "It wasn't until he left AU that Tapscott put his law degree to use and became an agent. In 1991, he met Grunfeld through a mutual friend. Tapscott was scouting Georgia Tech's Kenny Anderson in hopes of signing him; Grunfeld was scouting Anderson in hopes of drafting him for the Knicks. Roughly five months later, Grunfeld, who had been promoted to New York's general manager, offered Tapscott a job."
• Howard Beck of The New York Times with a couple of lines that do an excellent job of being gentle and factual, but still make Stephon Marbury look terrible: "The meeting Monday was scheduled for 2 p.m. Marbury's Rolls-Royce pulled up to the building at 2:30 p.m. Although he still has access to the players' private lot, Marbury had his driver park in front. Wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt emblazoned with his personal logo, Marbury strode through the front doors and smiled for a small group of reporters and cameras. He left 15 minutes later, then waited in his car. Biagas came out 20 minutes later and left with Marbury."
• New LeBron James trade proposals enter my inbox. Every LeBron trade scenario has the same feeling of being impossible for any number of reasons. Worth noodling with, though. And for what it's worth, I think the Cavaliers need to get at least one of the ten best youngish players in the NBA for such a thing to even be remotely considered. (In case you missed it, this is why we're even vaguely talking about doing the dumb thing by trading the greatest player on the planet.) UPDATE: Mocking the entire exercise ... an insane Knick fan fantasy.
• I am one of those people who, even though it's 2008 and I'm supposed to be too young for this demographic, loves getting a paper newspaper delivered every morning. A fresh paper has been a top reason to get out of bed for me since college. And when I get it, of course, the first thing I do is flip straight to the sports section. That used to be purely because I was a sports fan. I'm sure you're the same way. But these last few months, with financial turmoil, terrorism, and so much trouble on the front page ... doesn't it feel more than ever like escapism? To me it feels just a little like: OK, the house just might be on fire. But come on kids, let's go play in the sandbox in the backyard! It's a magical place where things like what kind of t-shirt Stephon Marbury wore yesterday matters, and no one will make you worry about soothing tensions in Pakistan.
• The majesty of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook: A discussion. And I'll add my super obvious two cents to what made it so amazing: It went in. Yes, I know it was hard to block, and there were a thousand other things about it. But the greatest thing about it was that he hit it so darn often.
• Remembering the 1993-1994 Houston Rockets, who proved that with Michael Jordan in retirement, one superstar was enough to win a title.
• Per minute, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose have very similar numbers.
• What ever happened to two-time NCAA champ Taurean Green? Jeremy from Pickaxe and Roll: "Green landed in Spain in the best league outside the NBA. He is suiting up for CAI Zaragoza. Zaragoza has a 4-6 record, but Green appears to be playing pretty well. He is third on the team in scoring at 11.3 points and 2.7 assists per game. He is shooting 43% from three point land and 52% from inside the arc. It may take one year or three or four, but I think Green will be back in the NBA someday."
• Thoughts about who might want Eddy Curry. My thought is that with a contract like his, he'll need to show he can get healthy before someone will take him on.
• Jerry Sloan tells the Salt Lake Tribune's Ross Siler about the death of the mid-range game: "There's not anything exciting about a 15-foot jump shot. People go home and say, 'God, I'm bored to death.' How many times you ever see them show on television, people write in the newspaper, anything about a guy making a 15-foot jump shot? It's always they made a three or they got a dunk."
• Pretty good attendance, league-wide, over the Thanksgiving weekend.
• The Cavaliers' owner still expects us to believe that the fuss over LeBron James' free agency is a media phenomenon that is not being driven by James. OK, whatever you say.
• Michael Lee of the Washington Post: "With the Nets trading Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons last summer, they looked like a rebuilding team gearing up for the LeBron Sweepstakes in 2010 -- especially after they sent Jason Kidd to Dallas earlier in the year. But even while they playfully wink at LeBron James, the Nets (9-7) actually look like a team that plans on being somewhat competitive the next two seasons."
• From the jokers at Bend it like Bennett: "Scotty Brooks etched his name into history this weekend by becoming the Thunder's all-time winningest head coach, tying the mark previously set by Thunder legend PJ Carlesimo."

• Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian: "The combination of mounting losses and frustrated owners has already resulted in two head coaches losing their jobs early in this NBA season. The firings -- likely just the beginning -- illustrate a shifting NBA environment in which team owners and executives exhibit a 'win now' mentality and are less tolerant of losses regardless of other factors influencing the team's competitiveness. The executives' shrinking patience is driven by revenue considerations, a desire to retain star players and a 'Why not here? Why not now' ethos stemming from quick turnarounds elsewhere, such as the one Boston pulled off last season en route to an NBA championship."
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "Kiki Vandeweghe won't speculate on where Devin Harris ranks among Eastern point guards. But he leaves little doubt he regards the 6-foot-3, fifth-year player from Wisconsin as nearly untouchable, were any team to inquire about a trade. 'We're very happy to have him,' he said, 'very, very happy.' The migration of Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups to the Western Conference has left the East without a signature point guard. Mike Bibby has helped to keep the Hawks among the conference's leaders, and Mo Williams looks a lot like the perimeter scoring threat LeBron James has begged Danny Ferry to bring to Cleveland for the past couples of seasons. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce lobby for recognition for Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose already has shown he is a future star at the point. Right now, though, there is no Eastern point guard you'd rather have than Harris. It is no wonder former Mavs coach Avery Johnson was so adamantly against the February trade that sent the talented 24-year-old to New Jersey in exchange for Kidd, who was 34 when the deal went down. 'When we made the trade,' Vandeweghe said, 'we could see Devin was very fast and a very good defender. When given the opportunity to play consistently, he always scored.'"
• K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: "You've probably watched multiple times highlights of Derrick Rose's victimization of Andre Miller with a spectacular block and again on a crossover dribble. If not for a team film session held early Monday, Rose wouldn't have seen either highlight at all. 'I don't even watch 'SportsCenter' or none of that stuff,' Rose said. 'I stopped watching that ever since (Memphis) played Tennessee in college because you can't believe that hype.' Rose was just warming up. 'I just did a simple move and he fell,' Rose said. 'I've done that before. It's just that's the first time it happened in a game. I just thought it was a regular play. It just naturally happened. I just wanted to score and I put myself in a situation that I could get to the basket. That's how I've been playing my whole life. I just try to win. For those plays to happen, it just takes a will. I just wanted those plays to happen.'"
• Chris Lau of the Detroit Free Press: "Michael Curry said Monday that he expects his starters will continue to play fewer minutes than they are used to. ... Curry's goal is to keep everyone fresh for the stretch -- which wasn't always the case during former coach Flip Saunders' three-year tenure. 'Young guys haven't played,' he said. 'At the end of the year, guys are tired. Y'all tell me all the excuses -- I've read all of them over the years. We're going to play our young guys. If our young guys are playing well, they're going to stay in the game. They deserve it, they've earned it, and that's what we're going to do.'"
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald: "Many around the league think the Cavaliers will attempt to deal guard/forward Wally Szczerbiak at the trade deadline in February. The thinking is they might be able to use his $13 million contract in a deal for a big man. A few things could foil that master plan. One, the Cavs are playing so well right now, it might be extremely risky to break up the team. Second, Szczerbiak is making a strong impact right now off the bench with his outside shooting. And third, rookie J.J. Hickson might evolve into the kind of player for which they might trade. The Cavs (14-3) are just starting to realize Hickson's vast potential."
• Bob Young of The Arizona Republic: "But in the NBA, it still comes down to having talent first and then hoping you have a coach who can get the most out of it. That's why it's time for the Suns to quit whining and pining. Stop worrying about the offense, and try to run the dang thing. Forget about free agency in 2010 and try to do something special in 2008-09. In other words, don't grouse, just play. There is plenty of talent on the Suns roster. And we'll never know whether Terry Porter's approach works if the players don't buy into it. So far, they really haven't. ... If the Suns aren't going to buy into Porter's system, if they're going to abandon the us-against-the-world mantra that they have rallied around in the past and adopt instead this 'me-against-the-system' approach, then Robert Sarver might just as well blow this team up at the trading deadline. And if that happens, don't blame Porter."
• Ivan Carter of The Washington Post: "DeShawn Stevenson's phone started ringing off the hook shortly after he missed a pair of crucial free throws late in Saturday night's 102-98 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks and the veteran guard, who is trying to work his way out of a 30 percent shooting slump, has been getting advice from all quarters lately. 'My mom said I need to grow my beard back,' said Stevenson, who played with a beard all of last season but cut it off over the summer. 'Somebody else said I have to bring my hand gesture back, but to do that, I have to make a shot. So, when you're losing, that's how it is man. What I'm trying to do is stay focused, keep a smile on my face and be DeShawn and try to get my swagger back on the court. It will come.'"
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: "Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, who still has a home in Orlando from his days as Magic coach, said winning the NBA title last season allowed him to finally touch the hallowed trophy. 'I did have it in Orlando for a couple of days,' Rivers said. 'I set it at the breakfast table every morning. I didn't have a party or anything; I just had it at the house. I wanted to look at it and be very close to it. I had refused to touch it up to that point in my life. I never touched that trophy. I had been in a room with it a lot before. I just didn't think you should touch it unless you win it.' Rivers, fired in 2003 by the Magic, was asked if winning a title changes the perception of a coach. 'I don't know ... that's up to you guys [media] to say, but I'm sure it does. I don't take it lightly,' he said."
• Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle: "The atmosphere at Oracle Arena had the feel of a big-time prizefight, full of desire and sweet anticipation and full-throated roars for the deserving. This was Oakland's greeting Monday night for a team that had lost six in a row and seems headed down an utterly aimless path. It's not merely forgiveness that characterizes the Warriors' fan base, but true appreciation of the NBA as a showcase for the best players in the world. There's an unconditional love in the building, tested through countless episodes of futility, and it stands in stark contrast to struggling franchises dealing with empty seats and apathetic souls."
• Ramona Shelburne of the Los Angeles Daily News: "Lamar Odom is averaging a career-low 7.5 field goal attempts this year in a career-low 25 minutes a game in his new role as the Lakers' sixth man. But after taking just three shots in 29 minutes in Sunday's win over the Raptors, Odom said that was less about playing time and more about the way the Lakers have been sharing the ball this season. 'The game is called basketball, not shoot,' he said. 'You can play a complete basketball game without shooting a lot of shots. There aren't too many guys that can do it, I just happen to be one of them.'"
• Martin Frank of The News Journal: "Sixers president and general manager Ed Stefanski wouldn't comment Monday, saying he planned to answer questions about the team Wednesday. But Stefanski can't be happy after watching the team he built during the offseason suffer its second straight lopsided defeat."
• Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: "Griz point guard Mike Conley said the effect of losing five of the past six games at home isn't lost on the players. 'A lot of guys took that loss (to Oklahoma City) personally,' Conley said. 'We're going to be more prepared, mentally focused, and cut out the outside forces and try to win people back.' One word in every Grizzly vocabulary is effort. Nothing will change unless they get more of it."
• Richard Walker of the Gaston Gazette: "Larry Brown would like to see the NBA adopt some of the world's basketball rules and force a more up-tempo game. The reason is quite simple he says. 'We're a global game now and I think we need one set of rules,' Brown said. 'I'm watching old-time games and if you didn't get off 100 shots, it was a bad outing. Nowadays, it's 80 or 81 shots pe