SB Nation - Rafer Alston

Pacers 107, Nets 91: Pacers Enjoy Winning Feeling Again

Tom Lewis — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:39:38 -0000

More photos » by Tom Strattman - AP

Roy Hibbert and the Pacers made things tough on the Nets in the second half.

Winning is fun, remember?

The Indiana Pacers enjoyed contributions from several sources, made plenty of shots and applied enough pressure to put away a struggling New Jersey Nets team, 107-91.

Forget the opponent though, the Pacers ended their own struggles by winning for the first time in six games and just the second time in their past 12. Plus, the way the Pacers played and the players that stepped up to put away the win was a welcome sight for Jim O'Brien.

Once again, the Pacers second unit provided the spark the Pacers needed to take control of the game early. In particular, Earl Watson, Mike Dunleavy and Tyler Hansbrough worked well together while pushing the Pacers out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter.

The first unit kept the flow going to start the second half and after the bench continued their solid play it became apparent the Pacers' were headed for a win. Shots were falling, offensive rebounds were plentiful and nothing was coming easy for the Nets. In fact, Rafer Alston's three-pointer was the only bucket New Jersey scored in a ten minute stretch covering the end of the third quarter and early fourth.

Shortly after the New Jersey drought, Roy Hibbertended any doubt in the Fieldhouse that this was the Pacers' night, when he beat the shot clock with a 3-ball (in rhythm, nice stroke, the whole thing) to put the Pacers up 21 points with about eight minutes left.

No lead is ever big enough with the Pacers, but against the Nets that would be enough on this night.

More thoughts and observations on the Pacers' win:

Consider that without Danny Granger's 25 points per game and Dahntay Jones only scoring five, ten below his 15 point per game average, the Pacers were still able to score 107 points and cruise to a 16-point win. Five Pacers scored in double figures to fill the scoring void.
Roy Hibbert finished with 20 points on his 23rd birthday which exceeded the 18 points he scored in the previous three games combined. Roy had that energetic bounce to his game that seems to lift the spirits of the whole team. Hibby also finished with 3 blocks and 9 rebounds, including 7 second-chance boards which helped earn him some easy buckets.
Tyler Hansbrough took full advantage of his minutes limit rising to 24 minutes. He used up all of the minutes to score a game-high and career-high 21 points. He too worked the offensive glass, with 4 of his 7 rebounds at the offensive end. Hansbrough held up well defensively with three steals while guarding everyone from Brook Lopez to Chris Douglas-Roberts.
Earl Watson was solid off the bench at the point making things go for the second unit without needing to take many shots. His +22 on the night reveals his effectiveness, especially compared to another up and down performance from T.J. Ford. The downside of Watson's great play was that A.J. Price didn't get any minutes. Hard to blame JOB on this night because Watson was playing well and the team desperately needed a win.
Mike Dunleavy also had his minutes limit boosted to 24 and he was available for most of the fourth quarter. Dunleavy played 21 minutes and pumped in an efficient 15 points with a nice stroke going on his perimeter shot. Dunleavy made all three of his 3-ball attempts and continued to keep that second unit in motion.
Brandon Rush played a ton of minutes thanks to his defensive effort. He also chipped in 10 points and 8 rebounds with a few nice buckets. There were also a handful of possessions I'm sure he'd like to do over.
Dahntay Jones had a real interesting game, as well. He was on the court quite a bit, but with things going well offensively for the team he never gave into the temptation to pad his scoring average. In fact, Dahntay only took four shots on the night, instead settling in to chase around the Nets' dangerous guard duo of Devin Harris and Courtney Lee.
Speaking of Devin Harris, I was surprised to see him in a heated discussion with Rod Thorn in the tunnel outside the Nets' locker room at halftime. Not sure exactly what the discussion was about, but I don't think he and Rafer Alston are on the same page.
Troy Murphyalso had an efficient night with 15 points and 12 rebounds on just 7 FGAs. Before the game he also expressed his happiness with Brian Kelly taking over as Notre Dame's football coach. Acknowledging that Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops weren't leaving their gigs, he figures Kelly was the best the Domers could do, so he's keeping the faith.
Prior to the game, the Pacers announced that Reggie Miller will be at the Fieldhouse on Tuesday to make a major announcement to benefit the Pacers Foundation, The People's Burn Foundation/Brave Hearts Camp and Riley Hospital for Children Pediatric Burn Unit. Sounds like Reggie will be showing his hero chops in Indy once again. Wonder if a '3' will be included in the final numbers.

Orlando Magic News for December 10th: Dwight Howard and Vince Carter Could Start in the All-Star Game

Ben Q Rock — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:00:25 -0000

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Kobe in West, D-Wade in East take lead in All-Star voting
The NBA released the first returns in its All-Star balloting and the Orlando Magic have done well so far. Center Dwight Howard, who set a record for total votes received last year, is again in line to start this year; he leads Shaquille O'Neal, his next closest competitor, by more than 400,000 votes. Meanwhile, Vince Carter is in line to start at guard, second at the position only to the Heat's Dwyane Wade, who leads all vote-getters in the Eastern Conference. Carter leads Gilbert Arenas is big, but not insurmountable, at just under 80,000 votes.

Rashard Lewis ranks 10th among Eastern forwards. Jameer Nelson, the other Magic player on the ballot, did not appear in the early results. Naturally, none of this damages their chances of actually playing in the game...
Chat: John Hollinger
...because as John Hollinger explains, the coaches--who select the reserves--tend to reward good teams by allotting more roster spots to their players.

Likely East All-Star team is Wade, [Chris] Bosh, LeBron [James] and nine players from the Celtics, Magic and Hawks.
Denton: Lack of Respect Motivates Magic
I enjoyed J.J. Redick's perspective on the Magic's lack of respect, which has become a fairly tired subject.

"Around the league I think we’re well respected, especially among players and coaches who know the game of basketball," Magic reserve guard J.J. Redick said. "We have three legitimate superstars and four really when Jameer (Nelson) is healthy. But we’re a small market and we’re not L.A., we’re not New York and we don’t have LeBron James.

"We’re starting to get some attention, but we don’t set out for that. We just want to win," Redick continued. "I think we’d rather be called the best team in June than the best team on Dec. 9th."
#13 Orlando Magic
Forbes.com rates the Magic as the NBA's 13th-most-valuable franchise. I found this fact particularly interesting:

This [sic] Magic's run to the finals last season, where they were defeated by the Lakers, boosted their bottom line by $5 million. The extra loot from the postseason will come in handy as the team awaits its new building, the Amway Center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.

It's also nice to see that the franchise has increased in value each year since 2002, and in revenue since 2004.
Stephen Jackson fits in with Bobcats, Larry Brown
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated writes about Magic backup point guard Jason Williams, pushed into starting duty due to Nelson's knee injury. Williams came out of a year-long retirement to sign with Orlando in August.

"Sometimes when you have a long career you like it and you appreciate it, but I think it goes to another level when you have a year off," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "He really wanted to come back. The thing we liked with him, which is a lot like what we liked with Rafer [Alston] last year, is that we had a pretty good confidence level that if needed, he could play big minutes. He just always had one of those motors that he could go a long time."
Rafer Alston rips New Jersey Nets, winning streak halted at one as Golden State Warriors romp
Alston is not happy with his teammates in New Jersey, to which Orlando dealt him in a package to obtain Carter and Ryan Anderson. In short order, Alston went from starting for an NBA Finalist to backing up the worst team in the league.

After the Nets took a 105-89 pounding from the Warriors last night at the Meadowlands, Nets reserve Rafer Alston blasted his teammates for not sticking together through the tough times.

[....] But what especially rankled Alston last night was seeing teammates fail to pull for each other before an announced crowd of 10,005 at the Meadowlands.

Alston would not have been happy here backing up Nelson, but clearly he's unhappy in New Jersey as well. The middle ground would be for the Nets to trade him to a team that needs a point guard, most obviously Alston's hometown New York Knicks. But because Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling, the Nets' other point guards, have nagging injuries, the Nets will likely hang on to Alston's expiring deal.
Fun With Numbers and Venn Diagrams
UPDATE: Ryan Schwan of Hornets 247 attempts to categorize point guards using a series of Venn Diagrams. It's interesting to see where Nelson (the scorer) and Williams (the distributor) land here.

Knicks 106, Nets 97

Seth — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:11:22 -0000

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Like many Knicks games this season, tonight's win over the Nets was a tale of two halves. Thankfully, the opponent was helpless enough to render New York's own mood swings less than fatal. In the first half, we saw the familiar Knicks. They actually scored pretty effectively, but gave the Nets absolutely anything they wanted on the other end. The first two quarters today comprised the Nets' best half of the season. They league's worst team scored 61 points in the opening periods, keyed by Devin Harris, who drove to the rim and pulled-up from midrange pretty much unimpeded. In the second half? 36. The Knicks tightened up their defense and (aided slightly by the Nets' natural instincts to implode) turned a losing effort into a decisive win.

Notes, after the jump...

- Danilo Gallinari was back in uniform tonight (with a shooter's sleeve!), but Mike D'Antoni opted to ride the hot hand and keep Al Harrington in the starting lineup, which paid off nicely. From the outset, Al recognized the speed advantage he had over Josh Boone and exploited it mercilessly. Harrington's spin move is deadly, and he utilized it early and often to blow past Boone and finish at the rim. On the game, Al limited himself to only three threes, and did most of his work around the basket. He didn't just score either, finishing with a superb 24 points (10-18), 14 boards, and 5 assists in 40 minutes. Al's a hell of a player, and if he was always this motivated, nobody would be in favor of trading him.

- Just to emphasize that the quality of Harrington's dominant performance was a welcome departure from the usual, Clyde reacted to a gorgeous pass thrown Al to David Lee with "where did that come from!?".

- David Lee couldn't do much to stop Brook Lopez on offense (as Clyde said, "size matters"), but give credit to both Lee and Harrington for superb box-outs throughout the game. Lopez was muscled out of a number of rebounds, and finished with only 6 of his own. Lee and Harrington had 9 and 14 boards respectively, and worked hard for them.

- Lee also had his offense going, and kept Lopez honest by nailing his mid-range jumpers. That opened up the paint for Lee and others, as big Brookie had to step out to contest the J. That's an under-rated weapon, and it was a pleasure to see Dave score confidently from outside.

- Chris Duhon started attacking the rim, but just couldn't get a roll. He ended up 2-12, but I will say that he was, for the most part, missing the kinds of shots we'd like to see him take. There were more quick drives to the rim and less out-of-rhythm threes. That counts for something, I think. Not a great game, though.

- Danilo Gallinari made a relatively brief appearance today, probably owing to both his still-injured forearm and the recent resurgence of Al Harrington. Gallo was able to make an impact in his 21 minutes, though, with 3 three-pointers and 4 rebounds to his name.

- The Knicks were at their very worst in the second quarter, and it was a little disarming. One would like to think that the main advantage the Knicks have over a team like the Nets is their second unit, but Kiki Vandeweghe's bench thrived against the second-string Knicks. Rafer Alston (3-11) didn't shoot well, but had an easy team finding teammates like Keyon Dooling (4-7) for open shots. The pace quickened in the second, which you would think of as Knick-friendly, but New Jersey actually opened up a double-digit lead for part of the quarter.

- Chris Douglas-Roberts is very talented, very cool, and makes Joey look very wise. I love Gallo and wouldn't change a thing about that draft, but...damn.

- I'm disappointed in Clyde for not rhyming "Dooling" with something.

- This game was especially well mic'd, and we got to hear a lot of the on-court banter, including Al Harrington, after taking a hard fast break foul from Devin Harris, grumbling "I'm never gonna try and dunk again" while being peeled off the floor.

- Mike D'Antoni wielded his zone defense a few times, including in that second quarter in order to stifle the Nets' run. It worked pretty nicely for stretches, as Jared Jeffries or Wilson Chandler was able to roam the middle and help out on Brook Lopez to limit his touches and force other Nets to create offense.

- Al Trautwig casually snuck in a pretty ominous line during the halftime show: "The Knicks are what Chris Duhon is". Yikes.

- The young Garden audience (it was a noon start) spent much of the second half huffing and puffing at Mike D'Antoni's doghouse, begging for Nate Robinson. Chants of "we want Nate!" rained down even as the Knicks pulled away for the win, which leads me to conclude that the majority of New York-area youth don't do what Toney Douglas do just yet. This disappoints me. Weren't you little brats listening?

- In the third quarter, it was Larry Hughes of all people that keyed the run that eventually became the win. Hughes scored 12 in the period, including a personal stretch of 8 straight, and the Nets could never recover. Can't blame them. I've only just recovered.

- The guy who initiates that "I SAY D, YOU SAY FENSE!" chant sounds a lot like Xzibit to me. Since I haven't been to a game in a while, I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the Garden hype guy actually is Xzibit, since that's not at all out of the question, given his other work.

The Knicks have now won three of their last four, and look to add to their recent success tomorrow night against the Blazers. I have to be in class for pretty much the duration of the game (I know, right?), so I'll be in the market for a guest-recapper if anybody's interested. Let me know.

Finally, a Win For the Former Orlando Magic Players in New Jersey

Ben Q Rock — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:34:50 -0000

More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

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After their 97-91 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, the New Jersey Nets' long nightmare is over. New Jersey has its first win on the season, improving to 1-18 tonight after setting an NBA record for most losses to start a season, with 18. Brook Lopez--an All-Star in the making--tallied 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots in the win.

The Nets have four former Orlando Magic players, which is why I'm mentioning their win on a Magic-centric site. Rafer Alston, Tony Battie, Keyon Dooling, and Courtney Lee played a combined 600 regular-season games for Orlando. Lee played a big role in New Jersey's win tonight, with a career-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including connecting on 3 of his 4 attempts from three-point range. He added 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals for good measure. Battie played his first-ever game as a Net, only recording a missed field goal in 6 minutes. Keyon Dooling also made his season debut, and scored 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting. De to a sore left knee, Alston did not play.

The Magic sent Alston, Battie, and Lee to New Jersey in June in the deal headlined by eight-time Vince Carter coming to Orlando; Ryan Anderson, a 21-year-old power forward, also went to Orlando in that transaction. Dooling arrived in New Jersey as part of a sign-and-trade transaction in 2008, after the Magic were unwilling to go above the luxury-tax threshold in order to meet his salary demands.

Congratulations to Rafer, Tony, Keyon, Courtney, and the rest of the New Jersey Nets.

UPDATE: Here's Chris Sheridan's game story for TrueHoop, which includes this bit about Lee, speaking about the last time he won an NBA game:

For Lee, it had been 156 days since he won a meaningful game. "I remember, I dunked on Derek Fisher and had 13 in that game," Lee said, showing memory skills not quite up to par with his basketball skills (he scored only 4 points in that Game 3 victory over the L.A. Lakers during the finals, which he followed up with a 4-point performance in Game 4 -- part of the reason that he is no longer with the Orlando Magic).

Is Sheridan suggesting the Magic would not have traded Lee had he played better in the Finals?

What's Wrong With Trevor? - A Rebuttal

Only_A_Lad — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:13:35 -0000

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I have to get to class soon, so I'm going to make this short.

Dave made a comparison between Ariza and a certain player earlier this morning, and I think it expresses a concern we've all felt: Trevor is trying to shoot the Rockets out of the game. In fact, Dwyer at BDL has explicitly said this. The argument seems to be a simple one: Ariza takes too many threes.

And yet we're faced with a dilemma: the Rockets, whom we all suspect to be geniuses or androids or something, are apparently encouraging Trevor to do these things. What's up wit dat?

By now, I'm sure you're all familiar with our new best friends at Hoopdata. Let's look at their stats for Ariza this year. What do we see?

First, his efficiency beyond the arc is the best it has ever been outside of the playoffs. It's not a particularly efficient shot for Trevor this season, but it's worth slightly more than shooting 50% on twos.

Second, his efficiency at the rim and around the basket has declined remarkably: an 8% decline at the rim for last year, and a 26% decrease at less than ten feet (though he doesn't take many shots from there).

Third, he has increased the number of long twos he shoots. That's not cool, and he probably needs to cut that out.

So what does that mean?

Well, if I were going to guess (and I will), it means that his three point shooting isn't the real issue so far. Trevor's decline in offensive efficiency has a lot to do with the fact that his shot around the basket isn't falling quite as often, and he seemingly can't get a call when he drives into the paint (Trevor's foul-drawing rate is down this year, as well). I would expect both of these things to improve as the season progresses.

As for the other comparisons to Rafer: as I stated in the comments section, Trevor is actually better at keeping control of the ball than Rafer was, and his contributions on the boards and on defense are better than Rafer's. And his usage rate is significantly larger than Rafer's, too. So the comparison between Ariza and the Dream Shake's menace seems to me to be only apt in describing the frustration we all feel when Ariza isn't scoring well. But I think there's a good chance that will change in the near future.

Is a certain Rocket being haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past?

grungedave — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:27:18 -0000

We're going to play a little game. It could be fun, depending on your point of view of course.

Here are five stat lines from various Rockets players... the trick is to identify which player the respective stat line belongs to. See, I told you it would be fun! And here we go - take your best guess!

Player A: 37.9% FG, 32.7% 3pt FG, 69.2% FT
Player B: 37.5% FG, 36.3% 3pt FG, 73.4% FT
Player C: 39.4% FG, 35.1% 3pt FG, 71.5% FT
Player D: 37.0% FG, 34.8% 3pt FG, 78.9% FT
Player E: 38.5% FG, 34.1% 3pt FG, 74.1% FT

okay... can you guess who the various players are? Tougher than it looks, I know! Take your best guess anyway, and we'll see how you did in a bit.

[insert Jeopardy! theme music here]

You give up? Okay, okay... the answers to today's quiz are below the jump.

And the answers are:

/Interwebs drumroll please!

Player A: Rafer Alston, 2005-06
Player B: Rafer Alston, 2006-07
Player C: Rafer Alston, 2007-08
Player D: Rafer Alston, 2008-09 (w/ Rockets)
and
Player E: Trevor Ariza (!?!?!), 2009. Yes, it's true.

Now, before Trevor Ariza came to the Rockets and turned into a gunner with no aim, he carried career averages of 45.7% shooting on standard FGs. Granted, he's never been anywhere near the 3 point shooter he appeared to be in the playoffs last year (and anyone expecting him to shoot 45% from deep this season was delusional to begin with).

Nevertheless, Trevor Ariza is eerily becoming what I never want any Rocket to be - and that's a Rafer Alston clone on offense. Even worse, for all the shit we gave Rafer when he was here, at least he could dribble the basketball and not turn it over. Trevor, however, is giving it away at a ridiculous rate of 2.6 TOs a game and he's jacking up a Rasheed-esque 7.0 3pt FGs every game. And missing almost five of them every outing. This is bad, bad, bad basketball.

To this I say:

Trevor, I want to like you. I really do.
But for this to actually happen, stop shooting it so f--king much!!

Now, if you insist on shooting the basketball (which Coach Sleepy and resident boy genius Daryl Morey apparently want you to do), that's okay. Just take it to the basket. Layups and dunks are your friend. Your mid-range jump shot is mostly useless because you take forever to wind up. Your three-point shooting is abysmal unless you are stepping into the shot and someone kicks it out to you from the post. Never, ever should you be shooting off the dribble. It's a worse idea than the Jump to Conclusions Mat... and yes, I know you have your own prototype and everything. It's still horrible, this idea.

Please reconsider your approach, Trevor. Being the next Rafer is NOT something anyone should aspire to be. Unless you like being a useless cog in an 0-18 machine.

Now, Trevor, if you tell me that you feel haunted by the ghost of Rafer Alston -- that would make a hell of a lot more sense. Though I'd still suggest you not shoot as much, just to be safe.

Lawrence Frank gets Bzdelik'd...

Andrew Feinstein — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:59:02 -0000

For his second franchise in a row, Kiki Vandeweghe has firebombed the roster, sacked a decent coach with the carnage and prayed for some luck with the draft and free agency. It worked for the Nuggets, but will it work for the Nets in New Jersey/Brooklyn?

Let's take a quick trip back to 2002. The Nuggets are floundering with a losing record, a coach/team president that calls a Hispanic fan a "Mexican piece of shit" and an expensive, relatively worthless roster featuring the likes of draft busts Raef LaFrentz and Tariq "Don't Call Me Olivier St. Jean" Abdul-Wahad, the mercurial Nick Van Exel and the grossly overpaid Avery Johnson. In comes Kiki Vandeweghe - a former Nuggets star who had been mentored by the Nelsons in the Mavericks front office - as the new G.M. Vandeweghe's first act, a bold and swift one, is to deal away LaFrentz, Abdul-Wahad, Van Exel and Johnson to his former team, take back some expiring contracts, suck for a season-and-a-half and hope for the best with free agency and the draft.

The huge - and in my opinion, unforgivable - misstep of drafting all-time bust (and Denver Stiffs Hall of Famer) Nikoloz Tskitishvili aside, Vandeweghe's gamble worked. As part of the plan, Vandeweghe brought in a young, hard-working coach in Jeff Bzdelik to change the culture on the floor and the Nuggets remarkably won 17 more games than they should have in the 2002-03 season. 17 wins was low enough, however, for the Nuggets to score Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 draft and by parting with those heavy contracts, the Nuggets had enough cap room to sign Voshon Lenard, Andre Miller and my all-time favorite one-season Nugget, Jon Barry.

Years later and in a new geographical location, Vandeweghe is doing very similar things in New Jersey under the tutelage of Rod Thorn (who in the ironies or ironies swindled Vandeweghe into trading three number one picks for Kenyon Martin in 2004). Hired in late 2007 as a "Special Assistant" to Thorn, Vandeweghe became the Nets G.M. in May of 2008.

During Vandeweghe's tenure with the Nets, the franchise has dealt the aging, overpaid Jason Kidd to Dallas for Devin Harris and several soon-to-be-expiring contracts including Trenton Hassell's, sent the overpaid Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee for Yi Jianlin and Bobby Simmons' soon-to-be-expiring contract and recently traded another max player, Vince Carter, to Orlando for the expiring contracts of Rafer Alston and Tony Battie.

Left in the wake of all these deals is the 26th lowest payroll in the NBA with the salaries of Simmons, Alston, Battie, Hassell, Keyon Dooling and Jarvis Hayes coming off the books in 2010. Plus, the Nets have one of the better young point guards in the NBA in Devin Harris, a solid center in Brook Lopez (even though my Uncle Marty claims he's a Stiff after watching him up close against the Nuggets last week), a good swingman in Chris Douglas-Roberts and even Yi was playing well before going down with another injury. Oh, and the Nets have their own lottery pick plus the Mavericks' first round pick in 2010.

But also left in the wake is a lost season that head coach Lawrence Frank - whom Vandeweghe inherited - is about to take the fall for. Saddled with a gutted-out, injury-riddled roster Frank is being Bzdelik'd. And it's not fair. Lest we forget that Frank won his first 13 games in a row when he took over the Nets for Byron Scott several seasons ago. But life's not fair (Frank does make - gasp - $4 million a year, so I don't feel that bad for him) and unlike Bzdelik's amazing performance in 2002-03, Frank's team is losing all the games they're supposed to lose.

Similar to the situation for Bzdelik in Denver, Vandeweghe won't stand up for Frank (even though this is clearly Vandeweghe's plan) and is just buying time before he can hire a big name coach to right the ship when LeBron James and/or other free agents and a top draft pick join the franchise next summer. Different from what happened in Denver, though, is that Vandeweghe is rumored to take over as head coach. I guess the bottom line is that when you lose your first 16 games (about to be 18), no matter how bad your roster/injury situation is your job isn't salvageable. Good bye, Lawrence Frank.

How's this for a far-fetched prediction moving forward? Vandeweghe takes over as coach for the remainder of the season and - a la Kevin McHale in Minnesota - the Nets beat up on some equally bad teams en route to winning about 15-18 games with a spirited effort on the floor. Then, the Nets score LeBron in the 2010 free agent sweepstakes (I really don't think LBJ is leaving Cleveland, but if he does it's to the Nets who have the best surrounding cast plus cap space to offer him) and none other than current Nuggets coach George Karl takes over as head coach when the Nuggets fail to offer Karl an extension. (On a side note, I used to think that Karl was imposed on Vandeweghe by Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke in 2005 but have since learned that Karl and Vandeweghe have a friendly relationship and get along great, so I'm just connecting the dots here.)

With Karl overseeing a roster featuring Harris at point guard, Courtney Lee or CDR at shooting guard, LBJ at small forward, (enter free agent here) at power forward and Lopez at center, the Nets move into their shiny, new Brooklyn confines in 2011 with the support of their Russian billionaire owner as a championship contender.

Frank might be getting Bzdelik'd right before our eyes, but sunny days are ahead for the Nets and Kiki knows it.

Photo courtesy of AP Photos: Bill Kostroun

Orlando Magic News for November 27th: Brandon Bass Out of the Rotation, Jameer Nelson Out of Action, and Rashard Lewis Out of $1.8 Million

Ben Q Rock — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:29:01 -0000

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Ask J.D. Mailbag: November 27
John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com opens up his mailbag for a Black Friday post, and responds to a question about why Brandon Bass has fallen out of coach Stan Van Gundy's rotation.

As for Bass, that’s a tricky one. He’s still going to play against teams with bigger, stronger frontlines. I was actually surprised that Van Gundy didn’t use him in the Miami game because he could have provided some much needed scoring punch to a Magic offense that was spotty throughout that game.

It hurts Bass that he doesn’t have 3-point range, something that Van Gundy prefers with his power forwards because that keeps bigger foes from double-teaming [Dwight] Howard. But what has cut into Bass’ playing time more than anything has been the veteran’s struggles defensively and on the boards. His easiest way to play his way back into the rotation is by rebounding the ball better.

Bass hasn't played since the Magic's romp over Oklahoma City on November 18th, and even then he was relegated to mop-up duty, playing the final 6:21 of a 14-point win.
Magic W-L record suggests Jameer Nelson's absence doesn't make a huge difference by
Matt Humphrey of the Orlando Sentinel points out that the Magic have succeeded even without All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson in the lineup, this season and last.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with Jameer Nelson, including last year's run in the NBA playoffs, the Orlando Magic are 45-19.

Without Jameer Nelson?

They're 43-21 with players like Rafer Alston, Jason Williams and Anthony Johnson filling in the gap.

I'm interested to know what the point differential is like. I imagine the Magic crush teams by at least 7 points a game with Nelson, and squeak by them by roughly 4 points a game without him. If anyone has those figures readily available, I'm all ears.
Bucks hope to hold winning pair
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes that Magic forward Rashard Lewis may try to recoup some of the money he lost during his 10-game suspension this season.

Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis and his representatives have taken an interest in the court cases involving Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Pat Williams and Kevin Williams. If the players successfully fight the NFL’s attempts to suspend them for violating that league’s anti-doping policy, then Lewis may seek to recover some of the $1.8 million he lost in salary resulting from his 10-game suspension.
Catching Up With Rashard Lewis
Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict posts this transcript of a chat he had with Lewis during the Magic's visit to Toronto last weekend.

When he was in town this weekend I talked with Lewis about where his fascination with shooting three’s came from, what he learned while playing with Ray Allen in Seattle and he talked about the kinds of shooting battles he has in practices with Vince Carter and J.J. Redick.

Preview: Nets at Kings

Ziller — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:00:20 -0000

by Matt Slocum - AP

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"No mas! No mas!"

THE OPPONENT

Holy crap. Where to start? OK, for one, I don't know if you have heard this, but the Nets have not won a game since, like, April. 0-15. Zero wins, fifteen freaking losses. No team is really that bad, though I remember the awful 1998-99 Clippers, the team that got it's first win against the Kings in Game No. 18 of a 50-game season. That team was this bad. The Nets, though, aren't. Injury has played such a massive role in this bad start. Everyone has that excuse -- even the Lakers and Cavs and Magic and Mavericks have dealt with missing players. But for the Nets, it has been exceptionally rough. Devin Harris is the motor of the team, and he just came back. (Tonight will be his first start since October.) Courtney Lee missed lots of time. Yi Jianlian -- I have no idea what's gone on with him. Chris Douglas-Roberts had the swine flu! Brook Lopez and Terrence Williams are the only two good players on that team that have been in action throughout, and one of them is an apositional rookie. ROUGH.

As I said, Harris is back, as is Lee. Harris-Lopez might be the best young inside-out combination in the league, with the possible exception of Roy-Oden, Rose-Noah and Gordon-Griffin. (We'll see on that last one, as well as Evans-Thompson or Evans-Hawes.) Harris should have some rust, I'd think, but adrenaline might counteract those limitations, and I wouldn't be surprised if he plays as hard as he ever has. If a well (hopefully) Beno Udrih is guarding him, let's hope our Slovenian can funnel him into help defense, because Harris is lightning quick and smart with the rock.

Lopez went for 32/14 in Portland. Aack!

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Brook Lopez	15	35.3	6.8	14.5	47.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.9	4.9	78.4	2.9	5.8	8.7	1.5	2.7	0.4	2.6	3.7	17.5
Chris Douglas-Roberts	12	35.5	6.3	13.5	46.3	0.3	1.3	25.0	4.1	4.7	87.5	1.4	3.7	5.1	1.7	1.9	1.1	0.4	1.9	16.9
Devin Harris	5	28.8	4.4	12.8	34.4	0.0	1.6	0.0	4.6	6.4	71.9	0.6	3.2	3.8	6.2	2.6	2.0	0.2	2.6	13.4
Terrence Williams	15	28.1	4.3	11.9	36.0	0.8	2.8	28.6	1.4	2.1	65.6	0.5	5.1	5.6	2.0	2.1	0.6	0.0	1.7	10.7
Rafer Alston	15	34.2	3.7	10.6	34.6	1.1	3.3	34.0	1.9	2.3	82.9	0.3	2.6	2.9	4.8	2.8	0.9	0.2	2.0	10.4
Yi Jianlian	4	29.5	3.3	8.0	40.6	0.0	0.3	0.0	3.3	3.8	86.7	1.3	6.3	7.5	0.5	2.3	0.5	1.3	3.0	9.8
Courtney Lee	8	30.9	3.0	9.8	30.8	0.4	2.1	17.6	3.4	3.9	87.1	0.6	1.6	2.3	1.8	1.0	2.4	0.5	2.0	9.8
Trenton Hassell	11	35.9	3.5	8.1	43.8	0.0	0.2	0.0	1.8	2.3	80.0	1.9	3.4	5.3	1.0	1.5	0.4	0.2	2.7	8.9
Bobby Simmons	13	19.7	2.1	5.9	35.1	0.9	3.2	28.6	0.6	0.6	100.0	0.4	2.8	3.2	0.6	1.0	0.4	0.2	2.6	5.7
Eduardo Najera	8	16.5	1.9	4.8	39.5	0.3	1.4	18.2	0.8	1.0	75.0	1.1	2.5	3.6	1.8	1.0	0.8	0.3	2.6	4.8
Josh Boone	15	17.9	1.9	4.1	46.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.9	38.5	2.0	3.7	5.7	0.6	1.0	0.5	0.6	2.0	4.2
Sean Williams	11	12.9	1.4	2.8	48.4	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.5	1.0	45.5	1.6	1.1	2.7	0.0	1.3	0.5	0.9	2.6	3.2
Jarvis Hayes	1	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.0

THE KEY BATTLE

Lopez vs. Spencer Hawes. Goofy lottery big white dude vs. goofy lottery big white dude. Lopez has certainly started his career off in more bombastic fashion, though obviously Hawes has been no slouch, and these two are effectively the same age. Hawes would do well to pull Lopez away from the rim to open up lanes for the slashers and elbow room for Jason Thompson. On the other end, expect early help, especially if Lopez is going strong in the post.

INTERESTING SIDESHOW

The crowd at ARCO is going to be really interesting. I mean, can anything good come of this game for Kings fans? I haven't been this nervous about a game since that time I played strip Parcheesi with Keira Knightley and Fran Drescher. Mix in the holiday weekend, the lack of a pre-game buffet and the anonymity of the opponent, and ... hmm.

BOLD PROCLAMATION

Lawrence Frank is going to yell at someone. Not necessarily a Net.

NUMERIC PREDICTION

Kings by 13.

DETAILS

Game at 7. Game thread at 7. Post-game thread at 9:45. Recap at Boreal.

Jameer Nelson to Undergo Arthroscopic Knee Surgery

erivera7 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:45:57 -0000

More photos » by Phelan M. Ebenhack - AP

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Via the Orlando Magic:

Orlando Magic point guard Jameer Nelson will undergo arthroscopic surgery Wednesday morning to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Nelson was injured in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game vs. Charlotte and underwent an MRI Tuesday morning.

It is estimated that Nelson will be out four-to-six weeks following the procedure.

The injury bug just hit a little harder.

Jason Williams will presumably be the starter in the short-term, with Anthony Johnson as the back-up. As for Jameer Nelson, one has to hope for a safe and speedy recover for him. Luckily the injury isn't serious and the Orlando Magic will have its All-Star point guard back in roughly a month's time or so.

UPDATE: A little more analysis.

If there's one good thing to take away from the news, it's that the Magic aren't foreign to playing without Nelson. Orlando had to play without Jameer for half the regular season last year, as well as the majority of the postseason so this isn't uncharted territory for all parties involved. But is Jason Williams fit and ready to take on starter's minutes for a brief period of time? Who knows. Anthony should be okay as a back-up, as he proved to be a reliable player in that role this past season, but there are question marks with him. Should we expect the same production from Johnson? Who knows.

Whatever the case may be, one might expect the Magic's offense to revert back to how it was when Nelson was hurt last year. Instead of the ball being in the hands of Hedo Turkoglu a lot, especially in the pick & roll, it's now Vince Carter who may assume responsibility a bit more. Also, think of Jason as a more efficient Rafer Alston who's a better distributor of the basketball. As for the other players, it's not necessarily a bad thing for more shots to be distributed amongst Ryan Anderson, Brandon Bass, Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, and others, given their efficiency. Orlando has the depth and the firepower to withstand Jameer's absence a bit better, from the offensive side of the ball, this season. Likewise, head coach Stan Van Gundy is one of the best coaches in the NBA in adjusting on the fly, as he proved last season.

Defensively, the Magic should be relatively fine. Nelson's defense wasn't good to start the year, so perhaps Williams and Johnson can do better in that regard. Jason has rated well, defensively so far, in the early going (granted, in a reserve role) and Johnson was an above-average defender this past season, so perhaps he can carry his good play on the defensive end this year in the short-term. Just have to wait and see. Williams has been known to be a sieve, defensively, in the past but that was while he had knee problems. Jason has looked good this season, in that regard, so perhaps that won't be as much of an issue as it would have been a few season ago.

Losing an All-Star is always tough and not having as potent of a threat at point guard on offense will hurt a little, but the Orlando Magic should be okay while Jameer Nelson is out. That is, as long as everyone else stays healthy.