Brian Kane – Thanksgiving 2016, 8pm. I’ve gained 20 pounds in about 4 hours. The tryptophan has consumed me. I’m overcome by the lethargy. Cartoon empty dinner plates dance in a circle above my head. It’s times like these I’m thankful the Contested Long Two crew can throw together a good old-fashioned shootaround to shake off the turkey-induced rust. Fair warning: I’ll be playing matador defense and only shooting contested elbow jumpers Paul Pierce style. Here are a few other things the basketball world has blessed me with this year, that I am very thankful for:
Celtics Newbies
The Rook Jaylen Brown is playing meaningful minutes in big games and putting up efficient numbers early in his first campaign. Brown’s per-36 stat line looks like it belongs under the name of an established vet. He’s an astounding +52 in the 4th quarter so far, and while that represents a small sample size, I’m thankful a rookie is playing 4th quarter minutes for us at all.
Looking back on the draft, picks 3 through 9 seemed to have equal value, and with the first pick of the lot the Celtics had the most to lose by choosing the wrong guy. Early returns on Brown show he deserved that selection. Brown’s best performance of the season came in a competitive affair against the defending champions. He stuffed the stat sheet and guarded the greatest basketball player on earth without fear. I’m going to love watching this guy grow.
Oh, and then there’s Al Horford:
A Healthy Brow
Anthony Davis has stolen the NBA’s Sisyphus narrative from 2015 Finals Lebron, and he’s wearing it well. He put up a ridiculous 50/15/5/4/5 statline in a loss earlier this year. In fifteen games Davis has topped 30 points ten times, and 40 points three times. The difference in talent between him and the Pelicans’ second best player is probably similar to the difference in talent between that player and me.
Watching a Pelicans game is like watching Davis try to repair a ship a crew of men are dismantling, and it’s purely astounding that sometimes that ship sails. He’s Sisyphus, and the Pelican’s are the boulder he’ll shove uphill until he breaks. The man is an art form.
The most important reason Davis deserves our thanks, though, transcends his talent and his team’s incompetence. The real reason we should be thankful for Anthony Davis is that in the age of the super-team, he honest-to-god wants to stay and fix his own ship. He might be the best player in the world, on the worst team in the world, with about a million avenues out, and he wants to stay. Parents: when you sit your kids down and attempt to teach them the vague and confusing concept of loyalty, thank Anthony Davis for providing you a simple blueprint.
Zach Lavine
I’ve experienced about 3 “generations” of basketball players in the NBA since I became a fan, each with it’s own transcendent dunker. The first generation’s air-apparent was Vince Carter. The second: J.R. Smith. And this new generation’s most eye-popping, heart-stopping, arm-flailing, walk out the room with your hands on your head cuz you need a minute dunker is Zach Lavine. I never thought I’d see a better dunker than VC. Thanks to Lavine, I might.
Scott Levine – I’m not a thankful person, but here we go.
Big Men Shooting Threes
It took a 67-win behemoth to make teams fully realize that it’s better to take three-point jump shots than two-point jump shots. Of course, players can’t just start swishing threes overnight.
Well, now all that practice is finally paying off for a few big men.
Brook Lopez has shot 5.5 threes a game this season and is making 34.8% of them. Marc Gasol is shooting threes. DeMarcus Cousins is continuing to shoot threes. Al Horford shoots threes. Even Amir Johnson got in on the fun when he went 4-4 from behind the arc against Chicago in early November. We’re all proud of Blake Griffin’s efforts. Shout out to Darrell Arthur.
Two seasons ago, there were only a handful of players who could shoot threes at a decent-sized volume and protect the rim. It was Serge Ibaka, Chris Bosh, and…shit, was there anyone else who did that? Channing Frye?
The 2015 Draft had three guys who will probably be able to do both: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis, and Myles Turner. Then Joel Embiid was cleared to play this season. Add Nikola Jokic to this list if he shows more promise on defense this season.
Not only are both three-point shooting and rim protection super helpful, but if you have one big who can do both, it makes it easier to play a big who can do neither. Gorgui Dieng and KAT have a net rating of +33 when on the floor together after 11 games.
Fisdale has staggered Gasol and Randolph, as has Brown with Embiid and Okafor, but it would make sense that Randolph and Okafor would thrive alongside their respective swiss army knife teammates. This gives me hope that there is still a place in the league for the Randolph and Okafor types, as long as they have a frontcourt partner to do all the futuristic things, and as long as the other team doesn’t go small, forcing them to guard a wing. It also makes non-shooting perimeter players more playable.
Cool.
Houston Rockets
The 2015-2016 Houston Rockets had no identity. They were boring to watch, and finished a very faceless 41-41. They needed an injection from their next coach, and so were presented with a fork in the road. After the Jeff Van Gundy and Scott Brooks noise quieted down, the two candidates for the Rockets seemed to be Frank Vogel and Mike D’Antoni.
Each coach represented the polar opposite of the other. With Vogel, Harden would dribble the air out of the ball, make enough contested threes to help the team stay afloat, and the team would defend. With D’Antoni, they wouldn’t defend as well, but would realize the full potential of James Harden’s offensive ability.
There is about a 50-something win ceiling for a team that has an elite offense and cannot play at least average defense. A team that defends and can use Harden isos to keep them afloat offensively has a higher ceiling in the playoffs. Houston went with the lower ceiling in D’Antoni, and then signed defensive no-nos Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson. They put their win cap at about 50 and will not make it past round two of the playoffs, but who cares? D’Antoni has turned Harden into a hyper efficient Steve Nash and it’s fun as hell.
They weren’t going to win the championship this year anyways, and if you’re a free agent you’d much rather play for the D’Antoni Rockets than the Vogel Rockets unless you’re DeMar DeRozan and prefer ugly isolation basketball.
Contested Long Twos 