The growing importance of the 3-point shot in today’s NBA is hardly a secret. It has become an essential element for efficient team offense. Not only is the shot itself valuable, but its mere threat creates by far the most precious commodity in the game today — space.
Modern-day defenses, more sophisticated and aggressive than ever before, are built to take away that space. Elite offenses, meanwhile, emphasize ways to create as much of it as possible. With the exception of a select few, like Dwyane Wade, this becomes a struggle for players who struggle with outside shooting.
Because of that, a reliable 3-point shot has become the most critical skill for players to develop. It not only helps maximize earning potential, it allows players to seamlessly fit into nearly any system with positive results. Rudy Gay and Evan Turner are two such players currently reaping the benefits of an offseason spent honing their 3-point strokes.
The rookie deal non-max extension is one of the least efficient/riskiest contracts in the NBA. It comes when a player is still very young, at a stage when it’s possible to believe he might advance more in the next 12 months than he did in the previous 36 combined — even if history says that sort of leap at age 23 or 24 is unlikely. If a team passes on an extension and that growth comes right away, the team will have cost itself something like $10 million or $20 million by failing to lock up the player ahead of restricted free agency. Saving that kind of money has real roster-building impact; Boston would be short a Jason Terry or Courtney Lee right now had it not locked up Rajon Rondo at an absurdly cheap price at the extension buzzer in 2009.
Well, it’s a good thing the Sixers have four center types on their roster and entered last offseason with the goal of handing the reins to Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner. Those guys may get more scoring responsibility than even their biggest supporters envisioned, with news today that Andrew Bynum is experiencing continued pain in his surgically repaired right knee and has not yet been cleared to run.
Last night, Carmelo Anthony finally heard chants of "MVP." It was not in Madison Square Garden, where there is desperate hope that he will make the Knicks a contender this season, but in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University. It was here that he won a NCAA championship in 2003 as a freshman. Despite the controversies and disappointments that have marred Anthony's professional career, he is still regarded as an unblemished winner in upstate New York.
On Monday, the Knicks and Sixers played an exhibition game at Syracuse that was largely billed as Anthony's homecoming. His college coach, Jim Boeheim, was on hand, resplendent in an autumnal kit of brown loafers, brown socks, brown pants, and a brown suede jacket. He drank a Pepsi and signed an autograph for a happy Asian child. A crowd of students in Knicks and Orange jerseys — I'm too old to tell if they were in college or high school — yelped for Anthony's attention, mugged for out-of-town MSG cameras, and actually recognized Dolph Schayes.
After splitting a couple ofone-point games to open their series with the 76ers, the Boston Celtics emphatically won Game 3 in Philadelphia on Wednesday night by shooting 52 percent from the field while holding the Sixers to just 41 percent shooting. Since there was a mini Storage Wars marathon on A&E on Wednesday night, your plan was probably to watch that for a little bit before checking out the second half. But because the game was pretty much over at halftime, chances are you immediately flipped back to A&E for the remainder of the night. And when you woke up this morning, I’m guessing you regretted your decision and have spent all day wondering what happened with last night’s game. Well, luckily for you, I watched the entire thing and made notes on everything you missed. Here are my four observations.
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You'll find takes on moments you might've missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever.
From the Cradle: Evan Turner
This late-game, game-deciding layup came right after Kevin Garnett tried to turn Evan Turner's face into an ottoman. Most men would've needed to go to their happy caves, talk to their spirit animals, find their chi, whatever. Evan Turner? It's almost like no one gave him the memo. He's not scared because he doesn't know he's supposed to be. There he is waving his hands, asking for the ball, per usual. But after seeing this ball fake on Rondo and his Keith Byars imitation past Paul Pierce, I'm wondering: Maybe he should stop asking. He should start demanding. — Chris Ryan
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You'll find takes on moments you might've missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever.
Hero of the Night: Evan Turner
Doug Collins started Evan Turner at point guard against the depleted Bulls on Tuesday night. During the first quarter and a half, watching him miss teardrop jumpers, blow transition layups, get punked by Carlos Boozer (apparently this can actually happen), and do the Evan Turner–standing-on-the-wing-with-his-arms-in-the-air thing (that is so sad nobody even bothers to Twitpic it), I kind of wondered if Doug Collins was going to ask for Turner's gun and his badge before halftime.
1. Brandon Marshall, Will Now Winter in Chicago
Bill Simmons chimes on in on the Bears' big trade acquisition: "When you're an All-Pro WR on a team that's trying to do everything it can to sign Peyton Manning, only you get dumped for two third-round picks right in the middle of the courting process … I mean, that can't be a good sign."
2. Jarrad Page, Bo Knows!
Bill Barnwell dusts off his no. 16 Royals jersey: "It is my duty to nominate former Chiefs and Patriots safety Jarrad Page, who appears to have finished a somewhat bizarre six-year NFL career by signing a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to play baseball. Page, who apparently impressed the Dodgers in an open tryout, was selected three different times in the MLB draft before moving on to football. Page spent two years playing baseball alongside football at UCLA, and, well, his performance record isn't sterling. In 221 at-bats over two years, Page put up a .195/.270/.285 line while striking out 94 times. Because we grew up in the early nineties, though, we are nostalgic for baseball/football crossover players and want them to return. So yay Jarrad Page!"
3. Evan Turner, Scottie Pippen, Basically
In four games as a starter, the former no. 2 overall pick is averaging 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. He spent the first year and a half of his career doing some interesting things, some silly things, or nothing really at all. But ever since he replaced Jodie Meeks in the Sixers' starting lineup, he's been a powerhouse. Forget Linsanity (you probably already have) (what up, Knicks), this is EVANDEMONIUM.
For the remainder of the NBA season, The Triangle will be breaking down the biggest games of the week. On Wednesday night, the Sixers, led by Evan Turner, demolished an exhausted Celtics team 103-71 in a battle for the Atlantic Division lead.
What Was at Stake
The division lead in the division no team seems to want to win. With the Knicks taking a nosedive, it appears Boston and Philadelphia will tussle over the Atlantic. The Celtics took a five-game winning streak into the Wells Fargo Center in scenic South Philadelphia, looking to pull even with the home team. For their part, the Sixers had seen the bloom decidedly come off the rose. One of the success stories of the early season, Philly came into the game having lost eight of its last 10.
During the NBA lockout, the narrative unspooled by the vipers on the ownership side was that the league was in danger of being cleaved into two types of franchises. A small number were big-market teams in glittering, spired metropolises that collected superstars with the craven lust of billionaires taking trophy wives. The rest were clubs in backwater cow towns that collectively acted as a de facto farm system, nourishing ungrateful talent that fled to places with sunny weather and Fashion Weeks. It was heartbreaking enough to make Sweet Baby Gilbert cry.
But as we have seen in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles, a clusterfuck of superstars does not necessarily guarantee dominance. With the current salary cap, locking down three players with princely contracts means the rest of the roster will be fleshed out with unproven youngsters, waiver-wire offal, and veterans with one chipped hoof in the glue factory.
Maybe somewhere, though, between the Parnassian peaks where the haves frolic and the swamps where have-nots lurk, a third path exists. Yes, the NBA’s middle-class dream is alive in Philadelphia.
By Chris Ryan at
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
Tonight's The Night
For ... Knicks-Sixers!
In Philadelphia, you get your cheesesteaks wiz wit and you get your sports with hate. When you're not hating on Andy Reid, Juan Castillo, Raul Ibanez's peanut brittle frame, Brad Lidge's satanic soul patch, or the ghost of Donovan McNabb, you're hating on the New York Giants, the Atlanta Braves, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New York Mets. It's just how we get down.
In late November, the new owners of the Philadelphia 76ers announced that Hip-Hop, a doo-rag-wearing rabbit who was the team mascot since 1996, had “relocated to a rural part of Pennsylvania to start a family.” We can read between the lines. That’s corporate code-speak for “sentenced to 12 years in Frackville State Correctional Facility for his role in a home invasion robbery spree.” But whatever the cause for Hip-Hop’s removal, it may have been time for a change.
1. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
After spending nearly a year recovering from a concussion, Sidney Crosby returned to the ice Monday night and recorded two goals and two assists. Read Katie Baker's recap of Crosby's comeback night to remember here.
2. LeGarrette Blount, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hey, LG, That's pretty cool how you recreated the scene from Transformers 3 where the Decepticon destroys the entire building.
Nice job. This means Marshawn Lynch has to bring you a severed and stuffed lion's head and whisper, "You are the Beast Mode now," right?
3. Ben Cherington, Boston Red Sox General Manager From our EIC Bill Simmons, because "he can't find a fucking manager." Put down the carving knife, boss.
4. Hip Hop, Philadelphia 76ers mascot
You terrified some, you delighted others. I mostly wondered whether health insurance covered any trampoline-dunk-related injuries.
Yes, the Sixers have parted ways with their strange, rabbit man mascot. May the road rise to meet you, my friend.
5. Evan Turner, Philadelphia 76ers
For this Tweet: "I just hear they got rid of Hip-Hop. I guess the recession and lockout is real. Its a damn shame when a mascot isn't safe smh lol." The NBA: Where SMH and LOL happen.
5. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose Sharks
Coldhearted Katie Baker's nomination: "Plays for the Sharks and was the NHL's second star of the week last week. Because his nickname is HOT PICKLES. how the best is THAT?"
6. Robert Griffin III, Baylor
Might have won the Heisman with his incredible performance against Oklahoma.
7. Matt Barkley, USC
Might have leap-frogged Andrew Luck for the no. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
9. Tony Sparano, Miami Dolphins
Your owner is probably kicking the tires on your replacement and your fan base would just as soon have you suck for Luck. So what do you do? Well, if you are Tony Sparano, first you put on sunglasses no matter what. Then you get your team to rattle off three wins in a row and become the team nobody wants to play. If you're going down, you are surely taking a few teams with you.
10. Barack Obama, President of the United States of America
For putting together this awesome collection of players for a fund-raising hoops game. Via Sarah Larimer: "TALK ABOUT BASKETBALL MORE SO I CAN FORGET ABOUT MY CRUSHING DEBT." Larimer later clarified that she did not actually have crushing debt, but added: "I speak for my generation."
