As the 2014-15 season
begins, let’s not forget about last season. Here's a couple of stats from last
year’s efforts (or lack thereof)
1. The Biggest “trillions”
(Minutes played with no other stats collected) in 2013-14? KCP and Perry Jones
who had both a 10 trillion performance.
2. Shooting a basketball is
really difficult. On the other hand, you can't be Andrew Bynum who shot 11
Attempts and hit nothing in a game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
3. The Rudy Gay era in
Toronto was bound to end. Rudy Gay is seen as an inefficient scorer, and in
2013-14 he had the most field Goal Attempts in a game at an insane 37 attempts.
In true Rudy Gay form, he hit only 11 of them for a pitiful 29%. After Rudy Gay
was sent to Sacramento, the guy who replaced him, Terrance Ross, had an insane
51 point game
4. The Bobcats (now
Hornets) finally made the playoffs for the first time in a long time. The Cats
had a game against the defending champion Heat where their leading scorer, Al
Jefferson had 38 points and 19 rebounds. Everyone else remembers that game as
the Lebron 61 point game.
5.
The Bobcats may be
responsible for the 2 best individual games in the league, (Lebron's 61, and
Carmelo Anthony's 62) but the defensive juggernaut Lakers are responsible for
the 3 worst defensive performances, allowing 145 to the Rockets, 143 to the
Timberwolves and 142 to the Clippers. All of these were in regulation games.
6.
John Wall led the league
in total assists. You can keep your conventional point guards, Wall gets
results.
7.
Anthony Davis has become
my favorite player in the league. I've watched an insane amount of Pelicans
basketball in 2013-14 because of him. In his second year he led the league in
blocks per game, which was predictable. Less predictable was that he finished
in the top 5 of PER. He finished the year averaging a double-double. I haven't
decided whether I'm more impressed with the near 5 by 5 (missed by an assist)
or the 9 block game or the 40 and 20 against Boston.
8.
Steph Curry had a great
year, next year I'm sure he would prefer not to start with an 11 turnover game
like he did in 2013-14 on Halloween.
9. Every year the draft
comes around and around 60 players come into the league. In order for them to
come in other players have t go and in 2013-14 there were many players who are
no longer in the league who I didn't even notice were absent. Emeka Okafor,
Javale Mcgee and Jason Richardson didn't play a minute in 2013-14 due to
injury. Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace and Grant Hill didn't play a
minute last year. Role players like Josh Howard, Rodrique Beaubois and Andris
Biedrins didn't play 100 minutes in the league in 2013-14. DeAndre Liggins and
Lamar Odom didn't return due to varying sets of legal troubles. The saddest of
these is of course, Brandon Roy who, if healthy would have been the best
shooting guard in the league in 2013-14.
10.
Jason Collins played 172
minutes. He had more fouls than field goal attempts. After a bit of excitement
in his first couple of games, he proceeded to set hard fouls in obscurity, just
as it should be.
11.
Michael Carter
Williams should have gone on the court with a ski mask when he played
against the defending champion Miami Heat. He had a near quadruple double
attaining 22 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, and an insane 9 steals. This was
in his second career game.
12.
The Suns had a 41 point
scorer in Gerald Green. Seriously.
13.
I mentioned a lot of
insane scoring performances from players you wouldn't expect those kinds of
performances from. None were more surprising than Corey Brewer, who scored 51
points. During the rest of the season he never scored more than 27 points.
14.
It goes without saying
that the stars of the Thunder do EVERYTHING for the team. Kevin Durant led the
league in points per game and only missed the last game of the season. He was
also the only unanimous All team NBA player. He also led the league in usage
percentage. Once the playoffs started the league leader in triple doubles was
Russell Westbrook with 3. He's also the only player in the playoffs who had
any.
15.
The Basketball Players
who've come from New York City have a history of being erratic, selfish and
other perjorative terms (Artest/World Peace, Telfair, Starbury). The
Crown jewel of NYC basketball has to be Lance Stephenson who led the Pacers in
assists per game despite nominally being a shooting guard and he led the entire
league in triple doubles. If he didn't also lead the league in gif's where he
blew in Lebron's ear he'd get more respect.
16.
Doc Rivers forced his
way into LA to work for the guy that everyone familiar with the NBA was more
than certain was a racist. By the end of the year Donald Sterling was the guy
that EVERYONE knew was a racist. There is no further evidence of how valuable
owning an NBA team is that a black head coach would look at working for Donald
Sterling and see that as a good option. Also, Jamal Crawford made the class of
2000 proud by finally winning a 6th man of the year award.
17.
When MCW and Oladipo met
it was clear that these two players would be fighting for the ROY award. In
that meeting, they each had their first career triple doubles.
18.
The Bucks were trying to
win in 2013-14. I'm glad that they won the second pick. The basketball gods
have smiled upon their lack of actual tanking and rewarded their natural
mediocrity.
19. Paul Millsap's contract with the Hawks is insane. How did no one in the league offer Millsap more money than
9 million?
20.
Only in Miami can 4
straight NBA finals appearances be considered a disappointment. Only against
the Spurs can a team that was considered a "superteam" be unfavorably
compared to the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers
21.
The secret to tanking is
to set up the moves before the season starts, that way your fans have no expectations.
The Utah Jazz did it by obtaining Richard Jefferson and Andris Biedrins in a
trade before the season started. Jamaal Tinsley started 5 games. I guarantee
that you will be one of the worst teams in the NBA if you do this. Utah fired
their head coach at the end of the season.
22.
The Kings are a
laughingstock for good reason. If you asked before the seasons started, what
team would be most likely to trade for Rudy Gay, they would have been in the
top 3. Good job, Kings. Meanwhile, in positive news, DeMarcus Cousins had
a career season. He shot nearly 50%, averaged 22 and 11 and blocked more shots
than ever before. He made less than 5 million dollars.
23.
Kyle Lowry wasn't an
all-star in 2013-14. Kobe Bryant, who brought little more to the Lakers than
his bloated 30 million dollar salary was. For those of you who hate fan voting,
this should be all the evidence you need. James Harden not being voted as a
starter, despite being the best shooting guard in the league (and certainly the
best for the purposes of an all offense, zero defense exhibition game) is
insane.
24.
Timofey Mozgov had 29
rebounds in a game in 2013-14. Still, seeing Mozgov hit a three pointer live was
the most surprising thing I've seen from him.
25.
Patrick Ewing coached a
game for the Bobcats in 2013-14. They lost. He still doesn't have a head
coaching job and I haven't even heard that he was in the running for one.
26.
Kyle Korver set the
record for most consecutive games with a three pointer at 127.
27.
The Rockets lost a game in
2013-14 where they scored 73 points in the first half. They scored 19 in the
second, which isn't easy to do. There were 13 occasions in 2013-14 where a team
scored 73 points or less in the entire game.
28.
Rondo, in the limited
time that he appeared in an NBA uniform, had a game where he had 18
assists.
29.
The Grizzlies are an
offensively challenged bunch. They won a game where they shot one free throw.
30.
I was really impressed
with Derrick Rose when I saw him play in Denver in 2013-14. He seemed to be
moving incredibly well. The next Game, he got hurt and was out for the season.
Russell Westbrook had a triple double when I saw him against the Knicks on
Christmas Day. He missed the next month or so with an injury. I was excited to
see Anthony Davis live against the Nuggets when he came to town. He hit 3
jumpers and left at halftime with back spasms. He was limited in his next game
and didn't play again for the rest of the season.
