Friday Bullets

• “AHHHHHH!!!!! THERE ARE FIVE OFFGUARDS ON THE COURT RIGHT NOW!!!! THE OTHER TEAM IS TIPPING IN TIP-INS OF TIP-INS OF TIP-INS….OF…(heaving, breathing) TIP-INS!” That's Ethan Sherwood Strauss of WarriorsWorld, considering Don Nelson's tenure as coach of the Warriors.
• A big mess of data confirming the idea that resting players does prolong the productive part of their careers. One of the side points was that players who get a late start to their careers tend to be productive for a surprisingly long time. I wonder if that's because those guys -- almost never blue-chippers, and often without perfect NBA bodies -- need every trick in the book to compete. Maybe the learned habits that get them in the league, from a good diet to trickery fighting for rebounds -- are the things that keep them productive.
• Ever wonder why The Onion has so many stories about Tim Duncan? It's because of this guy.
• The TrueHoop Network gets to pump its fists in the air once again, as ClipperBlog contributor D.J. Foster gets a full-time job with the Clippers. Huge and well-deserved congratulations. And on that note, Queen City Hoops contributor James has found work with the Bobcats too. Fantastic.
• Rich Cho even uses math in taunting Thunder fans.
• When is it Ike Diogu's turn to shine?
• Michael Schwartz of Valley of the Suns after a week of Steve Nash diet challenge: "Seven days ago I set out to eat like Steve Nash for one week. In that time I have attempted to eat Nash’s prescribed diet of chicken, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and brown rice, and I have cut out personal favorites like bread, red meat and pasta while also saying no to sugar, processed food and anything else that would be considered crap. Without having Nash by my side during this process, it’s hard to say if I followed the diet exactly to a T, but I did my best and certainly followed the spirit of the diet. In this time I have also tried to get more sleep than usual, another Nash key, and although I have not exactly gotten the eight hours a night I was shooting for, it’s certainly been better than my average week. Without question you need more than seven days to measure the effects of such a diet, but even in this small sample size I have felt a difference."
• The Raptors have the kind of roster imbalance that would seem to suggest changes are coming.
• I have been hearing suggestions of players who will be most affected by the new technical rules. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Josh Smith have been some of the names discussed.
• Tim Grgurich doesn't talk to the media, so he flies under the radar. But he may be the most respected assistant coach in the NBA. And now, reportedly, he's likely leaving the Nuggets.
• The machine introduces the machine.
• I had an idea for this upcoming season. It would be a ton of work, but well worth it, I think. Somebody should make a highlight reel of homer broadcaster calls. And here's how to do it. With League Pass you can often get your hands on both local feeds of the same game. So if Boston is playing Portland, you watch both Boston and Portland feeds. Then, find moments when both broadcast teams are breaking down the same call, and the audio will be amazing -- they will they'll show the same exact calls, but they'll interpret the completely differently. Collect moments like that for a few months or a season, and you'd have a powerful and hilarious video.
• Pat Riley addresses the media, as transcribed by Surya Fernandez of Hot Hot Hoops: “Every time I greet one of my players I pinch them on the waist. They’re getting tired of that, it’s like our fat test. But he knows, he knows what it is about down here and we’re always about conditioning, body weight, body fat, and nutrition – all those things. I don’t think any athlete today can really ever achieve what it is they truly, truly want unless they’re in world-class condition, period."
• Donnie Walsh, once again trying to sound upbeat about Eddy Curry.
• Oh, the things footwork can do in the paint. In pictures.
• Ryan Schwan of Hornets247 on the Hornets' trade: "Now, I wasn't a fan of the Brackins pick, (clearly neither was Dell Demps) as I made abundantly clear earlier in the off-season. My best hope for him was he'd become a poor version of Rashard Lewis. Songaila was a nice shooter, but he was so bad on the boards - and at everything else - it was ridiculous. His chief attribute was his expiring contract. I'd still take them over Jason Smith and Willie Green. Green has been in the league for 7 years, and has been terrible. In fact, Green had his best season ever last year, at the age of 29, and he was still terrible.(Only his assist rate and turnover were above average, and that only barely.) Smith missed most of his first season with a major knee injury that made him slow to come back last year. Regardless, he's 7-0 tall, but doesn't rebound at all and took more than half his shots from 16 feet and out. I guess he hits 3-pointers well for a big man - but he's still below average for the league."
• Byron Scott on WKNR in Cleveland (thanks to Sports Radio Interviews): “He told me when I was 26 years old, Pat Riley that is, that I’m going to be a coach one day and I would understand some of the things he had to do to get prepared. I looked at him and I was 26 years old, my fifth year in the league and I told him, ‘You’re out of your mind. You’re crazy. I’m never coaching.’ He said, ‘Alright, you just watch.’ Thirty-two years old, I’m playing for Larry Brown, who said the same thing. So I just looked and started thinking, ‘What do they see in me that makes them think that I can be a good coach?’ I started taking a lot of notes and really started to think about the game from a coaching standpoint. Lo and behold, here I am.”

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