Monday Bullets

• Instead of isolating him all night, the Nuggets had Carmelo Anthony stand in the corner while they ran pick-and-rolls and post-ups that drew his defender into the lane. The result: A huge scoring night for Anthony, and an easy win for Denver. This approach could probably also add years to his career thanks to reduced wear and tear.
• Hey look, a Wizards star guard using fingers apparently to mimic guns. Make fun of John Wall if you will, for repeating a mistake that cost Gilbert Arenas an incredibly costly suspension, but realize that we were never going to have gun-free basketball talk.
• Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference: "For those still doubting LeBron James' overall impact, note that his departure from Cleveland coincided with the biggest declines in both offensive and defensive shooting effectiveness by a team since 1974!"
• George Shinn, a devout Christian, had his Hornets game operations people lead the stadium full of hoops fans in a (normally, but not always) Christian prayer, led from center court, before each home game. Now the league owns the team, and the prayers persist. This could get awkward.
• Utah's defense has gone downhill fast, and Kenyon Martin can be heard swearing a lot on local Denver broadcasts.
• The Spurs are getting a lot more steals than they used to, which has fat impact.
• A source close to Ricky Rubio, quoted by Jonathan Givony in The New York Times: "The bottom line is, why would he want to play in Minnesota? He’ll continue to say all the diplomatic things, and Minnesota needs to keep his value up for trade purposes, but the family’s preference is to be on the East Coast, specifically New York, Miami or Boston. He wouldn’t be troubled if he has to stay another year."
• Everyone thinks an NBA lockout is inevitable, except, that is, the people directly involved in the talks.
• What's with the towels? (Beware PG-13 language lower in that post.)
• Kevin Durant earned hero points for hitting a buzzer-beater over the Knicks, but I hated that play: That isolation, guarded fadeaway 3 , off the dribble, over a defender is typical of NBA crunch time, but for no team or player is it a high percentage play.� It's like shooting a free throw off-handed. Impressive. Highlight worthy. But hardly the best way to win.
• A grassroots movement to keep the Kings in Sacramento, called Here We Stay.
• Dwight Howard knows how Kobe Bryant can hurt you.
• The Rockets may make a play for Nene.
• Arsenalist of Raptors Republic on the state of the Raptors: "The Raptors have been 15th, 8th, 16th and 16th in the league over the last four seasons in terms of payroll. Ironically enough, the 'successful' 2006-07 team had a payroll ranked 28th in the league. This isn’t championship-commitment investment, but surely it’s a competitive if the GM has his wits, no? Instead of strategic team building, we’ve seen mid-level exceptions blown on Jason Kapono, Jarrett Jack and Linas Kleiza, and a year each wasted in Hedo Turkoglu and Jermaine O’Neal. So when I hear rumours that the Raptors are searching for a star, it makes my heart sink because rarely are stars acquired via trade, it’s through the draft which that happens."
• Game theory, and Mikhail Prokhorov's "bluff."
• Too much talent can be a bad thing, even on the Timberwolves.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24169/monday-bullets-200

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