Sources
Video Show
Hosts
- Arturo Galletti (@arturogalletti)
- Dre Alvarez(@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster(@boxscorebrian)
Weekly Poll
Show Notes
Best "Robins" in the NBA?
Arturo wrote a piece on the thirty best "Robins" in NBA history. Have we mentioned Dennis Rodman is underrated? Also, he's a Batman more than a Robin.
Hakeem is an all-time center, but his amazing playoffs performance against David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal may give him the irrational boost to greatest ever.
Correction: Rodman only won two Defensive Player of the Year awards. I think being great at defense should be a shoe-in for Hall of Fame first ballot voting. However, as I've discussed about Dikembe Mutombo, I don't think it is.
Also, Ben Wallace is likely to be snubbed, and as a reminder, he was the star of the "starless Pistons" that won it all. And that's using conventional methods too!
I argue that the term Robin to describe great second players is silly.
For some good "Robins": Arturo thinks Mo Cheeks is mad underrated. Also, Mario and Nash are a great duo that doesn't get enough love.
Reminder, Golden State gifted the Celtics three rings in the 80s. Seriously.
You probably need a star to win. The Sonics in 79 are the only team to really buck this trend.
On the Run and Gun Suns, it's worth noting they could have had Luol Deng, when he was still amazing, instead of Joe Johnson. Ouch.
The Lakers and the Western Landscape
The Lakers' GM Mitch Kupchack says the Lakers could make the playoffs next season. Arturo kindly reminds us the Lakers don't play in the East. And even that would be a stretch.
Nick Young said he'd be happy to be Kobe's Robin. I say Nick Young is the only person to use that term correctly! Reminder, Nick Young is terrible!
We talk bad Robins -- including Jason Todd. I argue the Red Hood storyline makes him a good character. Arturo counters the retcon there was terrible. No disagreement. However, check out Under the Redhood, it's a great DC animated film.
Arturo runs down his vision for the 2014-2015 Western Conference. Tune in!
The Thunder lost Thabo Sefolosha. Of course, if they'd finally just stop giving Perkins so many minutes, they'll be fine with Nick Collison and Steve Adams.
For the Rockets, we think Ariza is an upgrade. Of course, as Shawn Furyan points out - the worst stretch of Ariza's career was in Houston.
The Mavericks seem to have stolen Phoenix's medical staff.
Reminder, the Trail Blazers won 54 games but had a crazy strong stretch where Wes Matthews and Damian Lillard were being historically good from three.
Arturo gives hope to Denver fans.
When it comes to the Lakers and the Kings, the Kings win out because they have DeMarcus Cousins, and Jordan Hill isn't going to get playing time.
We think the Lakers have a legitimate shot of 24 missed shots in a quarter happening at some point this season.
We leave the East for later. A point though, the Cavaliers need to do a little more to be better than they were last time LeBron took them to a finals.
Arturo makes a bad joke, which we compare to Josh Smith's amazing ability to keep shooting airballs.
Position Adjustment
We talk a little more about position adjustment following Patrick's recent piece on "small ball". The position adjustment and WaR crowd have two basic points that seem contrary to me:
- Positional adjustments in the NBA is a hugely complicated problem that can't be simply modeled (which I don't really agree with)
- The economics of a market to pay for talent in major sports is a simple problem that can be modeled with a few trivial formulas. (Which I also don't agree with)
These two ideas are very much at odds. No economist would tell you microeconomics is a trivial and simple field. At the same time, few will act as if positions in the NBA are really that complex.
Some more fun notes - most players in the NBA are overpaid! This is simply because the salary cap restricts stars, and rookies are wildly underpaid. Arturo points out that this is good politics, as if most players are overpaid, they're less likely to be upset.
Shout Outs
Daniel Leroux (@DannyLeroux) of RealGM was the inspiration behind the Robins piece. Also, Ian Levy(@HickoryHigh) at Nylon Calculus gets some love here.
Coach Nick (@bballbreakdown) gets a shout out for teaching a clinic on the Triangle Offense in New York.
Krishna Narsu(@knarsu3) gets a shout out for some amazing charts on how Kobe and LeBron act as the shot clock winds down.
Here's an older graph of mine looking at Lebron's contested close, contested 3s & open mid range shots by shot clock pic.twitter.com/uPXbBxxgUE
— Krishna Narsu (@knarsu3) July 27, 2014
Brian gives a shout out to the Warriors for helping out the 80s Celtics.
Brian also gives a shout out to Arturo! Not just for his great work, but for an amazing Tweet about Sharknado.
This goes out to everyone watching the Sharknado: http://t.co/onkYCUsmJj
— The man with the #'s (@ArturoGalletti) July 31, 2014
Hope you enjoyed the show, we'll see you next week!