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Udonis and Franchise Lifers

September 30, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, Udonis Haslem accepted a relatively modest one-year deal to return to the Heat for his 16th (and presumably final) NBA season. Haslem represents a rarity—an NBA player who has played his entire long career for a single franchise. U told ESPN that his longevity and exclusively Miami Heat-based career has significant meaning to him: “It's about my love for the organization and my love for the guys. It wasn't about me. If I was looking for playing time, I could have gone … [Read more...] about Udonis and Franchise Lifers

The Run TMC FAQ

August 23, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Golden State Warriors attempted to compete with a fun, high scoring, perimeter-oriented team, affectionately nicknamed Run TMC, a pun on the popular old rap group Run DMC. In this case the, “TMC” represented T(im Hardaway), M(itch Richmond), and C(hris Mullin). Hardaway, Richmond, and Mullin all scored over 22.9 ppg in 1990-91. This fun team scored a lot of points and even upset a much higher ranked Spurs team in the 1990-91 playoffs. Right before the … [Read more...] about The Run TMC FAQ

The COY Curse?

June 17, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

In 2013, Nuggets coach George Karl won Coach of the Year and responded as follows: “Coach of the year? I’m not sure I want that legacy. Have you seen what happens to guys who win coach of the year?” Karl was let go by the Nuggets less than a month later. Five years later, Dwayne Casey suffered a similar fate (Denver chose not to give Karl a new contract while Casey was affirmatively fired). Still, management had the same beef, a disappointing postseason. Karl’s observation got me wondering … [Read more...] about The COY Curse?

Playoff Thoughts

May 24, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

The Eastern Conference Finals are in high gear. Let’s take a look at what we can expect going forward in the East… 1. Celtics-Cavs: It’s seems clear where this series is headed, a seventh game. Alas, the seventh game is not likely to be that climactic. The home team has won each game handily (by 15, 13, 20, 9, and 13 respectively). So, the likely outcome is Cleveland holding serve in Game 6 before getting beaten fairly easily in Boston in Game 7. The one caveat is that LeBron James has … [Read more...] about Playoff Thoughts

Brent Brown and Franchise Patience

April 25, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

Brent Brown’s recent success in Philadelphia is, in some ways, a vindication of “The Process.” The more unique aspect of Philly’s rebuilding plan is the patience it had with Brown, who was able to survive four straight seasons of under-.500 non-playoff seasons. The 76ers were rational enough to figure that Brown’s coaching ability could not realistically be assessed with the bad teams he was coaching. That got me wondering whether another coach has been able to last as long as Brown. We … [Read more...] about Brent Brown and Franchise Patience

Andre Ingram and the Oldest NBA Rookies

April 10, 2018 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

To round out the season, the Lakers have just signed 32-year old rookie Andre Ingram. Ingram hardly fits the profile of a future NBA player. He has played in the NBDL/D-League/G-League since 2007-08 and never scored more than 13.0 ppg in that role. He is a great shooter (.464% from three in his G-League career and .475% this year). It would be nice if Ingram could parlay this cameo into an actual NBA gig next year but it doesn’t seem likely. What interested me more, though, was where … [Read more...] about Andre Ingram and the Oldest NBA Rookies