Revisiting the Pearl Monroe Trade

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On November 10, 1971, the Knicks acquired legendary guard Earl Monroe from the Baltimore Bullets for Mike Riordan, Dave Stallworth, and an undisclosed amount of cash.  The trade is celebrated as helping the Knicks to two straight Finals (and one title) and countless books and documentaries.   As we approach the 50th anniversary of the deal, I thought we could dig a little deeper into the trade itself.   Most of what has been discussed related to how Monroe and Walt … [Read more...] about Revisiting the Pearl Monroe Trade

On NBA Undefeated Starts

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What’s a good start worth in an NBA season?  It’s obviously better to win than to lose but you can’t help but wonder how real some good starts are.  We have no undefeated teams after six games but the Wizards are 5-1 and have looked pretty good.  They are not a team that projected to be particularly good.   Incidentally, past history is not that bullish on strong Washington starts.  The last two Washington teams to start 5-1 are not much to write home about. Those … [Read more...] about On NBA Undefeated Starts

A Quick Look at Peak SF Advanced Stats

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A few days ago, we did a tweet thread on the career advanced stats for the SFs who made the top 75 and those that likely narrowly missed.  I had a couple of requests for how these players rated at peak. So,  I took the 3 best consecutive years for each of the players.  I also added Bird, Durant + Dr J for comparison/context (did not use ABA Erving).  Anyway, here they are:  -Bird 1984-87: 26.2 PER, .242 WS48, 9.0 BPM, 25.7 VORP -KD 2011-14: 28.2 PER, .275 WS48, 9.0 … [Read more...] about A Quick Look at Peak SF Advanced Stats

NBA Title Teams and Opening Night

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On opening night, the two presumptive favorites, Brooklyn and the Lakers, started the season with resounding thuds.  The Nets were easily handled by that Bucks, before bouncing back with a nice win in Philly.  The Lakers, on the other hand, were beaten by Golden State and then were steamrolled by Phoenix to start out 0-2.  These results got me wondering whether winning on opening night has any relationship to winning a title.  How worrisome is a losing start to eventual … [Read more...] about NBA Title Teams and Opening Night

2021-22 NBA Preview: Reviewing the Title Contenders

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Well, that was a quick off-season.  With so much going on, it feels like we didn’t have to miss the NBA for very long.  The season officially starts on October 18 and it feels like early 2020-21 again.  The Nets and Lakers are the early bettor favorites, with Sportsbettingdime.com, giving Brooklyn the edge at +200 followed by the Lakers (+400) and the Bucks (+900).  But do these odds accurately reflect the current statuses of the potential contenders?  I’m skeptical of … [Read more...] about 2021-22 NBA Preview: Reviewing the Title Contenders

The NBA’s Vaccine Quandaries

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The big NBA news of the last few days has mostly related to whether/where Ben Simmons will be traded.  Another story that has been lurking in the background is how the NBA and the NBPA will deal with issue of COVID and vaccines and what the NBA would do with players who refuse to be vaccinated.  Let’s review what’s happened so far to see what the looming issues are: -About 10 days ago, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that 85% of players had been vaccinated. -The NBA would not mandate … [Read more...] about The NBA’s Vaccine Quandaries

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