Hoops Analyst -

2016 NBA Draft: Top 60

February 10, 2016 by Ed Weiland 1 Comment

The 2016 draft should be an interesting one. At the top are Ingram and Simmons in some order that I have yet to determine. After those 2 there are a couple of groups that both intrigue. The first is the young bigs. These are freshmen and sophomore centers and PFs who have flashed a lot of potential, but still have enough flaws that a lot of bust potential is there. The next group is seniors who are outperforming their previous career numbers so well that they have forced themselves into the … [Read more...] about 2016 NBA Draft: Top 60

Fisher Fired…A Mistake?

February 9, 2016 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

Coaches are starting to drop. This time we are asked to make sense of the firing of Knicks coach Derek Fisher. Was this firing justified? Sort of. Let’s weigh the pros and cons: Pros/reasons to keep Fisher -Fisher was hired as a beginner coach to learn and grow with a young team. He has done a nice job bringing along Kristaps Porzingis and has gotten solid enough play out of players who previously weren’t very good (Derrick Williams, Langston Galloway, and Lance Thomas). -The … [Read more...] about Fisher Fired…A Mistake?

Blake Griffin and other NBA Punchers

January 29, 2016 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

This week, the Clippers revealed that Blake Griffin broke his hand fighting with the team’s assistant strength coach. The details are sketchy but, according to a Los Angeles Times report, Griffin and the coach are good friends and that the two got into an argument over teasing while out to dinner in Toronto. Griffin is expected to be out somewhere in the neighborhood of six weeks. It is hard to give any sharp insight into this incident. Griffin was wrong to pound on a smaller man and is … [Read more...] about Blake Griffin and other NBA Punchers

Did Blatt deserve to be fired?

January 23, 2016 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

What to make of the short tenure of David Blatt with the Cavs? The team was 30-11 and leading the East but had struggled against the best of the best, having been waxed by the Warriors and Spurs. Was Blatt’s abrupt firing the usual overreaction of management or was there something below the surface that justified this seemingly weird decision? We can’t know the answer for sure but let’s take a look at the facts, as we know them, and see if we can draw some conclusions. Before even turning … [Read more...] about Did Blatt deserve to be fired?

Plexiglass Review: Milwaukee and Atlanta

January 17, 2016 by Harlan Schreiber Leave a Comment

Putting aside the Warriors, the biggest surprise success stories of 2014-15 were the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks. The Bucks morphed from deep Lottery team to a bona fide playoff team, while Atlanta went from fringe playoff team to number one seed in the East. Both teams were considered strong candidates to decline this year based upon Bill James’ Plexiglass Principle, which states that teams that tend to have huge improvements regress the following season. The assumption is that a … [Read more...] about Plexiglass Review: Milwaukee and Atlanta

NBA Draft 2016: Top 60

January 7, 2016 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

The narrative of the 2016 draft is starting to form. Right now this looks like a so-so draft with one great talent at the top. As is the case every year with my first draft preview the players are in tiers as opposed to a strict 1-60 rating of the prospects. I’ll have an updated top 60 in a month when conference play starts to separate the wheat from the chaff. Top Three Ben Simmons, PF LSU: With Simmons there’s no reason to not believe the hype so far. He’s one of the best rebounders in … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2016: Top 60