I kind of just sit back now, and try to make comments in bulk.
- You really cannot be mad about wins against the Thunder or Celtics or any playoff team for that matter. We had no business being where we are today (25-50). Through a third of the season, we started 13-13, we've gone 12-37 since. I don't want to hear it from the guys who predicted 30 or less wins. Huge misfortunes are why we won't win 30 games.
- It makes me think where we'd be if Kobe plays 50 games this season (44 more than he did), Farmar doesn't miss more than half the season, Nash plays 30 more games. Not hard to think that without those 3 injuries we are not around 40 wins at this point. Would be borderline 8th seed.
- Mike D'Antoni deserves some credit. Sure it's been a horrible year, but he has gotten the best out of A LOT of players. Look at teams that have suffered very few to no major injuries and the guys who have played are way better than the ones we have.
- It's amazing that we've made two steals in consecutive 2nd Rounds. Kelly looks to be a really good role player, made huge strides of improvement.... Sacre looks like a servicable backup big, and has grown from last year, and should be even better next year.
- I went back and looked at some of the reporting around the deadline. It really does suck that we couldn't get any picks out of Pau, Hill or Kaman. If you want to say "They failed," fine they failed to get another pick. But, it really shows that expiring contracts mean absolutely nothing in the NBA anymore. Lakers wanted a single 2nd rounder for Hill or Kaman, and there wasn't enough of a market to get it done. Hell the Nets wanted us to trade them a pick just to take Jordan Hill for nothing. The thing that Mitch and any team with any expiring is that no one wants it, unless you are including picks with your expiring, or you eat some smaller multi-year contracts. Picks are now sacred, yet many of them are hugely overvalued. For example, second round picks, are essentially useless. Yes, if you scout well, you can get a GREAT role player. But out of the 30 2nd rounders each season, maybe 2-3 of those picks will bring a decent role player. Teams hoarding and acting like 2nd round picks are not expendable is kind of ridiculous.
- Also Random Stat... In 08-09 Pau got 8.4 shots a game from less than 8 feet. This year 7.67. In 2012-13 he averaged 6 shots a game from less than 8 feet (only 1% better from that spot compared to last year). Another problem is he is hitting less of those shots. He shot 7% worse from less than 8 feet in 2013-14 compared to 08-09. Also from 8-16 feet in front of the basket, he shot 10% worse. His usage percentage is 6% higher. So he was touching the ball 6% more this year than 08-09. He couldn't assert himself, and couldn't do it effectively. Numbers wise it looks like a good year, but he should have had 4 more PPGs, 1 more OReb/Game, and 1 more FT/Game. It isn't Mike D'Antoni, it's him.