The 10-man rotation, starring 3-and-D players, charted
A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: Nylon Calculus. A fun little experiment by Ian Levy to make a graphic representation of players’ “3-and-D-ness,” based on their 3-point shooting accuracy and their defensive box-score plus-minus marks. My goodness, Kawhi Leonard.
PF: SB Nation. Mike Prada comes through with the 2016 edition of his Film Room All-Stars, a dozen dynamite and thorough breakdowns of the league’s very best role players.
SF: The Players Tribune. Shane Battier offers his perspective on what it means to be a glue guy: “One of the reasons I was able to stay in the league for 13 years was because I wasn’t afraid of looking like an idiot.”
SG: Sports Illustrated. The great Chris Ballard profiles Dirk Nowitzki, still the Dallas Mavericks’ linchpin after 18 years, and appreciating the moments he still provides this far down the road.
PG: Sactown Royalty. Omer Khan takes a scalpel to the Sacramento Kings’ defensive scheme, which is so broken that, in his view, it offers enough reason to fire George Karl all on its own.
6th: Bleacher Report. Jared Dubin looks at the New York Knicks’ success at finding early-offense opportunities by working in the pick-and-roll as one reason why Phil Jackson would be wise to open his head-coaching search beyond simply those coaches whom he knows will base their “systems of play” on the principles of his beloved triangle offense. (On a different note, Coach Nick over at BBall Breakdown would like us to know that if Phil’s determined to hire a “triangle coach,” there’s no on-court reason he shouldn’t look at Tom Thibodeau, who ran lots of triangle-infused stuff in Chicago.)
7th: ESPN.com. Tom Haberstroh’s piece on how travel and the length of the NBA schedule impact the bodies of NBA players is absolutely fascinating, and makes you wonder what kind of research/data the NBA will need to see before seriously considering the prospect of reducing the number of games played in a season.
8th: The Lab and Complex. Really great reads from Lars Anderson and Bruce Arthur on how Vince Carter changed basketball, especially in Toronto, and how basketball has changed him.
9th: The Guardian. Another great job by Carpenter, tracking down the guys who used to play in a weekly Burlington, Vermont, pickup run with noted set-shotsman and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders back in the late 1970s.
10th: ESPN.com. J.A. Adande revisits NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s comments about the “unintended consequences” looming when the money from the NBA’s new broadcast rights deal hits the league’s system this summer, and sees the potential for resultant labor strife growing.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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