Podcasts, Records and Rotations

After enjoying the Fightin' Stevenses whoop up on the Quittin' Woodsons (how long til they become Firin' Woodsons?), Rob from PPP and I sat down to record a podcast, which I've embedded after the jump. Even though I'm posting the here, it's still the Points Per Possession Podcast at Where Offense Happens, sort of like Sports Authority Stadium at Mile High, but with millions less in sponsorship revenue. Hey Rob, CTC?
Rob and I spent about 15 minutes each talking about the Blake-Boogie comparison, Kevin Love's defense and the value of the midrange shot.

12-8-13_pp_ppodcast.mp3 |
The starting point for the third topic was this convo between Henry Abbott and Amin ElHassan on TrueHoop earlier this week, and the follow up twitter exchange between ElHassan and Haralabos Voulgaris.
As I hope I made clear in my piece on Aldridge within the context of the Blazers's offense, the fact that Aldridge has to be guarded closely at the elbow opens up a lot of opportunities for the other Blazers to get to the rim and/or get high value corner 3 point shots. We didn't get into this that much, but by comparison Dwight Howard planting himself on the block - a spot he is not particular efficient from, largely due to an absurdly high turnover rate (almost a quarter of possessions ending with him in the post are turnovers) - impedes the rest of the Rockets in terms of getting those same shots, and it's a testament to the abilities of Harden, Parsons and to a degree Lin and Casspi that the Rockets are still able to limit their midrange shots in order to shoot 3s and get to the rim. I do think they would be even better in scoring at the rim if Dwight could create slightly more space, however.
As I hope I made clear in my piece on Aldridge within the context of the Blazers's offense, the fact that Aldridge has to be guarded closely at the elbow opens up a lot of opportunities for the other Blazers to get to the rim and/or get high value corner 3 point shots. We didn't get into this that much, but by comparison Dwight Howard planting himself on the block - a spot he is not particular efficient from, largely due to an absurdly high turnover rate (almost a quarter of possessions ending with him in the post are turnovers) - impedes the rest of the Rockets in terms of getting those same shots, and it's a testament to the abilities of Harden, Parsons and to a degree Lin and Casspi that the Rockets are still able to limit their midrange shots in order to shoot 3s and get to the rim. I do think they would be even better in scoring at the rim if Dwight could create slightly more space, however.
Well done, Jodie Meeks:
Finally, given the identity of the mascot around here, I'd be remiss to not celebrate the greatness of Kyle Korver. As an overserved fan once yelled out as some scrubby backup two was bombing treys up 30 in the waning seconds (in 1995. Not still bitter, nope.) "SHOOT IT SHOWTIME!"