Make Or Miss Podcast: Playoff Races & Covering The Right Places
In this week's addition of the Make or Miss Podcast, bear with my scratchy throat, our usual peripatetic natures, and maybe even a dose of HotTakes as Rob and I discuss the perception versus reality of the NBA's national TV product before talking some Eastern and Western Conference playoff races, with some focus on the Hawks, Mavs and Suns.
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Speaking of national perception of the NBA product, we recorded before that tweet from yesterday, but for a good factual assessment with an admirably understated level of ire, I would like to recommend Kevin Draper's reportage/commentary on The Diss.
Staying in Minnesota, the post on the subsurface feud between Rick Adelman and Ricky Rubio in Minnesota is here. To the extent it's unclear, I'm massively, proudly #TeamRubio.
For those wondering why there has been less content here on WOH recently, partially it's because I'm writing so much in other places. In the last week:
- At BBallBreakdown, I took a long look at how some of the top scorers in the league fare relatively versus the best and worst defensive teams. Bad times for among others Arron Afflalo Kevin Martin and surprisingly Dirk Nowitzki.
- At Hickory High, I dropped 4,000 words on using the publicly available SportVU data. I had previously written a similar (though shorter!) piece about the new SV-based "player tracking" box scores.
- I've had numerous smaller shots up on Clipperblog, including an interesting interaction I noticed on Saturday between Blake Griffin and Chris Paul:
It would be easy to say that Blake Griffin took this one over down this stretch, for both better and worse. Many will opine that he did just that, and they will be perfectly right to do so. And while his increasing ability to become a go-to scorer in clutch situations is always a pleasing tail to tell, there was a moment early in the game when Griffin’s primacy not only in this game, but for this team became more evident.
It was a simple enough play, late in the first quarter, Jeff Teague threw an errant pass out of bounds, Griffin trotted to the sideline to inbound to Chris Paul for CP3′s inevitable puppeteering of the offense. But then something odd happened. Paul threw the ball back to Griffin in the backcourt to let him initiate as a point forward. We’ve gotten used to the thrill of Griffin running the transition offense when he secures a rebound, but this was something different. Griffin at the wheel not just by opportunity, but by design.
Anyone who has followed Paul’s career will recognize that ceding control like this is anathema to him, and his willingness to do so, even in that one small moment, says more about Griffin’s ascent over the course of the season than any number of fawning columns or analytical studies.
I'll have longer thoughts on that dynamic soon.
Finally, this week is #BoogieWeek at Hickory High. It might not be wall-to-wall DeMarcus Cousins, but there will be a lot, and I have something going up tomorrow following up on the year-long intermittent comparison of DMC and Griffin I've been doing all year.
Finally, this week is #BoogieWeek at Hickory High. It might not be wall-to-wall DeMarcus Cousins, but there will be a lot, and I have something going up tomorrow following up on the year-long intermittent comparison of DMC and Griffin I've been doing all year.
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