It's Sunday which means it's time to take a look at what the wonderful world of the NBA taught us this week.
Artest Over Ariza a Good Decision After All?
In case you haven't been paying attention, the Houston Rockets are rolling. The team is an impressive 4-2 out of the gates without superstars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. A big reason why has been the outstanding play of new-comer Trevor Ariza.
Through the season's first six games Ariza is averaging 20 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists. Those numbers are all career highs.
Many people -- including your friendly neighborhood columnist -- thought Ariza was making a bad decision by not taking the Lakers' full MLE offer this past summer. Based on what we've seen so far, though, perhaps Ariza new something many of us so-called experts didn't.
I'll take it a step further. The Lakers might end up regretting choosing Artest over Ariza.
As a point of comparison, so far this season Artest is averaging 13.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.2 assists.
Yes, I know what Laker fans are saying. Ariza is being asked to do more offensively with the Rockets and that's leading to inflated scoring numbers while the rebound and assist numbers are virtually identical.
Fair enough.
However, with Ariza the Lakers knew what they had in terms of a player understanding his role on both ends of the floor. Heck, Los Angeles won a title with Ariza playing a very important role. Artest, on the other hand, is unproven on the league's biggest stage. And let's not forget that Ariza is also just 24 years of age while Artest is slated to turn 30 on Friday.
Many fans and pundits have very publicly praised Laker GM Mitch Kupchak's decision to "move on to plan B" very quickly this offseason when Ariza's camp balked. Truth is, we don't yet know whether or not it was a good decision for Kupchack to move on so quickly. It depends how this season plays out.
If the Lakers go on to repeat next June all will be well in Laker-land regardless of what transpires this year in Houston. If, on the other hand, the Lakers get knocked off the mountain top and Ariza continues having a career year, expect Kupchak's decision to acquire Artest to receive the lion's share of the blame.
Iverson Drama in Memphis
Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins is tired of talking about veteran guard Allen Iverson...already. Truth be told, he was probably tired of talking about him before he even suited up for the first time on Monday in Sacramento. It didn't take long for Iverson to start complaining about his playing time, either.
That's when the spin cycle starts.
Fans of Iverson are going to defend him no matter what he does and those who have never been a fan of Iverson use it as a chance to knock the guy.
"The Allen Iverson people that love Allen take it one way, and the anti-Allen Iverson people take it another way," Iverson explained. "It's a big debate about something that doesn't mean anything."
Well, it obviously means something or Iverson wouldn't be talking about it so much. At any rate, the reality is that there are only so many minutes to go around and Memphis is fairly guard heavy.
"There's only room for three players at 32 minutes a game," Hollins explained. "I thought about it when we first signed A.I. and went to training camp that I would have to get to a three guard rotation."
The only problem?
Well, Iverson still wants to play somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 minutes a game like he has his entire career.
That puts Hollins in a tough spot. Who is he supposed to sit?
Certainly not O.J. Mayo.
I suppose one could make an argument that Mike Conley should be the odd man out as he hasn't put up gaudy numbers.
Thing is, that would put Iverson at point guard. As fans in Denver had to learn the hard way, Iverson is not a point guard. Moreover, It's hard to envision a lineup of Iverson, Mayo, and Rudy Gay working for any prolonged stretch of time given the fact each player needs and likes the ball in his hands. And that's without even mentioning Zach Randolph's need for touches.
It's not like people didn't see this coming. A number of smart basketball people around the league whispered this summer that the Iverson signing didn't make sense from a personnel standpoint for Memphis and now you're seeing exactly why.
It's not a knock on Iverson specifically, instead it's an evaluation of whether or not the pieces in Memphis fit together. The front office has put the head coach in a very difficult position.
Less than two weeks into the season this story looks destined for an unhappy ending.
The Next Allen Iverson?
While things aren't exactly going well for the original Allen Iverson, there is a young kid in Milwaukee right now who is giving NBA fans flashbacks to Iverson's rookie year in 1996.
Folks, if you haven't gotten a chance to check out Bucks' rookie Brandon Jennings make sure you find a way to do so ASAP. This kid is absolutely the real deal.
The 20-year-old weighs 165 pounds soaking wet and is a blur on the floor. He's electrifying crowds with his ability to shake defenders and score from anywhere on the court. To top it off, he wears jersey number three. If he didn't shoot left-handed, it would be easy to think one was watching Iverson 14 seasons ago.
To be completely honest, Jennings didn't exactly wow many folks in Las Vegas this summer. He put up pretty decent numbers, but it was against inferior competition. Moreover, he didn't show the same flare that he's playing with to start off the regular season that has fans in Milwaukee so excited.
It seems like writers are contractually obligated to use the phrase "it's early" when writing anything about NBA basketball this time of the year. While that's true, Jennings passes the eyeball test. In other words, when you watch him play you can just tell there's something special about him.
Yes, he certainly still has some growing to do. His 2.75 turnovers per game through his first four games are high and I'm sure Bucks head coach Scott Skiles would like to see his assist numbers rise as the season continues. The same could be said, however, about Jonny Flynn, Tyreke Evans, or most any other rookie point guard in the history of the league.
The bottom-line is that Jennings just seems to have that certain something that's hard to quantify. If his flare and charisma leads to him being even half the player and entertainer Iverson has been throughout his career rest assured that a lot of fun times lie ahead for fans in Milwaukee.
How About Those Phoenix Suns?
Heading into play Friday night many folks were understandably skeptical of the Phoenix Suns' 4-1 start. However, after strolling into Boston and punching the previously undefeated Celtics in the mouth, it's time to really start paying attention to what is happening in Phoenix.
A few points to consider (stats accurate heading into play 11/7/09):
1. Newcomer Channing Frye is having a career year across the board.
2. Steve Nash is averaging 19 points and 11 assists.
3. Jason Richardson is averaging nearly 18 points per game and is doing it an extremely efficient fashion shooting over 51 percent from the field.
4. Amar'e Stoudemire is leading the team in scoring pouring in nearly 20 points per night.
5. Key guard Leandro Barbosa has played in just three of the Suns' first six games.
6. As of Saturday morning, the Suns were leading the league in scoring putting up 111 points per contest, which demonstrates that the plan to bring the run-and-gun back to Phoenix has certainly been successful thus far.
In short, there's a lot to like right now in Phoenix. The key for the Suns will be maintaining this level of play as well as keeping their veterans, namely Nash, healthy for the vast majority of the campaign.
There's also that pesky little issue of defense. Mike D'Antoni's run-and-gun teams of the past were never able to get over the hump in the playoffs largely because of their inability to really lock teams up and get key stops. As of this writing, the Suns are 20th in the league in defensive rating (points per 100 possessions). This remains a long-term concern.
All things considered, the Suns are in a good space. Obviously there are 70+ games left to play and the Suns have a lot left to prove. However, when a team goes into Boston and puts up 110 points against the league's best defensive team that team is worthy of our attention.
Coming into the season I had my doubts as to whether or not the Suns would make the playoffs. Through six games it looks like this team has the chance to stay very much in the playoff mix out West.
The Return of Q-Rich
Remember some guy named Quentin Richardson? If you can't remember the name off the top of your head, just think back to the early part of this decade when Darius Miles and some other guy would put both fists up to their foreheads after scoring a basket.
That "other guy" was Richardson.
It seemed as though Richardson's days in the NBA were numbered in the last 24 months as his production and efficiency sharply decreased in New York. He had become a non-factor in the NBA, and it was happening in an offense that should have been a perfect fit with Mike D'Antoni at the helm.
This summer things got really crazy for Richardson when he was dealt repeatedly simply as a financial chip. It looked as though his career was over.
For those following along at home, try to keep up because it was a fast and crazy journey.
The Knicks traded Richard to Memphis in late June. In July, Memphis traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Zach Randolph deal. Three days after that, the Clippers jettisoned him to Minnesota for Craig Smith, Mark Madsen and Sebastian Telfair. Approximately a month later the Wolves dealt Richardson to Miami, which would end up being his final landing spot.
Miami was hopeful that Richardson could produce, but many around the league were doubtful. However, when Richardson showed up to training camp last month he looked like a different person. The official story is that he lost 30 pounds, but after having seen Richardson late last season it wouldn't surprise me if the actual total was closer to 40 pounds.
Dude looked like he was a biscuit or two away from 265 late last season. This season he's a svelte 225 pounds.
He's also reclaimed his shooting touch from outside. Heading into play Saturday Richardson was averaging over 10 points per game and shooting 48 percent from the field and over 43 percent from beyond the arc even after going just 1-7 from the land of plenty against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. As a point of comparison, Richardson shot just 39 percent from the field and 36 percent from beyond the arc last season and 35 percent from the field and 32 percent from deep in 2007-08.
It's nice to see Richardson reclaiming his career after all he has been through. Richardson lost two of his brothers to violence, the most recent loss coming back in December of 2005 when his brother Lee Jr. was gunned down in Chicago during a robbery attempt.
If the early returns are any indication it looks like Richardson could play a very important role for the surging Miami HEAT this season as the club tries to do some damage in the playoffs and also tries to convince fellow Chicago native Dwyane Wade to re-sign with HEAT this summer.
