Half-Blog Half-Amazing (An NBA Blog)

Tonight’s Celtics vs. Suns game just ended (104-87 W for the Cs).  In 30 star studded minutes, Amare was 0-7 from the field and 3-4 from the line.  Those 3 points go along with ONE rebound, 1 blocked shot, 0 assists and 4 turnovers.  PATHETIC.  Great player get up for the big game.  Amare was a complete non factor.  For an all star who complains about not getting the respect he deserves, Amare should be embarrassed.

I get that it’s hard to be on point every night.  But great players know how to exert their influence on the game when their shot isnt falling.  Play better defense, grab more rebounds, distribute the ball, get some steals and blocks.  Do something.  Even Brian Scalabrine did more (2 rebounds and 2 assists to go with 4 points).

Amare is turning into a player that could only play in one system (D’Antoni’s).  I can’t think of any other player that lost his mojo so soon after a coach departed.  Can you?

Yao Ming is 7′6″ and weighs approximately 310 lbs.  He is, I believe, the tallest player in the NBA.  Can someone please explain to my how he managed to grab a grand total of 3 rebounds in today’s game? What’s even more incredible is that he didnt have one rebound on the defensive end.  How is this possible?  Granted Yao isn’t the most nimble of characters, but 3 rebounds is inexcusable.

Yao isn’t the only center that needs to rebound more aggresively.  In last week’s Magic vs. Lakers game, HBHA favorite Andrew Bynum grabbed only 3 rebounds in 33 minutes of play.  His counterpart on the Magic, Dwigth Howard, pulled down 20.  Phil Jackson has repeatedly said that the main thing the Lakers need out of Bynum is a presence in the paint, some toughness and some rebounds.  3 rebounds in a marquee game just isnt going to cut it.

Rebounding is about effort.  How else do you explain 6′9″ David Lee being 4th in the NBA in rebounds per game (11.4 per game) (Boozer is actually 4th with 11.7 but has played in only 12 games this year vs. Lee’s 29)

I was listening to the PTI podcast in the gym yesterday and I heard them discussing Shaq’s new nickname – Shaqovic. Here is the explanation.

According to reports, Shaq’s dad encouraged him to start shooting FTs like he did when he was in high school. Little did we know, but shaq actually hit his FTs back in the day. Since rediscovering his HS form, Shaq has been shooting a career best ~70% from the line, including two games in a row where he was perfect from the line (7/7 and 5/5).

In light of his success at the line, Shaq gave himself a new nick name – Shaqovic. The reasoning – According to Shaq, every great shooter in the NBA has a “vic” at the end of his name. Stojakovich, Radmanovic and now Shaqovic.

Big day here at HBHA – We just finished emailing with the guys leading the social media charge for the Detroit Pistons!  Pretty exciting stuff and further proof that Twitter can connect franchises with fans.

Here is the story:

A few weeks ago, I got an email saying that @DETpistons was following me on Twitter.  I followed them back and immediately sent a DM asking if they were legitimate representatives of the Detroit Pistons.  There are a lot of phonies in Twitter land (not you Shaq!) and I didnt want to waste my time following the tweets of an impostor.  Long story short, the team behind @DETpistons messaged me back immediately with their contact info and credentials.  It turns out that @DETpistons is co managed by Tom Shea, Digital Account Executive for global PR firm Weber Shandwick and the Detroit Pistons’ communications staff.

Since I’m very interested in the intersection of social media and sports, I asked Tom if I could pick his brain and get some answers to a few questions that I had.  Not only did he agree, but he also said I could share the answers with all my readers.  I hope you find the answers as interesting as I did.  The Pistons social media team seems to really understand how to use social media to connect with and talk to the fans.

On that note, on to the interview questions…

HBHA: How have the Detroit Pistons fans responded to the social network, youtube channel and tweets?

Tom Shea: The fans have been nothing but enthusiastic about each platform. In less than a month, over 3,000 users have joined PostingUp and posted a ton of original content from blogs to photos, videos and more. I think that’s the ultimate compliment.

People have also responded very favorably to Twitter — piping in with their comments about a live game, team strategy and more. We try to regularly stir up conversation via Twitter and provide a personal voice for fans to interact with. There are multiple Twitter accounts with news feeds from traditional news sources — we aren’t that and we won’t attract followers that way. We want to be an entertaining voice with personality. We’ll tweet live, give followers an inside track to the team, share interesting content from across the web about the team and provide ticket offers and giveaways. With all the reasons to follow, fans have been happy. Finally, the YouTube channel gives users a recognizable, easy to find place for Pistons videos. It also allows them to embed and share anywhere.

HBHA: What are you doing to promote your existing social media tools and ultimately get fans to join the conversation?

Tom Shea: We work with a variety of destinations to promote the team and social utilities. From team bloggers, national sports bloggers, a few who also write about social media & sports, local nightlife websites & magazines, facebook groups, they all have pointed people to team properties. Also the most important way to promote these is basic of social media: relationships. We want to interact with the fans so we’ll follow those who talk about Pistons on twitter, read Need4Sheed & DetroitBadBoys and share Rasheed Wallace singing Jingle Bells. It’s that grassroots interaction that’s so valuable! There’s no getting around the leg work in social media — it takes time and work to build relationships & the Pistons organization knows that.

HBHA: Who is actually twittering?  Is it you or team officials?

Tom Shea: Doug [Wernert] and I do many of the tweets but Dave Wieme, Pistons Director of Strategic Communications, also twitters. He is most often at the game and can provide an inside track to the team, players and staff. We are also hoping to include guest tweeters like players & coaches in the future.

HBHA: What is the one social media tool that every NBA team should be using?

Tom Shea: The one social media tool every team should use: I would be a fool to not say Twitter. The possibilities for interaction, content and broad audience appeal are exciting to say the least.

HBHA: Excluding the pistons, which NBA Franchise is best using social media tools to interact with their fans?

Tom Shea: The Phoenix Suns do a great job of crafting a digital presence. They have multiple staff members who twitter on a regular basis, offer weekly web-direct videos and have one of the best websites in the league. However, I don’t think many teams are as de-centralized and spread over as number of media and as easy to connect with as the Pistons.

HBHA: I mentioned earlier that there are a lot of phonies out there.  As we know, Shaq started twittering because someone was pretending to be him on Twitter.  Even the Pistons are subject to this.  I am aware of at least one other twitter account using the Detroit Pistons name and logo.  How important will authenticity become in the next few years and how can teams prevent digital impostors?

Tom Shea: I think brand hijacking is an important thing to keep an eye on. It’s just one more reason why teams and brands can’t ignore social media any longer. The other Pistons feeds you mention are mostly RSS-fed accounts without much personality and just links and none claims to be the official team twitter feed. I think commitment to the community and a conversation will be the determining factor in questions of authenticity. Fakers don’t care enough.

HBHA: What are your thoughts on @the_real_shaq?

Tom Shea: LOVE IT. On a personal note, my favorite person on Twitter. The thought that Shaq can send a txt message and it could show up on 16k+ people’s telephone is amazing. Now that he has embraced this medium, I’m excited to see what other players follow suit.

HBHA: Can social media tools be used to increase fan loyalty during good and bad seasons?

Tom Shea: Social media tools can absolutely be used in good and bad seasons. Fans aren’t just interested in box scores but the player personalities, the community of other fans and of course, every fan has an opinion that needs to be heard!

HBHA: BONUS Q – Can the Pistons beat the Cavs or Celtics in a 7 game series?

Tom Shea:  I think the Pistons can beat them in a 7 game series… In May. At this point in the season, they are still learning to work together. Allen Iverson is too good to not break loose with regularity and the core is still capable of playing off each other better than any team in the league. I still like their depth and with Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince emerging as consistent difference makers, they have more weapons than most teams. [fin]

Lots of great takeaways from Tom here, especially on the leg work involved in social media.  Just don’t listen to him about the Pistons beating the Cavs or Celtics in a 7 game series.  Not happening!

Thank you again to Tom and the Detroit Pistons for allowing me to post this interview!

I have been reading a lot about how great Derrick Rose is.  Since I havent had the chance to watch him play yet, I went to YouTube to find some videos.  Check these out.  Rose has a killer crossover.

Random Thought: To find an embeddable sports clip, my fist instinct was to go to youtube.  Is the NBA doing anything to get people to use NBA.com instead?  If not, they should.

In last night’s win over the Golden State Warriors, Chris Duhon had a franchise record 22 assists for the Knicks.  Amazing.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch the game due to family obligations this holiday weekend.  The best I could do was refresh the IPhone Sportstacular app every few minutes.  I was amazed every time Duhon was credited with another assist (but grew increasingly more frustrated that I couldnt watch).

Tonight, I wanted to put Duhon’s career night into perspective.

1. 22 assists matches the most assists Steve Nash ever had in a game.  According to NBAHoopsOnline, Nash had 22 assists against the Knicks on Jan 2, 2006.  Guess who Nash’s coach was at the time?  Yup – D’Antoni.  The comparisons to Nash dont end there.  Here is what Warriors coach Don Nelson had to say:

“I think Duhon is the story tonight. Wow, what a player,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “Been watching him on film and seeing him on videos, but seeing him in person is another story. Guy’s got the whole package. He looked like Steve Nash out there. Unbelievable performance.

“Whether we zoned him, switched him, it didn’t matter. He still found a way to hurt us. Really impressive performance.”

2. Scott Skiles holds the record for assists in a game with 30.

3. There were 11 games last night.  How did Duhon’s night compare to the combined assists totals of the other 21 teams in action?  13 teams combined for less than 22 assists, 5 teams combined for 22 assists and only 3 teams had more than 22 assists.

• 15 Assists – Nets
• 17 Assists – Celtics, Kings
• 18 Assists – Bobcats, Grizzlies, Spurs
• 19 Assists – Magic, Thunder, Bucks
• 20 Assists – Timberwolves, Mavericks
• 21 Assists – Warriors, Jazz
• 22 Assists – Pacers, Wizards, Houston, Cavaliers, Clippers
• 23 Assists – Nuggets
• 24 Assists – Hawks
• 26 Assists – Heat
• 35 Assists – Knicks

Pretty impressive.  Shame I couldnt watch the game….

Monitoring player stats is a must for anyone that takes fantasy basketball seriously.  Approximately 18 games into the season, I am pretty shocked by the following stats.  Note – I looked at total numbers, not averages.  Any numbers in ( ) indicate the number of games played this season.

1. Jason Kidd (15) has hit 29 threes so far this season.  Dirk (15) only has 16.  Both have played 15 games this season.  For Dallas to win consistently, those numbers need to be reversed.  Dirk is still in the top 5 for scoring.  I just cant understand why Kidd has so many more 3s.

2. Dwight Howard (16) has 62 blocks already this year, making him the league leader by nearly 30 blocks!  The 2nd most prolific blockers are Spencer Hawes(18) and Kendrick Perkins (17) with 35 blocks each.  That is a ridiculous difference.

3. Dwyane Wade (16) and Danny Granger (14) have blocked more shots than Emeka Okafor (15), Samuel Dalembert (16), Andris Biedrins (16), Elton Brand (16), Tim Duncan (15), Rasheed Wallace (15), Yao Ming (15) and Amare Stoudemire (17).

4. Ramon Sessions (16), the back up PG for the Bucks, has more assists than these starting PGs – Andre Miller (16), Randy Foye (14), TJ Ford (15), Mo Williams (16), Raymond Felton (15), Jameer Nelson (14), Devin Harris (11), Mike Bibby (15) and Rafer Alston (14).  The Bucks arent exactly oozing with talent (Redd hasnt played in ages), so that doesnt explain it.

I know it’s still early in the season, but I still think the above numbers are pretty odd.  Looking at the overall Yahoo! Fantasy B Ball Rankings, there are some other fantasy bball surprises:

1. Nene is ranked 9th.  This will likely drop, but its still impressive.

2. Brandon Roy is 11th.  At this rate, he is a 1st round pick next year.

3. Spencer Hawes is ranked 12th.  He plays for the Kings and was the starting C while Miller was out.  I dont know much else about him.

4. Dwight Howard is only 27th, despite leading the league in blocks and rebounds.  His ft% is just so bad that its hard to work with him on your team.

Let’s cut the bullshit – we (the Knicks) were never going to win with last week’s roster.  The new look Knicks have definitely been fun to watch, definitely play with heart, and definitely score a ton. But, for all their positives, they were never going to win it all.  Our best chance of winning has always been to try to dump some toxic contracts and rebuild the team using free agency. Trading Crawford and Randolph for Tim Thomas, Cutino Mobley and Al Harrington accomplishes this, putting the Knicks in a position to be legit players in the summer of 2010, which is arguably the most talented free agent summer ever.

Yes, at the start of the season I blogged that It’s a New Day for the Knicks and I stand behind every word.   For years we lived under the psychotic regime of Isiah Thomas – a man with a goal (win the championship) but no plan.  Coaches and players came and went, quality of play went down, caliber of players became increasingly worse, and fan loyalty faded.  Our only hope was a fresh start. So, Isaiah was fired and Donnie Walsh was brought in to clean this mess. His first step was bringing in a coach that players actually respected.  Mike D’Antoni instantly won this respect by benching the two biggest drama queens on the roster – Curry and Marbury.  The players responded and have made the Knicks one of the surprise teams of the season. In fact, even though it’s still very early in the season, the Knicks have played so well that D’Antoni is an early candidate for Coach of the Year.

Sadly, regardless of how many points we have scored or games we have won, the roster has always been flawed – full of toxic contracts from the Isiah Thomas years.  Donnie Walsh’s logical second step was to get rid of these toxic contracts by trading for players whose contracts expire in 2010. Remember, the goal has always been to win the championship. It wasn’t happening with the current roster, so Donnie looked to the future and made a plan. This plan, of course, revolves around the year 2010.  Why 2010?  2010 = LeBron.  2010 = Bosh and Wade.  With enough money, 2010 = Lebron + Bosh.  N’uff Said.

I won’t focus much on Bosh or Wade. It’s not that I don’t think they are amazing players – I do. Wade is the only one in the group with a ring and is a top five player on anyone’s list. But Lebron is the best player in the league and still has room to grow. He is a once in a lifetime athlete who makes everyone around him better. Think about it – the Cavs made the finals 2 years ago, beating a very strong pistons team along the way, all because Lebron outplayed everyone. He was just that good then. Today he is even better. The ass whipping he got in the finals that year was also fantastic for his development as a player. It showed him that he can’t do it all alone and forced him to figure out how to make his teammates better. As I wrote the other day, I hope he wins it all this year and then is unsuccessful in defending his title. That will make it easier for him to leave the state he loves. The rumored $50 million dollar “bonus” he gets from Nike won’t hurt either.

So, where do we stand for the next 500+ days?  The players we lost were good.  Randolph and Crawford were playing very well this season and were giving us a reason to turn on MSG on game night.  With the exception of Harrington, the guys we got back aren’t that good and even Harrington is just ok.  So, with no real expectations on them, the next 2 seasons should be all about developing Wilson Chandler, Chris Duhon, David Lee and Nate Robinson into better ball players. Figure out whom to resign, show Lebron that there is some talent on the team, and then pray to the basketball gods that he comes to the Knicks.

Some Half Blog, Half Amazing musings:

· The wizards fired Eddie Jordan just days after I called them the most disappointing team in the league. I think I am going to have to add “being psychic” to skills section of my resume.

· The Knicks play the Cavs tonight – I expect Lebron to get a HUGE round of applause.

· PJ Carlisimo got fired. I haven’t heard of any players that like playing for this guy. In fact, Sprewell hated him so much that he choked him. Maybe, just maybe, the writing is on the wall that this guy shouldn’t be a head coach.

· Greg Oden was annihilated by Shaq the other night. Oden still has a LONG way to go.

· In 30 minutes last night, Mike Conley had 2 points, 1 steal, 2 assists, 4 rebounds and was 1-6 from the field with no FT attempts. AWFUL. What exactly does this guy bring to the table for the Grizzlies?

Apologies to my good friends @alhduke and @jasonrubin13, but I’ll have to blog about my reaction the the knicks trades tomorrow.  Bottom line – i love the new regime and all the moves they are making.  Our team was fun to watch, but had no hopes of going deep in the playoffs.  If they can dump Curry as well, they will have enough to give max offers to Lebron and Bosh.   Can you even imagine that?  Best thing for us would be if Lebron won the Championship this year.  His “duty” to his home town would be fulfilled and he could leave with a clear conscience.  Worst thing would be if Lebron won the NBA Championship this year and next year.  No chance he leaves without trying to 3 peat.

Looking at tonight’s box scores, here are some of the trends I see after reviewing them.

• Ramon Sessions is about to get the starting gig over Luke Ridnour.  Ramon played 40 minutes tonight to Ridnour’s 10.  He is a better scorer and passer.  Not sure why the switch hasnt happened yet.
• Omeka Okafor is not worth 70 Million.  He had a nice game tonight with 16 points and 18 rebounds, but even Dampier puts up numbers like that every once in a while.  Okafor needs to start playing consistently for me to change my mind.  I also should mention that I drafted him in my fantasy basketball league and would really like to see him block more shots.
• Remember when people cared about Adam Morrison?  He was 0-6 tonight in 20 minutes.  Time to head to the NBDL dude
• What’s up with Dwight Howard?  He is woefully inconsistent.  Some nights he is the 2nd coming of Shaq.  Other nights, he is a slightly better Okafor.  Tonight it was the latter.  13 points, 9 boards and 2 blocks.  Lame
• Devin Harris is killing it the past few games.  He started slow, but has really found is groove.  18 pts and 10 assists.  Plus, he got to the line 14 times.  The Mavs cant be happy having J Kidd over Harris given relative ages of each player.
• The Clippers are really terrible.  Would Brand have really made a difference?  I’m not so sure.  He isnt exactly killing it in Philly this year.
• Did you know that Wade is currently 6th in the league in blocked shots?  He has more than Brand, Camby and Dalembert.  He’s also 4th in assists and 2nd in pts scored.  Pretty unreal, especially the blocks.
• Are the Wizards the worst team in the NBA?  I’m really starting to think so.  They have 2 former all stars in their starting lineup (jamison and butler) and they still have a 1-11 record.  Tonight they lost to the Knicks, a team that dressed only 7 players and has exactly 0 all stars in their starting 5.  Arenas is not the answer to this Wizards disaster.  The Oklahoma Thunder are pretty bad too, but they dont have a single all start, much less 2.
• All five Knicks starters scored in double figures tonight.  Very nice win for a team in transition.  D’Antoni is still the leader for coach of the year.
• AK-47 has found his all around game.  Our favorite Russian had 10 assists tonight to go along with 9 pts, 4 steals and 6 rebounds.  Great for the jazz, terrible for the rest of the league.  The Jazz are playing really well without Deron Williams.  Watch out when he gets back.
• Anyone else think that Tyson Chandler is really underperforming this year?  I dont want to blame all of the Hornet’s woes on him, but that guy needs to step it up.  8 pts and 5 boards in 34 minutes wont cut it if this team wants to go to the finals.
• Raja Bell is having a dismal year.  Did he just forget how to shoot?  Looking at the Sun’s roster, they all seem to be having just ok years.  Shaq is the exception.  They are getting way more out of the Diesel this year than most predicted.
• Who will be the next NBA star to use Twitter?  Twitter wont be kind to every player.  Would anyone want to see Tim Duncan tweets?  Maybe, but I can’t see him being nearly as witty as shaq.  I think Charles Barkley would be great.  Lebron is an obvious choice.  Who would you want to see use twitter next?

I’m excited.  I’m probably more excited about this than you are.  That’s ok.  I’m passionate about the NBA and social media, so shaq starting his own twitter account is big news to me.  SHAQ IS TWITTERING.

According to Alana G, there was a shaq impostor on twitter a few weeks ago.  The diesel got so mad that he started he own twitter account (@the_real_shaq).  I’ve pasted a screenshot of his tweets.  They are fantastic.  I’ve blogged before that athletes should embrace twitter.  Amazing to see it happening.