SH Blog: Rose addresses Steve Kerr’s commentary on playing status, Nets contact Phil Jackson for coaching job

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Derrick RoseCan Derrick Rose still come back this season to help the Chicago Bulls against the Miami Heat in the Conference semifinals?

Much has been made of why he – despite being cleared to play by doctors some time ago – has still been unavailable to play for the team. Perhaps there wouldn’t have been so much scrutiny on the point guard, who is still in the process of recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in last season’s playoffs, had he and the team simply announced that he’d miss the remainder of the season. That would have ended all the curiosity and criticism. If he did comeback? Great. Now he would be a hero for doing so. Case in point: David Lee of the Golden State Warriors was expected to miss the remainder of the season after tearing his hip flexor, but made a sudden appearance in Game 6 of the first round and was recognized as an inspiration. Either way, Rose is not ready to say he is done just yet, from Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today:

Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose has his reason why he won’t just say he’s not playing this season.

It’s because Rose, deep down, still thinks he could return sometime during the playoffs even though he hasn’t played since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of last season’s first-round playoff series.

He doesn’t want to rule anything in or out, even though the Bulls plan on not having Rose available this season.

“Still in the air. I might have a chance,” Rose said Monday morning the Bulls shootaround, about nine hours before Game 1 of Chicago’s Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Miami Heat.

None of us really understand what exactly Rose is going through with the knee and why he still doesn’t feel confident enough to try to play on it. With key players on his team ailing with an assortment of injuries, they certainly could use anything they can get from Rose. However, no one on his team is necessarily pressuring him to do so. He addressed this particular topic, along with Steve Kerr’s call-out of the situation on national TV:

“There’s no pressure at all. I haven’t had any pressure from anyone – not in the organization, not from my teammates,” he said. “They know I’m put everything I have into trying to come back as fast as possible. But just trying to be smart with the whole situation and just take my time.

“It’s definitely hard. I know this will be over with pretty soon. Who knows when it’s going to stop? I can’t get down on myself.”

TNT analyst and former Bulls guard Steve Kerr recently said, “If Derrick is OK and there’s no threat to further injury, I think he’s got to play. … Maybe he owes it to his teammates.”

Rose answered Kerr’s statement.

“Everybody has their own opinion,” he said. “The key words that he said were, ‘If I’m ready.’ (Right now) I’m not ready. I’m just trying to take my time and really, really be smart.”

Rose will not put a percentage on his physical or mental health.

“I don’t want to say no percentage,” Rose said. “I wish I knew, but I know I’m feeling pretty good.”

With the Bulls shocking the world with a victory in Game 1 over the Heat on the road, they certainly could use Rose to help complete what would be an incredible upset. Unless Rose makes the decision to give it a go, however, this may be a pointless situation to continue to wonder about. Oh, and make sure you never mention it to Joakim Noah, because he just might get upset with you. Check out what he said, from KSBW:

“Derrick’s a brother,” Noah said. “And to see him go through this is tough, but at the end of the day it’s really funny how quick people are to judge. But people don’t know what it’s like to lead a team, especially after you tore your ACL. “If you tore your ACL and you have to be the starting point guard and have the expectations that Derrick has, then maybe you can judge, but everybody who hasn’t been in that situation before should really shut up because I feel like it’s just so unfair to him and to this team. We’re fighting, and everybody’s going to just s— on somebody who’s been giving so much to this organization. It’s crazy to me.”

Onto other news from around the league: 

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SH Blog: Will Chris Paul and/or Vinny Del Negro be Clippers next season?

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Chris PaulSuddenly, everything is a whole lot clearer. Four teams were eliminated last night, and we’ve got just one more game in the first round of the playoffs. It’s tonight, between the Bulls and Nets, and the winner gets to face the Heat. So maybe not the best reward, but every team in the East knows they’ll have to go through the Heat if they want to reach the Finals.

The rest of the second round is set, and we’ve got previews all ready for you. First we’ve got the Grizzlies and the Thunder out west, and in the east we’ve got the Pacers and the Knicks.

Now here’s all the latest news from around the NBA:

  • With the Clippers’ season now over, they may be another team riding the coaching carousel, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com: “Clippers sources insist no decision has been made on (Vinny) Del Negro yet and that this early playoff exit won’t be the only basis upon which he’s judged. The team won a franchise-record 56 games this season and Del Negro has always had a good relationship with the team’s ownership. The team is expected to take “about a week” to evaluate the season before making a decision on Del Negro, according to one source. Officially Del Negro’s contract runs a few more months, and the Clippers have been known to take their time with such matters — interim coach Kim Hughes famously worked several months after he was dismissed as interim head coach — but “that’s not going to happen this time,” the source said.”
  • Ric Bucher of CSN Bay Area weighs in on the Clippers’ coaching situation: “A tantalizing candidate to be the Clippers’ next head coach posited by one NBA executive if the team would like to maximize its chances of Chris Paul re-signing with the franchise: Chauncey Billups. I can’t tell you if Billups is interested in retiring as a player at this point, or even if being a head coach is what he wants to do next, but he certainly knows the game well enough, has long held unusual authority among his peers on the court and in the locker room. Then there’s this: no one is closer on that team than Paul and Billups. I also know that Paul’s control of the franchise, by virtue of the fact the Clippers will do anything to keep him, is nearly absolute. As for the current head coach, Vinny Del Negro, the consensus around the NBA is that this first-round ouster is almost certain to cost him his job.”
  • Blake on CP3 re-signing: "He knows how we've done things, especially the last two years. I think he knows it's a great place to play."
    May 4, 2013 1:33 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
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    Ramona Shelburne

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Eisenberg: Has Josh Smith played his last game as a Hawk?

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Josh SmithATLANTA – If Atlanta’s Game 6 elimination loss to Indiana was Josh Smith’s final game as a Hawk, the star’s final performance was a near-perfect microcosm of his nine-year tenure in Atlanta.

Friday night was fittingly consumed with frustration and bad decision-making, plenty of impressive defensive stops, and conclusively mixed results.

The Hawks lived and died with Smith as their star all season and eventually paid for all of his shortcomings on Friday. 

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StatBox Playoff Breakdown: Melo hurting Knicks, Pacers defense perseveres and Thunder in trouble

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Can a team win with its star player only scoring one point per shot? It’s not going so well over the past few games for Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks. Which players drive the Pacers in its incredibly volatile series against Atlanta? Can Oklahoma City win with Reggie Jackson as its second option on offense. We’re going behind the numbers from Wednesday night’s trio of Game Fives in today’s StatBox playoff breakdown.

Knicks won’t win with VoluMelo
Carmelo_AnthonyThe Knicks let a veteran team like the Celtics hang around on Wednesday in Boston’s 92-86 win and gain some confidence going into Friday night’s Game 6. The Knicks shot under 40 percent, and a lot of that has to do with the inefficient play of its best player.

The New York Knicks have a superstar player in Carmelo Anthony when he’s an efficient shooter and passer out of double teams. There seems to only a slight difference in Anthony’s performance in wins and losses during the regular season, but it’s enough of a difference to point out some tendencies.

Carmelo Anthony Shots FG % 3 FG % Points Rebounds FTA FT %
Wins 21.8 46.5 39.6 29 6.7 7.5 83.5
Losses 23.2 41.4 34.1 28 7.2 8 81.9

In losses, Anthony takes more shots at a pedestrian percentage across the board. The higher rebounding and free throw attempt numbers are due to his increased minutes in losses (39.2) rather than wins (36.1). What the Knicks have seen from its best player over the last three games is something/someone I call VoluMelo. He’s become a volume shooter who’s basketball-monopolizing approach hurts the team.

It doesn’t take a mathematical savant to realize that a player isn’t being efficient when he’s taking as many shots as the points he scores. In the last three games, Anthony scored 84 points on 84 shots. That’s really, really bad, considering shots are worth two or three points and there are free throws, as well. Anthony scored 70 points on 53 shots in the first two games, and even that’s not amazing.

“I told you from Game 1 that this wasn’t going to be a breeze. It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Them guys were going to fight and they’re showing some fight right now,” Anthony said. “They threw a couple punches at us now and it’s time for us to do the same.”

The way Anthony is shooting, he seems to be throwing a punch or two at his own team. Until New York gets Melo instead of VoluMelo, the Knicks are going to be in deep trouble against the Celtics.

Panicked Pacers persevere
Roy Hibbert, Al HorfordAfter squandering a 2-0 series lead, the Indiana Pacers were panicking. But in Wednesday’s Game 5, Indiana went back to what got them the Eastern Conference’s third seed: elite level defense and other-worldly efficiency from the frontcourt.

It was a defensive tour-de-force in the Pacers’ 106-83 win, limiting the Hawks to 33.3 percent shooting. Josh Smith, Al Horford and Jeff Teague combined to shoot 13- for-46 from the field. On the other hand, the Indiana frontcourt trio of Roy Hibbert, David West and Paul George shot 21-for-31 as part of a Pacer offense that shot 50.7 percent from the floor.

“This is the first time that I felt like we’ve played true defense in this series,” West said. “I thought everyone came in and stayed with the game plan in terms of being aggressive, and our hands were active and we just made plays on the defensive end.”

As you’ll see in this nice info-graphic, the Pacers go as far as Hibbert, West and George take them:

Pacer Frontcourt FG % Points Rebounds FTA Plus/Minus
Game 1 39 52 28 21 43
Game 2 48.6 49 18 19 45
Game 3 42.4 42 24 16 -20
Game 4 41.5 50 25 15 -8
Game 5 67.7 63 24 23 64

When the trio got aggressive and went to the free throw line at least 19 times, they won. Whenever the players had a positive plus/minus, Indiana won. If the Pacers want to close out the Hawks in Game 6 and win the first road game of the series, you’ll know where to look for Indiana’s production.

Are the thin Thunder in trouble?
Reggie_JacksonRussell Westbrook is injured. James Harden is on the other team. So who’s the second option for the Oklahoma City Thunder besides Kevin Durant? Reggie Jackson took the second most shots on the team in Wednesday’s 107-100 loss to Houston that was troublesome for the West’s second seed top seed to say the very least.

Kevin Martin shot 1-for-10 and the OKC bench scored a total of 19 points on 23 shots. Even without Jeremy Lin on Wednesday, Houston went eight deep and got a combined 32 points from afterthoughts Francisco Garcia and Patrick Beverley. During the regular season, Jackson took 4.6 shots per game. During the postseason, that average is up to 10 attempts per contest and rising. Jackson is not a second scoring option for a playoff team. It’s that simple.

Serge Ibaka shot 6-for-14 in the Game 5 defeat, and he and Martin need to many more touches if the Thunder plan on advancing to the second round against either the Clippers or Grizzlies. If not, the team’s management may be kicking itself for sacrificing its short-term depth with Harden.

Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

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StatBox Playoff Breakdown: Houston’s blown chance, mistakes haunt Hawks and a lacking Lakers star

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If you enjoy the weekly StatBox column that analytically breaks down some of the NBA’s most pressing and important topic, you’re in luck. Every Tuesday through Thursday during the postseason, the StatBox is expanding into playoff game analysis. You’ll not only find out why each team won and lost, but how different statistical trends can play out over the course of the series and the playoffs as a whole. Today: Houston’s wasted opportunity, mistakes thwarting Atlanta’s chances at victory and one Laker star’s alarming performance.

One game Houston would want back

rockets small logoRoad wins have not come easy in the first round of the playoffs. It’s taken one outstanding defensive performance from the Bulls and a perfect offensive game from the Warriors to get it done. Houston erased a late 15-point deficit on Wednesday against Oklahoma City and got a transcendant performance from Patrick Beverly and still failed to close out a road win against the Thunder.

Houston did a really good job of going through the checklist of teams that pull off playoff upsets. Consider:

  • Oklahoma City shot under 44 percent from the field. They averaged 48.1 percent shooting during the regular season. But Houston shot under 40 percent in its 105-102 loss.
  • Houston was an astounding plus-17 on the glass, out-rebounding OKC 57-40. ESPN points out that the Thunder/Sonics franchise hadn’t won a postseason game despite having at least 15 fewer boards than its opponent since 1996.
  • The Rockets hit 10 3-pointers, hit 20 free throws and won the points in the paint by a 50-30 margin and still lost. That is due, in part, to its 16 turnovers (to OKC’s 12).
  • With Jeremy Lin out for the second half, Patrick Beverly scored 16 points to go with 12 rebounds and six assists. Chances are they won’t get that type of unexpected production again.

All these things went right for the Houston Rockets, and the Thunder managed to get the win in Game 2 anyway. That bodes well for OKC in this series.

Too many mistakes haunt Hawks

Josh SmithAgainst a team so fundamentally sound like the Pacers, making mistakes can kill a team’s chances. First, let’s consider everything Atlanta did right in Wednesday night’s Game 2. They shot the ball really well, and put up enough points to probably win. Consider the Hawks’ production against Indiana’s regular season defensive averages:

NBA PLAYOFFS FG % 3 FG % Points
Indiana Season Average 42 34.7 90.7
Hawks Game 2 49.4 39.1 98

To shoot that well against the Pacers is rather impressive. The problem: not enough assertiveness from its star players, poor defense and no offensive discipline, among others. Josh Smith should shoot more than 10 times, especially when Kyle Korver and Devin Harris take the same amount of field goals. This could be because of Paul George’s defense (he led the NBA in defensive win shares, unlike Marc Gasol), but Smith is playing not only for his team, but for a new max-level contract as well.

As for the team’s defense? Indiana shot 47.1 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep. The Hawks allowed 29 Pacer free throws and shot 11 of 20 from the line themselves, an awful 55 percent. Atlanta also turned it over 14 times. These are critical mistakes you can’t make against the Pacers, and that’s why Indiana is off to a 2-0 series lead.

Superman simply subpar for Lakers
Dwight HowardDwight Howard took fewer shots in Wednesday night’s Game 2 loss to the Spurs than Metta World Peace. Howard also took fewer shots than Pau Gasol and even Steve Blake! Perhaps Superman was too busy griping about his supposed Defensive Player of the Year “snub” to notice that the Lakers desperately need him to be a superstar against the Spurs without Kobe Bryant in the mix. It should come as no surprise that Howard was a -14 in the game, tied for the worst mark on both teams in a 102-91 San Antonio triumph.

Dwight Howard Shots Points FG %
In Wins 11.9 19.2 60.1
In Losses 9.2 14.4 54.1

Howard’s 12 shots was right around his season average, which is a pretty big problem considering that Bryant isn’t there to take the scoring load. For someone who thinks he deserves a max-level contract this offseason, his lack of assertiveness in a playoff series is beyond alarming. Unfortunately, this is probably who Dwight Howard is. Uncomfortable with taking the lead role, satisfied with playing second fiddle. If the Lakers are satisfied with this type of performance, perhaps they’re meant to have Howard in the fold for years to come.

“It is frustrating,” Howard said of the San Antonio defense. “I just have to trust my teammates to make shots. On whatever they do defensively, I have to be aware of my arms and try not to get tangled up.”

That doesn’t sound like a max-level leader. That sounds like a helpless man, defeated after falling short while being thrust into a leading role. This epitomizes Dwight Howard. This epitomizes the sorry and sad future of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a writer for Football.com. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

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