Youtube: About a month ago, I was perusing the internet on the Bucks website or on Twitter, and nested somewhere in a video clip was an unusual shot of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings. For just an instant, the two were gaily skipping at midcourt in synch in the direction of the scorer’s table. Needless to say, it perplexed me, but I couldn’t let my life come to a screeching halt over a 0.5-second piece of video. I’m thankful that yesterday brought closure to my confusion.
Also, I woke up today humming the Laverne & Shirley theme.
Fox Sports Wisconsin: General manager John Hammond compared his three guards to the Isiah Thomas/Joe Dumars/Vinnie Johnson troika that propelled the Pistons to two titles back in the 1980s.
Joe Dumars described how he and Isiah Thomas gave up minutes to Vinnie Johnson in order to help the Pistons when that team became dominant in the late 1980s. Though Hammond made it clear he’s not comparing Milwaukee’s current three-guard rotation to one featuring two NBA Hall of Famers, he’s hoping the same principle of unselfishness prevails with Redick joining Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis.
“I think if guys are willing to accept the process, there’s no reason it can’t happen,” Hammond said Friday. “It really comes down to this: Do guys want to win? If you want to win, people will make sacrifices. The sacrifices could be a few minutes a game.
“He said Isiah and I both realized that when Vinnie came into the game and hit his first few shots that they would be set for a while. It made them a better team and even propelled them to a championship.
Fair enough. I’ve compared Larry Sanders to Bill Russell a couple of times this year, so I will refrain from throwing stones toward anyone else’s glass abodes.
Twitter: Bucks PR tweeted a magnificent picture of Samuel Dalembert working with a group of young basketball players at a Friday night Special Olympics event. King-sized kudos to everyone involved.
Deadspin: Speaking of Bucks PR, they’re kind of on a roll. Deadspin gave them a shout out for a nonchalant citation of J.J. Redick’s PER — without an explanatory sidebar.
As is standard practice, the Bucks put out atriumphant, post-trade press release that includes all kinds of boring statistics and PR-speak and hey wait a minute what’s this?
"[J.J. Redick’s] PER of 16.31 is the highest of his career and the ninth-best mark among shooting guards in the league this season."
Not only did the Bucks casually drop a PER reference, they did it without including any explanatory information. We’re just supposed to know what PER is at this point!
Hooray for math geeks! (That’s a genuine hooray, by the way.)
USPTO: The NBA trademarked its logo for the 2014 NBA All-Star game that will be hosted in New Orleans. No sign of any pelicans, but seeing that the game will be held just a few weeks before Mardi Gras, it seems appropriate enough.
San Francisco Chronicle: Now that a full year has passed since the Bogut trade, it may be time to note that John Hammond may have guessed right on that deal. Warriors center Andrew Bogut is hurt again:
Warriors center Andrew Bogut will miss Friday night’s game against San Antonio because of back spasms and is out indefinitely, according to head coach Mark Jackson.
The big man, who has played only 12 games this season because of left ankle surgery, missed Thursday’s practice and had an MRI on his back Friday. Jackson said he didn’t mean to sound grim about Bogut’s condition, but the team doesn’t yet have the results from his medical tests.
Bogut missed time in Milwaukee with back injuries, so this development doesn’t bode well for him.
Monta Ellis means a lot of things to a lot of people, but one item that is indisputable: he plays. Whether it’s because he plays hurt (my personal guess) or stays healthy is another matter. But he’s a skin-on-muscle-on-bones gamer on whom you can rely on for 3000 minutes per season.
The Warriors, on the other hand, are 5-6 with Bogut in the lineup and 27-17 without him. Is that a small sample on Bogut? Yes, but is he ever going to give any team more than a small sample?
Among five-man lineups with over 250 minutes played this season, the Warriors’ group of Jarrett Jack, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, David Lee, and Carl Landry has the best effective field goal percentage: 57.1%, a mark that put them slightly ahead of the Clippers’ and Heat’s best units. The Warriors’ best five-man unit also only yields a 50.8% eFG rate.
The Warriors may simply be better without Bogut at this point. His return isn’t necessarily the panacea that Bay Area fans expect. Sound familiar?