We survived another Friday the 13th. Here’s some stuff to enlighten you on Sunday the 15th.
Is Hakeem Olajuwon’s Post-Up Play Training All It’s Cracked Up to Be?
Brett Koromenos
Grantland
I honestly am too young to really remember Dream. He won his two championships when I was nine and ten years old, and I wasn’t really paying attention to the league since Jordan was retired. Despite this, and after reading Brett Koromenos’ excellent piece in Grantland, I am very sad I didn’t pay closer attention to Dream while he was at the top of his game. While I found Koromenos’ analysis — a very well-thought out deconstruction of the effectiveness of Hakeem Olajuwon’s post-move training in 2013, given the way defenses have changed over time — to be very engaging, I honestly was more struck by the video footage he used to support his argument. Dream looks amazing; a 50-year old 7-foot ballerina, spinning and twirling in the post. He looks like he could play today. Maybe he can?
- JG
Healthy Pack of Wolves Should Give Fans Hope
Zachary Bennett
Hoops Habit
It’s something of a tired narrative at this point: the Timberwolves, who looked promising to start the 2012-2013 season, found their fortunes dashed under the collective weights of their own bones and ligaments. However, as Zachary Bennett points out, there is reason to be optimistic. His piece chronicles the performances of JJ Barea, Alexy Shved and Ricky Rubio, three of the Wolves most important (and injury prone) players who are currently slugging their ways through the FIBA Americas and Eurobasket tournaments. Bennett argues that, if these tournaments are of any indication of the future, the Wolves might have a very talented team lying in wait. I certainly hope so, but not at the expense of my Warriors.
- JG
The Quest for 900: How Slingers Have Replaced Goliath in the NBA
Zach Harper
Eye on Basketball
While reading this, I wondered: did Zach Harper play Age of Empires back in the late 1990s? I ask because this piece really got my AoE juices flowing, man. In this nice little analysis, Harper provides the reader with a brief history of the three-point shot as an effective weapon in the NBA. He shows us how, over the course of the 1990s, teams began attempting more three pointers collectively, based upon the success of the strategy in 1995 with the Rockets and Knicks. But throughout the piece, Harper discusses on-court strategy borrowing recent work from Malcolm Gladwell about the evolution of combat. Harper starts talking about players in terms of infantry, cavalry and slingers, and suddenly I was back in my bedroom, defeating those puny Yamato with my awesome Greek cavalries. Hey Harper, if you wanna ever have an Age of Empires LAN party, holla atcha boy.
- JG
