The Starting Five's All-Star interlude: Dr. J, Sir Charles and other inflated opinions
While we're waiting for Zach LaVine to reenter the Earth's gravitational pull, let's examine some issues around the league as the trade deadline clock ticks down to 3 p.m. (ET) Thursday.
Although the rumor-to-trade ratio has been historically low, there have been some impactful deals at or near the deadline.
For example, in 2001, Dikembe Mutombo was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers, who parlayed his shot-blocking presence into an NBA Finals run.
Gary Payton (Seattle) and Ray Allen (Milwaukee) were key components in an in-season deal that occurred in 2003.
Jeff Hornacek escaped Philly for Utah in 1994, and Tim Hardaway became a member of the Miami Heat at the deadline in 1996.
A couple of weeks before the deadline in '08, the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies consummated a deal that brought Pau Gasol to Tinseltown and paved the way for brother Marc to become an All-Star in Tennessee.
But perhaps the deal with the most playoff relevance was negotiated in 2004 by the Detroit Pistons, who -- in a transaction that included the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks -- added a key piece to their eventual championship team.
His name was Rasheed Wallace.
For the record, one of the draft picks exchanged in that deal was used by the Hawks to select Josh Smith.
Charles Barkley: We don't need no stinkin' analytics.
All-Star weekend provided busy media type crucial access to big NBA stars.
And who's bigger -- or has bigger opinions -- than Charles Barkley?
The most compelling chatter Sir Charles has instigated of late surrounds the topic of analytics and their use in the NBA.
During an interview with SLAM Magazine, Barkley unloaded this:
"I'm watching the style of play, looking at matchups, you guys talk a lot about analytical (BS) . . . this game's all about matchups. Here I'm looking at the Cleveland Cavaliers shooting way too many jump shots, and they're playing at too slow a pace. And that's why I think Chicago can beat them in a seven-game series."
The Cavs are taking too many jump shots and playing at a slower pace than needed to exploit their talent?
Riiiight, that doesn't read like analytics at all.
To our way of thinking, the efficacy of massaging numbers into tactical upgrades falls somewhere between Chuck's philosophy and the excessively-pro-metrics crowd. And in that middle ground you'll find quite a few NBA coaches and general managers.
If you don't think the San Antonio Spurs incorporate numerical analysis into how they develop players and lean on certain on-court concepts, you need to pay closer attention.
The commissioner wants to ease into a higher salary cap environment rather than opening up the flood gates.
During last weekend's state-of-the-league press conference, NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed several hot-button issues.
But the greatest potential impact on players, fans and anyone else involved in pro hoops might not be the age restriction for draft eligibility, removing any motivation for tanking for a higher position in the draft lottery, or seeding the playoffs with the 16-best teams.
All of those topics are interesting but eventually could take a back seat to the concept of . . . drum roll right here . . . smoothing.
For the record, smoothing is a word used by Silver (who met with players' union reps last weekend) to take an incremental approach to raising the cap number once the NBA's huge television windfall hits team bank accounts.
The league is concerned that having a boatload of money to spend would provide big-market teams with another unfair advantage in free agency. The players, of course, won't exactly be thrilled with the concept of waiting for their negotiated split of the incoming loot.
Stay tuned for developing details regarding another Kevin Durant barnstorming tour of pick-up basketball on courts far from the uneducated eyes of NBA reporters.
Zach LaVine might be the NBA's reigning slam-dunk champion, but he's no Crunch the Wolf.
Julius Erving was one of the most exciting players in league history and is one of the sport's greatest ambassadors, but if a dunk-contest-related statement he made last weekend was anything but tongue in cheek, then Dr. J might have gone momentarily cuckoo.
In attempting to explain why the dunk contest has diminished in popularity, Erving chose to blame those pesky team mascots.
"The mascots messed it up," he said. "It was great seeing regular humans, even though they were 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, dunking a basketball. When mascots started doing it with all the trampolines and all the crazy stuff and falling on the floor, then it became more like the X Games. The players can't live up to that."
Actually, that could be true . . . if all of the fans were less than 8 years old.
But at least we might be compelled to theorize that LeBron James isn't as fearful of taking on Zach LaVine as he is intimidated by following in the fancy footsteps of The Gorilla in Phoenix.
Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs got the best of Klay Thompson and the Warriors in a Nov. 11 get-together in Oakland.
While rolling to a record of 42-9 at the All-Star break, the Golden State Warriors have been steered down their current path by first-year coach Steve Kerr.
Kerr, whose coaching style wisely has cannibalized those of multiple basketball minds, will match wits and fits with former mentor Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs on Friday in Oakland.
The Spurs -- with every early rotation player except Tiago Splitter available -- notched a 113-100 win over the Warriors in Oakland on Nov. 11. San Antonio limited Warriors star Steph Curry to 7-of-18 shooting (including 0 of 7 from 3-point range) in that one.
In addition to the Curry-Tony Parker matchup and the tactical scrum co-starring Kerr and Popovich, pay attention to what could be a frequent collision between Golden State's Klay Thompson and defending NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.
They provide evidence for fans of teams not drafting in the lottery that hard work and great scouting can translate to great players.
We're making a huge assumption that after having more than a week off, Popovich will player every Spur who's healthy.
