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Of course, those 5 aren't the only journeymen who deserve "preservation status" on a site like Facebook. Brent asked, "What groups would you propose be amended to this list? Those that you personally know of or would like to create?" Bill Wennington came to mind (the Greg Kite of his era?), but I think I'm going to open this one up to the readers... For which historical bench players would you create a social media group whose membership numbers are completely disproportionate to the player's talent level?
Better late than never: ESPN has a source reporting that Dennis Johnson, the legendary guard who played a key role on three championship teams during the 1970s & '80s (2 with the Boston Celtics and 1 with the Seattle SuperSonics), has apparently been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this voting cycle. Johnson, who passed away suddenly at age 52 in 2007, had been long regarded as one of the HoF's most glaring omissions, given his championship resume and the fact that he made up half of one of the most famous plays in NBA history. It's a shame he couldn't live to see the honor, but congratulations are still in order to Johnson, one of the winningest players of all time.
As expected, Zydrunas Ilgauskas re-signed with Cleveland yesterday after being sent to (and immediately bought out by) Washington at the trade deadline and sitting out the required 30 days before becoming eligible to sign with another the team that dealt him. Obviously, this was orchestrated a long time ago, and obviously it's an attempt to skirt NBA rules about matching salaries in trades... But is there anything wrong with that? Phil Jackson called it a "sham" and Doc Rivers also spoke out against it, but it happens all the time, and teams are almost open about it at this point. So what do you think should be done about these kinds of situations in the future?
In his first game as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, things could not have gone much worse for Antawn Jamison -- the former Wizards F went 0-for-12 from the field in his Cavs debut, scoring just 2 points in 26 minutes off the bench. With the donut he produced from the floor, he also added his name to this group of embarrassing performances since 1987:
It's an annual rite of passage for the Sports Guy, ranking the top "trade values" in the NBA from 1-40. This year, he breaks it into multiple parts: Part 1 and Part 2. Do I agree with all of it? Of course not. But I definitely appreciate the effort, and it's a fun read no matter what.
"[Majerus] was also the architect of the 20-point game, the lowest point total in the shot clock era. I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise that if there was one man that could defy logic and take on the challenge of completing a game by making only 2-point shots, it was Majerus. And on Saturday at the Robins Center in Richmond, that’s exactly what Saint Louis did - and they made it look a lot easier than it should have been."
That's right, Saint Louis made 0 free throws and 0 3-pointers in their 1/30 game against Richmond, a rare "achievement" indeed. The closest an NBA team came to accomplishing the same feat in our box score era was in this Heat-Lakers game from 1991: Miami made 42 FG, all 2-pointers, and made just 3 FT. But no team since 1987 has recorded zero FT in a game; the Nets made one single solitary free throw in this 2004 game vs. Minnesota, the lowest output in our box score era.
Over at Hoopdata, Tom Haberstroh has a cool Google Motion chart of players' individual offensive ratings and usage rates over the past decade. It's especially fun to follow the bouncing Iverson and Kobe on the far right side of the graph...
This is neat (hat tip to Supersub15 at APBRmetrics)... A freelance tech/writer named Wyn Douglas has put together transaction flowcharts for every NBA team's current roster, showing how the team came together over the years via trades, signings, draft picks, etc. For example, here are the Celtics... The Cavs... The Magic... And the Lakers. Very cool stuff, if you ask me.
