The Blazers Sticky Fingers Big Man

The Portland Trail Blazers edged out the Denver Nuggets Tuesday night by just two points.   Coach Terry Stotts’ team won the possession battle by forcing two more turnovers than Denver.   He can thank big man LaMarcus Aldridge for his team keeping the rock.

LMA became the first NBA player since Carmelo Anthony to take 30 shots while committing zero turnovers.

His ability to get a shot up before fumbling the ball away is a prime reason why he is a valuable piece of the Blazers.  Aldridge’s career turnover rate of 8.2% is one of the three lowest of all-time.

Here is the complete list of games with 30+ FGA’s and Zero turns (since 2010):

Player                    Date  Tm   FGA TOV
LaMarcus  Aldridge   2014-12-02 POR W  30   0
Carmelo  Anthony     2014-01-24 NYK W  35   0
Kevin  Durant        2014-01-07 OKC L  34   0
LaMarcus  Aldridge   2013-12-26 POR W  31   0
Kevin  Durant        2013-01-14 OKC W  30   0

Carmelo Anthony: Five Comps

Taking into account player performance over the last two NBA seasons here are five guys who are roughly as valuable as Carmelo Anthony.  Numbers included are offense only so for the sake of this post defense is totally ignored.

These are players with similar shooting, rebounding, passing and ball control attributes to ‘Melo:

                  Adva
Player            ORB% AST% TOV%  TS%
Blake  Griffin      8.2 19.5 12.3 .578
Kevin  Love         9.0 19.6 10.2 .568
David  Lee          8.7 14.0 13.0 .563
Carmelo  Anthony    5.8 15.0  9.4 .561
Paul  Millsap       7.9 15.3 12.6 .547
Tim  Duncan         8.0 15.8 12.4 .545

NBA History: Pickin’ Up The Pace

A decade has come and gone since Carmelo Anthony was a one-and-done NCAA champion at Syracuse.  As an NBA rookie he found himself playing for second year coach Jeff Bzdelik and the Denver Nuggets.

Newcomers ‘Melo and point guard Andre Miller helped coach B turn the Nuggets from the worst offensive team in the NBA in ’03 to the eighth best league-wide in ’04.

Ten years ago Denver was the place to see fast paced basketball.  Bzdelik’s team averaged a league high 93 possessions per 48 minutes.

Fast forward ten years and we have Carmelo playing in New York for Mike Woodson.  The 2014 Knicks play at the third slowest pace in the NBA.  How many possessions do they average per 48 minutes? Ninety-one.

In fact the current league-wide pace of 94 possessions is higher than the ‘super fast’ Denver team that featured nineteen year old Carmelo Anthony.

Volume Scorers Can Be Efficient Too

The 42 point outburst by LeBron James in Dallas this week was a sight to see.  He was all over the court, driving, dunking on people and making three-pointers.

In addition to pouring in the points LeBron was highly efficient.  He was the first player in the NBA to score 40+ points and shoot 70% from the floor in a game since Al Jefferson last April.

Find the full list below of players who scored over forty and made 7/10 of their shots over the last two seasons:

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	FGA	FG%	PTS
1	Paul Pierce	2012-12-19	BOS	16	.813	40
2	James Harden	2012-11-02	HOU	19	.737	45
3	James Harden	2013-02-20	HOU	19	.737	46
4	Al Jefferson	2013-04-12	UTA	27	.704	40
5	LeBron James	2014-02-18	MIA	23	.696	42
6	Carmelo Anthony	2013-04-02	NYK	26	.692	50

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/19/2014.

The Knicks Grab a Stud Outside of The Lottery

Some of the blame for the disastrous start to the Knicks season can include injuries.  Their staring center (Tyson Chandler) and point guard (Raymond Felton) have played a combined twenty games.  Carmelo Anthony has picked up the rebounding slack grabbing a career high 21% of available defensive rebounds.  Though without Chandler they have absolutely no presence against opposing centers. Knickerbocker fans have had very little to be happy about.

Fortunately their first round draft pick out of Michigan Tim Hardaway Jr. has been very effective.  Despite falling to the 24th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft the son of “killer crossover” has had a nice first two months to his career.  He is playing 17 minutes and scoring 8 points/game.  For a rookie picked late in the first round this is solid.  It looks even better when compared to the start by fellow rookie Ben McLemore.

Hardaway and the Sacramento Kings rookie come from the same mold (6’5″, 200 lbs), play the same position (shooting guard), have three letters in their first name and eight each in their last name.

The difference is that twelve months ago some scouts saw McLemore as the #1 overall pick in the draft.  The former Jayhawk slipped to #7 but was still considered an outstanding pure shooter and athlete.  The Kings picked McLemore ahead of Trey Burke and Michael Carter-Williams.

Look at the early returns of rookie two-guards:

Tim Hardaway – 17 points/36 minutes, 60% True Shooting

Ben McLemore – 13 points/36 minutes, 46% True Shooting

This is not to say that McLemore won’t turn into an all-star guard.  It simply shows how much of a pleasant surprise Hardaway has been with the Knicks.