This Week's Show
Tune in for:
- Cam Newton and the Superbowl
- Daniel Bryan's retirement
- Moneyballing Greedy Durant
- Kings minority owners unhappy with direction of franchise
- Derek Fisher firing
- The Michael Cage MVP Award
Hosts
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
You can watch us live at twitch.tv/nerdnumbers; we usually go Tuesday or Wednesday at 9:30 pm EST. Follow us on Twitter and we'll keep you posted!
Please subscribe to Channel NerdNumbers on YouTube and like us on iTunes!
Video Show
Show Notes
Bill Romanowski's tweet about Cam Newton was an all too familiar and sad response. Yes, Cam's interview reaction may have been slightly unprofessional, but the response has been far from acceptable.
We discuss how a standard Cam Newton press conference would have been boring, and how a heel turn is much more interesting.
Good Vox article on why Trump is terrifying, even if he doesn't win.
The Broncos won the Super Bowl with the fewest yards ever gained. That's something.
At one point in his career Peyton was the greatest QB without a Superbowl. This season he'll be the worst QB to win one.
— Andrés Alvarez (@NerdNumbers) February 8, 2016
Daniel Bryan's retirement should make you tear up a little.
The WWE's head doctor is Joseph Maroon, who you may recognize as a character in the movie concussion. He had an interesting article last year saying CTE fears in children sports were overrated.
Dr. Bennet Omalu, of course, has said the exact opposite.
Worth noting the lifespan of a professional wrestler is severely shortened.
Bryan's retirement is very reminiscent of Edge's retirement.
We discuss Brian's article about how easy it would be for the Warriors to accommodate Kevin Durant's offense.
Both Dave Berri and Dean Oliver have discussed how there is "gravity" in the NBA dragging teams towards being average. This is for good and bad teams. This means you should always be trying to improve your squad.
We compare how many treat successful NBA teams like software. This comic sums up the emotion.
We like naming stuff around here. We dub the "Patrick Picasso Principle" or P-Cubed for short to describe not overthinking getting a marquee player for below market value.
I comment that I have no problem with the top five in ESPN's #NBARank. Top 10 I'd probably drop Bill Russell for John Stockton. Still, overall a good list (top 10, I'm leaving the rest of the list alone!)
We talk the "Michael Cage MVP" award I created this week. It's meant to honor star players on bad teams, named for the king of them all, Michael Cage on the Clippers in the 80s.
We discuss the owner drama in Sacramento right now. The other owners would like Vivek Ranadive out, but that's unlikely. Sadly, we've been less than thrilled with the Kings under Vivek's rule.
We discuss some of the motivations for owning an NBA team and mention an excellent article from Malcolm Gladwell on it.
Reminder, Steve Nash was the ultimate example of a player changing their game to be more productive. I can not think of a star player in their prime with the green light to shoot though willingly take fewer shots. Hence, I'm slightly pessimistic on DeMarcus Cousins.
The "LaMarcus Aldridge principle" is a player putting up a great game that makes people forgot all of their bad games, so they tend to be overrated.
The "DeAndre Jordan principle" is a player with parts of their game that "look bad" and stick in peoples' memory, so they tend to be underrated.
We discuss the Knicks firing Derek Fisher. BBallBreakdown had a good video explaining why.
We love Gregg Popovich's interview on why his team is losing (and also the New Hampshire primary results.)
Shout Outs
Thanks to Xiano51 and Above_the_Gods for commenting in the live twitch.tv/nerdnumbers room during the show!
I shout out Daniel Bryan. A great talent in WWE history.
Brian gives Curry a shout out for having a sense of humor.
A Look into my soul right now...but it's all good we will be back! pic.twitter.com/fKbDjGx0on
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) February 8, 2016
Brian shouts out both Kevin Draper (@kevinmdraper) and Steph Curry for this article on a fantastic pass by Curry.
Great post from Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh) on efficiency and pace in NBA history. Definitely worth checking out.
Brian shouts out the On the Media podcast.