This Week's Show
We assess the 2016 Basketball Hall of Fame candidates, Klay Thompson naming himself the NBA's best shooting guard, and hacking bad free throw shooters.
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
This Week's Poll
Footnotes
The Naismith Hall of Fame has slightly changed their eligibility rules, meaning Shaq, Allen Iverson, and Yao will likely headline the 2016 class.
Allen Iverson was never that productive. However, I think he epitomizes the fame aspect. If I had a Hall of Fame vote, I'd put A.I. first ballot for the practice rant alone.
Yao Ming was a good but never great NBA player. However, his play in the Chinese Basketball Association and for the Chinese national team definitely put him over the edge. Tack on his impact on international popularity for the NBA and it's a no brainer.
Shaquille O'Neal, of course, is a no-duh first ballot candidate.
Uh, he may have a few strikes against him.
Great "How Did This Get Made?" podcast on "Steel."
Basketball Reference has a table of eligible Hall of Fame candidates. I don't think it's updated for the new eligibility rules, but it's an excellent tool. And we do think there are more than a few snubs on that list, notably Horace Grant.
We talk about Klay Thompson calling himself the best Shooting Guard in the NBA.
Needless to say, we disagree, just a little.
Tangent, yes LaMarcus Aldridge has been playing star level in December. We may expand more on this shortly.
I talk about self-delusion being necessary for success in the NBA. Mike Birbiglia has one of my favorite bits on this. Also, "Sleepwalk with Me"" is a fantastic movie that you should check out, starring Mike Birbiglia!
I reference a favorite concept of mine. "Shit Shots" as named by Ty Willinganz (@TyWillinganz), which was how he referred to midrange shots. Shocker, Steph Curry doesn't like these.
Ian Levy expanded on this concept with xPPS (expected points per shot), which was a good method of evaluating player shot selection.
I promise Brian an article comparing the 95-96 Bulls to the 2015-2016 Warriors. This came up due to some choice words from Charles Barkley.
Kevin Pelton talks about Hack-a-Shaq rates being up, and how this is not good for the league. I don't know if I buy this, which I've written about before. I also like Kevin Durant's take.
Kevin Durant didn't mince words about the Hack-a strategy: "If you don't want to get hacked then work on your f---ing free throws."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) December 21, 2015
Shout Outs
Brian shouts out a smart Chargers fan.
A nice ownership tribute for possibly the last game in San Diego pic.twitter.com/OYDBd4aNga
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 20, 2015
Brian shouts out League of Denial who is releasing an updated version to coincide with the release of Will Smith's "Concussion."
I shout out Joey Harrington for a fantastic post on the subjective nature of success and being a "bust." (h/t to Rich Campbell (@SprtsMktgProf) for passing this along to me.)
Shout out to Kevin Broom (@Broom_Kevin) for a great post on the myth of after timeout play-calling.