Basketball Insiders Week in Review 5/10

Seeding Rules Change Needed

By Moke Hamilton

With Game 7 tied, his heart racing and his team facing the prospect of elimination, Chris Paul summoned everything he had left in his body. He had given everything to this endeavor and, even with one good hamstring, knew he had come too far to walk away defeated. Over the outstretched arms of Danny Green and Tim Duncan, Paul, somehow, managed to sink the shot that sunk the San Antonio Spurs.

Their hopes of a repeat once again dashed, the Clippers head to Houston while the Spurs head home.

Now, the question is whether the subsequent playoff series that we will take in will be able to live up to the entertainment value of what we just witnessed.

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2015 NBA Free Agent Rankings – Point Guards

We are now less than two months away from the start of free agency,which officially begins on July 1^st, 2015. This promises to be an interesting and intriguing summer.

In preparation, Basketball Insiders will present a tiered ranking for each position over the next few weeks.

First up, we have the point guards…

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This is the Bulls’ Best Shot at a Title

By Alex Kennedy

A few years ago, the Chicago Bulls’ championship window seemed wide open.

Derrick Rose, at 22 years old, was the youngest Most Valuable Player in NBA history. Chicago had a strong supporting cast made up of players who hadn’t peaked yet – such as Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Kyle Korver, Omer Asik and Taj Gibson. They also had one of the NBA’s best up-and-coming head coaches in Tom Thibodeau, who was the 2010-11 Coach of the Year in his first season with the Bulls after his 62 wins tied the record for most victories by a rookie coach. Throw in an amazing 2011 NBA Draft in which Chicago landed Nikola Mirotic with the No. 23 pick and Jimmy Butler with the No. 30 pick, and it seemed the Bulls were perfectly positioned for the future.

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Most Disappointing NBA Defending Champs

The San Antonio Spurs bowed out (albeit in glorious fashion) of the playoffs this past weekend, joining a depressing pool of former champions who failed to put up a proper fight in defense of their title the following season. Of course, they took their series to seven games against a really tough L.A. Clippers team, and even then it went down to the final seconds. That’s a reasonably valiant end, even if it did come in the first round.

To put that into perspective, the following are a handful of the truly most depressing title defenses in NBA history. No matter how down the Spurs are right now, there have been several defending champions that have felt a whole lot worse:

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Is Another Labor Fight Smart?

By Steve Kyler

For several months, the new leadership of the National Basketball Players’ Association has been firing warning shots at the NBA and its owners. Taking aim at long standing processes like the minimum age limit, the idea of a salary cap and the concept of a maximum allowable salary, the NBPA is setting a tone for what many believe will be a messy and drawn out labor fight in the summer of 2017 (when both sides of the current agreement are able to opt out). The NBA, for the most part, has remained silent on many of the topics raised, simply pointing out that things between the league and the players are in a good place and that all of the topics broached will be discussed in due time.

As they say, it’s never wise to swing at a pitch in the dirt and really that’s the best way to describe what’s been coming out of the NBPA. The NBA has been tactful in avoiding controversy around much of what’s been said over the last year.

That changed yesterday when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hinted that re-opening the contract between the players and the owners wouldn’t just be about what the players may want. There are things the NBA and the owners felt like they left on the bargaining table too.

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Tristan Thompson Strives to Rebound Like Dennis Rodman

Tristan Thompson was only 8 years old when Dennis Rodman played his final NBA game. As a young basketball fan in Canada, he was influenced by Rodman long after he retired. It has been 15 years since Rodman left the league, and Thompson is looking to follow in his footsteps as an aggressive rebounder.

“I try to be the best I can be at what I can do, and that’s playing hard and rebounding,” Thompson told Basketball Insiders. “I watch a lot of Dennis Rodman film, see how he impacted the game, see how he impacted his team when he was playing. Especially for this team, I feel like I can do that and bring it to the table. That’s what I try to do every night.”

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Stop Sleeping on the Clippers

By Cody Taylor

Perhaps no team entered the postseason with more pressure to succeed than the Los Angeles Clippers. After all, this is a team that has had the pieces to compete for several seasons now. Blake Griffin is in his fifth season, Chris Paul has been with the team for four seasons now and DeAndre Jordan is in his seventh season (and fifth as a starter). Also, they have great role players in J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford. And their head coach, Doc Rivers, is considered one of the best in the league.

Still, they didn’t receive much of a chance from national writers to compete against the defending NBA champions in their first-round series. Rivers revealed that hegave his players a piece of paper with predictions from 45 of the nation’s top sports writers; 44 of the 45 predictions had the San Antonio Spurs winning. Granted, the Clippers were not going to get much love going up against the reigning champs, but they ended up proving their doubters wrong in the end. (It should be noted that three out of five writers on Basketball Insiders picked the Spurs to win.)

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Allen Iverson a Legit Front-Office Addition for Sixers?

It wasn’t long ago that former NBA legend Allen Iverson expressed interest in a front-office role with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Iverson, a former MVP and 11-time All-Star, led the franchise to the 2001 NBA Finals and his No. 3 jersey has been retired for life.

Brad Greenberg – a former general manager who worked for the 76ers when the Philadelphia drafted “The Answer” back in 1996 – believes Iverson could help a front office.

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DeMarre Carroll’s Profile Keeps Rising

By Lang Greene

Four players from the Atlanta Hawks’ starting lineup received an All-Star invite earlier this season. For the Hawks, who perennially fly under the mainstream radar, it was an overwhelming accomplishment. The team went on to reel off 60 wins and Mike Budenholzer received Coach of the Year honors. In short, it has been the year of recognition for an often forgotten Atlanta franchise that has, quiet as kept, reached the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons.

But one player has remained largely absent from the mainstream attention – veteran forward DeMarre Carroll.

Carroll was the lone Hawks starter not to receive an All-Star invite. While Carroll’s consistent offensive and defensive play has been an integral part of the Hawks’ success this season; high energy, defensive minded and do-the-dirty-work type of guys are often left to dwell in the shadows of obscurity.

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