Bleacher Report - Articles by sam the fact checker

DJ Augustin and Derrick Rose Battle for 2008-09 NBA Rookie of Year Honors

sam the fact checker — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:56:28 -0400

We all know the debate between Chris Paul and Deron Williams.

Personally, I am a huge Deron Williams fan.

And I know about a billion people who could argue this either way and this would probably turn out to be another boring article in the Williams vs. Paul archives.

So instead, I will use two different players in part of another debatable discussion:

Derrick Rose vs. D.J. Augustin.

Both Rose and Augustin were drafted in the lottery of the 2008 NBA draft. Rose was taken with the first pick by the Chicago Bulls, and Augustin ninth by the Charlotte Bobcats.

Rose is most likely going to be the face of the Chicago Bulls, while Augustin...well, no one really knew what Michael Jordan was drafting Augustine for because they already had flourishing point guard Ty Lawson—I mean, Raymond Felton.

So now, I will present my argument on why D.J. Augustin has turned out to be a better point guard than Rose, and why Augustin should win ROY.

In head-to-head match-ups, Augustin annihilates Rose. It’s not even close. They have played two times this season and not only has Augustine come up victorious, so have the Bobcats.

In their first meeting against each other, Augustine piled up a game-high 29 points, seven assists, and only one turnover. Rose, on the other hand, shot three of 16, tallying only six points, seven assists and three turnovers.

In the second match-up, what would be a widely-televised game in the Time Warner Cable Arena, all of 10,000 fans got to see the Augustine play much more efficiently than Rose. Rose might have scored more points, with 13, but it was Augustin who kept his cool and shot 75 percent from the field, leading all players in field-goal percentage (minimum four shots).

The Bobcats also had a plus-four point differential when Augustin was on the floor, while Rose had a minus-17 point differential.

Statistically, Rose beats Augustin in almost every category. But where Augustin bests Rose might be the difference maker—three-pointers and free throws.

Lo and behold, three-point field goal percentage for a point guard might be the key to winning a NBA championship. Most NBA champions have superstar players on their teams, and neither the Bobcats nor Bulls have players equivalent to Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird. The list could go on and on.

So if you throw out every NBA championship team with a player in the NBA 50 greatest, or soon to be top 50 greatest (Garnett), it leaves you with only the 2004 Detroit Pistons after 1979. And on that team, Chauncey Billups shot above 30 percent from three-point range.

Rose is well below, and Augustin is well above. So, if history repeats itself, it’s more likely Augustine will win a championship before Rose, barring Rose actually improves his three-point shot, or gets an elite player.

On winning: Now if only D.J. Augustin’s Bobcats can steal the eighth, and final playoff spot from the Chicago Bulls, this would complete my argument. But we all know that teams winning percentage doesn’t take into account in ROY races (ex. 2008) so, we can throw out this category.

Just like last year, when the MVP award was taken away from Emeka Okafor, it looks like the ROY award might be given to the wrong person also. So, if you a highly-accredited NBA panelist who gets to vote for such awards, please consider DJ Augustine for the ROY.

Thanks!

Team USA Basketball: What About the 1996 Dream Team II?

sam the fact checker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:23:32 -0400

There have been recent speculations lately about who would win in a basketball game between the 1992 Olympic Dream Team and the 2008 Redeem Team. But everyone seems to forget the 1996 Olympic Dream II team.

Because the 1992 dream team was, in my opinion, the best team ever assembled, I believe they would have beaten both the 1996 and 2008 teams—and obviously the 2000 and 2004 teams. But who would win in a matchup between the 1996 team and the 2008 team?

One of the biggest arguments against the 1992 team was that the team looked great on paper because they had superstar names—but in reality most of their players were old, retired, or injured. You can’t use that argument against the 1996 Olympic team, because all players were healthy aside from very minor injuries to Hakeem Olajuwon and Grant Hill.

Here’s how the teams would match up:

Point Guards

1996: John Stockton and Gary Payton

2008: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Jason Kidd

It’s hard to argue against Stockton and Payton, even if the 2008 team had superstar point guards in Paul, Williams and Kidd. Stockton and Payton dominated the 1990s at the point guard position. Stockton was named the 1990s' all-decade player at the point guard position, with Payton second.

While Paul and Williams might have had speed on their side, let’s not forget Gary Payton’s tenacious defense. He would have held all the 2008 point guards in check, and disrupted the 2008 team's offense.

Everyone talks about how Kidd bring leadership to the 2008 team, and he did just that—but Stockton’s leadership and his cool control of the offense just overwhelmingly trumps Kidd’s.

Advantage: 1996

Shooting Guards

1996: Reggie Miller and Mitch Richmond

2008: Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd, and Dwyane Wade

While Reggie Miller would have shot lights out, and forgotten star Mitch Richmond—did you know Richmond was voted fifth all-decade shooting guard of the 1990’s—would have made some noise, neither of them would have been able to keep pace with Bryant and Wade.

Bryant would probably be all over Miller, not letting him get a single clean look in the whole game. Wade and Bryant would have been too explosive for either Richmond or Miller to guard. Easy pick.

Advantage: 2008

Small Forwards

1996: Grant Hill, Scottie Pippin, and Anfernee Hardaway

2008: LeBron James and Tayshuan Prince

It’s hard to argue against LeBron James—but let’s not forget that both Grant Hill and Anfernee Hardaway were supposed to be the next Jordan. The 1996 Olympics were before Hill or Hardaway had their major injuries. Both Hill and Hardaway played almost identically to James, except for the fact that James can bull his way through anything.

The stats of all three are almost identical—all of them were triple-double treats in the year before their Olympics. Hill averaged 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, Hardaway averaged, 21 points, four rebounds and seven assists, and James averaged 30 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Oh, and let’s not forget about Pippen who averaged 20 pts, six rebounds, and six assists. He would have guarded James, and done an outstanding job

Advantage: 1996

Power Forwards

1996: Karl Malone and Charles Barkley

2008: Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer

I wanted to put Anthony in the small forward position, but he started each game as a power forward. He did a good job at that position, but he would have been absolutely manhandled by either Malone or Barkley.

Boozer has the size to match up against those two, but the skill of Malone and Barkley would have easily destroyed the power forwards of the 2008 team.

Advantage: 1996

Centers

1996: David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Hakeem Olajuwon

2008: Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh

Howard and Bosh would foul out in about five minutes, leaving a gaping hole in the middle for the 2008 team. 1996 had three of the greatest centers/players ever in the NBA. Can’t really argue against the 1996 team here.

Advantage: 1996

In the end, I believe the 1996 Olympic team would easily defeat the 2008 Olympic team. They would just overwhelm the 2008 team at every position, besides maybe shooting guard.

James, Wade, and the other explosive players on the 2008 team would have a very, very hard time getting to the basket, because the centers of the 1996 are arguably the best three shot-blocking centers ever—besides Bill Russell, of course. None of them, especially Hakeem, would allow an easy layup or dunk.

No one on the 2008 team would be able to stop any of the big men on the 1996 team, making rebounding and defending the point virtually impossible for the 2008 team.

Winner: 1996 Olympic team

Anybody want to write about how the 2000 team would beat the 2008 team?

USA Basketball Future Recap: USA 102, China 82

sam the fact checker — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:55:08 -0400

Jason Kidd walks off the court smiling, reminding everyone that he is still undefeated in international play.

The USA team defeated Team China 102-82 in front of a record setting crowd in the first basketball game played in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Yao Ming, who had 23 points and 12 rebounds, still has not beaten Team USA in international play.

Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 25 points. He also recorded eight rebounds and two steals.

Team USA came out cold in the first 10 minutes of the first half, shooting only 5/18 and making zero three-pointers. Kidd made things worse by handing out five turnovers on five overthrown lob passes.

Coach K immediately took Kidd out and replaced him with Chris Paul for the rest of the half. Kidd, who was still holding his head high, reminded the bench that he was undefeated in international play and not to worry.

Michael Redd, who replaced Dwyane Wade around the 13-minute mark, did not help either. Redd took six three-pointers within a two minute span, missing all of them.

Luckily for team USA, they were playing China and not Argentina, Spain, or Greece, or else they would have been in a lot of trouble. By the time Redd was taken out of the game with 11 minutes to go in the half, USA was up 28-20.

Many critics were concerned with the fact that Team USA only brought three true big men into the Olympics. Team China started three seven-footers on their team—Wang ZhiZhi, Yi Jianlian, and Ming.

It started to look like a huge height advantage for China, but Dwight Howard quickly reminded everyone that his shoulders were as big as China’s three big men put together.

Howard was one of the main reasons USA could maintain its lead in the first half while the rest of the team shot horrendously. Howard had 15 points and eight rebounds in the first half and finished the game with 21 points and 17 rebounds.

“Wow, I didn’t know Wang ZhiZhi was good enough to play on the Chinese national team. When we played together on the Heat, I thought he was Japanese the whole time…and sucked,” Wade surprisingly mentioned to Carlos Boozer while sitting on the bench.

Wang was China’s second leading scorer and rebounder with 19 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Wang wowed fans and astonished team USA with his three-point shooting and pinpoint passing.

Wang, once an NBA player, could not make the transition into NBA play but has a great deal of international success. His international stats almost quadruple his NBA statistics.

With 5:26 to go in the first half, Tayshuan Prince had an unexpected play.

Prince, who played eight minutes in the first half, had not touched the ball yet. He even begged Paul to pass him the ball once, but was quickly turned down when Kobe Bryant walked by.

Up 46-32, Prince finally got the ball on an inbound play under the basket when he inbounded the ball off of Yao’s back and quickly retrieved the ball and scored. Prince was then substituted out of the game for LeBron James.

“I took Prince out because that’s not what we want him to do,” Coach K told reporters after the game. “We put Prince on the team to play defense and pass the ball, not to score.”

Team USA took a 56-38 lead heading into the second half.

The Americans started the second half with Redd on the court, replacing Wade, who had aggravated his shoulder when he ran into teammate Howard.

This time, Redd had a different plan. Discouraged from all his missed shots in the first half, he drove to the basket. But Yao had other ideas. Yao threw Redd’s layup so far up into the stands that it almost made it to the second level.

That was the last time we ever saw Redd go inside the arc for the rest of the game.

“Bad idea,” Redd later admitted. “I’d rather miss six threes than have my shot thrown that far.”

By midway through the second half, the game was all but over. Team USA had taken its largest lead of 38 points when James emphatically dunked on China’s sharp shooter Li Nan.

China was not done, though. With five minutes left in the game, they began a furious comeback when Howard picked up his fifth foul. Chris Bosh and Boozer came in to provide inside help.

Bosh and Boozer, who were pretty much useless against the big men of Canada and Turkey earlier this month in a warm up games in Las Vegas and in China, were even worse against China’s big three.

Liu Wei, China’s starting PG, just threw the ball up and one of the big three caught it and scored.

China got within 15 points at one point, but their comeback fell short when James and Anthony were brought into the game to help Bosh and Boozer in the paint. James and Anthony had enough ups to tip the ball away from Yao, Yi, and Wang.

With the final buzzer sounding, team USA won by 20 points, 102-82. USA’s next opponent is an even weaker team, Angola.

“Yes! I’m still undefeated in international play,” claimed Kidd again for the 12th time that night, "And I’m still going to be undefeated after we play Angola.”

Game notes: Dwyane Wade had 12 points. Boozer and Bosh had four rebounds combined. Bryant had five assists, five rebounds and nine points. Brett Favre is still contemplating on whether or not to play in the NFL. Liu Wei of China had eight assists. Sun Yue recorded three blocks. Wang Shipeng scored 12 points. Cheng Jianghua had eight turnovers.

P.S: Just in case anybody wanted to know, I will be cheering for China to win this game.

2008 NBA "Un-Mock" Draft

sam the fact checker — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:10:53 -0400

So with the excitement of the lottery now over, we now know where each lottery team is picking. With many sites putting up mock drafts, I think it would be important if someone wrote an “unmock” draft. That is a draft naming each player that would benefit the team if the team DOES NOT drafts that player.

Keep in mind that the players named in this draft have to be within reason. For example the Chicago Bulls will definitely not draft Kosta Koufos from Ohio State with the first pick in the NBA draft. Also, since everyone already knows that either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley are going to be the top 2 pick in the draft, I decided to skip the first 2 picks because that just would not be exciting.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves- Jerryd Bayless

Bayless has an incredible amount of talent but he is not what the Timberwolves are looking for. With your big men, not named Al Jefferson, are Michael Doleac, Mark Madson and 6’9 center Craig Smith, the Timberwolves better go big or they are going to have many guard problems. With Randy Foye being the star guard on the team and Rashad McCants showing some flashes, they do not need another scoring “tweener” guard on this team.

4. Seattle Supersonics- Kevin Love

The last thing the Sonics need is another big white guy drafted in the lottery. Both Robert Swift and Nick Collison were drafted 12^thby the Sonics in 2003 and 2004. Maybe the Sonics management thought that if they draft Love, then he might be three times better than Swift or Collison because he was drafted three times higher. Either way, three times better is not much better. The Sonics do not need a center shooting 3’s or demanding the ball that much because they want to build around Kevin Durant.

5. Memphis Grizzles- Eric Gordon

Memphis took Mike Conley last year with the 3^rd pick, traded for Javaris Crittenton and Juan Carlos Navarro, and had Kyle Lowry start some games last year. With Rudy Gay and Mike Miller also scoring from the guard/forward position, they don’t need another scoring guard on this team. Look for this team to go big in the draft.

6. New York Knick- OJ Mayo

Most obvious pick yet. Can you just imagine a team starring Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, and OJ Mayo? First of all, none of them would pass to each other, causing major chemistry problems, because 1. They all want to be the star of the team, 2. They know they aren’t going to get the ball back, and 3. Even if they passed to the other players on the team, no one is ever going to want to pass to Eddy Curry or Zach Randolph. Did I even mention Nate Robinson?

7. Los Angeles Clippers- Brook Lopez

Elton Brand and Chris Kaman are one of the best frontcourt duo’s when healthy. They don’t really need a big man. What they really need are some point guards and three point shooters on this team. With your current point guards named Smush Parker and Brevin Knight (cut by Bobcats last year) then you have a problem.

8. Milwaukee Bucks- Danilo Gallinari

Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian. Just think how the Buck fans will react once they draft Danilo Gallinari. Granted Bogut is improving every year and it was Jianlian’s rookie year, the Bucks do not need another international star.

9. Charlotte Bobcats- Tyler Hansbrough

Michael Jordan does what he wants and he wants Tyler Hansbrough on this team now, even if Hansbrough isn’t entering the draft. Jordan didn’t like his current options because Kevin Love was already taken and there aren’t any more NCAA tournament stars ranked this high. Maybe he will trade down and get Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington, Chris Douglas-Roberts, and of course Mario Chambers. Would Hansbrough and Adam Morrison be the next 2 headed-monster. No.

10. New Jersey Nets- Joe Alexander

Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson have not been traded yet so Alexander would get zero playing time behind those two. The Nets could use any guard or Center options, just no forwards.

11. Indianan Pacers- Darrell Arthur

The Pacers desperately need another guard on this team. Jamal Tinsley has not done anything productive for them in years and Marquis Daniels, Travis Diener, Stephan Graham, Ronald Murray and Kareem Rush don’t scare other teams. Guard play is crucial in the NBA now and the Pacers aren’t going to win anything with their current guards.

12. Sacramento Kings- Russell Westbrook

They obtained Sheldon Williams and Mikki Moore last year to play with Spencer Hawes and Brad Miller. Hopefully the Kings have figured out that Williams cant play and Moore had one good year with Jason Kidd throwing him ally’s on the Nets. Shareef Abdur-Rahim isn’t a 20/10 guy anymore (more of a 2/1 guy now). Miller is getting old so it would be best if the Kings got a big man.

13. Portland Blazers- Anthony Randolph

Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge will be occupying the post for the next 10-15 years from now for the blazers. Plus with Channing Frye and Joel Przybilla down there also, Randolph won’t ever step onto the court especially since he is a “project.” The only way this could be a good pick for the Blazers is if Oden actually never plays because his knees break again next year or retires in one year because of old age.

14. Golden State Warriors- Roy Hibbert

Yes, it would always be great to have a 7’2 player on your team, but it would not be great if he never passes half court because your team runs like crazy. Plus he could clog up the middle and mess up Monta Ellis or Baron Davis when there driving to the hoops.