Bethlehem Shoals Presents: Quality Minutes, 9/16/11
At Quality Minutes, Shoals presents some of his favorite links of the week, at B/R and elsewhere.
Orange County Register: Lakers Accept Hard Cap, Revenue Sharing. The Lakers are the epitome of a large market franchise; they've also been quite comfortably over the cap for as long as anyone can remember. However, Kevin Ding reports that Jerry Buss is now willing to go with a hard cap, and revenue sharing, for the greater good. The Lakers will be rebuilding sooner rather than later, so maybe Buss is also feeling a little sympathy for the little guy.
B/R: Jordan, Bird, Magic and More: 100 Best Commercials From the 1992 US Olympic Dream Team. They were quite possibly the greatest group of NBA talent ever assembled for one purpose, in one place. And they also, as some of the game's brightest stars during its most memorable era, were in some of the all-time great ads. Featured columnist Paul Kasabian digs deep, bringing out not only familiar standbys, but also YouTube gems like PSAs.
Yahoo! Ball Don't Lie: J.R. Smith Is Heading To China! Long Live J.R. Smith! Smith, the Nuggets' mercurial, high-flying swingman, will spend the next few months playing in China. Minimum. The deal he's signed with Zhejiang in the Chinese Basketball Association keeps him occupied until March at the earliest, when the CBA season ends. It's a shame since Smith—while he might be kind of a headcase, and incredibly frustrating at times—is one of the more electrifying performers in the league.
B/R: NBA Teams Still Missing That Franchise Player. It seems like every year, we get one team threatening to outmode the star system, the assumption that every team needs its franchise player. Last season, it was the Nuggets, and fun as they were, Denver didn't make it past the first round. Faizan Qurashi surveys teams in the league that are either bad, pretty good, or somewhere in between, with an eye toward whether their best player is franchise caliber or who might, down the road, fill that void.
USA Today: Jermaine O'Neal on NBA Labor Impasse: We Want to Make a Deal. Nobody really wants to talk or think about mechanics of the lockout. We want it to go away, now, so we can get back to basketball loving. Right? The problem is, there are some real issues at stake, lots of them having to do with whether or not owners and front offices should suffer for their mistakes—you know, like other people at the top of businesses. Good to hear an NBA vet like Jermaine O'Neal voice some of these concerns.
B/R: Five Lineup Experiments Mark Jackson Should Try. When Don Nelson was in charge of the Dubs, anything could happen. He's gone, but the team still has one of the most intriguing, and versatile, bunches of players in the league. Mark Jackson will have his hands full trying to turn Golden State into a winner, but he's certainly got some pieces to work with. Featured Columnist Zach Buckley has some fun, and maybe even peers into the future.
SLAM Online: The Basketball Artist. Hey, it's not all depressing stuff during the offseason, lockout or no lockout. Here's a nice little piece on the Jazz's Jeremy Evans, a high-energy forward who also happens to be the NBA's latest artist in residence. Desmond Mason was more the serious type, and Allen Iverson stuck to caricatures and doodles. Evans is into portraits and landscapes. Actually, there is a lockout angle: He may be looking to sell some of his art if the stoppage continues.
B/R: The Rise of Jeff Teague. Daniel Christian looks at the Hawks' young point guard, who first made a real mark in last year's playoffs. How good can he get?
