Leferd

Definite classic.

At the time as an outside observer looking in, I actually found the whole Hollins vs Hollinger situation both predictable and hilarious. And to be honest I took some enjoyment out of it. I was at a game a few years ago where the Warriors blew a 20+ point lead in the fourth to the Grizzlies, and have hated them since. Lols.

Pera bought the team right before the start of last season. Pera and Hollinger essentially cleaned house on a 56 win team. Much like the Nuggets.

True enough. But Hollins never gave the statistical approach a shot. He criticized it on multiple occasions from day 1. So yeah Hollinger crossed the line once, and Hollins over-reacted. It was clear that Hollins was NEVER going to buy in to the approach that Owner Robert Pera wanted to install. Hollins vocal criticism in the media made his departure inevitable. As for Rudy Gay - he was traded with 37M$ left on the last two years of his contract and every statistical analysis showed that he simply wasn't worth that type of money anymore. Plus Memphis is a small market city that had invested 55M$ in long term contracts to Gasol, Conley, Z-Bo and Gay and they were pushing the cap limit hard. Gay was a cap casualty. Harsh reality but true. Don't get me wrong, Hollins is a good coach but he was a bad fit with Pera's approach and he went out of his way to make sure everyone knew about it. I find it a little surprising that you seem to be criticizing Hollinger's analytics when you seem to be a supporter of them elsewhere. Maybe it's just the particulars of Hollinger's PER? I actually did think, as was mentioned by me (much) earlier in this thread that the Rudy Gay trade was a good long term move by Memphis. However it is hubris and disrespect on Hollinger's part to take immediate steps to alienate your players, coaching staff and fan base to disrupt a team - and a damn good one, just so he can put his immediate stamp on his team. What made things worse with the unauthorized "coaching" was that it happened during the playoffs! Seriously man, what the hell was he thinking? Look, he's well within his rights to trade whoever he wants and to hire/fire his coaching staff, but the dude needs some serious people skills and to utterly disrespect a coach with Hollins' credentials a few months in his first basketball job in front of his players is disgraceful. I'd love to see Hollinger pull that stunt with Popovich. I'm all into advanced metrics and own Bill James' baseball abstracts since the 1985 edition, but they are tools and should be used to paint part of the picture in conjunction with traditional methods. Advanced metrics say that there really are only three shots a team should only take: inside the paint, or the corner three. Good luck trying to up get that against a good defense. The third shot? Isolate your best scorer for a one on one matchup. All cases lead to unwatchable basketball: see Rockets, Houston. *****edit**** I'm not sure I'm completely sold on PER as a catch-all stat. It's decent enough but It's not nearly as robust as how as WAR is in baseball. I do like offensive rating and defensive rating, though not so much for individual players, but as a whole for teams or more specifically per 5-man units. Win Shares tries to measure how impactful a player is to a team's win total, a basketball conversion to Bill James' baseball stat. I do like how Sports-VU cameras have been installed in arenas through the league. Lots of good and measurable raw data that is going to come out of it and will really advance the amount of knowledge and metrics that can be derived from its analysis. Many of the more data centric teams will take full advantage of this.

Don't be absurd. Lebron wouldn't have won those championships without Allen and Battier knocking down corner treys. Not without Bosh hitting 20 footers from top of the key. And especially not without D-Wade sacrificing his game to be Lebron's sidekick. And also not without a flexible coach who designed their unorthodox offensive and defensive schemes specifically catered for Lebron. Without Lebron, the Heat would still have a shot at going to the Conference Finals. (That's a dig on how weak the East is) C'mon Volo, you're being especially obtuse. Did anyone in this thread say Lebron is not the best player in the game. Hell, by the time he's done, he'll be the greatest basketball player of all time. I think he's already better than that prick, Michael Jordan, ever was.

Yep. There already was animosity between the two, and Hollinger really rid overstep his boundary when he stepped on the practice floor and essentially instructed players where and how to take their shots without even having the courtesy of asking the coach for a go ahead. You're Lionel Hollins, the most successful coached the franchise and highly respected league wide. Your defensive schemes are 1B to Tom Thibideau's 1A, and you've been consistently producing winners for several years. Suddenly your new owner decides to hire a writer from espn.com to be VP of Basketball Operations and your new boss. Ok, great, we're getting another David Kahn...just so long as he lets me do my job, we'll be fine. Then almost immediately you get notes from upstairs saying you need to play this guy x minutes and tell this person to stop taking these shots. Thanks boss, but please let me do my job, I'm good at it and we've been pretty successful. I'll keep your notes handy. He then proceeds to trade away your best player. Ok fine, I'll adjust and we'll keep rolling and does so....and the wins keep on adding up. I can do this, just as long as he lets me do my job. Then one day during practice he witnesses Hollinger actually trying to coach and instruct his players on when and where he is allowed to shoot the basketball. What do you do? You tell him to get the frak out of my practice floor and stay the frak out! Hollinger is a terrible boss. Hollins has been around the block and there is a certain amount of pride these guys have. Unless you are Jerry West, Michael Jordan, or Larry Bird, front office types can observe but should never meddle with directly coaching the players, especially during a structured practice session. Well, Hollinger got what he wanted, a lapdog for a coach and a chance to be the next RC Buford and David Morey.

Yeah, this is an example of John Hollinger's hubris. Where are they going to get their scoring? In consecutive years, they've gotten rid of their best scorer and their very successful coach, because they don't buy into his pet PER stat and he had the audacity to meddle into the coaching realm. There is a huge difference if you are Jerry West and give a few pointers to players, but who the hell is John Hollinger???

I was actually going to list PER but I have an anti-John Hollinger bias. Lols.

*puts on stat head hat* KD actually deserves to win MVP as of right now. -OKC has a better record and in an exponentially tougher conference than Miami. -KD has better advanced metric scores than Lebron this year. This is significant because Lebron has traditionally dominated in these metrics over the last few years. -KD has a higher Win Share and Win Share/per48 than Lebron. And signaficantly so. (10.0 to 8.0 and .317 to .273) -KD has both a better individual Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating than Lebron. -KD leads the league in scoring. http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2014_leaders.html

This may be the year KD takes the MVP trophy away from Lebron.

Durant was pretty spectacular. But what killed the Warriors (aside from poor team defense tonight) was missing 15 free throws. Their 3pt% (.593) was higher than their FT% (.553). Terrible.

I can only wish the best for the guy.

You do realize that they are not specifically selling you a game, right? The Kickstarter was a fundraiser. Specifically, they are asking for donations to raise capital to create the game and based on how much was donated, they are offering you rewards based on what dollar tier you pledged for. Beta access is a reward tier within the kickstarter. Beta access is still offered outside of the kickstarter as another reward tier. I don't see what the problem is...unless you actually thought that Kickstarter is a retail outlet selling the game?

The Mist Devil, that was some pretty good info, and as far as I know, new bits of lore. Thanks for sharing.

Seahawks banning ticket sales to California. http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2014/01/12/seahawks-block-nfc-title-game-ticket-sales-to-california-and-43-other-states/

So it turns out that MCA's Wasteland 2 novella will now be a full length novel. He must have really given up on golf.

JR Smith being JR Smith. Lols. http://youtu.be/d2n-k2iDeZ8

Today's the 26th anniversary of Pistol Pete Maravich's death.

Disagree. All games are meaningful, especially when it comes to playoff seedings against direct competitors. It will be a tight race in the West for 1-4. Plus the first two OKC-GS games came down to buzzer beating heroics.

They're not my favorite thing and bring out OCD tendencies in some of us, But they're harmless and some people really enjoy them. Not like they're micro-transactions or Day One DLCs.

Meanwhile...#FullSquad Warriors keep rolling. Circle the date: Friday, Jan. 17 GS @ OKC. ESPN.

49ers.

I believe they will have achievements for Steam.

Lebron James is undoubtedly the best basketball player in the world -and possibly of all time. It's just inconceivable that he or any team can stop the Warriors #FullSquad. They are as indomitable as magic-potion-guzzling Gauls.

Hahaha. Or not leave early during a potential series ending Finals in which your team comes from behind to stay alive. At the very least, stay til the end and give YOUR team a show of respect and appreciation. ... Anyways, when I first read this, I found it to be quite cathartic as a long suffering Warriors fan. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7714701/how-annoy-fan-base-60-easy-steps