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By: John Eby
Or Best Offer? - Last week, the rumble around the NBA was that the asking price for Omer Asik was high. How high? Here's Alan Hahn of MSG Networks (via ProBasketballTalk) with the alleged details:
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The disgruntled center can be had, but Houston isn’t just giving him away.
In fact, the Rockets are setting the market high for Asik, with a demand of two first round picks in any deal.
Last year, that wouldn't be a high price. This year, with immense talent at the top of the draft and the fortunes of "playoff" teams (New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Memphis) looking fickle enough to slide into the lottery, the idea of trading one pick before Christmas is risky, let alone two. Trading a pick for Omer Asik sounds like a great idea until your star player gets injured, your team falls apart, the pick turns into Julius Randle and you look like an idiot. The GM's of the world are a few months away from being that desperate.
Shenanigans - Andrew Lynch at Hardwood Paroxysm has had it with the hijinks of coaches like Jason Kidd ("Hit Me!") and Kevin McHale, who kinda sorta maybe intentionally interfered with an inbounds play against San Antonio. He writes:
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So in the span of a week, we’ve had Cup-gate and now Sideline Shenanigans. I’m pretty well terrified of what a coach is going to try next. It’s almost enough to make a person nostalgic for the days of Vinny Del Negro’s sideline stomps.
Hog vs. Hole - Tom Haberstroh for ESPN Insider wrote a fascinating piece on the league's biggest ball hogs and black holes. Ball hogs were defined as players who averaged the longest time of possession between passes, and black holes were defined as the guys with the lowest rate of passes per shot attempt. Not surprisingly, James Harden came in at 7th among the league's ball hogs with an average time of 6.5 seconds between passes (Russell Westbrook topped the list at 7.8 seconds).
Fortunately, no Rocket showed up on the black hole list, which featured a lot of spot up shooters (Klay Thompson, take a bow). If anything, these findings put numbers to two truths about James Harden:
1. The ball stops moving when he gets it, but
2. He's still a good and willing passer.
