Random Rumblings: April 26th

After a weekend in New York, the blog returns for NFL Draft week and some interesting turns in the NBA Playoffs. "Reads of the day" will also be different today. No reading involved! The four hour bus ride back from NYC lead to some great podcast listening, so I'll give you those instead. To the blog:

Don't Poke The Bear

Mavs owner Mark Cuban is really, really smart. Sometimes really, really smart people do really, really dumb things. Mark Cuban did a really, really dumb thing before Game 5 of Mavs-Thunder on Monday night.

Cuban said that Kevin Durant was the only superstar on Oklahoma City's roster. Asked about Russell Westbrook, Cuban said he's just an all-star, not a superstar. Westbrook proceeded to go score 38 points as the Thunder ended the Mavericks season.

Cuban's comments didn't make any sense on a number of levels. First, they were blatantly wrong. Westbrook set an NBA record with 18 triple-doubles this year. The Thunder were 18-0 in those games, meaning he wasn't out there collecting empty stats. He's a force of nature that defies science in how hard he plays every night. His intensity and passion are palpable. He's a more than occasional pain in the ass for the media, but there is no denying his greatness as a player.

So while Cuban was wrong and may have fired up Westbrook if the comments got back to him before tipoff (the Mavs seemed to try to get under Westbrook's skin all series), there are larger implications at play as evidenced by Kevin Durant's post-game press conference.

Thunder's Kevin Durant responds to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saying Russell Westbrook isn't a "superstar" pic.twitter.com/6jPw9WktV0

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 26, 2016

Durant is a free agent this summer. Westbrook is one next year. The Mavericks have consistently put themselves in a position to land big free agents, but have never reeled one in. Why would an owner, who is consistently mentioned as a major positive of the franchise (and is one of the very best in sports), put himself in a position where he could hurt his team? It seems short sighted and self-defeating. Even if the Mavericks consider Westbrook less than Durant from a scouting standpoint, there's no reason to publicly say that. Instead, you do what Rick Carlisle did after the game, which is to overly emphasize the greatness of both players.

I'll never complain about honesty from someone we cover as a collective media, but this one just doesn't make sense. There's a part of me that wonders what Cuban's motivation was and if there is some ulterior motive. Cuban's way smarter than me. He's a genius on many levels, so I'd be naive to just assume that I've got all of this figured out without at least acknowledging he might have some grand plan here. The question is if that plan exists and if it is ill-advised.

From my seat, it seems like it is. There seems to be no benefit. The Mavericks will certainly try and get in a room with Durant this summer. We'll see if they get a visit with one of the league's premier superstar after their owner diminished his friend, who is also in that class.

The Injury Bug Bites Twice (UPDATE: Three Times)

The NBA Playoffs were likely to play out in a rather direct fashion if everyone stayed healthy. The Cavaliers would face some challenge along the way to winning the Eastern Conference where they would lose to the Warriors, who would be pushed on some level (possibly to a decisive seven games) by the Spurs on their way to winning the west. However fast-forwarding is not allowed and the "if everyone stayed healthy part" is always a long shot. This is why they play the games.

Steph Curry hurt his ankle in Game 1 and had the entire NBA holding its collective breath after falling in Game 4 of the Warriors opening round series. The MVP has a grade 1 knee sprain and is out at least two weeks. In the regular season, that means a set amount of games. In the playoffs, that's a giant TBD.

This is where one injury affects another. The Clippers were having a hard enough time with the Blazers with Chris Paul and will likely now be without him. The star point guard broke his hand Monday night as the Blazers tied their series at 2-2. The winner of that series faces the Warriors, who will presumably close out the Rockets in Game 5 tonight at Oracle Arena. While Golden State isn't going to root for another team to suffer a key injury, they're undoubtedly rooting for that series to go as long as possible. The more time the series needs, the fewer games Curry misses while his knee heels.

While you make think the Warriors would be just fine without Curry, the numbers say otherwise. The Warriors were more than 1,000 points better than their opponents this year. They were also outscored with him on the bench for the second straight year.

	2014-15	2015-16
Curry On-Court	+920	+1022
Curry Off-Court	-92	-140

It's astounding that team that won 73 games and outscored opponents by more than 10 points per game could possibly have a player it couldn't live without, but it seems the Warriors are in that position with Curry.  It's worth pointing out that Dryamond Green actually had a bigger plus and lower minus in his splits than Curry, although with the two playing a high percentage of their minutes together, it's impossible to separate who is responsible at what percentage. Clearly Curry is massively important and it'll be tough for the Warriors to beat whoever is next without him. Perhaps the Paul injury will extend the Blazers-Clippers series just enough that Golden State won't have to worry about playing without Curry for more than a game or two, both of which would come at home.

Update at 5:04 PM EST on Tuesday: Clippers forward Blake Griffin will miss the rest of the playoffs with a quad injury. Paul is officially listed as out indefinitely.

The Clippers with Griffin, but no Paul were still formidable. Griffin's good enough to run a highly effective offense through, at least against the Blazers. The Warriors might've been a different story because Griffin would be guarded by Green, but the Clippers could (and have before) figured out how to score without Paul. Now, beating the Blazers is not only going to be difficult, I'm predicting it won't happen. I just don't see how they guard Damien Lillard or score enough to win. Injuries are a part of sports. The absolute worst part of sports.

Don't Read, Just Listen

As mentioned, here are the podcasts I enjoyed on the bus ride from NYC to DC.

Clippers guard J.J. Redick has done an exceptional job with his podcast. I enjoyed his chat with Late Late Show Producer Ben Winston. The two somewhat interviewed each other, providing some cool insight into both the entertainment and sports worlds: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vertical-podcast-jj-redick/id1078782233?mt=2&i=367039936

Redick also had Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. The two comparing notes was really insightful. I especially enjoyed Rodgers comfort with his own greatness. He skipped the fake humbleness that a lot of athletes indulge in, acknowledging his high level of play comes from a place of extreme preparation: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vertical-podcast-jj-redick/id1078782233?mt=2&i=367472055

The same can be said for ESPN analyst Louis Riddick. Listening him talk to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch on both football and media was really interesting and entertaining: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/si-media-podcast-richard-deitsch/id997819235?mt=2&i=367080648

Random Rumblings: April 11th

A wild weekend in sports catapults us into a surely historic week. Kobe Bryant retires after his final game Wednesday night. At the same time, the Warriors will shoot for their 73rd win, which would break the single-season record. The NBA playoff seedings will also be set, and we're getting ever closer to the NFL draft. However before all that, we look back at a heck of a sports weekend.

History (Good)

The Warriors have reached the thought unreachable star of 72 wins, tying the '95-'96 Bulls' record for most in an NBA season. Those Bulls also entered their 81st game with 71 wins, but they lost. The Warriors became the first team to win in San Antonio all season.

The game was rather remarkable considering the Warriors were on the second night of a back-to-back. Golden State beat Memphis in Memphis on Saturday night in game that went down to the final buzzer. The Dubs, including Stephen Curry, haven't had their shooting rhythm as of late. Their numbers are still good overall during the past few weeks, thanks to a few outbursts including a 136 point effort in Portland, but watching them hasn't quite been the same.

That continued in the first half in San Antonio as they scored a season low 35 points. In the second half, it all came back. Curry went bananas in the 3rd quarter, scored 37 points on the night and their chances at sitting alone in history are alive. The reason they were able to overcome the atrocious first half of offense? They were tied at the half, holding the Spurs to the same output. 

As you could imagine with a team that is assured one of the two best regular seasons ever, they're far from a one-trick pony. They're 5th in defensive rating after finishing first a year ago. Draymond Green might win defensive player of the year (it'll be him or Kawhi Leonard). The Warriors sport two of the league's ten best defensive lineups that have played over 100 minutes together (based on defensive rating) and neither of those are its "death lineup" of Green, Curry, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson which is the league's best lineup in terms of net rating. 

(Fun aside: the Warriors have the league's best three lineups (min. 100 minutes played together) in net rating and two more in the top 20.)

The natural discussion as we wait for the playoffs isn't to appreciate what Golden State is doing, but to compare it to what the Bulls did. Who would win a hypothetical seven game series? Who knows. It's impossible to know, which makes for a fun discussion. There were different rules and the two teams play very different styles. I would tend to lean towards Golden State because of their propensity to hit threes, but the Bulls were absolutely loaded and had that MJ fella, so I certainly wouldn't have the confidence to bet on it.

In terms of the accomplishment though, I think it's fair to point out that Golden State has done this in one of the golden eras of NBA basketball. The league is so deep right now with star players and great teams. The Spurs are having an all-time season that is being completely overshadowed by the Warriors. The Thunder are likely going to have two players who deservingly finish top 5 in MVP voting. The Eastern Conference is finally back too, as the 8-seed there will finish with a better record than the 8-seed in the West for the first time since 1999. 

I'm not old enough to intelligently remember the league in '95-'96 so I'm not going to put what the Bulls did into similar context. It wouldn't be fair. Just know what the Warriors have done is extraordinary.

History (Bad)

Jordan Spieth did not have a Warriors-like weekend. The 22 year old had a complete and utter meltdown at the 12th hole in The Masters final round, and it cost him his second straight green jacket. 

It was such an odd outcome because the 30-minute, one-hole blunder so overwhelmingly decided the outcome of a four day event. Even if Spieth bogeys the hole instead of quadruple bogeying, he's in a playoff (if the rest of the tournament plays out the same). The seven he threw up on number twelve literally decided the tournament. 

It is likely why Spieth was so distraught afterwards. It's not just the great shots that make professional golfers great, it's the ability to do damage control. Hit a bad shot? Save it with the next one. Spieth followed a bad shot with a worse one and then did it again. He actually did some damage control by getting up-and-down out of the bunker to net the quad, or it could've been even worse.

What I don't get is the narrative today that "how Spieth responds will define his career." Well no kidding. If he stinks for the rest of his life, that's gonna define his career. If he bounces back, people will marvel at his ability to put failure behind him. That's all great, but let's not pretend like this hasn't happened before.

Rory McIlroy had the 54 hole lead at Augusta in 2014 before shooting a final round 80 and losing the tournament. He came back and blasted the field at the US Open to win the very next major. Jack Nicklaus's record 18 majors are made even more remarkable by the fact that he finished second 19 times. You don't think there were a few close calls and heart-breakers in there? 

Spieth will be fine. He's 22. He's already won multiple majors. His game is perfect for Augusta and he'll be the favorite there next year so long that he's healthy. He'll probably win there again. Yesterday's performance will hurt and it'll probably hurt forever. No matter how many he wins, he'll know it always should've been one more, but that doesn't mean he'll crumble into a heap of emotion and forget how to play golf.

Credit also to Danny Willett, who still had to go out and win it. He made sure to make it difficult for Spieth to catch him down the stretch and, in the end, did enough to win comfortably. That capped off a pretty amazing week for him that started with the birth of his first child. The picture of the baby in the green jacket is going to be pretty epic. Also, his brother is pretty great.

No More Bowling

The NCAA announced a three year freeze on adding new bowl games Monday morning, which was surely met with applause around the country. Three losing teams played in post-season games last year, which is a bit ridiculous considering they are supposed to be a reward for a stellar season.

Largely I'm in favor of having a large number of bowl games because they do mean a lot to the players and they really aren't hurting anyone. I didn't feel that way before going to the 2009 New Orleans Bowl and seeing MTSU win it. For a small school, it was a big deal. The players had a solid season, took advantage of the opportunity and walked away with memories they'll never forget.

That's always stuck with me, but there is a limit considering it's supposed to be a reward and the NCAA is long past that limit. We don't need to go back to an era where only the best of the best get to play in the post-season, but there's certainly a happy medium before you get to losing teams participating. It's probably farther back down the path than we've traveled, but at least for the next three years we won't be traveling any further.

Read(s) of the day:

I'm going to start adding some of the enjoyable things I've read to the ends of these random rumblings columns. I read a lot of stuff. Some of it is really good. So why not share:

• ESPN's Ramona Shelburne on the literal, physical pain Steve Kerr has endured this season as his team marches towards history.
• NJ.com's Steve Politi on the one house still standing in Augusta National's neighborhood, and the people who live there.
• The MMQB's Emily Kaplan on Jon Gruden's QB Camp, which starts this week on ESPN

What is success? (NBA edition)

I saw a tweet this week that spawned a thought. The thought is more a philosophical question that can be applied to literally any situation in life, but we'll mostly stick to sports. What is success?

The tweet came from a Mavericks fan to my former colleague Chuck Cooperstein, the Mavs play by play man. The pessimistic fan asked "what's the point of making the playoff? They're going to lose in the first round."

Allow me to answer: you make the playoffs. 

On the surface, this seems like quite the logical thing than anybody with even a minute understanding of sports should be able to figure out, but defining success in sports is far from simple. For some teams success means winning a lot. For some teams it's winning some. For some teams it's not winning at all. It's complicated. It's nuanced. And at this time of the year, it's particularly in focus for the NBA.

For the Mavericks, making the playoffs is a remarkable success. Dallas thought they had made a key addition in DeAndre Jordan last summer before the Clippers center changed his mind and decided to return to Los Angeles. That left the Mavericks with newly signed Wes Matthews coming off an achilles injury, Chandler Parsons coming off knee surgery and Dirk Nowitzki somehow still being a very good player despite being 482 years old in NBA years. Instead of being a legitimate threat to get to the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Mavs were stuck being good enough to have no shot at keeping their draft pick, which had to fall in the top 7 to not be sent to Boston to complete the Rajon Rondo trade.

Since being bad didn't have any benefit, why not see how good you can be? Despite battling injuries all year, they made the playoffs again. That should be celebrated. That's an accomplishment. That's success.

For the Warriors, making the playoffs is nothing special. Their goals are different. They're only goal is a championship. That was until they got off to the best start in NBA history and all of a sudden, the record for most wins in regular season history was on the table.

Success is a moving target, in life and in sports. When someone reaches a goal, they set a new one. When circumstances change, goals change. Rarely do plans actually work out exactly as someone lays them out. For the Warriors, the goal didn't change. They just added a new one.

The NBA's regular season is long. It starts in October and ends in April. Sometime in November or December, everyone realized the Warriors had a chance at 73 regular season wins because they hadn't lost yet and the wins were starting to stack up. At that point their season became a really long family vacation. You can't wait to leave, but by the end, even if you know you'll look back fondly, it's just time to go home.

That's where the Warriors are now. They're clearly exhausted, scraping together wins against teams they literally beat by 50 earlier in the season. They've also lost twice at home, something they didn't do all year until last weekend. The goal of championship is still at the top of their list, but along the way they'd love to get to 73. They've got two more wins to go. If they don't get it, it's nearly impossible to say that the regular season hasn't been successful. They've already assured themselves one of the two winningest regular seasons in the history of the sport. Of course that's successful, even if they don't reach their goal of breaking the record.

For the Warriors, success depends on their first goal. They must win another championship. Falling short of that is a failure by anyone's standard based on what Golden State has accomplished and what they're capable of. The funny thing about success being a moving target, is it often moves back to where it started. While the focus is on the regular season record, the determination of success hasn't moved one bit for Steph Curry and co.

That concept of moving goals and moving success brings us to the other end of the NBA spectrum: the 76ers. Sam Hinkie resigned from his front office position this week as Philadelphia continued to bring in other people around him. Hinkie wrote in his resignation letter that the changing dynamic didn't leave him in a position that he felt he could make the best decisions for the team.

Hinkie's plan to rebuild the 76ers was much maligned, but it was also misunderstood. The biggest misunderstanding was his definition of success.

Winning in the NBA actually isn't that hard. Winning championships is nearly impossible. The margin between a good team like the Mavericks and a championship team like the Warriors is massive. Hinkie wanted to build a championship team.

In order to do that, he gutted the roster and maximized his means of acquiring a star player (which you need at least one of, if not two to win a title) via the draft. In the meantime, he didn't care about how his team did. He knew he needed that player.

Upon his resignation (which wasn't forced by ownership directly, although the moves they made around him were the reasons he resigned), many analysts brought up teams like Orlando and Denver to say "you don't have to be so extreme to rebuild" as the Sixers have been the last three years.

Orlando and Denver have acquired some nice pieces. None of those pieces are the championship piece that Hinkie wanted. Sure, they've got better rosters and if they can either pick a winner later in the draft, get lucky and win the lottery or acquire a superstar player via trade or free agency, the superior roster helps them be in a position to win faster. With Orlando, this is even feasible as they've been a free agent destination in the past. With Denver? They better hope for the luck option.

Meanwhile the Sixers have the highest odds ever at the number one pick and might wind up with two picks in the top 5 this season. Every plan involving a lottery and talent evaluation also involves substantial luck. Why not give yourself the maximum chances to get lucky?

That's not to say Hinkie was perfect and didn't make some mistakes. He could've potentially had better players already with better scouting. He underestimated the human side of player development in having no veteran presence in his locker room. However his long-term plan often came under attack for the wrong reasons.

People failed to understand his definition of success. He didn't want to his team to be good. He wanted them to be great. He knew that would take time. He ran out of time.

Success is a funny thing. It can be defined by a person for themselves. It can be defined by others. It can be defined by precedent and history. It can be defined by smashing precedent and making history. It can be clearly defined. It can be misunderstood. All of those things are no more easily found than in pro sports at a season's end.

3-8 Mavs Magazine

Segment 1 - The Mavs Path to Success
Segment 2 - Ethan Strauss on Mavs
Segment 3 - Ethan Strass on West, #SSAC
Segment 4 - The Role of Rondo