Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points.
• Brandon Knight became a trending joke on twitter after the Clippers DeAndre Jordan dunked all over him — R.I.P Knight. But Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports says we got it backwards — most guys would have ducked out and not gotten in the poster at all, just let the dunk happen, but Knight made the effort and tried to make a play on it. Woj says he should be praised for that.
• Mike Prada at SBN counters that if Knight had made the right play at the right time he would have taken away the lob opportunity, not gotten dunked on.
• A good interview with John Wall where he says he thinks he deserves a max extension this summer. Among other things.
• Blake Griffin’s game has really grown in the last couple years. For example, he showed a handle Sunday night against the Pistons that only a handful of the game’s elite power forwards can match. He is a good passer and his midrange game is improving. But the Clippers are going to need a lot more from him if they are going to be contenders, our friend Rob Mahoney says at SI.
• Paul Pierce says what Celtics fans want to hear — if we get on a run in the playoffs anything can happen.
• That Pierce interview is part of the NBA’s always must-read column from David Aldridge, his Morning Tip at NBA.com. Also in there this week Aldridge said that quite, private negotiations to buyout Billy Hunter and get the lawsuits dropped and him out of the NBA players union are underway. This was always how this saga would end, the only question is the price.
• Also, if you want more details on what the NBA owners are looking at in the Seattle/Sacramento discussion, Aldridge has as level-headed and good an explanation as you are going to find.
• Another of Monday’s must read posts comes from Kevin Arnovitz at ESPN: How the Clippers are walking the line between elite contender and just very good. Even in the locker room Sunday they talked about using the blowout of the Pistons as a springboard to finishing with the level of play they will need in the postseason.
• Don’t look now, but Tyreke Evans is having a good season. Maybe his best season to date. So.... how much you going to offer him this summer as a restricted free agent?
• Two regulars to this award were named the NBA players of the week — the Heat’s Dwyane Wade for the Eastern Conference and the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant for the West. Wade averaged 25.3 points on .606 shooting, plus had 5.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 steals a game. Bryant averaged 33.0 points, 8.8 assists and 5.8 rebounds a game.
• Here’s a great piece describing why Delonte West is not playing in the NBA right now.
• Here is the argument that Kyrie Irving being out for up to a month is good for a Cavaliers team that should want more ping-pong balls in the lottery.
• Eric Maynor was traded to Portland but now says he wouldn’t mind sticking around.
• Andre Drummond is going to start doing some basketball related activities (as opposed to the pregame workout I watched him go through on Sunday, which involved a lot of running). However, the Pistons will not put a timeline on his return.
• Erik Spoelstra says we are all selling the Heat’s sacrifices short.
