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 like you love Girl Scout thin mint cookies.
• Charles Barkley says that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson can’t really play together. Your first reaction to that is probably like mine — they’re doing a pretty good job this year. When Curry and Thompson are on the court together this season the Warriors are +2.6 per 48 minutes over their opponents. Their offense is improved from the team average and while the team defense is a little worse the Warriors are 2.4 points per 100 possessions better than their opponent. But CSNBayArea.com’s Matt Steinments agrees with Barkley — no they are not terrible together but how good can they really be? Can the Warriors really thrive — and by thrive I mean improve, someday challenge the Thunder — with two pure shooters on the back line? Do they need a more traditional playmaker?
• I was on the ProBasketballDraft.com podcast this week talking top teams in the game, trade rumors and a little bit of everything NBA. Check it out.
• Stan Van Gundy was on CNN, on a roundtable talking about matters of actual importance (meaning not basketball). He comes off pretty well. Thanks to Orlando Magic Daily for the heads up.
• Kobe Bryant says NBA stars need to take a bigger role in the players union. He may have been channeling Derek Fisher at the time.
• Dwight Howard’s fake gmail inbox. It’s pretty funny.
• A great breakdown of how Metta World Peace’s shooting problems could be symptomatic of other big problems for the Lakers. Because they need more of those.
• Kyrie Irving says his tweaked ankle is just fine.
• Josh Smith talks about staying in or being traded from Atlanta.
• It will not be official until closer to gametime, but it looks like Danny Granger will return to the Pacers Wednesday.
• The Piston’s Andre Drummond is rehabbing his back with... drumming. I’m not making that up.
• Remember the Pistons fan in the Tayshaun Prince jersey who was frustrated the night of the trade sending Prince to Memphis, and he took the jersey off (and said move was all over ESPN)? Well, the Grizzlies brought him down and he got to meet Prince.
• A report the Heat have pulled out of their pursuit of Greg Oden. Which really just means they realized the Cavaliers are going to win the race for him.
• In case you missed it, Miami’s LeBron James and the Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook were named Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week. James was a no brainer, he averaged 31.3 points on .738 shooting plus had 6.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. He’s been on amazing streak, even for James. Westbrook averaged 21.8 points, 6.0 assists, 3.3 steals and 3.0 rebounds a game.
• Dennis Rodman talks children’s books and how to build a team to win a ring.
