.. None of this happens by accident. Ilyasova studies game film and scouting reports. He knows which players tend to go to their left after they pump fake. And he knows which players are poor outside shooters, giving him the leeway to back off and bait them into driving. He can usually sense where they want to go. His job is to get there first.
.. “I wish there was a stat line for charges,” he said. “It should count as a block or a steal or something like that.”
.. If the defender takes the brunt of the contact between his shoulder blades, in the chest, Strom told Javie, there is a good chance that he was the first player to the spot.
.. Javie cited Dennis Rodman and Shane Battier as two former players who were exceptionally skilled at drawing charges. Rodman had the quickest feet in the league, Javie said.
James Harden’s Secret Talent Is Slowing Down
The Houston Rockets’ star is ordinary by many physical metrics. But his deceleration is superhuman—and that explains how he dominates the NBA
Harden has a hidden advantage: deceleration. His braking system is the best in sports. Harden is the fastest at slowing down.
.. But the frontrunner to win the NBA’s most valuable player award is Harden. He’s averaging 28.9 points per game while also somehow leading the league with 11.4 assists per game.
.. “I know what I’m great at and what I’m not great at—and I use it to my advantage.”
That’s apparent in the way he plays. Harden relies on the stepback jumper more than anyone in the NBA, and his ability to decelerate is what frees him for the split-second he requires to get a shot off. That’s why it’s basically unstoppable.
.. There are people around the sport, in fact, who believe that changing speeds is the single most important characteristic in the game today. “You look at the best players in the NBA, and they can go full speed with a dribble and all of a sudden—stop,” said Rockets forward Ryan Anderson. “It’s impossible to guard.”
On Kobe Bryant
WHAT STARTLES MOST about Kobe Bryant is his longevity. He has played in the NBA for twenty years. Few, if any, have played so well for so long. But longevity was also Kobe’s curse. He lasted into an era that had no use for him, an anachronism. By the time he won his last two championships, he was already being eclipsed by a player (LeBron) who was historically better.
.. What once seemed like a kind of vicious genius became what it perhaps always was: theatrical, ritualistic gestures toward a game that no one played any more, and with reason.
.. The era of analytics has not been kind to him, and histories written with the statistics in mind will be merciless. PER, VORP, plus/minus: all give us a Kobe who was never the best player in the league and often bad for his team.
.. Scrutinizers will continue to point out the selfless masters who didn’t or won’t enjoy Kobe’s long sendoff: the doe-eyed Tim Duncan; Kevin Garnett, another straight-out-of-high-school great; the tragic Steve Nash, possessed of possibly the worst haircut in the history of the sport, deprived of his ring by the infamous hip check from the malicious Robert Horry (who undeservedly has seven). These figures were transformative in a way Kobe will prove not to be.
.. He was a sociopath, and his deep-seated contempt drove him to become one of the most beautiful athletes
.. It’s curious how few post-mortems have mentioned the 2003 sexual assault case that, had it taken place in an era of social media, would have sunk his career.
Why the NBA Loves—and Fears—Stephen Curry
The three-point shot, for much of its history a novelty or minor part of teams’ strategies, has become an essential component of almost every team’s offensive attack. As recently as 2012, the average team took about 1,200 threes over the course of a season; last year, that number ballooned to over 1,800.
.. They’re more dangerous the further they are from the basket, and they have little use for certain common player types. Their most effective grouping, unofficially and enviously known as “Death Lineup” or “Nuclear Lineup,” features no player taller than 6’7” and achieves a state of delirious ball and player movement that resolves in an open long-range shot almost as a matter of course.