FreeDarko Presents: The Disciples Of Clyde NBA Podcast

***Editor’s Note***
Ken wrote a blog entry before LeBron’s announcement and then recorded a podcast immediately after it. His college friend Manoff, who once appeared on the podcast, sent an email criticizing Ken’s opinions because that’s just what Manoff likes to do with his ample free time. Manoff disagreed with how Ken lumped LeBron and the Media together in articulating why he found the entire spectacle to be distasteful. Ken defended himself by reminding Manoff that LeBron produced the show, literally making himself part of the “media”. Manoff presumably took some West Coast Turnaround and responded thusly.

Oh no, I wasn’t referring to the content of his choice, but to your characterizing the manner of his announcement as betraying a callousness and lack of self-awareness.

Callousness? Lack of self-awareness? For announcing his move on live TV? How else would you have liked him to announce it?

The insane “Durant did it the right way by signing with the team that gave him his “start” and announcing it on Twitter” infuriates me. Durant signed for the max with the only organization that could offer him a contract this year, a year before a new CBA is in place which will likely have worse terms for players. If ‘Bron had announced on Twitter, the complaints would have been “He’s such a coward, he can’t even look Cleveland in the eye”.

If he made the announcement in Miami flanked by Wade and Bosh, he would have been tarred with “Wade can both win and make it through a press conference without LeBron; LeBron needs Wade for both”. And god forbid he makes his announcement before tens of thousands of delighted Miamians, with broadcasters running footage of that party side-by-side with Clevelanders burning his uni.

Yes, “The Decision” made for awful television and the show shouldn’t have been dragged out like a reality-show results episode, but what would you have him do? A press conference? Why would LeBron want to draw easy parallels between his professional choice and a recent press conference held by a beswooshed, transcendent athlete who used it as a forum to discuss decidedly non-professional matters?

Yes, it would be callous if had made up his mind in Bejing in ‘08 and dragged out the announcement as long as possible, but I don’t think that was the case. He could not talk to other clubs prior to a handful of days ago. I feel that he saw the landscape, heard the pitches and moved with all deliberate speed to decide and announce it. No Hamlet he.

What infuriates me (to the same degree that listening to political talk radio does) is the media initiating an immediate attack on the hubris of LeBron making his announcement via “The Decision” without providing any suggestion of what would have been a better method.
(more…)

When two former heady white point guards who got by on pluck and guile collide, it’s going to be explosive. Fortunately, the Disciples of Clyde have tens of dollars to spend on CSI type re-enactments. Watch the tape of the Paxson/Del Negro slug-fest and draw your own conclusions.

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 Standard Podcast [52:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ken and Dan discuss the role of a crazy guy like Matt Barnes on a team like the Magic, also reflecting on past instances of living by page one of the macho code (John Starks, baby) in order to succeed in the playoffs. Barnes’ intensity/recklessness also seems relevant now because of the “Winning Time” documentary from ESPN, the connection to which is  nicely articulated by Dan Devine at Ball Don’t Lie.

Ken and Dan also discuss the media’s reaction to Iverson.  Which is sad.  Such is life.  Check out this blog entry on ESPN.com, which echoes some of the opinions that Ken expresses about Stephen A. Smith’s coverage of the matter.

To kick of the show, however, Ken completes his mission to tell the world about a few of our listeners who happen to have blogs or podcasts of their own. These projects are also listed below. Dan was against doing something nice, but Ken overpowered him with brute physical strength. In all seriousness, it would mean a great deal to the both Ken and Dan if you would give some of your fellow DOC listeners a chance to entertain you with their efforts . . . you just might discover your next favorite voice.  Here’s the list:

• Andre Babyn - paorta.wordpress.com
• Bradley Hartsell - myexpiringcontract.com
• Ben Steele - orderofthecourt.blogspot.com
• Henry Sherrell - fourpointplay.weebly.com
• Luke Vodicka - thestubbornbird.wordpress.com
• Ethan Sherwood Strauss - WarriorsWorld.net and Salon.com.
• Doug Mayfield -dank-game.blogspot.com
• Nick Gelso - NorthStationSports.com and celticslatenightshow.com (a Celtics podcast)
• Hank McCoy - Courtsidebasketball.blogspot.com
• Tyler Whitcomb -nbadraftscouts.com
• William Purdy - expiringcontracts.blogspot.com

In addition, there were two lazy bastards who didn’t contact us until after the episode was recorded.  Go to their websites, read something every day for the next week, and then call them lazy bastards in the comments section.  Use as much profanity as you want.  Here’s the the links:

• The Bay Area Sports Report is a brand new blog co-founded by hall of fame DOC commenter MR.FJG_SON. The authors better write something  NOW or they’ll never work in this internet again!  Actually, even if they don’t write something by the time you click there, send the link  to everyone you know anyway.  Let’s see of we can get them enough click-throughs or tiny-url-dealies to be bought out by ESPN or something.  Check them out at thebayareasportsreport.tumblr.com.
• Painstakingly created by a mysterious and dangerous young man known only as “Josh”, Waiting For Groza is a new but quite cool hoops blog.  He’s got a great piece on strange statistical similarities between Andrew Bogut and Robert parish.  Give him some love at waitingforgroza.blogspot.com.

The music from this episode:

• Auld Lang Syne - Glen Miller Orchestra
• Dirty Boulevard - Lou Reed
• Stranger Song - Leanord Cohen
• Smith and Jones Forever - SilverJews

Tonight we’re recording the segment where we talk about all the DOC listeners with blogs and podcasts of their own.  I’d love for each of you to get a little bump from other listeners (a not-insignificant number) checking out your stuff, so please let us know about it.  I don’t care if you are two days old or are more established than we are, i want to tell people about you so you can help me down the road when my life invariably winds up in the toilet.  Why is there a toilet in the road?  I don’t know.

This is not the last time i’ll do plugs for people, but it won’t be for a little while.  Get on it, kids.

–kpd

Who likes sausage?  Well, you won’t after i reveal how they make it, kids.  Let me walk you through this delightful scenario:

• Last year the Knicks decline Sacramento’s insanely stupid offer to take Jared Jeffries for Kenny Thomas if the Knicks also sent Nate Robinson because the Knicks need Robinson for their “playoff run” that ends up netting 33 wins.
• Meanwhile, the Knicks fail to sign David Lee to a reasonable contract extension over the previous two years in hopes of landing a second “marquee” free agent to pair with, ya know, Lebron or Wade . . . because signing one of those two was always a given.
• So . . . the Knicks miss ample opportunities to pay David Lee something like 7-9 million dollars a year even as they watch him constantly improve his jump shot and post game to the point that he is going to average 21 and 12 if he ever plays with a decent point guard, making him worth something like 12-13 million dollars to one of the dozen teams that will have cap space this summer.
• In anticipation of this conundrum, they draft a raw but promising but raw power forward to build up their frontcourt depth and possibly replace Lee if he signs elsewhere.
• They never play the raw but promising power forward and instead give his minutes to Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender’s corpse. Nobody has any idea how good the raw but promising power forward is even though it looks like he can shoot and rebound at a very good per minute clip.
• The Knicks are so happy that they held on to Nate Robinson that they celebrate by benching his ass for 14 games during a period of sustained success and then re-inserting Robinson into the lineup just before they [coincidentally] start losing lots of games again.
• Then they dump Nate Robinson to Boston for  . . . stuff.
• Still in posession of Jared Jeffries thanks to turning down the Sacramento offer, the team must include the raw but promising rookie power forward and draft picks as incentive for the Rockets to take Jaffries.  Why not include  Eddy Curry, since this is all about salary anyway and Jeffries could actually contribute next year to a stripped roster?  Shut up, that’s why not.
• In theory, the Knicks are in a good position because, without Jeffries’ salary they can “slide two max contracts across the table to Wade and Lebron” this summer.  Or one of those two and Chris Bosh.  And then all the planning will have worked to perfection if  . . . two of those players decide to leave their teams.  Because the one thing that both Wade and Lebron have learned throughout the years is that you don’t need point guards, depth or big men to win in the playoffs.
• Humble podcaster Ken Drews wonders aloud to nobody if the fact that Darryl Morey, the stat-geek GM  who finds undervalued players that contribute insane value, likes Jordan Hill means that Jordan Hill might just be MUCH BETTER than Mike D’Antoni thought.
• Of course, wIth nobody on the team to replace him, the Knicks have to take it up the ass from Lee’s agent this summer if the other free agents decide not to come to NY, leaving them with a 9 million dollar a year player who is signed for five years and 65 million.

So there you have it.  If you don’t care how the sausage is made then this is a good day to be a Knick fan.  They have lots of cap space for a deep free agent class, Eddy Curry’s expiring contract (for next year) to trade, two young quality rotation players (Chandler, Gallo), threetalented young wild cards (Sergio Rodriguez, Toney Douglas, Bill Walker), and a top tier coach (Mr. Pringles). For the first time in a decade, the Knicks are in good (if precarious) shape.

Hey, I’d feel even worse if I was Sacto fan (sorry, Ziller).  They get a little cap relief for a major NBA talent, yet somehow Franscisco Garcia and Nocioni are still on their team until the next ice age.  Lovely.

And I’d be tripping balls right now if the Knicks had a GM like Morey.  Jeez, he played Walsh and Geoff Petrie like hand puppets.  Talk about making something out of nothing.  He turns the franchise-killing McGrady injury last year into one of the most efficient perimeter scorers in the NBA, and all it cost him was former second round pick Carl Landry (which is a tough loss mitigated by the fact that they just got Jordan freaking Hill). Not only that, kids, but the salary albatross that he absorbed for all his trouble is a decent player who will contribute to Houston for the next year and a half with his good defense and unselfish play, making him a valuable expiring contract next year.

I will now light Dan Filowitz on fire.

We don’t give a shit.

Sincerely,

Ken and Dan

If you like per-minute stats then take a look at my line for this year and tell me who the hell I am:

I’ve got a PER of almost 26.

I’m scoring almost 25 points per 36 minutes . . .

And grabbing over 11 boards . . .

And blocking almost 2 shots . . .

And shooting almost 6 free throws.

So who the hell am I?

Want more Ken Drews content? Your prayers have been answered, Chico!

I lent some much needed star-power to friend-of-the-DOC Jared Wade and his Logo Ranking Project at BothTeamsPlayedHard.net, which is a very enjoyable NBA blog. Jared made the wise decision of asking the internet’s most famous Knick fan to give some thoughts on the Knick logo and I obliged because some day I may need Jared to loan me bail money (a lesson in Karma for all of you).

As much as I hated to do it, folks, I had to be a tad negative in describing the Knick logo because, like the logos of 25 other teams in the NBA, it sucks. Jared has the Knick logo correctly ranked #13, which is the perfect middling ranking for a middling piece of dated pop-art. Keep an eye out for a glaring typographical/factual error that should see me soon barred from the internet.

By the way, it seems to me that the only logos worth a damn have a few traits in common:

1. Simplicity
2. Whimsy
3. Unmistakable color scheme
4. Mostly rounded edges
5. Unmistakable connection to team’s history.
6. Only unnoticeable changes have been made in last several decades OR they have changed to a retro-look to reconnect with their history (bravo 76’ers).

Here’s my own top five logos in no particular order because they are the only five logos that are good to begin with:

• Celtics
• Lakers
• Sixers
• Bulls
• Spurs

FYI, I think a new podcast is being recorded any day now, but my wife and I also have a baby coming any day now, so one of those things is going to have to take a back seat.  I’m not sure which.

I want you all to watch this interesting piece on ESPN’s Outside the Lines (embedded below) about Bill Laimbeer’s credentials to be an NBA head coach and then check back in later this week for some analysis by your’s truly. For the record, I agree that somebody should hire him to rebuild a losing team.

By coincidence, I was already drafting a blog posting about the current relevance of how the ’89 and ’90 Detroit Pistons were constructed by their GM, Jack McCloskey. In summary, the makeup of the entire organization at that time, including the player roster, created a situation wherein success was almost inevitable. You can learn more about that team by reading this fine book, which I’ll also discuss later in the week.

This photo was taken last week at a course in California by a golfer who’s name I am withholding because he was supposed to be working that day.  It’s amazing that someone’s arms and shoulders can be so unmistakable. We can call Kobe or Lebron the next MJ when they can still have that kind of imprint on our fickle brains after being retired for six years.

The way I heard it, Jordan was playing in a foursome and his teammate was Jud Buechler, who shot a 120 but so impressed spectators with his heady golfing and fiery attitude that he was named president and general manager of the PGA tour.  His first move was to trade Tiger Woods to NASCAR for Mark Martin’s expiring contract.