Quick Look at Heels in the NBA

I like the NBA, and am glad it's back.  Of course, as a Washingtonian the NBA is a relative term since our hometown Wizards keep getting jokier and jokier.  And I'm just talking about this year, not Gilbert Arenas bringing guns into the locker room.

First it was Andray Blatche tweeting for folks to stop criticizing him for criticizing the coach and organization. Nothing new there. But last night the Wizards reached new heights when they failed to list Roger Mason Jr., a DC native by the way, on their active roster.  When he entered the game, illegally, Mason was thrown out by the referees and the Wizards were given a technical. 

With the Wizards less than blog worthy, it's of course time to turn to the Tar Heels.

With the season a week old, here is a quick look at the 12 Tar Heels - which I think is second to Connecticut, believe it or not - in the NBA in order of minutes played.

1. Ty Lawson, 32 minutes - Averaging 22 points and 3 assists. He's emerged as the best Tar Heel in the NBA
2. Raymond Felton, 32 - A solid 13 and 7 assists for Portland
3. Antawn Jamison, 30 minutes - Hanging on after 13 years in the league, currently averaging 14 points a game for Cleveland
4. Tyler Hansbrough, 28 - Practically playing starters minutes as Pacers sixth man.   Has two double-doubles this year and averaging 11 points and 11 boards despite terrible shooting percentage
5. Marvin Williams, 26 - Has helped Hawks to 3-0 start with 14 points and 8 boards
6. Wayne Ellington, 31 - With an asterisk, since he did not play in the Timberwolves first two games but came off the bench last night to score 13 points.
7. Vince Carter, 19 - Coming off bench for Mavericks
8. Brendan Haywood, 19 - Starting for defending champs with Tyson Chandler gone, but not playing that well.  Averaging 5 and 5 for 1-3 Dallas.
9. Ed Davis, 19 - Sixth man for Toronto Raptors
10. Brandon Wright - Has played in one game for Mavericks and still trying to get his NBA career going after 4 years in league
11. Danny Green, 6 - Limited minutes but has played in all 3 games for Spurs this year. Was playing in Slovenia with Deon Thompson during lock out.
12. Jerry Stackhouse, 6 - Still in the NBA after 16 years, with Marvin's Hawks.

GO HEELS!  

Odd

That the Tar Heels have won two of the last six NCAA championships yet my fellow alums are not making much of a dent in the NBA.  


The good news is there are plenty of Heels - 11 to be exact - playing in The League. 


The bad news is most Carolina alums have seen their careers stall.  The most recent case in point is Marvin Williams, who hurt his knee in what had been a career so far.  Due to the injury Williams came off the bench for the Hawks last game.  Unfortunately, Marvin's experience is not isolated.   Here's a quick synopsis:

• Recent all-star Antawn Jamison is coming off the bench for Cleveland, where he is joined by fellow Heel Jawad Williams.  Last season Jamison was averaging 20 points a game but has looked out of sorts since the trade to Cleveland in February. Jawad is getting more playing time this season, his second full season in the NBA.  The fact that Jawad has stuck in the league is almost good news when you consider the fate of other Heels in the NBA.
• Like Jamison, main man Brendan Haywood is coming off the bench for Dallas and barely playing behind Tyson Chandler.  Last season, Haywood nearly averaged a double-double (9.5 pts/10 rebounds) plus more than 2 blocks a game.  This year, it's too embarrassing to mention.
• Brandan Wright has NEVER found his mojo in Golden State.  Between playing for a coach who hated young players (Don Nelson) and injuries Wright has been a non-factor in the NBA.
• The same is true, hard to admit, for Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington  The combination of injuries, illness and a coach who doesn't see the value of Hansbrough in the rotation has kept him on the Pacers bench behind Josh McRoberts and James Posey of all people (a Dukie and a 3 taking his minutes at the 4).  And Ellington is more like Wright; he's lost the mojo on his jump shot and is playing for a coach and organization that is overloaded in the backcourt.  I hope both Hansbrough and Ellington get traded.
• Jamison's brother-in-law, Vince Carter. also has a career on the wane.  Vincanity was traded to Phoenix last week, and their style of play should play to Carter's strengths as a slasher.  However, as he's gotten older Carter has been content to jack up jump shot after jump shot, not his strong suit, and does not go to hoop as much as he used to.  Orlando thought he could consistently hit jump shots, thus opening things up for Dwight Howard, and when he didn't he got traded.  Here's hoping the old Vince returns in the valley of the sun.
• Jury is still out on Ed Davis, who is starting to play more for Toronto after a variety of injuries.
• The two most successful Heels, buy far, are Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton.  Lawson continues to get better as the heir apparent to Chauncey Billups in Denver while playing for George Karl.  In fact, Karl often plays Billups at two in order to get both point guards on the floor. Lawson continues to impress with his 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, and his 11 points per game off the bench.  And Felton is playing like an all star, averaging 18 and 9, with 2 steals.  He is still turning it over a little more than 3 times a game, but Felton's play has helped turn around the Knicks this season.  With Rajon Rondo and Brandon Jennings having inconsistent seasons there is a decent chance that Felton could be named to his first All-Star team this year (behind Derrick Rose).

But the really bad news, at least for this Tar Heels fan, is who is NOT in the NBA.  In my opinion there is a real 'Need for Sheed' void.  The league is not the same without his gray spot bopping up and down the floor.  But at least Ra had a career, made a few all star games, and won an NBA championship.


Besides Ra, here's the list of some other Heels NOT in the NBA who should or could:

• Sean May.  Injuries and overeating/under motivation have derailed, probably permanently, what should have been a long NBA career.  After 3 years in Charlotte and one on the bench in Sacramento, May was cut in training camp by New Jersey.  Yes, the most outstanding player of the 2005 Final Four has been cut by the Bobcats, Kings and Nets in the last 2 years. Only teams missing from this list are the Clippers, Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Pirates. The final indignity?  A player who struggles with his weight is now playing professionally in a country named after a food: Turkey (though it's healthy food at least).
• Rashad McCants' NBA career is likely over, too.  After sulking his way out of Minnesota and Sacramento,  then sitting out a year/dating a Khardasian, McCants is toying with the idea of reviving his career in China.  He had been playing with the Texas Legends in the NBDL but two weeks ago left the Mavericks farm team to sign with a team in the Chinese Basketball League.  However, there are already problems with his prospective Chinese team so he has not signed or played.
• Danny Green has been cut twice this season, once by Cleveland in training camp then by the San Antonio Spurs after signed a 10-day contract with Tim Duncan's team.  Green will likely end up in Europe, joining Ed Cota (Lithuania), David Noel (France), Marcus Ginyard (Germany), Deon Thompson (Greece) and Bobby Frasor (Cyprus).  Mike Copeland is even drawing a basketball-related pay check, playing in the United Kingdom.

Anyway, here's hoping things turn around for Carter, Jamison, Hansbrough and the rest of the outstanding Heels in the NBA, and that we beat Rutgers tonight. 

Another scattershot blog post

A variety of bloggable topics are available this weekend. Here goes:


World Series


I was initially surprised to see the Yankees comeback from an early 0-3 deficit.  But I shouldn't have.  Cole Hamels has been shaky this postseason, and unlike some of the Phillies these Yankees are professional hitters.   They swing at strikes, and fielded a relentless line up that even featured pitcher Andy Petite driving in a run.


[Interesting take on these Yankees today in the Times.]


The Phillies' approach last night was not as professional.  Case in point is Shane Victorino.  Batting in the third inning with the bases loaded and one out, Victorino came up after Jimmy Rollins walked - WALKED - to drive in a run and give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.  Most ball players know to take the first pitch if the previous hitter walked.  But Victorino was a bonehead twice, swinging at two balls waaaaayyyyy outside the strike zone to quickly put himself in the hole 0-2.


He eventually drove in a run - on a defensive swing - on a sacrifice fly but instead of breaking the game open with a hit, driving Petite off the mound in the process, Victorino's sacrifice ended the chance for a big, game -changing inning.

• Good column by Tom Boswell today that semi-explains why umpiring in baseball has declined so badly in recent years.  Bad umpiring/refereeing seems endemic to all sports these days but in baseball the umpiring stinks worse than in other sports.  From calling a terrible strike zone, to allowing hitters and pitchers go on a walkabout after every pitch, to missing fairly obvious calls this postseason - fair and foul balls, two runners on the same base, plays at first - baseball has a fairly serious issue to deal with. Boswell makes a good case that instant replay deserves a chance to solve some these problems.

Carolina football


Huge win for the Heels on Thursday night against Virginia Tech. There are almost too many story lines to talk about: a road win versus a ranked opponent, bouncing back from a terrible home loss the previous Thursday that also was a nationally televised game, coming back late in the game after falling behind due to a terrible turnover/interception by Yates.


The win was inspiring; the Heels could have mailed in the rest of their season and done what some so-called scribes had done and turned to basketball.  But instead they played with pride and determination and were rewarded with a meaningful and season-saving win.


The Heels will need to sustain that effort and focus if they truly want to save the season.  Carolina has four tough game left, versus Miami, at Boston College, and rivalry games versus NC State and Duke.  The Duke game is homecoming next week - Evan, Johnny, Alex and I will be there - and the Blue Devils is no pushover.  The Dukies are 5-3 after defeating Virginia in Charlottesville yesterday.  Beating the 'Hoos may not be that big a deal, then again the Heels lost to them in Chapel Hill.


Either way, I'm looking forward to spending a day and a half in Chapel Hill for homecoming (something I never thought I would ever want to attend).  This will actually be the fourth Duke-Carolina game in five years for Johnny, Evan and myself.


Wizards


Got to catch part of the Wizards win last night over the Nets. Arenas continues to look fantastic, and Andray Blatche off the bench almost matched Agent Zero's 32 points.  Brendan Haywood finished with 10 and 7 (a reverse of his opening-night numbers).


I may be the only guy I know who is paying attention; only 3 people voted in my favorite Wizards poll (and I think those 3 were me, Evan and Ariadne).


Heels in NBA


Of all the Heels in the NBA rookie Ty Lawson is probably off to the best start.  Lawson was the best player on the floor for Denver as they rallied to defeat Portland on opening night.  Lawson finished with 17 points in that game in 26 minutes.  He scored 7 in 17 minutes last night in another Nuggets win.


Here's a look at what the others Heels are doing so far:


Wayne Ellington: Ellington is playing, getting 23 min/game, while averaging 6 pts on 32% shooting; has yet to hit a three-pointer in two games.
Sean May: May is starting for 0-3 Sacramento but still playing 'out of shape' minutes, around 19 a game and averaging only 6 points a game.  I hope May gets healthy and gets his career on track.  He should be a good pro.
Brendan Haywood Off to a pretty good start - averaging 12 and 9 - though his timing on offense appears off as he returns from a wrist injury that kept him out of 79 games last year. Physically looks great, trim and agile.
Jawad Williams Has only played 2 minutes of mop-up time in one game, but hey he's in the NBA!
Rasheed Wallace Happily coming off the bench and playing a lot at crunch time, Ra is averaging 9 points a game. Twenty of his twenty-six shots have been three-pointers.
Raymond Felton Continues to struggle with his shot for the 1-2 Bobcats. Averaging 14 points (39% shooting) and 5 assists in 28 minutes a game. I still can't figure out why Ray has not become Chris Paul.
Marvin Williams Is third option on a young and dynamic Hawks team.   Averaging 12 points though 2 games.
Vince Carter The Magic are 2-0 with Carter, but Vince only played 15 minutes in their second game due to a sprained ankle (and did not play today versus the Raptors).  Carter is averaging 15.5 points a game on 55% shooting in two games.


Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Brandan Wright and Antawn Jamison have yet to play this season due to injuries, and both Jerry Stackhouse and Rashad McCants have yet to sign with a team.  For a while rumors circulated that McCants would join Aris Thessaloniki (in my dad's hometown) in a Carolina-Hellenic Blue blog-driven move.


Completely Random

• What ever happened to Jurassic 5?  'Day at the Races' came on my iPod the other day, a song that hinted at their promise.  Maybe I missed something, but what happened to the group who rapped 'you're out of your league like Jordan was with baseball' and featured the 'verbal Herman Munster' as one of their members?
• Lots of comments on our Halloween 2009 iPod mix for our party last night. Most often asked question "Are we listening to ABC?"  With Halloween as the obvious theme the mix featured "Poison Arrow" - due to the word poison - "Back from the Dead" by Spinal Tap, the "Buttercup" theme from the Power Puff Girls soundtrack, and more cliched songs like "Thriller," "Dead Man's Party" and "Everyday is Halloween." 
• Sorry for some of the font problems with this page.  The software was upgraded and I have yet to find my comfort zone.