Comments on: 2012 Report Card: Josh Harrellson

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:07:55 +0000

Frank: For some reason, Spoelstra left LBJ out there even when it wasn’t close.

he said at halftime he wasn't coming out, I think even sitting him for those last three minutes wasn't easy.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:10:37 +0000

A performance like that is exactly what that Posnanski article was talking about. He is obviously capable of this pretty much whenever he wants to - question is - does he want to do it enough to reach down like he did last night? From Boston's perspective - Lebron took 26 shots and only 4 of them were at the rim, and they only gave up 9 FTA for a free throw rate of well below his season average (0.34 last night vs 0.43 reg season). You can't ask for much more than that from your defense. It so happened that he shot 15/22 on jump shots last night. I didn't watch much more than 30% of the game or so, but it sure looked like a lot of them were contested.

Brian Cronin: It is kind of a shame, just from a viewer standpoint, that the Celtics couldn’t stay sort of close. Once it was a blowout, Lebron obviously no longer needed to score so he didn’t.

For some reason, Spoelstra left LBJ out there even when it wasn't close. That's another 45 min game for him. You would have thought that Spoelstra learned his lesson from last year, when he averaged 45.2 min/game against Chicago (and 44.6 and 42.4 min/game in the 2 series prior to that) before running out of gas against Dallas. And last year, he only played 15 playoff games before the finals (with more time off between each one). He's averaging 45.5 min/game in this Boston series after averaging 42.2 and 38 min/game in the 2 previous series, and will have played 18 games with that kind of minute load before the Finals even start.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 05:19:00 +0000

It is kind of a shame, just from a viewer standpoint, that the Celtics couldn’t stay sort of close. Once it was a blowout, Lebron obviously no longer needed to score so he didn’t.

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:05:49 +0000

good call, Pete:

Peter Vecsey ?@PeterVecsey1

Not a good sign for Miami that LeBron starts out with a long fadeaway. That’s when he’s at his worst

By: jon abbey

jon abbey — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:02:37 +0000

it pretty much was, he could have easily gone for 50 if he’d needed to. a constant whirlwind on D too, amazing performance and he would have played 48 if it hadn’t been such a blowout.

one game away from LeBron/Durant!

By: thenamestsam

thenamestsam — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:04:16 +0000

We can argue about the difference between an 8th man and a 9th man some other time. Right now I have to say: Good god, Lebron. Love him or hate him, seeing someone go to that place is the best part about watching sports to me. I couldn’t stop giggling. Unreal. Rondo playing amazing too. Wade…quiet so far. He’s going to need to get going because thats not really a maintainable pace for anyone, Lebron included.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:30:41 +0000

I also think at least one of JR and Novak is coming back. I’m not sure JR gets offered much more than the mini-MLE unless it’s with a very bad team with lots of capspace to spend (like NJ). And if it’s a choice between the mini-MLE and basically the same $ amount with the NYK, he’ll stay.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:28:49 +0000

FWIW, basketballvalue.com loves Jorts with their adjusted +/- numbers. And he was seriously awesome with just unadjusted plus/minus too, although I think that mostly is just a reflection on how horrible Amare was for the first half of the season.

http://basketballvalue.com/teamplayers.php?year=2012%20playoffs&team=NYK

By: 2FOR18

2FOR18 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:26:17 +0000

He’ll probably be around their 8th or 9th best player next year.

Lin, Shump, melo, Amare, Chandler

Fields, Jeffries, Jerome Jordan, Jorts

Then what? Their 2nd round pick, Toney Douglas, and whoever they can sign with their exceptions. They better get lucky with their “then whats”, or else it’s going to get ugly when the inevitable injuries that hit every team happen.

By: Kevin McElroy

Kevin McElroy — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:03:19 +0000

Like if your claim is basically “he can be good for 15 minutes a night but you should have 10 or 11 guys who would be even better for 15 minutes a night so that he only has to do it when they are injured,” my response would be “if you can put that roster together, that’s awesome.” But as long as when the situation arises, he can be counted on for 15 effective minutes, you can’t say that he’s a non-rotation player.