bukie

If a 48-year-old guy who hasn't played much competitively in 10 years can toss on some practice gear and own the court, does it say more that he's still got it or that Charlotte isn't very good?

From what I've been able to piece together from reporters via twitter (mostly ESPN's Marc Stein and Jazz reporter Brian Smith): - Williams and Sloan have been in shouting matches at least 3 times this season, mostly with Williams frustrated that Sloan would never adapt his offensive system to the personnel the Jazz had, or ever try to push the tempo. - During last night's game in the second quarter, coming out of a timeout, Williams ran a completely different play than Sloan called. This obviously pissed off Sloan. - At halftime, Sloan blew up at Williams and the GM told him to knock it off. Right there, Sloan said he was done with the team. - After the game, Sloan and the GM discussed things for 30 minutes before Sloan did the postgame press conference. At the conference, Sloan was notably shaken and mentioned there'd be an announcement the next day.

Some interesting stuff on a Utah beat reporter's twitter about a Sloan-Williams fallout: http://twitter.com/#!/tribjazz

Strange to think that in a four-month span, the longest tenured MLB, NFL and NBA coaches are all out. Watch out, Lindy Ruff.

Today, Hollinger proposes a 3-team trade that would net the Bulls OJ Mayo, Travis Outlaw, Greivis Vasquez and a protected NJ pick for Bogans, Korver, CJ Watson and James Johnson. I like Korver, but I don't think the Bulls would even have to think about doing that (well, maybe think for a bit about Outlaw's contract).

So, Jerry Sloan resigned...that was unexpected.

Or Rondo, for that matter. No idea why they aren't listed, but I'd have to imagine it was at least somewhat voluntary on their part. A skills competition with CP3, Deron, Rose, Westbrook and Parker/Rondo/Wall would have been the best watch of the weekend, though.

The All-Star weekend is already in LA, so the list comprises everyone who will already be in LA.

Vote for the 4 guys you want to see against CP3 in the skills competition: http://www.nba.com/chooseyoursquad/ The candidates are: Baron Davis, Tyreke Evans, Derek Fisher, Tony Parker, Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Russell Westbrook. I'd like to see Fisher or Davis against CP3 just for comedic value, but I think the four best choices out of there are Rose, Westbrook, Parker and Curry.

This changed a few years back. Basically division winners are guaranteed top 4, but it there is a non-division winner with a better record than one of the division winners, they go to the three. So if Atlanta or Orlando finished with a better record than the Bulls, they'd be the 3. To add, also if the 5 seed ends up with a better record than the 4 seed, the 5 seed gets home court advantage. The Bulls had that against Miami a few years back. (which, to me, is stupid. Just make them the 4 seed, then, it makes no difference). So if the Bulls finish with a worse record than both Orlando and Atlanta, they wouldn't have home court advantage in the first round.

One more note, that was the last game the Bulls will play more than 5 miles west of the Mississippi River, since their only West road games remaining are New Orleans and Minnesota.

Also, with tonight's win, the Bulls have now defeated every West team except New Orleans and San Antonio. They've defeated every East team except Charlotte, New York and Atlanta.

Orlando can still jump up to the 3 spot if the Bulls falter a bit, but 4 games is a lot to make up in a 30-game stretch. So is 3 games on 2 teams, which to me says the Bulls are pretty much going to be the 3 seed barring a total collapse by one of the top 4 (and no, Atlanta is not one of those). Getting the 3 seed would likely match the Bulls up against either NY or Philly in the first round.

That's not going to happen. Atlanta's schedule is murderous in the last two months.

oh lord, hit me with some pictures or something, that sounds off the charts http://www.royalbaconsociety.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bacon-wrapped-chicken.jpg Recipe later, once I find it. UPDATE: These were a huge hit and pretty much are the best things I've ever made. UPDATE: I ate too many of these/drank way too many cocktails and don't feel well at all. Or maybe it's the game result. Combination of the three, maybe.

His defense has actually been steadily improving the past 5-6 years (last playoffs notwithstanding, where he was just awful). The scheme helps, obviously, but he's not as bad as he's reputed to be. Korver, either. Bogans is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Time-killing Friday afternoon post...how good are these Bulls defensively? So, in the NBA defensive world, there are two mainstream metrics to measure defensive effectiveness: Defensive Rating and Defensive Win Shares. Here are the top 10 NBA players in Defensive Rating: 1. Garnett, BOS: 93.9 2. Howard, ORL: 95.3 3. Noah, CHI: 95.7 4. Gibson, CHI: 96.6 5. Boozer, CHI: 97.2 6. Bogut, MIL: 97.7 7. Brewer, CHI: 97.9 8. Blair, SAS: 98.7 9. Camby, POR: 98.8 10. Duncan, SAS: 99.2 And here are the top 10 NBA players in Defensive Win Shares: 1. Howard, ORL: 4.3 2. Paul, NOH: 3.5 3. Smith, ATL: 3.3 4. James, MIA: 3.2 5. Garnett, BOS: 3.1 6. Ariza, NOH: 3.1 7. Deng, CHI: 3.1 8. Okafor, NOH: 3.0 9. Bogut, MIL: 3.0 10. Rose, CHI: 3.0 Two additional notes: - Keith Bogans has the worst defensive rating of any Bulls player, and fewer DWS than everyone but CJ Watson. - Kyle Korver is equal with Rose and Deng in Defensive Rating, just outside the top 25 (I can't find stats anywhere that list more than that) at 102. The only team that has a defensive rating better than 102 (other than the Bulls) is Boston. EDIT: Did it myself. Deng is 25th in DR, Korver 28th, Rose 30th. Bogans is 34th, lowest on the team, but still 34th in the league (Assume every team runs an average of an 8-man regular rotation, that makes 240 players qualified in the league).

Yeah, 1991. Thought they were there more recent than SF.

Yeah, if you go back to 1994, only Minnesota and Detroit haven't made it.

How did Love get left off? Oh because Tim Duncan was put on the team. Laughable. Love will get selected as a replacement for Yao (Duncan will start).

Pretty obvious Pierce, Garnett, Rondo, Bosh, Horford and Smith would get picked. Allen was kind of up in the air, but probably the best backup SG in the East at this point.

They don't need to read my explanation, they just need to see the video and have a basic knowledge of NBA rules. It was a bad call and shouldn't have been a foul. Do you agree that there are multiple rebound opportunities every game where players have more blatant pushoffs or go over the back more than that play and are not called? I think it's an easy call to make, and there was no reason for Boozer to have his hand on the other player's back, and keep it there during the rebound jump. If he goes up with two hands there, it doesn't get called. I also think a large part of why fans thought it was a terrible call was the reaction by Stacey King and Neil Funk, and Funk probably thought one of the players was Tyson Chandler.

Even if it doesn't look as if he pushed off, he still has an obvious hand on the opponent's back, and extends his arm when he jumps backwards for the rebound. There's no reason for Boozer not to go up with both hands there.

http://phillysportscentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/desean-jackson1-e12801697709841.jpg Heh, I take it you don't know raw's real name. Or that he's really DeSean Jackson.

Also, the Bulls have now beaten every Western team except San Antonio, New Orleans and Utah. They haven't played New Orleans and Utah yet, though.