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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE DAILY DEBATE
Who's the best team in the NBA?
By Griffin Hughes
@GriffinJHughes
TORONTO
In the NBA, one can never tell who the best team really is until two and a half weeks after the All-Star break. But no matter where we are in the season, there are some things you can see from each team that makes you think, "Yup, this is the best team."
While Golden State seems like the obvious choice considering they score more than any team in the stingy Western Conference and have probably the best backcourt in the NBA in the "Splash Brothers," there is another team from across the northern border that has a lethal combination of power and speed. Not only do they have the athletic and scoring talent, they have defensive strength like few others and a certain fire that only the cold reality of playing second fiddle to every American team can ignite; and they play under a mascot that encapsulates it all.
Raptors.
Yes our friends from Toronto
have the best team in all of the Association because they have all the pieces of not only a championship caliber team, but also the flash and flair of a Globetrotter-esque road show.
Yeah, they have all the basic makings of a championship winning team. They're top of the Eastern Conference in points for and third in points against; they're winning the close games — all one of them that they've had — and they're fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio. They do the little things well: shooting 79 percent from the free throw line and 45 percent from the floor. They play gritty and nasty on the defensive side, holding their opponents to under 1.3 points per shot and just 35 percent from three.
But the stats don't tell the whole story. DeMar DeRozan is a match nightmare to opposing guards. Standing at 6 feet 7 inches and 220 pounds, DeRozan is an absolute beast in the paint and in transition, and he leads the team with nearly 23 points per game. Kyle Lowry is your typical point guard: he's fast and cunning with great vision and an explosive second
step, but he also averages more than four rebounds per game while at the same time leading Toronto in assists.
This is a Raptors team built from flex players and place-fiters. There's no guy or two guys who are consistently expected to get the job done, and whose shoulders the fate of the team rests on. Even DeRozan is allowed to have an off night, as Toronto defeated OKC by 12 in DeRozan's worst game of the season so far this year: He had just 16 points on 4-for-12 shooting.
They're not the flashy stat-sheet fillers we expect from a championship team, but they've clearly taken a more San Antonio-y route to winning a title. They play as five men united as one team on the floor at all times. Yes they have stars and dominant scorers like DeRozan, but the team is built on old school principles: disciplined guards surrounded by fast wings and tough, gritty defense.
This is a team that is built to last, and one that will last all the way through the season.
Edited by Jacob Clemen
GOLDEN STATE
By Sean Collins
@Seanzie
No, it's not the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers or the Oklahoma City Thunder, for now at least. The Golden State Warriors have proven to be more than championship caliber so far this year.
Point guard Stephen Curry is leading the league in scoring after the first three weeks of play, averaging 27.7 points and 7.2 assists per game (eighth in the league). Curry has also been a pest on the defensive end of the ball with 3.5 steals per game.
Curry isn't the only one getting work done on offense so far; his fellow "Splash Brother" Klay Thompson has put up 23.8 points per game, which is seventh in the league. Thompson had a huge game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 1, scoring a career-high 41 points.
Golden State as a team is ranked third in points per game, as well as points allowed, making them not
only the offensive juggernaut they have been the past few years, but also a defensive powerhouse.
Despite suffering their first loss of the season to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, the Warriors began the season with five straight wins, including three against the Western Conference's finest in the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets. The Warriors also won big on the road against the upstart Sacramento Kings 95-77.
The Warriors have the street cleared for them to make a title run. The Spurs have looked shaky in their title defense, holding a 3-3 record, while the Oklahoma City Thunder have been destroyed by injuries to superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, and the Rockets lost small forward Chandler Parsons to the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason.
Although the Rockets have also been off to a hot start with a 6-1 record, they rely too heavily on their stars James Harden and Dwight
Howard, and have little depth off the bench. Houston did gain Trevor Ariza in the offseason, which adds 3-point shooting the spread the floor. If anyone is going to challenge the Warriors thus far, it'll be the Rockets.
For the past five years, teams in the Eastern Conference have looked much weaker than teams in the West. The Cavs have struggled to begin the season, but look to be improving after a herculean effort by LeBron James to record a triple double in Monday's win against the Pelicans. The Chicago Bulls will also be a force in the East due to Derrick Rose's return, and the Miami Heat with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade have looked sharp as well.
However, even within the tough Western Conference, the Warriors have proven to be dominant thus far in the early season, and come springtime, will have a good chance at the Larry O'Brien trophy.
— Edited by Jordan Fox
DAILY DEBATE RESULTS: NOV. 11, 2014 Should fans have rushed the field after this weekend's win?
YES: 47%
VOTE FOR THE WRITER WITH THE MOST CONVINCING ARGUMENT AT KANSAN.COM
NO: 53%
— 32 people polled
Self pleased with play of his backup big men
BLAIR SHEADE
@RealBlairSheady
If you look at the stat sheet, you couldn't pick out the best players on the court Tuesday night against the Emporia State Hornets. Eight players scored in double-digits to close out the exhibition stint of the 2014 season.
Among the eight players who scored in double-figures, five were players who came off the bench. Freshman Cliff Alexander and sophomores Hunter Mickelson and Landen Lucas didn't start, but they scored double-digit points during the 109-56 Kansas win.
Emporia State coach Shaun Vandiver called the Kansas big men "GAMs," or grown ass men, because he thought the frontcourt of Kansas is a strong and physical group of guys.
Kansas started with juniors Perry Ellis and Jamari Traylor, with Ellis finishing with 13 points. All five big men
played more than 12 minutes, which is something coach Bill Self doesn't anticipate during the regular season.
"The guys getting 18 minutes will get more like 10 minutes." Self said. "Perry [Ellis] will get his, though."
Self said he thought Lucas and Mickelson played the best out of the five big men. Lucas scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds during 12 minutes of playing time.
"Landen Luces has improved," Self said. "The thing Landen does better than our other bigs, jamari [Traylor] and Perry [Ellis] have a great feel for the game, but Landen has the best feel for the guys coming off the bench without question. He's smart."
Self said Lucas has improved the most of anyone on the team, and Lucas reminds Self of former Jayhawk forward Jeff Withey.
"He is still just a sophomore," Self said about Lucas's improvements. "Think
about Jeff Withey and what he did. [Withey] never got into the game until he was a junior, and he ended up playing in the league. Landen [Lucas] hasn't gotten to that point, but Landen is on that same uptick."
The other sophomore who fans haven't seen much of is Hunter Mickelson, who had to sit out last season due to transferring from Arkansas in 2012.
Mickelson was the second big man off the bench replacing Lucas. Mickelson scored 10 points during his 14 minutes.
"I thought Hunter [Mickelson] played great," Self said. "I would put Hunter [Mickelson] and Landen [Lucas] in a higher category about what they did to help our team."
Mickelson and Lucas scored 14 second-half points off the bench and were the best players off the bench, Self said. The two sophomores only contributed eight rebounds,
but five of the eight rebounds were offensive rebounds that resulted in 10 points.
Self said he wasn't pleased with how freshman forward Cliff Alexander played, even though Alexander was the second leading scorer on the team with 12 points.
“[Alexander] got off 10 shots in 13 minutes so that may be a record.” Self said sarcastically. “[Alexander] didn't play well enough to score 12 points, in my opinion. He really struggled when he first got in, but then he got comfortable and got a couple easy baskets.”
Self played all 15 guys tonight, and 11 played 10 minutes or more, but that won't be the case once Kansas faces its first Division I opponent — University of California Santa Barbara — on Friday at 7 p.m.
"I still see us playing nine or 10 guys, but we won't play all 11, at least," Self said.
Edited by Kelsey Phillips
GEORGE MULLINIX /KANSAN
Freshman forward Cliff Alexander slams the ball down for a dunk. The highly recruited freshman scored 12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Kansas defeated Emporia State 109-56.
GEORGE MILLINIX/KANSAN ter late in the second half
Devonte' Graham and the rest of the Jayhawks dance after Evan Manning's 3-pointer late in the second half. Kansas defeated Emporia State 109-56 in Allen Field House.