Today's hot reads:
- Kevin Broom responds to Rook's response about his article about Nick Young, and comes away even more convinced that investing too much in Young is a mistake. I actually agree with his conclusion and with his characterization of Young's long-term role with a good team (though I'd elevate it to sixth man, semantically). The one thing I will say is that I don't buy his defense argument. Broom is right that adjusted plus/minus can be really flukey and only tells us that he's better than his terrible-defending teammates, but fails to consider that Young also shares the court with many of those guys too, which hurts his counterpart numbers. Otherwise, though, I'm on his side in this debate. Anything up to the mid-level is fine, but anything more is a bad idea. I'm hoping the hard cap will bring his price down to that level or lower and we can all be happy anyway. [Kevin Broom]
- Speaking of Young, Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated (who needs to become a weekly bookmark if you care about this league - he's fantastic and thorough) discusses restricted free agents. He puts Young in his "stock up" category and Al Thornton and Yi Jianlian in his "stock down" category. [The Point Forward]
- Young is also okay after being hurt at practice yesterday, and he'll play tomorrow. Yi will not. [Wizards Insider]
- Ted Leonsis proclaims the importance of using the D-League, which is music to my ears. He writes that he is "hopeful" the D-League can be used to " become an essential part of the overall program of success and excellence for our NBA team." Here's hoping this is a first step toward eventually having our own affiliate. [Ted's Take]
- Leonsis was responding to this article by Michael Lee about Hamady Ndiaye's D-League experience. [Washington Post]
- Old, but here's David Aldridge's article on Gilbert Arenas' snooze-worthy return to the district. [TBD]
- JaVale McGee gave away pretty much nothing in his first NBA.com Slam Dunk Contest video. That stands in contrast to what Blake Griffin and Serge Ibaka have done so far (though there are likely more JaVale videos to come). [SB Nation D.C.]
- Some argument that McGee's missed dunk in Sacramento got him into the Dunk Contest. Sorry, not buying that one. [The Good Point]
- The Cavaliers lost their 25th in a row last night, setting a new NBA record. Poor Antawn Jamison. [Art Garcia]
- Speaking of the Cavaliers, this advertisement on the scoreboard is pretty fitting. [My Tumblr]