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Our quick look around the NBA, or what you missed while wondering how you could read a novel in 90 minutes, well, there’s an app for that…

Gerald Green, Phoenix Suns. If all you think Gerald Green can do is dunk, you need to watch the tape from Thursday night. It may have been true a couple years back but against the Thunder Green scored a career high 41 points on 12-of-22 shooting overall, 8-of-13 from three. All night long the Thunder played poor perimeter defense as the Suns got looks, and to their credit they knocked down their jumpers — Phoenix shot 20-of-36 (55.6 percent) beyond 16 feet. Green was sticking with what the stats guys told him to do — 19 of his 22 shots (and all his makes) were either at the rim or threes, no midrange jumpers for him.

Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs. Like his team was all night, Duncan was an efficient assassin against the Heat — 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, plus he pulled down 11 boards. This game was classic Spurs, where following the Gregg Popovich mantra their ball movement led to the one extra pass and great not good shots. Duncan was consistent all game — Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, other guys made some plays at points during the game, but Duncan was just a consistent force. A rock in the middle. One the Heat could not contain.

Los Angeles Lakers defense. That. Was. Ugly. The Clippers undoubtedly have a good offense but this looked like they were playing a high school defensive team — and not a good high school team like Mater Dei (in Orange County). I mean one of those high school teams where the tallest guy is 6’3”. The Clippers simply did whatever they wanted on their way to a true shooting percentage of 63 and an offensive rating of 123.8 (points per 100 possessions). Worst news for the Lakers? They now face the toughest back-to-back in the NBA having to fly to Denver to play the Nuggets Friday night at altitude.

Tags: Boris Diaw, Gerald Green, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker

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We’ve told you before that current Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl is looking for more investors to come in, to help keep the team in Milwaukee. It’s a few years out until their lease is up (2017) but a new arena is needed there, even Commissioner Adam Silver has said as much. That leaves other cities and people looking to buy a team and move it (yes, maybe Seattle) lurking in the wings).

Among the people Kohl reached out to is former Buck player and successful entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman.

This according to the Journal-Sentinel, via Bucksketball.

A source with knowledge of Herb Kohl’s efforts to bring in new investors to the Milwaukee Bucks as a way of keeping the team in Milwaukee, said Bridgeman, one of the wealthiest African-Americans in the country, has been approached about investing in the team, and he expressed interest.

Kohl has retained Allen & Co., of New York, to locate potential investors. Bridgeman would seem to be an ideal candidate for the Bucks. He knows the game. He played in Milwaukee. And he is a successful businessman.

Bridgeman played a dozen years in the NBA and 10 of those were in Milwaukee. He still holds the record for most games played by anyone in a Bucks uniform (711).

After his playing days Bridgeman got into fast food franchising and now owns 160 Wendy’s, more than 100 Chili’s and an assortment of other restaurants. Forbes estimated his net worth at north of $200 million.

Bridgeman is currently a minority investor in the new Sacramento Kings ownership group, if he were to buy into the Bucks he’d have to sell that share. Not hard or a big deal, but a hurdle.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does not have any role with the Bucks — but he would like one. In some capacity, not necessarily just as an investor.

That’s what he told the Associated Press.

“If I get a call, I will definitely offer my services,” said Abdul-Jabbar, the franchise’s career leading scorer with 14,211 points. “There’s nothing on the table right now. A couple of people have asked me and if I had the chance to be part of this franchise again, I would take it….

“They have to get their business model right,” Abdul-Jabbar said Monday. “I hope that the Bucks are able to sort it all out and get on a good footing. You can’t win it all unless you get the right players and you can’t get the right players unless you’re really in a good position as a business.”

We’ll see if that call comes for Kareem. His years of being aloof and unresponsive to fans and people around the league have kept him out of coaching jobs and more — people don’t go out of their way to help people who are not nice to them. But maybe the Bucks — the franchise he carried to its one and only title — would be a place to get his foot back in the door.

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Confidence was never Allen Iverson’s issue.

The guy who might be the first you think of when you think of Philadelphia 76ers basketball (that Dr. J guy was pretty good, too) will have his number retired by the organization on Saturday night. It’s the hottest ticket in Philly.

Talking Iverson, Bryant Gumbal and HBO Sports went to the coach that got the most out of him — Larry Brown. Who is having a very strong season as the coach of SMU.

What followed was Larry Brown describing vintage Iverson (credit Ben Golliver at SI’s The Point Forward for the transcription):

Bryant Gumbel: “When’s the last time you talked to him?”

Larry Brown: “He was here about a month ago. He spoke to our team, Bryant, and it was the most unbelievable talk I’ve ever heard. Our kids were spellbound. And he was so open and honest with ‘em. He talked about the good things he did and the things he’d like to change, which weren’t a lot. But the one thing that stuck out in my mind, one of the kids said, ‘Who’s the best player to ever play?’ Who do you think he said?”

Bryant Gumbel: “Himself.”

Larry Brown: “Allen Iverson. And he said, ‘I’m not disrespecting Michael [Jordan] or Magic [Johnson] or Julius Erving or any of those guys.’ He said, ‘I couldn’t have done what I did at my size if I didn’t feel that way.’”

Long live Allen Iverson.

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“DNP — Hotel Elevator.”

It might have been the best line ever on an official scorecard (even better than Gregg Popovich’s legendary sitting of Tim Duncan with “DNP — old”). New Orleans’ guard Tyreke Evans almost missed the start of his team’s game Friday night in Phoenix because he was stuck in a hotel elevator. That buzz had started on twitter with reports from the arena, then coach Monty Williams confirmed the rumor saying Evans was in the elevator still when he spoke to the media more than an hour before the game. Then Evans posted this on Instagram:

Yup. That is stuck.

Eventually he was freed and got to the arena in time to start and score 14 points in the Pelicans loss to the Suns. It’s good that he didn’t miss the game for this, I guess. Still would have loved to see that DNP on the scoresheet.

Tags: New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tyreke Evans

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BOSTON – Stan Van Gundy appeared as part of the basketball analytics panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Friday, and while he isn’t opposed to coaches integrating advanced statistical data into their day-to-day operations, he was concerned about the particulars of how the data is acquired, and who, exactly, is responsible for sorting it all out.

Van Gundy posed legitimate questions that would theoretically need to be addressed before the basketball purists at the NBA level take the data as gospel, and making sure that whoever is identifying certain play types and quantifying them knows basketball, and is doing that job to the specifications of a particular head coach.

“I don’t trust most of it,” Van Gundy said, beginning an exquisite rant on the topic. “I read some of the stuff that people write on ESPN.com, you know, I’ll read stats on pick and roll defense and stuff that came off Synergy or somewhere else — I don’t know who the hell is recording that information!”

“I read a thing in the playoffs last year that said that New York isolated like 17 percent of the time,” he continued. “I’m watching their games, they isolate half of the time, at least. So I don’t know who’s recording that. If there’s a pick and roll, and they throw it back to Carmelo and he holds the ball and isolates for eight seconds, that’s a pick and roll play, not an isolation? And a lot of pick and roll stuff … you know, I read a thing today from ESPN the Magazine on Paul George being the best pick and roll defender in the league on the ball handler. Look, a lot of pick and rolls … there’s pick and rolls designed to score, and there’s pick and rolls you run to get into something else. If you’re recording it and you’re treating those two things the same, then you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Van Gundy really does like the additional available data — he just needs to be able to trust that whoever is compiling it has the same standards basketball-wise that he does. Ironically enough, I overheard a statistician type at one of the panel discussions explaining to a colleague that of course he watches games — but only to enhance his data set.

“I mean, I do watch the games,” this person said, “to to try to pick up on some things that maybe my numbers aren’t catching.”

This is obviously completely backwards, and as far as Van Gundy is concerned, there’s simply no substitution for the eye test.

“To me, I think that a lot of the analytic stuff can be very useful, but if you’re using that in place of sitting down and watching film yourself and seeing what’s going on, you’re making a big mistake,” Van Gundy said. “And I don’t want to offend anybody, but I think one of the problems with analytics — I think it’s good; I used it, I love looking at it — but one of the problems is, there are a lot of people in a lot of organizations who don’t know the game, who all they know is analytics and as a result, that’s what they rely on. And they will use that to supersede what guys like us see with our eyes. And I think that’s a major mistake. There’s no substitute for watching film over and over and over again, and the only numbers I trust are the ones that my people believe.”

Van Gundy isn’t alone in his hesitance, and it will take some time before everyone trusts the way that the bulk of the data is quantified and labeled for mass consumption.

Tags: Indiana Pacers, Paul George

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That was the reaction the last time Dwight Howard returned to Orlando. Turn down your speakers. The boos are loud.

And for good reason.

Howard made his split with the Magic extremely messy.

I have nothing against Howard leaving Orlando, but I’m also not a Magic fan. Part of the fan game is getting illogically mad about someone changing employers.

The game is up, though, apparently.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:

As a part of their ongoing 25th-anniversary celebration, the Magic will air a video tribute to Howard on Amway Center’s scoreboard during a first-quarter timeout.

The Magic have shown similar video tributes this season for former players and coaches who were visiting with their current teams. In most cases, Orlando’s typically disengaged fans have greeted the returnees with little more than polite applause.

Announcement: Pro Basketball Talk’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $120,000 Fantasy Basketball league for Wednesday night’s games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $13,000. Starts at 7pm ET on Wednesday. Here’s the FanDuel link.

In time, the Magic should welcome back Howard. He spent eight years in Orlando, making six All-Star teams and leading the Magic to an NBA Finals. He is, considering both his longevity and success there, the best player in Magic history.

But this is too soon. He left on too bad of terms. Wounds are too fresh.

The Magic’s best course would have been ignoring Howard until it’s OK to celebrate him again, and that would have taken a few more years. But they backed themselves into a corner with their 25th-anniversary tributes. Don’t give him a video, and it’s noteworthy. Give him a video, and it’s noteworthy.

I don’t know what they should have done.

But I know what I would do if I were a Magic fan at that game: Boo as loudly as I could for every moment that video plays.

He might even appreciate it.

Tags: Dwight Howard, Houston Rockets

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