Hardwood Paroxysm Presents: International Basketball Super-Overreactionizer
This summer was filled with international basketball tournaments and the uneven performances — some fantastic and some lousy — offered us the perfect opportunity for the staff of Hardwood Paroxysm to once again fire up the Super-Overreactionizer. There is no room here for thin positions or flimsy arguments. Only the strongest and most scorching hot takes survive. So here are the irrefutable lessons we’ve learned from a summer of international competition.
Stick a fork in him, Tony Parker is done
by Philip Rossman-Reich (@OMagicDaily) — Hardwood Paroxysm
Tony Parker wanted one last hurrah.
France was hosting Eurobasket, defending its title and preparing to ascend into the top spot in Europe’s basketball pecking order. The Olympics next summer in Brazil likely did not matter. This was it for Tony Parker.
The end came too soon for Parker in just about every way.
He averaged only 11.9 points and 4.3 assists per game through the semifinal loss to Spain, shooting an icy 35.4 percent from the floor. He ceded point guard duties in France’s loss to Spain in the Eurobasket semifinal to Nando de Colo.
NANDO DE COLO!
De Colo made him look plain ordinary. He was the real MVP of France’s team. But the plain fact was that for France to win on their home court and defend their Eurobasket title, Parker needed to be playing at his very best. Instead, it looked like he was playing at half speed.
Why would any player do that with so much on the line and essentially playing his last game for the Fatherland?
No reason. So there can be only one conclusion — Tony Parker as we know him is dead.
Good bye teardrop floater. Good bye silky smooth dribbling. Good bye inconsistent jumper (well, maybe we will not miss that so much). Good bye big three. All that talk about the Spurs waltzing to a NBA title? Yeah, forget that. Without a point guard to lead the team, how can the Spurs possibly even contend in the Western Conference? Are they really going to rely on Patty Mills and Jimmer Fredette to lead this team to a title?
Sure, Parker could still have his moments — he scored 23 points in the opener against Finland and 18 against Latvia, on 5-for-17 shooting. But the days of his championship-level point guard play are over. The Spurs just wasted a lot of money trying to prolong the championship windows for their aging stars when really they should have cashed out and tanked.
Parker’s less-than-stellar performance in Eurobasket only confirms that.
Danilo Gallinari flying to all-star status
By Daniel Lewis (@minutemandan) — Hardwood Paroxysm
Danilo Gallinari and the Italian national team finished sixth in the 2015 Eurobasket tournament, but il Gallo was dominant game in and game out. The 27-year-old small forward put up 17.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists, stats that put him at an elite talent level in the NBA.
How elite, one may ask? In the 3-point era of the NBA, there have only been nine players that have put up the kind of numbers Gallinari did in the tournament. Among those names are Hall of Fame players — Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabber, Charles Barkley, Brad Daugherty, Adrian Dantley, and Bernard King.
This season, now that Gallinari is fully healthy, with the keys to the offense he is primed to join that echelon of players. Michael Malone has promised to install a free-wheeling, Star Wars-numbers kind of offense, with an emphasis on securing defensive rebounds and pushing the ball down the court in transition. For a player like Gallinari, a galloping force of nature in the open court who can knock down 3-pointers, get to the rim, draw contact and finish, he’s going to be putting up numbers that make everyone else look like a truck spinning its tires in mud.
Look at the tape from his game against Turkey. Gallinari was getting to the rim at will, blowing past defenders, faking defenders out of their shoes, When his teammates were missing shots, he used his length to secure offensive rebounds and get easy tip-ins. He was money in the clutch, outshining stars like Dirk Nowitzki possession after possession. In a word, he was dominant.
It’s time for the main piece of the Carmelo Anthony trade to break out in the NBA, and once the season begins the league will see the terror of il Gallo unleashed upon them.
Rudy Gobert gets old-schooled by Pau Gasol
by Donnie Kolakowski (@donniebuckets) — Friendly Bounce
Everyone continues to hype up Rudy Gobert as the next big thing on defense. Against Pau Gasol, Gobert looked less like the Stifle Tower and more like the Leaning Tower of Losa.
Gobert uses his mobility to defend the pick-and-roll well and uses his length to challenge shots. Yet, when someone plays basketball the way big men are meant to play and posts Gobert up, he struggles.
When France met Spain, that someone was Pau Gasol. Perhaps someone forgot to tell Gasol that post play was dead. Gasol, a former disciple of Phil Jackson, worked Gobert every time down the floor. He didn’t need a motion offense or seven screens to get an open shot; he did it simply with his footwork and will to win.
Time and time again, the man many claim to be future DPOY did his best to stop Gasol. And time and time again, Gasol proved to be too much to stop.
Fortunately for Gobert, he won’t see much post play once the NBA begins. Teams will continue to try and copy the Warriors just because Golden State won one title. Everyone will clamor about the “new age” of basketball.
Yet, the new version of sports aren’t always better. Gone are the days that players throw 160 pitches every other day in baseball. So what if the guy’s career was over by the age of 28? At least he gave his team everything he had.
Instead of just assuming shooting threes and running a motion offense is better than dumping it to a player down low with the new rules, maybe we should have teams committed to the latter. Memo to Fred Hoiberg: Scrap all that player movement and those Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler drives to the basket. It’s time to give Gasol four dribbles and see what he can do. Rinse, and repeat.
If the Bulls and other teams do that, Gobert will be exposed for what he is: a product of the age of lost big men. Gobert or go home? I’ll start packing my things.
Too late for Yi Jianlian?
by Derek James (@DerekJamesNBA) — Hardwood Paroxysm
When we last saw Yi Jianlian in the NBA, it was 2012, and he was playing fewer than seven minutes per game for the Dallas Mavericks. By that point, Jianlian was on his way out in the NBA. After somewhat uninspiring performances throughout four previous season, Jianlian’s poor showing in Dallas may have sealed his fate in the NBA.
Yet, could it be possible we gave up on Jianlian — a player pegged to be the next Yao Ming — too soon?
After all, Jianlian is just now turning 28 years old– around the time when big men, especially late bloomers really start to come into their own. Expecting Jianlian to succeed at the highest level of competition is a daunting task for anyone, no less a 20 year old player trying to learn a different style of basketball.
In 2014, with the Guangdong Tigers, Jianlian averaged 22.6 points, and 12.8 rebounds on 54.8 percent shooting. Jianlian followed that up with a 27.2 point and 9.7 rebounds per game 2015 season in which he shot just under 60 percent. And yesterday, Jianlian dropped 20 points and 11 rebounds in China’s victory despite playing with two other seven-footers in the frontcourt.
If Ryan Hollins can get a job still (signing with the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday), then why not give Jianlian a second chance? Jianlian has grown his game, and dominated the international competition in a way he never did before coming to the NBA for the first time.
If you ask me, Yi Jianlian has some unfinished business in the NBA.
Throw Andrew Wiggins in the mix for next generational superstar
by Austin Peters (@apete1993) — Hardwood Paroxysm, Upside and Motor
Wiggins’ rookie year was more than expected for that of a rookie and number one overall pick. He won the rookie of the year award while leading his team in scoring at 16.9 points per game and grabbing 4.6 rebounds per contest. Those aren’t bad numbers for any small forward, let alone a kid in his first year as an NBA player.
This summer, Wiggins more than impressed at the FIBA Americas tournament, an Olympic qualifying event. While Canada didn’t end up getting a berth, Wiggins was an absolute star during the tournament. In 10 games, Wiggins averaged 15.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49.5 percent from the floor and 51.7 percent from three. Those stats won’t overwhelm you, but he was only playing 25 minutes per game and was the subject to some inexplicable benching during the medal rounds. When Wiggins did play, he was an absolute stud; getting in passing lanes, disrupting guys on the ball, and yes, dunking everything.
The part that is most impressive, however, is the fact that he shot 51.7 percent from three on nearly three attempts per game. Last year in Minnesota, he shot 31 percent on just one and a half attempts per game. In a bigger sample size and more attempts per game, he was a better shooter from three. With how athletic he is and how versatile his offensive game is already, adding a three point shot is just downright terrifying if you ask me.
Anthony Davis is obviously the next up and coming young superstar. Why not throw Wiggins in the mix with him? His numbers his rookie year were just about as pedestrian as Davis’ were plus Wiggins got international experience to help grow his game and get more game repetitions. He probably figures to be the lead guy with the Timberwolves this year and will have a better team around him, which will hopefully make things come even easier than they already do.
He should already be a lock to make an All-Defensive team next season with his suffocating defense. Shoot, if his offensive game continues to bloosom the way it is, it isn’t out of the question at all for him to be named to one of the league’s three All-NBA teams, even with how stacked the forward position already is. Based on his play last year and this summer, I’m expecting big things out of Andrew Wiggins.