Fansided

The Weekside: How Aldridge, George and Love will be defined by adjustments

By Jared Wade

Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) looks on during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) looks on during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /
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Words With Friends

This week’s five must-read articles about the NBA. Excerpts here — click through to read the full piece.

1. Dear Pope Francis, Anything for the Knicks Faithful?
by Dan Barry, New York Times

"Of all the New York City locations considered for Friday evening’s papal Mass, the final choice is divine. No place in this metropolis is more in need of healing and forgiveness — of some kind of grace — than a Midtown coliseum that dare calls itself a garden. In Scripture, a garden is not always a fortuitous setting. There was Eden, and Gethsemane, and now this: Madison Square Garden — a place of some joy and frequent suffering that sits improbably on top of Penn Station, a place of no joy and perpetual suffering. Welcome, Pope Francis. And pray for us."

2. Happy and Healthy: Chris Bosh values life after near-death experience
by Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated

"Chris Bosh spent the worst week of his life lying in a bed at Baptist Hospital in Miami, listening to the slow drip of fluid leaking from his lungs and wondering if he’d ever be able to play basketball again. “Not be able to play, not be able to live,” Bosh says. “It was that close. It was that serious.” He lifts his T-shirt to reveal matching scars on his left side, where two tubes entered his body and ran up through his chest, sucking fluid from the pleural space surrounding his lungs. “I don’t need any drugs,” he mutters, parroting his initial message to the doctors. Then he tilts his head back and howls when he recalls the tubes jabbing at his insides. “Oh, God, no, give me the drugs right now!”"

3. Will Byron Scott’s Actions Match His Words?
by Darius Soriano, Forum Blue & Gold

"If there’s one word Byron Scott has never really been associated with, it’s flexible. In fact, the perception of him has been quite the opposite. This is the guy who, over the course of his coaching career, has sat promising young players in favor of veterans who were either not as good or not part of any long term plan. He’s gone on record downplaying the importance of three point shots and said he had no use for analytics. Instead of flexible, he’s sounded more like a coach so stuck in his ways that the league had, seemingly, passed him by. This summer, though, Byron has changed his tune. He has not necessarily done a complete 180 on all his established stances, but he’s come close."

4. What are Tristan Thompson’s services worth to the Cleveland Cavaliers?
by Rob Mahoney, Sports Illustrated

"So much has to go right for a team to win a championship and every player like Thompson—who can slide in to fill multiple positions, defend in a way that others on the team can’t, and shape games with his energy—helps to adjust the odds slightly in his team’s favor. Should he get his $94 million, Thompson would be overpaid by any reliable, objective metric. A max player he is not. His worth to the Cavs, however, would be implicitly stated on that scale for fear of what losing him could mean. Basketball value, while absolute in concept, blurs to the haze of circumstance."

5. The top 5 NBA coaches who aren’t in the Hall of Fame
by Dan Devine, Ball Don’t Lie

"In 11 full seasons on the bench for the Rockets, [Rudy] Tomjanovich rolled up a 487-383 regular-season record (.560 winning percentage), made seven trips to the postseason and, led by the great Hakeem Olajuwon, won back-to-back NBA championships in the 1993-’94 and ’94-’95 season. He also owns a bronze medal with the U.S. men’s national team from the 1998 FIBA World Championship — remember, that Team USA featured no NBA players due to the lockout to go with a gold from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. … We’re left, then, to wonder whether two titles, a gold medal, a bronze medal and status as one of the best and most respected coaches of a decade constitutes enough of a Hall case. Thus far, it hasn’t; maybe it should."

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