21. John Hollinger has been my favorite basketball writer for years. He's not new; just new to ESPN. You can see an archive of his articles. from earlier this season on the CNNSI site where he used to work. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/john_hollinger/archive/index.html I wouldn't call him the Bill James or even the Rob Neyer of basketball writing, but he does work in those statistically-inspired fields, and once others pick up on his techniques the SABRmetric revolution in basketball writing will be huge. basketball isn't as perfect for individual stat analysis as baseball, but it's much easier to pick individual player performances out of the team than it is in football. The vast majority of basketball writers are still toiling away in the dark ages of teamwork and effort and heart and PPG, rather than moving into the enlightenment of logical statistical analysis. Hollinger used to run his own site at www.alleyoop.com and had a lot of original writing and stats there as well, but it seems to be offline now. He used to also

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Flux

22. Also, ESPN insider has a lot of really good stuff. I enjoy every Rob Neyer and John Hollinger column, and lots of the inside NFL and NBA info is great also. I wouldn't go so far as to pay for it, but that's what bugmenot.com and other such sites are for.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Flux

23. Also, Cuban's interest was no-doubt peaked by Hollinger's recent column (not the one linked to from this post) in which Hollinger gave Cuban most of the credit for the increased scoring and tempo of the game today. His thesis was that after years of tweaking with the defensive rules inside, to let more post play happen, the NBA finally listened to Cuban, who had been advocating officiating that would allow much less contact outside the paint and on the perimeter. Now that the refs are whistling hand checking and such all over the place, fast players (like say Steve Nash) are able to drive and penetrate and create much more and much quicker offense. The irony, as Hollinger pointed out in his column, is that Cuban let go the best player in the league for that style of play, while adding an old fashioned center who is much less useful in the new, faster-paced game. And that the 2003 Mavericks were much better-suited for 2004-2005 than this year's team. I'm sure Cuban would argue that point, but you know he loved to see himself praised in the column, and that surely got his attention about Hollinger's writing.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Flux

24. Also, Cuban's interest was no-doubt peaked by Hollinger's recent column (not the one linked to from this post) in which Hollinger gave Cuban most of the credit for the increased scoring and tempo of the game today. His thesis was that after years of tweaking with the defensive rules inside, to let more post play happen, the NBA finally listened to Cuban, who had been advocating officiating that would allow much less contact outside the paint and on the perimeter. Now that the refs are whistling hand checking and such all over the place, fast players (like say Steve Nash) are able to drive and penetrate and create much more and much quicker offense. The irony, as Hollinger pointed out in his column, is that Cuban let go the best player in the league for that style of play, while adding an old fashioned center who is much less useful in the new, faster-paced game. And that the 2003 Mavericks were much better-suited for 2004-2005 than this year's team. I'm sure Cuban would argue that point, but you know he loved to see himself praised in the column, and that surely got his attention about Hollinger's writing.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Flux

25. I thought your favorite was going to be Junior Miller. Then again, after he schools you every time you are on his show, I can see where it would get old.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by dan dipras

26. http://tinyurl.com/5uzn7 Mark , comments on the mavs by Bill Simmons. I am guessing he is the most read sportswriter in the country. Do you have anything to say for/against what he's saying here ??

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Shyam

27. Simmons isn't that great. Here's an excerpt from today's posting about Jason Terry: "And Terry has always been one of those hybrid guards like Chauncey Billups, someone who was never totally invested in getting his teammates the ball. These are the guys you want running your offense in May and June? Really?" He's questioning the ability of Chauncy Billups' play in playoff situations...the same Chauncy Billups who is the reigning NBA Finals MVP.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Justin

28. Bravo! Somebody has something nice to say about Mark...Even Galloway. Now when is this NBA championship suppose to happen?

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by T.P.

29. Hollinger also writes for www.nysun.com.... he had a good article on the Mavs improved D a while back

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Jon

30. I don't think Simmons's comments on Billups are discredited by Billups's MVP. Name anyone who played pointguard against the Lakers and didn't look like a genius. Examples: Remember when Bibby was the next superstar, after his performance in the western finals? Did you see Parker in games 1 and 2 last year (before they switched Kobe to guarding him)? When Cassel was able to walk he was able to score at will. No knock against Billups, but the fact that he got MVP of the finals has everything to do with the fact that the Lakers' point guards couldn't guard anyone, and haven't been able to for years.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Noah

31. Now all we need is a football sport writer to jump on this ship. Mark can't you buy a football team, I like your style but do not like basketball. Of course the team would have to be outside Dallas because we know Jerry Jones ain't selling ;) Derrick

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by DerrickP

32. of course this was the nicest thing I've heard about the mavs all year: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neel/050302

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by nathan holman

33. Question: March Madness is coming up SOON. I was wondering if there is an RSS feed that gives sports scores? I want to be able to look down and see the scores scroll by like an RSS feed. If a game looks interesting I can click on it and check it out. Unless I take the March Madness holiday off I will be at work for the first couple of rounds with no access to the games other than the net. Streaming video is blocked at my work site. What are my options?

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Aquariuz

34. Last night's game against the Lakers was SO BOGUS. I know we had a lot more free throws than them, but those refs were horrible. I've never seen home court advantage like that ever before. Kobe was getting nicked and he would get calls, but whenever Dirk or Marquis or Stack took it in, they wouldn't call it unless they were completely knocked off their shot in the 2nd half. What the hell were those refs thinking? Could it have been more obvious that they were favoring the Lakers? And could someone please shut Bill Walton up? I mean are you really supposed to blatantly favor one team on national telecast like he did?

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by David

35. Re: Not resigning Nash. Though Hollinger may have pointed out that Mr. Cuban's push for rule changes is what has allowed the Suns to flourish with Nash at the controls, he also backed the decision not to resign Nash. As good as Nash looks now, it's highly likely that the Suns will not receive a good return on investment on the back end of the deal. I'm not sure if the Mavs will get to the conference final this year, but I do think the team is better tooled to contend for the next few years.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Mike Bennett

36. Re. Mike Bennett's post just above... Good God, you might be damn near the first person I've seen who has a head on his shoulders. The Mavericks tried to re-sign Nash with a high value deal, and he took significantly more money to go to Phoenix. The Mavericks could have matched, but it would not have been remotely prudent to do so. Nash is an excellent offensive point guard (which we obviously knew), but he's not durable in the short or the long term. As Mike just said, Phoenix will eventually be criticized for his deal--just watch. Nash has already missed significant time this year due to minor/nagging injuries. It will only get worse with time. I love the guy as a player, but people need to wake up and understand that there's more to consider than the immediate present. The Mavericks went in another direction with a solid plan to win now AND in the future.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Matt

37. I think I'm just gona stick with playing concrete football on the concrete, and street hockey in the street, until I get hit with a car again. I hope you all are having a nice weekend, and not doing what I wouldn't do, whatever that means. Great Blog, Mark!

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Rockchild

38. I agree with Mark. I think John is new to espn.com and I really look forward to reading each of his articles. Really interesting stuff that actually ususes stats to back up what he is saying. Good times.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Brian

39. Hollinger is excellent -- his columns have real depth. Mark Stein is good also, but Hollinger's approach is very data-driven, and he looks at things from new angles. Thanks, Mark.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Scott B

40. I love reading Hollinger. Quite the intuitive thinker. I loved it even more when he wrote for SI.com and I didn't have to pay to read him. Now, I get to read the first two paragraphs of everything he reads. Thanks, Insider.

Posted at 11:02AM on Aug 28th 2006 by Luke Middleton