Introduction

Hello!  Welcome to my brand new blog, 'Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?'.  This blog is going to be about basketball; in particular, I will focus on the NBA.  I plan to discuss the entire league on here and not focus on one particular team; that said, there are often a select number of teams that are more interesting in the NBA than other teams, so there might be a focus on certain teams in that case.

I have been a basketball fan for most of my life, but especially got into the NBA more during the 2016-17 season.  I am a big Celtics fan and try to watch every game they play; that said, I consider myself realistic and tend not to overreact to every little move the team makes.  I love watching basketball games and watching different things that players do.  Some of my favorite current players include Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Damian Lillard, Rudy Gobert, Klay Thompson, Nikola Jokic, and Bam Adebayo.  My favorite player of all time is John Stockton.  I have also been a big fan of the NBA draft for the last few years; the offseason and trade deadline are two others that I watch with bated breath.  I decided to start this blog because I love talking about basketball with others.  While I have a music podcast (Groupie and Harmony) and blog (Feeling Groupie), I decided I would prefer to do just a blog for basketball for two reasons:  I find it easier to look at different statistics and I find it easier in my spare time to sit down and write than to sit down and talk.

In this blog, I will discuss a variety of topics.  I love analyzing the draft, free agency moves, and trades, so I will do a lot of that.  Since I love speculating, I will make various predictions regarding awards, All-Star games, All-NBA teams, standings, and playoff series.  I will likely discuss how various players are playing during the season (I might be biased towards whoever is on my fantasy basketball teams because I pay more attention to those players).  Speaking of fantasy basketball, I might do some segments regarding which fantasy players to keep an eye on.  Probably the most frequently discussed topic any given year is why certain teams are playing well or struggling; I will absolutely have posts dedicated to this.

I would also like to discuss is how I look at the game of basketball since this seems to be controversial nowadays.  While I agree that the 3-point shot makes a lot of sense for players to take in many situations, I think it is ignorant to claim it is always better to take a three-pointer than a deep two.  First, it always depends on the defensive coverage:  an open three is definitely better than a contested deep two, but I'll take the open two over the contested three.  If both shots are open, it depends on the player:  if it's a guy like Kevin Durant, he'll make either so he might as well take the three, but a guy like DeMar DeRozan is much better at midrange shots, so I'd rather him take the deep two.  While many think threes are always better than twos, I think it's better to look at a common statistic found in statistics classes called expected value; in this case, it could be the equivalence of points per shot.  There were a couple seasons where DeRozan's expected value on two-pointers was higher than his expected value on three-pointers; in other words, he averaged more points per two-point attempt than he did for each three-point attempt.  That said, he also is excellent at choosing his spots; the same cannot be said for a player like Andrew Wiggins, who has been known to pass up open three-pointers to take contested midrange shots.  For Wiggins case, I think he is a critical lesson in the importance of shot selection.  As for advance statistics, I like looking at them with the realization that it is important to remember they only show part of the story.  For example, I think +/- is a good metric in general to show the impact a player has on their team while on the court, but this number can be skewed by various factors, including who's on the court (prime example was in Luc Mbah a Moute's record setting performance).  Additionally, I think the advance defensive stats can be useful, but can be skewed depending on who is playing.  For instance, Ray Allen had a decent year defensively in 2007-08, but he was never known as a quality defender.  I think it's important to remember he suddenly had strong defensive teammates in Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins before we assume he suddenly got better at defense after turning 32.  In general, I don't believe anything in basketball is black-and-white and most depends on situation, availability, and opportunity.

Lastly, I would love to be able to discuss what I blog with all of you, so I highly encourage comments.  My favorite part about discussing basketball is talking about opinions, especially when they differ.  I encourage you to comment any opinions, questions, or disagreements you have with anything I say in my posts.  This is another reason I am glad I have chosen to do a blog instead of a podcast, as I find it easier to make it interactive in this medium.

I look forward to discussing everything on my mind with basketball and to hear what you have to say as well!  I hope you enjoy!