I do some writing at a few different places, and this week I have been given the opportunity to look at a few interesting things.  Instead of doing a separate post for each link, I decided to lump them all together.

Over at ESPN.com, there is a new feature called 5-on-5 where TrueHoop Network bloggers are grouped together with ESPN.com writers.  Yesterday, Graydon Gordian, Rahat Huq, Beckley Mason, myself, and David Thorpe looked at some coaching related questions, including who has done the least with least:

Sebastian Pruiti, NBA Playbook: George Karl. No disrespect to the players currently on the Nuggets’ roster, but Carmelo Anthony left the team and we all wondered if they would be able to score enough. Not only have they been able to score, but they are now the most efficient offensive team in the league, and a lot of it has to do with Karl’s offense.

Meanwhile, today at SBNation.com’s NBA page, I took a look at the Triangle, and how the offense creates scoring opportunities in the low post:

When people think of Phil Jackson’s Triangle offense, they think of an offense that is designed to cater to superstar wings (guys like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant), isolating them on the perimeter.  While there are options that lead to isolation sets, the Triangle offense is so much more than that, especially when it comes to the post-up game.  In the Triangle offense, there are a number of different sets/options designed to get the basketball on the block to the Lakers‘ big men.

Finally, over at Basketball Prospectus, Dan Feldman and I looked at the interesting case of DeMar DeRozan, a player who is a strong long two shooter, but very poor when it comes to taking threes:

College stats don’t always project smoothly to the NBA, but DeMar DeRozan‘s three-point shooting has held up.

Unfortunately.

DeRozan, who made just 6-of-36 three-pointers (16.7 percent) in his lone season at USC, has been quietly putting together one of the worst three-point shooting seasons in NBA history. With six games remaining, DeRozan has made just 4-of-41 three-pointers (9.8 percent). Just 10 players have posted worse three-point-shooting seasons (minimum: 30 three-point attempts). Here are the 20 worst three-point shooting-seasons in NBA history:

All of this is very interesting stuff and I hope you take the time to head on over to the links and check them out.  Thanks!

When it was announced that David West would be out for the season about two weeks ago, the obvious replacement was his backup Carl Landry, who was acquired from the Kings earlier in the season.  While Landry is a quality player, the question is can he successfully replace David West, not only in terms of production, but in style of play.

This is because if Landry can’t replace West and what he does, and do it in the same way, the Hornets are going to be forced into switching around what they do on the offensive end.  So the first thing that we need to look at when asking if Carl Landry can replace David West is the possession breakdown.  The following graph shows how both players have been used this season with the Hornets (numbers from Synergy Sports Technology):

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