Gilbertology

Gilbert Arenas seems to be getting close to returning to the Wizards lineup. Sara maintains that you can tell by his off-kilter play during those few games at the start of the season that Gilbert was psychologically shattered by the initial injury and is never going to be the same player again. I've never heard her use the term "swag" in regard to this theory, but to students of Gilbertology I think the relevance should be clear.

I'm not, however, really sure I buy it. What's more, Gilbert wouldn't need to be all that good for reallocating minutes away from the likes of DeShawn Stevenson and Roger Mason, Jr. to constitute a net improvement for the team. The real issue is that the Wizards have survived Gilbert's loss by becoming a much better team defensively. I'm not sure exactly what caused that (defense is, as ever, under-analyzed and under-discussed so I have no real idea what could cause it to improve) but the trick will be to not let it go away when he comes back.

Comments

Ummm, are you using your blog to hash out basketball debates you're having with your girlfriend?? That's pathetic.

Posted by Dave | March 16, 2008 1:57 PM

good defense is about moving your feet, understanding your teammates positioning, and not taking any possessions off. while i don't watch the wizards, any team that improves on defense is going to do so by improving in one or more of these categories: it's not really that hard.

getting nba players to move their feet and not take any possessions off: now how to motivate that is a mystery, although your better defensive coaches motivate through minutes (to put this in a soccer hijacking context, when jose mourinho was still the chelsea coach, his team was very defensive-oriented, and one of his players said that even ronaldinho, then the world's best player, would have trouble getting minutes from mourinho if he didn't "track back," which is soccer for "not take any possessions off on defense").

Posted by howard | March 16, 2008 2:01 PM

Ummm, are you using your blog to hash out basketball debates you're having with your girlfriend?? That's pathetic.

Posted by Dave | March 16, 2008 1:57 PM

--------------------

Actually, I think it's pretty cool, and is one of the reasons I check back here as often as I do.

A little variety is a good thing. Solid comment from howard too.

Posted by NotU | March 16, 2008 2:07 PM

Sara doesn't appear to know what she's talking about. Every athlete coming back from a major injury takes a little while to come back psychologically, even after they have come back physically.

(And of course in Gilbert's case he was not totally healed, so it wasn't even just a psychological stumbling block but a true physical one).

Look to Amare's aborted comeback last year. He looked terrible, like he might never be the same. One year later, he looks like the beast that he was pre-injury. The Celtic's Tony Allen is going throug the same thing. Playing with fear that his knee will go again at first, then slowly getting as better in the head as he is in the knee.

Remember, these athletes come back from horrific injuries in record time, it's crazy to think what they put their bodies through. In fact, their bodies heal faster than their minds. Especially in hoops, where a guys jump over each other in traffic every minute, and could easily land on another's foot, and reinjure themself. It actually takes the willing suspension of disbelief to not be afraid hurdling yourself through the air with giants all around you after a little ball. What guys like Iverson & Dwayne Wade do is on the edge of crazy, because eventually you'd think (and often happens) they get hurt.

But these guys are warriors. Gilbert will be back just like the old Gilbert. It just won't be the minute he steps back on the floor.

Give him a year.

Posted by White Girls Can't Jump | March 16, 2008 2:11 PM

If Gil's at 80%, then the FIRST thing that's going to go is the D. And while we don't know a lot about extrapolating defense from the traditional box score, I think everyone agrees that coaches can tease it out of a game tape and relate it to their players. So when you hear comments from players and coaches on the team that DeShawn Stevenson is the spiritual heart of the defense, the idea that Gil might be taking his minutes means that any bump in offense will be offset, to some degree, by a bit of a stumble in defense.

On the other hand, there's no question that Gil is a much better player than DeShawn, so the team SHOULD get better. So, I guess we'll see...

Posted by ly_yng | March 16, 2008 2:24 PM

Twice as many posts about your friend's dumbass band as about the coming of a possible severe recession and the unprecedented steps being to taken to avoid it, huh?

When you write about the NBA you work on the assumption that you (and now your girlfriend) see things about, oh, trades or injuries or players that escape mere management, coaches and daily beat-writers. It's touchingly childish actually. Well, that or just outright embarassing. Now you're using the Altantic Online as a cyber post for a buddy's band fliers too.

Here's an idea: have some humility with hoops (you're a casual basketball fan, dude, that's it), try to seem a little less Johhnny College Boy in general and maybe at least try to link to people capable of discussing economics.

Posted by Marv Albert | March 16, 2008 3:40 PM

It's sad that a major media talent like Marv Albert only has access to a single website for all of his news. Otherwise, he would know that the world was full of many major excellent sources of information on the economy, and would go there for news.

Posted by Walt | March 16, 2008 4:26 PM

Not to hate 'Marv', but part of the fun of having a blog is to comment about sports from a fan's perspective. The financial system is not and never has been Matt's area of expertise as he acknowledges. Telling Matt to go link to people who know something about economics is moronic; there is a division of labor on the web. Writers have their niches and specialities. Look up your own links.

Posted by JohnB | March 16, 2008 4:32 PM

Howard is correct. The biggest problem with defense in the NBA is getting the players to actually try. Offense is what gets you in the ESPN highlights and the offensive numbers are what get you the big contracts. But there is no reason why a player who shows athleticism, teamwork, and hustle on offense can't do the same thing on defense. A lot of guys just don't really want to.

Posted by blah | March 16, 2008 4:39 PM

Gilbert wouldn't need to be all that good for reallocating minutes away from the likes of DeShawn Stevenson and Roger Mason, Jr. to constitute a net improvement for the team.

My impression is that DeShawn is a much better defensive player than Gilbert, so I'm not sure it's quite this cut and dry.

Posted by right | March 16, 2008 5:21 PM

The reason that defense is under-discussed and under-analyzed is that basketball discussion tends to be dominated by people who look at stats and watch ESPN highlights instead of watching basketball games.

It's not that difficult to tell the difference between good defense and bad defense if you actually watch the games, but there's no other way to do it.

APS

Posted by Ape Man | March 16, 2008 7:25 PM

Well, I was still getting over the annoyance of the explanatory Kevin Garnett never played with a great player before Paul Pierce post.

(Marbury, Stephon . . . anyone? Um, that was sort of a big story at the time. One that we now know says a great deal about both men -- see how the Knicks are doing these days.)

As for other media outlets . . . geesh, yeah, sure. But apart from the usual porn (hey, I'm only human!) I mainly use the Internet to find dominatrixes and stuff. So I'm looking at Mr. Yglesias as my one-stop online info source for things other than transvestites, doms, S&M, men's hair-care alternatives, etc.

But, hey, with the fresh economic links just posted I'll eat my point, say I was wrong and crawl out on my scawny, middle-aged belly in the closer thing I can experience to shame.

I could tell you I'm not oddly titillated to be humiliated by all of you in such a fashion, but you know I'd be lying.

Posted by Marv Albert | March 16, 2008 8:07 PM

"My impression is that DeShawn is a much better defensive player than Gilbert, so I'm not sure it's quite this cut and dry."

Indeed.

Posted by Petey | March 17, 2008 9:16 AM