The Stiff List is back! I'm guessing there are a few of you whippersnappers and/or long in the tooth folk who don't have any clue what the Stiff List is all about. Well, let's inform the masses. The Stiff List is here to bring a little attention to what is going wrong in the world of sports, both near and far. Without further ado, let's get to this week's list.
The Denver Broncos and their 24-13 loss in the divisional round of the 2015 NFL playoffs. In the Peyton Manning Era, the Broncos have reached the Super Bowl once, but they’ve also been embarrassingly upset twice by the Ravens and now the Colts after having bye-week in the post-season. We could see big changes coming in Broncos Country. You have to wonder if John Elway will be dialing up his old pal, and Ravens offensive coordinator, Gary Kubiak to take the reins in Denver. Sure, Kubiak said he’s staying in Baltimore, but you can’t blame him when the Bears and Jets come calling, it could be a “Masai Ujiri” situation if Elway and the Broncos are on the other end of the phone.
Kevin Love. It’s still very early, but will Love stick around in Cleveland beyond the season? He was supposed to help lead the Cavs to the top of the Eastern Conference, but the 19-19 Cavaliers have struggled and Love has been a big part of those struggles. Jeff Morton and I cautioned against Love being the right answer for any team, and so far he has yet to adjust his game to what his team needs. And his body language and more have been questioned a lot this season.
Darrell Arthur’s three-point shooting and Brian Shaw’s allowing of it. Arthur is one of the Nuggets best defensive assets, and he makes his hay in the mid-range on offense. This season Arthur has ramped up his three-point shooting to a career-high 3.1 attempts per game (0.5 career attempts), but he’s shooting just 28% from deep.
In fact, since December 1, 2014 Arthur has only connected on 13 of his last 49 attempts, prompting The Big Stiff, Andy Feinstein, to pen this sentence: "… breaking up the Nuggets roster, a likely inevitability come February, will be sad. With the exception of Nate Robinson and Darrell Arthur…" While that is, in my opinion, an insane sentence from Andy – the outside experiment with Arthur's shooting should largely be over, right?
The argument rages on …
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/GreysonOG">@GreysonOG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NateTimmonsCO">@NateTimmonsCO</a> you should evaluate a player based on his career averages and he's career .300 from 3</p>— Chris Chan (@chantech) <a href="https://twitter.com/chantech/status/554374309884334081">January 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-cards="hidden" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/GreysonOG">@GreysonOG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NateTimmonsCO">@NateTimmonsCO</a> plus rebound rates are higher for 3s and it helps floor spacing</p>— Chris Chan (@chantech) <a href="https://twitter.com/chantech/status/554374484392542208">January 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
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An important note on Arthur, he's just 26 year old (he turns 27 in March), and prior to coming to the Nuggets he took a total of 27 three pointers in his career. So, as Chris Chan pointed out on Twitter, to get a sample size on Arthur's three-point shooting, he'll need to keep firing away. Should the experiment of him becoming a long-bomber be a priority for Brian Shaw? Is Arthur in Denver's long-term plans? If so, then fire away. If not, then why is he getting such a big green light to develop a trait he won't realize until he's in another uniform? It's an interesting debate.
Non-NBA fans. Take a look at the standings across the league, really, here go look: click here. The top teams include the: Hawks, Raptors, Bulls, Wizards, Warriors, Blazers, Rockets, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Clippers, and Spurs. There was a fear that star players would all band together in big markets, and we wouldn’t see any form of parity in the NBA for years to come. Well, we are looking at a wide-open race to the top this season, and I can’t wait for the playoffs. To those that don’t want to watch … well, they are missing out!
Carmelo Anthony testing the waters with shutting it down for the season. What would a Stiff List be without a little Melo? I kid, I kid. But seriously, did anyone find it Fisher fishy that coach Derek Fisher and Company discussed Melo possibly shutting things down on Jan. 3rd, and then Melo coming out on Jan. 7th saying he isn’t shutting it down … “yet”? Felt to me like Melo got a negative reaction to shutting it down, and let other people take the heat for him (sound familiar?), before he came to some type of rescue by saying he’s just resting and will play on with the 5-35 Knicks.
Now if you excuse me, I'll get back to eating my sour grapes.
