Julius Erving takes an inefficient, low-percentage two-pointer (Getty Images)

On Monday, Philadelphia Inquirer scribe Marcus Hayes lent his byline to a column. He talked about Twinkies and Comic-Con, and new Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie. Hinkie, who was hired to replace a very expensive personnel team featuring Rod Thorn, Ed Stefanski, Tony DiLeo, and Doug Collins (a group that could not top 41 wins in six seasons’ worth of trying), has a background that includes time spent working under Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who is fond of actually looking at the box scores that they hand you following the game you just watched. And looking at things on his computer, weirdly.

This allowed for the Inquirer to dig in. Here are some selected passages:

Hinkie will be given a sledgehammer and a smartphone by [76ers owner Josh] Harris, a fellow geek. This Old Team could be deconstructed beyond recognition by summertime.

Pretty sure he already has a smartphone.

Tyson Chandler is working through a lot of stuff right now (Getty Images)

After months of looking like the Eastern Conference’s bona-fide Numbah Two behind the Miami Heat, and anticipating a coronated showdown with a Heat team they have blown out twice in the regular season, the New York Knicks are in danger of not even making it out of the second round. The Indiana Pacers have earned a 2-1 series lead over New York, though in typical NBA fashion the Knicks won’t admit to any problems outside of their own particular house. Even if the house is littered with both the sick (Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith sat out Sunday's practice due to injury), and limping (Iman Shumpert missed the same practice but will play through a bruised knee).

Tyson Chandler took the lead between Games 3 and 4, talking to the New York Daily News’ Frank Isola about a fractured offense that has looked both stagnant and timid at times, two words that certainly would not have been used to describe the Knicks at their offensive best during the early stages of the 2012-13 season. Chandler has struggled terribly in this series on both ends, as the possibly-injured center has been bested by Pacers big man Roy Hibbert throughout the back and forth, so he took great pains to not single any teammate out by name.

Still, the message is clear. The team has to find away to get back to its motion-influenced, highly effective Heat-thwarting offense. Even before the team takes on the Heat. From the Daily News:

“Honestly, we’re doing it to ourselves,” Chandler said on Sunday. “I watched the tape myself and there are open looks. We have to be willing passers. You have to sacrifice yourself sometimes for the betterment of the team and for the betterment of your teammates.

Carmelo Anthony disagrees with one of his five personal fouls (Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS – This is the seventh time that the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks have faced off in a playoff series, and in each of the previous matchups the sporting world was treated to tough, defensive-minded basketball that was occasionally difficult to watch. Toss Saturday night’s Game 3 between the Knicks and Pacers into that time capsule, because the two squads managed to test the patience of even the most hardened NBA postseason fans with this clutch and grab session. The Pacers prevailed by an 82-71 score, but not before treating a nationally televised audience to basketball that seemed like it should have been interspaced with Chandler Bing sightings in the advertising bumpers.

The most recent version of the New York Knicks never seemed to fancy itself as a defense-heavy-outfit, not with pointed acquisitions to acquire the likes of Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Raymond Felton on their ledger over the last three seasons. Still, the team at least hoped to retain some sort of defensive presence in the postseason due to the participation of 2011-12 Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler in the rotation. Chandler’s ongoing back issues, however, appear to be limiting the presence of the once-dominant defender. And though New York held Indiana to 82 points in the Game 3 loss, that seemed to have more to do with Indiana’s inability to string a hot offensive quarter together, and not New York’s sterling D.

And it certainly wasn’t due to the presence of Chandler. The Knick center seemed dwarfed by Pacer big man Roy Hibbert all evening, and though Tyson’s end-game averages of nine points, three blocks and five fouls in just under 30 minutes were somewhat respectable, he paled in comparison to his Pacer counterpart, as Hibbert tossed in 24 points and 12 rebounds.

Roy Hibbert has racked up nearly 113 minutes over his last three games (Getty Images)

It’s as if the second round pairing between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks couldn’t be any more mismatched. New York City’s population tops the entire state of Indiana by over two million people. The Pacers work as a tough, unshowy defensive-minded outfit that doesn’t even bother to make its mark with flashy things like big blocks and quick steals. The Knicks focus on movement and long range accuracy at their best, and “look at me”-styled isolation feats of daring in its lower moments. The Knicks are full of veteran players who performed some of their best NBA work back when the league was on NBC. The Pacers’ most recognizable player is best known for his work on an NBC sitcom that eked (fabulously, I should add) its way to a sixth season.

[Also: Warriors' Stephen Curry hobbled in Game 3 loss to Spurs]

We get it, Obvious Storyline Guy, the Pacers and Knicks are total opposites. And as the series shifts to a best-of five with three potential games taking place in Indiana starting in Saturday’s Game 3, one other stark difference is about to take center stage. The Pacers may have blown their best chance in Game 2 at extending to a 2-0 series lead when they went to their bench in the third quarter, most infamously when Indiana coach Frank Vogel went with the hard-working forward Jeff Pendergraph for one short stint. Pendergraph somehow chalked up a plus/minus of -5 in just 74 seconds of play, as New York began to pull away to eventually blow out the Pacers in the win.

Now, the deeper Knicks may be getting an unexpected bon mot in the form of former All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire, who has been cleared to play 10-15 minutes on Saturday, his first action in over two months. Stoudemire has worked his way through two frustrating, injury-plagued years as New York’s hoped-for second option next to Carmelo Anthony, but in this scenario he’ll be working as a go-to bench scorer working up against a Pacers pine unit featuring types like, well, Jeff Pendergraph.

And it may not even take Stoudemire’s possible game-changing presence to influence Vogel into going heavy with his starters’ minutes with the series in Indiana.

The video above is basically the quick-hit, short-take, brief summation of the Miami Heat/Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference semifinals. Without dismissing either team’s significant talents, the block that 5-9 Bulls guard Nate Robinson came through with against four-time MVP LeBron James in the third quarter of Miami’s 104-94 Game 3 win on Friday night was symbolic. The move dramatically came out of nowhere to stop one important shot, but the distraction hardly mattered in the end as Chicago’s stones failed to fell Goliath, and the defending champion Miami Heat took a 2-1 series lead.

The Heat regained the home court advantage by waiting out a Bulls attack that simply could not keep up offensively in the second half, while falling prey to opportunistic three-point bombs on the other end of the court. Heat reserve Norris Cole scored 18 points off of the Miami bench, knocking in 3-3 three-pointers to drag his long range mark to 8-8 in the conference semis, while James hung tough despite what was a miserable start to his evening.

Mike Brown and Mark Jackson compare gestures (Getty Images)

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown’s continued existence as a hot commodity remains baffling to us, and yet the Cavs wasted no time in securing Brown as their head coach last month just three years after firing him. Weirdly, rumors abounded that the Cavs made quick work of their coaching search, upon firing Byron Scott, because the team was worried Brown would link arms with another team looking for a head man.

Now a report out of Lakers Nation points to Lakers de facto personnel boss Jim Buss as expressing the same worries as he attempted to replace the future brother-in-law (13-time champion, as player and coach) Phil Jackson that he reportedly reviles. Brown was a candidate to take on the Golden State Warriors top gig in 2011, with West acting as a consultant and leading Mike Brown advocate, before the younger Buss swooped in to grab his guy.

From the longtime Lakers go-to guy, Mark Heisler:

An artist's rendering of what the unnamed draft prospect actually looks like (Getty Images)

The NCAA deadline to declare for the NBA draft is on April 16. Because the NBA has its own deadline (rendering the NCAA’s toothless) of April 28, and because an anonymous Reddit poster didn’t actually play basketball in the NCAA last (or any other) year, one particular potential draftee decided to slide his declaration in just before the NBA’s target date.

While possibly a little drunk. And without being on an NBA team’s radar. Or giving his own name.

Via Eye On Sports and Business Insider, and explained by his Reddit activity, here is the letter one enterprising soul sent to the NBA last month, announcing his eligibility in the NBA’s June 27 draft “after a few drinks.”

(Courtesy Reddit)

Andrew Bogut, feelin' fine (Getty Images)

Andrew Bogut has been a revelation during this year’s postseason. Though he looked to be his old, unfortunately gimpy self in Golden State’s playoff-initiating Game 1 loss to the Denver Nuggets nearly three weeks ago, Bogut has sprung back to approximate the sort of all-around terror that we grew to know and love during his time as a Milwaukee Buck. And while that may seem like faint praise, understand that a healthy Buck Bogut meant the world as an angle-eliminating defensive mastermind that could finish around the rim and make the extra pass.

Bogut has come a long way in a year’s time. Last April, the Warriors announced he was undergoing microscopic ankle surgery; a procedure that was later revealed to be a more serious microfracture ordeal, a complication the Warriors (mindful of season ticket sales) declined to disclose. This duplicity led to calls for Bogut to be back by the start of the season, which forced Andrew to return far too early to the team, effectively ruining yet another regular season for the man that hasn’t looked healthy since badly injuring his arm late in the 2009-10 campaign.

[Also: Filomena Tobias, fan who flipped off Joakim Noah, has crazy backstory]

All those wasted months and lost seasons had Bogut wondering if it was all worth it. He disclosed as much to NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper recently:

Bogut said he “was getting close” to having to give it serious consideration, but that he was not at the point of having to make a decision. The plan, he said, was to try and finish this season on an encouraging note, work during the summer to return to peak condition and aim for a healthy 2013-14. If that went bad, all options would have been on the table.