Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...

With Chris Paul and James Harden sharing a backcourt, every Rockets game will be a flopping clinic. There will be times when one of them takes a shot and both of them fall down.

With all due respect to Duane Kuiper: What the Giants are featuring the first half of this season? That’s torture.

Khris Davis tells The Chronicle’s Susan Slusser he wants no part of the Home Run Derby, even if he gets invited. Cool. Just adds to Davis’ reclusive-guy mystique.

Stephen Curry will tee it up in the Ellie Mae Classic in Hayward Aug. 3-6. Here’s what Curry should do, seriously: Visit Tiger Woods for a few sessions of coaching and golf counseling. Great for both guys. Curry gets insights into the inner game of golf, and Woods gets insights into the inner game of life.

I’m 1,000 percent in favor of robot umps for balls and strikes, but, man, you can’t replace the heart of a guy like MLB ump John Tumpane, who pulled a would-be-suicide jumper off a bridge in Pittsburgh.

And any time I hear an athlete being saluted for courage, I think of Fairfield pastor Joel Jones. The 61-year-old former small-college linebacker saved a California Highway Patrol officer’s life last month by tackling and subduing a crazed attacker.

Was Phil Jackson’s ego out of control in New York? Absolutely. There is no place in the NBA for a big ego.

With Jackson’s inglorious departure from the Knicks, it’s hard to sort out who’s really at fault. Everything is filtered through the New York media, where overreaction and grudgeholding have been known to occur. I’ll say this: To label Jackson a buffoon would be to dismiss what he brought to basketball, including the motion offenses that are all the rage, and innovative, human-on-human coaching methods.

That said, every time the Knicks are in the news, Steve Kerr runs to his fridge and pops a cold one, toasting himself on his fateful decision to turn down the New York job.

Maybe not such a smart move by Larry Ellison and the America’s Cup people to take their race out of San Francisco. Ellison’s Oracle Team USA, with its miracle comeback win four years ago, made S.F. Bay the ultimate homecourt. Sing it with me: I left my Cup in San Fran-cisco.

Here’s a dream scenario for A’s fans: Ellison, crushed by his America’s Cup loss, buys the A’s from John Fisher, builds a ballpark and pays a majorleague payroll.

Along with 3-on-3 basketball, the next Olympics will also feature pole-vaulting over mouse turds.