Tag Archives: basketball

April 20, 2011

Changing of the Eras in the NBA?

By chappy81

I’ve watched as much as I could of these NBA playoffs so far, and with every lower seed playing the higher seed tough it got me thinking about the state of the NBA. Make no mistake, t’s in a great state right now as every team in the playoffs looks good even some of the lower seeds. In basketball we usually don’t see a ton of surprises, because you don’t surprise any team four times in a series. That’s what basketball has right over all the other sports, they always get the true champion, because no road traveled is easy. That’s not really the case in every other sport. Coming to conclusions like this makes it even tougher as a Warriors fan…

I guess the first question that popped into my head is this one of the last chances for the “older” teams to win a championship? Maybe not this year, but it’s coming. This year we have the traditional favorites that you can’t really bet against like the Lakers, Celtics, and Spurs, but how much longer can their reign last? Most of their top-tier stars are well into their 30’s, and these teams are all stumbling a little already in this first round. I’m not saying that I’ve counted these teams out already for this year or next, because that would be ridiculously short sighted. I do find myself having a hard time seeing them continue their dominance beyond this year especially last years finals pairing. The Lakers and Celtics will have some huge questions to answer at the conclusion of the season. Both are going to be praying that their coaches stay, and Phil has already said he believes there will be a long lockout which is a reason he wants to retire. Doc might be thinking the same thing. New coach and new system doesn’t usually equal championships, but you can teach an old dog new tricks every once in awhile. The Spurs are finding it impossible to have their big three healthy and together when it matters for the past few seasons. Maybe the lockout would help them since they wouldn’t have to play nearly as many games, keeping these older guys fresh without a long regular season might be to their advantage, but at the same time I don’t see that making up for slowly eroding skills. The NBA is an era league, that started way back with Bill Russell dominating. More recently, we went from the Bird-Magic era to the current Kobe-Duncan era, so are we heading into a new era? Oh my the possibilities that are coming to light are enticing.

The East is stacked with young superstar talent as we all know. The Bulls, Knicks, and Heat are sure to be battling it out for years to come barring injury of course. Nearly all the superstars on those teams have had previous playoff failures, so in my eyes these teams aren’t as inexperienced as some would have you believe. The West isn’t as clear cut as the East in terms of power, but the Grizzlies are the second youngest team in the league, and have showed promise against the Spurs just like the Thunder did with the Lakers last year as an 8 seed. OKC is the seeming favorite to be the heir apparent to the Western Conference Throne, and I can’t argue with that. A side note on the Sonics, why doesn’t every GM follow the blueprint that they used? Get a superstar, have cap space to spend on the other players, build through the draft, and boom, you have an elite team. The Clippers have a solid core with a superstar that can only get better, oops, I shouldn’t ever put the Clippers in a championship post… Anyways you get the point, and my question is who’s era is it going to belong to?

28 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

April 8, 2011

Spoof NBA Lockout Ads

By chappy81

Last off-season in the NBA it was all about the big time free agents, and where will they land. This off-season will be all about Billy Hunter vs. David Stern, and how long the lockout will last. It seems like it could get even uglier than the NFL’s lockout and probably will miss more games. As I’ve said before with the NFL lockout, I’m all for it if they lose some fans and some revenue. Nothing puts a billion dollar league in their place like losing fans. I ran across this video of a few spoof lockout ads that we could see in the near future when the war really heats up. Ok, probably not, but we know it’s going to get ugly. The ad that had Stern saying “he knew where the bodies are buried” had a very interesting story to it during all-star weekend and this article by Adrian Wojnarowski is a must read if you haven’t heard the story.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Comedy, Sports

April 6, 2011

Color Me Purple The Nuggets are in the Playoffs

By chappy81

At the beginning of the season we made predictions on how we thought the Western Conference would shake out. By and I swung and missed on a few picks like the Clippers, Jazz, Warriors, and Rockets, but we were right about the easy picks aka the top 5 teams. I guess I did write that I wished I included Memphis on the predictions a month into the year, but that’s a moot point. Anyways, the season is nearing it’s end, and the playoff teams seem set, except for seeding. Seriously though, does it look like anyone will beat the Lakers in the west? I can’t say I feel like anyone will beat them, not even the Sonics who I feel like could beat them, but won’t. We all know deep down that the Lakers will be in the Finals no matter who they are matched up against in a week and a half.

The real reason for this post was that the Sportschump was very adamant that we were horribly wrong for leaving the Nuggets out of the playoff picture. They secured a spot a few days ago, and look like they should be the #5 seed. I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that Denver has made the playoffs in a different way than he or anyone expected (without Melo), but nonetheless he was right and I was wrong. The Nuggets have been a very interesting team this season since the Melo trade. It’s weird seeing a team actually use 10 of it’s players every night. Especially since all are getting significant minutes in a guess who’s playing tonight game of musical chairs. Karl goes with the hot hand. If you’re playing well, you play 40 minutes. If you struggle, you’re only playing 15-20. It’s something you rarely see in the NBA, which makes them the anti-big three. They are all about the team over the individual. It’s a good reason to root for them in the playoffs, but if they end up playing the Sonics in the first round I guess I won’t be on that bandwagon…

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

March 10, 2011

Things I’m Tired Of Hearing About This NBA Season

By mceezy

Anything Heat Related – There might have been one or two Miami Heat squads I actually liked during their entire existence. I can’t name any off the top of my head, but I’d guess that Glen Rice was on the team. To this day, when I think of the Heat, I think of guys like Kevin Edwards, Jon Sundvold, and Rony Seikaly. No matter how much the NBA is trying to shove this Heat team down my throat, I’m not gonna budge. But it’s like Stan Van Gundy said, when you hold the championship celebration in August, the scrutiny will come. I can barely even watch Heat games anymore. If they didn’t have Erick Dampier, they wouldn’t be worth watching at all.

David Stern Still Being David Stern – Seriously, how has this guy not been fired, sued, or bitch-slapped yet?! He’s by far the most arrogant commissioner in the sport with the biggest egos. How is he still in control? (I know, the answer is obvious… money) He has pretty much single-handedly destroyed my favorite sport. I love basketball, but I can barely tolerate the NBA anymore. The officiating has blatantly become just a means of manipulating  the outcome of games. It’s like recess was in elementary school: just as you started breaking a sweat and having fun, some asshole blows a whistle and everyone has to go back in the classroom. Or in this case, stand around and watch one guy shoot a ten foot set shot. Add to that the special treatment various players get no matter how obvious, and it just makes me wanna text Rasheed Wallace and say “look at this sh!t NOW, record hater.” I think I’m even more peeved than usual after reading Stern’s cocky-ass comments about SVG today.

The Spurs – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sacramento Kings: Will They or Won’t They? I know… no one outside of Sacramento really has to put up with this news, but there is literally a new story about whether or not the Kings plan to leave town after this season, and more often than not, it’s not even news. For example, today’s biggest story is that fans are trying to sell out the second to last home game of the season, fittingly against the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics. Look, few people spent as much time at Arco Arena as I did growing up (not Power Balance Pavilion, not the Livestrong Center, not the Tiffany Dome, and not the Friendship Bracelet Fieldhouse. Sorry, I’ll stop), but at this point, I feel so alienated by this franchise, I don’t even feel like they’re my home team anymore. This is a city that sold out every game for the first 13 years here, and then after a few down months, the next 7 or 8 again. It’s not the city that’s the problem. I love the movie Major League, but I hate seeing the same strategy being employed in real life. At least the movie had two things the Kings don’t: Charlie Sheen, and duh – winning!

11 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

February 28, 2011

Doin Rants: NBA Trades Have Gotten Ridiculous

By mceezy

Alright, this has gotten out of hand. Enough is enough. I just stopped by espn’s nba page and 4 or 5 of the ten headlines were about contract buyouts. This is my boiling point. My frustration has mounted enough to warrant a Doin Work rant. It all started when the NBA began requiring that all trades need to be within 10% (I believe) of each other’s matching salaries. A few years later it got to the point where teams weren’t even swapping comparable talent. Expiring contracts were all of sudden worth more than good players. NBA franchises are supposed to be run like businesses, so why would your business strategy ever be to hire older guys who are close to retiring and can only perform at a fraction of their prior productivity level. Sure, you want the money to come off the books, but you still have to hire someone in their place. Sure, you save a couple bucks, but what’s the point, you’re surely overpaying a few guys on your team, and guess what… you’re going to do it again. Now, though? NOW…. teams aren’t even keeping the guys they’re getting in trades!! Instead, the trade deadline has really just come to be the day before the league’s BUYOUT deadline, where teams can have their crack at a fresh crop of savvy veterans who can help them in their postseason runs. Guys like Troy Murphy and Mike Bibby are available, all because their former teams gave away decent players to buy them out. The Warriors gave up Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric for Troy Murphy (and then not) and a 2nd round pick. Those guys are far from all-stars, but Wright is the guy they traded Jason Richardson for the rights to, essentially imploding the We Believe team immediately after the great upset of 2007. (Imagine that, a rant about ridiculous trades has ultimately led me to the Warriors…)

So Murphy is rumored to be ending up in Miami, as is Bibby. Something doesn’t seem right about this. I’m not talking about Miami getting these two guys, they’re not going to get them a ring or anything. I’m just talking about teams trading a decent player to a better team, subsequently waiving the newly acquired player, and then that player signs with a contender. Or we’ve also got the Hornets and Kings trade that Mark Cuban pointed out. The Hornets were recently taken over by the league to help re-stabilize the franchise to make it a more attractive investment, but their first trade is a move to take on salary? They gave up Marcus Thornton, who was making $10 an hour, for Carl Landry, who’s owed about $3 million. I give them credit for making a good personnel move, but taking on salary doesn’t seem like a wise business decision. Perhaps the worse business decision from the Kings’ side though. Already struggling to attract fans in a one-sport city, they traded away a guy who was the league’s best 6th man when they acquired him, for Thornton, who has some great potential, but isn’t exactly going to convince fans to come out. Teams these days are putting crap on the table and getting mad when the fans don’t eat it. Something has gone terribly wrong.

So I’m looking forward to the offseason. I love the sport of basketball, but the NBA has by far become the kookiest sports league on Earth. Whatever they all end up agreeing to can’t be worse than how it already is. I can’t even began to comprehend how unnecessarily overcomplicated they’ve made it, but so many moves make so little sense. They need to tie in the D-League, so teams can at least get some “prospects” in return.

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

February 24, 2011

Wild Trade Deadline

By chappy81

It’s been a wild couple days since the Carmelo Anthony trade went through. It was the first domino to fall and initiated a lot of wheeling and dealing leading up to today’s noon deadline.  This trade deadline has had an unprecedented amount of big deals, and small deals in effort to shed cap, improve playoff rosters, or get draft picks with a lot of questions hanging over the new CBA. It’s crazy what one summer can do to a league, and Lebron got this ball rolling so fast with the decision, I don’t know if it can be stopped. For today it was nice that the storylines were actually real, and not just speculation on things like whether Dwight Howard and Chris Paul will be traded before their contracts are up. I’ll start with my quick thoughts on the players that were traded over the last couple days.

Melo and Chauncey to NY – No brainer, how couldn’t you make that deal no matter how many starters you gave up. Get the stars and move on.

Deron Williams to NJ – Hmm DWill or Favors, Harris, and some crappy picks. I’d take DWill any day, but Utah got a lot out of it especially since NJ will be in the lottery this year. Takes a superstar to get superstars, and maybe DWill and the $19M of cap space they will have can woo some big name there. I’ve never understood why aren’t the Nets Jersey’s made from Rocawear?

Carl Landry for Marcus Thorton to NO – Cuban is pissed. Can’t argue with his logic on any level. New Orleans gets tougher, and that’s never a bad thing when your star is a tough minded guy.

Kirk Hinrich to ATL – Solid move, an upgrade over the aged Bibby. Not sure it really helps them against Rose, Wade, or Rondo in the playoffs though. It will free up Jamaal as the only scoring guard on the squad. Kirk doesn’t care about points.

Baron Davis for Mo Williams to CLE – Who would’ve thought being traded from the Clippers would be bad for a player!?! He pulled his hammy picking up the phone when his old coach that he always got along with Byron Scott called, and decided he won’t be playing for the next two months. That being said he’ll play enough to get paid. For the Clippers it makes it Blake’s team no questions asked in the locker room.

Shane Battier for Hasheem Thabeet and a draft pick to Memphis – Battier makes them tougher. Not sure why they made this deal, because Gay is out for awhile. Without him they seem to be hitting a rough patch and it will be hard for them to make the playoffs.

Nate Robinson and Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green and Nenad Krystic to OKC – Great deal for the Thunder. They needed some big guys to knock guys down, and Perk will do that. I like the Thunder’s chances against LA a lot more as he can contain Pau. The Celtics needed a swing man and Jeff Green is solid. Maybe they knew they weren’t signing Perk after the season, so they cut their losses already… I’m not sure I like it, but who am I to say a move the Celtics made was bad.

Nazr Mohammed for DJ White and Mo Peterson to OKC – Another big man that will smack you around on the defensive side of the ball. OKC is probably the biggest winner of the day in terms of helping their championship hopes.

Aaron Brooks for Goran Dragic and 1st round pick to PHO – Wow, this was a shocker to me. I’ve had a mancrush on Brooks since he was at Oregon, so I like it for Phoenix. They need someone to take over for Nash someday, and Dragic isn’t that answer. Houston gets a guy that doesn’t mind being a backup and a draft pick. Books gets to run and gun in a fun offense that would make most players happy. Win-win I think.

Gerald Wallace for Joel Pryzbilla, Daunte Cunningham, and two draft pick to POR – Great deal for Portland, they get one of those hard working blue collar guys that they have targeted since the JailBlazers days. I think this move helps get them to the playoffs. I won’t say it makes them win a series, but they made a big upgrade.

OJ Mayo for Josh McRoberts and a 1st round pick to MEM – Oh wait, this one didn’t end up happening…

I’ll update this if I see any more trades on the Ticker!

11 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Sports

February 22, 2011

The Real Blockbuster Trade

By chappy81

Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph made ripples around the league as they were traded from the Knicks in part of a deal that sent the expiring contract of Carmelo Anthony to them. I’ll get back to those two amazing additions in a bit, but first a little background on this T-Wolves amazing roster being built.

Minnesota has been working hard for the past couple years to have as many possible top picks turned head cases than any franchise in the league. They started their last offseason by trading for Michael Beasley who proved to be immature. Surprisingly he’s turned into a good player in Minnesota, but with him, you have to wonder how much longer he can hold out from smoking weed, especially with him having some extra time off due to injury. You know he’s ready for a relapse and wants to be lost floating around the court aimlessly again.

Way to sexy for that shirt Darko.

Their second move of the off-season was signing Darko. Yup, the guy that has had his confidence shattered simply for being drafted over Melo and Wade. Wasn’t his fault the Pistons fell in love with him, but he never could deal with the pressure that came with being that pick. He might be a blocking machine this year, but I saw a stat in someone’s power rankings that said when he shoots 10 shots in a game their already pathetic winning percentage goes from 27% to 17%, yikes.

Sebastian Telfair was added to their roster via free agency as well over the summer. He’s one of the amazing character guys from the JailBlazers teams, and a fitting character guy rounding out three head cases that were added to the team this year. Bassy has been as unimpressive as he has been throughout his career. Are these guys on the verge of figure it out in the insane asylum in Minnesota (Can we make that their new arena name)? Based on the T-Wolves record and how casual fans can only name Kevin Love on that team, I’d say no.

Eddie Curry might have been the biggest trade chip in the deal that went down last night, so I won’t talk about him or his expiring contract. Anthony Randolph however was one of those players I always wanted to see flourish, especially in his Warriors days. To say he was a head case would be the understatement of the year if it was Nellie talking. He’s like that super hot girl that still can’t figure out how to get what she wants from guys. He has all the ability in the world, but couldn’t sniff the court on either of his first two teams. It doesn’t look like he will in Minnesota either being behind Eddie Curry’s expiring contract (I think I’ve heard more about his expiring contract over the years than when he was actually playing), Love, Tolliver, Beasley, and Milicic. Maybe Kahn is looking to move Love out of town so this cast of headcases can thrive. Nothing would shock me about this franchise at this point. Free Love Kahn! While your at it you should trade Rubio away to a team that he’ll actually come here to play for.

Rough to be a fan of Minnesota teams right now. At least they have the Twins though.

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

February 22, 2011

Dunking On Tuesday

By chappy81

So, I was killing a little time this morning, and was trying to find some cool dunks on youtube. I came across two that were post worthy. The first is an Asian guy of course. He owns the record for the longest dunk ever. He cheated, but it was still some pretty interesting video. You can’t go wrong with a bunch of Asian’s in suits looking worried while the “baller” bounces up and down non-nonchalantly.

The Second clip was much more serious, and is probably one you’ve already seen before. The 720 dunk is something I hope Blake pulls out in next year’s dunk contest. Hopefully he reads this post and starts practicing right away!

5 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Sports

February 21, 2011

Handicapping The Rest Of the Warriors Season

By chappy81

I’m a firm believer that until your team hits the 38 mark in the loss column you aren’t out of the playoff picture during the NBA season. The Warriors have 29 losses, so there isn’t a lot of room for error after the All-Star break, but I’m not giving up on them especially with the West is as open as it’s been for years. It’s up for debate on whether Portland, New Orleans, Denver, or Utah can hold on to the 5-8 spots in the West especially with injuries, coaching changes, and trades lingering for all these teams. By my count on my playoff loss barometer of 38 losses only Sacramento and Minnesota are truly out of the playoff picture with the LA Clippers having 35 losses, they should be the next team out of the picture, which leaves 8 teams including the Warriors for those last four spots.  The Warriors are 4 games out of the eighth spot, but only 5 ½ away from the 5th spot. The Warriors have been playing some great basketball over the last couple of weeks aside from the two games they played against the Suns where they could’ve sent a D-league team on the court in their place and done just as good. During their recent solid streak of play they beat Chicago, New Orleans, OKC, Utah (twice), and Denver over a ten game stretch, which were all quality wins in my book. So, I figured now would be the best time to handicap the rest of the year going through each game deciding if they’d win or lose. I gave them a few big wins along the way, and a couple of losses to bad teams and teams who I know they have trouble against. Continue reading

12 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

February 18, 2011

Blake the Cyborg

By chappy81

You may remember I was in search of a new mancrush a little while back. Still haven’t found one, but I remember saying that Blake Griffin wouldn’t be it mainly because of his lack of interview flair. Normally I love all the DJ Steve Porter videos that come out, but this one was lacking something, like a truly fun soundbite that pretty much all his videos have had. The dunk montage was cool, but ultimately it shows how Blake doesn’t have the same charisma off the court I need in a true man crush. That being said I’m excited for the dunk contest. Kenny Anderson (Blake’s dunk coach) said a couple weeks ago that Blake would do something we’ve never seen. When he met with Blake to review what they could do, Kenny was shocked that he could add to a dunk Kenny thought was impossible. Hopefully it all pans out that way!

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Sports

February 11, 2011

Cleveland’s U-Turn

By chappy81

Looks like Cavs fans are finally turning the page after seeing their team’s current record breaking losing streak hit 26. I guess even they now realize that Lebron never really had a team that was worthy of his talents. It’s good to see that they are at least fond of the times they had with him. Maybe now, Lebron won’t get his ass kicked when he goes home to visit his family and friends. I loved the Delonte part.

17 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Music, Sports

January 28, 2011

In Search of a New Mancrush…

By chappy81

I think with the NBA more than any other sport I develop mancrushs yearly. Even if the player I fall for isn’t the best of the best in the league or will ever be a top five player, I always find myself completely in tune to what that player is doing on the court and in their personal lives. My most recent was Stephen Curry, and although I still have a bromance for the kid, he’s getting married, so I’m in search of my next crush. Blake Griffin? I like him, but his robotic ways with the media doesn’t do it for me. Sorry Blake, at the beginning of the year I was about to jump on board, but your off the court presence just doesn’t do it for me. It got me thinking back to all the fun crushes I’ve had over the years, from Arenas, to Wade (until he won his championship), to Amare, to CP3, to Curry crushing it at Davidson. Ok, my mancrush didn’t peak on Curry until he was drafted by the Warriors, but even before that there was a bromance brewing when he took Davidson deep in the tourney. This all got me thinking of where the bromances all started. The first time I can truly recall an infatuation with a player was Rickey Henderson, but he still wasn’t the all-time crush. With hoops it was all about my mancrush on Latrell Spreewell for a solid five years. (I mis-spelled Spreewell on purpose because my favorite saying when I was ten was Spree For Three, so I think I thought that was how you spelled his name at the time).

Latrell Spreewell, what can you say about a guy that passes up guaranteed contracts and finds himself broke? Nothing too much that hasn’t already been said, and my mancrush was a shadow of what it originally was by the time he was broke. Two years removed from Mitch Richmond’s departure to Sacramento the Warriors picked Spree with the 24th pick in the draft. Mullin and Hardaway were still on the team, but the sign was on the wall, they were about to go into a decade plus rebuilding process. Maybe the mancrush came along because that’s when I started listening to gangsta rap, and that was when it was at it’s best. Those guys were real thugs back then, you want to know how I know they are more hard core than the rappers around now? Because most of them are in jail right now, point, set, match. At the time, there was nobody more gangster than Spree in those cornrows on the court. Playing under Don Nelson, and being one of the few productive players, he played nearly 48 minutes a game. It was something that really attracted me to the guy. He would play all 48, and look like he could go another 48 just proving the guy was in phenomenal shape. He was the reason my favorite number is 15, which says a lot since you may or may not know how much I loved Rickey Henderson. I never thought he was in the wrong for choking coach Carlisimo. Honestly, wouldn’t you strangle the coach if he was telling you what to do with this crappy roster in 1997? Seemed fair to me, and I’ll stand behind it till I part with the earth. To this day, Spree is the last Warriors player to make the All-Star game. No Jamison, no Richardson, no Davis, no Arenas, no Hughes and probably no Ellis making the mid-season exhibition this year. We get no respect… So my question for the commenters is who was your first mancrush, and who, if anyone is yours at the moment?

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Sports

January 20, 2011

Not Even Billionaires Get Everything They Want…

By chappy81

Last year I was ready to enslave myself to billionaire Larry Ellison, because I thought he’d be the best option as the Warriors owner since he had money to spend, and could go into the luxury tax without thinking twice. What I didn’t really think about was how much time he’d actually spend on this team to improve them. Granted we haven’t seen what Lacob-Gruber ownership group can really do, but one thing I’m positive on so far is that they care about winning. They answer questions from bloggers, they go to most of the games, and they explain why they signed or released player X. I think these guys understand the business of basketball, and what it takes to build a winner. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen, but it does feel like they have a REAL plan opposed to every other year that didn’t involve Mullen as our GM. Would Ellison have been as accessible as the new group we have? Would he have been sitting courtside? I can’t really say he wouldn’t, but if your worth a billion dollars you probably are more busy than millionaires.

What got me thinking about this was Mikhail Prokhorov’s rambling last night about how they were going to get out of the Carmelo trade talks. Not really shocking since there was no way Melo was going to sign his three year extension to play in NJ. Like Cali4Dre said Melo’s probably pussy whooped, and he’ll follow his ladies demands and make the move to NY when he’s a free agent. I honestly think the Russian was just trying to save his team from a little embarrassment since he had to know deep down if he flew his billion dollar ass to Denver, Melo would just let him down, and he’d look weaker than ever. Something I’m sure no billionaire is used to. What if Jay-Z went with him? The only thing I could see Jay-Z contributing is if he said he’d only rap about Melo for any basketball reference in his songs… Can’t say that’s a deal maker. Continue reading

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

January 19, 2011

Cavs Fan Gets Owned

By chappy81

Not sure if this is real or was set up, because I’ve never seen a fan able to just walk onto the court without security chasing him/her down. The way he went after the mascot deserved at least a tackle attempt from security. Anyways, this video sums up Cleveland’s season in a nutshell, and is just one more reason I put them at #1 in the worst of the worst power rankings. They even get owned by mascots…

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

January 13, 2011

Doin The NBA’s Worst of the Worst Power Rankings

By chappy81

While I was growing up the A’s, Raiders, and to a lesser extent the Warriors were good. I know they were, because people hated them, and the only reason you hate a team is because they are good. Lately I’ve noticed when I tell a new found friend my sports affiliations I hear pity more than anything. Tuesday, I was watching the Cavs-Lakers game and it hit me, I needed to make an anti-power rankings, and tried to decide which is the worst team in the NBA. I used some criteria for this glorious list. One, obviously team record, and second, how much hope they have for the future with their core players.

#7 Minnesota – Kevin Love is an All-Star. Nobody does what he does. He hits threes while scoring 21.1 ppg, and pulls in 15.8 rebounds a game. If Griffin owns the air above the rim, then Love owns everything below the rim. If the second best player on that team wasn’t Luke Ridnour now that Beasley is hurt, they might have some more wins than they do. I bet if they were in the East, they’d be the 8th seed. They have a solid young front court. If Kahn can finally use these guys to build off, they might be relevant again one of these years.

#6 Toronto – They’ve been hit hard by the injury bug this year, and on second thought, maybe losing Bosh was a bigger deal up there than I originally thought. Somehow they are only a couple games outside of the Eastern Conference’s 8th seed, which shows you why there are so many Eastern Conference teams on my list. Hockey still rules Toronto, the Raptors will be extinct there one of these days up there.

#5 Detroit Continue reading

20 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports