Just some quick thoughts on the young NBA season …
Despite getting absolutely destroyed by Chicago tonight, my Golden State Warriors currently hold a 6-3 record going into Saturday’s game in Milwaukee. Things to note: Keith Smart appears to be an excellent coach, who seems to understand today’s players. Steph Curry has not fallen into the Sophomore slump. David Lee is the right acquisition for this team. Dorrell Wright is the perfect acquisition for this team. And finally, the team chemistry is at an all time high. I love this squad. All praise the “Smart” era!
If the Heat crowd consisted of this 24/7, I might change my tune.
Coming into the season, all the talk was about the Miami Heat, and rightfully so. They assembled a baby “Dream Team”. Well, they’re currently 5-4 (not as good as the Warriors) and show no signs of being capable of beating Boston. But, the most shocking thing to me about Miami is, well, they’re boring to watch. LeBron and Wade are a highlight reel waiting to happen but without a soundtrack. What I mean by that is their crowd is weak. LeBron’s posterizing dunks will never quite be the same without the Cleveland crowd behind him. I’m sorry Miami, I’m sure there are some real Heat fans out there, but they’re currently not in the stands.
PS – Chris Bosh plays defense like he’s still at the beach, just enjoying the view …
Free Kevin Love!
David Kahn is probably the worse President in basketball. I take that back, that’s an understatement. David Kahn is absolutely the worse president in basketball. So it’s fitting he’s hired, and kept the worse coach in basketball in Kurt Rambis, employed. Here’s an “NBA Coaching For Dummies” tip for you Rambis, play your best player. I don’t know what Kevin Love’s done to Rambis behind closed doors, perhaps a Delonte/LeBron situation but involving his daughter, but whatever the case, Rambis can’t be limiting Love’s minutes due to “lack of defense”. If that were the case, Michael Beasley should be riding the pine right next to him. Of course, I wouldn’t be concerned about what’s going on in Minnesota, had I not drafted Kevin Love as a keeper in my fantasy league.
M.V.Pau!
Could the Lakers be attempting to chase down history? Some people, including myself thought the Heat would be challenging the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls for ultimate team supremacy and bragging rights, by eclipsing Chicago’s 72 wins season. Well we got the wrong team. It’s the Lakers laying down the foundation towards team immortality. Why didn’t I see the signs? Phil’s last run. Kobe’s competitive nature. I’m sure the moment LeBron announced his plans to hit the W on South Beach, Kobe hit the gym. Plus, Pau Gasol has emerged as the best player on this team, and in the league. Yes I said it. That title has belonged to him ever since the NBA Finals two seasons ago. He was robbed of a Finals’ MVP trophy last season. The Lakers are so good, and so deep, they can cut Andrew Bynum and be O.K. Name another team that could do the same.
John Wall and Blake Griffin are fresh, new and exciting! Like seeing Tony Hawk execute the 900 during the first X Games exciting! At this point, I don’t see either the Wizards or the Clippers making a playoff push, but the race for Rookie of the Year will only continue to heat up! When it’s all said and done, I believe John Wall will edge out Griffin due to the fact that he can do the feminine version of the “Dougie”.
#1 Boston Celtics – They’re still the best team overall in the East, there’s just too many variables with the Celtics. Of course age is always a question, but I think they’ll be driven this year…. enough to capture the top seed in the East again. They’ve got enough big bodies to let Garnett fade into the background (clearly it’s time), and as long as Rondo, Pierce, or Ray Allen is on the floor, they’ll be okay. They’ll come out on top in the regular season, but I don’t expect a similar result in the postseason.
#2 Atlanta Hawks – Quietly the second best regular season team in the East. The Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford core is good enough to contend with anybody, but they need to upgrade from Mike Bibby. Not saying he’s the weak link, but the aforementioned trio deserves a playmaker to run the floor with them. You know, someone that’ll rack up more than 4.5 assists per game. Do they even have a point guard on their roster? I guess Jeff Teague is the future. I bet they wish they still had Acie Law right about now!
Two days into the season we decided to pick our 8 playoff teams from the West. We are probably way off not including Denver or Phoenix, but what can you do!?!
By:
#1 Seattle SuperSonics – This will most likely be the year of the “Durantula”. Winning Gold over the Summer in which the ball was placed squarely in Durant’s hands has me believing that he’s prime to take that next step towards league dominance. It’s like when Neo finally “got it” in the first (and only good) Matrix. I can talk about Durant forever, but it’s not like he’s alone out there in OKC. The maturation of Russell Westbrook has me thinking, Rajon Rondo? Yes, Westbrook can be that good. Plus in order to beat LA, you have to dominate the PG position, and Westbrook had his way with Fisher for the most part. Expect even more improvement from him, as he too benefited from the World Championships’. The pool of young talent doesn’t end there for OKC, as Jeff Green, James Harden and Serge Ibaka round out their core. Each of these players will contribute substantially to the team, with Harden being the most intriguing piece. Harden has looked good in the pre-season, and if he continues to play well, watch out! It’s refreshing to see a team like this built from the ground up. No huge free agent signings, no big trades. Aside from my beloved Warriors, I’ll be rooting for this team to succeed!
#2 LA Lakers – The Lakers may finish second in standings out West by season’s end, but they’re still the best team coming out of the conference. In fact, as much as it pains me to say it, they’re still the best team, period. Only question surrounding the Lakers is health. I’ve said this all Summer long, everyone’s worried about Kobe’s knee, but what they should be worried about is that finger he fractured last season. I don’t think he’s ever fully recovered from it, nor will he ever. Andrew Bynum’s timing on electing to have his knee surgery didn’t please anyone in the Lakers organization, but they’ll hold the fort down without him. Now, can he stay healthy once he returns? They’ll need Bynum out there come money time. This might be the season in which Pau Gasol gets the credit he deserves as being the Lakers’ best player. I still can’t believe the voters robbed him of the Finals MVP last season. Kobe went 6-24 in the biggest game of his career. Just saying. Nothing else to touch upon with this team, it’s Phil’s last ride, will it be off into the sunset? Hope not. Probably will.
#3 Houston Rockets – I’m finishing up these predictions today, which means I got a chance to watch the Rockets in action last night against the Lakers, and I must say, I’m impressed. Primarily by that explosive back court! Aaron Brooks and Kevin “Drake” Martin can light it up in an instance! I still like the combination of Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis a little better, but the Brooks/Martin duo can do some serious damage. Of course the concern for Houston is if Martin can stay healthy. Over the past few seasons, he’s battled Andrew Bynum neck and neck for the title of “Most Fragile”. I’d put Greg Oden in that conversation too, but I feel sorry for the guy. Speaking of injuries, Yao Ming looked solid in his first regular season action in quite some time. He moved around fairly well, and once he shakes off some of that rust, he should be able to resemble his old self. Hopefully he’s healthier than what he’s letting off, and those “set” minutes slowly increase during the course of the season, because he’s a huge asset to the Rockets. Having Luis Scola makes up for a lot though. Ultimately, good coaching, solid role players, and big upside is why I’m high on the Rockets, but I know having them atop the South West division might be a bit of a stretch.
The Warriors funniest fan as far as trash talking goes… Mistah Fab!
During yesterday’s football Sunday all I could think about was the hoops season that is right around the corner. This years Warriors team is completely different than last year. Aside from Curry, Ellis, Biendris, Reggie Williams, and Branden Wright everyone else is new. Change isn’t a bad thing for us, which started this off season with the arrival of new ownership group, and a sort of new coach (sort of is because he’s been the W’s assistant for seven years). I was a little surprised that the Warriors made this many changes from last years team that we never really saw on the court together. The 2009 unit broke the record for games missed due to injuries, and half of our 9 man roster ended up being D-League call ups. Oh well, maybe management knew something, and this new crop of players can put up huge numbers in the games played column! I guess if you’re a new management team coming in, you’d want to get as far away from the Chris Cohan era as possible, so I don’t blame them for blowing up the team a little. I’m not expecting them to make the playoffs this year. I mean I could see that happening, but that would take a perfect transition with a lot of moving/new parts involved. I’m really just looking for improvement over the season. By had a much more optimistic expectations of them, putting them as the sixth seed in the west. I hope he’s right, but I’ll temper my expectations for the time being! Here’s the Warriors story lines I’m most intrigued with for the year.
David Lee
Lee was our big long term acquisition this off season. I can’t lie, I haven’t seen him play very much. He seems to be a great blue collar type player that will give you Brian Cardinal type effort when he’s out there. In the limited time I’ve seen him play I can’t say he’s great at any one single thing, but very good at everything. It’s refreshing to have Lee and Curry as the franchise face after having quite a few slackers as our stars over the years. I do have one big question for Lee. Is going against true power forwards every night instead of going against centers going to hurt his productivity? While in NY, he was their center, going against opposing centers nightly, which he could out quick 90% of the time. I think that was a reason why he was able to put up such big numbers in scoring and rebounding. Now he will be guarded by quicker and more talented power forwards while also having to contain them on the other end of the floor. I’m not saying centers aren’t athletic, but forwards seem to be a lot more polished presently in today’s NBA. I’m also wondering how the roll on the pick and roll will go with Biens out on the floor. Center’s don’t really need to cover Biens because he has very limited offensive abilities. Will the sagging/cheating center leave Biens to clog up the lane making it tough on Lee to finish? We shall see.
Wow, the NBA season already starts next week! I’m always overly optimistic about my Warriors, and think they will be better than people think, but I always think that so I’ll spare you the preview. I don’t really expect it to be a playoff year for them, but am hoping that we at least find out what our strengths and weaknesses are with this newly formed squadron. I guess my hope is that we don’t have to sign five or six D-League players because the rest of our squad is on the injury report. If you didn’t know I love Curry starting at the point, but he’s been making a lot of turnovers this preseason. Maybe he’s trying to get too fancy with those passes or just isn’t used to his new teammates yet, but it did make this question pop up in my head. Do we even need him to be that great of a passer? David Lee and Ellis are fairly good at passing, so maybe we shouldn’t have the ball in his hands as much as we have been. I guess if Curry’s not worried about it, I shouldn’t be either. Anyways, the real reason for this post wasn’t to figure out how Curry, Lee, and Ellis fit together, it’s about the story lines for this season that I’m excited about that are non-Warriors related.
Too Many Technical Fouls
I wrote awhile back when the new rules for technical fouls came out that it would would ruin and take the emotion out of a game that really needs it. So far this preseason it’s already stirring some controversy. Some players feel that they will adjust to the new rules, while others feel that it’s going too far. I’ll lean towards the going to far side. Stern says that through the NBA’s research, fans want to see less complaining to the officials. This might be somewhat true, but was there a follow up question on that survey that asked if they wanted all emotion taken out of the game? They probably forgot to include that one. Just looking at some of the ejections, you know that this rule is already getting out of hand. I understand if they want to keep guys like Rasheed and Stephen Jackson in check since they constantly bicker with the refs, but when stand up character guys like Grant Hill are getting ejected for a slap on the butt or KG for doing nothing, it’s just bad for the league. I never minded ejections or giving a player a technical if they gave overly emotional reactions, but now are they going to kick guys out for reacting period? Won’t this make the players more passive, and eventually soften the competitive fire? I think so, and I hope some of the true stars in the league push this to the limit. Imagine Kobe, Durant, and Lebron stepping up their arguing this year in a “boycott” of sorts, daring the NBA to throw them out of every game. Does the league want to keep kicking its best athletes out of games? You wouldn’t think so, because that’s bad for everyone from the fans to the players. This feels like worst imaginable way to show that the refs are doing a good job. Now were supposed to believe that if guys aren’t complaining, then the refs aren’t making bad calls? Yeah right, with super slo mo from ten angles we aren’t going to see less crappy calls. As much as they try to convince us that we will like this league better with these rules, they should’ve instead spent that marketing money on training the refs to get the calls right so there’s less complaining. Maybe next year they’ll make a new rule that you aren’t allowed to play defense with your arms!
Bill (but he looks more like a Jeff) Simmons wrote about the teams he was looking forward to seeing in person this season a few days ago. Since big games don’t really come into play as a Clippers fan, it’s all about the other team. What players are you excited to see in new uniforms. What rookies are you looking forward to seeing in their first visit to your city. Which ticking time bomb situations are you hoping to see come to a head, for example last season I was unfortunate enough to see two of three games Allen Iverson would play in his career as a Memphis Grizzly. You can never know when you’ll witness greatness at an NBA game (though the refs always come to play), but you can pick out the games that have the most potential for greatness. That’s what I’m attempting to do here, except I’ve got an extra factor to consider. Alright guys, I’m not gonna lie to you. This is gonna get kinda weird… TWO home teams. Due to extended stints in both Sacramento and San Francisco, the 10-15 games I’ll probably catch this year will be split between Oracle and Arco. Here’s who I’d be most interested to see, though I’m sure I’ll just be happy take what comes my way. Maybe all the more reason to try and build interest….
Ed. note – please keep in mind I was the kid who wasn’t trying to go see Jordan and the Bulls or Magic and the Lakers (though I’d make a point to at least once). So don’t expect to see Miami atop my list 1. Seattle Sonics – Man, I can’t remember there ever being two players who juiced up their floor cred, let alone on the same team, more than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook this season. They’re already coming off an impressive season, and I can’t think of a more exciting team to see this upcoming season. What’s that you say? They left Seattle? They moved where? They’re called the what? Nevermind, I don’t wanna go to that game.
2. New York Knicks – I’ve never been this excited to see the Knicks. I guess they’ve been for long enough that I’m kinda ready for them to be good again. I really like that Amare had the balls to go try and be the man in NYC. I hope he succeeds, but I just don’t think he has enough help yet. I think I’ll try to catch them in Oakland, because there’s the added bonus of seeing Anthony Randolph come back to the Bay and try to show up his old team that traded him. Maybe he’ll succeed, and maybe he’ll embarrass himself, but he’ll damn sure try. That’s what made watching him fun: he might dunk on someone or swat a shot into the 5th row, or he might throw a pass into the 5th row. Either way, he definitely tries. (Except the other 90% of the time when he’s not trying at all). It’ll also be good to see Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike, two of the most liked Warriors, return. Not that Randolph wasn’t liked, but I see him eventually work his way into a villain’s role.
Well, at least none of the players went into the stands, that would’ve been much more tragic. This was supposed to be a friendly exhibition game between China and Brazil yesterday, but there were no friends to be made on this night. It was slightly disturbing to see the fight fire back up by a cheap shot, but then again, that made the clip just that much better! I guess I’d be pretty pissed too if the refs blew a call in a meaningless game. I’m wondering if this is why Allen Iverson seems to be leaning towards playing in Turkey instead of China. Maybe he has gone soft from his gangster ways…
It’s lame that Bynum put off his surgery opting to go to the World Cup instead. Even if he thought it was going to be a less serious surgery, he knew he was going to have surgery. I don’t buy his story that he didn’t know what the recovery time would be, anytime you know you are going under the knife, you get all the details from the doctor on the major points like say, recovery time. It was a bonehead move to say the least. Maybe he just thought, if Favre can do it, why not me?!? In the end, Bynum has never played a full season (35, 50, and 65 games), so why start now?!? It really won’t matter if he’s in the lineup for the first month or two. The Lakers are going to be in the playoffs regardless of what Bynum does to start the year, which makes me question how meaningful the regular season is. The Sports Chump brought up a good point that it comes down to three teams that truly have a shot at winning the title (Lakers, Heat, and Celtics), so why all the fuss. There’s always hope of OKC, Orlando, and Chicago pulling out some miracles, but would you really bet on them? In basketball missing a month or two isn’t the worst thing in the world for a team. It hurts, but when we already know who the title contenders are before the season nearly every year, it’s really a non-story. Maybe it matters if you’re a small team, and want to see LA early in the season while Bynum is still out, but that’s beyond a team’s control.
Baseball’s dated playoff system
The MLB has seen an attendance dip for yet another season. Not too surprising in a season with very little drama, and we ended up hearing about Strasburg for four straight months. Alas, we really only have one interesting race to get in the playoffs in the NL West, and that race is all but over, unless the Padres pull out a miracle in SF. Baseball is in a down year because of its lack of star power, but with all the good looking rookies that broke onto the scene this year, I’d say the future is very bright. It’s been brought up in hundreds of articles that the MLB playoffs should be changed to make it more interesting at the end of the year. I agree with most of them. We have a great race between Tampa and New York, but since home field really doesn’t mean crap in baseball this isn’t, and shouldn’t be getting much attention. Baseball is by far the slowest evolving sport, and has batted around the idea of instant replay for what seems like a decade. We already debated about instant replay, and unless you hate Armando Gallaraga you’d agree that getting the calls right are more important than anything, but the MLB continues to stay behind on the technology curve, and has chosen to stay in the simpler times of cassette tapes and VHS’s. We could upgrade to at least DVD’s and CD’s if we aren’t ready for IPod’s and Blue Rays, but I don’t think Selig’s great grandkids have told him what those are yet. I’d like to see more teams in the playoffs like two more in each league with a total of three wild card teams. Does that diminish the regular season? A little, but there’s ways around that to reward the division winners with some perks. Have the wild card winners play each of the division winners, but start a best of seven series at 2-0 in the division champs favor. Maybe even make the all the games at the division winners home stadium, so they only have to win two of five games to advance. Would that give the Yankees and Rays some incentive to play out this final week? I would certainly think so…
Basketball is around the corner, and I am uberly excited! I hope the Lakers fail and Kobe finally starts to show some wear & tear. I’m intrigued to see how the Miami Thrice unification plays out, 73 wins? Although “Miami Thrice” as a nickname is just lame. But, most importantly, I’m excited for my new look Golden State Warriors! I got high hopes on my boys!
Here’s a little snippet from the Warriors YouTube channel, led by the freshly gold medaled Steph Curry, the Dubs run some basic 3 on 2 and 2 on 1 drills, if I must say so myself, our squad has the look of a playoff team.
PS – I know it’s only rumored … but just in case Lacob & Riley read this, DO NOT TRADE STEPH CURRY EVER!
I’m not usually big on gushing about every new site I run across, but the NBAplaybook.com is the exception to that rule. I spent numerous hours on the site reading most of the myths that they busted. It might not be the site for you if you aren’t into basketball, but yesterday they broke down a subject near and dear to me on whether Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis can play together, which made me want to write a post to recognize this site. Obviously this matchup is a nightmare for any team when they are on offense, but can be exposed when they are on defense. Monta has backed off his original statement from last year which is refreshing, so hopefully the mythbusters are right and they can play well together. If you love analysis and overanalyzing things like free throws, footwork, and Dwight Howards post game, then you will love this site. Just be sure you have some time to read for a bit!
The NBA has decided to expand what rules they will use in handing out Techincal Fouls for the upcoming season. Are they kidding?!? They tried to do something similar last year, but didn’t really stick to it thankfully. It will be grinding my gears all season if they actually stick to these god awful rules that are solely based on a refs opinion! Some of the refs already head hunt for certain players they don’t like, and now they can T them up for looking at them the wrong way! Simply ridiculous! Here’s what officials have been instructed to call Technicals for this coming season;
Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court.
Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands, or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled.
Running directly at an official to complain about a call.
Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone.
Players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure, or say things like, “Come on!”
They can also consider technicals for players who “take the long path to the official”, walking across the court to make their case.
So are they going to turn the players into a bunch of stiffs and mimes? Would yelling at your own teammate like Kobe constantly does a lot get you a T? I’ve always despised the NBA for changing the rules from its heydays where the Detroit bad boys and those mean Knicks teams ruled the 80’s and 90’s with their overly tough play. Those teams were exciting and fun to watch even if I was only 10 years old. I was young, and their style of play didn’t ever offend, scare, or influence me as a boy, it really just showed me what true competitors look like. The NBA took steps to make it tougher on defenders, and I get that, it made sense since some of those games were slightly too physical for a basketball game, and you were constantly wondering when the two tangled up guys were going to fight. Now though, I feel like the league is giving waay too much power to the officials that weren’t all that good to begin with. Shouldn’t the officials be an afterthought rather than the deciding factor? Of course they should, that’s why these rules don’t make sense.
I know Stern is protecting his BFF’s (the refs), so that they can get him the matchups he wants in the playoffs, but stepping up the technicals rules is above and beyond bad. It’s taking the fun out of the game. I don’t want to watch a bunch of robots on the court, unless that’s their style, I’m looking at you Tim Duncan. I like it when guys get fired up and argue calls showing you that they care about winning. If you don’t like any confrontation, maybe you shouldn’t be watching sports, because it’s a big part of every game. I know I get heated when I play pickup games, so I’m sure if a player is getting shafted at their job/on the court they will get pissed too, and rightfully so! I understand rules that protect players from getting injured like how the NFL babies quarterbacks, but what is this supposed to do? Clean up the NBA’s image? I didn’t know that they wanted their image to be as soft as a Justin Bieber song. Sure a lot of the players are “thugs” or trashy people, but who cares, that’s not why we are watching them. We are watching them because of their amazing talents on the court, and if they happen to get pissed off they shouldn’t be penalized in the heat of a battle, unless it’s warranted. I’m not against the technical foul in general, because you need some order, but the new way of handing them out is going to make guys too passive. They already added suspensions for excess technicals during the season. Now for players that probably didn’t deserve a T to begin with are going to be suspended, because they had too many technicals… They will regret implementing these rules in the playoffs when five or six key guys are suspended for games when their tempers are flaring on the ultimate stage.
It was announced all over today that our new Warriors regime (Lacob and Gruber) would like a fresh start this training camp without Don Nelson holding the keys to their new investment. They can’t officially make moves for the team, but they made it clear to Cohan and Co. that they’d like Keith Smart at the helm to start this season. As By said, the Smart era is upon us! As much bashing as Nellie took over the last two seasons it’s hard to remember why they wanted him in the first place, but looking back he was easily my favorite Warriors coach of my lifetime, and for that I thank him for bringing me some joy in the postseason which is more than I can say about any of the other coaches they had.
Growing up people always wondered why I liked the Warriors. It was hard to justify, but in the late 80’s Nellie made me a huge fan throwing together the Run TMC package of Mullin, Hardaway, and Richmond. Sarunas Marcuilloneus is still my favorite international player of all time. From that moment on, I was going to be a Warriors fan for life, and going to their games every time I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa probably added to it as well. He retooled the dubs with Spreewell and Chris Webber after the Run TMC days were over. Nellie’s teams made the playoffs in four out of his seven years as the Warriors coach. Little did I know then that they wouldn’t make the playoffs for a loooong time after he left, because the beginning of the Cohan Era started in 1995.
His second stint with the Warriors was highlighted by his inability to get along with players, and that shouldn’t have come to a surprise to the fans, since he was behind selling Chris Webber away for a poo poo platter after just getting ROY honors. Alas, he did give us a magical season in 2007. It was probably one of the most exciting teams to watch in the league, unless you’re a big fan of defense for some reason. The year after they won the most games of anyone to miss the playoffs, so he still hadn’t lost the team yet, but that offseason he broke everyone up starting with Baron. Even in this day in age where we only remember what was said last, I still love the guy, even though he was the main catalyst behind breaking up two good teams. He gave me the best basketball for my team during my lifetime, and I’m grateful for that no matter whatever other stuff happened. I wish him the best, and hope that the Smart Era isn’t like the Montgomery, Carlesimo, Musselman, and St. Jean Eras. It can’t be worse than them, and it looks like our new owners actually want to acquire talent that fits together. I’m cracking a Bud Light right now just for you Nellie!
It’s no secret, during any sports off season I wish that sport was starting it’s season already. Basketball is no different, and with the World Championships over there’s not a lot of entertaining hoops going on, so instead of heading into the past like MCeezy did, I’ll have to make due with amateur’s playing in a one on one tourney at Alcatraz. The venue makes it more entertaining than it actually might be!
Many thought that the team that Jerry Coangelo & Coach K built and brought to Istanbul was a Silver medal team at best, but I begged to differ. I was never worried, not for one moment that Team USA would fail to bring home the Gold. And on the first NFL Sunday of the season, I celebrate basketball, and what our country accomplished against a good Turkey team.
Why I never faltered in my belief in our team? For one, Coach K is a great, great coach, and aside from the X’s & O’s, he manages egos well. What went on unnoticed during the selection process was the idea of building a “team.” Due to the frenzied free agency that took place this past Summer, it was safe to assume that the top names in basketball would forgo making the trip overseas to play in the FIBA Championships. So Coach K swooped up KD, and basically built a Euro style team around him, with some shooters, hustlers, and speed. Take a look at the team the US presented, and all though there were plenty of All-Stars and franchise cornerstones, they all happily took a back seat to KD and the winning cause. And quite simply put, they became a “team”. Once that was established, KD led the way, Odom held it down, and the cast played their part.
It’s similar to when the US lost in Athens (despite winning a Bronze, we chalk it up as a loss), many threw around the idea of just sending the NBA Champions to the Olympics. At the time, the team would have been the Detroit Pistons, the epitome of a team. There’s no question in my mind that the Pistons would have won Gold that year. Of course, in 2008 the Redeem Team willingly formed to take back what was rightfully ours in Beijing. This time around, we didn’t have the luxury of sending the absolute best players in the planet to Istanbul, so Jerry Coangelo and Coach K basically built the 2004 Detroit Pistons 2.0, bigger and bolder. The team was predicated on defense, and our undersized, scrappy, athletic group of kids shut teams down and suffocated them.
The result, we remain on top of the world in the sport of basketball! USA! USA! USA!
Carmelo (or the media) made it known that he will not be keeping his talents in Denver past this season. He was offered the max three year extension adding about $65M onto his contract to stay with the Nuggets, but all the reports I can find seem to think that since he hasn’t signed it, he isn’t going to. Could be true, could be rumors, but either way it doesn’t sound like Melo is all that into repping the mile high city anymore. Since he has until July of 2011 to sign the extension, I’m not sure why everyone is so sure he will pass up the money. I mean, what if they happen to catch lightning in a bottle and come to terms on a CBA way ahead of schedule? What if Melo finds out he would only be able to make around $10M per year unless he signs his extension before the old CBA expires? Would that make Melo sign his extension and stay since he knows he’d never get the same type of guaranteed money again? I have no idea, nor should I speculate since I’m not an agent or a player that gets to make that kind of decision. All I know is the landscape for the NBA has forever changed in the wake of Lebron’s ill advised decision. The league is already top heavy. Just looking back at the last few decades, the league was either ruled by the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls or Spurs (it feels weird putting the Spurs in there with the other three, but no denying what they did in the Duncan era). The NBA tries hard to preach that there is parody, and I felt that we were getting some parody after the Shaq/Kobe three-peat with new teams winning each year eliminating repeats for a little bit there, but now the landscape feels a lot more clear on who the favorites are again after the Lakers just went back to back. Now, once again isn’t much parody, and it will continue to go that way if superstars keep leaving their teams to join multiple superstars in another uniform. The hostage style takeovers of these teams during contract extensions and free agency is getting a little ridiculous. I feel like the players have all of the power, and while it’s hard to argue that they shouldn’t have the power since they are drawing the crowds, but I think we’ve fallen too far that way. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but give franchises that have the top flight players more power to be able to keep them there or at least make it much tougher for them to decide to leave. Continue reading
Despite getting absolutely destroyed by Chicago tonight, my Golden State Warriors currently hold a 6-3 record going into Saturday’s game in Milwaukee. Things to note: Keith Smart appears to be an excellent coach, who seems to understand today’s players. Steph Curry has not fallen into the Sophomore slump. David Lee is the right acquisition for this team. Dorrell Wright is the perfect acquisition for this team. And finally, the team chemistry is at an all time high. I love this squad. All praise the “Smart” era!
John Wall and Blake Griffin are fresh, new and exciting! Like seeing Tony Hawk execute the 900 during the first X Games exciting! At this point, I don’t see either the Wizards or the Clippers making a playoff push, but the race for Rookie of the Year will only continue to heat up! When it’s all said and done, I believe John Wall will edge out Griffin due to the fact that he can do the feminine version of the “Dougie”.
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cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 