basketball092

Random, disconnected, distracted thoughts... E-mail
Written by TBF   
Thursday, 21 January 2010 21:30
nbaAS2010The Dallas Shootaround aka "NBA All-Star Game" is coming up and I for one am so happy to see Ray Allen sees it for the farce that it is. No longer are the "best" players picked to battle it out for conference supremacy, but instead we have the best "marketed" players battling it out for... for... ummm... well no reason really.
I honestly don't think the All-Star MVP is an award worth winning anymore, and hardly something that can soothe the lack of a championship ring. For those capable of remembering - think back to 1991 when Magic came out of retirement to play in the All-Star game and beat an almost unbeatable East team... That's when the game & MVP award mattered.

blairSpeaking of which, in an effort to raise more revenue/dumb down the sport... and suck even more meaning out of the "mid season study break" there's now a thing called the Rookie Challenge.
This year I'm actually more excited about this game than I am about the "Yao-Ming's-a-starter-for-life-because-the-fans-have-too-much-power" game.
And for once - I actually think the Rooks will take the Sophs down, which hasn't been achieved since a certain draft class containing a certain James/Anthony/Bosh went through and murdered their predecessors. Personally I think Rose and Lopez will play well, but Curry/Evans/Blair/Jennings/Casspi will smash them to shreds.  Well, that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Spoke to a friend in Washington who says Gil is done for the season but will be back for next season... assuming someone wants a player for $111 mill... unlikely, huh?...
Personally I think Gil is done - or will come back as a shadow of his former self. Which he's already done once, so a shadow of the shadow of his former self. Go figure.
There's something about the Eastern Conference playing style that isn't conducive to winning. Sorry, but teams like Indiana, Chicago, and Detroit should be doing better. Throw Milwaukee in there as well.
nateFunnily enough, there's one team that SHOULD be losing and is not: New York.  And they play like a Western Conference team.  Makes sense why they're winning then.
Also consider that the Western Conference has 11 teams above .500 and 2 that are very, very close.  From a historical perspective, one could contend it's like watching the ABA and NBA franchises in different conferences (West being the ABA and the East being the NBA). For those that don't remember, the ABA was run 'n' gun whilst the old school NBA was bogged down in defense, high foul counts, and damning boredom for all involved.

I think Washington are going to be ok.  Randy Foye is nice.  Mike Miller should go with Jamieson before the deadline, as should Butler.  Leaving Blatche, Haywood, Young and McGee.
Assuming that get quality back, and they should in at least one instance, they are a mid-range East team still.  And then they hope that they get John Wall...

DeJuan Blair went for 20/28 the other day while Duncan sat out and hauled the Spurs past the ever improving Thunder. Why is that impressive???
No rookie has done that since Tim Duncan. Before that it was no rookie since David Robinson, and before that, Olajuwon. See a pattern??? Casspi is nice, Jebreko was under-rated because of skin pigmentation, but Blair truly is the steal of the draft.

James Harden is the shit.
Don't believe me? Numbers not impressive enough? Too inconsistent?
Well anyone would be if on a team that had Westbrook, Durant and Green whilst being given sporadic minutes, and often in a defensive capacity.  But Harden is "Eric Gordon plus" in my opinion because if you were to transfer him to the Clips, give him Gordon's minutes, and lose the Butler/Kaman et al that Gordon played WITHOUT last season you'd see that not only would Harden easily get the 18 ppg Gordon averaged, but he'd probably also get 2 steals, 5 boards and 4 assists.
Kinda scary. Can't wait until they trade Green to give this young fella the green light!!!!!

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Comments (4)Add Comment
with-malice
Summarizing some thoughts on this...
written by Don (With Malice...), January 22, 2010
Do you really think that the Rookies will beat the Sophs?
I mean: Sophomores = Love/Lopez/Hibbert/Thompson/Love/Beasley/Gallinari/Mayo/Gordon/Rose/Westbrook...
I don't see Curry/Evans/Blair/Jennings/Casspi getting it done.

And oh yeah, where's Wade???
0
RvsS
written by TBF, January 27, 2010
You point out some nice players there - the problem I see is that the Sophs are full of Bigs and no smalls, where as the Rooks are well suited for the run n gun of the all-star weekend. Should be a better game than the All-Snooze anyways....

I also see Blair getting 30 boards....
0
...
written by LIVES, February 07, 2010
NICE CHANGE. VERY NICE.

But that menacing look was appropriate too. LOL
with-malice
Hey...
written by Don (With Malice), February 07, 2010
Thanks man... I think this is a more accurate 'picture' of what the site is!

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