I love what (LeBron) does on the court when the ball is moving, the offense is being run, he’s in the open court, he chases people down, etc. I really, really don’t love what he does when he takes the ball and runs a 22 second iso play. I don’t love when somebody touches him and the world ends.
When the team is losing and he’s busy whining and thinking about one call and not getting back in the game, I draw the line. It was clear in the Washington game. It was blatantly clear last night. I don’t know about the games in between because I didn’t see them, but maybe similar things happened in between. All I know is I want the guy that I like to show up, and not the guy that likely things he can part Lake Erie (OR THE HUDSON RIVER OMGGGGG) just by walking towards it.
It’s like LeBron spent two years building up credit with public opinion and since the clocked ticked 0:00 in Game 6 he’s been blowing it like Antoine Walker at the Wynn. Not shaking hands, not meeting with the media, the MVP shirt, the incessant whining, the jersey retirement silliness, and all the “I don’t want to talk about free agency. Have you seen my new Yankees shoes while I’m in town for the Yankees parade?” business.
You can tell great blogs from good ones with how they approach the weaknesses of their best players. It’s hard to say that LeBron’s whining too much, that Ben Gordon’s sucking up too many possessions, that Joe Johnson should handcuff himself if he’s cold, that Dwight needs to play with more focus, that (insert Kobe criticism that Lakers fans will violently rebel against even if it’s blatantly obvious because they cannot deal with the idea of Kobe ever having a bad game). So this is mostly a sign of how good WFNY is, day in and day out. It’s also something to file away for when the collective Cleveland fanbase is on the psychiatrists’ couch dealing with abandonment issues (to go along with an inferiority complex and PTFD – post-traumatic fan disorder).
Larry Brown has a message for Allen Iverson: don’t give up.
Iverson’s former coach said Friday he thinks the 10-time All-Star “still has a passion to play” and shouldn’t retire. An online report this week indicated Iverson had decided to end his career after receiving little interest from NBA teams.
Brown, who coached Iverson in Philadelphia when he was voted league MVP in 2001 while leading the 76ers to the NBA finals, said he’s been trying to get in touch with him.
“Anybody that knows him understands how much he loves to play,” said Brown, now coaching the Charlotte Bobcats.
In the preseason, when Iverson was shopping himself, Brown talked about his former All-Star and said that he didn’t think Charlotte would be a good location because they weren’t competing for a championship. And while that’s definitely true, shouldn’t you still, you know, NOT say that in public? Just sends kind of a downer message to a team that you need to fight in every game. Now comes Brown talking about Iverson after passing on him when no one else would take him, which would have provided him an ideal situation, advising him not to give up. Brown’s been very involved in Iverson’s career this year, talking to his management team when he left the Grizzlies. Yet he’s not bringing him onto his team.
I’m not saying he’s got to avoid saying anything about other teams. He’s an elder statesman for the league and has been around long enough to do what he wants. But if he wants to be mentoring a player he’s not coaching, should he be coaching? The Bobcats need his attention and he seems focused on a former player’s career being extended elsewhere.
Although NBA teams haven’t shown all that much interest in Rod Benson in the past few years he spent in the D-League—at least not in the tangible form of an actual call-up—he’s still a player to keep an eye on due to the terrific rebounding ability and underrated basketball IQ he brings to the floor. He’s added weight to his skinny frame (the main thing holding him back) and was simply excellent in the Indiana Pacers training camp from what they told us. Teams might like to see him show more of a mid-range jump-shot this year, something he’s only displayed small flashes of in the past. Will this be the year that the Boom Tho movement hits the NBA?
Desmon Farmer has some NBA experience under his belt—he’s made the final cut in both Seattle and San Antonio—and will surely be one of the best scorers in the D-League again this year. He plays with a frenetic energy (probably overly so at times) and is capable of both getting to the rim or making shots from beyond the arc—which is more than most wing players in this league can say. He would be wise to exert more energy on the defensive end of the ball this season and show that he can play mistake-free, team oriented basketball (he can be very turnover prone at times) if he wants to prove that he can play a role in the NBA. We put him at the 3 in our lineup more out of necessity than anything.
Farmer’s 28, so he’s outside of the upside range, which is a shame. He’s got so much natural talent on offense, and has never been able to limit his turnovers and commit on defense. Still, I can’t see any reason why Reno shouldn’t win their division easily, with the talent they have on board, barring call-ups or injury.
The Vipers actually outscored the Toros in the second quarter and were down by just one at the half, but Alonzo Gee finished with 24 points on 15 shots and Dwayne Jones had 11 points and 12 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end. Curtis Jerrells was a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line, but he shot just 3-11 from the field and finished with just three assists in 40 minutes to go along with six turnovers. Wherefore art thou, Marcus Williams? Jerrells, and by extension the Toros, are going to have to figure this out, because even though they won the signs weren’t entirely positive, and that starts with the ball distribution. Seven assists on 32 made field goals is pretty terrible. The team also made just one three-pointer out of nine attempts and was out-rebounded 39-48.
Williams is headed to China, actually, after the Spurs once again found themselves too loaded to have room for him. Depressing.
That said, you’ll notice the Toros winning a lot of games this year with the same formula. Rebounding, smart shooting, effective defense. Sound familiar?
Gee is the guy the Spurs wanted in this system, and we’ll have to see if he’s a D-League staple or a guy they want to work on to bring up. He can ask Marcus Williams how that can turn out sometimes.
In the end, this is the problem with the Bosh-Andrea Bargnani tandem: there is little muscle there, and the top teams in the East all have a lot of muscle. Boston is a perfect example. To beat them, the Raptors have to shoot the lights out and pray the Celtics have trouble hitting their own attempts. That’s not a winning formula, in November or in April. That’s why Reggie Evans had been seen as so important to this team — he’s a burly beast unafraid to mix it up on the floor, on the boards and on defense. But Evans hasn’t played a second this season owing to injury, and Bosh (as amazing a player he is) and Bargnani (a fantastic shooter) just have no answer for the Pierces, the Dwights, the LeBrons, the Horfords.
Bosh seems to understand this, later telling Feschuk he’s tired of talking about toughness. He seems to realize that this team will never be tough, not with this line-up. I hate to transmute a bit of November frustration into a prediction for the future, but there is a bit of resignation in Bosh’s reaction, and I’m sure you can completely discount that when looking at July 1.
So which one’s it on? Bosh or Bargnani? It’s obviously Bargnani. Of all centers playing at least 25 minutes per game, Bargnani is the second lowest in total rebounding ratio. Mehmet Okur is blasting him. In steals, blocks, and charges? Bargnani is last.
I love the big guy. I do. Bargnani’s size and touch is incredible. But you cannot put him next to Bosh. It just doesn’t work. No one criticizes Carlos Boozer as much as I do, but the guy gets glass, so that Mehmet Okur can hang out on the perimeter as much as he wants. You have to have skill guys. You can talk about toughness all you want, but if you don’t have guys who are skilled at basketball, you’ll fail just the same. You have to achieve a balance.
That said, Bargnani and Bosh simply isn’t a capable frontcourt tandem. You’ve got both guys that need to be focused on offense. You need one premier block offensive guy and one clean-up banger. Neither of those guys is it.
“Every year people can say that all those guys who were in the top 15 in the draft or the top 10, discussed about where we were or who we should take, Brandon Jennings was probably the least talked about because he had been overseas and hadn’t played very well. But everyone thought that Tyreke (Evans) was going to be a good player, and Johnny Flynn. You had (James) Harden. All the guys who were up there drafted were discussed and debated. With our team the way it was last year, we felt we needed to add some wing players and we needed to add some defensive players. Hasheem was the guy who was blocking all the shots in college and we felt like he would be able to do that in the NBA and still feel that way. He’s probably further behind than all of those guys and you are going to get a lot of debate on us taking this guy or that guy because big guys usually do take a little bit more time. The fact that his inexperience in the games lends for him to be even further behind, but I think that he has come a long ways, he has played well when he is in there. He gets a lot of bogus opportunities, he just walks into the fouls, he pushes people and he’s so big. He commits fouls that in a year or two he won’t be committing. But those other guys are good players, that’s just the way the draft goes and you have to live with the decisions that you make. Hopefully he will pan out the way we think he will, we believe that. He’s not going to be the dominant 30 point scorer, but we think that we had scoring and needed something else to shore up the rest of our game and he’s done that so far.”
I don’t think it was wrong to draft Hasheem Thabeet. I think it was wrong to draft Hasheem Thabeet with the number two pick overall with so many impact players available. But what else are they going to say? “No, we definitely screwed up, should have taken Evans/Jennings/Harden/Rubio/ANYONE ELSE? You can’t go down that road. So you’ll continue to hear about them developing the kid, even though he wasn’t anywhere near ready for the NBA game coming out of college.
The Grizzlies are starting to actually play well. Just imagine how good they could be if they hadn’t wasted the #2 overall pick.
A.I. never adapted. And while “me against the world” is admirable when it truly is you against the world, at some point you have to realize that you have four other guys with you, on your side, against the world. And they’re not interested in fighting your fight. They’re interested in winning the game.
And that hurts. Iverson accomplished quite a bit, but I’ll never shake the feeling that so much was left unaccomplished. That he could have learned so much and contributed so much to this game had he not decided to essentially flatline in his early 20s.
Two years ago, the Nuggets are in a late season fight with the Warriors for the last playoff spot. Every single game matters. Every possession is life and death. The Nuggets are at home against the Kings. There’s a Kings turnover and Iverson gets the ball on the right baseline at half court on the break. Kleiza is sprinting down the left side, he’s also ungaurded, wide open, and has 20+ points. If Iverson passes to him, it’s an easy two. He does not. He elects instead to try and force his way into traffic with two defenders guarding him, then waits for Carmelo Anthony to catch up, who is also being defended. Carmelo misses the layup. The Kings run the break and score at the other end.
It’s not just that he failed to pass to Kleiza, which looked very much like a decision and not a matter of failing to see him. It’s that it flies in what is such an instinctive and simple decision: pass to the open guy whose closest to the basket. I’m not going to say I pity Iverson, because I honestly don’t believe he thinks he should have done anything different. He make the choice to do things his way. And he never wavered. If you make that choice, you live with the consequences, but never have to say you wavered.
I’m not saying Celtics are now playing as well as they did to start to the 07-08 season. I’m just saying that the 07-08 team played unevenly, too, and that any memories of complete dominance are inaccurate. I also think that a team comprised of veterans sees little to gain from trying to put away a game in the first half. It wastes a lot of energy, and often times doesn’t accomplish the objective. It would be nice to see this team start to mesh and post some sizable blowouts. But the first real test will come between Nov 29 and Jan 20, when the team plays 16 of 22 games on the road. That’s when we will start to see what this team is made of.
Boston fans are almost entirely devoid of panic. They’re still winning, after all. And as the above article outlines, there’s no reason to play revisionist historian and believe the championship ’08 squad was dominant from the get go. No reason to be concerned until the season really gets going.
This leads to another discussion, however, which is how different things look after you’ve established yourself as “the best.” The ’08 Celtics were taken to the limit by the Atlanta Hawks in a much worse incarnation that what currently takes the floor. Then they struggled with LeBron’s weapon-less Cavs, going again to seven games. From there they took care of the Pistons in six and of course ran the Lakers out of the building in most of their games, even as it took them 6 games.
The Lakers, on the other hand, looked sluggish and lost at times versus the Jazz who were vastly outmatched. Then the infamous Rockets serious which was, to be honest, pretty embarrassing. The number one seed going down by 40 at one point and getting ran out of the building against a team missing its two best players? But, then, they won, didn’t they? And convincingly in the deciding game, returning the favor and running the Rockets out of Staples. Then, similarly, a more-dominant-than-the-number-of-games win over the Nuggets, and complete control over the Magic.
But last season before Christmas the Celtics looked absolutely invincible, rolling over opponents and people penciled them in for June. Boston fans will, of course, scream “KG!” at the top of their lungs. But Christmas was the point where you first saw that last year’s Celtics wasn’t at the level they needed to be. That was then reinforced when the Lakers won in overtime in February.
So the Celtics could be dominating teams left and right, and if they’re the last team standing in June, no one will remember that they struggled with New York and Philadelphia, that the Hawks rolled them or that Orlando outran them from the start. Just the same, if the Lakers somehow, magically, don’t run away with the title, we won’t look at how beautifully they’rep laying now, but say how you could see the cracks in their armor in losses to Houston and abject annihilations like what Denver did to them, completely obliterating them in every phase of the game.
This is not to say that these games don’t matter. I hate that contention which I hear on a daily basis. If it’s April and you’re looking at traveling to Orlando versus being at home for a Game 7, even after Orlando took care of them in their own house, and there’s a game separating them, they’ll want these wins. If the Lakers are coming into another Western Conference Finals matchup with Denver, and discover that they let the Nuggets win the regular season matchup and in doing so convince them that they’re the better, team, those games will matter. Seeding matters, from who you wind up against (Houston versus Utah, Phoenix versus Dallas), to where the games are played. The trick is to try and determine which games will offer some window to their futures.
Put down your credit card, pull out that extra turkey leg, fire up the League Pass and get to work.
You’ve got games to watch!
HEY! You stole our record! (Wizards at Heat, 7:00PM EST) Three years ago, the Wizards looked to be on the rise, the Heat seemed to be treading water, and the idea of Gilbert Arenas versus Dwyane Wade seemed like Must See TV. Fast forward a couple of years and the Heat are sporting a much better record, Gilbert is struggling to figure out if his alter ego is his actual ego, and Dwyane Wade is going to try to drop the Wizards to 4-10. I was sure that the Wizards would bounce back this year and have a fantastic season. Instead, they’re the equivalent of a nice fantasy basketball team that is stuck near the bottom of the standings because you can never get them to all put it together for an extended period of time.
We’re not even going to have a basketball game. We’re more athletic than you. It’s American Gladiators time! Winner gets the nickname “Two Scoops.” (Hawks at 76ers, 7:00PM EST)
I’m pretty serious here. Between Josh Smith, Thad Young, and Andre Iguodala, I’m giving the nickname “Two Scoops” to whoever has the best dunk of the night or the most dominating performance of the night or a combination of the two. I’m really sad for this Sixers team because they now have zero point guards with Lou Williams out. So Iggy has to probably be the primary playmaker. That’s not a bad thing but I’d like to keep him on the wing and in attack mode. As for Atlanta, they should be fresh for this game, considering they left their loss to Orlando and skipped the second half.
Hey, we’re 5-1 since Shaq went down! Tell the big guy to take his time! (Cavs at Bobcats, 7:30PM EST) I imagine that at this point in their careers, Gerald Wallace has initiated the same conversation with LeBron James:
Gerald would love to know LBJ’s secret and tips.
On Thanksgiving, you guys probably put maple syrup on your turkey and mashed potatoes. Wait…what do you mean you DON’T celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? (Raptors at Celtics, 7:30PM EST)
This should be a marquee matchup between the two best teams in the Atlantic division. Toronto should be more fun to watch than they are and the Celtics should be much better than they are. But all of their shortcomings will be forgiven if we get more Kevin Garnett cheering for Joe Calderon.
Literally, I wouldn’t watch 10 minutes of this game unless you can assure me Will Bynum is going off. (Clippers at Pistons, 8:00PM EST) Turn on this game and if Will Bynum isn’t going off, the amount of time you spend watching this game will prove either your love of the NBA, your boredom on a Friday night, or your justification for owning a Ben Gordon jersey.
Watching Rodrigue Beaubois attacking a basket in which Roy Hibbert is guarding and trying to figure out whom I want to win is the equivalent of picking your favorite kid. (Mavericks at Pacers, 8:00PM EST) You’re essentially asking me to choose between Rob Mahoney and Jared Wade here. I simply won’t do it. This is what Archie Manning feels like when he watches his sons fire up Madden 10 during family get-togethers.
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. (Spurs at Rockets, 8:30PM EST) The Spurs still haven’t won on the road this season. They’re 0-4 away from the beautiful confines of San Antonio. This doesn’t bode well any time soon when forecasting their rodeo trip in February. At the same time, it’s only four games and they’re bound to start getting the job done on the road – especially against this Rockets team. The Rockets team is really cute, kind of like one of those old Furbies. They’re cuddling. They make you feel good. But it’s hard to find a reason to think they’ll change your life.
We do the up-tempo thing too, except we actually score points and win games. You should try it sometime. (Knicks at Nuggets, 9:00PM EST) I’ve looked into the future and recorded a scene from this Knicks-Nuggets game tonight. The Knicks are showing their weapons, trying to bully and scare the Nugs with false toughness. While Nene is hiding behind some barrels and waiting for his chance to attack, Chauncey Billups is waiting to jump out from the shack and open fire on the Knicks. And you’ve got Carmelo Anthony trying to trick the Knicks with his best Mandarin Chinese before he lays down the law. All the while, Earl “JR” Smith is shirtless and trying to pull his gun out of his speedo. It’s just another typical Knicks-Nuggets matchup.
Somebody unplug the Brandon Jennings hype machine! It’s taking over the world! (Bucks at Thunder, 9:30PM EST) You bumped Suns and Wolves in order to put Brandon Jennings and Kevin Durant on national TV? You thought THAT was a good idea? Holy crap, this is the equivalent of the Raptors in Jurassic Park figuring out how to open doors. They’re evolving!
I’d like to surrender my bet. (Suns at T’Wolves, 9:30PM EST)
I can’t take it anymore as a Wolves fan. It’s just too hard. I need Kevin Love to return and I need Ricky Rubio to come in, guns a blazing as he rides in on a white horse with a flowing mane of hair and no-look passes that disarm the defensive efforts of the Wolves’ opponents. I wonder how Ricky is doing right now. He’s probably not taking any awkward photo shoots. He’s probably just concentrating on his game and looking to make himself better for when he’s in ‘Sota, right? Right? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
It’s called disclosure, you d%$^head! (Grizzlies at Blazers, 10:00PM EST) The Blazers have a lot of young, good players and it’s helped Portland become a fantastic team and a power in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies have a lot of young, good players and it’s helped them become an abhorrent team that is near the bottom of the Western Conference. It would be great if the Grizzlies could take a look at Portland’s files.
You always remember your first…especially, when it means you avoid historic win virginity. (Nets at Kings, 10:00PM EST) You watch this for the same reason you watched the movie Saw or Hostel. You’re slightly interested in seeing someone be tortured and you love horror films. You would love for the protagonist to make it out alive but if that doesn’t happen, you’re okay with that too. The Nets winning would be great for them and it could even save Lawrence Frank’s job for now. But at the same time, you love watching them lose because it gets them closer to historic failure. Three more losses in a row and they’re the worst team in NBA history to start a season.
