08-09 Season Early Thoughts: 75 Games to go!
Guest entry by Drew.
LBJ!
Barring injury or freak mono diagnosis, Lebron’s on his way to claiming his first MVP. After averaging a 30-8-8 last season and taking his team to the finals single-handedly two years ago, you’re probably wondering what took him so long. Maybe it was because we knew he could be this good so we didn’t want to spoil him without making him earn it, maybe it was getting a taste of Olympic gold or maybe he finally realized that you have to win first to become a Global Icon. Either way, he’s putting up freakish numbers right now and doesn’t even seem like he’s begun to hit his stride, not to mention the fact that Mo Williams is a godsend for him and this team, if they can make a quality move mid-season and LBJ doesn’t hit the brakes, they’ll be hard to knock off in the playoffs. Of course, if wisdom holds true, the player that should’ve won it the year before gets it this time, which means Chris Paul owns it and I’m not complaining about that considering my mancrush and also that he just broke a Big O record for consecutive season opening double-doubles (points, assists). In the end, whoever’s leading the best team gets it.
The Win-Win Trade
Dealing Marcus Camby for some cap space was financially prudent but not pleasing to your fan base or helping your porous defense. Bringing in Billups, a true point that plays D, is a leader with the ring to prove it and will accentuate of all your young lackadaisical superstar’s positives, great move. Antonio McDyess ain’t no slouch either, even if he is about to file for retirement. Meanwhile, AI just breathed new life into a Detroit franchise that wasn’t necessarily on the respirator (1 championship, 6 eastern conference playoff appearances in a row, 6 50+ win teams) but certainly needed a revitalization to stay relevant in an improved East. Now after making the flashy trade, Detroit is the new Boston. There will be some stumbling points as the team gets used to AI but once they settle on a solid core of Stuckey-AI-Hamilton-Prince-Wallace-Johnson-Maxiel, they’ll be able to play with the best of them. They may not win the Central division but no one will want to see them in the first round. Everyone wins with this trade, AI’s in a better situation to get a ring, without competing for shots against ‘Melo and Chauncey becomes the hometown hero of a team in need of a leader. Most of all, the fan bases and lovers of basketball win with this move, Detroit was headed for another penultimate season and Denver was lucky if they got an 8th seed, first-round exit. For now, they’re both back in the picture. Oh yeah, and the rumors about this being a part of Dumars’ secret plan to land Lebron in 2010, please can it. Global Icon’s not going there unless it’s a road game with the Knicks, Nets or Lakers (and maybe Miami) in 2010. If he plays for Detroit, I will start wearing hats regularly, eat one and then wear mutton chops and a mohawk for a year.
Is Atlanta for real?
I haven’t had a chance to watch anything specific other than highlights but you notice something important with a box score like ATL 87 NO 79. Atlanta plays defense?! We shouldn’t be shocked. On paper they’re a decent team, Al Horford’s one of those second year guys who’s going to look a seasoned vet by the end of the season (e.g. Kevin Durant, Jose Calderon), Joe Johnson’s finally playing like he should’ve been since leaving Phoenix, Mike Bibby’s still got some life left in him and Josh Smith is a freak of nature. Not to mention Billy Knight is out of the picture so everything’s better for everyone. Keep an eye out for ATL on your league pass.
The Team-Building Injury
Right before Tony Parker got injured, he pretty much said, “F it, I’m that good and I’ll carry this team if I have to”, when he went off for 55 pts., 10 assts.. Why? Because before that, his team could barely score enough points to play against the Blazers. Now that he’s down, it’s time for Coach Pop to take all his bench guys that haven’t been more than casual role players and mold them into beasts. Their record won’t show it but by the time Tony and Manu return, the Spurs will be another whole new team. They’ll get by hovering around .500 with Duncan and their character guys like Dirty Kurt Thomas and Sweep-The-Leg Bowen but then Matt Bonner, Desmon Farmar, Roger Mason, Ime Udoka and George Hill are going to have to play. You could see it during that Blazers game, Pop pretty much gave his bench the ball and said step up or step off. If you think the Spurs are done then you don’t know how good Pop is or why the Spurs are a dynasty and why I hate them so much for it. They’ll be the 7-8 seed no one wants to face.
The Oden Injury
This isn’t exactly a team-building injury but it does allow the team that was pretty good last year to keep up their chemistry without making room for one more. I’m not saying it’s great in the long run but for the start of the season, everyone needs to find a groove. If the Blazers have a fault it’s too much depth and parity. You almost need Oden and Martell Webster out for a bit so that everyone else get some playing time. Hopefully Oden plays the rest of the season and well because Joe Pryzbilla isn’t exactly a franchise center to build on but I will say this, at this point the Knicks totally fleeced the Blazers for Zach Randolph. Not really, Channing Frye has become a great 6th man, but since they got rid of Z-Bo in regards to Oden, then yes, they did. He may have C cups and skip out on a game or two to hit up the strip club but at least he’s not one more injury away from earning the nickname Mr. Glass. Gotta love Z-Bo!
Non-NBA Rant:
I’ll keep this short. NFL Network, you suck and no one’s willing to pay for you. Go ahead and take a few games a year, just do it with these clear rules in mind:
LBJ!
Barring injury or freak mono diagnosis, Lebron’s on his way to claiming his first MVP. After averaging a 30-8-8 last season and taking his team to the finals single-handedly two years ago, you’re probably wondering what took him so long. Maybe it was because we knew he could be this good so we didn’t want to spoil him without making him earn it, maybe it was getting a taste of Olympic gold or maybe he finally realized that you have to win first to become a Global Icon. Either way, he’s putting up freakish numbers right now and doesn’t even seem like he’s begun to hit his stride, not to mention the fact that Mo Williams is a godsend for him and this team, if they can make a quality move mid-season and LBJ doesn’t hit the brakes, they’ll be hard to knock off in the playoffs. Of course, if wisdom holds true, the player that should’ve won it the year before gets it this time, which means Chris Paul owns it and I’m not complaining about that considering my mancrush and also that he just broke a Big O record for consecutive season opening double-doubles (points, assists). In the end, whoever’s leading the best team gets it.
The Win-Win Trade
Dealing Marcus Camby for some cap space was financially prudent but not pleasing to your fan base or helping your porous defense. Bringing in Billups, a true point that plays D, is a leader with the ring to prove it and will accentuate of all your young lackadaisical superstar’s positives, great move. Antonio McDyess ain’t no slouch either, even if he is about to file for retirement. Meanwhile, AI just breathed new life into a Detroit franchise that wasn’t necessarily on the respirator (1 championship, 6 eastern conference playoff appearances in a row, 6 50+ win teams) but certainly needed a revitalization to stay relevant in an improved East. Now after making the flashy trade, Detroit is the new Boston. There will be some stumbling points as the team gets used to AI but once they settle on a solid core of Stuckey-AI-Hamilton-Prince-Wallace-Johnson-Maxiel, they’ll be able to play with the best of them. They may not win the Central division but no one will want to see them in the first round. Everyone wins with this trade, AI’s in a better situation to get a ring, without competing for shots against ‘Melo and Chauncey becomes the hometown hero of a team in need of a leader. Most of all, the fan bases and lovers of basketball win with this move, Detroit was headed for another penultimate season and Denver was lucky if they got an 8th seed, first-round exit. For now, they’re both back in the picture. Oh yeah, and the rumors about this being a part of Dumars’ secret plan to land Lebron in 2010, please can it. Global Icon’s not going there unless it’s a road game with the Knicks, Nets or Lakers (and maybe Miami) in 2010. If he plays for Detroit, I will start wearing hats regularly, eat one and then wear mutton chops and a mohawk for a year.
Is Atlanta for real?
I haven’t had a chance to watch anything specific other than highlights but you notice something important with a box score like ATL 87 NO 79. Atlanta plays defense?! We shouldn’t be shocked. On paper they’re a decent team, Al Horford’s one of those second year guys who’s going to look a seasoned vet by the end of the season (e.g. Kevin Durant, Jose Calderon), Joe Johnson’s finally playing like he should’ve been since leaving Phoenix, Mike Bibby’s still got some life left in him and Josh Smith is a freak of nature. Not to mention Billy Knight is out of the picture so everything’s better for everyone. Keep an eye out for ATL on your league pass.
The Team-Building Injury
Right before Tony Parker got injured, he pretty much said, “F it, I’m that good and I’ll carry this team if I have to”, when he went off for 55 pts., 10 assts.. Why? Because before that, his team could barely score enough points to play against the Blazers. Now that he’s down, it’s time for Coach Pop to take all his bench guys that haven’t been more than casual role players and mold them into beasts. Their record won’t show it but by the time Tony and Manu return, the Spurs will be another whole new team. They’ll get by hovering around .500 with Duncan and their character guys like Dirty Kurt Thomas and Sweep-The-Leg Bowen but then Matt Bonner, Desmon Farmar, Roger Mason, Ime Udoka and George Hill are going to have to play. You could see it during that Blazers game, Pop pretty much gave his bench the ball and said step up or step off. If you think the Spurs are done then you don’t know how good Pop is or why the Spurs are a dynasty and why I hate them so much for it. They’ll be the 7-8 seed no one wants to face.
The Oden Injury
This isn’t exactly a team-building injury but it does allow the team that was pretty good last year to keep up their chemistry without making room for one more. I’m not saying it’s great in the long run but for the start of the season, everyone needs to find a groove. If the Blazers have a fault it’s too much depth and parity. You almost need Oden and Martell Webster out for a bit so that everyone else get some playing time. Hopefully Oden plays the rest of the season and well because Joe Pryzbilla isn’t exactly a franchise center to build on but I will say this, at this point the Knicks totally fleeced the Blazers for Zach Randolph. Not really, Channing Frye has become a great 6th man, but since they got rid of Z-Bo in regards to Oden, then yes, they did. He may have C cups and skip out on a game or two to hit up the strip club but at least he’s not one more injury away from earning the nickname Mr. Glass. Gotta love Z-Bo!
Non-NBA Rant:
I’ll keep this short. NFL Network, you suck and no one’s willing to pay for you. Go ahead and take a few games a year, just do it with these clear rules in mind:
- No more Thursday games, it doesn’t work for an NFL team trying to prepare and stay healthy. Unless it’s the season opener, leave Thursdays to college. Saturdays are cool.
- Non-conference games only. It happened last year with Cowboys-Packers and it’s even more critical this time with Jets-Pats battling for first. I know their actual fan bases can watch it locally but still, as I said, no one wants your network. Now you’re forcing some Patriot or Jet fan who lives outside of the Northeast to go to a bar with a satellite dish and an HDTV to drink beer, eat food and socialize while watching football on a Thursday night. How dare you!
posted by Gen at
7:51 AM
2 Comments:
It is pretty clear to me that Dumars' was thinking about the summer of '10 when he made the Billups/McDyess for Iverson deal. Maybe you're right and there is no way Bron Bron doesn't end up on a coast. But what about Bosh, Wade, Amare, Dirk et. al? You don't think that Dumars has designs on a Stuckey/Bosh or STAT duo for the next great Pistons team? Saying that there is no way that the Pistons get Bron, therefore Dumars wasn't thinking ahead is pretty shortsighted, IMHO.
Trade helps out Nuggets so much more in the short term. Iverson is terribly overrated -- he's exciting to watch, but his style of play hurts teams more than it helps, especially on D -- and Billups is just what the Nuggets need (someone to distribute the ball and let Melo blossom). But long term, that is a smart move by Dumars. They weren't going to win any time soon, so he frees up a ton cap space for a couple of huge free agent years.
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