Around the League

Today I want to do something a little different.  I wanna jump around the league and go over the most recent happenings in the NBA.  A lot of interesting stuff has gone on in the last week, so let's take a look around.  You ready? Here we go.

In Boston the other night, Kris Humprhies and Rajon Rondo showed that NBA players still fight like Regina George and Lindsey Lohan in Mean Girls.  Or, two cats playing Pattycake.

Whether its Kobe Bryant and this guy randomly flailing at each other in the early 2000's...

Or the Knicks and Nuggets in this tackle/tickle fight a couple years back...

As you can see, NBA players have never been mistaken for professional boxers.  And Wednesday night's brawl between Mr. Kardashian and Rajon Rondo only reaffirmed it and showed little improvement on the part of NBA player's fighting prowess.  Rondo goes two handed shove to retaliate for a "hard foul" (that looked more like a flop on Kevin Garnett's part).  Humphries fires back with the two-handed Hockey jersey pull over. Chaos ensues.  How about a punch guys? For God's sake, you're on national TV.  Stop embarrassing yourselves.  You are going to get fined and suspended anyway.  David "The Dictator" Stern is still in charge after all.  There can be no descension under King David.  

Elsewhere, James Harden made his triumphant return to Oklahoma City, well sort of...

Besides getting tossed twice by his former buddies, Harden also had a terrible shooting night.  He went 3-16 from the field in one of his worst games as a member of the Houston Rockets.  Don't feel too bad for James.  He will be alright.  He's still top 5 in the NBA in scoring and is only 23 years old.  Oh, don't forget the brand new $60 million contract he signed in the offseason.  Like I said, he'll be alright.

In other news, Gregg Popovich decided that his 4 best players didn't need to play in a game 16 games into the season against the defending champs and current favorites to repeat, the Miami Heat.  Who did Popovich tell? No one.  Not the league, not the Heat, not the fans.  Fans showed up expecting to see Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, and got none of them.  The spurs were promptly fined $250,000.  Popovich is a master strategist, but come on.  Essentially forfeiting a game to the best team in the league in what could have been a possible NBA finals preview.  (the Heat ended up barely winning...fucking Popovich).

In perhaps the best news of the week.  My dude, Derek "Big Balls Fish" Fisher is back in the NBA.  Even if he was picked up by the Dallas Mavericks (eww), it's good to see Fish back in the league so he can do more of this...

And you wonder why the Mavs wanted him.

In one of tonight's more interesting games, the Denver Nuggets take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the city of angels.  Both teams have been a bit disappointing to start the year after making thunderous offseason acquisitions.  Steve Nash has missed a majority of the Lakers games, but the Lakers are starting to look like a powerhouse as of late.  The Nuggets are also starting to come together.  Tonight's matchup is a potential finals preview, and could show a lot about what the playoff and Western conference finals picture will look like come May.  

Until next time my friends. 

Movember is for Mustaches

As many of you know, November is also known as Movember.  Meaning men grow their mustaches to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. What a perfect occasion for me to talk about one of the most mustachioed men in the NBA.,  New Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni.  

Mmmmm

A lot of controversy was raised when all signs pointed towards the Lakers bring back Phil Jackson for his third tour of duty on the Lakers bench.  Instead they went with D'Antoni who Lakers' ownership and general manager Mitch Kupchack have claimed was a better fit for the job.  Lakers fans cried that the Zen Master and his 11 titles spoke for themselves, but let's take a look at the numbers.   

11 chips speak for themselves?

Some Lakers fans were disappointed in the decision.  But Laker's management has a point.  D'antoni is a great fit for the current roster.  For the same reasons I thought Jerry Sloan would have been a good choice, D'antoni has a great pick and roll offense.  Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol will feast with Nash on the Pick and Roll, and Kobe, Metta, and Antwawn Jamison will have open threes a plenty.  D'antoni also brings the best out of Nash.  Steve won two MVP awards playing while playing under D'antoni in Phoenix and the Suns had the best offense in the NBA.

Jackson homers will say that Phil has eleven more titles than D'Antoni.  But, I don't necessarily think thats a great thing.  D'Antoni has never been past the conference finals.  But this could serve as motivation.  Phil has won titles, doesn't need money, and was rumored to be asking for an ownership stake in a team.  That's way too much to pay for a Lakers team that already has many large guaranteed contracts.  D'Antoni will be motivted to win a title and has already said that if the Lakers don't compete for a championship with their uber talented roster than the blame should lie squarely on him.  It seems D'Antoni understands that this roster is time sensitive, with Pau, Kobe, and Nash all 30+, and with Dwight's contract situation up in the air.  He knows that they must win and win now.  And that is exactly the coach the Lakers need right now.  

I personally, am very excited to see this team implement D'Antoni's patented "seven seconds or less" offense.  In Phoenix his team would try to score before seven seconds had passed in the possession.  The offense became so exciting and popular that a book was even written about it.  

7 Seconds or Less

This Lakers squad doesn;t have the knock down 3 point shooters that those Suns team has, but D'Antoni can implement his offense based on the pieces he has in LA.  Hopefully better than he did in New York, where he was fired last season. However, this team is significantly more talented than last year's New York Squad.  D'Antoni debuts tonight, and we'll know significantly more after this game, but the Lakers looked good last game running D'Antoni's offense (against who else but the Phoenix Suns), and won handily.  This Lakers team was going to win a bunch of games no matter who their coach was.  However, only time will tell if D'Antoni can do what Jackson has done so many times over and over again.  In Los Angeles, they don't hang banners for conference championships (well maybe if you're a Clippers fan).  It's title town for a reason, and D'Antoni and his mustache will have been a mistake if the championships don't follow him.  Let the games begin.

Trifecta

Hello, World

The Realest GM

"Basketball is my favorite sport, I like the way they dribble up and down the court." 
-Lil Bow Wow, Basketball

Ever since I was a young boy I have followed the sport of basketball. I love all athletics but something about basketball made me fall in love with the sport. I've been a player, coach, fan, employee, and manager of fantasy teams. I've been involved with basketball on so many different levels, and I can't imagine my life without it.

As I've grown older, and begun to think about a career, I am heavily considering pursuing one in the sport of basketball. The general manager of a National Basketball Association (NBA) team is responsible for all player and personnel management. He is the one who decides to sign free agents, trade players, hire coaching staff, and makes sure the team stays within the financial contract restrictions of the NBA so that his team can continue to build towards a successful future. The general manager (GM) is the architect of a team and deserves just as much credit for its success (or failure) as the players and coach. This is by no means an easy job, but it is one I believe I want to pursue. There are many responsibilities and professional sports is a high pressure business. Everyone is expected to win and only one team can each year. Its up to the GM to make his team the one that comes out on top.

There are a few NBA GM's who are very good at their jobs. Mitch Kupchak of the Los Angeles Lakers, Sam Presti of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Masai Ujiri of the Denver Nuggets, to name a few. That being said. It is my honest opinion that around 75 percent of general managers in the NBA are completely incompetent and some even terrible at their jobs. Why do I believe this? The NBA is different than a lot of major sports currently in one HUGE way. There are only three teams that experts consider legitimate threats to win the championship of the league at the beginning of the season. Those teams are the Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Miami Heat (all have great general managers). In many other professional sports leagues there is a sense of parity. Eighty percent of teams and their fan bases believe they have a real shot at a championship at the beginning of every season. This is not the case in the NBA. It is the three elite teams and everyone else. The reasons for this are many, but all of them lead back to piss poor management by mediocre teams. The league has become filled with super teams such as Miami, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma CIty. This is the result of good general managers taking advantage of mediocre ones in lopsided trades. The best management make great draft picks. The unskilled managers make the wrong draft picks and overpay bad players with bloated contracts, perpetually keeping their teams in the cellar of the league. If the bottom tier teams had better management, it would help them greatly achieve the level of success of the top franchises in the NBA. But, the mistakes continue to happen.

It is my honest opinion that if I took over the Charlotte Bobcats today (the worst team in the league for the past two seasons), I could make them into a playoff team in the next 3 seasons. Their management, which is ironically run by arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, has not achieved anything since the franchise was created almost ten years ago. They continue to make head scratching decisions as do other teams in the league. The examples are many. The Lebron James free agency debacle a few years back, the Chris Paul trade drama last season, and most recently a lopsided Dwight Howard trade that made one of the leagues top teams, the Lakers, much better and possibly ruined the future of the Orlando Magic, a team that people believe will be in the bottom of the league for years to come.

In this blog I will vent my frustrations and the frustrations of many NBA fans with the majority of NBA management. I will review trades, free agent signings, and other NBA happenings. I love basketball and believe myself to be very knowledgeable on the topic. Feel free to comment on my posts and give your opinions of the topics I bring up. I'd love to start in-depth discussions or heated arguments.  Either is fine with me.  This should be an open forum for all people who believe themselves to be knowledgeable about basketball to give their "expert" opinions.  After all, many of us could probably do a better job than most NBA general manager's anyway.


Profile

Lost Angeles

ARROGANT NATION.  What does that mean?  Well, you're about to find out.  As most of my readers know, I've been known to rant during my blog posts.  I get frustrated with bad basketball management, and it comes out in my writing.  The same is true of one of my favorite blogs, Lost Angeles.  This blog is all about USC Football and the frustrations that came to their fan base when the NCAA handed down sanctions to them starting in 2010.  The blog is written by USC Alum Zack Jerome, who I've actually had the pleasure to meet and socialize with, and he's a die hard USC fan who knows plenty about football to boot.  As he says, he's "hell with a pen".   Zack is an amazing writer, and during his rants he picks on USC opponents with a double-edged blade of sarcasm and wit.  Here's what he had to say about USC's upcoming game:

        I humbly throw my chiseled, handsome frame on the barbecue so you may all smell the 
        aroma of greatness.  I’m hell with a pen and it’s time for you to appreciate that it’s the 
        day before the day before.

I know that a football blog isn't necessarily related to a basketball management blog, but I would hope that most of my readers are sports fans, and I wanted to share this awesome blog with all of you.

Zack posts every week, twice a week.  Once before the USC game, his Arrogant Game Preview, or AGP, and once a few days after the game, his Arrogant Game Recap.  His blog is pretty popular for a small blog not run by a larger company (such as ESPN).  He is ranked 84,162 in America (according to www.alexa.com).

I know this blog doesn't really relate to basketball, but I love all sports, and I love this blog.  It doesn't try to be what its not.  Zack often mentions how he's not ESPN and his score predictions for games often don't even include real numbers.  For example, his prediction for the USC vs. Arizona game was 237 to 174.  It's a fun, casual blog about a sport and team that he loves, and that's what makes it great.

One of the most interesting posts on the blog came the week before the first games of the college football season.  Zack calls it his "Arrogant Nation Mission Statement".  The post was about his and the USC football team's goals for the year, and it got so many views it crashed the site.  You can find the post here.  Zack likes to be what he calls "Arrogant".  A lifestyle he thinks USC students and alumni embody in the best way (they make up Arrogant Nation).  He often goes into detail in his posts about specific players, both Trojans and opposing team's.  He also talks about the coaches and programs in general.  He likes to pick on and make fun of the other teams, and often does it in very witty ways.  His typical banter is on full display in his most recent post about the recent USC vs. Colorado game.  On Colorado: 

        Look, you named your team the Buffaloes, an animal famous for being easily hunted     
        and almost dying out.

Zack's audience is mainly USC current students and alumni, but fans of opposing teams often frequent the blog leaving less than intelligent trash talk in their wake.  Zack often responds to the Trojans' opponents, putting them to shame with his superior college football intellect every time.  

I love reading Zack's posts because I can see his passion come through in his writing.  This is the same thing I try to achieve in my blog.  I want to be passionate about the mistakes and successes of basketball management, while having the facts to back it up.  My site obviously differs in the fact that it is more generally about professional basketball as a whole, but at their core, both of our blogs are the ranting of passionate fans of their sport.  I hope that this comes through in my posts, and my audience enjoys reading my blog as much as I enjoy reading Lost Angeles.  

Voice Critique

The Basketball Jones

"Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo"

The famous song from the movie Space Jam, Basketball Jones, is a tune that I'll never forget.  It has a sound all its own, and it just so happens to also be the name of one of my favorite basketball related blogs. The Basketball Jones is written as a collaborative project between a few people, but my favorite writer of the bunch is definitlely the man who also serves as editor of the blog, Trey Kirby.  

Trey takes a mainly sarcastic tone in his blog.  The Basketball Jones focuses on obscure stories in the world of basketball.  For example, in one of his most recent posts entitled "Jose Calderon just wants to sell some hams, geez," Trey talks about Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon, and his stake of ownership in a pig farm.  Trey starts the post:

        Hey guys, lay off Jose Calderon about the pig farm he is part owner of, OK? Just relax 
        about it, so he can sell hams in peace.

From this opening sentence and the title of the article, you can clearly see the sarcastic nature of his blog.  No one is really giving Jose Calderon a hard time that he owns part of a pig farming enterprise.  But the fact that he is from Spain, famous for their cured pig meats, and he plays in the NBA (he isn't poor), makes for a funny premise. Through his written sarcasm, Trey points out the ironies of specific situations in the NBA.  He finishes the post:

        Enough with the Hams, moving on, sheesh.

By ending sentences with words like "geez" and "sheesh", Trey uses the slang to show that these sentences are overly sarcastic, as these words are normally meant to dismiss a topic.  He also uses more slang language such as "duh" when pointing out the absurdity of a ridiculous play that happened so easily, but no one expected.  From the post, "Things of Note for November 14, 2012":

        Of course the San Antonio Spurs ran a quick-hitter for Danny Green on their last     
        offensive possession, and of course he hit the game-winning three.  They're the 
        Spurs.  Duh.

This sarcastic and pithy voice stays pretty consistent throughout Trey's writing on the blog, and he continues to use it to show the ridiculousness behind happenings, stories, and plays from the NBA.  It is a perfect complement to the topics he blogs on, as they are not really basketball news, but more fun and unnecessary side stories that a reader might otherwise never know, and could definitely be a great fan without ever knowing.  The stories are short but sweet, and his posts are almost his train of thought put to paper.  

 In another post entitled "Tim Duncan will Pimp Your Ride", Trey starts off by saying:

        Yo dawg, we heard you like basketball players, so we put a basketball player in your      
        car customization shop.

For anyone who has seen the once hit tv show, Pimp My Ride, it is easy to see that through slang and great use of punctuation, Trey is imitating the voice of rapper Xzibit in this opening, the host of the show.  He is doing this to show the hilarity behind one of the best basketball players of all time's favorite hobbies.  He continues his sarcasm by saying:

        If we know anything about Tim Duncan, it’s that his custom creations will be very 
        efficient, probably black and silver, definitely Punisher themed, and people will 
        complain that they’re boring even while agreeing that they’re some of the best cars 
        available.

This is a reference to the fact that Tim Duncan as a basketball player, while definitely not the most fun to watch, is one of the best players of all time.  He even earned the nickname the Big Fundamental for his plodding and meticulous style of play.  

From these posts (of many, many more), Trey's voice is very evident and distinct.  He uses sarcasm to expound on funny side stories from the world of professional basketball, and he is a great read for anyone who might be interested.  This blog is great for all basketball fans and sports fans in general.  If you enjoy my blog, then go get a basketball jones!

Fear the Beard

Well, we're 4 games into the NBA season and its looking like the Thunder made the right call trading James Harden.  NOT!  You can say that in a Borat voice if you like.  It makes the fact that the Thunder broke up their young and immensely talented Big 3 even more absurd.  With these dudes, the Thunder would have been a championship contender and/or favorite for the next decade. 

Durant (age 24), Westbrook (23), and Harden (23) made up one of the youngest and definitely the most feared core of any team in the league.  They would all be entering their primes as Lebron James passed the age of 30, with Miami's and the Lakers'  other studs also well past the 30 year mark.  Their window would have been wide open!  Instead Harden has taken his beard out west to Houston, after the Thunder offered him  almost ten million dollars below the max deal.  

So why, oh why, would the Thunder break up the league's most promising young core? Simply put, GREED.  I don't want to hear the argument about how they got three draft picks, and how Kevin Martin is a top ten NBA scorer.  Sure these things are true.  But the Thunder aren't going to be a lottery team.  They went to the first round, then conference finals, then NBA finals in the last three years.  This trade keeps them as a potential contender, so they wil be picking near the end of the first round every year.  They aren't going to be getting studs with their own draft picks, and the Rockets, now with Harden (and don't forget Linsanity) won't be bad enough to have a pick in the top ten either.  Martin will be an effective scorer off the bench, but he doesn't bring the same playmaking ability that Harden brought which allowed Westbrook to be a scorer when they played together.  He also doesn't have Harden's clutch factor.  Jam Hard was essentially a second option at the end of the game if a team double teamed Durant.  

It's all good to get potential for the future, but the thunder already had that.  There is no way to know how high those draft picks will be.  And a player of Jam Hard's caliber comes about once every five drafts.  The Thunder got greedy.  They claimed they were a small market team and couldn't afford to sign Harden to a max contract.  Are you KIDDING?  You're telling me that championships don't pay for themselves?  That's a joke.   

Say Bye-bye.

Give Harden ten million more dollars.  Pay the luxury tax for the next four years, win at least two of the next four championships, and Harden's contract will pay for itself. After that, you can decide who to pay and who wasn't worth the money.  In 2016 the Thunder could have 4 NBA titles under their belt, but instead, they blew their opportunity.  The Thunder are 2-2 and look beatable most nights.  The Rockets have an identical record.  And Harden is leading the league in scoring, the only player above 30 points per game (30.3 ppg).  In the short run it looks like the Thunder have made a huge mistake.  At best they break even from this trade.  You could say only time will tell, but it looks to me like the Thunder may have significantly lowered their ceiling for the rest of the 2010's.  The Beard will be sorely missed in Oklahoma City.  

0-2. Panic TIME!

Well, the Lakers are 0-2.  Yes, not 2-0.  0 wins and 2 losses.  Steve Nash is banged up and probably missing tonight's game. tonights matchup with the clippers.  Things are not looking great, and the media is doing their best to freak out every fair weather fan.  But I, however, am not worried.  People quickly forget, these things take time.

Jordan and Pippen didn't immediately start winning titles.  There is something to be said about a lot of talent, but you can't teach chemistry.  No matter how good players are (and Dwight Howard, Kobe, Nash,  Pau, and event the artist formerly know as Ron Artest, are some of the best) it takes time to learn to play together.  To know each other's tendencies.  To know where a player wants the ball on offense, or how to help him defensively. There are many things that pure talent can bring to the table, but all teams need time to come together.

People who are freaking out need to remember the Miami Heat example as recently as two years ago.  The heat were BAD.  They had Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, and they were bad. They couldn't buy a win. They lost about 8 of their first ten games.  People were freaking out.  Everyone was saying the Lebron experiment in Miami was already over, and people were writing the Heat off.  But you know what happened? Time, happened.  The amassing of the huge talents of the three Miami superstars began to mesh.  Their players began to learn their roles.  They became comfortable on the floor with one another. They began to pay as a team instead of individuals, and now the world will never hear a ringless Lebron joke again (unfortunately).  Do people mention now, how the Heat lost those first few games?  No.  Most people don't even know it happened.

Sports fans have short memories.  A decade of loss can be eliminated be winning now.  You know what Lakers fans.  I say lose.  Lose now.  Because at the end of the day, its not going to matter what happens in the first few games of the season.  Your starters have only played together for three games (if that).

"We gon' be aight."

So rest easy (or don't sleep at all if you're not a Lakers fan.)The lakers will be fine.  And come May, they will be right in the thick of the championship race.  Talent + time = chemistry.  Chemistry makes champions.  See you in the finals Lakers fans.