1. Listening and reading a lot of basketball news and
analysis I’ve come across a theme that most NBA intelligencia believe it is
pointless to be good unless it leads to a championship. Pundits are constantly calling for the breakup
of teams when they can’t see a clear road to a championship. Why is winning a championship everything? Being good is valuable too. Having a local team that’s fun to watch would
be really nice. This is the time in the
season when everyone wonders what’s the point of teams like Atlanta or
Memphis. The point is that they play
basketball that’s actually worth watching.
Yes they’re not going to win it all but at least it’s worth going to
games. There’s value in being good. It’s okay losing a lot if the team you like
has young players with potential that are fun to see grow. Minnesota sucks this year but they’ve got a
young core and there’s some potential there.
People forget that OKC with Durant and Westbrook were very terrible for
a number of years before they turned the corner. I'm sure even those fan bases would sacrifice a championship mentality for some wins. And then there are teams that are just plain
bad and it’s hard to see a clear way forward.
Draft picks might make sense on paper but future picks don’t put a
worthwhile product on the court. Teams like Philadelphia and New York are just plain depressing to watch. I’m
just thinking there’s more value to having a local team that plays basketball
well then most pundits credit.
Championships aren’t everything when you have to watch shitty ball year
after year…
2. Lately Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf has been mentioned as an under
rated player who could shoot off the dribble like Stephen Curry. Please.
There are a few similarities but their stats don’t even remotely
compare. By modern NBA standards Rauf was just not a
good shooter. In his best season he was
.392 from three-point land. That’s ok
but it’s a far cry from the top shooters in the league these days. His career percentage was in the low
30s. Let’s stop making this comparison
immediately please…
3. I was thinking that maybe I would have to eat my words
about Chicago being able to challenge Cleveland but lately Cleveland has seemed
pretty beatable. There are a number of
teams in the East that might be able to put up a fight against Cleveland in a
series. Boston and Toronto in particular
have made it clear that Cleveland won’t have a cakewalk to the finals. They’re still the favorites in my mind
because you have to assume Lebron has another gear until he proves he
doesn’t. But having said that Lebron is
not aging well. Lebron’s shot is clearly
not as good as it used to be and though he can still overpower most anyone, he’s
not quite as strong or as fast as he once was.
His shot was always a bit erratic but he’s going to need to spend this
next off-season worrying less about his strength and conditioning and more
about developing his skill level. There
will come a point some day when he isn’t the strongest and fastest dude on the
court and when that day comes he’ll want a consistent jump shot to stay on top…
4. The Spurs just keep rolling along. I watched them basically dismantle the Rockets in the first quarter this weekend. Kawhi is so good and efficient. His value can be seen not only by his fantastic shooting but that the Spurs defense dropped off a cliff when he was injured recently. Due to the Warriors the Spurs are having the greatest season of any team in the history of basketball to which absolutely no one is paying attention...
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