#It has arguably been the best basketball of his career and is much-needed with Durant now available after he missed three weeks due to a sp

[smokeybrandreviews]

NBA Rant: Back to Business

It’s been a clean minute since I've written one of these, mostly because it’s been a few years since the NBA has even had a semblance of normalcy. The pandemic f*cked a lot of sh*t up and, while my LAkers took the title in the bubble and Giannis got the first one post-Bubble, i can’t help but be emotionally divorced from the last two years of hoop. They were aberrations, asterisk years, due to the reverberating consequences of poor federal leadership during a whole ass global plague. I love hoop and i enjoyed what we got these last two years, but if you’re telling me that these two seasons are legit, you’re crazy. Now that the vaccine is out in the wild and sh*t is opening back up, we can get back to the business of basketball. We can get back to an actual schedule that doesn’t favor the young and hungry so heavily. Injuries last season were absurd and i knew they would be considering the turnaround. This off-season is the beginning of real NBA basketball and i got some sh*t to say about.

Fear the Deer

Off the top, congratulations to the f*cking Milwaukee Bucks! Fifty years without an NBA title. The last won they cashed in was by the hand of a man named Lou Alcindor. It was beautiful to see and i loved watching it happen. History was made on several fronts but that one was the most gratifying. Giannis got his ring, the second Antetokounmpo brother to do it, but I'm so happy or kid. This was his coming out party. With this title and Finals MVP, Giannis has solidified himself as a legend of the NBA and patron saint of Milwaukee. Kid got the shine and now it just remains to be seen how many times he can catch that lightning in his career.

Book is Coming

The Suns were surprisingly close to winning a title. Like, one turnover away from hoisting that trophy. If you watched that series, you know what turnover I'm talking about. CP3 literally dropped he ball and it cost them a shot to be the lat team standing. Still, he balled for his life and i respect it. Moreso, i love what his veteran leadership did to that locker room. He got Ayton believing in himself and, more importantly, Devin Booker looking like a mini Mamba. Watching him seethe quietly as that confetti dropped and just utter the word, “Damn” was a lot. Kid got a taste and he’s about to play the best hoop of his life. The League should be terrified. I would not be surprised of Book takes that leap and challenges for “Best in the World” over the course of next season.

Mamba Mentality

Kobe Bryant was all over these Playoffs and i loved seeing it. It’s been a year since we lost Kobe and Gigi but that hurt has softened. Rest in Power, always, but the torch you lit under these kids has turned into a blaze. From Ice Trey to Giannis to D. Book, to Luka, to even Kawhi; Kobe’s legacy is strong in the current NBA. It’s weird to say but these young kids see the Mamba like we old heads see Jordan and rightfully so. Kobe is a legend and it does my heart good to see that legend continue into the next generation of NBA superstars.

Solving Simmons

Ben Simmons was exposed during these playoffs. It was f*cking hard to watch, bud. Like, excruciating. Never mind that he’s a professional, NBA level, small forward that can’t shoot, the dude can’t even make f*cking free throws! Like, Giannis has a problem taking too long to shoot them shots but he still makes them at a reasonable clip. Been Simmons shot the worst free throw percentage in NBA history; A history that includes f*cking Shaquille O’Neal! Bro, how?? It’s obvious that trusting The Process was a mistake and you might even lose Embiid over it. Doc wants to keep Ben but no. No, trade his ass to some team for a young buck who can spread the floor and give Embiid room to work closer to the cup. That dude was playing MVP level ball for the majority of last season, only to see his efforts squandered in the Playoffs where it counts. Also, Philly probably shouldn’t have hired Doc Rivers. That dude got lucky once, close to lucky a second time, and has failed consistently, spectacularly, ever sense. He literally has blown the most 3-1 leads in NBA history.

Fakers

I don’t think the Nets are as good as everyone thinks they are. Like, i get it; Overpowered and front loaded with all of that talent but that’s it. I’ve heard that a lot of the other pieces are unhappy with all the Superstar treatment their big three are getting. It’s chaffing the actually nuts and bolts that you need to drive those championship aspirations. So much so that Spencer Dinwiddle is looking to jump ship and sign with my LAkers, who i will get to in a minute. Spencer Dinwiddie. This would be a staggering loss for the Nets mostly because do was their dirty work guy. He’s the enforcer, Rodman with a jumper. Losing him would be like losing a position while you’re racing in Daytona. But they just might and that sh*t will steer this entire team straight into the wall. On paper. Who knows? Durant has been known to asspull sh*t when the game counts.

Clowns

Everyone owes Paul George a goddamn apology. Playoff P has always bee a thing, he just needs room to work. Free of Kawhi and his near identical game George showed us what his game really looks like, and it’s near pre-leg break form. Paul George can ball and i still hate that he’s playing in the wrong LA jersey. Now, that aside, The Clippers area joke. They think they were sized up for a championship by signing Kawhi off a title run in Toronto and prying PG away from a devastated OKC but in realty, they were just measuring for their f*cking clown suit. This Clippers team has been absolutely f*cking awful. Even after banishing arguably the worst head coach in the league to Philadelphia, they still sh*t the bed. This is bad tam with no rudder. hey have no leader and are plagued with ego. Win/lost records were unreliable last season because it’s goofy nature but this team definitely didn’t play like they deserved their seed, not when GS and the LAkers had to play just to get into the show. The Clippers have been consistently bad and trading either Kawhi or George away for solid assets complimentary to the remainders game would probably be in their best interest.

Move On

And now, the whole reason i wanted to write this thing, let’s get into my LAkers! This team was so much better than their record but, considering they were one of two teams who had the least amount of recovers, and the oldest among the pair, it stands to reason they would be exhausted going into this rushed season. I absolutely believe that, if this was a proper season with enough rest over the summer, my LAkers would have made it to at least the Western Conference Finals. They had all of the talent to do so but injuries. I’d say run it back but there are things that have come to light over this last season, things that need to be addressed. Okay, Schroeder is a diva who wants too much money for what little production he gave us and Kuz is too inconsistent to be a proper Sixth option. Where do we go from here?

Go Big

I think we trade Kuz for a three-and-D guy. Send his to Sac for Buddy Hield or someone like that. I love Kuz but he just don’t got it. I get his role is in flux but come on? That shouldn’t effect your percentages. You might score less with less touches, but those numbers shouldn’t fall off a cliff, man. Schroeder should be a contract dump or given away in a sign-and-trade for, say, Kyle Lowry. Dude is a vet who can run an offense like a machine. DeMar DeRozen wants to come home to LA and i would welcome that. I love his game and i think it can fit well into the LA system, especially with Bron taking away more jumpers lately. I love Montrezl Harrell and i think he can slide into that space Kuz couldn’t fit perfectly so re-singing him should be a priority, but only if that doesn’t interfere with securing Spencer Dinwidde. That dude shores up everything the LAkers need, outside of play-making. I would love the LAkers to make all these moves, and it can happen with certain financial acrobatics, but if not, definitely try to sign Dinwiddle and Lowry. Those cats will have an immediate effect on the LAkers title chances.

[aatorresp-blog]

The reason why nobody wants to play with LeBron James.

LeBron James had to escape to Miami for the first time to finally play with two other stars in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. What stars at their best would they have left to join him in northeastern Ohio? Nobody registers for that if they have other options.

Leaving LeBron for the first time, the Cavaliers reloaded through the draft with two No. 1 picks. But they exchanged one of them (for Kevin Love), and the other (Kyrie Irving) decided he did not want to deal with the limbo either. of LeBron. Looking at another relatively empty wardrobe and knowing very well the dark prospects of filling it, LeBron ran to a team and a city that sold themselves.

So now that he's in the warm city of Los Angeles with a four-year contract, the longest since he traveled to Miami, why have we seen and heard that there are more stars who are reluctant to join forces with LeBron?

As a result, based on conversations with more than a dozen players, there are several reasons. Perhaps the most obvious, is that they become a role player with LeBron.

That's perfectly fine for someone like Chandler, a 36-year veteran who protects the hoop who took the opportunity to escape Phoenix and take his curtain with his hometown, the Lakers, next to, arguably, the most physically talented player of the world.

However, when it comes to players at their best, there has been more "no thanks". Paul George chose to stay in Oklahoma City this summer after having previously talked about how much he would love to play for the Lakers. Jimmy Butler, in his trade suit to the Timberwolves before being transferred to the 76ers, allegedly had the Knicks, Nets and Clippers on his list: three of the four teams in New York or LA with maximum salary potential.

"If you're a younger player like a Kawhi, trying to match him with LeBron James really does not make sense." Kawhi likes to have the ball in his hands, control the offense, dictate the pace with his post-ups, that's how he He plays the game, a lot of young players are developing that ability, they do not need another player. "

But LeBron may need that at this stage of his career. After Irving forced an exchange with the Boston Celtics two summers ago, James dragged the Cavs to the Finals for the fourth time in a row, but was captured by the Warriors. If he expects to compete with the Warriors again, it is clear that he needs help, especially now that he is on the Golden State side.

"If I were a free agent, I'd have to consider everything," veteran swingman Trevor Ariza said. "But my role is different from that of PG and Kawhi, they ask them to do different things than they ask of me, guys like [LeBron], why would they want to play with someone who does the same things? They would like to play somewhere else. "

The Lakers structured their salary cap to make sure they would have space next summer for a player with maximum salary, whether it comes through a free agency or an exchange. League sources say that when James became convinced that Irving could not be persuaded to stay in Cleveland, he suggested to the Cavs headquarters that he hand Irving to the Blazers for All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. The Cavs never called the Blazers, but James 'interest has led to speculation about the Lakers' exchange for Lillard.

"I love where I am," said Lillard. "I play for a big organization, I'm not looking for anything, I think we'll complement each other, but the only way that happens is if my team decides they do not want me anymore, I'm trying to build something here."

Whether because newly minted stars like Victor Oladipo and Jayson Tatum took LeBron to seven games or the Warriors swept it, the rising star class does not seem intimidated by it. They could respect it, but they do not fear it.

Leonard has flatly refused to discuss what he could do if he becomes a free agent next summer, but he does not see James as a kind of measuring stick.

"What else do I have to prove?" he asks. "He beat me in the Finals, we came back and we beat him." So you do not have anything else to try? "Just when we play it, try to win the game, that's all."

However, it is possible that other players at this point are not willing to change their stardom for the chance to win a championship with LeBron because that would also mean winning one for LeBron. As one explorer said: "Some stars look at him and say: 'Why do I want to add something to his legacy?'"

That is in fact the enigma. None of the players approached this story, both the stars and the support cast types, bothered that James' stardom "absorb all the oxygen in the room," as expressed by an Eastern Conference vice president. But there is little doubt that they would have to transform and accept less important roles than they enjoy now if they join the Lakers.

Durant also noticed that the stifling attention of the media around James does not help either.

"There's so much enthusiasm to be around LeBron from other people," Durant said. "He has so many fanboys in the media, even the rhythm writers just flattered him, I'm like, we're playing basketball here, and it's not even about basketball at certain points, so I understand why nobody would want to be in that environment because it's toxic, especially when the attention is of bulls - t attention, fluff It's not the fault of LeBron at all, it's just the fact that you have a lot of groupies in the media that they love to hang on every word. play basketball ".

What comes with that is the knowledge that if the team wins, it will be credited primarily to James; and if the team loses, it will be blamed on everyone around it.

"It's the LeBron effect," says Raptors guard Kyle Lowry. "He puts a lot of pressure on you, but it also takes away a lot of pressure, you know what you're getting, he's earned it, but he's human, if you're a strong enough personality, you can handle it."

Ariza made another suggestion: "The media should change the narrative, make the superstar a superstar." In other words, do not automatically blame the cast when a team falls short. Sometimes it's the superstar that fell short.

That kind of scrutiny is amplified by being in Los Angeles, said Spurs forward Pau Gasol, who won two championships with the Lakers.

"If you succeed with the Lakers, you will be loved forever," Gasol said. "But there is also tension, pressure and drama like nowhere else, there are dozens of media outlets that are constantly looking for a story, it depends on who you are and what you are made of, but if you succeed, it is sweet. .

LeBron is now on earth where dreams come true and a partner is waiting to blow up the NBA.

[smokeybrand]

NBA Rant: Back to Business

It’s been a clean minute since I've written one of these, mostly because it’s been a few years since the NBA has even had a semblance of normalcy. The pandemic f*cked a lot of sh*t up and, while my LAkers took the title in the bubble and Giannis got the first one post-Bubble, i can’t help but be emotionally divorced from the last two years of hoop. They were aberrations, asterisk years, due to the reverberating consequences of poor federal leadership during a whole ass global plague. I love hoop and i enjoyed what we got these last two years, but if you’re telling me that these two seasons are legit, you’re crazy. Now that the vaccine is out in the wild and sh*t is opening back up, we can get back to the business of basketball. We can get back to an actual schedule that doesn’t favor the young and hungry so heavily. Injuries last season were absurd and i knew they would be considering the turnaround. This off-season is the beginning of real NBA basketball and i got some sh*t to say about.

Fear the Deer

Off the top, congratulations to the f*cking Milwaukee Bucks! Fifty years without an NBA title. The last won they cashed in was by the hand of a man named Lou Alcindor. It was beautiful to see and i loved watching it happen. History was made on several fronts but that one was the most gratifying. Giannis got his ring, the second Antetokounmpo brother to do it, but I'm so happy or kid. This was his coming out party. With this title and Finals MVP, Giannis has solidified himself as a legend of the NBA and patron saint of Milwaukee. Kid got the shine and now it just remains to be seen how many times he can catch that lightning in his career.

Book is Coming

The Suns were surprisingly close to winning a title. Like, one turnover away from hoisting that trophy. If you watched that series, you know what turnover I'm talking about. CP3 literally dropped he ball and it cost them a shot to be the lat team standing. Still, he balled for his life and i respect it. Moreso, i love what his veteran leadership did to that locker room. He got Ayton believing in himself and, more importantly, Devin Booker looking like a mini Mamba. Watching him seethe quietly as that confetti dropped and just utter the word, “Damn” was a lot. Kid got a taste and he’s about to play the best hoop of his life. The League should be terrified. I would not be surprised of Book takes that leap and challenges for “Best in the World” over the course of next season.

Mamba Mentality

Kobe Bryant was all over these Playoffs and i loved seeing it. It’s been a year since we lost Kobe and Gigi but that hurt has softened. Rest in Power, always, but the torch you lit under these kids has turned into a blaze. From Ice Trey to Giannis to D. Book, to Luka, to even Kawhi; Kobe’s legacy is strong in the current NBA. It’s weird to say but these young kids see the Mamba like we old heads see Jordan and rightfully so. Kobe is a legend and it does my heart good to see that legend continue into the next generation of NBA superstars.

Solving Simmons

Ben Simmons was exposed during these playoffs. It was f*cking hard to watch, bud. Like, excruciating. Never mind that he’s a professional, NBA level, small forward that can’t shoot, the dude can’t even make f*cking free throws! Like, Giannis has a problem taking too long to shoot them shots but he still makes them at a reasonable clip. Been Simmons shot the worst free throw percentage in NBA history; A history that includes f*cking Shaquille O’Neal! Bro, how?? It’s obvious that trusting The Process was a mistake and you might even lose Embiid over it. Doc wants to keep Ben but no. No, trade his ass to some team for a young buck who can spread the floor and give Embiid room to work closer to the cup. That dude was playing MVP level ball for the majority of last season, only to see his efforts squandered in the Playoffs where it counts. Also, Philly probably shouldn’t have hired Doc Rivers. That dude got lucky once, close to lucky a second time, and has failed consistently, spectacularly, ever sense. He literally has blown the most 3-1 leads in NBA history.

Fakers

I don’t think the Nets are as good as everyone thinks they are. Like, i get it; Overpowered and front loaded with all of that talent but that’s it. I’ve heard that a lot of the other pieces are unhappy with all the Superstar treatment their big three are getting. It’s chaffing the actually nuts and bolts that you need to drive those championship aspirations. So much so that Spencer Dinwiddle is looking to jump ship and sign with my LAkers, who i will get to in a minute. Spencer Dinwiddie. This would be a staggering loss for the Nets mostly because do was their dirty work guy. He’s the enforcer, Rodman with a jumper. Losing him would be like losing a position while you’re racing in Daytona. But they just might and that sh*t will steer this entire team straight into the wall. On paper. Who knows? Durant has been known to asspull sh*t when the game counts.

Clowns

Everyone owes Paul George a goddamn apology. Playoff P has always bee a thing, he just needs room to work. Free of Kawhi and his near identical game George showed us what his game really looks like, and it’s near pre-leg break form. Paul George can ball and i still hate that he’s playing in the wrong LA jersey. Now, that aside, The Clippers area joke. They think they were sized up for a championship by signing Kawhi off a title run in Toronto and prying PG away from a devastated OKC but in realty, they were just measuring for their f*cking clown suit. This Clippers team has been absolutely f*cking awful. Even after banishing arguably the worst head coach in the league to Philadelphia, they still sh*t the bed. This is bad tam with no rudder. hey have no leader and are plagued with ego. Win/lost records were unreliable last season because it’s goofy nature but this team definitely didn’t play like they deserved their seed, not when GS and the LAkers had to play just to get into the show. The Clippers have been consistently bad and trading either Kawhi or George away for solid assets complimentary to the remainders game would probably be in their best interest.

Move On

And now, the whole reason i wanted to write this thing, let’s get into my LAkers! This team was so much better than their record but, considering they were one of two teams who had the least amount of recovers, and the oldest among the pair, it stands to reason they would be exhausted going into this rushed season. I absolutely believe that, if this was a proper season with enough rest over the summer, my LAkers would have made it to at least the Western Conference Finals. They had all of the talent to do so but injuries. I’d say run it back but there are things that have come to light over this last season, things that need to be addressed. Okay, Schroeder is a diva who wants too much money for what little production he gave us and Kuz is too inconsistent to be a proper Sixth option. Where do we go from here?

Go Big

I think we trade Kuz for a three-and-D guy. Send his to Sac for Buddy Hield or someone like that. I love Kuz but he just don’t got it. I get his role is in flux but come on? That shouldn’t effect your percentages. You might score less with less touches, but those numbers shouldn’t fall off a cliff, man. Schroeder should be a contract dump or given away in a sign-and-trade for, say, Kyle Lowry. Dude is a vet who can run an offense like a machine. DeMar DeRozen wants to come home to LA and i would welcome that. I love his game and i think it can fit well into the LA system, especially with Bron taking away more jumpers lately. I love Montrezl Harrell and i think he can slide into that space Kuz couldn’t fit perfectly so re-singing him should be a priority, but only if that doesn’t interfere with securing Spencer Dinwidde. That dude shores up everything the LAkers need, outside of play-making. I would love the LAkers to make all these moves, and it can happen with certain financial acrobatics, but if not, definitely try to sign Dinwiddle and Lowry. Those cats will have an immediate effect on the LAkers title chances.

[junker-town]

9 players Team USA men’s basketball should consider adding for the Tokyo Olympics

Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

Team USA men’s basketball suddenly has a few open roster spots. We have some options that would help the team.

USA Basketball’s men’s team is in crisis. Days before the team is scheduled to fly to Tokyo for the Olympics, the team suddenly has at least two open roster spots, and possibly three.

Bradley Beal is off the team after being placed in Health and Safety protocol. Kevin Love also withdrew as he recovers from a calf injury. Jerami Grant’s status is up in the air, too, after he was placed in Health and Safety protocol this week.

Team USA’s three-game exhibition run exposed some deep problems within the roster. The U.S. lost exhibitions to Nigeria and Australia in Las Vegas before bouncing back to blow out Argentina. The Americans didn’t have three key players in those exhibitions — Devin Booker, Khris Middleton, and Jrue Holiday — because they are currently competing in the NBA Finals. How much each player will have left in the tank after long playoff runs remains up for debate.

Team USA needs reinforcements, and now they’re able to add some. While losing Beal hurts, Love never should have been on the team in the first place. There are two big issues with the 12-man roster the U.S. originally picked: it lacked size inside and a reliable facilitator. Here are nine options who could fill those holes.

9. Onyeka Okongwu

Okongwu played limited minutes off the bench behind Clint Capela as a rookie for the Atlanta Hawks, but he put together a stellar playoff performance that served as a reminder of why he was the No. 6 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. The USC product is a bit undersized for a center at 6’9, 235 pounds, but his length, quickness, and sharp instincts help make him a versatile and effective defender.

Team USA could use another center option behind Bam Adebayo, and the pickings are relatively slim for American-born centers. Okongwu could be a nice defensive complement off the bench who could provide multiple pick-and-roll coverage options and some paint protection.

8. Jaren Jackson Jr.

Jackson is another undersized big man, but he has the length (7’4 wingspan) to contest shots in the paint as a backup center option for Team USA. The former No. 4 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Jackson missed most of his third pro season with a torn meniscus, but returned for the Memphis Grizzlies at the end of the year. At his best, he’s a dynamic three-point shooter at 6’11 who would provide Team USA with an additional pick-and-pop option.

Jackson isn’t a strong rebounder and has a history of getting into foul trouble, so his translation to FIBA would be interesting. There’s no denying his talent, though. His length and shooting would help this squad.

7. Richaun Holmes

Holmes enjoyed a breakout season at age-27 for the Sacramento Kings this past year, averaging 14.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game. Holmes was a second round draft pick back in 2015 and has been something of a journeyman throughout the start of his pro career, but he’s arguably the best center option on the free agent market this summer. While it would be risky to play in the Olympics before signing a contract, it’s possible Holmes could really raise his value with an impressive run in the Olympics.

Holmes is at his best as a lob catcher on offense and a rim protector on defense. The 6’10 big man has long arms and nice vertical pop around the basket. He’d give Team USA another paint presence off the bench that it’s lacking behind Adebayo.

6. De’Aaron Fox

Fox had a killer fourth season for the Sacramento Kings, averaging a career-high 25.2 points and 7.2 assists per game. He’s one of the league’s fastest players with the ball in his hands, and would give the Americans a dribble-drive threat who could collapse opposing defenses. Fox is also a good playmaker who could get the U.S. into its offense in the halfcourt where it can swing the ball to star shooters like Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum.

Fox’s teammate in Sacramento, Tyrese Haliburton, was another option because of his advanced shooting and arguably superior passing ability. We’ll give Fox the edge because he’s a better scorer and defender. He’s earned this opportunity after a strong start to his NBA career.

5. LaMelo Ball

Ball enjoyed a tremendous debut season with the Charlotte Hornets on his way to winning Rookie of the Year after being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Still only 19 years old, Ball is a huge 6’8 point guard with gifted playmaking ability. He would fill one of Team USA’s biggest holes as a skilled distributor who could get the ball to the team’s best scorers.

Before you say Ball is too young for this opportunity, remember that Ricky Rubio played for Spain in the 2008 Olympics at 17 years old. Ball’s ability to break down opposing defenses off the dribble and throw every pass in the book would be an awesome addition. He’d be really fun to play with for the other veteran stars on the team, too.

4. Jarrett Allen

If we exclude Brook Lopez because he’s playing in the NBA Finals and Myles Turner because he’s recovering from a toe injury, Allen is probably the best American big man available. At 6’11, 245 pounds, Allen is a monster lob target and paint protector with a massive 7’6 wingspan. He’d block shots, catch alley-oops, and help on the glass for Team USA.

Allen is also an upcoming free agent, and might not want to play because of that. It’s hard to think of a better American-born option for the front court, though.

3. Ja Morant

Morant continued to prove he’s one of the best young players in the NBA during his second season with the Memphis Grizzlies. The 6’3 point guard led his team to a surprising playoff appearance by advancing through the play-in tournament, where he put up 35 points to help upset the Golden State Warriors to punch his team’s ticket to the postseason. Even if his regular season numbers stagnated a bit, he’d be a perfect fit on this team because of his playmaking ability.

Morant (or Ball, or the next name on this list) would immediately be the best passer on the Team USA roster. He’s a dynamic driver off the dribble and can whip passes to open shooters or finishers with either hand. Like Ball, he’d also be a welcome injection of youthful energy for the squad.

2. Trae Young

Young is coming off a phenomenal run in the NBA playoffs that solidified his superstar status. The diminutive point guard led the Atlanta Hawks on a shocking run to the Eastern Conference Finals as an unstoppable scorer and facilitator off the dribble. Young’s ability to pick apart defenses as a live dribble passer would greatly benefit Team USA. The roster currently has no one on his level as a playmaker.

Young is also a skilled scorer who was routinely popping off for 40-point games in the postseason. He should have been on this roster from day one.

1. Zion Williamson

Williamson should have been a top priority for USA Basketball when the roster was originally put together. One of the very best young players in the game, Williamson is an ultra-powerful 6’6 forward who blossomed into one of the best and most efficient scorers alive in his second season. He’s arguably the best young American player alive, and could be the face of USA Basketball for years to come.

In these Olympics, Williamson could be a small ball center option who could be too fast for opposing fives to defend at the international level. It’s a damn shame Zion wasn’t on this team originally, but maybe Team USA can convince him to join days before they fly out to Tokyo.

[peter-hooper-blog]

Carmelo Anthony Wants Another Shot

If we’re being honest, there should be no surprises at all when it comes to the above statement. After all, Carmelo Anthony has a reputation largely based on being a fearless scorer.

Whilst some may scoff at the idea of Carmelo Anthony donning an NBA jersey again. It is worth remembering that arguably, Carmelo’s last real chance on an NBA team was back in New York. Moreover, back then, Carmelo was recording 22.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists on 43.3% shooting from the field and 35.9% shooting from three. However, en route to doing so, Carmelo had to duck a few shots from Phil Jackson.

Say Hello To The Bad Guy!

Looking back, the irony is that if anybody was holding the Knicks back, it was Phil Jackson. Nevertheless, Carmelo’s tenure with the Knicks is a perfect example of how Carmelo’s stock has often been effected by franchise failures. Admittedly, this piece could be characterised as being pro Carmelo. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that it could be argued that the Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunderand the Houston Rockets all failed to use Carmelo productively.

The easiest example of this is the Houston Rockets, who only played Carmelo for ten games. Even after Carmelo left, their season was only saved by James Harden playing at a historic, MVP level. As far as the Knicks, the main bright spot other than Carmelo Anthony was Kristaps Porzingis and we all know how that ended. Similarly, both Paul George and subsequently Russell Westbrook recently came to the conclusion that winning was more probable outside of OKC.

Put differently, each story has at least two or three sides. According to one version Melo simply has been unable to contribute sufficiently to justify being on an NBA roster. An alternative to that notion is the idea that Carmelo has struggled to find a spot on a team that fits. To go a little further, Carmelo’s strengths and a team’s weaknesses should match.

Carmelo Anthony: Upside And Fit

Following on from the above statement, Carmelo Anthony’s strengths might be described as being a veteran leader (particularly for young players), a player able to score in isolation (particularly from mid range), with a decent jumper from distance.(Carmelo averages 34.7% from 3 for his career).

On the defensive end, Carmelo would do well to be paired with an above average rim protector. On the offensive end Carmelo would fit a team that has some scoring options but still need more. Basketball purists everywhere could have reason to lament the Rockets experiment ending so abruptly. If anybody could have benefited from a lighter scoring burden it’s James Harden.

Arguably, a big reason why James Harden’s production drops off during the playoffs is simply fatigue. Harden is always amongst the NBA’s leaders in usage rate. However, unlike LeBron James, Harden exerting himself in the regular season may mean there is too little left in the tank come playoffs time. It would have been nice to have known whether Carmelo could have lightened the load and made the Rockets more dangerous.

Finally, whilst James may have needed Carmelo the most. Chris Paul may have been the best point guard in the NBA to make the most of Anthony’s offensive skills. It’s well known how close Carmelo and Chris are. The chemistry as well as the intimate knowledge Chris has of Carmelo’s game is another resource the Rockets probably missed out on.

Moving On From The Rockets

So, leaving the Rockets to one side – because that ship has almost certainly sailed. Below we look at ten teams that Carmelo Anthony would potentially be the best fit for.

The San Antonio Spurs led by Gregg Popovichwould offer Carmelo the rare opportunity to be a part of a true team. Far too often in Carmelo’s career, Melo has had to try and carry teams with his scoring. In San Antonio, Pop would help ensure that team defense offset Anthony’s defensive flaws. Simultaneously, on the offensive end Pop would give Melo the opportunity to be Melo. Lastly, although Pop hates how popular 3 pointers are in the modern NBA. The Spurs were one of the best teams at shooting from deep. Which should provide Melo the space to do the same or attack from closer in to the basket.

The Los Angeles Clippers may also be a great fit for Carmelo. The Clippers may well have the NBA’s best defense next season. They’re odds on winning the title are great. Plus Doc Rivers could also succeed in integrating Carmelo into the Clippers offense. On the other hand given the bright future of the Clippers, selling them on their need for Carmelo could be challenging.

The Los Angeles Lakers might represent an easier sell. Kyle Kuzma has already publicly stated his belief in Carmelo Anthony and is already sold enough to be working out with Melo this summer. Melo’s value as veteran leader may also hold more sway in Laker land. Finally, Anthony Davis could help ensure there were no easy baskets for the Lakers’ competition.

A Win/Win Is Possible

The Denver Nuggets would obviously be a great story as Carmelo would potentially get to finish his career where it started. The Nuggets democratic style of play would again offer Melo the chance to be a part of a team effort. Nikola Jokic undoubtedly would be one of the best playmakers Melo could team up with in the NBA. Whilst Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee could help ensure the Nuggets defense kept opponents honest.

The toughest part would be convincing the Nuggets that Carmelo would add a significant amount to their team. However, Carmelo would be of great use to the young players on the Nuggets roster. Additionally, Carmelo could help rejuvenate Denver’s offense anytime it stagnated. At times Nikola’s unselfishness has perhaps been excessive and Anthony’s penchant for scoring in isolation could be helpful.

The Brooklyn Nets could also be a good fit for Melo. They have a rim protector in Jarrett Allen. A winning culture, they move the ball well and are a threat to rule the East if Kevin Durant comes back and is still KD. Coach Atkinson may be up to the challenge of using Carmelo efficiently. Plus, KD’s absence makes Carmelo’s services more useful than they otherwise would be.

More Options For Melo

The Indiana Pacers hang there hat on defense and have one of the NBA’s best rim protectors in Myles Turner. Much like with the Nets, Carmelo Anthony could make sense by adding to the Pacers’ ability to score the basketball. Especially whilst Victor Oladipo is recovering from an injury of his own.

In keeping with focusing on teams in the Eastern conference, Anthony could fit well with the Toronto Raptors. The NBA finals showed how good the Raptors’ defense is. Whilst Carmelo may well be worthy of an NBA spot. Carmelo is obviously no Kawhi. However, Toronto should definitely be in the playoffs and we now all have zero reason to doubt the Raptors ability to come out of the East ifthey have the right talent.

The Portland Trail Blazers could also be a great fit for Melo. With the Blazers dynamic backcourt being responsible for much of their offense. Anthony could provide an occasional alternative scoring option. Hassan Whiteside could help ensure the Blazers had a notable defensive presence down low. Plus Carmelo’s hunger and experience could help the Blazers be better. Given the improvements made by other teams in the Western Conference. Closely examining whether Anthony can help make the Blazers better, is a must.

The Utah Jazz is another situation that might suit Melo well. The Jazz have a defensive anchor in Rudy Gobert. Donovan Mitchell and now Mike Conley could carry the bulk of the Jazz’s offensive duties. Add to that mix the sharp-shooting, versatile Joe Ingles and it’s possible to see Melo making the Jazz a challenge for most teams. Furthermore, whilst Mitchell has been nothing short of sensational, maybe Melo can help Mitchell progress further, faster?

Last but by no means least, we have the New Orleans Pelicans. If the Lakers pass on Melo, maybe the Pelicans are the next best thing. The Pelicans are another youthful team that could benefit from Melo’s veteran leadership. Maybe Melo could be the go-to guy when the Pelicans’ offense broke down? In any case, if Anthony is to make a comeback, the ten teams above make for a good place to start.

[jamiehamiltonfolio]

Former athletes are crucial in the media, but are they journalists?

It is almost impossible to turn on the television to watch a game of sport without at least one current or former player being involved in the broadcast.

Regardless of the sport, these people are brought in to give their specialist insight and add to the overall experience for fans watching at home.

As long as sport has been broadcast, so-called ‘experts’ have been involved. Typically a former player or coach, their knowledge and experience is exploited as they explain what is happening in greater detail to the fans watching or listening, and intricately breakdown details.

While these people might be well suited for covering the sport on TV, trained media and journalists are just as important in the grand scheme of things.

Increasingly, former athletes have not only been involved in the broadcast of sport, but the way it is covered in the media as a whole.

Many athletes see working in the media as a natural stepping-stone for a job after their sporting career is over.

Almost every newspaper has articles and previews/reviews written by expert analysts, typically former greats. Retired AFL stars like Matthew Lloyd and Dermott Brereton are penning articles for Melbourne’s Herald Sun, and current rugby league national coach Mal Meninga is featuring in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

The insight a former player or coach gives is one that many fans thrive on. Mick Malthouse, one the greatest AFL coaches of the modern era, is a regular sight in Melbourne newspapers, and is trusted because his history of success at the highest level.

This experience and history adds credibility and weight behind the words, a benefit not shared by non-athletes.

Their articles are a pivotal part of the publications they are featured in for a number of reasons.

A traditional journalist may have spent their entire career covering one sport and have just as deep an understanding, however their insight would mean no more to a reader than a former coach or player.

Former athletes add ‘colour’ to stories with the ability to use personal anecdotes and relate to what the current day athletes are doing.

As much as people groan at the ‘back in my day’ generation, it builds the narrative and allows a comparison of the past and present that many love.

Broadcasting teams of NBA games are flanked by greats of days gone by. Anecdotes of playing with and against the likes of Jordan, Stockton and Ewing are constant, specifically with the ever-raging argument of who is the greatest of all time.

All that in mind, ex-players should not be considered journalists.

By dictionary definition anyone who writes for a news publication is a journalist. However in this context, the American Press definition suits better,

“Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating and presenting news and information. It is also the products of these activities”.

The act of simply writing a story that is featured in a newspaper does not make one a journalist. Uncovering, researching and producing a story does.

What retired players have in terms of name value and experience in the sport, they lack in training and news sense. That is where trained and experienced journalists are necessary.

Former players are best suited for writing opinion pieces and stories that require a history in the sport or expertise. What they are not suited for writing are match reports and news stories that require journalistic intuition and knowhow.

Skills required to write these stories can only be achieved through years of practice and experience in the industry. This training allows people to fine tune their talents and hone their craft. When the athletes were running around on the field, journalists were refining their skills, covering those who are now their competition.

Also pivotal in writing these stories is the ability to distinguish what is and isn’t newsworthy, and the ability to find an interesting story even when it seems impossible.

With news stories occasionally being difficult to break as they are insensitive, controversial or could ruin someone’s reputation, former players may not want to be the one to break it, having been in those shoes before.

Journalists are able to complete all these duties, but a former player is much less versatile.

Several new platforms have been created for athletes to practice writing and make their voices heard.

The Players Tribune, founded by 14 time MLB All Star Derek Jeter, allows athletes to create and share content straight from the horse’s mouth.

The organisation aims to provide an unedited voice to athletes. A space for them to be free and say what they want without fear of it being misconstrued. It also allows for opinions to be shared and rebuttals to be made.

Dominican baseball star José Bautista wrote an article in defense of his infamous ‘bat flip’ during the 2015 MLB playoffs, and in doing so, took a swipe at the media coverage and response to the incident.

It has also been the platform used to break many significant stories in American sport since its launch four years ago.

Kobe Bryant shared his famed Dear Basketball retirement letter on the site. Kevin Durant used it to announce he was leaving Oklahoma City to go to the Golden State Warriors.

The website, and similar ones such as Australian based PlayersVoice, have received a lot of backlash from traditional media outlets as they fear they are making them obsolete.

In an interview with ESPN in October 2014, Jeter said he believes The Players Tribune will not impact mainstream channels.

“We’re not trying to take away from sportswriters”, he said. “ Sportswriters are what make sports successful. I think we’re sort of working in conjunction with them.”

The biggest issue with athlete-driven media is the question of objectivity. Will the tough questions be asked and controversial stories be published?

One former player who is now a highly respected journalist is Doris Burke.

The ESPN analyst has been a standout on college basketball broadcasts since 1991, covered the WNBA for the first 20 years of its existence and is a stalwart of NBA sidelines.

Prior to her career covering the sport, she was a standout point guard at the collegiate level. She led the Big East in assists in her senior year, and ended her collegiate career as the all time leader at Providence College.

With no viable option of professional basketball at the time, Burke joined ESPN as an analyst.

Since then, she has broken barriers and become the first woman to commentate a men’s college basketball game and a New York Knicks game on both radio and television.

Nowadays, Burke is one of the most highly respected journalists in American basketball.

Current team USA coach and ESPN colour commentator Jeff Van Gundy has known Burke since his days as an assistant coach at Providence College.

“She’s the best, most versatile analyst and commentator at ESPN”, Van Gundy told Deadspin reporter Lyndsey D’Arcangelo.

“She does it all, great interviewer, commentator, studio analyst, everything. And she is an expert at it all, women’s and men’s college basketball, the NBA and the WNBA. She’s the LeBron James of sports casters. There’s no better broadcaster out there right now.”

There are other retired athletes who have had success in the media industry.   Retired English cricket captain Michael Atherton has carved a polarizing career in the media. He has written for The Telegraph and The Times, and has worked for broadcast companies BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Sports.

For his outstanding work, he was awarded the Sports Journalist of the Year at the 2010 British Press Awards.

Burke and Atherton are not typical cases of retired athletes who have become journalists. The two have put in around 50 years of dedicated work following their sports careers.

While they may have used their names to get in to the industry, they have not rested on their laurels and have instead worked hard to get where they are today.

Athletes, media and fans respect them for their mixture of talents and unique take on sport.

They are journalists who just so happen to be former athletes.

And just as much as the world needs journalists to cover sport, it needs sports personalities in and around the media too.

Listening to a football game would be completely different if not for Brian Taylor or Billy Brownless. NBA coverage would be far less enjoyable without Shaq and Charles Barkley constantly goading each other.

Imagine watching cricket as a child and not hearing Bill Lawry shriek “Yes! Got him”.

These characters make sport. They are the reason we tune in every week and watch the same broadcast. Without them, sport would be incredibly different to watch, listen and read.

But they are not journalists.

Both parties are arguably as important to sport as one another, for very different reasons.

You can be both a retired player and a journalist.

But just because you are one, does not make you both.

[actutrends]

Crossing basketball borders with Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell

What you are about to read is overwrought with sympathy, and it shouldn’t be — Mike Conley, Jr., after all, was once the highest-paid basketball player in all the land.

And yet, when Mike Conley, Jr. returned to Memphis earlier this season, I cried. I had not expected to cry, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in this reaction. I could write more on how I’ve become uncontrollably sentimental as I’ve grown older — and maybe one day I will—but first, a tale that has very little to do with my emotions or even the point guard whose name I’ve mentioned as a trigger for sentiment.

The Utah Jazz had not been to the playoffs in four seasons. In regard to weather patterns, such an absence might be termed a drought. The franchise had come close the previous season, finishing ninth in the Western Conference standings, but, ultimately, they had proven themselves too young and too inconsistent to even be bullied by contenders after the regular season’s end. The 2016-17 season, however, was different. The team notched 51 wins and claimed the fifth seed. Not quite a contender they were at least present.

They were led by Gordon Hayward, a star whose ducktail riff of a haircut, college pedigree, and pale complexion aligned him ever so kindly (or cruelly) with the state’s wholesome heritage. Utah fans could easily transcribe him as the heir to Stockton and Malone. In the post, the team featured Rudy Gobert, a human being stretched to his limits. He was at the time already one of the game’s preeminent defensive forces. Rodney Hood and Derrick Favors were young and improving. Joe Johnson, George Hill, and Boris Diaw all brought proven pedigrees and playoff moxie. And Joe Ingles, a man old before his time, could shoot when called upon.

This Lego set of basketball acumen would win its first-round series against Blake Griffin and Chris Paul’s Los Angeles Clippers in seven games. So what if Griffin didn’t finish the series? This was still an up-and-coming team leapfrogging a perpetual contender in the hierarchy of all things that mattered. This was something to be excited about in the Beehive State, in that city beside the world’s eighth-largest saltwater lake.

The Jazz would go into the second round with high hopes for a miracle — they were, after all, matched up against a Golden State Warriors squad that included, for the first time, Kevin Durant in addition to the elegant Splash Brothers and mercurial forward Draymond Green. The Jazz would be swept, but the future remained bright so long as the young nucleus stayed together in the state that produced Roseanne Barr and the Sundance Film Festival.

The Jazz, however, could not keep the band together. George Hill wandered ever westward, landing in Sacramento for a time. Hayward, meanwhile, departed Salt Lake City, retreating back into the east — beyond his home state of Indiana and all the way to Boston — in order to join forces with his former college coach and a flat earth conspiracy theorist.

Utah’s young roster still included the likes of Gobert, Hood, Ingles, and Dante Exum. The cupboard was not left bare by any means, but the team had lost arguably its two best perimeter players. And Hayward, who had averaged nearly 25 points per game in that playoff series against Golden State, would be especially difficult to replace. (Hill only played one game in that series.) But Utah held an ace up its sleeve.

Precisely twenty days prior to Hayward’s departure, the organization drafted Donovan Mitchell out of Louisville, causing Brigham Young to yell once more for posterity’s sake, “This is the place!”

About Mitchell’s first two seasons in the league, Trevor Magnotti wrote the following:

He’s exceeded expectations in nearly every category in his first two years in the league. His first year was all smiles and rainbows, as Mitchell went from the 13th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft to scoring 20.5 points per game and leading a 48-win team in scoring. The presence of Ben Simmons kept him from winning Rookie of the Year, but only barely. In his second season, Mitchell struggled early on with efficiency, but post-All-Star break, he averaged 26.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game while posting a 58.1 true shooting percentage. In terms of future star indicators as a shooting guard, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better resume than Mitchell’s.

The body electric that is Donovan Mitchell personifies the Western myth. He stands just an inch over 6-feet, but he boasts a near 7-foot wingspan. Like a young cowboy lighting out for the territories, he fills space, and every offensive maneuver is a passage lifted from early on in Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy:

They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pastureland . . . . like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing. (30)

In just his third season and still only 23, Mitchell’s career is still something of a lark, except that his competitiveness is hellbent on imbuing the world with his power. In other words, this is all serious fun as long as he remains undaunted and unabridged. He is already better than Gordon Hayward and that would make for a decent story, except life is never so easy and abrupt. The length of a career begs for longer arcs.

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

So far this has all had very little to do with Mike Conley, Jr. and everything to do with Mitchell’s outrunning Utah’s pastoral ghosts, subverting past legends and would-be heroes with the violent repertoire of a young offensive genius.

If Conley had been the focus, then this all would have had very little to do with Donovan Mitchell. That distance collapsed, however, on July 6, 2019. On that day, the Memphis Grizzlies traded the lone surviving member of its Grit ‘n Grind era to the Utah Jazz, and seeing as how the Grizzly point guard is 32, it is rather easy, in a nonsensical way, to paint the two players as being each other’s inverses.

Moreover, the bounce in Mitchell’s game is a testimony to playing unburdened — weightless even — although time and unmet expectations can eventually warp such perceptions for any athlete. Conley was not always the figurehead of a failed contender, and yet that’s how the basketball public has almost always known him. In all his star pairings, he has always been the less-heralded one at the start, and he has remained quick so as to stay one step ahead of despair.

He arrived on the national basketball landscape as part of a vaunted Ohio State recruiting class. The “Thad Five” included Othello Hunter, David Lighty, Daequan Cook, Greg Oden, and Conley. They were supposed to own college basketball, and they almost did. They lost in the national championship game to a Florida Gators team featuring Joakim Noah and Al Horford. Such runs are respectable, and basketball is full of teams at every level that dispersed too quickly. Oden, Conley, and Cook all entered the NBA draft following the loss to Florida. Oden and Conley would be picked first and fourth and sandwiched in between them were the likes of Kevin Durant and Al Horford. Oden’s career fell into ruin, and Conley became something of a survivor.

His longevity in a Memphis uniform along with his nice-guy charisma — his tragic persistence — have forever acted as tools for redeeming his teammates: Oden’s physical frailty, Zach Randolph’s immature behaviors, Tony Allen’s offensive limitations. As a salve for his team and his community, rightly or wrongly, Conley is often portrayed as the one who completes others. But fate has often fallen with too much force for a single point guard to bear.

He, too, has needed saving.

Conley spent his first twelve NBA seasons in Memphis. That means when he first suited up for the Grizzlies, George W. Bush was president and the word “hope” under Barack Obama’s likeness could be taken literally and without any derision or debate about what constitutes a progressive presidency. The Grizzlies reached the 2012-13 Western Conference Finals, but never went further. They traded Marc Gasol to the Toronto Raptors last February, leaving Conley alone to carry the load. By season’s end, with only a handful of games left on the schedule, Conley was a regular feature on the DNP list, wearing street clothes instead of a uniform.

There is a second protagonist in McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, and McCarthy puts him through hell. The character’s name is Billy Parham, and he will ultimately fail to save a wild wolf. He will fail to retrieve his family’s stolen horses. He will fail to return his brother’s body across the border from Mexico, and in The Crossing’s final scene, he weeps after failing to retrieve a stray dog that reminds him of the wolf he already lost. Conley is always smiling and nowhere near Parham’s nadir, but he is waiting on his first All-Star appearance.

Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images

The year before Mitchell entered the league and outdueled Russell Westbrook in the playoffs, Conley carried the heaviest load of his career in terms of Win Shares (10.0) and played what is arguably the best season of his career. In his team’s 2016-17 first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs, he looked, at times, every bit as good as Kawhi Leonard. This was almost a year after he had signed that fat contract that, for a time, made him the game’s highest-paid player. And this was also after Grit ‘n Grind had already died many deaths. Conley was, if anything, not just a survivor but a resurrection artist, and that’s something Utah and Mitchell hope he’s still capable of doing.

Utah is currently the Western Conference’s sixth-best team. They came into the season hoping to contend with either Los Angeles franchise, the Denver Nuggets, and the Houston Rockets — and they still might.

So far, however, the offseason acquisitions of Mike Conley and Bogdan Bogdanovic have gifted Utah with only the 23rd best offense in the league. History in Utah begins with a tale about two Spanish missionaries so lost in the wilderness they had to eat their own horses to survive. A shoddy offense, featuring too many missed jump shots and perhaps too much isolation, can’t be that bad, but it also can’t be that good for traveling far into the playoffs.

If Conley fails to rediscover his shooting range, then there is at least something fitting about seeing him play out this portion of his career in those Nike City jerseys that consist of golden yellow and burnt crimson bands cascading over a wild canyon’s walls. Conley is, after all, much closer to the sunset than the sunrise.

He has played in over 800 NBA games. His hamstrings are tight. He can’t take naps; he has to chase the kids around when he’s not playing basketball. He’s not washed, but he can’t stay up as late as he once did. And that would all be okay and normal except playing in the NBA requires staying up late.

Mitchell is a younger man than Conley. He is an explosive scorer and exactly the type of player people dreamed of pairing with Conley back in Memphis. What a cruel blow from the basketball gods it is to have delivered Conley and Mitchell to one another at the precise moment in Conley’s career when his game has begun to leave him. Then again, there’s still enough game left in Conley to conjure hope in the wilderness, to permit letting them play out this string to some end that is fitting of their character.

No one wants to speak ill of Mike Conley. No one wants to speak ill of a man who is so liked and respected. But there is a time in an individual’s wanderings when telling the tale becomes truer than living it, and that is also the moment when one passes from a realm of substance into a realm of belief and despair. In the closing passages of McCarthy’s Cities of the Plain, which is his Border Trilogy’s last installment, Billy Parham “and the children would sit at the kitchen table and he’d tell them about horses and cattle and the old days” (290).

I did not cry when Memphis traveled to Utah on December 7, 2019. The Jazz won, and Mitchell scored 22 points. But the man who is currently in the best position to prevent Mitchell’s career from echoing his own did not play. Such silences in a Western can be badass, but they are also where the tough get lonely.

The post Crossing basketball borders with Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell appeared first on Actu Trends.

[buddyrabrahams]

10 NBA players off to a hot start

We’re now four weeks into the new NBA season, and several teams have come out of the gates scorching. The Raptors and Bucks look like the class of the East, the Warriors appear borderline unbeatable, and the young Nuggets have shown they’re ready to contend now.

Those teams’ impressive starts could largely be attributed to the stellar play of their stars. Here are 10 players — including at least one from each of those teams — off to a hot start.

10. Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers

Everyone seemed to be saying the same thing about the Blazers heading into this season: they’re toast. Portland had an impressive 2017-18 regular season, but suffered a brutal first-round postseason exit at the hands of Anthony Davis and the Pelicans. Despite Portland’s regular-season success, Terry Stotts’ job security was in question. Well, Portland has started strong (10-3) yet again, and Damian Lillard is a big reason for that. He’s currently averaging 26.0 points per game on a career-best field-goal percentage (46.5), and free-throw percentage (94.0). He recently hung 30 on LeBron and the Lakers. Lillard looks poised to have a breakthrough campaign thrusting him into MVP contention. He’s on a mission to prove Portland is a genuine contender in the loaded West.

9. Blake Griffin, Pistons

Admit it: we had all written off Blake. His best days appeared to be behind him. He no longer had the bounce that was the hallmark of his game in Los Angeles. He was trapped with a mediocre supporting cast in Detroit. Everything seemed to be working against him. But Detroit added the reigning Coach of the Year, and Dwane Casey and Blake may be ushering a turnaround in the Motor City. Griffin is averaging 24.1 points (tied for his career high), 10.2 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game. The Pistons started 4-0 but have cooled off — they’re now 6-6. If they’re going to contend with the class of the East (Toronto, Milwaukee, Indiana, Boston, and Philly), the Pistons will need Griffin to continue his dominant performance.

8. Kevin Durant, Warriors

The rumors that this is K.D.’s final campaign in Golden State reached a fever pitch over the summer. Seemingly everyone believes this is the last go-round for the Villains as we know them, especially after the altercation with Draymond Green. Durant, Steph Curry (who appears later on this list), and Klay Thompson are all off to monster starts. Durant is averaging 27.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.8 assists (an easy career high) per game, and he’s shooting a scorching 41.2 percent from deep. The 30-year-old hasn’t averaged that many points since his 2013-14 MVP campaign (32.0 PPG). Is Durant headed to the Knicks, Clippers, or another new team next summer? Who knows? But in case this is the final run for the Warriors, let’s appreciate the individual and collective greatness in front of us.

7. Joel Embiid, 76ers

The Process has cemented himself as a superstar. He’s made putting up 30 and 10 a routine thing. With 28.2 points per game, Embiid is second in the league in scoring. He’s also sixth in blocks (2.1). Early in the season, there was reason for fans to be concerned about the Sixers — Markelle Fultz’s jumpshot, it is clear, is far from fixed. Further, it’s still not clear that he can be on the court at the same time as Embiid and Ben Simmons, and the team’s depth was a real question mark. But Philly fans received a boost of life when the team dealt for Jimmy Butler this week. They can also take solace in knowing Embiid is healthy, in shape, and at the peak of his powers. Trust it.

6. Zach LaVine, Bulls

LaVine became a punchline after signing a massive four-year, $78 million contract with the Bulls this summer. He shrugged off the hate, though, and said he was motivated to prove his critics wrong. Before this season, we predicted that he could break out in 2018-19. So far, he’s made that prediction look good. The 23-year-old has come into his own. He’s always had athleticism to spare, but he finally looks like a polished NBA guard. His 27.1 points per game average is 10 above his previous career high. He’s also averaging career best averages in rebounds (5.2), assists (4.0), and blocks (0.6). The Bulls are only 4-10, but LaVine has been a bright spot. Suddenly, that 2017 Butler trade looks pretty wise.

5. Rudy Gobert, Jazz

This will finally be the season that the Stifle Tower makes the All-Star Game. Gobert is leading the league in field-goal percentage (72.1), he’s fifth in blocks per game (2.38), and he’s fourth in rebounds per game (13.5). The Jazz don’t need him to provide much of a scoring punch — Donovan Mitchell carries the lion’s share of the offensive load — but Gobert is averaging a respectable 16.3 points per game, the most in his career. The Jazz haven’t quite lived up to expectations as a team (they’re only 7-6), but Gobert has done his part. Look for him to start in Charlotte in February.

4. Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

Shortly before the season commenced, former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin said he liked Jokic as a longshot to win MVP. The prediction may have seemed ridiculous, but now it looks wise. The continued evolution of the Joker is the main reason the Nuggets got off to one of the best starts in the Western Conference. Jokic, one of the most skilled big men in the league, is averaging 17.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, 6.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. The 23-year-old Serbian has continued to improve his outside shot, and he’s hitting 41 percent of his three-point attempts. With Jokic and a healthy Gary Harris, Denver is one of the most exciting young teams in the league — though the Nuggets have cooled off, dropping three in a row.

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks

Much was made of Milwaukee adding former Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer this summer. Much was also made of the Greek Freak bulking up this summer. As it turns out, the hype was real. Giannis has gone up a level this season. In a super-fun recent showdown with Boston, Giannis scored 33 points and snagged 11 rebounds. He’s averaging career highs of 13.0 rebounds (sixth in the league) and 5.8 assists per game. Budenholzer’s system has helped Giannis, but it’s also clear his game has developed. The 24-year-old still isn’t a shooter (7 percent from three, ouch), but he’s playing more efficiently and getting to the rim at will. He’s suddenly one of the best scorers in the NBA, and his development is the main reason the Bucks are 10-3.

2. Kawhi Leonard, Raptors

No one knew what to expect from Kawhi this season. He was stepping into a new situation in Toronto, and his health was unclear — would he return to 100 percent after missing practically all of this season with a quadriceps injury? The answer is clear: yes. Yes, yes, yes. Kawhi is back. The two-way stud is playing 32.6 minutes per game, and he seems to have fit in perfectly with the Raptors, who have looked like the class of the East when he has suited up. Further, Kawhi is hitting 38.1 percent of his three-point attempts, and his 7.7 rebounds per game are a career high. A Leonard-Butler showdown in the playoffs would be a lot of fun — two enigmatic superstars fighting for their reputations, for their next contracts, and for East supremacy.

1. Stephen Curry, Warriors

Steph has willingly taken a backseat since the Warriors signed Kevin Durant in 2016. Though the team has achieved incredible success, winning back-to-back titles, Curry has allowed Durant to achieve more individual shine. The former Thunder forward has won back-to-back Finals MVPs. Curry, a two-time MVP, has stepped back into the spotlight in 2018. He’s playing arguably the best basketball of his career right now, only slowed by a groin injury. He looks like his vintage, electric self — the player who enraptured the NBA in 2015-16 en route to winning the league’s first-ever unanimous MVP. Curry is leading the league in scoring (29.5 points per game), and he’s shooting 49.2 percent (!) from outside. He already has one iconic performance this season: 51 points in 32 minutes against Washington (making 11 of 16 three-point attempts). It seems he could explode for 50 any given night. This is a good thing — the league is better when Steph Curry is going all Steph Curry.

Aaron Mansfield is a freelance sports writer whose work has appeared in Complex, USA Today, and the New York Times. You can reach him via email at aaroncmansfield@gmail.com.

from Larry Brown Sports https://ift.tt/2Ps5BSk

[flauntpage]

LeBron, Like Ali Before Him, is Greater Than Sports

Earlier this year, LeBron James used his own media platform to melt the President of the United States. Driving through light snowfall in the back of a black Escalade with Kevin Durant and Cari Champion, James describes what it’s like to speak your mind as a professional athlete in increasingly divided times.

“Well, the climate is hot,” he begins, rubbing his hands together and gazing out the window. Then, James draws a blowtorch.

“The number one job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn't understand the people, and really don’t give a fuck about the people,” he says. “When I was growing up, there were like three jobs that you looked for inspiration, or you felt like these were the people that could give me life. It was the president of the United States, it was whoever was the best in sports, and then it was like the greatest musician at the time. You never thought you could be them, but you can grab inspiration from them.”

Soon after, FOX News TV host Laura Ingraham churned James’s words into gruel for her audience, the millions who fear progress, equality, and the accelerated disintegration of their social status on a nightly basis. Above a chyron that read “LEBRON’S R-RATED POLITICS,” the 55-year-old Ingraham leaned into the camera and, as if speaking to one of her three children, scolded the most disciplined, accomplished, and culturally relevant athlete in the country: “So keep the political commentary to yourself, or, as someone once said: ‘Shut up and dribble’.”

As the segment faded into a commercial break, Ingraham tilted her chair back and let a smirk crack across her face. It immediately backfired, providing James, a skilled purveyor in today’s catchphrase culture, with enough oxygen to respond with a phrase that’s become his mantra: I am more than an athlete.

It’s a feeling that’s percolated in LeBron for quite some time. He lives in the same world we do, and sees the growing hate, race-baiting, and fear-mongering in every newscycle. From Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Ohio’s Tamir Rice to consistent calls for gun control, Charlottesville, and Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing unemployment, James refuses to ignore a deteriorating society that still doesn’t treat African-Americans as people. And the problems are only getting worse.

‘Shut up and dribble’ was racist. The word “nigger” was spray-painted on his home last year (which led to one of the most obvious statements James has ever made: "No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough.") James grew up in a state that cast 2.84 million votes for Donald Trump, a man who openly doubted LeBron’s intelligence earlier this month. He sees the writing on the wall, and knows he’s in a position to do something about it.

“I’m more than just a guy that goes on the court and plays basketball,” James said during a recent trip to Shanghai, with his mantra glowing as a backdrop. “I also have a voice. I’m also a father. I’m also a son. I’m also a friend. I’m also more than just a guy that people see on the floor.”

Above everything else, LeBron is judged by what he does on the court. How can he defeat the Golden State Warriors? How do his statistics stack up in the MVP race? Will he surpass Michael Jordan? Away from basketball, LeBron’s impressive business portfolio has lead to direct comparisons with Magic Johnson, his new boss and ostensible mentor. Both dimensions are significant, and help substantiate who James is and where he’s going.

But there is room for so much more. A few months from his 34th birthday, as he gazes upon a nation that’s reignited its own moral insolvency, James is increasingly acting like someone who wants his cultural and political imprint to embody the spirit of countless black athletes—Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, etc.—who once lived on the edge in the name of a cause, who recognized sport as a means to an end. It’s a wider, more admirable and difficult legacy he’s searching for. In some ways, it’s extinct. In others, he’s the right man at the right time.

“I would never compare myself to Muhammad Ali because I never had to go through what those guys had to go through back in those times,” James said shortly after the boxer’s death in 2016. “But I feel it's my duty to carry on the legacy of the guys who did it before me.”

It’s easy to be cynical about that. LeBron is rich enough to pay for your children’s children’s children’s college education with pizza money alone. Much of his political commentary is well tread and in demand. (Trump was a bum before James was born.) He does not confront situations that have the potential to bruise his ego or scandalize his brand. But that criticism lacks context and misses the point.

History was always in the black social activist’s corner, but most athletes who challenged societal norms in previous generations did so in the face of extreme unpopularity. Their triumph was shaped by an “opportunity” to overcome tangible obstacles. More than a few strands of the Civil Rights era remain for black Americans, but the world has advanced in ways that shield James from ever confronting the daily lashings of racial prejudice someone like Robinson bravely endured. Through no fault of his own, LeBron has yet to stare down a prison sentence at the cost of his spiritual beliefs, either. But at the same time, he will never elude the flames Ali, Robinson, and countless others felt.

James responds in ways that fit today. He knows that his voice is powerful enough to stabilize, unite, and push back without sacrificing his own standing, wallet, or reputation. He’s cemented himself as the first athlete of his stature to challenge social issues from a position of strength, without any threat of legitimate retribution. He is a walking symbol of what so many fought for: As a black man in America, LeBron is worshiped as an oppositional figure. And instead of being content with what he’s been provided and simply acknowledging a struggle that took place before he existed, James continues to push this critical, neverending movement forward.

Punches thrown by someone with an audience as large as his don’t miss. He personifies rational thought at a time when rational thought stands diametrically opposed to needless cruelty. There is no instruction manual for how to behave as the most famous athlete in the United States of America. But much like those before him, James is creating a blueprint for future generations by harnessing his social platform and empowering those who struggle in a country that prides itself on suppression. (The I Promise School, which is deserving of its own anthology, let alone a sentence in this column, is potentially the single most important initiative any athlete has made in my lifetime.)

But what comes next is hard to say. In 1974, as a 32-year-old man with no nation, Ali flew to Zaire for arguably the most important fight of his career. After needing only eight rounds to pull off a win very few expected, he said: “I know that beating George Foreman and conquering the world with my fists does not bring freedom to my people. I am well aware that I must go beyond all this and prepare myself for more. I know that I enter a new arena.”

In the moment, Ali recognized what truly mattered; that consciousness above all else—including his unparalleled charisma, dancing feet, and pretty face—helped shape the revered figure we accept today. LeBron is smart enough to realize the same thing. While today’s efforts are valuable, his long-term action, as he splashes into Los Angeles and the next professional phase of his life, is even more critical. LeBron was once reportedly willing to sit out games as a way to protest Donald Sterling’s ownership. Would he ever actually go that far? Does he need to? Is his goal to follow Magic’s footsteps and be aspirational on an unprecedented scale (while economically enabling low-income communities)? Or will he more forcefully leverage his name and wealth in ways that persuade actual policy for the greater good?

At the very least, through his production company, SpringHill Entertainment, LeBron has already helped greenlight projects that can stimulate thought and change, be it by shining spotlight on seminal, albeit forgotten, figures from the past and throwing them back in the public consciousness, or tackling a system (like the NCAA) that’s rotting from its core. The myriad ways he can have an impact are boundless, be it through entertainment or philanthropy. Over the next 30 years, James has a rare, borderline-unparalleled opportunity to help vast swaths of American society. How far will he go?

This isn’t about comparing James to literal icons who’ve been eternalized on dorm room walls, forever etched in the imagination of millions all over the world. It’s about him accepting what it means to be socially active as the most important (and scrutinized) black celebrity in a country that’s sliding.

“When I decided I was going to start speaking up and not giving a fuck about the backlash or if it affects me, my whole mindset was it's not about me," James said during the premiere of his new HBO show The Shop. “I think Ali already knew. He knew that it wasn’t about him. ‘I’m gonna get the backlash. I’m gonna go to jail. But what this is gonna do for the next group. What this is gonna do for the next athlete. What this is gonna do for the next minority who wants to speak up, whenever that happens?’ Ali’s whole mindset was that at some point, somebody is gonna take what I did, and I sensed that. I sensed that, on losing this or losing that, or losing popularity. My popularity went down. But at the end of the day, my truth to so many different kids and so many different people was broader than me personally.”

Here, James makes his impossibly complicated responsibility sound simple. It’s depressing, but that inspirational virtuosity will always be necessary.

Not even six months after she uttered “shut up and dribble,” and then tried to save face amid advertising boycotts and public shame, Laura Ingraham’s audience continues to grow. She is ultimately less than a thorny footnote, but her show’s popularity helps crystallize a watershed moment for race relations in this country—one that may allow LeBron to carve out a place in history beside Ali, even without the same self-sacrifice.

He can be known for what he did with his fame and accomplishments instead of the fame and accomplishments themselves. That’s folklore. That’s immortality. That’s the legacy of a King.

LeBron, Like Ali Before Him, is Greater Than Sports published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

LeBron, Like Ali Before Him, is Greater Than Sports

Earlier this year, LeBron James used his own media platform to melt the President of the United States. Driving through light snowfall in the back of a black Escalade with Kevin Durant and Cari Champion, James describes what it’s like to speak your mind as a professional athlete in increasingly divided times.

“Well, the climate is hot,” he begins, rubbing his hands together and gazing out the window. Then, James draws a blowtorch.

“The number one job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn’t understand the people, and really don’t give a fuck about the people,” he says. “When I was growing up, there were like three jobs that you looked for inspiration, or you felt like these were the people that could give me life. It was the president of the United States, it was whoever was the best in sports, and then it was like the greatest musician at the time. You never thought you could be them, but you can grab inspiration from them.”

Soon after, FOX News TV host Laura Ingraham churned James’s words into gruel for her audience, the millions who fear progress, equality, and the accelerated disintegration of their social status on a nightly basis. Above a chyron that read “LEBRON’S R-RATED POLITICS,” the 55-year-old Ingraham leaned into the camera and, as if speaking to one of her three children, scolded the most disciplined, accomplished, and culturally relevant athlete in the country: “So keep the political commentary to yourself, or, as someone once said: ‘Shut up and dribble’.”

As the segment faded into a commercial break, Ingraham tilted her chair back and let a smirk crack across her face. It immediately backfired, providing James, a skilled purveyor in today’s catchphrase culture, with enough oxygen to respond with a phrase that’s become his mantra: I am more than an athlete.

It’s a feeling that’s percolated in LeBron for quite some time. He lives in the same world we do, and sees the growing hate, race-baiting, and fear-mongering in every newscycle. From Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Ohio’s Tamir Rice to consistent calls for gun control, Charlottesville, and Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing unemployment, James refuses to ignore a deteriorating society that still doesn’t treat African-Americans as people. And the problems are only getting worse.

‘Shut up and dribble’ was racist. The word “nigger” was spray-painted on his home last year (which led to one of the most obvious statements James has ever made: “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough.”) James grew up in a state that cast 2.84 million votes for Donald Trump, a man who openly doubted LeBron’s intelligence earlier this month. He sees the writing on the wall, and knows he’s in a position to do something about it.

“I’m more than just a guy that goes on the court and plays basketball,” James said during a recent trip to Shanghai, with his mantra glowing as a backdrop. “I also have a voice. I’m also a father. I’m also a son. I’m also a friend. I’m also more than just a guy that people see on the floor.”

Above everything else, LeBron is judged by what he does on the court. How can he defeat the Golden State Warriors? How do his statistics stack up in the MVP race? Will he surpass Michael Jordan? Away from basketball, LeBron’s impressive business portfolio has lead to direct comparisons with Magic Johnson, his new boss and ostensible mentor. Both dimensions are significant, and help substantiate who James is and where he’s going.

But there is room for so much more. A few months from his 34th birthday, as he gazes upon a nation that’s reignited its own moral insolvency, James is increasingly acting like someone who wants his cultural and political imprint to embody the spirit of countless black athletes—Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, etc.—who once lived on the edge in the name of a cause, who recognized sport as a means to an end. It’s a wider, more admirable and difficult legacy he’s searching for. In some ways, it’s extinct. In others, he’s the right man at the right time.

“I would never compare myself to Muhammad Ali because I never had to go through what those guys had to go through back in those times,” James said shortly after the boxer’s death in 2016. “But I feel it’s my duty to carry on the legacy of the guys who did it before me.”

It’s easy to be cynical about that. LeBron is rich enough to pay for your children’s children’s children’s college education with pizza money alone. Much of his political commentary is well tread and in demand. (Trump was a bum before James was born.) He does not confront situations that have the potential to bruise his ego or scandalize his brand. But that criticism lacks context and misses the point.

History was always in the black social activist’s corner, but most athletes who challenged societal norms in previous generations did so in the face of extreme unpopularity. Their triumph was shaped by an “opportunity” to overcome tangible obstacles. More than a few strands of the Civil Rights era remain for black Americans, but the world has advanced in ways that shield James from ever confronting the daily lashings of racial prejudice someone like Robinson bravely endured. Through no fault of his own, LeBron has yet to stare down a prison sentence at the cost of his spiritual beliefs, either. But at the same time, he will never elude the flames Ali, Robinson, and countless others felt.

James responds in ways that fit today. He knows that his voice is powerful enough to stabilize, unite, and push back without sacrificing his own standing, wallet, or reputation. He’s cemented himself as the first athlete of his stature to challenge social issues from a position of strength, without any threat of legitimate retribution. He is a walking symbol of what so many fought for: As a black man in America, LeBron is worshiped as an oppositional figure. And instead of being content with what he’s been provided and simply acknowledging a struggle that took place before he existed, James continues to push this critical, neverending movement forward.

Punches thrown by someone with an audience as large as his don’t miss. He personifies rational thought at a time when rational thought stands diametrically opposed to needless cruelty. There is no instruction manual for how to behave as the most famous athlete in the United States of America. But much like those before him, James is creating a blueprint for future generations by harnessing his social platform and empowering those who struggle in a country that prides itself on suppression. (The I Promise School, which is deserving of its own anthology, let alone a sentence in this column, is potentially the single most important initiative any athlete has made in my lifetime.)

But what comes next is hard to say. In 1974, as a 32-year-old man with no nation, Ali flew to Zaire for arguably the most important fight of his career. After needing only eight rounds to pull off a win very few expected, he said: “I know that beating George Foreman and conquering the world with my fists does not bring freedom to my people. I am well aware that I must go beyond all this and prepare myself for more. I know that I enter a new arena.”

In the moment, Ali recognized what truly mattered; that consciousness above all else—including his unparalleled charisma, dancing feet, and pretty face—helped shape the revered figure we accept today. LeBron is smart enough to realize the same thing. While today’s efforts are valuable, his long-term action, as he splashes into Los Angeles and the next professional phase of his life, is even more critical. LeBron was once reportedly willing to sit out games as a way to protest Donald Sterling’s ownership. Would he ever actually go that far? Does he need to? Is his goal to follow Magic’s footsteps and be aspirational on an unprecedented scale (while economically enabling low-income communities)? Or will he more forcefully leverage his name and wealth in ways that persuade actual policy for the greater good?

At the very least, through his production company, SpringHill Entertainment, LeBron has already helped greenlight projects that can stimulate thought and change, be it by shining spotlight on seminal, albeit forgotten, figures from the past and throwing them back in the public consciousness, or tackling a system (like the NCAA) that’s rotting from its core. The myriad ways he can have an impact are boundless, be it through entertainment or philanthropy. Over the next 30 years, James has a rare, borderline-unparalleled opportunity to help vast swaths of American society. How far will he go?

This isn’t about comparing James to literal icons who’ve been eternalized on dorm room walls, forever etched in the imagination of millions all over the world. It’s about him accepting what it means to be socially active as the most important (and scrutinized) black celebrity in a country that’s sliding.

“When I decided I was going to start speaking up and not giving a fuck about the backlash or if it affects me, my whole mindset was it’s not about me,” James said during the premiere of his new HBO show The Shop. “I think Ali already knew. He knew that it wasn’t about him. ‘I’m gonna get the backlash. I’m gonna go to jail. But what this is gonna do for the next group. What this is gonna do for the next athlete. What this is gonna do for the next minority who wants to speak up, whenever that happens?’ Ali’s whole mindset was that at some point, somebody is gonna take what I did, and I sensed that. I sensed that, on losing this or losing that, or losing popularity. My popularity went down. But at the end of the day, my truth to so many different kids and so many different people was broader than me personally.”

Here, James makes his impossibly complicated responsibility sound simple. It’s depressing, but that inspirational virtuosity will always be necessary.

Not even six months after she uttered “shut up and dribble,” and then tried to save face amid advertising boycotts and public shame, Laura Ingraham’s audience continues to grow. She is ultimately less than a thorny footnote, but her show’s popularity helps crystallize a watershed moment for race relations in this country—one that may allow LeBron to carve out a place in history beside Ali, even without the same self-sacrifice.

He can be known for what he did with his fame and accomplishments instead of the fame and accomplishments themselves. That’s folklore. That’s immortality. That’s the legacy of a King.

LeBron, Like Ali Before Him, is Greater Than Sports syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com

[tipsoctopus]

The miracle of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers

Making it to the NBA Finals, or finals of any sport for that matter, is never an easy feat. Doing it four seasons in a row as a team puts you in select company… doing it 8 straight times is unheard of!

That’s exactly what LeBron James accomplished last night with his Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

35 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists on 12/24 shooting and 48 minutes played… all that in his 100th game of the season while playing in his 15th professional season.

Those were LeBron’s numbers in the elimination game last night. But, LeBron is much more than just numbers. With his teams “whatever it takes” motto in this year’s Playoffs, he has once again showed his committment to the game of basketball and proven his doubters wrong by sticking to what he does best and because of that he is arguably one of the best to ever play the game of basketball.

The Cavaliers have joined the Boston Celtics (twice), Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat as the 5th team in NBA history to advance to 4 straight NBA Finals.

We take a look at Lebron’s impressive run:

Miami Heat (2010-2014)

It all started back in 2010 with his infamous “decision” to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in a Miami Heat uniform. The switch didn’t go all to well with the Cavs fans who were infuriated and during the time it was believe nothing would ever repair that relationship.

The Miami Heat Super Team didn’t get off to the best of starts. Winning just 9 of 17 games to start their first season raised questions, but as time went on they sort of figured it out.

The highlight of that season happened on December 2nd when Lebron faced his team for the first time back in Cleveland. The atmosphere in the building was very hostile towards Lebron, but as usual he brought his best when it mattered the most and got himself a win in that game.

Miami made it to the NBA Finals fairly easily through the East. In that Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks, Lebron didn’t live up to the expectations and averaged only 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists as Miami 4-2.

The following season was a lockout-shortened one and Lebron finally captured his first ring. He raised his game to a completely new level and performed far better in the finals against the OKC Thunder and Kevin Durant earning himself Finals MVP honors with averages of 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists as the Miami Heat won in 5 games.

In 2013, the Heat won 66 games in the regular season as Lebron James won the MVP going into the Playoffs as the clear favorites to repeat. After a minor scare vs Indiana in East Finals, Miami needed all 7 games to overcome San Antonio in the final round. James once again provided us with a couple of legendary performances and his 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 7 assists got Miami over the hump!

The Heat once again made it to the finals in 2014, but against they faced a well oiled machine seeking for revenge in the Finals. The San Antonio Spurs gave them no chance, despite Lebron averaging 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4 assists, he didn’t have much help from his teammates and Miami was defeated 4-1.

Cleveland Cavaliers (2014-Present)

After a disappointing 4th season in Miami, Lebron decided to go back to his hometown team and try to win an NBA Championship for the Cavaliers for the first time in almost 50 years.

He teamed up with two great players in point guard Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Despite winning only 53 games in their first season together, the Cavs big 3 went through the East only losing two games in the process and Lebron was back in the Finals for the 5th straight season.

In the finals though, without an injured Kevin Love and Kyrie Iriving, James simply didn’t have enough help against the highly favorited Golden State Warriors. He carried his team with 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game but it wasn’t enough.

The 2015–16 season was a special one for Lebron. His team finished with the best record in the East and just like in the year before dropped only two games on their way to the Finals. In that finals series though, they were up against a historic Golden State team that won 73 games in the regular season (NBA record). Lebron & Co. went down 3-1 in the series and all hope was lost.

But, what followed was one of the greatest comebacks we’ve ever seen in the NBA. No team ever came back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, but the Cavaliers were able to somehow do it! At the end of the series Lebron’s numbers read 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.3 blocks per game and he was deservedly the Finals MVP for the 3rd time in his career!

Lebron returned to the Finals for a 7th consecutive year in 2017, but the Golden State Warriors, who added Kevin Durant to a 73-win team in the offseason, were too much even for Lebron and the Cavs lost in 5 games.

What happens after the NBA Finals?

In short, nobody really knows. But, the speculation about Lebron’s future has been well documented ever since his return to Cleveland. Him signing 1-2 year extensions on his deal only adds to the mystery of where he will play next season.

Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, LA Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers have all shown interest in him, but it is very difficult to predict what will happen. The outcome of the NBA Finals might give us an idea or two where Lebron might go.

One thing is certain though, whichever team gets Lebron this summer will be in the running to win the NBA title next season.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2kznoVC via IFTTT

[junker-town]

Here’s Team USA men’s basketball roster for the Tokyo Olympics

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Kevin Durant leads a formidable squad to Tokyo.

There were huge doubts about what Team USA men’s basketball would look like at the Tokyo Olympics with a grueling, shortened season wrecking havoc on player bodies, causing numerous stars to pull out of the Summer games. However, now the full roster has been revealed, the final product is much better than most anticipated.

The Tokyo Olympics will have their opening ceremony on Friday, July 23. Men’s basketball runs from July 25 until the gold medal game on August 7. The United States has taken home three consecutive gold medals in the event following their stunning bronze at the 2004 games in Athens, where they lost to Manu Ginobili and Argentina who went on to win gold.

Here’s the full 12-man roster for Team USA:

Team USA's 12-man roster for the Tokyo Olympics: Kevin Durant Damian Lillard Bradley Beal Jayson Tatum Devin Booker Zach LaVine Kevin Love Bam Adebayo Draymond Green Jrue Holiday Khris Middleton Jerami Grant

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2021

A healthy mix of established stars and veteran leadership, the 2021 Team USA roster may be missing the likes of Stephen Curry and LeBron James, but it’s still formidable, with some of the best and most-recognized players in the world.

Kevin Durant: One of the best players of his generation, Durant offers 7-foot length with the ability to score from anywhere on the floor. Also a solid rim defender who will help on the other end of the court. Durant helped USA Basketball win gold medals in 2012 and 2016.

Damian Lillard: Arguably Team USA’s best guard, Lillard can create his own shot and blow past defenders with his ludicrous speed. Also one of the best superstars in the league at shooting threes, offers a perimeter threat.

Bradley Beal: Stepping out of being “very good” and into “superstar” territory, the often overlooked Beal is a dynamite shot creator who managed to excel in 2020-21, even with the ball-hungry Russell Westbrook on his team. Should have no problem slotting in with the other stars on Team USA and find a niche.

Kevin Love: The “old man” of Team USA, the 32-year-old has more or less been forgotten since the Cavaliers’ super team demolished. Still, he’s a double-double forward with the ability to stretch the floor from range, which should match up nicely against some rangy, shooting Euro bigs. Love was part of the 2012 gold medal-winning team in London.

Jayson Tatum: Still just 23 years old, Tatum continues to look like one of the brightest young talents in the game during the start of his career with the Boston Celtics. A 6’8 wing with scoring ability from all over the floor, Tatum had a 60-point performance during the regular season and dropped 50 points in a win over the Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs. He can play all over the floor and provide scoring and versatile defense.

Devin Booker: Booker is the ascendant star leading the Suns deep into the Western Conference playoffs. The 24-year-old is a dynamic scorer with a deadly pull-up mid-range game and the ability to space the floor out past the three-point arc. Booker may only have days to prepare for the Olympics if he leads Phoenix to the NBA Finals.

Zach LaVine: LaVine made his first All-Star appearance of his career this season with the Chicago Bulls, and is yet another dynamic shooter and scorer. LaVine is a deadly three-point shooter who can also put pressure on the rim with his elite athleticism.

Bam Adebayo: While Adebayo is a little undersized for a center at 6’9, he is a tremendous rebounder and shot blocking threat, and has a diverse offensive skill set. Adebayo can fit in equally well with a faster small ball lineup, or play a more traditional role in the paint, offering something nobody else on the roster really can.

Draymond Green: Green’s reputation precedes him. Not only a tenacious low post rebounder, Green brings a little nastiness that Team USA needs. His role will be to infuriate opposing bigs, likely being used in a rotational role to disrupt scorers off the bench.

Jrue Holiday: The closest thing to a true point guard on the roster, Holiday is another hybrid guard often used in the 1 or 2 in Milwaukee. A three-time All-Defensive team player, he has the chops to lock down opposing guards and isn’t afraid to mix it up and get dirty loose rebounds. A high-effort player who will be welcome on both ends of the floor.

Khris Middleton: Middleton is a 29-year-old wing and two-time All-Star who has quietly become one of the best shooters of his generation. While he’s known as Giannis Antetokounmpo’s sidekick on the Milwaukee Bucks, Middleton is a dynamic 6’8 scorer in his own right who will give Team USA additional shot-making and lineup versatility.

Jerami Grant: A bouncy 6’8 forward, Grant took a big offensive leap in his first season with Detroit this past year. He’ll provide extra paint protection on defense and a little scoring punch off the bench for Team USA.

[jodyedgarus]

Which NBA Team Is Wronged By The Refs The Most?

The relationship between NBA players and referees has arguably never been more strained than it is right now.

In January, Golden State forward Draymond Green — who is never shy about complaining and already has a league-high 14 technical fouls — said that too many refs carry personal vendettas against players and that the NBA should consider replacing its entire crop of referees. Kevin Durant, who is Green’s teammate and started the season with one ejection in his entire 10-year career, leads the NBA this year, with four early exits. And this week, Paul George and LeBron James have both outlined what they perceive to be biases in how games are officiated.1

When the NBA’s biggest names are complaining about something, it’s obviously going to get a lot of attention. But that doesn’t necessarily mean those voices have the biggest reason to complain. That honor belongs to the Brooklyn Nets. As of the All-Star break, Brooklyn had seen more blown foul calls than any other club, according to our analysis of The Pudding’s compilation of the NBA’s “Last Two Minute” reports. In those, the league evaluates the accuracy of calls and non-calls made by officials at the end of close games.2

As of the All-Star break, the Nets had been disadvantaged by an official’s incorrect call or incorrect non-call 29 times this season. In second place is Dallas, with 24.

To get a sense of the sorts of plays that have hurt the Nets, watch the clips below, which highlight several sequences that the league later determined should have drawn whistles in Brooklyn’s favor. One involves Nets swingman Allen Crabbe, who managed to score a tough bucket despite being bumped by one defender and being fallen upon by another at the conclusion of the play. Two other examples show forward DeMarre Carroll being bumped or swiped across the arm while trying to get a shot off during the last 20 seconds of play. After many of the plays, you can see Brooklyn players turn to officials in disbelief over the fact that no foul was called.

https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/netsfouls.mp4

There are a handful of interesting takeaways from this data. For starters, it seems to provide evidence to support comments made by Brooklyn guard Spencer Dinwiddie in January suggesting that this young Nets team gets less respect from officials than other clubs.

“To see the same type of respect not reciprocated is very frustrating for us,” Dinwiddie said after the Nets fell 87-85 to the Boston Celtics. “The other thing that’s very frustrating as well: We have these meetings as teams, or with [the players’ association], about respect, so we want to treat everybody with respect, right? Because everybody’s doing their job, and they’re trying their best, including us, [even if] we turn the ball over or calls are missed or whatever it is. But when you approach somebody, and they shush you or they wave you off like you’re not a man, or something of that nature, that’s also very frustrating.”

On an individual level, Dinwiddie’s frustration may be justified. The 10 blown calls that left him disadvantaged led the league as of the All-Star break — a very high number for that point in the campaign, considering that no player in the league’s database has ever been the victim of more than 11 blown calls in a single year since the NBA first began publishing these reports during the 2014-15 season. (The National Basketball Referees Association, which has long pushed for an end to the public reports, recently called them “pointless.” The union argues that publishing the corrections, which ultimately have no impact on the standings, only creates more division, despite the transparency that the NBA is aiming for.)

These players have the most legitimate complaints

The NBA players who had the most blown calls against them (incorrect calls and incorrect non-calls) in the last two minutes of 2017-18 games when the score was within 3 points, through the All-Star break

Player Bad Calls Bad Non-Calls Total 1 Spencer Dinwiddie 0 10 10

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2 Will Barton 2 6 8

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3 LeBron James 0 6 6

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3 Marcus Smart 1 5 6

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3 Kristaps Porzingis 0 6 6

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6 DeMar DeRozan 0 5 5

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6 Kemba Walker 0 5 5

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6 Damian Lillard 3 2 5

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6 Josh Richardson 1 4 5

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6 Caris LeVert 1 4 5

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6 Dennis Smith Jr. 0 5 5

–

Sources: NBA ‘Last Two Minute’ Reports, The Pudding

In the Jan. 23 Nets-Thunder game, according to the report, Dinwiddie was disadvantaged twice — smacked on offense (with no call) and then bulldozed on defense (also with no call) — within a two-second span during the final 10 seconds. By swallowing the whistle both times, the officials likely sealed a loss for the Nets — in particular, the second non-call would have triggered an offensive foul on George, which would have kept Russell Westbrook from making a game-winning basket seconds later. (Worth noting: Going back to the 2014-15 season, we found that incorrect non-calls occur nearly seven times more frequently than incorrect calls, suggesting that referees would rather risk missing a call than calling a phantom foul that ends up deciding a game.)

Said Dinwiddie of the play: “It’s like, that’s Russell Westbrook and Paul George … and I’m Spencer Dinwiddie.”

https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/pgdinwiddie.mp4

Whether it’s a respect issue or just a mere coincidence, four of the five NBA teams that have seen the most blown calls this season — Brooklyn, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago — each lack a bona-fide, go-to star in the most traditional sense. None possesses a 20-point-per-game scorer, perhaps making it tougher for officials to anticipate who’d be most likely to draw a foul in a given situation.

While Brooklyn has almost certainly dropped at least a game or two as a result of these missed calls — this ultimately benefits the Cavs, since the Nets don’t own their first-round pick anyway — some additional details around this subject are helpful in understanding the full picture here.

First off: The Nets have played a relatively large number of games that went down to the wire, meaning that officials may have been forced to make more decisions — both correct and incorrect ones — in situations involving Brooklyn than with most otand then her teams. The Nets have the third-highest of rate of incorrect calls against them this season, at 10 percent — meaning that 10 percent of all possible calls in the Last Two Minute reports that could have gone against them did. That’s a high number, but not astronomically so compared with the leaguewide average of 6.9 percent this season.

Another detail that suggests officiating equity: That a team as awful as Orlando — in contention for the top overall draft pick — has the lowest blown-call rate in the league (3.6 percent) is a relatively strong counterexample to the notion that a team needs a star to get late-game calls to go its way.

Taking the opposite approach from Dinwiddie, Carroll said he wanted his teammates to stop focusing so much on how the games were being officiated.

“Hollering at the refs, screaming at them — that isn’t going to do us justice,” said Carroll, who was grabbed on the wrist while going up for a shot in the closing seconds of an overtime loss to New Orleans but got no call. “They’re human just like we are, so at the end of the day, we’ve got to try something different, maybe. Hopefully it works.”

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-nba-team-is-wronged-by-the-refs-the-most/

[smokeybrandreviews]

NBA Rant: Mamba Out, Period

Watching Kobe’s numbers go into the rafters was crazy bittersweet. This was the definitive end of his career. I held no illusions to the Mamba coming out of retirement for another season, Jordan he is not, but still. Kid brought us 5 titles. He was arguably the best player on the planet for years. Closest to Jordan in any era and he was a Laker. Proud and loyal. He was one of MY guys. Looking back on a career past, Kobe was just plain disgusting. I’m going to miss the Mamba but it was good to see him one last time.

Speaking of my guys, these young ass Lakers are good.

Real good. Way ahead of where they should be. Now, I am by no means saying they’re in contention for a playoff spot, they’re not, but they are winning games I thought impossible. They beat Houston, the only Team people say can even come close to challenging the Warriors. Hell, it took a last second shot by the best player on the planet for those very same warriors to beat the LAkers on Kobe night! In OT! They’re sitting comfortably in the 11th seed, about  2 games behind the Pels for the 8th seed. Their depth has been a big reason they’re doing so well this season and their defense is one of the best in league. Not bad for a group of kids. Oh! And I have to mention…

Kyle Kuzma is the goddamn truth!

Talk about Mamba Mentality! This kid was a steal and his potential is through the goddamn roof! Here’s hoping he’s a lifer. I would love to see Kuz retire and get his number hung in the rafters. If he can continue playing the way he is and growing into something better, tt’s a very real outcome to what would be a wildly impressive career.

Dwight is almost looking like old Dwight out in Charlotte.

He’s playing a much better brand of basketball and it has his team firmly planted in the playoff hunt. Realistically, they ain’t cracking the post season as they are now, not with the record they have, but we have, what? 2/3 of the season to go and this is the East. Anything is possible. I mean, even if they squeak in at 7 or 8, they’re not beating the Cavs or Boston but it’s nice to see my guy having fun and enjoying the game again. Even if he slighted my Lakers for Houston.

Giannis is the goddamn truth!

I will preach this every goddamn time I write a Rant because it needs to be said, loudly and forcefully! That energy needs to be put out into the goddamn universe! This kid is f*cking bonkers good! Cat is a franchise, man! Imagine if Kevin Garnett could run the point like Jason Kidd and you have Giannis. If the Bucks can ever surround him with enough talent to compliment his near heavenly skillset, the League will be in a bad way, for real! Watching him reminds me a lot of young Bron which makes me wonder…

What if Bron decided to actually play Point-Forward instead of pretending like he doesn’t already do that?

What if he embraced that position and owned what it meant to be considered the greatest player ever, not just pay lip-service to it? Look, I’m not a LeBron fan but I’d be stupid not to acknowledge he’s one of the best to ever play the game. The best? Debatable. He’d absolutely have to be in that discussion of top 5. For me, that list goes Michael, Magic, Cap, Kobe, Bron. In that order. I’m a LAker guy so obviously I’m crazy biased but there he is, number 5. Even if I think he wasted a lot of his potential. Even if I think he phones it in too much during the season. Even if I think he doesn’t have that competitive drive to win by any means necessary. Even if I believe he’s afraid of those big moments and defers to lesser cats because he NEEDS to be the GOAT and not the DONKEY. The dominance he’s displaying this year is profound and I’m just weary of it. Not because I’m taking his skill for granted but because if he actually executed like this in his natural point-Forward position, we’d have been witness to something truly spectacular.

Yo, just as I have to mention Giannis in these Rants, I have to mention how goddamn awful OKC has been.

Terrible! tey’ve been just terrible! For two reasons; 1. They’re brain dead as to how to effectively use PG, who is arguably the best two-way player in the entire NBA. Seriously, that kid is a killer and you got him on a leash? Really? In favor of perennial bust Carmelo Anthony? Seriously? And 2. They have absolutely no depth. These cats mortgaged their entire team just to sign Melo and George only to see that experiment immediately go to sh*t. I don’t know how they thought this thing was going to work. Rusty is a ball-hog who needs to control everything to be effective. There’s a reason he averaged a triple-double last season and it’s not because he had to. Westbrook purposely inflated his numbers specifically to contend for an MVP to spite Durant. That’s a thing. He didn’t make his team better, he just made himself look good. I maintain that Harden would have been the MVP because…

Victor Oladipo is a goddamn stud!

Everyone thought that PG trade was so one sided and it turns out, it was! In the other direction. VO has meant everything to the Pacers who, for a second, looked like they were taken for a ride. That is until Melo was added to the OKC roster. All of a sudden, they look like geniuses. The pacers are 4th in the East, pressing the best teams for Ws. They have a much better record than the Thunder. They’ve also beaten them this season, I believe. Not bad for a cat that was “terrible” last season playing alongside the “MVP”. I knew Ollie was dope. I’ve known for years. He was a stud in Orlando so why  wasn’t he in OKC? Westbrook. Westbrook is why his shine dulled. Westbrook is the reason the Thunder won’t even crack the playoffs this year. And Westbrook is the reason why George is going to bail on a second team in two seasons. Come on home, PG. We’ll love you forever down in LalaLand!

And, as if to drive my point home about how retarded OKC was to make the moves they made in the offseason, The Knicks are f*cking THRIVING post-Melo!

I’ve said, for years, Melo was a problem. Since he blew up Denver for the limelight of New York and effectively derailed Stat Stoudamire’s career. Before Melo, that was a playoff team. All they needed to do was build around Amare and they’d have been legit. Fast paced offense. Pick-and-roll guard. Get a couple of sharpshooter at the 2 and 3 to play alongside him in the starting rotation; you got a team that’s hard to be, for real. Nope. Melo forces his way into that line-up and everything goes tits up. The second he leaves Denver, perennial playoff contenders with no star. Fast forward to last season, same scenario plays out. Melo doing Melo, stifling Kristaps development. Kid decides to bail on everything over the summer. Melo gets traded. Knocks are the 7th seed in the East playing for an actual spot in the post season, a spit they haven’t had since Melo’s first or second year in the Garden. Are you f*cking kidding me?? How can you not look at that objectively and come to the conclusion that Melo is franchise poison? Why do cats keep paying this douche?? Or, at least, starting this douche??

It’s just super funny to me how I’ve been saying Russell Westbrook has been the issue with the Thunder since he decided he wanted to be a star, since they traded Harden to Houston over him, and no one is willing to even acknowledge this to be fact.

Proven, over and over. Fact. He chased KD out of town, one of the best players to play the game. He then followed that up by ball-hoggin’ his way into an MVP on ridiculous numbers because he decided to take ALL OF THE SHOTS instead of actually playing as a team, particularly when you have a young killer like Oladipo on your squad. Then, after bogarding a broke ass OKC front office for the largest contract in NBA history, you strong arm them into signing Carmelo Anthony AFTER ALREADY TRADING THEIR FRANCHISE AWAY FOR PG!! This is vintage LeBron ego stunting, I must say! At least Bron delivered 6though. Westbrook ain’t winning a goddamn thing, ever. Not unless he gets it through his brain that he needs a team to do so. Even Jordan needed Pippen, homey.

Apparently Enes Kanter is a war criminal and traitor in Turkey.

The f*ck?

[smokeybrand]

NBA Rant: Mamba Out, Period

Watching Kobe’s numbers go into the rafters was crazy bittersweet. This was the definitive end of his career. I held no illusions to the Mamba coming out of retirement for another season, Jordan he is not, but still. Kid brought us 5 titles. He was arguably the best player on the planet for years. Closest to Jordan in any era and he was a Laker. Proud and loyal. He was one of MY guys. Looking back on a career past, Kobe was just plain disgusting. I’m going to miss the Mamba but it was good to see him one last time.

Speaking of my guys, these young ass Lakers are good.

Real good. Way ahead of where they should be. Now, I am by no means saying they’re in contention for a playoff spot, they’re not, but they are winning games I thought impossible. They beat Houston, the only Team people say can even come close to challenging the Warriors. Hell, it took a last second shot by the best player on the planet for those very same warriors to beat the LAkers on Kobe night! In OT! They’re sitting comfortably in the 11th seed, about  2 games behind the Pels for the 8th seed. Their depth has been a big reason they’re doing so well this season and their defense is one of the best in league. Not bad for a group of kids. Oh! And I have to mention…

Kyle Kuzma is the goddamn truth!

Talk about Mamba Mentality! This kid was a steal and his potential is through the goddamn roof! Here’s hoping he’s a lifer. I would love to see Kuz retire and get his number hung in the rafters. If he can continue playing the way he is and growing into something better, tt’s a very real outcome to what would be a wildly impressive career.

Dwight is almost looking like old Dwight out in Charlotte.

He’s playing a much better brand of basketball and it has his team firmly planted in the playoff hunt. Realistically, they ain’t cracking the post season as they are now, not with the record they have, but we have, what? 2/3 of the season to go and this is the East. Anything is possible. I mean, even if they squeak in at 7 or 8, they’re not beating the Cavs or Boston but it’s nice to see my guy having fun and enjoying the game again. Even if he slighted my Lakers for Houston.

Giannis is the goddamn truth!

I will preach this every goddamn time I write a Rant because it needs to be said, loudly and forcefully! That energy needs to be put out into the goddamn universe! This kid is f*cking bonkers good! Cat is a franchise, man! Imagine if Kevin Garnett could run the point like Jason Kidd and you have Giannis. If the Bucks can ever surround him with enough talent to compliment his near heavenly skillset, the League will be in a bad way, for real! Watching him reminds me a lot of young Bron which makes me wonder…

What if Bron decided to actually play Point-Forward instead of pretending like he doesn’t already do that?

What if he embraced that position and owned what it meant to be considered the greatest player ever, not just pay lip-service to it? Look, I’m not a LeBron fan but I’d be stupid not to acknowledge he’s one of the best to ever play the game. The best? Debatable. He’d absolutely have to be in that discussion of top 5. For me, that list goes Michael, Magic, Cap, Kobe, Bron. In that order. I’m a LAker guy so obviously I’m crazy biased but there he is, number 5. Even if I think he wasted a lot of his potential. Even if I think he phones it in too much during the season. Even if I think he doesn’t have that competitive drive to win by any means necessary. Even if I believe he’s afraid of those big moments and defers to lesser cats because he NEEDS to be the GOAT and not the DONKEY. The dominance he’s displaying this year is profound and I’m just weary of it. Not because I’m taking his skill for granted but because if he actually executed like this in his natural point-Forward position, we’d have been witness to something truly spectacular.

Yo, just as I have to mention Giannis in these Rants, I have to mention how goddamn awful OKC has been.

Terrible! tey’ve been just terrible! For two reasons; 1. They’re brain dead as to how to effectively use PG, who is arguably the best two-way player in the entire NBA. Seriously, that kid is a killer and you got him on a leash? Really? In favor of perennial bust Carmelo Anthony? Seriously? And 2. They have absolutely no depth. These cats mortgaged their entire team just to sign Melo and George only to see that experiment immediately go to sh*t. I don’t know how they thought this thing was going to work. Rusty is a ball-hog who needs to control everything to be effective. There’s a reason he averaged a triple-double last season and it’s not because he had to. Westbrook purposely inflated his numbers specifically to contend for an MVP to spite Durant. That’s a thing. He didn’t make his team better, he just made himself look good. I maintain that Harden would have been the MVP because…

Victor Oladipo is a goddamn stud!

Everyone thought that PG trade was so one sided and it turns out, it was! In the other direction. VO has meant everything to the Pacers who, for a second, looked like they were taken for a ride. That is until Melo was added to the OKC roster. All of a sudden, they look like geniuses. The pacers are 4th in the East, pressing the best teams for Ws. They have a much better record than the Thunder. They’ve also beaten them this season, I believe. Not bad for a cat that was “terrible” last season playing alongside the “MVP”. I knew Ollie was dope. I’ve known for years. He was a stud in Orlando so why  wasn’t he in OKC? Westbrook. Westbrook is why his shine dulled. Westbrook is the reason the Thunder won’t even crack the playoffs this year. And Westbrook is the reason why George is going to bail on a second team in two seasons. Come on home, PG. We’ll love you forever down in LalaLand!

And, as if to drive my point home about how retarded OKC was to make the moves they made in the offseason, The Knicks are f*cking THRIVING post-Melo!

I’ve said, for years, Melo was a problem. Since he blew up Denver for the limelight of New York and effectively derailed Stat Stoudamire’s career. Before Melo, that was a playoff team. All they needed to do was build around Amare and they’d have been legit. Fast paced offense. Pick-and-roll guard. Get a couple of sharpshooter at the 2 and 3 to play alongside him in the starting rotation; you got a team that’s hard to be, for real. Nope. Melo forces his way into that line-up and everything goes tits up. The second he leaves Denver, perennial playoff contenders with no star. Fast forward to last season, same scenario plays out. Melo doing Melo, stifling Kristaps development. Kid decides to bail on everything over the summer. Melo gets traded. Knocks are the 7th seed in the East playing for an actual spot in the post season, a spit they haven’t had since Melo’s first or second year in the Garden. Are you f*cking kidding me?? How can you not look at that objectively and come to the conclusion that Melo is franchise poison? Why do cats keep paying this douche?? Or, at least, starting this douche??

It’s just super funny to me how I’ve been saying Russell Westbrook has been the issue with the Thunder since he decided he wanted to be a star, since they traded Harden to Houston over him, and no one is willing to even acknowledge this to be fact.

Proven, over and over. Fact. He chased KD out of town, one of the best players to play the game. He then followed that up by ball-hoggin’ his way into an MVP on ridiculous numbers because he decided to take ALL OF THE SHOTS instead of actually playing as a team, particularly when you have a young killer like Oladipo on your squad. Then, after bogarding a broke ass OKC front office for the largest contract in NBA history, you strong arm them into signing Carmelo Anthony AFTER ALREADY TRADING THEIR FRANCHISE AWAY FOR PG!! This is vintage LeBron ego stunting, I must say! At least Bron delivered 6though. Westbrook ain’t winning a goddamn thing, ever. Not unless he gets it through his brain that he needs a team to do so. Even Jordan needed Pippen, homey.

Apparently Enes Kanter is a war criminal and traitor in Turkey.

The f*ck?

[buddyrabrahams]

10 NBA coaches on the hot seat this season

The NBA is a “get wins or get out” enterprise. The business can be callous at times, spurning head coaches who have seemingly earned job security — a lesson Dwane Casey learned the hard way in May. It’s still hard to imagine Casey on the Pistons’ sideline.

It may seem ridiculous to already be speculating about which coaches could be fired this season, but the 2018-19 season is practically upon us, and before we know it, some team will be searching for a new leader. With the preseason already underway, here are 10 coaches on the hot seat.

10. Alvin Gentry, Pelicans

You could argue Anthony Davis’ impressive late-season surge saved Gentry’s job last season. The Pelicans won their first playoff series in the Davis era — an encouraging sign — but the Warriors quickly vanquished New Orleans’ momentum. This seems to be a pivotal moment for the franchise. The Pelicans didn’t have much spending money this summer, as the squad had already dished out hefty contracts to players like E’Twaun Moore, Alexis Ajinca, and Omer Asik. The team allowed DeMarcus Cousins to bolt and signed bargain-basement assets Jahlil Okafor and Elfrid Payton, in addition to Julius Randle. The Pelicans are reliant on Davis sustaining MVP-level production; if he and Jrue Holiday crash back to earth early this season, however, GM Dell Demps — left with little flexibility to add another impact player — may opt to make a coaching change.

9. Tyronn Lue, Cavaliers

It seems the pressure should finally be off of Lue now that LeBron James has joined a new team, right? We disagree. It’s no secret that King James was highly influential in Lue replacing David Blatt midway through the 2015-16 season. Though Cleveland reached the Finals in each year under Lue, the Cavs’ success was always served with a hefty side of drama. With his ties to LeBron now irrelevant, Lue’s job security appears precarious. The Cavs’ talent level is suddenly average — if you’re looking at it optimistically — and the team this summer doubled down on Kevin Love, giving him a four-year extension. That indicates the team will presumably build around the 30-year-old Love. With Cleveland’s finances in disarray and no real prospect of competing for a title in the near future, the Cavs appear headed downhill fast, and Lue could lose his job as a result of a bad season.

8. Mike Malone, Nuggets

In April, Denver GM Tim Connelly said Malone’s job was safe. “I guess [questioning Malone’s job status is] the unfortunate narrative of professional basketball, but Mo’s done a fantastic job,” Connelly told the Denver Post. The Nuggets narrowly missed out on the postseason. With a roster that’s brimming with young talent, you have to wonder whether Malone’s job will indeed be safe if the Nuggets limp out of the gate. With a young core centered on Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Gary Harris, expectations are high. Malone’s contract is up after 2018-19, so it wouldn’t be a big surprise for Denver to part ways with the former Kings head coach. To hold onto his job, Malone will need his team’s defense to improve; last season, the Nuggets had the fifth-worst defensive rating in the league.

7. Luke Walton, Lakers

With great (star) power comes great responsibility. As Lue noted, having LeBron on the roster generates “outside tension,” which puts “added pressure immediately on the coaches.” Walton now has arguably the toughest role in the league: coaching LeBron. Walton’s job already seemed in jeopardy last season, when LaVar Ball was calling out the young coach. The Lakers have improved in each season under Walton, but expectations are at a new level this season. In Cleveland, Lue got a bit of a break because fans — and management — recognized LeBron had little talent surrounding him. In L.A., however, the situation is different. The Lakers are flush with promising young pieces, and they shelled out cap space to acquire veteran role players like Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson this summer. Though the Lakers’ long-term prospects are encouraging, the situation this season has all the makings of something that could go wrong out of the gate. The team lacks shooters and a reliable second scoring option. If the early season goes poorly, the 38-year-old Walton could be the fall guy.

6. Doc Rivers, Clippers

The Clippers have officially moved on from Lob City — Chris Paul was traded to the Rockets, Blake Griffin was traded to the Pistons, and DeAndre Jordan signed with the Mavericks. With that era in the past, the team may also look to move on from Rivers, who’s been with L.A. since 2013. He’s no longer heading up the front office, and when he shifted to focusing exclusively on coaching last season, the results were surprisingly good. Despite the roster lacking noticeable talent, the Clippers — led by surprise star Lou Williams — hung around in the West playoff race and finished with a winning record (42-40). Given the team’s performance last season, Rivers’ job isn’t in major jeopardy, but it’s also not entirely secure. L.A. could retool with two max-contract players in 2019, and if the team wants to usher in an entirely new chapter, it may change its leadership as well.

5. Terry Stotts, Blazers

Stotts is the leading candidate to replicate Casey’s fate this season. He’s done a tremendous job in Portland, but his team hasn’t found success in the postseason. Shortly after Portland fell to New Orleans in Game 4 of their first-round series, completing the Pelicans’ sweep, Marc Stein tweeted that “murmurs have already started in coaching circles that 10 consecutive playoff defeats will cost Terry Stotts his job.” GM Neil Olshey elected to keep Stotts around — for now. Rumors have also indicated the Blazers are open to shopping C.J. McCollum or Damian Lillard, but it’s tough to imagine the team breaking up the electrifying young backcourt. Portland also this summer re-signed big man Jusuf Nurkic, doubling down on its current roster. With Stotts owning an uninspiring 12-28 career postseason record, he could be the scapegoat if this team falls short yet again, or falls behind in the competitive playoff race by the All-Star break.

4. Fred Hoiberg, Bulls

Who knows what’s going to happen with the Chicago Bulls this season? That team looks entirely unpredictable. Hoiberg was successful at Iowa State, and he was considered one of the hottest young coaching commodities in hoops circles — but his move to the NBA, like Billy Donovan’s, has not been ideal. His Bulls teams haven’t escaped the first round since he took over, and his win total has declined every year. Chicago has an enticing group of young players — Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr. are particularly promising — but it isn’t clear who will bear the Bulls’ primary scoring burden. Zach Lavine? Jabari Parker? Is having one of those players as your primary option even remotely encouraging? Hoiberg’s system has not translated well to the NBA; the 45-year-old may not make it through year four of his five-year deal.

3. Dave Joerger, Kings

Seemingly everyone was baffled when the Grizzlies didn’t bring back Joerger. The Kings were thrilled to sign the emerging young coach, who had pushed Golden State to six games and had led Memphis to 55 regular-season wins. But his time in Sacramento has been a letdown. In Joerger’s first season (2016-17), Sacramento won 32 games; last season, the Kings won 27. If their win total declines yet again — which many expect it will given the proliferation of talent in the West — the Kings may allow Joerger’s contract to expire. The wrinkle in this situation: Sacramento has embraced a rebuild and is focused on developing its young talent. If De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III, or Harry Giles seem to be blossoming into a star, the Kings may hesitate to switch coaches, fearful of stunting the young player’s development.

2. Tom Thibodeau, Timberwolves

Minnesota made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2003-04, but Thibs is in serious trouble. Despite the playoff berth, last season was a letdown. With Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony Towns in tow, pundits expected the Wolves to challenge the top teams in the West. Instead, they limped into the playoffs and barely challenged Houston in the first round. Now, Butler — who also played for Thibs in Chicago — wants a trade to a major-market team with space to sign him to a max deal. Butler’s camp can try to spin this a different way, but there’s no denying the dynamics in Minnesota’s locker room were off. The three stars just didn’t play well together, and personalities seemed to clash. Some responsibility for that funky dynamic has to fall on the coach. Thibs’ coaching approach may have worked with the hard-nosed Bulls, led by Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but he hasn’t replicated his success in Minnesota. This situation looks poised to blow up.

1. Billy Donovan, Thunder

You have to wonder whether Donovan regrets leaving Florida. In his first season, the Thunder took a 3-1 lead on the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals — but, of course, they blew that series (and have not escaped the first round since that point). Then another blow: OKC lost Kevin Durant to Golden State. Then Russell Westbrook turned into a one-man wrecking crew, driving basketball purists mad. Last season featured the awkward Carmelo Anthony Experiment, and the season ended in disappointing fashion with a hasty exit at the hands of the Jazz. OKC brought back Paul George this summer, and GM Sam Presti said “continuity is (Donovan’s) best friend going forward.” With George back, Anthony gone, and Dennis Schroder added to the rotation, OKC is starting to gain some title buzz — they could challenge Houston as the West’s No. 2 team, people are saying. Fans are expecting a contender. Donovan inherited a tough gig with high expectations, and this appears to be his final chance. If his team doesn’t escape the first round yet again this year, he’ll all but certainly be looking for a new job (perhaps back in the NCAA ranks).

Aaron Mansfield is a freelance sports writer. His work has appeared in Complex, USA Today, and the New York Times. You can reach him via email at aaroncmansfield@gmail.com.

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