I don’t know if Kevin Pritchard is just BSing for the public or is just retarded but this is scaring me. An inner debate within the office walls? Really? You’re going to listen to other people on what is going to be the biggest decision of your life? And really, at the end of the day it is a non-decision because you have to take Oden. You just have to. He should be more worried about how the hell he is going to get Zach out of town or garner another draft pick. This…this is a piece of cake. When even Nate is saying pick Oden it makes me a little uneasy about KP. Well, even more uneasy than I already was.
The whole Kobe thing…out of control. Apparently the Lakers are trying to trade so Kobe won’t walk in the office one morning in all black with a look in his eyes that only Beatrix Kiddo could match. But the catch is they want to do it without losing Lamar Odom or Andrew Bynum. My take on this…I am way too confused. He has flipped flopped back and forth at least 5 times so I am just going to sit back and wait for the day he is traded. I just think the guy is losing his mind. Think about it, you could wake up in the morning and read Kobe saying he is happy being a Laker and not even bat an eye. At the same time he could go on some vicious diatrabe. Justifiably so because he will never be able to recapture these years, but at the same time even if he had nothing to do with it (which I don’t believe) he should have been begging for Shaq to stay. I think a trade would be a little bit of a panic move to be honest, they don’t need to make a huge blockbuster deal. Remember it was injuries that devastated this team to the point where they completely fell off, not a complete lack of talent.
As usual there is just a TON of talk about the Matrix being traded. I think that if the Phoenix Suns were to trade Shawn Marion it would be one of the biggest panic trades in a while. They would effectively be slamming that championship window shut and throwing their hands up saying “Hey…we don’t like winning games, we don’t want to think about winning championships anymore, we keep losing and it sucks.” If I’m the Suns I get ready and give it one more go, because that is all they have left in them. If they don’t win it next year they won’t it is as simple as that. Look at a team like San Antonio, they don’t make blockbuster moves they just make simple and effective tweaks. I respect Steve Kerr too much and will give him the benefit of the doubt that he wouldn’t be the guy to trade Shawn Marion for nothing. As tiring as his whole ‘underappreciated’ gimmick is and as much as I wish he would realize how lucky he is and shut the hell up, you have to give the man his due. He is the #3 reason why the Suns go (behind the system and Nash). He disappeared in the playoffs a little bit and I hope he bumps himself down a notch. If not, I could always show him some of those San Antonio games for a dose of reality.
DeVon Hardin reportedly is going to sign with an agent and stay in the draft. My take on this…why not? The guy is an absolute freak of nature athlete. I remember my freshman year we went to play Cal (a rare victory for the Devils) and they had Leon ‘The Show’ Powe and Hardin. Hardin was jumping out of the jump, dunking, blocking shots, running all over the place. My best Hardin memory though is this; they throw it to him in the post, he took two dribbles, jump super high in the air and shot a jump hook. That went over the rim and to the other side. No post moves but pure raw athleticism.
Inflated Ego Alert; Mike Conley Jr. compares himself to Tony Parker. Yep Mike you are exactly like the Finals MVP. And you’re not banging Eva Longoria either. Also, if you click on that link and scroll to the bottom then you can see that Zeke is up to his old tricks. Rumor has it he is going to draft Wilson f’n Chandler at #23. Of course this is just a rumor, but still. You can only go to the well so many times, and I’m pretty sure the ‘drafting unknown guy and hoping it works out’ only works once.
The L is ok says Mark Heisler of the LA Times. One point he did remind me of…this was a pretty bad season. Followed up by a mediocre at best playoffs. Remember during the year that almost every superstar got hurt at least once. Many went down for months. The NBA is fine. They have survived entirely too much to read into this. The 70s or as I like to call it the ‘cocaine slash all white people are scared of black guys’ era came and went. The NBA survived the 94 Knicks. They got past the lockout and losing MJ. This…this is nothing.
This is a lie. I am sorry Cleveland this was your year, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted because it is not going to happen for a while. It probably won’t be another 37 years but still I think you catch my drift. This year the perfect series of events happened to lead you to a Finals you could not win. And I’m not saying ‘could not win’ in a ‘you guys had the series and choked it’ kind of way I mean more of a ‘you had no chance in hell’ way. The stars were aligned for a beautiful month but the honeymoon is over. It’s like you just woke up next to your wife’s best friend…it is all bad from here on out. Why am I so sure about this? You need entirely too much too soon. Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall have two years left. Enough said? I think so.
Is it just me or should we not be reading articles like this on Yao anymore? This seems acceptable after year two. Now…not so much?
THIS JUST IN, Stephon Marbury would be ‘ok’ with Kobe as a Knick. Yes, during this whole Kobe situation I was just waiting to hear what Stephon Marbury had to say. Now I can have some piece of mind. But seriously…you would be ‘ok’ with a future Hall of Famer? Stephon..he is BETTER than you, you can’t say you would be ok with someone who is better than you.
The C’s still have no clue what the hell they want to do with the #5 pick. I am telling you, just go with Corey Brewer and you’ll probably end up smiling at the end of the day. Don’t you just imagine Milwaukee’s coaches and GM’s salivating at the thought that Boston could absolutely botch this pick. If I worked for the Bucks I would be calling Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers non stop, breathing really hard and saying ‘Yi, Yi, Yi’ over and over until they hung up.
The Spurs are just an odd group of guys who just do not know how to celebrate.
So…instead of Melo and Josh Howard the Pistons ended up with Carlos Delfino and Darko Milicic. And four years later they have neither of the guys. Joe Dumars can never win or even be considered for an executive of the year award. Why does no one talk about this? Sure the Pistons have been good since, but they could have been VICIOUS. Speaking of the 03 draft, everyone talks about how great it is but no one remember that it was the awful year of the Euro. Go look it up and scratch your head, I just did for a good five minutes.