Nothing like rambling after a weekend of hoops action. Hold on for the ride.
After seeing bits and pieces of that Cleveland game last night…I couldn’t help but feel in the pit of my stomach that I might have been wrong about that trade. I mean let’s think about it…Wally and Delonte can actually shoot the ball (something Clevleand was missing) and Ben Wallace is going to make it awfully tough to score inside. Plus they have the best player in the NBA in LeBron James. The argument isn’t whether or not the trade made them a better team, it did offensively and defensively. I think my biggest problem with the trade (and where my argument lied) was how everyone was making it out to be such a huge move. To be completely honest the moves were cosmetic at best. But maybe that’s all LeBron needed. Maybe he needed new faces and proven guys who can get it done. If he could carry those sad sacks from last year, who is going to stop him when he’s kicking it out to Daniel Gibson, Delonte and Wally’s World. Seriously, riddle me this people, in the Eastern Conference exactly WHO can stop LeBron and a group of capable players? The Pistons? Proved they couldn’t last year. The Celtics? Couldn’t beat LeBron and his old friends. The Magic? The Raptors? Come on now people. I’m telling you if Mike Brown had any sort of brains he would expriement with a small lineup. Throw West, Gibson, Wally, LeBron and one of those trees out there. How do you guard that lineup? Sniff a double team at LeBron and he’s kicking it to a capable outside shooter. The big man’s sole responsibility would be to rebound. Unfortunately, Mike Brown will not do this. He will continue to start Big Ben and Big Z together and continue to think Devin Brown has anything resembling a game. And thus all of that hope I expressed in this paragraph is more than likely useless.
Kudos to the Houston Rockets for making the Western Conference even more interesting. And also booting Denver out of the playoffs. Here’s a fun fact: since T-Mac returned from injury on January 19th, the Rockets are 16-1. Apologies to T-Mac, Yao and Rick Adelman for forgetting how good you could be when you get your stuff together. This is the Houston team that everyone (myself included) was talking about in the preseason. More proof that you don’t get in the playoffs in November.
This just in: the Shaq trade paid off. How could I say that? They’re 4-4 since the trade went down, 1-2 with Shaq in the lineup and just got blown out by the Pistons. I point to statistics my friend. Let’s re-visit my friend Amare Stoudemire. You’ll remember that I not-so-quietly ripped Amare earlier this year. Let’s see how he has been since this trade.
- In the 8 games since Mr. Marion left the desert, Amare is averaging 30.1 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.25 blocks per game.
- In the 3 games since Shaq has been in the lineup, Amare is averaging 32 points, 8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. He’s also gotten to the free throw line 10 or more times in each of the three games. To put that into perspective, he got to the free throw line 10 or more times in three games the whole month of November.
Offensively the trade is unleashing Amare back to the 4 where he will cause problems for everyone. Defensively Amare no longer has to fake like he play defense. He can now sag off 4 men and rotate to block shots. Give it time but I feel like this trade would give the Suns their best shot.
Speaking of Detroit…they are the most frustrating team to watch. Days like yesterday when they are motivated you see just how good they are/can be. On their best day they can beat anyone in the West. Then they go out and don’t show up against the Bucks or get bored and sleepwalk their way to an L. I can’t back them winning the championship right now because you never know what you’re going to get with them. If they are motivated they are the best team in the league. However over the past two years when they should have been motivated they have absolutely pooped their pants. So forgive me if I don’t jump on the ‘Pistons go to the Finals’ bandwagon until that series is over.