4 Burning Questions: NBA Edition

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Glen G

This Year’s Lockout-induced, shortened season has felt like anything but excitement, as has been the theme throughout. Trade talks are at a premium and the line between contender/pretender teams has never felt so blurred. It’s leaving fans with many questions, so many that I couldn’t possibly compose a list of all of them; but that doesn’t mean I won’t try. In fact there are 4 questions that jump out due to their importance and implications, and those we will take a look at.

1. Are the Chicago Bulls Title Contenders?

Thoughts: A lopsided playoff loss to powerful Miami last spring raised doubts about how good Chicago actually was…well they’ve responded, in a big way. Up to this point they’re 40-10 and hold the league’s best record. They’ve also had a number of meaningful victories over playoff teams, with a number of those coming without Derrick Rose. However, until The Bulls can beat an elite team in a playoff series they will remain just a very good team. Their inability to score consistently minus D-Rose remains a concern, a concern big enough to stall their title hopes at least another season.

2. Did Dwight Howard Make The Right Move?

Thoughts: After the fiasco he put everyone through, Dwight remained in Orlando despite vigorously demanding a trade. The popular location for D12 to land was thought to be New Jersey, but that trade just never materialized. That could end up being a real shame for New Jersey as this season wraps up (more to come on that). Now that Howard has signed on for at least one more season we will get to see whether that was wise. Orlando still seems short of having a squad capable of winning a title, but perhaps Dwight can be the difference maker. One thing’s for sure, if he can win a championship with Orlando (and with this squad), he may well be the true “Superman”.

3. Will Deron Williams Leave New Jersey, or is Gerald Wallace Enough Compensation?

Thoughts: Losing out on another potential franchise changing talent made the Nets desperate. To their credit, they did not panic and because of that they improved their team with the acquisition of Gerald Wallace. A personal favorite of mine, Wallace is above all else an athlete; he can jump with anyone and can find ways to score on his own, which will be key for a lackluster New Jersey team. The bigger issue at hand is whether this move is enough to convince Deron Williams to stay with the team. The answer to that, at least as I see it, is that the Nets must do more to really improve. This one signing does not make the Nets any more of a title contender and must be complemented with another signing of a Superstar this off-season, or the Brooklyn move may become a disaster.

4. Who Are The Knicks?

The New York Knicks have been on a roller-coaster ride all season, going from awfully good to awfully bad several times, and at the end of the day which are they? The key issues seem to be the lack of cohesion and balance on offense coupled with a lot of (as Walt “Clyde” Frazier would say) “Swiss Cheese” defense. However, since the resigning of Coach Mike D’Antoni, the Knicks have shown a resurgent defense. They have shown this at times this season already, but have never sustained it for any period of time. If they can keep their commitment level up and continue to share the basketball they have a dangerous team. Since Interim Head Coach Mike Woodson has taken over, the trio of Jeremy Lin, Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have been gelling all while sacrificing individual stats for team victories; can that continue? That question in itself is the key to how good the New York Knicks can and will be.

Any Big Questions I Missed? How Far Will The Knicks Go? Thoughts?

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Lamar Odom Continues to Struggle

Posted on March 22, 2012 by wcornblatt

For Lamar Odom, things can’t get much worse. Maybe that’s the positive message he needs to embrace so he can regain his confidence. Last night’s one point performance against his former team marked another troublesome day for Odom, whose fallen from grace so dramatically that the fans in Dallas boo him with authority. It’s become obvious that he’s in his own head. Whatever mental issues Odom’s experiencing, they’re making him think, and basketball players can’t afford to think. It’s that hesitation that’s cut Odom’s career averages in scoring and rebounding in half this season, he’s become a liability. When the ball is in his hands, I can’t watch. He looks like the friend that decided to play in the pick-up game, and is just trying to not mess up, and for Odom even that isn’t working.

The question is, for a Dallas team that’s in the playoff picture but struggling, how long do you let Odom find his identity on the team? Clearly there are personal issues he must work out, and that sort of self-discovery is larger than basketball, but can the Mavericks afford to stick with an ailing player? Owner Mark Cuban has had said he fully supports Odom. The affirmation was necessary after players voiced displeasure at a 10-day personal leave Odom took when his father, who has battled heroin addiction throughout his life, fell ill. It was a long break, but nobody wants to be the bad guy in this situation. Nobody wants to make Lamar’s situation anymore awful than it already is. However, for the Mavericks, who are currently 6^th in the Western Conference standings, the painfully awkward moment may come where Odom will be featured even less than his 21 minutes per game average this season. He may never find his niche in Dallas. For now, the Mavs will stick with Odom and hope he can return to his dangerous self. The reward is a 14-point and 9 rebound big man who can make the outside shot. The risk is teammate tension, extraordinarily unproductive minutes, and bringing down the locker room. Who knows if Lamar Odom will show up in the postseason, but it’s certainly a compelling story that is beginning to transcend sports.

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An Upsetting First Weekend – For Some

Posted on March 19, 2012 by FanSpeak.com

In one game Friday night, Duke’s loss to Lehigh, two things occurred that had never happened before: Duke lost an NCAA Tournament game in Greensboro, N.C., and a No. 2 seed lost twice in the first round of the tournament (Missouri had already lost to Norfolk State.) But those weren’t the only top-four seeds to not advance to the Sweet 16: Michigan, the fourth seed in the Midwest Region, lost to Ohio University and Georgetown, the No. 3 seed in that very same Midwest Region, lost to N.C. State on Sunday. Florida State also lost to Cincinnati, although that wasn’t as big of an upset. Those games (and others) led to three teams seeded 10 or higher making it to the Sweet 16: Ohio, N.C. State and Xavier.

Otherwise, believe it or not, the seedings pretty much held. And, despite so many calls for their collapse, Syracuse’s nine-point victory over UNC-Asheville (in front of an anti-Orange crowd in Pittsburgh) was not the narrowest margin of victory by a No. 1 seed all weekend. That dubious distinction belongs to Michigan State, who beat the St. Louis University Billikens by just four.

So here are your Sweet 16 match-ups:

Thursday/Saturday

East: No. 1 Syracuse Orange vs. No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers, 7:15 p.m. (CBS); No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. No. 6 Cincinnati Bearcats, 9:45 p.m. (CBS)

This region boils down to two Big Ten vs. Big East match-ups. Syracuse-Wisconsin will be entertaining on numerous levels. One, without Fab Melo, it’s entirely possible Syracuse is actually rebounding better than they did with him during the regular season and, two, Rakeem Christmas has played pretty well as a freshman starting in the NCAA Tournament. The Badgers are one of the best defensive teams in the country, so this will be a battle of Wisconsin’s man-to-man defense vs. Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone. The OSU-Cincy game will be more of the same. Both teams have good big men and both can score in spurts. Cincy was one of the teams to beat Syracuse this season, so they’ve got the pedigree to win big games.

Midwest: No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels vs. No. 13 Ohio Bobcats, 7:47 p.m. (TBS) ; No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks No. 11 N.C. State Wolfpack, 10:17 p.m. (TBS)

Both games involve top seeds against teams who upset top seeds. North Carolina should be able to stop Ohio’s roll, while Kansas — who escaped their round-of-32 game against Purdue — might have more troubles with the Wolfpack. Like the East, this could yield a interconference regional final and, in this case, one that comes out of the Tar Heel State.

Friday/Sunday

South (Atlanta): No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats vs. No. 4 Indiana Hoosiers, 9:45 p.m. (CBS); No. 3 Baylor Bears vs. No. 10 Xavier Musketeers, 7:15 p.m. (CBS)

Kentucky gets a crack at the only non-conference team to beat them this season. And Indiana just beat a VCU team that still had some magic leftover from last season’s run to the Final Four. If Kentucky plays the way it did this past weekend, things could get out of hand quickly, but the Hoosiers are no pushover, and money says that this one stays close throughout. Xavier and Baylor might be another high-scoring affair, but Butler clearly has the better pedigree here.

West (Phoenix): No. 1 Michigan State Spartans vs. No. 4 Louisville Cardinals, 7:47 p.m. (TBS); No. 7 Florida Gators vs. No. 3 Marquette Golden Eagles, 10:17 p.m. (TBS)

This is a doozy of a region. The Michigan State-Louisville game is going to be a slow, methodical defensive battle with lots of physicality and plenty of rebounding. The Spartans have the edge because Louisville has no match for Draymond Green. In fact, the Cardinals’ center, Gorgui Dieng, is pretty good on defense but he’s no threat on offense. During the Syracuse-Louisville game in Kentucky earlier this year, the Orange purposely stopped guarding Dieng, who continued to miss wide-open shots. Don’t think Tom Izzo won’t look at that game tape. The Gators-Golden Eagles game will be an up-and-down score-fest. (Those who watched the Marquette-Murray State game will understand.)

Footnote: Of the three Final Four teams from 2011, only Kentucky advanced to the Sweet 16 in this year’s tournament. UConn. lost in the first round, VCU in the second and Butler plays Penn tonight in the College Basketball Invitational, which pretty much amounts to the Toilet Bowl of postseason hoops.

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Honoring Derek Fisher

Posted on March 16, 2012 by wcornblatt

Derek Fisher is a different kind of basketball player. He isn’t going to lose a defender with a quick move, or look away while he throws a pass to an open big man. Ironically, he’s different because he’s average, he’s got an old school game. Fisher would never draw your attention if you watched a random game on TNT earlier this year, but for an average player he’ll stand out in a long and glorious history of Lakers. He won five championships, and perhaps he’ll be best remembered for his shot against the Spurs in the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals with .4 seconds left that won the Lakers the game and eventually the series. Or maybe he’ll be remembered for his two clutch three-point shots against the Magic in the 2009 finals to send the game to overtime and eventually win. Then again, maybe he’ll be remembered for his ridiculous 11-point fourth quarter in game 3 of the 2010 finals against the Celtics that helped seal a victory. Or he’ll just be remembered for being one of the toughest players of our generation. Fisher never stood out because he didn’t need to throw a circle around his eye after a 2^nd quarter jumper. He never holstered his guns after a big shot. Derek Fisher played every game with a tenacity that is the embodiment of true NBA play, and it’s a shame he’ll end his career with a team other than the Lakers. Maybe we’ll remember Derek Fisher the man, who had to leave the Utah Jazz to care for his daughter who had a rare form of eye cancer. Where were the best doctors? Los Angeles. So Fisher ended up right where he should, with the Lakers, desperately praying and caring for his child. He’s as articulate and classy as any NBA player is, and will always be a gold standard for behavior for youngsters coming into the league. Derek Fisher might have ended up in Houston, but he’ll always be a Laker, and he’ll always be the perfect type of NBA player.

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The Battle for Consistency: Knicks Continue Recent Slide

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Glen G

Just three weeks ago the Knicks were on top of the world. With star forward Carmelo Anthony sidelined and Amare Stoudemire struggling to score, fans thought the Knicks were heading for tough times, but they knew little of Jeremy Lin. The speedy ball moving point guard reignited a Knicks squad that really didn’t feature a superstar but rather relied on team play to win games. That formula helped the team storm back into contention while at the same time giving the faithful fans a lot to be excited about. However, here we are a few weeks later and the Knicks look worse than before Linsanity began. The team’s defense has looked non-existent and the return of Melo has done nothing but affect chemistry in a negative way. As a fan it’s been hard to watch recently as the team’s play has many, including myself, wondering what’s wrong. Everyone thought that the emergence of Lin, coupled with the proven scoring of Stoudemire and Anthony would result in New York being very dangerous come playoff time. Instead the headlines are all about the dynamic of the team and the inability of Lin and Anthony to coexist.

When Carmelo Anthony wasn’t in the lineup the team played like a team, giving top flight effort each and every night and playing like they had something to prove. Since his return the team has seemed relegated to allowing Anthony to go isolation a large percentage of the time opposed to allowing Jeremy Lin create for everyone. The results are clear, something has changed and sadly enough the issue may lie with Melo. Undoubtedly a great scorer, Carmelo is a rare type of player that can score on his own, and seemingly at will. However, one thing Anthony certainly is not is a great passer, or a passer at all. In his career he is averaging a meager 3.1 assists per game, which is unacceptable for a player of his stature. When you consider the fact that LeBron James averages almost 7 assists per game in his career (6.9 APG to be exact), and that LeBron and Melo are very similar in their habits, you can see that Carmelo is really only creating scoring opportunities for himself.

Assists per game is a very telling statistic for how a guy plays the game, and the way this impacts his teammates is extremely evident in the way the Knicks have been playing of late; they quite frankly appear disinterested. When Jeremy Lin was running the show, role players like Landry Fields and Jared Jeffries were being rewarded for effort plays like cutting to the basket or hustling in transition; now they are simply audience members watching The Melo’ Show. It may seem crazy to blame a player as skilled as Anthony for the teams struggles, but that’s exactly what I’m doing and it makes a lot of sense. The dynamic that has been created is that the team must run the offense through Carmelo and the aggressiveness that made Lin so effective in his first 10-15 games is all but lost. If the Knicks continue to rely on one man imposing his will, as opposed to a team first approach, their recent slide will become a standard in New York. Carmelo must be willing to work through Lin, and sacrifice a chunk of his scoring for the better of his team. The Knicks have a talented squad but without a full team being involved they will go nowhere. We’ve seen how good they can be and we’ve seen how bad they can be in the matter of just a month; now let’s see how the team reacts because clearly something has been amiss during this 5 game losing streak.

Who Do You Blame For The Slide? Can Anthony and Lin Coexist? Thoughts, Let Me Hear Em!

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4 Burning Questions: NBA Edition

Lamar Odom Continues to Struggle

An Upsetting First Weekend – For Some

Honoring Derek Fisher

The Battle for Consistency: Knicks Continue Recent Slide