Draft Notes

The NBA draft is now done and I felt like it was not a deep draft. It was decent at the top and the trade activities made it a little fun, but overall it wasn't great. The trades started early with the Pacers sending Jermaine O'Neal to Toronto for T.J.Ford and center Rasho Nesterovic. This is a good gamble for Toronto. The Raptor fans should love the thought of O'Neal and Chris Bosh in the same front-court. I used to have great expectations for Jermaine O'Neal before he became a serious and regular injury A-lister who played basketball once in a while. And every time he came back, his game seemed to take a step or 2 backwards. I sure hope it works out for the Raptors. I like what they are doing there with CB4 and the gang. I also like them sending T.J.Ford and turning over the keys to Jose Calderon. Jose is good, real good. Pacers are clearly rebuilding and T.J.Ford is a good gamble for them as well.

The trade that shocked me was the one between the Nets and Bucks. Richard Jefferson to the Bucks for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Summons. The shocking part was the Bucks sending away Yi. I thought Yi was an untouchable cash-cow. Didn't the Bucks draft him despite his initial refusal to be there and didn't his game against Yao and the Rockets outdraw the Super Bowl World-wide? I thought they were trading everybody but Yi, and then Scott Skiles shows up in town and they decide to ship off Yi. Getting Jefferson might help them basketball wise. In the LEastern conference, teams should go for it and thats what the Bucks are doing here. But I still can't believe it from a business perspective.

The other big trade was Memphis and Minnesota swapping O.J.Mayo and Kevin Love and a whole bunch of expiring and bad and bloated contracts. Memphis got Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner along with Mayo and the TWolves got Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins along with Love. I almost forgot Antoine Walker was in Minnesota. By the way, is Brian Cardinal the worst signing ever by the Logo? I mean the Custodian had one semi-good season with the Warriors and Jerry West broke the bank for him. It was all downhill from there in Memphis both for the Logo and the Custodian. In any case, these moves are far-reaching and we wouldn't know how they work out until a few years down the road.

Derrick Rose went first and I completely support that move by Chicago. I like Michale Beasley, but I think Derrick Rose is going to be better. This is the era of point guards and he is one of the true PGs. Chicago has too many assets in the back-court but Rose is better than anything they got and hence they had to go for him. Now they just have to trade some pieces and if they play the trade-game right, they can make something special out of this team. Vinny Del Negro was a stretch as a coaching choice, but he might end up coaching a very talented team. The Miami Heat got a good player in Beasley and with DWade and Marion, it should be fun to see that team.

The other big news of the first round was both the Lopez twins being drafted in the first round. That should be an amazing day for their mom. Robin Lopez is really the lucky one of the two. Brooke is really good, but this guy ends up going in the first round anyways - just 5 spots behind Brooke's number 10. Plus he goes to the Suns, a much better team and a much better basketball town than New Jersey. And Robin is dating Michelle Wie. How many NBA first-rounders are dating hot 19 year old girls whose earning potential is higher than theirs? Good job Robin!

As for my Suns, I don't like this pick, but this was not a deep enough draft for them to work any kind of magic at 15. We have to live with a true 7-footer with decent athleticism. I still can't believe how bad the Suns luck has been the last year or two and how that Atlanta Hawks pick they got along with Boris Diaw for Joe Johnson finally ended up as Robin Lopez at 15. Wasn't this supposed to be a 4 or 5 last year in a deep draft? Hawks lucked out and got their top-3 protection last year and ended up making the playoffs in the horrible LEastern conference with a 37-45 record only to screw up the Suns pick this year. Thats life in the draft-lane these days for the Suns. At least I am happy they kept it all in the Pac-10 family as they also drafted Malik Hairston out of Oregon in the second round. San Antonio was involved in this transaction as they gave the Suns another future second rounder. I am hoping this turns out as good as the Barbosa deal for the Suns, another late draft pick traded to the Suns by the Spurs.

At least the Suns still got Shaq, his big-ass contract and his stupid-ass Kobe rap.

Time to stick a fork

Now that Boston has had another parade and the NBA season is over and done with and we figured out Kobe is not the next MJ, we are officially entering the dead-zone on the sports calendar. All we got going on right now is baseball. That brings me to inter-league play thats happening now. Can we all agree it's time to stick a fork on this idea? It's not fresh anymore, it's not exciting, it's barely news these days. And I am not just talking about the Blue Jays - V - Pirates or Astros - V - Rays match-ups. I mean does anybody get excited anymore even for a Yankees-Mets of Cubs-White Sox? Not me.

The inter-league schedule was kinda new and interesting for a few seasons. It helped switch things up a little bit and infused some excitement into the dog days of baseball summer. But now, it's not adding any value. Granted it's not taking anything away either. Who cares if the Pirates play the Cincinnati Reds or the Toronto Blue Jays. Same difference. But, it's definitely not doing what it was intended to do in the first place. I think the fans would rather have a few more divisional games. It at least keeps schedule sane for all the teams in the same league.

The geographic rivalries are still interesting in the local markets, but even those are not moving the needle nationally. Plus these local rivalries are few and far between. Of the top of my head, I can name only 3 good inter-league rivalries - Yankees-Mets, Cubs-WhiteSox and Giants-As. Does anybody care about games like Boston-Atlanta? Fox had it on national TV and got crushed at the ratings game. The only interesting part of this year's inter-league version was hearing that nut Hank Steinbrenner trash-talk the NL after his ace Chien-Ming Wang got hurt running the bases. While the rest of the World is trying to get rid of the stupid DH, Hank is saying NL is stuck in the 1800s since it's asking pitchers to hit. He wants the NL to adopt the DH. Good luck with that Hank. So Brother Bud, tweak it or pull the plug or something. Inter-league play in it's current format is dead.

In other news, Jevon Walker was found lying unconscious on the streets off Las Vegas after a supposed robbery. The only thing more ridiculous than this was Jevon's version of the story. He claims he was robbed at his room in the Bellagio and was physically dragged on to the streets. Why would the robbers do that? Aren't they better off leaving him in there in his room? Amazing story, but nobody is buying it. The other question is, why does all this happen to guys as soon as they become a Raider? Seems like the Raiders are a cursed franchise right now. The other big news is all the trade rumors swirling around Melo. Apparently Detroit may get him. Looks like Joe Dumars is trying to fix his mistake from that draft when he passed on Melo and picked Darko Milicic. Too late mate!

Game, set and match Boston

The Celtics clinched their 17-Th championship in style yesterday as they made sure the Lake-show does not force a game 7. It was an impressive performance as the Celts blew the Lakers out. I mean, it was a no-contest and they won by 39 points! I never thought a Kobe Bryant team coached by Phil Jackson will ever lose a Finals game by 39. It was a complete dismantling of the Lakers and nobody, including yours truly saw this coming. We were all a little blinded by the supposed superiority of the Western Conference, but Boston is for real. We should have at least realized that when they beat Detroit in the L-Eastern Finals. I don't think any Western team could have beat them either. May be San Antonio because they could have matched Boston punch-for-punch on defense and the match-up would have been significantly different from the Fakers. But I am going to say Boston would have taken that series as well out of respect for what they did to the Lakers - the best team from the West.

To be fair, Boston didn't help their reputation any by going to 7 games against the Atlanta Hawks. Who goes 7 against the Hawks? The Warriors - who didn't even make it to the Western playoffs, probably would have swept the Hawks. NBA playoffs are all about match-ups and that might explain what happened to the Celts against the Hawks. More importantly, thats what happened to the Lakers against the Celtics. It was just a bad match-up. They didn't have enough big wings to deal with Paul Pierce. On the other hand, the Celts were so good defensively that they neutralized Kobe effectively. There lies the story of the Finals. M-Jack had an interesting point on ABC yesterday. Apparently Doc Rivers asked him for his prediction before the Finals and Jackson told him he likes the Lakers to win. Doc replied that even if he was not the Celtics coach and if he was just a neutral observer, he would actually pick the Celtics because of their defense since the Lakers were just a good offensive team. I guess Doc knew what he was talking about.

Thats the part about their defense we all missed. In fact, I thought they had nobody to guard Kobe, when actually they had everybody guarding him plus the other 4 Lakers all at the same time. Kobe had a disastrous series. No MJ references for him for at least another year. In any case, good for the C's as they win their 17-Th when I am sitting here as a Suns fan waiting for my first. Speaking of the Suns, the season is done now. It started with a lot of hope for the Suns, but ends with a stupid boat parade in Boston. Who would have thunk! Thats why we love Sports. Like coach Jim Mora once famously said. you think you know, but you don't and you never will! Now the question on everybody's mind is, can the Celtics repeat? Of course they can. Did anybody watch these 6 games? I am not saying they will, but they sure can. I don't see KG or Paul Pierce dropping off too much. Ray-Ray might, but then again he just might wake up for the Finals like he did this playoffs. The Celtics biggest challenge might actually be the Lakers again, who will close the gap with both maturity and the comeback of Bynum. Hornets may improve as well, but the Lakers might still be the favorites in the West.

But the off-season just started today. We got all summer to see how the NBA landscape changes before the next season.

Lakers dodge another bullet

Lakers won a big game 5 and forced a game 6 on the road. Boston again played very well and erased an early deficit as big as our budget deficit. Paul Pierce was once again unstoppable as the Lakers have nobody to guard him. Kobe is the closest they have to a Pierce-stopper and even Kobe can't do it because Pierce is a little too big for him. As a matter of fact, the first time I was very impressed with Pierce was a few years back when he completely dominated Kobe in a game when Kobe tried to defend him. Plus he is also doing a decent job of defending Kobe at the other end though the help is always there in the paint with this Boston defense.

Kobe started on fire as expected, but then surprisingly the Celtics shut him down pretty much the rest of the game. Gasol came up big with a 19-13-6 game and Lamar had a 20-11 game himself. Both were helped by the injury to Perkins and the early foul trouble that KG was in. Despite all that, the Celtics hung in there and just would not go away. Pierce put in a 38-6-8 game as he probably overtook Ray-Ray as a potential Finals MVP candidate. He was terrific until the end when Kobe the knocked the ball out of his hands for a game clinching steal and dunk. To be fair, it could have easily been called a foul on Kobe considering that he reached in from behind. But it was a good play by Kobe and I think it was a decent no-call all things considered.

Now the Celts go home after 3 good performances on the road. A few years back, when the Pistons beat the Lakers in 5 games with Kobe hitting a buzzer-beating game-wiiner for the Lakers sole win, people called it the first 5 game sweep since Pistons were better than the Lakers in all 5 games. I feel like this Boston team is in a similar spot and is looking at a 6 or even a 7 game sweep. The problems the Celtics are having are exactly with things we all expected. They don't have a closer, they have not been together long enough and the chemistry in the clutch is suspect. This is evidenced by the number of turnovers and bad plays they have had in the 4-Th quarters in game 3 and 5. Lakers should consider themselves lucky they are not playing this Boston team with 2 or 3 years of cohesive experience under their belt. With all that said, the Celtics are still the favorites to close this out in game 6, but the pressure will be on them. They have to try and avoid a game 7 at all costs and that makes this game 6 an almost must-win for the Celtics.

If it goes to game 7, it Kobe will be on everybody's minds and thats just too big a gamble.

Next MJ or the next PJ?

When we are immersed in the moment, we don't usually understand the historic significance of certain events. We appreciate history when we are removed from it better than when we are actually part of it. Game 4 on Thursday of the finals was a historic game. I am not referring to one of the biggest Finals comeback on the road" story. I am more interested in the significance of this game from Kobe Bryant's perspective. The next MJ conversation is officially dead - at-least for a game or 2. As a Lakers and Kobe-hater, I am obviously happy about it. I am sure Kobe is pissed beyond what meets the eye. He is way too smart to miss the significance of this game on the big picture.

MJ doesn't lose that game 4 - not in a million years. You spot a 24 point lead to a 50 year old Jordan and he probably will find a way to seal the deal and win by 2! He is just a cold-blooded killa! So is Kobe by all indications, but he just lacks something. And that something is a better basketball head. Kobe is so self-absorbed at times that he is prone to more bad decisions at the clutch than MJ. Jordan just had the will and the smarts to do the right thing when it mattered the most. He also bought the best out of his teammates. Both were/are ruthless with their teammates, but Kobe just seems a lot more disconnected with them than MJ ever was. All of this adds to a MJ knockout of Kobe in this head-to-head comparison.

Now what happens to Kobe? Like I said, he is probably seething inside that he took such a career-altering blow on Thursday. He will probably come out smoking on Sunday in game 5 and try to show he is still in the running for MDE - Most Dominant Ever (to steal a Shaq phrase). But the damage is done. The only way he even restores some equilibrium is if he wins this series in 7. Lakers can definitely do it, though this Boston team looks awesome and have got 2 more games at home. I expect Kobe and the Lakers to take game 5, but 2 more on the road? Not sure if thats gonna happen. Plus Boston has been so effective, would anybody be really surprised if they wrap it up today and start planning their parade?

Kobe is in a tough personal spot right now. If he loses this series, thats officially 2 finals losses against MJ's zero. One featuring this ugly game 4 and the other even with Shaq on his team against the Pistons. So where does he turn now? He can smoke Phillip's peace-pipe like he suggested yesterday and hope (and pray) Sasha and Jordan Farmar help him out. Or he can try and go superman and face more criticism if the Lakers lose this series. I mean Kobe going superman is no guarantee for success anyways. We have seen that act before and I am not sure if the Laker-fan wants to see it against this maniacal Boston D. So Kobe is caught between a rock and a hard-place - between Lamar and Pau Gasol, between Sasha and Radmanovic. Not a good place to be if you had been watching this series so far.

Speaking of Kobe's teammates, what's the deal with Pau and Lamar? I can't remember 2 guys who have consistently gotten less results out of more talent than these two dudes. These 2 are the exact opposite of Leon Powe and Eddie House and that might singularly explain why the series is 3-1 in favor of Boston. And how much of his teammates' issues are Kobe-induced? There are reports that Kobe is just mean and relentless in his criticisms of his teammates on the court and on the bench. Even Curt Schilling had to write about it in his blog about Kobe's behavior having seen it up-close at the Boston Garden. I hate to quote Schilling of all people and loved Kobe's "Go Yankees" retort, but still Kobe has to clean-up his act. The only people who probably hate him more than the Laker-haters should be his teammates.

Take it easy Kobe - unless you want to be remembered as the next PJ now that the next MJ thing is done. I am speaking of P.J.Carlesmo, the guy known for berating his team constantly like they were some high-school kids until Latrell Sprewell almost choked him to death. Pau and Vlad-Rad would choke Kobe too if they were not busy choking themselves. In any case, Boston is beating the Lakers on every aspect of the game right now. Much to the chagrin of Suns fans like me, they are once again proving defense wins championships. I couldn't believe how they almost won game 4 with Pierce and KG doing nothing on offense. They better keep the defensive intensity going because I have a feeling Kobe is going to come out firing in the next game or 2 or 3.

Finals heating up

Boston looked impressive in game 3 though they lost. I was expecting them to get blown out after watching them play like garbage on the road the first two rounds of the playoffs. I guess they have gotten better on the road as the playoffs have gone deeper. They really had a chance to win this one and put the series away. You go 3-0 up in the NBA, it's over. You can dribble the ball only with your left hand the rest of the series and you will still win a game to close out the series. This after an impressive blow-out win at home where they lead by 20+ points most of the game. Of course it got all the way down to 2 points and it was surreal. The Celtics could have actually lost that game after leading by 20 in the fourth! I can't imagine the pain that would have caused to those chowder-heads.

Luckily that collapse didn't happen, but they actually played real well in the third quarter and half of the fourth quarter in game 3. Then they started making too many mistakes. Paul Pierce turned the ball over and so did the other guys and Sasha hit a huge 3 for the Lakers. This three forced Doc Rivers to choke and make a crucial mistake. For some inexplicable reason, he decided he had to single-cover Kobe in the last 2 mins of the game with Ray Allen on him. I have no idea why and Kobe sank 2 straight jumpers to close the deal. Too many mistakes down the stretch in the 4-Th quarter on the road. That was the story of this game for Boston. But Boston should be happy with their performance. They did pretty well to almost win the game. But then again, one more loss, this is a 3 game series with the other team featuring a guy called Kobe Bryant. Of course thats what the NBA wants and it might do something to get a game 6 and/or 7. Bennett Salvatore apparently is the league's favorite guy when it comes to extending playoff series!

Speaking of the NBA and the refs, Tim Donaghy is releasing some uncomfortable statements about the NBA. He is saying the NBA fixed game 6 of the Lakers-Kings series in 2002 through the refs. NBA definitely screwed that game up and forced a game 7. We all know that. No IFs or buts about that. A lot of people like yours truly have spoken about the officiating in that game repeatedly even years after the game. It was one of the worst officiated games ever. The refs were definitely part of that game 6 in more ways than one. The Kings were the better team in that series and were good enough to wrap it up in 6 games even after losing game 1 at home (if I remember right). But Donaghy's statement doesn't prove any of these suspicions. After all, Donaghy knows these games and the associated controversies too well. So this game is an easy target for him if he wants to throw some dirt on the NBA. His lawyers know that this game will strike a chord with the fans. The officiating was so bad that even Ralph Nader got involved. So I wouldn't put too much into what Donaghy is saying. Part of me wants Donaghy to be right and expose even more scandals. I want the NBA to once and for all cleanup it's act - get rid of makeup calls, superstar calls, home court calls, rookie calls etc. etc.

Just call the damn game as per the book or go to jail!

Big win for Boston

Boston got a big win in game 1 and made sure they don't lose home-court at the very start of the series. Now the Lakers have to win 4 out of 6 to win the series. Definitely doable for this Lakers team, but it's just a little harder, given they have 3 straight home games in the middle. Thats more pressure on the home team. Not sure what the Celtics did to Kobe, but Kobe was a non-factor in game 1. A 24-3-6 game with 4 turnovers and a -13 +/- differential for Kobe. Those numbers are ugly considering this guy was unstoppable coming in to this game. If the Celts can manage to bottle him up like this 3 more times, it's over. But I fully expect Kobe to bounce back. So the Celtics should work on containing the other Lakers players just like they did in game 1.

Lakers got nothing from their bench or from Lamar and Pau. Basically the Lakers were shut out up on all fronts. Pretty impressive from the Boston side of things. Game 2 will be very different in terms of feel and flow as Kobe and the Zen-master will come in with some adjustments. Phillip is already speaking of playing his bench longer minutes. All this just makes for good TV. The ratings for the NBA was better, but nowhere near what I would have expected. It was just as good as the Lakers-Pistons in 2004 despite featuring the Celtics. I guess the NBA has fallen so far down, it's an uphill climb right now. Speaking of Boston, I hate the East coast teams usually, but against the Lakers, I am all about Boston. Go green!

The Suns hired Terry Porter today. Not a bad hire, but nothing too exciting either. The Suns didn't have many good choices either. Porter definitely deserved another shot since I thought he was fired too soon in Milwaukee. But not sure if this is the right place and time for him. I sure hope Kerr knows what he is doing. Or may be he is just hoping to run everything through a coach that'll listen to him everyday. They were teammates at one time. It'll be interesting to see what he does with the offense. It'll also depend on how many assistant coaches stay and how many goto D'Antoni in New York. Good Luck Terry. We will be looking for big results soon.

Season of change

The finals are almost here. We have Celtics and the Lakers while we were expecting Celtics and the Spurs or the Suns at the beginning of the season. Suns lost to the Spurs 4-1 while the Spurs barely got past the Hornets. And then Spurs happily lost 4-1 to the Lakers. They were once again stung by the "curse of the Fish". They lost a series a few years back and probably a chance to win a championship when D-Fish shot that ridiculous 0.4 sec buzzer beater. Now in Game 4 at San Antonio, Fish fouled Brent Barry and denied the Spurs a good look at the buzzer beater. It was an obvious foul, but the refs swallowed the whistle. I was going to scream conspiracy from the roof-tops but just the possession before, Lakers recovered the rebound on a D-Fish miss, but the refs didn't reset the clock though the shot grazed the rim. I guess that was a bad call in favor of the Spurs without which the last possession may or may not have even mattered. But the refs did miss the call. In any case, the Spurs fell to 3-1 and got eliminated on the road in game 5. That game 5 was not hard to see coming.

The funny part is, this was supposed to be a drag-out, knock-down Western playoffs, but the Lakers cruised through it 12-3. Are you kidding me! The Lakers are real good. Finally they are cashing in on having the game's best player. It's all coming together around him, though having Pau Gasol and an improving supporting-cast doesn't hurt one bit! This team is probably going to make the Lakers revival official by winning a ring in the next two weeks, but lets see how the Celtics fare. The Pistons got rid of Flip Saunders and are probably going to make some big changes. The Celts should be able to contend for a year or three. God knows what's going to happen with the Cavs. The rest of the L-East is not worth talking about right now. I am sure a team or two like the Hawks or may be even the Heat with their high pick and an healthy Wade might bubble up to the top.

The West is now very interesting. The Lakers are back at the top and they look like they are there to stay. The Hornets are young and good and have a hall-of-fame type star in CP3. So they are going nowhere. Same with the Jazz. Young, talented and feature a super-star point guard. So what's going to happen to the Spurs, the Suns and the Mavs? Seems like their era is over for now. The Spurs are definitely in the picture. They got their big 3 and the championship pedigree that should keep them at the top for a few years if they add the right pieces around that Big 3. People are calling them old and slow and they did look that way at times against the Lakers, but this is always what we say about the Spurs in the years they lose and they come back with exactly the same team and win it all the next year. This has been going on for a while. I have a feeling they will be fine. Just don't expect them to repeat! The Mavs on the other hand are toast. They got a couple of young guys and Nowitzki is not old yet, but they shot themselves in the foot with the Kidd trade. They'll be a decent team, but nothing spectacular the next year or two.

That brings me to the Suns. It's basically been a season of change and transition for the Suns. Shaq is in, the coach is gone and so is the Matrix. The coach's departure closes the book on the run-and-gun for now. Steve Nash is not getting any younger. He had some tough games in the playoffs and he lost his "best point guard in the league, period" status to Chris Paul - a worthy successor I might add. Nash now has to adjust to another succession as this team slowly became Amare's even during this season and it should be all Amare's this time next year. Amare deserves it the way he played since Shaq arrived in town, but more importantly, thats the direction the new coach will probably take this team. In any case, they are not that good as constituted right now with all the aging stars, I am not sure where they go from here. Seems like the Suns window is slammed shut with all the young teams west of the mississippi. As blasphemous as it sounded to my ears at first, my friend's suggestion that the Suns should trade Nash might have some merit to it. His point is, Nash has one or two good years in him and the Suns might get something in return for him right now while the rest of the roster is not of much value to anybody. You can trade Amare, but the Suns probably are better off keeping Amare themselves. Of course there is some talk that they can trade Amare too and start over because he doesn't play good defense and they can get something big in return.

Wonder if Steve Kerr will be willing to roll the dice that wildly. Interesting question indeed! The fact that Doug Collins is more willing to take the Bulls job than the Suns job tells you all you need to know about where the Suns stand in this brutal, deep West.