Basketball from a fans perspective

　

Brazil in ‘Da House’
We discussed earlier the Lakers signed Marcelo Huteras from Brazil now for a little detail. At 32 years of age the Lakers are certainly not expecting Huteras to play the next 10 years or major minutes for that matter. The Lakers signed this veteran Euro point guard because he’s well schooled in pick and roll basketball. Huteras will provide a veteran presence to a very young Laker backcourt. The Lakers have signed several international players over the years however it’s my belief only two have played the backcourt. The Lakers drafted 6-9 Sun Yue from China in the 2007 NBA Draft a shooting/point guard.

#33
Zach Brown stands 7-1 the same height as a more famous number 33; at 256 pounds he’s a little heavier. Brown is a Rivals 5-star prospect and rated number five in the Class of 2017. I wonder if Brown releases the significance of his jersey number or just one he may have accidentally chose. For those who might be unaware 33 was worn by Kareem Abdul Jabbar throughout his high school, college and NBA career.

Brown from Miami Senior High School (FL) has offers from 9 of the 14 schools currently pursuing him. A jersey number is no authorization to affirm “I’ve made it,” it has nothing to do with Brown or anyone else’s future success. Once upon a time I questioned where have all the “aircraft carriers” gone? Big men have more difficulty raising the level of their game over guards and forwards, that is unless the 7-footer is just blessed with natural talent. One of the issues big men are often plagued with is work ethic hopefully this is not the case for Brown.

Are you sold on the man?
I don’t know about your barbershop but conversation at mine is 95% sports and 5% everything else. The other day we held a discussion on Steve Kerr and the Warriors. One of the barbers is not sold on Kerr at all, in fact he told the gathering; “All Kerr did was win with the talent Mark Jackson had assembled.” Well his statement might be true to an extant however we must look beneath the surface. I’m unsure what was expected of Kerr at the beginning of the season after all there was no coaching experience included in his resume. A reserve player during his NBA career he provided a valuable spark off the bench for the Bulls and Spurs.

In addition he was a key component to 5 NBA Championships. Kerr served as President and General Manager of the Suns and later an analyst for TNT. I believe (I offer no proof) playing for Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich he absorbed practical lessons on how to coach. The only requirement was for some team to offer him the challenge of leading men. Is Kerr a long-term coach who will move from the Warriors to some other team? I guess it might occur but I see a far different future for Kerr one beyond coaching. I could envision him an NBA owner one day; I guess we all must wait for that day to come.

Ya---but I don’t think so
We hear and read from plenty of “experts” who claim the NBA game has changed. They point to the success of the Warriors using a small lineup to aid in their defeat of the Cavs. The game certainly has changed over the last several years you‘ve heard the old adage, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Naturally coaches have looked at the Warrior success and decided; “We need to play small ball. “ If you intend to play small ball you must have shooters similar to Curry and Thompson that’s a must. To simply look at your shooters and decide you don’t draft a big man when you have an opportunity is ridiculous.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas said; “You have an opportunity to draft a Shaq and you say I think I’ll take a guard is “ridiculous.” Unless the basket is lowered the game will continue to remain the domain of the “Big Man” despite all the talk of small ball. A “Big Man” must prove he can’t play a smaller man must prove he can play. All we need to do is check NBA draft history, there are more draft bust “Big Men” than others. Remember Hasheem Thabeet, Michael Olowonkandi and Darko Milicic just to name a few. These 7 footers (and others) came into the NBA with high expectations but proved to not be very talented.