Basketball from a fans perspective
Maybe??
I ain’t hatin’ but it appears, I should have placed appears in parenthesis. The Warriors are going to finish the season with an excellent won-loss record. They will not set a new NBA won-loss standard. See me on April 13, 2016 to either laugh at my prediction or declare where you heard it first.
The Big 12
You can be good without being great, that’s the case for the Big 12 Conference members. I forget the number either 11 or 12 straight conference crowns for Kansas; I said early on somebody needs to step up to prove this is not a one-conference league. Well several teams did until somewhere around middle to late January, at that point there was a log jam at the top. Three teams were tied for first and another two within striking distance in second place. Then the usual occurred, conference members begin to beat up one another all while Kansas was flexing its muscles.
Kansas won a crucial road game at Oklahoma after barely beating the Sooners earlier at home in triple overtime. This is written prior to the afternoon Kansas State-Kansas game, the Jayhawks sit atop the conference and it’s highly unlikely they will lose this game. Barring a total collapse or key injury it looks as though Kansas will win the conference once again for the 200th time in a row. Okay I exaggerate they haven’t won it that many times but I hope you get my point.
Dr. Dunkenstein
The CBS Sports Network ran a commercial and they mentioned all the Doctors. One of the names mentioned was Dr. Dunkenstein, depending on your age the name might be unknown to many of you. Darrell Griffith aka Dr. Dunkenstein was a 6-4 shooting guard, he acquired the nickname while playing at Louisville. Griffith would become the 2nd pick in the first round of the 1980 draft by the Utah Jazz; he was NBA Rookie of the year in 1981.
Griffith is one of those rare players who managed to play his entire 11 year career in one place as a member of the Jazz. He arrived in the NBA with furious dunking ability but he became quite adept at shooting from the 3-point line. In 2014 Griffith was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, currently he serves as an assistant to the President of the University of Louisville.
It begins now
The new era has begun with the hiring of Sean Marks as general manager. The Nets have certainly gone backwards in recent years and it’s hoped the former GM of the Spurs right the sinking ship. Which team is the King of New York is not really a question. The Knicks and Nets are both below .500 and the Nets are on life-support. Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov may have believed “If I toss money at the objective we win.” I exaggerate a bit more factors contributed to the poor play. At the top may have been acquiring Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry and matching them with Deron Williams which just didn’t work. How do we fix the problem we fire the coach, 2010 was only 5 ½ years ago. Count them Avery Johnson, P.J. Carlesimo, Jason Kidd, Lionel Hollins and now Tony Brown.
Bits n Pieces
“Don’t be surprised when you’re surprised”. That was the headline for an SI discussion of this year’s college basketball season. I didn’t read the story just the headline and thought that’s certainly holds true for the 2015-16 college basketball season.
I believe I now understand the 2016 draft as it relates to the Lakers. They must finish in the top three of the lottery. If they finish fourth or higher the pick belongs to the 76ers from a prior trade. With this explanation and a top three finish who do the Lakers chose? This is easy, if they are able to gain the number one pick its Ben Simmons from LSU. If the Lakers have the second pick I’m conflicted between Duke small forward Brandon Ingram or 7 foot Dragan Bender of Macabbi Tel Aviv.
Don’t tell me players can’t change portions of their game. The legendary Wilt Chamberlain was a scoring machine in the early days of his NBA career, can you imagine averaging 50.4 points in ‘61-‘62 and 44.8 points per game in ‘62-‘63? His scoring dipped the last two seasons in Philadelphia but his assist totals skyrocketed. He averaged 7.8 assists per game in the ‘66-‘67 season and 8.6 the following season which led the NBA.
I read Kareem Canty is leaving the Auburn basketball team. He says it’s done for personal reasons and he will submit his name for the 2016 NBA Draft. Canty leaves Auburn with a 18.3 ppg and 5.3 assists sufficient numbers for a 6-1 point guard. Hoping to make it in the NBA he better be prepared to work. My chief concern I don’t see his name listed on a single mock draft site. In addition his move came as the result of Coach Pearl suspending him.
