Okay????
Best of the best free-agents Kevin Durant has provided a list of teams he plans on visiting. One of several teams omitted are my Lakers. Shocked, I’m not even surprised they are not on Durant’s short list. At this point in his career if serious he’s exploring teams with the best opportunity to win an NBA Championship. The Warriors, Spurs, Thunder, Celtics, Heat and Clippers are at the top of Durant’s list.
The Cavs are not on his list as for the others it would appear to me the Warriors, Spurs and Thunder might be best. At this point the Heat, Celtics and Clippers must prove they can rise to championship level. Just my thoughts don’t make it correct. As for other free-agent news the early report on LeBron James proved correct. LeBron opts out of his contract and will become a free-agent. It’s likely he’s only headed to Akron “No taking his talents” anywhere.
Bits n Pieces
This is written and will be published long after the NBA Champions are crowned. I don’t know who won but I can make this statement with conviction. Jump shooting teams can win at a high level however there is a disclaimer. The Warriors might be the exception every NBA team cannot play Warrior style basketball.
Marquette is considered a mid-major basketball program in conversation. Did you realize this Milwaukee Wisconsin School has sent over 50 players to the NBA since 1948? Who are they; the Bulls Jimmy Butler, Heat Dwayne Wade and the Celtic’s Jae Crowder are three present day alum. In years past there was Doc Rivers, Bo Ellis and Earl Tatum to name just a few.
Reclassify is the code word for this story. I read a story regarding an outstanding middle school prospect. The story mentions this prospect reclassified while in lower elementary school. What parent does this to his child no matter how basketball obsessed they might be. It’s easy to understand why he’s a cut above the competition he’s two to three years older.
We can challenge the listed height of Kevin Durant, he’s 6-9 on the Thunder roster but he might be actually closer to seven feet tall. A Team USA photo places Durant side by side with Kings center Boogie Cousins. The Kings roster has Cousins at 6-11 and though Cousins is taller the difference in height is minuscule.
Arena update
The Golden 1 Center in Sacramento is almost complete, the arena is planned to seat 17,500 for Kings Basketball, Golden 1 has a planned October 2016 opening. In Milwaukee the planned arena there will seat 18,065 patrons. In addition to the Bucks the Marquette men’s basketball team and future NCAA Tournament games are planned. The arena has a planned September 2018 opening. Interesting plans for the Chase Center were laid out prior to the others and will likely be the last to come on line. The Warriors might win one or two championships before setting foot in side the San Francisco arena. In fairness it might be added lawsuits have caused delays in construction of the 18,000 seat arena.
He’s good
I was surprised when I saw the name Marc J. Spears on the ESPN NBA page. I’ve been reading Spears for a number of years while he was employed by Yahoo Sports. The guy is a creditable writer regarding the NBA, no explosive or exaggerated headlines while a member of Yahoo Sports. Hopefully he continues this same manner of reporting for ESPN.com. Welcome Marc J. Spears.
Too many games
Once again there is talk of reducing the number of regular season games for the NBA. More interesting once upon a time the Red Sox had a pitcher (Gene Conley) who also played for the Celtics. Conley was late reporting to the Sox every year due to the Celtics continual playoff run. He would arrive at some point in mid-May, the championship being decided. Currently with playoffs we are playing basketball almost to the middle of June.
Why the 82-game schedule, expansion is the basis pure and simple. The NBA settled on its present number in 1967-68 when the San Diego Rockets and Seattle Sonics joined the league. The NBA became a 12-team league that year compared to 30 teams presently. There is no requirement for an 82-game schedule except tradition and who says we couldn’t change that. The season is long beginning in the fall and played through June for champion teams. 62 might be a good number cut out 20 near the beginning of the season and 20 near the end to accommodate my proposal. What do you think?
