Basketball
from a fans perspective
“Trust the process”
Sixer
fans have been hearing the term for several years, is this the year of
fruition? We cannot answer that question
until the end of the season however the pieces of the puzzle are in place. Adding Markelle Fultz to this group plus
rising star Robert Covington excitement is in the air in Philadelphia. After a slow start the Sixers managed to beat
the Pistons 97-86 for their first win of the season. Joel Embiid led the way scoring 30 points
along with 9 rebounds. Teammate Ben
Simmons “messed around and got a triple-double” with 21 points 12 rebounds and
10 assists. It should be noted this significant event occur in Simmons 4th NBA game.
Sorry no story here……move along please
Bill Self considered the Mizzou-Kansas match on
Sunday an exhibition game therefore no report will be available in Words eye view. This I can report; Sprint Center was sold out
and the game was made available on PPV for $40.00. I’m sure there are sources that will allow
you to discover the winner of this game, there is no report here unless Self
changes his “hate Mizzou attitude.” As
for Hurricane relief the game raised over $1.75 million dollars for victims of
the multiple disasters.
Local guy
Will
2017-18 be the break-out year for Willie Cauley-Stein? He was born in Spearville (KS) 300 miles
south-southwest of Kansas City (M0) how is he local you ask. Spearville contains less than 800 people in
the town….when you are 6-10 it’s easy to stand out in Spearville. It’s said when he began to grow in height as
well as on the court the small town might inhibit his basketball maturity. Through his AAU connection he moved to Olathe
a suburban city on the Kansas side and play at Olathe Northwest High School.
Cauley-Stein
even tried his hand at football by this time he’d grown to 7 feet, imagine a QB
throwing passes to a 7-foot wide receiver.
Cauley-Stein came to the attention of John Calipari who swoop in
offering a scholarship to Kentucky.
Imagine this a player in Bill Self territory leaving the state, the rest
is history. Drafted by the Kings
Cauley-Stein is now in his third year, I ask at the beginning is this his
year? Only time will tell but we who
watched him play in high school hope so.
Bits n Pieces
Earl
Watson ex-Kansas City KS native and Suns coach was fired. The Suns had only played three games however
in those games team defense has been atrocious.
From the outside the Suns appear to not have a clue what they are
doing. They have been .500 or more only
twice in the last seven seasons. Jay
Triano replaced the fired Watson who replaced the fired Jeff Hornacek. Triano has served in the past as Raptors
coach and he’s been hired on an interim basis.
Jaren
Jackson sounded familiar to me and then I remembered. Jaren Sr. played at Georgetown and had an NBA
career as a reserve for several NBA and other pro teams. Senior retired in 2002 and begin a coaching
career at several stops. Senior stood
6-4, Junior is 6-11 and 240 pounds much bigger than his dad. Junior is a 5-star prospect and will play for
Michigan State this fall and winner. As
mentioned in an October 23rd report Junior will join Big 10 Freshman
of the Year Miles Bridges.
The
cable system in the Kansas City Metro has always contained Fox Sports
Midwest. Metro residents could see
Royals baseball and a select number of Thunder basketball games. Recently Fox Sports Midwest Plus was
added to the system which has broadcast rights to Wolves games. All this is good news for somebody like me,
this provides me additional outlets for me to view NBA basketball. So, these two Fox Midwest channels are added
to the existing ESPN, Turner Sports and NBA TV coverage.
We
always talk about “guys with ice water in their veins,” simply stated the
ability to take a difficult shot near the end of tight game. That’s what occurred Sunday evening as the
Wolves faced the Thunder in Oklahoma City.
Andrew Wiggins took a difficult 3-point shot and banked it off the backboard,
but bank still counts. This became the
winner over the Thunder 115-113. The
game wasn’t quite what it appeared Monday afternoon the NBA office announced
two errors had occurred, the key one was the pick Karl-Anthony Towns set. The NBA determined it was an illegal pick.
Dwayne
Wade went to Tyronn Lue and informed the coach he’d be available off the bench, J.R.
Smith will replace him in the Cavs starting lineup. For the first time ever, Wade will be a
non-starter however he’s got a 35-year old body with plenty of playoff and
regular season play on it. Wade
certainly has basketball skills remaining but if Cavs fans believed they were
going to see “Flash” they are in for a surprise.
