Basketball from a fans perspective.   

A man of his word

Nobody can claim Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports is not a man of his word at least in this one instance.  Cowherd made a pre-season prediction and bet “the Sixers would not win 40 games during the 2017-18 season.”  Despite the fact number one draft pick Markelle Fultz played but four games and has missed the major portion of the season the Sixers had an outstanding season, in addition they  will earn a playoff berth. On Wednesday evening the Sixers won game 40 beating the Grizzlies 119-105.  Cowherd man of his word was seen rocking an Embiid jersey today on his radio/television program.   

He’s on the way to college the NBA

Anfernee Simons a 6 foot 4 inch shooting guard is headed for the NBA instead of college.  After consulting with his parents he’s on his way out of high school and you ask how can he do this?  Do you recall Thon Maker of the Bucks, he played an extra year and was age 19 by the time of the 2016 draft.  The same scenario plays out for Simons, he’s enrolled at IMG Academy in Florida, Simons graduated high school in 2017 and will turn 19 prior to the draft.  If he’d chosen to attend college Rivals.com list Simons as the number 13 prospect in their Class of 2018.  As for his NBA prospects, ESPN.com list him at 19 in their mock draft page while NBADraft.net omits him completely. As for the Tankathon site they list Simons at 18.  

“Hey, didn’t you say”

Just yesterday you didn’t feel qualified to judge potential NBA talent?  That is an emphatic yes, that’s exactly what I stated however I believe it’s okay to judge draft position.  Allow me to further explain, Evan Sidery of SBNation wrote on March 21 his third revision of the 2018 NBA draft.  My disagreement is his top pick, he lists Luka Doncic at the top or number one draft choice, DeAndre Ayton of Arizona two.  Sidery provides us the basis for his selection of Doncic as number one, however I’m going to provide you why it’s not going to occur.  The youngster is a combo type, shooting guard/small forward even scouts admit he’s not an athletic type, but his other skills make up for this shortcoming.  Don’t confuse the issue, Doncic is likely a number two or three choice. 

The original version 

Dwight Howard is only 32 years old, he sometimes is the shadow of the player who once was a dominate force in the NBA.  I’m attempting to point out the All-Star we witnessed play in Orlando is only a shadow of his former self.   I’m unsure of the issue that curtailed major portions of his career.  On Wednesday the “old” Howard was on display as he scored 32 points and snatched 30 rebounds off the boards.  He becomes the first 30-30 player in the NBA since 2010.  Howard led his Hornets team to a 111-105 victory over the Nets.  The only downside Howard received a technical foul which was number 16, that's an automatic suspension for the next Hornets game.