Basketball
from a fan’s perspective
Backup point guard
The Lakers are looking for a backup point guard, “Hey didn’t
someone say the job belonged to Rajon Rondo?”
Yes, it did for a short period early in the season, he bolted out of the
starting gate like his hair was on fire.
For the first few weeks of the season he was the man, for the last few
weeks Rondo has slowed to a pace that’s caused concern.
We knew he never was much of a shooter however early in the
season he was consistently sinking open 3-point shots when left alone. Throughout his career Rondo’s only been
adequate on defense. His lately poor
shooting plus less than average defense has been a liability. There are several names available who could fill the backup role, hopefully by February 1st or sooner GM Ron Pelinka will have made a move beneficial to the Lakers.
Pure speculation
The report of Bill Self leaving Kansas has heated up once again,
this time our source is ESPN’s Seth Greenberg who claims the coach will take the Spurs
job. He’s not pushing Gregg Popovich out
the door rather the 71-year old coach might be ready to retire. Kansas
will be severely penalized by the NCAA this year, doesn’t matter if we agree
with the actions of the NCAA or not. Kansas
fans are pointing fingers at North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky for past or
implied improprieties.
No argument from this corner however the NCAA is coming after
Kansas and not the schools identified. An
NBA job would allow Self to stop thinking about recruiting although success at
this level is no guarantee. It’s been
pointed out except for Larry Brown few college coaches have been successful at
the NBA level. Billy Donovan with the
Thunder has mixed results at this time, John Bielein inherited a bad Cavs team and
that’s a problem. Will Bielein be given time to change the culture and produce a winner? Later you will read a related account regarding Gregg Popovich.
21st
Century post play
I watch so many games I don’t remember the opponent. Laker reserve Dwight Howard was in the game
at the five, his opposition was generally at the 3-point line. His counterpart was not just standing there
he was taking a shot from time to time. The
Lakers were forced to make an adjustment since Howard is accustomed to
patrolling the paint. Howard is not the
type of center to guard the perimeter it’s always been to contain the area
around the basket.
What Howard faces has become more and more common in the NBA,
Big Men shooting the outside shot extending out to the 3-point line. This has become 21st Century post
play although that might be a misnomer.
These Big Men play the post but are generally on the perimeter. You can name them, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic
and Brook Lopez to name a few. Will the
game ever return to true post play, only time will tell? For now, this is the flow of today's NBA game.
Hope he succeeds
A few Mizzou fans remain upset at Michael Porter Jr., he arrived
with much promise. He left Mizzou
without contributing very little on the court due to injury, MPJ would have
been a lottery pick except for the injury.
The Nuggets made him the 14th pick in the first round of the 2018
draft. The Nuggets drafted him realizing
he wouldn’t be on the court immediately.
The Nuggets had enough assets in place to allow MPJ to “sit”
all last season, the 2019-20 season would be his coming out party. He’s been a reserve up till recently, MPJ
started his first game and on Thursday in a reserve role he led the way to
victory over the Pacers. He came off the
bench scoring 25 points in 23 minutes. Although
we barely saw him on the court at Mizzou from this corner it’s hoped he
succeeds.
