Basketball from a fan’s perspective

January update

We are now in 2020, how do the mock drafts look?  The two generally utilized by Words eye view are interesting to date.  Neither details much movement from the beginning of the collegiate season.  No doubt the fastest riser has been LaMelo Ball who was playing professionally in Australia rather than college, the youngest Ball brother has raised his draft stock considerably.  Most interesting Ball was mentioned on few sites in late fall.  

Ball’s sidelined with an injury, we might not see him play again with the short NBL schedule which ends next month. His Hawks team is nowhere close to earning a playoff berth so that’s why he’s likely to continued healing and training for the draft.  We know the story of James Wiseman who began at Memphis, he played a few games then was suspended by the NCAA and finally decided to end his brief collegiate career.  Wiseman is training in preparation for the NBA draft in June.  Obi Topping at Dayton is an intriguing prospect, Topping appears to have all the tools an NBA team might require.

The other American playing overseas RJ Hampton has received little of the media attention of Ball but is considered a lottery pick.  One of the fascinating names on mock sites is Deni Avdija, the 6 foot 9 Avdija plays in Israel and most of us in the U.S. have not had the opportunity to see him play.  Is he the second coming of Kristaps Porzingis or Luka Doncic?  That question will remain unanswered until next fall. There are other names not mentioned, we’ll revisit this subject in February to see if there are significant changes.   

Clippers

The play between the two Los Angeles teams has proved interesting to date.  Coming into the season the Clippers were pronounced “NBA championship favorites” by a few in the media.  The season began with a victory over the other arena tenant the Lakers.  Fast forward to the Christmas Day re-match, once again the Clippers prevailed.  It appeared the Clippers were superior to the Lakers however a question remained.  Could they ever have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the lineup for consecutive games?  Load management’s impacted Kawhi to this point, he’s been in and out of the lineup. 

After missing several early games due to off season surgery Paul George has suffered an assortment of “knick-knack” injuries as Shaq might say.  There appears to be a common theme “we are not working together as a team.” Brian Shaw and Kevin McHale NBA TV analysts addressed the issue Sunday evening, are January games that important?  I’ll attempt to paraphrase their comments, “It’s important you (the team) establish itself and get into a winning routine.”  At this point it appears the only top team the Clippers can beat are the Lakers.  That’s certainly not going to help unless they play one another in the first round.  As Royce Young of ESPN wrote, “The Clippers’ top eight is very, very good.  We just don’t get to see it all that often right now.”  

Undefeated

By the first of the year we might have 5 or 6 college teams undefeated however this is not the usual season.  All the Blue Blood programs have game losses by January 12.  There remain two major programs which have yet to taste defeat. 

                            Conference                      All Games

San Diego State     6-0                                 17-0   

Auburn                  3-0                                 15-0

OG   

One of the best but often overlooked players of the past is the late Sam Lacey.  The Kansas City version of the Kings had few players that stood out, naturally the first name that comes to mind is Nate “Tiny” Archibald, NBA and scoring champion, Hall of Fame.  Few will remember or be acquainted with the name Sam Lacey.  He was a 6-10 center 235-pound center drafted from New Mexico State in the first round of the 1970 draft.  By the time the team moved to Kansas City two years later he’d established himself as a bona fide NBA center.      

Lacey never wowed anybody during his career with his offensive game, generally he was the second or third option.  It was his defense and rebounding (and talent) that kept him in the NBA.  Lacey ranked up there with several Big Men skilled at passing the basketball.  One season Lacey averaged 5.7 assists per and nearly 4 assists over the course of his NBA career.  After a 14-year career Lacey would retire in 1983.  Kareem Abdul Jabbar always claimed Nate Thurmond was the toughest opponent he faced; Lacey might have been third behind Wilt Chamberlain.  In 2014 at the age of 66 Lacey passed away in Kansas City.