KD
The season was
supposed to be complete before Kevin Durant returned. With a split season there was a question
whether the talented forward would play in this two-part NBA season. KD said no, “My season is over” which
indicates he will await the 2020-21 season, we now have our answer. Kyrie Irving also says his plan is to not
return, the Nets should have a competitive team next season with Durant and Irving in the lineup.
Speaking of time off
Non-playoff
teams will have extra time off from the 2019-20 season. Under normal play the regular season would
have concluded in April, in 2020 it was near the end of March. The revised schedule calls for a July 31
start and an NBA Champion crowned October 12.
As noted previously the 2020-21 season will begin December 25, notice
the extra time accorded non-playoff teams? On the other hand, don't you imagine most would rather compete for an NBA Championship?
Not so fast
A little while
back I wrote former Memphis center James Wiseman had become the Invisible
Man. My assumption was based on lack of
news coverage once the young man left school rather than serve the NCAA
mandated suspension. Wiseman remains on
the radar of lottery bound teams. As
mentioned earlier he only played three games and it was not against the nation’s
top basketball talent. Check out the
scouting report below.
Jerry Meyer
247Sports director of basketball scouting made this statement. “He can really run;
Wiseman seems to be a high-level rim-to-rim runner for a big guy and can go up
and get it and finish with authority at the rim,” Meyer said. “He was just more
athletic and longer than the opposition. I do not think he played against the
best competition early on, but he was dominant like you would want him to be.
To me, that’s his greatest trait: how quickly he can get rim to rim and make an
impact from defense to offense.” With
the lottery yet to be held should the Warriors have the top pick would they take
a chance on drafting the Big Man?
2023
It is three years from
now, he could change his mind, we speak of Mikey Williams youth basketball
talent. We know little about Williams
except this point guard from San Ysidro (San Diego) is reported to be the top
talent in the Class of 2023. Williams
indicates he might consider an HBCU once he graduates high school. For those unfamiliar with the term it
references Historically Black College and Universities. If we check NBA rosters of the 50’s, 60’s and
70’s we discover they were stacked with players from HBCU institutions.
You know several of
the names, Willis Reed Grambling, Earl Monroe Winston Salem State, Sam Jones North
Carolina Central. As the landscape began to change particularly in the 1960’s large
schools in the Deep South which excluded black students began to admit
them. Naturally, this change brought
athletes to these schools too, as the recruiting accelerated more and more
black youngsters chose LSU over Grambling as an example. Today’s NBA with many black athletes have few
from HBCU schools. Should Williams
decide to attend an HBCU it makes sense, he claims the NBA will find you no
matter where you play basketball.
