Words eye view

Basketball from a fan perspective

Thank you

From time to time I must pause and say thank you, many of you have been faithful readers of Words eye view for several years and it is appreciated by me.  My hope in beginning this blog was to convey the love of the game by yours truly, I also hoped to represent the large number of basketball fans around the nation and across the world.  I’ve never claimed my view of a subject is the only one out there, I admit I have bias too.  Rooting for the Lakers and Mizzou basketball is my passion, my hope is you bear with me especially on those two topics.  Again, thank you for being a loyal reader of this blog, I will continue to publish it as time permits.    

He said it

The NBA TV crew was providing analysis on Sunday games, Greg Anthony gave us interesting insight on the Clipper loss to the Bucks.  This paraphrases his comment, “The Clippers need a point guard, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard can’t carry the offense and play the point too.”  For all Patrick Beverly brings to the floor defensively he’s uniquely lacking as a point guard.  It’s more than just scoring it’s the leadership exhibited for a team.  It’s clear if former point guard Anthony sees this issue rest assured Clippers management does too.  The Clippers depth chart indicates Reggie Jackson is the backup to Beverly and then it’s Lou Williams.  I have no idea of Jackson's playmaking ability and Sweet Lou is more a shooter than a distributor.   

I’m not complaining

Mizzou’s been dropped from the AP and Coaches poll; I’m not surprised but do find this next portion interesting.  Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Oregon all schools Mizzou defeated remain in the Top 25.  I guess it just proves there is a good time and a bad time to suffer a losing streak, unfortunately Mizzou’s losing streak was at the wrong time.  At this point they won’t return to any polls unless they make a deep, deep run in the NCAA tournament.  This team remains an enigma to me, over the last 6 weeks or so we have no idea which Mizzou team is going to show up to play.  Just a short 3 weeks ago they were the number 10 team in the nation in both polls.   

“Dee Fence, Dee Fence”

The chant heard in NBA and college arenas across the nation, exactly who plays the best defense in the association?  You might be a bit surprised at the answer, we are discussing points allowed and opposition field goal percentage: 

               PA          FG

1. Knicks 104       37.1%

2. Lakers 105.6   39.9%

3. Jazz 106.5       40.4%

4. Suns 107.5      39.6%

5. Clippers 109.0 40.9%

And your question is, how are the Knicks number one, it’s clear they must be playing effective defense at least through February 28. 

The logo

After reading comments by several NBA fans, I reached a conclusion at least for me.  I’m sure I was influenced by much of what I read.  Leave everything as is, after the issue of changing the logo was raised, we discover the NBA appears in no rush to make a change. We read Jerry West made his feelings known four years ago indicating he believed it was an embarrassment to him and he wanted a change. West mentioned Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabbar as possible replacements.  Someone mentioned Kobe Bryant, he remains one of my all-time great players however there are issues if he were to become the logo.  Kobe’s death was a tragedy however that’s no basis to make the change.  Leave things as they are at least for now, in 5-10 years the views of the public might undergo a turn.