Basketball from a fan’s perspective

The arrival  

If you follow baseball, you are aware the impact Dominican players have made on today’s game. For those unsure of the geography, the Dominican Republic is a Caribbean nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. According to information we uncovered there are a wide variety of sports played in the country however basketball is not at the top of the list. Despite this fact there is at least one outstanding basketball prospect, his name is Jean Montero and he’s a 6-foot 2-point guard.

Montero is headed to the U.S. to play for Overtime Elite the new start-up basketball league beginning play in the fall. Montero is reported to be the 17^th pick in ESPN’s 2022 NBA mock draft, based on that information we guess he must have some skills. Last fall Montero began play for Gran Canaria’s senior team in Spain. Montero would be on loan since he is still under contract to the Spanish team. As for possible NBA aspirations his contract must be bought out by the team drafting him.  

Bits n Pieces 

My Lakers have been eliminated, who do I root for now? Certainly not the Nets, the Clippers forget that I could never ever root for them. I could have rooted for the Blazers if not for their elimination, I love Dame Lillard. The Sixers and Hawks are okay teams, so are the Bucks but none of those teams have MPJ in their lineup. MPJ of course is Michael Porter Jr. who played at Mizzou prior to the Nuggets drafting him. His NBA star has continued to rise, and his play is quite exceptional, see that was quite an easy decision on my part not difficult at all.    

Last year in the middle of the pandemic numerous events were either cancelled or postponed. One of those was the NBA Summer League, that’s about to change. The NBA announced summer league play will begin again in 2021. The scheduled date is August 8 and will run through the 17, as usual all 30 teams will participate in league play. Games will be played at the standard locations Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. This is good news and one more sign that hopefully we are pulling out of this epidemic that’s afflicted the nation.

The Pacers will now make a change as well, they become the latest team to change head coaches. Nate Bjorkgren has been fired after but one season at the helm. The Pacers now join the Blazers, Celtics and Magic all intending to hire new coaches. Even scarier (depending on where you sit) there might be several more coaches who will be replaced. I refuse to name anyone you are aware of coaches on the hot seat.

Thanks to the Joker we discover another NBA fun fact, this one regarding Willis Reed legendary Naismith and College Basketball Hall of Fame player. Reed was a two-time NBA champion; he was also a member of the NBA’s 50^th Anniversary All Time Team. In 1964 the Knicks made Reed the 8^th pick in the second round of that years draft. Nikola Jokic becomes the second player picked in the second round to become MVP; Reed was the first. 

The decision, who to choose

July 29 is the scheduled date for the NBA draft, it will be held again in Barclays Center home of the Nets. Draft positions have been finalized and after some changes the Lakers will have the opportunity to draft in the 20^th position. The 2021 draft is dissimilar from many in the past there are several “names” available, seniors, underclassman and international names. The difficulty at the end of May and early June how will free agency affect the Lakers draft, we have just a guess at free agency. Who becomes available to leave is known at this point, whether they leave is a different matter?

Information uncovered on spotrac.com/nba/free-agents indicates the Lakers have 11 roster members who will become free agents. 7 of the number will be unrestricted free agents while the other 4 are restricted so what occurs? Likely there will be 1-year contracts   worked out for several lower echelon talent but how about the others? It would appear the danger zone members are Andre Drummond, Dennis Schroeder, Montrezl Harrell and perhaps including Markieff Morris. At this point we are not claiming none of the 4 will be re-signed its likely a few will leave Staples Center for greener pastures. As for the draft do the Lakers make the move for now or the future?