Published Monday thru Friday    

Basketball from a fans perspective

“Were number one, were number one”

I cannot be sure for sure, however there must be a great celebration going on in Alamo City. The Spurs are the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery winners, unless something bizarre occurs June 22 this will occur. The wording might be somewhat different but Commissioner Adam Silver will step to the podium and announce over the mic, “With the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft the San Antonio Spurs select Victor Wembanyama from Metropolitan92 and France.”

What does this draft pick entail for the NBA is not fully known at this time, however if Wembanyama is as good as Jay Bilas, Adrian Wojnarowski and others claim the Spurs will be a resurrected franchise in a few years. Notice I didn’t say immediately, it will take Wembanyama some time to adjust to NBA play. Gregg Popovich might have been ready to ride off into the sunset, however he might remain in place for a bit. The Spurs are not very good, however Wembanyama will have an opportunity to learn the NBA game from one of the best coaches in the game.  

NBA Draft Combine

There are rites of spring every season and one of them is the NBA Draft Combine and the second is the NBA Draft. The combine begin on Monday and will run through Thursday May 18. The NBA will conduct its evaluation of potential talent in Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. The NBA announced 78 players have been invited to exhibit their talent before a host of coaches, scouts and front office personnel. The potential top pick Victor Wembanyama will not be in attendance, he’s got basketball duties to attend in France.

As for his no-show in the combine, that’s become common place in recent years, those assured of becoming lottery picks are looking at two factors. Sliding downward in the eyes of coaches, scouts and front offices and the injury risk factor. It’s not only Wembanyama but there are other potential lottery picks who will probably also not be in attendance for workouts and scrimmage games. One of those invited to the combine is Kobe Brown Mizzou’s combo forward, in this case if he’s drafted its likely to be in the second round. 

A new arena in Philly…not so fast

It seems whenever a new stadium or arena is planned there is opposition. We have one in Kansas City; John Sherman, owner of the Royals wants a downtown stadium. The only problem he’s never been able to fully explain is who pays. For your information Jackson County taxpayers are on the hook for renovations done at GEHA Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums. In Philadelphia the Sixers planned move from Wells Fargo Center has run into early opposition similar to Kansas City. In this instance the problem appears to be the planned location in Philadelphia more than anything else.

The area for the planned 76 Place is in the Chinatown portion of the city and that is an issue. How serious is the pushback by citizens, those in opposition presented 15,000 signatures to the Philadelphia City Council. As for the NBA from memory we saw similar community issues exist prior to Barclays Center which opened in 2012 or Chase Center opened in 2019. The Intuit Dome planned home of the Clippers went through its resident issues too prior to the start of construction, it will open in the fall of 2024. In both instances the concerns were addressed and construction was begun on the arenas and the rest is history. This impasse will be resolved, how it’s resolved I have no idea but citizens and business will resolve concerns.

I know…it’s early

Dennis Gates and staff have identified a number in the Class of 2024 to recruit. One of the number is profiled here, his name, Peyton Marshall. Marshall attends Kell High School in Marietta Georgia in the Atlanta metro and is rated the number 59^th prospect in Rivals.com. Marshall is a 7-foot 305-pound post player, even more interesting is his history. Marshall committed to Auburn but once the assistant coach recruited him, he changed his mind.

What is unclear at this point is family relationship, it’s written Marshall has family in St. Louis which should bode well for Mizzou. In addition the youngster has already made an unofficial visit to Mizzou. Does Mizzou win the recruiting battle, there are others attempting to attract them to their school? My chief concern in the video I saw Marshall appears somewhat pudgy, he’s got no defined muscle tone. My surface impression he needs to lose about 25-30 pounds and build his arms and legs for the future battles he faces.