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Basketball from a fans perspective

Two speculative story’s

You are about to read two accounts surrounding LeBron James, neither can be documented. The first involves Bronny James, Stephen A. Smith has no connection inside the James family but made this claim, “If his son is seriously ill LeBron will retire from the NBA.” The health and well-being of Bronny is crucial for mother and father I believe we all understand that. This is the statement, Smith has no more idea of the future than you or me he is only speculating the same thing we might do.

The second account revolves around NBA expansion as it relates to Las Vegas. This portion of the story originates with former NBA player Tracy McGrady and not James. McGrady claims he’s received inside information on a prospective owner. He states James is at the top of a list to become owner of a Las Vegas expansion team. McGrady further indicated he intends to join LeBron and whoever else would be in an ownership group. There is no doubt James has the financial clout along with several others to accomplish the task. This concludes two suppositions one by Stephen A. Smith the other by Tracy McGrady

He said WHAT?

I believe there is no one who will argue this fact, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has several players who owe him a refund on their earnings. After I read this quote from coach Tyronn Lue I almost fell outta my chair. “I told Kawhi and PG (Paul George) this summer, we do gotta approach the regular season in a different way…let’s be serious about it, lets not wait til the playoffs, because its serious.” I understand coaches attempting to motivate an individual or a team to improve their effort this approach is not brand new. Allow me to state this upfront I respect Kansas Citian and Clippers coach Lue.

Lue’s appeal to the two keys to Clipper success borders on begging with them, these guys are longtime pros, why is it necessary to point out facts they should be aware of? The Clippers have never had a talent issue, in the recent past most figured they had one of the best starting lineups in the NBA. As an example Kawhi and PG are among the best talents in the NBA, the problem is they have been unable to maintain consistent presence on the court. This has been mostly due to injury however load management played a key role as well. What in the world of the NBA is going on when load management fails to apparently work successfully?  

A Lilliputian lineup

If ESPN’s NBA page is correct the Golden State Warriors might have the smallest starting lineup since the 1940’s. We are not close to training camp however the depth chart could appear to be short in stature. Chris Paul (6’0) is listed as the point guard, Steph Curry (6’2) is the shooting guard, at small forward is Klay Thompson (6’6), power forward we have Andrew Wiggins (6’7) and 6’6 Draymond Green at the center position. Let’s take a closer inspection of this lineup working from the center and back. Green at 230 pounds certainly has the bulk to play the center position.

To my knowledge it’s been my belief Green’s not played center for the majority of a game, I could be wrong. Wiggins might be able to out quick a number of power forwards but he gives away far too much height and weight against most in the NBA. Thompson at the small forward most likely works, he’s practically playing the position at times anyway. We now come to the real dilemma, who is the point guard…is it Curry or Paul? This could work to the Warriors advantage, certainly Curry is a volume shooter over Paul but that fails to take into account Curry is more than a capable passer. In closing the question of defense must always be taken into consideration, who steps up for these guys?

A really Big Man

If you thought Victor Wembanyama was gigantic allow me to introduce a player even bigger in height and certainly weight. His name is Oliver Rioux and guess what…he’s still in high school. Rioux stands 7 foot 6 inches and 290 pounds and you thought Wemby was tall. Rioux is from Montreal Canada and is entering his junior year at IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida. YouTube video of Rioux in action prior to IMG is available, after watching the video it was evident to me. He might be taller and heavier than Wemby but is nowhere close to the French teen in his development on the court.

Rioux has developed a limited offensive game and video detailed him blocking shots or merely intimidating opposition players. Despite this fact he appears mechanical and somewhat stiff in action. Although these comments might be perceived as negatives Rioux displayed improvement as a sophomore over videos of him in action as a freshman. Basketball today seems to have limited interest in developing Big Men, Zach Edey provides us proof of this. Edey also from Canada was viewed as a second-round draft choice in 2023, he decided in favor of returning to Purdue in hope of improving his draft position. As for Rioux I will continue to monitor his progress over the next two seasons.

Skyhook

Former Bucks broadcaster Eddie Doucette dubbed Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s shot as a skyhook, if you are unfamiliar with how this came about a brief description. Broadcasting back in the day was much different from the present, we are accustomed to seeing broadcasters seated next to the games official scorers, clock managers and others. Doucette and others were seated in the upper portion of arenas broadcasting the game. Doucette claimed Abdul Jabbar’s shot appeared to be coming from out of the sky at the height he saw from his position. We certainly don’t claim this as fact it’s been reported no opposing player ever blocked the shot, Abdul Jabbar would miss on occasion but his shot was never blocked.  

I guess with a reported 8-foot 4-inch wingspan it might be a slight bit difficult to block the shot once Abdul Jabbar was at his maximum extension. Back in the day the opposition would attempt to push and muscle him from his comfort zone, this was to prevent him from successfully sinking the shot. You might wonder the direction I’m going with this story, it leads us directly to wunderkind Victor Wembanyama. Wemby indicates he is “working” on a hook shot currently. Despite his height advantage (7-5) over Abdul Jabbar (7-2) his wingspan is not quite as lengthy. The wingspan for Wemby is reported to be 8-feet, at the beginning of his NBA career he’s going to play power forward rather than center like Abdul Jabbar. Although he might be playing a different position this should still prove interesting if Wemby develops his own version of a skyhook.