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Basketball from a fans perspective

I’m excited

The season ahead for the Lakers appears promising, hopefully Christian Wood is the last “piece” allowing for an NBA championship. There are several newcomers I’m looking forward to seeing perform in Purple and Gold. The one player of my focus is probably not who you might have figured. Guard D’Moi Hodge went undrafted in the June 2023 draft, he’s since echoed the words of Austin Reaves so to speak. Hodge indicates he was allowed to choose the team he wanted to play for and that was the Lakers. In summer league play Hodge demonstrated he was ready to play at a professional level.

He accomplished this by precise 3-point shooting and playing “belly button” defense on the opposition. This former Mizzou Tiger was rewarded with a two-way contract at the conclusion of summer league. Hodge will spend time with the South Bay Lakers but will also be eligible to play for the Big Club too. As I wrote earlier during the summer Hodge is the first player from the British Virgin Islands to earn time in the NBA. Hodge has plenty of competition in front of him for playing time however I believe he will rise to the occasion if given time. On the other hand if its not the Lakers maybe another NBA team will discover the talented guard. After watching Hodge play for my Mizzou Tigers he will always remain a special player for me.

Does he remain coaching?

It’s clear by now the Spurs are in rebuild mode, the question does Coach Pop remain in place. Gregg Popovich is 73 years old; he’s been coaching the Spurs since 1996. He’s the longest tenured coach in the NBA and has been for a period of time. Pop’s done it all, five-time NBA champion, that represents one of the many accomplishments of this Hall of Fame coach. Pop represents one of a number, he is one of those guys who could have quit coaching years ago. They continue in the role due to their love of the game and I expect one day he’ll call it quits.

This is the part I found most interesting on Pop’s resume, he’s a loser. Before you begin tossing rocks in my direction allow for a brief explanation. At Division III Pomona-Pitzer his teams were winners 76 times, but they lost 129 games. In eight years at the school Pop had only two winning seasons. After a time as an assistant coach for the Warriors he returned to the Spurs as general manager and vice president of basketball operations in 1994. After the Spurs started 3-15 in the 1996-97 season, he fired Bob Hill and named himself head coach. The balance of this history continues to be written in 2023 extending into 2024. The question is posed again, does coach Pop remain in place rebuilding this Spurs team? With the potential of a Victor Wembanyama I believe the answer is yes.

Son of 3-D

That was his nickname, Dennis Scott was given the nickname 3-D. This was due to his prolific three-point shooting, the 6-foot 8 inch forward had an extensive NBA career with his most productive years as a member of the Magic. The elder Scott turned television analyst for NBA TV several years ago but this is not about him but rather his son. Dennis Scott III is a senior at Mount Vernon Presbyterian in Atlanta Georgia, while dad played small forward his offspring is a power forward.

In addition its possible as he matures III might add another two inches to his present 6 foot 10, he is a reported 235 pounds outweighing his father who was 229. III has offers from several schools the most recent Bradley University. In addition he’s received offers from Indiana, Howard, Harvard, George Mason, Georgia Tech, Fort Valley State, Radford and Loyola (MD) have offers for him. Now we must come up with a nickname for the son, the headline Son of 3-D is certainly not intended to set a trend. What do you think his nickname should be? It should be of note one of the schools with an offer is Georgia Tech, that’s where his dad played.

A re-visit

On Friday former Kings player Vlade Divac made news with his basketballnetwork.com interview. He was discussing talented post players and made this eye-opening comment. “Shaq wasn’t talented. He was just strong”, I mentioned my belief these types of quarrels are sometimes absurd. The comparison is often between players of different generations, this one was good. Divac played from 1989-2005 while Shaquille O’Neal played 1992-2011 detailing numerous opportunities to face one another. The full quote from Divac was: “I’ve been in basketball a long, long time, and have to say (Cousins is) the most talented big guy I have ever seen, Shaq wasn’t talented.

He was just strong. I was talented, but I wasn’t strong.” Divac is referring to DeMarcus Cousins as being talented. I weigh in on this argument of two 7-foot guys and somewhat disagree with Divac. Shaq did indeed play bully ball, can you imagine taking a charge from a 350-pound colossus. His offensive game certainly was not extensive as I remember, there was a jump hook and bank shot although the power drive was the one most used. Despite Divac’s statement I believe Shaq was a skillful passer too, certainly nowhere close to Nikola Jokic or DeMarcus Cousins. As for Divac his offensive game wasn’t extensive, those Kings teams required other portions of his game to be effective. Divac was very skilled at passing the basketball, this is a draw in my opinion. Shaq was certainly strong and did play bully ball but for those who didn’t see him in action he was more than that.