Basketball from a fan’s perspective

15

Never give up the fight, that certainly could be the cry of the Wolves. They were down 15 points at the half, with 10:45 in the 3rd quarter the score read Nuggets 58 Wolves 38. Ant Man didn’t have a good shooting game (6 for 24) with his 16 points however his play was a contributing factor to the Wolves victory. Interesting the Nuggets outshot the Wolves from the floor 41% to 39.2% neither team shot particularly well from three.

A portion of the poor shooting by both teams can be directly attributed to the lockdown defense by both teams. The Wolves win the series 4 games to 3, they now face the Mavs for the Western Conference championship. Jamal Murray with 35 points and The Joker with 34 led the way in scoring, not a single player scored in double figures. Contrast that with the Wolves having all 5 starters in double figures and Naz Reid off the bench with 11 points. Beginning Wednesday at the Target Center will see the Mavs in action against the Wolves. This will be an interesting match on several levels, who guards Luka? The teams appear to be about the same height however the Wolves might have a slight advantage.

The outcome of this series will be determined by which team plays the best defense. Prior to the first game of the conference championship being played I would rate the Wolves a slight favorite in that area. The Wolves Karl-Anthony Towns with his 23 points and 12 rebounds was vital in the victory. 6 foot 36-year-old Mike Conley had 8 rebounds for the Wolves while 6 foot 10 Michael Porter Jr. had 9 rebounds for the Nuggets.

Stop reading if you heard this!

Have you ever wondered where the basketball shoe trend first began? Although Nike was in the shoe business already it was a bold move they decided to make which changed the basketball landscape. Nike’s gamble on the first Air Jordan’s was quite successful, at the time the original Air Jordan’s were introduced the NBA had a rule in effect. Basketball shoes had to be all black or at least 51% white, of course the white, black and red Air Jordan’s violated the rule so what ensued? The NBA fined Michael Jordan $5,000 a game which totaled $410,000 for the season.

Nike embracing the controversy surrounding the shoe eagerly agreed to pay the fine for Jordan. he paid not a penny. Prior to placing the shoe on the market   Nike projected it to earn in the neighborhood of $3 million in its first three years, it grossed an amazing $126 million in its first year. Nowadays it is not unusual to see NBA players decked out in multi-colored shoes. I’ve seen games (and maybe you have too) where a player could have assorted color shoe wear on each foot. Since that initial roll out back in 1985 the Air Jordan brand has separated itself from Nike although it is actually in name only, it remains one company. One player (Michael Jordan) and one company (Nike) are solely responsible for the change in basketball shoe wear.

What could have been

The Claw, that’s the nickname given Clipper forward Kawhi Leonard and here’s the reason. Although he stands 6 foot 7 he’s got a 7-foot 3-inch wingspan, there are players with greater wingspans however they are much taller than Kawhi. In addition its reported he’s got 11-inch hands, imagine as an opposing player trying to shoot over or drive around a defender with those tools. A quick check on my part, I discovered only Dr. J., Wilt Chamberlain and Connie Hawkins were reported to have larger hands than Kawhi. With this, there’s been a key difficulty the last few years, more has been written about Kawhi’s stats than we’ve actually witnessed play on the floor.

I don’t believe there’s ever been an argument on how good a player he is especially defensively. It becomes more and more difficult to defend him as a premier player when he is missing so many key games. I’m am unsure if this is true but I believe it to be so, the term “load management” became part of the NBA’s lingo due to Kawhi. Once I checked the number of missing games especially his time with the Clippers. I will not do that this time, I will say this, I doubt the Clippers are ever going to the promised land they believed when first signing Kawhi. I’ve said this before and will repeat it, Kawhi Leonard might be mentioned in the same breath of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or some other similar player. He will never reach their level and it’s certainly not for lack of talent, it’s his inability to remain healthy during his NBA career.

Three arenas? 

The NHL Las Vegas Golden Knights play their matches exclusively in the T-Mobile Center, the multi-purpose arena opened in 2016 so you can see it’s fairly new. Although the NBA Summer League is played annually in Las Vegas the NBA has never utilized T-Mobile to my knowledge. The Thomas & Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion are the locations for NBA Summer League play. AAU Tournaments are held at sites throughout the greater Las Vegas metro.

You might remember the other day I wrote of two competing groups attempting to build arenas for a Las Vegas NBA team along with ancillary amenities. Three arenas and one planned NBA team, are we not going a little overboard with this effort? I have no desire to place myself in front of someone or a group spending their own money it just seems strange how we’ve arrived at this place in time. It’s my understanding that no taxpayer funds are to be used by either group however it still remains highly unusual to me, what do you think?

The All-Rookie Team

There are elements of the NBA of today that distress me, I suppose we could make that same comment about football and baseball. They like the NBA are always exploring methods to improve the game, with that out of the way allow me to point toward the future success of the NBA…the associations youngsters. The NBA announced its All-Rookie first and second team, there were no surprises:

NBA All Rookie First Team

Victor Wembanyama Spurs

Chet Holmgren Thunder

Brandon Miller Hornets

Jaime Jaquez Heat

Brandin Podziemski Warriors

NBA All Rookie Second Team

Dereck Lively Mavs

Amen Thompson Rockets

Keyonte George Jazz

Cason Wallace Thunder

CG Jackson Grizzlies