Basketball from a fan’s perspective

“I don’t do hockey”

As the headline indicates what I know about hockey and the NHL could fit inside a 2-ounce or 0.056699-kilogram container. Imagine this, the NBA and NHL championship being decided at nearly the same time. The roster for one of the NBA teams and one for the NHL team contain high school classmates. You say it can’t happen, well it is and at the present time. The NHL Florida Panthers are facing the Edmonton Oilers while in the NBA it’s the Boston Celtics matched against the Dallas Mavericks.

Matthew Tkachuk plays forward for the Panthers and Jayson Tatum is one of the forwards for the Celtics. The two athletes were in gym class together for three years while enrolled at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis (MO). Has something similar occurred in the past probably, without researching the matter it might be a challenging task. I thought this is an interesting bit of trivia and one could utilize for your friends and acquaintances.

UPDATE

There are times your research dude fails you…this is one of those occasions. Yesterday I mentioned names of NBA assistants and former players with no coaching experience hired and lasting less than three years. Omitted in the account was the success story of Brad Stevens. In 2013 Brad Stevens moved from the first chair at Butler University to head coach of the Celtics. There might be others but he was one I definitely missed.

Although Steven’s is no longer serving in that capacity I could state he was quite successful in leading the NBA Celtics with no prior experience as a former NBA player, assistant or head coach. I could check the roster at the time but I’m not, I can simply inform you the Celtics finished the 2013-14 season with a 25-57 record. The following year it was 40-42 and in year three Steven’s Celtic teams finished 48-34, they earned a playoff berth in year two and three. In 2021 he was named president of basketball operations for the Celtics after Danny Ainge retired. Stevens was the NBA’s All-Star coach in 2017 and the 2024 NBA Executive of the Year.

I had written earlier the lack of success of college or assistant coaches with little if any NBA experience. Brad Stevens is the polar opposite of what I wrote and published on Friday. That affirms a portion of yesterday’s article on Danny Hurley (JJ Redick) for that matter. Given the right set of circumstances one can be successful in the role of head coach in the NBA. As for the lead in sentence above you might have a question about my research guy…that would be me.

Mavs dug themselves a mighty deep hole

I must admit the final score surprised me…no not the fact the Celtics won. The game was played in Boston, the Celtics were well rested but it was the Mavs. I certainly didn’t expect them to begin the game so flat, that was the first surprise. The second, it’s got to be Kristaps Porzingis he’d not played in five weeks his impact in Game one will be. How about this, the tall one came in as the sixth man for the Celtics and seriously impacted the game in favor of the Celtics. We tend to view Porzingis for his offensive prowess but it might have been his defense which proved so beneficial. 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots might not appear formidable however it was.

The 20 points Porzingis scored also aided his team to the 107-89 victory over the Mavs. It appeared Luka was his normal self, help in the form of Kyrie Irving didn’t occur as he was only able to score 12 points on 32% shooting. In defense of Irving the Celtics sent multiple defenders at him all game long. As for the Celtics Jayson Tatum played an average game, Jaylen Brown led the balanced scoring with 22 points. The teams meet on Sunday for Game two, the Mavs are hoping for a different outcome. As indicated by the headline the Mavs dug themselves a mighty deep hole at the beginning of the game, they were never able to fully recover. Are the Celtics a better team than the Mavs, one could make that claim Thursday evening beyond that might be a question.

He said it better

I wanted to expound on a statement commissioner Silver made recently. It was mentioned LeBron James and Steph Curry are in the twilight of their brilliant NBA careers…who replaces them. At that point, the mention of international athletes came into the conversation. The commissioner said something to this, “I’m glad to see Luka Doncic at 25 years of age in a Finals, Giannis Antetokounmpo being named league MVP. It’s great the game continues to develop around the world but it’s also important the U.S. continues to produce NBA quality players.”

I agree with the commissioner, the other day I wrote something along these lines. The NBA game has grown internationally therefore significant players are arriving from all over the world. I believe the NBA of the future will be a mix, in 2024 it’s difficult for me to see the league in 10 years but this is what might occur. An increasing number of international athletes from Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia will arrive on these shores. The changing basketball landscape will likely see the NBA draft high school athletes again. This time around it will be conducted differently, some teams will be able to infuse these youngsters into their lineup immediately. As for others they will be farmed out to the G-League to continue their development, what is your view of the NBA in 2034?