Basketball from a fans perspective

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I don’t know

Steph Curry is a lights out shooter, there is no requirement for me to inform you. If you’ve followed his career any length of time you are fully aware. His impactful shooting for Team USA was key to the team winning Gold. A number of fans were upset LeBron James being named MVP while others believe it should have been Curry. After all he shot in four 3-point baskets in the final three minutes of the game. I wrote on social media I’ve seen a number of shooters in person and on television since I was a child. Curry is the most prolific of them all, it seems every time he shoots the ball its going in the basket.

Of course that is not the case he does miss occasionally, there is an area I miss. I cannot validate his defensive prowess, his offensive capability most certainly overshadows that area. Surely he must be decent at that portion of the game otherwise why is he on the floor? It does no good for him to score 40 points and his opposition scores 35. There is a photo which I believe has already become classic. A photographer snapped a shot of the 6 foot 2 Curry taking his shot over the 7 foot 3 (or 4) Victor Wembanyama. The 2024 Olympics will be the last for him, unlike teammate LeBron James Curry will retire sometime in the next three years. Steph Curry, the best pure shooter and the quickest release in basketball I’ve ever seen.

The staff is now complete

The Laker coaching staff is complete, apparently head coach JJ Redick has the coaches in place he and the front office agree with. Let’s take a brief look, there is Scott Brooks and Nate McMillan both former players and NBA head coaches, they are the lead assistants. We then move on to assistants Lindsey Harding, Greg St. Jean, Bob Beyer, Beau Levesque. The head of player development is Ty Abbott and video coordinator is Michael Wexler. Working backwards Wexler replaces Phil Handy who served in that role for two previous Laker head coaches. Wexler has served as coordinator for the Rockets and Suns prior to this latest hire.

Levesque is a former college player and has worked for the Nets and Clippers. Beyer is a longtime assistant coach at a number of NBA stops, his last being the Hornets prior to his hire by the Lakers. St. Jean is also a veteran assistant and at one time served as head coach of the Kings and Warriors, finally we conclude with Harding, her resume is extensive as a former player at Duke and a WNBA career before moving into the coaching ranks. She was an assistant with the Kings and their G-League team. My chief complaint with the Redick hire was no past coaching experience. I’m really unsure how this staff might work out however it appears Redick has a number of basketball minds to aid him in the cause. From this member of Laker Nation I sure hope this works.

Bits n Pieces

This information was posted the other day by me on my social media account. As you are all aware successful recruiting doesn’t always translate to accomplishment on the basketball court. Despite my statement it appears Dennis Gates and staff are performing admirably recruiting talent for the Mizzou program. Some of you reading this might believe this is me, its not. Rivals.com perceives Mizzou basketball recruiting in this manner, Class of 2024 number 6 and Class of 2025 number 11 nationally. As I’ve indicated in the past Mizzou basketball recruiting has never ranked this high and on a nationwide basis.  

Commissioner Silver has gone on the record, he indicates the NBA will add two possibly three future franchises. One will be Seattle the other in Las Vegas and perhaps Mexico City. Las Vegas is interesting for several reasons the chief one being LeBron James. On more than one occasion James has mentioned a desire to own an NBA team, it would appear that would be Vegas. Despite his desire there is one key requirement he could not play as an owner. With that of course two things must occur, he must retire and locate additional partners to purchase the Vegas franchise. The last part is relatively easy, potential partners will drop out of the sky to join him. The difficult part I believe is him retiring from the game that’s impacted his life in a manner he never dreamed of.

He's training in the U.S. during the off season, his name is Rocco Zikarsky. Zikarsky plays for Brisbane in the Australian NBL, that’s for now…the training here is two-fold. He’s preparing himself for the NBL and the 2025 NBA draft. Zikarsky stands 7 foot 1 and 237 pounds and is a power forward/center. As for the mock draft he’s projected as a first round lottery pick. The highest projection by any mock is draftroom.com with their listing of Zikarsky as the number 10 pick. As for the others tankathon.com has him at 12 and SI.com simply says “late first round lottery pick.” 

I came across this and thought it was worth sharing with you this unique accomplishment, there are only 9 basketball players to achieve this feat. They have won an NBA title, NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP and Olympic Gold medal. They are Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Larry Bird and Hakeem Olajuwon.