Basketball from a fans perspective

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Are they better

The Lakers had an “uneven” win against the Raptors on the road Friday evening, the score 131-125. As this is written it became victory number 4, what about last season? The Lakers have 4 wins and 2 losses, last season they were 3 wins and 3 losses so are they better? That depends on the opposition, after game 6 last season it was a short losing streak before they were able to win another game. I’m really unsure if this years team is better than last season, the two keys LeBron James and AD are one year older.

The key difference I see thus far the coach has maintained the same lineup. If you remember last season former coach Darvin Ham’s starting lineup was always in change. Jarred Vanderbilt continues to remain on the sidelines, it does the Lakers no great favors if their best defender is unable to play. Vanderbilt continues to remain on the day to day list. Christian Wood is recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, he is out until late December or early January. The other Christian (Koloko) is working out for the South Bay Lakers, how soon he will be ready for action is unclear as this is written. As a team the Lakers are shooting the 3 better than last season, so concludes this short report.

Bits n Pieces of Information

Nicholas Randall is a 6 foot 7 inch 225 pound forward, he hails from St. Louis although he's at Compass Prep in Chandler Arizona for school. This Class of 2025 prospect verbally committed to Mizzou on Monday which is quite interesting from this perspective. Mizzou’s former coach Cuonzo Martin grew up in the St. Louis area, one of the basis for his hire was the ability to recruit the St. Louis metro. For unexplained reasons Mizzou has never recruited well in St. Louis, which is ripe with high school talent, maybe a change might be forthcoming with the Randall commitment. 

Did you know Duke freshman Cooper Flagg has a twin brother, Ace is a 6 foot 7 180 pound guard. Although they share DNA Ace is not on the same basketball and skill level of Cooper. Ace journeyed to Montverde Academy with his brother but is unranked by prospect sites. In addition he didn’t reclassify as his brother so he is a Class of 2025 prospect. Ace has decided to commit to a school and in this instance he will be returning home. Home for the Flaggs is Newport Maine and Ace indicates he intends to enroll at the University of Maine located in Orono less than 50 miles from his front door in Newport.

This is different, once the NBA season began I noticed a change in the box score. Two websites, espn.com/nba and cbssports.com/nba have changed their box score. In both instances their box scores reflect “positionless” basketball. The names are in the box score as they normally would be however there is no position listed for the player. As an example the Kings box score from the Tuesday game against the Jazz, I cannot determine whether De’Aaron Fox played center or shooting guard. On the Jazz side did Jordan Clarkson play the point or shooting guard? I realize players sometimes play more than one position during a game however I don’t like this change.

The shot clock 

The 24-second shot clock was formally adopted by the NBA in the spring of 1954. Keep in mind the NBA back then contained a smaller number of teams, the NBA championship was concluded in April 1954. The clock would not It come into use until the 1954-55 NBA season, of course this change drastically affected the game. No longer could teams simply stall or hold the ball as would sometimes occur. The instance that stands out possibly occurred in a November 22, 1950, game.

The Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. Yes, that was the final score, it was said the Pistons fearful of the great George Mikan held the ball for minutes without taking a shot. For the entirety of the game the Pistons had a meager 13 shot attempts. Adoption of the clock speeded up the game and accelerated scoring in the NBA. And now we arrive at the 70 year anniversary of the shot clock, and understand this, a shot clock has been adopted in college and at most high schools although there are some exceptions.