Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays

Who's first?  

Discussions surrounding NBA expansion have been ongoing for a time. The commissioner’s office has made no firm commitment except you might be aware of the cities mentioned. Las Vegas and Seattle appear to be slam dunks but there are others to consider. A return to Vancouver who lost its franchise to Memphis however there might be another Canadian city moving to the forefront. Montreal, with its metro population of 4.4 million, is actually larger than Vancouver so population is a non-issue.

This from the web, “71% of Montrealer’s spoke French as their first language. 58.5% of Montrealer’s speak both French and English and finally 20.4% speak English as their first language.” There would appear to be no language barrier unlike that which might occur with a Mexico City NBA franchise. As for existing sports, the NHL Canadians are an institution in the city. The Alouettes of the CFL founded in 1946 are second in length of tenure to the NHL team. Is the interest there for an NBA team in Canada’s second largest city, that’s an unknown at least for now. From what I read there is interest although unlike Seattle which is anxious for a return of the NBA there appears no major outpouring of significance.

Bits n Pieces of information 

If he is drafted you’ll have more information than a nationally known member of the media. The athlete in question is named Xaivian Lee and he’s a 6 foot 4 180 pound point guard, Lee is in his junior year at Princeton. I know what you are thinking…an NBA player from an Ivy League school. Now that you’ve finished laughing allow me to provide you with a little additional background. Lee hails from Toronto Canada, a well-known hotbed for basketball talent. I guess you might have figured as much. It seems Toronto high school basketball is responsible for 98% of Canadian players in college, the NBA and internationally. As we arrive closer to the June draft I will send out a reminder to be aware of his name.

The Ja Morant almost SportsCenter dunk on Wemby recently I forgot to communicate this observation. I could say this is now, back in the day the speedy guard would have found himself planted on the court back in the day. I cannot imagine Morant driving on Charles Oakley, Ben Wallace, Shaq or others I might have omitted. Players of today might be better conditioned but they certainly are not as tough as some players of the past. Some of you are saying MJ would drive in a comparable manner, tell me have you ever heard of the Jordan Rules?

The usual suspects, the teams at the top of the NBA standings are those having the best defense rating. Who are they:

1.Cavs

2.Thunder

3.Celtics

4.Rockets

5.Grizzlies

More than likely the 2025 NBA Champion team will come from one of the above or it could be the Knicks, Nuggets or Mavs. There have been numerous complaints regarding 3-point shooting and other aspects of the game. My focus is on the defensive rating, that’s where I believe we should be considering.

Beal v Reaves

Any effort Laker management undertakes to improve the team is a good thing, there are exceptions to my statement, however. Sometimes the rumors are worrisome because they might not be coming from the front office but somebody is talking to someone. The latest rumor has the Lakers acquiring disgruntled shooting guard Bradley Beal of the Suns for Austin Reaves and my initial question is why? Beal is 31-years old which certainly is not old however Reaves is only age 26 so there is that question…but wait there is more.

Beal is scoring at a 17.5 ppg clip 3.6 rebounds 3.3 assists and 48.5% shooting, 38.5% of it comes from three. As for Reaves his numbers are 17.9 ppg 4.3 rebounds 6.2 assists 43.6% shooting, 39.4% from three. Finally check out the defensive rating for the pair, Beal is 118.2 and Reaves 117.9. Just to provide a point of reference I utilized statmuse.com, SGA is the top performer in the NBA with a 102.5 rating. As you can see if we just look strictly at the numbers there appears to be no advantage for the Lakers to make this trade. I sure hope this is just a rumor circulating because it certainly doesn’t look good from where I sit however I’m only a fan.