Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays

The return

The NBA world was curious regarding Kawhi Leonard’s return to action for the Clippers. Interesting in that he “recruited” Paul George and now he’s gone, there was little play together as teammates. Leonard had not played a meaningful game since last season so January 4 would be noteworthy after his extended absence. In the starting lineup Leonard managed to score 12 points in 19 minutes of action, he wasn’t particularly accurate from the floor but in time we’ll see if that aspect improves.

As for his time Leonard was in action for only 3 minutes and 36 seconds in the second half of the runaway victory for the Clippers. This from Leonard, “There was nothing hard about playing tonight” which is certainly understandable. The aftereffects from his play are most important to his continued rehab. Hopefully, Leonard is able to return to action and be NBA productive. At the same time based on his past medical history fans should need to be patient, this is likely to be a slow return and don’t expect the player you saw in years past. That Leonard will never appear again due to age, medical and the wear and tear on his NBA body.   

Of course that’s his opinion

I’m on a tangent it seems to me sometimes however there is always a basis I believe. I didn’t see the game in its entirety but I saw Cooper Flagg in action once again, this time he led in the victory over SMU. What I find a bother those who play the game pick at a college or international player prior to NBA action. In the spring of 2023 prior to the draft it was Charles Barkley throwing shade at Victor Wembanyama before he’d played a single game in the NBA.

I thought at the time, “Allow the kid to play before you decide he can’t play” after all scouts have sometimes errored. This was not an everyday discussion his was most vocal in my view indicating Wemby might have problems. We can debate this one as well, I don’t remember the number Barkley proclaimed. Whatever it was he said Yao Ming managed to exceed the scoring total. That’s two strikes against Barkley on his ability to analyze potential talent. He’s the first former NBA player, Gilbert Arenas becomes number two but in his case its Duke’s Cooper Flagg. Arenas says Flagg is a “complimentary” player and we can guess in the mind of Arenas the Duke standout does nothing extraordinary. Bottom line…Barkley and now Arenas are certainly entitled to voice their opinion on any particular subject matter. The problem for me in both instances there is a rush to judgement without offering any proof other than an opinion.

I’m quite sure there are facets of the game Flagg might not perform as well as some others. What I’d like to do is go back in time and locate scouting reports on Barkley and Arenas, I’m sure the report would indicate there are aspects of the game they didn’t perform at a high level. What do the mock drafts say, well I’m pleased you asked the question? The three I utilize all continue to list Flagg at the top of their revised January testimony.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold”

All these years later I discovered it wasn’t Captain Kirk’s nemesis Khan who first uttered those words utilized as a headline for this story. If you are a Trekkie you will understand without further information, in any event this is the true story. Author Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) is credited with originating the quote. How the heck is this connected to basketball you ask right about now? There is a basketball link in this manner, the Nuggets and Spurs played a back to back, although The Joker had an outstanding game on Friday his team lost.

Saturday night it was the opposite as his Nuggets bested the Spurs, before detailing further information I am going to point out the visiting team won its match. The Nuggets had to play an OT frame to gain the 122-111 victory. Wemby didn’t shoot particularly well but had a 20-20 game with 20 points and 23 rebounds. For the second night Jokic almost had another triple-double scoring 46 points along with 10 assists and 9 rebounds. MPJ and Jamal Murray provided backing in the Nuggets victory.  On the Spurs side it was Harrison Barnes and Devin Vassell who aided the cause for them. Although Jokic outweighs Wemby by 50 pounds the matches between these two are providing an interesting competition for now and into the future.