Basketball from a fans perspective 

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My MVP

The defending champion Celtics were in total control in the first half of their game. The second half of their meeting with the Thunder was a different story. The OKC bunch turned up the defense plus improved shooting led them to a 105-92 victory. This certainly was a team effort with Luguentz Dort leading the defensive charge (plus his 14 points). Directing the way for the Thunder is an athlete the Clippers will forever regret trading, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander a.k.a. SGA.

He can score the ball however it’s his defense which continues to stand out to me. The second half of the game witnessed SGA and team take apart the Celtics piece by piece on the way to the victory. There is an aspect of this point guard’s game that stands out for me and I will detail it. In this age everyone is complaining about the number of three’s taken, not SGA. He can certainly shoot it however his game is mostly midrange, he can shoot the three effectively however not as much as others. As for the headline, The Joker is having his typical triple-double leading season. I’m placing SGA above him this season because his game is similar to Jokic with the exception of rebounds.

For now it’s positioning, the Thunder are in first place in the West only one game behind the Eastern Conference Cavs. In the Western Conference The Joker and his Nuggets are in 4th place behind the Thunder, Rockets and Grizzlies. All this is likely to change by the time the MVP vote is held, SGA is the early leader in my book. By the way, the victory over the Celtics became number 15 in a row in the franchise setting win streak.

Bits n Pieces of information

I didn’t check this out only took The Athletics word as proof however it certainly sounds about right. They claim in the last 12 years since Vivek Ranadive’s owned the Kings there have been 8 head coaches. You do the math, in my head isn’t that close to the Kings replacing a coach every 18 or 19 months? That old saying about “coaches (managers) are hired to be fired” certainly is true in the case of the Kings. My question might be with so much instability who would take the job? On the other hand if I had a lengthy contract the prospect of being paid to not coach certainly would be appealing.

Some of you are tired of hearing Wemby stories, you can just ignore this one. We are witnessing history every time he steps on the court. Thanks to Basketball Network we have an idea how Wemby compares with some of the all-time greats:

Victor Wembanyama’s historic first 100 NBA career games put him in elite company:

Wemby first 100 games: 2273 pts

LeBron first 100 games: 2181 pts

Wemby first 100 games: 366 BLK

Hakeem first 100 games: 265 BLK

Wemby first 100 games: 225 3PM

Steph first 100 games: 200 3PM

The Rockets beat my Lakers on Sunday night 119-115 but there is more to the story. Any team must buy into the coaches vision for them with a change, consider this fact. Last season the first for Ime Udoka as head coach the Rockets finished the season with a 41-41 record. At this point so far they have 23 wins and only 12 losses, they are in second place in the Western Conference. As you can see the improvement in play this season is quite evident. I think the Celtics would have won an NBA Championship with him at the helm although I have no method to prove this point. It should be noted this is no criticism of Joe Mazzulla, who I believe is a good coach. A domestic issue forced the Celtics to fire Udoka and later the Rockets would hire him.

The Doctor, how did Julius Erving become Doctor J. or some derivative of that nickname? I once read someone claimed it was the manner he “operated on the basketball court. No, it was nothing close to that, just like Magic Johnson his nickname came about while he was enrolled at Roosevelt High School on Long Island. Erving says he labelled a high school friend “The Professor,” his friend returned the favor by calling him “The Doctor.” That’s how one of the most renowned nicknames in NBA history came into existence.

He’s da man 

I am sure this story was covered with many of you in the past, the one about Austin Reaves. Despite the fact I reside smack in the middle of Big XII country and plenty of opportunity to see Oklahoma basketball I don’t remember him. Reaves undrafted is now in his third season with the Lakers and this might be the best year for him to say, “I’m here and it’s mine.” Maybe he was hidden in plain sight all along, the position of mine refers to being the permanent starter at the point at least for now. The trade that sent D’Lo to the Nets as of this writing has greatly promoted Reaves, In the past Reaves has moved from occasional shooting guard to the point and back to shooting guard. He’s taken on the role of a starter and the first sub off the bench, it would appear he’s moved into the role of starting point guard now. 

In this age of combo guards it’s a bit difficult to define anyone except Chris Paul a point guard. In any event D’Lo no longer is the backup which certainly benefits Reaves. Prior to the Friday game against the Hawks Reaves reeled off four consecutive games with double-digit assist totals, this culminated with a 26 point 16 assist game against the Kings. He can score and dish out assists, how good a defender is he? Reaves has a 117.9 rating which places him in the category of a good defender. I continue to read the names of De’Aaron Fox, Melo Ball and Zach LaVine mentioned as trade possibilities. My preference would be to keep Reaves rather than including him in a trade for one of the above names. Am I claiming he’s better than any of those above, of course not however I would rather the Lakers keep him.