Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursday

A shout out

No LeBron…No Luka…AD gone in the trade, who would the Lakers turn to in their Saturday afternoon match against the Pacers. It would be steady Austin Reaves who managed to fill up the box score. The box read 45 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 4 3 point baskets. These were contributing factors to the 124-117 victory over the Pacers, Reaves wasn’t just jacking up shots to accumulate his points. He managed to shoot 53.8% from the floor with 44.4% of it from three.

Reaves is having a career season mostly playing as a combo guard for the Lakers. My best guess, once Luka is inserted in the lineup permanently Reaves becomes the teams shooting guard however that’s my opinion, JJ Redick might have a totally different view. While speaking of Redick, last season the Laker record was 25-25 after 50 games it’s now 31-19. There certainly have been changes however the personnel are close to those of last season, what’s the difference? Could the change from Darvin Ham to JJ Redick make such a huge difference?    

Where do we go from here

By now you are fully aware the Mark Williams trade to the Lakers from the Hornets has been rescinded. Williams failed his physical, which led to the present circumstance. The question, where do we go from here, sharpshooter rookie Dalton Knecht returns and Cam Reddish. The Lakers roster now contains 15 members which now entails limited playing time for some. Because I prefer to look at the positive over the negative allow a bit of speculation here.

For the balance of the season with a deep bench JJ Redick can fully utilize a variety of talent depending on who and what is needed at the time. Knecht should blossom in this system receiving snappy passes from LeBron and Luka. Although his P/T was limited I was impressed with Knecht’s game. It’s my understanding the trade for Williams is officially dead, there is no method for the Lakers to acquire him even if he now passes a physical. For now Jaxson Hayes is the starter at the 5 and should remain in that position. This is the area of concern, Hayes is backed up at present by two post players with limited experience. Consider the fact this is not in any kind of order on the depth chart just pointing out who is available. We have 6 foot 10 260 pound Trey Jemison III, he played at UAB and has only 47 NBA games under his belt. Picked up earlier was Christian Koloko 7 foot and 220 pounds, he played at Arizona and has played in 86 NBA games.

This is completed with newly acquired Markieff Morris 6 foot 9 245 pounds. So there you have it, unlike some teams they Lakers are not lacking in the height department however its experience which could be a detriment facing the Joker and others. The Lakers could waive a roster member and there are buyout candidates should they be available. Two players Mo Bamba and Colin Castleton might be nominees for a roster spot both have Laker connections in the past.   

He was a loser

There have been only 11 head coaches in Kansas basketball history, this dates back to 1899. Imagine in 125 years of basketball and such a small number, some schools have fired and hired that number of coaches in a significant shorter period. Of course several names were interim but one name stands out, from 1899 to 1907 a guy by the name of Naismith coached the Jayhawks. He wasn’t successful at least his record would indicate that, 55 wins and 60 losses. The truth of the matter of the 11 coaches named he is the only one with a losing record.

His full name is James A. Naismith and his bio says physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain and sports coach, best known as the inventor of basketball. Yes, that Naismith…he was the first basketball coach at the University of Kansas. He would lay the groundwork for the game which is ever attached to his name. By the time Dr. Naismith died in 1939 basketball had reached heights probably far beyond what he might have envisioned at one time. The physical education teacher was only attempting to provide his students physical activity from the cold New England winters. What I find most interesting there are sports that came into being from another…basketball is clearly the only sport that stands alone as an invented game. We owe the game to one who was certainly unsuccessful coaching it…Dr. James A. Naismith.

In a manner of speaking it’s terrible

This is not your grandfather’s NBA, the change in portions of the game are quite evident. No I’m not talking about how the game is played, I’m discussing 5,001 persons connected with sports or social media who critique an individual’s game. One of my growing favorite NBA player is Victor Wembanyama, I believe as some have said he’s going to change the game. That’s the good, the bad for me is the large contingent of folks who say there are portions of his game needing refinement. I wouldn’t argue that point with anyone except in a few instances allow me to cite them for you. TNT’s Charles Barkley has gone on record numerous times claiming “Wemby needs to develop a low post game” or similar words.

I have said time and time again I don’t like Brook Lopez, Joel Embiid (when healthy) jacking up three point shots. Despite my objections there are 7 footers who are adept at the shot…Wemby is one of them. He’s shooting 35.8% from distance as this is written, for his brief career its 34.1 so he’s raised his skill level. That figure is not extraordinary for shooting from distance however for a 7 foot 4 athlete I believe its outstanding. Wemby will continue to upgrade his game over time, with that said his rebound average and his FG percentage will rise significantly over the present. A warning to you reading this, don’t expect it to be close to anything Shaq played. No bully basketball from the post, think Kareem Abdul Jabbar which I define as smooth, that’s what we’ll see from Wemby.