Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Tuesday, Thursday plus Saturday & Sunday 

Are they hungrier

Pacer fans allow me to apologize upfront, during the season I only watched one Pacer game. This was a road game for the Lakers, my team eventually won the game but the Pacers kept fighting back. I thought to myself at the time “This team can’t be that good.” I have since discovered they are that good, they head back to Indiana after placing the Knicks in an O-2 hole. The final score on Friday read Pacers 114 Knicks 109 but it was the manner the Pacers dealt what might be a death blow to Knicks hopes to play for an NBA Championship.

Tyrese Haliburton’s game was missing to a degree…up steps Pascal Siakam scoring a career high 39 points. The turnover battle was somewhat even (10 Pacers 12 Knicks) it seemed to me the Pacers had a little more going for them defensively than the Knicks. There were points where it seemed the Knicks shot selection was also questionable. Mitchell Robinson, despite his offensive limitations, played a significant role in keeping the Knicks heads above water. So what occurs now, the Knicks are in an O-2 hole as mentioned. It’s certainly still possible for them to win this series however they have placed themselves in a problematic position, Sunday evening in Indianapolis should be quite interesting.

What do they do

The Celtics have a number of moves to make in the off season based on their playoff results. At the top of the list, Jayson Tatum is sidelined at the beginning of the season, what I read indicates an 8-9 month period for him to return from the Achilles injury. If that is the case he should be able to return to action in January or February 2026. I have no medical background and don’t wish to be portrayed as ‘Donald Downer’ but that time limit would appear a little rushed to me. I believe a more realistic time period would be late March or early April and that might even be premature on my part. No one replaces Tatum in the Celtic lineup so maybe they move around existing players to fill the void.

In any event perhaps on the same level but maybe for a different reason the issue of 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis must be addressed. I have no manner to prove what you are now reading, it is being claimed the Celtics have no desire to pay the huge salary of Porzingis next season. In addition to that the mystery illness and injury that has managed to keep him in and out of the lineup. That’s compounded by the fact that sometimes when he was in the lineup his play was subpar. Al Horford is a valuable commodity for the Celtics but at 38 years old he cannot be expected to play major minutes any longer. Jrue Holiday remains serviceable especially for his defense but even he might be expected to relinquish some minutes. I’m sure happy I’m not seated in the shoes of Joe Mazzulla and the front office. The Celtics must re-tool if they expect to compete in the Eastern Conference next season.  

Recycle, I’m a believer

The headline says it all, I believe we have a responsibility to recycle stuff. If that’s not you there will be no argument from me however even for me there are exceptions. One of those exceptions is hiring a coach who was fired at his previous stop first thing, that’s not to say a fired coach should never be hired somewhere else. There are several NBA teams who will soon began a search for a head coach. The Grizzlies and Nuggets, perhaps the Spurs will be included in the count as well. There might be at least one addition to the list but it would be speculative on my part to mention the team at this point.

The names I’ve read so far are Taylor Jenkins ex-of the Grizzlies and Mike Malone who coached the Nuggets to a championship. I will never say never but it sure would be ideal if a new name was added to the picture. We understand what occurs, that recycled coach is always a safe bet for a number of reasons. The chief being he’s accustomed to the pitfalls of serving in this position, he’s responsible for coaching 15 prima donna athletes. Those recently terminated should sit for a period because I’m sure they have no immediate need of financial remuneration. I’d like to see the names of interim coach Mitch Johnson, Becky Hammon and others be added to an NBA search list. Closing this exercise, the Kings announced they have removed interim from Doug Christie’s name.

What’s wrong with the NBA!

There was more talk than viewing the game, four of us were gathered, although the basketball game was on we discussed the good and the bad of the NBA on television and some of the issues facing the NBA. One of the topics raised by my friends, “NBA games are too difficult to see.” They cited the NFL as an example, all games are on television with the exception of I believe the Thursday night game. If the Chiefs are playing on Thursday night fans in Kansas City are still able to view the game.

“That might be valid but we are talking about an 82 game season (NBA) versus no more than 20 games including the Super Bowl.” It’s always been my belief television did the NBA and NFL a favor promoting both sports beginning in the 1960’s. First it was broadcast and later the advent of cable and other packages saw the NBA increase its television coverage. If there is so much NBA available on television “why is NBA viewership in a downward trend?” There are a number of possibilities, the first is bad basketball, I believe the product on the court barely resembles good basketball at times. This is no excuse however by the middle of January most teams have “broken down” due to travel and knick knack injuries as Shaq refers to them. Thirdly, the issue of load management has become a term I personally hate, NBA players of the past only sat out games due to injury. Today’s players are physically superior to those of the past, there are all kinds of training opportunities to increase your career that didn’t exist. In addition great strides have been made medically, some injuries suffered by today’s players ended careers 15 or 20 years ago. That is certainly not the case now with players returning from all sorts of injuries that once ended the career of a player.   

If we look strictly at the numbers there are probably more fans of the aligned NFL over the NBA. Despite my statement that’s not to say there are folks (like me) who prefer the NBA over the NFL. Despite what some might believe the NBA is not going out of business nor is close to going belly up. Franchises are selling at an all-time record high. No owner or potential owner is going to pour money into a product they might be unable recoup a portion of their investment. 

Changed landscape

Most of you reading this are not the nerd I claim to be. I check for young prospects in a number of ways, mostly scouting sites such as Rivals.com or 247Sports. I believe they provide me a heads up on potential talent. We’ve discussed this subject in the past however the landscape has changed for college basketball. No longer can the Kentucky’s, Duke’s, Kansas or UCLA attract talent on their name only, the term Blue Blood program might still exist but not as much to this new generation. What changed, a bunch of things but chief among them is Name, Image and Likeness. This is the impact, a BYU can compete on an equal footing with a Kansas program.

Both schools and several others were competing for the services of AJ Dybansta. The 6-foot-9 small forward the number one prospect in 2025 chose BYU. If you are associated with BYU in any manner this is not intended as a formal accusation against the Provo Utah school, Dybansta is there for two reasons. I’m unsure of the order so I will state this, the rapport with the head coach and NIL money. I had mentioned this earlier, Dybansta’s NIL valuation is estimated at $3.8 million, that amount places BYU at the level of any school in the nation including Blue Bloods. I’ve read and heard numerous complaints regarding NIL the chief one “These basketball players are professional athletes,” that might well be true but who is going to fix it? We arrive here partially due to the manner the NCAA once prevailed in its manner of operation.