Basketball from a fans perspective

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Win now mentality

If Laker management desires to win now versus I have no problem with that position. The larger problem as I see it the attempt to fill the center position leaves them vulnerable, we saw that firsthand against the Wolves. The Laker defense allowed defensive specialist Rudy Gobert to become an offensive weapon. We discovered Jaxson Hayes is a back-up center and should not be expected to play major minutes. With no first round draft choice it forces the Lakers to look toward a trade rather than the draft. The free agent list contains capable post players however most have expiration dates on their career. I will toss our one free agent’s name, that would be Brook Lopez although he is long in the tooth. That leaves the Lakers to make a trade which is likely the better route over free agency. The Lakers might be able to swing a trade for Nic Claxton a 6-foot-11 post player, he is a lob threat and lane clogger.

Despite being a 6-year NBA veteran Claxton is only 26 years of age. The Lakers most likely have someone other than Claxton in mind however he is my choice. I expressed this in the past and will repeat it again, the Lakers should draft a Big Man and tutor him to eventually become the starter in the post. I will list projected post players however keep in mind they might be drafted ahead of the Lakers with the 55th pick. 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner who played at Creighton, also there is Maxim Raynaud also 7-foot-1 from Stanford. Alex Condon, 6-foot-11 Florida power forward/center, Rocco Zikarsky 7-foot-3, he’s from Australia and played for Brisbane in the NBL. Finally we have Mouhamed Faye, he played for Reggio Emilia (Italy), he stands 6-foot-10. Notice I failed to include Hansen Yang’s name with the others, this was done on purpose because I believe he is likely to return to China and not remain in the 2025 draft. NOTE: This was written ahead of the Buss family selling its share of the franchise to Mark Walter, more on that later.

Bird seed 

This topic has been discussed in the past, the fact that Larry Legend reigned supreme in two areas. Those areas were his prowess on the basketball court and his ability to talk trash, he was one of the most notorious “talkers” in NBA although few would believe the story Larry Bird made 4 straight baskets on Dennis Rodman and walked over to Pistons head coach Chuck Daly. “Who’s guarding me, Chuck? Is anyone guarding me? You better get someone on me or I’m gonna go for 30.” Recalling the game, the Worm said, “I would be all over him, trying to deny him the ball, and all Larry was doing was yelling at his teammates, ‘I’m open! Hurry up before they notice nobody is guarding me!’ After knocking down another jumper on Rodman, Bird went over to Daly again, saying, “Coach, you better get this guy out and send in somebody who’s going to D me up ‘cause it’s too easy when I’m wide open like this.”  

NBA Talk

“We were playing in Phoenix, and we were way up, we were like up 15, and we have the worst fourth quarter, we’re terrible. And Larry’s bad, Larry’s missing shots, throwing it to the other team, throwing it into the third row, and they come back and somehow they go up two. So we have an out-of-bounds play, this.” I’m taking it out, and Larry says, ‘I’m gonna bust off the play, and I’m just gonna come out and shoot a three.’ And I’m like ‘We’re down tow, no, don’t do that. Let’s shoot a two, please. to the hole, try to get fouled, let’s just get into overtime and see if we can win this game.’ And Larry says ‘Nah, man, I’m just gonna bust a three on them.’ And I’m like ‘Oh my God.’ Kevin McHale, The Dan Patrick Show “He tells the Phoenix bench, tells the coaches, ‘Yeah, I’m just gonna bust a three on you guys and just go home, I’m tired of this.’ And he gets the ball, jumps out, busts the play, comes out, gets the ball at the slot, shoots the ball; as the ball is in the air he kind of turns towards the Phoenix bench and yells, ‘Told you so!’ And he starts running to the locker room, and it went in, and I just started laughing.” 

Basketball Network

Witnessed his "So Pete (Maravich) passes the ball to Larry," (Cedric) Maxwell said. "Pete's man runs down and double teams Larry. Larry puts up some (messed) up shot and goes astray." Maravich tried to offer advice but Bird wasn't hearing any of it." And we come back to the bench and Pete goes, `Larry, Larry, you're being double teamed. You've got to pass the ball," Maxwell said. "Larry looked up and said, `If you (Maxwell) were any good, they wouldn't be double teaming me." Zing!

SI.com

Finally this one from former Hawk forward Dominique Wilkens. Wilkens new to the NBA and facing Larry Legend for the first time, Legend was causing Wilkens all kind of defensive problems. Legend kept calling him “Homes” throughout the game questioning whether he (Wilkens) was good enough to play in the NBA. At a point he took the ball up and dunked it on Legend who found himself lying on the floor. This is what he said to Wilkens, “You are okay but I’m still gonna bust 40 on you. Wilken’s ended the story by stating, “He didn’t score 40 on me, I held him to 39.”   

Pro Sports

The draft

We are 5 days from the 2025 NBA Draft as this is written, it will be held once again at Barclays Center home of the Nets. As I prepared to write this I checked the mock draft sites I follow throughout the year. There appears little movement in the Top 10 projections, beyond that it appears teams will make a decision based on who is on the board. Will a team draft a player in an area they have a surplus, that’s certainly a possibility. Unless the earth begins rotating backwards the Mavs will draft Cooper Flagg, the unknown is will they sign him.

It could occur I cannot imagine trading his rights based on what occurred earlier with the Luka Doncic move. The future of the Spurs appears promising following this draft. Holding picks 2 and 14 places them in a noteworthy position, and it would not be surprising if they traded the rights to pick 14 should an opportunity arise. It has been previously mentioned that three Duke freshmen will be drafted in the first round, with a couple potentially being lottery picks. As for the second round that remains uncertain; however, the first round is expected to feature fewer international players than usual, although no specific reason has been identified for this trend. As always, the second round includes many unfamiliar names, and with that there is no assurance that these players will participate in the upcoming season. Some international players opt to continue their careers in the Euro League, postponing entry into the NBA due to various reasons. Tamar Bates is a name unfamiliar to most, he’s a shooting guard who played at Missouri.

At the beginning of the season he was an unknown, the 6-foot 5 Bates impressed at the NBA Draft Combine. He’s named in the second round on two mock draft sites. One name to check, Hansen Yang the 7-foot-2 235 pound center who played for Qingdao in China, scouting reports are all over the map on this 19 year old youngster. This is the last report prior to the Wednesday draft. The first round will be held starting at 7:00 p.m. Central Time, the second round will be held the following evening.