A Fan’s View of Basketball

Published Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun

I missed this

Future commitments almost always remain tentative, and there is no certainty that a particular athlete will later sign a letter of intent. Regarding recent updates, Mizzou has secured a commitment from Scottie Adkinson, a 6-foot-2-inch, 170-pound combo guard enrolled at Webster Groves High School in Webster Groves, Missouri, the city is located within the St. Louis metropolitan area. Rivals, ESPN100 and 247Sports all have awarded Adkinson four stars, although his ranking in the Class of 2027 varies across these platforms.

Adkinson became a hard commit on July 1, and this information was not previously reported; it is now confirmed. At present, it is uncertain whether Adkinson or any other incoming recruit will successfully transition to the college level. Notably, the ongoing recruiting efforts by Coach Gates and his staff are commendable and demonstrate a continued commitment to program development. Naturally with such a wide recruiting net Mizzou Nation faces the potential loss of some of the talent it recruits. This might be considered the downside of recruiting, assembling so much talent that a player or two might not see any action.  

Changes in San Antonio

Spurs basketball is played in 23 year old Frost Bank Arena, elements in the city want to replace the building. 1. It’s not located in the downtown portion of the city, 2. Having Wemby on the Spurs roster should increase attendance. 3. Fear of losing the team to population growing Austin 100 miles or so from most of Bexar County. Despite the issues raised it’s quite possible this story may be a non-issue by the time of its reading, I wouldn’t hold my breath though. How do you pay for a $1 billion arena, that’s what the City of San Antonio and Bexar County are facing. What’s been advanced to date is similar to what occurred in Kansas City, hotel users are paying a tax which goes toward T-Mobile Arena.

Although that is the plan for San Antonio this might not be a smooth effort, residents have the usual gripes. Citizen complaints are valid, the same story prevails, “building billion dollar arenas for millionaire owners.” This complaint existed in Kansas City with the Royals and Chiefs, it continued with the Sixers (location) and now citizens of the City of San Antonio and Bexar County are facing the same issues. Arena and stadium concerns will eventually be resolved with some of the parties remaining unhappy. In Kansas City financing and location have continued to drag on for several months with no resolution in sight, in Philadelphia a location change apparently has resolved the issue. As for San Antonio I could say we are at the middle of this issue, no one is arguing over location it is strictly a financial question at this time.

Reclassifying

It is not unusual for athletes to change to a prep school or reclassify in order to graduate high school early. Up till now the most recent example was Cooper Flagg, he reclassified and then enrolled at Duke. We have a similar instance here with 5 star prospect Baba Oladotun Class of 2027. He’s reclassified moved into the Class of 2026 and will graduate high school next May. 247Sports ranks him the number 8 prospect in the nation. This 6-foot 9 175 pound forward attends James Hubert Black HS in Cloverly Maryland.

I wasn’t familiar with the city so I checked Google maps, depending on where you might begin your drive Cloverly is located less than an hour from the nation’s capital Washington D.C. The list of schools recruiting Oladotun is quite extensive, Maryland, Arizona State, Georgetown, Kansas, Indiana, Louisville, Notre Dame and Mizzou. As this is written no school appears to have the inside track on recruiting the youngster. This I believe will occur, whatever campus he decides the first visit other than the practice facility will be the weight room. He is likely to be placed on a carbon rich menu which will allow him to acquire poundage. I was curious regarding his name and further research indicated Baba was born in the U.S. although his father arrived here from Nigeria to play basketball.

These guys are old, really old…at least by NBA standards

The Clippers are an old, old team, they just grew even older with this signing. It seems a brief time ago the media always took time to mention the age of the Lakers, this present Clippers roster is older than any of the Lakers. Our check begins with 40 year old Chris Paul joining the team for his second tour of duty. The probable starters Tyronn Lue utilizes is yet to be formulated, it’s been a source of speculation to date but consider this possibility. One account has Brook Lopez inserted into the starting lineup giving them Twin Towers of Lopez and Zubac. The Clippers become the oldest team in NBA history with an average age of 33.2 years of age. Keep in mind by most standards 34 is not considered old, in the world of sports that’s a different matter.

LeBron James is the exception but consider the fact that by an athletes middle thirties most in the NFL and NBA are retired or at least considering leaving the game. This Clippers team could surprise, they could win the championship although age has got to be a factor. The second issue is injury, Leonard and Beal have an injury history. You’ve got to have all hands on deck for the playoffs and a championship run, perhaps that is the ultimate plan for the Clippers compiling a group of capable replacements. I came across this From 2013-2024 the Clippers have the most regular season wins with 646, they are only exceeded in the won-loss column by the Warriors with 665 wins. Did I fail to mention that the Warriors won 4 NBA championships in those 11 years, the Clippers won zero. The Lakers as a team had several sub-par years even with Kobe Bryant in the lineup, despite the poor play they won the 2020 championship.    😳

Probable Starting lineup

Point guard James Harden (35)

Small forward Kawhi Leonard (34)

Shooting guard Bradley Beal (32)

Center Ivica Zubac (28)

Power forward John Collins (27)

Reserves

Chris Paul (40)

Brook Lopez (37)

Bogdon Bogdanovic (32)

Kris Dunn (31),

Derrick Jones Jr. (28)  

Kobe Brown (25)

Yanic Konan Niederhauser (22) 

Cam Christe (19)