nbaculture

Wow, that means absolutely nothing.  If I were the Knicks, I would keep Marbury, and let him suffer on the bench.  21 mill is a hefty price to pay, but putting a man like him in his place would be too much fun.  Just watch his face during a Knicks game.  Sure you might be wasting a season of this man’s career, but he wasted 2 of yours.  Despite what he says, he will never learn the value of Basketball, and team play.  Think of how many times he’s had a revelation, learned something new, become a better person, and what does he have to show for it?  Absolutely poppycock.  Pay the man his 21 mill this year, and watch him squirm.

Iverson did not attend practice yesterday, and decided to spend it with his family and his grub instead.  It would have been ok, except he was the only Piston absent, and that’s kind of noticeable.  I understand his thought process, but he’s gotta know that this will not look good.  Especially after he said he would do anything that was asked of him, even attend practice, mocking his famous practice rant in the process.  So where does that leave us?  Iverson will be fined, and will not start today’s game, and might not play at all.  That means, that if the Pistons are winning, yo might not see Iverson, but if they are losing, we’ll see AI.

On a broader note, people are looking at the two records (Denver and Detroit), and talking about how much better Denver is doing.  My response is, no shit.  Iverson is just a player in his own class, and it takes a lot of used to working well with him.  Now that’s no excuse for a 5-5 record, but it will get better, slightly.  Detroit is built for defense, and all AI does is get in the passing lanes, and isn’t very good at position defense.  That’s why Detroit will play mediocre with the occasional spectacular night, run into a roadblock during the playoffs, and lose Iverson for next year.  I love AI, but there’s just too much talent on that team for Iverson to be efficient.

Anybody watch the press conference after the Cleveland New York game last night?  Lebron must have said the word Brooklyn a hundred times.  He’s gotta have some inside information that we’re not privy to yet, because there is no Brooklyn yet, and recent reports have shown that the building of the Brooklyn arena have not gone exactly to plan.  Also, the only two teams James mentioned in context of the epic 2010 free agent hunt was New York and Brooklyn.  I don’t think he’s ever actually come out and said that he has no plans of staying in Cleveland, but this is as close as we’ve gotten so far.  He obviously has no plans of staying, despite his many interviews and statements that he did, and he obviously is really only considering two teams, because no other specific team was named but all referred to as “other teams”.  Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn, yea yea yea.

Its finally over, after complications due to questions about Mobley’s heart, the trade between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers has gone through.  The Knicks get even more capspace for 2010, and the Clippers get some interior offense in Randolph, although meshing with Kaman and Camby will take some adjustments.  Also, the Clips are currently 2-12, and would be lucky to get 30 wins.

Fantasy owners and San Antonio fans rejoice, Manu Ginobili came back from injury last night in a Spurs win over the Memphis Grizzlies.  Manu only scored 12 points, but he did it off 11 minutes and looked good out there.  He was an important part to a 20-6 run the Spurs made, and gained confidence in his first outing this season.  Though missing Tony Parker, the Spurs can only get better with Ginobili’s presence, and he should help out on the defensive end as well.  This should be a welcome change seeing as how dismal the Spurs defense this season has been, which is frightening if you are a Spurs fan.  They ranked 1st-3rd in many defensive categories over the last 10 years, and in the top five in every important defensive statistic.  Defense is their bread and butter, and so far its been more like a stale loaf with margerine spread.

Ok, I was waiting on this post because I had hoped that someone would post a better picture of Radmanovic’s fashionable goggles in last nights game.  After much searching and a lot of disappointment, I bring to you Radmanovic’s new look courtesy of J.E. Skeets and his awesome blog: ball don’t lie .

Ok, now, my only question is, who’s glasses are the coolest? Vladi’s, or…

or…

My vote is for Horace.. because although they corrected his vision early on, he kept them after lasik surgury to show kid’s that glasses can be cool… cuz we all know how cool Horace Grant was.

The Denver Nuggets have won 8 of their last 10 after starting off 1-3.  Billups has mad an immediate impact, and brings back flashbacks of Gasol’s move to LA.  It is still early, but having Billups there has changed the entire dynamics of that Denver defense and offense, and changed the attitude of the locker room.  Congratulations Denver, looks like a move in the right direction.

After Oklahoma City fired P.J. Carlesimo, another coach got fired; after all, single coaches never get fired in the NBA, they always come in waves it seems.  I thought Eddie Jordan always did a good job for the pieces they had, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t bring a title to Washington.  Eddie Jordan is a great offensive mind, if you don’t believe me check out any replay of any Wizard game and pay attention to their set plays.  Their half court offense always surpasses the talent level they have on their team.  If you ask me, the real killer to this team these past years has always been injury, but somebody’s gotta take the blame and they aint gettin rid of Arenas any time soon.

So then, this begs the question, who’s next?  Mike Dunleavy?  The Clipper are 2-11, and there is a little friction between him and super star Baron Davis.  I doubt they’ll fire him, but stranger things have happened.   Oh wait, he’s also the GM, but then again, its still happened before.  Dwane Casey of Minnesota?  Mike Iavaroni of Memphis?  Sam Vincent of Charlotte?  Reggy Theus of Sacramento?  Still at least one more coach will be fired, as all things happen in threes.

New Jersey played Toronto last night, and if you missed it, you missed quite a gem fellas.  This was a game that came right down to the wire on several possessions, and Vince Carter has quite a memorable night against his former team.  He had three very very clutch shots, a dunk before the end of regulation, a big three to send it to overtime, and an alley oop dunk for the win at the end of overtime.  Chris Bosh also hit a nice clutch three towards the end of overtime, but it was Vince who was elated to stick those daggers, still a little sore from his messy breakup, and the Toronto crowd really felt this one hard.

The Thunder fired P.J. Carlesimo after their team started 1-12.  They decided to do so after an emotional homecoming for the Hornets, in their old interim den for the better part of 2 years.  The Hornets moved to Oklahoma City after Katrina, and are still very much appreciated despite having their very own NBA franchise now.  I guess after seeing that the new team was both routed and not as loved as the Hornets, the organization figure it had something to do with their record, which in turn came down to the coaches fault of course.  Here’s my prediciton: The Thunder will win better than 1-12 for the entire season, which means that they will finish better than 6-76.  My simple statistics and regression towards the mean, we can bet the Thunder will win more games now, but was this the right move?  Who knows.  I personally didn’t have any attachments to P.J., and despite his valiant attempts I think he was better as an assistant coach.