NBA.com Summer Report Card remarks

I had my daily dose at NBA.com and went across a compiled full report on the upgrades/downgrades of teams allocating them with grades like we did in high school. To make things really short and sweet, I decided to make my own summary on teams ranked A.

Lakers – You cannot deny the fact that they had a significant upgrade by adding more depth in the back and front court with Blake & Barnes. In fact, Kobe can sit out on most of the games that are from low-mid tiers as the LA team is still the defending champs and it does not look like it will slow down unless the injury bug bites.

If you can’t beat em’, JOIN em!

Like the saying goes, can’t beat them? JOIN them! That is what Kobe’s nemesis from Orlando Matt Barnes did early in the summer by joining the defending champs on their pursuit to a three-peat.

A lot of doubters and critics would say it would be a tough task for it to happen since the East is such a big thread with 3 remaining superstars stacked teams like Celtics, Magic and highly anticipated Miami Heat. Well bad news for you, the Lakers have just beef’d up their defensive adequacy by adding ‘Kobe-stopper’ to the mix.

This would mean, there would be no one to stop Kobe now thus easy three-peat? Don’t believe me? Kobe has done it before, you can easily argue because LA had Shaq, but now we have Gasol & Bynum to seal the deal provided they stay healthy throughout the season.

Matt Barnes on Kobe: “If you let him mentally get you, you don’t have a chance”

Jerry Buss & the Lakers association is surely putting up a decent team to adjust to Heat’s 3 Kings’ roster this coming season. With Laker’s current offensive prowess and defensive capability of Ron Artest & Matt Barnes, I do not see how other teams can abide the defensive pressure, on paper that is.

It would be really interesting to see how PJ is able to rotate the roster around to suit everyone. Giving the other subs more playing time would be ideal cos all the fans are dying to see Shanon’s miraculous anti-gravity dunks *LA v Boston playoff highlights hint hint* and Sasha ‘Machine’ Vujacic decreased playing time last season due to his inconsistency from long distance. We can definitely expect a good deal of run & guns with such a dynamic defensive 2010-2011 Lakers team. GO LAKERS!

Last but not least, with the FIBA world championships in tune, lets hope to see more action from Team USA and Kevin Durant!

Until then, enjoy the semi-finals!

Midsummer Power Ranking

As expected, NBA really loves LBJ and is showing it loudly and proudly. It’s even lucky that they did not put Heat above the champions in the ranking list. I honestly do not believe they deserve the 2nd place. How do you judge and estimate how well a team is ranked when they haven’t been able to showcase anything? Would be interesting to see the chemistry amongst them. Not to mention that Udonis Haslem has decided to stay with the Heat *who the hell would leave now anyway*, I do not think he has a real role to fill in the Heat now unless he can take the point or center position. Averaging only 6ppg and 7rpg, I doubt he’s going to be able to support the Heat enough if they do have a second unit.

Lakers should have an upgrade like the description in the PR with the acquisition of Steve Blake. At least we do know that he can throw it down from long distance and is a decent ball handler to replace Farmar. Definately would miss Farmar’s presence in the team in terms of hustle plays and fast break dunks.

I won’t count out the Thunder as they have a really dynamic trio in the Western conference. By making it to the playoffs last year and Durantula’s commitment to the team, other rookies such as James Harden have proven on the floor that their contributions on the offensive end are necessary when KD goes for to the bench. Chicago with their new addition, Carlos Boozer to their team would increase their presence on the boards and inside game. The Rose-Boozer-Noah would be a good combo to watch as well. Although Ben Gordon hasn’t had the best season in his career, he’s proven to be able to play in clutch situations.

We shall have to see how Portland does this coming season as they have been plagued by the injury-bug. They still managed to get into the playoffs without healthy all-star Brandon Roy. Despite having Marcus Camby later in the season, they have proven to have very good chemistry with Aldrich. Would love to see how the come back this season in the west.

Lastly, the Nuggets seem to be pretty quiet in the draft after being eliminated by the champs in the playoffs. It does look like Melo is not very happy at the direction he’s heading with the team. They need more help on the boards and Carmelo not only getting better in the offensive half, but also defensively. As a leader of the franchise, he could be the next ‘traitor’ in Denver. Also with Billups getting a year older, who’s going to succeed and take his place? Perhaps the rising Stucky can show us more prowess in the coming season.

GO LAKERS!

Threesome in the South Beach

King James - Flash Wade - CB

As easy as 1-2-3?

After browsing through the updates on NBA.com, there was a line where LBJ wanted to have his number changed to 2 instead, indicating winning a championship alongside C.Bosh and D.Wade would be as easy as 1-2-3. Not to mention there was a big celebration where 10,000 fans showed up to welcome the new Heat for the next season.

Despite assuming that Heat would have a great team to begin with, I do not think they will fit in very well with each other. Let’s talk about numbers, when LBJ was in the Cavs, he had 40% average possession of the ball amongst his team. DWade had about 50%. With that being said, these two players have to learn to play without the ball. This would be a very arduous task as LBJ and DWade is not the type of players that play well without the ball unlike Ray Allen, OJ Mayo and Manu to name a few. Would be very interesting to see how this combination can bring to Heat.

Also not to take anything away from All-Star CBosh, but I personally do not rate him. He’s a force to be reckoned with in the offensive half of the game, but defensively, not very much. Additional to that, having these 3 mega-stars in one team who were willing to give up at least 16million dollars pay cut also contributed to the fact that they cannot afford any mediocre players to support them. Although its still early in the summer, at the moment with what they got, it definitely looks like they have no mentionable bench players let alone a decent center to finish near the rim or pose as a defensive threat against strong offensive teams like Nuggets and Suns.

On to another point, I was a little bothered by the fact that they had an overblown celebration so early in the season. They have not proved anything yet, but with all eyes on Heat right now including the 2 times retaining champion Lakers, I’m sure all teams are out to prove themselves to take them out.

Question now to pose to everyone is, to win a championship, is it a 3 man job or a 5 man job?

The Defected

Hey everyone,

Welcome to my blog, its been awhile since I’ve thought of picking up writing blogs and thought I’d found a good place and good topics to blog about. I couldn’t help but feel really sorry for what LeBron James did to his ex-city, Cleveland Cavaliers. To make it really blunt to y’all, earlier in his career he ranted about starting in Ohio and ending his career in Ohio, and that Akron was going to be the only place he’d call home.

After 3 seasons of trying to get into the NBA finals, despite all the publicity in year 2008-2009 where all critics were saying it would be a dream final series for Kobe to meet LBJ in the last round. Well honestly speaking from a Lakers fan point of view, I was kinda skeptical when it came to LBJ v Kobe. I felt LBJ is definitely stronger, faster, more athletic than Kobe, and I don’t like it when your favorite team goes against someone with such caliber although he does not have any rings…..yet.

Nobody had expected that the Orlando Magic would edge the Cavaliers in 2008/09 as they were taking big teams out under Superman Dwight’s cape. Nevertheless, it was a great season with a great ending to begin a Lakers dynasty. Back to the topic, it was also sad to see that the Celtics eliminated Cavs this season and despite LBJ putting up big numbers 30+ points every night at least, they managed to barely stay alive. I remember telling my mates, if LBJ doesn’t score 40, they’re not going to win. As NBA fans, you should’ve seen the disappointment on LBJ’s face when the buzzer sounded. It was as though he had enough of weak teammates, can’t blame LBJ though to some degree.

He should not have made it so dramatic and pompous about his pending decision to stay/leave the Cavs. Honestly speaking, that’s what I thought pissed the fans off. Yes, sure you came into the NBA, brought the franchise back into the playoffs, became the star of the city, made the fans love you and whatnot, the fact is, he didn’t give them enough to win a championship for Cleveland. Now jumping on the bandwagon with D.Wade and C.Bosh, c’mon! That’s like a captain abandoning his own ship for somebody else’s in a desperate attempt to win a championship.

I’m sure MJ never quitted, I’m sure Kobe never quitted although he did break down to say he wanted to leave the team. But you gotta know Kobe was with Kwame brown, Smush Parker? wwwwwhat the hell? He had no chance!! Still he stayed on in LA as they re-hired Phil and got Gasol into the team. Nuff said!

Anyway I felt really bad for the Cavs fans and their organization. There is even an open letter by the owner and quoting his phrase;

I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE

Ouch~!!! that has gotta hurt! I can imagine him going back to Cleveland in the 2010-2011 season and fans actually hating on him. Despite having 3 mega stars as front line for the Miami Heat and literally no bench support, I had the impression that the Heat will not reach the finals. Why? Well in my opinion, LBJ is proclaimed to be the best player in NBA **Black Mamba supersedes this sorry** but is unable to win any rings. Is it because he doesn’t have a second man like Gasol? Maybe..Is it because you think the Cavs were that bad? I seriously doubt so. For a team to have 61 wins in the regular season doesn’t make you a bad team. In the end, teaming up with Wade and Bosh might not really be a good idea. Who’s team is it going to be? There’s definitely going to be some differences in opinions, look at the Lakers when they had Shaq…

What’s interesting though is to see how can Cavs prepare themselves with a mediocre team now without LBJ. Hopefully Dan Gilbert did not just splurge out that open letter out of spite and disappointment.

Here’s a link for y’all if you want to see the message by the Cavs’ owner! Enjoy it!

Gilbert, Cav’s owner’s letter to the fans