Ian WhiteThe NBA: Where not talking about the F*$* Officials Happens
October 17th 2009 00:03
Okay I’m a basketball junkie, so I’ve got to give my two cents on how I think the regular season will play out. Since you know, I’m an expert. (Fantasy team, X-box, etc) So what I’ll do is hone in on each of the biggest questions and storylines heading into this NBA season:
]The New Referees:
Furor Stern seems to have already put a gag order out on the league preventing any heinous and unjust verbal abuse of the new refs; basically any honest criticism. This will prove to be quite a tall order, as evidenced by Larry Brown’s ejection. It was actually quite amusing. To me it was reminiscent of a person trying to act calm while a criminal is hiding under a table with a gun trained on them. He REALLY wanted to say: “Ideally we would want Officials that don’t rig games, but these guys are just horrendous. I mean come on, 94 fouls in a Preseason game?! PRESEASON?! Not the Playoffs, we’re talking about PRESEASON! PRESEASON?!” Yeah, I don’t see this playing out too well. I just hope the players can step it up to distract from these Refs who are clearly in over their heads, until Stern decides to pay up.
Shaq and the King
I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. Actually no, I thought they should have made this deal at the trade deadline instead of deluding themselves into thinking that Arthritic Z would be able to defend Dwight Howard in a best of 7. Actually kinda yes because Shaq sometimes seems more into Twitter and Hamburgers than his team. However, seeing them in action I was quite impressed. Lebron is just as Deity like as ever, but combined with Shaq they present a conundrum for defenses, particularly on the pick and roll. Also Delonte West’s mid life crisis won’t even be too much of a problem with the acquisitions of Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon. Now they have a counter for Dwight with Shaq and a counter for Vince Carter with Parker and Moon. The Cavs are poised to make another run at the finals this year, barring injury or Delonte West shooting up the arena.
Vince Carter in Orlando:
Mr. Half man half a season is once again in a new uniform looking to redeem his image. Orlando opted not to pay Hedo and instead picked up Vincanity. I’m still skeptical as to how this will be an improvement that will put Orlando over the hump, despite the best efforts of their PR people. Turk provided them with a match up nightmare. He’s 6’10, can shoot from anywhere on the court, dribble, and passes like a guard. He even greatly improved his on ball defense. At one point in the Finals Hedo was running the offense, scoring, and defending Kobe. With Vince Carter, they get an upgrade in athleticism and a better scorer, but Carter is unproven as a playmaker on par with Hedo and does not defend as well, nor does he create as much as a match up problem. Not to mention potential chemistry damage if Vince starts mailing in games at random. I just think this Offseason Orlando was playing Checkers while the Cavs were playing Chess, and it might show when they meet in the playoffs.
Ron Ron:
This was just stupid. You have a 24 year old blossoming into a big time contributor and you spend money on a 30 year old head case on the decline. I cannot fathom the potency of the Narcotics Jerry Buss was on when he signed off on this. If they had just signed Ariza then you could pencil the Lakers in for another Finals appearance at the very least. Now they have a big question mark. Can Ron Artest function without pissing off the whole team? Will he even play that well in the triangle? The Lakers had enough worries after finding out Bynum would have to wear a brace for his whole career because of his fragile knee, now they have to worry about a player showing up in boxers on the team bus in front of execs. Not a good look LA. This doesn’t bother me though since I don’t even like the Lakers. I love Phil, but I don’t care for the organization and Kobe is a douche bag. Shrug.
I’ll get into more of my insights and analysis in part 2 of my NBA season preview. (I won’t take forever this time)
]The New Referees:
Furor Stern seems to have already put a gag order out on the league preventing any heinous and unjust verbal abuse of the new refs; basically any honest criticism. This will prove to be quite a tall order, as evidenced by Larry Brown’s ejection. It was actually quite amusing. To me it was reminiscent of a person trying to act calm while a criminal is hiding under a table with a gun trained on them. He REALLY wanted to say: “Ideally we would want Officials that don’t rig games, but these guys are just horrendous. I mean come on, 94 fouls in a Preseason game?! PRESEASON?! Not the Playoffs, we’re talking about PRESEASON! PRESEASON?!” Yeah, I don’t see this playing out too well. I just hope the players can step it up to distract from these Refs who are clearly in over their heads, until Stern decides to pay up.
Shaq and the King
I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. Actually no, I thought they should have made this deal at the trade deadline instead of deluding themselves into thinking that Arthritic Z would be able to defend Dwight Howard in a best of 7. Actually kinda yes because Shaq sometimes seems more into Twitter and Hamburgers than his team. However, seeing them in action I was quite impressed. Lebron is just as Deity like as ever, but combined with Shaq they present a conundrum for defenses, particularly on the pick and roll. Also Delonte West’s mid life crisis won’t even be too much of a problem with the acquisitions of Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon. Now they have a counter for Dwight with Shaq and a counter for Vince Carter with Parker and Moon. The Cavs are poised to make another run at the finals this year, barring injury or Delonte West shooting up the arena.
Vince Carter in Orlando:
Mr. Half man half a season is once again in a new uniform looking to redeem his image. Orlando opted not to pay Hedo and instead picked up Vincanity. I’m still skeptical as to how this will be an improvement that will put Orlando over the hump, despite the best efforts of their PR people. Turk provided them with a match up nightmare. He’s 6’10, can shoot from anywhere on the court, dribble, and passes like a guard. He even greatly improved his on ball defense. At one point in the Finals Hedo was running the offense, scoring, and defending Kobe. With Vince Carter, they get an upgrade in athleticism and a better scorer, but Carter is unproven as a playmaker on par with Hedo and does not defend as well, nor does he create as much as a match up problem. Not to mention potential chemistry damage if Vince starts mailing in games at random. I just think this Offseason Orlando was playing Checkers while the Cavs were playing Chess, and it might show when they meet in the playoffs.
Ron Ron:
This was just stupid. You have a 24 year old blossoming into a big time contributor and you spend money on a 30 year old head case on the decline. I cannot fathom the potency of the Narcotics Jerry Buss was on when he signed off on this. If they had just signed Ariza then you could pencil the Lakers in for another Finals appearance at the very least. Now they have a big question mark. Can Ron Artest function without pissing off the whole team? Will he even play that well in the triangle? The Lakers had enough worries after finding out Bynum would have to wear a brace for his whole career because of his fragile knee, now they have to worry about a player showing up in boxers on the team bus in front of execs. Not a good look LA. This doesn’t bother me though since I don’t even like the Lakers. I love Phil, but I don’t care for the organization and Kobe is a douche bag. Shrug.
I’ll get into more of my insights and analysis in part 2 of my NBA season preview. (I won’t take forever this time)
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