Posts Tagged ‘NBA’
New Comers to the 2010 US National Basketball Team
10 February 2010
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Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder– No player on the new comer is more important or impactful than Kevin Durant who will almost certainly make the national team that much better!
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder- Westbrook has really started to come into his own this season and as a result was picked to play for the US.
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls- The Bulls may still be struggling, but Rose just keeps getting better and he will definitely improve the US backcourt.
Al Jefferson, Minnesota Timberwolves- Jefferson has been struck with injuries, but he was apparently good enough to make the cut.
Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves- Love is a surprise in my opinion, but he is a promising young player.
Rudy Gay, Memphis Grizzlies- Gay is a dynamic player who will only get better over time!
OJ Mayo, Memphis Grizzlies- Along with his teammate, Mayo is a good pick for this team.
Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers- It is about time Odom got some love and this pick has to make him feel vindicated.
Andre Igoudala, Philadelphia 76ers- Another strange pick in my opinion, but the other AI is a good player nonetheless.
Kendrick Perkins, Boston Celtics- Perkins is a banger in the paint and will be a good player to help the frontcourt.
Danny Granger, Indiana Pacers– Granger came on strong last season and has struggled a bit this year, but apparently he is good enough to be on this list.
David Lee, New York Knicks- Lee is arguably one of the best big men in the NBA and he is the second best pick on this list next to Durant.
Brook Lopez, New Jersey Nets- Lopez is a great player on a very bad team and I am glad the powers that be have rewarded him for his efforts.
LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trailblazers- The Blazers wouldn’t be a playoff team if it weren’t for Aldridge.
Gerald Wallace, Charlotte Bobcats- Every single season Wallace seems to get better and this season the Bobcats are reaping the benefits and so will the US squad.
Eric Gordon, Los Angeles Clippers- Another iffy pick. Gordon is a good young player, but not good to be on this team in my opinion.
Players that Declined
Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics- It is a shame Rondo didn’t want to accept the invite as he would have been a huge addition to the backcourt.
Andrew Bynum, Los Angeles Lakers- Bynum declining the invite makes sense as he has struggled with injuries over the years and doesn’t want to jeopardize his NBA career.
Darren Collison stepping it up in Chris Paul’s absence
05 February 2010
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This NBA season has been a rough one for the New Orleans Hornets as they have had an up and down year so far in the first half of the season. With 11 losses in the first 18 games of the season, the New Orleans Hornets looked like a promising young team that was going down the tubes. As a result of their very disappointing start to the year, the Hornets fired former head coach of the year in Byron Scott. The firing sent shock waves throughout the league as no one saw it coming despite the horrible start to the season.
Even though the firing of Scott seemed very premature, the Hornets were able to turn it around at the beginning of the post-Scott era in New Orleans.
The Hornets were able to get back on track without Byron Scott pacing the sideline, but then they received some more bad news as Chris Paul went down with an ankle injury which would keep him out seven games. Despite Paul being inactive with this ankle injury, the Hornets played better than expected with four wins in those seven games without their superstar point guard Chris Paul.
Considerable time has passed since Paul went down with that ankle injury that kept him out seven games earlier in the season, but now the New Orleans Hornets have a 26-23 record in arguably the most competitive division in the NBA in the Southwest where they have to compete with the likes of the Dallas Mavericks (31-18), San Antonio Spurs (28-19), Houston Rockets (26-22) and the Memphis Grizzlies (26-22).
The Hornets may be in last place in the Southwest division, but only five games divide the last place Hornets with the first place Mavericks which means anything can happen from now to the end of the season.
Even though the New Orleans Hornets aren’t out of the running in the division just yet, they suffered a major blow recently when they found out that Chris Paul would miss one to two months after finding out he had to undergo knee surgery.
Now the point guard position will be put in the hands of rookie Darren Collison out of UCLA.
At first, many people, including former head coach Byron Scott believed that the rookie wouldn’t be able to handle taking over for arguably the best point guard in the league, but after just a few games of filling in for the All-Star, Collison has looked much better than anyone expected with 41 assists in three games as the starter.
Is Devin Harris Going to the Los Angeles Lakers?
22 January 2010
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No matter what happens in the NBA season, no matter how good an NBA team may appear, teams are always shopping and looking to upgrade their squads in any which way they can.
This season the Los Angeles Lakers are coming off their first NBA title in seven years as Kobe Bryant and company were finally able to get back on top with an impressive run in the Western Conference playoffs and the domination of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals.
Coming into this season the Lakers wanted to keep their championship team relatively still intact, but they had to sign both Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza to do just that. Even though Odom hinted to his intentions to play for the Miami Heat for a second time, Lamar was able to strike up a deal with the defending champs and remain with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Defensive specialist Trevor Ariza on the other hand, who really turned into a prime time player last season with the Los Angeles, didn’t resign with the Lakers as he was one of the most desirable free agents in the offseason. With Ariza signing a free agent contract with the Houston Rockets in the offseason, the Lakers took a huge blow to their defense, but were fortunate enough to sign Ron Artest instead and haven’t looked back since.
With Artest leading the defense, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol controlling the offense and Andrew Bynum patrolling the paint, the Los Angeles Lakers have the best record in the NBA at 32-9 and are arguably the best team in the league once again.
Despite being arguably the best team in the NBA right now, the Lakers seem to be seeking a trade to get rid of some of their baggage and save some money for the upcoming free agent market in the summer.
The first trade rumor that has been floating around involving the Los Angeles Lakers was the Toronto Raptors sending superstar Chris Bosh to Los Angeles in exchange for youngster Andrew Bynum. This deal still may go down, but no indication this is a done deal has emerged as of yet.
Another trade rumor that has just surfaced involving the defending NBA champion Lakers is a trade with the New Jersey Nets bringing point guard Devin Harris to Los Angeles. It is uncertain who the Lakers would give up in return, but the Nets are definitely going to clear house before the NBA trade deadline and apparently the Lakers are interested in the young point guard.
Are the Lakers going after Chris Bosh?
18 January 2010
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The defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers came into this NBA season with high hopes of repeating as NBA champs as they were able to keep their championship team for last season relatively intact with their only real loss being Trevor Ariza signing with the Houston Rockets.
Fortunately, the loss of Ariza hasn’t really been felt this season due to the signing of defensive specialist Ron Artest who has brought a much needed toughness to the Los Angeles Lakers this season in their title defense.
Even though the Lakers have the best record in the NBA at 30-9, they have struggled with some nagging injuries to three of their best players on the team with Pau Gasol’s hamstring, Ron Artest’s concussion and Kobe Bryant’s broken finger and back spasms.
Despite all their injury problems, the Los Angeles Lakers are still arguably the best team in the league right now as we near the mid season mark in the NBA.
With the best record in the NBA and a team that looks better than ever when healthy, you would figure they would be content with their squad, but apparently that isn’t the case as the Lakers could be shopping their most promising young player in center Andrew Bynum.
One position in the NBA that is the hardest to fill with a superstar caliber player these days is the center position as more and more players and teams seem to be leaning towards running their team through the guard position. Back in the day, when a team has a dominant center, that team is a perennial super power in the NBA.
The Boston Celtics had it back in the day with Bill Russell and have it now with Kevin Garnett in the paint. The Houston Rockets had it with Hakeem Olajuwon and the Dream Shake. The San Antonio Spurs have had it with the Twin Towers in Tim Duncan and David Robinson. The Los Angeles Lakers have had a dominant center multiple times from George Mikan to Kareem Abdul-Jabaar to Shaquille O’Neal to Andrew Bynum.
Needless to say, all these teams with dominant big men have all won one or more NBA titles.
It remains to be seen whether or not Andrew Bynum will be one of the dominant centers, but it would be hard to argue that he couldn’t end up being one of the best centers in the league.
Despite all that being said, the Lakers have been rumored to be talking with the Toronto Raptors about a trade that would bring forward Chris Bosh to Los Angeles in exchange for Andrew Bynum.
NBA star Antoine Walker’s luck runs out at Harrah’s
20 July 2009
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NBA superstar Antoine Walker was in Nevada last week in order to participate in the American Championship Celebrity Golf Tournament and apparently decided to visit one of his favorite casinos, Harrahs. He was arrested in the casino and charged with writing bad checks to three Vegas casinos. He reportedly wrote 10 bad checks to Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and Red Rock Resort in order to get a line of credit while he visited those casinos.
This sounds somewhat similar to Charles Barkley’s situation where he too was charged with stealing money from Vegas casinos over a year ago. One would think that someone who has made over $100 million in his 12 years in the pros can afford to cover checks he writes for gambling, but instead Walker is going to have to learn the hard way. Walker is no stranger to run-ins with the law. Just months ago, he was arrested in Miami on charges of DUI. He has reportedly paid back about $1 million of his debt, but still owes over $800,000 to casinos. Looks like he is going to have to find the best online casinos now as he will certainly not be welcomed in Vegas anytime soon.