Half-Blog Half-Amazing (An NBA Blog)

I’m watching the 4th quarter of game 6 and its apparent that Garnett is afraid to shoot the ball in the big moment.  Garnett knows it, his teammates know it and the Hawks know it.  Its actually rather sad when you think that Garnett is a former MVP.  Think about it - the Hawks have no one that can guard Garnett but for whatever reason KG wont assert himself.  Its not for a lack of talent.  I chalk it up to fear.

Sports Guy wrote this year that Garnett should be the MVP but after watching this I really hope he doesn’t win the award.  MVPs cant be afraid of the big moment and KG clearly is terrified of it.

Today on PTI, the guys spent Five Good Minutes with Chris Paul, asking him to reflect on his series against the mavs.  Chris was given every opportunity to take a little bit of the spotlight but instead spent the entire time saying how great his teammates are.  After the interview I thought to myself that Chris is one hell of a class act.

For 3+ years I have had “Starbury” as my starting PG.  This guy has/had all the talent in the world but couldnt get past his ego and ultimately couldnt get past the first round of the playoffs.  I’ll admit that I was excited when Isiah traded for him.  Marbury was an exciting, talented player from NY that had the chance to resurrect the team.  But in the world of Starbury nothing comes before Stephon.  He put up some nice numbers but the knicks got worse and worse after every year.

Being a PG takes a certain kind of mentality.  Share first and make your teammates better.  Take over when necessary, when your team needs you to carry them on your back.  Chris Paul thinks like this and I can’t help but wonder if Chris Paul’s last name was Marbury, he would have nicknamed himself teambury not starbury.  yeah that was cheesy but you get my drift.

It’s not Lebron.  He is arguably the best player in the game and certainly in the top 5.  Its the team as a whole that just seems so underwhelming.  Lets look at their starting five

1. D. West - a pretty good PG with average scoring ability.  He’s a good role player but should be the 4th option at best on a championship squad.

2. W. Szczerbiak - not much of a player anymore.  in a close out game at home, he got 17 minutes despite the fact that he had only 1 foul.

3. Z. Ilgauskus - the 2nd best player on the Cavs which says it all.  Hes a good center with nice offensive skills but he will never be the 2nd best player on a championship team

4. Lebron - no words.  amazing player.  arguably still insecure about taking the game winner

5. Ben Wallace - is he really still in the league?  he hasnt been relevant since he went to Chicago.  his offensive liabilities were acceptable when he pulled in 10+ boards a game and had 2+ blocks.  the last time that happened, Lebron was at the jr prom.

So those are your cavs.  No wonder the Wizards wanted to play them.  Outside of Lebron, does anyone scare you?  Who is your x factor player?  who is your second star that steps up when lebron is off?

I think the Cavs win their series against the Wizards because Lebron is good enough to beat them.  The 2nd round though - no chance.  I dont have the bracket in front of me but I take the celtics, pistons or magic against the cavs any day of the week.

Other point
1. RIP Mike Dantoni as coach of the suns.  Classy coach that should be hired ASAP by the bulls (i dont think he is right for the knicks).  I would LOVE to see Shaq take this off season seriously and come into next season in the best shape of his life.  Work with those Sun’s trainers and step it up.  Even at 36+ he makes a difference.

2. RIP Avery Johnson.  I never drank the Avery kool-aide and I think he stopped drinking his own kool-aide as well.  When your players hold a practice without you, the writing is on the wall that they dont listen to you anymore.

Its half time right now in game 5.  The suns are down 3-1 in series that could have easily been 2-2 at this point had duncan missed that 3.  But its game 5 and the suns are facing elimination.  They are down by 9 at the half which isn’t a huge deficit to overcome.  The big problem - Nash has recorded 0 assists so far.

None.  0.  Its amazing but in a bad way.  Even the Big Aristotle has 1 assist.  This number worries me.  Some might argue that the suns are in good shape here.  afterall, nash wont got the whole game without having an assist so things should only get better.  I understand that point and I want to believe it but I have become jaded.  Nash is a 2 time MVP and 1 of the best PGs ever.  His teams window to win a championship is rapidly closing and each year its getting that much harder.  in this must win game he has to step it up.

call me a pessimist but it just doesnt look good.  its a damn shame too.

I haven’t written in a while, which is a shame because this has been the best NBA season of the decade bar none.  The playoffs have been fantastic and disappointing all at once.  I genuinely feel for the Suns.  They Spurs just have their ticket - how else do you explain 2 game 1 miracles leading to an eventual win in double overtime?  A 3 from Duncan - are you kidding me?  I think that duncan and the spurs are to nash and the suns what MJ and the bulls were to Ewing and the knicks.  Having lived through each agonizing bulls victory, I can say that I genuinely feel for the Suns and their fans.

Today’s post, however, is not about the Suns or the Knicks of the 90s.  Today’s post is about the Dallas Mavericks and Jason Kidd.  When the trade went down I blogged about how dangerous the Mavs had just become.  Kidd is one of the greatest point guards i have ever seen play and I thought he was going to bring some much needed toughness to a mentally weak dallas team.  He was going to make a difference.  I was horribly wrong.

What happened?  Well Kidd never got into his groove the last few weeks playing with the mavs and the blame will rightfully fall on Avery Johnson.  It was Avery that took Kidd out for the final possession of a critical game against the Spurs (i believe it was the spurs).  It is Avery that is an over controlling coach that slowed down the game and didnt play to Kidd’s strengths.

So now Dallas is down 3-1 to the Hornets.  Jason Kidd had 3 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in a must-win game 4 before getting ejected in the 4th quarter.  Pathetic.

So I was wrong about the Kidd trade and think Dallas was a better team with Devin Harris at the point.

I check RealGM religiously because it provides exactly what I want from an NBA site - a summary of the most interesting headlines from around the league. If the headline grabs me then ill read the rest. Simple, easy, fun.

Today I decided to write down my reactions to the RealGM headlines of the day.

Enjoy

Marion Questions Teammates’ Desire: The Heat are probably one of the top 5 worst teams in the league with no hope for salvaging this season. Their best player should be healing from injuries instead of playing and the rest of the team’s talent is questionable. Given this, how can Marion be surprised by their lack of desire? What are his teammates even playing for right now? Marion should really just keep his mouth shut because he looks like a fool. He was on a team that was a legit championship contender with arguably the best PG in the league running the show. Sadly he couldnt suck it up and figure out how to play with Amare, essentially forcing a trade to the Heat. Now he has to live with the results of his actions. Careful what you wish for Mr. Marion

Riley Talking about Shutting Down Wade: It’s about fucking time. G d forbid Wade suffers from a career threatening injury while trying to play when hes not 100%. The Heat have nothing to play for right now and should shut Wade down immediately. Seriously dont understand what the dilemma is here.

Isiah Thinks He’ll Be Back Next Year: This season has been depressing enough for Knick fans without Isiah reminding us that he will be back next year. I cant wait to see how he fucks our team up even more next year.

Johnson Stands By Decision to Sit Kidd: What a moron. Mark Cuban’s lawyers are examining Johnson’s contract as we speak looking for a “The Coach is a Moron” clause that will allow him to terminate Johnson’s contract for cause. I dont care what anyone says - you dont trade for Jason Kidd and then sit him for the last two possessions of a 1 possession game. Johnson should just man up and admit he fucked up.

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Pacers vs. Nets

• Jermaine Oneal didnt play. Big deal. Does that guy have any promise left? I would say NO
• Jefferson had 36 points tonight. Hes has played well on the Nets but cant see him playing as well for any other team. Consumate good player on bad team
• Marcus Williams had 13 assists. Too bad he loses his PT once Devin Harris starts playin

Heat vs. Philadelphia

• Another solid game for Andre Miller (24 pts and 9 assists)
• Marion had only 4 pts. Gross. Think he misses Nash yet?
• Why dont the heat just shut Wade down for the season?

Denver vs. Milwaukee

• when AI was traded to Denver, he said this was the most talented team he had ever been on. So why are they tied with the Bucks towards the end of the 3rd quarter?
• Is Carmelo the Gen Y Glen Robinson? Scores nice but just doesnt do much else to make his teammates better
• What if the bucks drafted Chris Paul with the first draft pick instead of Andrew Bogut? Bogut is ok but not worthy of the number 1 pick

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Back when the Lakers traded for Gasol, I opined that Odom’s game would benefit the most because he would become the number 3 or 4 option on the offense. You see, Odom is one of those players that I watched closely this year because he is on my fantasy NBA team. The thing that I noticed almost immediately was that Odom flourished most when he played 3rd fiddle on the offense. Before the Gasol trade, Odom played his best when Bynum was the second option on the offense. When Bynum went down, Odom struggled mightily, likely because he has never been mentally tough and couldn’t handle the pressure of being the number 2 guy.

I wrote that post on February 3rd. Fast forward to today, February 23rd, and Mike Bresnahan from the LA Times writes the following article: Relaxed Odom Helps Revitalize Lakers.

I like to think Mike read this blog for inspiration

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A new feature to halfbloghalfmazing.  Here are observations on some of tonights games based solely on the box scores.  Note that not all of tonights games are finished.  Here we go:

Orlando vs. Philly

• Outside of Iguodola, I cant find any promising talent on the 76ers
• isnt it amazing how Hedo Turkoglu is outplaying Rashard Lewis on a nightly basis?  Yet rashard is Orlando’s 100 million dollar man!

New York vs. Toronto

• knicks actually won
• Eddy Curry played 9:29 despite having only 1 foul.  at the end of last year eddy showed all star potential.  isiah trades for zach and kills eddy’s confidence.  eddy cant play anymore and we will be lucky if we get .30 on the dollar

Wizards vs. Lebron

• Lebron beat the wizards tonight
• damon jones played his first good game  in 3 years
• even with arenas i dont like the makeup of the wizards

Denver vs. Chicago

• Is george karl just a really bad coach?  The nuggets have AI, Melo and Camby yet they still lost this game.  The AI Melo experiment is not working….
• call me crazy but steve blake was a very important piece of the nuggets core last year.  its a shame they lost him

Atlanta vs. Golden State

• Atlanta blowing them out right now.  Bibby was a fantastic pick up
• webber proving that he is worthless
• where is Stephen Jackson?

Boston vs. Phoenix

• Suns up 13 at the half and nash has only 2 assists!
• Shaq has 8 boards and 1 block at the half.  took only 2 shots.  I like this.

Hes not.  He wasnt the savior in Chicago and he wont do much in Cleveland. And neither are Wally Sczerbiak or Delonte West (if west was that good why has he been traded to 3 teams in 2 years?).

I think this deal is more addition by subtraction.   Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes have got to be 2 of the worst players in the league.  Anything is better than having those two underachievers.

Can you imagine being a Bulls fan.  Season starts with high hopes.  Playoffs.  Kobe.  What could be better?  Then Kobe stays, the team implodes, skiles gets fired and Gasol goes to the lakers for peanuts.  That alone makes for a disastrous season.  The icing on the cake is they replace the Ben Wallace cancer with Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden.  If I was a bulls fan I would be vomiting.