Category: NBA

Not a good day to be a Big Baller. LiAngelo Ball is locked up over in China — which I can’t assume is going to be easy to get out of. There’s no further details to what they shoplifted but not a good look to LaVar and the family. Lavar has gone on record saying that ‘Gelo is probably the least likely to make the NBA — essentially throwing him under the bus. I’m not sure what Gelo would be shoplifting as these kids are only supposed to be sporting BBB. I hate to give any attention to the Ball family,  but I cannot wait to hear what Lavar has to say about this. Most likely, he’ll deflect it and just talk about Lonzo’s next game or something but I will be waiting.

Or maybe Lavar wanted this to happen so we continue to talk about the Ball family even when you think there is absolutely nothing to talk about. Either way, not a good look for the Big Ballers and I have to imagine UCLA will hand out some short of suspension which is not great this close to the start of the season.

SI- In an interview with former NBA player Al Harrington, ex-NBA commissioner David Stern said he is in favor of removing marijuana from the league’s list of banned substances.

“I’m now at the point where, personally, I think [marijuana] probably should be removed from the ban list,” Stern said. “I think there is universal agreement that marijuana for medical purposes should be completely legal.”

Harrington, who became a cannabis entrepreneur after retiring from the NBA, produced a documentary with UNINTERRUPTED to highlight the medicinal use of marijuana in professional sports. The 37-year-old said he believes “over 70 percent of athletes in major sports smoke marijuana.”

“I think it’s that big,” Harrington said. “Not only the players, but I think coaches consume, I think the owners consume. I think in sports it’s very prevalent and it’s right there.”

As part of the documentary, Harrington invited Stern to speak about the drug because “he was the commissioner during the roughest time for the NBA for drugs.”

Stern, who served as commissioner from 1984-2014, said his policies were appropriate at the time. “Some of our players came to us and said [players] were high coming into the game, so we began tightening it up,” he said.

Big words from the former NBA commissioner in regards to one of the (assumed) most frequent used banned substances in the NBA. I have to imagine that during the next CBA, this will be a highly debated topic as it is becoming legalized across the United States. It makes sense to not have something that is legal to use be a banned substance in the NBA. It always blows my mind how these athletes — not so much the NBA lately — can’t just wait until they are out of the league (see: Josh Gordon, Justin Blackmon) before they start up the drug habits. It makes huge sense here to just remove it from the list and avoid the problem altogether.

The big stand-out from this article was Al Harrington saying that he believes over 70 percent of athletes in major sports smoke marijuana. Obviously, we take Al Harrington’s word with a grain of salt but that is an absurdly high number to roll out into the public. We knew the major sports leagues’ drug testing is sub-par at best but give me a break. It’ll be interesting to see if Silver has any reaction to what his old commissioner says especially considering Stern could have easily taken this path when he was in office.

Meanwhile, JR Smith still has no idea it’s banned.

ESPN – Brandon Ingram said Lonzo Ball and the Los Angeles Lakers did not take kindly to Marcin Gortat’s tweet about how John Wall “will torture” the rookie point guard when the Washington Wizards visit L.A. on Wednesday.

“Yeah, of course we did,” Ingram said when asked whether he saw Gortat’s tweet on Monday. “Everyone has social media, definitely saw it. The competitor in Lonzo, of course he didn’t take it so well, and with his teammates behind him, we didn’t take it so well.”

The Wizards center was responding to a video of Ball’s father, LaVar, saying, “Washington is coming in Wednesday? They better beware because Lonzo ain’t losing again [this week].”

What a joke — what do they expect? People aren’t going to let LaVar run his mouth and not come right back at the Lakers. Here’s the tweet in question:

First off before addressing anything, Gortat is absolutely correct. John Wall is one of the premier PGs in the league and will absolutely have his way with the rookie Lonzo all night long. Let’s get this straight — the Lakers are NOT good. The only reason anybody is even paying attention to them is because of the sitcom that the media has run with which is LaVar Ball. I actually do expect the Lakers to keep it close tonight as they are hosting a Wizards team travelling out west but give me a break. Lonzo & the Lakers can’t expect

According to The Washington Post, “Nah, no mercy,” Wall responded when asked if he would show leniency to the 19-year-old rookie point guard despite his braggadocious father.

John Wall plays with an aggression that I’d put only second to Russell Westbrook. It’ll be great to see Lonzo put in his place, as he should be all season long. John Wall is 10-5 against starting rookie point guards — should be 11-5 after tonight.

Opening night in the NBA did not disappoint. An off-season filled with excitement and interest carried over to Tuesday night. Unfortunately the night began with sadness. Less than 6 minutes into the first quarter, Gordon Hayward came off a back screen alley-oop attempt, flew through the air, came down off balance and awkwardly landed on his ankle. As he spun himself on the ground, we were shown the horrific scene — his ankle was facing the wrong way. After the game, it was reported that he had dislocated his ankle and had a fractured tibia. He was stretchered off the court and has been brought back to Boston for further testing and surgery.

After that gruesome injury, the Celtics were in a daze and the Cavs out-scored the Celtics 45 – 26. At halftime, it was reported that Gordon Hayward stuck around to see his teammates during the half to let them know he was okay. Knowing that Hayward was okay, the Celtics came out out red hot and by the end of the third they were able to come within 1 point, nearly erasing a 19 point deficit.

The 4th quarter was pure electricity — each team trading the lead multiple times. In the end what did the Celtics in, was a corner three from Kevin Love with 46 seconds left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmNbHn_SvTY

 

Although the Celtics started the season off with a loss, there were a few positive take aways.

The first has to be the fight that this team has — only having 4 returning players from last years 53 win team and only 1 starter, we weren’t sure what to expect from this team.

Although losing Gordon Hayward will hurt the C’s, his injury will provide more playing time for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Two young players who played very well last night. Jaylen scored 25 points, had 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Jayson also had played well, after having a shaky first half which is expected from a rookie playing his first game, he still recorded a double – double 14 points and 10 rebounds. These two players have been given a great opportunity — lets hope they don’t blow it.

We all knew this was Kryie’s team, but now because of the injury he will be looked to even more on and off the court. He will be asked to score more than he has ever scored before and as it stands the season rests on his shoulders.

The starting lineup moving forward should look like:

PG – Kyrie Irving

SG – Jaylen Brown

SF – Jayson Tatum

PF – Marcus Morris

C – Al Horford

https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/920443910593314816

Awful stuff in the first quarter of the Celtics game. Hayward went up for a routine play and came down right on his ankle. Immediately thought to be a broken leg, looks to be a fractured ankle. Unreal stuff watching this live — hope he has a speedy recovery.

 

 

 

 

Good to see that players can put aside their team allegiances aside for each other as well.

It’s finally here! Opening night for the 2018 NBA Season. The first game will showcase the two top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There are a few notable story lines in this game:

• Kyrie coming back to Cleveland for the first time as a Celtic.
• The first time Kyrie and Lebron see each other since the breakup.
• Kyrie in the past few weeks has thrown shade Cleveland’s way, notably saying “I’m really playing in a real, live sports city'”
• Dwyane Wade reuniting with Lebron
• Will Isaiah Thomas be at the game? How will he react to seeing Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics
• Our real first chance to see how well the Celtics play together

As always, the game gets broken down to 3 area — who is the better coach, who has the better starters and who has the deeper & more reliable bench.

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Coaching – Brad Stevens

If you don’t agree that Brad is the better coach in this match up, lets see what LeBron has to say.

 

“I highly respect their coaching staff and especially their head coach,” James said. “A very well-coached team, he puts those guys out there every night and puts them in position to win the game. I think Brad Stevens is a very good young coach in our league.”

 

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Starters – Boston Celtics

The Celtics and Cavaliers have a pretty even lineup, but with D-Rose and Wade both being injury prone and older, I have to give the edge to the Celtics. It will be a great test defensively for Jaylen and Jayson if they get matched up against LeBron.

PG – Derrick Rose                                        PG – Kyrie Irving

SG – Dwyane Wade                                    SG – Jaylen Brown

SF –   Lebron James                                   SF –  Gordon Hayward

PF –  Jae Crowder                                       PF – Jason Tatum

C – Kevin Love                                             C – Al Horford

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Bench – Cleveland Cavaliers

At this time, the Cavs clearly have the more veteran bench at every position. The Celtics are a very young team so I expect the Cavs to have their way against the Celtics rookies.

 

2nd Unit

PG – Jose Calderon                                    PG –  Terry Rozier

SG – J.R. Smith                                            SG – Marcus Smart

SF –  Kyle Korver                                       SF –  Semi Ojeleye

PF –  Channing Frye/Jeff Green              PF – Guerschon Yabusele

C – Tristan Thompson                               C – Aron Baynes

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Prediction – Boston Celtics 106-99

In the end, I believe the Celtics will complete the upset and beat the Cavs on opening night. I predict Kryie, Gordon and Al will combine for 80 points and the suspect Celtics bench will give them enough support to hold off a weakened LeBron and the Cavaliers.

The deadline came and passed without the Celtics being able to extend their longest-tenured player to an extension. Obviously there are always differences between the agents and the front office but this would have been a nice boost to enter the season.

There’s no doubt the Celtics want to keep Smart after the fire-sale that they had this offseason, keeping only four players from the regular season Eastern Conference champions. On one hand, it may not be the worst thing to let a career 35% shooter see if he can work out his offense woes before signing him to an extension. Obviously, Smart does so many things that don’t end up on the score sheet and gives you a ton of heart and effort every night. However, in this league — you need to also produce from the offensive end as well.

Smart will now enter RFA next season, where he could easily be offered a max offer sheet by a team. The NBA is notorious for ridiculous contracts — and if Evan Turner can get signed, somebody will throw the money at Smart. Danny Ainge however has managed to have quite the offseason and proves to be savvy in his decisions so hopefully we’ll see this is the right choice. Everyone is expecting big things from Smart this year, jumping into an even more premier role with the loss of Avery Bradley. Not sure I agree with the decision to not sign him and get it over with — but in Danny, we trust.

 

After reaching a buyout agreement with the Chicago Bulls, Dwyane Wade has found a new home with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The 35 year old former all-star signed a one year, 2.3 million dollar deal. Although at this stage of his career he is no longer an all-star talent, he brings toughness and playoff experience which is invaluable.  He can still get to the rim, but he is 35 and based on his play last year–  it looks like he’s lost a step. D-Wade has never been an effective 3 point shooter so although he and LeBron have great chemistry, it will be interesting to see how he fits in with his new team.

Based on their current roster, you would think he would be in the starting 5 which would probably look like:

PG: Isaiah Thomas/Derek Rose

SG:Dwyane Wade

SF:LeBron James

PF: Kevin Love

C: Tristan Thompson.

It’s a star loaded starting 5, but even with his addition it does not appear as though they have enough to dethrone the Golden State Warriors.

On a positive note, the Cleveland now has 3/4 of the banana boat crew ( Lebron, D-Wade and Gabrielle Union).

The crazy NBA offseason continues on and in a surprise move over the weekend, Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a draft pick. This move was expected to happen but Melo’s landing spot was a big question mark. The Rockets, Caveliers and Trail Blazers were considered to be the real contenders to pull off a trade, but out of nowhere the deal gets done with OKC.

This now means that OKC is a legit title contender with their new big 3 of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. Before you immediately dismiss them as being a contender, think about the others that fill up their roster. Steven Adams is a defensive and rebounding force at center, Andre Roberson being a lock down defender at the forward position and veterans such as Kyle Singler, Nick Collison and Jerami Grant providing leadership coming off the bench.

The Knicks also come away as winners in this deal. When I say they’re a winner, I really mean they’re going to lose… a lot. In today’s NBA, you have to be either an elite team or a team that is tanking. If you are stuck in the middle, you couldn’t ask for a worse position. So by trading Melo, they can now tank and hand the keys of the team to Kristaps Porzingis. Another positive in this trade is shedding Carmelo’s contract, which at 26 million isn’t a max deal but is damn close to one. They will now have more flexibility to make a move. The last two positives are if the Knicks actually improve at the 5 spot with Kanter and if they can get anything out of a once promising lottery pick in McDermott — if they can, this trade might look favorable in the future.

Like I said, the NBA off-season has been crazy, lets just hope the season can live up to the high expectations the offseason has given us.