Throughout the beginning of the NBA season, the Golden State Warriors had started to play like a team none of us had ever seen come out of Oakland, a defensive stopper. Most of this was coming without big man Andrew Bogut, who has fought off countless numbers of injuries throughout the year. Since the beginning of the year, the Warriors have come back down to earth and shown us glimpses of the “same old warriors,” but still sit strong in the playoff race. The only teams they really have to worry about currently are the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, and the quickly rising Los Angeles Lakers. Still with the sharp shooting of All-Star snub Stephen Curry and the promising second year guard Klay Thompson, as well as the continued impressive numbers of All-Star Forward David Lee, you can’t help but think that the Warriors can bring some serious problems to anyone that they could face in the playoffs.
So what is holding the Warriors back from being an elite team? Well the injury inconsistency of Andrew Bogut has still left the team without a pure identity, are they an offensive team or are they adapting to becoming both defensive and offensively sound? One could argue that the Warriors have all around been a better team this year when Bogut has been injured. In the beginning of the year, the Warriors featured a very dangerous line up which consisted of Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Landry and Lee. But since then Landry has not been the scoring threat he once was, Barnes has been inconsistent as a rookie, and Thompson has had some bad shooting nights. This is a shoot first team, which also fits the quote “live by the jumper, die by the jumper.”
The Warriors are looking at a pretty ruthless and tough schedule for the rest of the year, but are fortunate enough to have the majority of these games to be played at home. Teams such as Chicago, LA Lakers, Portland, Utah, Minnesota, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City will all be making trips to Oracle to pay the Warriors a visit, but the Warriors will also have road games against the majority of these same teams as well as Houston and Sacramento, two teams that the Warriors have had troubles with this season, especially when it comes to the Rockets. The final stretch of this season is turning out to be a tight Playoff race in the West, and although it seems as if the Warriors will hold on to a playoff seed, only one can wonder which team from Oakland is going to show up.
As we stride through the beginning stages of the very young 2012-2013 NBA Season, a couple of thoughts come to mind. 1) What is going on in Boston, 2) How did the Knicks become so lethal and 3) Are the Lakers in trouble. Here's quick answers if you don't want to continue reading... Patience, Early Hype, No. A common thing that all fans overreact and do not realize with teams adding 5+ new players in the offseason to a roster, who are going to be key contributors to their teams is chemisty. It is VERY RARE for a team to come together and hit the ground running, especially when those players are going to be finishing games off or be apart of a starting lineup. In LA, the Lakers have started off very slow, losing a lot of games in which people have thought they should not be. This happens, and is often blown out of porportion. Not only are the Lakers dealing with a new star Center, Point Guard and bench unit, they are trying to mesh these players together with the score first mentality of Kobe Bryant, and trying to adapt to a new coach on the fly. The one thing that teams like Boston, LA, San Antonio, etc is that they always seem to turn it on after the All-Star break. That is when fans should start to really analyze these teams, and that is why I will continue with the fact that patience is key for this team. Now say things do not turn around and the Lakers look to make a move...I think the only move they have really is to trade Pau Gasol. Here are some possible trades the Lakers could look at...and no I am not going to get financial and try to match up salaries right now, just giving a ballpark guess. Option #1Lakers trade Pau Gasol to ATL for Josh SmithThis trade would make Dwight Howard happy, while creating lob central for Steve Nash. Option #2Lakers trade Pau Gasol to NYK for Amare This would make a scary and absolutely lethal starting 5 for the Lakers, but I don't see the Knicks trying to make any moves at all to mess up that team right now, especially if Amare is willing to come off the bench which makes the Knicks scarier than they are at this moment.
Throughout the years it seems as if one team has been fighting to make the next leap into being a playoff contender. The Portland Trail Blazers have been a team that has always run into problems throughout the recent years. Most recently this bad luck streak involved drafting Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, which at the moment looked to be a sure good pick and lead the Trail Blazers towards the future of developing into a contender in the western conference. The idea was to group both Oden and Lamarcus Aldridge together, with young up and comer Nicholas Batum, and establish a solid core of young key players to grow together over the years. But due to the number of serious injuries to Greg Oden, that plan never fully took place, and the Blazers were forced to move on from Oden. As dark and ugly as the Greg Oden experiment turned out to be, especially with Kevin Durant evolving into one of the best players in the NBA today, every dog has his day. That day very may of well been the 2012 NBA Draft, in which the Trail Blazers went on to draft Damian Lillard and Big man Meyers Leonard. Both players have panned out to be solid selections, as Leonard was thought to be a type of “project” selection that may take a couple of years to develop, but has shown signs of promise this season. On the other hand, Damian Lillard has turned out to be an absolute home run and looks like the new face of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise.
The Blazers look to finish this year by just missing the playoffs which isn’t as bad as some may think. The team struck gold this year with big man JJ Hickson, but it will be interesting to see what the team decides to do with Hickson in the offseason. He is one of the few players in the NBA with a no-trade clause. The team has also been looking for more consistency out of their Star big man Lamarcus Aldridge. The Blazers have numerous amounts of very good looking pieces on paper, the problem is they need to have all of these pieces come together and try and make some noise in the West. With a roster featuring key players such as Lillard, Nicholas Batum, and Lamarcus Aldridge, along with key young pieces Meyers Leonard, and Wesley Matthews, it seems as if the Blazers may have something planned up there in Portland. One thing is for sure, they have found their point guard of the future.
Before NBA Free Agency ever began this summer, the running question on everyone’s mind was would Ray Allen resign with the Boston Celtics? Rumors spread like wildfire, and it looked as if he was leaning toward signing with the Defending Champion, (just threw up in my mouth), Miami Heat. The problem for Miami was they did not have the amount of money Ray Allen wanted, so we all thought it was a long shot especially when the Celtics were said to be offering ray twice the amount the Heat were able to offer. It seemed as if a resign with the Celtics was in the bag, but then Jesus Shuttlesworth did something that none of us wanted to see. Ray Allen decided to ruin his life and sign with the Miami Heat. He signed for an extreme amount less than any other team in Free Agency was willing to offer him. Hell even the Timberwolves were going to pay for Ray. But Jesus decided to become Satan and this brings us to our first episode of….Ray Allen Sucks.
Throughout his glorious NBA Career Ray Allen has been awesome, a pure joy in every fans eyes. He’s like the little kid on an airplane sitting next to you that doesn’t whine, doesn’t scream, he just shuts up and eventually falls asleep for the entire flight. Ray was a scoring machine for the Bucks and Supersonics( R.I.P) throughout his career, and I personally watched Ray drop 50+ against the Golden State Warriors, which I still to this day tell everyone it was the greatest shooting display I had ever seen. Ray that night was pulling up from 6 feet beyond the three point line and I had never seen anything like it. People always exaggerate and say “he’s playing like it’s a video game out there.” Well that night, Ray Allen pressed pause, scrolled down to options, selected difficulty, and turned it to rookie, because it was the biggest joke of a shooting performance I had ever seen.
This is why NBA fans throughout the nation cannot stand the vision of Ray Allen now being a member of the Miami Heat. No one wants to hate Ray Allen. Shit even Laker fans will admit that they love Ray, even though he has literally killed them before. I mean not only was this guy never on a winning team, but he worked his ass off, was never a punk then finally got his ring. Now he took less money to go to the villain to try to win another ring, and he has easily become public enemy number 1 for everyone that used to love Jesus Shuttlesworth. This one is for you Ray (a big middle finger at the computer screen), I’ll see you in hell.
After France went ice cold in the fourth quarter, thanks to some particularly stout defense from Spain, Nic Batum exacted his revenge on Juan Carlos Navarro's special parts. Amazingly he was not ejected for this. Ever the sore loser Batum attempted to justify his assault below the belt by complaining that Spain lost to Brazil on purpose to set up a matchup with France. Navarro for one might be regretting that decision.
The one clear takeaway from the traumatic image above is that Harry Dunn was right when he claimed the French are assholes.
Welcome to BackCourt Violations Movie Draft Mania where we focus on drafting a starting 5 using only Basketball Movie characters. Enjoy this massive amount of awesomeness as we go head to head to draft the ultimate cinematic movie squads. Each team will pick and then the order will reverse(Snake Draft.) GM's must select 1 coach as well, and a sixth man.
phletch:ok, with the 1st pick I will be selecting Jimmy Chitwood, SF, Hickory High School, Hoosiers
phletch: I like getting a superstar that wants to take the last shot
ruck32: cannot complain about that selection at all
ruck32: with the second pick i will be selectingTeen Wolf aka Scott Howard, PG, Beacon Beavers HS, Teen Wolf
whenever you can draft an all around scoring threat at the point you cant pass, oh and he is an animal...literally
phletch:he was obviously a contender for the #1 pick but I wanted to go with the more team-oriented chitwood
ruck32:With my follow up pick, and the third overall selection I will select,Saleh, PF/ C from Republic of Kenya. "The Air Up There"
ruck32:This was really a no brainer, as Saleh gives me a lethal athletic big that plays around the rim. Saleh and Teen Wolf will combine on numerous ally oops, and the big man dribbles the ball as well as most guards. Not to mention the famous "Jimmy Dolan Shake and Bake"
phletch:I figured Saleh would be gone early but thought he might fall to me. If only that movie wasn't so good he might have slipped. He's certainly raw but there's some ridiculous upside there.
phletch:4. Neon Boudeaux , C, Western University, Blue Chips
phletch: I was planning on pairing Neon with Saleh but even with both options I prefer Neon. The size and altheticism is simply too much to pass on. He will destroy Saleh in the paint.
phletch: 5. Billy Hoyle, G, Venice Beach, White Men Can't Jump
phletch: At this point I'm considering Hoyle as both my starting one and two and have matched the stoic concentration of chitwood, the attention starved needs of Boudeaux and the trash-talking uber competitiveness of Hoyle to form the holy trinity of swagger. The Voltron of basketball rosters.
ruck32:That roster is shaping out to be quite a powerhouse. But not after these upcoming picks.
With the 6th overall selection, I will be takingDavid Lattin, PF, Texas Western University, "Glory Road"
ruck32: Lattin is one of the bigger big men in movie history, he is a solid 6'9 and has an angrier look than Kendrick Perkins. Seriously I'm not kidding. What weight Saleh may give up on the post, Lattin will be able to muscle around as he is a solid 255 and runs the floor like a cheetah. Both of my bigs will play high above the rim as well as space the floor. Look for Lattin to match up with Neon quite well
ruck32:With the 7th overall selection I will be taking a shocker....Nate Wilson, SF, NYU, "Eddie"
ruck32: Wilson may have questionable knee problems, but when he has the "juice" flowing, he can be one of the best team leaders in the league. Wilson is a phenomenal ball handler as well as a great distributor. He may be the glue that holds a team together
phletch: It's too early in the draft for me to focus on question marks so I'm going with two proven commodities.Norman Dale, HC, Hickory High School and Lewis Scott, SG, Utah Jazz, Celtics Pride
phletch: Basically we lucky to have landed the most proven nba SG, a multiple MVP still in his prime this late in the draft. That being said we know this comes with some maturity risks so we spent an early pick on Coach Dale to prevent any issues early on. This should help ease the transition for Chitwood too.
ruck32:Norman Dale having to control Lewis Scott? Talk about your all time backfire. (Happy Gilmore quote anyone?) Cannot wait for Chitwood to throw a right hook at Scott.
ruck32:Getting the sleeper out of all sleepers at 10 overall I am going to take the one....the only...Jesus Shuttlesworth, SG, Coney Island, NY "He Got Game"
ruck32: Shuttlesworth is one of the best shooting prospects and overall prospects in Basketball Movie history. It's a shocker that he has left this long, but he will be getting assists from Teen Wolf and dunking on Neon left and right. (I still went back to make sure no one took him in disbelief he is still around) Shuttlesworth is a flat out winner. He wants the ball, and so far my starting 5 has rounded out to be nothing but athletic freaks. Say hello to fast break mania
ruck32:With the next pick I will take the man who is going to make this all possible. ...HC Jimmy Dolan from The Air Up There
ruck32:Dolan is needed to communicate with Saleh because Saleh has put all his trust in him. Dolan is a motivator and former point guard as well which will be able to focus his efforts on Teen Wolf being a better handler
phletch:I'd trust Dolan with focusing Scott Howard, not sure how much he gets through to the wolf. Certainly can't question the Shuttlesworth pick, we just wanted something more proven.
phletch:Hustler, F, New York City, Fast Break
phletch: It's hard to go wrong with a teammate dedicated enough to hustle a rival coach in to giving your team a shot at the big time. Hustler will bring instant offense off the bench.
phletch:Thomas Shepherd, PF, New York City, Above The Rim
Shepherd is going to do the dirty work and bring the crazy Kevin Garnett style. He may be on the downside of his career physically and mentally but his intense work ethic should scare the youngsters straight.
ruck32:Solid picks all around, to end this draft I will be selecting a bit of a wildcard.
O'Neil G/F, Fresno State, "The Sixth man"
ruck32:Described as a "white dennis rodman" O'Neil does all the dirty work and is known for his bad boy behavior. He may be a loose screw but if a team can get him focused he could be the steal of the century. O'Neil is a terrific defender and has a solid stroke for a lefty
