Backcourt Violation

Wizards and Suns Exchange the Polish Hammer

Ruck32 — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 04:30:57 +0000

Well, just before the end of preseason, our first official big move of the 2013-2014 NBA Season has just occurred.

The Suns will trade Marcin Gortat, Shannon Brown, Malcolm Lee and Kendall Marshall to the Wizards for Emeka Okafor and a 2014 first-round pick, according to ESPN's Marc Stein

According to sources, the 2014 1st Round Pick is top 12 protected. The aftermath of this deal is great for both teams. There has been conflicting reports about whether or not Shannon Brown is in the actual package, as media outlets have said yes and no to the matter but the big piece in this deal is Marcin Gortat. The trade get's rid of a project that did not work for Washington in Emeka Okafor, and provides a very underrated Center in Marcin Gortat. The move will allow the Wizards to move Nene to the 4, providing a very interesting 4/5 combination down low.

For the Suns this move could make the 2014 Draft very interesting. Phoenix now has the potential to have up to 4 First Round Picks in next years draft, meaning a massive amount of ammunition. The Suns now are looking at potentially speeding up the rebuilding process with one draft.

Only time will tell who wins this trade but it sounds like the future is bright in Phoenix. On that note, expect Phoenix and Philadelphia to be favorites in Tank a Palooza.

Sleeper in Motown? Say Hello to the New Bad Boys of Detroit

Ruck32 — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:20:24 +0000

Considered an after thought before the season began last year, the Detroit Pistons may not of been a very successful team but they did a great job developing some key pieces last year. Most notably was the impressive play of raw big man Andre Drummond. Combining with the skills of fellow big man Greg Monroe, who is quickly becoming one of the better bigs in the NBA, and the Pistons have seemed to finally have found both of their low post players.

After an up and down year, the Pistons made the first big splash of their offseason, signing the super athletic foward formerly of the Atlanta Hawks Josh Smith. Smith will move to the 3 spot for Detroit, and creates one of the most exciting front lines to watch, either for good or bad reasons. There has been no denying Smith's unbelievable athletic ability, but the knock always on Smith has been his shot selection and his belief that he shoots 3's better than Larry Bird. I'm sure he actually does believe that. Detroit wasn't done their either, they made some interesting moves in the offseason. First they brought back veteran Guard Chauncey Billups, bringing some leadership to the team. They also went out and signed a new coach as well, and the lucky man was decided to be Maurice Cheeks, who will bring the attitude this team needs. All the pieces seemed to be coming together, especially when the team used it's selection in the 2013 Draft on the talented Shooting Guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope from the University of Georgia. Looking at the moves the Pistons had made, it seemed like an overally pretty solid offseason. Brandon Knight had been incosistent as the teams starting Point Guard, but the common belief was that maybe all these weapons and a new coaching staff could spark the young guards career...until Brandon Jennings happened. That's right, the Pistons weren't done yet, sending Brandon Knight and some other pieces to the Bucks for the talented Lefty Point Guard. The 2013-2014 season looks to be promising for the Pistons, and with the amount of upside and athletic ability this team has, there could be a new "Bad Boys of Detroit" in the making.

Here's an updated look at the proposed Pistons depth chart following the 2013 offseason.

PG	1. Brandon Jennings
	2. Will Bynum
	3. Chauncey Billups
	4. Peyton Siva
SG	1. Rodney Stuckey
	2. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
SF	1. Josh Smith
	2. Kyle Singler
	3. Luigi Datome
PF	1. Greg Monroe
	2. Jonas Jerebko
	3. Charlie Villanueva
	4. Tony Mitchell
C	1. Andre Drummond
	2. Josh Harrellson

New Derrick Rose Adidas "The Return" commercial

Ruck32 — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 23:39:48 +0000

Pelicans? Wait What? Can New Orleans Make a Playoff Run?

Ruck32 — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:01:10 +0000

First of all let's get this out of the way. PELICANS? WHAT TYPE OF NAME IS THAT, COME ON MAN! Okay moving on...

Say hello to the newest team in the NBA, once formerly known as the New Orleans Hornets, the franchise changed it's name this past season to officially become the New Orleans Pelicans. Now besides being the running joke of the offseason around the NBA for the change of name, the Pelicans went on to make some very interesting moves. The most notable move was the signing of former Sacramento King Tyreke Evans until the 2013 NBA Draft happened, but we will get to that in a little bit.

New Orleans had quite the season last year, Anthony Davis showed some serious promise but battled injuries all year long. He looks to only get better, and should be one of the leagues rising stars as soon as this year. On the other hand, the other rookie New Orleans invested a pick in, Austin Rivers, did not turn out to have such a solid year. Rivers was asked to play a lot of point guard last year, an experiment that didn't work out especially with the impressive play of Greivis Vasquez. Rivers also went on to have one of the worst shooting percentages of any rookie in NBA history. Not good stepping stones to build off of, but the Pelicans still do have high hopes. What people didn't realize was that RIvers was not known as an efficient player in College. He was actually one of the least efficient, yes Rivers is a good scorer and can shoot, but he will need to develop other parts of his game to be a valuable asset in the league.

After signing Tyreke Evans, the Pelicans look to have another piece to the puzzle, and were in position to add to that puzzle with a pick in the top 10 of the upcoming NBA Draft. But then the shockable happened. New Orleans sent their selection to the Philadelphia 76ers for All-Star Point Guard Jrue Holliday. A shocker around the league, and a hell of a move by both franchises(Will review 76ers side in our season preview for them), the Pelicans now look like quite an interesting team on paper.

PG	1. Jrue Holiday
	2. Brian Roberts
SG	1. Eric Gordon
	2. Austin Rivers
SF	1. Al-Farouq Aminu
	2. Tyreke Evans
	3. Anthony Morrow
	4. Darius Miller
	5. Lance Thomas
PF	1. Anthony Davis
	2. Ryan Anderson
C	1. Jason Smith
	2. Greg Stiemsma
	3. Jeff Withey

After looking at the depth chart for the upcoming season, you notice that the Pelicans did a great job to bolster their bench. Early indiciations are that Monty Williams is looking to bring Tyreke Evans off the bench, that is if Eric Gordon can stay healthy. If Gordon can stay healthy this team could really make some noise this year. Remember when Gordon was with the Los Angeles Clippers before the Chris Paul trade, he looked like one the leagues next stars. Gordon has not been able to escape injury problems these last couple of seasons so it will be interesting to see what happens this year. Also people are forgetting about big man shooter Ryan Anderson coming off the bench, and look out for two names that could have big years for this team, Greg Stiemsma, and Brian Roberts. Both could end up being very valuable role players. The Jrue Holliday move was absolutely huge for this team, and this could end up being a very exciting team to watch. Holiday will get the keys to the car and will run the show, expect plenty of Anthony Davis oops as well.

Good luck to everyone getting used to the Pelicans team name, I know I am still struggling.

All Golden in the Bay? Are the Warriors for Real?

Ruck32 — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 20:59:49 +0000

Throughout the years, the Golden State Warriors have had one of the most loyal and enthusiastic fan bases in the NBA. Their fans live and breathe basketball all around the bay area, these fans love their team and fill the seats regardless of how the team is performing that year. But last year, the Warriors gave something back to the fans that they hadn’t been able to do since the “We Believe” year, and that was hope. Now some could argue that the “We Believe” team of 2006-2007 had no right to be in the playoffs in the first place. The team was fit with a lot of talent, but didn’t really seem to have an identity. Playing under the famous Don Nelson, the team wasn’t afraid to score, featuring a starting 5 of Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, and Andris Biedrins (the good version). With key role players off the bench featuring a young up and coming guard by the name of Monta Ellis, Matt Barnes (the good version), Mickael Pietrus, Troy Murphy (the not horrible version), and Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors in 07 were a playoff team filled with a surplus of guards and forwards that could shoot but the team played no defense. This team went on to overachieve and beat the Number 1 seed Mavericks in the first round, giving this city of Oakland an underdog belief and adding gunpowder to the fire.

Fast forward to 2012, new owner Joe Lacob took over the franchise promising to create a winner, and with the commitment to winning, the team made drastic “smart” moves to not panic, but realize the identity of your foundation featuring a young talented Point Guard by the name of Stephen Curry, and an workhorse yet undersized Power Forward by the name of David Lee. When Lacob took the team over, they did not have much to celebrate. Curry and Lee were the pieces, and while those are comfortable pieces to have, in the NBA now, they are nothing to be too proud of. Curry had recently acquired the tag of “injury prone” after dealing with numerous ankle injuries, and Lee was known as an undersized liability on defense, but a workhorse on the offensive side of the ball.

The Warriors made the first smart under the radar move and hired Jerry West as a “consultant” or whatever you would like to call it. Translation to this was “Hi Jerry we’ve made some horrible decisions in the past, do you want to have a new project to fix? We will pay you money.” Now a common thing when teams try to hurry and make their team an immediate contender is they will panic. Usually when they panic, they make two huge mistakes because they want to get better so fast.

The first thing they will do is go on a spending spree, this is often risky because you can bring in so many new pieces you don’t know how they will mesh together. Also if you run out giving big contracts left and right, if they don’t work out, now you are creating challenges to move these contracts in the future. If your goods turn into trash, why would someone else want your trash? The other move teams will make is trying to bully the upcoming draft. What I mean by this is they will try to give up multiple pieces or picks with the belief that now that this is their team, they are going to get the player they want. Usually this is a good strategy unless your team is not anywhere close to contention and you need to realize you need to keep your multiple picks and build your team through simple, small and smart moves.

Getting back to the Warriors, they didn’t do any of this and for smart reasons. West and company realized hey, let’s see what happens in this draft, build our player up and then see where our team is at after the season. The Warriors did just that, they sat at their draft selection, waited for a young shooting guard by the name of Klay Thompson to fall to them and they took him. They didn’t feed Klay to the wolves immediately. They also had a guard on the team by the name of Monta Ellis. This next part could bring back sad memories for die hard GSW fans. The Warriors weren’t going to be a threat that season. They had an experiment in their backcourt that hadn’t been working but they were too proud to admit it. Fast forward and the team ended the experiment finally and traded Monta Ellis to Milwaukee for big man Andrew Bogut. The Warriors, knowing they were not contending the rest of the season said “hey let’s sit our pieces, let them get healthy, and then attack free agency smartly as well as the draft next year.”

The Warriors sat Bogut and Curry for the rest of the season basically, and when the offseason came around, they made another round of smart moves. Trading basically a ham sandwich for Jarrett Jack, who became a sixth man of the year contender, and drafted Harrison Barnes who became one of the better rookies in the league. The spark notes version is the Warriors had built themselves a solid team that went on to become a threat last year in the playoffs. With a roster still full of ugly contracts, and the whole league expecting the Warriors to have a quiet offseason, the organization did just the opposite. The Warriors found a way to get rid of 3 expiring contracts that people considered to be impossible. The removal of these contracts from the roster freed the way to sign All-Star Forward Andre Iguodala( he doesn’t like to be called iggy”). The franchise in a matter of three years turned this cities “fake hope” feeling that fans felt in 2007, to now a powder keg ready to explode. Many could argue that this Warriors team has the best roster in the West. Yes, that may be a bold statement, and the question will always come up with the health of Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry, not to mention David Lee recovering from a postseason injury, but this team looks to be a scary one.

They filled out the roster nicely with some other moves including the signing of G Toney Douglas to fill a hole left by Jarrett Jack, and the signing of big men Jermaine O’Neal, and Marreese Speights. Adding to the fact that now the team can move Harrison Barnes to the bench to be the teams 6^th man, as well as now freeing up Klay Thompson from guarding other teams best player every night and replacing him with one of the best defenders in the league in Andre Iguodala, this team could be even better than what people are anticipating. Will they be? The answer rests on health, and I believe if Andrew Bogut, who is in a contract year don’t forget, can finally have a healthy season, the sky is the limit for these Warriors.

Evan Turner Mic Test for the Ages

Ruck32 — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:14:46 +0000

Pregaming for the 2013-2014 NBA Season

Ruck32 — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 19:58:51 +0000

Congratulations to all! You have successfully survived one of God's biggest yearly tortures, also known as the period after NBA Free agency/Draft time, and before NBA Training Camps start up. I personally like to call this one of the 7 layers of hell. Now is the perfect time to make those costco runs, grab the necessary necesities for the upcoming season. Examples of items you would purchase? Well that depends greatly on the type of team that you are going to have this year. Golden State Warriors fans will probably be buying as much "bulk" alcohol as they possibly can, knowing they undoubtedly will be throwing parties left and right for games. If you're a diehard Celtics fan like myself, you know that you are probably in for one hell of a ride, whether that's good or bad, and you know that the bourbon/ tequila isle combination looks very promising this time of the year. Whatever your preference of booze, let's get back to the important stuff. Welcome back NBA Season hype, we missed you.

Here is 5 topics that I plan to cover over the next couple of days, as we look forward to an interesting season in the NBA.

#1 All Gold in the Bay : Are the Warriors for real?

#2 Pelicans? Wait What? : Can the Pelicans make a playoff run?

#3 Overhyped : A Los Angeles Clippers preview

#4 Sleeper in Motown or Horrible Idea : Detroit Pistons reloaded, will it work?

#5 NBA Predictions for the Season (Should be a good one)

If I was the GM : Boston Celtics

Ruck32 — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:06:32 +0000

Over the last couple of days the Boston Celtics have been in discussions with the Los Angeles Clippers to make a megadeal involving Kevin Garnett and the coaching rights to Doc Rivers. This has been a very long process with a lot of bluffing and trying to make the other side of the negotiating table panic. If this trade goes through it will most likely lead to the official "rebuilding" era of the Boston Celtics, and will most likely make the Clippers one of the teams to beat in the Western Conference.

So with all of that information, I would like to introduce the first segment of "If I was GM" in which I will be lecturing you amateurs on moves I would make, or at least attempt to make, if I was running the team listed in each segment. This segment focuses on the Boston Celtics.Here we go.

First thing I would do is I would call the entire Los Angeles Clippers front office and start laughing hysterically. There is NO WAY I am trading a Hall of Fame coach, one of the best Forwards in the game, for the HORRIBLE contract of Deandre Jordan, and Two 1st round picks, which in the long run are going to be end of the round picks. My message to the Clippers organization? You can either trade for Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, and basically guarantee that you are going to be able to resign Chris Paul...or you can go with a rookie Head Coach like Brian Shaw and hope that he can convince CP3 to stay. Oh by the way, your roster still isn't going to beat half the teams in the West and you don't have enough money to go after a max contract player.

Next I am laying my "New" demands on the table for the Los Angeles Clippers which are : Eric Bledsoe, the expiring contract of Caron Butler (8 Mill/1 Year) and two first round picks. This trade gives both teams some very interesting possibilities. I will get to the Celtics side more in depth later, but for the Clippers who are so stubborn about getting rid of Bledsoe, they need to realize that there is an 80% chance Paul Pierce will sign with the Clippers if this trade goes through. If they get rid of Bledsoe, they can keep Deandre Jordan, which creates great depth upfront for the Clippers. Garnett would have the chance to spend the year molding the minds of both Deandre Jordan and Blake Griffin, also now you have a 7 footer with impressive athleticism coming off the bench and playing against other teams back ups most likely. This already improves your bench. If Pierce were to sign you also now will feature a Starting 5 including Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Blake Griffiin and Kevin Garnett. That type of lineup will create interest with numerous veteran free agents that will want to sign at a chance to play for 1) A ring and 2) in LA.

With the assumption that LAC accepts my trade, now the Celtics roster features some depth immediately in the rebuilding stage. I have now created some cap space especially Cap Flexability for the 2014 Free Agency which is full of Stars. By Trading Garnetts contract (11.5 mill/3 Years) for Butlers expiring contract( 8 Mill) and Eric Bledsoe (1.7 Mill), Butlers contract will come off the book and create some space in 2014. My roster depth raises some questions and intriguing possibilites, I now have two undersized shooting guards that can play defense in Avery Bradley and Eric Bledsoe. I also now have Paul Pierce still on my roster and need to figure out what to do with that. This is where some serious strides can be made to accelerate the rebuilding process. Assuming that the Celtics acquire two 1st's from the Clippers, I am going to say that one of those 1sts is a 2013 (25th overall) 1st while the other is 2014.

My next move is calling the New Orleans Pelicans...yes It just got real. I am going to offer them a way to create serious cap space, as well as acquire multiple picks and one of the best defensive players in the NBA. My offer I am going to propose to them?

Paul Pierce, Avery Bradley, 16th Overall Pick in 2013 Draft, and the 25th pick acquired from Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon and the 6th Overall pick.

Why would Boston do it? Why would New Orleans do it? I thought you'd never ask. New Orleans becomes interested in this trade because of the horrible contract Eric Gordon has and his injury history as of late. Gordon is owed 13.6 mill over the next 4 years. Boston needs to find a way to get something for Pierce while they still can. This trade allows both of these things to happen as well as something else. New Orleans can buy out Pierce, creating him a chance to become a Free Agent and sign with....you guessed it...the Los Angeles Clippers. By buying out Pierce, New Orleans creates massive cap space, as well as they just acquired one of the best young Shooting Guards in the league. New Orleans also acquires 2 picks. Yes giving away #6 is a bold option, but in a weak draft class like this, New Orleans can package 16 and 25 to go back up in the draft and get who they want.

I would do this trade as Boston now because you will have a roster featuring some very impressive pieces. These pieces include Rajon Rondo, Eric Gordon, Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger, and Eric Bledsoe. Also the Celtics now have the 6th pick in the draft. Is that all I would do? Hell no, this team cannot be in the rebuilding stage for long, so I am going to try to accelerate it as fast as possible.

My next phone call? The Dallas Mavericks....game on. The Mavericks have been public about shopping their #13 pick in this years draft, as they are looking for ways to create as much money to possibly sign Dwight Howards and other various free agents. I am going to buy or try to make a deal with the Mavs for that pick. That would give me #6 and #13 in this years draft. At #6 my target would be Cody Zeller, C from Indiana. Zeller would create not only a 7'0 big that can hit a 15 foot jump shot, but someone who can run the floor as well. Now I have created two starting bigs in Zeller and Sullinger who can step out and hit a jump shot if needed. At 13 I am looking for a wing who can shoot or a 3 that can defend. My dream choice if i'm the Celtics is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a 6"6 SG who has been compared to a more athletic and better defensively Klay Thompson as he can stroke from pretty much anywhere on the floor. I have now created scoring options with my bench in Bledsoe, and Caldwell-Pope.

If anything else this team would try to do is move Courtney Lee or Jason Terry for a big man to add depth to this team. But this would be a start in the right direction for the Celtics, and down the road they could trade Bledsoe and some of these pieces for big name players. The same strategy they used and successful accomplished when acquiring Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.

NBA Draft Prospect Reviews

Ruck32 — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:59:18 +0000

Tonight marks the NBA Draft Lottery, in which some teams will be looking at Nerlens Noel, the Flat-top wearing Big Man from Kentucky. Although this draft class has received a lot of criticism for it's "lack of star power," I still believe there is some serious talent that can help out teams this year. Below I will list a number of prospects and give you a run down of how I feel about each of them.

Trey Burke, PG, Michigan.

Burke is a very nice prospect. He is strong and smart with the basketball and is very successful off the pick and roll. When coming off the pick and roll, he rarely does panic even when the defense collapses on him. Burke had plenty of possessions where he had nothing right after the pick, but turned it into an easy lay up by being patient and letting the play develop. Shows good overall instincts on the basketball court.

NBA Comparison : Steve Nash, in terms of patience and reading the defense.

Shabazz Muhammad SG, UCLA

Coming out of HS last year, everyone expected Muhammad to dominate his first year in the NCAA and challenge for the No. 1 pick. For some reason, Muhammad just didn't do that. He has all the tools of a potential "Poor Mans James Harden" but disappeared a lot last year in games. Muhammad is exceptional running the court in transition, has a great set of physical tools, and fights hard on the offensive glass. He just needs to become more consistent offensively, and find a way to create his shot.

NBA Comparison : Easy to compare him to James Harden when you watch him on the break/ going to the hole, but his game is no where close to that.

to be continued

NBA Draft

Warriors Come Out To Play...

Ruck32 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:01:54 +0000

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.

Golden State Warriors