NBA Playoffs 2010 Part Uno

The NBA Playoffs are upon us. Heck, they are half over. I wonder what would happen if Commissioner Stern suspended Lakers coach Phil Jackson for the rest of the playoffs. I have this and other crazy thoughts swim through my head as I watch and read about these NBA playoffs. Why not put them in a full-scale article. I’m a writer, right? Maybe I should also rap and they could call me Lil Rod. I don’t yodel or sing, but if I did I think I would be a bass. Off track? You may think so but I’m getting to the juice.


LeBron James disappearing for Game 5 was one of the most talked about games that I can ever remember in my personal love affair with the game of basketball. He looked passive, didn’t attack the basket, and didn’t bark in timeouts. What’s the deal? Let’s stop being nice, the Cavaliers offense is one of the most pathetic things we could ever watch. Look, every team is great when they push the tempo and capitalize with dunks, easy buckets, and open rotation threes. So don’t tell me that it isn’t because of coach Mike Brown. If I was the coach of the Cavs and we pushed the ball and LeBron dunked, of course that is good offense. Really? Yeah, it is. That has nothing to do with what a lot of people seem to be frustrated with. The half court offense of the Cleveland Cavaliers is slow, often motionless, boring, and most importantly under-utilizes the entire cast of characters. Why does LeBron always get the ball in the high post, nearly at the three point line? Why don’t they shove him down on the block against Paul Pierce and have him go to town. Celtics will double and then it’s layup time for Side-Show Varejao (I told you I could rap and rhyme…..S-how Varaj-how). Why isn’t there set plays being run for Jamison? Why? Why isn’t Boobie Gibson getting some run to spark up that offense? Listen, I’m no coach (well, that isn’t completely true) but let’s call a turd a turd. The half-court offense of the Cavs is terrible. The Charles Barkley kind of terrible. LeBron doesn’t need a new team. He needs a new coach and he also might want to explain what happened in Game 5. And I don’t want to hear about the Celtics good defense. That game was just weird. I’d like to hear him tell us what happened.

I know you’re dying to hear about the Jazz. All the national readers in my network are chomping for more Jazz info. So the home opener, I was there this year. The new Miller in charge stood on the court and told us something like- I have allocated unprecedented resources to bring this city an NBA championship. BlahBlahBlah. What he meant to say is that he’s totally caught in a bind. He’s still living with his father’s decision to sign Andrei Kirilenko to a max deal, he didn’t think Boozer would exercise his more than 12 million dollar player option for this season, and he is going to have to figure out a way to get them out of a bloated team salary situation. There is a basic economic issue with the Jazz being named in the top 3 of total player salaries. The math just doesn’t seem to work. We are in a smaller market relative to the NBA landscape and the truth of the matter is that we had to dump a great rookie in Eric Maynor and trade away Ronnie Brewer, who is the only player on our roster equipped to play with Carmelo, Kobe, Durant, Manu, and Caron Butler. Listen, I love Matthews. I really do. His best is yet to come, but he is a 6’3” rookie. I don’t agree with our Jazz GM Kevin O’Connor when he said something to the effect that we have a lot of players that are similar. Right, except for a long 6’6” defender who can defend the opponents best perimeter player every night and finish around the rim in fantastic fashion. So, Mr. Miller, spare me the speech about how you’ve committed resources. That’s total cat nip. You got caught in a tough spot and gave away Brewer (unless that draft pick we got for him pans out to be something like this Knicks pick) and you gave away Maynor for a one-year rental on Boozer. Now to Boozer. He’s going to Miami. Any more questions? Jazz fans can look forward to one thing. AK47’s 17 million dollar contract coming off the books at the end of next season. Then we can be contenders. We have some hope. We will find out what draft pick we get in the lottery within 24 hours of me writing this sentence. We can draft a good young big man. His name is Greg Monroe. He played at Georgetown. If we draft a white guy, I’m really not going to be happy about it. There, I said it.



I know, I know. The Celtics are so special. BlahBlahBlah. OK, I really want them to beat the Lakers in the finals. They have the makings for it. I know they are a good defensive team and that KG is looking good. They are so old though. But I want to talk about their opponent in the NBA Finals if they get there. The LA Lakers. OK, really, I want to talk about the Pau Gasol trade. This is one of the biggest trades in the history of basketball. The LA Lakers pillaged the Memphis Grizzlies for Pau Gasol. They gave up some crappy draft picks, Marc Gasol, and Kwame MJ Brown. Get real. This is one of the saddest moves a franchise has ever made. Pau Gasol is the best big man in basketball today and will be for the next three years. I said it then, and I’ll say it again, the MVP trophy that Kobe got the year of the Gasol trade should have been cut in half. He should have given half to Gasol. Kobe Bryant has one of the best supporting casts in the history of the NBA. Did Magic have more with Worthy, Kareem, Coop, and the gang? I don’t think so. But I’m sure it’s debatable. This trade positioned the Lakers for the 5-6 year window that have had and will have. Without that pillage of a trade, the Lakers would be hard pressed to get one title in that span. Did Jerry West have an influence on the Grizzlies to do this deal? Seriously, did he? He was the GM of the Lakers. Left to work for Memphis in the same GM capacity. Left Memphis and consulted with the Lakers. What was his role as far as convincing Memphis this was the right deal? Someone please tell me. The Grizzlies argued it was a money issue. Believable until they picked up Zach Randolph’s disgusting contract of 2 years and over 33 million dollars. That trade never made sense and it never will. It change the landscape of NBA basketball more significantly than any other trade in the last 25 years in basketball. Here’s what I’m saying. Kobe rode Shaq’s train to 3 titles and now he is riding the best supporting cast to championships. I said this about Shaq’s Lakers title teams- Kobe was replacable. You could have stuck Pierce (much younger then), Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and a bunch of other players along side Shaq and they quite probably would have won those three titles. I feel the same way today to somewhat of a lesser extent. You could plug in D-Wade, LeBron, Kevin Durant, and a few others into his place……and I really think they would have won the championship. I don’t know if you can say that about D-Wade’s title year. Could anyone else have done that? Could anyone else but Duncan have manned those first three title years? Except maybe Shaq? Before you get mad at me for Kobe-hating, just think about it for a bit. Anyways, shame on the Grizzlies for ruining the Western Conference of the NBA for the rest of us. That trade is horrible and that franchise should be retracted for it. OK, maybe not, but maybe. Part 2 NBA Playoffs coming soon.