if i'm dwane casey...

after watching wolves, i wonder what a coach can do to maximize the team's ability. some sort of motion's needed. simple pick and roll is cool. run screens for each other. rotate to either strong side or weak side when someone's making a move towards the basket. that's it. plenty of jumpers around. if they all crash the board and close the lane, with kg patrolling the lane at all times. it'll be good enough to keep them in games. they lack general speed, so they just gotta play defense together.

game note from spurs/rockets.

- parker just did a olajuwon dreamshake. the one that fakes the pants off david robinson about 10 years ago.

- rockets are getting good looks, but they just keep missing. yao from close, everyone from far.

- speaking of which, yao's a terrible 1-on-1 player. they need to do more pick and roll with Tmac and him for easy points. coz if someone cuts in, he can throw and outlet to someone behind the 3 point line as he rolls.

- i think on paper, rockets are pretty damn good. maybe it's the coaching then? if i'm JVG, i'd have t-mac dominant the ball, and with so much attention on t-mac, yao will get lots of easy baskets and put backs.

- 2:15 in the 2nd quarter. parker amazing up and around layup while jumping past the basket. crazy ish.

- rockets is way too slow. parker and ginobili just go straight in. yao needs to stay under basket. period.

- what a nice play to end the half. 3 point play that sticks a knife down your throat. manu initiated the contact before putting it up. when he's on, he's on. poor mutombo. got posterized.

- 2nd half started with duncan and mcgrady basket.

- ginobili just find his way to the basket. he just stretch forever.

- wow. derek anderson just had a pass thrown to his face. wtf.

- if i'm jvg, i'd have rafer drive in as much as possible. then they need another cutter to create motion. thus freeing up yao for easy buckets. just dump the ball down. simple.

- what a sequence. rockets had good position. but they couldn't get the ball in until mcgrady trying to bail them up by picking the ball so far away from the basket. ended with a fadeaway 20 feet away from basket. spurs then came down and horry launched a wide open 3. swish. see? jvg can't coach offense.

- the difference between spurs and rockets is the fact that spurs finish their plays. rockets' play always get broken down. well, not much of a plan to begin with... no one knows what they are doing on defense.

- yup. another lost posession. 24 sec violation. nothing happened. i thought that was right after a time out? did jvg not draw a play up? or the players are retarded?

got it. think t-mac as michael vick. so he'll either pass it or score himself. with him drawing attention, make yao be the huge ass wide receiver and throw him the ball when you can. get him the ball where he can succeed.

two teams that won't make the playoffs

it's way more interesting to write when i actually watched a game instead of just looking up box scores and recaps. it's way more insightful. coz they just give you the results, but not much how or why.

"marquee" match up last nite was knicks and lakers. it's really completely irrelevant, but i do wanna see who's doing what for each team so i gotta check it out. right off the bat, i must say that knick's starters are terrible. maybe besides a few impressive passes from marbury, i think the rest of them are garbage. the bench players, on the other hand, are all young and are good students. simply put, larry type of guys. hustle and defend. rookie david lee, this 6'9" white kid, plays awesome basketball. he hustled his way to a team high 11 rebounds and played plenty well in the system. channing frye was equally impressive with a team high 21 points. they aren't starters, but they should play a lot of minutes. since the starters are just incompetent.

just finished the wolves/wizards game. KG is 1 assist away from a triple double. and the wolves beat wiz by 12 points. that's only after wolves shooting above 50% and had a ton of rebounds. barkley says KG needs to be traded because wolves ain't going anywhere. but like i said, KG won't ever demand a trade. wolves won't make the playoff this year. sadness. in terms of nba 2k6, no one on the team has a player rating higher than 80 other than garnett. maybe wally's 80 (offensively, since his defense is crap). i wonder where he can win a championship.

teams in trenches and the east title contenders

things are finally settling down a little in NBA. lakers doesn't seem as spectacular anymore now that everyone's keying in on kobe and no one else is stepping up. it's still early but it's suffice to say that kwame brown is still a bust, and most likely will remain one for a long while, if not forever. denver still haven't really regain their form from last season when they just steamrolled over everyone. well, more like outrunned everyone. i still wonder what the hell they are gonna do with earl watson sitting on the bench. camby's playing out of his mind right now, grabbing mad boards and blocking everything that he can get to.

knicks finally won a game. at the expense of the freefalling kings, who unexpected couldn't find ways to score. maybe it's taking them a while to get comfortable at playing with each other, but they are all good offensive players, maybe it's the inability to play defense that kills them.

rockets are at the bottom of their division at this moment, with t-mac out for a few games. yao's still not playing up to his potential. it's a matter of skill around the basket, as he always needs to gather himself before doing anything, missing his first shots as a result. rebound dunks are great, but maybe they just need to get him the ball where he can just dunk every time. his basketball IQ is getting better, so i think it's more of his conditioning than anything that's keeping him from dominating at the end of games. and undoubtly he's slower than many nba players, where he's being killed on reaction time (read: rebounding). i guess it's tough work to drag around a 7'6" 300 lb frame. hopefully stromile swift will come along sooner so that he can have yao's back.

while san antonio is pretty guaranteed to get back to the finals (unless tim duncan goes down), the east seems a little less clear cut, with pistons, pacers, and heat being the 3 headed monsters. heat is still quite unorganized, but they will at least reach 2nd round on talent alone. pistons and pacers have much less adjusting to do, with pistons running at full speed already. they currently have 6 wins and no losts yet, and no matter what happens in the first 3 quarters of the game, they seem to have that confidence and killer instinct that gets them the W in the 4th quarter. they are a clutch team, collectively. they'll get whatever it takes to win the game, whether it's a block, a rebound, a bucket, or a steal. you can't say the same about another team, maybe except spurs.

pacers are actually looking quite good too, and i think the pacers rookie Sarunas Jasikevicius (pronounced as ya-sa-keh-ve-gious) will be the closer at the end of close games. this guy is no rook as he was MVP of some sort in euro leagues. i mean he's a season veteran. maybe defensively he's not superb, but you have the rest of the team to protect his back. on the other end of the court though, he is terrific, as he makes intelligent decision, finding the open man at the right places, or creating his own shots since he's probably the best shooter on the team. i guarantee he will make a series-defining play this coming playoff. just watch for it.

heat and knicks

time to look in the east. well. look what happened to the newly revamped heat. there is no reason to believe they won't win the division and at least get to the second round in the playoff, but one do have to wonder how far they will get after that. remember the 2004 lakers? 4 future hall of famers and they got swept in the final. or maybe the recent nba-star-studded olympic squad that won the bronze. it's not always the best players available that makes a great team, you actually need complementary role-players to win. i actually think last year's heat is better than this year's because everyone knew his role and did them well. wade will still make this year's team work, but it'll take until probably feburary for heat to run at full speed, with shaq's injured ankle being a problem right now. funny how reggie called it "a month-er" as shaq was being carried off the court. speaking of the devil, shaq is on tv doing a 24 hour fitness commercial. how ironic, he's gonna need that to get back into shape.

and then there are the knicks. i've already mentioned that they won't get into the playoff. but i'm sure most people can tell that. just look at the roster, they just bought themselves two centers (eddy curry and jerome james) who basically have proven they are incapable of being good players. see what separates good players and great players is the mental games coz everyone's physically gifted in the NBA. jerome james played one good series in last year playoff and he got a monster deal. that's all he ever done. along side these two bird brains (NBA IQ-wise anyway) with big bodies are a bunch of shoot-first guards who excel in playground basketball but can't run any plays (marbury, crawford). i don't even understand the roster moves. it's like isiah wanted to assemble a team of underachievers.

clutchness and the pacific division

if you check yesteday nite's score board, there were at least a few upsets, so to speak. i thought spurs was invincible but maybe they took the nite off at dallas? it's still early in the season and spurs generally take a while to warm up. i'd say by january they'll be racking up wins like me at a buffet.

then there's the 6ers/pacers sighting. somehow 6ers got their first win in the season against a Final hopeful. that's nba for ya. pacers looked great against the heat a few nights ago. they basically have all the pieces in place now. defense is already there, and the players are gelling together as a cohesive offensive unit. i'm not convinced they will come out the east though. i mean, who is their clutch shooter? artest? stephen jackson? c'mon. right. can you count on nutcases (so much entertainment value though) on last second shots? with the season on the line? maybe tinsley but he's still too erratic. JO is great, but it's hard for a post player to be a clutch shooter. it's far too easy to collapse the defense on them. much like i don't think KG is a good clutch scorer, even though he's my favorite player and can do about a million things on the court. speaking of which, wolves lost to clips last nite by a point in OT, and KG missed a good looking 8 footer. cassell must have been ecstatic.

i honestly dunno if wolves will make the playoff. a lot depends on their learning curves, if they can find an identity to play with. relying completely on KG is not a strategy nor is it a team identity. another factor is how the pacific division plays out, simply because everything is a mess there.

suns are... well. not bad because they still have last year's MVP steve nash. but the whole team is basically blown up, though they still have the run-n-gun mentality, without amare they are only a slightly better than average team, not much better than lakers or kings. kings are in a transition state and no one knows what their roles are. they have enough talents to finish on top of the division or miss the playoff entirely coz everyone's lost. poor shareef. if only he went to the nets, he'd be in playoff for sure.

clippers are capable of going to playoff also because they finally have a clutch scorer in cassell. their starting 5 is pretty impressive, if that alone can get you to the playoff. last but not least in the division is the warriors. as evidence by last year's end of the season run, warriors are nothing to mess with when they are on their game. it is highly possible for them to win the division IF baron davis play all the games, but he won't so the warriors won't. realistically, i see them finishing second in the division and making the playoff as the 7th seed. but the pacific division is so unclear that almost anyone can be on top or bottom. suns will make the playoff for sure, everyone else is a scratch on the head.

coaching makes a difference

ESPN2's replaying the spurs/cavs game tonite. it was built as lebron versus the spurs. and spurs won. handily. the 3rd quarter was like video games. massive runs with relentless defense and good execution/fast breaks. they completely stopped lebron and no one else did anything. how can this team not win the championship? maybe detroit has the type of defense to beat them, but i dunno if they can stop the added firepower. then again, i guess detroit are playing flip sanders style basketball, making hamilton a ridiculous awesome scorer. it maybe a slightly higher scoring final this year. just telling you how much coach make a difference.

speaking of coach, lakers are gonna do better than most people expected. simply because phil will keep the game close (if the players actually do what he says), kobe will then have a chance to take over at the end and win for them. phil has indeed implemented some sort of system (and at least some defensive mentality), so if the lakers actually carry them out, they'll be good. maybe even decent enough to make the playoff.

knicks on the other hand, are dunzo for larry's first season. they won't make the playoff for sure.

nuggets has a tough start of a season already. 0 for 2 and lost nene for the rest of the season. can't believe this is the 2nd year in a row that they lost a player to injury on season opener. (voshod lenard's busted ACL) they opened up the season with spurs, the world champ who just whooped them in 4th quarter even though nuggets kept up with the the whole game. they were outdueled by lakers the second, completely lost their momentum in the 4th quarter and OT. here are a few things i can say:
- melo is best near the basket, which we all know already. so why give him the ball so far out when he has to create for himself off the dribble? that's call setting him up for failure. the results are usually a bad shot or a turnover or a charge. flash him to the post and get him the ball there.
- they have superb point guard who knows how to penetrate and eager to dish, so the simplest thing nuggets can do is have their big mens (kenyon, camby, whoever) slash to the basket. they could have done this a dozen times with lakers coz no lakers can stop their dunks/layups.
- at least george karl weren't coaching those 2 games as he was suspended for something before the season even started. nuggets looked completely lost in half court offense, everyone just stands there looking at whoever that has the ball. slash to the basket when someone else get double teamed! dumbasses. until kenyon and camby learns how to play offense, nuggets are not title contenders.

no worries about nuggets making the playoff though. northwest conference is ridiculously weak. nuggets shouldn't have any trouble being first in their division. they just stepped all over portland tonite, beating them by 40 points. that's freaking awesome. utah is 2-0 but i don't think they'll win more games than nuggets. you can never count out jerry sloan, and they do have an impressive front line (okur, boozer, AK47) . so we'll see.

wolves though... man. okay they are my team coz KG's my favorite player from back in the days. but i just watched wolves and sonics tonite and it's really not encouraging. jaric is decent, especially coz he's big for a point guard, but he's still not a grade-A point guard who can utilize KG to his max. kandi man actually crashed the board a lot tonite, but he is atrocious with the basketball. 6 turnovers and that last missed shot. i can't believe they setup a play for him. and dude. it's a layup. i guess he tried to dunk it but it was too far. dumbass. wally's playing decent, hustling and actually playing some D. but he's still not that second star who can take it to the next level. eddie griffin is awesome. he's a block machine. and i didn't know ronald dupree (yeah i know you don't know him) is on the team now.

i hope the new coach knows what he's doing, coz apparently the team doesn't. it's always the point G up top, a big man setting a screen around 3point line, and then everyone stands around for the play to develop. the 2-man game is really not convincing at all, nothing really comes out of that. someone should have rotate to the strong side to shoot. there's still a chance (since it's REALLY early in the season) that there may be a system implemented in the future that utilize all the jump shooters on the team. coz if they do, then they are back to the playoff; if not, damn KG, i feel for you coz i know you will never ask for a trade. (no one can trade for your salary anyway)

speaking of which, how is sprewell feeding his family now that he's unemployed?

and it was borned...

About 7-8 years ago, there was an NBA Live commercial that featured Mutombo being interviewed on the radio, and when the DJ asked him what is he gonna do when he is guarded, he said (in his cookie monster voice):

"I dunk on 'em!"

it's an absolutely hilarious commercial. and i'm inspired to title my nba blog with that. with the beginning of the NBA 05-06 season. i'm just super excited and want to get in on this madness. i'm watching the heat/pacers game now. it's quite fun.