-- Why, oh why, did New Orleans fire Byron Scott? Yes, they were off to a slower-than-expected start at 3-6, but what exactly wasn't Scott doing? Peja Stojakovic has been garbage, David West was just ok, and some of the new pieces haven't meshed yet. Remember, they lost Rasual Butler and Tyson Chandler off last year's team, so expecting the new guys (Marcus Thornton, Emeka Okafor, Darren Collison, etc) to slide right in without any drop-off is a little unrealistic. Now that Chris Paul has injured his ankle and will be out for a few games, it'll be interesting to see what interim coach Jeff Bower can get out of his team. I'm not expecting much.
-- LeBron, get serious. According to James, he will change his jersey number from 23 to 6 in deference to Michael Jordan. He also thinks that the NBA should retire Jordan's jersey number to honor him as the greatest player ever. First of all, let me tell everyone that I agree that Michael Jordan is the best player in the history of the NBA. That being said, there's no reason to retire his number. No other sport has done such a thing. The closest anyone has come is Major League Baseball retiring Jackie Robinson's number 42...but Robinson accomplished quite a bit more in his career than Jordan. Not only that, but LeBron needs to do a little more research. Bill Russell, one of the Top 5 players ever, wore number 6. So why is it that he can't get any love? Jordan's number deserves to be sanctified, but the guy who was the best player on teams that won ELEVEN championships doesn't? If his logic is that 23 doesn't need to be worn again out of respect to Jordan, why isn't the same respect given to another NBA legend? Considering LeBron told the media the other day that he won't answer any more questions about his impending free agency, this smells like another way for him to get some headlines. Lame.
-- For those of you sleeping through the early part of the NBA season, don't sleep on the Sacramento Kings. Led by new coach Paul Westphal, the Kings have jumped out to surprising 5-4 record, including a current 4-game winning streak. No, Sacto won't make the playoffs, nor are they likely to finish over .500, but for franchise that hadn't been at .500 since December '06, this is a good story. Leading scorer Kevin Martin went down with a wrist injury (he was scoring over 30 ppg at the time, too), but rookie Tyreke Evans and second-year guy Jason Thompson have picked up the slack, leading the Kings to early prosperity. The schedule gets tougher with three road games in their next four outings, but as productive as their offense has been early, they can't immediately be discounted. Something that couldn't be said the past few years.
-- As I confessed in the NBA Preview, there was a good chance the Toronto Raptors were going to be my third-favorite team this season. Well, that happened. Yeah, we're only 9 games into the year, but the Raps have only failed to reach the century mark in one game...and they scored 99 in that one...and still won. Watching these guys play is like watching an underdog during the NCAA Tournament, and I mean that with the utmost admiration. They fire at will, run their offense with complete disregard for what you're doing defensively, and have a host of shooters and dribblers that make great plays on offense. At the other end of the court, they need some work, but we knew that coming in. When I look for teams to watch, I don't really consider defensive stalwarts; I'll take a 131-124 game over a 91-83 game any day. Toronto is only 5-4 and is in the midst of a West Coast swing right now, but I'm hoping they make the playoffs so that at least one of the East's first round series will be watchable.
-- I was completely in favor of Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle calling out his team after their loss to San Antonio Wednesday night. The Spurs were playing with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, yet still maintained a double-digit lead throughout the contest. While watching the game, it became clear to me that San Antone was getting every loose ball, every 50/50 rebound, and every hustle play. There was even a sequence when Antonio McDyess threw a loose ball back into play while falling out of bounds, George Hill collected it and was stopped by Jason Kidd, so he threw it to a wide-open Richard Jefferson for the slam. There wasn't a single Dallas defender back except for Kidd, so it was pretty obvious that they'd given up on the play. That was a microcosm of their effort that evening. When you're playing a rival, especially one without its two best players, you need to bring the A-game to make sure you get the win. Dallas didn't, and it cost them big time. Hopefully they get Carlisle's message and crank up the energy. Their showing on Wednesday was downright pathetic.
That's all I have for now. Last time I mused, I said it'd be a couple weeks before my next post, and that turned out to be about a week-and-a-half too long of an estimation. So I'll see you when I see you; how about that?
~~ Lank
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