As you noticed in part 1 of this series, the NBA season is
actually coming up pretty quick. Which means it’s time to start hammering out
previews to get you ready for the coming year. As customary of this blog, introductions are
like foreplay and that shit is for gentlemen. I am not a gentleman. In other
words, we’re jumping right in, and no we will not cuddle afterwards.
Kevin Durant
As mentioned in part 1, Kevin Durant will be returning to
action after missing most of the season with a Jones fracture in his right
foot. The absence of the 2014 NBA MVP had a seismic impact on the league as Steph
Curry, ex-teammate James Harden, current teammate Russell Westbrook, and
Anthony Davis, competed in a memorable race for the MVP award (along with
forgotten vets Chris Paul and LeBron James). Without Durant, the Thunder—most
people’s preseason pick to win the West—narrowly missed the playoffs. This led to multiple personnel moves, including hiring Florida’s coach Billy Donovan.
And look, we could waste a bunch of time talking about how
foot injuries have derailed the careers of multiple Hall of Fame big men
(looking at you Bill Walton and Yao Ming). We can talk about how the
Already-Damn-Near-Impossible Western Conference has beefed back up with the
Thunder in the mix. We can even discuss how KD is quietly fulfilling my Jerry West prophecy. But none of that shit is important because only one story is
going to dominate Sportscenter for the next year: Kevin Durant is going to be a
free agent next summer.
If you remember the summer of 2010, which I don’t because I
spent most of it blacked out on post-Lakers celebratory bliss, you may recall
a little thing called the Decision. What you may not remember is the season
long build up to the LeBron free agency frenzy. Namely, everyone freaking out
and overreacting to every little thing LeBron and the Cavs did or didn’t do.
Every moment of poor body language or after every bad loss (which didn’t happen
often for that Cleveland squad) resulted in reckless speculation that LeBron
was going to New York/ Miami/ Chicago/ Los Angeles. The rumor mill swelled to
epidemic proportions after the infamous Boston meltdown and even more so after the Delonte West incident.
[Insert hilarious Yo Mama joke here]
Now, I highly doubt that we’re going to hear reports of
Reggie Jackson being traded because he messed around with Mama Durant, but the
point is that the Thunder are going to be under a HUGE microscope this season. You
can bet money that every game where Westbrook takes 30 shots is going to result
in Stephan A. Smith and Skip Bayless busting blood vessels debating where KD is
going to take his talents next season. On top of that, the league is about to
see a gigantic boom in the salary cap which means pretty much every team,
except the hilariously incompetent Kings, will have a legitimate chance to sign
Durant. To further add to this, the Thunder’s past is going to definitely rear
its head as we’re reminded that they’re ruthlessly cheap, they never surrounded KD with the right role players, and that they traded
away their third best player after making it to the Finals in exchange for a
bunch of dudes that are no longer on the roster.
Is KD going to go back home to DC to play with John Wall?
Kobe is about to retire, is this the summer the Lakers get their new franchise
player?! Can the Miami Heat pull another coup and bring KD to South Beach?!?!
Are the Thunder going to panic trade Westbrook?!?!! Is God going to decide he
no longer hates the Knicks?!!!?!?!?!?! ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!! This shit is
about to be a circus. Get your Twitter accounts ready and enjoy the show.
Karl-Anthony Towns/ Jahlil Okafor/ D’Angelo Russell
The top three picks of this summer’s draft class are all
interesting for different reasons. Let’s start with Towns. Obviously the number
one pick is going to garner interest, especially when he is joining a roster
that includes the past two consecutive number one picks (Wiggins and Bennett). I’m
going to go out on a limb and say has never happened before in history. The
Timberwolves are crazy young but they boast the most intriguing and promise
filled roster in the league. Now, Towns is likely going to experience some
growing pains as he adjusts to the NBA game, but there are a couple of factors
that make a Rookie of the Year campaign a reasonable expectationfor him. First
is his pedigree. Kentucky big men, such as Anthony Davis and Boogie Cousins,
have entered the league and immediately started dominating. After watching
Towns obliterate opponents in limited minutes at Kentucky, it’s safe to assume
he’ll eventually live up to the standard set by his predecessors. You know what’s
going to help accelerate that progress? The fact that he will be under the wing
of professional lunatic Kevin Garnett. While the perception of Garnett is that
he’s a ruthless asshole, it can’t be ignored that he is highly revered in the
league for being a consummate professional, one of the hardest workers in the
offseason, and one of the most beloved teammates in the game. There’s only one
other player in the league I would rather have mentoring Towns, but he’s going
to be busy mentoring an establish All-Star in San Antonio.
Unlike Towns, D’Angelo Russell, the second overall pick of
the draft, will learn the game under the watchful eye of a player that has
likely never been described as a beloved teammate. Learning the game under Kobe
Bryant is daunting and probably no fun whatsoever, but if there’s any rookie
from the draft ready for that challenge, it’s Russell. However, the real
challenge for Russell is going to be living up to expectations IMMEDIATELY.
Most rookies taken in the lottery have the luxury of being slowly broken into
the league. For example, while Towns is expected to be a franchise player in
the future, he isn’t expected to single handily carry the Wolves to the
playoffs this year. If anything, that’s going to be Andrew Wiggins’ job. Sixers
fans are so drunk off the Sam Hinkie Kool-Aid that Jahlil Okafor could have the
worst season of his life (or God forbid, suffer a season ending injury) and
they aren’t going to care. Lakers fans are not nearly as patient and they
expect to be championship contenders every year. Of course, we all forget that
it took Kobe four seasons to become a genuine superstar and last time I checked
Byron Scott isn’t Phil Jackson. Watching Russell work his way to “Next Kobe”
status will be worth paying attention to.
And then there’s the aforementioned Jahlil Okafor, whom I
just feel bad for. After spending most of the year being hyped as the number 1
pick, he went on to lead the Duke Blue Devils to the NCAA championship, only to
be passed over twice for the “sexier” options. And really that’s what it came
down to. Towns and Russell are more explosive and have more upside potential
than Okafor, even though Jahlil is the most skilled player in maybe the entire
draft. Now that he has that chip on his shoulder, he will head to the
basketball wasteland known as Philly and somehow mesh with former lottery big
men Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid.
This is the look of a man that is as disappointed and perplexed as we are
To borrow from a wise philosopher, the 76ers, “have got me
fucked up” and here’s why: every move they make is an obvious recipe for
disaster, yet it all makes so much damn
sense! Think about it, every move they have made has been justifiable and
you could easily tell yourself, “Okay, I can see why they did that.” They are
building towards the future and those moves help fulfill that goal. Until you
take a step back and remember they have been doing this shit for what feels
like half a decade and don’t have much to show for it. Is Okafor going to
suddenly get them 15 more wins next season? Well shit, maybe, but only because
the East is awful. But as mentioned earlier, they are expecting Embiid to
basically be Okafor mixed with Nerlens' defensive chops. In other words, someone
is getting traded as soon as this season.
I don’t know, I can’t necessarily blame Philly for picking
the best available player, even if he plays the same position as two other young
players on the roster. At the same time though, I doubt anyone would have
called them crazy for picking the most intriguing rookie of the draft…
EMMANUEL FUCKING MUDIAY
You have to throw a fucking in the middle of his name,
because he could very well end up being the best player of the draft. During
the Return of the Mailbag, here was my breakdown of Mudiay:
If you don’t know who
he is, trust me, you do. But like the rest of us you forgot he was at one time
considered the best prospect of the draft, only he bailed on playing at SMU and
decided to play overseas. While I have no thoughts on that whole fiasco, I also
have no thoughts on him at all considering no one has gotten a chance to see
him play. So maybe he’ll be good? Who knows.
Super thorough analysis, I know. But the world finally got
to see him play during the Summer League and realized that maybe spending a
year in China benefitted him more than a year playing against college kids. I
don’t doubt that Mudiay is going to be good, but I am very interested in how
good he’s going to be this season, and namely how is that going to start
impacting high school seniors? A couple of players have made this transition to
the league with Brandon Jennings being the most notable. Which is cool? I guess, but it doesn’t compare
to how the players coming from Lexington have been equally, if not more, ready for
the pros than their peers that choose to play overseas first. Perhaps Mudiay
can change this thinking.
Yes this is the most intriguing rookie coming into the
season. Yes I’m not going to write much about him. I’m going to continue
cultivating the mystique by keeping this section short.
And moving on to more important matters. Like getting shitfaced
Jason Kidd
Don’t look now, but the Bucks are quietly putting together a
fucking squad and it’s pretty clear what Jason Kidd is trying to accomplish
with this squad: Golden State Warriors of the East. Now, I don’t know if it’s
scientifically possible to replicate the shooting prowess the Warriors
demonstrated last season. It also doesn’t help that Michael Carter-Williams is
on the opposite end of the shooting spectrum as Steph Curry. With that said,
the Warriors became kings of the NBA thanks to a shape shifting defense that
featured a majority of their players having the ability to guard multiple
positions.
Very, very sneaky
The Bucks might not have a transcending defender like
Draymond Green, but they do have a ridiculous amount of length. Their starting
lineup could feature 6’6”, 6’8”, 6’8”, 6’11”, and 6’11”. Now two of those spots
could be taken up Greg Monroe and Jabari Parker, whom are not exactly known as
defensive stalwarts, but that lineup does include Carter-Williams at the point
guard and Giannas Antetokounmpo at pretty much any position Kidd feels like
playing him (by the way, I’m as big of a Greek Freak fan as one can be, but god
DAMN! It is exhausting trying to spell his name right. I might seriously start
looking for reasons not to write about him just so I can avoid that name. Ok you caught me, I love him too
much not to write about him).
Like I was saying, Draymond Green has an innate ability to lockdown multiple positions that is unique to pretty much only him and LeBron. But if Kidd, whom has built a reputation around being a defensive coach, can figure out how to implement Green’s court awareness and defensive IQ with Giannis’ sprawling frame then HOLY SHIT. And I didn’t even mention that this team has John Henson, a 6’11” rim protector that has Stretch Armstrong arms. Combine that with the offensive boasts a healthy Jabari and Monroe can provide? Milwaukee could become the breakout team in the East (translation: they’ll win more than half their games, which is a big deal in that conference).
Stats, pics, and other shit courtesy of:
No comments:
Post a Comment