Kobe Bryant Cleared for All Basketball Activities

The 2013-2014 NBA season has been nothing less than exciting thus far. In the West, new fresh exciting teams competing to be a clear #1. In the East, Roy Hilbert, Paul George and the Indiana Pacers  have made a strong start, making some question if the Miami Heat can continue their dominance.

But there is something missing in the NBA season, that "it person". The NBA without Kobe Brant has felt a little less spectacular, but great news Wednesday came as the Lakers' medical staff cleared Kobe for all basketball related activities. Yes, his return is still not here, but his progress from a torn achilles last spring is very impressive.

The Lakers are not a team that will dominate the NBA scene with a Kobe return, but there is a reason the Lakers still had national games prior to championship team seen in the late 2000s. No way around it, fans wanted to see Kobe Bryant.

I am not the biggest Lakers or Kobe fan, but I do respect his incredible basketball game. He is the one of the most decorated player in the NBA currently (Tim Duncan?), and I hope to see him back on the court making the difficult mid-range jumpers to win the game soon.

Whether you like him or not, the NBA is not the same without the presence of Kobe Bryant on a  hardwood floor wearing #24 with purple and gold. Let's all hope he returns and makes us all say " he had a torn achilles?"

*That Brooklyn dunk, or Josh Smith dunk just ridiculous???*

Orlando Magic Off to HOT Start!

The Orlando Magic are 3-1 to start off the season. It has been a wonderful start for the organization who continues to play with the Dwight Howard scenario looming overhead. Magic fans should be excited! Below will be the good and the bad of this starting record the Magic have earned.

The Bad:

• Player consistency (outside Ryan Anderson, Dwight Howard, and JJ Redick) is still not being attained.
• Orlando Magic earned three wins, but still against three non contending teams!
• Chris BOOOOhon (crowd boos him when announced), continues to make all Magic fan’s cringe when he plays.
• Hedo still needs to improve shot selection, always seems to prefer harder shots, and passes on the easy ones.
• Jason Richardson needs to improve in all areas of the game; been a let down thus far in the season.
• Larry Hughes needs to get familiar with Stan’s system.
• Jameer Nelson has neck spasms.
• Hedo and J.Rich need to maintain aggression throughout the game (but also Orlando needs to get them going early!)

The Good:

• The Orlando Magic are gaining victories over teams they SHOULD be winning against.
• Turnovers have fallen to about 12 per game after 18 in the OKC game.
• JJ. Redick has played tremendously off the bench (6TH Man candidate if it continues)
• Ryan Anderson has responded to the 30 plus minutes of playing times, being the highest scoring player on the team at 19.5 ppg.
• Dwight Howard continues to dominant the paint offensively and defensively. (Past two games had each 24 rebounds!)
• Dwight Howard is a much improved PASSER out of the paint, desperately needed for this Magic team to stay productive. (2.5 assist per game thus far).
• The Bobcats game, Orlando had 44 points in the paint! Surprising site (BUT NEEDED), as Turk, J. Rich, Anderson and Redick attacked the paint.
• Defense has been good, holding the other clubs to an average of about 87 points per game.
• Stan “The Man” Van Gundy called the Bobcats win the best one yet!
• This good start should hopefully influence Dwight Howard’s decision!
• THE SIXTY GAME WIN DREAM REMAINS ALIVE!

Orlando fans should not be blinded to some aspects of the record. The Magic have played only 1 contending team in the OKC Thunder (who defeated the Magic easily). The other three wins have come against Houston Rockets, NJ Nets, and Charlotte Bobcats. The Magic play tonight against the Toronto Raptors and then tomorrow night against Detroit Pistons. GO MAGIC!!!

The NBA is Back!

Sunday December 25, 2011 was tip-off day for the 2011-2012 NBA season. The games have always been great on Christmas Day, but this would be different due to the 140+ day lockout that just occurred (and it showed).

The Day started off at 11:00 AM with the debut on TNT of Shaq. Shaq on TNT is a great combination; especially with "Sir" Charles Barkley being on as well. (Note: Congrats Barkley on the weight loss).
The Knicks defeated the Celtics on what I believe was a fluke foul call by the refs at the end of the game. The Bulls are definitively the best team in the East top to bottom (D.Rose is BEAST) after defeating a hard working KB24 with the Lakers. Then The Clippers defeated the Golden State Warriors, which was a fun and exciting game, and was the best overall offensive game (not team Miami fans) of the day.

The Orlando Magic and the OKC Thunder was a one-sided affair. For Orlando it was turnovers,horrible shot choices as well as shooting, defense lacked,and NO offensive flow. For all the Magic fans there were some bright spots as well as some that were NOT bright.

Bright Spot:
1) Jameer Nelson & Von Wafer (Nice pick up thus far) refused to settle for jumpers and kept penetrating. (Exactly what Orlando did the first 9 shots of the game, even TURK)
2) Ryan Anderson was one fire from three and he will more than likely continue that.

NOT Bright:
1) Jason Richardson shooting (???), Chris Duhon (please comeback Jason Williams), Turk choosing not to take open jumpers but make impossible fade aways or horrible passes, Earl Clark lack of denfense, Dwight Howard scoring as well as passing our of the quadruple teaming!

In general all the teams that played (excluding Miami) seemed to still be in Summer League mode because offense and defensive line-ups looks scrambled, the bad passing, as well as the slower looking players.

Stan Van Gundy vs Jeff Van Gundy to DH12 Blunt Answer on Joining MIA!

   Stand Van Gundy was awarded the Mikey Award as Best Guest  for a local Orlando radio show called Open Mic. The award has no high prestige among other sports awards, but none the less Stan "The Man" Van Gundy added humor in accepting the award this past Friday, July 29, 2011. Gundy did what he always seems to do indirectly, be one of the most entertaining figures in the NBA, and of course Mark Cuban holds that top spot pretty tight. Although Stan's brother Jeff Van Gundy is pretty high up the list as well? Watch, or I mean listen to Van Gundy's acceptance of the award below. (Video Courtesy Orlando Sentinel)
 

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_magic/2011/07/listen-stan-van-gundy-accepts-not-so-prestigious-mikey-award.html

Here is why Mark Cuban still holds the spot for Most Entertaining Figure in the NBA!

   There have been alot of rumors guessing about Dwight Howard's future with Orlando, and if he will stay or go, blah blah blah. Of course we all should have expected such media attention to this, but man it gets exhausting hearing and listening to all of these so called experts (Insert Charles Barkley's comment here: "Only GOD is an expert EJ.") trying to project  waht DH12 will do. 

   When Dwight was asked if he was going to go play for the Miami Heat at Comic Con, Dwight answers   "Never."

   When Dwight was asked if he was going to play for L.A. Lakers, Dwight answered, "“That’s everybody’s question. I am wearing purple … but that’s Rock’s outfit.” By the way the "Rock" is the cartoon character, Rock Callahan, who Dwight plays the voice for teh Disney XD cartoon Kick Buttowski.

In my opinion, DH12, looks pretty cool as a cartoon character. What do you guys think?

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_magic/2011/07/dwight-howard-promotes-disney-cartoon-at-comic-con-photos.html

Here It Is and Remember DH12 is a man of many talents(Video Courtesy Orlando Sentinel).

P.S. follow me on twitter @doolz2dribble.

 

Chris Paul or Deron Williams? The Magic Have A Lot of Thinking To Do!

Is Jameer Nelson going to fade in the Magic's history of PG, and is CP3 or D.Will the Magic's future?

Please follow me on twitter @doolz2dribble. 
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It seems as if all the exciting and exaggerated NBA speculations have ceased, since the NBA lockout started on July 1^st. Yes, one year without NBA, after one of its peak seasons in interest would SUCK, but we should all feel some hope since the NFL players and owners have started to see more eye to eye during the recent negotiations. Rumor has it that there may be a rookie salary cap in the NFL, would the NBA follow… hmmm?

          Now if the NBA lockout does continue to drag out and the 2011-2012 season is shortened or completely gone well, we can all look toward the following: (WATCH video below)

          The conversation for Orlando prior to the lockout and rumors of Josh Smih or Monta Ellis, was who should Orlando try and peruse Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Bottom Line up front from my perspective is YOU CANT GO WRONG WITH EITHER PLAYER!

          Now there have probably been numerous comparisons between these two players, but one more won’t hurt. Therefore, without further adieu (fancy word/spelling), the CP3 VS D.Will comparison. (Jameer was thrown in for all the Jameer DISKLIK-ers) The chart is the current career averages of each player.

The averages of these two players differ in such small amounts, but still some analysis I guess would be good. Chris Paul has unexpected rebound average of 4.5 regular season and 5.3 playoffs, even though he is a smaller player when compared to Deron Williams.

Although Chris Paul does have the advantage when it comes to the rebounding, an unexpected advantage that Deron Williams holds of Chris Paul is that Deron Williams has participated in 44 playoff games, while CP3 has only played in 23 playoff games. This surprised me because the sports media speaks of CP3 so much, I expected more playoff appearances.

Both Chris Paul and Deron Williams have the ability of shooting the ball, defending, and most importantly the ability of court vision and distributing the ball. Both players averaged above 9 assist a game, which is one thing the Magic and more specifically Dwight Howard have not experienced.

Another great aspect of these two players is the fact that they raise their game to the next gear during the playoffs. Both players experience jumps in statistics when compared to the regular season.

Now one thing that I can’t put in a chart and this fact sticks out strongly in my mind is the fact that CP3 this past playoffs single handedly made the Lakers a little scared. He averaged 11.1, yes 11.1 assist a game against the LOS ANGELES LAKERS. OH and did I mention HE HAD NO NOTEABLE #2 ON THE COURT WITH HIM, AS DAVID WEST WAS INJURED. That fact alone shows how he makes the team better. I have yet to see this from Deron Williams, and maybe it is there.

If you remember a couple years ago, Chris Paul had a teammate who is now a NBA Champion, who was pivotal in the Dallas Mavericks run to the championship named Tyson Chandler. When Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler were on the same team, they lead the league in alley-oops, and second was Turkoglu and Dwight Howard. Now just imagine what CP3 could do with DH12. SCARY THOUGH HUH!

I know this post sounds bias toward Deron Williams, but Deron Williams did have his moments like this past season where he and Paul Milsap made those great double digit comebacks against Miami, Orlando, and I believe Charlotte.  Deron also played with Carlos Boozer, who created a nice combination in Utah.

One interesting note for Jameer Nelson who I respect after watching him earn, yes earn his spot as starting PG  from the let down of Steve Francis. Nelson’s FT%, FG%, and 3PT% during the playoffs in his career are very very close to the values Chris Paul and Deron Williams have.

He is not a bad point guard to have, but when playing with Dwight Howard, he needs a strong distributor. Nelson averaged 4.9 assist per game during his regular season, but DROPS OFF during the playoffs to 4.4 assists. That last fact about Nelson I will give to the Nelson DISLIK-ers. BUT, this past season he improved and averaged 6.0 assists a game, maybe he still has that room for improvement.

Nelson also has one key and very vital element over Chris Paul and Deron Williams, and that is the chemistry he has built with his very close teammate Dwight Howard since both were drafted by Orlando in the 2005 NBA Draft.

All in all, the Magic need to make improvements to its roster, and many are jumping to gaining a superstar like Deron Williams or CP3, which looks like it will be a difficult task for the Magic organization.  

I am so grateful for having Jameer Nelson for these years, and watching him grow into that All-Star form prior to injury, but I also want to see my team, the Orlando Magic get that champrionship. I don’t know, all I am doing is speculating, which is always fun, and a nice break from that annoying NBA Lockout.
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Here It Is & Remember Bottom Line up front from my perspective is YOU CANT GO WRONG WITH EITHER OF THESE PLAYERS (even Jameer if other areas improve)!


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Notes: all statistics were found on http://www.basketball-reference.com.