The offseason blows

The off-season blows big time and it's rather difficult to open Twitter, when there is nothing even remotely connected to the basketball in the trending topics. It must be even more difficult for players like Big Baby Davis, Andre Miller and David Lee, who are looking at their phones and waiting for any call.

Celtics load their team like there was no tomorrow. Their new target is Marquis Daniels, who will come in a Sign & Trade with Scalabrine or take the biannual exception. Trail Blazers don't have that much luck. Although, they have money to spend, they continue to fail to sign any player at all. After Hedo Turkoglu made his decision in favor of snowy Toronto winters, the Blazers signed Paul Millsap for an offer sheet, only to be kicked in the nuts again, this time by Utah Jazz, who decided to match the offer.

Mark Cuban's lawsuit have been dismissed, Antoine Walker didn't have luck with gambling and Richard Jefferson left his bride at the altar. That's the kind of news we are being fed lately. It's dry bread and water for those of us, who are hungry for any NBA news. I would prefer rainbow trout and Chianti, but that will have to do, unfortunately.

Dwyane Wade jumped out on Twitter lately with a promise of some news. Of course news were crappy, he changed Converse for Nike, which doesn't make any difference, if you're not interested in yet another puppet commercial. He didn't say anything about Lamar Odom, although the rumors make us believe, that Wade is trying to convince the Heat team and Odom to remarry again.

Yao Ming bought himself a team, and it might be the only basketball related activity, that will be left for him. He just cannot catch a break with his injuries, which is such a pity, for he is one of the best centers in the game and has a heart of a warrior.

Josh Childress is going back to Greece, and there is a remote possibility that he will take Nate Robinson with him.

Magic spoiled Marcin Gortat's hopes to be a starting center for the Mavericks. Marcin wasn't happy at all, especially when the Magic signed also Brandon Bass, pushing the Polish Hammer even further on the bench.

The OK City Thunder waived guard Earl Watson, who might be joining the Pacers, hence giving us the hope, that Jarrett Jack will wear Raptors uniform next season. There is no logical reason for Pacers to pay 20 mln just to get another point guard. They have time till Tuesday to make their decision. Hope we won't get the treatment Blazers are getting. Although we have Douby to backup both guard position and he had a major impact in the Summer League games, I still don't feel him as a first guard from the bench. He hogs the ball way to much, and while it may work in the Summer League games, where all the players try to steal the show, it won't be working in the team concept. Roko didn't improve and Marcus Banks... You just hope that he can somehow disappear and take his contract with him. There is no reason for him to be in the NBA.

The new CBA by Tigercub

So, DeMar DeRozan signed his name under his first NBA contract and we have our Pizza-man in T-Dot, also. We knew that already, but how we got Hedo is another thing. Bryan Colangelo with help of other executives created rather complicated deal. Like 'I didn't sleep 5 nights in a row, to figure it out' complicated deal. It includes 4 teams and basically looks like that:

Raptors get Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Devean George and bunch of salary cap exceptions.

Mavericks get Kris Humphries, Shawn Marion and Nathan Jawai.

Grizzlies get our second round pick, dollars and Jerry Stackhouse.

Magic get dollars and trade exception.

Why make it so complicated, when BC could have offered Hedo a contract, saving himself some sleepless nights? I'll give you the clue: it's not because we wanted Wright and George so hard. The answer lies in the magical word 'exception'. Yeah, this is what we were losing by just signing Hedo Turkoglu. But the CBA is obviously written by somebody who loves the word 'loopholes'. Before you understand it, the new CBA comes and it starts allover again. We're waiting for another ankle breaking set of rules in 2011. Why not make it simple and honor the players of 2000's in the same time, by this understandable and straight-forward set of exceptions:

The Anderson Varejao exception. Salary: the yearly income of an average wig producer.

The Eddy Curry exception. Salary: the yearly income of your local McDonalds restaurant.

The Allen Iverson exception. Salary: yearly number of sold benches.

The Ron Artest exception. Salary: the number of sold out rap albums by a player in discussion.

The Kevin Garnet exception. Salary: yearly income of an ear-plug store.

The Glen Davis exception. Salary: number of yearly sold Pampers packs.

The Baron Davis exception. Salary: money made by the movie '300' in the first month.

The LeBron James exception. Salary: yearly income of a local video store.

The Nuggets exception. Salary: the average price of tattooing a whole basketball team (coaches, trainers, execs included).

The list can go on and on. It doesn't use the complicated language of lawyers. But it still lets you spend more than you're allowed. Like when you're a girl using your husbands Master Card.

The Rookie From Western Kentucky

Courtney Lee finished his first season as an NBA player. And what season it was!
- He played on a team that went to the NBA Finals and as a starter in more than half games.
- He dunked on the King. Twice.
- He got elbowed by his own team-mate.
- He had an opportunity to wear a Hannibal Lecter mask in the playoff games.
- He missed the layup who could have won the game for Magic.
- He was called hot, not only for natural reasons, but also because of his unusual name [@TheNoLookPass: 'Courtney Lee. She sounds hot.']
- Finally, in the off-season he got traded for Mama Carter & her son.

He is not going to be with Magic next season. He will be a division rival. He will play alongside Devin Harris in New Jersey's backcourt [how am I supposed to hate New Jersey Nets now?!?]. Last but not least he will never again be called The Rookie From Western Kentucky again.

Did I use this article as an excuse to put his photo? I guess so. Well, other bloggers put the photos of cheerleaders in their blogs. I'm not into that. And you never know - maybe Courtney Lee can dance, too.

Post draft thoughts

Moving to a new place is always a pain in the ass. If you add the fact, that our movers didn't come when they were supposed to come and we had to do it on our own. New building didn't let us transfer our Rogers account, and Look TV (which they recommended) didn't take new customers. We finally ordered internet from Bell (no TV, because we have no balcony) and the appointment was yesterday morning, so I felt myself lucky enough to not miss the draft and draft discussion on Twitter. The technician came early in the morning, but then we found out that our building management has some bitch-slap war with Bell also, so the technician left us without internet. What was our surprise another technician came in the evening and made it work. Thirty minutes before draft I finally connected!

Draft night wasn't half as eventful. Not much trades, some pick swaps. And not much to talk about Raptors selection. We got (Vince Carter) Demar DeRozan, as we expected. We didn't buy a pick. We didn't do a blockbuster trade. My favorites were Tyreke Evans, Jonny Flynn, Demar DeRozan, as I stated before. Both Evans and Flynn went earlier (BC didn't even bother his head with Evans, but I hoped we could somehow trade for Flynn). DeRozan was an obvious choice. And his reaction was cute.

Other thoughts:

- Number 1 pick wasn't a surprise. Blake Griffin was supposed to go to the Clippers and here he goes.

- Lots of people expect Hasheem Thabeet to be a bust (#2 to Memphis).

- Ricky Rubio, who was projected to go at number 2, but slipped to number 5. We're all kinda not that trusting the European players. And after being drafted his agent said he'd play in Europe for next 2 years. I know, Minnesota sucks, but where is this "I'll play for free, just to be in NBA" attitude?

- Tyreke went to Sacramento with #4, Jonny to Minnesota with #6.

- Minnesota Timberwolves drafted a bunch of guards - Ricky Rubio with #5, Jonny Flynn with #6, Ty Lawson with #18 (traded to Denver), Wayne Ellington at #28. 4 first round picks = 4 guards.

- Golden State Warriors pissed off NY Knicks fans grabbing Stephen Curry at #7.

- New Jersey Nets drafted Terrence Williams at #11. Wait, it only gets cuter. They traded Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson to Magic for Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston and Tony Battie. Backcourt with Devin Harris and Courtney Lee? It rarely gets more entertaining (and HOT!!!). I already feel bad having a crash on division rivals.



- Brandon Jennings drafted at #10 by Milwaukee Bucks looks like Jamario Moon.

- Indiana Pacers went Caucasian, drafting Tyler Hansbrough at #13. Jared (Both Teams Played Hard) wasn't happy at all.

- DeJuan Blair slipped to second round. Suspicions were getting really thick (he raped somebody before draft, knocked out all the GM's daughters, brought a bag of cocaine and a hooker to the practice). There is no way, his knees are that bad! Finally Spurs took him at #37, making Spurs fans happy (me too), and giving another reason for conspiracy theories about SAS. I, myself, feel, that he'll become a huge piece of another championship team.

- Suns got Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, second-rounder and dollars from Cleveland for Shaq, who will have the opportunity to play with yet another great player in LeBron. That's a life story (he played with Penny, Kobe & Wade already).

- Warriors got Acie Law and Speedy Claxton from Hotlanta for Jamal Crawford.

- A part of Portland's Spanish Armada, Sergio Rodriguez is moving to Sacramento.

- Bucks get Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Amir Johnson, Pistons get Fabricio Oberto, Spurs got Richard Jefferson. I rambled a little about that trade here, but check Project Spurs here.


Raptors Republic got it together pretty nice, telling us about winners and losers in the draft.


Update: I don't believe I forgot about the biggest trade! Darko got traded! For Q-Rich!

We have the champs and Facebook is killing me

It is not my intention to recap the last night's game or do any analysis about it. I got already about 100 feeds with recaps, so there's nothing new I can add. Asides from my disappointment, that Magic didn't try to fight it over, making the series longer, or at least providing some reasonable entertainment in the game 5. They had a good first quarter, but didn't manage to build a huge lead in the first half, as their standard third quarter collapse came into second quarter. Lakers collected well deserved NBA trophy, Kobe collected a comment or two, that he cannot win the 'ship without Adam Morrison. Same old, same old.

As the Twitter will be silent during the evenings now, I decided to come back and have a look on Facebook, from which I almost completely separated around March Madness. Main reason for separation was the depth of analysis in 'Trade Bosh' & 'Raptors need to get tougher' topics, which I just couldn't face anymore. I didn't want to get to deep on my first go, so I just innocently set up a status as 'Lakers are the NBA Champions' to give a hint to my 'friends' that I've been watching ball lately and I am hmm... open for discussions. After 5 minutes I got a comment: 'shaq to the cavs'. So I politely asked about any further info - like who would you trade him for, how does it work for both teams, etc. The 'Facebook-deep-analysis' came after about an hour: 'pav and big ben! I think it would take some depth away, but that would turn them into a whole new kinda monster.. similar to the lakers "kobe / oneal campaign". It works out financially for the suns and thats about it... i dont see ben or pav fitting into the run and gun offence immediately. Lastly nah lol'. I kept the original grammar. And no, I am not coming back to Facebook. I'll read the archives of my favorite blogs in the off-season. Or take a bartending course. Or something.

Magic magically falls to 1-3

Although Magic dominated through the first half, and Dwight Howard had stunning 21 rebounds, 16 points and 9 blocks, Lakers took another win. The lead gained in the first half disappeared in the third quarter (famous third quarter collapse by Magic). It looked like Orlando team had a chance when they were up by 3 points nearing the end of regulation and the ball went into Derek Fisher hands, who was 0-5 from behind the arc that night. The shot hit nothing but net. Magic had another chance to take the lead, but Mikael Pietrus missed last second shot, and the game went to overtime, which started with Rashard Lewis 3-pointer. That was the shot that was supposed to fall in the end of regulation! Another 3-pointer by Fisher gave the Lakers leading with 31 seconds left in the overtime, and the Los Angeles team prevailed.

Questions were asked.
- Shouldn't the ball have gone to Lewis in the dying seconds of regulation? Yes, I believe it should. He is deadly from that spot in the clutch time.
- Was playing Jameer Nelson in the 4th quarter and overtime a good idea? No. With all respect to Jameer Nelson and his outstanding game against Lakers during the regular season, it's Rafer Alston who took the team to the playoffs. Although sometimes annoying ball-hog, it was Skip who helped that Magic team to win in the previous series. With a huge help of Anthony Johnson. Fisher said about his 3-pointer, that he had to shoot it, because Nelson gave him so much space! While Skip and AJ were glued to the bench! What were you thinking about SVG? How would it taste to be 2-2 now instead of 1-3?
- Is Rashard Lewis overpaid? My favorite question. Everytime he misses or his team loses, there's always a bunch of people remembering how big his salary is. That he gets money like he was number 1 option not number 2. Really? Really? Boston has 4 players with number 1 option salaries. They're not in the Finals. And last time I checked their best paid player was spending playoffs in the street clothes shouting obscenities at opponents.
- Does Magic have a chance? Not anymore. Even if they somehow win the next game, we're going back to Los Angeles. And that will be the end of season for Magic. They are great great team and played fantastically through the playoffs but Lakers are certainly a better team. That's the beastly Lakers team we used to watch in the regular season, not the Fakers that had problem with injury-devastated Rockets in the Conference-Semis.

Other news - somebody stole Michael Jordan's autographed jersey from Tony Parker's house and placed it on craigslist. Beware jersey collectors!

About draft and the Finals

I don't know how much truth is in the fact that Demar Derozan didn't want to come to train with the Raptors, but it doesn't make him a desirable player. How can a young boy who didn't smell NBA yet already grade teams he wants to play or not? Kid, Tim Duncan you're not. You might end up being Hoffa / having a 15 win team.

Scottie Raynolds decided to stay one more year in college which I find a very good decision. I like 'Nova basketball and I like Scottie, and I hope he'll improve much for the next year draft. He can end up being closer to top picks and we may end up getting him if we suck another year.

Magic - Lakers tonight and I am starting to seriously doubt if the Magic can make it. First game was a blow-out by Lakers and a brick festival by Magic. Game 2 was a close one, and when it was tied with 0.6 seconds left, I kept my breath waiting for Hedo Turkoglu to inbound a lob to Dwight Howard. The ball went to Courtney Lee, who missed a layup, sending the game to the overtime, when Lakers collected the W. Third game was won by Orlando, but they needed a record-breaking shooting (62.5% with 75% in the first half!) to win JUST by 4 points! No way LA defense won't adjust for the next game. Well, we'll see.

So the Finals started

Game 1 of the Finals was a huge disappointment. Even for people that expected Lakers to win that one easily, this just didn't look right. Just looking at the numbers of Magic starters:


You would think they came to Los Angeles only to build some houses there. The 'construction workers' threw so many bricks that it became rather scary. I know the saying 'You live by 3, you die by 3', but c'mon. How do you achieve all your players getting cold for the whole game?



Kobe had his 'special' angry face, but it wasn't needed. There's not many teams Magic can beat while scoring 75 points.
While the bad-bad night for Magic coincided with Jameer Nelson's comeback, there's no way I blame it on him. For, when he threw a ball to an open man, the open man threw just another brick!

I was sure Magic will take this series in 6 games. I still believe it. I simply don't think that the full Magic team will take a night off on each game. That's what's usually magic with Magic - there's always a team mate to take over when you have a night off. Well, nearly always...

Cavs are still alive

Whether it was LeBron James' triple-double, Mo Williams' wet jump-shot or Andy Varejao's acrobatic flops - the boys from Cleveland kept the Nike's puppets dream alive. And the fishing-rods sellers in Ohio have to wait at least another 2 days.
The first quarter belong to the Cavaliers completely, Magic decided to have a nap during this period. The twitter-land divided into 2 camps: 1. Magic are done, Cavaliers won it. 2. Magic will slowly come back, and Cavaliers will blow this 22-point lead. Well the second group was closer to the truth - if you call blowing the lead in just one quarter slow.
Second half was much more interesting with the lead going back and forth, both teams actually playing and Reggie Miller trying to be quotable: 'Varejao flopping allover the place.' Skip to my Lou awarded us with some drama everytime he touched the ball (1-7 from 3pt line).
Unluckily, French Revolution (Pietrus) and Polish Democracy (Gortat) didn't work on the reigning MVP. Even Courtney Lee didn't dunk on the King. Cavaliers won.
Who's gonna win the series? All of us know that there were only 8 teams that came back from 1-3 deficit (that was the Cavaliers record before the yesterday's game). By all I mean everybody besides Mo Williams who seems to be the most cocky about his team winning. I know, I know, if I dislike cockiness I should stop watching basketball and start reading poetry, cooking, etc... But back to the point.
I believe in teams working in the concept of a 'team work' more than 'having a super-star and a bunch of random dudes'. That's why I picked up Magic. More, I am sure if they had Jameer Nelson, they'd win in 4 games. Or if Rafer learnt to pass more. They also have much more offensive schemes. They have Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis who are versatile enough to give any team defensive-mismatch problems. And Dwight Howard in the middle. And even if LeBron is the best player in this series he needs some help and he doesn't get it often enough.