Apologies Mr Gasol
I owe an apology to Pau Gasol. Back in August I wrote this, saying Gasol was going to drop off this season as compared to last. I mostly wrote it because I REALLY wanted to use the picture from Rolling Stone.
Even worse, because I secretly wanted a piece of the Gasol family, I drafted Marc with the 33rd pick. I say worse, because despite his good form, I traded him for Brook Lopez who continues to abuse me with his dopey comic ways while not performing on the basketball court.
Anyway, the point of this is that I just traded for Pau Gasol. I thought the day would never come. You could call me a classic Laker hater. I can’t stand Kobe Bryant (that jaw thing pushed me over the edge) and the current collection of douchebags assembled in LA astounds me. To get Gasol, I gave up my rock so far this season, Tony Parker together with Danny Granger and Dorell Wright (I also got DJ Augustin, but more on that later). This was done on a whim, mostly expecting the trade to be rejected. But I couldn’t resist trying to nab Gasol to compliment my efficient big man team – KG, Camby, Nene, the previously mentioned Brook Lopez. And now Gasol. With Durant as the centerpiece, I’d say the team is borderline complete.
Getting back to Gasol. My main points against Gasol prior to the season starting were; He wasn’t interesting, he is soft, he is a dick, and he cannot play as well as 2009-10. 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.
But he certainly can play as well as last season, perhaps even better. This season, Gasol has increased his assists and blocks while lowering his turnovers. He is shooting slightly less FG% (down 2% to 51%) while his boards have slipped by 0.4 and his points have increased by 0.2. He has hit 43 of his 48 free throws in January. Did I mentioned that he hasn’t missed a game yet?
PAU GASOL! Why did I ever doubt you? Please do not seek your revenge by transforming into Shawn Bradley.
On a side note. Looking at my original roster for the season, only four players remain. Durant, Nene, KG and Gallinari. Strange. What’s not strange is that my team has ended up just like all my other teams. Efficient big men, dumping assists. I promise myself next year I’ll try something different.
The Kitson Cup**
I used to think of myself as a very humble person in all aspects of my life. But for some reason, fantasy basketball brings out the inner jerk in me. Therefore, I will use this opportunity to gloat. I am currently sitting pretty in all three of my fantasy leagues. I know the best thing everyone likes to read about on blogs are other people’s fantasy teams, so let me begin.
From the start, is Dorell Wright the answer to all of life’s problems, or just most of them? The man is a machine. After picking him off the waivers about 7 weeks ago, I haven’t lost a game. I thought I misread his line last week when my stat-tracker said he had over a 100 points shooting at over 59% with 18 threes. But I didn’t. The team I was playing only managed 18 three pointers all week. At this stage of the season, it seems Dorell = Derrick Rose + Gilbert Arenas. Tasty. I really didn’t think anyone in GSW apart from Curry and maybe David Lee would be any good this season. Monta put that to shame and now Wright is steaming.
As I type this, Brook Lopez is currently 1-4 from the free throw line. How is this happening? I traded for Lopez and Blatche when I gave up on Marc Gasol and Tyreke Evans earlier this season. At the time I thought it was the steal of the century, however as time progresses, I am more and more uncertain. Blatche plays one good game for ever 3 bad ones and Lopez has caught a terrible case of the seemingly infectious ‘Bargnani’ syndrome. Something so terrible, the player is unable to gather more than 6 rebounds per game. Considering I love BroLo, I’m not going to give up, I just feel dudded everytime I see his O-rank of 15. There is something really satisfying for me when I own players over more than one season. It’s like being a long-term relationship. When that person is Kevin Durant, nearly all of the time spent together is awesome. Unfortunately this is hardly ever the case. But in your heart of hearts, you know it’ll work out in the end, even if Tim Duncan has seemingly stopped playing from the December-March period of the season.
While Lopez is frustrating, at least he is on my team. The thing I will remember most about this season happened before a game was even played. Smack bang in the middle of our draft, about 2 hours after we had commenced, rounds 7 and 8approached. As I had the first pick, I took Gallinari. I needed a point guard. Just one, but I had seen the Rooster in person at the Garden and owned a $25 tshirt with his name! I told myself it’s OK, I’ll nab one in 15 picks. I had my heart set on Baron Davis (don’t ask me why, I’m just attracted to that incredible beard). He was snatched early. OK, no worries. Then the dreaded run of point guards began. Manu (kinda a PG), Brooks, Mo-mo, Devin Haris, GILBERT! I kept telling myself it was OK because I knew about Raymond Felton and no-one else did. I was already jumping with joy before he was taken right out of my hands by the jerk picking before me. A season dealt a terrible crushing blow before it even began. O.J Mayo was my consolation prize (this kind of sums up my draft). It doesn’t matter if I win every league this season, this will be the thing I remember most in years to come.
Onto more positive news. I am currently leading a bloggers league made up of a bunch of people from various fantasy basketball blogs. Probably because no-one else seems that interested in it. 14 teams seemed like too many when drafting but now that I’m at the top, it doesn’t seem like enough. Tippy from FantasyBasketballDaily is currently sitting one point behind me. While he makes money from playing cash games (which international players are cruelly excluded from), I sit and dream of what could’ve been. My team is made up of Grant Hill, Luke Ridnour, Francesco Garcia and Ben Wallace. I actually don’t know how I have even won one week. But there you go. Raymond Felton is part of this team. After the horrible first draft, I reached for him in the 4th round of this one. Looks like an amazing pick in hindsight however at the time it was 4am in the morning and I was just trying to keep my body awake by doing something dashing.
The problem regarding blogging and fantasy basketball for me is that when the season starts, I don’t really know what to do. Rotoworld seems to be the ultimate source of player updates, which are extremely important. A couple of other sites provide daily rounds ups (none better than GMTR and FBD). What is left? Incoherent ramblings such as this? A narrative of my personal experiences? A weekly over view of who killed it and who definitely didn’t? I think this is one of the main reasons why fantasy NBA has never made it to the ‘mainstream’. You don’t see fantasy stuff survive on sites like the Basketball Jones, Ball Don’t Lie or the TrueHoop network. It seems to be a very niche internet community which struggles to define how it fits in with the broader basketball world. Unlike MLB or the NFL, there isn’t (or at least doesn’t seem to be to me, at a computer in regional Australia) a solid link between the casual basketball fan and the fantasy nerd.
I’m going to go with incoherent ramblings until something better rears it’s ugly head in my mind.
Finally, if you own Roy Hibbert… suck it up sweet heart.
And very finally, I watch/listen to the Basketball Jones nearly every day for awhile now but this latest episode to me was one of the best for comedic gold.
**Every August to me is a special time of year. It is when the Fantasy English Premier League comes to life. I live amongst a group of friends whose mission in life is to watch as much EPL as possible. Personally, I can’t stand soccer. However, if it’s fantasy and it’s sports, I’ll give it a go. Two seasons ago, I managed to win their converted league during the very last game week (Malouda!). Now they have a trophy for it and it’s called the Kitson Cup. The reason I mention this at is because the name stems from an ability to play the ‘wild card’. In EPL, as opposed to the NBA, multiple teams can pick the same player and the competition is judged on aggregate points from the players in your team. However, once a season, you can trade as many players as you wish and totally revamp your entire team. This is the wildcard. I don’t know how this would ever work in fantasy NBA where people draft, but for those wallowing in the deep end of their respective leagues, it’s a great opportunity to give the season a whole new meaning.
Fantasy Basketball Nexus
I just wanna test out google with that heading, and moving onto more important things….
Some jerkoff on twitter has the following ‘top post’:
“@Cazzball If you finish last in a fantasy NBA league, you’ve actually won. #RandomThought”
Advice? Don’t pay attention to that guy, but read up on the links below!
I don’t have much time for the BleacherReport, but this is good stuff on Tyreke Evans.
A round up of sleeper lists from 6 different sites.
Tom Lorenzo continues his excellent series of who would you rather pick. This edition, Barbosa, Batum, Wright or Childress.
Jason at fBasketballBlog has already linked up this one, but it’s so good I feel the need to spread the good word far and wide. SleeperBot let’s you rank and tier players so easily then email it to yourself it’s almost unfair that it’s a free website. This is a MUST for any fantasy fanatic.
MFBarkley has a new podcast (#2) and maybe it’s just me, but I find it pretty hilarious to listen in on other guys chatting randomly about basketball. More fantasy please, but it’s all good.
I’m itching to do my drafts this weekend and beyond. Have three lined up over the next week. Bring it on!
Asleep at the wheel
Nearly every site has a sleeper list. Some of the better ones I have seen are GMTR and Razzball’s collection of posts (and there are more here and here). However I feel I need my 2 cents on everything so I’ll proceed via TIERS! Everywhere I look I see them dominating fantasy sites. In that spirit I will tier my sleepers.
Sleep walkers: Those players who aren’t really sleepers because EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THEM. This category is led by two players Linas Kleiza and Roy Hibbert. Kleiza is light sleeping because he found himself on a roster which has been gutted by the departure of one player (I don’t know how this even happens, but it did!) and somehow being the only player with the ability to rebound at the required rate for his position. He will score points, hit threes, rebound and generally be a good influence on someone else’s team, because they will have reached on him. Roy Hibbert on the other hand is set to explode all over the state of Indiana. The Georgetown alum is going to generate a lot of headlines this season. He has issues with fouls but hopefully he sorts that stuff out. He will probably be gone by the time you think about drafting him as well, but if you are SUPER keen, jump on him early as a reliable backup big man who could just go insane. The third player who should be here just because he is a rookie is DeMarcus Cousins. But as Tippy at FantasyBasketballDaily recently said, “If you had any thoughts of grabbing DeMarcus Cousins cheap in your draft, please wake up, that dream just ended.” in reference to Samuel Dalembert’s injury concerns. He’ll only need a short period to stamp his dominance on the game and become an established starter.
Light sleepers: Let’s get a bit more adventurous. D.J Augustin used to be everyone’s favorite ‘up and comer’ before it turned out he wasn’t any good and couldn’t even beat out Raymond Felton for the starting PG gig. Now he has that opportunity but all I can see is disappointed owners who end up cursing their 11th round draft pick. Mike Miller is in a totally different boat. He actually once player pretty good. He can also shoot the lights out, which makes it kinda strange he didn’t shoot the ball in Washington. You would’ve thought NBA players like to do that sort of thing. Oh well. There is where the definition of a sleeper becomes hazy. I think he qualifies because he is going to be AMAZING and lead the league in threes but for some reason still languishes way down on draft boards. Greg Monroe is not posed for such a feat. But he will be starting for the Pistons in the not too distant future as his potential shines through. People are aware of this guy and will take fliers in the very late rounds but you should get in first as a stash and wait player to really pay dividends in the 2nd half of the season. Don’t leave quality like this in the free agent pool if you have bench spots. Lastly for my light sleepers (although there are a whole bunch of other players who could qualify here) is Kelenna Azubuike. Enough people know about him to realise that he is injured at the moment and there is a bit of a congestion at the shooting guard spot in New York. However…. he could be so ridiculously awesome this season for a late round pick that you need to consider him.
The beard. Plain and simple...
Deep sleepers: The only thing you need to know about James Harden is that when you search his name in goggle, the first result to come up is ‘james harden bust’. That means that nearly everyone thinks he is a bust, resulting in his low average draft position. This year should not only see the sophomore surge for Harden, but also he will eventually either start or get enough minutes to be considered the teams 6th man. This means more threes, more steals and more points. Also, more beard.
Michael Beasley does not have the biggest fan club in the NBA. In fact I don’t think I know anyone who actively likes him. Poor attitude, drugs, extremely high expectations – they’ll all ruin a career, especially one so young. So I think it’s for the best that he has a new start somewhere out of the way. Lucky he got traded to Minnesota then. All Beasley needs is 32 minutes a night to highlight his potential. He could be a 1-1-1 threat combined with the ability to be a number one option on a poor team. This alone should ensure that he is drafted. Kyle Korver might not start but he’ll play 25+ minutes and he’ll have a great point guard giving him the rock. What more could you ask for? Well, I can think of a few things but this will do. Shooting Guards who don’t do much don’t make great sleepers but someone has to carry that offense while Boozer is out and he could have a really good start to the season.
In A Coma: Have you heard Brad Miller’s name mentioned once this off-season (excluding any article by Trey Kerby)?. The dude must have signed hi contract in Houston and decided to live underground for the past three months. Let it be known. Miller is the primary back up center to the man who did not play one single game last season. A man who is only allowed to play 24 minutes per game and perhaps not at all on back-to-backs. A man who can fall over in a stiff breeze. Brad Miller is your man in this case. I care not for the Patrick Patterson’s and Luis Scola’s of the world when Miller can be spreading the floor and icing games at the free throw line. It’s NBA blasphemy to say anything good about Darko Milicic so I’ll make it short. He is big. He is still young. He looks like he finally found a team where he will fit in. He will start. Apparently my housemate reckons he can pass better than any big man in the NBA and will average at least 4 assists per game. This makes him a round 4 pick in my books but I think you’ll be able to stash him in the final rounds. Francisco Garcia might have had the most freakiest and freak accidents last season but that doesn’t mean you are allowed to ignore him altogether. This dude is talented wrapped up in the perfect SF body. 1-1-1 potential dripping with extra goo. You could do much worse than ‘Cisco sitting on your bench waiting to explode.
The little things in life
What’s the best thing about fantasy basketball in the two weeks before the season starts? Sifting through mock drafts? Looking at what the experts reckon about your favorite player? Draft day? These all pale in comparison to the sheer excitement generated from the unknown. Because, as the following (true) story will demonstrate, everyone is correct at this stage of the season.
My work days can be pretty dreary. Sitting at a computer all day. Staring at the whitewash walls. Reading bureaucratic rubbish. It’s all there. Yet often they are sparked by the sneakiest of emails. Slyly written comments designed to infuriate even the most placid of people. Thankfully, yesterday was one turned from a dreary day into a hilarious day when this quote hit my inbox:
“Maybe I’ll draft the entire Wizards starting 5 and watch you implode when they win 60 games.”
Now, to most people… OK, to nearly every single fantasy basketball player alive, this wouldn’t be worth two seconds of your time. But this spawned nearly a day and half of discussion centered around the Wizards, Gilbert Arenas and fantasy basketball in general.
To set the scene. My house-mate is a one-eyed Wizards fan who believes Gilbert is the greatest athlete to ever grace the streets of downtown D.C. Right now, I am staring at a giant Arenas poster which adorns his door. As soon as you walk in the front door, bang, Gilbert is staring straight at you with some great big, freaky looking dark eyes. Anyway, this is what occurred over the course of the afternoon:
“Could “international blogger extraordinaire” give us his opinion on one Andray Blatche? 8pts, 2 3ptm, 4 rebs, 3 dimes, 1 blk, 1 steal at the half against a full strength Hawks team. Yummy – he definitely gets drafted between pick 30-40. Zards’ by 14 at the half (sans Arenas)”
Countered by:
“Blatche prediction: 15 points, 7 boards, 2+ steals/blocks, 0.7 threes.
Comment: Susceptible to poor behaviour and uncertainly surrounding injury. Just locked up contract extension. Possible lack of motivation. Nothing special here. Move along now.
Draft: Late 5th round.”
Just to make things more interesting, an unfortunate soul who gets included in these email conversations asked about Hibatchi and his predictions for the coming season. To wit;
“Stats: 20ppg, 2 3s, 3 rebs, 4 ast, 1.3stl
Penny has finally dropped with Arenas – he’s dropped the goofy gimick and is taking his game seriously. Will slot over to the SG spot (his true position) and will benefit from having a pass first PG leading the break and enjoying open 3 shots. Is fit and healthy, and while he will always be limited by his knee injuries, will outperform Kevin Martin who is rubbish. How many SGs can average 5+ assists? AND 2 3ptm a game?
Drafted? 3rd-4th round
The end.”
Now, I have to admit this had my chuckling after the opening sentence. My love for KevMartin was getting walked all over for no good reason. I could not take this lying down!
“17 points, rubbish FG% (as usual), poor FT% for a SG (75%), 2.5 boards, 3.8 assists (not 5+), 1.7 threes, 1.5 steals, 3+ TURNOVERS.
The fake moody Gilbert Arenas blows up by weel 5 after he isn’t getting as much as the ball as he wants. The offense stagnates. Worst 3FG% in career as he starts chucking up the ball whenever he touches it. Misses 15+ games to due moodiness and nagging injuries.
“How many SGs can ave 5+ assists and 2+ 3ptm?” Maybe O.J Mayo. Not Gilbert Arenas.
Drafted: Late 6th round. After Ray Allen, Kevin Martin and OJ MAYO. Game over.”
Anyway, this is a small picture of my world at work (for a very small percentage of the time it must be added). Perhaps this is a tad self-indulgent for a fantasy page (apparently the first rule of fantasy sports is no-one cares about your team/league) but I couldn’t really give a damn. The truth is that both Blatche and Arenas probably lie somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Both have an opportunity to perform in environments which they haven’t seen in before (Arenas as the full time off guard and Blatche as a starter) and if everything goes right, the Wizards might even crack a solid playoff birth. Who knows? What I do know is that talking smack about fantasy basketball in the days just before the season starts is the best way to spend a day, bar none.
Players who will disappoint you
This is the time of year for hype. Ipso facto, it is the time for over hype and some serious cases of retro-wtf come about week 5. Just check out the ‘Anthony Randolph 2009-10′ file on your local google machine. It’s pretty ugly to say the least. So without trying to dampen the mood, who are some candidates this upcoming season who are perhaps a little over hyped?
Kevin Durant: What now!?!? Haven’t you been pumping this kid up since he was about 19 (all of two years ago) and now you think he is a dud? No. This isn’t the case at all. I will take Durant #1 at any chance I get. It’s just, I don’t like the expectations which are accompanying him everywhere. “He is only 21″ and ”He had an amazing world championship” are both valid reasons to expect more upside this season. However it’s not a reason to think he will put up 35 and 10 every game. Just in case you didn’t notice, the Thunder do have other extremely good young talent as well. I think some of the gloss has to come off and we all need to take a big breath. 30/8 with 1.5 threes, blocks and steals is still pretty bloody terrific in my books. It’s just that I think some people around aren’t going to be satisfied if that’s all they get. (After re-reading this, I must be crazy. This is probably some of the worst stuff I have ever written. You get the number one pick and you will be satisfied to the hilt. 35/10 is also probably a lot closer than 30/8)
Rudy Gay: For some reason, Gay made a mint this off-season. Who knows why (apparently Chris Wallace does) but now he is around for a significant amount of seasons. And boys and girls, get ready to be disappointed. There are only a few universal lessons in life. One is that whenever you want a sleep in, there will be some loud bird tweeting at your window. More importantly in this context though, a man who gets paid, gets lazy. Let’s use me as an example. Luckily I have a permanent full time job, but if I was on constant 4 year contracts, this is what my output would look like:
So, as you can see from this extremely scientific measure, I predict Rudy Gay will have a pretty significant drop off from last season. Once I heard a friend describe him as the ultimate 1-1-1 guy. That was a long time ago and now he has O.J Mayo stealing his thunder. Let another chump take him in the early 4th round. He isn’t worth the heart break.
Mo Williams: Here are the three things I think of when I see Mo Williams name. He made an all star team because someone else pulled out. He guaranteed a victory in the 2009 Orlando series (and lost). And he contemplated quitting basketball after LeBron left town. I’ll also tell you that he is an average pick of 47.6 on Yahoo Mock drafts at the moment and that means there are a whole bunch of auto picks happening because Mo Williams DOESN’T GET PICKED THAT HIGH. Sigh. I don’t care if he is the go to guy. The Cavs are the next Pistons when it comes to fantasy in my books. Avoid.
Andrei Kirilenko: This is from the latest Big Board – “The contract-year setup is ideal; now he just needs to stay healthy”. Hmmm. Not exactly a promising comment next to your 70th ranked player. I just don’t know what I’m meant to be excited about. 12 points, 5 boards, maybe 2.5 STL/BLK and that’s it. Did I mention he is 30 half way through the season and likes to miss games? The amount of AK hype I have seen is borderline insane. I care not he is in a contract year. So is Kenyon Martin but I don’t see the Kmart fan club in full swing…
Rashard Lewis: I know. It’s hard to be overrated when no-one really rates your game in the first place. Zing. Last season Lewis averaged less than 5 made field goals per game, less than 33 mins and only managed to score 14 points. For a dude who doesn’t play any defense, you have to wonder if his $114m contract is the only reason he is still even a starter. Apparently he might be playing some SF this season. And you know what? It doesn’t matter one iota. Coach will bench him regardless if he plays SF or PF when he can’t manage to hit open looks or shut down his direct opponent.
Mock drafting FTW
If anyone out there wants to participate in a mock fantasy draft tonight, hit up the link below and follow the prompts. As I type, there are five spots left. Thanks to fBasketballBlog for setting it up.
I promise to amaze with ridiculous picks which will blow your mind with awesomeness. Then again, it is a mock draft and everyone has upside… even Greg Oden.
http://www.fbasketballblog.com/2010/08/25/mock-draft-thursday-aug-26-815-p-m-edt/
Getting Deep
I was trying to explain fantasy basketball to people in the real world today at work. Despite the fact my lovely co-worker thinks my Kevin Durant poster is the portrayal of a soccer player, there were genuine signs of interest which I did not expect and questions which I have never really thought of seriously before. “Why do you pick players?”. “Why do so many people play?”. “American basketball and not Australian?”. I thought I’d tackle these at a more meta-level today than projecting about why unruly Spanish players deflate me.
Apart from the easy answer to the third question, we’ll cover the first two here and perhaps as the season approaches closer in the future, try and find some more existential fantasy basketball questions.
Why do you pick players?
Standard response: to make a team and verse other players in the league.
More appropriate answer: To compete, while also enjoying the NBA in a method which requires a different perspective on basketball. Your average Miami Heat fan might like to prance around in their D Wade jersey, talk about the glory days of early summer in 2006 and drop names like Voshon Lenard to prove their worthiness as fans after the arrival of Chris Bosh and LeBron. You know what I think? Stuff Voshon Lenard. I don’t give two hoots about your backwater, mediocre, should have been a bench player their whole career franchise love child. While I might read stuff like this about John Starks and think “Wow, that’s neat” (sidenote: that’s the best article I have read in a long time), I really don’t live for stories like that or players like that within a franchise environment which pines for success and fame. I want to compete. Most of all, I want to compete against people I know, over things we love talking about for hours on end. I’ll admit I do have an interest in Boston after the arrival of the big three (the bandwagon was fun, less so now) as well as the Knicks after visiting New York over last winter. But my favorite icon of the NBA at present?* Kevin Durant. This is no love affair with his work ethic or his commitment to a small town team (although it’s admirable). It’s his commitment to my fantasy basketball team over the past two seasons. This is perhaps blasphemous to a ‘basketball purist’ but you can take your Voshon and stuff it. I’ll still be shooting hoops with my Durant jersey simply because that’s how I can relate to him and let me tell you, it’s awesome, especially when he drops 15 points in a quarter and the emails start flowing. To get the most out of this game, you don’t just pick players, you pick persona’s and everything which comes with them.
* I say ‘at present’ because the single greatest thing about picking players is that there is always the next draft, the next season and the next team.
I was going to answer the next question as well but I think I have covered it already. I don’t know why I needed the write the above, but I think it is some personal justification for the amount of time I spend reading basketball blogs in August. So, to some links!
The amazing Dan Gilbert gives us the Cleveland Cavaliers
King of Hoops lays out the All ‘why cant you do that’ team
Josh Childress – You snooze, you lose
The best Small Forwards in the game from Fantasy Basketball Daily
Things are pretty slow around the NBA at the moment. Hopefully things pick up after the World Championships as we move into pre-season. More rankings and first round stuff coming up later this week.
Surely they joke
As fantasy fans, sometimes you see a guy for what they really are… terrible NBA players. While fans of actual franchises might whittle of stories about why player x is indespencible because of their incredible ‘court vision’ or ‘chemistry’, you know the truth. The player stinks. They have been suiting up for your team for the past 2 months and have contributed a total of 62 points, have shot 23 from 152 over that period and turn the ball over at least 3 times a game.
That player is Chris Duhon. As a newly minted Knick fan, him not coming back was nearly more awesome than adding Amar’e (I stress the nearly part). This is why the following paragraph, from an actual journalist, made me laugh while reading the Saturday morning news. From Boston.com
But whenever he (Paul Pierce) checked on the NBA’s free agent circus, all he saw was Eastern Conference teams adding on. Miami made the biggest splash by bringing in Chris Bosh and LeBron James to join Dwyane Wade. The Chicago Bulls improved, adding Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver, and making an offer to Orlando’s J.J. Redick. The Knicks added Amar’e Stoudemire. The Magic added Chris Duhon. And while watching it all, a part of Pierce wondered why the Celtics weren’t in the mix.
Surely this is a massive inside joke? Or perhaps the writer was about 5 words under his minimum required to fill a story? Whatever the case, this kind of half-arsed crap makes my blood boil. The Magic have gone backwards. Jason Williams played solid ball last season backing up the very fragile Jameer Nelson. Chris Duhon would struggle to find Dwight Howard in a summer league game, let alone against the cream of the crop in the East. And don’t even get me started on his field goal percentage or his ability to hit wide open three pointers.
Enough already. Some teams get better, some don’t. The Magic, now with a $93m payroll, didn’t. But that’s OK because they are still kinda good.
(h/t Ball Don’t Lie)
