Ball or Nuthin' » Sixers

Stoudemire for Iguodala Deal Bad For Both Teams

T Lamont — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:31:32 +0000

The trade rumors for Phoenix Sun Amare’ Stoudemire have persisted for some time now, but there have recently been rumblings of the All-Star being swapped along with Leandro Barbosa for Andre Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert.

While the probability of this exchange is not quite clear, it would certainly shake up the rosters of each squad. Here’s the impact of such a move:

Leandro Barbosa...doing what he does best...

For Philadelphia – They would basically be saying “we don’t want defense anymore. We’ve already tried that and it hasn’t gotten us anywhere. Time to try something new.”

And, in theory, they’d be right. But what’s would be very interesting about bringing Stoudemire into town would be his pairing with Elton Brand. Brand has been an big-time underachiever in Philly, with a big-time price tag. With Stoudemire on the roster, that would be two similar types.

Stoudemire, like Brand, makes scoring the ball his main priority. Defense is merely a concern for the rest of his teammates. And please don’t confuse shot-blocking with defense. Stoudemire will block some shots, but you can forget about him moving laterally to contain ball penetration. Or making the proper, on-time rotation when it’s required (other than to block shots).

And what does Leandro Barbosa bring to the table? A guy who will jack it up anytime he touches it. He certainly isn’t gonna play any defense. As a matter of fact, he might as well spell his name “Leanro” because he ain’t got no “D”. It’s a shame that a player, who many regard as the fastest in the NBA, is consistently abused by the opposition.

Wherever he plays, Andre Iguodala will bring his crazy athleticism.

For Phoenix – Andre Iguodala is a good all-around player. He’s not the guy to take your franchise to the next level, however. That’s the main reason that the Sixers are willing to part with the young, extremely athletic swingman. Offensively, he’s still very raw, and for years media pundits have been predicting a break-out season for him. I just don’t see it coming. But from Phoenix’s perspective…as long as they have an able-bodied Steve Nash, he should fit perfectly into what they do. In many ways, he’s a less-skilled version of Grant Hill.

Center Samuel Dalembert is a good shot blocker. He a slightly above average rebounder. Just about everything else he does needs improvement. Dalembert is seven feet tall with long arms, and that’s hard to replace.

What’s the bottom line for this potential deal?

Phoenix picks up some defense and loses some offense. Steve Nash has the ability to make Dalembert look better on the offensive end (as hard as it may seem). But Nash (and the Suns) would greatly miss Stoudemire’s fiery play and versatility on the offensive end. They would have no interior go-to-guy.

Philadelphia turns into a bad shooting team with reduced defense. That can’t be good for Sixers fans. With guards like Allen Iverson and Louis Williams (who both play matador-style defense) and no Dalembert to cover for their mistakes, things will get ugly real fast.

Phoenix would get the better deal here, but ironically, it probably wouldn’t make them a better team.

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Remember This???

T Lamont — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:18:18 +0000

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Misleading Playoff Seedings

T Lamont — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:14:17 +0000

The Nuggets have found limited opposition in their two playoff series.

The NBA’s regular season of 1230 games (30 teams playing 82 games each) is certainly long and drawn. There’s absolutely no argument against that.

If you’re a fan of one particular team, there’s only 82 games that you care about. If you only like watching the tops dogs go head-to-head, then you probably care about roughly 10-20 games each season. Either way, that leaves the vast majority of the NBA schedule as a necessary evil in order to get to the good part – the postseason.

But historically, if there’s one good thing to know about the NBA schedule, it is this: the teams with the best regular-season records traditionally fare the best in the playoffs. How about those 2007 Warriors upending the Mavericks? Remember the Sonics folding to the pressure and losing to the Nuggets in ’94? Well, there are always exceptions. But the bigger theory here is that there is a reason that these moments stick out in your memory. It’s because throughout the history of the NBA playoffs, these have proven to be anomalies.

So, how is this year’s group of playoff contenders living up to this historical reference? At the moment, I’d say that we have some mixed results.

First, let’s look at the expected. The 2009 Eastern Conference playoffs have gone exactly as scripted. Now, we did witness more drama in the first round than we anticipated with the Bulls (No.7 seed) pushing the Celtics (No.2 seed), and the Magic (No.3 seed) chalking up two games to the Sixers (No.6 seed). But the Cavs-Pistons and Hawks-Heat series went according to seeding. in the end, we were left with the top 4 seeds for the conference semifinals – of which the Cavs moved on as expected and the Celtics and Magic are deadlocked. The end result of the Eastern Conference playoff picture would be what we have been accustomed to. We’ll either witness a No.1-No.2 match-up or a No.1-No.3 match-up. Not bad at all.

The Rockets and Lakers are in the midst of a heated battle.

Now for the unexpected – the Western Conference. The biggest shocker (accordingly to regular-season seeding, that is) would have been the Dallas Mavericks upsetting the San Antonio Spurs in round one. While a No.6 ousting a No.3 is not earth-moving, it provided an easier than expected path to the conference finals for the No.2 seeded Denver Nuggets. To put it in perspective, they’ve made it through two rounds without facing a top-4 conference opponent.

That lies in direct contrast to what the Lakers are going through. They’re the No.1 seed out west, but their seocnd round opponent Houston is giving them all they can handle. Although the Rockets were the No.5 seed, it’s actually a fair argument to comfortably present them as one of the top 3 teams in the Western Conference. With Game 7 coming up Sunday afternoon, the Lakers are hoping that would be the highest consideration that we could give them.

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Looks like Magic-Sixers is Going Seven Games…

T Lamont — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:21:09 +0000

Would you suspend Dwight Howard for this??

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Eastern Conference Update

T Lamont — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:03:35 +0000

Across the board, this year’s first round NBA playoff series have been as entertaining as any that I can recall in recent memory. With only one Eastern Conference squad handling their business (the Cavs swept the Pistons), there are three playoff series which are reached Game 6.

Here are my thoughts on the things to look out for in Game 6 of each of these series:

Atlanta and Miami have provided us with many fireworks in their series.

Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat:

Hawks- Let’s see if Woodson can find a way to get JJ (Joe Johnson) some good looks at the basket. He played better in Game 5 than in the other games of the series, but overall he is still finding it tough to get open shots. When JJ is dictating the flow of their offensive game, Atlanta is at their best.

Heat- I would try to establish my shooters early in the game. If Miami is able to get Daequan Cook, Mario Chalmers and James Jones some shots, things could come a little bit easier for Dwayne Wade. Also, if I’m the Heat, I want to make sure that Wade has some legs left to carry the team late in the game.

Orlando Magic at Philadelphia 76ers:

Magic – Focus on sound fundamental defense. Orlando needs to make Philly beat them from the outside. The 76ers are a team with very few, if any, accomplished shooters. If the Magic defenders are able to stay between their man and the basket, and keep them off of the free throw line, their odds of winning this road contest will increase dramatically.

76ers - The Sixers are at their best when the game is played at a helter-skelter pace. They are very athletic and they need to take advantage of that. Also, they need to push the ball so that they can get some early offensive scores before Dwight Howard makes it down the court. Give Louis Williams a few extra minutes and let him play at the speed that he is accustomed to.

P-Double needs to have a '99' clutch rating on NBA Live.

Boston Celtics at Chicago Bulls:

Celtics – Boston needs to figure out how to defend the pick and roll. I know that’s easier said than done (considering that the pick and roll has been a staple in the NBA for decades), but Derrick Rose is absolutely killing them – because the Celtics keep switching. Doc needs to have Rondo, House or whoever is guarding Rose fight through the pick and attempt to stay with Rose. Whenever Boston switches on the pick, one of their bigs ends up checking Rose. And Rose just slices them up.

Bulls – In key moments, Chicago needs to have Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon and John Salmons in the game. These three comprise the best mix of offensive creativity – as well as shot-making ability - of any threesome in the Eastern Conference playoffs (LeBron only counts as one person, right??).

Happy Game 6 watching!!

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