The Bottom of the Barrell

Hello again,

Initially I was going to write something today about All-Star Weekend, the ups and downs and whatnot, but the only story that seems to be emerging from that is Kobe's blocked shot on LeBron, which, while I find it amazing that Bryant finally decided to play some defense, I don't find to be as incredibly interesting as does ESPN. Furthermore, I wish this weren't the case, but I don't know 2013's least disappointing dunker Terrence Ross, but I can say that this year's was an incredibly forgettable dunk contest - and that I opted not even to watch the last 2 dunks.

My next topic in line was the LA Lakers, just simply to air out all my disgust for them, but with the passing of Dr. Buss, I find it would be in bad taste. I'm not that low. I can respect the fact that he helped to bring the Lake Show to the Lake Showtime that it currently is, and so I will refrain today.

With the cupboard of topics as bare as it is, I've decided simply to give a cursory assessment of some of the Association's teams that receive less air-time than the Heat, Lakers, and Celtics. They're not as pretty, they probably won't win a championship within the next few years, but hey, somebody's gotta lose, right?

Since that's the case, and since nobody likes to be the loser, these teams have to figure out what's broken and fix it before their fan-base finally loses faith in them altogether. I'm focusing on three teams in general: the Sacramento Kings, the New Orleans Hornets, and the Toronto Raptors.

I suppose as a show of good manners, we'll let Canada have first go.

The RAPTORS are a franchise that seems to have been just scraping by for a while now. A decade ago they had Vince Carter and...... Five years ago they had Chris Bosh and........ Now they're left with a random assortment of talent and athleticism dressed in purple and black. The flash of the team is made up of their high-flyers, DeMar "Double De" DeRozan, and newcomer Terrence Ross. Dunking, to me, is like a symbol of what the NBA has become: it's flashy, it's fun, it's upbeat, but at the end of the day it's only two points, same as a kiss off the backboard or a turnaround jumper. But after all, basketball is a vertical game, and having players who can get up there is never a bad thing.

The background has a lot of youth, and seems promising. Players like Landry Fields, a smart, capable point guard, and Quincy Acy, who - undersized as a 6'7" forward - is a surprisingly talented blocker, and a fairly well-rounded defender. Scoring, however, might be an issue for Acy, as his role at Baylor was essentially a goaltender. Lastly we come to the newest Raptor, Rudy Gay. Not much needs to be said about him that Stephen A. Smith hasn't already, but I really believe Gay to be underrated. He's a 6th year man out of UConn, meaning he played under Calhoun while he was still the great Calhoun - he can recognize a good coach and can play inside a system. Not to mention he's been Memphis' man for 5 years now, so he knows what it is to carry a franchise. When it comes down to it I think the Raptors just need a coach who can pull these resources together and come up with a team that can at least give the Celtics, Bulls, or Heat a run for their money in the early playoffs.


In Chris Paul's departure, the HORNETS suffered a heavy blow that was nobody's fault but their own. A premier player like Paul can't be expected to wait on a franchise like New Orleans to get their shit together, and seeing that his contract was about to expire, management should've done everything they could to get a trade deal done before he walked out on them and left a gaping hole in their back-court - which is exactly what they need to focus on for the future. 

The Hornets had a good draft this past year, taking Unibrow Davis and Austin Rivers in the 1st Round and Kentucky's Darius Miller in the 2nd, but while Rivers might show promise as a shooting guard, he's only got Eric Gordon to bring the ball up with him, and the Hornets are going to have to have another good draft in '13 to continue improving. If they could land him (which is certainly a possibility, since Charlotte just invested their first round pick in Kemba Walker) Michigan's Trey Burke would be a smart pick, and if not, Mizzou's Phil Pressey would be a solid point man - they'd just have to hope that his passing and defensive abilities make up for his 5'11 stature. Other than that they just have to hope that the budding talent that they do have now is both able to stay healthy throughout the remainder of this season and willing to work to improve in the off-season.


That brings us to the KINGS, a franchise that seems to be dead in the water. Talks of the team moving to Seattle might really help the franchise out, providing a fan-base that's eager to make up for the loss of the Sonics/Thunder and their star in Kevin Durant. On top of that, the move might reinvigorate Sacramento's talent in players like DeMarcus Cousins, Thomas Robinson, Jimmer Fredette, and the 2nd best player ever to be named Isaiah Thomas, Isaiah Thomas.

The Kings have a lot of promise in the front-court, with Cousins, who can and needs to perform so much better than he currently is, and Robinson, who showed some promise in his senior year at Kansas as a defensive rebounder and a big man who may be able to stretch the floor a bit. His ability to hit 16 and 18 footers will leave Cousins either single or double covered in the lane, both of which he can handle, as we've seen at Kentucky.

Their back-court, though not as impressive, is young and respectable, with a good handler and passer in Thomas and a shooter in Fredette. While Jimmer may be small for a shooting guard, and seem rather specialized, he could provide for the Kings what JJ Redick and Steph Curry have been able to do for the Magic and Warriors, respectively.



Thanks for reading guys, hope you like what I've had to say so far.