National Champs send four in NBA Draft posted by Christopher Arroyo

The people who saw the 2009 NBA Draft on Thursday were in for a special treat when they saw Blake Griffin go No. 1.

 

Very predictable however.

 

Then, Hasheem Thabeet went No. 2, which was also predictable. Then things got a bit interesting.

 

The early shocker was Stephen Curry going number seven to the Golden State Warriors. But what was really neat was that all of the North Carolina players that declared were drafted.

 

The first Tar Heel chosen was Tyler Hansbrough, who went at number 13 to the Indiana Pacers. This was a good pick, for the Pacers and here is why. Indiana is not known to carry much toughness, especially in the frontcourt.

 

If you had the treat to see this guy in college then you would know that he’s the real deal for toughness. I think he will start the season on the bench, but he will emerge into that starting position around December.

 

The second Tar Heel chosen was Ty Lawson, who was picked by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now I know many of you were wondering why Minnesota picked four guards in the first round, which three were point guards. But, rest assured, they ended up trading Lawson to the Denver Nuggets for a future first round pick.

 

This is the BEST team for Lawson. You’re putting one of the top, and under-appreciated, point guards in the draft on a team that is surrounded with rising talent. He is also going to appreciate being an apprentice to Denver’s Chauncey Billups.

 

Probably the most respected guard in the league and known for his patience and leadership on and off the court. Sadly, he will be a bench player for a few years but, learning under Billups will definitely make him one of the top point guards in the league. This was really the best move of the draft Denver should be strong under the point guard position for at least the next 10 years if all goes well.

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posted by Chase Hughes

Thursday, June the 25th has officially passed as the Washington Wizards remain in a state that few could have foreseen a week ago. After months of speculation and a calamitous draft lottery, Wizards fans can relax and look at back at what has happened. No Blake Griffin, no Ricky Rubio, no 5th overall pick, no 2nd round pick. It was fun but you kind of wish Ernie Grunfeld could have let us know that all of our mock drafts and trade scenarios would be obsolete. What’s left of the Wizards roster seems to be an incomplete project… still.
You have to think that the Wizards’ brass has something else up their sleeve, another maneuver that will balance the Wizards and give its fans the expectations of a great season. I still think that the team is improved but there seem to still linger significant holes. One large void to fill down low still remains and it is perplexing why the Wizards didn’t plug it with the “largest” plug in the draft. I am talking of course about Dejaun Blair. My friend and I were contemplating the possibility of the big man from Pitt slipping to the second round. It seemed impossible and then it happened. He was sitting there, all 270 pounds of him, just waiting for the Wizards to pick him and enable him to thrive in a reserved role on a playoff team. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones. The Washington Post covered the draft later in the night, with Michael Lee acknowledging the experts were in on it to:



“When Pitt forward DeJuan Blair was still on the board after the first round, some of us reporters were fascinated by the possibility of the Wizards adding a rugged but undersized offensive rebounding machine. I still cannot believe that dude slipped all the way to San Antonio at No. 37 after he manhandled Thabeet in Big East play.”


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Indiana Pacers draft posted by john howard

The Pacers missed the playoffs and made some changes.  Looking towards next year, one thing can be said is that Indiana is interesting.  The Lineup consist of Jarret Jack and TJ Ford in the backcourt, both point guards.  Danny Granger, Troy Murphy and Roy Hibbert in the front court.  Jeff Foster started a lot at center as well. And, Marquis Daniels got his share of starts.  This team isn't going to lose much through free agency and will gain a player.  Michael Dunleavy only played 14 games and was the team's second leading scorer.  It's really hard to say who they might take at 13, but we can take a look at how successful that pick has been as well as the 52nd pick.  It doesn't look good.  Of the past 14 drafts, the 13th pick has produced one starter and 4 bench players.  The 52nd pick has produced one starter.  That means that the Pacers have about a 6 in 14 chance of getting help through the draft.  Trading both picks for future picks might make the most sense this year.Continue reading "Indiana Pacers draft"

Where Amazing Happened posted by Kevin Nye

I'm going to ignore the whole "Cavaliers not winning the Eastern Conference" thing and move on to something I find much more important.

The NBA has been using old memorable footage for their "Where will amazing happen this year?" commercials. Admittedly, these are really cool. They've taken Magic hitting the baby-hook over the Celtics, Kobe alley-ooping to Shaq, Bird with the steal and passing to DJ for the layup; memorable moments. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here:   or if that didn't work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCNWm9YH4xU )

The problem is one that I've mentioned to some of my close friends: The NBA is missing out on the best possibility for one of these commercials.

They've forgotten one of the most memorable moments in the history of the league.

I'm talking, of course, about the Pacers/Pistons brawl.

If you don't remember, Ron Artest committed a "hard" foul on Ben Wallace, who promptly responded by shoving Artest in the area of the neck. A near melee ensued as the Pistons players showed their street-savvy and nearly fought with the Pistons several times. 

Amid all this, Artest was merely lying down on the scorer's table (what else would he be doing?) minding his own business and staying out of more trouble.

Until that pesky cup-full-o-beer hit him and he flipped out, ran into the stands, and started fighting spectators. 

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We can't say it's BULL because the ball don't lie. posted by Sabrina

The Detroit Pistons were up against the Chicago Bulls tonight and lost 91-88. This game put the Pistons as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern conference, which will have them play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs. After the loss against the Indiana Pacers, this game looked more like a struggle. The beginning of the game was indeed a little bit of a struggle, but the Pistons were able to take the game under their control by the end of the first quarter. The rest of the game was very close, head-to-head, even to the last 15 seconds. During the last stretch, the Bulls were able to play under pressure and beat the Pistons. This isn't what any of us wanted, but like Hamilton said before the game, the Pistons should be glad to be in any position in the playoffs. Will this make a difference in how far the Pistons will be able to get in the playoffs? If the Pistons keep their heads on straight and are focused like they were for the 3 games before the loss against the Pacers, I don't think that the Pistons will have to worry about the Cavaliers. I don't know what happened tonight, if it was just that the Pistons weren't mentally prepared for this game or if the Bulls were better, but let's hold our heads up high. We have seen a different side of the Pistons over the past week and we should expect that team to be playing the Cavs the first round of the playoffs.

“We see ourselves as a unit."   Rasheed Wallace

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Lockout posted by Ian Shankster

I was blogging like crazy until I got a full time job which exhuasted me and took up all my time. But, I am back to take a look at the Pacers again.

What did I miss?  The Pacers have performed exactly as I predicted they would. They are at the bottom of the Central Division but usually play to the level of the competition which is great sometimes but very bad at other times. They are way better at home than on the road and have Danny Granger who was an all-star this year! How close or far are we from being an elite team? It seems impossible to tell.  

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An interesting victory for the Bulls posted by Derrick Kelly

With three players who have been starters this season sitting on the bench in Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Chris Duhon, the Bulls won. And won big. Not only did they hold leads, but they held on to the game in the fourth quarter, which has been one of their biggest downfalls all year. Kirk Hinrich scored a career high 38 points. When he wanted to score, he pretty much did against an Indiana Pacers team that beat the Bulls pretty bad last time they faced each other. 

Hinrich was a leader out on the floor last night. He drove the lane and scored. He got rebounds. And he created chances for other players. If he can continue this style of play, the Bulls have some other pieces that can help him win. Joakim Noah, Thabo Sefalosha and Tyrus Thomas all looked good last night as well. Noah put up 15 boards and had some good low post scoring as well. Andres Nocioni put up 24 in the win. So the combo of Nocioni, Hinrich and Noah combined for 78 points.

Sure, the Pacers looked a little lethargic and  uninterested at points. But a win is a win. Especially a team you are trailing in the playoff hunt. I know its probably a little early to truly consider this a playoff team, but they are in range of skating in. The biggest thing is for them to play well every game from now on. Its a tough thing to accomplish but after how good they looked last night and against Detroit recently, they could put together some good wins. 

Jim Boylan sat Ben Wallace for most of the fourth quarter while Noah was out on the floor playing well. Big Ben had to watch a youngster do what he is paid a lot of money to do and can't. He rebounded well and set the pace for the Bulls a little. One concern I have though is that Adrian Griffin got a lot of playing time last night. In half the amount of time, Thomas got just as many points and more rebounds. Plus, Thomas can be an igniter. He has big play potential and he seems to have more energy. I wish I could have seen more of Noah, Sefalosha and Thomas on the floor together. 

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Pacers O'Neal, done for the year? posted by kellex

http://lebasketbawl.blogspot.com/2008/01/pacers-oneal-done-for-year.html

Indiana Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal is thinking about hanging 'em up for the rest of the year. O'Neal has a badly bruised knee and is looking at taking the rest of the season off to rest and fully recover. The former "star" is already scheduled to miss at least the next 2 weeks. He has had one of the worst years of his career averaging just 15 points and 7 rebounds per game.

The Pacers currently sit just a half game behind the Nets for the final playoff spot in the east. O'Neal has not been much of a presence this year and the Pacers are unlikely to miss him. This will give some more of their young talent a chance to shine.

Remember also that O'Neal has just 2 years remaining on his outrageous contract and will be playing next year for a future deal, that is, if he doens't opt out in the off-season. Of course he'll take the rest of the year off to recover, he said it himself, he doesn't want to have his "knee replaced in 10 years." Look into that as deep as you want.

The Pacers and Nets have also been in discussions to move O'Neal to New Jersey in a swap for Vince Carter and Marcus Williams. I'm pretty sure the Nets are laughing about that trade at this point.

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Unappealing Behavior posted by Macklen Jackson

Andy Roddick is a fun player to watch and I was rooting for him as much as anybody in the Australian Open, but I was disappointed to see him sink to the level he reached when he taunted the umpire during his match with Philipp Kohlschreiber in today’s effort. Despite dishing out a career best 42 aces, Roddick fell to the German 6-4 3-6 7-6 6-7 8-6. 

After his shot was originally called out, 29th seed Kohlschreiber challenged the ruling and it was overturned, prompting an irate Roddick to argue that he would have attempted a return, but didn’t due to the stoppage in play. When his appeal went unfulfilled, he proceeded to ridicule the umpire’s intelligence, shouting insinuation that he was never educated after the second grade. He made one final dig by yelling out: “You’re an idiot! Stay in school kids or you’ll end up being an umpire.”

 Roddick’s juvenile behavior aside, he makes a valid point. It is this very reason that some things are not reviewable in NFL football. Once the whistle blows a play dead, that’s it. If forward progress is ruled to have been stopped, but a running back breaks free and scores a touchdown, it’s called back because the whistle blew. If a runner is whistled down even though he has simultaneously fumbled the football, the runner will retain possession because the whistle supersedes all ensuing action. And rightfully so. Whether the whistle was correct or incorrect in the first place, the point is: when the whistle blows, people stop trying and you can’t let a game change after play is halted. The same applies to tennis where a player has no incentive to wear out his arm by returning a serve that has been called out. However, just because Roddick has a point, doesn’t mean there isn’t a flip side to the matter. Firstly, he knows darn well that if he were on the benefiting end of an overturned call, he’d be thrilled about the ruling. Secondly, the replay component to tennis isn’t new. It has to have occurred to him by now that such a situation is plausible and he might as well play every ball through. Until a perfect replay system is instituted and until there no longer exists a human error component to officiating sports, Roddick needs to expect such circumstances to unfold. And lastly, Andy Roddick ended up winning that game! If that was break point on the final game in a match, perhaps a bigger deal would need to have been made. But he fought back despite the controversial call and came out on top. So what was that all for anyway? 

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Are you kidding me: David Harrison the pot head! posted by kellex

David Harrison of the Indiana Pacers has received a 5 game suspension for violating the league substance abuse policy or what the NBA calls, it's Anti-Drug program. This could mean a couple of things such as, he took steroids or sampled some dieting supplement which contained speed, but the more likely scenario was that he smoked some of that reefer again!

We can assume that marijuana was the cause for the suspension since the league only hands out 5 game suspensions under its Anti-Drug policy if in fact you are busted for smoking pot for the third time. Ding ding ding! Congratulations Mr. Harrison, you just received a 5 game ban and will lose roughly $105,000!

Most people would probably say, "Who in the hell is David Harrison?" It is a very legit question seeing as he has never really done a thing in the league except get extra playing time after the Ron Artest crowd shelacking a few years ago in Detroit.

All I have to say to this guy is, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? You've got it made! You are 25 years old, in good health, and you make $1.7 million a year to play 13 minutes a game in the National Basketball Association. But that just isn't enough for you! You have to run around and smoke that mary jane and get hiiiiiiigh. Absolutely ridiculous. You'll be out of the league in no time David, and thank you.

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Pistons add G Gordon, F Villanueva (AP)

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Pacers make offers to Jack, McRoberts (AP)

The Indiana Pacers have made qualifying offers to point guard Jarrett Jack and forward Josh McRoberts, making them restricted free agents. Jack's agent, Jeff Schwartz, said Tuesday that his client has enjoyed playing for the Pacers. The Pacers announced the offers in a news release. Jack averaged a career-high 13.1 points per game last season while sharing the starting job with T.J. [read full article]

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Pacers let G Daniels become free agent (AP)

The Indiana Pacers will not exercise their team option on guard Marquis Daniels. Daniels' agent, Glenn Schwartzman, told The Associated Press in an e-mail on Monday that the Pacers have indicated that they will not pay the final year of the deal. Daniels would have made $7.3 million next season, but now he's an unrestricted free agent. [read full article]

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Nuggets, Pacers to play game in Taiwan (AP)

The NBA will play its first game in Taiwan this fall. The league said Friday the Denver Nuggets will face the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 8 in an exhibition game at Taipei Arena. Taipei will be the seventh Asian city to host an NBA game. The others are Beijing, Guangzhou, Macao, Shanghai, Tokyo and Yokohama. [read full article]

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Jennings puts new path to NBA on display (AP)

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