True Hoop Drew

I breakdown basketball constantly in my mind and occassionaly translate it into blog form

Tag: shaq

May 13, 2011

How important is it to be in your prime?

As the Miami Heat were busy eliminating the Boston Celtics, I got thinking about how it was clear that the Celtics did not have anything left in the tank and were too old and too injured to keep up with Miami.

As someone who was watching the series hoping that Boston would advance because I like watching them play more, before the series even started my biggest fear was essentially what ended up happening.

Things like Kevin Garnett wouldn’t be able to be effective enough on both sides of the court, Ray Allen would be relegated to a jump shooter and not hitting in every game and Paul Pierce would have to carry too large of an offensive load. Even while watching the regular season meetings between the two teams you could kind of see this fate looming. While Boston seemed to always get a ton of good looks, it also seemed like they had to play pretty perfectly to get those looks and it’d be harder in the playoffs.

A big reason why Miami won the series was youth and talent overpowering Boston. They have their best three guys in their prime. It sounds simple but it really allows for them to play more minutes and play them more effectively. When Doc Rivers was forced to bring back Garnett early in the fourth quarter for Game 4, Boston was doomed and Garnett ran out of gas as the game eventually went into overtime.
Read the rest of this entry »

1 comment
February 16, 2010

NBA Dunk Contest: something needs to be done fast

I missed the dunk contest for the first time since I remember dunk contests but I guess I didn’t miss much. Everyone has a fix for All-Star Weekend and how to make the dunk contest more relevant so here’s three options I feel the NBA should entertain:

1. Star Power

This is a pretty obvious one but it is the most important. Nothing would be more entertaining than a LeBron-Wade showdown in the dunk contest final.

That’s a fact.

They would both be spectacular in the contest but it wouldn’t even really matter. With lesser-name guys it’s all about the dunk and how crazy it is and it’s originality.

That wouldn’t matter nearly as much if the stars competed in the contest. It would just be about which star had the better dunk. If LeBron brought back some dunks that Michael did in the 80′s, we would be fine with it. But when a guy like DeMar DeRozan does it, we’re pissed because we’ve seen it already.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
February 3, 2010

Nothing better than Walton cheering from the sidelines

Well, I didn’t watch a lot of sports today, at least not any recent sports. It’s past midnight now and that means fair game for just about every classic NBA game I own so there’s really no telling where the night will go. I think I’m going to try and go daily with this blog from now on. As long as I keep it short and sweet and all about me, there’s no reason why I can’t keep the updates coming.

On the subject of classic NBA games, which is another way of saying “while we’re on the subject of my life”, I double-dipped somewhat last night and had a solid 45 minutes of YouTube researching as well.

I started off with the “Bird Steal” game in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. You really can’t go wrong there. Bird pours in an amazing performance numbers wise and also caps the game off with the great steal. But hands down, the best part of re-watching the game was Bill Walton’s reaction to the play (no surprise here and fast-forward to the 5:28 mark for the reaction).

I had just gotten a solid dose of Walton the night before via Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals in 1995 that featured a Rockets-Suns matchup. Walton was announcing and on top of his game as usual. It’s always a treat to pop in an old game, not knowing who’d be announcing and then get Walton.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
January 5, 2010

The top 10 NBA teams of the 2000’s that didn’t win a championship

The 2000’s of the NBA were primarily dominated by two dynasties: the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs.

This past decade also saw three players experience more success than any others: Shaquille O’neal, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.

O’neal won one regular season MVP, three Finals MVP’s and was part of four championship teams in the decade appearing in five NBA Finals in all.

Bryant won an MVP and a Finals MVP and won four championships while playing in six Finals series.

Duncan won two MVP’s in the regular season and in the NBA Finals and took home championships in the three trips he made to the NBA Finals.

But there were a lot of other good teams that might not be remembered because they were unlucky enough to cross paths with O’neal, Bryant and Duncan in their primes.

Here is a list (in chronological order) of the 10 best teams that did not win it all in the 2000’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 comments
October 29, 2009

Wednesdays are my favorite

Steve NashI couldn’t wait any longer to continue this blog. The NBA season has got me way too excited for this.

Last night I got a chance to see just about every NBA team in action so naturally, I now can make every prediction for what will happen for the rest of the season.

I’m just going to go game-by-game and give my impressions.

Pacers 109, Hawks 120
Let’s start with the Pacers-Hawks which couldn’t have been more exciting. Troy Murphy proved why he was a fantasy stud but did it in a way that I didn’t really expect scoring 14 points with seven assists and 10 rebounds.

Danny Granger was a monster in the first half but cooled off later in the game. He really may end up being worth the $70 he is projected for in auction fantasy leagues on ESPN just because of how many shots he is going to take this year. He is definitely no Kevin Durant though and I’ll get to KD later on.

The Hawks were just the better team and it looks like Al Horford may be starting to take the next steps into becoming an all star caliber power forward in this league.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
October 29, 2009

My League Pass Frenzy Begins

LeBron JamesI am super excited about the NBA season because no one else gets their money’s worth for NBA League Pass like I do.

The NBA season started a few days ago so I am really excited. This has to be the best time of the year for a sports fan with college and pro football hitting their midseason stride combined with the NBA and college hoops about to begin and there’s even some World Series action if nothing else is on.

I renewed my League Pass subscription from last year for $135. I could have gone in another direction and paid just $90 to watch just seven teams instead of the entire league but I felt the full package was worth it.

I have the perfect setup for League Pass this year and will thus be forcing myself to take full advantage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 93 other followers