And when I say they’re contenders, I don’t mean in the sense that they could win a title like the Lakers or Celtics, I mean a contender in the Clipper sense. And the Clipper sense of being a contender means they have a shot at earning a seed as high as fourth possibly, and even reaching the second round of the playoffs. For them, that would be winning a championship. With the news that Baron Davis has reached a verbal agreement to join the Clippers after opting out of the final year of his contract with Golden State, the Clips will have a real team.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Clippers were a legit team. Three years ago, they were easily over .500, and damn near reached the Conference Finals until the freaking monster truck events in Phoenix pushed back Game 6 by like five days, killing the Clips’ momentum. It was essentially the same core group; Brand and Kaman dominated the middle, Mobley hit the outisde shots, Sam Cassell was a stud point guard. Swap out Cassell, enter Baron, assume Brand re-signs? This is a legit team again.

I’ve questioned Baron’s desire before, specifically when it pertained to his performance in the Warriors’ final shot at making it into the playoffs this year. Now that he’s back in LA, he’ll have even more reason to party. Thing is though, the pressure won’t be on; it’s the Clippers — they have no expectations. And even if they do get hyped up, they’re still the Clippers no matter what. In summation, that makes this the optimal situation for Baron Davis. Anything positive he does is a bonus, anything negative that happens — blame it on the Clippers being the Clippers. And honestly, Baron, Gordon, Mobley, Brand, and Kaman on the floor together at the same time? They could do some serious damage. Now the health issue, that’s an entirely different matter.

Share/Email This

Come Tuesday, Gilbert Arenas will either be locked up by the Wizards for six years at max money or near max money, or he’ll be on his way to China for an Adidas promotional tour sans contract. The issue for the Wizards, as I see it, is that they’re more or less handcuffed by Arenas. If there are 30 teams in the NBA, I’m guessing there’s at least one other team out there willing to give Arenas max money, but to me, the Wizards are almost obligated to give him that money. Gil’s a superstar in that town — the most popular athlete in DC. It’s not even a question of whether or not they think Gil can lead them to a title and be the star on a championship team. It’s about keeping him in D.C. and keeping the fans happy.

Sure, having a winning team also keeps the fans happy, and they’ll get that from the Wizards. The team is good enough to reach the playoffs consistently, even in a year when Arenas and Caron Butler were both hurt. But are they a title team? Probably not, as long as they don’t have a legitimate big man, which they haven’t had since the bringing the Arenas/Jamison/Butler trio together. So the big issue handcuffing the Wizards is Arenas’ knee. He missed almost all of this past season since shredding it up two seasons ago and he didn’t look anywhere near how he was at his peak. Gil compounded matters by trying to return from the initial surgery too quickly and was forced to have a second surgery. He might never be the same if those few games he played down the stretch were any indication. He doesn’t have the same quickness or agility — the traits that made him stand out against opposing players. It’s a gamble for the Wizards, but it’s one they pretty much have to take. (And one Gilbert can certainly repay them for).

Share/Email This

Seeing as that Shaq promptly had his honorary deputy badges yanked following his foul-mouthed rap on Kobe, I think you can say the response to the video has not been great. And even if he tries to justify it saying that it’s just freestyle rap, he’s wrong. You Been Blinded shows us why:

Yeah, real nice, Shaq. Way to set a positive example for the kids. And what kind of parent sets their kids up to do that and then posts it on YouTube to boot? There are some real geniuses out there, I’ll tell you.

Share/Email This

Two years ago they made the mistake of shipping out Brandon Roy before he had ever played a game for them. They got back Randy Foye. Exactly. So when the Timberwolves took O.J. Mayo with the third pick, as we predicted here at LBS, I wasn’t too surprised. I just really couldn’t figure out what Minnesota’s plan was; they have just a group of players that play the same position, hardly a way to build a team. Well, they at least made a move that makes more sense for the team-building concept, but they might have Minnesota Timberwolves ticket holders holding their collective breath once again. The T-Wolves traded O.J. Mayo along with Antoine Walker, Greg Buckner, and Marco Jaric to the Grizzlies for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins. In essence, the T-Wolves and Grizz swapped draft picks and bad contracts, but Minnesota probably got the best player (not counting Love or Mayo) in Miller.

Like I said, I couldn’t understand why Minnesota drafted Mayo in the first place based on the structure of their team — Randy Foye, Rashad McCants, and Corey Brewer (three of their recent picks) play essentially the same position. Now it makes more sense since they leveraged their position into getting Mike Miller along with Love, whom they may have wanted all along. While I still don’t like the Timberwolves roster, the move makes more sense. As for Memphis, I still don’t like their team, but I think O.J. Mayo will sell more Memphis Grizzlies tickets than Love would have, which given their trade of Pau, is probably all they care about. Both teams may have had top five picks, but I still don’t see either team coming anywhere close to the playoffs.

The team that I think will improve the most from last year to this year will be the Heat. I like Michael Beasley a lot as an offensive player (I’m still suspect on his defense). Adding him plus having Dwyane Wade healthy and playing a full season will mean a lot more wins than last year. Yes, I realize it would be hard not to improve when you only won 15 games last year, but I’m talking an improvement where I see them returning to the playoffs and revitalizing the interest in South Beach. Maybe no longer will Pat Riley say they need to refund the fans buying Miami Heat tickets after their pathetic performances last year. I expect a big turnaround.

Share/Email This

Apparently there were plenty of people incensed by Shaq’s battle of the mics impression. The man so proud to play a cop in his spare time that he even volunteered to protect and serve the Tempe community, suffered ultimate embarrassment by having his badge stripped. Sheriff Joe Arpaio explained his position in revoking the badges telling The Monty Show on Sporting News Radio that he’s disappointed in Shaq.

“I’m disappointed in Shaq because I did terminate one of my deputies for using the same word. Now how can I not let him go when my own deputy sheriff that used that word, I fired him. He was a cadet just going through our academy, but he was still a deputy sheriff, and we let him go.”
…
if you are a role model and kids listening and that, it sends a wrong message especially for someone that has worked with law enforcement in Florida, here (Maricopa County), and wants to be a sheriff one day. I don’t think this is the type of background that is conducive to law enforcement.”

I just wish other sheriffs held their staff to such high standards, then maybe there wouldn’t be as many foul-mouthed cops dropping n-bombs around. And I still don’t understand the use of the word if it’s an offensive term. Just makes no sense to me. If you want the word retired, then you shouldn’t be using it. Chicks don’t walk around calling each other the c-word do they? Didn’t think so. It’s a shame this happens too, because Shaq just got done making waves for good news.

Share/Email This

I suppose this is where I’m supposed to laugh along with everybody else at how funny Shaq’s rap video making fun of Kobe was. Or I can settle for seeing through Shaq whose four rings and $20+ million salary per season isn’t enough. Instead, he has to celebrate over the failure of others to feel good about himself. I can’t believe this guy. By now you’ve probably heard about his rap video that blames Kobe for ruining Shaq’s marriage, and that Kobe couldn’t win without Shaq. Here it is so you can enjoy Shaq’s amazing rap skills. I think he’s actually able to recite lyrics without looking down at his paper by the second verse.

Don’t get me wrong and confuse this for me taking Kobe’s side, it’s just that in the race for being the most disgusting Laker from their recent title teams, Shaq’s head is getting closer to Kobe’s ass, that’s for sure. Shaq, I thought you were better than that, I really did. Lets just hope he’s not a future NBA commentator. Can we really expect him to give an emerging big man his due if this his ego is this big?

Share/Email This