I'm Back, I'm Back...
I'm cooler than Lupe. Life has been hectic, what with planning a birthday party for my daughter and doing the whole Jimmie Johnson thing (awkward plug: if you need carpet come see me to Lowe's, where you can get a whole mansion of carpet installed for $199). But, just because I haven't been writing doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention.
New Year's resolution: I have got to get on this thing more. Even if only two or three people in the entire world read it, I owe it to them to provide cutting edge basketball analysis. Done laughing yet? Good.
No, but as I mentioned in paragraph one, I certainly have been watching. I saw Maryland pull off, in my mind, the most unlikely win in school history; I've seen the insane Western Conference in the NBA (serious props to Portland and New Orleans); hell, I even saw Kevin Durant at Love (no wonder why he's shooting 40%). But, what brought me out of my slumber were two things: 1) I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get back from the movies while my daughter Cadence is asleep (I'm actually sitting on my daughter's crib/bed/crid typing this) and 2) my two favorite teams were in the news today, one positively and the other, I'm not quite sure about yet.
I said last post that the Terps would have to be near flawless from then on out to make the tournament. Then, of course, they go out and lose a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech where they were winning the entire game. I almost, almost gave up right there. The ACC is tough, but Maryland needed that game. I thought for sure they were done.
But, as Lee Corso says, "Not so fast, sweetheart."
They come out and while they don't wax Wake Forest, they beat them. And then, the granddaddy: they beat UNC. In UNC. I couldn't believe it! I was actually on my lunch break when I found out. I nearly spilled zesty onion ring sauce from Burger King all over my upholstery.
That win showed me something that, while I never published, sort of suspected: on paper, how different is Maryland from North Carolina really? Aside from Ty Lawson, who moves like a real life version Speed Racer, is there anybody from Carolina you'd rather have on Maryland at any position? That's up for debate, I suppose, but I for one wouldn't take any of them.
The difference between them and Maryland is, of course, the fact they're a more cohesive unit overall. Yet, on that day if you would have watched the game with a non-basketball fan and told them that Maryland was number one, they wouldn't have known the difference.
And, while they did lose to Duke on Sunday, you saw signs in that game that this Terps team might actually have something up their sleeves to make a run for a tourney bid. When they play within themselves, run the offense and limit the turnovers, there's no reason why they can't, at the very least, be the ACC's third team.
They looked pretty good tonight against a Virginia team that didn't have a healthy Sean Singletary. Of course, had he been healthy he might have gone for 50. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more intensity from Greivis Vasquez defensively, but hey, when now fully linkable Eric Hayes shoots the ball like he does, stuff like that gets forgotten.
Boston College is going to be interesting this weekend.
Okay, so here it is, the news of the day, the news of the season: Jason Kidd to Dallas might actually happen. Henry Abott of TrueHoop.com writes about Chris Broussard of ESPN leaked the proposed trade.
Some of the players in that link have changed a bit, I think, but the meat and potatoes remain: Dallas gets Kidd, Portland gets Devin Harris, New Jersey gets key but not irreplaceable members of Portland's youth movement.
I've been wrestling back and forth with this one: what do I, as a Dallas fan, think about the trade?
I'd be lying if I said that thoughts of libations spilling onto Dirk Nowitzki's head and Mark Cuban doing a funny dance at center-court don't tickle me, because for sure I think they'd be the favorites in the West (and boy, is it crowded). However, would the one shot at a title be worth it to watch Harris, who has grown into one of my favorite players, blow the f*** up in Portland or some other city two years from now while Kidd sips Mattais on a beach somewhere in Tahiti?
Personally, I definitely think Kidd gives them a better chance to win now (even though Dallas would lose Jerry Stackhouse and probably Devean George, too). But, stubborn as I am, I still think Dallas has a good enough team to win a championship without giving up their future.
There, I said it. Don't pull the trigger, no matter how enticing it is.
New Year's resolution: I have got to get on this thing more. Even if only two or three people in the entire world read it, I owe it to them to provide cutting edge basketball analysis. Done laughing yet? Good.
No, but as I mentioned in paragraph one, I certainly have been watching. I saw Maryland pull off, in my mind, the most unlikely win in school history; I've seen the insane Western Conference in the NBA (serious props to Portland and New Orleans); hell, I even saw Kevin Durant at Love (no wonder why he's shooting 40%). But, what brought me out of my slumber were two things: 1) I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get back from the movies while my daughter Cadence is asleep (I'm actually sitting on my daughter's crib/bed/crid typing this) and 2) my two favorite teams were in the news today, one positively and the other, I'm not quite sure about yet.
I said last post that the Terps would have to be near flawless from then on out to make the tournament. Then, of course, they go out and lose a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech where they were winning the entire game. I almost, almost gave up right there. The ACC is tough, but Maryland needed that game. I thought for sure they were done.
But, as Lee Corso says, "Not so fast, sweetheart."
They come out and while they don't wax Wake Forest, they beat them. And then, the granddaddy: they beat UNC. In UNC. I couldn't believe it! I was actually on my lunch break when I found out. I nearly spilled zesty onion ring sauce from Burger King all over my upholstery.
That win showed me something that, while I never published, sort of suspected: on paper, how different is Maryland from North Carolina really? Aside from Ty Lawson, who moves like a real life version Speed Racer, is there anybody from Carolina you'd rather have on Maryland at any position? That's up for debate, I suppose, but I for one wouldn't take any of them.
The difference between them and Maryland is, of course, the fact they're a more cohesive unit overall. Yet, on that day if you would have watched the game with a non-basketball fan and told them that Maryland was number one, they wouldn't have known the difference.
And, while they did lose to Duke on Sunday, you saw signs in that game that this Terps team might actually have something up their sleeves to make a run for a tourney bid. When they play within themselves, run the offense and limit the turnovers, there's no reason why they can't, at the very least, be the ACC's third team.
They looked pretty good tonight against a Virginia team that didn't have a healthy Sean Singletary. Of course, had he been healthy he might have gone for 50. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more intensity from Greivis Vasquez defensively, but hey, when now fully linkable Eric Hayes shoots the ball like he does, stuff like that gets forgotten.
Boston College is going to be interesting this weekend.
Okay, so here it is, the news of the day, the news of the season: Jason Kidd to Dallas might actually happen. Henry Abott of TrueHoop.com writes about Chris Broussard of ESPN leaked the proposed trade.
Some of the players in that link have changed a bit, I think, but the meat and potatoes remain: Dallas gets Kidd, Portland gets Devin Harris, New Jersey gets key but not irreplaceable members of Portland's youth movement.
I've been wrestling back and forth with this one: what do I, as a Dallas fan, think about the trade?
I'd be lying if I said that thoughts of libations spilling onto Dirk Nowitzki's head and Mark Cuban doing a funny dance at center-court don't tickle me, because for sure I think they'd be the favorites in the West (and boy, is it crowded). However, would the one shot at a title be worth it to watch Harris, who has grown into one of my favorite players, blow the f*** up in Portland or some other city two years from now while Kidd sips Mattais on a beach somewhere in Tahiti?
Personally, I definitely think Kidd gives them a better chance to win now (even though Dallas would lose Jerry Stackhouse and probably Devean George, too). But, stubborn as I am, I still think Dallas has a good enough team to win a championship without giving up their future.
There, I said it. Don't pull the trigger, no matter how enticing it is.
posted by Justin Cherot @ 10:20 PM
1 Comments
