NSR: FSU Basketball Thread: NBA, Euroleague, Internationals, Domestic leagues.

I grew up idolizing the Laker teams of the late 70s and early 80s, watching them battle the Celtics and the Sixers, although I think the best final series I ever saw was the 78 final between the Sonics and the Bullets; I was crushed when the Sonics lost in game 7, was glad to see them get their revenge the following season. My favorite players of the era were not the usual suspects - I liked Jamaal Wilkes and his goofy wind up J, Kurt Rambis and his Clark Kents, Billy "The Whopper" Paultz and probably my favorite player of all time, Michael Cooper. I agree with you, today's NBA is nowhere near the glory years of the 70s and 80s, when the NBA was the best run league in the world and basketball could legitimately claim to be another "world " game like soccer. But, I think it is coming around, bit by bit. The USA taking more interest in FIBA WCs and the Olympics after some positively embarrassing results was a big step in the right direction, and I think a good wakeup call for the league, the owners and the players - seeing selfish players like AI and Marbury fall by the wayside (when they still have game) as teams start to realize that a Jordan, a Russell, or a Chamberlain only comes along only once in a while and that basketball is and has always been the ultimate team game.

And I don't think that one cannot be a fan of both the NBA and the NCAA game - for my money, March Madness is the best run, most exciting sports tournament in the world, and that includes the FIFA WC and UEFA Championships. I love watching the college teams playing knockdown drag out defense, and I love the fact the one can watch a wide open run & gun ACC or SEC game and then tune into a Big Ten game a little later where stifling D and perfect execution of the half court game is emphasized. But, even though the NBA is in many respects a very different game than the NCAA level, the simply amazing athletes in the NBA and what they can do both on an individual and team level, well, that's hardly crap IMO.

The local team is bad, but they've got a good base of young players, a sh#tload of #1 picks next year (theirs and 2 others) and all kinds of cap space - I like what David Kahn is doing as a GM, and I like the way Rambis is teaching his kids how to play the right way - Johnny Flynn reminds me of the next version of Kevin Johnson, trading to get Kevin Love for OJ Mayo proved to be a steal last year, and Rambis has completely helped Corey Brewer turn his game around, he looks like he did when he was the most dominant swingman at the college level when he won those two titles at Florida - a shut down defender who has rediscovered his 18-20 foot jumper, who runs the floor with abandon and has put away some truly massive dunks on the break this year.

The record might not show it, but the "fun" is back in the local NBA team, and I for one am damn glad it is back.

 

Although you missed the great Lou Doo years, (the best 4 hairdos in the country used to reside in the B10, with Lou Henson, Gene Keady, Dr. Tom Davis of Iowa, and the legendary Judd Heathcoate of Michigan State, and I still miss watching both Heathcoate and Keady completely mangle their doos (or lack thereof) during games) that Illini program has been top notch for quite some time in the B10, and probably has consistently played a closer version of the pro game over the past 2 decades than any other team in the conference. And FWIW, it is never too late to start working on that "alumni" status, Dima.

Honestly, I don't know how anybody cannot like college hoops. So much history, so many legends of the game, rich with tradition and never a dull moment.

 

Well, YOUR street cred just took a hit...

You should have seen enough of Flynn at Syracuse to know that his game is nothing like Bobby Jackson's game - Jackson was never a pure PG, not at the University of Minnesota (Eric Harris played the point at UMN when Jackson was there), not in the NBA. Having said that, he was a pretty serviceable shooting guard who could drive to the basket for quite a few years in the league. I'm surprised you'd even compare the two. Pure PGs that make it in the NBA are a rare commodity, and although the Rubio reach may have turned out to be just that (seeing as he can't seem to get into the starting 5 at Barcelona) I'm fine with Kahn taking a chance to get one serviceable PG and retain the other as a tradable commodity...the Knicks are still slobbering all over Rubio, Kahn could call them tomorrow and clean them out of picks the next 2 years by dangling RR if he was so inclined.

Love's defense - WTF are you talking about? Hollinger at ESPN has him in his top 15 http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...//insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/rankings- his defense is fine, and certainly a lot better than your average 4 in the NBA. He lacks footspeed, but his positioning and court instincts make up for it in spades - he's a double-double machine, and I'll take that over Mayo's streaky and selfish game any day of the week. And he and Jefferson mesh just fine - the problem is that they play the same position, Al is not a center, where he has to play when Love is in the game; I'm not convinced that Kahn won't dangle Al for a boatload from some team that needs a low post presence/scoring machine, and really that is probably the right move for a rebuilding team.

Brewer is in the running for most improved player of the year. Sorry nice, but I'm officially calling bullsh#t on you - it is clear that you have't watched any of either Flynn, Brewer or Love this year, based on your comments.

 

Don't diss the Fighting Banana slugs!!

I had the chance to visit the city of Santa Cruz a few times when I was stationed in Monterey, right about the time the film "Lost Boys" came out, which of course is based on the wierdness that is Santa Cruz. It is a place that everyone should visit, although at the time my traveling companion and I at the time, being subject to the Army's weekly urinalysis policy for linguists, had a hell of a time finding decent places to have a beer and listen to a bad, owing to the perpetual cannabis cloud that was common to just about every establishment there. The main drag in SC...surreal, in a word.

 

The only way it is a "big" mistake is if Rubio turns out to be a complete bust and Kahn can't dangle him for someone of comparable value or a high pick next year in 2011, in a deeper draft. If that turns out to be the case, that will mean a lot of NBA gurus were wrong about him, not just one man. It is a mistake only if you believe the fallacy about the best draft strategy being all about drafting for need, instead of taking the best player available - that strategy is a strategy for losers, as has been shown time and time again in both the NBA and NFL. That theory sucks bilge water all the way around, but ESPECIALLY when a team is in full rebuild mode. No one, and I mean no one, had Rubio falling to 5 on their draft board (the guy I thought that was going to drop like a stone was Thabeet, which given the need for a center, I was hoping Kahn would resist the temptation, as I think he's got "bust" written all over him.) If the kid turns out to be as advertised - he'll be a whopping 20 years old in the 2011 season when he hits the NBA. Whether he likes it or not, his path to the NBA comes thru the T-Pups, and his upside is so high that only a fool would suggest taking him at 5, not knowing for sure when he would hit the NBA, was a horrible decision. Again, next to a dominating C, pure PGs that make it are the hardest commodity in the NBA to find, and I'm not going to fault Kahn for taking the best players available at the time with the 5 & 6 and either banking a tradable commodity in Rubio or securing the rights to a player who some thing might be the best prospect EVER to come out of Europe. If Rubio hadn't dropped to 5, I am positive Kahn would have taken Flynn and Evans, and he still would have signed Sessions in that scenario. That didn't happen. You make the best of the hand that you're dealt, and offering a 5 & a 6 for Tyreke Evans when the team (at the time) had Sebastian frickin' Telfair as their #1 PG and NO one as a backup PG is NOT how you rebuild a team.

He's getting 29 minutes a game, with Sessions getting 21 minutes a game; that's not a "ton" of playing time.. 14 PPG and 4.4 APG on a rebuilding team, that's bad? Curry is getting almost the same stats in 5 more minutes a game, is he a bust too (and lemme tell ya, Curry is no PG, even though he thinks so.) The only rookie PG that is racking up better numbers is Jennings (34 minutes a game), and he and Evans will be fighting it out for ROTY. Flynn is more of your prototypical 1 guard than either Curry or Jennings is - Curry and Jennings still both look to shoot first, Flynn drives to the basket and is a better distributor than either of them. Flynn has a long way to go - he's got to get more selective about taking shots, his quickness on D makes up a bit for his lack of size but he's always going to have to work on mismatches every night, and he's still struggling with the complicated triangle offense that Rambis brought over from the Lakers (and who wasn't? Jefferson was the biggest whiner about the offense until just recently, when it started to click a bit for him and he began to "get it.") You may not see flashes of early KJ in Flynn, but I and others do. The kid knows how to run a team, and is getting more confident in the offense and his skills every day.

Oh, yeah, Sessions -gee, getting someone that decent for your backup PG at 4 years/$16M, you're right, that's frickin' crazy talk ) Where's Sebastian Telfair when you need him? Honestly, nice...

Uh, riiiiight.

No one said he was the next Ron Artest or Josh Smith. You said his defense was bad. It is hardly that. He's slow afoot, but like I said before, his positioning and court sense more than make up for it. He's not going to land on the all-defensive squad anytime soon, but you make it out like he's one of the worst defenders in the league at the 4 spot, when in reality he's far from that. Again, I don't think you've watched him enough to know.

And, I am not sure why this is so hard for you to figure out - Love and Jefferson mesh about as well as can be expected when both play the same position. Love recently took to coming off of the bench, playing the same amount of minutes, so that Hollins could play center with Jefferson moving to the 4 spot, and he didn't mope, pout, cry or complain, and as it happens the T-Pups ran off a 4 game winning streak. Jefferson is purely a low post scorer, nothing more, whereas Love is a more complete player at the 4, better rebounder, MUCH better defender, runs the court much better and has better hands (his one touch to Jefferson for the thunderous jam to seal the win against the Grizzlies Saturday was Bird-esque.) Kahn says he isn't dealing any core players at the deadline, but I'm still convinced that Big Al will be playing elsewhere in 2010. Again, probably the right thing to do on a rebuilding team, and there's about 5-6 playoff teams right now with plenty to offer that desperately could use the low post points that Big Al can deliver on a nightly basis.

Is that so? Well, Mo Brooks over at ESPN begs to differ with you:

Most Improved Player of the Year Watch

1. Joakim Noah, Bulls: He has emerged as one of the best defenders in the league, and his numbers across the board are way up.

2. Carl Landry, Rockets: With T-Mac and Yao Ming MIA, someone had to step up and be the man in crunch time for the Rockets. So far, that honor has gone to Landry.

3. Josh Smith, Hawks: Not only has he become a better decision-maker with the ball, he also has showed an all-around maturity that wasn't present during his first few seasons in the league.

4. Corey Brewer, Wolves: He has gone from being just a lockdown defender to being a lockdown defender with a jumper. His shooting range, shooting percentages and points-per-game average have risen each month this season.

5. Marc Gasol, Grizzlies: He leads all second-year players in shooting (60 percent) and rebounding (9.8), is second in double-doubles (21) and third in blocked shots (1.6).

'Nuff said.

 

I don't really think there is much too that; I think it is more that Big Al doesn't really care for the offense Rambis installed, as he doesn't run the court well and has a hard time making the right defensive reads that are oh so critical in the triple post offense - the triangle offense is dependent on what the defense gives you, and some players just aren't up to being able to see that on a consistent basis. He's trying, as he's not the clubhouse cancer type, but I think he thinks he's better suited for a 3-2 hi/lo post motion offense like they ran last year, which (to be honest) - he's probably right.

 

Methinks you're thinking about the years that Dick Bennett coached the Badgers, when they were boring to watch, and Wisconsin was almost indistinguishable from watching Pete Carril's Princeton teams play. Since Bo Ryan came along and installed his spin on the UCLA swing offense - they are hardly boring, and no one who knew a bit about their hoops would dare to suggest so.

The B10, with a few exceptions along the way, has always been a conference where fundamental team basketball, aggressive D and the half court offense is sacrosanct. It is hardly boring. You don't like that style, fine, have fun watching Loyola-Marymount highlights on YouTube. But please don't play holier than thou here and announce something that you just don't happen to properly appreciate as "boring."