Saturday, November 03, 2007

Same Ole Same Ole

As I settled down to watch the game Friday night, I thought about the 7 months I had waited to watch this team again. One year older, a new all-star to add to the mix, and a healthy core all signaled good things to come this year. But the more I watched, the more I realized that this is the same team that left the court back in April. Sure we look great on offense but the missed free throws and terrible perimeter defense looked awfully familiar. I am sure Cleveland played with a little more focus as they wanted to wipe out their opening night disaster against Dallas a few nights before. But to miss free throws and leave Daniel Gibson open like that in the 4th quarter just suggests that this team hasn't learned much from last season.

I am willing to give them at least 15-20 games before I make a final judgement but last night just felt too familiar. Maybe we should look at it in a different perspective. Lebron was getting all the calls and was scoring in a variety of ways. This in turn made the Knicks have to collapse on him all night. They chose to leave Gibson most of the time on this defensive transition and Gibson had the hot hand. So instead of jumping to conclusions, I'm willing to let this slide and see how they do in the coming games. I think we all noticed Isiah benching Marbury in the 4th in favor of Robinson. I think this may be the biggest story here as this was the first game of the season. I don't think Isiah would have done this last year. Marbury seems to have a shorter leash now and Nate is proving he deserves more minutes. I will be watching this in the Minnesota game to see if Marbury responds and has a better game or if Nate continues to get the critical minutes.

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Some random thoughts about the first few days of the NBA season so far.

Would anyone have believed that Indiana would be 3-0 and Chicago would be 0-3? Obviously, a new coach in Indiana and the young core of Dunleavy and Granger is giving fans in Indiana new hope. In Chicago, wonder if this whole Kobe ordeal has anything to do with this start? You think?

Also, in Washington, the Wizards are off to an 0-3 start. I will go ahead and make the prediction that Eddie Jordan will be the first coach fired this season.

I have been trying to catch different games on League Pass and have found some great teams to watch so far. It's hard to believe, but the West will be even tougher this year as Houston looks stronger and it seems Denver and Utah are both poised to take that next step this year. That leaves 6 very strong teams in the West(Spurs,Mavs,Rockets,Suns,Jazz,Nuggets) that could easily make a run to the Finals this year. In the East, I still only see Detroit, Boston, and Chicago as legitimate Finals contenders.

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