2010-2011 NBA Season

Of course, none of that matters if they don't tank in 1997 to help land Duncan. All those nice pieces are just nice little pieces on an average team if it's Keith Van Horn entering his 14th season. That's where the luck came in. But they've certainly filled in around their superstar brilliantly. Although their biggest recent screwup - getting rid of Scola - is one of the reasons the Lakers have taken over supremacy in the West, and I think it will be the same this year. Gasol, Odom and Bynum are just too big and long for their frontcourt, especially now that Duncan isn't dominant.

 

Weird seeing an average Duncan. He's simply okay now, no lift and lack of quickness. Has more arc on FTs now though.

 

What has Splitter shown you that makes you think he was a steal? Didn't he basically play his way to the bench?

 

If Gilbert Arenas is on the table, and JaVele McGee can be worked into the trade, I can think of two Florida teams that should be interested. One needs McGee alot more than the other, though.

 

I know I'm about 24 hours late on this one, but Derrick Rose's great balls of steel last night deserve to be mentioned. That was a big boy shot to send the game into overtime, sparing his team a very, very bad loss for its third straight, and he only continued to take it over from there. What a great group of young point guards in this league right now between Rose, Rondo, Williams, Wall, and Paul.

 

Don't forget Westbrook in that list of point guards. He's probably been OKC's best player this year.

 

Pretty entertaining piece by Reilly on Artest.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5902468

 

Simmons is rubbing off on Reilly.

Is that the longest thing he has ever written?

 

It's about 2,600 words. Considering Reilly was one of the great SI takeout piece writers, I'm going to guess he's had a few (dozen) stories that were lengthier.

 

Bulls up 82-69 on Lakers with 4 minutes left after starting game giving up 16-4 lead. If this keeps up, beating the Lakers isn't going to mean quite as much anymore.

 

Bulls are pretty good, though.

 

I was just catching bits and pieces on the newsroom TV but it looked like Rose was great down the stretch as the Lakers tried to come back.