NBA Summer Break and CWS
Well it's been a few days since my Lakers closed it out and I couldn't let it go too long without chiming in on the series, Kobe's redemption and what's next for the Lakers and Magic. And of course we're in the heart of the college world series with the Longhorns getting two big wins. Where or where to begin....
Lakers in 5 (like I told you they would):
I gotta say I was a bit shocked and very pleased that LA was able to blow out Orlando in that game 5 on their court. I know Orlando has a good team and they should be (more on this below) contenders in the east for some time to come. But today, they're just not as talented as LA. I certainly learned a lot more about Dwight Howard that I hadn't really paid attention to before - take away the dunk and he's very uncomfortable offensively.
Hats off to Gasol for stepping up and playing very tough - and how about Lamar "Contract Year" Odom and his play? He made some bills in this series, I guarantee you that. All the Lakers stepped up and played very big and what can you say about Kobe - no one's had a series this good since Jerry West 30 years ago. I still don't know how any monkey got on his back, but evidently there was one and now it's been removed sooo....good for him. And one more thing - I'll eat crow on here because I was critical of him early on in his tenure, but kudos to Mitch Kupchek for making the unconscious move to get Gasol and bringing Fisher back. He'll have his work cut out for him which brings me to the big question, where do they go from here?
As you may know, Odom and Trevor Ariza are free agents and will most certainly draw quite a few suitors. One in particular I can see is Cleveland coming after either one, but I see Odom being more enticing for them. I have a hard time seeing LA being able to keep both of them, but maybe they can do something if Kobe restructures his contract (which he likely will do). Even then, they may not be able to pull it off. So if that is the case, whom do you choose to keep, assuming you can choose? Ariza is younger and has more upside. On the other hand, Odom is such a unique player with his size and ability, and he's not old (29), he's just older than Ariza. I'm not sure if either one of them can excel on a team as the lone guy. Although we've seen Odom on the Clippers early in his career, but that doesn't count....because it was the Clippers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Other Off Season Things to Watch:
Not sure if you've been paying attention to this at all (it's the only time you can actually watch college baseball on television), but I'll tell you, until tonight, every game has been great. Texas had an odd outing against Southern Miss, winning in a walk-off...walk. And against Arizona State they were facing a 6-0 deficit before coming back to win 10-6 on a phenomenal performance by freshman Taylor Jungmann.
It's now down to the final four with Arkansas needing to take 2 against LSU and Arizona State back to face the Longhorns, also needing to win two. It's looking likely that the LSU Tigers (I think they won it last year if I'm not mistaken) will face the Texas Longhorns for the whole enchilada starting on Monday, but it's baseball and anything can happen. Quick note - if it does end up being LSU/Texas in the final series, try and get down to Shoal Creek Saloon for at least one of those games - that place is a die-hard LSU hangout and it should entertaining as hell.
Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:
Lakers in 5 (like I told you they would):
I gotta say I was a bit shocked and very pleased that LA was able to blow out Orlando in that game 5 on their court. I know Orlando has a good team and they should be (more on this below) contenders in the east for some time to come. But today, they're just not as talented as LA. I certainly learned a lot more about Dwight Howard that I hadn't really paid attention to before - take away the dunk and he's very uncomfortable offensively.
Hats off to Gasol for stepping up and playing very tough - and how about Lamar "Contract Year" Odom and his play? He made some bills in this series, I guarantee you that. All the Lakers stepped up and played very big and what can you say about Kobe - no one's had a series this good since Jerry West 30 years ago. I still don't know how any monkey got on his back, but evidently there was one and now it's been removed sooo....good for him. And one more thing - I'll eat crow on here because I was critical of him early on in his tenure, but kudos to Mitch Kupchek for making the unconscious move to get Gasol and bringing Fisher back. He'll have his work cut out for him which brings me to the big question, where do they go from here?
As you may know, Odom and Trevor Ariza are free agents and will most certainly draw quite a few suitors. One in particular I can see is Cleveland coming after either one, but I see Odom being more enticing for them. I have a hard time seeing LA being able to keep both of them, but maybe they can do something if Kobe restructures his contract (which he likely will do). Even then, they may not be able to pull it off. So if that is the case, whom do you choose to keep, assuming you can choose? Ariza is younger and has more upside. On the other hand, Odom is such a unique player with his size and ability, and he's not old (29), he's just older than Ariza. I'm not sure if either one of them can excel on a team as the lone guy. Although we've seen Odom on the Clippers early in his career, but that doesn't count....because it was the Clippers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Other Off Season Things to Watch:
- Orlando absolutely has to find a way to keep Hedo. They've still got a great team, but he really carried them in the finals.
- Sidebar note here: I can't fathom why Van Gundy played Jameer Nelso so much in the final two games. He just killed Alston's confidence in that series.
- Cleveland can look to make all the moves they want to, but as long as they've got Mike Brown coaching, they're going to be playing for second. And the talk is about Shaq (which I think is total rumor), but are his stats really any better than the Big Z's?
- If the Timberwolves trade Al Jefferson for Amare Stoudamire....these are the kinds of moves that make you think anyone can run an NBA team.
- Another option for Cleveland I've heard is Antwan Jamison and his gigantic contract. He's a good scorer, but he's not quite as physical as I think they need.
Not sure if you've been paying attention to this at all (it's the only time you can actually watch college baseball on television), but I'll tell you, until tonight, every game has been great. Texas had an odd outing against Southern Miss, winning in a walk-off...walk. And against Arizona State they were facing a 6-0 deficit before coming back to win 10-6 on a phenomenal performance by freshman Taylor Jungmann.
It's now down to the final four with Arkansas needing to take 2 against LSU and Arizona State back to face the Longhorns, also needing to win two. It's looking likely that the LSU Tigers (I think they won it last year if I'm not mistaken) will face the Texas Longhorns for the whole enchilada starting on Monday, but it's baseball and anything can happen. Quick note - if it does end up being LSU/Texas in the final series, try and get down to Shoal Creek Saloon for at least one of those games - that place is a die-hard LSU hangout and it should entertaining as hell.
Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week:
- We're officially doing the Ella in real panties experiment and day 1 I think she went through about 5 pairs of panties, but none more exciting than the lone "poopy" panties this afternoon. I was luck enough to be around for that - luckily we were doing yard work and I just had to hose her off.....literally. It was great.
- So my wife "owned" the remote the other night and she had it on this show on WE, Raising Septuplets. Look WE network, we've already seen this and it was called John and Kate Plus 8....and they had 2 more babies. So why don't you go back to the drawing board on that one, or call us when it ruins their lives like it most certainly will.
- Looks like the sh*t may be hitting the fan over in Iran real soon. Look, US, why don't we just sit this one out and see what happens. I would like to think our President would not want to go near this with a ten-foot pole.
- Kim Jon Il has lost his f'ng mind. If he fires a long-range missile "test" towards Hawaii I have to imagine the repercussions will be quite severe - not even China will step up and defend him if that happens. This will get worse before it gets better.
posted by The Bearden Wonder at 10:59 PM
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