Category Archives: chris paul

Lance Stephenson traded to Clippers

As a long-time Lance Stephenson fan, I hated to see his playing time cut in his first season in Charlotte. He left the Indiana Pacers and signed a 3-year/$27 million contract with them last Summer.

Well, his stay in Charlotte was a brief one. The Hornets traded Stephenson to the Los Angeles Clippers for Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes.

The eccentric guard lead the league in triple-doubles in 2013-14 with Indiana, but only started 25 games in Charlotte last season. He fell into coach Steve Clifford’s doghouse for his selfish play (and random tomfoolery).

The Clippers are a perennial contender in the Western Conference. What does the addition of Stephenson mean for the Clippers this offseason?

Continue reading →

2014-15 NBA Team Preview: Los Angeles Clippers

Donald Sterling will no longer be sitting courtside at the Staples Center. Steve Ballmer paid two billion dollars to purchase the team after Sterling was banned for saying racist remarks that would even make Stonewall Jackson uncomfortable.

Ballmer made a big entrance and is clearly excited to own an NBA team. He’s filthy rich and I expect him to pay the luxury tax every single season. The Clippers are prepared to take over Los Angeles if the Lakers let them.

Will Blake Griffin continue to develop into a perennial MVP candidate?

We will be posting a team preview for every team up until the start of the regular season.

Here is the 2014-15 NBA season preview for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Continue reading →

NBA Players Who Are Now Pressured To Win Their First Ring

The Miami Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight to win the 2012 NBA Championship. The pressure is now off Lebron James and Chris Bosh. The NBA is filled with young stars who have played past the age in which people expected them to already have a ring. It is hard to win a championship when you have Kobe Bryant, Boston’s “Big Three, and now Miami hogging up all the titles.

Lebron got the monkey off his back and he has given it to a few other NBA players. I’ve scoured through rosters and made a list of players who are now pressured to win an NBA Championship.

The 2011 Dallas Mavericks had many players who had to wait 10+ years to win their first title (Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, etc). There is hope for these players and odds are a few will win a ring in the next few seasons.

Kevin Durant (age 23) – I guess that I should start off with a couple players who just lost in the NBA Finals. Kevin Durant has a couple scoring titles under his belt and had a great postseason. He will have many other opportunities to get his ring and maybe he needed this loss to help push him to the next level. Durant is locked up with the Oklahoma City Thunder long term. They have some nice pieces around him and they will get even better.

Russell Westbrook (age 23) – Westbrook and Durant play really well together, but they came up just a bit short in the 2012 NBA Finals. James Harden and Serge Ibaka didn’t have a strong series, but they have both of them signed through next season. If OKC can sign them for three or four year deals, this team will be even scarier. Russell Westbrook is a turnover waiting to happen, but fixed that problem in the postseason. OKC will have Eric Maynor back next season and could give Westbrook some time at two-guard.

Dwight Howard (age 26) – The Orlando Magic center (for now) has already made a NBA Finals appearance and lost. His current contract situation has made the news over the last 18 months and painted him in a very negative light. If Dwight Howard were to be traded, he would have a lot of pressure on him to bring a championship. The rumor is the Los Angeles Lakers want him and Howard wants to play for them, but Lakers would have to trade Andrew Bynum and their salary cap situation is messy. I don’t see him going to the Lakers unless they decide to go above the luxury tax threshold.

Steve Nash (age 38) – He is the one player in the NBA that basketball fans would love to see win a ring the most. Steve Nash had many chances to jump ship and basically pick a team to be traded to, but he was loyal to the Phoenix Suns. He is an unrestricted free agent this off-season and wants badly to win a ring. I could see him signing for near the minimum amount to join a contender for one last run. New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City, and Miami are great fits for Nash in 2012-13.

Chris Paul (age 27) – He is currently in the situation that Lebron was in previous to this year. He is in a new place with some nice talent around him. Can Chris Paul recruit enough talent to join the lowly Los Angeles Clippers? It remains to be seen if the Clippers can keep any talent past their first contract. They need more than Griffin and could use some perimeter shooters. Donald Sterling will need to tone down the crazy and open up his wallet if he wants to finally get a banner at the Staples Center.

Deron Williams (age 27) – Williams is a guy that basketball purists would always point to when people would claim that Chris Paul was the best young point guard in the NBA. Well, both players find themselves in different places and Williams was stuck in New Jersey for the last 18 months. He is a free agent this off-season and is rumored to be headed to Dallas. This would put him in a great situation with an owner who wants to be a contender every season…plus he gets to play next to Nowitzki.

Carmelo Anthony (age 28) – Anthony forced his way out of Denver to play in a bigger market. He took a lot of heat from the media for being a diva. The New York Knicks haven’t won a championship in my lifetime and the pressure to do so is immense. Anthony is a scorer and needs a few players around him to force teams to play man-to-man. Amar’e Stoudemire is a nice piece, but he also needs to score to get the most out of his game. A full season of Jeremy Lin will be a test to see if Anthony’s game will ever translate to winning an NBA title.

Derrick Rose (age 23) – The Bulls have been trying to add pieces to surround Derrick Rose with NBA championship caliber players. They attempted to swing for the fences by signing Carlos Boozer, but struck out swinging. Rose was hurt for most of the 2011-12 season and injured his knee in the first round of the playoffs. It is unknown how much time Rose will miss next season and Chicago may force him to ease back slowly. Rose will win a title because he’s too good of a player, but it could be with a different roster in the future.

Other notable players who have yet to win an NBA title: Zach Randolph, Josh Smith, Danny Granger, Kevin Love, Elton Brand, and John Wall.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

RE-DO – 2005 NBA Draft

After any major sports draft, every team and their fans usually feel great about the future. The NBA many teams draft based on potential and not on the basis of past performance. 2005 was one of the last drafts that high school talent could bypass the college game and enter in the draft. Teams will still draft on potential, even a year in college doesn’t show enough to make an educated determination on what player is better than the other. Here is a re-do of the 2005 NBA Draft if it happened today.

1. Chris Paul – Milwaukee Bucks – The Bucks would be a much improved team with Paul at the point. Andrew Bogut was a decent pick, but the draft class was presumed to be very thin in 2005 and they couldn’t pass up on a big man with International flavor. Chris Paul is hands-down, head above shoulders, the filet mignon of this draft. (Paul went #3 to New Orleans) Continue reading →

Kobe Wins MVP, He Jumps A Car To Celebrate

Maybe someone should tell the MVP voters that “car jumping ability” isn’t criteria that should garner Kobe some MVP votes. The LA Times posted on their website that Kobe Bryant will win the MVP award. The Lakers finished 1st in the ultra-competitive Western Conference and averaged over 28 points per game. I wonder if the addition of Pau Gasol made this possible? A big man that can pass out of the post, hmmm, sounds like that’s something that Shaq did.

In the Kobe/Shaq feud, I sided with Shaq. I think Kobe is a great player, but at that time in the league, a big man was important to win an NBA championship. Kobe would be without a ring if Shaq wasn’t on the Lakers. Look at the last few champions? Spurs, Lakers, Pistons, and Heat, they all had big men. I know the Pistons didn’t rely on Ben Wallace on the offensive end, but when you add him with Rasheed Wallace, combined you have a Tim Duncan.

I still think a big man is important, but the teams that are in the playoffs this year, minus the Lakers and Magic, rely on perimeter players. The Magic only uses Dwight Howard as a rebounding/dunk machine, they shoot the most 3-pointers in the league.

My pick for MVP would be Chris Paul. I love the way he plays. He is the battery for the New Orleans Hornets. He gets things going, he is a triple-double threat, and he gets his players involved in the game. If Paul wasn’t on the Hornets, they would be buried in the Western Conference and would be a lottery team. I would bet that Paul ends his career with more MVPs than Kobe.Now that Kobe has won an MVP, you can start the week-long celebration on ESPN and TNT. Kobe needs to be compared to Michael Jordan as much as possible. He already has his lexicon and speech tone down. If he acts enough like MJ, maybe we’ll forget that he likes to get freaky in Colorado.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.