Basketball Review Continued

Thunder: The OKC Thunder pulled a “Rockets” before the Rockets pulled a “Rockets”. A “Rockets” is where a team sells their good players for draft picks, but still having players that will sustain their dignity. Yes, they’re bad, but they have so many draft picks, so out in the future, that they’re scouting kids who just learned how to walk. Theo Maledon, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort make up a great, young backcourt that’s not producing. The Thunder went a little overboard here because these are young players, but we need some really delicate coaching here, and we don’t want a Michael Carter-Williams or Anthony Bennett. Darius Bazley and Al Horford are great bigs, one’s old, one’s young. I would love to watch this team win, Al Horford is on his death (retiring) bed on this team, if this isn’t his death (retiring) bed then he will be a journeyman for the rest of his career. Bring in a leader, like Leon Rose brought in Derrick Rose, make this offseason the best you can and draft well (because the bad drafting slander will never cease if you swing and miss on this). Claim your OKC Thunder being good again non bandwagon ticket here, with me. Save this blog and show it (rub it in their faces daily and talk to them about it every chance you get) to your buddies when they break big. My prediction: 11th in Conference.

Pacers: Looking back at yesterday’s game will not sum up the Pacers’ season for you, that was a warning, because I didn’t want you to think that their team is better than KD, Curry, and Klay Thompson, or KD, Kyrie and Harden. They have a good team, and they’ll win a lot of games. Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Holiday are not a good backcourt, Brogdon is as volatile as the stock market right now, Holiday never displayed even smidges of signs to be as good as his good brother, Jrue Holiday, and before you go hunt down the Pacers roster, no, there isn’t a better bench replacement, except maybe Jeremy Lamb, but that’s up to the HC. Doug McDermott is just a placeholder, in my opinion, 13 points for a bench player? Douggie will take that. TJ Warren is actually there at SF but he’s injured, personally, Warren is built like a borderline PF, but he plays like an SG. Wow, that’s a player I want. Of course, he doesn’t have the speed of a guard and doesn’t have the height of a PF, so that’s the only downside to him, he’s in the middle, but you can’t call him an SF. The frontcourt for the Pacers is dangerous, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner are stereotypical bigs nowadays, Sabonis can shoot and Turner is dabbling in shooting. Both are great and defense and they both don’t specialize in back-to-basket play, except for Turner, because you can’t blame a giraffe for reaching a 20 ft banana. If you look at the big picture, this roster is built for 4th or 5th place in the East, which they are. My prediction: 5th seed

Knicks: My favorite team, finally, finally turning it around. It’s wild what a better coach can do to a team. Exit David Fizdale and enter Tom Thibodeau and you’ve got a 6th place team, that weren’t just bottom feeders in the East or the NBA. We weren’t even at the bottom of the food chain. We were whale excrement, just sitting at the bottom of the ocean. Well, now, with the right roster moves right before the deadline, we could be like a bass, or a trout, or salmon. They start Elfrid Payton at point, I don’t like that, no one does, Derrick Rose should be the 1. Reggie Bullock shouldn’t even be the third string shooting guard on a bad team (yes, I just said the Knicks aren’t a bad team). Start Immanuel Quickley at SG or put him as the second string at point. I’m pleased with RJ Barrett’s performance so far, yes, I want him gone, yes, I’ll give him a little more time. Kevin Knox has to go, please, he was pulling comparisons to Jayson Tatum or Paul George when he was drafted, and now he has to go. Julius Randle is a great player, he may be one of the best power forwards right now, I’ll put him at 3, behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis. There may have been slight bias but I will give you a solid argument for each PF why he shouldn’t be better. Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel are really good centers, they hold down the fort well together and separately. Obi Toppin has yet to prove himself, but Immanuel Quickley is going to be the next Jeremy Lin. They’re both guards and they both play the same way, he plays electrically, and right now, everyone is rooting for Quickley. 

My dream Knicks lineup:

PG: Derrick Rose

SG: Immanuel Quickley

SF: RJ Barrett

PF: Julius Randle (offense plays around Randle)

C: Mitchell Robinson

Bench: Elfrid Payton, Nerlens Noel and Obi Toppin.

This way, the fans are happy and the Knicks are better.

Next, the trades.