On the Hardwood with Pros and Students

Today I will write about professional and college basketball, I will do this relatively short because my last few blogs have chained you to your seat for longer than you want. I get it, but, I will now make it shorter, but with more/better content. So, it’s kind of like juice. In the past, I had a bunch of water (length of the blog) and a good amount of juice (content), so, now I’ll cut down on the water but give you hopefully the same amount of juice.

Before we start, I want to give you guys and gals a fun activity for any sport. Whatever sport you enjoy the most, you can do this with. Ok, so, you type in “random (insert sport here, like, NBA, NFL, MLB) player generator” into your search bar, then, you find a website you’re comfortable with (doesn’t matter which) and then type in how many players you want the website to generate. Side note: if you’re using https://www.2kblacktoprandomizer.com/, press 1V1, All Players, and you can deselect “current players” for a harder challenge or keep “current players”. Then, open the website Basketball Reference, then choose one of your players and type him into the Basketball-Reference search bar. Now, here comes the fun part, go through the website and try to get from that player to the second player without typing in the second player’s name, going through family relationships, or the draft. Aaaaand, Go!

Schedule: We got the NBA random generator and here we go again. I’m going to generate 3 teams, no Knicks. Then, give the rundown. For more, go to last week’s blog, if you want more, hunt down the first blog of this series. Then, I’ll talk about March Madness, and then NFL Free Agency. I’m trying to make my blog new and interesting every week, so, if you have any, give me some ideas, please. Direct Message my father or something, if not, I’ll keep cooking up new ideas.

I rolled Dallas Mavericks first, Charlotte Hornets second, Sacramento Kings third.

Dallas Mavericks: This team is definitely a dark horse to win the Finals or to be a first-round exit. This team is a skyscraper built on a 6-inch slab (usually made to support suburb houses). It is top-heavy, with Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis and they have a steeper drop-off on their roster than the Lakers had last year (LeBron James and Anthony Davis being the top two, and Javale McGee is arguably the third-best player on that team). Analysts talk about high-percentage shots, well, whenever the ball is in Luka’s hands, it’s a high percentage shot waiting to happen, whether he’s taking it or not. This team also has a lot of shooters on relatively bad contracts. Someone like James Johnson and Tim Hardaway should not be getting paid around $34 million. The bench is good, led by Trey Burke and Jalen Brunson, keeping Josh Richardson in the starting lineup was a great move by Rick Carlisle. This team is great, but has soooo much more potential if they play their cards correctly, I guess you can say that for every team, but the Mavs have tremendous upside on this team. This is what I would do: trade James Johnson and Josh Richardson for a more economically friendly contract and a pick. Start Jalen Brunson to develop him and develop Dorian Finney-Smith as well. Keep Maxi Kleber but put him on the bench as the 7^th man. Get rid of Tim Hardaway Jr. to have about 25 or so million left in spending cash, and then cash in on free agency.

Charlotte Hornets: This squad is the beginnings of a great team. This team is very young, with Gordon Hayward being the oldest in the starting lineup. The backcourt is amazing, Lamelo Ball and Terry Rozier, who is still very young, 26 years old.  Gordon Hayward is a great secondary playmaker on this team and the frontcourt is young and really good. This is what I would do: Trade for Lamelo’s brother, Lonzo at the deadline. keep Hayward, extend him until he retires. Trade Cody Zeller for a young player and a draft pick and start either Bismack Biyombo or Vernon Carey Jr. Then, have a good draft, and fill in any holes on really good contracts in free agency. In about a year or so, move Hayward to the sixth man and trade Rozier for a young and progressing SF. This team has tremendous upside, more than the Mavs, and should be making the playoffs shortly because of the age of this roster.

Sacramento Kings: The Kings are in an interesting situation, they have an extremely young roster and they have a special occurrence – they don’t have to wait for talent, they have that talent. They’re a little rough around the edges and a lot of cap space to move around which they can/could’ve done on today's (or Thursday's) deadline. I’m looking at Buddy Hield, I think he’s regressing, he’s still a knock-down shooter for D’Aaron Fox to kick out to and Tyrese Haliburton to learn how to kick out. MB3 (Marvin Bagley III, one of the coolest nicknames in my opinion) is a really good option for them as well. Delon Wright is the sparkplug for the second unit, they could work through him when the bench is in, and with them being among the bottom of the Western Conference, and probably getting a lottery pick, they could get another bench player or anyone else. Richaun Holmes Harrison Barnes and MB3 are still really young and really good for them as bigs AND with the block king of the past few years, Hassan Whiteside on the bench, they have a superior frontcourt. What I would do right now: Get rid of Buddy Hield, slide Harrison Barnes to the 3. Also, pickup a backup 4. As I’m writing this, the Kings just picked up Terrence Davis, perfect! Davis can go to the 3, Bagley back to the 4, Barnes to the backup 3 or 4. I’m adamant about trading Buddy Hield because his play and his contract don’t equal each other. So, as I’m writing this, the Kings just got younger, and they’re thinking only about the future, wonderful stuff, Kings!

 

March Madness: I created a formula for this year, yeah, I did, and I was so confident in it and then I was thinking about the fame I would get if I got all 63 games right. Then, after the first two games guess what my record was – 0-2. One thing I SEVERELY overlooked was the schedule. I had Colgate in the Sweet Sixteen. Ok, you have 4.7 seconds to laugh. Ok, now that you’re back, I overlooked it, a lot. Also, my formula was based on greater than/less than numbers. Not so great, I realized. It takes way too long, and now that my formula got less than 40% of the games correct, maybe those two social studies, three LA, and math periods would’ve been helpful in 20 years, probable: no, possible: yes. Ohio beat Virginia, and literally one reason why – Virginia has a very small point guard, and with Jason Preston, an inside-out playmaker at 6’4” who can lead his whole team in rebounding. He’s not slow either, he’s blazing fast as well and can shoot. Even though they hit a roadblock in Creighton in round two, Jason Preston is an NBA-ready player, probably mid-second rounder, late first at best. Gonzaga is the most well-oiled unit in the tourney, they run a nine-man rotation I think, which means that one starter is on the floor at all times, and all the starters are capable of leading the offense. I had Winthrop beating Villanova because 1) everyone said so, 2) the stats aligned in Winthrop’s favor but, the powerhouse ‘Nova wins, I guess rule number one is all powerhouses win unless they’re 13 or below seeds. Then, the Purdue Boilermakers lost? Purdue, this is the powerhouse, the four seed, that one, right? And you lost to not Texas, not Texas Tech, but NORTH TEXAS? Also, Colgate, who I thought would beat Arkansas, painfully lost. If you’re the underdog – a run like Arkansas had at the end of the first half is like someone blindfolding you and forcing you to run the Boston Marathon.

OHIO STATE LOST TO A DENTAL FIRM, A DENTAL FIRM, AND THEN THEY BEAT FLORIDA.

The more surprising one is Ohio State, they were in most Final Fours across March Madness brackets. Not much that I could say, except their point guard? Max Abmas? He should not be studying dentistry; he should have a full ride to Gonzaga to be their starting point guard. He has a smooth jump shot and will pull up from anywhere. They may very well beat Arkansas, unlikely, but possible. Sister Jean stays undefeated, first Sister Jean and some guys dressed in maroon jerseys with the letters L, O, Y, O, L, A, C, H, I, C, A, G, O on their jersey, beat Georgia Tech, and then they wipe out the number one seed, Illinois, the widely regarded favorites to win the whole thing. My pick? They wipe out the Oregon St. Beavers and move onto the Elite 8. The best player in the country Cade Cunningham and his team beat Liberty in the first round, and then they crash and burn against the Oregon St. Beavers. This is a wild thought to think about, Cunningham’s next formal/official game (not Uncle Jeremiah’s driveway cookout) will be in an NBA jersey. Syracuse won their game against long-time powerhouse San Diego State, Buddy Boeheim is an amazing scorer, this guy has shades of Klay Thompson in him. Theoretically, pair him with a Steph Curry and Syracuse has the fuel to go to the Final Four, I’d say Elite Eight as of now. Houston is a great school, and probably will beat Syracuse in the Sweet Sixteen (I hope not, though), but it will be an extremely close game and the final score will be worth the price of admission all by itself. 

My Sweet Sixteen picks:

Gonzaga vs. Creighton: Zags

USC vs. Oregon: USC

Michigan vs. FSU: FSU

UCLA vs. Alabama: Bama

Baylor vs. Villanova: Baylor

Arkansas vs. Oral Roberts: Nice run, ORU, but Arkansas is taking this

Loyola Chicago vs. Oregon St.: Loyola Chicago

Syracuse vs. Houston: Syracuse

Elite Eight:

Gonzaga vs. USC: Zags

FSU vs. Alabama: FSU

Baylor vs. Arkansas: Baylor

Loyola Chicago vs. Syracuse: Loyola Chicago, are you surprised? I’m not.

Final Four:

Gonzaga vs. FSU: Gonzaga

Baylor vs. Loyola Chicago: Baylor

National Championship

Gonzaga vs. Baylor: Gonzaga by a score 81-77