The NBA one month in.

The NBA is becoming a league that revolves around two things point guards and big men. A league where the wing players get all the attention but the teams that have championship aspirations don’t just have wing players they either have a fantastic floor general or a dominate big man. You look at how the Miami heat are struggling and you realize they don’t have either of those ingredients but we’ll get to them later. What we’re going to talk about is how a month into the season this is becoming undoubtedly the season of the big and the little. The resurgence of Shaq, CP3 reminding us why he was unquestionably titled the best point guard in the league, Rajon Rondo making a run for the all time season assist record there’s a lot of good stuff to go over with this NBA season still young but here are the things I’m burning on. (Insert Jim Rome impersonation)

Maybe we should ease off of that 72 win talk

"Did you really think you could beat us with Joel Anthony at Center??"

In a story line that not many would have predicted the Miami Heat have been just……average. They’re currently sitting at 8-7 and have only beaten one good team out of those 8 wins blowing out Orlando at home. Miami has beaten, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Phoenix, Toronto, and New Jersey so they're not really proving themselves against the NBA's elite. While the Heat have played a rather tough schedule they haven’t really won any of their tough games and to me you only get credit for a tough schedule if you do. Speaking of needing an elite point guard or an elite big man the heat have neither, they’re starting Carlos Arroyo at point and Joel Anthony at Center. Honestly both of those guys are borderline NBA players and the heat have them starting. People will talk about how the Celtics had the unproven Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins for their championship run but both of those guys were unproven high draft picks in their early years,  while Carlos Arroyo is a 31 year old veteran who has played his way out of the NBA two times. Joel Anthony is a 28 year old 6’9 center who has career averages of 2.6 and 3.2. Comparing those two guys to Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins is not only an insult to the Celtics it’s an insult to your basketball intelligence. However you pair a dynamic wing combo of Lebron and Dwayne Wade with a big man like Chris Bosh and they should still be more effective than they our except for the fact Chris Bosh really isn’t a big man. He’s 6’11 but only 235 and the majority of his shots come from outside of 15 feet. Lebron is averaging 2 less rebounds than he has the past few years while Bosh is averaging 3 less. As Pat Riley said “No rebounds no rings” and a team that rebounds the way the Heat do aren’t going to win an NBA title. However we’re only a month into the season so its too early  to write an obituary for a team with this much talent. While things may not look good now for the Miami Thrice now, maybe the addition of a 35 year old Erik Dampier that about 10 other teams turned down could be what they’ve been looking for all along.

Just a heads up but Chris Paul is ridiculously good.

I have to admit I was among the people who completely forgot about how ridiculously good Chris Paul is and predicted the same doom and gloom for the Hornets that enveloped them last year. When you look back at the team Chris Paul took to the Western Conference semi-finals 3 years ago and compare it to this team it isn’t really better any many significant ways. That 2008 team was lead by Paul, David West, Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo, Tyson Chandler, Mo Peterson, Bobby Jackson, Bonzi Wells, and Julian Wright. I doubt anybody gets them confused with the 88 Lakers. How he took a team with that much talent to the western conference semi finals is anyone’s guess, and it seems will be left guessing again as to how he’ll take this team into the 2^nd month of the season with the best record in the NBA. The most significant addition the Hornets made in the offseason to me was adding Dell Demps as their GM. He comes from the Spurs tree of personnel men that has spawned everyones favorite NBA GM Sam Presti and Portland's new GM Rich Cho. His aggressive style of management has lead to multiple trades in both the off season and this young NBA season that have net them Marco Belinelli who has become a solid rotational player and shooter for them as well as Jarret Jack who's good friends with Chris Paul and who can back up both guard positions.  Chris Paul is putting up his normal 16 and 10 the difference being he’s doing it while shooting 47% from 3 which if form holds would be his season high by more than 10 percent. Even if the percentage drops over the season he’ll still more than likely be shooting at a career high to go along with a solid 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.  Despite all this talk of Chris Paul’s offensive numbers this Hornets team is doing it with their defense ranked 1^st in points allowed per game. The addition of Trevor Ariza at the wing has helped but the past two years when Chris Paul was healthy they were a top 5 defensive club, the Hornets always seem to be a good defensive team and when a team can count on their defense you can count on them being a contender.

 A battle of #1 Draft Picks for rookie of the year

This is why you watch Blake Griffin

This will probably be the most exciting rookie of the year battle since Lebron and Carmelo battled it out back in 2003 although it seems like ages now. Blake Griffin and John Wall both seem like legitimate franchise players, and I know that it’s only a month into the season but when someone has that special it factor that can change a team its apparent pretty early and both of these guys have it. If you haven’t watched at least 2 Blake Griffin games this year than #1 shame on you, #2 either get NBA League pass or steal some games off an internet stream but seriously watch this guy now or you’ll end up missing awesome stuff like this, and this, and then this, and probably some of this too. John Wall right now is averaging 18 points 9 assists 4 rebounds and 3 steals. He’s already compiled a triple double that was 4 steals away from being the first ever rookie quadruple double. Watching John Wall run a fast break it almost seems like he’s running downhill with the otherworldly speed he seems to possess on the break, he almost has a Lebron like quality in how he seems to have a gear that other players simply don’t possess. The most confusing part of this whole equation is that their respective teams are both horrible. It’s even more perplexing for the Clippers because they have so much talent you would think they would be a competitive team. They have one of the best young nuclei in basketball with Griffin, Eric Gordon, Eric Bledsoe, Al Farouq Aminu, and DeAndre Jordan. The oldest one of those guys is Gordon at 22 and he seems to be coming into his own after the team USA experience.  I look at that team and it all comes down to two things, #1 their two biggest contracts are two absolute bums in Chris Kaman and Baron Davis they should be arrested on the bench for stealing from the Clippers. #2 Vinny Del Negro is not an NBA coach he got the Bulls to the playoffs which people thought was an accomplishment but looking at the way the Bulls are playing right now with basically the same line up minus Ben Gordon and John Salmons and its clear to me he had that team underachieving. Its sad to say but despite all of the talent this Clippers team has it seems that the hex of the Clippers is still upon them. 

Lakers Celtics 3: This time it’s for keeps

Looking at both of our NBA finals competitors from the previous year I find it hard to predict anything other than a Finals rematch at this point in the season. A lot of people me included thought the Lakers would come out and sort of Boston Celtics this season and cruise to a 50 something win season probably not have home court throughout and just turn it on in the playoffs.  However so far this season they’ve come out like a team that not only got significantly better in the offseason with the additions of Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, but has also gotten internal improvement from players like Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown, and Pau Gasol which has pushed this team even further than the Champions from last year. All of this is without Andrew Bynum who on one leg was still absolutely crucial in their 2010 finals run. The Celtics are also without their anchor in the middle in Kendrick Perkins but they don’t have the luxury of sliding their 7 foot power forward over a position so instead they picked up 2 players I thought were absolutely washed up in Jermaine and Shaquille O’Neal. Well apparently I was only half right Jermaine O’Neal is an absolute corpse and him getting the mid level exception is a travesty beyond words, but so far Shaq has been a revelation at Center for the Celtics. While he’s missed 5 games for them he’s put up 12 and 7 in the games he’s played with a 25 and 11 in his past game against the Nets. Another revelation of sorts for them has been Kevin Garnett basically returning to 2008 form, after I saw this in last year’s NBA finals I thought that would be the nail in the coffin of KG’s career but so far this year he seems to be back to the defensive player of the year form he showed in 2008. Despite all this talk about Shaq and KG this is Rajon Rondo's team now, I joked a couple of weeks ago with my brother they should be called Rajon Rondo featuring the big 3. The way he orchestrates that team is a beauty to behold, not only on the fast break but in the half court as well. We've all talked about how dangerous Rondo would be if he ever got a jump shot but if he doesn't have one at this point I don't think he ever develops one, and the scary part is I don't think he needs one. If both of these teams can maintain their current form the first decade of 2000’s would truly compare to the 80’s as far as the Celtics vs. Lakers rivalry goes. 

Look out folks. Screen & Roll Out has just joined the likes of Thomas Edison by utilizing the recorded audio format. We just put up our NBA preview for the Western Conference. Enjoy.

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Tuesday Morning Week 7 Recap.

Week 7 Predictions Heads up 7-7 

Week 7 Predictions against the Spread 6-8 

Record so far: 46-41

Wow. As crazy as this year has been in the NFL week 7 was probably the craziest week we’ve had this year. 9 Interception returns for touchdowns on Sunday which was an NFL record by the way. The Raiders basically drop a 60 bomb on the Broncos. Drew Brees throws 4 picks to the BROWNS at home. Carson Palmer decides he’s heard enough of my mouth and goes off for 412 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Refs absolutely blow their whistles too soon and rob the Dolphins of a win at home, and keep the Steelers on top of the AFC. Seriously there are honestly too many stories for this week’s quick hits I’m pretty excited so let’s get to it.

The Autumn Wind is a Raider

Truly the rims of Future Pro Bowler

So could you please raise your hand if you had the Raiders beating the Broncos? Ok thank you that looks like about half the class. So now could you please raise your hand if you had the Raiders beating the Broncos by 45 points? Yeah….didn‘t think so. So I say Oakland’s gonna lose on Sunday, not only do they win, they score the most points in franchise history. This was probably the most dominating performance I’ve seen on all 3 phases of the game in years. This was like watching college football. It seemed like Boise State vs. Nevada or something. Darren McFadden seems to have finally turned the corner and become the elite back the Raiders thought they drafted with the 4^th overall selection. He’s only 3 yards behind Adrian Peterson in yards per game at a sterling 111.4 and he’s averaging an astounding 5.5 yards per rush. He put on a truly dynamic performance reminiscent of some of his more explosive days back in Arkansas. Defensively they shut down the top 3 passing attack of the Broncos holding Kyle Orton to 165 yards total passing, while sacking him 4 times and taking his first pass to the house for a pick 6. The fans in London can’t be too happy about getting to watch that Broncos v 49’ers matchup now, truly a battle of football elites. The question remains, what do the Raiders turn this victory into? Does this become a sign of things to come for the Raiders or does this become an unbelievable anomaly in another forgettable season in Oakland. Watching this team I’m still not sure, I’m hoping it’s the former rather than the later but only time will tell.

Ok we can finally say it………the Cowboys are finished

Even if getting blasted by the Giants on Monday night doesn’t seal it. Tony Romo breaking his Clavicle does. The normal recovery time on an injury like that is 8-10 weeks. So yeah I’m going to go ahead and put a fork in the Cowboys season. I was watching the Monday night game with my brother and I’ll tell you the exact moment I knew the Cowboys were going to lose. They get two interceptions on the first two Giant's possessions, both on tipped passes and they didn’t turn them both into touchdowns. They got the ball on the 6 and punched that one in, but then they got it on the 14 or so and settled for a field goal. That was it for me, you have to put your foot on the gas early and the cowboys don’t know how to do it. Even after the Dez Bryant punt return the feeling still remained the same. They can’t stop the Giants, once the Giants stop killing themselves they’re gonna paste em. All of sudden the Giant receivers stop tipping passes and catch them and its 21-20 at halftime and the game is essentially over. If you get 3 first half turnovers from a team and end up behind at the half you’re not the better team. The Giants proceeded to crush them in the 3^rd quarter before letting off the gas in the 4^th for a 41-35 victory that wasn’t that close. Now here’s the question I have, does this injury save Wade Phillips job? Can he really be blamed for a Tony Romoless team not making the playoffs? I think he should have been gone around week 4 but he wasn’t and now he’s without their most important offensive player for most likely the rest of the season.  I don’t know what Jerry Jones does but I do know that his daughter is absolutely terrifying. Seriously shes like Jerry Jones with a wig. I'm gonna have nightmares.(Google her, I'm not putting a picture in the blog. I have to check this thing once a day)

Well Better luck next year guys.

I knew they were fake just not this fake

Whenever I’m writing my weekend preview I’m always pretty worried about how wrong I’m going to be on stuff and I never fail to be really wrong on things. Observe last week’s Broncos over Raiders pick. However when I picked the Saints over the Browns it was with the caveat that I thought they’d win but I thought they’d scrape it out because something was still wrong with the Saints. I was wrong about them scraping out a win against the Browns. There was a blow out to be seen in the Superdome, the Saints getting blown out by a Cleveland Browns team that absolutely owned Drew Brees. I thought that the Saints hadn’t solved all of their offensive or defensive problems, but Sunday was mostly about offense. The Saints offense couldn’t do anything right. Drew Brees was under pressure constantly, he looked like a shorter Brett Favre out there throwing passes he had absolutely no business throwing. His first interception to David Bowens was a truly Favrian effort. He was wrapped up essentially, but instead of taking the sack and living to see another day he tries to throw the ball away and throws it towards the line; of course it bounces off of David Bowens hands then off of Jahri Evans leg and finally back into Bowens hands for a pick 6. He throws 4 picks total in this game and already this season has a grand total of 10 interceptions, he only had 11 all of last year. On the defensive side of the ball the Saints had trouble stopping a Browns offense lead by Colt Mccoy. I'll give the Browns credit in this, they played to win this game from the outset. They used all the trickeration they had in the books and kudos to them for that. However its week 8 and the Saints just got spanked 30-17 at home by the Browns. That truly doesn’t bode well for New Orleans and their chances of throwing another big bash in the bayou.  

Is this the week that the streak finally ends?

Every great streak in sports eventually ends. The Connecticut womyn’s basketball team will eventually lose a game. Cal Ripken eventually had to hang em up and let his streak go. The all time great UCLA teams of the early 70’s eventually lost to Notre Dame after compiling to me the most impressive team streak: 88 straight victories. The Los Angeles Lakers strung together 33 straight wins before their NBA all time steak ended. It seems that this might be the week that the greatest record in Pro sports finally gets its final number as Brett Favre might have to sit out this week and end his consecutive games streak at 291.  It comes out to an even more amazing 314 if you include the playoffs. Brett Favre has not one but two stress fractures in his ankle. I write this article knowing full and well Brett Favre could easily still decide that he’s Brett Favre and play anyway and be great. I just don’t know how a 40 year old guy with all that punishment on his body goes out there on what amounts to one ankle. To amass a streak like this in the most violent of sports is truly amazing; I think it makes it the most amazing individual streak in all of pro sports. This streak started all the way back in 1992, which comes out to 18 long years. Brett Favre hasn’t stopped playing football since I was 4 years old. As much as we go after Brett Favre here at Screen and Roll Out, if this is the week this streak ends he gets a salute from me because that is truly the work of an iron man. Also I’d like to salute him because Peyton Manning is probably going to break 8 years from now. Sorry I couldn’t help it, I can’t write about Favre without getting a dig in there somewhere. 

Why does nobody care about NBA Training Camp?

Why does nobody really care about NBA training camp?

NBA training camp is upon us and here’s something you might have noticed…. Nobody cares. There’s basically a countdown from the end of the NFL season to the draft and then from the draft a countdown to training camp. There’s never really that much excitement about either of the NBA equivalents. The question I’m wondering today is why? Don’t let the first 6 or so posts fool you screen and roll out is going to pride itself on being a dual sport blog. So with that being said let’s roll up our sleeves into the nitty gritty of our first basketball post.

The NBA is a superstar driven league, this is apparent to anyone the size of the teams makes it apparent. While a one superstar on a group of 11 is valuable a superstar in a group of 5 is even more so. There are only 12 active players on an NBA roster when it comes to game day, while there are 45 on the NFL equivalent. Roster turnover in the NBA is about the same as it is in the NFL at 30% however it comes out to 3 NBA players as opposed to 16 in NFL. It takes a lot of the fun out of things like training camp. One of the big draws of NFL training camp is watching all of the new pieces meshing together to create a cohesive defense and offense. There are so many different parts to an NFL team, offense, defense, special teams and inside those sections even more specialized areas. You have your offensive line, QB, wide outs, Running backs and on defense your defensive line, linebackers, and secondary. The NBA has starting five that plays both offense and defense. There are significantly less permutations to imagine when it comes to NBA rosters. When it comes to NFL rosters you’re thinking how your players match up against other teams, how they’ll work with certain personal packages, how they’ll work with your coaches play calling. There’s just so much more information to absorb which tends to drives stat geeks like me into frenzy.

Otherwise known as the Lakers/Celtics Invitational

Just for a quick second I want you to do something for me. Name 10 NBA stars, not super stars just stars that weren’t top 15 draft picks. Can you do it? Seriously just 10. I got Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer and maybe…. Monta Ellis? Zach Randolph? Gerald Wallace? The NBA is a league made up of the things we expect. Pretty much every single good player in the NBA a good deal of people thought they would be a good. The NFL is composed of undrafted and late drafted superstars’ not just stars, I’m sure we can all list quite a few.  Tony Romo, James Harrison, Antonio Gates, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Hines Ward, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Brian Westbrook just off the top of my head. I’m a Lakers fan…………………oh sorry I was just basking in the collective glow of owning the NBA. They might as well call the NBA Finals the Lakers invitational. But outside of my ridiculous hubris the NBA seriously lacks parity. 8 teams have won the past 30 NBA championships. While their have been 14 different NFL champions in the past 20 years. Seriously how much fun is that for the rest of the league to basically know at the beginning of the year you have no chance? That’s what makes the NFL great. I’m a Raiders fan and we’re terrible, but every year I have hope, I have hope that this year; this year will be the year we finally turn it around. Teams like the Colts are so special in the NFL because it’s so hard to stay good in the NFL the fact the Colts have made the playoffs for 11 straight years is amazing. The Lakers on the other hand have missed the playoffs only 5 times in their entire existence. It happens almost every year in the NFL a worst to first story, how many times do we have stories like that in the NBA. Rarely if ever, that’s what made the Thunder so endearing last year they were an authentic 1 year turnaround story. They went from 23 to 50 wins, things like that never happen in the NBA.

Basketball doesn’t do enough advertising for training camp/pre season/draft. The NFL is an advertising machine that no other league in America can compete with, that’s clear. However the NBA can learn a lot from the NFL in the way that there is no offseason in football. They’re always holding your hand as they direct you to another stage of their product. Super bowl’s over??? Oh snap the draft is only 2 months away better start learning about college football players. Oh the draft just happened??? Training camp is just around the corner. The NFL is constantly creating anticipation for the next stage in its yearly football onslaught. There truly is no offseason. Normally after the NBA finals Is over there’s a lull and the draft and then another lull and then training camp. Free Agency can be interesting at times (queue Miami heat having a parade after having won…………what exactly??) This is probably the most anticipated NBA season in 10 or 12 years and opening night still won’t compare to that of the NFL. I think we all understand that to a certain degree we’re comparing apples and oranges here with the NBA and the NFL, but there are still a lot of things that David Stern should be stealing from Commish Goodell.

You could swear these guys won something...right??

Now the final question: What can the NBA do to fix it? The NBA has the final four; one of the most watched sporting events in America perfect for cultivating recognizable names for its league. They don’t take advantage of it because of its one and done rule. Nobody ever really builds any attachment to college basketball or college basketball teams because the players on those teams are only around for 1 or 2 years at the max. They should implement something similar to what baseball does either you come straight from high school or you go to college but you have to be there 3 years. That seems like a clear win win, players that want to come in straight from high school still can, while players who go to college will actually commit academically to a school as opposed to the ridiculousness of the one and dones of current college basketball. Secondly the NBA needs to do more to emphasize the importance of players 4-12 on an NBA roster. In the NFL we talk a lot about why the Offensive line and special teams is important and why a number of areas where we might not know the players are vital to a team’s success. How often do we talk about the importance of players who set good screens in the NBA or players who box out or are good help defenders? If the NBA wants to create a league where you want to monitor every move you have to a make a league where every player matters.