What Now For KG and the Boston Celtics?

Doc Rivers had to really dig deep inside himself at the end of last year to come back for another season with the Boston Celtics. Not just another year with Boston but with the squad that pushed the Heat to 7 games last season.

A lot can happen in a year. Since then Ray Allen has taken his talents to South beach and now Rajon Rondo is out for the season with the ACL tare heard around the basketball world.

So Doc is now trying to make a run with 2 out of his 4 Big 4, and with a team still trying to gel. The fact that the new guys and guys coming back from injury are still learning, means there's no system in place to interrupt.

We know Paul Pierce is still the go to man, the finisher, and most consistent scorer on the Celtics. We also know KG is still the anchor behind the Boston's defense. I say that to ask, can Boston afford to move either of their top guys?

Let’s be honest both of them are aging and I think there would be a revolt in the streets of Boston if you tried to move Pierce after all these years. KG on the other hand is up there in age now, and some may call him expendable. However, when it comes to winning a championship this year how much value do you really expect to get in exchange for KG. Not enough.

A contender may give up a lot to add KG right now, to win right now. Boston on the other hand would only be left with a lot of trade bait and cap clearing players, which means this year is a wrap and Rondo and Green would be in limbo the next 2-3 seasons as Pierce would be on the fast track to the downside of his career. Talk about all bad pieces fallen into place at just the wrong time.

Let’s keep it 100. Boston wouldn’t dare disrespect the blood sweat and tears the Pierce has sacrificed. KG has meant too much to the organization and also has given it his all, night in and night out. At his age he’s playing as an undersized center. Boston knows this and respects him for all he’s done he’s not going anywhere unless the Lakers are interested in letting go of Pau Gasol and throw in some other teams and players and maybe just maybe.

All we know is this year it’s over for Boston. Sorry Celtic fans but you can’t replace that kind of productivity. KG and Pierce can’t carry this team at this stage in their careers without a point guard of Rondo’s caliber to make it all work with the complimentary players. Thing is they were struggling before, what do you think they’re going to do now?

Who Should Replace Rondo and Who Got Snubbed

OK folks I needed a few days to digest and think over who shouldn’t and should’ve been on the All Star teams. I hear people say all the time who they think should be on, but hardly anyone wants to say who shouldn’t. You’ll here one guy say “such and such should’ve made the team”. Then the other analysts asks who would you take off and there’s never an answer to who should come off only more argument for why such and such should be in.

Allow me starting in the west and I can’t front in the only person not deserving is Dwight Howard. The fans decide that and I can’t front as far as excitement for an All Star game I can understand the vote by the fans, but c’mon. He’s on a losing team and there are other deserving big men in the west who should be going, like Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, and Serge Ibaka. All of these guys are at least on winning teams.

Marc is as dominant a big man as there is. No he’s not a highlight film, but his numbers and team wins speak for itself. Jordan is just as if not more exciting than Howard and check this out, his teams a contender. Finally Iblocka, fat hops and again chasing the blocks title.

After all of that being said though, you have Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, David Lee, and Big Zack Randolph. The West doesn’t need another big man, so why are the coaches shafting the hottest kid on the breakout team of the year. Stephen Curry, who without a doubt should be in this game.

He’s averaging 21 points and 7 assists and his team is fifth in the west, after finishing third from the bottom last year with a 23-43 record. This year they’ve already won 27 games, and I’m with Mark Jackson on this one. I also say Howard out Curry in.

If not Steph, then Jamal Crawford should’ve been selected. Oh my damn have you seen him? The funny thing is Crawford has been a killer on every team he’s been on. I remember him igniting the Bulls, then the Knicks, Blazers, and the Warriors always a consistent killer. In Atlanta that system spread the ball too much for him.

He’s a “Give’em the greenlight coach” type of player and you see him night in and night out given it to teams and he’s no doubt the 6th Man of the Year period. 17 points off the bench, and in the absence of CP3 he’s been the man for the Clippers with no disrespect to Blake Griffin. Let’s be real Blake couldn’t carry the team with Crawford.

On to the East My God!!! No Rondo this hurts as bad as when we lost Derrick Rose. It didn’t matter if you were a Bulls fan or not you loved watching Rose get busy on the court and it killed us when he went out, because we knew we were being robbed of a great performance (thank the lord he’ll be back soon).

We’ll get more into the future of Boston tomorrow, right now we’re talking All star and in my opinion J.R. Smith has to be on this team. When Melo was down he stepped up.

When Raymond Felton went down he stepped up. He brings the energy, the swag, the it factor that ignites the Knicks the way Crawford does the Clippers. He’s hit a few clutch shots and is getting better by the week.

Another man that needs to be considered, if you’re going to put Howard on the West, then you have to put Paul Pierce on in the East. You have KG, you had Rondo, but not the leading scorer and clutch man from the team they play for? That’s ridiculous. With Rondo down replace him with his teammate.

Lastly three guys that should’ve been considered all from the 4th ranked team in the east, and we know how bad they were last year. Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Derron Williams. Lopez has been the most consistent, but he was hurt most of the season. Joe Johnson has been the go to man, when Williams get’s the ball to him.

Speaking of Williams he’s more of a scoring point guard so his assists aren’t as high as you’d want from a player of his caliber. And his numbers are down this year, but his team has gone from bottom feeder to top 4. That can’t go unnoticed. However when two coaches are fired in three years on two different teams you play on… Let’s just say don’t think for a moment the coaches don’t have their own fraternity, and don’t think for a moment that in certain instances they don’t stick together.

In the East the guys chosen are all well deserving, except for one mistake. Kyrie Irving. He’s averaging 24 points 6 assts a game those are great numbers, but his team’s damn near at the bottom of the pit. He’s got some excitement about him when you watch him, no question. But in his second year? Really?

Three names I just have to throw out there that I think were better than Irving in their second year’s in the league. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. These guys were killing it in their second years, and none of them made the team at that time. And no one can tell me that Irving’s having a better sophomore year than those guys did. Irving out, any of the aforementioned in.

Who's "The SEC" of College Hoops?

In our final major conference mid season review we have to check in on The Big East and the Big Ten. Now if we treat basketball the same way we treat football then you haNW to go by who has the most teams in the top 25 polls, and this year it's all about the Big Ten.

THe Big East stays in the conversation for the simple fact that it seems like they have more than one team in the the top 10 every year all year and this season is no different. Right now Syracuse and Louisville are in the top 5, and the Big East has one more team in the top 25 in Cinncinati currently ranked 21st.

Syracuse is 3rd in most polls with one loss on the season coming at the hands of Temple. Wednesday night Syracuse barely escaped Cincinnatti coming from behind in the final 5 minutes of the game winning and 57-55. The Bearcats are have 4 losses, but 3 of the losses came from op 25 teams by strength of schedule cincinati is to be reckoned with.

Finally Old Rick Patino and the Lousiville Cardinals currently #5, did hold the #1 spot for a quick second have a record 16-3. One loss came from Villanove the other two came from Duke and Syracuse. As we get more in more in to this conference play you'e seing more and more #1's fall than ever before and though the Big East only has 3 teams in the Top 25 look at how good those 3 are and look at the amount of losses on the other teams that are in that confernce. The rest of the conference hve 3 or 4 losses any of those teams could break out and do some damge come tourney time.

That brings me to Marquette. Why are they not in the top 25, you ask? They havn't beat aenough quality teams yet the have 4 losses, true 3 to ranked teams but the 4th was to Gren Bay Phoenix. Are you serious? THe jury is out on them until the end of the season.

Now the Big Ten has 5 teams in the Top 25 so I'll try and make this as simple as possible and still entice you to watch these killers go at each other night after night. Starting with Michigan led by Tim Hardaway Jr is #2 in the nation and currently has one loss in confernce.

THat loss came from Ohio State who currently reside at #14. Ohio State's four losses all came from ranked teams. #1Duke, #3Kansas, Illinois who was 11th at the time, and #13Michigan State. THe only quality win they have was the Michigan game. THey'll have to show up now that confrence play is truely undeway and they have some very much needed home games for some very tough opponents.

THe Hoosiers are back and doing damge behind Cody Zeller (17.2 ppg) and Victor Oladipo (13.2 ppg) THey have 2 losses on the season with one loss to Butler, and we know Butler tends to do that to people from time to time and they other to Wisconsin who has 2 losses in confernce but one big win against Indiana.

So bottom line I could back and forth all day and night in this confernce and I"m telling you now a lot of rematches are on deck for the rest the season and they're going to be big games where again you'll see these boys playing with the dog in'em I promise you that.

Is Kansas the true #1?

With the Superbowl 2 weeks away and me being tired of talking about the Lakers, Te’o and that snake Lance Armstrong, there’s not a lot of news so I figured this was a good time to follow up with last weeks who to watch for in College hoops.

I told ya’ll in the ACC Duke was picking up where they left off last season reclaiming the #1 spot, while my Tar Heels are struggling. I thought a surprising NC State was about to make some noise. Since I made that prediction they’ve lost to Maryland and Wake Forest so I’ll try to do better going forth.

Wednesday night the battle for the top spot in the ACC takes place as #25 Miami, currently undefeated in the ACC will play #1 Duke, who comes in at 3-1 in conference.

Next up let’s just get it out the way right now the Big 12 as usual will go to Kansas led by freshman shooting guard Ben McClemore averaging basically 17 points a night on the #3 team in the nation. They just beat K State who’ll more than likely hold the #2 spot in the conference with Rodney McGruder trying to close out his final season as a Wildcat, but word on the street is watch out for OU personally I’m not convinced of the Sooners yet. Currently tied with Kansas State with a 4-1 conference record.

Another team that does make me raise an eye browe is the #16 Oregon Ducks. They play good team basketball 5 players average double digit scoring which shows they share the ball and anyone of them can kill you on any given night. The Pac 12 isn’t and hasn’t been very relative for a few seasons now, and they didn’t really play any big teams out of conference to show how good they really are, but I like the way they play. I don’t know about that court though.

Tomorrow the Big East and Big Ten some are saying one of these conferences are the SEC of college basketball.

What's the Thoughts and Future of the 2 Runners Up?

This may be the most anticipated Super Bowl since the the patriots went for 18-0 season back in 08. That time we all tuned in to see them do it, and it turned out to be a pretty good game as the Giants decided to ruin a chance for this generation to witness an undefeated season. Oh well.

Questions now looming are is Tom Brady and the Pats overrated and secondly are the Falcons going to be known as the Phoenix Suns of the NFL. Remember back when Steve Nash was there, and every night they were running people out the building, but never could win the title?

Many people believe Brady's overrated because he hasn't won the chip since 05 when they beat Philly. Since then, the Pats have been back twice, coming up short each time. Still in yet they got back, and have been to the big dance 5 times, and if you ask most players 3 out of 5 ain’t bad. So in my opinion hell no Brady’s not overrated and you can expect them to run the AFC for the next few seasons with Denver and Pittsburgh being the only two teams that I can see being a challenge to them year in and year out going forth.

The Falcons have once again come up short, no surprise to many of the “experts” out there. Let me say this, before you decide in your mind where they’re going from here. Right now they do look like the classic Suns team, but I think they’re going through their growing pains. Great teams who build, or in the Falcon’s case rebuild from the ground up have to go through these trials.

First people were killing them because they couldn’t get out of first round, then they got a bye week. That got them out of 1st round but still no respect because they couldn’t win a playoff game. So Matty ice and the boys decided to win one and go to the NFC championship, where they came up short yet again. It’s all done in levels, they seem to have all the pieces, and just need to continue to grow. They’ll add a few pieces here and there and they’ll continue to be serious contenders in the NFC for years to come.

College Hoops, WAIT HOLD UP DON’T GO!!!!!!!

Now surprising to me but kind of understandable, there are a lot of people who don’t enjoy college basketball the way they do the NBA. I’m here to tell you that’s crazy and I’ll tell you why it’s crazy. Number one if you like the game of basketball then you have to appreciate the college level it’s like…, it’s watching basketball in it’s purest, for the love of the game type form.

For the most part the competition is so much harder in college due to the fact that those dogs are hungry, and night in and night out they give it 100 percent. They’re not in the league playing 82 regular season games and taking nights off here and there because they’re bored. C’mon you know some of those teams look and play lazy as hell when it’s a game they don’t care about winning because they know they got 50 more games to make up for the loss. Those college boys are trying to get there still and when it’s a team they know they should beat they try to create a highlight reel for the scouts.

In the NBA if Miami loses to Charlotte, my bad when Miami lost to Charlotte, we forgot about it a week later. Because we know that loss has no affect on the rest of their season, and if the Bobcats ever found themselves in the playoffs against Miami, we’re not watching that series we know it’s a wrap for MJ and his boys.

Now switch to college hoops just like college football the regular season matters every damn game, and in college hoops you see these smaller less talented schools get wins in the regular season. Those regular season games shake up the top 25 but even more exciting it affects the tournament seating’s and oh my goodness we ove to argue about who should’ve got in who should’ve been left off based on who these teams lost to in the regular season.

Which leads to the best time of the year MARCH MADNESS where a number 1 team like Duke previously was could lose to a team that’s normally not in their level. See this aint the NBA Playoffs when you can drop a game and make up for it in the 7 game series. We talking bout MARCH MADNESS one and done some of the NBA’s best have fallen in The Tournament.

Look at some of your favorite NBA players and see how many of them have college rings. Not as many as you think because it ain’t easy to get. As a matter of fact of the last few teams to win an NBA title were lead by superstars who didn’t win a college title. Mario Chalmers is good but he’s no leading superstar.

I could go all day, but I won’t so let me leave you with this, if I may? Watching clloege basketball is like watching a movie. You find certain players you like they become your main stars. You watch them try to be triumphant, or win a title, by the end of their college careers. In the movie world that’s the end of the movie when that game ends win or lose that’s it.

However like a lot of your favorite movies there’s sequels, and the NBA is the sequel for a lot of the guys. So I hate it for you if you missed the first part of the stories of Kevin Durant at Texas, or Derrick Rose at Memphis. Blake Griffin at OU, or Russel Westbrook, Darren Collison, and Kevin Love at UCLA at the same time. By the way had those three stayed together, oh my damn.

So I say that to say tune in to college hoops watch the top 25 just to warm up I know there’s too many teams to keep up with, but this is where those small teams turn into power houses and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. Hope I was able to spark your interest a little, now sit back and enjoy the college ride, because this year it’s wide open.

Oh What a Weekend Now What Do we Do For An Encore

Ok what a weekend and I don't see this weekend being any less exciting except for the fact that we don't get the full weekend, just one last Sunday doubleheader... almost got sad thinking about the end of the season but l'll hold back we still got time. Let's go AFC first, we got the Brady Bunch hosting Ray's last ride Ravens. Honestly there's only 3 teams in the AFC that ever really have a chance against the Pats year in and year out. The Steelers, not this year, any team led by Peyton, and those boys who rained on Peyton's season the Baltimore Ravens. How fitting a story it would be to have Ray Lewis defeat Manning and Brady during his last crusade. And to really make the story a little more intriguing he then faces the 49ers where he passes the torch to the new #52, I call him Ray 2k and beyond, Patrick Wills. We would see one of the most epic hard hittingness Superbowls ever. Especially if it's anything like last year's regular season game between the Ravens and the 49ers which the Ravens won 16-6. So all in all I know the Patriots are what they are, and I know Tom Brady is the second coming of Joe Montana but there's something going on in Baltimore and I refuse to bet against Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and T Sizzle. The real story is New England's defense, which in my opinion hasn't really been great, and against Flacco they may not have to be. But if we get the same Flacco from last week the guy we thought B More thought they had combined with Ray Rice and maybe getting the ball to Bolden sooner and more often, the Ravens could punch their ticket to the Superbowl.