Possible Kyrie Irving landing spots

Hi!

This has been a long time coming. Last post was 2014? Wow that long!

You might have heard of the ongoing debacle regarding Kyrie Irving's trade demand from the Cavaliers. It seems the LeBron James rumors are true and nobody wants to get stuck on Cleveland nowadays. Carmelo reportedly doesn't want the Cavs as well as per report.

I tried my hand being a GM for a while with the ESPN Trade Machine and being a Bulls fan I loved this scenario.

In this scenario, Bulls get Irving while staying true for their rebuild effort. Bulls get a cornerstone to go along with budding star Zach LaVine in a faster pace that Hoiberg would love to play. It'll be a quick rebuild if this happens as Kyrie has some interest in the Bulls before the usual suspects GarPax fumbled it. It also establishes Kyrie as the focal point of the team like he wished.

Cleveland gets Banana Boat Avenger Wade in return and gets a PG in return.

For all their troubles Phoenix adds veterans that has been part of their recent success. While strengthening their defense while continuing to develop their young core. I think its a win-win for all teams.

As for the teams Kyrie asked to be traded to.

New York Knicks

This is rather a straight up trade. Carmelo for Kyrie but because of salary discrepancy Cavs need to include Shumpert in this scenario.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Kyrie gets his wish to play along Jimmy, and gets coached by a national assistant coach in Thibs. But for this to work, and with the recent additions the Timberwolves made they have to give up talent as well but in this scenario it worth the trouble having another all-star to add to your roster. Cleveland get Andrew Wiggins the first pick they gave away to accommodate James comeback. And they get Gorgui Dieng another project but with high ceiling.

San Antonio Spurs

This is as straight up as it can be. LaMarcus Aldridge ends his Spurs stint unceremoniously. But they get a PG that can replace Tony Parker long term. At age 25 it suits well playing with Kawhi and that makes the Spurs competitive for another decade. Cavs get talent, but LaMarcus has been underwhelming as a Spur. Ditching Kyrie does not improve the Cavs proposition as well to compete with the highly talented Warriors.

As you can see the only trade scenario where the Cavs does improve is when he is traded to the Bulls. Kyrie is a Black Mamba in the making he just need to work on his defense more. But he still has room to improve and could be a catch for any team that could have him.

So what do you think of this piece? Do you agree or disagree? Hit the comments below and let me know what you think.

NBA team previews Southwest Division

Wow the southwest. I think this is the deepest and by far the fiercest battle ground in the NBA. You look at the five teams and these are tough, tough teams. Now I'll try again to impart what positives and negatives I see in these teams. Shall we?

The Houston Rockets

2012-13 Record: 45-37
Key Additions: Marcus Camby and Dwight Howard
Key Losses: Carlos Delfino

Houston's wheeling and dealing that started 2 years ago finally paid off. The haggling for Harden? That hit the jackpot. It's the one that actually enticed Dwight to come (of course some of Chandler Parsons "friendly prodding" did help).

Houston created the almost perfect atmosphere to land Dwight Howard. in one hand an "In-his-prime" All-Star caliber player in James Harden, 2nd the familial atmosphere that the jovial giant missed (Kobe and the Lakers gave him the hard line do your job thing in LA and the fans just didn't gave the guy a chance), 3rd a solid cast around him to actually be able to contend and lastly coaches that can literally look Dwight and the eye and say we know your position very well.

Houston grabbed the biggest free agent this summer and thus allowing themselves a window of four years to do something about it. I don't think the Rockets are a finished product but they have heavily upgraded just by adding Howard up front.

The Dallas Mavericks

2012-13 Record: 41-41
Key Additions: DeJuan Blair, Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Wayne Ellington, Monta Ellis and Devin Harris
Key Losses: Elton Brand, Chris Kaman, Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo

Losers for the second big free agency since breaking up their championship team, the Mavericks actually got intriguing pieces this summer.

The big target was Dwight Howard, they bombed. Dwight didn't even blink at them, Houston was the only Dwight ever looked, the only Texan team he ever looked. Chris Paul said no team need to bother him anymore.

Gone is prolific center Kaman and Dallas get offensively deficient, Samuel Dalembert. They also got undersized Dajuan Blair. Blair is actually the better of the 2 but at 6-8, 6-9 he's just too puny for the center position. Maybe a replacement for Elton Brand? That's just doing a downgrade. I mean Blair is young but can he get better with Rick Carlisle on the sidelines?

They also got Monta Ellis, a more high profile player who is actually is almost an OJ Mayo prototype so you're actually ridding yourself this lower paid player and getting a more luxurious one for the same type of game. Doesn't make sense.

The only real steal Dallas got is Jose Calderon, since losing Jason Kidd to New York Dallas sort of lost a quality point guard who could run an offense properly. For all the talk of him when he was a Hornet (now the Pelicans) seem to have left him as soon as he was shipped to Indiana. With Calderon they got a very good point guard almost in the same caliber of Jason Kidd (in his dog years) at least they got someone to help.

I am thinking for these Mavs to fly, they need more Dirk Nowitzki doing his thing and keeping him healthy all season is a must.

The Memphis Grizzlies

2012-13 Record: 56-26
Key Additions: Kosta Koufos and Mike Miller
Key Losses: Darrell Arthur

Runner-ups in the WCF, the Grizzlies actually did little to shake their roster up, but the big thing that they did let go is not a player but their coach Lionel Hollins. Easily their most successful coach to date with a record of 196-155 win-loss regular season slate, Hollins saw these young lads steady rise to Western Conference power.

While not taking anything away from new coach David Joerger, it is interesting to see how the Grizzlies react to a more analytical kind of coaching. Personally I believe the game is about instincts and breaks that you exploit as the games go on and what makes the game this exciting. It is interesting to watch if indeed this kind of new NBA thing will work just fine for the franchise or just make it worse.

The New Orleans Pelicans (formerly the Hornets)


012-13 Record: 27-55
Key Additions: Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday and Greg Stiemsma
Key Losses: Robin Lopez and Greivis Vasquez

New Orleans team decided to rename their franchise to something more endemic to their landscape and chose the Pelicans as their new franchise name.

To kick start the freshness the Pelicans acquired 2 important guards to their roster, Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday. These 2 guys are insurance in case Eric Gordon doesn't find his groove still as a member of the Pelicans. It also makes Gordon happy, both because of playing with former AAU friends and actually being surrounded by talent. Personally I think the Pelicans did a smart job with their roster keeping them young yet adding valuable athletic pieces to work on with Anthony Davis, last year's top Rook.

And based on their preseason games even if it don't mean a thing? Their coming and the NBA be better ready, and under coach Monty Williams watch they will be better definitely.

The San Antonio Spurs

2012-13 Record: 58-24
Key Additions: Marco Belinelli and Deshaun Thomas
Key Losses: Gary Neal

Fresh from losing a heart breaking NBA finals, The key moves for the San Antonio Spurs weren't additions or losses. Instead, they involved re-signing crucial players (Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter).

After that nada, they have no more money to pay Neal to stay so they got bargain Marco Belinelli who the thrifty (just being kind here) Bulls let go. Marco fits in perfectly with the Spurs by playing system defense and draining corner three-pointers.

The additional year for Tim Duncan and crew does not spell good for the Spurs, always their main concern and father time continues to creep in into this amazingly defiant Spurs I don't know how much time is still left though before it closes it's doors for the old guys of this team.

Well this is all for now, 'til next time continue reading. :)

Winners rise, Losers fall (NBA Finals Game 7)

Heat are champions!

But not without a gallant stand from the Spurs who traded leads with the eventual champion Heat.

"They pushed us to the limit"

James would eventually admit after the game. He knew, and it made this championship even sweeter, coming off with a monster performance from him (a masterful punctuation mark to the transformation he had to do in order to win the series) where he scored 37 giant points, coming off baskets when they needed him to produce. It took all this effort from him to score their first back to back titles. The Spurs wouldn't give it to him that easily he had to earn everything and last night was a validation of a star. A kind of passing of torch, Them Spurs beating James and company 6 years ago and here right now on the same stage James has taken what he rightfully earned.
 

In defeat, Tim Duncan and the Spurs command respect. Nobody can ever question their desire to win it, only they fell short. The Spurs battled the whole game even cutting the lead to just two on a Kawhi Leonard 3-pointer.

The Spurs fell short, as Tim Duncan missed 2 shots that was his staple shots and Manu Ginobili making errors in the end game.

''For me, Game 7 is always going to haunt me,'' Duncan said.

 The Spurs have nothing to be shamed about, but as they lose comes a summer of reflections, what could have been, what could have been done, to come that close only to fall short. Nothing breaks a players heart much more a competitor's heart more than that. As the Heat savor their victory cigars, Tim Duncan walks down the tunnel head low, for the first time he lost a NBA Finals and it could be his last. The memory will haunt him he says, never has been those words so true.

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• Next week the NBA brings hope as the draft approaches, For Cleveland it'll be huge, another piece to build on and hopefully one that can get them back to play-off contention, one that will surely take LeBron's notice when the free agency of 2014 nears.
• The Clippers and the Celtics have yet to reach an agreement, the first of what could be a promising off-season we better watch this one as it unfolds or fold itself out of discussion.
• Jerry Sloan is back as Jazz Consultant! That's great news for me having been a fan of Coach Sloan's work, he's finally home.
• There are still plenty more coaching vacancies to fill this should keep NBA addicts occupied as we enter the off season, the free agency could also be a good one to watch out for.

There are plenty more of good reads to come, keep on reading 'til next time.

Manu is the true MVP of the Spurs!

There I said it so sue me.

It seems to me to have been true since 2005, Everytime Ginobili have a break out game the Spurs follows. It seems that their energy and passion flow through him. In this series (in fact the whole play-offs) Ginobili seem to have lost himself on the play. Averaging just 7.5 points on the series, questions lingered "Are you done?"

Even Ginobili himself seem to doubt himself when he declares he's open to retiring once the Finals is finished.

 ''Everything is a day-by-day basis, Once the season finishes and I see how I feel, I can't imagine me not playing at least one more year here, but time will tell. We'll see. Sometimes I do think about retirement, But then I say, 'No, no. I love what I do. I'm very lucky to be in a franchise like this. So I really can't picture myself being retired already."

''There's a small chance. It's not that I'm really considering, but I can never say 'no' for sure, because I sometimes consider it.''

In Game 5, Manu recaptured his game of old. Shooting 8-14 and finishing with 24 points and 10 assists Manu was Manu again. On the game's opening possession, he stepped back for a foot-on-the-line 23-foot jump shot. You knew he was on attack mode, maybe because of a sense of urgency that made him play this way, or maybe to quiet some doubters or maybe something to prove for himself that no I'm not yet done, maybe the move to the staring line-up helped. Whatever it is one thing is for certain The Spurs go where Manu leads them.

Extra: So much about LeBron James declaring "enough is enough". James did produce the numbers, but again the actual play doesn't speak for itself. Shooting 8-22 in the field, I don't think that is enough to win a basketball game. I don't like when players go declaring something and not backing it up (James already has his shares of boo boo declarations like the not one, not two crap). With their backs behind the wall, James needs to show his character as he said he wants to leave the game known as the greatest. This is the stage where you'll be judged LeBron and so far you are not getting any leverage.

The Big Three comes up big at last!

Finals Game 4.

Nobody in NBA history has ever came out winning a series after being down 3-1 in a series. That is surely a big void that Miami wanted to avoid, and it showed in their play. LeBron, Dwyane and Bosh were on attack mode all night long.

What surprises me is the Spurs resolve to counter these three early on, especially before the half. Miami by then was already threatening to blow the game wide open San Antonio tied it before half (Bosh failed to beat the clock when he launched to what could have been an impressive dunk that could potentially have given them the lead).

The Heat defense produced 7 blocks and forced 19 Spurs turnovers. That while being bolstered by the renewed energy from their leaders prompting the ever quotable Gregg Popovich to say: "When those guys are playing like that, you better be playing a perfect game". Those 19 turnovers produced 23 transition points.

Wade performance came in as a surprise though, hobbled by knee injury the whole post season Wade was Wade of old. The MVP candidate an that kind of energized LeBron as well after a lethargic 3 games, James explodes for 33 points.

Stopping one is already a pain in the ass, how about a three headed monster?

I think Wade is the X-Factor in this series, if he continues to play this well? They might just pull this off. LeBron can score all he wants but if he gets no other help it will be for nut. The Spurs defense will just collapse on him. I think it's on Wade's shoulders fall to give LeBron the help, because Bosh is Bosh.

Now, it's a 3-game series, Let's now see who's the better of both teams the next game. I don't think anybody has an upperhand right now as both teams have been able to quiet the tide. These 3 games might be the most exciting games of these series, stay tuned.

The Jury is out on LeBron

When LeBron James joined the Miami Heat he declared they'd win multiple titles (the much quoted not one, not two crap). Heat are hell bent on making the finals every year (with all the talent they have) but the question rings, do they have what it takes to be champions?

Entering the Spurs series, James swaggered himself telling the press he is about "50% better" than when he first met the Spurs in 2007. In three games, LeBron has yet to show me that he did indeed improve a lot in six years. His numbers are telling 18, 17 and 15. These numbers are underwhelming, in fact it's shrinking. In Game 3 it is noticeable that James didn't have the confidence to make a shot anymore. Had the Spurs didn't softened it's defense on the third quarter James wouldn't even reach double figure scoring.

For all the talent he has it's disappointing to see James dip this far. Skip Bayless even tweeted: LeBron is great in garbage time. Ouch!

There are calls for James to take over the games, much like what Michael Jordan did in his heyday. James is averaging a disappointing 16.7 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists at 38% shooting. Clearly this is not enough.

He said it himself on an interview he needs to be better than Michael Jordan if he wants to be called great, with this showing, add the lousy showing he had in 2007 and 2011 that vision seems too far out for him. He needs to do something with his play. Michael Jordan's playground is the Finals.

For a guy who claims to be king his claim to throne is already slipping away. The Jury is out LeBron.