Around the League 2/5
> On Friday the Los Angeles Clippers signed Kenyon Martin to one-year $2.5 million contract out-recruiting the likes of the Lakers, Heat, Spurs, Hawks and Knicks in the process. At 34 K-Mart doesn’t have much gas left in his tank but I couldn’t imagine a better situation for him. As I’ve written before the Clips big man depth behind starters Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan ranges from awful to pathetic, so what Martin is currently capable of is actually just what LA needs him for. Blake averages 36.5 minutes a game so Kenyon can slide right into those 11.5 minutes and maybe masquerade as a center for another 4-8 more. K-Mart’s athleticism is pretty much gone but he can still rebound, defend and provide toughness in limited minutes. His playoff and big game experience will also be valuable for Griffin and Jordan. I suppose there’s a chance Martin could go off the reservation but with former teammate Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul around I don’t see Kenyon rocking the chemistry boat much if at all.
> Also on Friday it was announced that New Orleans is taking Chris Kaman off the trade market. That was sure quick wasn’t it? Just as I said would happen last week the Hornets got nothing but low ball offers for the productive center that also happens to be in the last year of his $14 million contract. The league obviously overplayed their hand once again causing NBA spokesman Tim Frank to issue this statement:
"Dell Demps is the general manager of the Hornets (and) neither Stu Jackson nor Joel Litvin has had any conversations with any teams about a trade for Chris Kaman. Further, neither Stu nor Joel has set any asking price. Any information you are receiving to the contrary is simply not true."
Umm, ok buddy, if you say so. I also still have that unbelievable beach front property in Nebraska I’m looking to sell. Apparently Jackson and Litvin are asking for draft picks or other young assets in return for Kaman but also don’t want to add any long term salary in the process. So to put it plainly they want another team to give them something of value for a half season rental and that’s obviously not going to happen. I also read this week that Chris might be bought out of his NOLA contract all together so some clubs are willing to just wait it out and call the league’s bluff. I guess nothing should surprise me in terms of poor management decisions when Stu Jackson is involved but buying Kaman out would be unfathomably stupid.
> Through the first 325 games of the season average attendance around the league is 17,094, or 89% of capacity, which is up slightly from last season’s number (17,057) through the first 325 games. While that is one way of showing the lockout didn’t affect the NBA’s popularity TV ratings have been astoundingly good across the board. ABC’s ratings are up 5%, regional cable 12%, ESPN 23%, local over-the-airwaves 36%, TNT 50% and finally NBATV a whopping 66%. There are other indicators as well like the approximately 180 million people that follow the NBA, its teams and its players (more than any other sport) on social media. The popularity doesn’t stop there either as TV ratings are also up 39% in China. As I’ve been saying for a few years now it’s well past time that people start admitting that basketball has passed baseball as second behind football in America’s sports conscious.
> Through game action on Thursday 2/2 the East was only 41-59 against West. This is where the unbalanced schedule that has teams playing only 18 inter-conference games apiece makes a huge difference. Borrowing some numbers from ESPN’s John Hollinger the unbalanced schedule adds 1.8 wins to every team in the East while subtracting 1.8 from every Western squad. What this means is that while the West beats the stuffing out of each other on a nightly basis the East will be sending at least one sub-.500 side to the playoffs and maybe two. As opposed to out West where there could be as many as three .500 or better units that don’t qualify for the post season. This explains why I almost exclusively watch West-on-West matchups these days when the Lakers, Sixers or Blazers aren’t playing.
> I recently had an opportunity to pick some games against the spread for a friend that was flush after a great football season versus the boys in Vegas. I didn’t do very well at all but what I figured out is that to be a really competent gambler you have to do hours of research a day…something I just didn’t have the time for. More than anything though this season is all about travel. You’ve got to compare where each team has been recently and go from there…almost nothing else matters outside of injuries.
That said following the lines for a few weeks made watching the games less enjoyable for me almost the same way being involved in fantasy hoops did. It’s like I was suddenly watching the games for the wrong reasons and paying attention to stuff that really doesn’t matter in the big picture of who’s a contender and who can play. However this experience did not totally sour me on betting on the NBA it just reinforced that to be a professional you have to dedicate yourself to the craft. I still see myself giving this a shot full time someday but I am certainly done for this crazy season.
> Also on Friday it was announced that New Orleans is taking Chris Kaman off the trade market. That was sure quick wasn’t it? Just as I said would happen last week the Hornets got nothing but low ball offers for the productive center that also happens to be in the last year of his $14 million contract. The league obviously overplayed their hand once again causing NBA spokesman Tim Frank to issue this statement:
"Dell Demps is the general manager of the Hornets (and) neither Stu Jackson nor Joel Litvin has had any conversations with any teams about a trade for Chris Kaman. Further, neither Stu nor Joel has set any asking price. Any information you are receiving to the contrary is simply not true."
Umm, ok buddy, if you say so. I also still have that unbelievable beach front property in Nebraska I’m looking to sell. Apparently Jackson and Litvin are asking for draft picks or other young assets in return for Kaman but also don’t want to add any long term salary in the process. So to put it plainly they want another team to give them something of value for a half season rental and that’s obviously not going to happen. I also read this week that Chris might be bought out of his NOLA contract all together so some clubs are willing to just wait it out and call the league’s bluff. I guess nothing should surprise me in terms of poor management decisions when Stu Jackson is involved but buying Kaman out would be unfathomably stupid.
> Through the first 325 games of the season average attendance around the league is 17,094, or 89% of capacity, which is up slightly from last season’s number (17,057) through the first 325 games. While that is one way of showing the lockout didn’t affect the NBA’s popularity TV ratings have been astoundingly good across the board. ABC’s ratings are up 5%, regional cable 12%, ESPN 23%, local over-the-airwaves 36%, TNT 50% and finally NBATV a whopping 66%. There are other indicators as well like the approximately 180 million people that follow the NBA, its teams and its players (more than any other sport) on social media. The popularity doesn’t stop there either as TV ratings are also up 39% in China. As I’ve been saying for a few years now it’s well past time that people start admitting that basketball has passed baseball as second behind football in America’s sports conscious.
> Through game action on Thursday 2/2 the East was only 41-59 against West. This is where the unbalanced schedule that has teams playing only 18 inter-conference games apiece makes a huge difference. Borrowing some numbers from ESPN’s John Hollinger the unbalanced schedule adds 1.8 wins to every team in the East while subtracting 1.8 from every Western squad. What this means is that while the West beats the stuffing out of each other on a nightly basis the East will be sending at least one sub-.500 side to the playoffs and maybe two. As opposed to out West where there could be as many as three .500 or better units that don’t qualify for the post season. This explains why I almost exclusively watch West-on-West matchups these days when the Lakers, Sixers or Blazers aren’t playing.
> I recently had an opportunity to pick some games against the spread for a friend that was flush after a great football season versus the boys in Vegas. I didn’t do very well at all but what I figured out is that to be a really competent gambler you have to do hours of research a day…something I just didn’t have the time for. More than anything though this season is all about travel. You’ve got to compare where each team has been recently and go from there…almost nothing else matters outside of injuries.
That said following the lines for a few weeks made watching the games less enjoyable for me almost the same way being involved in fantasy hoops did. It’s like I was suddenly watching the games for the wrong reasons and paying attention to stuff that really doesn’t matter in the big picture of who’s a contender and who can play. However this experience did not totally sour me on betting on the NBA it just reinforced that to be a professional you have to dedicate yourself to the craft. I still see myself giving this a shot full time someday but I am certainly done for this crazy season.
posted by D$ at 12:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home