Phoenix Suns's Phoenix Suns friend's fan blogs

He fooled me yet again.

We’ve seen this act before. Andrew Bynum, through the first five games, is averaging over 20-10, yet again.

 

It’s nothing new. For the third straight season, the young, potential stud, center for the Los Angeles Lakers has hit the ground running and has shown flashes of being an all-star caliber center in the NBA.

 

And, for the third straight season, Bynum’s great start may be overshadowed by, yet another, major injury.

 

With 24.7 seconds left in the Lakers overtime win over the Rockets last night, Kobe Bryant dished a perfect pass to Bynum under the hoop and he was fouled as he tried to convert the lay-up. It wasn’t an obscenely hard foul, but certainly one in which the Rockets were making it clear they weren’t about to allow Bynum to score without heading to the free throw line.

Continue reading "Andrew Bynum: The Oldest 22-Year-Old in the NBA"

From the who-didn’t-see-this-coming-department, Allen Iverson is not happy with his role after his first game in with the Memphis Grizzlies.

After coming off the bench and playing just 18 minutes in the Grizzlies 127-116 overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings last night, Iverson dropped this gem to reporters after the game:

 “Go look at my resume and that will show you that I’m not a sixth man,” Iverson said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me being selfish. It’s just who I am. I don’t want to change what gave me all the success that I’ve had since I’ve been in this league.” 

First of all, what did Iverson expect? He barely played in the preseason and then missed the first three regular season games with a partially torn hamstring. Even superstars would be eased back into the rotation after something like that. Iverson is far from a superstar these days. 

Continue reading "Allen Iverson Is Unhappy (again)"

In the NBA these days, it seems like there is a stat for everything. We’ve got PER, offensive efficiency ratings, defensive efficiency rating, and so on and so on.

It seems like every team in the league now employs their own stat guru. And while I’m not one to question the use of all these new statistics to evaluate NBA players (I actually kinda like them), I’m old school.

 

To me, all the new stats in the world can’t tell the story of an NBA game as well as the good, old fashioned box score.

 

Therefore, I’m starting a new feature today called “Fun With Box Scores”.

 

Every Monday, I’ll be posting some of the more interesting things that jumped out at me from the previous week’s box scores.

 

Continue reading "Fun With Box Scores"

The NBA season is officially underway (unless you live in Chicago or Milwaukee).

 

After several hours parked in front of the NBA League Pass for the past two days, it’s time for some first impressions.

 

The Good

 

Ty Lawson

 

How good was he last night? I predicted the Denver Nuggets to be the third best team in the West this season, and that was assuming that Ty Lawson would play like a rookie point guard.

But his 17 points, six assists, and four rebounds, plus very solid fourth quarter minutes in a close game against a decent Utah team, shows that he may be a real X factor for this team moving forward.

 

Brook Lopez

 

Lopez was a monster last night, finishing with 27 points, 15 rebounds, five blocks, and four assists. Of course, the Nets lost, mainly because they couldn’t hold off the mighty T’Wolves down the stretch, but it certainly wasn’t because of Lopez.

Continue reading "First Impressions"

Happy New Year!

With the new NBA season set to tip off with four games tonight, here are some of the things I’ll be watching for in tonight’s action.

Boston @ Cleveland, 7:30pm

I can’t wait to see LeBron again this season. Last year, coming off the Olympics, you could see that his focus was on improving defensively. Now, without a summer in the spotlight, I’m curious to see if he’s made any improvements to his already unreal game. Is this the year we finally see LeBron use his Karl Malone-like body to beast on people inside?

Also, I’m curious to see what kind of pregame theatrics the Cavs come up with. You know Shaq can’t stand to be out of the spotlight, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to one-up LeBron’s chalk thing with something of his own.

Continue reading "NBA Opening Night Quick Thoughts"

Disappointing news for NBA fans everywhere, courtesy of yahoo:

 

"LOS ANGELES (AP)—Blake Griffin’s (notes) NBA debut has been pushed back indefinitely after the Los Angeles Clippers revealed late Monday night that their No. 1 overall draft pick has a broken left kneecap.

The stress fracture could sideline the Oklahoma star for six weeks, the team announced, promising further information Tuesday."

What a disappointment this news is. Watching Blake Griffin debut on Tuesday night was going to be the highlight of the TV schedule for me. The Lakers, Cavs, and Celtics are all going to be good this year, we already know that.

And while it’s always fun to watch really good teams play, one of the best parts of the new season is getting to watch high profile rookies make the transition to the NBA game.

Continue reading "Disappointing First Impression of Blake Griffin"

Welcome to the Diary of an NBA Junkie.

My Name is Scott Shepherd, and I’m addicted to the NBA.

 

After a few years of covering the NBA for a great website, www.sports-central.org, I’ve decided to branch out and start my own blog.

 

The idea for the blog is simple: I’m addicted to all things NBA, but writing a weekly column for Sports Central sometimes just isn’t enough space to get all of my basketball related thoughts out there.

 

The idea with the Diary of an NBA Junkie is to post a series of short NBA-related posts several times throughout the week.

 

It may be a reaction to a particular game, player, or coach. It might be link to a good NBA story or video that I’ve come across. It might just be random thoughts I have while flipping through the League Pass.

Continue reading "Welcome to the Diary of an NBA Junkie"

The Phoenix Suns are not the worst defensive team in the NBA.

In a recent article released by Dime Magazine they claimed the Suns were the worst defensive team in the NBA.

http://dimemag.com/2009/09/the-phoenix-suns-are-the-worst-defensive-team-in-the-nba/

It is not a fair assumption to call the Suns out as the worst defensive team in the NBA next season. They never have been known for their defensive ability as a team but have been slowly putting pieces in place that will play defense. Some of the Suns younger players might actually become strong defenders in the league over the next couple of years.

There have always been the open holes defensively on the Suns roster. One of the biggest is Steve Nash, he gets substantially worse defensively each year and every point guard in the league gets giddy at the thought of going head to head with him. He can’t stop anybody off the dribble but has always been good at getting where he needs to be on the court to take the charge. Jason Richardson should be traded so Leandro Barbosa can start. He has never been a good defender and doesn’t really show the drive to become any better. Grant Hill is not getting any younger and Channing Frye has never showed the potential to be a strong defender. Even with some of these players on their roster it is not enough for them to already be considered the worst defensive team in the NBA. 

Continue reading "The Phoenix Suns are NOT the worst defensive team in the NBA"

Some guy blogged about how Tiger Wood’s is a role model off the course, but he doesn’t have to be one on the course. Well, Tiger’s off course on the course. His actions are that of an ass. He owns the golf world, but acts like a spoiled kid on goofy golf course. I’m sick of it, and of him. Tiger’s not content with being the best at his sport. He wants to rule it with a nastiness that golf has always been averse to. His tantrums, and cursing, and throwing clubs, and berating the photographers and fans that cause his huge income, has gotten ridiculous. What is the message he is trying to send? He wants what the conta

Continue reading "Tiger Woods' Tiresome Tantrums"

I remember when Superman Shaq came out years ago. Perhaps it was so many years ago that Dwight Howard was too young to know it. Anyway, nothing much was said when Superman Dwight came out at the All-Star game a few years, but now Shaq's back in the East. And there can only be one Superman in the East. So what's my gripe? Two Super's? Nope. Turf wars? Nope. Getting teary-eyed and sniffly because The Big Witness Protection outed the imposter by saying Dwight "hijacked his Superman title?" Yep. I though basketball was a tough, trash-talking, in your momma's face kind of game. What is D HO doing saying, "I would say it hurts my feelings?" Come on, man! Bring it on to Krypton!!

Continue reading "Shaq disses Howard, nope, just truth's him up a bit."