Photo. Gary LandThere are only five reasons why you would normally be extra-interested in watching an NBA preseason game: 1) It’s the first game of the year and you’re dying to watch any form of basketball, 2) There’s a hotshot rookie involved, 3) Michael Jordan’s playing for the Wizards, 4) You’re going to the game, or 5) You personally know someone who’s playing. Yesterday we added a sixth: When Kevin Garnett goes up against the franchise he defined while playing in just his second game for his new team … KG wasn’t dominant against the T’wolves in London yesterday, putting up 9 points, 6 boards, 3 blocks and a couple assists. But he definitely let Minnesota see what they gave up. Ten seconds after new franchise player Al Jefferson stepped onto the court, KG schooled him on the block and threw down on him. And one play that won’t make the highlight reel came when Ryan Gomes found himself as the only guy back to get an inbounds pass, and KG got up in his shirt on a one-man full-court press. The Wolves had to take a timeout … Ray Allen was the hot hand in this game, scoring 28 with five triples. The box score says Ray missed three shots, but we honestly don’t remember it being that many. With the open looks he was getting, if he gets those all year, he’s gonna be a problem … The Wolves kept it close early on the strength of Ricky Davis (16 pts in the 1st quarter) and their bench being better than Boston’s bench. But Randy Foye didn’t play more than 10 minutes, Ricky Buckets only got one after the first quarter, and for some strange reason the Wolves seemed to be freezing out Jefferson. As expected, they took the L … Our man Couch from Bounce looked up one time, saw Juwan Howard wearing #50 and asked, “Is that Felton Spencer?” … How exactly did Mark Jones confuse Rajon Rondo with Paul Pierce? The 70-pound weight difference was kinda obvious from where we sat … Corey Brewer’s “Welcome to the NBA” moment: He got beasted by Pierce for an and-1, then on the next possession played off Pierce by about 10 feet and gave him a jumper, then came down and shot a corner three off the side of the backboard … Apparently the Wolves offered Greg Buckner KG’s old #21 (Buckner’s worn it for years), but Buck decided to wear #7 instead, saying it would be insulting to KG to wear #21. Was it insulting for the franchise to even offer? It’s not like they’d picked up Dominique Wilkins; no disrespect, but it’s Greg Buckner. Why give anyone KG’s number when you know good and well you’re gonna retire it? And you know Minnesota also gave Sebastian Telfair #3, which was Big Cousin Steph’s number when he played there. Wonder if that was Bassy’s idea or the team’s? … We already knew Mike Conley was nice with the handle, but have you seen this? Crazy … Orlando-based Smack reader Cameron sent some notes from the Magic/Bobcats game: “Not a good start for the Magic’s $118 million man. For the second game in a row, Rashard Lewis limped off the court early in the game. You know, there’s legitimate injuries, and there’s being injury-prone. When the Magic give a max contract to a forward, they tend to get the latter.” Cameron also let us know that J.J. Redick is rocking a faux hawk, and Adam Morrison is “creepier-looking” than last year … Chris Webber’s numbers are crazy. He’s seen playoff success. His college team changed the face of basketball. So is C-Webb a Hall of Famer? While he waits for the Pistons to give him a job, we analyze C-Webb’s body of work. And later today we’re looking at one of the League’s best power forwards who hasn’t even reached his prime yet … Before Celtics/Wolves, David Stern had his annual “The NBA loves Europe” press conference, which quickly turned into the “Talk about Tim Donaghy without actually saying Donaghy’s name” press conference. In between the ref talk, though, we got a few nuggets from the commish. For starters, his schedule is crazy. He spent time in Rome and Turkey over the weekend, was in London yesterday, and today he’ll be in Spain; Stern pronounces adidas like “ah-dee-dahz”; Asked about the All-Star Game coming to Europe someday, he gave a long pause before admitting only that he’d thought about it; He called the ‘92 Team USA the “so-called Dream Team”; He BURIED the New York Times for the way it reported his handling of the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment case … We watched some of Nets camp on NBA TV. And, honestly, after the Big Three, that team just isn’t good at all. Sean Williams showed a little something and Darrell Armstrong was actually really solid, but the rest of ‘em? Unimpressive. Mateen Cleaves STILL shoots with that jacked-up form, and multiple times during scrimmages he would hold the ball over his head and do an Ali Shuffle without dribbling; Jumaine Jones crossed himself up one time and almost bit it; Mile Ilic is the biggest and worst player there, and he didn’t even get a jersey with a number until halfway through practice; Josh Boone did absolutely nothing offensively; and while Vince hit some tough shots, let’s just say he wasn’t at risk of over-exerting himself. The best part was Lawrence Frank running up-downs with the team. He came in last place every time, but he almost beat Ilic once. Justin walked by the TV, saw Frank running and laughed: “Does he think the players respect him for that?” … We’re out like Rashard …
October 11th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Captain America says:
I take it your a C fan. Hubie Brown said it well, the C’s rotated 10 players while the T’wolves rotated 12. Sounds to me like the C’s have a serious depth problem. The general expectation is that the Wolves will be respectable but not a dominate team in 2007/08, so where is the surprise?
The “Big 3, v2.0″ will need to earn their $$$ with heavy minutes (40+ minutes) all season long. Heaven forbid someone go down to injury. Fan expectations are sky high.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:08 am
smity says:
Nice Daz reference. It’s cool to immediately recognize something like that that when you see it. Now if only the music on the album was as memorable as remembering that there was an album is.
About the Mike Conley video: i’m impressed but also more intrigued by the idea of there being others in the video as well, doing the same things. You could see that one other person towards the end so i’m assuming that there were others there too. Thats crazy. who are these people with these super handles.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Riqueno in Orlando says:
I’ve been saying it since it happened!!! Why would you spend 100$ plus contract on a decent forward. You have all these guys in the League that have a couple of fierce showings in one season then the next season they get paid through the noise. (Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, KG) These are the names one thinks of when they here maximum contract. Not Rashard Lewis, not Tim Thomas, not Gerald Wallace, etc … These guys have skill, no doubt. But why are they paid like top tier players when they play and act like rookies.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:22 am
smity says:
you misunderstand Gerald Wallace’s game and the fact that he’s been putting in work for years… I wouldnt necessarily put him in the exceptionally overpaid category being that his contributions (on the court) should probably serve as examples of what should garner max contracts: Mad hustle, passion and skill (like a kg, duncan, kobe, ai, sheed, etc.). “play and act like rookies”- i don’t even know what thats supposed to mean…
October 11th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Austin Burton says:
“The general expectation is that the Wolves will be respectable but not a dominate team in 2007/08, so where is the surprise?”
Really? I thought the general expectation was that Minnesota will be the worst team in the League? Early in the game yesterday we were sitting around wondering if they’d crack 15 wins.
Glad someone got the Daz Dillinger reference. Westside is the best side, kids.
October 11th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Tom Toronto says:
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I expect the Wolves to suck a big one. They have the same squad Boston did last year, and we saw how that turned out in the standings. I also expect Jefferson to get a ton of stats for the fantasy owners, and I expect Ricky Davis to jack shots like he was Antoine Walker’s son.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:18 am
sam says:
What about Rod Benson on the Nets? He NEEDS to make the team.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
JC says:
What about the pro player blog champ of the world, Rod Benson of toomuchrodbenson.com? Does he fit in the “unimpressive” list?
October 11th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
zpurz says:
felton spencer is the chronic
October 11th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
ScoGo says:
The Chicago Bears allowed cats like Mel Rogers, Doug Becker, Bruce Herron, Kelvin Atkins, Jim Morrissey and Mark Rodenhauser to wear number 51 before they retired it for Dick Butkus, arguably the most dominant middle linebacker in NFL history. Let’s hope ‘Wolves ownership/management has more class than the McCaskeys and drops 21 from the available number list until KG retires or goes HOF, then retires it.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
bobbyb says:
D. Stern pronounced adidas correctly, FYI. It’s people that pronounce it “a-dee-diss” that don’t know isht.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
mjax says:
Wasn’t somebody saying just the other day when the C’s played that they were going to be in trouble, because Suga Ray was not hittin???? And now he can’t miss!!!! Stop being fickle with your assessments, let the season unfold and end first! I do have a few questions, why would allan houston not look at cleveland as a home instead of the crowded Knicks? Or why didn’t Cleveland pursue him? Broke down as he could be, he’s still a better shooter than anybody on their roster. Why would Damon S. not look at going to New Jersey or Boston to complete his career if he’s going to be the odd man out in Memphis….What’s his contract story? Or is he not wanted?
October 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Lucky Lester says:
Definitely in Europe they call Adidas (ah-dee-duz) the way Stern is pronouncing it. And they say it with a very European rhythm. I imagine Bobby-B’s right, that’s probably how you’re supposed to say it.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Austin Burton says:
Allan Houston wanted to stay in the New York/New Jersey area, which is why he only seriously considered the Knicks and Nets.
Did anyone notice Stern call Kelenna Azubuike “Ab-uh-zoo-kee”?
October 11th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Tom Toronto says:
Rod Benson definitely needs to make the nets, I’m with you Sam
October 11th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Bxballer says:
I told people that the NJ Nets were OVERRATED.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
DOC says:
Al Jefferson is overated or maybe every time I see him he don’t do shit. I dont see 20 and 10. And Ricky Davis is the worst player to have on a young team because he is a gunning ass.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Kudabeen says:
We can’t be mad at the players for the money they make. “They are who they thought they were”. How many guys get paid big dollars and then turn it up a notch? The great ones!…Vilify the GMs and Owners more. The market is the market…Some GMs can make accurate assessments and say hey I’ll give Rashard Lewis 80mil, but no more, anything else over that is franchise killing…The good GMs chuckled when Orlando paid Lewis that much dough. We also have to keep in perspective Lewis is not just some Bum ass forward with no game. He is a big time offensive threat that, while he isn’t a All-NBA defender, he’s not Glen Robinson.
This is in no way justification of Lewis getting max dollars. I don’t think he has the ability to even sniff a scoring record, so he certainly cannot be the sole dominant scoring option on a team (Kobe Arenas AI Melo Wade) and he is not a Forward that can control the flow of the game to the degree of a (KG Duncan even Sheed) and he most certainly hasn’t proven to be a game changer the likes of (Dwight, Shaq, Bron JKidd Tracy even Vince).
Let’s dig in to the GMs and make them sit on a podium and announce the fact that they are sitting in their office and throwing darts to make decisions. In the long run it’s about winning. Winning for Orlando is about Dwight getting more than 10 shots a game and capitalizing on that 60% fg and improving his FT%, because he’s not as imposing as Shaq, so his team needs those extra points. Also if Jameer plays up to his abilities circa 05-06 season, then Rashard and the rest will fall in line and be the 3rd or 4th best team in the East.
Orlando not having a SG that can play both ends and a backup low post threat would concern me more than Lewis’ salary. I can’t wait to see the Orlando and the Bobcats develop this year.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Amar says:
lost in all of this is that Ronnie Brewer can play (17 points) and in 20ish mins of action, Andrei got 10 points, 8 boards, 4 blocks, 3 assists and 1 steal while shooting well.