With the NBA season underway and football soon coming to an end, JIB Sports will have a new weekly column every Monday. The NBA Monday Morning Report Card will recap five events from the previous week’s action with grades of A- F. Don’t be surprised to find yourself sucked into this weekly column and anticipating it every week. Monday night may be for Monday Night Football, but Monday morning is for NBA Monday Morning Report Card.
Celtics Ray Allen has stayed healthy and kept the "Big 3" in tact so far this season.
A – Lakers and Celtics Still on Top – Just like ‘A’ students in school, there isn’t too much to say about them. They are good, we know they are good, they know they are good. The ‘A’ students here are last year Finals participants, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Although there have been some worthy contenders prove themselves early, the Lakers and Celtics have also shown they will not be pushovers. They are a combined 23-3 to start the year. The only thing that is going to stop them is injuries, which the Lakers have been more prone to. In other words, teams better start hoping the Lakers and Celtics get worse, because you can’t get much better than how they are playing now.
B - The Rebound of Dwayne Wade - After a season ending injury in 2006 that lingered into 2007, Dwayne Wade became a name of yesteryear. Many people thought that his best days were already behind him and might have a career shadowing the injury plagued Grant Hill. D-Wade worked hard to prove Team USA basketball coaches he was ready for Olympics and had an impressive showing. His extremely unexpected play has carried over into this year’s regular season. Although the Miami Heat are only 7-6, D-Wade is having a banner year and showing rookie Michael Beasly the ropes. The Heat are still taking a back seat to other teams such as the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlants Hawks, and Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference that are having better starts.
The Utah Jazz haven't won in San Antonio since Stockton and Malone played.
C -The Knicks Get Different, Not Better- New team President Donnie Walsh was making deals this week with his players as if they were trading cards. After all the dust settled, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, and Mardy Collins were shipped out and the New York Knicks welcomed Tim Thomas, Al Harringtonand Cuttino Mobley. At the end of the day it’s not about being better now, the Knicks made this move to be better later. The Knicks cleared over $27 million in cap space with the trades and got rid of two bad contracts. Word on the street is the the Knicks are trying to clear cap space to lure LeBron Jamesin 2010. LeBron has not liked Cleveland because his supporting cast was always lacking. As it stands, the Knicks just shipped away a pretty decent supporting cast and picked up three players that can sign elsewhere in 2010.
D - The Utah Jazz’s Pathetic Performance in San Antonio - San Antonio is the Bermuda Triangle for the Utah Jazz. The Jazz disappear for a day only to reappear with another loss. The Utah Jazz are historically a bad road team and dominant home team. Last year the Jazz were the only team to win their division and have a losing record on the road. With their loss last week, the Jazz dropped their 22nd straight game in San Antonio, the last time they beat the Spurs there it was in the Alamodome. That was way back in 1999 when the Spurs had pink accents on their court and “Stockton to Malone” was still uttered over the airwaves. The Jazz rebounded the next night with a road win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have just been one of those “rebound” teams.
F – The Team Formerly Known as the Seattle Supersonics – The Oklahoma City Thunder fired their head coach P.J. Carlesimo this week, but that is hardly going to help stop the bleeding. We need to remember that the Thunder are not an expansion franchise, they did not start from scratch, they are the Supersonics. The Thunder have a lot of talent, but as new interim head coach Scott Brooks said, “It’s a challenge to get our guys motivated to play every night.” I have an idea to get them motivated to play, make their salary performance based. All of those players are employees of the NBA and the Thunder organization, right? Just like about every other employee out there in the business sector, these players need to be paid and given bonuses based on performance and effort. If that were the case all of the Thunder players would be broke this year. I bet the Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t feeling too hot being the victim of the Thunder’s only victory.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
That is so crazy that the Jazz haven’t beat the Spurs since Stockton and Malone because it has been years since they both retired!