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NBA Loud - by Travis

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The 2008 NBA Draft

July 1st 2008 03:49

I’d like to post about the previously finished NBA Draft. A lot of trades were completed/proposed making this years draft exciting and noteworthy. In this first post I will be going through the top five picks and thereafter with updates and all you need to know up to the minute stats and transactions.

Let’s get this post draft analysis going with the first overall pick for the Chicago Bulls DERRICK ROSE. Rose out of Memphis has a solid NBA body and can take the punishment as a player in the paint. He will mold himself into whatever type of player his team needs him to be as evident by the video below. He is one of the most ready-type players to enter the league. A truly solid addition to any team, kind of makes me think of the miss of Jay Williams. In which whom the Bulls took as the savior type PG years ago before he had his motorcycle accident stifling his promising career. With this pick Chicago puts themselves back into contention for a playoff spot in the East.

This video shows how Rose can affect the game as he will become a solid NBA-PG.

# 2

Undoubtedly the Miami Heat selected MICHAEL BEASLEY out of Kansas State. This PF needs no introduction to basketball fans as his huge wingspan makes up for any negativity about his height at the four spot. One of the perfect teams for Beasley to go to, I think his character issues would only become apparent if he were to have to battle with a solid proven veteran for his starting spot. He will be going in battling Udonis Haslem who has seen his stock drop as he needs to create more of his own offence. The heat I am sure are not finished in tweaking their team for the 08/09 season. Marion though will alleviate any concerns of the rookie being overmatched down-low as he is almost like an extra PF out there sometimes with his rebounding efforts and hustle in trying to make the right plays.

# 3

Minnesota at the third spot went with OJ MAYO, who I have seen and been hearing about for a good number of years. Mayo will be a solid two as at 6’4” 200lbs he is limited in selected positions, but this guy is just a born scorer and if he ends up in Grizz-town, look for him to team up with Rudy Gay as Mike Miller was moved with Memphis making the choice to let him go after he admittedly carried the Grizzlies last season at times. In return Minnesota looks to get #5 Kevin Love. I am in love with this deal as the T-Wolves send Antoine Walker also to MEM. Minnesota gets the scoring they desperately need and character guys, to build around. I know what fans may be thinking and no this isn’t the second coming of Wally World, Mike Miller is a gamer playing all three spots from 1-3 for the Grizz and did whatever was asked, as he became a versatile and proven scorer, unlike streaky Szczerbiak.

# 4

Russell Westbrook a surprise at number four as the top three had virtually been decided weeks beforehand. Westbrook though an unexpected pick is an explosive guard that will do well in this league especially when Seattle gets all the parts and can continuously run up and down with Durant and Green. The Sonics clearly want a guard that can break down the D and get up and down the court at breakneck speeds. They have found that guy with Westbrook. People want to compare him to NBA champion Rajon Rondo and maybe Monta Ellis, he is long and skinny and extremely athletic, time will tell if he can make the right passes for a long career with Durant by his side.

# 5

Care of NBADraft.net

Memphis picks Kevin Love at the number five spot and in turn will be sending him to Minnesota in the deal outlined in the third pick paragraph. Love is solid, not an athlete like the Grizz love at the four spot, but the T-Wolves just need ballers in which Kevin is for sure. Down-low he will be helped by Al Jefferson for sure on defense. Also he will have a great passer in Mike Miller to get the ball to him in good spots. I like Kevin Love on a solid team a rebuilding team he may flourish or sink as he’ll need to create his own offence and may struggle with the speed of the NBA at first.

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Shaq Reaches a Magical Milestone.

December 8th 2007 14:14

Let’s all stand up and give Shaquille O’Neal some loud applause for reaching 1000 games

Congratulations Shaq on reaching 1000 games. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

played in the NBA. Unfortunately for the daddy this was the high point because his Miami Heat team lost to the Golden State Warriors, 120-113.

In a sign of how much the Diesel had fallen, he took only six shots in the game, and sat out for the entire fourth quarter – a decision that coach Pat Riley would later say he regretted. Shaq recently complained about the fact that he wasn’t getting enough shots, today’s game would be more ammunition for O’Neal to complain about the lack of touches he has been getting.

Shaq is without a doubt one of the most dominant and best big men to play the game, ever. There isn’t even any point arguing the aforementioned statement. However, even the great ones can’t escape the ravages of time and Shaq is another athlete on the long list of superstars that can’t seem to recapture past glories.

Anyone who is new to the joys of the greatest sport on earth, and has watched, O’Neal play in recent years would be hard pressed to see what made him so dominant. If you are seeking proof to how good, Shaq once was, watch Orlando’s Dwight Howard play and you’ll get the idea.

Well, speak of the devil – Howard and his Magic teammates played host to the Indiana Pacers but the visitors weren’t great guests when they beat Orlando, 115-109.

Indiana has been average this season, while Orlando has been playing super basketball and this seemed like a one-sided affair, but the Pacers had other ideas. Danny Granger led the way for Indy with 27 points, and, 20, from Jamaal Tinsley also helped the cause.

Dwight Howard, who resembles a young Shaq in the way he plays, had another awesome game with 30 points and 15 rebounds, but his team was horrendous in protecting the ball – turning it over 23 times. Orlando was also poor in their defensive efforts allowing the Pacers to shoot 48.8 percent from the field in the second half. Ouch.

Chris Paul has the whole world in his hands. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Orlando weren’t the only other leading Eastern Conference team to fail in defending their home, with the Detroit Pistons joining them in getting beaten by a supposedly inferior team.

Ben Wallace, the former heart and soul for Detroit, tormented his old team with a blue collar 10 point and 13 rebound effort. Big Ben got some help from the high energy Argentinean, Andres Nocioni with 22 points, 17 coming in the final two quarters.

Chicago played irrepressible basketball and one has to wonder where has their game been all year?

Speaking of crazy Argentineans, Manu Ginobili once again proved his immense value to the San Antonio Spurs scoring 37 points coming off the bench. Who needs Tim Duncan, when you have El Loco running the show?

The Utah Jazz were the unfortunate victims of the Ginobili show, going down to the Spurs, 104-98.

Performance of the Day.

Holla, for Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets who is fast becoming the star point guard of the new generation. Well, let’s not forget about Deron Williams for the Jazz, but it was Paul’s day.

Young, Chris had a standout performance scoring 43 points, and dishing off nine dimes to lead his team to an overtime victory against the Memphis Grizzlies, 118-116.

With 1.8 seconds left in the contest, Chris weaved his way through a crowded lane to hit the go ahead layup to give his team the win.

Warm it up, Chris. He’s about to.

Today’s video is of the freshest top 10 plays from the NBA.

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Posted By: Stanley - Category: All Stars, New Orleans Oklahoma City Hornets, Shaquille O'neal

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It was a Night when the Little Men of the NBA were Giants.

November 13th 2007 09:47

Any doubts that Andrei Kirilenko is back to his best were laid to rest when he had another near triple-double performance, scoring 15 points, dishing off eight dimes and snatching eight boards. To top it all off the Utah Jazz beat the woeful Sacramento Kings, 117-93. Well, ‘beat’ is such a tame word, it was more like a ‘beat-down’.

The night started off badly for the luckless Kings when their last notable star, Brad Miller went down with bruising on his thigh. So, without Sac-Town’s three best ballers, they were never going to bring down a tough Jazz team.

You’d think that Utah coach, Jerry Sloan would have been pleased with the efforts of his men. You’d be wrong. In fact, coach was peeved that the Jazz didn’t smash a metaphorically unconscious foe that is missing all of their limbs earlier: "Well, you've got to look at who we were playing tonight. They've got three of their best players who didn't suit up," Sloan said. "They were short-handed and I don't think it was anything to do cartwheels about." (Alden, AP, 2007)

Ouch! I wonder how he treats his kids if they got a ‘B’ on their schoolwork!

AK47 wasn’t the star Jazz, Carlos Boozer stepped it up as well with 32 points and 10

The Cavs had no answer for The Answer. (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

rebounds.

Coach Sloan may not fully appreciate the effort, but NBALOUD definitely feels the Jazz.

We here at this space can’t say enough about the New Orleans Hornet’s young point guard, Chris Paul. He is the future of the number one position and he proved his super-dooper star status today with the game winning basket against the New Jersey Nets. With 2.6 seconds left on the clock, Paul made the game clinching basket to see his team through, 84-82.

Chris Paul was so good in this game that he single-handedly lifted his team into the stratosphere with a 27 point, seven assist and six rebound performance. It was a spectacular battle of the guards with fellow floor general, Jason Kidd, also having a sublime game with 14 points, 10 assists and nine boards. In fact the Californian Kidd made a massive play of his own before, Chris Paul put his stamp on the game.

Performance of the Day.

It was tempting to give this most valued of plaudits to Chris Paul, but we have to go with our man, Allen Iverson.

The Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers played a massive game today with all the pre-game publicity revolving around LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Although, ‘Melo had a good game with 22 points, it was AI who stormed the party with a huge 37 point performance.

So, hot was The Answer that by halftime he had 18 points. Needless, to say, Iverson was in the zone: “The basket looked like an ocean; I was throwing rocks in. It feels good when you catch a rhythm like that.” (AP, 2007)

Well, done AI, and with today’s efforts, you get the title of NBALOUD’s ‘performance of the day’.

Ah, we could have gone with, Iverson for today’s clip. But instead we’ve gone with, Chris Paul’s game winning basket.

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Posted By: Stanley - Category: Games, New Orleans Oklahoma City Hornets, Allen Iverson

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'Jesus' Saves the Celtics!

November 5th 2007 10:21

‘Ray Allen has the ball, and there is only three seconds left in this

Chris Paul is saving basketball in New Orleans. (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images)

enthralling contest between the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors. The game is now into overtime…Ray-Ray shoots from downtown…he scores! Celtics win! Celtics win! Boston overcome the Raptors, 98-95! Oh, I’m hoarse, give me a whisky…”

If NBALOUD were commentating this contest, that would probably have been the call. Also, throw in some flatulence from both the mouth and bottom.

Boston’s ‘Big 3’ are proven clutch performers, but Ray-Ray is the obvious choice in this scenario, with Paul Pierce stating as much: "That was the play we drew up, for Ray to come off," Pierce said. "We had second and third options but the first option was open. We got the ball to him and executed our play." (AP, 2007)

There you have it. Thanks, Paul for reinforcing the above statement.

Boston’s superstar trio were once again performing like a Ferrari engine with all players firing on all cylinders – Allen scored 33 points, Kevin Garnett had a double-double, while The Truth dished off six dimes.

Well, we can envision that the Celtics will get plenty of love from this space, so we won’t bore you with any further details. As the final score would suggest. This was an electrifying contest.

The Celtics are a team on the up, while their Eastern Conference counterparts, the Miami Heat are on a slippery downward spiral. Today, the Charlotte Bobcats inflicted another loss on the team from South Beach, 90-88.

It must be said though, that the Cats almost choked on a pretzel by surrendering a 16 point lead on some awful, awful, basketball. What mattered though was what transpired at the end of the game and they were perfect. Clamping on the Heat, the Bobcats forced a couple of crucial turnovers and ended up with the win!

Jason Richardson, Charlotte’s gun new recruit led the way with 29 points, while Shaquille O’Neal had a better game with 17. Ultimately, the Heat fell short once again.

The New Orleans Hornets are back home and how sweet it is! It mustn’t be easy in, er, the Big Easy, post-Hurricane Katrina, but at least their basketball team is alleviating the pain somewhat with some stellar basketball.

New Orleans latest victims were the Denver Nuggets who lost to the team from the south, 93-88.

It was a horrific start for both teams when the two squads combined to miss 20 of their first 24 shots. Ouch! Yikes! Poke my eyes out due to the ugliness!

Luckily for the Hornets they recovered, with Chris Paul leading the way for Nawlins scoring

'Isn't he lovely...isn't he wonderful...' Does anyone think that Steve Nash sings that to himself in the morning? (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)

15 points, dishing off 11 dimes and snatching eight boards. Watch out for the kid because he is for real.

Performance of the Day.

Phoenix is still playing shoddy basketball, but at least they’re winning. Cleveland is also not up to scratch yet either, and they lost to the Suns, 103-92.

So, all you regular readers out there must be wondering who our performer of the day is? Well, hold your breaths a bit longer because here are some clues. He is on the pale side with the skin tone, runs the show for the Suns, probably loves maple syrup, and is a two time MVP.

No, it’s not Shawn Marion you smartasses but Steve Nash! The formerly floppy haired Canadian had 30 points and 10 assists.

Stevie Wonder got some righteous help from his cohorts, but there can be only one man for the day and it was Nash.

Today’s video is of Ray-Ray’s game winning basket!

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Posted By: Stanley - Category: Games, New Orleans Oklahoma City Hornets, Steve Nash

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