Week 3 of overreacting to a week of NBA basketball

by Matt

1) More magic at Hogwarts

The Wizards are faltering. Forget a win against the New York Knicks, who laugh upon the definition of the word 'consistency', the Wizards are flailing in the waters of the east. The Knicks are already having team meetings to discuss 'effort'. The season is just over 10% of the way through, there is no way a team should be having meetings to discuss effort, but lets save those thoughts for another time.

The decision to extend Beal was mostly questioned due to his injury history. The dude just can't stay on the court, his limbs are linguine and here they are paying him Steven Adams money (22 million a season)! A simple search (thanks wikipedia) tells me he has missed on average 22 games a season!! He is 23!! Twenty Fucking three!! I can not be the only one alarmed by this, even though shooting guard is probably the weakest position in the league in terms of talent you have to wonder if the Wizards made the right decision investing their future in this young fella.

Many wise people have said that NBA injuries boil down to one of two things. There is bad luck, or one of the Kings random PF's landing on your ankle and then there is because your body cannot handle the stress of an 82 game season. Beal is beginning to come into the second part of that equation, the words 'minutes restriction' have been put forth as a permanent fixture. Again, he is Twenty Three years old! The only restriction he should be having is how many shots of vodka he can have before he goes out and chases JJ Redick for 32 minutes.

The wizards are missing him for multiple games already and are posting a dismal 3-8 and tied for the second worst record in the east. They sit along with my mighty Miami Heat, currently starting both Dion '42% from the field' Waiters and Derrick 'Mop head' Williams (somebody hand me a drink). Wall has 2 flagrant fouls already (was lucky to not pick up a third) and Scott Brooks forgot he needs Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to be a competent NBA coach. They look miserable and there is little bright side for them. They want to make the playoffs but honestly even though it is early in the season, I cannot see that happening in any way or form. They cannot stretch together a good or even decent 48 minutes of basketball and don't have the personnel to do it.

2) Panic time in Portland?

Is this a bad time to mention that Portland signed Evan Turner to a 4/70 million deal and Allen Crabbe to a 4/75 million deal this summer? Let me shout it out, this is not ok now!! They were slaughtered by the Bulls at home, not even scratching 80. There is no part of this that is in the slightest bit encouraging. An attempt to boost the team has left them reeling, hard, real hard. Turner looks absolutely awful and Crabbe isn't making a 75 million dollar leap. They are currently 7-6 and have dedicated themselves to this roster for the next half decade. Lillard and McCollum are stars, there is no doubt they will be phenomenal for the years to come but I am convinced so far that Crabbe and Turner are not the answer at SF. They had such a good foundation, but added the wrong pieces 

The rumors of Parsons signing 4/90 were interesting, when healthy he was integral to the Mavs success last season. It was a gamble, but one they needed to take and Parsons when healthy is an infinitely better player than both of these. I'm not saying it was a mistake to not pursue him and although I've just crucified the Wizards for the Beal contract earlier, Portland are more established than the Wizards. They have two young cornerstone pieces and are looking for that jack of all trades player to take their team to the next tier.

Then again they are going through a down patch at the moment, they may reel off the next 5 games by 15 points and gave me eating my words.

3) Drake night was a gift to us all

The Raptors, despite a heavy deficit and a brutal back to back stretch (schedulers give the 2nd team in the east a Cavs - Warriors back to back, go figure), gave the Warriors a scare in the final few minutes. The Raptors are here to stay, DeRozen will eventually return to us mortals but the tenacity they play with is most encouraging. They really took the fight to the Warriors in the 4th and I like that. Watch out league, the Raptors are here.

4) I was wrong about James Harden 

Everything I said before the season was wrong. I will readily admit I was drunk when I wrote it (semi true) and it was all a steaming pile of bullshit. He is an MVP candidate and is playing some amazing basketball right now. Houston is wildly entertaining and playing good solid basketball against good teams. The tragic shitfest against the Thunder not withstanding, I've been really impressed with their execution throughout. The Rockets are a joy to watch again but only on the away league pass feed, Clyde needs to remove his head from Hardens ass to give something resembling professionalism.

Of course this could all change over the next few weeks with a couple of close games and D'Antoni playing him 41 minutes a night as a watch him slowly burn out (cut to Knicks fans flashing back to Stoudemire and nodding accordingly).

Well, until next week!