NBA Week 1: Quick Hitters
Sometimes ideas aren’t worth an entire column.
Sometimes they’re not even worth a section of a column.
Sometimes an idea is only a couple of sentences long while still being interesting and noteworthy.
The Quick Hitter column is going to be an attempt to do just that. It’ll be random observations and predictions again, probably mostly about the NBA, but not always.
So, without further ado ...
- The Suns are tracking their own high-fives this year.
- James Harden had 14 assists in his first game against the Lakers. Their defense has been as atrocious as advertised, but that offense is going to be really good.
- Get your shots in while you can. Golden State is going to take a little time before they figure things out, just like the Miami Heat did. Unfortunately, their early season schedule is pretty easy. They did handle last night's match with Oklahoma City rather soundly, though. Beforehand, Westbrook texted me and said he's going to try and dunk on every single Golden State player, coach, employee, and fan. Waht's more he plans on eating nothing but Doritos for two days and then taking a dump in the Bay after the game's over.
- The Doritos and the dump could still be on.
- My theory is that JR Smith was holding out on his Cavs contract negotiations before the season started because he was trying to work them to agree he can play shirtless into his contract.
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The Indiana Pacers have had one Top 10 pick since No 2 overall draftee Rik Smits in 1988, but they’ve still managed to draft the following players in the past 11 years:
- 2005 17th pick Danny Granger
- 2008 17th pick Roy Hibbert
- 2010 10th pick Paul George
- 2010 40th pick Lance Stevenson
- 2015 11th pick Myles Turner
- If you didn’t see the fan flipping off Westbrook and then his reaction, check it out:
- Marc Gasol shoots threes now? Before this season, dude was 12-66 -- a lovely 18% -- for his career, but apparently, he’s added it to his repertoire and coach David Fizdale wants him to shoot four a game.
- Prediction: Kay Felder -- the Cavs' rookie backup point guard -- will average more than 15 combined points and assists this year. That might not sound like much, but he’s only played 5 minutes this season so far, so I think you have to give me that one.
- Prediction: At some point in our lifetime, college soccer will be bigger than college football.
- Jojo Embiid has looked really skilled so far. It’s super-early, but just to throw a little water on the fire, his defense has been shaky at best and he’s holding the ball more than I’d like on offense. Don’t hesitate, make a move and go. Buuuut again, dude’s only played 2 professional games ever.
- Prediction: The Nuggets will trade Danilo Galliinari to a playoff team at the deadline, and he’ll have some big playoff games for somebody. The Celtics, maybe?
- Prediction: Derek Rose, Joakim Noah and Kyrie Irving will play a combined 100 games this year.
- Something about Westbrook’s new commercial tells me he feels like he can do what he wants now. This presumably includes taking a dump into the Bay:
- The mid-range shot is dying, but there are still a few dudes who can thrive with it: Al Horford, Dirk, DeMar Derozan, LaMarcus Aldrige, and Evan Turner, just to name a few.
- Victor Oladipo just signed a 4-year, $84million extension with the Thunder, and that somehow just seems early for both of them to do that.
- My favorite athlete quote is still Nikola Peković telling us that meat is his favorite food.
- We forgot about Anthony Davis, and he isn’t pleased. It’s Small Sample Theatre, but his numbers so far are wow.
- Dwyane Wade doesn’t shoot threes now; just stop with that. I know I supported Marc Gasol’s attempt at it, but the difference is Wade's been shooting them his entire career -- more than 1300 -- and for his entire career, he’s sucked at it (28.6%).