Sometimes Dwight Howard as Superman uses the rim as a launching pad!

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Team USA is built for versatility and speed. It is not built for size. That is why so much will be riding on the health of Dwight Howard. He will be the lone really big guy.

Dwight Howard fractured his sternum in the playoffs against the Pistons. He thought it was a bruise.

The Olympic team added Tyson Chandler to the roster for some insurance.

Howard probably will be bringing along the Superman cape that he wore when he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest earlier this year, cementing his role as the best, most popular big man in the league today.

As the only true center on the USA Basketball 12-man roster — and the one who missed the earlier minicamp recovering from a fractured sternum — Howard is going to need all the special powers he can muster.

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If Superman gets hurt, then hopefully he can still play through it, because there will not be a lot of size left on the team to put in the game.

Foul trouble or another injury for Howard could cause a real problem, leaving the USA vulnerable against the better, more physically imposing teams. Team USA lost to Greece during the 2006 World Championships because it couldn’t handle a more physical team.

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If Dwight Howard stays healthy and out of foul trouble, it will be an amazing Olympic team.

Today, he is expected to be the anchor, the foundation from which this team will revolve. Players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade will provide the points and pizzazz. They will swirl around the perimeter like bees on defense. They will dazzle opponents with fast breaks so fast that heads will spin.

Yet if it all goes right, it will be Howard, mostly alone in the middle, who will make it all possible, enabling the USA to reclaim its rightful spot atop the basketball world. Howard still has the original USA Dream Team Wheaties box that his father gave him after the 1992 Olympics. Howard was 6 years old then.

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Superbad Superman has a stress fracture, but not to worry. It will heal in time for the next set of practices on July 21. That is when training camp resumes.

“It’s a six to eight week recovery time, and this is the sixth week,” said Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, who expects Howard to be fully healed by the time the team reconvenes for training camp July 21.

Still, the injury is worrisome for the Americans, who are planning to go to Beijing with just three big men — Howard, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. If Howard were to aggravate the injury, that lack of front-line depth could become a major issue.
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Dwight Howard has some serious guns for a hoop player

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Something just does not seem right here. The USA has come right out and said that they planned this to win the Olympics. Then went out and put Tayshaun Prince on the team as proof that a non-superstar great defender clutch player could make the team.

But…They still did not stock the team with big guys and took too many guys that just like to score. Do you really need Carmelo Anthony and Michael Redd, when you have Kobe Bryant and LeBron James? And why are there no Celtics on this team?

My good friend RonB wonders why we don’t just take the NBA Champion team and send them to the Olympics. My addition would be to add a few players to their bench like Kobe and LeBron. Can you imagine the announcers getting all over Rondo in the Olympics? Ok, add Chris Paul as well.

Let’s say Howard reinjures his sternum. Just a hypothetical.

That leaves Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer as your big guys.

Chris is 6′ 10″ tall and weighs 230.

Carlos Boozer is 6′ 9″ and weighs 266.

Now Dwight Howard is a little taller at 6′ 11″ and weighs 265.

Wait a minute, no 7 footers at all? Howard sits and we go to a thin 6′ 10″ or a heavier 6′ 9″?

Check out the rest of the roster, no big guys there.

Joining Williams and Boozer on the ‘08 Olympic team are fellow NBA stars Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Tayshaun Prince.
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Yes, yes, the trend lately in college and NBA is to be more mobile, less defense and more offense. Boston’s center was only 6′ 10″ Kendrick Perkins, but he weighed 280 and had 6′ 11″ Kevin Garnett right beside him.

The Pistons had 6′ 11″ Rasheed Wallace. The Lakers had 7′ Pau Gasol. The Spurs had 6′ 11″ Tim Duncan. Maybe all that small ball is not working.

On the bright side, when Dwight Howard is healthy, he is a beast of a player and even without polished moves down on the blocks, he often commands a double team.

Go USA! Take the Gold in the Olympics.

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Kobe Bryant gets Pau Gasol

Which teams benefited the most from the recent signing frenzy?

10. Kidd to Mavericks – This trade fell through, would still have been a great move for the Mavs.

9. Kidd to Mavericks – This trade worked after about a week, is taking longer than that for it to work for the Mavs. Dirk Nowitzki gets the ball in the right place.

8. Bibby to Hawks – Young team needed a scoring leader. Bibby is that man.

7. Ratliff to Pistons – Pistons needed defensive help in the post. Ratliff already pays dividends in Sheed’s absence.

6. Cassell to Celtics – Celtics worry about Rondo. Cassell will get some of his minutes.

5. Thomas to Spurs – Duncan gets some more power underneath.

4. Wallace to Cavs – LeBron gets some defensive help in the post.

3. Korver to Jazz – The Jazz get instant outside shooting off the bench.

2. Shaq to Suns – The Suns get half court defense for the playoffs. Nash assists can now go with Shaq rebounds.

1. Gasol to Lakers – The Lakers will have tallest front line when Bynum returns. Kobe has a second scoring punch.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Did your team make a deal?

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The quiet notes will take quick looks at what is going on in the NBA.

The top teams are:

(in no particular order)

San Antonio Spurs (now with Kurt Thomas) until proven otherwise in the playoffs

Detroit Pistons now with added youth

Boston Celtics with the 3 amigos

The hottest team:

Houston Rockets with an energized T-Mac and best center Yao

Biggest question?

Who will play better? Cleveland with Wallace or Chicago with Gooden?

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It was supposed to be a great ball game.

ABC had the Phoenix Suns vs. the Detroit Pistons at 2:30 pm Eastern time for all of us Piston fans.

A blockbuster battle of the team of no stars vs. the Shaq Suns.

Just how would Steve Nash direct Shaq in the half court?

Your intrepid author mistimed his afternoon nap and woke up in the 3rd quarter. My Pistons had a 30 point lead.

30 points? Ok, you knew there would be problems getting Shaq into the Phoenix run and gun system, but 30 points?

It was a contrast of styles with Phoenix running around outside picks, one man after another, to get lanes to the basket for Stoudemire or mid range jumpers, while receiving Steve Nash passes, while Detroit set up one on one mismatches of Tayshaun Prince or Rasheed Wallace or ran Rip Hamilton through inside screens or used McDyess on high pick and rolls.

Billups played smart, with 14 points and 11 assists, steering the offense to the post as much as he could to combat the Suns’ potent fast-break offense. It worked, too — the Suns had only 10 fast-break points.

“I didn’t come down a lot on the break and shoot my three that I love to shoot,” Billups said. “That gets them into their fast break. I just wanted to control, control, control and get some guys down there with me.”

He looked in particular for Rasheed Wallace, who abused Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire with his turnaround jumper in the post to score a team-high 22 points. He also had eight rebounds.
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The announcers did their best to keep it entertaining. Know what they talked about?

Rasheed Wallace. Nothing but Rasheed for the remainder of the game. You would have thought Rasheed was the best player on the planet.

At one point, ABC even replayed several of Rasheed’s moves scoring bucket after bucket on turn around post moves.

Now as a Piston fan, it can be told that the Pistons are not very good without Rasheed. When Rasheed turns it on, he is unstoppable.

When Rasheed goes down in the paint on defense, you will not score. He stops all the top players and is a key to the Pistons great defense.

Often with Rasheed it is keeping him motivated. You see there are nights when Rasheed just gets bored or cranky and then you see little production and maybe a technical.

That is the Rasheed that most fans think of when thinking of Rasheed.

The real Rasheed is one of the best big men in the league.

Did you know Rasheed keeps a library of books on the team plane and reads about everything from current world leaders to Genghis Khan? No, you didn’t.

Did you know that Rasheed has taken all of the talented rookies on the team under his care and tutelage? No, you didn’t. Coach Flip Saunders calls him Mother Goose.

As they say in the Shrek movie, Rasheed has layers. He is an Onion boy.

Did you know he is also not publicized for giving to a lot of local charities?

Today Rasheed was motivated and dominated the Suns!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can Rasheed rule in the playoffs?

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The Pistons were able to play defense on one guy.

Uhh, one guy?

Yeah, they held Dwight “Superman” Howard to eight points on 2 for 9 shooting with 5 turnovers.

Nice, what happened?

The Pistons lost to the Magic 103 – 85.

How could they lose?

They forgot to play defense on the other 4 guys.

“I am disappointed, (the players) are disappointed and the fans are disappointed,” coach Flip Saunders said after the Orlando Magic came into The Palace on Wednesday night and laid a 103-85 whipping on the Pistons. “We didn’t need to come out and lay an egg like that.”

The Magic shot holes in the Pistons’ 10-game winning streak with a barrage of 3-point shots. They knocked down 13-of-20 on the night, nine of the first 12. source

Apparently the Pistons have the magic powers of a chicken and can lay eggs.

The NBA just gets weirder all the time.

Anyway, the Magic just kept pouring in the 3’s.

Bogans, Rashard Lewis (20 points) and former Piston Maurice Evans (16 points) combined to make 11 of 13 triples and the Magic won at The Palace for the first time in eight tries.

“They were hot, man, hot, hot, hot,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. “Give them credit, they came in here and took it to us. No excuses.”

Was Chauncey singing when he said this?

Oh, my. What could happen next?

Leave it to the All-Star break to break momentum.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Do strange losses upset you?

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Jason Maxiell danced to victory against the Bobcats

The Pistons are hot again and looking like a championship team.

Taking 24 three-point attempts was probably not the way the Pistons figured they’d beat the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday night.

But they started falling early, when Tayshaun Prince made four of five in the first quarter, and they never really stopped, as the team finished 12-for-24 from long range in a 113-87 victory at the Palace. source

The Pistons set the tone early with defense.

The Pistons (37-13) held the Bobcats to 13 points in the first quarter, when they went up by as much as 20, and for the second game in a row, they didn’t look back.

The Pistons just keep on rolling.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will the Pistons win the East?

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Your intrepid author has been warning you that it is a long season.

It is much too early to hand the crown over to the Boston Celtics.

Now with the Western Conference top teams adding Shaq, Weber, and Gasol and the Spurs healing up and adding Stoudamire, it is even more reason to not hand over the NBA Title to the Boston Celtics.

Not that we should give up on the Lucky Green men, but take a look at this recent quote from Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars:

On the Boston Celtics possibly riding their superstars too much:

“All I will say is this: We’ve seen it before. I think it’s great for them, it’s exciting for them, we’ve been there before with the gaudy record. Phoenix was there a few years ago with the gaudy record. Dallas had a gaudy record, Miami had a gaudy record, and none of us got to where we wanted to get to in that particular year.

So all I’m saying is that we’ve seen it. We’ve done it, we’ve lived that gaudy record that they’re living right now, and it didn’t pay dividends for us so I would tell people to hold up on presenting that trophy just yet, because there’s a lot of basketball yet to be played. A lot of playoff series, and a lot of things can go on.

The gaudy record is nice, but like I said, you go back over the last four years, Detroit, Miami, Phoenix, and Dallas had the same gaudy record that Boston has and none of us won it that year.” source

You see it may come down to how Doc Rivers uses his players or uses them up. The choice will be his.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Are you still picking Boston?

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LeBron has lately been Mr. 4th quarter

LeBron.

Maybe we should just end this right there.

It could be one of those existential things.

LeBron.

You would nod your head and repeat, “LeBron”.

Somehow we would all know what was meant.

Right now it means “Look out in the fourth quarter, because LeBron is taking over!”

LeBron just got done beating the Lakers and Kobe in the fourth on Sunday.

Now he has done it to the Trailblazers.

Frustrated by a couple of blocked shots, James took over against the Portland Trail Blazers and made a reverse layup with less than a second left to give the Cleveland Cavaliers an 84-83 victory Wednesday night.

James scored 17 points in the fourth quarter — two more than the entire Portland team. Teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas said James became frustrated when he was blocked twice by Blazers center Joel Przybilla.

“LeBron came down the court and he was really angry at himself. And then he took over,” Ilgauskas said. “I don’t think he missed the rest of the game.” source

Since watching LeBron dispatch the Pistons from last year’s playoffs, one gets the sense there are starting to be more and more nights that LeBron can have spurts where he can totally control a game.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Have you hopped on the LeBron bandwagon yet?

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Kobe is flat out a great scorer

The Bulls have got to be wondering what they were thinking.

Hold on to Luol Deng and pass on Kobe Bryant?

Luol Deng. Now how many votes for the All Star team did he get? Hmm, there was that one from his mother. And that one from his agent.

Oh well, Luol is going to be great, right? Right?

Kobe is great and has been since the day he stepped on the court.

GM Mitch Kupchak should get more credit for not pulling off any deals.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports has compiled some first half of the season awards with the MVP being one of them. Let’s look at Adrian’s awards choices and why he feels that way.

Your intrepid author’s comments will be in italics.

Most Valuable Player: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Sometimes, there are superstars due to win the Most Valuable Player Award. It is the year owed them. No one wants to hear this, but it’s true. Kevin Garnett has an MVP trophy. So does Dirk Nowitzki. Steve Nash has two. Once Shaquille O’Neal left, Bryant was considered an unworthy candidate because the Lakers were still losing. source

Adrian goes on to support his argument, by stating that LA winning in the West is far harder than Kevin Garnett winning in the East.

He also states that LeBron will win several MVP’s but this is just not the year for him to get support from his team.

It will be a great MVP race. Not like in past years where you arguable could have just handed the trophy to Shaq every year. In fact, it got to the point that someone had to get smoking hot to take the trophy away from Shaq.

For the first half of the season you have to go with Kobe.

Least Valuable Player: Vince Carter, New Jersey Nets

He has stopped going to the rim, stopped risking life and limb and declared his new four-year, $62 million contract fit for a suburban jump shooter.

Have never understood why Rod Thorn thought the Nets could win with a 6′ 4″ ball hog that played no D.

Rookie of the Year: Kevin Durant, Seattle SuperSonics

Adrian brings up what could have happened with a healthy Greg Oden.

Kevin Durant is instant star power in a franchise that is floundering. He will be a star for his entire career and hopefully will leave town to play for franchise intent on winning.

Oden has the power to bring back the true center into the NBA. But at this point, Greg is just potential and Kevin is doing it.

Rookie Bust: Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls

no one can live with the insubordination that he showed with assistant coach Ron Adams prior to getting a two-game suspension in mid-January. Maybe his chatter will be entertaining when he’s considered a good player, but until then, Noah needs to grow up.

Just be glad you are not a kid in an adult world where everything you do is told to the media and printed the next day or shown on the internet. Noah will make it in this league. He will mature as well.

Executive Disaster of the Year: Isiah Thomas, New York Knicks

This is a career achievement award for Thomas. Kevin McHale has been a different disaster, but he does have a blossoming young star in Al Jefferson, No. 1 picks and cap space on the way. Odds are, he’ll do nothing with it, but at least you know Thomas has no chance with the constitution of his team.

All the Isiah Thomas stuff just stuns me. As a long time Piston fan it is so hard to fathom.

Did Isiah ruffle feathers as a Piston? Absolutely.

Did Isiah turn people off, in spite of his cherub smile and youthful energy? Absolutely.

Did Isiah move beyond all that and get the job done? Absolutely, positively.

Try two rings as the team leader of a franchise that had no belief in itself for decades.

And, like now, Thomas told everyone that he would do it!

Let me leave you with this thought, no matter how ludicrous. What if the Knicks start to win?

Adrian gives us some other awards, so be sure to check them out!

NBA Basketball Fan Question What other MVP candidates are out there?

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