Rookies Taking Over

The match up against the Washington Wizards and the Los Angeles Clippers went into double overtime with the Clippers coming on top with 127 to 119. 

This game was probably one of the most exciting games I have watched this season. Both teams have star rookie players, Blake Griffin on the Clippers and John Wall on the Wizards, and they have put on a show for the fans that night. The matchup was very even and this was reflected in the scoring percentages with the Clippers with 50 percent from the field and the Wizards with 48% from the field. The major difference came from the 3 point shooting percentages where the Clippers shot 35 percent and the Wizards shot 23 percent. This difference was shown clearly at the end of the game when the 3 point shots clinched the game for the Clippers.

The game was full of blocked shots, incredible dunks (Griffin of course), and intense buzzer beating shots that pushed the game into overtime. The fans of both the Wizards and the Clippers must have been at the edge of their seats when they were watching the game.

More notables during this game was that John Wall put up a career-high 32 points and 10 assists and Blake Griffin put up his first career triple-double with 33 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists. These stats are hard to come by from some NBA players that have been playing in the league for quite some time.

Looking at both these teams, I am really excited to see Wall and Griffin mature and hopefully lead their teams into the playoffs and shine not as rookies, but veterans on the court.

Derrick Rose. A Chance to Make History

Derrick is one of the most phenomenal and youngest players in the NBA. He is currently 22 which still makes him eligible to compete in the NCAA tournament. To think that a player of this level can be still be competing at the college level is astonishing. Rose is a third-year guard at the Chicago Bulls and he has impacted this team in so many different ways whether it is on the court with his scoring abilities or off the court, where he is a young leader helping his teammate out. The crazy thing right now is that Derrick Rose has a chance to make history. If he was to be named the 2011 MVP, he would become the youngest MVP in league history. The youngest MVP before Rose was Wes Unseld who was 23 just before he received his MVP award while he was playing for the Baltimore. In addition, as I mentioned above, he would be the first MVP winner while still being able to compete in the NCAA tournament. If Rose was still in college, he would be a Senior in Memphis. He would also be the first MVP winner who never received a vote in the previous MVP nominations. The last person to do this was Bostion Celtics’ Dave Cowens in 1973. As Rose drives on toward the finish line of becoming the MVP, legends Michael Jordan, Doc Rivers and Avery Johnson are among the many people that are on board the Derrick Rose MVP bandwagon because they see the potential that Derrick Rose has.

Thoughts on Motives of Trades

After reading about the many trades that occurred during the past month, a lot of thoughts were running through my head as I reminisced about what used to be. There was a time when players had the pride and loyalty to their teams in times of good or bad. Star players wouldn’t just move around to different teams in hopes of getting a championship ring. Players wouldn’t move around to teams to play with other star players to increase their chances of winning. Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, and Hakeem Olajuwon are just some of the star players, back in the day, which stuck around their teams and led their teams to terrific seasons even if some did not end up being championship finishes. Comparing these guys to NBA players of the present era, players today do not have the same fervor and zeal for the game of basketball. All they look for is better chances of winning and leaving a mark in the game of basketball.

We can take Lebron James as an example that started the chaotic sequences of trades. For seven seasons, Lebron James has carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to terrific seasons even if they weren’t championship victories. He was the Star player and the face of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The unfortunate thing about Lebron is that he chose to move teams and not only did he move teams, but he also communicated ahead of time so he can play with other super stars to up his chances of a championship. As a star player, Lebron is now a player in Dwayne Wade’s team. If he was to stay in Cleveland, eventually players would have flocked in that direction because he is a star player. Yet he did not have enough patience and literally damaged his legacy by doing so. This trade set a precedent for other players to follow and now the eastern conference is “loaded” with star players only on a certain amount of teams, leaving “weak” teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers without a star player and decreasing their chance of ever getting another player that will take that place.