Roundball Roundtable of... Roundness - Part 2

You liked Part 1 of Scribe's first Roundball Rountable of... Roundness? Of course, you did. Here's Part Deux. Once again, the previous questions and bios for those who've come upon this post first.

Everybody JUMP!

Roundball Roundtable of... Roundness - Part 1

Something different for Scribe:

A month from now, the NBA playoffs will take off, getting people into far more heated debates about who’s better than who, which injury hurts more and where will members of the Free Agent Class of 2010 head after the final shot of the season is taken.

So, mark today as special as it’s the first of what will be many roundtables to come. Of course, this isn’t just any blogging roundtable, but one with some twists.

I’ve reached out to three NBA pundits, fans and chatterboxes who can provide different perspectives than what you’ve heard in recent weeks. The questions asked are not going to be “LeBron or Kobe?” and “what’s wrong with _____?”. The responses were quite interesting, to say the least.

Let this roundtable begin with some brief bios on each contributor:

• Stephon Johnson is a name you’ve seen on here before. Beyond having known half my life, he’s a staff writer for the famed New York Amsterdam News, covering a range of news stories as well as hoops for the history African-American weekly paper. In addition, he is also a contributing writer for The Perpetual Post and has done a multitude of music reviews for other websites. Check out his Tumblr and follow on Twitter (Warning: he’s not as good looking as me).
• Rey Moralde is the founder of the very fantastic and popular Los Angeles-based NBA blog, The No Look Pass. Along with great analysis of all four Californian squads (writers for the NorCal teams), if you still think the very existence of Clippers fans is an urban legend or that there’s no such thing as a true Lakers fan, let this site dispel those myths. For further witty banter and superb in-game comedy, you can follow Rey and TNLP on Facebook and Twitter.
• Finally, rounding out this triumvirate is aspiring scribe Kyle Hoffman. A cool cat like Heathcliff (that’s a reference to a Sean Price freestyle), Hoffman is a die-hard Sacramento Kings fan… from Allentown, Pennsylvania? Yes, you read that correctly. A true hoops head, he certainly holds down the fort for other teams as well, as you will read in moments. Follow Monsieur Hoffman on Twitter.

And now, your questions, after the jump...

Premature

The Orlando Magic reminded us all of the classic adage; NEVER put the cart before the horse.

These are certainly not the NBA Finals most of you wanted, but it’s the series that might provide the better show.

I’ll give you time to pick up your jaw.

Sometimes, the best matchups in sports are not always about superstar player versus superstar player in nearly the same position. The majority salivated from the thought of Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James as the best shooting guard and best small forward in the game would have defended each other for most of the Dream Finals. Yet, now, we have one of the game’s best backcourts in Los Angeles going against one of its best frontlines with those proverbial ‘X-factors’ littered all over.

Let’s cut through all of the broken dreams and the exaggerated “I’m not watching the NBA ever again” histrionics that many people are taking on. If this generation’s Dream Finals came to fruition, based on the game play we ‘witnessed’ in the Conference Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers would have been destroyed in a sweep.

If those Cavaliers – with LeBron James having to do everything short of tying his teammates’ shoes, it seemed – could not get past the Orlando Magic, did you honestly think that they would match shot for shot with the Lake Show? The Magic has a pretty good roster; shooters abound with Hedo Turkoglu, Mickael Pietrus and Rashard Lewis (who has been the best second-fiddle this postseason), heady point guard play between Rafer Alston and Anthony Johnson and the overlooked backup center in Marcin Gortat.

The Cavs, while still boasting a solid roster, would have had no answer for the depth of forwards the Lakers boasts between Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom (who could be a sixth man or starter, depending on matchups). Even the Lakers’ bench, as inconsistent as it had been for stretches in the season, is superior to Cleveland’s as Luke Walton, Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell, Sasha Vujacic and Shannon Brown certainly provide more than Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Daniel Gibson, Joe Smith and Sasha Pavlovic.

Of course, the most intriguing one-on-one matchup will be between the beast that is Dwight Howard and the coming-back-to-form Andrew Bynum. It may not be Patrick Ewing versus Hakeem Olajuwon in the best pairing of centers in the last two decades of the Finals, but there’s a potential for a classic battle in the paint.

To those who opined for Kobe-versus-LeBron, there was a pretty good chance that you would have been more than disappointed. Kobe-versus-Courtney Lee doesn’t scream ‘marquee matchup’, but the Lakers versus the Magic may be the best way to cap off what has been a banner year for the league.

Say What?!?!: While I believe that ratings should be taken in the proper context, TV by the Numbers wants to know how you think these Finals will fare. I say pretty well.

Sabotage

Deep down, I want to see the Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals.

Realistically… no one has a clue which teams will play in the NBA’s Spring Classic.

Oh, sure, there are millions who want the spoon-fed Cleveland Cavaliers/Los Angeles Lakers matchup just as they clamored for these same Lakers against the eventual champion Boston Celtics eleven months ago.

There are millions who just don’t want to see Kobe Bryant playing in his sixth Finals; skeptically wondering if – or vehemently demanding to know why – we’re supposed to forget about Colorado as the arguably best player in the world has found himself back in the spotlight for sterling play. He’s also finding himself back in the good graces with some on Madison Avenue as there is a player of comparable skills, intensity and jersey sales that he can be paired up with (hint: it’s LeBron James!).

There are plenty who do want to see KB81, Pau Gasol and their teammates lose again in June; harkening the pointing and laughing that the New England Patriots endured after losing to the New York Giants in Super Bowl 42 as if the word ‘hubris’ was created for that thrilling, but agonizing night.

There are many in the masses who want to see James shine again in the Finals, but with a different result. After being annihilated by Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs in 2007, the Cavs reloaded for what has been destined to be a return appearance. The cast of characters should be far better in this play as Mo Williams, an underrated Delonte West and a very good team defense should give us a better show. For all of the Biblical references that surround him, James has done everything humanly possible to match the hype and expectations since he arrived on the scene. Yet, as we all know, that means little in this ‘win today or leave tomorrow’ culture.

Deep down, I want to see the Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic ruin all of our visions of seven grueling games of Number 24 versus Number 23.

I don’t want to sabotage the Dream Finals so much as I wonder how many of these recently converted NBA fans are really going to hunker down and watch teams from seemingly unsexy markets do battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Neither the Nuggets nor the Magic have that superstar – a term used far too loosely these days – who brings instant recognition from the unfamiliar. Denver’s Carmelo Anthony has been one of the best players in the NBA since he arrived with James and Miami’s Dwayne Wade, his fellow classmates of the 2003 Draft who have actually reached (in Wade’s case, won) the Finals before Anthony finally made it out of the first round during these playoffs. Dwight Howard came out of high school one year later and is a consistent jump shot away from truly becoming the league’s most dominant big man. Yet, ‘Melo has never seemed comfortable in the non-basketball glare while for Howard and his goofy-but-fun personality, big men other than Shaquille O’Neal or Yao Ming don’t sell the way the ‘little’ guys do, regardless of what Greg Oden tells you.

Neither the Nuggets nor the Magic were supposed to be in the conversation of the best teams in the league. Yet, despite Boston’s title defense and hype around western teams such as New Orleans and San Antonio, this quartet features the teams that have been the absolute best from start to finish all season long. It took a long time to warm up to Denver, even after the trade for Chauncey Billups, because of the franchise’s recent implosions. The Magic were supposed to have been a second-round casualty because their offensive playbook consisted of just two plays: throw the ball inside to Howard and shoot a three.

These are two teams that outside of the keenest NBA observers are not following the script. In Johnny Ludden’s column for Yahoo! Sports, Kenyon Martin said it perfectly after his team spoiled The Lake Show in Game 2:

“Y’all can go home and play NBA Live or something,” K-Mart grunted, “if y’all want to see that matchup.”

“They got a fight on their hand over here,” Martin said. “And Cleveland got a fight on their hand, as well. It ain’t just going to be us and Orlando lay down, so they can play in two weeks.

“That ain’t going to happen. I’m going to make sure it don’t.”

If both of these teams win out and meet in the Finals, will many of you turn off the TV because the Dream Series that has been projected since last fall did not come to fruition? Any combination of these final four teams will provide us with a great championship series, no matter which names receive top billing. Let’s just hope that the sporting public will afford the same interest and appreciation, regardless of which teams are left standing.

Say What?!?!: Speaking of Madison Avenue, this article just came through Advertising Age's website while putting this post together. Not everyone will be excited if this 'dream' comes true.

Cumbersome

This LeBron in 2010 talk is quite cumbersome.

As they do daily, the NBA sends a digest of team and player news from the night before. Below the main story, they have a section devoted to stories from local and national media outlets.

You would think that the league would try not to add on to or at least curtail the swarms of misinformation and speculation, yet, lo and behold...

The title of the email is actually "Lakers on a Roll, Knicks Await LeBron, Power Rankings and More!‏"

If you're a fan of the NBA and you have no investment in either LeBron James, the New York Knicks or even the Cleveland Cavailiers, you must be feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day right about now.

Even though there is a post drafted that basically questions the logic of both the New York Knicks' current regime and the league at large for fanning the flames of this discussion... it's just exhausting to even finish at this point.

However, one of the most insightful writings about this subject comes from Kelly Dwyer, veteran blogger for Ball Don't Lie. Dwyer asks the one question that only the coveted player himself seems to be asking these days; Can we let him play?

He asserts:

"This thing is so far away from even getting to the point of developing a part of a picture that we can observe and then ably guess at that it is borderline ridiculous to offer anything more than a shrug of the shoulders and a "could happen" between now and the latter part of the 2009-10 season."

While Dwyer hits the nail on the head with each point, he misses one completely that even the most ardent NBA fan doesn't think about very often. One of the worst aspects about the NBA is trade speculation, especially when it comes to this very metropolis this Scribe calls the hometown. Every superstar player save for the late George Mikan - and who knows, this may be true of him as well - has been rumored to be traded to or sign as a free agent to the Knicks. Very few of these rumors have ever come true (Latrell Sprewell's trade to New York after his suspension was at least five years after early whispers) or come within a whisker to fruition (apparently, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was almost a Knick back in 1975). Yet, the rumors persist because someone has a jonesing for the Five Boroughs or a disdain for everyone else outside of them (New Jersey, included).

And now, you have twenty months to tell yourself that after years of Michael Jordan-to-the-Knicks rumors from Peter Vescey that number 23 will blaze on the Madison Square Garden hardwood after all.

Don't you think the Knicks should figure out who is going to be the starting shooting guard for the next twenty months without Jamal Crawford?

Don't you think the media around here should pay attention to the current roster as it tries to salvage any semblance of order for the next five months?

Don't you think that LeBron should tell everyone to back off until the time comes? Or, to borrow Dwyer's eloquence: "So chill. Please, everyone, just cool out. COOL OUT!"