Spurs summer league games on NBATV

MONDAY, JULY 24: DAL vs. SAS (FROM 7/14)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26: SAS vs. ATL (FROM 7/17)

SATURDAY, JULY 29: DAL vs. SAS (FROM 7/20)

SUNDAY, JULY 30: SAS vs. UTA (FROM 7/21)

Thanks to Solid D for the info.

The games should all be repeated multiple times, in case you miss the first broadcast.

I watched a good chunk of the 7/14 game last night to scout out the Spurs' draft picks and signings. It's hard to evaluate players in the context of a summer league game, though, because the games are so damn chaotic, and the players don't have the opportunity to jell and develop clear roles as they would on a real team. Ian Mahinmi, in particular, is hard to judge based on what I saw. Despite flashes of great aggressiveness, athleticism, and defensive ability, he didn't seem to put up concrete stats to reflect his potential. But I'm willing to bet that playing alongside TD, TP, and Manu in a more structured context would allow him to use his athleticism and aggressiveness to complement his teammates' abilities very effectively. Based on what I saw, he isn't there yet, but he showed enough to make me think that the Spurs found another important contributor at the end of the first round. He needs to put on more weight, get stronger, and develop a midrange jumper, but he clearly has an NBA body, as well as the kind of speed and athleticism that will enable the Spurs to play him alongside TD, even when other teams employ a small lineup - and they'll be able to maintain their "Twin Towers" defensive scheme, because I guarantee Ian Mahinmi is going to block some shots.

Ian had a good performance in the game against the Hawks, so I'm curious to see what that game will reveal about his potential.

As for the other players: Rich Melzer definitely had his moments, and Melvin Sanders continues to impress me. I hope the Spurs find a way to keep him and develop him. He might not fill the team's needs right now, but I can see him as an important part of their future backcourt rotation. Apparently the guys on the team really like him, too, which is important - if they're not getting good donut service, they can't perform their best. It's a little-known fact that Beno's punctual donut delivery was an important factor in the Spurs' 2005 championship.

The Best 10-year-old Hoopster in the US?

Eli Saslow writes in The Washington Post about 10-year-old basketball phenom Justin Jenifer ("Is There Such a Thing as a Perfect 10?").

It's hard to belive that a 10-year-old kid, still in elementary school, is being watched closely by high school coaches and shoe companies, but after watching some clips of Jenifer's game, I can see why.

At just 4'6", Jennifer is an expert dribbler, has the jumpshot of an adult, can shoot the 3, and is an 80% freethrow shooter. There is no telling what time and inches will turn him into.

Thanks to the guys over at Sports Law Blog for the intelligent discussion of the NBA age rule and the mention of Jenifer.

Spurs Trade Value?!

Thanks to Sloan, our resident Mavericks fanatic, for passing along Bill Simmons' hilarious take on NBA players trade value.

I especially got a kick out of Simmons' World Cup digression. We've played the same game ourselves, asking, which NBA players would do well in soccer? Manu Ginobili comes to mind, as does Steve Nash. In fact, I think that their games have a lot to do with the fact they played soccer as kids, but more on that later.

32. Tony Parker
Can't shoot 3s, can't guard anybody, doesn't create shots for other guys, on the books for $58 million over the next five years ... and I still couldn't leave him off this list. Besides, he gets bonus points for swaying the Sports Gal into watching Spurs playoff games just to see what Eva Longoria was wearing, leading to classic questions like "Why doesn't Ginobili just color in his bald spot?" and "Wait, is that guy's name really 'Nazi?' "

(By the way, I've been watching the World Cup for four weeks trying to decide which NBA players could have been dominant soccer players, eventually coming to three conclusions. First, Allen Iverson would have been the greatest soccer player ever -- better than Pele, better than Ronaldo, better than everyone. I think this is indisputable, actually. Second, it's a shame that someone like Chris Andersen couldn't have been pushed toward soccer, because he would have been absolutely unstoppable soaring above the middle of the pack on corner kicks. And third, can you imagine anyone being a better goalie than Shawn Marion? It would be like having a 6-foot-9 human octopus in the net. How could anyone score on him? He'd have every inch of the goal covered. Just as a sports experiment, couldn't we have someone teach Marion the rudimentary aspects of playing goal, then throw him in a couple of MLS games? Like you would turn the channel if this happened?)

20. Manu Ginobili
As time passes, his Game 7 foul on Nowitzki will take its rightful place alongside Isiah's pass that Bird stole, Worthy's pass that Gerald Henderson stole, Derek Harper dribbling out the clock, Nick Anderson's free throws and the Peja/Christie airballs as one of the 25 most incompetent moments in NBA playoff history. And yes, I would watch that show. But I could see his career going one of two ways -- either he's never the same, or he's better than ever before. I vote for the latter.

(Not to keep bringing back soccer, but Ginobili's constant flopping makes much more sense after sitting through four weeks of World Cup -- he only needs to incorporate the "carried off in a stretcher, and as the stretcher is taking him away, he hops off like nothing happened and joins the play again" maneuver. That's my favorite.)

3. Tim Duncan
His finishes in the Top 40 column: No. 2 (2001), No. 3 (2002), No. 1 (2003), No. 2 (2004), No. 1 (2005), No. 3 (2006). Pretty impressive. Not quite as good as making the All-NBA First Team eight years in a row, but pretty impressive.

Bramlet's Belated Broodings About the Mavericks' Meltdown

Early in Bramlet's youth, The Muppet Show inspired him with visions of how great old age could be.

Statler: That was terrible!
Waldorf: Being holed up in this balcony with your farts is more pleasant than watching the Mavericks whine and choke their way to another championship for Shaquille O'Neal!
Statler: Hahaha! What a bunch of overpaid pussies! I'd rather listen to your wife talk about her incontinence than listen to Mark Cuban bitch one more time!
Waldorf: Hahaha! I had a colonoscopy this morning that I enjoyed more than that series!
Statler: You have a colonoscopy every morning! I'm starting to think you do enjoy them!
Waldorf and Statler: Hahahaha!

That's the kind of stuff I imagine I would say if I'd actually bothered to watch the Heat beat the Mavericks. But I didn't watch much of the series. I just plain wasn't interested. In fact, I've developed a mathematical formula to express the level of my disdain and indifference:

time spent watching 2006 NBA Finals

________________________________________________

time spent watching World Cup matches + time spent watching reruns of Full House

In a normal World Cup year, this ratio would come out pretty close to 1. But this year, even though I refuse to subject myself to Full House as a matter of principle*, the above ratio still turned out to be a very small number - something on the order of 0.15. Although I have actually enjoyed the World Cup quite a bit, if I spend that much more time watching football ("soccer") than watching NBA playoff basketball, you can bet that something is seriously wrong (i.e. the Spurs were eliminated early on). Hell, for the one Finals game I watched with the guys, I spent more time shoving crappy generic cookies into my face while complaining earnestly about American wastefulness and consumerism than actually watching the game. (Being trashed makes irony and hypocrisy a lot harder to detect.)

When fueled by alcohol and good times, Bramlet makes the Cookie Monster

look like Kate Moss on appetite suppressants.

In retrospect, I should have just rooted for the Heat and hoped for sweet revenge on the Mavericks in the form of a karmic beatdown (thanks for the catchphrase, Funktiger). The pleasure of watching a 7-foot German get bitchslapped probably would have motivated me more than rooting for the Mavericks did. Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry had the right idea.

Bruce:

"I'm thrilled that Dallas didn't win it. Oh, poor them. Being as they went through so much, you know, as far as adversity (insert Bruce rolling eyes and sarcastic tone here). Um, I'm saying too much now."

Rob:

"That's the first time I ever rooted for the East," Horry said. "You usually never root for the East, you root for the West. But the way (the Mavericks) acted, it just put a bad taste in my mouth.

"All the whining Dallas did, the way (owner Mark) Cuban acted, the way (assistant coach) Del Harris acted on the sideline a couple of times, I was happy to see Dallas lose.

"I know the one game we won in Dallas, Avery was crying about the refs," Horry said. "I was like, 'You're crying about the refs?' We're the only ones who should be crying about the refs. We're the ones who are down in the series.

"There were just a lot of things that they did that I didn't think were characteristic of a team that's supposed to be in the (top) class."

Cuban whines so much that by the end of the series even Nowitzki wanted him to shut up.

Fortunately for Bruce and Big Shot, the Mavericks' spectacular choke will be immortalized in DVD form for posterity:

* The principle being that it sucks ass. If I ever resort to watching crap like that in my old age, please just put me out of my misery - unless I'm only watching it so that I can make Statlerian or Waldorfian comments about how badly it sucks (in which case I'll want it to be brought back). But then, that's a little unfair of me. Complaining that Full House is trite and sentimental is like complaining that a bag of Cheetos that makes proclamations like "Dangerously cheesy!" and "They're the cheesiest!" should go a little lighter on the cheese. It is what it is.

While doing research for these comments, I found out a couple of very disturbing things. One is that there is a ridiculous number of Cheetos products on the market. Americans must be consuming an awful lot of these fucking things to support that many variations on the "corn meal and processed cheese" theme, especially given all of the generic imitation products that are out there as well. The other disturbing thing is that judging by the number of results for this Google search, Americans (I'm assuming, quite reasonably, that they're all Americans) don't know the difference between "Cheez Doodles" and "Chez Doodles." The second one reminds me of either a bad French-Canadian children's TV show with a lot of mimes and general silliness or a gay porn movie.

In late 2006, in a desperate effort to save his house, Screech agrees to star in Chez Doodles.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts on the Mavericks.