Wednesday, October 28th, 2009...8:48 am
If you haven’t heard…
… there’s a game tonight. Which means two things:
- Come back at 7 Central for a liveblog co-hosted with Hornets 24/7.
- Pre-game notes.
So… The Hornets most substantial offseason move was trading Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor. I think there are arguments to be made either way as to whether the move is a step forward or backward for New Orleans, but I believe rather unequivocally that it benefits us.
When NOLA’s on offense, the West/Okafor duo will be quite the four-five punch in the paint, but I’m confident Duncan and McDyess can hold their own. I’m not one to be overly concerned about our defense around the rim, mostly because Popovich is so concerned about it.
But the real effects of the Chandler-Okafor trade are going to be felt when we’ve got the ball. Chandler did as good a job defending Duncan as pretty much anyone in the Association.
His absence will be palpable. Aside from the Duncan/Okafor match-up, I’ve got my eyes on Chris Paul and, more importantly, who we’ve got guarding Chris Paul. I see no reason as to why we won’t start the game with Parker covering Paul, but I’m more intrigued to see how Hill handles CP3 while they’re both on the floor. Paul is right up there alongside James and Bryant as one of the toughest covers in the league, and he’ll serve as a fitting challenge to our budding young stopper.
Spurs-Hornets is always exciting. I just love the way these two teams match up against each other and could go on for a while about the minutiae of this game. But alas, the season opener and the Spurs annual trip to the Second City fall on what is easily the busiest week I’ve had since entering graduate school. So I’m saving the rest of my thoughts for the next time we face New Orleans. Enjoy the game. And if you have a chance to swing back by and join us for the liveblog.
6 Comments
October 28th, 2009 at 9:23 am
While Okafor is a better offensive player than Chandler, I am glad that the Spurs will not have to deal with the alley-oops from Paul to Chandler anymore. That was one of the hardest things for the Spurs to defend against NO. Now it might be easier for the bigs to help out on Paul in the pick and roll.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am
read the write up over at the hornets blog. was a pretty good analysis, although they dont seem to expect much from blair other than rebounding. i hope they are in for a surprise
October 28th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Random NBA news: http://deadspin.com/5392030/the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read
Tim Donaghy’s book that the NBA has so far successfully prevented from being published….
October 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Meh, the Chandler that was good against Duncan is likely gone forever, or doomed to only appear for a fraction of the season. Good trade for NOLA.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
This is a must read, seriously.
http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-from-the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read
Donaghy says that Game 6 of the 2002 WC Finals was essentially fixed, as well as Game 7 of the 2000 WC Finals. (Both in favor of the Lakers, both by the NBA’s “go-to guy” for fixes, Dick Bavetta.)
To add more fuel to the fire, he says that the ref supervisor of the 2007 Spurs-Suns series was Tommy Nunez, who apparently loves the Hispanic community of San Antonio and wanted the Spurs to win, biasing the way he prepared refs for that series, although he didn’t ref himself. (Seems like a much less damning accusation than that Bavetta, who was working the game himself, received direct word from the NBA hierarchy that a certain outcome was preferred as in 2000 and 2002.)
October 28th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
The Donaghy book will be purchased by me if it’s ever released. Holy cow, that’s some heavy stuff.
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