Kick it with the Rooks at ASG!

Kick it with the Rooks at ASG! Rookies and all, come forth to see the dunk contest at this year’s All-Star Weekend. This event will be taken place at halftime. However, more importantly, who is participating?

With the NBA trying to push the younger, newer talent of the NBA; they have made their selections. Might I say, this is pretty darn good.

First up we got Obi Toppin with the New York Knicks, who was drafted with the 8th pick in last year’s draft. Secondly, we got Cassius Stanley with the Pacers. The rookie who was drafted within the second round will be joining his fellow rookie in a dual. Lastly, we have Anfernee Simons with the Portland Trail Blazers. Simons is entering and currently in his third season with Portland as he is looking to take home the gold.

Those are the three players that are set to star in this year’s ASG. Stanley and Toppin are both known for their impressive dunks in college, not so much for the NBA. Simons is known for his dunks, I think, that is why they are giving him a chance to shine.

Toppin, in 11 minutes, is averaging 4 points; however, Simons is averaging 8 points in 17 minutes per game. Now, with Stanley is a bit different. Why? Yes, he is apart of the the Pacers as a rookie. However, he is starting for their G-League team these past nine games. Even though that is different for a rookie, he is not having a bad career so far. He has been averaging 12 points.

Can you explain why this class of dunkers looks different than last year’s?

Look, with the season being condensed and not many players realizing that the season was going to include an All-Star Game. Because the league told them that they would have the week off, but then money hit and they wanted to get more money.

Of course LeBron and other superstars commented on it because they have nothing else to do and they actually believe that this is the worst virus ever to hit the world; besides that and the fact this will be condensed for a half-time performance. That is why they are doing it, to give new guys a chance, and it won’t be that long.

Plus, Aaron Gordon did not want to do it anymore because D-Wade robbed him for a bum of a Heat’s player and he was robbed to Zach LaVine. Which in his defense, LaVine was the better talent. My opinion. So who else was going to openly go in without being forced? That, to me, is why.

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Even though Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James are competitors on the court and were competitors in the NBA All-Star game, Antetokounmpo has said that he is inspired that LeBron James is still able to keep up with the game of basketball plus still be electrifying.

“It’s amazing. He’s 35 and playing at a high level,” Antetokounmpo said Wednesday as his Milwaukee Bucks prepared to face James’ Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. “He just leads the path for us.

“A lot of times we think that, ‘OK, we’re going to retire at 35,’ but seeing a guy at 35 being still top-three best player in the world, that makes us want to be there. Makes me want to be there one day, so I’ve got to keep taking care of my body, eating the right way, being healthy, and as I said — he paved the way, and hopefully we can just follow.”

With the Bucks and Lakers facing each other off tomorrow Giannis will be deleting social media to keep himself mentally prepared, because all he and his team wants to do is be laser-focused on LeBron and the Lakers. The Bucks will not be practicing today, just as a side-note.

“Obviously, they’re gonna try to get payback. We beat ’em pretty bad,” Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe said. “They’re gonna try to come out strong, so we just gotta match their intensity. They’re at the top for a reason — they’ve got two of the best players in the league and a great supporting cast. So we just gotta try to match their intensity.”

Said Khris Middleton: “I don’t want to put too much on it. … There are so many things that go into it. We just can’t say it’s going to be a Finals preview. We have to go step by step, not skipping anything. Hopefully we get there. Who knows if they’ll get there.”

The Bucks and the Lakers have the best records in their conferences and with the Bucks winning their last meeting, 111-104, the Lakers will be hoping to put an end to Giannis and the Bucks tomorrow. All Giannis is concerned about is how to stop the two best players in the league currently.

“Just go there and just play good basketball. As I said, the Lakers are gonna come play hard. We know that. I watched the game last night. They played extremely hard. They played through Anthony Davis, LeBron was facilitating, guys were shooting the ball, they were running to the corner, they were playing good basketball,” Antetokounmpo said. “And they lost the first game, so they’re gonna come out and try to win the second one.

“But at the end of the day, we gotta do what we do, which is defend and run to the corner and run to our spots, move the ball, take the open shot, make the right play, drive the lanes. We’ve done this two years now — a year and a half, almost two years — and things take care of itself. So as a leader, I just gotta do that, and as a team, we just gotta stay on track.”

So don’t miss tomorrow as it will be a thriller against the Greek Freak and “The King” LeBron James.

The Cavaliers are 15-40, they are last place in the Eastern Conference standings, and have not been having the best of luck with staff nor with players. Whenever you see them win a game it is like great now win the next one, the problem is they can’t get into a momentum when they’re winning games and their players are doing great.

All season reports have been stirring up that Kevin Love was going to leave, reports again were coming out that he was leaving at the trade deadline. Nope the Cavaliers decide to make this man’s life miserable by keeping him, besides Love who else does the Cavs have?

I know they have Andre Drummond, and I guess you could count Collin Sexton, but that is pretty much it. Kevin Love is the only veteran there the rest of the players, maybe besides Drummond, are NOT leaders nor veterans.

They are young players still trying to figure out their role in the franchise, let me say this that if it is not the players then it is the staff. Why might I be saying this? I am saying this because they just fired John Beilein and got assistant coach Bickerstaff.

There have been reports that the Cavs players wanted Beilein fired before the Cavs made it official, that should tell us something that these guys would go to the lengths of trying to get someone fired because of the season, practice, ETC.

That is bad, who has that kind of relationship with their coach? That mean’t this team couldn’t properly function because they weren’t listening and weren’t playing hard.

If I were the Cavs I wouldn’t get interim head coach Bickerstaff as a full time get somebody with actual knowledge of the NBA, somebody that has been with the game longer, somebody that knows what they are doing, and knows how to take charge with a team.

If the Cavs want to be a good team like they were before 2017, let me remind you they lost two big pieces: Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, they need to get good pieces. Kevin Love is not the answer, he is amazingly talented but I think it is time to let him go. Plus he is not staying in the NBA forever and you have to be fair to the man, he wants another championship, another playoff run, not waiting for the Cavs to start moving on this rebuild.

The Cavs need to wake up and start doing this rebuild because Larry Nance, Tristan, Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and everyone else NEEDS TO GO. It is time, these players don’t know how to play the game. They need skilled, talented, somewhat experienced guys to come in and show everyone how is it done.

Will that happen? You probably have to give the Cavaliers a few years cause I don’t know what the thought process of the Cavs staff is, but I think that they would start rebuilding this year. You have to get new guys, because as you can see nobody is commanding the rock, nobody is commanding the offense. It is like these players are just here for tea-time.

We’ve gave it three years of trying to make something work with this rag-tag group of non-ballers, so now it is time to build the team around talented guys and I think it would be smart to have Andre Drummond here and maybe Kevin Love depending on his free agency status.

You need a point guard badly, we have a good big man, the guards need to go, and besides Drummond and Love all the power forwards should be GONE.

Rebuilding should of happened at the 2017-18 season because you knew what you needed and you still had a good head coach, when all your players leave you (that are great) it becomes hard but they have to take the initiative and go find good players.

You would like to see the interim head coach do well, but, and this a large but, if he starts doing well don’t pull a Browns and sign a Freddie Kitchens type head coach.

If the Cavaliers can tighten up on their roster, staff, and attitude you and I could be looking at a really good team. The front office just needs to make good decisions and don’t lead them down a dark path to nowhere, the Cavs were once good now we have to rebuild and be good again.

I think the Cavs don’t have to be good this season, already doing that, but recoup and start rebuilding because once you get one good player whether that be veteran or not it will change attitude and roster around. We can have a super-team, I don’t care if the Cavs take a while but if they are doing nothing then what is the point.

The Cavs could be a good team, give them 2-5 years, if they get the right staff and players. For everybody down in Cleveland, I beg: don’t watch the Cavs games it could make you emotional.