Game 6ix

The NBA Playoffs are only a few minutes away and here are my “not so bold” predictions for the postseason.

Eastern Conference

Miami Heat in 4

Chicago Bulls in 6

Indiana Pacers in 6

New York Knicks in 6

Western Conference

Oklahoma City Thunder in 5

Los Angeles Clippers in 7

Denver Nuggets in 5

San Antonio Spurs in 5

Also, this past week I joined the SamePageTeam for their Three for 3 feature. Daniel Reynolds, Dan Grant and I fight over our favourite first round matchups, our dream late round picks and the dark horses for the playoffs. You can catch the Samepageteam and I at Gameday on College watching every game, having some beers and yelling and fans who think they know more about basketball then us.

Laker fans are highly encouraged to attend….

This week Game6ix is back with the Same Page Team and their Three for 3 feature.  We met up with Daniel Reynolds and Dan Grant as we talk about the losing teams with the brightest future, the contenders with the most to lose, and which unheralded player has meant the most to his team’s success so far this season.

You can read the full post here.

Don’t forget to follow @Game6ix & @Samepageteam on twitter & “Like” Game6ix on Facebook.

If Larry Sanders can like all three of us, so will you.

LET THE MADNESS BEGIN!!!

While everyone rushes to finish their last minute NCAA March Madness picks, I thought I would give you some help and post 2 of the 6 (of course I did 6ix) brackets for this years tournament.

The first bracket is the “safe bet”. All number one picks in the Final Four and the “favourite” right now which is Louisville. No surprises here!

The second bracket, I had a little more fun with Michigan taking it all the way.

When you see someone at work celebrating on the last day, like this….you’ll know why.

GOOD LUCK!!!

No one in their right mind needs 300-500 words to describe what DeAndre Jordan did to Brandon Knight during Pistons/Clippers game last night. As if having his ankles broken during NBA All Star Weekend wasn’t enough, Brandon had the courage audacity to try to block DeAndre half way through an alleyoop and suffered the worst poster we’ve seen in years. Just see for yourself…

Can’t get enough of it right? Let’s see that again in another angle…

and another….

and another…

It’s nice to know, after the fact, that Brandon could have a sense of humour about it.

It wasn’t in the scouting reports that the clippers threw lobs lol

March 11, 2013

Even though we had this mind-blowing play from the Clippers last week..

There will be no discussion that the DeAndre dunk will go down as one of the greatest dunks of the year/decade/century. Who the hell needs 500 words to explain that.

I’m out…

March will probably always be one of the greatest months of the year for basketball fans. Non-stop college ball games to keep you distracted from work, school and the depressing weather.  As selection Sunday nears us and everyone rushes to fill out their NCAA brackets, we’re going to give you a quick glimpse of 6ix Canadian players (mostly from Toronto) to keep your eye on. I’m not trying to influence your brackets, but I hope you’ll at least cheer for our hometown heroes as you win/lose your office pool. After seeing recent Canadians Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and Andrew Nicholson get picked up in the first round of the draft last year, we’re pretty confident to the see Maple Leaf represented on more NBA teams in years to come.

1. Myck Kabongo (Toronto), Texas Longhorns - After being suspended for the year for accepting improper benefits from famed NBA agent Rich Paul, Myck’s NBA future lost the security it had in his freshman year. The NCAA changed his suspension to 23 games and since his return he has been averaging 18.8/4/4.  Especially after his recent performance against Oklahoma and all the national attention he’s getting, Myck looks hell bent on establishing himself as a first round pick next year.

2. Anthony Bennett (Brampton), UNLV - No longer the Cinderella team, Gonzaga has established their basketball program into a contender lead by this second year point guard. Kevin has averaged 11.8/game and brought the Bulldogs to a 28-2 record. After he scored 33 points and hit nine 3’s in his first NCAA game, it was obvious to see Kevin was primed to make his family proud. Having a father who coaches for York University women’s squad and a sister who plays on the York seems to motivate Kevin to play at a high level down south. Hopefully the next time Kevin visits home, hell have an NCAA championship to add to the family trophy case.

3. Kevin Pangos (Newmarket), Gonzaga - No longer the Cinderella team, Gonzaga has established their basketball program into a contender. Lead by the second year point guard, Kevin has averaged 11.8/game and brought the Bulldogs to a 28-2 record. After he scored 33 points and hit nine 3’s in his first NCAA game, it was obvious to see Kevin was primed to make his family proud. Having a father who coaches for York University women’s squad and sister who plays on the York team seems motivate Kevin to play at a high level down south. Hopefully the next time Kevin visits home, hell have an NCAA championship to add to the family trophy case.

4. Kelly Olynyk (Kamloops, BC), Gonzaga - The other half of the Candian duo making a name for themselves at Gonzaga is junior, Kelly Olynyk. This seven footer from B.C., is averaging 17 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 66% from the field.  With an arsenal of low-post moves and a decent three point shot, Kelly can makes it extremely difficult for any center to guard him. If he can become a constant defensive presence and increase his shot blocking, Kelly can lead the first ranked Bulldogs to a championship in a tournament with no real favourite.

5. Nik Stauskas (Mississauga) - Being compared to J.J. Reddick & Mike Miller because of his lights out accuracy behind the arc, it’s his ball handling skills and defense that separate him from the bunch. Although he was leading the NCAA in three point percentage this season, his play at the point guard position while averaging 11.8 points a game has lead the Wolverines to a 23-5 record. Along with his freshman teammate Glen Robinson III, Michigan has the potential to do some serious damage in your brackets this year.

6. Dwight Powell (Thornhill) - Dwight decided to leave his high school in Toronto and play in Florida to increase his exposure. After being scouted as the 29th ranked high school player in the country, he seems to have made the right choice. Now playing for Stanford, Dwight is averaging 15.3 points and 8.2 rebounds. While the men’s team fights to equal the recent success of the Stanford’s women’s team, Powell is still their best chance at getting back to the Final Four.

Even though this post is focused on Canadian players playing the NCAA right now, it wouldn’t be right to not mention Andrew Wiggins. It feels pretty nice to have someone from Toronto who is ranked #1 and the winner of the Naismith Award’s high school player of the year. It’s not like there is another superstar in the NBA that previously won the award and went on to become a champion, right?

Andrew will undoubtedly be Canada’s first player ever to get chosen first in the NBA draft and I (along with the rest of the country) can’t wait!

Hopefully next year we can profile the top 6ixty Canadian Players instead of 6ix and while our hometown ballers may have to go down south to compete, they and everyone else remembers where they came from. My only advice to any Canadian player is to start listening to alot of Drake (if you don’t already) because when you get to the big time, he WILL find you and not let go.

Honorable Mention

Khem Birch (Montreal) - UNLV

Stefan Jankovic (Mississauga) - Missouri

Dwayne Smith (Toronto) - George Washington

Negus Webster-Chan (Scarborough) - Missouri

Nick Wiggins (Toronto) - Wichita State

Junior Cadougan (Toronto) - Marquette 

(Source: facebook.com)

Bryan Colangelo finally pulled the trigger. After months of speculation of a big trade in the works, he sent Jose Calderon to Detroit, Ed Davis to Memphis and brought Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors. Sure there were a few more players thrown around in the deal but those are the only three I care about. This is officially the most depressing yet happiest day Raptornation has ever experienced. We gained a superstar but lost the something that may be more important than stats or marketability…we have lost the only stable thing Toronto has had for the last 8 years.

Minutes after the trade was officially announced and the celebrations has begun, Raptor fans across the city began professing their admiration and sadness for Jose Calderon. One word kept popping out in numerous posts, tweets and status’ -CLASS. Arguably, no other player ever to put on a Raptor uniform had more of it.  Constantly criticized for being a defensive liability and thrown into Point Guard controversies with not just one but by two point guards at a time, Jose NEVER complained, never asked to be traded and never uttered a disrespectful word about the fans or the management.  I can count numerous times when he could have given up or thrown in a smart ass comment during a post game interview. Nope, not one word.  How many players do you know making 10 million dollars a season, never tried to mail in a season by faking injury or flying to his graduation an hour before game 7 of the playoffs just to miss a buzzer beater…. ok it’s fair to say I’m still holding on to some anger/frustration/disappointment. Just a bit.

Crushed to find out he was leaving a place he called home for the last 8 years, Jose will without a doubt be missed. I can’t wait to see Rudy play in Toronto, although I for one, am going to miss hearing “numero ocho” over the speakers at the ACC. He still is a free agent at the end of the season to sign with whomever he pleases, so hopefully he finds a city that adored him as much as Toronto did.

Ed Davis was another one of Toronto’s draft picks that everyone questioned. Undersized, people were worried about how he could match up to the larger, faster power forwards in the league. After having a decent rookie year, his aggressiveness seemed to disappear. It took another two years for him to finally find a permanent place in the Raptors starting lineup. Although it came when Andrea got injured, it was only a matter of time. He stepped up and became a consistent double-double threat. Sadly for us, all that did was increase his trade value. Although he won’t start in Memphis and will be backing up Zach Randolph, we can only wish Ed Davis the best. 

The move might have been for best but we will definitely miss you guys.

I can’t be the only person to notice the “omega sized level” hate that the Toronto Raptors have been getting this season. Wednesday night it seemed to hit an all time high. We just traded for Rudy Gay and everyone outside of Toronto is commenting on the negative(If there are any). All of a sudden Ed Davis is a future Allstar and our offense is doomed because we lost Jose Calderon? I am a fan of both players, but GET THAT GARBAGE OUTTA HERE!!! I don’t see any reason why this move wouldn’t automatically make this team better. We dramatically upgraded at the small forward which was, without a doubt, our weakest position. If adding the 26-15 Memphis Grizzles leading scorer and all around best player isn’t an upgrade, I don’t know what is. Seriously, what the hell do we have to do to get any respect around here?

ESPN, Sports illustrated, Yahoo Sports, just about everyone with a voice is ripping on Bryan Colangelo for making this deal ,while the fans of Toronto are overcome with excitement. How long are we destined to be the joke of the NBA? Charlotte won 7 of 48 games last season, the 09-10 won 12 of 82 games, how the hell do these teams get more respect?  Sure, we haven’t made the playoffs in years, however we haven’t been the worst team in the NBA either. No team in any professional sport gets passed of as an afterthought as much as teams in the city of Toronto. Yes Cleveland fans, God apparently doesn’t hate you as much as he does us.

The NBA continues to disrespect our lone Canadian city by letting the referees shit on us night.. after night. On top of that, instead of apologizing for Wednesday nights debacle, the NBA fined Dwayne Casey $25,000 for pointing out what we all know, the referees suck! Demar DeRozan is a player that constantly slashes to the basket but can’t get a whistle to save his life. He might not be the NBA’s most vocal player, yet, time and time again, I’ve seen him trying to plead his case with no results. Although we haven’t had a real superstar(He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) since 2004, shouldn’t our best player be semi-entitled to getting those calls. Only time will tell if an established player like Rudy Gay can change the whistle blowing culture (or lack there of) in Toronto.

Hopefully, Raptor fans won’t pissed off to the see the ball in Rudy’s hands as we have in the past and referees can take a hint.

The full roster of NBA All-stars were released last night and we know it’s a given that fans would vote to see MVP candidates like Lebron, CP3 & Durant take the court.  With the reserves however, it is left up to the NBA coaches and it’s painfully obvious that they missed someone of their ballots.  I really can’t remember the last time a player was snubbed as bad as Stephen Curry was last night.

I know Stephen has help by Allstar selection, David Lee & a decent supporting cast but a HUGE part of why Golden State is 26-15 in a stacked Western Conference is greatly due to Stephen’s play. Finally healthy, he is showing the NBA that he is not just a gifted shooter but his completely capable of controlling a productive offense. He’s averaging 20.9 points and 6.6 assists and shooting 45% behind the arch. He’s carried his team to wins over the Clippers (3 damn times), Miami and Oklahoma who are the best 3 teams in the league. In a previous post on Samepageteam.com, I wrote that the Warriors were this year’s biggest surprise and this was largely due to the play of their captain. How the hell can someone who is in the top five of an MVP race be left off the team? Being the son of NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, we knew he was destined for greatness, why not reward him for working his ass off to get there. Stephen’s coach, Mark Jackson has repeatedly hailed Stephen for improving in all faucets of his game, especially his defense and willingness to be a leader on this young team. By leading his team to one of the best records in the NBA, I find it hard to figure out what these other coaches were thinking. 

No offense to Zach Randolph & Lamarcus Aldridge, but they are not having the stellar seasons we’ve seen from them in the past. Z-BO is averaging career lows in points and rebounds and Aldridge has taken a backseat to Damian Lillard, while currently playing on a 21-21 team. To be fair, the Western Conference is stacked with elite players. Other guards like James Harden, Russell Westbrook & Tony Parker are all some of the best point guards to ever play the game. I personally would have liked to see Curry over Tony Parker in the All-star game, however the Spurs are also playing at an exceptional level, so his selection is not hard to argue. .

To me the case is clear that Stephen should have been an All-star. Here’s to hoping that Dwight Howard’s “injury” will keep him out of the All-star weekend so David Lee or Tim Duncan can take his spot in the starting lineup and Curry will have get what he deserves. Dwight was the obvious “WTF” selection to the starting lineup, though since the fans voted him in we cant do much to change it. He wants to blame his coach, his back and even Kobe for his sub-par play, but he should do the right thing and give his spot up. In the end, if Stephen doesn’t play, he still has 40 more games to shake off his critics. SHAKE’EM OFF STEPH!!