Lou Williams hits the game winning 3 without fear

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With about 8 seconds left in the game the Raptors elected to inbound the ball to Lou Williams in the backcourt who then dribbled it up in iso and drained the step back 3 against Avery Bradley with 0.6 seconds left on the clock to give the Raptors a 92-89 win. Baller stuff 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoprAeCWQS8

Raptors Preseason Begins!

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Tonight the Toronto Raptors played their first preseason game against the Sacramento Kings winning 99-94. While these are only observations from one game it's already apparent that the Raptors have improved in at least 2 aspects during the offseason. 

1. The bigger the better: Many of the Raptors decided to bulk up during the offseason including Terrence Ross, DeMar DeRozan, and Jonas Valanciunas each doing so for seemingly different reasons.

     Ross was criticized after the playoff series against the Nets for being too skinny because it allowed Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce to back him down in the post leading to easy buckets. He seemed to have taken the criticism as best he could and simply responded by coming back with more bulk to deal with larger the sg/sf  in the league. 

     DeMar DeRozan made his first NBA all-star appearance last season and he seems intent on making sure he will make it back there this year. DeRozan already had enough weight on him to deal with larger apposing guards but he seems to have made "mad gains bro" over the summer in an effort to make his drives to the basket even more deadly. DeMar has shown to be a great finisher at the rim but plenty of big men can still get in his path forcing him to lean and attempt a more difficult shot. This year however thanks to his weight gain DeRozan can now finish against the stronger big men which will hopefully lead to more and-one opportunities. 

     Last season Jonas Valanciunas averaged 8.8 rebounds a game which is quite respectable for a players second year in the league but still not enough to make a title run. Jonas doesn't have many issues reading how a rebound will come off the boards but rather he struggled with stopping larger centres who used their size to push him out of the spot for the rebound. Although there aren't a lot of these behemoth type players in the league this was still an issue that led to Chuck Hayes having to play extra minutes which isn't exactly what the Raptors would like. So to combat this he's gotten a little bigger and I'm sure his rebounding numbers this season will improve because of this. 

2. Tyler Hansbrough spent the summer shooting corner 3's apparently.... I guess he just saw how much people enjoyed seeing Amir Johnson shoot 3's and he thought it would be fun if he could shoot them too. Either way I doubt he will be seeing very many minutes next season but hey it's nice to see that even the players deep into the rotation are working hard to enhance their game. 

NBA 2014-2015 Playoff Predictions (Eastern Conference)

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Today the NBA preseason started and both players and fans will start to get an understanding as to just how good, or laughingly awful (sorry 76er fans), the squad is. Until then however the future looks bright for all teams but still only 8  in each conference can make the playoffs so these are my predictions for the 8 teams that will be making the playoffs this year in the eastern conference. 

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Chicago Bulls 

3. Toronto Raptors

4. Miami Heat

5. Washington Wizards

6. Brooklyn Nets

7. Charlotte Hornets 

8. Atlanta Hawks 

 

1. Last year the Cleveland Caveliers finished as the 10th seed in the east but with the new editions of 4 time MVP LeBron James and and all-star pf Kevin Love along with Kyrie Irving they should be able to secure the first seed baring any injuries. No matter what seed they finish as though Love grabbing a defensive rebound then throwing a full court ally-oop to James will be fun to watch.  

2. The Chicago Bulls have dealt with those injuries for the past two seasons with their leader and one time MVP winner Derrick Rose forced to sit on the sidelines. Combining Rose with last years defensive player of the year Joakim Noah and it's easy to see that the Bulls will take the 2nd seed.... If Derrick Rose can stay healthily of course. 

3. Last year was a breakout season for the Raptors as they finished 3rd and was the best team in the Atlantic division. Many are skeptical about Demar Derozen and Kyle Lowry continuing their high level play this season but to those haters I just have one thing to say. Shush. Pardon my French but I just find it easier to believe they will continue to produce at high level rather than regress. 

4. They lost LeBron James the second best player in the game and they didn't replace him with the first so it has to be considered a letdown. Thankfully they still have Chris Bosh and acquired Luol Deng in the offseason so they still have a starting lineup that will consist of 3 all-star players. They also picked up great role players like Josh McRoberts and still have one of the best coaches in the league so getting the 4th seed seems like the perfect place for the Heat to finish. 

5. Washington Wizards haven't made many changes over the offseason but they did sign Paul Pierce a veteran leader who will bring much needed playoff experience to a team that lacks it. The Truth is also one of the most baller players in the NBA and will ensure the team never backs down from a challenge. 

6. The Nets lost Paul Pierce but still retained their three best players Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez. Unfortunately for Brooklyn two of these players, Lopez and Williams, are injury prone but healthy they can provide the edge to secure the 6th seed. 

7. The newly renamed Charlotte Hornets are possibly the most underrated team in the league. They have one of the top 5 centres in Al Jefferson who is nearly unstoppable in post up situations. This combined with the talents of Kemba Walker and newly acquired Lance Stephenson should allow for the Hornets to improve on their 8th seed finish last year by jumping all the way to the 7th. 

8. Right now if I were to mention the Atlanta Hawks you'd probably think of Danny Ferry and his racially insensitive comments and not of their extremely solid team. If the Hornets aren't the most underrated team then it's definitely the Hawks. Even without their best player Al Horford for most of the season the Hawks still finished as the 8th seed and managed to take the Indiana Pacers to a highly competitive game 7. Still the east has only improved this year so making the playoffs will be an actual challenge this season for the Hawks but I'm confident they are up to the challenge. 

Honourable mentions: New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers. I can picture any of these 3 finishing as the 9th seed but each of these teams has something to prove before I can see them making the playoffs.  

 

 

NBA Championship Odds: LeBron vs the Spurs round 3

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These are the odds for every team to win the NBA championship via bodog sportsbook.

TEAM:                                CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS:

Cleveland Cavaliers          5/2

San Antonio Spurs             4/1

Chicago Bulls                     11/2

Oklahoma City Thunder    11/2

Los Angeles Clippers        10/1

Dallas Mavericks               20/1

Houston Rockets               20/1

Golden State Warriors      25/1

Washington Wizards         33/1

Portland Trail Blazers        40/1

Indiana Pacers                   50/1

Memphis Grizzlies             50/1

Miami Heat                         50/1

New York Knicks               50/1

Toronto Raptors                 50/1

Brooklyn Nets                    66/1

Charlotte Hornets              66/1

Los Angeles Lakers           66/1

Atlanta Hawks                    100/1

Denver Nuggets                100/1

New Orleans Pelicans       100/1

Phoenix Suns                      100/1

Boston Celtics                    200/1

Detroit Pistons                    200/1

Orlando Magic                    200/1

Sacramento Kings              250/1

Milwaukee Bucks               300/1

Minnesota Timberwolves   300/1

Utah Jazz                             300/1

Philadelphia 76ers               500/1

 

     After looking at the list there were a few things in particular that stood out to me.

     As you can see Vegas predicts for the 3rd straight season LeBron James will be going up against Popovich and the Spurs in the finals as they are the two teams with the highest odds in each conference. Although it makes sense that last season's NBA champions and a team that has 3 all stars one of whom who has 4 mvp trophies are the two title favourites its hard for me to believe that James can make it to his 5th straight finals appearance and an ever aging Spurs team can make it to the finals for the 3rd straight year.

     The Dallas Mavericks like the Cavs also made a huge jump in the rankings and now sit at 20/1 tying for the 6th best odds with the Rockets, the team who they stole Chandler Parsons from during the offseason. Personally I would hold the Golden State Warriors' odds, which are 25/1,  as the same as the Mavericks' and Rockets' but I guess the inclusion of a new coach this season leaves people a little wary.

     Finally I was surprised to see the New York Knicks who failed to make the playoffs last season ranked the same as the Toronto Raptors who finished as the 3rd seed. The Knicks have a slightly different although largely unimproved roster while the Raptors are bringing back the same guys while adding depth on the bench so it's mind boggling to me as to why they share the same 50/1 odds. I'm unsure whether the belief is that the Raptors won't improve this season or whether Phil Jackson becoming the Knicks GM has garnered Championship hype but either way I don't see a team that has to rely heavily on J.R. Smith making key plays winning a ring anytime soon. 

 

 

Media Day/Training Camp: Raptors, Mavericks, and my own

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     With media day being yesterday and training camp starting today for my two favourite NBA teams I felt it would be a perfect time to make my first post since like the Raps and the Mavs I too need to hold a media day to create hype for the season and go through training camp to get myself into decent (writing) form. It's been a long time since I've written on a regular basis so this will start off really rough but I promise over the course of the next year and hopefully beyond I'll be improving with every article, video and photo I post. While this site will be covering everything baller in basketball I won't hesitate from posting baller content about anything. So without further ado here's what's going on in the world of Raps and Mavs.

 

     The pictures from the Mavericks photo shoot seems to indicate that Harris, Ellis, Parsons, Nowitzki, and Chandler will be the starting 5 to begin the season or at least the pre-season. Although personally I'd love to see Jameer Nelson, the guy who got fined for doing the 'big balls dance' after making a clutch game tying shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN3il8GKIoY , start for the Mavs it makes the most sense for Devin Harris to start for now as he already knows the offensive plays and defensive sets from last season plus his superior defensive ability over the Dallas'  other 3 pgs can help reduce the load on Tyson Chandler who was brought to the team mainly to defend the rim. I also like hearing that Eric Griffin, Dallas' new hyper athletic wing, was the last person to leave training camp today spending extra time polishing his shooting ability with coach Carlisle which could prove to be important since a lot of players may prefer to let him shoot a jump shot as apposed to letting him do this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qnpr99f6Aw   Anyone else thinking dunk contest? 

 

     Terrence Ross came into Raptors media day trying to prove one thing. That he's not the skinny sg/sf who had issues dealing with larger opponents last year as seen in the playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets. Raptors GM Masai Ujiri was especially positive about Ross' improvement over the summer saying, "I'm positive we'll see real growth with him." This should be a huge benefit for the Raptors as Ross is obviously talented on the offensive end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNOXGRS_oow and now the Raps coach Dwayne Casey can leave him out there against larger guys without fear of him being a defensive liability. The start of training camp for the Raptors is a little bit more complicated as there 3 "home" preseason games will occur in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal respectively so the team started training in Toronto today but had to fly out to Vanvouver this evening. So far no real news has come out of Raps training camp because of this. 

 

     The final piece of baller news is that Martell Webster and Marcin Gortat are sexual black chocolate and sexual white chocolate from now on okay.  https://twitter.com/SarahKogod/status/516616966178893824?lang=en

Please feel free to comment on all my posts as I really do enjoy an open dialogue with any readers I may get and don't forget to follow my twitter @itsballertime since I'll be tweeting links to new content on the site along with just random baller stuff that happens on twitter as a whole. Thanks to everyone who read all of this and to everyone who will continue to follow the work I produce.

It's baller time baby!