Orlando vs. Chicago: Just like in Kendrick Lamar's days, Aaron Afflalo is
reaching for a brighter tomorrow. Afflalo is not the player who was drafted out
of UCLA, and he's not even the player that played for the Nuggets his first few
years. Afflalo is still a really good defender and spot up shooter, but he's
actually a creator of offense now. Obviously, the Magic are devoid of top shelf
NBA talent. Options A and B are Afflalo and Big Baby. That's about as
underwhelming as you can get, but against crappy teams, the Magic have been able
to work it out a little bit (kudos to Jacque Vaughn?). Unfortunately Chicago isn't a crappy team.
Afflalo was able to have his way with Rip Hamilton, but Big Baby unsurprisignly
struggled with the length of Joakim Noah. I continue to be impressed with the
floor game of Kirk Hinrich. He does nothing spectacular except make winning
plays. I still wouldn't mind if the Bulls cashed in Boozer for some picks and
some depth for their 2014 title run. They may win a lot of games this year, but
they will struggle with elite defensive teams who can shut down their bevy of
mediocre offensive players.
Toronto vs. OKC: Tough matchup for Toronto. Either Lowry was hurt, or
Westbrook is the Lowry stopper. Anyone following Toronto the first few games
knows that there is no way they can survive getting 2 points and 4 assists out
of Lowry. OKC jumped these dudes from the start and the game got uglier as it
wore on. I stopped watching in the 2nd quarter. I can't get over how unimpressive Derozan is. He really got 40
million! Toronto's biggest problem is their wing play. Valanciunas is a solid
dude....he rebounds, defends, and runs the floor. Bargnani is finally playing
the right position. Lowry and Calderon are solid PGs, but the wing play is
terrible. Alan Anderson and Terrance Ross should play more than Fields and
Derozan.
Detroit vs. Denver: Detroit sucks. I really don't like anybody on this
team. Even Greg Monroe is an average player, but someone has to get the
rebounds and points. Your other options are Stuckey (shooting 15% from the
field this season), and Brandon Knight (still not ready, but getting better). I
might like Prince and Jerebko if they played for better teams, but it's hard to
gauge role players when they've been on crappy teams for more than half a
decade. The Nuggets were blessed to play these bums at home, because I still
think the Nuggets are lacking. I get the feeling Ty Lawson is comfortable. I
like Faried. He's like a more athletic Reggie Evans, but he's not a starter.
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