NBA Free Agency- Who Could End Up Where?

With free agency looming I thought now would be a good time to think about who could potentially end up at new destinations this off season. The 09 off season (now) and the 2010 off season are going to have the most significance for the future of the league, more so than ever. so here are my predictions of where the top free agency candidates are going.

Jason Kidd: As a mavs fan personally, i’d love for him to resign. However the fact is, how much and for how long? Kidd has stated that he can play at a high level for three more years, so perhaps a deal of that length is what he will be hoping for. This past season Kidd averaged 9.0 ppg, 8.7 apg, 2.0 steals and 6.1 rebounds. More surprisingly however, he shot 40.6% from 3 pt land making him a top spot up shooter on the mavs roster.  He also recorded three triple doubles which behind Chris Paul and Lebron made him the leader.Rumours have stated that potential suitors for Kidd could include Boston, Cleveland and even the defending champs LA, my prediction is that he is resigned by Dallas for two to three years at around 7 mil$ per. As you can see by his production last season, he is still a triple double threat and has basketball IQ that can never diminish with age.

Prediction: Dallas

Hedo Turkoglu: After a Most improved Player of the year award in the 07/08 season, Hedo really came on this year averaging 16.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 4.9 apg. although this is a slight downtrend on his MIP winning year, the fact is that this guy is a legit 6′10 in height and has the handles of a point guard. Besides himself and Lamar Odom, I doubt anyone that height can measure up in terms of the ball handling skill these two have. there are many times during the clutch time situations in a game where he would be handling the ball, and there are several times he was counted on to take that final shot. In terms of suitors for Hedo, Orlando traded for Vince Carter as protection in case he opted out of his deal, which has now done. I can see why, he knows he is worth more and at this point (coming off a MIP year and a finals apperance) knows he can land a bigger contract to match his recent success. Who can offer him the kind of money he desires? Unfortunately not a lot of teams have overwhelming cap room. But the Trailblazers have been gaining significance in the rumours leading up to this deadline. If anytime has a chance right now, it is them.

Prediction: Portland

Mike Bibby: Bibby is one of those guys I always thought should have been an all star at one point or another in his career. However that didn’t happen and although he was a part of that amazing Sacramento team back in the day, since then he hasn’t really done as much as we’d expected him to. Coming off a year of 15/5/3.5 there is no doubt he will gain interest in the free agency market. But we know one things for sure and that will not be Atlanta. I believe they recently drafted a point guard and have now signed Jamal Crawford, who could potentially lead the point for the Hawks. Teams that could use his services is an interesting topic. I thought that Detroit could, considering Iverson & Rasheed come of the books for them. But they are still in belief that Stuckey is their man, so then again I am not sure. If I had to take a guess, I’d say a team needing a guard will throw some money at him. I know Memphis could use a PG right now.

Prediction: Memphis? (They need a PG and I don’t think the Hawks want him)

Allen Iverson: AI can still be a dynamic scorer. It’s just that his ego may get in the way of where he lands. Not wanting to come off the bench, I have been considering that he may be ending up in Charlotte with the bobcats. I have also heard rumours suggesting this. He could slot into the starting two guard position and move Raja Bell to the 6th man role. He would be re-united with coach Larry Brown and could become the number 1 or 2 option on offense with a team that is improving every year.

Prediction: Charlotte

These are only several of many potential big names in the free agency this off season. Here is a shortened list of predictions with a short sentence explaing why I feel this way.

Rasheed Wallace: San Antonio or Orlando, wants to sign with a contender.

Antonio McDyess: Cleveland, Could provide leadership to the frontcourt alongside Shaq.

Andre Miller: As much as I’d like to say Phili, I have heard other cities named also.

Shawn Marion: His best days are behind him, and no one has the money he once demanded, needs to fit into a system that works for his game, Toronto could potentially resign.

Paul Millsap: A standout year from the big man will earn him a decent sized contract with the Thunder IMO.

Trevor Ariza & Lamar Odom: I’m guessing resiging with the Lakers, with Trevor receiving a raise in salary and Odom taking a pay cut to stay with the team.

Semester 1 has finished. What an experience

Hello all and as I have said a few times before, I sometimes completely forget this blog exists. I’m sorry! But when there’s so much work in terms if university, stressing over exams etc, things tend to get overlooked. Especially something small like an online blog.

We finished exams on Thursday and hopefully they went well. Now we get a gift of a month off holiday. Very nice! =) Can’t wait to catch up on missed time on full tilt.

What has been going down since last entry?

* Officially 1/6th through my degree! psyched about that and what the future holds. I’d actually like to take this time to say a huge thank you to everyone in my class and i’m going to dedicate this part of the blog to you guys:

Jamie, Josh, Declan, Lewis, Mel P AND Mel W, Stacey, Taylor, Soana, Emma, Ashleigh C AND Ashleigh G, Matt, Louise, Seb, Jessica, Molly, Stine, Nikkita, Kathryn, Gemma, Lizzie, Chelsea, Gabby, Justine, Sophie

Thank you all for making my first semester at AUT a great one. Was a lot of fun, hard working for sure. But you all made it enjoyable. It’s not over, we’ll be in two, maybe even more classes next semester so GROUP SIX stays! Appreciate it. Twelve weeks ago we came into this thing strangers, but I gained all of you as friends and once again thank you for that.

To be honest I have no idea what semester 2 will bring, but with everyone i’ve met in the last few months, I’m sure it’ll be alot easier than the first one.

James

AUT

Ever since starting university and moving on from 13 years of school, whether it be primary, intermediate or high school, I tend to forget things exist due to the new workload and mindset university brings.

I realise that a blog is something that should be updated often so I will strive to do that to the best of my ability from now on.

On the subject of what has been happening since my last entry, which was back in January:

• I have been typing up a fiction story to be released on this blog in portions, I was really committed to this before uni started but we’ll see how that turns out. I had upwards of 6000 words and barely anything had happened in terms of the story so its good to know theres some development there. Its title as of now is “SM Journey” but thats just what i thought of in 5 mins so it could easily be better.
• I made some new video game purchases, no doubt the best of these has been Killer7. Oh my god. What a unique experience. If you are over 18 and sick of seeing the same of games then pick this up immediately. Drastically different in both story and control scheme, Killer7 offers a thought-provoking puzzle / first person shooter that sees you take control of 7 different characters simply know as the Killer7 doing a number of missions throughout the game. I just beat Cloudman which was quite cool. Cam Clarke as Ulmeyda was just so bizarre but so awesome at the same time. I’d only ever heard him as Liquid Snake from metal gear so to see him show some range with this character was nice to see. Other games ive picked up have been Onimusha 3, Worms Armageddon and Metal Gear Solid 1. I’m sorta going through this old school phase right now but with the lacklustre games coming out these day, why not play what reminds you of the fun times? I’d honestly take RE2 over RE5 right now.
• Speaking of RE5, I have yet to play it and probably wont until holidays next week. I am a little concerned it wont be as scary as id like it to be. The demo was full of action, which is not really what im looking for…I could go pick up Red Faction Guerilla and get action for that. I enjoy RE for its scary, atmospheric danger and thrill. This new outdoors setting has its ups and downs, personally i pray its as good as they say, but as a more old school gamer as you have read, I’m internally concerned that I’m going to be let down.
• I started university since the last blog entry. Its been one heck of a 5 weeks, totally different experience to what im used to but im enjoying it.
• The Dallas Mavericks are 45-31 and are looking like missing 50 wins for the first time this decade. Really disappointing but with the roster they have im not surprised. You look at their starters and may say “well ok, they have two future hall of famers in Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. Terry and Howard are great scorers.” but when you look beyond them, the mavs have nothing of substance except Brandon Bass who is a nice hustler off the bench. Dampier is ok but hes way overpaid. I hope the mavericks can pick up 7th seed at worst so we avoid the lakers first round sweep that many fans are fearing. For this team to go deep Kidd is gona have to discover some old form and Dirk is going to have to be Dirk, a consistent 25ppg 9rpg that can carry an offense.
• The Warriors have started a new campaign and have started with a 2-1 record. I like what they are doing but injuries could see this season go downhill before it goes up. I understand that we have 6 injury concerns right now, get these fixed and we can contend for sure.

I need to get back to uni essay on ethics but i’ll be back for sure later on for more blog action.

James

Passing NCEA and the replay of the classics

Hello there, James here with another installment of the de1uxeb1og haha.

I recently got the NCEA results in the mail, if you are not aware, which I assume it is many, its the school results from last year, I did well and I am off to university which is nice.

On the games front, I have not purchased a new rpg like I said I would in my last entry, this is mainly due to the fact that my ps2 actually broke! It stopped reading any kind of ps2 game which has put a halt to my Final Fantasy X play through. I got up to Lady Yunalesca on about 28 hours played, will have to wait untill I can further my progress. In terms of new rpgs to purchase, Kingdom Hearts 2 is up here, mainly because I have yet to play it, 2 and half years after its release. Suikoden IV is another one because I had a decent save about 12 hours deep and couldnt go further due to my rental time being over.

In the meantime I started playing some of my more older games, they were totally fun! I spent 2 hours yesterday playing Resident Evil 2 ClaireA scenario…only to realise how tricky it is! I ran out of ammo so fast, I find myself defenseless except a knife the majority of the time now. It also doesnt help that a Knife in RE2 is incredibly weak.

Speaking of RE, I cannot wait untill March, Resi Evil 5 will be totally off the hook I hope. Its been in development for some time and I pray its as good as people have heard.

To end this entry I would like to touch on some Sport, mainly the NBA and Cricket. Dallas Mavericks are 23-16 I believe and need to make things happen, against above 500 teams we just struggle, some more wins would be appreciated lol.

The black caps play 5 ODI’s versus Australia very soon, cannot wait for that and also the home series against India should be awesome as well.

Thats all for now.

–James–

Seeking an RPG & Happy Holidays!

Well hello all, James here with another addition to the blog. Looking through my game collection recently I found the need to purchase a new RPG game to play. The ones I have id beaten or had clocked at least 3/4 of the game in. Its time for a change.

It has been a great 5 years playing these games, off the top of my head, the games ive beaten during this time are:

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Kingdom Hearts
Star Ocean: Til The End of Time
& have made progress on numerous others.

I did notice I have saves from suikoden IV and Final Fantasy 12, but untill I can find an affordable copy of S4 and FF12 becomes interesting again I will look for something else.

My search has taken me to the various game stores in my area and I came across one named Rogue Galaxy which looks good. Its a playstation 2 rpg but offers a good space futuristic rpg which I love. (Playing through Star Ocean 3 the first time is an experience i’ll never forget).

I have read some reviews and the game has a 7 day back guarantee so I should probably go for it. I do miss the old days of PS1 and PS2 when you could walk into any store and find numerous copies of Breath of Fire, Star Ocean and Castlevania on the shelves. These days are unfortunately gone and their prices have jumped hugely because of this increase in rarity.

The PS3 system has an incredibly low amount of RPG games on its system, Fallout 3 is borderline enough as it is and I’m patiently holding out for Final Fantasy 13 which should hit in 09…hopefully.

This game hunt has been interesting hopefully it yields a good game that is worth the money.

On another note, I hope everyone out there had a wonderful and merry holiday season, Its a great time of year and I always enjoy the time spent with family and friends.

During the last blog I have finished two anime series, one named L/R: Licensed by Royalty which focuses on the Queens special spy unit Cloud7 who handle the crowns top missions, took 3-4 episodes to get into but by the end I was hooked, a short but sweet series (13 epsiodes) that could really surprise you. I felt I got great value for money for only 25 dollars.

The second is Orphen, ive played the ps2 rpg of the same name and am up to the last boss. Terrific series that focuseson the backsory of Orphen and the mentor Azale who he looks up to.

Both were nice series and really liked the bargain I got them for and the content which they both provided.

Long time between blogs….sorry! haha

Hello all, origina1, aka James here with another blog. Yeah I know its been 4 months since my last entry and I am really mad at myself for that. The thing with blogs is that you have to make it consistant, I suppose its like a podcast in a way, consistancy is the key and thats what I am going to do.

Alot has happened since the last blog, just to name a few:

• Finally got my learners drivers license, even though im like a year behind  everyone else I aced the test 35/35 so that was good
• Had my first school ball, which was a blast
• Got accepted into two universities and had a tough time deciding the right one
• NCEA exams….*shudders*

• Had my last day ever of high school, was pretty surreal but everyone can now go out into the world and do what they have a passion for, I wish everyone the best of luck and I know i’ll see all of them again in one way or another.

meanwhile my love for sport hasnt diminished. The NBA season is up and running and in one of my earlier blogs I predicted the clippers may have a decent season, how wrong I was! 2-13 start and going no where fast. The black caps have gotten underway with their test series vs Australia, they lost the first test by 150-odd runs but this time they look like a better batting side. The NZ Breakers are having a team high season, in the top 2 teams of the NBL.

To end on a good note I finally broke through on full tilt poker, with a final table finish 4th out of 566! What made it even sweeter was that it was my birthday and playing at a final table with hundreds of dollars on the line was sweet as. Cashed out for $248 for a well earned 4th place. Made a decent go of the inugural double deuce on full tilt also, finishing 300 out of the money but it was a solid effort for 3 hours. Am hoping for some more success but I’m loving the way its going right now.

–James–

The Main Event is over……for now.

The WSOP Main Event attracted a little over 6800 players this year, each putting up the 10,000 dollar buy in to play in the best tournament in my opinion, in the world. It took four day 1s just to get the field small enough so they could all play in the same room and then several more days just to get it down to 90 players.

Once it got down to 27 they called it a day and then the marathon day 7 begun. It took FOREVER to get from 27 to 9 players. The added incentive of the huge money was planted in each players mind, 18 tried and failed to make it, however to the 9 that have, they are each guaranteed 900,000 dollars even if they finish 9th.

Heres where I have a problem with this. The new thing they are trying this year makes it so that once the final table of 9 has been reached. The main event will end for now and come back in November where the Final Table can be broadcast in a better way. I do not like this one bit and I have several reasons why.

* Previous main event bracelets now mean more to me than this one. They had to endure 12 hour final tables just days after the previous. Now with players getting four months to rest, they can come back as fresh as possible. It doesnt make it the same. The feeling of the main event being about stamina as a player is now gone. They will come back in November yes, but at what cost? I really hope the main event does not suffer because of this move but I fear that it may.

* Each player now has 4 months to scout out the competition. This is so crucial now in final table play but it means that all previous main event final tables have not had this luxury. I believe because of these reasons this main event cannot be treated the same as lets say Joe Hachems win in 05 or Jamie Golds win in 06 because they did not get the time to rest and to gather intel on the 8 other players.

I hear the WSOP is doing it to increase revenue. It just means the players get taken advantage of again and again. Harrahs already took 13 million in rake for this world series, isnt that enough? Clearly. It isnt. Many pros are less than happy about this move.

What I find worse is that the final heads up battle will start the next day! Yeah just go and take all the buzz and excitement out of the room, kill the final table feel and do it for more broadcasting and money sponsorships. Wonderful …/sarcasm.

I guess once November rolls around we will see the end of the main event and see the success or failure this move brings. I look foward to the final table but wish it could have been done the old way, as do many.

–James–

Yes! No! Yes again!?

The above statement has really summed up the LA Clippers this past week or two, they acquired Baron Davis. Then lost Brand and Maggette. Well if this article is true, they may have just rebounded.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3491156

This article states that Denver Star Marcus Camby was traded to the LA Clippers today for a 2nd round pick. I am stunned and surprised. But the nuggets needed cap room and the Clippers needed to fill the void that Brand had left.

Clippers looked ordinary but this could have changed their fortunes. I expect this to be official shortly, we will see what develops.

–James–

Olympics Basketball Preview

With the Olympics under a month away alot of attention has been brought to Basketball competition and with the increase in skill level from many international teams, this is no longer a one horse race (United States).

At the FIBA Tournament in 06 and to a lesser extent Athens 04 USA Basketball was exposed, with the increase in star players not from the US, It has made each country more competitive and this has made the sport of basketball much better in the long run.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised when in FIBA 06 the final was Spain vs Greece. I liked this, it showed what other countries could do and made Gasol a bigger star than he already was when he was named MVP.

Could this time be the same?

When you look at team USA I like the look of them alot. When looking back at these past tournaments you have to take into account that they DID NOT have Kobe Bryant. This could be a big factor is what happens in Beijing. While Team USA gets better I’m sure alot of other countries improved also. Example being Germany who gains Dirk Nowitzki but also Chris Kaman in the center position as he recently gained German citizenship.

I’d be interested in seeing what others have to say about Beijing 08 in terms of Mens Basketball. I think this could be one of the more closely contested Medal races in quite some time.

Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams

Hard to bet against this lineup but who knows what can happen next month.

8/8/08 it begins.

–James–

Cowboy Bebop Appreciation

In 2003 I was incredibly pumped up about Wrestlemania XIX (19) and it was only my 3rd PPV I had ever booked on skys box office service. It also happened to be the same day as Armageddon Expo 2003 in aucklands Aotea Centre. Even now when I look back this is one of the most favourite days ive ever had. It was April 12th 2003 and I got up very early to line up for Armageddon, we eventaully got in and had a blast. Its an expo once a year for 3 days where animation guests, sci fi guests, guests from star wars, star trek etc come to meet fans. I really appreciate the work they do to put on a quality show each year.

I got into town at like 7 am and didint leave til 4pm, 8pm that night was the 4 hour Wrestlemania 19, one of the best WM shows ever rated by many fans, was totally enjoyable.

I was still feeling the exciting buzz from wrestlemania, this was at like 12:30am. I tuned into Cartoon Network and went to check out the lineup, It was the AS (Adult Swim) hour with cartoons targeted at Teens and adults. One show in particular caught my eye and I later found out it was named Cowboy Bebop.

It was a really good anime, I’m not sure what hooked me in at first, but I liked the story of bounty hunters scanning the galaxy for their next cash, and their adventures were very funny at times.

I tried to watch as many episodes as I could, whats great about them is that except for 6 or 7 of these episodes they dont connect together much, which means you could watch 5 different ones and not be out of the loop story wise. After a while I knew this was the anime I had to watch. By Christmas I had most of the box set complete and was completely into it. I truly believe this is what caused my love of Jazz music and good anime.

I later found out it was one of the top 5 animes ever made as rated by one of the top anime publishers Newtype USA. It came in at number 2 behind Neon Genesis.

About a year and a half later the movie came out on DVD and I had completed the box set, I fully recommend this series if you are considering getting into anime at all.

After I had become hooked on the series I was super excited for Armageddon 06, where I learned that Steve Blum, the voice of main character Spike would be here, meeting him was highlight of the weekend for me. I also met another woman there, Jennifer Hale. I did not know this at the time but she was the voice of Naomi from Metal Gear Solid, was so glad to meet both of them. To see even how far Jennifer has come since then made me really glad to meet her, she along with Steve were so nice and it really made my day to see them.

It made me think in a way that it all came full circle. I started watching Bebop that day after Armageddon 03 and there I was at Armageddon 06 meeting one of my favourite Voice Actors who was the main character of Bebop.

I wanted to show my appreciation for this series because it was the first anime I watched all the way through and I loved every minute of it. If I didn’t see it on CN 5 years ago maybe things would have been different, I’m glad it turned out like this.

–James–