I’M CATMAN.
Compilation video of clips I got from shooting The Band of Heathens at Gruene, Texas. December 30, 2011
Took some shots that Hammonds and I got from dunking on a lowered basketball goal and made them into a short, cheesy trailer. iMovie makes it so easy to edit it together with their “trailers” themes. I had to do nothing but the end result was pretty nice and hilarious. Enjoy.
2011-2012 NBA Predictions
Before season predictions of Division Winners, Player Awards, Western and Eastern Champions, NBA Champions.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic
1. New York
2. Boston
3. Philadelphia
4. New Jersey
5. Toronto
Central
1. Chicago
2. Indiana
3. Milwaukee
4. Cleveland
5. Detroit
Southeast
1. Miami
2. Atlanta
3. Orlando
4. Washington
5. Charlotte
Western Conference
Northwest
1. Oklahoma City
2. Denver
3. Portland
4. Minnesota
5. Utah
Pacific
1. L.A. Clippers
2. L.A. Lakers
3. Sacramento
4. Phoenix
5. Golden State
Southwest
1. San Antonio
2. Dallas
3. Memphis
4. Houston
5. New Orleans
MVP- Kevin Durant
DPOY- Lebron James
Rookie- Derrick Williams
Sixth Man- Lamar Odom
Most Improved- Serge Ibaka
Coach of the Year- Scott Brooks
Western Conference Champion
Oklahoma City Thunder
Eastern Conference Champion
Miami Heat
NBA Champion
Miami Heat
Notes:
-Say what you will about Mike D’Antoni but I still believe he’s the master of offense, and I think he has a great offense to work with in attaining the number one record in the Eastern Conference.
-I believe Indiana will compete nicely in the Eastern Conference, with the addition of David West, George Hill, and a rising young player in Paul George, this team will finally be playoff ready. A competitive one at that, too.
-I don’t quite know what to make of Orlando. The big question of course is whether Dwight stays there or not. I wanted to drop them based on the fact that he probably will be gone, but the fact that he might be there still makes them a strong team no matter what. Dwight won’t be a distraction off the court, plus I could see SVG adjusting his game plan more around Dwight just to satisfy him.
-OKC in my opinion will dominate teams like they never had before. They have two guys who should step their game up even more in Harden and Ibaka. Throw in the motivated Kendrick Perkins, (who should stay healthy with the weight loss) and you have a team that not only will score on you, but stop you on the defensive end as well. Scary team.
-I may be crazy to think the Clippers will have the edge over the Lakers for the first time ever, but realistically I look at the Lakers bench and wonder where they will get help from. This team is aging in the starting group, and they will need a lot of the bench to step in and produce. I just don’t see it happening for them.
-It’s not an overly biased opinion, (it might be) but I believe the Spurs will reign again in the Southwest division. Mainly due to the fact they have the same roster last year, who were supposed to be aging and old, yet they got plenty of help from the role players. More solid players off the bench help this team defensively, offensively, and allow for fresh legs for the old guys. Bigs or no bigs, they have a more stable roster than Dallas and Memphis right now.
-I expect a drop for Memphis, mainly due to the fact they have Rudy Gay back. Sounds odd but they looked better in the second half of the season than they did the first half. Lionel Hollins will have his work cut out for him if he decides he wants to make Rudy his go-to guy again. Z-Bo won’t be happy without the ball, everyone should know that by now. Rudy is your franchise player though, so he should be the first option on offense. It all sounds iffy to me on how this team approaches chemistry, and can’t forget Battier is gone, and that Darrell Arthur is out for the season. I see a significant drop with this team.
-Miami and Oklahoma seems like a unanimous choice for the finals, but it’s realistic I think. Miami isn’t playing in a tough conference; I still think they match up very well with the Bulls; they have an established team defensively, (Battier adds a lot defensively as well) and won’t have many chemistry issues they had last season. Oklahoma has the best looking roster in my opinion; a reigning scoring champion and humble leader in Kevin Durant; rising young players who should hit their peak in James Harden and Serge Ibaka; most importantly, a true, defensive identity. I barely picked the Heat to win in 7 games against the Thunder in the finals. It should be a great match-up, but I see the Heat’s experience being the main factor in the finals. Oklahoma City will take another valiant step towards greatness, it’s only a matter of time before they have their own victory parade.
Got to meet Tiago Splitter after the game tonight. Nice dude. Played a little sloppy tonight but he’s still getting better as he plays.
I want to know what warrants a technical foul for Blake Griffin. I know it’s only a pre-season game but I didn’t see Blake hollering and flexing his muscles like some guys do after an average dunk. Blake has had some terrific dunks in which he didn’t show any kind of emotion, just turned around and ran the other way. Kind of like what he was doing here. A lot of momentum on that dunk that he can’t just let go of the rim right away. He regained himself to where he could land safely back on the court. I would hate if the NBA started T’ing Blake just for being such an awesome dunker.
A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.
“
| — | Proverbs 24:3-4 |
Silver vs. Black Scrimmage
Got to catch my first glimpse of the Spurs as they held a scrimmage at the AT&T Center that was free to the public. Matt Bonner was the first to address the crowd and introduce the starting lineups and bench for each team. The guys suited up in black uniforms were the starting lineup from last season, which included Dejuan Blair playing the five, or four, depending on how you look at it. Off the bench for them was the 6’11” center from Notre Dame Luke Zeller, 6’9” forward out of Georgia Tech Gani Lawal, and the rookie out of Texas Corey Joseph. On the silver squad it featured second year man Tiago Splitter, the long bomber Matt Bonner, the much anticipated rookie out of San Diego State Kawhi Leonard, second year man James Anderson, and the newly acquired veteran point guard T.J. Ford. Off the very light bench for the silver squad was the 6’9” forward from Old Dominion Frank Hassell, and second year wing Danny Green. Shooting guard Gary Neal didn’t suit up as he is still recovering from a recent appendectomy surgery.
The scrimmage began with a lot of offense on both sides and not many stops from either defense. I was impressed with how sharp the starting squad looked. They didn’t seem to take it easy at all from the beginning as they jumped out to a quick lead on the silver squad. Much of the sharpness from both teams did wither away as the game went on, as guys started to tire quite a bit. Matt Bonner sank a lot of three’s, including the dagger in an overtime thriller of a scrimmage game.. From what I remember he was the leading scorer for the silver squad as he didn’t seem to miss much of anything he let fly. For the black squad, Tim Duncan had a ho-hum 20-10 game but not surprising when you realize who was guarding him.
I think I focused more on what the rooks could bring to the table as I knew what to expect from the regulars on the team. From watching Kawhi Leonard he looked like he still could use some learning since he is after all a rookie. Nothing worrisome from his game. I did notice he isn’t shy with the ball when it comes to shooting or taking it to the basket. His court awareness skills could definitely use some fine tuning. Other than that he has a nice looking jumper and would sink the majority of set shots he had (which is good in a Spurs offense where he’ll get many open shots). Kawhi did gamble a lot on defense going for steals but I think the Spurs will realize that’s what he is going to bring to the court. It’s kind of like living with Manu’s turnovers because you know he’ll make great things happen on the court the majority of time.
James Anderson was very impressive on the court and looked like the James Anderson we saw at the beginning of last season before he got injured. Only now he’s a lot more confident and didn’t show any signs of looking like a rookie. Overall a well-rounded game by him in which he made all the right plays and defended like the mofo he is. Other second year man Tiago Splitter still didn’t show much that we didn’t see last year. He took some bad shots around the post and missed a gimme tip in, and that doesn’t include him getting dunked on by Tim Duncan and rookie Geni Lawal. Tiago still has time to get better but so far I see nothing but a big man to just fill the paint and nothing else.
The guy filling the shoes for ex-backup point guard George Hill looked a little questionable. I give credit to T.J. Ford for coming in here and looking like a decent veteran point guard, but could have lived without the many times he held on to the ball a little too long and either forced a bad shot or ran into three guys and turned the ball over. I’m not going to fret on Ford though, the Spurs brought him in cheap to fill the role of backup point guard so Manu and/or Gary Neal wouldn’t have to. Plus, T.J. will provide some offense when we need it, and is still veteran savvy, so I wouldn’t worry too much about what he won’t do for the Spurs. Third string point guard Corey Joseph didn’t show much in tonight’s scrimmage but he also wasn’t blatantly bad in any way (which is always a positive for any first year man).
I’m definitely excited to see what this team will bring to the court this season. I wouldn’t bet on them winning the title or anything but they will definitely be in the playoffs as a decent contender. I don’t see the big three in Tim, Tony, and Manu declining dramatically this season. The bench consists of a lot of young role players who I think will make a positive impact on the team and keep the veterans fresh with all the back-to-backs. The big worry is of course the front court in which the Spurs need help in the bigs department. Fact of the matter is, there aren’t a lot of good bigs out there and they will continue to roll with what they have until an opportunity presents itself. Until that day this team’s biggest weakness will be the interior defense, but who knows, maybe the newly acquired Kawhi Leonard and second year wing James Anderson provide enough defense outside the paint that our bigs won’t be relied upon as much to protect the rim. With Tim, Tony, Manu and a good supporting cast this team could still surprise a lot of people.
