Ten Things About the NBA: The Week Eight Edition

1). For those of you who dislike Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James you have a good reason to LOVE Milwaukee Bucks rookie Malcom Brogdon.

And special fans of Kyrie Irving will also be very happy with Brogdon

2). Phoenix Suns SG Devin Booker demonstrates he’s more than just a shooter

3). Under the present NBA schedule resting players makes sense. Memphis Flyer reporter Kevin Lipe and I host a weekly show and we spent most of our allotted time discussing how to stop it on this edition of Beyond the Arc.

4). I’ve been watching NBA Basketball for over 45 years and thought I had seen it all; Tuesday night I saw Sacramento Kings Center Boogie Cousins get ejected from his game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Okay, that happens quite often but what I can’t remember ever seeing is referees overturn a technical foul and allowing the player to return to the game. Cousins came back, wound up scoring 55 points and the Trail Blazers got beat again. You will enjoy watching this unfold.

5). Former NBA coach George Karl has a book coming out and “Furious George” should be a doozy. I haven’t been lucky enough to receive an advanced copy but from what I gather it isn’t very flattering to former players Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin. You can bet I’ll be picking this book up when it hits the shelves sometime after Christmas.

Kenyon Martin took to Twitter and he seems to be less than thrilled with the observations of his former coach

6). This past week TNT Sideline Reporter Craig Sager passed away. I will miss these interviews.

7). Derrick Rose shows a little of what made him the 2011 NBA MVP

8). I asked Kris this week if he thought the fans missed Al Horford…..we also talked about plenty of other Hawks issues on this week’s Peachtree Hoops!

9). After their Cinderella season that saw them reach the Western Conference Semi- Finals last season the Portland Trail Blazers are off to a slow start. Folks have been trying to figure out why.

Here. I will help.

As dynamic a scoring tandem Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are they don’t play defense. It isn’t because they don’t try either; they are both too darn small to handle the bigger more athletic guards of today’s NBA. Guards shoot over them and post them up with relative ease.

It isn’t just them either; in fact the Trail Blazers have only two players even willing to play defense night in and night out; Al Farouq Aminu and Mason Plumlee are the only two Trail Blazers with a positive Defense Box Plus/Minus. What’s left of the Trail Blazers squad range from putrid to pathetic. They really are that awful.

So how do they fix this mess?

The obvious answer would be to choose which one of your backcourt chucker’s you want to lead your team and trade the other one. Beg someone to take the contract of Allen Crabbe off your hands and find someone who actually wants to do more than just shoot. I would start there and rebuild the roster that way.

You’re welcome.

10). Kevin Durant auditioning for the Grinch who Stole Brooklyn