In all honesty, I do not understand the reasoning behind the whole NBA Outdoors! game played between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets in Indian Wells, California. I mean, sure, it’s nice to say that they played the game outdoors, but I didn’t really see the big deal. You could barely tell that they were outdoors because they played in a tennis arena, which is basically a regular basketball arena without the roof. It definitely would’ve been more exciting if it was a street ball game in a random park somewhere, but they played on parquet for crying out loud. The players were obviously affected by the cold and windy weather, which was evident by their poor shooting. The only thing that I got from the game is that Indian Wells is minutes away from Palm Springs and is prime desert living. I’m sure the exhibition game was good for the city of Indian Wells, but…other than that…I didn’t see the point.
Notes from the game:
*The Suns new system looks horrible. Obviously, it’s only the preseason and Phoenix has all season to learn the new offense, but they simply weren’t fooling anyone. Coach Terry Porter made it seem like he merely wanted to add a defensive mindset to an already stellar offense, but it appears that his true intentions are to turn the Suns into more of a traditional basketball team. Very disconcerting.
*JR Smith needs his own team. It’s hard to show what you’re made of as the third option on a team with no decent point guard, and Smith looks like he’s being held back. He should at least get the chance to be a second option somewhere like a Charlotte or an Oklahoma City.
*What the heck were the Knicks thinking when they gave up Ronaldo Balkman? I realize they needed to cut salary, but they lost a guy with tremendous energy and absolutely no quit. Aren’t those the guys you want on your team? I’d say Balkman is an upgrade from Eduardo Najera.
Other than that, it was hard to take anything concrete away from the game because of the weather; it was cold, windy, and was really one of the worst offensive games by either teams that I’ve ever seen. They might as well have played on 12 foot rims. This game probably put money in a lot of people’s pockets, but it did nothing to advance the game of basketball. If anyone thought it was great, I’d love to hear why.
What did you think about Shaq’s fitness? I thought he would have come back this year in shape but he looked kind of flabby to me. however, Robin Lopez looks like a beast in the paint and he’s only a rookie. I saw him get 2 blocks within the first minute of play and they were both nasty. he put the blue light special on K-Mart!