Jamz of the Week

This is my site after all and i wanted to not just make it all about sports now. After talking with some members of The Nation we decided that adding a Jamz section would be "fresh" so here is the inaugural Jamz of the Week

1. Akon Feat Lil Wayne- Im so paid
2. T.I. Feat Justin Timberlake- Dead and Gone
3. T.I. Feat John Legend- Slide Show
4. Ludacris Feat T-Pain- One More Drink
5.T-Pain Feat Chris Brown- Freeze

NBA Preview: Heat

Recap: There have been worse teams than the 07 Heat but none of them had two hall of famers on their team. The Heat went 15-67, just one year removed from the playoffs and two years removed from a championship. To say this team crashed faster than the stock market may be an understatement. D. Wade and Shaq were a big part of this disaster, Wade tired to come back from off-season shoulder surgery but it was clear from the get go that he was not 100%. Wade never had the same explosion that he had from years previous and by mid season he was done. One thing i can say for Wade is that at least he tried out there, the same cannot be said for Shaq. The Big Diesel limped through the first have of the season with his usual mentailty of im saving myself for the playoffs. Problem with that was there was not going to be any playoffs and Shaq was aware of this, so he packed it in, Manny Ramirez style and got traded to phoenix where suddenly he showed some life. Luckily for the heat they got a steal and got Shawn Marion in the deal. Shaq and Wade were not the only problems for the Heat though. Miami mortgaged away their future in order to win a championship, and well that bill came due last year. Jay Williams and Zo both broke down, and so when that happen the Heat turned to Ricky Davis, and Penny Hardaway to fix the bleeding, but neither helped.The only positive last season had was that they realized that they sucked so they began to tank it, and boy o boy did that pay off because they ended getting Michael Beasley who will come in and have an immediate impact.

Strength: Speed. This may be the new Suns, really. Your probably laughing but I'm dead serious no bullshit. The Heat picked up Shaun Livingston who if can stay healthy solves their point guard issue, i mean the kid is a potential stud still. Then you have Wade, If and i mean IF we see the Wade of the Olympics than i hereby put the rest of the league on notice to watch out. Wade when healthy can penetrate the lane as good as anyone. Then we have the matrix and Beasley, both are young, fast, and agile. Marion can slice and dice as well as shoot and rebound, Beasley is going to give you 17ppg and get around 7boards. With this type of team there is no reason that they cant score 100 points a game.

Weakness: Inside Scoring. This is obvioius. There 4 is Beasley and there 5 is Haslem. Beasley is going to be good, really good but he is a rookie and is going to have games when you just wont be able to rely on him, which takes us to Haslem. Haslem is well..., special yea special is the word im looking for. I mean the guy is not going on there and getting you 15-20 points a night, i mean just look at the guy he looks like predator with a touch of down syndrome. With that said the guy tries so i cant totally shit on him but hes undersized to be the teams center.

Outlook: I think i am the only person who truly believes in this team to the point that if they are fully healthy they can make a run at the Celtics and be in the Conference championship. All of the following have to occur for my prediction to come true. 1. Shaun Livingston can make it through an entire season an play like the lottery pick he was, he has so much raw talent its not even funny, when ever you tell me your staring point guard is only 1 inch smaller than your small forward and 2 inches smaller than your power forward im gonna tell you that you have a pretty dam good player. 2. IF Dwayne Wade can make it through the year. Wade was without a doubt the best player on the court every game during the Olympics, yes better than Kobe, and LeBrick, and it wasn't even close friends. If Wade stays healthy he will be in the MVP talks and will carry the team a long ways and deep into the playoffs. 3. Can Beasley live up to the hype. I think he can. Beside O.J. Mayo Michael Beasley was the next college player ready for the NBA. Now he wont average 26 ppg like he did at K-State but that doesn't mean that he wont get his numbers. I see Beasley being this years Kevin Durant, coming in getting 17 and 7 a night, and if the the Heat get that then mark my words this is a team that will contend for one of the top spots in the East. With all this said i truly believe all this will happen, i understand they have a rookie head coach that no one has ever heard of that's ok because he will relate good with this young team. Let me be the first to say that the Heat will be there, where is there you may ask ill tell you. There gonna be in the Garden for game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Prediction : 48-34

NBA Preview: Bulls

Recap: So i think its safe to say that everyone had the bulls a tad over rated going into 07. Rightfully so tho, the team was coming off a 49 win season and a 2nd round playoff appearance, hell some people thought they could win the east. Those hopes came crashing down faster than you Bulls fan can say Marcus Fizer. They crawled out of the gate going 2-10, with two 30 point losses. The bulls started out so bad that after 25 games they fired Scott Skiles who was considered to be one of the safer coaches heading into the year. It was clear that the team didnt buy into Skiles is do what i say or ill kill type of coaching style, so after a 9-16 mark assistant Jim Boylan stepped in. The problem is the bulls really didnt play for him either, they never were even within 6 games of .500 and finshed the season with 33 wins. Heres the puzzling thing, the team was healthy for the whole season, Luol Deng was the only player to miss time (19 games) but that should not have been a problem with the amount of depth they had. I feel that all the trade rumors of Kobe heading there got inside the heads of a few players ( Gordon, Deng). I also feel that a lack of team chemistry had something to do with the fall of the Bulls. Or maybe its just that this team is not that good. Henrich and Gordon exceeded expectations in 06 by a wide margin, but both came back done to earth last year. It also didnt help that Ben Wallace forgot how to play basketball, i mean the guy coming in was offensively challanged but the one thing he had was he d, well that along with his head band appears to still be in Detroit. The achilles heal of the bulls was there shooting, they ranked dead last in 2pt field goal % and overall field goal %. If you cant put the ball in the basket your probably not going to win many games. And of course the bulls being as shitty as they were the first half of the season would go out and make a major deal. Honestly i wonder what goes threw a gm mind when they make the deals they do. Did John Paxton really think that Larry Hughes, and Drew Gooden were really gonna bring the bulls back from the basement of the jv league. This was the same guy that when asked about trading for Kobe or KG would dam near punch you in the face, so when the guy finally does make a move its for these two jackass and a couple other cleveland leftovers. Ask LeBrick James what he thinks about Hughes and Gooden and if you can win with them. And just when you thought hey the season is over its the offseason all is gonna be ok, John Paxson the jackass that he is goes out and signs the scrub of all scrubs Vinny Del Negro. Del Negro has no coaching experience what so ever, i mean i wouldnt trust this guy to coach a Boys and Girls youth basketball team.

Strength: Depth. The bulls have so much depth that they could create there own european division of bulls backup players. Each position has a backup that could start on most other teams. PG- Henrich and Rose, SF- Deng and Nocioni, SG- Hughes, Gordon, and Sefolosha, at PF they are undersized with Thomas and Gooden, and at C they again are undersized with Noah and Grey. IF Paxton was smart he would trade away a couple of these guys and get a true 4 or 5 so they dont get completely out rebounded every night.

Weakness: Inside Scoring. If i was a bulls fan i would be searching for Luc Longly right now cause i think he may be better than the guys they have right now in the paint. Thomas is undersized and raw, Gooden has never lived up to the potential he showed while at Kansas, Noah is more of a Hype man than anything, he comes in energizes the team but to say he is a threat in the paint is like saying Ricard Collier is gonna beat Usian Bolt in a race. Now had the bulls had a coach like D'Antoni i would be saying the bulls are a threat because they cane run, but instead they are going to be a boring half court offense that will get out reounded every night and fail to put up alot of points in the paint. Which brings us to the Rose Beasley debate, and who they needed more. I think Beasley becasue he would have provided inside scoring yes he is under sized bt he has a killers mentatily and you already have good gaurds.

Outlook: The bulls are loaded with young talent but young talent doesnt translate to wins, see the 05-06 Celtics. The bulls also take Hughes off the books after this year so the future is bright in Chicago, very bright. But in 08-09 i feel the bulls will struggle, Despite the praise my friend Drew gives D. Rose and how he is a hybrid of CP3 and Derron Williams i dont see it. It generally takes pg a full season to get use to the speed of the league, and it may take Rose longer becasue it took him half a season at college to get going. Rose will be good just not that good. The other problem the bulls face is again there big men suck. They are not gonna move anyone out of the way nor will they get boards which spells trouble. Now of course there are wild cards here, if Del Negro can actually coach the bulls could be a little better than expected, also if Rose comes out and proves me wrong and drops say 14-15 ppg and 6 ass they could make the playoffs. With that said i see the bulls missing the playoffs but man this is a team that could be real scary in a year or 2

Prediction: 35-47

Kimbo I Just Got Sliced

For a while now i have been saying that Kimbo Slice is so overrated its not even funny. If this guy was so good then UFC would have picked him. Kimbo built up his legendary status by beating up a bunch of retards in backyards an allyes, posted them on youtube and people all around the world said and i quote "Kimbo is a beast". Well Kimbo is not a beast, far from. It took 14 seconds by a guy who had pink hair and had not fought in 2 years to beat this baboon. Kimbo had 2 inches and 30 pounds on his opponent Seth Petruzelli. Hopefully this is the end of the road for Kimbo and also CBS and this fighting experiment they have going. CBS turned this joker into the baddest man on earth, he will kick anyones ass is what i often heard. Yes he will kick anyones ass, as long as they are 2-3 inches shorter than, weight 30lbs less than him, an come into the fight with some sort of visuable disability. I mean seriously the guys they threw out there were nothing short of comical i was thinking to myself who is next really? how bout a guy in a wheelchair, or maybe someone in a coma, cause surely the guys they were running out there against him were not fighters. This is how bad it was, Ken Shamrock yes Ken Shamrock the 44 year old grandpa who is 1 punch to the head away from being the next Muhammad Ali couldnt fight becasue he suffered a boo-boo on his head, so EliteXc tried to get his brother, Ken Shamrocks brother is a color commentator for CBS who hasnt fought for years, has a broken arm and gave 40lbs to Kimbo. Really now thats the best they could do, i got an idea why not take the popcorn vendor from isle 3 or how about that fat ass fan thats sitting in the front row, you know that guy that has a Stone Cold Steve Austin shirt reading 3:16 thats 2 sizes two small with beer stains all over, yea that guy go get him. So once Kimbo got his ass handed to him XliteXc scrambled to try and find a way to spin this, and they did here is what they said "This is MMA, all the best have lost". This statement is true some of the best have lost, to some of the OTHER BEST! Tito Ortiz loss to Ken Shamrock, Chuck Liddell lost to Randy Coute and vice versus, Quinton Rampage Jackson loss to Foresst Griffen and so on, and we would like to keep going the best fighter in the world pound for pound Anderson "The Spider" Silva has yet to lose in the UFC, undefeated in the 185lb and 205lb weight class. So in XliteXC eyes Kimbo could throw bows with these guys, heres the thing if Kimbo losses to a scrub like Petruzelli, what would happen when he fought a real fighter like all the fighters mentioned above, i can tell you what would happen, they would hype the fight up for months then it would be fight night Kimbo would walk into the ring the bell would ring and that would be the end of his life, plain an simple. Just a couple of years ago you could have seen this clown on the streets because he was homeless, only in America can you beat up other homeless people and get famous for it. So where does he go from here? Well he cant get back into the ring as a headline act because he sucks, and the only way he will get respect is if he beats someone better than him, and that wont happen. So i have come up with a few career paths Kimbo can take. 1. Go on dancing with the stars 2. Fight Jose Canseco, hes always looking to make money 3. Go back to the streets or 4. maybe the most sensible choice for him and everyone else, Go to New York walk to the Geroge Washington bridge, yes walk hes probably too dumb to operate a motor vechile, when he gets to the bridge JUMP!!! Hopefully for him and all of us this puts an end to his 15 seconds of fame.

NBA Preview: Knicks

Recap: The 07 knicks were a disgrace to basketball. I could have assembled a starting 5 of midgets, retards, and handicap people and been more competive than they were. It took James Dolen 2 years to realize Isiah Thomas isnt qualifed to run a Diary Queen let alone a NBA franchise. Thomas won 23 games last year with a team that had talent which is the sad part about all this. The season was lossed form the get-go but what sent it straight to the shitters was when the team was on a flight to the West Coast. On that flight Isiah got into a little argument with the leagues most overpayed player Stephon Marbury, but this is not where the season went to hell it was when he reinstated Marbury the next game that the team quit on him. The highlight of Thomas tenure with the knicks may have been his sexual harrasement case but thats a whole nother story. His big offseason pick of Zach Randolph combined with Eddy Curry was suppose to make the Knicks relevant. Well to say the least it didnt work, Randolph and Curry work about as well as R Kelly works with teenagers. Needless to say it is a bad combo. On offense Curry and Randolph had their worst numbers yet, and on defense they were an utter abomination, sticking two of the leagues laziest and slowest players in the paint allowed teams to drive to the hole without being touched. The Knicks could have stuck two card board cut outs of the players and done a hell of alot better, and would have saved a pretty pennny.

Strength: Inside scoring. When the Knicks are succusful its when they run their offense through the low posts, and yes i know i just got done shitting on Curry and Randolph but offensivly they have talent espically with D'Antoni running the offense. Just two years ago Randolph averaged 23.6 points per game so he has talent. As for Curry all he has to do is throw his fat ass around to create some room for Randolph. Then theres David Lee who is a perfect compliment to these lazy bums and fits D'Antoni's system perfectly. There is even a outside shot that Lee starts over Curry becasue he roams the weakside so well. Another guy to look at in this new run and gun offense is Quinton Richardson, who can eat up smaller guards and had his best season under D'Antoni while in PHX.

Weakness: Interior Defense. The Knicks were dead last in block shots last year, and figure to lose a good amount of games becasue they cant stop anyone from getting to the basket. In fact this year they may be more pathetic because they traded away there leading shot blocker, Balkman. You have to figure the Knicks wont pack it in for D'Antoni like they did for Thomas, with that said D'Antoni is the Mike Leach of basketball coaches, he does not believe in defense at all if he could tell his team after every offensive possension to stop at half court he would.

Outlook: There is no way in hell the Knicks are as bad as they were last season they cant be. The team will play for D'Antoni becasue they like him unlike Isiah. Certainly there are some good vibes coming from D'Antoni about this team but whenever you have Marbury and Curry on your team its safe to say that you are looking forward to being in the Lottery. Other than career backup Chris Duhon and first round pick Gallinari this is Isiah's team. The same problems Thomas faced D'Antoni will face, lazy unmotivated big men, shoot first ask questions later guards, and a bunch of overpaid smucks that fill out the bench. This season is more of whats to come for the Knicks, they will still suck you can bet on that but now there is a glimmering of light at the end of the tunnel.

Prediction: 29-53

NBA Preview: Celtics

Recap: The celtics won 66 games and this thing called a championship. Danny Aigne went out and got Ray Allen and the Big Ticket KG. These two moves along with a much improved Rajon Rondo, a re-energized Paul Pierce and a bench filled with role players who knew their role propelled The celtics to a championship an a long waited duck boat tour. The c's had the greatest one year improvement in league history, but no one really saw the domiance the celts had coming. Maybe the biggest offseason move for the celtics was the hiring of Tom Thibodeau from the Rockets. Thibodeaus scheme helped turned Boston into one of the greatest defensive teams ever ( their defensive efficiency rate was the 3rd highest all time).

Strength: Their biggest strength for the celtics is not the big 3 but teamwork. The celtics have adopted the Spurs method of basketball, there is no I in team. It is easy to win when you have Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, it is not easy to keep all of them in check because each is going to want the ball in key moments and each is goning to want to get their stats. From day 1 Pierce, Allen, and Garnett, bought into Doc Rivers brand of ball and all said hey if we have to sacrifice our own individual numbers for the better of the team we will do it. The bench talent was not the best bench with the likes of Sam Cassell, PJ Brown, Leon Powe, Eddie House, Big Baby and James Posey. As a unit though the came together beautifully. You had the cagie vets in Brown and Casell, the shooters in House and Posey, the bangers in Big Baby and Powe. The celtics return almost all of their bench minus posey and brown, but they drafted JR Giddens who is a super freak and Bill Walker who is an excellent player when healthy, they also signed Darius Miles in the offseason.

Weakness: Inside Scoring. Your probably thinking how i could say this when they have KG but to say KG is a banger down low is like saying Kevin Everett is a excellent dancer. KG plays a soft 4 and loves his fade away j. So then this leaves Perkins who is in my eyes offensivly challanged. Now Perkins is a very good defensive player and a monster on the boards but hes not going out and getting you 20 points. I would have to say that Leon Powe is the best true low post threat, and when your best low post threat is your 7th or 8th man thats never a good thing. Luckily for Boston the Center position has all but died with Dwight Howard the only true Center in the league (Bynum is up and coming).

2008 Outlook: The Celtics ran threw the NBA's jv league known as the East last season. But that was last season and the East has cought up with the West. Now Boston has to worry about Philly, Detriot, the Raptors, Cavs, and Magic. So if Boston has a season like last year i would be stunned. There are a couple of things to look out for this year. One is age, Boston is not a young team with Pierce being 31, KG 32 and Allen 33. Another is it is unlikely for Boston to play defense like they did last year. Now will they be the best defensive team in basketball? Yes, will they lead the league in efficiency like they did last year, doubtful. Losing Posey will hurt as well. Now i am not as high on Posey as other i think he is good but a healthy Darius Miles with Bill Walker and JR Giddens can easily fill the void. With all that said you cant create a sceniaro where the Celtics dont finish with the best record in the East. Pierce would have to be stabbed 11 more times, KG would have to get hit by a car in order to miss any b-ball an Allen well all it takes to keep him out is an ankle injury. With that said The East is good, just not as good as the Celtics. The Celtics will roll through the regular season again, but can they survive the young sixers, LeBrick, or Kobe only time will tell.

Prediction: 58-24

NBA Preview: Power Rankings

Ok the NBA season is right around the corner and i cant wait. Over the next week or so ill be breaking down all the teams in the Nba. First thing is first though lets start off with my pre-season power rankings.
1.Celtics 2. Lakers 3. Hornets 4. Rockets 5. Pistons 6. Sixers 7. Jazz 8. Spurs 9. Cavs 10. Mavs 11. Suns 12. Magic 13. Trail Blazer 14. Heat 15. Wizards 16. Raptors 17. Bucks 18. Nuggets 19. Clippers 20. Warriors 21. Hawks 22. Bobcats 23. Bulls 24. Pacers 25. t-wolves 26. Grizzlies
27. Kings 28. Knicks 29. Nets 30. Thunder