Regarding Bill Simmons and Blake Griffin

Let me preface this by saying that for the most part, I enjoy Simmons' work.  He's an extremely funny guy and does know a lot about the game.  That being said, he does tend to make some outlandish statements sometimes. Ok, a lot of times.

Today, he made a few of those statements regarding Blake Griffin via a post at ESPN and on Twitter.

Here are his claims about Griffin, whom he rightly calls a beast:

• He would've been the 3rd best player on Team USA this summer.
• He's already the best finisher of any big guy in the league.
• He's already the second-best rebounder in the league behind Dwight Howard.
• He's already one of the 5 best PFs in the league.
• He's the best rookie to enter the league since LeBron
• He's plays with reckless abandon and is extremely exciting to watch

My first reaction is that two of those statements are true and the others are false.  I had the chance to watch Griffin in Sacramento when they blew out the Kings, and as I mentioned, he looked amazing. More than amazing in fact, and the box score backs it up.  But even with that I still have some trouble with Simmons statements.  Do his arguments have merit, or don't they?

Kings 116, Golden State 97: Game Recap

As I did for both Phoenix and Clippers fans, I'm going to do a recap of the preseason game yesterday from a Warriors perspective.  It's a shame that so many of these games aren't televised anymore.  I will give Warriors fans this though, a fair amount of them traveled all the way to ARCO to watch their Dubs play.  If you're interested in my Kings recap, its here.

The Warriors are still going to get out there and run with the best of them.  Keith Smart hasn't changed that.  Everyone in that lineup (other than maybe Biedrins or their other centers) has the ability to score in different ways and pass the ball.  During the times when they were flowing, particularly in the fast break, it was beautiful to watch.  The Warriors were also seemingly committed to playing defense surprisingly, and they were led in this regard (also surprising to me) by Monta Ellis.  Ellis and the rest of the Warriors did a great job at forcing turnovers, and collapsing the D, especially on Tyreke Evans.  The entire Warriors team did a great job at playing the passing lanes too.  You will not be able to throw a lazy pass or have a loose dribble around these guys, or they'll take advantage of it quickly.

The Warriors did have a couple problems though, and it mainly involved interior defense and perimeter shooting.  The Warriors definitely had an off-night from range, or this game might have gone a little differently. The Warriors had a lot more success in the mid-range.  As for interior defense, the Warriors couldn't handle the Kings big combo of DeMarcus Cousins and Carl Landry.  They did a good job collapsing when Tyreke drove, but Carl Landry kept beating David Lee with the same move, and DeMarcus was just way too powerful for any of the Warriors bigs, although Biedrins started off playing nice D on him with an early block. The Warriors had difficulty rebounding the ball as well, and once the bench came in, the offense got sloppy as well.

Still there was a lot to like about the game from the Warriors perspective, and after the jump I'll have player evaluations.

Kings 109, Suns 95: Game Recap

I had the privilege of attending the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns preseason game as a media member yesterday.  Due to the game not being televised, a lot of fans can't get a good idea of how their players performed other than from the Box Score.  My Kings-centric recap can be found here on Sactown Royalty, detailing how they performed in the game and how each player was.

As a courtesy to all the great Phoenix Suns fans out there and at the suggestion of Alex Laugan from Bright Side of the Sun, I'll try to provide a recap of how Phoenix and their players did last night, since there was no way to watch the game other than by being there.  More after the jump.