Stephon Marbury and the Celtics need each other

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The first big rumor of 2009 includes the most interesting player in the league today, Stephon Marbury. Assuming the Knicks and Marbury can come to terms on a buyout, many major media outlets, including ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, is reporting that Marbury will become a member of the Boston Celtics, and reunite with Kevin Garnett. Marbury, who has played with the Timberwolves, Nets, Suns, and Knicks, has received more coverage for his public feud with Knicks management than he did when he was playing on the court. Most would agree that Steph had become a distraction to the team, hence the reason Donnie Walsh and company banished him. But that is the first mistake the Knicks made in handling Marbury. Read more

KG For MVP?

KG for MVP?
A LayupDrill.com Exclusive

The NBA Most Valuable Player award is often awarded to the player who puts up the most outstanding offensive stats on a very good team. There are times, when of course, the MVP award is given to the best player in the game at that time(Kobe Bryant last season), and there are times when it is truly given to the most “valuable” player of a particular roster(Steve Nash). But when you think about the current state of the NBA, you would be grasping at straws to tell me the difference between the amazing offensive numbers Dwayne Wade and Lebron James are putting up. Then you have Chris Paul, who is leading the NBA in assists and steals. Of course, Kobe is keeping the Laker machine rolling. But nowhere to be found in the discussion is the heart and soul of the best team in the league, Kevin Garnett.

KG won the NBA MVP award as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2003-04 season, in which he led the Timberwolves to a 58-24 record, was first team All-NBA, and led the league in rebounding with nearly 14 a game. This year may be just as impressive, but for different reasons. Read more

Can The Celtics Be Stopped

Can The Celtics be stopped?
A LayupDrill.com Exclusive

I honestly thought when Boston’s Big 3 won the NBA title last year, they would be content. The lifelong journey for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen was over. The Celtics franchise went from worst to first, and Doc Rivers molded a talented group of individuals into an excellent team. The magical playoff run that ended with a Finals victory over the hated Lakers in Boston seemed to cap it all off. So how could a team, who lost P.J. Brown to retirement, and James Posey to free agency, be better this year? What would the Big 3 use as motivation this time around? It seems like they want to prove this year that last year was not a fluke.

Boston is currently(at time of this article) sitting on top of the NBA. With a 22-2 record, there seems to be no one that can slow down the machine. When examing the two games they did lose this year, neither show a pattern or blueprint to how to beat them. In the first loss to the Indiana Pacers, Boston beat themselves, making 24 turnovers and going 21 for 35 from the free throw line. In that game, Paul Pierce struggled, scoring 10 points but was ice cold(3 for 15) from the field.

The only other loss this season came at the hands of Chauncey Billups-led Denver Nuggets. In that game, you saw an athletic, younger team(Denver) outhustle the C’s. Carmelo Anthony had 18 points and 13 boards, and Billups dominated Rajon Rondo on both ends of the floor. One of the concerns Boston had last year, and perhaps later this season may be times where Rondo could be exposed by bigger, faster, more explosive point guards, like Billups, Chris Paul, or Derron Williams.

The road back to the NBA Finals this year seems similar to last season, with a potential Eastern Conference Finals match with Lebron James and Cleveland looming. With 9 games remaining on the schedule for December, there are going to be stiff challenges coming from the likes of Atlanta, Los Angeles on Christmas Day, and at Portland on December 30th. The Celtics I predict will be 29-4 heading into January, and thoughts of a 70 win season will surface in the new year. While I do not believe any team will reach 70 this season, this Celtics group does remind me alot of the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls, who repeated, beating the Utah Jazz in the Finals, and went 69-13 in the regular season.

How far do you think this Celtics team can go this year? Are they better than last years group in your eyes?

The Best Head Coaches in the league

Leaders of the New School
The Best Head Coaches in the League
A LayupDrill.com Exclusive

The role of head coach in the NBA is one that is often thankless and underrated. When everything goes well, the players get the praise. When things go bad, management fires the coach. Now of course there is always exceptions to the rule, those coaches whose reputations alone make them bigger than the team they work for. Looking back at this past season, and ahead to the 2008-09 season, LayupDrill.com assesses every teams leaders, from the best to the worst. You might be surprised that the worst teams in the NBA don’t necessarily have the worst coaches.
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