After about a 6-hour drive up from Phoenix (of which 45 minutes was spent crossing the Hoover Damn!) I rolled into town around 4pm yesterday. I checked into my $24/night casino hotel (thank you, desperate slot-playing fools for subsidizing my cheap hotel!) and headed over to catch the final games of the day at the T&M.
I decided to skip on shaving or putting on shoes and figured that I will have plenty of time to "work" the games this coming week, so I just chilled out in the stands with Clipper Steve and paid little attention to the 2nd half of the Thunder/Grizz game (blow out!) or the Cavs/Bucks game (who really cares?).
I did spend some time watching Brandon Jennings and let me just say -- not impressed. Sure, the kid has skills and is mad quick but he just oozes 'tude that I don't think is in rational proportion to what he's going to produce as a pro. All of Iverson's swagger with half his game. I don't see that going over well in the NBA (if that's what you can call the Bucks) and I certainly don't see him getting along with Scott Skiles. Let me just predict now the eventual blow up that is going to happen between those two.
On today's agenda is the Suns' first game of the SL against the Mavs. Here's the full schedule for today and the Mavs' roster.
I will be all over the Suns game (of course) and will also try and catch bits of the Portland, Clippers, Warriors and Kings.
If you have specific questions you want answered this week, let me know.
Here's my previous Vegas SL Game Plan
Coro shares this preview...he will be up here on Friday I believe
Suns vs Mavs Preview
The obvious focus here is watching our boys, including a first look at Clark and seeing how Dragic and Lopez perform.
But the guy I am most excited to see (besides Clark) is this French kid Rodrigue Beaubois. He put up 34 pts, 8 ast and 5 rebounds the other day and folks are still buzzing about him. The only other players of note on the Mavs squad is D-league stud and bubble player Luke Jackson and Nathan Jawai who has 2 DNP's so far.
The Suns should win this game (on paper), but I really don't care what the score is. Watching the games last night reminded me that what we see in Vegas isn't basketball as much as it is a bunch of guys on the floor together playing hoop. The Suns starting three guys that played a lot together last season in practice (Tucker, Dragic, Lopez) should have an advantage, but really, who cares?
I'm here to see how individual players look (and to hang with all the cool b-ball peeps).