With a nod to Charles Dickens, I will begin my NBA version of a Tale of Two Cities. They are San Francisco and Sacramento in the State of California. Although they do not resemble each other
much, in a basketball way, they do. They are both faced with a similar problem that include similar types of players and conditions. Should they "blow up their teams NOW and build for the future, or should they continue to try to PIECE TOGETHER their season with the rosters they have? Let me add that to remain status quo is NOT an option. As they stand, in the playoffs, neither team can beat OKC, Nuggets, Lakers, or the TWolves of the Mavs with a healthy AD in a seven game series, and while the chances of the Warriors making the first round of the playoffs are decent, the Kings will be lucky to make the play-in round.
So, lets examine CONTINUING AND PIECING together a better roster for a run following the All Star break:
Warriors: In this instance, the Warriors would have to keep most of their roster in place and hope they can find a more skillful, more consistent, and smarter basketball player than Jonathon Kuminga, hopefully a longer, taller and better 3-point-shooter than JK. to give him his due, JK has made an EFFORT, but it's just not happening in Coach Kerr's motion offense. The Warriors must ask themselves does a Curry, Green, Butler, make the team competitive enough to get to the final round of the Western Conference?
Kings: Like the Warriors, they have a core of older, seasoned and effective veterans. They can gamble that when Domantas Sabonis returns from injury, things will change for the better. A risky gamble in my opinion, as the rumors are that Sabonis is not a happy King. The Kings must ask themselves does a Sabonis, DeRozen, Lavine, and Monk get you into the playoffs?
Let's examine BLOWING UP THE ROSTERS and planning for the future:
Warriors: Trade your core three. Okay, no throwing stones. Stay with me. What can the Warriors get in return for Steph Curry, Green and Butler? Holy Trade Gods! I'll let you speculate. First round unrestricted free agents, good young players with plenty of upside, some solid second round draft choice??? Keeping their good young players like Moody, Podzenski, Trace Davis and Post, knowing, of course, that they're going to get a huge return for their All Star Core. Can you imagine what a playoff contender, say, a Milwaukee Bucks, would give up for Steph Curry? What would the Nuggets give up for a Curry/Jokic duo for two more years, or more? I'm just asking.
Kings: Tradeable players. Their core four of Sabonis, DeRozen, Lavine, Monk, and other reserves, keeping only K Murry, Raymound, their surprise young rookie center and equally surprising rookie wing, Nicque Clifford, Sabonis is still young and extremely talented. Lavine is middle age by NBA standards but one heck of a three point shooter, DeRozen could only help a contending team.
WHICH OF THE TWO ROUTES SHOULD THESE TWO TEAMS TAKE. WHAT WILL BE THE TALES OF THEIR TWO CITIES?
I will not make any predictions, I'm just laying out the only two possibilities as I see them that the Warriors and Kings can make.
With one caveat: To trade Steph Curry would, it seems to me, be a kind of betrayal. He brought so much Glory to the Bay Area, the ownership might believe they owe it to him to let him play out his career by the Golden Gate. If that's the way they feel, then I'm heartely on board. However, that may not be the wisest move if the Warriors are looking to develop a team for the future without having to go through the AGONY of numerous losing seasons while building up first round picks. Think of how many years for OKC to build a strong team. Think about what the Jazz are trying to do.
That's all for sports, now let's move on to literature.
Part of my Blog: Sports. Literature and Life will be adding another component. In future Blogs, I will conclude as always with a sports' poem, but I am introducing The Tip of the Pen: Suggestions about writing mystery novels. I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I have written and published three mysteries in my Brovelli Brothers Series. More about these novels can be found on my website: warrior 14.com That said, I've learned a few things, I'd like to share. They'll not be in any chonological order.
TIP OF THE PEN#1: The best suggestion I've ever read about writing a novel came from Novelist, E. L. Doctorow. He stated writing a novel was like driving at night "you can see only as far as your headlights, but you can go the whole way like that." When it comes to writing a mystery novel, I like to think of of the process as looking to buy a home - two-story or single floor doesn't matter. You enter and begin going room by room, visualizing how you see it decorated. In a mystery, the first couple of rooms must provide the reader with the crime or a sense of a crime. By the time you get to the kitchen, the investigation should be well on its way. The rooms in the rest of the house represtent the progress and resolution. I think of basements as twists in the plot. I like the idea that after you have decorated the house entirely, that you leave by the back door. For me, that means that you've ended your book in an unexpected way. No front door: Ta Dah! Reader leave satisfied, but not entirely.
Okay, enough for now. More Tips of the Pen coming.
A QUATRAIN LESSON IN SHOOTING A BASKETBALL
The jump shot
begins in your feet
Rising through
your legs, feel it moving
Through your
arms to your fingertips
Like a river rushing to the sea.
