Congrats, Mr. West! Also, Some Other Stuff…

We at the Musketeer Blogosphere would like to congratulate David West on his first of many All Star appearances. Davey Boy has played in every game with the Hornets, averages 19.6 pts., 9.4 boards, 36.5 minutes, has one bitchin’ tattoo, and shoots damn near 50%. Even Charles Barkley, who is a complete moron, knew that it would be a dagum travesty if he wasn’t selected. David’s stern effort and team play has really helped the Hornets get to be the number 1 team in the West (the good conference). Surprisingly, the Hornets attendance is pathetic, and the city is in danger of losing the franchise. I know that the city has gone through so much devastation, but hopefully the citizens of New Orleans will begin to fill the New Orleans Arena.

On another note, I was watching Around the Horn on a channel that has sports stuff on 24/7, and they were praising the Kansas State Generic Nicknames for ending a Dayton-like losing streak (but in their own arena, and not as bad) to the previously undefeated Kansas Jayhawks. They couldn’t stop talking about some great player they had. I have no idea who this guy is, so he must not have played against Xavier when we utterly destroyed them and put up 103 points. If this guy is so great, then Stan the Man should make it to the NBA on defense alone.

Also, because he is totally awesome, here’s some more on THE Justin Cage. His minutes have been plateauing at around 11 to 12 minutes a game recently, and his scoring has been down to around 5 or 6 per game (although his season totals are a little higher, this is just the 5 or 6 games or so). From the 3 games I have watched, he plays mostly small and power forward, and they don’t run any plays for him at all. Another problem being, if the man made it to the NBA, he would be playing a guard position. His assists are very low, his steals are very low, and his scoring is down. He’d need to get those things up for a team to really take a look at him methinks. But that’s hard to do when the coach doesn’t care about you. But, like we discussed earlier, that’s probably because he doesn’t belong to an NBA team, and I’m sure these D-League coaches are pressured to play the guys that are owned by a big league team more meaningfully. Apparently, you can watch every D-League game online, but I have been searching through their web site and haven’t found out how yet. So if, anyone figures it out, let us know.

The 3rd greatest Explorer of all time according to MB will be up later tonight. I have the Cavs to watch. Peace Ya’ll.

Justin Cage Update

Just ‘cuz Justin Cage is the man. A true warrior of a man.

In early December, the Colorado 14ers (the D-League affiliate of the Nuggets, the Raptors, and the Nets) picked up Mr. Cage (smart move). Last week, I actually had the opportunity to watch Cage play, as the 14ers were showcased on the NBA Network. He played about 22 minutes, had 11 points shooting 3 of 4 from the field, 6 boards, 1 assist, a pair of blocked shots, and a nice slam dizunk. He played his usual great defense in the post and perimeter.

Watching this game made me crave some college ball or some NBA action. This is because college ball has teams that are actually coached, and NBA games, although full of selfish play and ball-hogs, are loaded with the best roundball talent in the world. Whereas most players on the court in the 14ers/66ers game were selfishly chucking the ball up from wherever they were or driving the lane despite it being full of defenders. Cage, as one might assume, was an exception to this. He must think that he’s still at XU and that winning games matters. He may have only logged in 1 assist, but he should have had at least 3 or 4 due to pathetically missed lay-ups by some other 14ers near the end of the game.

Although playing pretty well, Cage is hardly talked about in game summaries and it is unlikely you’ll find a good photo of him in their galleries. But, that’s Cage’s style. He’s an efficient hard worker, and he’s no showboat. He is shooting a solid 60% from the field since he’s been with the team, he averages just under 11 points a game, and he is logging in around 31 minutes a game. Although he started a few games when he first came in, he has been coming off the bench lately and not playing as many minutes. Those fools.

Well, hopefully some team will pick up the rights to him and throw some cash his way, as he himself is not affiliated with one of them yet. Fools I tell you.

****EDIT:

Justin played tonight after I wrote this, and oddly only played 8 minutes and scoring 2 points.  My guess for his PT going down recently is that the 14ers coach is getting some pressure to only play guys that are getting paid by NBA teams.  Not that I really blame them for it, but damn.