Professional basketball is once again upon us, not that it ever left, our minds that is. The continuous need to discuss, ponder, suffocate our brains with thoughts of what our team, any team, the nba in general, is doing at any given point in the off-season, and I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy, is, shit, what makes things fun in a way.

Just knowing that you’re such an obsessive nit that you actually have to keep track of whether yaroslav korolev (sp?) signed or didn’t sign or went back to Russia or what level of KGB ball he was playing, I mean, really? But yeah, really. This is a kid that was possibly one of the hugest busts, when you look at how high dunleavy decided to draft him, ever. And why again are the clips holding on to him? With all these wings floating around and then they let jared Jordan go to the knicks for dan dickau? I am confused. And depressed.

In this, a season which by many accounts looks to be if not doomed at least rampant with room for getting young kids some seasoning & seeing what they’ve got, they can’t have the patience to take a nice long look at what may possibly become something truly special? A point guard that can actually see the floor and on the offensive end get everyone involved, get people the rock where and when they need it, create space, run the show, all of the above?

How many guys are there in the league that truly do that? Jason kidd and steve nash come to mind, and that’s really about it. Chris Paul might get there some day, but from what I’ve seen (and granted, that’s limited) he ain’t there yet. We are staking our point guard year on (drumroll please):

1) Brevin Knight, who came into camp out of shape, and one of the few things you’re supposed to be able to glean from training camp and the preseason games is if someone comes in out of shape, they sure as hell ain’t going to be able to “work themselves into shape” as the season goes along. (this per Blazer's Edge's 10 commandments of the preseason, specifically #6) They’ll either suck wind or get hurt. Great. We’ll see, I guess. I hope it was an overhyped tale and/or just some dunleavy mind game slash motivational tool, sadsack as that would be.

2) Sam Cassell, supposedly already angling to jump ship now that the season looks like a loss, creaking around on his 80 year old legs. When healthy, the things Sam can do are phenomenally beneficial. If he can get even half the chemisty he had with EB going with Kaman, and assuming he's healthy and is on schedule for his on again off again health (meaning he's due to be healthy this season after a season of relative futility) then rumours of his demise could be exaggerated. Hard to say if he'll still be around for the stretch run if there's obviously, at that point, nothing worth running toward. Plus he's dropping hints about wanting to reunite with George Karl in Denver as a player coach (although he's talking about NEXT year). Let's focus on this season for now, shant we methuselah? gratzi.

3) Dan Dickau, a known quantity, has bounced around between more teams than he has years in the league (I think? Maybe not, but it’s close) a guy you can count on for 2.2 points and 1.3 assists a game (guesses, again, I won’t be bothered to check stats on dan dickau, sorry). And then the sad theory that maybe we’ll plop...

4) Guillermo Diaz, a natural 2 guard in at the point sometimes, which never works. I’m loving it! So yeah, in that respect, in light of all of the above, dumping jared Jordan makes perfect sense, it’s a beautiful move.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that now we’re supposed to believe that Tim Thomas bulked up and is ready to play a full season as a true power forward. He’s gonna bang down low and grab rebounds and work the post and only occasionally drift out the three land for threes. Rrriiiggghhhhtttt. I’m so endeared with that bridge in the that Albanian swampland that you just sold me. Gracias, amigo, gracias.

We really probably should have kept the polish rifle around, just in case, like, in case of emergency, break glass, if only just to be able to say “and now, coming in, the polish rifle” and really mean it. But he was due for better things, bigger things. Sigh.

By the way, I’m going to the lakes dubs preseason shakedown at the stan sheriff in Honolulu tomorrow nite (2nd of two games, the first one was last night). I’ll have a full report, of that let there be no doubt. Aloha.