No Regard Daily Previews: 11-8-10

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight: Phoenix Suns vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Rudy Gay and Mike Conley should travel the country this off-season, delivering speeches at teachers conventions and high school auditoriums to explain the secret to exceeding expectations after gaining job security. Because these two gentlemen just got tenured (Gay by signing a $82 million, five-year contract this summer, and Conley with his five-year, $40 million contract signed just last week), and are both playing far above their once-cemented ceilings.

At least according to the numbers they are. I haven't seen them play yet, and box scores have lied to me before, so I want to make sure I'm not getting bamboozled here. The chances that Gay's stats through seven games are deceiving are slim, as 27.1 points per game on 52.8 percent shooting is tough to fake. Conversely, Conley's numbers—15.6 points, 8.3 assists, and 3.3 steals per game—have a decent chance of being unmasked like a "Scooby Doo" villain. We've all seen lesser point guards fudge similar numbers for chunks of the season before, only to turn out to be nothing more than a solid fantasy option that you waive after about a month. But I won't name names here, because I wouldn't want to offend Ramon Sessions, Larry Hughes, Brevin Knight, or anyone else. So I'll watch this game tonight, and hopefully Gay and Conley won't have already stopped preparing lesson plans by tip-off.

Plus, they're playing Los Suns, who I'll gladly watch every night as long as Steve Nash is the conductor.

One Game We Probably Won't Watch Tonight: Boston Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks

When I say "we" here, I clearly am only speaking for myself, as some of the other souls who write for this Website will probably check out this game. But two well-managed stalwarts battling in early November isn't something that's going elicit any emotion from me, because (unlike the game above) it will neither surprise nor teach—two characteristics necessary for me to tune in from tip off this early in the season.

Or maybe it's more accurate to say that this game will teach me things that I don't care about, even though I probably should if I'm to become the well rounded baketball fan I strive to be. It's similar to my daily struggle of where to consume news online. I know I should probably visit BBC.co.uk or NPR.org to receive an austere dose of reality, but I'd rather just go to CNN.com and read about the professor who lost 27 pounds on a Twinkie diet or people in Japan who are really into Monopoly. Likewise, I prefer the opportunity of seeing Hasheem Thabeet foul out in four minutes to the sight of the Mavericks employing an six-pronged attack of 15-point scorers on their way to a grind-it-out victory.

I'll take quirk over severity any day. Well at least until the playoffs are in sight.

Team Dreamin' 2011: Memphis Grizzlies

At No Regard, we love basketball. We love the spectacle and strategy of the game, but sometimes the league's lack of imagination confounds and disappoints us. Call us optimists, visionaries, or kids who watched too much Space Jam, but we have ideas. Damn are we gonna share 'em.

Which one is it???

If you offered me $1000, I still wouldn't have a prayer at being able to name the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. That's saying a lot coming from a guy who likes this league so much that the Celtics-76ers preseason game held my imagination for a good 20 minutes the other night.

And no, I'm not going to "look it up," because that would lessen the impact of my already paper-thin argument. But also because it doesn't really matter, does it? If I don't know him, then chances are he lacks the gravitas to lead this charmingly athletic group of pranksters to anything grander then a first-round playoff exit. That's the ceiling of this team, while the basement really isn't that much lower (maybe 10 games below .500?) owing to the pseudo-glut of young guns.

Hence, a jump-start is in order. Let's fire up the defibrillators, Grizzlies, and...

Top 5 Player Tweets of the Week - In Pictures!

From Skillanueva's half-time tweets to Gil's fateful outburst, we're keeping tabs on this whole Twitter thing.  Each week we wade through the rants, shout outs and sheer insanity to bring you the best micro-blogging the NBA has to offer.

5. "No 1 lives forever, no 1. But w/ advances in modern science & my high level income, it's not crazy 2 think I cn live 2 B 245, mayB 300."

- Rudy Gay

4. "Tlc-no scrubs"

- John Wall

6 Questions Raised By USA vs. France

"Did Granger just foul out?"

"He has to learn there are consequences for his actions."

The above exchange was just one of many questions that had to be addressed during No Regard's field trip to Sunday's exhibition game between USA and France. The game was great, but for some reason, the afternoon spent at the culmination of the World Basketball Festival's takeover of New York City raised more questions than it answered. Here are a few of them.

1. Is Team USA's lack of bigs going to hurt them beyond repair during the tournament?
Don't think so. The Gasol brothers will surely prove a tough match-up, but that would be the case even if the US trotted out two or three all-star caliber big men. Instead, Coach K is going to champion this team's outrageous athleticism until he's hoarse. Using Sunday's match as a barometer, this tactic should work well against every team not named "Spain."

2. Have Rudy Gay and Andre Iguodala always been this good?

Why We Fight

It has been a while since I last thought about LeBron James. I mean, yeah sure, I've read about him, I've talked about him, but for over a month I have not thought about him. I haven't pondered him, haven't measured the weight of what he means to me and to this sport.