The Last Season of the Black Mamba?

It’s one of the burning questions the NBA season: will 37-year old Kobe Bryant, one of the league’s legendary players, finally call it quits after a sterling 20-year NBA career?

Let’s take a look at four factors that could possibly push Kobe Bryant into retiring after this season.

FACTOR #1: DECLINING SKILL SET

Kobe Bryant is more than aware that he’s no longer the player that he used to be. Unfortunately, his reaction to that awareness is to deny it and try to prove it false. That’s leads to him putting up horrible numbers on a team that’s lost 5 of its first 6 games.

Bryant’s season stat line seems respectable enough: 16.2 ppg 2.6 apg and 3.8 rpg. But that’s before you realize that he gets his 16 points on 32% shooting and, worse, on 21% from the 3pt line. His threeepoint percentage is especially horrible since he’s shooting almost 8 threepointers a game. For context, Kevin Durant is only shooting around 7 threepointers per game and he’s hitting 42% of those.

NBA Predictions: Who Wins And Why

With one day to go before the start of the NBA’s regular season, it’s time to take a look at who we predict will be raking in the trophies (both real and imaginary) this year.

2015-2016 CHAMPIONS: San Antonio Spurs

They’ve reloaded with LaMarcus Aldridge and David West. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Boris Diaw and Patty Mills are all back. They’re just too good not to win it this year, presuming there are no major injuries.

EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: Cleveland Cavaliers

Lebron James will lead his team back to the Finals but his supporting cast will be found lacking against the Spurs. Ironically, they would have won last year had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love been healthy. This year, it won’t make a difference.

FINALS MVP: LaMarcus Aldridge

Aldridge completes his transition to the new Tim Duncan as the Big Fundamental reprises David Robinson’s role as the calming presence of this championship team.

Living Without The Lee-thal Weapon

Photo courtesy of interaksyon.com

When Paul Lee was discovered to have a tear in his meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the reverberations of that injury was felt not just by his PBA team, the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters, but also by the Gilas national team.

Fortunately for Gilas, this injury will not have a major impact in their preparations for next year’s Olympic qualifiers. Unfortunately for the Elasto Painters, this injury will define their campaign in the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup.

Here are the four aspects where the Elasto Painters will feel Lee’s absence:

Playmaking

Paul Lee is, in simple words, a playmaker. He makes good things happen, whether with good passing, strong drives to the rim, kick outs to open shooters, hitting open shots to keep the defenses honest, or controlling the tempo of the game to better suit the Rain Or Shine game plan.

He’s the focal point and engine of the Rain or Shine offense, which means that when Paul Lee is in the zone, he can almost singlehandedly destroy opposing defenses.

The fact that he can do it in so many ways, not just by scoring a ton, makes him especially hard to replace. Just consider his stats from last year’s PBA season: 15.5ppg, 4.5rpg, and 3.3 apg. Those are major numbers for someone who plays just 27 minutes a game.

Fixing Barangay Ginebra's Twin Towers

Greg Slaughter. Japeth Aguilar. There was a time when one, then the other, was considered the best big man prospect in the Philippines.

For Slaughter, it was his size and heft combined with good basic basketball skills that propelled him to the top. For Aguilar, it was his preposterous length and the eye-popping athleticism (which was evident, even amongst NBA D-Leaguers) that made him stand out.

Slaughter and Aguilar have physical gifts that most of their PBA colleagues don’t have. It’s not unfair to say that the expectations for both are that they would dominate their competition every night.

Ranking The PBA Teams: The Teams At The Top

In the last of our three part series, we’ll review the PBA teams and rank them according to the strengths of their lineup.

(Missed #12-#9? Go here. For #8-#5, go here.)

Here are the teams at  #4 to #1.

#4 ALASKA ACES

Roster

Name	Position
Chris Banchero	G
Cyrus Baguio	G/F
Vic Manuel	F
Sonny Thoss	F/C
Calvin Abueva	F
Nonoy Baclao	F/C
Marion Magat	C
Rome de la Rosa	G/F
Chris Exciminiano	G
Dondon Hontiveros	G/F
Eric Menk	F/C
RJ Jazul	G
Tony de la Cruz	F
JV Casio	G
Kevin Racal	F

Analysis: The Alaska Aces is the team that proves that the whole can be worth so much more than the sum of its parts. On paper, they shouldn’t be able to beat teams like the Gin Kings or the Hotshots but they do. There is no clear cut superstar on their roster but somehow, the tenacity of Calvin Abueva, the smarts of JV Casio, the shooting of Dondon Hontiveros, the guile of Cyrus Baguio, the versatile skill set of Vic Manuel, the leadership of Tony de la Cruz and the inside presence of Sonny Thoss make them one of the harder teams to create a game plan for. Which means that on any given day, any of those players mentioned above may be the one who beats you.

Ranking The PBA Teams: The Teams In The Middle

In this three part series, we’ll review the PBA teams and rank them according to the strengths of their lineup.

(Missed #12-#9? Go here.)

Here are the teams ranked  #8 to #5.

#8 MERALCO BOLTS

Roster

Name	Position
Bryan Faundo	F/C
Simon Atkins	G
Jimmy Alapag	G
Cliff Hodge	F
Ronjay Buenafe	G
Chris Newsome	G/F
Anjo Caram	G
Rabeh Al-Hussaini	C
Jared Dillinger	G/F
Reynel Hugnatan	F/C
John Ferriols	F
Kelly Nabong	F/C
Rey Guevarra	G/F
Gary David	G

Analysis: The Meralco Bolts squeezed by the NLEX Road Warriors to nab the #8 sport because they had a better mix of talent. From reliable veterans like Gary David and Jimmy Alapag to their resident sparkplug Jared Dillinger and even to promising young players like Cliff Hodge and Chris Newsome, the Bolts are well positioned to be the darkhorse in every conference of the upcoming PBA calendar. What could be crucial for their improvement is the play of Rabeh Al-Hussaini. If he could be a dominant force or even just hold his own against the PBA’s top big men, the Bolts can certainly inch their way up to the top 6 teams of the PBA.