Full Court Press: May 2011 Cover (Championship Early Edition)

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Finding The Final Piece

After an early exit in the 2008 playoffs and failure to make earn an invite in 2009, the Las Vegas Lizards, Sin City's only team without a championship, is looking for that final piece to bring them their shot at the EHBA title. Shawn Marion, apparently, was not that piece.



Finding The Final Piece
Reno Weekly Rag/Max Powera


It's not every day you see a championship contending team trade away a solid role playing piece of their roster for a draft pick in a future draft. Recently the Lizards traded away forward Shawn Marion to the Matadors for their 1st round draft pick in the 2010 draft. Marion, who has shown glimpses of greatness, has been inconsistent for the Lizards for most of the season, apparently making him expendable.

"Shawn was great for our team, but he wasn't the piece we needed. We told ourselves that if we could get something that would help us get that piece that we would have to move on it," GM Charles Barkley told reporters after the trade was announced.

Confirmed to have been in discussions with Peoria for Troy Murphy before he was moved to Colorado, Las Vegas has been linked to various trade rumors across the league. They have been thought to be trying to acquire a replacement for Marion, using what they see as the team's expendable assets, including all of their future draft picks, including three 2010 1st rounders, which they have not been shy in shopping across the league. The Lizards have been linked to rumors around superstars SF Paul Pierce, C Carlos Boozer, PF Kevin Garnett, and, to a lesser extent, SG Kobe Bryant and PG Steve Nash.

"We're open to negotiations with anyone who's willing to help us make that push to a championship. We're willing to help the future of another franchise by parting with multiple draft picks in order to make that happen, but at the same time next year's draft is looking to be pretty strong and we're more than happy to use those draft picks to help our roster moving forward," Barkley said, "That being said, we're in line to make a run at the championship this year, and that is our number one priority."

Players linked in trade rumors for the Lizards include G Allen Iverson, newly acquired G C.J.Watson, SG Ben Gordon, SF Stephen Jackson, PG Chris Duhon, C Brendan Haywood, and C Marcus Camby.

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Notes from Vegas...

-Danny Granger has been said to be planning a return in time to face off against Dublin in two weeks, but not against Montreal. The match up however is at home against the DeathPiggys and Granger does plan on practicing with the starters the entire week.

-The Lizards are having a hard time finding adequate playing time for back up guard Allen Iverson and the acquisition of C.J. Watson isn't going to help the situation, though Watson isn't expected to start for the Lizards until Tuesday, January 26th against South Carolina. Needless to say, Watson has been put on the Lizards' trade block.

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EHSPN: Black Sheep of Sin City

The Lizards have been hard at work this off season, but can recent acquisition Tim Duncan (seem here taking questions from Las Vegas reporters after his trade from Golden) help take Vegas to the next level? More importantly, the Lizards' front office better have something else planned before the 2008/09 season starts if they want to leap over the rest of the playoff contenders.




Black Sheep Of Sin City
By Max Power; EHSPN

The Las Vegas Lizards, currently an afterthought in the City of Sin, is trying to make waves this season. They were one of the best teams in the second half of the 2007/08 regular season and, besides the team they traded with [Golden] were to only team this off season to attempt to better their roster thus far via trade. The team wants to prove to a spoiled fan base that they are serious about bringing home a championship, and putting Las Vegas on the map as the first and only triple-threat championship city in the Project EH.

The Lizards, after a quick exit in the 2007/08 playoffs to a strong Boston team, have been hard at work this off season, trying to figure out exactly what they'll need to compete at the highest level in 2008/09. They wasted no time, trading for big man Tim Duncan less than a week after the 2007/08 season ended.

"Tim's here for two reasons. First off to help groom young [Greg] Oden into the star we believe he can become," commented Head Coach and General Manager Charles Barkley, "Secondly, and most importantly, to give this team the dominating big man presence we lacked last season," commented Head Coach and General Manager Charles Barkley.

The Vegas front office informed all players that none of them had a guaranteed roster spot going into the 2008/09 season. Only six players will earn a roster spot, with the other 6 being dispersed into the 2008 EHBA Draft to be held later this Fall. Players must have taken the message seriously because many of them have already been showing up to the Lizards' camp, working out and practicing with coaches and trainers, hoping to prove their dedicated to Barkley. Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, Mike Dunleavy, Tim Duncan, Greg Oden, Monta Ellis, and Andrea Bargnami all showed up yesterday ready to show the franchise they were serious about making a run at a championship this upcoming season.

"It's great to see the dedication from these players, especially since they know that not all of them will be back," Barkley told reporters, "hopefully we'll have a chance to reacquire the ones we like but can't keep in the upcoming draft, but everyone knows there's no guarantees."

"We know a few of us are on the fence, that's just the way it works," Dunleavy commented after an intense workout with current teammate Monta Ellis, "It's obvious to most of us that saw the revolving door of various players during the playoffs last season. Nobodies spot is safe."

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Other Las Vegas Notes

-- GM Charles Barkley has been rumored to be interested in making another trade before the roster cut deadline. It is believed he'd like to move up in the 2008 EHBA Draft, sources close to Barkley have stated.

-- The finishing touches on the Lizards' new stadium, located just off the Vegas strip, are almost finished, and the team will be able to host their home opener on time. The Lizards spent all of the 2007/08 season playing at the Stardust University Arena. Naming rights of the new stadium are yet to be finalized.

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Wake Up Call

Does anyone ever sleep in Vegas? Gamblers at the black jack tables from dusk till dawn, clubs full at noon and midnight, flights coming in at 6am and leaving at 1am. One could argue that the new ownership of the Las Vegas Lizards weren't ready for the Vegas lifestyle in their inaugural season in the EHBA, but they've turned some heads in the past few weeks and now find themselves in the drivers seat of one of the final two playoffs spots. How many red bulls are they going to have to drink to keep it up?

By: Max Powers/Reno Weekly Rag

The Crazy Horses. 2006 Champions. The Doggs. 2004 and 2006 Champions. The Lizards. Well, let's not get carried away just yet. This is just to prove a point. The Lizards have been going under the radar, not only in the EHBA, but in the city of Las Vegas itself. The team was aware of their place in the city from the beginning.

"When we started the season it was in the middle of the Crazy Horse's season. They were defending champs and we were a first year franchise. Of course we're going to be overlooked. We expected it. We were ok with it...at first," then back up point guard Mike Conley told the EHssociated Press back in December. Conley wasn't the only one that assumed the worst.

"We knew we were going to have to impress the fans of this city right off the bat and it was going to be tough. We put together a pretty good team in the draft and I thought that with the players we had we could do great things in this city. Needless to say, it was a tough start," head coach Charles Barkley stated in a recent interview with EHSPN.

A tough start it was. The Lizards lost the season, and home opener to the Deathpiggys of Montreal 7-2. They then moved into Fitch Foo Fighters' territory and slightly redeemed themselves, winning 6-3 on the road, only to come back home the following week and lose 6-2 and 7-2 in back to back home games.

"It was embarrassing. I remember seeing fans leave toward the end of the week 3 game against Colorado. And I don't mean just a few fans here and there, I mean the entire stadium. The janitors were sweeping the aisles before the final buzzer. I swear I heard one of them ask us to leave so they could start mopping up. That hurt," Pau Gasol told me in a recent phone interview.

The Stardust University Crazy Horses made a big trade during that game, sending away their franchise quarterback and star running back for a new look offense. This didn't help the Lizards one bit.

"The media spent a whole month analyzing that trade. I don't think anyone even realized we [the Lizards] existed anymore for that time period," said Barkley.

The Lizards went 4-5 in the following 9 weeks. In that time they played 7 home games, not one of which had a live fan base of more than 20% the stadium's capacity.

In week 14, the Lizards started a 5 week road trip. Beginning in Peoria and moving onto Colorado, Tijuana, Rakeville, and Minnesota. No one was looking forward to the trip, especially after losing at home to the Foo Fighters the week prior.

"There's not too much to do in any of those places. We're kinda spoiled by the city we play in I guess, but no one on the team skis so Colorado will just be cold, especially this time of year, we're all too afraid to go out in Tijuana to be honest, Rakeville has a couple historic sports stadiums and museums I guess, but after that we'll just spend all our free time in the Mall of America before heading home. It's not too enticing of a road trip to say the least," remarked injured center Greg Oden in an interview back on January 27th.

Perhaps it was the normal schedule the kept rather than their normal Vegas schedule. Maybe it was the lack of entertainment on the road. Just maybe it was the fact that the players and coaches were sick of losing every other game. Whatever it was, something sparked the Lizards on that road trip. They finished up that 5 game trip away from home 5-0, outscoring their opponents on their own floors 29-14.

It didn't stop there. Once they finally returned home they were greeted by a full stadium of fans for their match up against the highly seeded Boston Danawolves. The Lizards' players were energized by the crowd, by their coaches, and by themselves. They went on to dominate the Danawolves 9-0, posting the first perfect game in EHBA history. On their home court no less. In front of a full house. Simply amazing.

The Lizards continued their winning streak in week 20, beating the Dublin Brawlers at home 5-3. This win put them in the drivers seat for one of the last two playoffs spots in the EHBA. With just one week left, the Lizards are more in control than all season.

The Lizards' staff has been hard at work the last two week doing everything they can to keep this team running strong. They've brought in nine new players and three new trainers in the past two weeks, hoping to keep that fire burning through the end of the regular season and hopefully into the playoffs. All they have to do is hold off the Tokyo Vegans in Vegas and the Lizards are in the playoffs. A script couldn't be written better that what is happening to this team. Once ruled out of playoff contention, the Lizards now hold the keys to their own destiny.



Max Powers is a writer for the Reno Weekly Rag. He enjoys jalapeño poppers, but hates jalapenoes. Go figure.

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