The NBA So Far (part 4)

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As promised here is our continued look at the NBA. For the last installment of this series (on the top 8 teams) we might switch things up a bit.

13. The Portland Trail-Blazers (72points)*

The Blazers started off this season as one of the best teams in the West and they looked like they could potentially pull off a few upsets in the playoffs and get to the finals. Their starting five was solid on both offense and defense, but they also had key contributors off the bench. Then things started trending downwards and the team has not been able to pull it together. McMillan decided to sub Crawford into the starting lineup instead of Felton (who apparently forgot how to play basketball) which was obviously not going to work, since Crawford will never primarily look to pass. He is a great scorer off the bench and can go off for 50 (did so while playing for three different teams) on any given night, but he should not be forced into playing like a distributor. The other move McMillan made was subbing Batum in for Matthews, which turned out great for Batum, but put Matthews in a giant shooting slump. So then came the trade deadline which involved rumours surround the Blazers. Will Crawford go to the Wolves? Will Felton go to the Lakers? Well neither of these two happened, but the team said fuck it and just traded just about everyone else away. Camby was shipped to the Rockets, Wallace to the Nets (I still don’t get why the nets did this…it’s not like Wallace will make Deron stay), Oden was waived (go to Pheonix, it’s your only chance at playing again!), and McMillan was fired. What did the Blazers gain from this? Not much to be honest, except more playing time for their younger players. Where will they finish the season? At home on their couches watching the NBA playoffs (hopefully Felton stays away from whatever he was eating prior to this season). Now the Blazers can look forward to the NBA lottery and hope the team rebounds next year, since they do have some good pieces to surround Aldridge with.

-Igor

*Editors Note: It really speaks volumes as to how much this team fell off from the start of the season.

12. The Denver Nuggets (72points)

When we initially picked the teams that we wanted to write about, I jumped on this Nuggets squad. They were playing a fun, up-tempo style and were winning games without a true star, but unfortunately, injuries got the better of them and they were unable to sustain their red-hot start to the season. As of this writing (insert joke about how out-dated some of these rankings are) the Nuggets are in a three-way tie for 7^th in the Western conference, but are a half game out of fourth, and four games out of third. The West basically breaks down to nine teams fighting for the last five spots, as the Thunder, Lakers, and Spurs have created separation from the rest of the pack. So where do the Nuggets fall in that mix? If I had to choose, I think 8^th is the spot that they will end up with. For starters, Denver is still not fully healthy, and the constant flux of line-ups and minutes has not allowed them to be consistent whatsoever. Secondly, the Nuggets have only six (!) home games remaining in the regular season, are they good enough to scrape some road games? Yes. Can they win more than 54% (their current winning percentage) of them? Probably not; From April 13^th to April 25^th Denver plays the Lakers, the Rockets twice, the Clippers, the Suns, the Magic, and lastly the Thunder in that order. That stretch of games will determine whether or not they make the playoffs, but until then all they can do is try to keep winning games and hopefully get healthy for the playoffs. If Denver makes it in I firmly believe that anything can happen, even Mark Cuban is on record as saying that “seeding has never mattered less”. So the key is to just make the playoffs and hope that the match-ups work out in your favour. Until the playoffs actually start however, we know nothing.

-Daki

11. The Orlando Magic (82 points)

So after much speculation, Dwight Howard has decided to exercise his player option for the following season and remain with the Orlando Magic. It would have been interesting to see how he would have fared in New Jersey with Deron Williams, which seemed to be the only plausible city Howard was going to end up in. The Lakers were not going to trade Bynum, and no one else was offering any trade the Magic would be willing to accept. So now that Howard is still with the Magic, they have the exact same team they’ve had all year. They’re 3^rd in the Eastern conference, which is impressive considering the inconsistencies they’ve been battling all season, especially from Jameer Nelson, who seems to be finally picking up his pace and playing the way he should have been playing all season. Howard has had his usual great season, and hopefully his level of effort picks up now that he knows he’s going to be staying in Orlando this year. One of the biggest surprises for the Magic this year has been the improved play of Ryan Anderson, who is leading the league in both threes attempted and threes made. The Magic are playing well right now and they are 3^rd in the league points allowed per game. They have the ability to go far in the playoffs, but they’ll need their starters to be more consistent more often. However, it will be difficult to beat the Heat in the playoffs, as they are, in my opinion, still the favourites to win the title this year.

-Jovan

The NBA: Where Do We Stand 1/4 of the Way Through

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With the NBA regular season being over 25% over, I figured it would be a nice time to examine some interesting story lines and hand out some of my personal awards. Let's get to it.

Eastern Conference coach of the quarter: Doug Collins. Did anybody expect the Sixers to be this good? It seems like Philadelphia is trying to prove that last year was not a fluke and have been absolutely destroying teams, while barely losing most of their games. I have no idea if they will keep this up, but if the season ended today, Collins would likely get the nod for coach of the year. Collins narrowly edges out Tom Thibodeau, whose Bulls squad has only lost four games so far while winning seventeen.

Western Conference coach of the quarter: (tie) Rick Adelman, George Karl, Gregg Popovich, Nate McMillan. Yeah, I did just put four guys in a tie here but can you blame me? Every one of them has done an outstanding job so far, whether its improving a team (Adelman), performing miracles (Karl), or refusing to let injuries cripple them (Pop, and Nate). Honestly, it is a joy to watch these guys coach night in and night out. I would like to point out that, had Zach Randolph not been injured, then Lionel Hollins would probably be on the list too. Look for him to be a dark-horse candidate for COY once Z-bo gets back.

The 2007 Golden State Warriors award for: "we might be 10x better when we get player x back from injury". This one goes to the Knicks and the Grizzlies who are waiting for Baron Davis and Zach Randolph to be healthy enough to play. If Davis can even give 60% of what he gave to the Warriors in 2007 then the Knicks might just be a contender. As for Memphis, they survived the Randolph loss by winning 7 in a row but have since lost 3 on the run. With Arthur out for the year and Speights not providing great back-up, the Grizzlies are pretty thin in the front court where they usually excel. What these two teams do in the playoffs will depend on the health of their injured stars.

Eastern Conference rookie of the quarter: Kyrie Irving. He has somewhat exceeded expectations and even has this dreadful Cavs team in a playoff contention spot (will the East ever have a season where a team 8 games below .500 realistically has a shot at the playoffs?-Toronto is 6-14 and only 2.5games out). At this point his only competition seems to be...

Western conference rookie of the quarter: Ricky Rubio. He hit a recent shooting slump that dropped his shooting percentage way down and teams are still forcing him into rookie mistakes, but that will be about it for the negative column. His passing, decision making, leadership, and defense have impressed even those who thought he would excel in the NBA. It took him about 10 games to crack the starting rotation and Rubio is delivering 10+ assist and 2+ steal games like they're going out of style. He has been so good that Kevin Love decided to stick around in Minnesota and sign a new contract. He has been so good that watching Wolves games is now encouraged. While he may not be far ahead of Irving statistically, his impact in other aspects has to push him over the top. The rookie of the year race will probably come down to the last week of the season.

Defensive Players of the first quarter: Dwight Howard, Tony Allen, the Chicago Bulls, Rajon Rondo. Any of these players (in the case of the Bulls and Sixers, their team defense is amazing. Holding opponents to 87ppg in the era of no hand-checking is a spectacular feat, and their key defenders should all get a nod) could get this award but Dwight Howard will probably win it. I dislike how there is a bias towards big-men who can block shots when it comes to this award, especially today where being a good perimeter defender is much more difficult then it was 10 years ago.

The "How does he make this list" award, given to the player who constantly makes all NBA defensive teams, despite better candidates out there goes to: Kobe Bryant. I have never heard so many coaches talk about how over-rated his defense is, yet he still makes the defensive teams. No doubt he exerts more effort on the defensive end them most shooting guards do but the fact is that he can no longer shut people down like he used to. This should be the year that Kobe's spot rightfully goes to a more deserving player.

The "David West" award for the player selected by coaches that makes the fans and the media question how it could have happened award goes to: Paul Pierce. The poor Celtics start, coupled with many forwards playing well in the East (Iguodala, Granger, Anthony, James, Stoudamire, Bosh) will probably lead to a lot of questions about whether or not Pierce is deserving of a spot. This is just a prediction and I think that by the time the All-Star weekend does come around, Pierce will have played well enough to justify his selection.

The "Dwight Howard trade me" award, given to players that absolutely need a change of scenery goes to the following players: Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. I have to admit, its a little sad watching Nash try to make players around him better, when his owner only cares about saving money (this team once had Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudamire, Joe Johnson and picks that turned out to be Luol Deng and Rajon Rondo) and will get rid of players to save costs. Hopefully Phoenix and Orlando will come to their senses and trade these guys before they get nothing in return during the off-season.

The "Most Entertaining Team" award goes to: The Denver Nuggets, who could potentially add J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler before the playoffs. They are built almost exactly like the 2007 Warriors, its kind of scary actually.

Eastern Conference MVP of the first quarter: LeBron James. Its not even close.

Western Conference MVP of the first quarter: Kevin Durant (for now) but he has some competition. Danilo Gallinari, and Chris Paul. I know that 18-5-3 are not even close to MVP numbers, but if Denver finishes first in the West ins't Gallo at least considered? If the Clippers finish first however, Chris Paul would be a natural candidate. At this point its to early to call anyways. I will be back with more thoughts and awards later in the season but this week its all about the Super Bowl. Look for some previews from us on that and more this week

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