The Millennium NBA Preview: Lakers

Tweet With NBA previews and predictions up seemingly everywhere, it seems redundant to rehash the same old questions: Who will be the MVP, who will win the title, who will make the playoffs etc. There is a lot more to an NBA season's stories than just numbers, awards, and predictions. So in the coming weeks, as the NBA picture begins to unfold, we will examine some of the more interesting teams and story lines associated with them.In the first part of what will be many features about the 2012/2013 NBA season, we will examine the overhauled Los Angeles Lakers and a potential change in mentality of Kobe Bryant.

When the news that Kobe plans to retire at the end of the 2014 season came out, I was genuinely surprised. Like many, I thought that Kobe would attempt to break the all-time scoring record before he hung it up, but it seems that he wants to try and accomplish what so few in the NBA have done: go out both as the leader of your team and as a winner (Bill Russell is the only one I can think of that did this, Jordan did too until he ruined the perfect end to a career by playing with the Wizards). Think about it, Magic, Bird, Shaq, Isiah, Hakeem, Barkley, Miller, Stockton, Malone, Payton, Ewing, and many others, how did their careers end? Some said "F*ck it, I gave it my all, I am happy with what I've accomplished and wont resort to latching onto a contender to try and win a ring" - Stockton, Reggie, Barkley, Ewing. Some just realized that their run was over and that they would never be the main guy on a title team, so they too called it quits - Bird, Magic, Isiah, Hakeem, Shaq (who actually managed to try and latch on to every contender he could in a sad attempt to tie Kobe). While the rest shamelessly pursued a ring, regardless of their role on the team and in some cases succeeded (Gary Payton) or failed (Malone). If the Lakers manage to capture the title in Kobe's last season, it would be a truly unique accomplishment that very few NBA players can say they achieved. You can make the argument that Kobe wont be the best player on the team, but this is still very much 'his' team as far as anyone is concerned. You don't associate Dwight Howard with the Lakers, you do associate Kobe Bryant with them.

The NBA so far (Part 2)

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We continue examining the NBA at the halfway point with part 2 of our look at the NBA so far. In the last edition (click here if you missed it) we ranked the bottom six teams, today we continue with our list by taking a look at teams we ranked from 24th to 20th. As explained in part one, the four of us ranked each team (from 1 to 30, first place getting 30 points, second getting 29, and just like that until the 30th team got only one point) and combined our results to produce our rankings. The rankings take into account both how well the teams are playing, as well as their chances to win a title. Without further ado, I will lead part 2 off by talking about my favorite team.

24. The Sacramento Kings

A long time ago (at the start of the season), I talked about how the lack of passers on this team would probably affect their chances of success. 38 games later, with a 12-26 record it turns out that no, you can not win many NBA games if you do not have players who are willing to fill up the 'assists' category instead of the 'points' and 'field goals attempted' categories. To make matters worse, the Kings basically hit the reset button on their re-building plan when they fired Westphal. While I do agree with the move, I hate the fact that the new coach (Keith Smart) is basically making the same mistakes that Westphal did. A young team like Sacramento should be focused on giving out lots of minutes, wins be damned. There is no excuse for Cousins to be averaging less then 30 minutes a game (link). What the Kings are doing instead is letting guys like Donte Greene, and John Salmons eat up valuable minutes that Jimmer and Isiah Thomas could really use. For what? So the coach can have a few extra wins on his resume? Keith Smart is not a long term solution, the team should have had him be an intern while trying to find an established head coach. If no established coaches are available, then keep Smart for the rest of the year. Needless to say, the first priority for Sacramento this off-season should be to find a point guard (this is where I hope for Steve Nash or Deron Williams), then find a coach that can and will be there for a long time (Mate McMillan would be ideal, but I would give Jerry Sloan a call to see what he is up to these days). Constantly firing head coaches for not winning with the youngest team in the league is a recipe for disaster. At this point, Sacramento almost assuredly will not make the playoffs, especially in the always competitive Western conference. With a deep draft and free agent class looming, Sacramento is poised to add to their young nucleus and the future looks bright. Speaking of future, this Sacramento Kings team will, in fact stay in Sacramento and have a chance to thank the city and the fans with some good basketball. I was incredibly happy when I heard the news, even though I do not live there, I have watched enough Kings basketball to tell you that those Sacramento fans are incredible and do not deserve to have their one pro sports team taken from them. Now that the city has done its part, it is up to the team to hopefully reward it with a title. I will be there every step of the way supporting this team that is the reason I love basketball so much. I would write more, but we have 23 other teams to get to.

-Daki

23. The Phoenix Suns

It’s been a long time since Steve Nash came to Phoenix and reinvigorated the franchise, only to continuously lose to San Antonio in the playoffs. Ever since Stoudemire’s departure to New York, Phoenix hasn’t been the same team. They gave the Lakers a good run in the playoffs, mostly because J-Rich reverted back to his Golden State days by hitting threes all over the place. They finished under .500 for the first time in the Nash era last season, and it’s not looking any more hopeful for them this year. If you take a look at their starting 5, you’ll notice something that’s fairly uncommon in the NBA today. Two of their starters are 38 and 39 years old. Nash has kept in incredibly good shape and is still a premier point guard, but unfortunately is not on a premier team. Grant Hill’s ability to still have an impact is in part because he was rested the whole time while he was injured back in the early 2000s. Regardless, Phoenix is still a tough team to beat. Their record may not show this, but Phoenix is a streaky team that can put up ridiculous offensive pressure on their opponents. With the addition of Gortat, who is having a career year (in part due to Nash), Phoenix improved its center position over last year, but with streaky players such as Dudley and Frye,Phoenix isn’t going anywhere this year. Once Nash leaves and Hill retires,Phoenix will have a chance to rebuild, but as of now, they’re not a playoff team, yet they can still offer their opponents a tough challenge. It’ll be interesting to see where Nash chooses to go in the upcoming off-season.

-Jovan

*Editors note: Marion and Beaubois for Steve Nash, come on David Stern, let's make it happen!

22. The Milwaukee Bucks

Nobody wanted to write about this team so ended up with them since I had the last pick in our “draft”. The Bucks are really not that entertaining to watch but they have a young “point” guard in Jennings who broke out this year as one of the best scorers in the league. The reason I have quotations on point is because he plays nothing like a point guard, but rather more like Allen Iverson. Other than him it’s the same old Bucks. Bogut gets injured again so Gooden steps in and has a great run and everyone is sick and tired of Skiles, resulting in a very inconsistent rotation. The one surprise this year has been Ilyasova, who is the best rebounding small forward in the league. I doubt this team makes the playoffs and will probably be stuck in mediocrity for the next few years.

-Igor

21. The Cleveland Cavaliers

The biggest question entering the Cavs’ season was: how will Irving fare against NBA competition? I thought he would okay, but nothing spectacular…. but I was way off. He’s been the best rookie this year and probably one of the better middle class point guards. He’s shooting just under 50% from the field on the year, over 40% from 3 and over 85% from the line. Such efficient numbers are hard to find in the NBA, especially for a rookie point guard. He might be able to lead this Cavs team to the playoffs (unlikely but it would be interesting). I have to give a shout-out to Varejao for playing excellent this year before going down with an injury and Jamison who’s still playing at a high level on the offensive end. What the Cavs need to do is to get rid of their old guys for next year, add some more pieces around Irving, and hope that Tristan Thompson turns into a decent 2-way player

-Igor

20. The Utah Jazz

Utah started off the season strong, surprising most fans and viewers, but the Jazz seem to have come to earth with a current record in the.500 range since early February. They’ve had a similar experience to the Phoenix Suns, in which the last good season they had was in 2009-10. After struggling in 2010, and having Jerry Sloan resign as head coach, and in addition trading Deron Williams to the Nets for Devin Harris (who hasn’t played well since his first year in New Jersey), they fell below .500 and finished the season losing 10 of their last 13 games. Jefferson has been playing well this year, but Utah has had numerous inconsistencies from their players, including Millsap, Miles, and especially Harris. One positive for this developing Utah team is the improved play from Hayward, who is showing great potential and may prove to be the spark they need to make a playoff push. Of course, Harris is going to have to step up as well because you can’t make the playoffs with as tarting PG who does not shoot or average many assists. Utah proved in the beginning of the season that they have what it takes to be a playoff team, but as other teams have improved throughout the season, the Jazz hit a bump in the road and need to regain momentum if they want to make the playoffs.

-Jovan

Igor was slated to write about the Warriors next, but being a team he particularly likes we decided to give him more time to work on it. Next time: teams 19 to 14, as we finally hit some legitimate playoff contenders.

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

We at Millennium Sports & Entertainment try to bring you interesting and thought provoking views from the worlds of sport and entertainment. Follow us on Twitter @MillenniumSandE

Gearing up for the NBAs nuclear winter

Tweet Here at Millennium (sande) we decided collectively not to write anything about the NBA lockout.  This was due to it being reported heavily and with great detail elsewhere and us adding our opinions would not have been a very interesting read.  Now that it looks like the season will truly be lost the time for silence is over and although other writers of this blog may not have much to say I do.  However, what I am about to write has nothing to do with talking about the lockout, if you want to hear an excellent, well thought out conversation about it, just listen to Bill Simmons's podcast.  What I am going to talk about is the big picture winners and losers of the lockout.  Lets get right to it

The Biggest Losers

There is only one group in this category and that is us the fans.  I'm not just talking about casual fans who will wait it out, I'm talking about guys like me who are watching classic games on YouTube and typing in 'NBA lockout' into Google news hoping something comes up that will save the season, no such luck yet.

The Losers

Apart from the players, David Strern, several owners whose franchises actually make money, and all of the other employees who are job-less as a result of billionaires and millionaires fighting over a few million dollars, here are some teams and players who will also be affected negatively by the lock-out in my opinion.

The Heat-If the season is lost that is one more year without these guys winning but more importantly they wont win anything while also not having an opportunity to build on last years success.  The longer this thing drags on the longer the chemistry the Heat managed to build up disappears and will have to be re-built again.

All of the up-and-coming talented players that essentially waste a year of their development because of this.

Dallas-apart from being a franchise that makes money, they do not get to defend their title or give their fans a ring ceremony, it wont feel the same in a year.

Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, KG, Pierce, Allen, Nash, etc.-all of these older starts who waste a valuable year of productivity.  The counter-argument here is that the rest might do them some good who knows?  But some of these guys I listed are approaching some important milestones which, in a historical context, would have benefited them greatly.

The Rookies-Imagine finally achieving your dream and having to sit through this shit and they are not even allowed to go back for another year of NCAA hoops, this is just sad.

The players who actually wanted to play and didn't even get a chance to have their say in the NBA's latest proposal, so much for democracy.

The In-between group

Lakers-On one hand their window for contending closes, on the other Dwight Howard could join this team as a free agent!  They also shed a year off of some truly awful contracts that they have and also hold off on the Mike Brown experiment for a while.

Spurs-A year off might be exactly what they need to re-fuel and make one final run with this group before blowing it all up.

The 'Winners'

Raptors-shed some brutal contracts and allow their first round pick to develop and start as an actual rookie instead of playing overseas for a year.

The owners who wanted to miss a season so they could save some money...lets move one

The Lawyers-some law firms stand to make a ridiculous amount of money from the amount of suing and counter-suing that is about to happen, expect at least a million articles trying to simplify and explain the process to the 73 fans that will still be around in January.

All players with long-term serious injuries that get to heal and rehabilitate.

The biggest Winner

Billy Hunter, who somehow gets to keep his 2-million dollar-plus salary even if desertification happens and makes all the headlines.  So he will be making money while the majority of the union he represents is losing it and this is fair how?  Shane Battier was right to ask Hunter if he was willing to forfeit his salary if it came to this so why are more players not demanding this of Hunter now that he has failed to negotiate a season for them?  That is all the complaining about this I will do.

Biggest potential story no one is talking about yet

Do you realize that desertification means that ALL contracts are void?  Do you realize that if the players follow through with their threats to dissolve the union that we are going to have an all-out free agent war whenever this is resolved?  You think the heat are a dream team?  How about the Lakers (and the money they have) getting the Heat's big 3 and matching it with Kobe, and Dwight Howard?  I need a drink.