Thursday, May 11, 2006
All-NBA Defensive Team gripes
So I saw this article today announcing the voting for the All-NBA defensive team, and I have three basic complaints, which are listed here in order of increasing lack of understanding.
1. How does Tim Duncan not make the 1st team All-NBA defensive team every year of his career? This is a lot like asking how does Shaq not win the MVP award every year that he is healthy and plays a full season? Duncan missed the cut this year and wound up on the 2nd team.
Since Hakeem Olajuwon retired and David Robinson began having back problems, Duncan has been THE BEST low post defender in the league, and this includes Ben Wallace. Wallace gets all the credit because he is a better rebounder and blocks more shots, but let me ask you this... If you are at the end of the game, and you need one stop to win the game, and the other team has Shaq and everyone knows Shaq is going to get the ball, who would you rather have defending him between Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan? I'll take Duncan every single time. Not only does Duncan rebound the ball and block shots just about as well as Wallace, but he is also a much more versatile defender and nobody since Hakeem has defended Shaq as well as Duncan can in a man-to-man scenario.
2. How does Bruce Bowen receive more votes for the All-NBA defensive team than Ben Wallace, but Ben Wallace still wins the defensive player of the year award?
Bowen finished first in All-defensive team voting with 29 first-team votes and 3 second-team votes for 55 total points (who the heck voted Bowen on the 2nd team?) Ben Wallace finished with 29 first-team votes and only 2 second-team votes for 54 total points. Yet Ben Wallace is the 2005-06 defensive player of the year. Maybe a better question is the following... How does Ben Wallace have 4 defensive player of the year awards in his career, while Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen have a combined 0 defensive player of the year awards in their careers? Your answer is the award has always favored people who do nothing BUT play defense. It's also because the award has also always favored post defenders over perimeter defenders, even though the top 5 vote-getters in the MVP voting this year are all perimeter players (including Dirk as a perimeter player which he is, your top 5 MVP vote-getters are Nash, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, and Billups). So you could make the argument that Bowen defends more spectacular players on a nightly basis, but Wallace still wins the award because he gets a lot of rebounds and blocks a lot of shots.
3. Last but not least (this one just boggles my mind)... How does Tayshaun Prince make the All-NBA defensive team but Shawn Marion gets left completely off the list?
Since Ben Wallace won the defensive player of the year award almost entirely on a statistical basis, and since Prince and Marion play similar positions and similar minutes a night, it seems fair to compare their defensive abilities of these two players based on their rebounding, steals, and blocked shot statistics.
Marion: 40.3 minutes per game, 11.8 rebounds per game (3rd in NBA), 1.98 steals per game (5th in NBA), and 1.69 blocks per game (17th in NBA).
Prince: 35.3 minutes per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 0.76 steals per game, and 0.48 blocks per game.
If you add up the ranking of each player in the league based on their rebounds, steals, and blocks per game, Shawn Marion, with a total score of 25, ranks 2nd in the NBA in this analysis. The ONLY player even close to Marion in this analysis is defensive player of the year Ben Wallace, who checks in with a total score of 23 (4th in rebounding, 9th in blocks, and 10th in steals). Just to further prove my point about the slight to Marion, 1st-team all NBA defender Andrei Kirilenko checks in with a combined ranking of 53, Kevin Garnett at 44, and .
Looking at this, Marion should justifiably be right there with Wallace and Bowen for the defensive player of the year award, but he is nowhere to be found on the first and second team All-NBA teams, while Tayshaun Prince is on the All-NBA defensive team.
This, combined with Steve Nash winning the MVP, is why the NBA regular season awards mean about as much as the heisman trophy these days.
1. How does Tim Duncan not make the 1st team All-NBA defensive team every year of his career? This is a lot like asking how does Shaq not win the MVP award every year that he is healthy and plays a full season? Duncan missed the cut this year and wound up on the 2nd team.
Since Hakeem Olajuwon retired and David Robinson began having back problems, Duncan has been THE BEST low post defender in the league, and this includes Ben Wallace. Wallace gets all the credit because he is a better rebounder and blocks more shots, but let me ask you this... If you are at the end of the game, and you need one stop to win the game, and the other team has Shaq and everyone knows Shaq is going to get the ball, who would you rather have defending him between Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan? I'll take Duncan every single time. Not only does Duncan rebound the ball and block shots just about as well as Wallace, but he is also a much more versatile defender and nobody since Hakeem has defended Shaq as well as Duncan can in a man-to-man scenario.
2. How does Bruce Bowen receive more votes for the All-NBA defensive team than Ben Wallace, but Ben Wallace still wins the defensive player of the year award?
Bowen finished first in All-defensive team voting with 29 first-team votes and 3 second-team votes for 55 total points (who the heck voted Bowen on the 2nd team?) Ben Wallace finished with 29 first-team votes and only 2 second-team votes for 54 total points. Yet Ben Wallace is the 2005-06 defensive player of the year. Maybe a better question is the following... How does Ben Wallace have 4 defensive player of the year awards in his career, while Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen have a combined 0 defensive player of the year awards in their careers? Your answer is the award has always favored people who do nothing BUT play defense. It's also because the award has also always favored post defenders over perimeter defenders, even though the top 5 vote-getters in the MVP voting this year are all perimeter players (including Dirk as a perimeter player which he is, your top 5 MVP vote-getters are Nash, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk, and Billups). So you could make the argument that Bowen defends more spectacular players on a nightly basis, but Wallace still wins the award because he gets a lot of rebounds and blocks a lot of shots.
3. Last but not least (this one just boggles my mind)... How does Tayshaun Prince make the All-NBA defensive team but Shawn Marion gets left completely off the list?
Since Ben Wallace won the defensive player of the year award almost entirely on a statistical basis, and since Prince and Marion play similar positions and similar minutes a night, it seems fair to compare their defensive abilities of these two players based on their rebounding, steals, and blocked shot statistics.
Marion: 40.3 minutes per game, 11.8 rebounds per game (3rd in NBA), 1.98 steals per game (5th in NBA), and 1.69 blocks per game (17th in NBA).
Prince: 35.3 minutes per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 0.76 steals per game, and 0.48 blocks per game.
If you add up the ranking of each player in the league based on their rebounds, steals, and blocks per game, Shawn Marion, with a total score of 25, ranks 2nd in the NBA in this analysis. The ONLY player even close to Marion in this analysis is defensive player of the year Ben Wallace, who checks in with a total score of 23 (4th in rebounding, 9th in blocks, and 10th in steals). Just to further prove my point about the slight to Marion, 1st-team all NBA defender Andrei Kirilenko checks in with a combined ranking of 53, Kevin Garnett at 44, and .
Looking at this, Marion should justifiably be right there with Wallace and Bowen for the defensive player of the year award, but he is nowhere to be found on the first and second team All-NBA teams, while Tayshaun Prince is on the All-NBA defensive team.
This, combined with Steve Nash winning the MVP, is why the NBA regular season awards mean about as much as the heisman trophy these days.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Sizing up the NBA Playoffs, Round 1
Since I did not create this blog until near the end of Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs, and because there was so much that happened throughout Round 1, this entry includes my thoughts on all eight first round series. Each playoff series is discussed in order from the least impressive level of play to the most impressive level of play. Or in the words of Bill Walton, they are ranked from “the most horrible display of basketball I’ve ever seen in my life” to “this reminds me of the time I played with the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird and Robert Parish and Kevin McHale.” NOTE: Not every column will be this long, but I have to cover two weeks of basketball and 8 series in one column, so bear with me.
(As a side note, as I write this column, I am watching the Rocky marathon on TNT. Rocky just went toe-to-toe with Hulk Hogan, playing the role of a pro wrestler named Thunderlips, who can best be described as a cross between WWE Superstars The Godfather and Val Venis. My favorite thing about the Rocky movies is that in 5 movies and multiple fight scenes, there is not a single punch blocked in the entire series; every punch either connects right on the kisser or hits nothing but air. If real boxing matches were anything like the fights in the Rocky movies, I would order every single boxing pay-per-view. I have never ordered a boxing pay-per-view)
8. New Jersey vs. Indiana (New Jersey in 6 games)
Is this series over yet? Who won? Since only two games in this series made it on national TV, I saw about 2 quarters of play in this entire series, and judging from the Sportscenter highlights, I don’t really feel like I missed anything. New Jersey won the series in 6 games, and only one game was decided by 5 points or less. This was your typical post-1998 Eastern Conference first round playoff series between two teams that probably wouldn’t even make the playoffs if they played in the West.
Jason Kidd got outplayed by his former backup Anthony Johnson. I bring this up as it relates to my favorite NBA team (the Spurs) and the current state of their franchise. After the 2003 NBA Finals, when the Spurs beat the Nets, Kidd became a free agent that summer. Kidd expressed an interest in playing for San Antonio with Tim Duncan, and the Spurs made a fairly strong push to sign Kidd that offseason, due primarily to the struggles of the 21-year old Tony Parker during this series. Because Kidd was the runner up to Duncan in the MVP voting in 2002 and just led the Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances, the 30-year old Kidd was commanding a max contract on the free agent market at the time. Signing Kidd would have been a huge mistake and the Spurs would not have been able to re-sign Parker or Ginobili if they signed Kidd. The best Kidd could do against his former backup in this series was 8 ppg on 29% shooting. Meanwhile, Parker and Ginobili have both made an all-star game since Kidd signed with New Jersey, and both have signed 6 year deals with the Spurs. The COMBINED value of Parker’s and Ginobili’s contracts is a mere $118M, and against Sacramento, these two combined for 37 points a game on a combined 49.7% shooting. Kidd not signing with the Spurs is the best thing to happen to the Spurs organization since winning the Draft Lottery in 1997.
The only other thing worth noting in this series… Peja Stojakovic only played 2 games in the series. Anyone else think that Larry Legend regrets not pulling the trigger on the Artest-for-Maggette trade right now? This decision by Bird is magnified even more when you consider Peja is a free agent this summer.
7. Denver vs. LA Clippers (Clippers in 5 games)
This was the series of the quitters. One team quit with 3 weeks left in the regular season (LA Clippers), and the other team quit once the playoffs began (Denver). The Clippers took an intentional nose-dive at the end of the season, going 5-6 in April to avoid the 5th seed in the West and consequently avoid the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. But then again, what else would you expect from a team who is known more for losing than anything else?
Worrying about your first round series opponent enough to intentionally lose games is not only chicken-[censored], it is also the sign of a team that gets satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment by getting to the 2nd round. Let me use this as an avenue to comment on the current NBA playoff seeding format, which has drawn constant criticism for the Mavs being seeded 4th despite having the conference’s 2nd best record…
As a Spurs fan, it doesn’t bother me one bit that the Spurs have to play the Mavs in the 2nd round instead of the conference finals, because my expectations are that the Spurs should win the NBA title every year, so if they don’t win the title, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me whether they lose in game 7 of the NBA Finals or get swept in the first round. This is why you will find a lot more Mavs fans complaining about the playoff seeding system than you do Spurs fans. Mavs fans care about making the conference finals, while Spurs fans care only about winning the title.
I also want to mention that my thoughts and prayers go out to George Karl and his family, as he has had a very difficult year. George underwent treatment for prostate cancer earlier this season, and we know now that George’s son Coby is currently undergoing radiation treatment for thyroid cancer . May God bless the Karl family, and deliver George and Coby from their battles with cancer. “By His wounds, we are healed” -1 Peter 2:24
Back to the action on the court… The only real event worth commenting about in a series of quitters is the testy exchange between Chris Kaman and Reggie Evans in game 4. If you haven’t seen it or missed it, you can see the video here. I’ve been watching NBA games for roughly 20 years, and I have NEVER seen anything like what Evans did to Kaman on this play. I’ve never even seen anything like this in my 15 years of being a fan of pro wrestling. In fact, the only time I remember anyone even suggesting anything remotely close to what Reggie Evans did was by R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, when he speculated that Private Cowboy is “… the kind of guy that would [censored] a person in the [censored] and not even have the [censored] courtesy to give him a reach-around!” As a result, from this moment forward, Reggie Evans will be referred to as Private Cowboy.
The thing that bothers me the most about this incident is the punishment Private Cowboy got from the league relative to all other fines and suspensions handed out in the first round. Private Cowboy received a $10,000 fine and no suspension from the league for grabbing and pulling on Chris Kaman’s nuts. Here’s a catalog of all other fines/suspensions in the first round:
Raja Bell: Suspended one game w/out pay for clothesline and take-down of Black Mamba.
Dirk Nowitzky: Fined $15,000 for flagrant foul of Pau Gasol, excessive hard foul.
Richard Hamilton: Fined $15,000 for what looked like an inadvertent elbow to the head of Michael Redd.
Shaquille O’Neal: Fined $25,000 for criticizing officials
James Posey: Suspended one game w/out pay for shoulder checking Kirk Hinrich.
Ron Artest: Suspended one game w/out pay for an elbow to the head of Manu Ginobili when it appeared to me that Manu did a bit of embellishing the impact of the elbow. The irony here is on the first play of the same game, Manu inadvertently elbowed Artest in the mouth and Ron Ron needed 3 stitches in his mouth. Manu, meanwhile, was fine after the Artest elbow.
So if you ask me what I would least like to have happen to me between having my job performance criticized, being elbowed in the face, being clotheslined, or having my nuts grabbed and yanked from behind by another man, the latter is the one that would bother me the most. But according to the league office, the nut-grabbing incident warranted the smallest penalty of any fines and suspensions handed down by the league. Maybe Stu Jackson has no balls after all.
6. Cleveland vs. Washington (Cleveland in 6 games)
The only thing that keeps this series from being ranked #8 on my list is the spectacular talent of LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas. The series had some exciting finishes and was very competitive throughout, with two games going to overtime and Cleveland winning three of their four games by only one point. However, both teams play absolutely no defense, both teams do nothing but play one-on-one offense, and if you removed LeBron and Arenas from their respective teams, each team would win about 15 games. These are easily the two worst-coached teams in the playoffs.
As good as LeBron was offensively in this series, it’s hard to ignore the fact that he averaged 5.67 turnovers a game for the series. Part of this I put on LeBron for trying to pass the ball too much (does he know how bad his teammates are?), and some of this I put on coach Mike James for having only one offensive play in his playbook – Give LeBron the ball at the top of the key and let him try to beat his man off the dribble or pass to an open shooter.
LeBron’s game winner at the end of game 3 might have been the worst case of a missed traveling call the NBA has ever seen, and that’s really saying something when you consider traveling was unofficially removed from the NBA rule book in 1985 when Patrick Ewing entered the league.
I was hoping Washington would win this series, as I felt they had a better chance at challenging Detroit than Cleveland. I found it hard to believe, but Washington swept the season series against Detroit this year 3-0. Needless to say, Detroit breathed a sigh of relief when LeBron’s game-winners went in and Gilbert’s wide open 3-pointer at the end of game 3 rimmed out.
5. Detroit vs. Milwaukee (Detroit in 5 games)
Everyone knew Detroit was going to win this series going away in 4-5 games, and that’s exactly what happened. Detroit would have faced much more resistance from Orlando if they had managed to make the playoffs. The only reason I paid any attention to this series was it marked the first playoff games in the career of former University of Texas and Naismith/Wooden award winner TJ Ford.
Detroit pretty much dominated the series, with the exception of game 3, when Milwaukee shot lights-out and pulled away for a 124-104 victory. Milwaukee has the same problem as Phoenix and Washington, which is also the same problem Cleveland will have with Detroit in Round 2. They don’t play any defense.
TJ Ford’s stats for the series: 12.6 ppg, 6.4 apg (3.2 TO/game), 4.0 rpg. Ford’s best game of the series was easily game 3, when he had only 7 points, but 7 rebounds and 15 assists with only one turnover. Against one of the league’s top 2-3 defenses, the assist/TO ratio in this game was really something special. It’s good to see TJ back playing again after returning from surgery for spinal stenosis and a bruised spinal cord suffered during his 2003-04 rookie season.
4. Miami vs. Chicago (Miami in 6 games)
I’ve been a big fan of the baby Bulls since they hired Gritty, Gutsy Scott Skiles as their head coach. This very young team of NCAA All-Stars has taken on the personality of their coach, the man who holds the NBA record for assists in a game (30). While the Eastern Conference is currently owned by Miami and Detroit, the future of the Eastern Conference is Cleveland, Chicago, and Orlando. These three teams will be dominating the Eastern Conference within 2-3 years.
This series featured 11 players who played in the Final Four during their college career, including three from 2003 and four from 2004 (Luol Deng, Chris Duhon, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luke Schenscher, Derek Anderson, Michael Doleac, Udonis Haslem, Wayne Simien, Dwyane Wade, and Antoine Walker). I’m too lazy to look up if this is a record or not, but it has to be close.
Not much else to say about this series, except to state the obvious that Pat Riley has screwed up everything for the Heat organization in the last 11 months. He ran Stan Van Jeremy out of town. He gave Shaq $100M to play for another 5 years, and Shaq will probably play in about half the regular season games during this contract. So on an 82-game basis, Riley is paying Shaq closer to $40M a season, and Shaq has already been passed over by Yao in productivity this year. Riley brought in as many egos (including his own to the bench) as Isiah Thomas has shoot-first point guards and undersized centers. There are no decent role players on this team, and Shaq’s contract will destroy any chances this team has of getting any to help win a title between 2007 and 2010.
How many good years will Wade have left after Shaq’s contract finally comes off the books and they can rebuild again? How effectively will they rebuild with Riley making the personnel decisions? Who can fire Riley as the head coach, and if nobody can, how long will it be before he realizes he should have never come back to the bench in the first place?
3. Phoenix vs. LA Lakers (Phoenix in 7 games)
I know what you’re thinking… why isn’t this series ranked #1 on my list? This series went 7 games, pretty much every game going down to the wire. It included the guy who reportedly won the MVP award and the guy who should have won it (see Simmons column here on why Mamba should have won it instead of Nash. Numerous ESPN columnists even suggested in the last week that this was the best first round series ever (I disagree by the way… the best first round series I remember watching was the 1999 best-of-5 series between the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz).
The reason this series ranked no higher than third on my list is I think both teams involved in this series would have lost a series to either team in the Dallas/Memphis or San Antonio/Sacramento series.
The thing I love the most about game 7 is every single pre-game quote from every player on both teams includes the TNT slogan “Win or Go Home.”
The turning point in the momentum of this series had nothing to do with this series at all. The series turned at the point when the Clippers won their series 4-1. With the Lakers already up 3-1 at the time, every sports-writer in America, including Bill Simmons, proceded to write an article speculating on the possibility of a Lakers/Clippers 2nd round playoff, dubbed the “Hallway Series”. The cardinal rule of sports is whenever the media assumes that anything is a foregone conclusion, the opposite will pretty much always happen. The most blatent example of this in recent memory is the ESPN series on whether or not USC’s 2005 football team was the greatest team ever, BEFORE THEY EVEN WON THE ROSE BOWL! Well, we all know how that turned out, don’t we? Other examples include Miami also being called the "best ever" prior to losing the 2002 Fiesta Bowl and Oklahoma’s 2003 football team, called the “greatest offense ever” before they scored 21 combined points in their final two games of the season, both losses. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they weren’t able to overcome the cardinal rule.
The highlight of following this series has to be Mamba’s “Who IS this guy?! Do I KNOW this guy?!... Maybe he wasn’t hugged enough as a kid” trash talk lesson he gave to Raja Bell. In my view, it has already achieved the same status in terms of humor, memorability, and repeat listen-to-ability as Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?!?” press conference and AI’s “Practice!” press conference. The only thing that separates them is that Jim Mora’s and AI’s soliloquies were great examples of unintentional comedy, while Black Mamba’s display of comedy was completely intentional.
2. Dallas vs. Memphis (Dallas in 4 games)
Dallas was pretty much the most impressive team in the first round of the playoffs, but then again, so were the Spurs when they played Memphis in the first round in 2004 and the Suns when they played Memphis in the first round in 2005, and neither of those teams won the title. Dallas was the only team to get a sweep in the first round, and they did so against a high-quality opponent in Memphis, who is the tough-luck team of playoff pairings. The teams the Grizz have played in the first round of the NBA Playoffs the last three years won 57, 62, and 60 games during the regular season. So while they have the worst losing streak to start the playoffs ever, they have also probably played the hardest schedule of any team in their first three playoff series.
Now that Dallas has finally replaced Nellie with Avery Johnson, and because Dallas kept their core roster together for the first time since Cuban bought the team, the Mavs are a legitimate title contender for the first time ever under Cubes. Dallas will win an NBA title in the next 5 years as long as they keep Dirk, Howard, Terry, and Devin Harris, but I don’t think they can win it all this year.
This is the first time anyone on Dallas’s roster other than Dirk has faced San Antonio in the playoffs. Ironically, San Antonio has more players on their current roster from Dallas’ 2003 team that played the Spurs (Van Exel, Finley) than Dallas has (Dirk). The way to win a title is to get a good core group of 3 or 4 guys, keep them together for a long time, have them lose to the team that won the title recently, and keep the same group together until you get over the hump and beat them.
The Bad Boys Pistons had to lose to Bird’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers before beating both in 1989. Jordan’s Bulls had to lose to those same Celtics and Pistons before beating them in 1991. The Knicks had to lose to the Bulls from 91-93 before reaching the finals in 94. More recently, the Lakers were swept by the Spurs in 99 before winning the title and dominating the Spurs through 2002, and then the Spurs had to lose to the Lakers in 2001 and 2002 before beating them in 2003 and winning another title.
So the Mavs are still a year away. I’m willing to bet that the year the Mavs beat the Spurs in the playoffs will be the same year they win their first title.
1. San Antonio vs. Sacramento (San Antonio in 6 games)
I went to see game 1 of this series live with the Texas Sports Gal, and watched the Spurs turn an 8 point first quarter lead into a 34 point blowout by halftime. From the moment the teams came out of the locker room at halftime of game 1 until halftime of game 6, this series was as highly competitive, evenly matched, and displayed the highest level of play from both teams as any first round series this year. If Dallas was the most impressive team in round one and Detroit was the 2nd most impressive, San Antonio and Sacramento check in at #3 and #4, respectively. Bonzi Wells played at an MVP level throughout the series, and I have never seen anyone dominate Bruce Bowen over the course of an entire series like Wells did here. Wells averaged 23.2 ppg, 12 rpg, and shot 63% on 3-pointers in this series, numbers that compare very favorably to Duncan’s two MVP seasons (2002: 25.5/12.7 2003: 23.3/12.9). So Bonzi Wells is this year’s Jerome James, the guy who will parlay one playoff series in a contract year to get an NBA GM like Isiah to pay him twice what he is worth.
Quick story… The Texas Sports Gal is a big Manu fan… she has a figurine of Manu over our fireplace, she wears a Manu jersey whenever we watch the Spurs play, and today I found a laminated newspaper photo of Bonzi grabbing Manu’s pants. After Manu lost game 3 on his 7th turnover of the night in the final seconds, I told the Texas Sports Gal I would burn the Manu jersey if he had another game like this one. After Manu scored three points in game four, I told her I won’t have to burn it because it will become obsolete once the Spurs trade him in the off-season. But Manu came back strong in game 5 as he always seems to do, so her #20 jersey is safe for at least another couple weeks.
Two final things I wanted to mention about this series. First, although Duncan’s stats in this series are very comparable to his season stats, he looked better in this series than he has all year. Second, Rick Adelman did a very impressive coaching job in this series, and the Maloofs would be insane not to re-sign him to a contract extension and keep him around as long as he wants to be around those two loonies. Nobody, including Phil Jackson, did a better coaching job than Adelman.
Bring on the Mavs.
(As a side note, as I write this column, I am watching the Rocky marathon on TNT. Rocky just went toe-to-toe with Hulk Hogan, playing the role of a pro wrestler named Thunderlips, who can best be described as a cross between WWE Superstars The Godfather and Val Venis. My favorite thing about the Rocky movies is that in 5 movies and multiple fight scenes, there is not a single punch blocked in the entire series; every punch either connects right on the kisser or hits nothing but air. If real boxing matches were anything like the fights in the Rocky movies, I would order every single boxing pay-per-view. I have never ordered a boxing pay-per-view)
8. New Jersey vs. Indiana (New Jersey in 6 games)
Is this series over yet? Who won? Since only two games in this series made it on national TV, I saw about 2 quarters of play in this entire series, and judging from the Sportscenter highlights, I don’t really feel like I missed anything. New Jersey won the series in 6 games, and only one game was decided by 5 points or less. This was your typical post-1998 Eastern Conference first round playoff series between two teams that probably wouldn’t even make the playoffs if they played in the West.
Jason Kidd got outplayed by his former backup Anthony Johnson. I bring this up as it relates to my favorite NBA team (the Spurs) and the current state of their franchise. After the 2003 NBA Finals, when the Spurs beat the Nets, Kidd became a free agent that summer. Kidd expressed an interest in playing for San Antonio with Tim Duncan, and the Spurs made a fairly strong push to sign Kidd that offseason, due primarily to the struggles of the 21-year old Tony Parker during this series. Because Kidd was the runner up to Duncan in the MVP voting in 2002 and just led the Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances, the 30-year old Kidd was commanding a max contract on the free agent market at the time. Signing Kidd would have been a huge mistake and the Spurs would not have been able to re-sign Parker or Ginobili if they signed Kidd. The best Kidd could do against his former backup in this series was 8 ppg on 29% shooting. Meanwhile, Parker and Ginobili have both made an all-star game since Kidd signed with New Jersey, and both have signed 6 year deals with the Spurs. The COMBINED value of Parker’s and Ginobili’s contracts is a mere $118M, and against Sacramento, these two combined for 37 points a game on a combined 49.7% shooting. Kidd not signing with the Spurs is the best thing to happen to the Spurs organization since winning the Draft Lottery in 1997.
The only other thing worth noting in this series… Peja Stojakovic only played 2 games in the series. Anyone else think that Larry Legend regrets not pulling the trigger on the Artest-for-Maggette trade right now? This decision by Bird is magnified even more when you consider Peja is a free agent this summer.
7. Denver vs. LA Clippers (Clippers in 5 games)
This was the series of the quitters. One team quit with 3 weeks left in the regular season (LA Clippers), and the other team quit once the playoffs began (Denver). The Clippers took an intentional nose-dive at the end of the season, going 5-6 in April to avoid the 5th seed in the West and consequently avoid the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. But then again, what else would you expect from a team who is known more for losing than anything else?
Worrying about your first round series opponent enough to intentionally lose games is not only chicken-[censored], it is also the sign of a team that gets satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment by getting to the 2nd round. Let me use this as an avenue to comment on the current NBA playoff seeding format, which has drawn constant criticism for the Mavs being seeded 4th despite having the conference’s 2nd best record…
As a Spurs fan, it doesn’t bother me one bit that the Spurs have to play the Mavs in the 2nd round instead of the conference finals, because my expectations are that the Spurs should win the NBA title every year, so if they don’t win the title, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me whether they lose in game 7 of the NBA Finals or get swept in the first round. This is why you will find a lot more Mavs fans complaining about the playoff seeding system than you do Spurs fans. Mavs fans care about making the conference finals, while Spurs fans care only about winning the title.
I also want to mention that my thoughts and prayers go out to George Karl and his family, as he has had a very difficult year. George underwent treatment for prostate cancer earlier this season, and we know now that George’s son Coby is currently undergoing radiation treatment for thyroid cancer . May God bless the Karl family, and deliver George and Coby from their battles with cancer. “By His wounds, we are healed” -1 Peter 2:24
Back to the action on the court… The only real event worth commenting about in a series of quitters is the testy exchange between Chris Kaman and Reggie Evans in game 4. If you haven’t seen it or missed it, you can see the video here. I’ve been watching NBA games for roughly 20 years, and I have NEVER seen anything like what Evans did to Kaman on this play. I’ve never even seen anything like this in my 15 years of being a fan of pro wrestling. In fact, the only time I remember anyone even suggesting anything remotely close to what Reggie Evans did was by R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, when he speculated that Private Cowboy is “… the kind of guy that would [censored] a person in the [censored] and not even have the [censored] courtesy to give him a reach-around!” As a result, from this moment forward, Reggie Evans will be referred to as Private Cowboy.
The thing that bothers me the most about this incident is the punishment Private Cowboy got from the league relative to all other fines and suspensions handed out in the first round. Private Cowboy received a $10,000 fine and no suspension from the league for grabbing and pulling on Chris Kaman’s nuts. Here’s a catalog of all other fines/suspensions in the first round:
Raja Bell: Suspended one game w/out pay for clothesline and take-down of Black Mamba.
Dirk Nowitzky: Fined $15,000 for flagrant foul of Pau Gasol, excessive hard foul.
Richard Hamilton: Fined $15,000 for what looked like an inadvertent elbow to the head of Michael Redd.
Shaquille O’Neal: Fined $25,000 for criticizing officials
James Posey: Suspended one game w/out pay for shoulder checking Kirk Hinrich.
Ron Artest: Suspended one game w/out pay for an elbow to the head of Manu Ginobili when it appeared to me that Manu did a bit of embellishing the impact of the elbow. The irony here is on the first play of the same game, Manu inadvertently elbowed Artest in the mouth and Ron Ron needed 3 stitches in his mouth. Manu, meanwhile, was fine after the Artest elbow.
So if you ask me what I would least like to have happen to me between having my job performance criticized, being elbowed in the face, being clotheslined, or having my nuts grabbed and yanked from behind by another man, the latter is the one that would bother me the most. But according to the league office, the nut-grabbing incident warranted the smallest penalty of any fines and suspensions handed down by the league. Maybe Stu Jackson has no balls after all.
6. Cleveland vs. Washington (Cleveland in 6 games)
The only thing that keeps this series from being ranked #8 on my list is the spectacular talent of LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas. The series had some exciting finishes and was very competitive throughout, with two games going to overtime and Cleveland winning three of their four games by only one point. However, both teams play absolutely no defense, both teams do nothing but play one-on-one offense, and if you removed LeBron and Arenas from their respective teams, each team would win about 15 games. These are easily the two worst-coached teams in the playoffs.
As good as LeBron was offensively in this series, it’s hard to ignore the fact that he averaged 5.67 turnovers a game for the series. Part of this I put on LeBron for trying to pass the ball too much (does he know how bad his teammates are?), and some of this I put on coach Mike James for having only one offensive play in his playbook – Give LeBron the ball at the top of the key and let him try to beat his man off the dribble or pass to an open shooter.
LeBron’s game winner at the end of game 3 might have been the worst case of a missed traveling call the NBA has ever seen, and that’s really saying something when you consider traveling was unofficially removed from the NBA rule book in 1985 when Patrick Ewing entered the league.
I was hoping Washington would win this series, as I felt they had a better chance at challenging Detroit than Cleveland. I found it hard to believe, but Washington swept the season series against Detroit this year 3-0. Needless to say, Detroit breathed a sigh of relief when LeBron’s game-winners went in and Gilbert’s wide open 3-pointer at the end of game 3 rimmed out.
5. Detroit vs. Milwaukee (Detroit in 5 games)
Everyone knew Detroit was going to win this series going away in 4-5 games, and that’s exactly what happened. Detroit would have faced much more resistance from Orlando if they had managed to make the playoffs. The only reason I paid any attention to this series was it marked the first playoff games in the career of former University of Texas and Naismith/Wooden award winner TJ Ford.
Detroit pretty much dominated the series, with the exception of game 3, when Milwaukee shot lights-out and pulled away for a 124-104 victory. Milwaukee has the same problem as Phoenix and Washington, which is also the same problem Cleveland will have with Detroit in Round 2. They don’t play any defense.
TJ Ford’s stats for the series: 12.6 ppg, 6.4 apg (3.2 TO/game), 4.0 rpg. Ford’s best game of the series was easily game 3, when he had only 7 points, but 7 rebounds and 15 assists with only one turnover. Against one of the league’s top 2-3 defenses, the assist/TO ratio in this game was really something special. It’s good to see TJ back playing again after returning from surgery for spinal stenosis and a bruised spinal cord suffered during his 2003-04 rookie season.
4. Miami vs. Chicago (Miami in 6 games)
I’ve been a big fan of the baby Bulls since they hired Gritty, Gutsy Scott Skiles as their head coach. This very young team of NCAA All-Stars has taken on the personality of their coach, the man who holds the NBA record for assists in a game (30). While the Eastern Conference is currently owned by Miami and Detroit, the future of the Eastern Conference is Cleveland, Chicago, and Orlando. These three teams will be dominating the Eastern Conference within 2-3 years.
This series featured 11 players who played in the Final Four during their college career, including three from 2003 and four from 2004 (Luol Deng, Chris Duhon, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luke Schenscher, Derek Anderson, Michael Doleac, Udonis Haslem, Wayne Simien, Dwyane Wade, and Antoine Walker). I’m too lazy to look up if this is a record or not, but it has to be close.
Not much else to say about this series, except to state the obvious that Pat Riley has screwed up everything for the Heat organization in the last 11 months. He ran Stan Van Jeremy out of town. He gave Shaq $100M to play for another 5 years, and Shaq will probably play in about half the regular season games during this contract. So on an 82-game basis, Riley is paying Shaq closer to $40M a season, and Shaq has already been passed over by Yao in productivity this year. Riley brought in as many egos (including his own to the bench) as Isiah Thomas has shoot-first point guards and undersized centers. There are no decent role players on this team, and Shaq’s contract will destroy any chances this team has of getting any to help win a title between 2007 and 2010.
How many good years will Wade have left after Shaq’s contract finally comes off the books and they can rebuild again? How effectively will they rebuild with Riley making the personnel decisions? Who can fire Riley as the head coach, and if nobody can, how long will it be before he realizes he should have never come back to the bench in the first place?
3. Phoenix vs. LA Lakers (Phoenix in 7 games)
I know what you’re thinking… why isn’t this series ranked #1 on my list? This series went 7 games, pretty much every game going down to the wire. It included the guy who reportedly won the MVP award and the guy who should have won it (see Simmons column here on why Mamba should have won it instead of Nash. Numerous ESPN columnists even suggested in the last week that this was the best first round series ever (I disagree by the way… the best first round series I remember watching was the 1999 best-of-5 series between the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz).
The reason this series ranked no higher than third on my list is I think both teams involved in this series would have lost a series to either team in the Dallas/Memphis or San Antonio/Sacramento series.
The thing I love the most about game 7 is every single pre-game quote from every player on both teams includes the TNT slogan “Win or Go Home.”
The turning point in the momentum of this series had nothing to do with this series at all. The series turned at the point when the Clippers won their series 4-1. With the Lakers already up 3-1 at the time, every sports-writer in America, including Bill Simmons, proceded to write an article speculating on the possibility of a Lakers/Clippers 2nd round playoff, dubbed the “Hallway Series”. The cardinal rule of sports is whenever the media assumes that anything is a foregone conclusion, the opposite will pretty much always happen. The most blatent example of this in recent memory is the ESPN series on whether or not USC’s 2005 football team was the greatest team ever, BEFORE THEY EVEN WON THE ROSE BOWL! Well, we all know how that turned out, don’t we? Other examples include Miami also being called the "best ever" prior to losing the 2002 Fiesta Bowl and Oklahoma’s 2003 football team, called the “greatest offense ever” before they scored 21 combined points in their final two games of the season, both losses. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they weren’t able to overcome the cardinal rule.
The highlight of following this series has to be Mamba’s “Who IS this guy?! Do I KNOW this guy?!... Maybe he wasn’t hugged enough as a kid” trash talk lesson he gave to Raja Bell. In my view, it has already achieved the same status in terms of humor, memorability, and repeat listen-to-ability as Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?!?” press conference and AI’s “Practice!” press conference. The only thing that separates them is that Jim Mora’s and AI’s soliloquies were great examples of unintentional comedy, while Black Mamba’s display of comedy was completely intentional.
2. Dallas vs. Memphis (Dallas in 4 games)
Dallas was pretty much the most impressive team in the first round of the playoffs, but then again, so were the Spurs when they played Memphis in the first round in 2004 and the Suns when they played Memphis in the first round in 2005, and neither of those teams won the title. Dallas was the only team to get a sweep in the first round, and they did so against a high-quality opponent in Memphis, who is the tough-luck team of playoff pairings. The teams the Grizz have played in the first round of the NBA Playoffs the last three years won 57, 62, and 60 games during the regular season. So while they have the worst losing streak to start the playoffs ever, they have also probably played the hardest schedule of any team in their first three playoff series.
Now that Dallas has finally replaced Nellie with Avery Johnson, and because Dallas kept their core roster together for the first time since Cuban bought the team, the Mavs are a legitimate title contender for the first time ever under Cubes. Dallas will win an NBA title in the next 5 years as long as they keep Dirk, Howard, Terry, and Devin Harris, but I don’t think they can win it all this year.
This is the first time anyone on Dallas’s roster other than Dirk has faced San Antonio in the playoffs. Ironically, San Antonio has more players on their current roster from Dallas’ 2003 team that played the Spurs (Van Exel, Finley) than Dallas has (Dirk). The way to win a title is to get a good core group of 3 or 4 guys, keep them together for a long time, have them lose to the team that won the title recently, and keep the same group together until you get over the hump and beat them.
The Bad Boys Pistons had to lose to Bird’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers before beating both in 1989. Jordan’s Bulls had to lose to those same Celtics and Pistons before beating them in 1991. The Knicks had to lose to the Bulls from 91-93 before reaching the finals in 94. More recently, the Lakers were swept by the Spurs in 99 before winning the title and dominating the Spurs through 2002, and then the Spurs had to lose to the Lakers in 2001 and 2002 before beating them in 2003 and winning another title.
So the Mavs are still a year away. I’m willing to bet that the year the Mavs beat the Spurs in the playoffs will be the same year they win their first title.
1. San Antonio vs. Sacramento (San Antonio in 6 games)
I went to see game 1 of this series live with the Texas Sports Gal, and watched the Spurs turn an 8 point first quarter lead into a 34 point blowout by halftime. From the moment the teams came out of the locker room at halftime of game 1 until halftime of game 6, this series was as highly competitive, evenly matched, and displayed the highest level of play from both teams as any first round series this year. If Dallas was the most impressive team in round one and Detroit was the 2nd most impressive, San Antonio and Sacramento check in at #3 and #4, respectively. Bonzi Wells played at an MVP level throughout the series, and I have never seen anyone dominate Bruce Bowen over the course of an entire series like Wells did here. Wells averaged 23.2 ppg, 12 rpg, and shot 63% on 3-pointers in this series, numbers that compare very favorably to Duncan’s two MVP seasons (2002: 25.5/12.7 2003: 23.3/12.9). So Bonzi Wells is this year’s Jerome James, the guy who will parlay one playoff series in a contract year to get an NBA GM like Isiah to pay him twice what he is worth.
Quick story… The Texas Sports Gal is a big Manu fan… she has a figurine of Manu over our fireplace, she wears a Manu jersey whenever we watch the Spurs play, and today I found a laminated newspaper photo of Bonzi grabbing Manu’s pants. After Manu lost game 3 on his 7th turnover of the night in the final seconds, I told the Texas Sports Gal I would burn the Manu jersey if he had another game like this one. After Manu scored three points in game four, I told her I won’t have to burn it because it will become obsolete once the Spurs trade him in the off-season. But Manu came back strong in game 5 as he always seems to do, so her #20 jersey is safe for at least another couple weeks.
Two final things I wanted to mention about this series. First, although Duncan’s stats in this series are very comparable to his season stats, he looked better in this series than he has all year. Second, Rick Adelman did a very impressive coaching job in this series, and the Maloofs would be insane not to re-sign him to a contract extension and keep him around as long as he wants to be around those two loonies. Nobody, including Phil Jackson, did a better coaching job than Adelman.
Bring on the Mavs.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Introducing... The Texas Sports Guy
With my first blog entry, I would like to introduce myself and explain to anyone visiting this site the premise and motivation for creating this blog.
My name is Aaron. I'm 26 years old, Texas native who has lived in Texas my whole life. I was born in Tyler, TX, the hometown of Earl Campbell, and have lived in the Austin area the last 21 years. I attended the University of Texas at Austin from 1998-2002, where I received a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. I married my wife Erica (the Texas Sports Gal) in February of 2005.
Now let me get to the background that matters the most in the context of this blog, my sports background. Those of you who decide to read this will pick up more bits and pieces along the way about my sports fan history. Before anything else, I am a Texas Longhorn, the greatest athletic department in all of college sports over the last 5 years. I bleed burnt orange, I am an annual season ticket holder for both the UT football and men's basketball programs. I attended in person each of the last two Rose Bowls, both won thanks to the heroics of Vince Young (who will be referred to as Vince from here on out, as the 2006 Rose Bowl game puts him in the same category as Earl, Ricky, and Major in Texas football history... the category of those known only by their first name). The reason I tell you I am a longhorn first and foremost is so you know this takes precedence over any and all allegiances to any professional sports franchise. I care more about UT alumni performing well at the professional level than I do my favorite professional teams winning.
So if any of you are familiar with ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons, the idea is to create my own columns in the same style and context as he does, from a fan's perspective more than that of an objective columnist. I enjoy the style that Simmons writes in, but I get sick of reading some of his opinions, especially those regarding my favorite local teams that he has no idea about. So this blog is created to give local fans a chance to read the same type of columns, but columns that have a MUCH greater knowledge base of the teams I'm writing about than someone who divides his time pretty equally between the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Clippers.
An example of Simmons' recent ignorance: In a column written March 17th, 2006, Bill Simmons said the following about the San Antonio Spurs after watching them lose to the Clippers playing the 2nd night of a back-to-back... (paraphrasing)... The Spurs and Mavericks are both less likely than the Miami Heat to win the NBA title... The Spurs are tired of each other and their coach, but the Heat get a grade of "A" for team chemistry (anyone see Chicago/Miami game 4 the other day?)... This is Pop's last season coaching the Spurs. Of course anyone that follows the Spurs and Mavs on a regular basis knows these comments are just ludicrous.
So my gift to you, Texas sports fans, is my blog. No longer are you limited to a Boston-homer slant on fan columns. This is for you. Please feel free to comment and respond to anything you see written on this blog.
-The Texas Sports Guy
My name is Aaron. I'm 26 years old, Texas native who has lived in Texas my whole life. I was born in Tyler, TX, the hometown of Earl Campbell, and have lived in the Austin area the last 21 years. I attended the University of Texas at Austin from 1998-2002, where I received a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. I married my wife Erica (the Texas Sports Gal) in February of 2005.
Now let me get to the background that matters the most in the context of this blog, my sports background. Those of you who decide to read this will pick up more bits and pieces along the way about my sports fan history. Before anything else, I am a Texas Longhorn, the greatest athletic department in all of college sports over the last 5 years. I bleed burnt orange, I am an annual season ticket holder for both the UT football and men's basketball programs. I attended in person each of the last two Rose Bowls, both won thanks to the heroics of Vince Young (who will be referred to as Vince from here on out, as the 2006 Rose Bowl game puts him in the same category as Earl, Ricky, and Major in Texas football history... the category of those known only by their first name). The reason I tell you I am a longhorn first and foremost is so you know this takes precedence over any and all allegiances to any professional sports franchise. I care more about UT alumni performing well at the professional level than I do my favorite professional teams winning.
So if any of you are familiar with ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons, the idea is to create my own columns in the same style and context as he does, from a fan's perspective more than that of an objective columnist. I enjoy the style that Simmons writes in, but I get sick of reading some of his opinions, especially those regarding my favorite local teams that he has no idea about. So this blog is created to give local fans a chance to read the same type of columns, but columns that have a MUCH greater knowledge base of the teams I'm writing about than someone who divides his time pretty equally between the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Clippers.
An example of Simmons' recent ignorance: In a column written March 17th, 2006, Bill Simmons said the following about the San Antonio Spurs after watching them lose to the Clippers playing the 2nd night of a back-to-back... (paraphrasing)... The Spurs and Mavericks are both less likely than the Miami Heat to win the NBA title... The Spurs are tired of each other and their coach, but the Heat get a grade of "A" for team chemistry (anyone see Chicago/Miami game 4 the other day?)... This is Pop's last season coaching the Spurs. Of course anyone that follows the Spurs and Mavs on a regular basis knows these comments are just ludicrous.
So my gift to you, Texas sports fans, is my blog. No longer are you limited to a Boston-homer slant on fan columns. This is for you. Please feel free to comment and respond to anything you see written on this blog.
-The Texas Sports Guy
