Finally, the NBA Review has been launched!
Some music from Waldeck, here’s Floater:
I’ve been beating myself about how to approach this but I think that I’ll do a Power Ranking and through that, I should hit on all of my points.
These posts will be for the novice follower of the NBA and the diehards like me. However, I know the readership leans more towards the former, so if I make simple points like LeBron James will be a free agent in two years or Derrick Rose is really good, its for the less educated of the NBA.
First, some Random Thoughts:
-The All-Star game is fine the way it is. Its entertainment. Keep the contests, the rookie game, all of it. If anything, condense Friday and Saturday to one day. Have the rookie game in the early afternoon and the contest that night, preferably on Saturday. Other than that, keep it.
-I thoroughly enjoyed the Kenny Smith vs. Gary Payton argument regarding All-Star selections. I get that you should reward players on winning teams but if someone is playing at an All-Star level on a losing team, they deserve it as well.
In this case, Al Jefferson should have been on the All-Star team before Pau Gasol or David West. However, if you wanted to argue Mo Williams over Devin Harris, I can understand it. Personally, I would have taken Mo over Jameer Nelson and kept Harris on the East squad.
-The unofficial/official courting of LeBron James to the Knicks is bad and I’m a Knicks fan.
When you have Nike’s t-shirt company producing blue and orange colored shirts talking about Lebron in 2010 and selling them, that’s bad. I’ve always thought that the rumors of Nike offering LeBron $50 million to sign with New York was not true but you see stuff like that and it makes you wonder…
1) Los Angeles Lakers: They’re the best team in the NBA right now. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to win a title. Bynum is such a major component to their team, especially on defense. Its nice for Kobe to score all of those points but its been the defense of the Lakers in the past that has messed them up in the playoffs. Now we get to see the Kobe show and him taking a bunch of shots and not passing to his teammates. However, Gasol and especially Odom have been playing out of their minds lately, so this helps as well. If Odom played like he did against Cleveland on Sunday on a consistent basis, then its over for the rest of the league.
2) Boston Celtics: They’re still the champions and the best team in the East. The two main differences from last season to this season for this team is both a good and bad thing. The good difference has been the play of Rondo at the point. He’s turned into an All-Star level player and this will help them. The bad difference is a weaker bench. Losing Posey to New Orleans and PJ Brown to assumed retirement hurts them. The bench, consisting of Eddie House, Leon Powe and Glen Davis is doing OK now but watch them in the playoffs. Also, Doc Rivers needs to watch the minutes of the Big Three, those are old legs.
3) Cleveland Cavs: I really like this team, especially with Mo Williams. Too bad Michael Redd tore his knee up because I seriously think that he would have gone to the Cavs and Cleveland would have celebrated their first team title in a long time. However, they will work with what they have, which isn’t bad. Lebron James is your mid-season MVP, they play defense and are finally starting to score. I didn’t like seeing the inside scoring against them on Sunday when they have Ben Wallace and some other decent inside defenders.
4) San Antonio: Just when you think that they’re out, they make their way back in. They are dangerous now more than ever because they finally have some other guys that are making contributions besides their own Big Three. Roger Mason, Jr. and George Hill are giving them something. The only problem with them is that Bruce Bowen is done and their bench is a little thin for my liking to compete for a title. I think that the Lakers wear them down in a playoff series.
5) Orlando Magic: Even before Nelson went down with the season-ender I was unsure about these guys. Dwight Howard is nice but I don’t like a team that shoots too many perimeter shots. They hit most of them but that shooting can get cold in a hurry in a playoff series. While its good to see College of Charleston legend Anthony Johnson playing more minutes at point, that’s not good for making a title run.
6) Denver Nuggets: The Chauncey Billups trade was tremendous for them. They finally had a leader at the point who would get the ball in the right places and at least attempt to play some defense. Carmelo Anthony continued his growth into an elite player pre-broken hand and should round into form at the right time. Two, actually make that three things worry me about them. First, you don’t know which J.R. Smith will show up. Second, George Karl seems too unsteady for me and third, most importantly, I don’t know if they play enough defense to sustain an elite level of play.
7) New Orleans Hornets: My preseason NBA Champions have had a decent season but more has been expected. Chris Paul is still playing at an elite level, but there has been a slight drop off from the rest of the team, especially Tyson Chandler. Also, the injury bug has caught these guys. They are still going to be heard from.
8) Dallas Mavs: Still disliked the Kidd for Devin Harris trade, even when it happened. Rick Carlisle has done a decent job and it was good to read that he has stopped micromanaging the games and let Kidd run the offense. The dude is a future Hall of Famer, he can handle it. Jason Terry breaking his hand is bad news for these guys.
A slight side note. I’m shocked that more guys don’t injure themselves, especially in the hand area.
9) Portland Trail Blazers: Wow, aren’t we on a run of West teams. My friend Jonathan, one of the only guys I knows that follows the NBA more than I do, said that this is his sleeper team to cause damage in the postseason. I like that call. I just don’t think that they are ready to make that leap to a conference finals. Roy has become the alpha dog on that team, which is good because Portland seemed like it could turn into one of those teams where they have a lot of good role guys but you need that one superstar to get to the next level. Greg Oden is trying and I see moments of potential but this is looking like a potentially bad pick and I feel bad saying that half a year into his career and especially after he lost his entire first season. I’m going to give him more time.
10) Houston Rockets: They just can’t stay on the court because of injuries and are still in the playoffs. Adelman deserves some Coach of the Year votes. You would think that Yao Ming would be the one missing a lot of time but he’s been there the whole season. Tracy McGrady, the injuries have just slowed him down and he’s playing a lot older than he is.
11) Phoenix Suns: Don’t trade Amare Stoudemire. I know that he can be a pain and doesn’t play defense like he should but you don’t trade away a 26-year old stud like him. Shaq, Grant Hill and Steve Nash are going to be gone from the team in two seasons, so don’t try to blow things up for a moment now when it will screw you over later.
12) Utah Jazz: Deron Williams is back and doing his thing. Will it be enough to make the playoffs, I don’t know. If I had to choose now, I would say yes and the Mavs would be out at the end of the season. They have an interesting decision to make over Boozer vs. Paul Millsap this offseason. I say go with youth and let Boozer opt out and take his injury-prone skills to another place.
13) Philadelphia 76ers: Finally, an Eastern conference team. The Elton Brand injury is tough but it does allow the team to truly start running and gunning, which won’t get you much accept maybe the fourth seed in the playoffs, not so bad. Plus, whenever I get to see the Dalembeast in action, good times!
14) Detroit Pistons: Wow, I have 13 teams above Detroit. That’s strange to see but those are the breaks. I get the Iverson trade but Stuckey has let them down some this season at guard. Rip coming off the bench is the nice team thing to do but really, Iverson is the one who needs to do it.
15) Miami Heat: It was between them and Atlanta for this spot but I’m going with the team with the best player. Wade has been playing at an MVP level but the rest leaves some desiring. Chalmers has been a nice emergence at point guard. Beasley is a rookie and playing like one. The enigma that is Shawn Marion is doing what he does and all signs point to a departure at the end of the season.
16) Atlanta Hawks: Such a hard team to figure out. Marvin Williams is playing better but still doesn’t make up for not picking Chris Paul. That moment made me stop following the Hawks every day. Then when they took Mr. Candice Parker with the fifth pick over Brandon Roy and Randy Foye, I stopped being a fan. That type of ineptitude was not going to be cosigned by me.
17) New Jersey Nets: Devin Harris has been excellent and Vince Carter seems to care again, good for you Vinnie, but the rest is eh. They would be a fun team in the playoffs.
18) Chicago Bulls: I’m going to try to get the biggest Bulls fan that I know, Jonathan, to give his thoughts on the team in this forum every week, but not this one. Derrick Rose is legit and Tyrus Thomas is slowly playing to his potential. The rest of the team is a mismatch of parts.
19) New York Knicks: This past week was embarrassing for a team that I’m a fan of. Letting Kobe get 61 was awful. At least foul the guy, send a message. Lebron going for 51 and his almost triple-double was bad but I wasn’t completely peeved over it because it seemed like the team was trying some. I like Mike D’Antoni and his system. Its going to be a long process.
20) Milwaukee Bucks: Redd’s injury is devastating. Losing Bogut and Ridnour for an extended period is just torturous for that team.
21) Indiana Pacers: Danny Granger is nice, Dunleavy is solid when healthy, the rest is the rest.
22) Minnesota Timberwolves: Would be much higher if Jefferson didn’t tear his knee up. Hearing that news hurt because it was good seeing him develop into a true low-post beast this season. At least they will see what they have in Kevin Love.
23) Charlotte Bobcats: Just moved Morrison and apparently Felton is on the trading block as well to give Augustein some PT.
24) The former Seattle Sonics: Yes, I’m going there. Durant is putting up some impressive numbers but getting Westbrook and Green going is of importance as well or losing some more games to be in the Blake Griffin Sweepstakes, whichever suits them I guess.
25) Golden State Warriors: Good to see Monta Ellis playing again after Moded-gate. The lesson as always, beware of all forms of transportation.
26) Toronto Raptors: Complete mess and now Bosh hurt his knee.
27) LA Clippers: If Toronto is a mess then the Clippers are an f’n debacle. Bad contracts, hurt veterans, bad ownership, not ready for primetime youngsters, worst coaching job in the NBA this season, irritated to the point of revolt fan base, wow, not fun.
28) Memphis Grizzlies: They deserve their own post for the ineptitude they’ve shown the past two years. Mayo has been good at point but he shouldn’t even have to play there if Conley was playing like he’s supposed to. The whole future of that franchise is on Conley.
29) Washington Wizards: Injuries have just dismantled this team. Arenas’ knee will never be right.
30) Sacramento Kings: Trade everyone not named Kevin Martin.
That’s all, I don’t know if this format will stay, but it’s a start. What do you guys think?
Some music from Waldeck, here’s Floater:
I’ve been beating myself about how to approach this but I think that I’ll do a Power Ranking and through that, I should hit on all of my points.
These posts will be for the novice follower of the NBA and the diehards like me. However, I know the readership leans more towards the former, so if I make simple points like LeBron James will be a free agent in two years or Derrick Rose is really good, its for the less educated of the NBA.
First, some Random Thoughts:
-The All-Star game is fine the way it is. Its entertainment. Keep the contests, the rookie game, all of it. If anything, condense Friday and Saturday to one day. Have the rookie game in the early afternoon and the contest that night, preferably on Saturday. Other than that, keep it.
-I thoroughly enjoyed the Kenny Smith vs. Gary Payton argument regarding All-Star selections. I get that you should reward players on winning teams but if someone is playing at an All-Star level on a losing team, they deserve it as well.
In this case, Al Jefferson should have been on the All-Star team before Pau Gasol or David West. However, if you wanted to argue Mo Williams over Devin Harris, I can understand it. Personally, I would have taken Mo over Jameer Nelson and kept Harris on the East squad.
-The unofficial/official courting of LeBron James to the Knicks is bad and I’m a Knicks fan.
When you have Nike’s t-shirt company producing blue and orange colored shirts talking about Lebron in 2010 and selling them, that’s bad. I’ve always thought that the rumors of Nike offering LeBron $50 million to sign with New York was not true but you see stuff like that and it makes you wonder…
1) Los Angeles Lakers: They’re the best team in the NBA right now. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to win a title. Bynum is such a major component to their team, especially on defense. Its nice for Kobe to score all of those points but its been the defense of the Lakers in the past that has messed them up in the playoffs. Now we get to see the Kobe show and him taking a bunch of shots and not passing to his teammates. However, Gasol and especially Odom have been playing out of their minds lately, so this helps as well. If Odom played like he did against Cleveland on Sunday on a consistent basis, then its over for the rest of the league.
2) Boston Celtics: They’re still the champions and the best team in the East. The two main differences from last season to this season for this team is both a good and bad thing. The good difference has been the play of Rondo at the point. He’s turned into an All-Star level player and this will help them. The bad difference is a weaker bench. Losing Posey to New Orleans and PJ Brown to assumed retirement hurts them. The bench, consisting of Eddie House, Leon Powe and Glen Davis is doing OK now but watch them in the playoffs. Also, Doc Rivers needs to watch the minutes of the Big Three, those are old legs.
3) Cleveland Cavs: I really like this team, especially with Mo Williams. Too bad Michael Redd tore his knee up because I seriously think that he would have gone to the Cavs and Cleveland would have celebrated their first team title in a long time. However, they will work with what they have, which isn’t bad. Lebron James is your mid-season MVP, they play defense and are finally starting to score. I didn’t like seeing the inside scoring against them on Sunday when they have Ben Wallace and some other decent inside defenders.
4) San Antonio: Just when you think that they’re out, they make their way back in. They are dangerous now more than ever because they finally have some other guys that are making contributions besides their own Big Three. Roger Mason, Jr. and George Hill are giving them something. The only problem with them is that Bruce Bowen is done and their bench is a little thin for my liking to compete for a title. I think that the Lakers wear them down in a playoff series.
5) Orlando Magic: Even before Nelson went down with the season-ender I was unsure about these guys. Dwight Howard is nice but I don’t like a team that shoots too many perimeter shots. They hit most of them but that shooting can get cold in a hurry in a playoff series. While its good to see College of Charleston legend Anthony Johnson playing more minutes at point, that’s not good for making a title run.
6) Denver Nuggets: The Chauncey Billups trade was tremendous for them. They finally had a leader at the point who would get the ball in the right places and at least attempt to play some defense. Carmelo Anthony continued his growth into an elite player pre-broken hand and should round into form at the right time. Two, actually make that three things worry me about them. First, you don’t know which J.R. Smith will show up. Second, George Karl seems too unsteady for me and third, most importantly, I don’t know if they play enough defense to sustain an elite level of play.
7) New Orleans Hornets: My preseason NBA Champions have had a decent season but more has been expected. Chris Paul is still playing at an elite level, but there has been a slight drop off from the rest of the team, especially Tyson Chandler. Also, the injury bug has caught these guys. They are still going to be heard from.
8) Dallas Mavs: Still disliked the Kidd for Devin Harris trade, even when it happened. Rick Carlisle has done a decent job and it was good to read that he has stopped micromanaging the games and let Kidd run the offense. The dude is a future Hall of Famer, he can handle it. Jason Terry breaking his hand is bad news for these guys.
A slight side note. I’m shocked that more guys don’t injure themselves, especially in the hand area.
9) Portland Trail Blazers: Wow, aren’t we on a run of West teams. My friend Jonathan, one of the only guys I knows that follows the NBA more than I do, said that this is his sleeper team to cause damage in the postseason. I like that call. I just don’t think that they are ready to make that leap to a conference finals. Roy has become the alpha dog on that team, which is good because Portland seemed like it could turn into one of those teams where they have a lot of good role guys but you need that one superstar to get to the next level. Greg Oden is trying and I see moments of potential but this is looking like a potentially bad pick and I feel bad saying that half a year into his career and especially after he lost his entire first season. I’m going to give him more time.
10) Houston Rockets: They just can’t stay on the court because of injuries and are still in the playoffs. Adelman deserves some Coach of the Year votes. You would think that Yao Ming would be the one missing a lot of time but he’s been there the whole season. Tracy McGrady, the injuries have just slowed him down and he’s playing a lot older than he is.
11) Phoenix Suns: Don’t trade Amare Stoudemire. I know that he can be a pain and doesn’t play defense like he should but you don’t trade away a 26-year old stud like him. Shaq, Grant Hill and Steve Nash are going to be gone from the team in two seasons, so don’t try to blow things up for a moment now when it will screw you over later.
12) Utah Jazz: Deron Williams is back and doing his thing. Will it be enough to make the playoffs, I don’t know. If I had to choose now, I would say yes and the Mavs would be out at the end of the season. They have an interesting decision to make over Boozer vs. Paul Millsap this offseason. I say go with youth and let Boozer opt out and take his injury-prone skills to another place.
13) Philadelphia 76ers: Finally, an Eastern conference team. The Elton Brand injury is tough but it does allow the team to truly start running and gunning, which won’t get you much accept maybe the fourth seed in the playoffs, not so bad. Plus, whenever I get to see the Dalembeast in action, good times!
14) Detroit Pistons: Wow, I have 13 teams above Detroit. That’s strange to see but those are the breaks. I get the Iverson trade but Stuckey has let them down some this season at guard. Rip coming off the bench is the nice team thing to do but really, Iverson is the one who needs to do it.
15) Miami Heat: It was between them and Atlanta for this spot but I’m going with the team with the best player. Wade has been playing at an MVP level but the rest leaves some desiring. Chalmers has been a nice emergence at point guard. Beasley is a rookie and playing like one. The enigma that is Shawn Marion is doing what he does and all signs point to a departure at the end of the season.
16) Atlanta Hawks: Such a hard team to figure out. Marvin Williams is playing better but still doesn’t make up for not picking Chris Paul. That moment made me stop following the Hawks every day. Then when they took Mr. Candice Parker with the fifth pick over Brandon Roy and Randy Foye, I stopped being a fan. That type of ineptitude was not going to be cosigned by me.
17) New Jersey Nets: Devin Harris has been excellent and Vince Carter seems to care again, good for you Vinnie, but the rest is eh. They would be a fun team in the playoffs.
18) Chicago Bulls: I’m going to try to get the biggest Bulls fan that I know, Jonathan, to give his thoughts on the team in this forum every week, but not this one. Derrick Rose is legit and Tyrus Thomas is slowly playing to his potential. The rest of the team is a mismatch of parts.
19) New York Knicks: This past week was embarrassing for a team that I’m a fan of. Letting Kobe get 61 was awful. At least foul the guy, send a message. Lebron going for 51 and his almost triple-double was bad but I wasn’t completely peeved over it because it seemed like the team was trying some. I like Mike D’Antoni and his system. Its going to be a long process.
20) Milwaukee Bucks: Redd’s injury is devastating. Losing Bogut and Ridnour for an extended period is just torturous for that team.
21) Indiana Pacers: Danny Granger is nice, Dunleavy is solid when healthy, the rest is the rest.
22) Minnesota Timberwolves: Would be much higher if Jefferson didn’t tear his knee up. Hearing that news hurt because it was good seeing him develop into a true low-post beast this season. At least they will see what they have in Kevin Love.
23) Charlotte Bobcats: Just moved Morrison and apparently Felton is on the trading block as well to give Augustein some PT.
24) The former Seattle Sonics: Yes, I’m going there. Durant is putting up some impressive numbers but getting Westbrook and Green going is of importance as well or losing some more games to be in the Blake Griffin Sweepstakes, whichever suits them I guess.
25) Golden State Warriors: Good to see Monta Ellis playing again after Moded-gate. The lesson as always, beware of all forms of transportation.
26) Toronto Raptors: Complete mess and now Bosh hurt his knee.
27) LA Clippers: If Toronto is a mess then the Clippers are an f’n debacle. Bad contracts, hurt veterans, bad ownership, not ready for primetime youngsters, worst coaching job in the NBA this season, irritated to the point of revolt fan base, wow, not fun.
28) Memphis Grizzlies: They deserve their own post for the ineptitude they’ve shown the past two years. Mayo has been good at point but he shouldn’t even have to play there if Conley was playing like he’s supposed to. The whole future of that franchise is on Conley.
29) Washington Wizards: Injuries have just dismantled this team. Arenas’ knee will never be right.
30) Sacramento Kings: Trade everyone not named Kevin Martin.
That’s all, I don’t know if this format will stay, but it’s a start. What do you guys think?
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