My NBA Twitter Account

Hey guys.
Check out my NBA Twitter account at http://twitter.com/NBA_Kays. You know you want to. So just do it. Now. Do it right now.

It's a great place to read insight on all things NBA-related. From players, teams, & coaches to links to other great NBA blogs & articles, it's the coolio (coolio?!) place to read about anything NBA.

First Round Series Predictions

Hey guys.
So I was going to do a long article on my predictions for the first round, but it’s too late for that, as the playoffs start at 12:30 pm with Chicago at Boston. But I’ll have it for the second round. So I’ll just give you a couple quick lines and then my prediction.

Eastern Conference

(1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (8) Detroit Pistons
Detroit won’t be your common 8th seed, but they have simply struggled this year for numerous reasons. The Cavs are the best team in the NBA, with the best player and a formidable homecourt advantage.

Cavaliers in 5

(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) Chicago Bulls
With no Kevin Garnett, Boston will struggle in the playoffs, and the Bulls have been hot since the All-Star break. Celtics may drop a couple games, but Chicago is a terrible road team.

Celtics in 6

(3) Orlando Magic vs. (6) Philadelphia 76ers
A lot will depend on the health of Orlando’s Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, but the 76ers have no one to stop Dwight Howard or to make 3 pointers against one of the NBA’s best outside shooting teams.

Magic in 5

(4) Atlanta Hawks vs. (5) Miami Heat
Probably the most compelling and even first round series, this might come down to if Michael Beasley (who exploded in April) can step up as a legitimate number two scoring option to Dwyane Wade.

Heat in 7

Western Conference

(1) Los Angeles vs. (8) Utah Jazz
L.A. is better than last year, Utah is worse. Andrew Bynum is back, Carlos Boozer isn’t completely healthy, and Utah can’t beat a good team on the road.

Lakers in 5

(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (7) New Orleans Hornets
The Hornets’ Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler probably won’t be totally healthy, which isn’t good news for their already thin frontcourt. Meanwhile, the Nuggets are playing defense now and have Chauncey Billups and Nene this year.

Nuggets in 7

(3) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Dallas Mavericks
Spurs have no chance without Manu Ginobili and a semi-injured Tim Duncan. Dallas is surging at the right time.

Mavericks in 6

(4) Portland Trail Blazers vs. (5) Houston Rockets
Rockets are better without Tracy McGrady this year, but Portland has played great and Greg Oden is finally producing.

Trail Blazers in 7

About that Iverson Trade...

Hey guys.
Okay, so while we’re waiting for the final playoffs seedings to be known, as just 1 game separates the 2nd through 5th seeds, let’s talk about that Iverson-Billups trade again.

With all that has gone on with Denver and Detroit this year, most observers would conclude that Denver got the better end of the trade that had Chauncey Billups and Allen Iverson swap places early in the season. While Denver will finish at least 14 games above Detroit in the standings, it isn’t that easy to determine the winner just yet.

It wasn’t as simple as trading Iverson for Billups (and one month of Antonio McDyess). It was more so trading Billups’ 4-year, $48 million contract for Iverson’s 1-year, $22 million expiring contract. Despite what happened with Iverson and his “back injury”, combined with the Nuggets’ rebirth under Billups, no one can really say quite just yet whether or not the trade was a success or a bust for either the Pistons or Nuggets. That won’t be fully determined until this summer.

As for the Nuggets, let’s say that they end up winning their maximum of 55 games and earning the 2nd seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. That will only be a 5 game improvement from last season. And Denver’s not even a lock to get out of the first round as they are not a good road team (21-19). Yes, Billups has played a large role in making the Nuggets a better defensive team, but let’s not get carried away here. The Nuggets’ success this season also had a lot to do with the return of starting center Nene (15 ppg, 8 rpg), who had played in just 16 games last year due to injury, and the play of Chris Anderson, particularly on the defensive end (6 rpg, 2.5 bpg in just 20 mpg). And Carmelo Anthony can credit his time spent with the USA Men's Basketball Team winning the Gold Medal in the Olympics last summer as a key reason for his improved play this season.

In summary for the Nuggets, yes, Billups makes them better than Iverson did, but it’s still too soon to tell if Billups has played that large of a difference or if he can even get the Nuggets to the second round of the playoffs, which is something that Anthony hasn’t been able to do with or without Iverson.

As for the Pistons, well, what can you say about them? I think “Yikes” would be an appropriate word. The Pistons can finish the season at 40-42 if they win their final game, which would be a 19 game decrease from last year’s win total. The Pistons will enter the playoffs as the 8th seed in the Easter Conference playoffs. You can blame a variety of reasons on their decline, such as their rookie coach, the Iverson-Billups trade, the loss of McDyess for a month, the age of the frontcourt, and the injuries that have cost Hamilton and Wallace a combined 30 games. But really, even without all those factors and with Billups, would the Pistons have had enough to get past the Cavs or Celtics? They sure didn’t in 2007 or 2008, so why would they now against the now defending champs of Boston and an even stronger Cavs team? The point is that the Pistons, as currently constructed, weren’t good enough to win the NBA title. And that’s really the only thing that matters. I’m not saying that General Manager Joe Dumars is a genius, but let’s see what he does with all his cap space ($20+ million) this summer before we crucify him for trading away the Piston’s floor general for a player who had lacked team success.

In summary for the Pistons, yes, Iverson, for whatever reason you want to say, did not work out with Detroit. But in the long run it wasn’t really about Iverson. Yeah, if Iverson could add the scoring punch that the Pistons had sorely lacked in recent playoff runs, then great. But if not, then the Pistons could go on a spending spree this summer for premier free agents, courtesy of Iverson’s expiring contract.

Overall, no one can judge the results of this trade until next season, and really the seasons after that. It depends on who the Pistons can acquire in this offseason (and possible in 2010 as well), and on how the Nuggets fare in the playoffs (as well as in future playoffs) with Billups at the helm.

Oh yeah, I have that NBA blog that I run...

Hey guys.
Long time, no blog, eh? Sorry about that. A variety of factors have caused my absence, but never fear, as my return is forthcoming. The NBA Playoffs start in exactly one week and I'm extremely excited. Time for the real season to begin.

Check back soon for a post on my playoff predictions, just as soon as all the crazy, ever-changing matchups are finally settled.

In the meantime, let me just remind you that I'm on Twitter and that I usually "tweet" frequently about NBA stuff, especially when I can't do a whole new article on something.

You vs. Big Al

Hey guys.
So I know this might be somewhat corny or cheesy, but I stumbled across this little tidbit the other day on ESPN's daily NBA blog, TrueHoop. It’s a great basketball blog that you should definitely check out if you don't already. It’s also on Twitter as well.

Anyways, it was a brief description and link to an interactive portion of Timberwolves star power forward Al Jefferson’s new website. It’s a fun little page of his site that lets you compare your height and hand size to that of Jefferson’s. Jefferson is 6’11” and his hand size is 9.5 inches (from the tip of the middle finger to the heel of the hand). Needless to say, he's a big guy.

It really puts it into perspective to just how large NBA players really are, especially one like Jefferson. I’m a fairly big dude measuring 6’0” with a hand size of 7.5 inches. But compared to Big Al, I look pretty puny.

You can check out all the fun here.

The NBA: Where Amazingly One-Sided Officiating Happens

Hey guys.
I thought about all the different angles to write this article from on the suspicious referring of Sunday’s Pistons-Heat game. I’ll just be direct: That game was possibly the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen. Simply put, Dwyane Wade fouled several Pistons yet no foul was called on him and Wade also received numerous free throw attempts because of Piston fouls that were not warranted.

Two prime examples of Wade receiving star treatment calls on the defensive end occurred at the end of the game. With the Pistons trailing by one point, Arron Afflalo attempted a three pointer from the baseline. Wade jumped and blocked the shot, but as he came down made contact with Afflalo, sending him crashing to the floor. Yeah it was a block, but body contact is a foul too, even on Wade.


The other example is that of Wade fouling Rodney Stuckey on his last second shot attempt. Yep, it was clearly a foul. But that refs swallowed their whistles, probably a combination of 1) the refs don’t like to “decide” games and 2) it was Dwyane Wade. Even the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recognizes it was a foul: “On Detroit's final play, Wade appeared to make contact on Stuckey's waist on the drive and on his wrist on the shot.” Last time I checked “contact” with the “waist” and “wrist on the shot” pretty much means it was a foul. Hitting players on the hand on shot attempts is a foul, whether it’s in the second quarter by Mario Chalmers or in the last seconds by Dwyane Wade. The official NBA.com video recap doesn’t even have video of Wade’s last second “block.” I wonder why?

You can be sure that if Stuckey and Wade had switched places then Wade would be shooting two free-throws. How messed up is that? And this wasn’t even the first time Stuckey went aggressively to the rim and Heat defenders made contact with his body yet no foul was called.

And I understand the refs' reluctance to decide games with a whistle, but they have to consistently call games as well. If it’s a foul in the opening minutes, it’s a foul in the final seconds. The bottom line is that Wade rode Stuckey to the basket, making contact twice that that clearly impeded Stuckey's ability to score. Here’s a photo of the alleged “block.” Two words: body contact. One word: foul.


Making matters even worse is what Wade got away with earlier in the game on the offensive end. Two examples stick out. One was when Afflalo literally touched Wade on his arm when Wade was holding the ball. I’m serious, he literally just touched him. Wade then pulled up for a jumper and a foul was called on Afflalo, even though he had retracted his arm at that point. Let me repeat that: Wade is barely touched and it’s a foul, but when Wade body checks players and sends them crashing to the floor, it’s a no-call.

The other example is when Wade attempted a jumper from the top of the key late in the game. Stuckey was defending at the time and jumped out to block the shot. Wade missed and Stuckey’s momentum caused him to come down on Wade’s foot. A no-call right? Wrong. Wade flopped like he was shot by a sniper in the stands and received two foul shots for his award-winning performance.

And a final play unfolded after Wade’s “block” on Stuckey. Wade had rebounded the blocked shot and when he came down part of his right good appeared to land on the white out of bounds line. Which means the ball should have gone back to Detroit. Yeah, it was a bang-bang play, but there are three officials there for a reason. One of them should have been watching Wade and where his feet landed. It’s like their job, you know? And don’t think that wasn’t important either since the Pistons would have been down just one point with possession of the ball and 0.6 seconds left. That’s enough time to get off a decent shot.

Other unfortunate and unlucky events did the Pistons in as well. Jermaine O’Neal hit a twenty-foot jumper with just one second on the shot clock with just over a minute remaining in the contest. This is the same O’Neal who had gone 4-12 at that point and who’s shooting just 39% from outside the immediate basket area on the season. Another play involving O’Neal was a putback backet with 36 seconds left in the game. But O’Neal touched the ball while it was still in the cylinder, which is what we call offensive goaltending. And again, even the South Florida Sun-Sentinel admits this. And most importantly, on Miami’s final inbounds play, here was the sequence with the Heat with 13 seconds left and down by one point: the ball sailed through O’Neal’s hands, picked up by Mario Chalmers who missed a layup, then careened towards Udonis Haslem, who made the game winning jumper with 9 seconds left. That was a wild and unfortunate seven second sequence for the Pistons which cost them the game.

But what ultimately cost Detroit the game was the awful officiating of the refs. Dwyane Wade, time and time again, received star treatment on both ends of the court. The NBA: Where Amazingly One-Sided Officiating Happens.

This MVP Thing

Hey guys.
So the MVP race has been pretty crazy this year. A lot of players have gotten involved, including, but not limited to, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups, and Paul Pierce.

With just a month to go in the regular season it seems to have boiled down to just three players: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade.

Now it gets tricky as each guy is very different. Bryant is the best overall player in the league, not to mention a great defender. James is a triple double waiting to happen. And Wade is the NBA’s leading scorer.

Let’s compare the stats of these three guys:

Bryant: 27.8 ppg, 4.9 asp, 5.4 rpg, 0.5 bpg, 1.3 spg, .474 FG%, .342 3FG%, .868 FT%, and 36.3 mpg

James: 28.7 ppg, 7.2 asp, 7.5 rpg, 1.3 bpg, 1.3 spg, .489 FG%, .336 3FG%, .774 FT%, and 37.9 mpg

Wade: 29.9 ppg, 7.6 asp, 5.2 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 2.1 spg, .493%, .308 3FG%, .767 FT%, and 38.6 mpg

As you can see, there are very similar stats across the board.

So who’s the MVP of the 2008-09 NBA season?

Literally, the most valuable player in the NBA is Wade. If he gets injured then his team is completely done. It’s really that simple. Plus he’s doing more with a lot less than Bryant and James. How many people would have thought that Wade would have the Heat contending for homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs this year? Exactly.

However, that’s not typically how the MVP voting works. The voters typically give the award to a player on the first or second best team in a conference. So that rules out Wade since his Heat are on pace for just 43 wins and a 5th seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. And while that’s quite the improvement from the debacle that was the 15 win season for the 2007-08 Heat, the threshold for MVP consideration is typically 50 wins.

But should Wade really be docked points just because Bryant and James get to play with Pau Gasol and Mo Williams, respectively? No, he shouldn’t. But Wade also should not win it this year then, since the knock about James in the past has been his team’s poor record. Well this season James has his Cavaliers on pace for 66 wins, good enough for best in the league.

Another reason for Wade to not win MVP this season is that of Kobe Bryant’s accomplishments in 2005-2006. Bryant dragged an inferior Lakers team into the 2006 playoffs with a 45-37 record, despite having to play with Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, Chris Mihm, and Brian Cook. And those guys were just the starters. Bryant put up 35.4 ppg, 4.5 asp, and 5.3 rpg in an MVP caliber season, but only placed 4th in MVP voting. No joke.

Sorry D-Wade, but Bryant’s stats and team record were similar (if not better) in 2006, and he didn’t win MVP. So there’s no way you should now.

So it’s down to Bryant and James. I’m going to go with LeBron James. The vast majority of his stats are better than Bryant’s and his team’s record will likely be better than the Lakers as well. Plus, he really should have already won it in 2005-06 and/or 2007-08. The only scenario in which Bryant could come back and win MVP is if he started dropping 35+ ppg from now until the end of the season. But that’s unlikely.

The MVP trophy is LeBron’s to lose. And since when has LeBron James been a loser?