Bloopers...They're fun

Playoffs..

While the first round of playoffs this year have been better in recent years past. Is it a surprise that the best three playoff series' thus far have been in the east? Is the East finally better than the West?

Here is how I see the East the rest of the way through the first round.

Bulls vs. Celtics.
First of all Bulls fans, it wasn't conclusive that Rondo was going for Miller's head. He swiped at it but could have been going for the ball. The point of that is, he missed the free throw, so the only person that it would be fair to blame for the loss is Brad Miller. This series has been back and forth, and quite frankly to me the Celtics still look better. The United Center will be nuts, and it will take everything the Bulls have left to force a game seven. Will they do it...possibly. But looking at the bigger picture, even if they pull off a game six win, they won't win game seven. You won't beat the Celtics if you can't stop Rondo...period.

Magic vs. 76ers
Currently Orlando is up 3-2 over a team that probably shouldn't have taken the series past five games. The thing to watch in this series will be game seven. Dwight Howard was suspended a game for throwing the elbow. The 76ers will take all their momentum into Philadelphia, and come out with a game six win. Will they win game seven? Who knows. As a Cavaliers fan, I'm certainly rooting for Philly.

Heat vs. Hawks
This series was the best looking and most intriguing before the playoffs started. You have in one hand, a Hawks team that can shoot, drive and defend pretty well, and always play insane in Atlanta come playoff time. In the other hand, you have Dwyane Wade and the youngsters he has for a supporting cast. Wade has just gone off since the all-star break, and the Hawks have been able to slow him down a bit. This is also a series that will go seven, and in the end the Hawks will take it in front of their home crowd.

The Eastern Conference has been amazing thus far. Every game has been close (with the exception of the Cleveland - Detroit series) and entertaining . I can't wait for round two.

Playoffs.

(Photo from USA Today)

121-63.

What does that mean to you?

For a Hornets fan, it means there may be some problems with a team that is supposed to be a contender. Denver went into New Orleans on Monday and laid a beat-down on the Hornets. The Lakers may want to take notes, or at least stop to understand that Denver is a legitimate threat to eliminate L.A. from the playoffs. A 58 point playoff win should not happen under any circumstances.

The Bulls and Celtics series is just about everything as advertised. Back and forth it seems to be going, and tonight the Celtics got the better of the Bulls in yet another pretty good series game.

Not to mention the Magic - 76ers series, and the Hawks - Heat series.

The playoffs already have been a joy to watch, and with a potential LeBron v. Kobe finals, there is much more excitement to come.

121-63. If that's your all New Orleans, don't even show Wednesday night. You might embarrass yourselves even more.

. . .

I told you so...and those playoffs.

First and foremost, for my awards I am three for three. I feel good about them all being right.

My second I told you so instance is the fact that at the beginning of the year I said that the Celtics would struggle if any of the big three went down. Guess what, one of the big three did go down, and coincidentally the Celtics are struggling. I wouldn't say that is that big of a deal, but literally everyone i said that to disagreed with me. (And when I say everybody, I mean people in class, outside of class, friends, and on and on. They all thought I was crazy.) Don't get me wrong, the Celtics are still a very good team without Garnett. When Garnett went down, the Celtics finished out the season 8-2, to take back the second seed. As i said in class, they are better than the Bulls. Rose won't score 36 a night, and I guarantee that Ben Gordon won't have another 30 point night in this series. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are for real. Sorry Chicago fans but Derrick Rose (Not yet.) and Ben Gordon are not at the same level. In the end, Boston wins this series in six.

Now to the Magic. Allowing the 76ers to come back from 29 points down, should they worry. The short answer is...no. Philly has the talent to take out the Magic, but it shouldn't happen. Philly can do a good job of taking away Orlando's parimeter game, but they shouldn't even try to stop the inside game. Orlando wins the series in five. That's right, Philly won't win another game.

Now to my beloved Cavaliers. All I will say is Coach of the Year, soon to be MVP, and a round one sweep of the Pistons.

The best matchup on the East side of the bracket is the Hawks and the Heat. Atlanta won game one at home, and look for them to win game two as well. Ultimaetly the Heat will win the series, but it will take them seven games to do it. Wade has gone off since the All-Star break, and I don't see him stopping till the Heat are eliminated.

Now on to the Western Conference playoffs. The Lakers and the Jazz. Game one had to be frustrating for Utah. L.A. played bad basketball and still won convincingly. Utah is a different team at home, and I seriously think they could take all three games in Utah. I also think that they will win the series in seven games. They came close to taking game two last night, but couldn't finish. It may be a stretch, but Utah over L.A. is my round one upset.

Denver and New Orleans should be another fun series to watch. Denver is a very, vaery good basketball team, and if L.A. escapes Utah, I believe the Nuggets will be the only team able to take the Lakers out. New Orleans is a talented team, but in the end Carmelo and Big Shot Billups are too much for Chris Paul and his Hornets. Nuggets in five.

San Antonio is too experienced to lose to Dallas. Tim Duncan is still a top-5 NBA player, and Parker can take over a game and doesn't buckle during the playoffs. Dallas had a horrible March but turned it around in April. At the end of the day, Parker and Duncan are too much for the streaky Mavericks. The Ginobili-less Spurs win in six.

And finally, the Rockets, Blazers. The Blazers are young but talented, but I think it will take another year for the Blazers to make some noise in the playoffs. Yao is 12-15 from the field so far in the series, the Blazers haven't figured out how to stop him. The Rockets win in six and unfortunaetly for McGrady, he'll not be the reason why...again.

Pre-post season quotes

All of these quotes came from Hootsuite.
They were pretty interesting to me, so without further adieu...

Kobe Bryant - "I really, really, really, really, really, really want that championship. I really, really, really want it."

LeBron James - "To be in a position to be in the playoffs and to fight for an NBA championship, I'm looking forward to it."

Rasheed Wallace - "They've got a pretty good record, a pretty good home record...So I guess it's going to be like David vs. Goliath."

Dwyane Wade - "Last season was memorable in a bad way. Let's make this season memorable in a good way."

Just some fun quotes to wrap your head around before the playoffs start tomorrow. Go Cavs!

People want to watch the NBA again?

TNT has recorded a double digit percent increase in viewers.
Are people finally finding basketball interesting again?
I really hope so.
There is so much potential in the NBA.
It shouldn't go unwatched.


My Five best players in the NBA right now.
1) LeBron James
2) Kobe Bryant
3) Tim Duncan
4) Chris Paul
5) Dwyane Wade

Predictions

The NBA playoffs start on Saturday.
My prediction is in the NBA Finals, Cleveland beats Denver in 6.
Anybody else care to share their predictions?

Also, for a surprise prediction, the Lakers lose to Utah in the first round.

Year end awards

I know I did these already but I wanted to see how they compare to my mid-season awards.

Rookie of the year: Derrick Rose
Most Improved Player: Devin Harris
Sixth Man: Jason Terry
Coach of the Year: Mike Brown
Defensive player of the year: Dwight Howard
MVP: LeBron James

Thoughts: When I did this the last time, the only two that I had different were the rookie of the year, and coach of the year. At the midway point of the season, it was a tight race between Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo, and at the time Mayo was the front-runner. Not anymore. Coach of the year, I had Stan Van Gundy winning it. Since, he hasn't been anywhere near as impressive as Mike Brown who pulled off a 38-1 home record and a 66-15 record overall, with one game remaining. Both are Cavaliers franchise records. Not to mention his team pulled off the top seed in the NBA. None of the remaining award races are close except for Devin Harris vs. Danny Granger. All in all, the NBA regular season was a very good one, and the playoffs should be good as well.

Tail End of the Lottery

Here is the rest of my mock draft for the lottery picks.

Pick #11 New Jersey Nets - Jeff Teague
New Jersey has an aging superstar in Vince Carter, a young point guard who is just becoming a valuable player in the NBA, and a young center who could have a very bright future. That leaves the Nets with either a spot at shooting guard or power forward. The best player here at one of those positions is Jeff Teague if he decides to enter the draft. Teague is arguablly the most important player for Wake Forest and he could have an impact in the NBA. He averages almost 19 points per game, and will fit right into the starting lineup for the Nets.

Pick #12 Indiana Pacers - Brandon Jennings
Brandon Jennings is the player with the controversial decision to move to Europe and play for a year instead of attending college. ESPN draws Gilbert Arenas comparisons, and says that Jennings has a great all-around game. The Pacers could really do anything they need to fill whatever hole they needed. They already have a pretty good stock of youth, but Jennings could be the Derrick Rose of this year's draft.

Pick #13 Charlotte Bobcats - Tyreke Evans
The Bobcats are in a pretty good position. They have a good young point guard and a good center with a lot of depth behind him. Here the Bobcats would take Evans, who will score as much as he needs to. His ability to score makes him a great pick here, but he can take bad shots, which is why here is still around at this point. The Bobcats will overlook that, and take him to have two young guards that can grow together and maybe become something special.

Pick #14 Phoenix Suns - Ty Lawson
Phoenix really doesn't belong here. They have a better record than four playoff bound teams in the East. But nevertheless they will be in the lottery. The Suns only problem is the lack of youth on the team. Shaq, Steve Nash, and Grant Hill are all getting up there. The least amount of depth is at the point guard position. So it would be wise to take a point guard here. Most everyone that knows anything about basketball knows the potential of Lawson. At 16 points and 6.5 assists per game, he would be a valuable replacement to two-time MVP Steve Nash.



There you have it. My lottery mock draft. I personally can not wait to watch the draft and see what happens. There is a good chance not one of these picks is right. Even if one of the picks makes so much sense, it may not happen. This is not the order of the draft, and it will not be the order of the draft. I am going to go ahead and guess the amount of picks that I will have right is 1-3. Here are the factors in play...
1) Draft order
2) Players leaving or staying
3) Trades
So in reality, who knows.

The Strike of '94

The 1994 baseball season was cut short without a post season. It would be the first time in 90 years that baseball would go without a World Series.

The 1994 baseball strike to most, including me was inevitable. Why would the players agree to what the owners were proposing. It was the players that would be taking the hit.

The owners wanted a 50% cut of revenues to players, they wanted a salary cap, and wanted to end salary arbitration. "What the owners are saying," said Don Fehr, "is that they'll do revenue-sharing as long as the players pay for it with a salary cap."

Bob Boone, who was the Cincinnati Reds manager, and a longtime union stalwart, was worried. His thoughts were that the players who were rich, didn't want to give back any money. The owners, whose pride took more of a hit than their pockets, wanted to get control back once again.

"There are no deal-makers," Boone said, "Both sides are confrontational, and theres never a ground where a deal can be made."

Obviously that was a true statement. The players would reject the salary cap. The players had good reason in 1994 to reject the cap. The cap wasn't fairing so well in the NFL, and NBA. The NBA players union wanted the ten-year-old-cap dropped. There was little market for the players' service, and most teams had little to no room under their cap.

The date set for the strike was August 12. Whichever side one is on, nobody could deny the great season that was just going to end abruptly. Matt Williams and Ken Griffey Jr. were both making a run at Maris's sixty-one homer record. Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 and was threatening to be the first to hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941. Frank Thomas was making a serious run at the triple crown, and Greg Maddux had 16 wins and an ERA of 1.56.

26 of the 28 owners supported a resolution that would end the 1994 season.

The strike tested the loyalty of baseball fans. There was no guarantee that they would be back the next year. There was no guarantee that there would be season ticket buyers or TV rights because there was no guarantee that there would be a season in 1995.

What was in play was a luxury-tax proposal. What it essentially was, it would tax the richest teams and that money would trickle down to the smaller markets. That would be in place instead of the salary cap. That way the sides could meet almost in the middle. The owners really didn't have a choice. A deal had to be done in order to have a '95 season. With a deal done, season tickets could start being sold, TV rights could be negotiated, and the only thing in question would be the fans. Would they come back? Ultimately, yes they would. Baseball would be a completely different game today with revenue-sharing and a salary cap. Sure the fans didn't want a strike, but fans of larger market teams wouldn't have approved very much of the game had the players agreed in the first place.

Basically the fans missed out on half a season to keep baseball the way it should be. It's just a shame it had to happen in the amazing season of 1994. In the end, the strike was inevitable, and purpose driven. It had to happen.

Mock Draft Continued

So I decided to do this mock draft for every lottery team in the NBA. I will give you teams 6-10 today. As said before, they are in order of the best chances to win. I will not try to predict who will win. So here are picks 6-10.

Pick #6 Memphis Grizzlies - Greg Monroe
The Grizzlies already have a very, very good nucleus of players. Four of their starting five have potential to be stars in the NBA. The problem is they are young. Once this team gets the experience necessary, watch out. Conley, Mayo, Gay, and Gasol are all very young. With the right piece, in this case Greg Monroe, they could have a starting five that could stick around for a long time, just like Memphis will with the right experience. Monroe hasn't decided whether he will stay or go, but if he does, he will fit right into the Grizzlies plans. They are like a college all-star team right now. Let them grow together and good things should happen.

Pick #7 Golden State Warriors - Jordan Hill
Jordan Hill will bring 18.5 points per game and 11 rebounds per game to a Golden State team that DESPERATELY needs help inside. They have no rebounding threat whatsoever and they need someone that can score in the paint. Jordan Hill will give that to them. Golden State is on paper one of the worst looking teams in the NBA. If they are going to fix this, they have to address their needs, and that should be done soon.

Pick #8 New York Knicks - James Johnson
The question is, can the Knicks really make a run for LeBron in 2010? If they think they can and they fall short, the Knicks could be pathetic for years to come. The way a team should go about basketball, is to play to win the game NOW. James Johnson will be able to play either forward spot and could have as much upside as anyone else in the draft. Really...anyone. The Knicks will be able to build a contender without LeBron James, it just depends how hard they go after him, because the harder thry push, the harder they can fall. The Knicks should start to build their team up from the draft, and if they miss out on LeBron, go for one of the other million great players in free agency that year. Johnson makes the most sense for the Knicks if they pick at number eight.

Pick #9 Toronto Raptors - DeMar DeRozan
DeRozan could come in and start at shooting guard for an already good team. At this point in the season it's a little shocking to see Toronto this bad. They definitly are a good team with plenty of talent. The Raptors next year no matter what, I believe will have a good year and make the playoffs. DeRozan has the ability to possibly play three different positions on the floor. He could play the 2, 3, or 4 position and because of that he has the potential to be something special in the NBA.

Pick #10 Milwaukee Bucks - Stephen Curry
The Bucks need some help, just like most teams in the lottery. However, when this team is healthy, they could hold their own. Getting Curry here will give them a second scorer besides Michael Redd. The inside game is good, again, when they are healthy. Curry will help them right away as he has an instinct for scoring. The Bucks really struggled this year when Redd went down with an injury, it might have been a different story had they had someone else who could take a game over.

Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin today announced he will enter the NBA draft. He is already NBA ready, he has the body and mentality that NBA players should have. Regardless of where he goes, he should start day one, and there is a good chance he wins rookie of the year. As of right now, the team with the best shot to win the lottery is Sacramento. Griffin would fit good in Sacramento, as he would in a variety of teams starting fives. In honor of Griffin declaring, I will give you a mock draft of the top five teams. Since I have no way of knowing who will win, the top five teams will be the teams with the best chance of winning. The five people I pick will NOT necessarily be the best five availiable, but the five that I see fitting into the team. I'll probably be wrong, but hey, you try one.

Pick #1 Sacramento Kings - Blake Griffin
To be honest, the Kings need anything, and everything. their entire team is iffy. Griffin will come in, and solidify the power forward spot and give the Kings a much needed piece to build around. The Kings leading scorer is at 11.1 a game, the leading rebounder is at 7.2 a game. Griffin if drafted by the Kings becomes an automatic upgrade for Sacramento.

Pick #2 Washington Wizards - Hasheem Thabeet
This pick to me is a no-brainer. The Wizards weak point is center. Thabeet is a center. Look at it this way, if Arenas can stay healthy next year, and years to come, the Wizards will have a very good nucleus. Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Hasheem Thabeet. He adds more inside talent to a team that when Arenas is healthy is playoff bound already. Thabeet in the long run would be a great investment for Washington.

Pick #3 Los Angeles Clippers - Al-Farouq Aminu
The Clippers could go a number of ways here. To me, their biggest weakness is at small forward. Coincidently the Clippers have the least amount of depth at that position. If Aminu declares for the draft, he should be the Clippers pick at number three. At 13 points per game and 8 rebounds per game, he could be a help right away. The Clippers could really do a number of things though, and Aminu may stay.

Pick #4 Oklahoma City Thunder - James Harden
The Thunder could either go shooting guard, power forward, or possibly even center here. The best option for what they need here is James Harden, the shooting guard out of Arizona State. This year he averaged almost 21 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game, and about 4 assists per game. His game is built for anything, and he can take shots from anywhere on the court. He plays pretty good defense as well.

Pick #5 Minnesota Timberwolves - Ricky Rubio
The Timberwolves will be another fun team to watch down the road. They have a couple pieces in place, and it looks like there will be a few more to come. Ricky Rubio is a tricky one. I don't know much about him. I did watch him play at the olympics, and it was pretty impressive from what I saw. He is a projected top five pick and ESPN has him goint second overall. For this purpose, I know two things. Minnesota needs a point guard, Rubio is a good point guard. A+B=C.

Another Iverson Post

This is a situation that makes one scratch their head and think. Is his back really the reason he is not playing? If that's the case, why is he not traveling with the team, why will he not be at Detroit's home games? He then seemingly took a shot at the Pistons coaching staff by complaining about his role off the bench.

"Eighteen minutes, c'mon man. I can play 18 minutes with my eyes closed, with a 100-pound truck on my back." Iverson said. "That's a bad feeling. I'm wondering what the rush was to get me back. I mean, for that? It's a bad time for me mentally (but) I'm looking at the big picture."

Seems like quite the contradictory statement. He doesn't want to be back unless he plays the full game. It's a bad time for him to play mentally, but he complains about his minutes being too little.

Marc Stein went as far as to call him the Terrell Owens of basketball, or worse. And why not, the similarities are striking. They are amazing talent that in most cases just doesn't mesh with a team that plays a team game.

Iverson is a free agent after this season. Will he get another chance, do teams want to deal with him and the burdon he brings? It will be interesting to see.

Remember at his first news conference with the Pistons, he said he would do whatever his coach wanted him to do. He must have forgot that. Check that...he did do what coach wanted, he just complained about it.

When you think of the Pistons in years past, you think of one of the most dominant eastern conference teams. Since 2003, the Pistons were in the Eastern Conference Finals four times, and the NBA Finals twice, and winning one NBA championship. This year the Pistons decided the team wasn't right and shipped off Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson. The Pistons now are 36-39, and are the seven seed and fighting for their playoff spot.

The trade was a nightmare from the start. The Pistons tried to put a ballhog of a point guard onto a team that has a team oriented style of play. Now you can clearly see the trade was no good. Now not only are they NOT one of the most dominating teams in the East, but they are three games under .500 and Iverson has started opening his mouth. Iverson has made sure that he will not be in a Pistons uniform next year, and if he is, it will be a shock to most everyone.

So back to the original point, a back injury isn't going to make a player not travel with the team, or stay away from the home games especially in the post-season. There has to be more going on than on the surface.

By the sounds of it, the team, his agent, thay are just going to say that his back is the problem. And maybe it is, who knows. The whole situation seems just a little fishy. It will be intersting to see who will give Iverson a chance next year, he may be booking a one-way flight to Europe.

Uh Oh...He's at it again.

Allen Iverson would rather retire than come off the bench again.

...Practice?

...Coming off the bench?

When does it end.

Just play the game Allen. Your getting old, your back is hurting. Maybe it's a good thing you are coming off the bench. Just deal with it.