I was worried after i came back from up north, that i would have missed out on all things basketball. I was imagining there would be all these doomsday scenarios that completely changed the NBA landscape forever. One of my fears was that the salary cap for 2010/2011 would be released and due to the flailing economy it would be somewhere around 30 million, instead of the predicted 62 or so. I was worried this would prompt LeBron to sign a 50million dollar per year contract with Euro powerhouse Olympiacos, or CSKA. Which is not completely unlikely considering the Olympiacos gave Josh Childress a 30mil for 3 year contract. (Career numbers of 11.1 points and 5.6 boards, he probably would have recieved the mid-level exception if he had stayed in the nba which is about 5.6mil per year.)
Another fear of mine was that john wall would tear his ACL going for a massive windmill dunk in a college game, and potentially become the 3rd number 1 pick in four years to miss the whole rookie season. (Even with a serious injury, who is gunna pass on John Wall in the draft?)
But my greatest fear of all was to come back and see the Lakers had gone on a 10 game win streak with Kobe averaging a triple double over that span. Lucky i have a wild imagination.
In the end though i didn't need to speculate about the state of the NBA as my man Rob Duguid sent me detailed updates every day via text, and when i was lucky, phone call. This meant that my unconditionally and irrevocably love for the NBA was satisfied. (To quote Bella Swan).
So besides a few minor hiccups (Allen Iverson starting gurad!?!) the NBA is as fantastic as ever.
- We all know the Allstar game is flawed in many ways, but thats ok because it isn't meant to be what many people wish it was. It is merely a presentation of the NBA's most talented and flashy players, having fun and demonstrating their offensive prowess.
To dwell on Allstar snubs is always fun, sometimes provacative and always subjective, so i thought i would drop a few of my own opinions about the players selected, and those not.
First up, at backup center, Al Horford!?! On the Atlanta Allstar depth chart, i would have him at 4th, yet he was picked ahead of two more deserving teammates. Now we all know the fan voting for the starters is flawed, but the coaches are at least meant to pick the benches right!
Horford is averaging 13.3 points and 9.6 boards, and for a center, his 1.2 blocks are horrible. In this case i think the coaches have terribly overvalued a teams winning percentage, as NY's David Lee is dropping 19.7 & 11.5 on a team with 12 less wins. Also, Brook Lopez is putting up 18.9, 9.3 and 2 blocks. Now NY and NJ may be two pretty hopeless teams, but the Allstar game is meant to be a display of the best players, not average players on the best teams.
Horford's teammate Joe Johnson was seemingly deserving, but how did Horford get picked ahead of Jamaal Crawford, and Josh Smith?
Josh smith's game is perfectly engineered for allstar weekend, and most NBA scouts have claimed him to be Atlanta's MVP so far this season. Crawford explodes off the bench every night and has single handedly won many games for the Hawks this season, most recently, against conference rival Boston, of whom Atlanta swept the season series.
Another testament as to the coaches bad decision making for allstar, consider Zach Randolph.
In comparison to Horfords pedestrian 13.3 & 9.6 on a great team, Randolph has been stuck on bad teams for most of his 8 year career. But if you look back at his numbers, starting with his career av's of 17.1 & 8.6, you can also see that he has 4 different 20/10 seasons.
In 06/07, he had possibly his statistically best season. But, lets compare him to the other West Allstar forward/center's of the 2007 allstar game.
Randolph: 23.6 & 10.1 (POR)
Okur: 17.6 & 7.2 (UTA)
Josh Howard: 18.9 & 6.8 (DAL)
Boozer: 20.9 & 11.7 (UTA)
Stoudemire: 20.4 & 9.6 (PHO)
Now you could possibly make a case for Boozer, due to his advantage in rebounds, but besides that, Randolph was statisticlly far superior. But, it was just the fact that Dallas and Phoenix finished with the top two records in the league, and Utah made the WC Finals that year, while Portland finished 14th in the West.
Unlike MVP, i think that the allstar selections should be based purely on gameplay, and be completely independant of a team's record.
Now i could go into how ridiculous fan voting is (Iverson, Garnett starting???) but thats not new to anyone so i will finish the allstar rant here. - In a battle between the two SouthEast powerhouses, Orlando came up trumps to claim top spot in the division at a little over the midway point of the season. But keep your chin up Atlanta, D12 isn't gunna drop 31 & 19 with 3 swats every game.
- What a game by Mike Miller! Who the hell is Mike Miler? is what you may be asking, but the 29yr old was once a 19ppg scorer. I think the Wizards had more games like today in mind when they acquired him, as he sent the Knicks packing with 25, 9 and 8 in a rare start. He had help though as Robbie's man Jamison dealt with David Lee to the tune of 21 & 23 with 11 offensive rebounds. Box out David Lee, Box out!
- You gotta love the New Orleans point guard depth chart. No CP3? Pffff!! Chuck in Rookie Darren Collison, you'll be right. The UCLA alum went off for 17 points and 18 assists. He must have learnt a thing or two off the master, because he only averaged 3.8 apg in his last year of college!
- Andrew Bogut must be pissed off his 16, 10 and 2.2 blocks were not enough to get him selected over Horford for the backup center spot in the East. In his last five games he's averaging 19.2, 9.0 and 2.6 blocks.
Hoford is struggling to justify his selection with 10.2, 8.0 and 0.4 in his last five. - 52.
I can name 52 players more likely to score 52 points than Andre Miller. Yet thats what he did in the Trailblazers OT victory over Dallas. It was probably one of the most efficient 50 point games ever too. He went 7/8 at the charity stripe, 1/1 from downtown and 22/31 from the feild.
There's so much more to write about after my massive absence but i will leave it for another day.
I'm out.
