I am going to focus on the NBA Draft now that the Cleveland Cavaliers have won the #1 pick.

Cleveland have found themselves in a familiar position – they were the lucky recipients of the overall first pick just 2 seasons ago and of course they selected Kyrie Irving to transform their franchise in the post-LeBron era. This time the first pick is not as certain (see this site’s article by Ben Parker on the Draft Lottery!!!) with a number of people putting their hand up for selection, but the Cavs will need to not only pick the best player available, but also the best fit for their team. After all, they have been here for the past few years and have some talented young pieces, but this will only get them so far. Sooner rather than later, fans are going to expect a playoff appearance.

In the past few seasons, Cleveland have selected Kyrie Irving (PG), Dion Waiters (SG), Tristan Thompson (PF) and Tyler Zeller (C). With the players already on the roster they have a good balance, but a young and inexperienced roster. While they are not going to draft experience, they can draft the most mature, most NBA ready player available or they can go with the best fit or they can go with the most upside. Each of these strategies have merit, and there is no “best method” but I want to try and analyse what the Cavs might do with this situation.

The consensus number 1 pick is Nerlens Noel. He is a 6’11″ 200lb athletic specimen who has the ability to change games. However, he is also coming off an ACL tear so there is an element of risk with this pick (yes there is an element of risk with ALL draft picks!!!) I believe he is also potentially the best player in the draft and could have a super NBA career. I also believe he fits the Cavs very well, as they have been dying for some athleticism in the front court and to pair with high energy big man Anderson Varejao. He would be able to develop slowly and not be asked to carry a team and he could develop some serious chemistry with Kyrie which would be a sensational thing for Cleveland.

Before we get caught up with Noel though, drafting him is not a foregone conclusion. Actually, drafting at all is not a foregone conclusion. In a draft with so many questions and no real standout, the Cavs are in a position to use the pick as leverage to bolster their young but talented roster. They have cap space to sign free agents and they have the ability to engage other teams who would love to get their hands on the first pick. This may see Cleveland move the pick and get some already established stars to pair with Irving.

While it wouldn’t be the first time, it would be a long shot. Not since Chris Webber has the #1 pick been traded (over two decades) and then you need to find another franchise willing to go ahead in their rebuild. Noel won’t be a game changer straight away, won’t even play until Christmas and won’t make the Cavs a playoff side. This is what makes this situation so interesting and one that will no doubt get highly analysed between now and the NBA Draft in June.

I personally hope that the Cavs take Nerlens Noel and that he pans out to be a superstar. I really want to see the Cavs succeed after they were dogged and I want Kyrie to have the talent around him that allows for his full talent to be on display.

In Luke 12:48, it says “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required”.  The same can be said of teams who get the #1 overall pick. Much is expected not only of the media and the fans, but also the team and the player who gets drafted #1 overall. Failure to pick the best player in the draft can prove to be a dramatic disappointment and actually a setback for the franchise if the pick is bad enough (E.g. Greg Oden to the Trail Blazers in 2007).

While many guys who go  #1 turn out to be great players (e.g. LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, and Oscar Robertson), many great players end up not going #1 who prove to have just as good of careers if not better than those who do go number one. Kobe Bryant went #13 to the Hornets (traded to Lakers) in 1996, John Stockton went #16 to the Jazz in 1984, Karl Malone went #13 to the Jazz in 1985, Dirk Nowitzki went #9 to the Mavericks in 1998, Stephen Curry went #7 to the Warriors in 2009, and Larry Bird went #6 to the Celtics in 1978. The goal of the NBA draft really is to walk away with the best player in the draft for your team, not to get the #1 overall pick, and all the players I just listed certainly achieved that goal for their teams.

Also, getting the #1 overall pick frequently makes teams feel forced to pick a certain guy. When the Portland Trail Blazers won the lottery in 2007, the general consensus was that while Kevin Durant may end up being a great player in the NBA, Greg Oden was a much more certain and safe bet given his size, strength, and skill. At that time, the Trail Blazers really had no choice but to pick Greg Oden. All the experts said Oden was the way to go, including the Seattle Supersonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder) who snatched Kevin Durant with the #2 overall pick. The consensus across the board was Oden was the guy to pick, and if the Trail Blazers passed on him, they would be really foolish. Last year, the same could be said for the New Orleans Hornets (now New Orleans Pelicans), since Anthony Davis was clearly the obvious number one choice, despite not being the rookie of the year, which was Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard who went #6 overall. I’m not saying the Hornets really wanted Damian Lillard, but I am saying that there was this big megaphone coming from the media, fans, and those around the league yelling “PICK ANTHONY DAVIS”. It is certain that franchises are influenced by all the hype that certain guys get, which frequently causes them to feel like they’ve already made their selection weeks before the draft. Sometimes not having this consensus #1 guy out there is nice because it can actually causes teams to make the best basketball decision for their teams by looking at multiple options and seeing which guy really fits best with their team.

As for this year’s draft, the consensus #1 overall pick seems to be Kentucky C Nerlens Noel, a 6’11 206 lb. rim protector who is drawing comparisons to Tyson Chandler, but more offensively talented. The Cavaliers likely will pick him #1 not just because they need a big guy to go alongside Anderson Varejao, but also because everybody is saying he’s the best player in this draft and that they will be foolish not to take him. The reality is there is a very high chance that Kansas SG Ben McLemore, Michigan PG Trey Burke, Georgetown SF Otto Porter, UCLA SG Shabazz Muhammad or other players in this draft class will be better pros than Nerlens Noel. I’m not saying the Cavaliers shouldn’t be excited to have the #1 overall pick, but I am saying that teams like the Wizards, Magic, and Bobcats should actually not be all that disappointed for not getting the #1 pick. Chances are high they end up with the better player anyways, which really is the goal of the draft in the first place.

Make sure you follow Ben on twitter @nba_lord

As Biggie would say – “Things done changed”. Those who are looking at this from a perspective of “last year” may as well throw their analysis out the window. So much has changed on both sides since their heated playoff series last season that saw the Pacers actually take a 2-1 lead before the Heat dug themselves out of the hole and went on to win the NBA Championship. The Pacers no longer have their leading scorer in Danny Granger and the Heat have Chris Bosh back and healthy. This is the first and biggest difference. Bosh is arguably the most important player on the Heat roster (no, I didn’t say best) and he is ready to ball. They have also added Ray Allen who was a Celtic at this time last year and they have tried to solidify the frontcourt by bringing in the Birdman. Indiana however, have assembled a cast of decent role players and have watched the emergence of first time All Star and NBA Most Improved Player Paul George. Lance Stephenson was instrumental in the Pacers defeating the Knicks, and George Hill is more important than anyone could have imagined. These changes mean that we are likely to see a different series to the one we saw last year, and I think they play out in Miami’s favour. Although the regular season saw the Pacers take their series match up 2-1, the playoffs are a totally different ball game.

Miami have the best player in the game – LeBron James. They also have a heap of experience and depth at the shooting guard position (Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen). Chris Bosh is a matchup nightmare because he can shoot the basketball but also put pressure on the paint. Actually, the Heat’s Big 3 (LBJ, Flash, Bosh) are arguably better than everyone on the Pacers roster. If the three best players in the series are on the one team, that is surely going to be very difficult to contend with. The Pacers couldn’t defeat the Heat when they were down and out, without Bosh and before the slick shooting Ray Allen came to town, so why are people even giving the Pacers a chance in this one?

Anything can happen in a seven game series. Injuries, form and shooting slumps, exploiting matchups, failure to adapt to lineups etc all play more of a role in winning than they did a month or so ago. The Indiana Pacers have a BIG frontline that is likely to cause Miami some headaches. Roy Hibbert is a true centre, a big bodied baller who bangs and crashes down low while protecting the rim and is a good source of offence. His partner in crime is the veteran savvy David West who is a former All Star and very good low post scorer and above average leader. The Pacers will be hoping that this size and strength might assist Indiana in securing some wins and allowing the guards to focus on the defensive end of the floor against the super talented Heat squad. It might work. The Pacers were able to make the New York Knicks shoot from the perimeter (not that NY mind doing that) but it also deterred them from driving the lanes and therefore they couldn’t get easy points at the line. The Heat attack the rim relentlessly and this could go either way – get the Pacer bigs in foul trouble or force the Heat to adapt.

Then we have “the” matchup – who on earth can guard LeBron. The task will ultimately fall on the team as a whole, but there is little doubt that Paul George will be given the task of trying to stop the “Chosen One”. This poses all sorts of problems for Indiana as they rely heavily on Paul George on the offensive end to put up a winning score. If he has to focus on defending LBJ all the time, will that adversely effect the Pacers? Who can fill that scoring void if PG24 struggles? The Pacers have been scoring and winning as a team, sometimes lead by George, others by Hill and West. In their close out game against the Knicks it was Stephenson. They will need a complete team performance each and every game if they are going to make this a series against the Heat.

I believe the biggest area for concern is not a particular player or match up, it is a particular stat category – turnovers. The Pacers turn the ball over far too often and against the Heat that is deadly. Miami love to get out into the open floor and get buckets. Their transition game is second to none, and they will beat you like you stole something if they are allowed to run and gun. Indiana will have to do a much better job at protecting the ball not just to stop the Heat’s transition game, but to also not miss scoring opportunities. It will be hard enough for them to score the ball against Miami, they better not waste opportunities.

All in all, the Miami Heat are still the best team in basketball. They cruised through Milwaukee and then went on a holiday. They dropped an early one to the Bulls when they came back from their break and that was more due to rust and cobwebs than the Bulls (although in Chicago’s defence they really did ball outta their mind!). You better believe that the Heat are ready to demolish the Pacers. They remember last season, last series, the physical play, the 2-1 hole that could have ended their season. Make no mistake, the Heat want to repeat and more importantly, LeBron wants to repeat. A second ring will help establish him as one of the best ever and he wants that.

Dwyane Wade will be the x-factor in the series. Can he stay healthy and can he contribute enough to be a point of difference? Paul George is the other. Can he outplay DWade and guard LeBron? Can he hit clutch shots and lead this young team?

Interesting questions, interesting series. Miami Heat 4-2. Let’s get it on!

Last season’s post season run was a total nightmare. They lost their franchise player to a career-threatening ACL injury and were swiftly removed from the playoffs. This year, their campaign lasted a little longer, knocking over the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs in seven games and taking the first one from the Heat before losing the last 4 in a row. The Bulls played their hearts out for an entire season and for their playoff run. They were undermanned and outgunned on a number of occasions but still managed to be competitive and give their fans some hope for the future.

The Chicago Bulls are built around Derrick Rose. Sure, they have some other good, solid pieces in Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng, but the team essentially goes as far as Rose takes them. This year however, they relied heavily on Rose’s supporting cast and found themselves playing a competitive brand of basketball and getting useful performances from a range of personnel on the roster – such as Kirk Hinrich, Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Nate Robinson. Nate made the most of the Rose-less post season and played some terrific minutes. The rest of the squad really stepped it up too, but they were never in the hunt to win it all.

Next season though, there should be no indecision about whether Derrick Rose is healthy or not, they have made enough strides defensively and in their depth chart and they will have further developed they other key components to make a full blown tilt at the Championship. Of course out in the East, you are always going to have to go through Miami (and Indiana and New York it now seems) but they will have the players, the team, the depth and the coaching to be right up there in NBA championship talks.

So what do the Bulls need to get them further than they did this season? For starters Derrick Rose. A healthy Rose makes all the difference to this team as you would expect a league MVP to do. I think their core of Rose, Noah, Boozer and Deng is very good and now they have a solid bench with Nate, Taj and Butler. They will need time to get back to their best and will need to find ways to score more (again Rose will help) but other than that, they just need to take their opportunities and hope that Miami decline a little.

I am one of those who has not bought into the Derrick Rose situation, I don’t care if and when he came back other than the fact I just want him to be 100% and the best damn player he could be. I love his game and love watching him play so I am already looking forward to next season. Most players who have damaged an ACL develop a better jumpshot – this is one key area that Rose needed to develop. I hope he has and I hope he doesn’t lose a step and then we may see these Bulls head back to the top of the Eastern Conference and perhaps the league.

Are you a Bulls fan? Let us know what you think about anything and everything!!!

It wasn’t meant to be like this. The Thunder were meant to be beaten by the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games as the Lakers went on to win the NBA title. Well, that is how a lot of people saw it prior to the start of the 2012-2013 NBA season. As we know, the Lakers fiasco didn’t go as planned and they were never going to challenge the Thunder when all was said and done. Very few teams were going to trouble the Thunder who were now a year wiser and more experienced after being outplayed in the NBA Finals by the Miami Heat the year before and for the most part this was true.

The Thunder went on to once again win the Northwest Division and also the #1 seed in the Western Conference. They went 60-22 over the course of the regular season and looked like they had managed the off-season trade of James Harden quite well. They brought in Hasheem Thabeet for some size on the front line, they drafted Perry Jones III (who a lot of people say is a steal if he can get healthy), the retained their core (KD, Westbrook, Ibaka, Collison) and added valuable pieces in the trade from Houston (Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and a draft pick). Life for the NBA’s then-youngest team was like a Westbrook dunk in the lane – on the rise and very exciting.

Serge Ibaka improved his game and developed a consistent mid-range jumpshot while maintaining his interior defence. Kevin Durant learnt a lot from his off-season workouts with LeBron James and improved across the board – facilitating, dribbling, rebounding, playing D etc. Russell Westbrook also managed to increase his assist numbers and play within himself a little more than he did the year before (it’s not perfect, but it’s an improvement) while still scoring well, putting pressure on opposing defences and generally fueling the Thunder’s fast paced style of play. What the regular season record hid quite well though, was that the Thunder as they are assembled, still have a heap of room for improvement. Those who regularly read my articles, follow me on twitter etc know that I speak a LOT about poise. The Thunder don’t have it – yet. They still get caught up in the emotion of the game, the referee’s decisions, physical play etc. and it adversely affects their game.

The young Thunder also need to learn how to play the game of basketball better. Far too often they get a way with being physically fitter, stronger, quicker etc than their opposition. This is terrific and should not be squashed but there should be a balance in their basketball and they have yet to find it. When the playoffs came around and things became a little more grueling, the Thunder couldn’t get out and run all the time and their offense (and defence) failed them on a number of occasions because of it. The Memphis series was an example of that. Fair enough they were missing Westbrook and had he been playing, perhaps the result would have been different. Perhaps his constant pressure on the paint would have caused headaches for the Grizzlies big men and they would have been forced to use a lot more energy of D (and not stroll into the paint so easily on offense!). That is neither here nor there though, because had the Thunder have gotten past the Grizz, they would have still had issues against Spurs or Heat.

They also have room to improve off the court with their coaching department. I have mentioned this previously, but the Thunder players love playing for Scott Brooks – probably because he is young and the only NBA coach a lot of the players have played for. However, I feel as though Brooks has a fair way to go to be a great coach. He does a great job engaging the players and creating a team environment, he is a great mentor having been an ex-NBA player and he has a couple of superstars he gives free reign to and has won a lot of games in doing so. What I think this does though, is disguise the truth. In the NBA Finals, the Thunder were outplayed and they did nothing to change the series when faced with the different looks of Miami. This year, in the two matches against Miami during the regular season, the same mistakes were made and both games were lost. Losing Westbrook in the playoffs showed just how behind the eight-ball he is as a coach. He cannot get KD open looks, he does not utilise Serge Ibaka enough in the offence, he regularly stuck with Perkins because he couldn’t work out how to play small. This has to improve if the Thunder want to go anywhere. Less isolation plays for the superstars and more passing and team oriented basketball plays. A lot of young teams are doing it with terrific success – just look at the Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets (and even Houston Rockets to a certain extent). Team ball, passing and moving, setting screens, spacing the floor, utilising players strengths and getting the ball to the shooters in their spots. OKC have the talent and the heart, they just need the sets and guidance. I am not necessarily saying “fire” the coach, but perhaps assist the coach in learning and developing much how Eric Spoelstra has (and let’s not kid ourselves, he is not the best coach going around, but he certainly has made the adjustments required from the previous unsuccessful campaign).

So here is what we know. The Thunder are a very young and very talented team. They learned a valuable lesson after their loss to the Heat and they adapted the following season. Their players are a very potent group and are continually working hard to develop their games but their maturity and basketball IQ needs to develop as well. They have all the pieces to be a hugely successful team over the next decade. Russell Westbrook is invaluable to this team. KD is the second best player in the league.

What we don’t know – can the Thunder mature and regroup after their post-season was cut short? Can Russ come back to his devastating best athletically and can he develop his game? Can KD get even better and lead this team further? Can Brooks install and offence that works or can the Thunder find someone who can? Will Perry Jones III and Jeremy Lamb develop into the superstar players they can be? Can the Thunder keep all this talent together (Reggie Jackson, Kevin Martin etc)? What are OKC going to do with Perk and can they find a low post presence who is not an offensive liability?

Overall, I see this season as a successful one for the Thunder. They didn’t go as far as they did the previous year, but when you lose a superstar to injury that late in the year then it is always going to be tough (especially for the Thunder who had never played a game without him!!!) I think they made decent moves during the season by getting rid of Maynor and developing Reggie Jackson. They got the best deal possible for themselves for Harden who wanted more than the small market Thunder could pay and this continues the “build through the draft” style of the franchise. I also think Kevin Martin fit in very well albeit he did go missing in the playoffs (just like his predecessor!!!!) and will be able to be re-signed at a cheap rate while mentoring and allowing the development of Jeremy Lamb. There are still some glaring weaknesses in the squad but I think these can be overcome. They need a low post scorer, they need some offensive guidance and they need to mature. They do have a high lottery pick that they obtained via Toronto and they could use this to fill a void (Mason Plumlee, Alex Len, Cody Zeller).

Although they are no longer part of the NBA picture for this season, the future is still very bright and it won’t be long until the Thunder are roaring and rolling back into the post-season. How far they go again remains to be seen but the sky is definitely the limit.

For basketball related discussions, feel free to follow me on Twitter @MarkBruty or follow @AboveTheRimBlog

Let’s start with a couple of simple questions. If you disagree with any of my answers, feel free to read my reasoning below and should you still disagree, I would love to hear your comments and feedback in the sections below or on our facebook or via twitter.

Question. Was this season a failure for the Oklahoma City Thunder?

No. When Dwight Howard was secured by the purple and gold, the Lakers became Western Conference favourites and not just in Metta World Peace’s mind – in minds around the world. They had Kobe, Gasol, Nash, D12 as well as Steve Blake and Antawn Jamison. They were the team to beat. Therefore, no-one expected the Thunder to win the West, let alone the NBA Championship. So for the Thunder to have the best record in the West, take out their division and make the playoffs, they have had a successful season. Then to beat the Houston Rockets in the first round after losing one of the league’s best point guards was gutsy and now to be in a battle with a very good Memphis team…. OKC are doing alright.

I would argue that not only has this season still been a success for the team as a whole, it has also been a success for their parts. KD has expanded his game to new levels and is the second best player in the league behind LeBron. Russ had cut down his turnovers and increased his assists before his injury. Ibaka has developed a mid-range game, Kmart has fit in beautifully and Reggie Jackson has developed into a terrific back-up point guard. All in all – the season has been a success on a number of fronts, it has just failed to capture an NBA title.

Question. Can the Thunder win it all with the roster they currently have?

Yes. There is no doubt that this Thunder team when fully healthy were a force to be reckoned with. They had the best record in the West and all it would have taken would have been an injury to a key player from the East instead of the West and this article may never have been written. Now, in saying that, there are a number of areas that the Thunder could improve in, after all continually improving is the cornerstone for sustained success, but as they stood (prior to the Westbrook injury) they would have been a worthy adversary for the Miami Heat (assuming they beat everyone as expected and return to the NBA Finals to defend their crown).

I still believe that they need a low post threat before they can become elite, but they could have won the Championship this year with this roster – a lot would have had to go right, but it was possible. If Kendrick Perkins was in fact a 10/10 guy (10 points and 10 boards) then the Thunder would look better again, but he isn’t and that is an issue. Teams can focus on Westbrook and Durant without having to worry about the paint too much – take this advantage away and at least be respectable on the offensive end and things change.

So what I am saying is the Thunder do not NEED to make any drastic changes, but some change wouldn’t go astray and with players such as Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson coming through the ranks, they would be smart to use their lottery pick (gained from Toronto) to draft a low post scorer who can rebound, play defence and keep opposing bigs honest.

Question. Can the Thunder learn from this and retool for another run at it all next season (if they lose this series)?

Yes. Much like what I have said above, they can have another crack at this for sure. People forget how young they are just because they have gained some success already, but this is a team on the rise. Kevin Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka are only going to get better the more they mature and the older and wiser they get. Add to this their young stars and they will be right there around the top of the West again.

I would expect Kmart to return on a lower pay scale to play on a contender. I would also expect Reggie Jackson to continue his development. Jeremy Lamb should see more playing time and actually play a role on this team and finally, the Thunder “Big 3” will be better for the experience yet again.

It will all boil down to what they do with the middle (and the coaching staff – but more on that later). I would suggest amnestying Perk – even if you brought him back on the cheap. I would keep developing Thabeet who has been serviceable, but I would also either trade for or draft a good low post player. Gortat would have been a great fit, but there are a few around. They don’t have to be first class (look at the Heat) but they have to be serviceable.

Now on to the coaching staff. It is no secret that the players love playing for Scott Brooks, but as a fan, I think Brooks has been very lacklustre as a coach and has really been able to ride the coattails of Kevin and Russ. His offensive systems are far too simplistic, he is either unable to or unwilling to adapt to opposing teams strategies, and he doesn’t employ any structures that efficiently use the talent around him. Look at Marc Jackson at Golden State for example. Often plays big or small, runs numerous plays for his shooters and big guys etc. The players love playing for him too – so why can’t Brooks learn to get KD the shots that Jackson gets Curry and Klay? KD is arguably a better shooter and would relish some of these looks. Russell would also benefit for some better looks and no doubt KMart would be more effective and Jeremy Lamb, and Reggie Jackson… You get my drift.

In conclusion, I am very happy with the season that the Oklahoma City Thunder has put together. I hope they are able to come back from this 3-1 hole they find themselves in and move onto the Western Conference Finals. I hope they sort it out and make a return trip to the Finals. I am a fan – I want the best for them, but I am also a basketball fan and I honestly feel that with some minor tweaking, we might be looking at a team that has the capacity to win a number of titles in the next five years. Let’s hope so.

For the Cavs it is a very smart move – in fact, outside of Phil Jackson, Mike Brown is probably the best person in the market for a coaching gig. He was unceremoniously booted out of Cleveland as the Cavs tried to keep their superstar player happy. James continually criticised Brown for their playoff losses and while The King gave the Cavs false hopes that he would re-sign with them, the Cavs fired Brown to ease James’ “decision” even giving him the opportunity for input into the new coach. None of this matters though, because LBJ bolted, the Cavs hired Byron Scott and now it has all come full circle.

Mike Brown is a very well respected defensive minded coach and teacher. He will now inherit a list with a heap of upside and a superstar in Kyrie Irving, that he can hopefully mould into a good defensive unit, while making the most of the immense offensive power that Irving and Waiters bring. Brown brings a winning record and a winning attitude. Before his firing three years ago, he had lead the Cavs to back to back 60 win seasons, but he and the team failed in the playoffs and it was Brown that was considered the best departure.

Brown had a brief stint with the Lakers this season as we all very well remember, and was once again giving the boot (mind you only a handful of games into the season). He wasn’t really given the chance to work his magic, but in Cleveland he will be. Word is that the Cavs have made a pretty hefty investment in Brown – something to the tune of 4 years $20million. Given his track record, this is a great value move – they lock him up for a number of years (and at only 40 years of age he has a heap of coaching years left) and they give the Cavs a chance to all grow together.

Byron Scott may have been shown the door a year early, and the case can be made that without the injuries to Varejao and Irving his regular season record would have been a fair bit better. Scott also did a great job instilling a winning attitude at Cleveland even if there wasn’t a lot of winning taking place. As hard as it is to see any coach get fired, I am really glad to see Brown getting another go. He was a scapegoat in a situation that was not fair on anyone and now he gets the chance, and Cleveland get the chance to make everything right again. And this time, with Kyrie at the helm, perhaps the Cavs make noise in the playoffs once more.

But I want to have a look at all the first round action and have a look at the match ups. Can we see an upset? Are there any particular first round match ups that have us peaking with interest? Let’s have a look.

EASTERN CONFERENCE – FIRST ROUND

#1 Miami Heat vs #8 Milwaukee Bucks (Regular season series – Miami won 3-1)

Does anyone really give the Bucks a chance here? The latest article from Ben Parker lists a number of reason why the Heat should be a little worried, but in reality I think we all know this is a foregone conclusion. I can’t recall a year where there has been such a difference of talent in a first round. The Heat have the league best record and the Bucks were not even close to a .500 season. That’s enough right there to tell me this is going to be ugly. In actuality, I cannot even see the Bucks taking one game from the Heat regardless of all the talk from Jennings. LeBron, Wade and co will cruise through this without breaking a sweat. HEAT IN 4.

#2 New York Knicks vs #7 Boston Celtics (Regular season series – Knicks won 3-1)

This is a very interesting series and one that I will tune into for no other reason than to see Melo and KG. I know they have said it is all behind them, but potentially 6 or 7 games in each others faces is just too tantalising not to watch. The Celtics are going to be out to prove that their window of opportunity has not yet closed and that they can still be a factor in the post season – even without Rondo and Ray. Melo is going to be hell bent on trying to get out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in his career. All this points to what will be an excellent series between a ferocious offensive team in the Knicks and a slow it down and grind it out defensive minded Celtics. KNICKS IN 6.

#3 Indiana Pacers vs #6 Atlanta Hawks (Regular season series – tied 2-2)

I must admit, if it wasn’t for a couple of players I love to watch play basketball (Paul George and Josh Smith) then this series would hold close to zero interest for me. But I am not the be all and end all so I will have a go at previewing it. From where I sit, this seems to be a win for the Pacers. They have a new found depth and a toughness that is hard to match as a number of opponents found out this season.The Pacers have a good blend of inside and outside game and this could trouble the Hawks. Josh Smith and Al Horford really take the Hawks as far as they go. Is they can battle inside with the big Pacer frontline, then they are a chance. The Hawks have the shooters that can take the Pacers out of their “bang down low” game but whether they can do it consistently I am just not so sure.  PACERS IN 5.

#4 Brooklyn Nets vs #5 Chicago Bulls (Regular season series – Bulls won 3-1)

Interesting how one injury can make so much difference to not only a team, but to a conference. If Rose was healthy, and had been playing all year, there is no way we are talking about the Bulls as a fifth seed. Be he isn’t healthy and here we are. The Nets have the higher seed but only just and the Bulls hold the regular season series record. I think these two sides match up very well and can both be as inconsistent as each other. That is why I think this will be the only series from the East that goes 7 games in the first round. Deron Williams essentially should have his way with the Bulls backcourt, but the battle inside between Joakim Noah and Brook Lopez might go a fair way to deciding the winner. Boozer may cause some headaches for the Nets who do still struggle to stop people. The Bulls have been getting victories as a team and they will need everyone on the same page to defeat the Nets – but I think they have enough heady veterans to get the job done. BULLS IN 7.

WESTERN CONFERENCE – FIRST ROUND

#1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #8 Houston Rockets (Regular season series – Thunder won 2-1)

It could not have been written any better. For most of the latter part of the season, the eighth seed was up in the air – so too was the first seed out in the West – it was just that close. However, the Jazz fell away and the Lakers won when they needed to and on the last day of the regular season beat the Rockets to demote them to eighth and a first round match up against the Thunder. James Harden vs his former team – that is how they will sell this one, but it is going to be a lot more involved that just one guy. Harden would love to make up for his sub-par playoffs last season and he would love to beat his former team. The Thunder are driven on making it back to the NBA finals where they were outgunned and outplayed. This is going to be terrific. The regular season meetings between these teams were electric and we can expect the same here. Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden will all be in the action, just not all on the same team. I think Harden needs more help before the Rockets can defeat the Thunder, and OKC are a year older and more mature and should advance. THUNDER IN 5.

#2 San Antonio Spurs vs #7 Los Angeles Lakers (Regular season series – Spurs won 2-1)

This would have been a lot more interesting had Kobe not gone down with injury – but even so, this is going to be a better series than people are imagining. Everyone thinks the Lakers are just making up numbers, and they very well might be, but they are still competitive and have two very good post players in Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. Add in some of the role players and you will not just walk through the Lakers. The aging Spurs are really killing it this season and although they didn’t close out the season too strongly, they were resting their lineup and trying new things. I think TD has turned back the clock and this post-season he is going to make sure his presence is felt. Tony Parker and Manu know what it takes to win and they are ably supported by Kahwi Leonard and Danny Green. It won’t be a whitewash, but the Spurs still win. SPURS IN 5.

#3 Denver Nuggets vs #6 Golden State Warriros (Regular season series – Nuggets won 3-1)

This may just be the most exciting first round match up after the Thunder v Rockets one. 2 teams who love pushing the pace and filling up the bucket. It would be even more awesome had Gallinari not broken down, but the Nuggets have still found a way to win and their balance has meant that Brewer and Chandler and Iggy have filled the void. Ty Lawson vs Steph Curry is a formidable pairing – Curry from deep and Lawson on the post ups and dribble drive. Add in the athleticism of both teams and this is going to rock. I really hope it goes to seven games just so we can get more and more from these teams. The Nuggets for me are a bit better balanced and more experienced and deeper. The Warriors though are not to be taken lightly and can create some major problems with their shooting and hustle game. I love Steph Curry, Bogut and Barnes, but I think Lawson, Iggy and Manimal prevail. NUGGETS IN 6.

#4 Los Angeles Clippers vs #5 Memphis Grizzlies (Regular season series – Clippers won 3-1)

After moving a superstar in Rudy Gay, one may have thought that the Grizzlies may have cost themselves a chance to be relevant in the playoffs. After watching the NBA season unfold, it can’t be further from the truth. The front court duo of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph has been hard for other teams to overcome and Mike Conley has taken his game to a new level. Then you have a  number of role players like Tony Allen and you can see why the Grind It Out Grizzlies are competitive. In stark contrast, the Clippers are the high flying, high profile team with superstars and depth and look like they may just be ready to take the next step. Chris Paul has cemented himself as the premier point guard in the league and Blake Griffin does a bit more than just dunk now. DeAndre Jordan has length and strength which may be able to match it with the Grizzlies. The real difference though is the bench and the Clippers hold the advantage there. They have Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes and Billups and the list goes on. I think this is what separates the teams and what will see the Clippers advance at least one round. CLIPPERS IN 6.

So there you have it -  a brief look at the first round match ups for the 2013 NBA Playoffs. Discuss below!

Now before I explain why the Miami Heat should “Fear The Deer” that is the Milwaukee Bucks, let me say that in this article I am playing “Devil’s Advocate” meaning I’m not taking a position that I necessarily believe to be true, but I’m rather taking a position that I find to be interesting since nobody on planet earth has the Bucks posing any real threat to the Heat.

Reasons why nobody is on the Bucks’ “hope train” all make complete sense.  First, the Heat have the best record in the NBA at 66-18, and the Bucks have the worst record of any playoff team with a 38-44 record. Second, the Heat score at a very efficient rate ranking 1^st in field goal percentage (.496) whereas the Bucks rank 28th in field goal percentage (.435). Third, the Miami Heat excel in transition and with the Bucks missing a lot of shots especially three point shots (they miss 7.344 three point shots per game), the Heat should get a lot of easy transition buckets against the Bucks. Forth, the Heat on paper are a far superior team. Nobody on the Bucks can hold a candle to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Sure Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings make for an entertaining and talented backcourt, but when stacked up against the one-two punch of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, they are vastly inferior.

While all those reasons are certainly good reasons to write off the Bucks, there are other reasons for actually thinking the Bucks can give the Heat serious problems. These reasons can be spotted upon analyzing the four games played between the two teams this season.
In their first matchup, the Bucks lost in overtime by a score of 113-106 in Miami. The scary part about this game is that LeBron James (28 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists), Dwyane Wade (28 points and 4 assists), and Chris Bosh (24 points and 18 rebounds) all had big nights. Then to counter that, the Bucks’ two best players (Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings) combined for only 28 points. Despite a monster night from the Miami Heat’s big three, the Bucks still hung around and nearly beat them despite their two best players not combining for much scoring. It should also be noted that the Bucks’ best post player Larry Sanders and arguably the best post defender in the NBA played less than 7 minutes in the game (due to the fact that head coach Scott Skiles was still favoring Samuel Dalembert over Larry Sanders)

In their second meeting, the Bucks dominated the Heat, winning by a score of 104-85 in Milwaukee thanks to a better performance from both Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis who combined for 39 points, and perhaps even more importantly a solid game from their best post player Larry Sanders. Sanders, a 6’11 shot blocking machine and policeman in the paint had a stellar game with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Even more importantly, he held Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh to only 12 points on 5/14 shooting. This was the first time the Heat had to deal with Larry Sanders all season and it certainly showed in the box score and even more importantly in the win-loss column.

In their third game, the Bucks lost to the Heat 107-94, and that was largely due to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh having big nights for the Heat, and Monta Ellis playing poorly for the Bucks. Brandon Jennings had a nice game of 21 points and 6 assists, and forward Ersan Ilyasova had a huge game with 26 points, to help make up for the virtual absence of Ellis.

In their fourth game, the Bucks lost again by the score of 94-83, and this was once again due to Ellis disappearing. Brandon Jennings actually had a huge game with 30 points and 4 assists. LeBron James was the only member of the Heat’s big three playing in this game. He had 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists, and the rest of his team was pretty mediocre. Luckily for him and the rest of the Heat, the Bucks (aside from Brandon Jennings) really stank up the joint.

The first thing that should be noted from these games is that by and large Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings actually played pretty well. He had a 21 point game, a 30 point game, and a 19 point game. Those are pretty solid performances. This means that the Heat are weak at the point guard position, and that just happens to be where the Bucks are strong. The Bucks certainly have the ability to expose Miami’s weakness at the point guard position thanks to Brandon Jennings.

Second, Monta Ellis was a no show in almost all of these games, and yet the Bucks hanged pretty tough despite his poor play.  Brandon Jennings may have been the best player against the Heat for the Bucks, but Monta Ellis is their leading scorer (19.2 points per game) and their best player overall. If Monta Ellis can wake up and play on par to the same level and effectiveness of Brandon Jennings, this series could go 6 games and possibly 7, which is not something the Heat want to see happen. For the Heat, they must stop Monta Ellis, and so far they’ve done a good job at that. But stopping Monta Ellis is no easy task, and sometimes the only person on planet earth that can stop Monta Ellis is Monta Ellis, and that alone should worry the Heat.

Third, Larry Sanders is a monster in the paint. The 6’11 power forward/center averages 9.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.83 blocks per game (2^nd in the NBA). If there is one area where the Heat are vulnerable it is in the middle. Teams that play good defense in the paint and can rebound may have what it takes to beat the Heat, given that the Heat rank dead last in the NBA in rebounding and a modest 10^th in blocked shots. The Bucks on the flip side rank 5^th in the NBA in rebounding, and 2^nd in block shots.

Finally, the Bucks can get hot and catch fire. Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis aren’t the only ones who can put the ball in the hole for the Bucks. Ersan Ilyasova and J.J. Redick also can go bananas  and have big nights. If Jennings, Ellis, Redick, and Ilyasova all have big nights scoring and Larry Sanders is playing volleyball in the paint, the Bucks are cruising to an easy victory. Even more frightening for the Heat should be the fact that the Bucks are yet to put together such a game against them, and yet they have one victory and one overtime loss against them. Should all the Bucks players have a big game at the same time, they should prevail against the Heat, especially with the fact that they are probably getting more rebounds and blocking more shots.

In conclusion, are the Bucks likely to upset the Heat in a 7 game series? The answer is not at all. But can they? Sure they can. They have the ingredients to formulate the perfect recipe to upset the Heat. They got rebounding, paint presence, scoring, a really good point guard, and no pressure on them. We all know the pressure is all on the Heat to win this series, and that the Bucks are the team just happy to be in the playoffs. But if the Bucks can go into Miami and steal a game, this series could get quite interesting and just might be the series that ends up catching your eye above all the others.

Follow Ben Parker on twitter – @Nba_lord

Regular Season Most Valuable Player

LeBron James – as much as I wanted to put KD here, it has to go to the best player in the league. LBJ has straight beasted this season, showing the rest of the league what life is like after Mike. He has improved his all around game (if that was even possible) and lead the Heat to an almost record breaking 27 game win streak. He had a blinding period of shooting, scoring and winning and that tips the scales in his favour. While he may actually not be THE most valuable player to his team in the truest sense of the word (I think the Heat still compete without him whereas other teams crumble without their star) he is the LEAGUE Most Valuable Player and that is what the award is for.

Honourable Mention – Kevin Durant. Improved in SO many areas of his game and eased the departure of Harden. Scored at will, at an efficient rate, lead the Thunder to the best or near best record on the West (still not decided when I wrote this) and even racked up some triple doubles. At 24 this kid is going to hoist his fair of MVP trophies throughout his career and hopefully a Larry O’Brien one too.

Rookie of the Year

Damian Lillard – this one is a no brainer and I am sure he will walk away with ROY honours by a HUGE margin. No other rookie has played as well as Lillard and no other rookie has played as consistently as Dame. He is going to be the future for the Trailblazers and a superstar along the way. His poise for a young player is terrific and his talent is unquestionable. Throughout the season he has run the offence, got teammates involved, made them and the team better, and scored in bunches. There is no other choice – Lillard is the man.

Sixth Man of the Year

JR Smith – He doesn’t do much more than score but he does do that extremely well. For a player who used to be quite erratic and even uncoachable at times, he has really stepped up this season. His play off the bench in New York has been huge and when Melo was out with injury, he easily stepped in to fill the void. He is doing what is required of him and has been so effective it is easy to ask if the Knicks would be as successful without him. He is not a total liability defensively and has even put the majority of bad shots back into the holster. A very good campaign for JR and one that I think earns him this award.

Honourable Mention – Jarret Jack (GSW), Jamal Crawford (LAC), Kevin Martin (OKC). All these guys have had very good seasons and would be good enough to win it any other year. Jack has been a super sub for the Warriors backing up the Splash Brothers and Jamal Crawford started the season on fire. Kevin Martin filled his role to perfection and made sure the Thunder didn’t skip a beat.

Defensive Player of the Year

Serge Ibaka – I am going with the Serge Protector for a few reasons. He consistently plays hard, with a lot of energy and contests everything. Yes he will lead the league in blocks again and that is of course part of this award, but the box score doesn’t show it all. The number of shots that he ALTERS because of his ability to block shots is huge. The job he does on the other power forwards and centres in the league is first rate, boxing out, making life difficult etc. He is a beast on the boards, can guard big guys out on the perimeter and makes it a nightmare for anyone who tries to drive the lane.

Honourable Mention – Marc Gasol (MEM). I am only listing Gasol here because I think he is the next closest to Serge. He handles the big guys out West like a boss and while he may not be the most athletic big man going around, his use of footwork and body makes it a nightmare for any opposing frontline. His help defence on pick and rolls is first rate also and his board work speaks for itself. A very tidy campaign from Gasol and earns the HM here.

Most Improved Player

Paul George – I am a big fan of PG24 and with good reason. He has come on in leaps and bounds this season – figuratively and literally. When Danny Granger was out with knee injuries, the Pacers needed someone to step up and fill the void and that is exactly what George did – probably better than any of us expected him to. He turned into a terrific scorer with deep three-point range, and is a terrific defender. His height and length makes him so tough to guard and he is also a menace on the boards. He ticks all the boxes from a star player when only a season ago, he was barely a blip on most radars. Also, the Pacers have maintained their competitiveness in the East and Paul George is a massive reason.

Honourable Mention – Greivis Vasquez (NOH), JRue Holiday (PHI). These point guards have shown great development in their skills and game as well as their ability to run a team. The poor team records hurt these guys, but they definitely deserve a mention. Playing the hardest position in basketball (in my opinion) is a tough ask and doing it as well as these guys did is a credit to them. Any other year they may have won this award, but it won’t be this season.

So there you have it – my take on the main NBA Regular Season Awards. Comment below and let me know who you think will take home the hardware.

It is a truly shocking end to one of Bryant’s best seasons which saw him turn back the clock, defy father time and deliver a campaign that many would have said would have garnered some MVP talk (had this fellow named LeBron not been beasting all season). He boldly predicted that a struggling Lakers team would make the NBA Playoffs and subsequently did everything in his power to make that happen. D’Antoni knew how much the Lakers playoff chances hinged on number 8 and he played him a heap of minutes every night. Kobe loved that though, he has this inner strength to continually find a way to get the job done, regardless of how often he had to go to the well.

News now surfacing has Bryant looking at a lengthy period on the sidelines. An injury of this nature could see Kobe sitting on the sidelines for the next 6-9 months. Now, knowing Bryant’s drive and determination, we could expect the 6 month time frame, but can he defy father time? Will he be able to overcome this injury and come back the same Mamba? How much will this impact on his ability to run and jump and drive the lane? It is a very interesting question. While some people are all to quick to decide for him, Kobe took to facebook to announce his intentions. He acknowledge that it would be tough, but he also put paid to the rumours that he may in fact retire, citing that this isn’t how his book will end.

Arguments regarding his age and playing time aside, what can the future Hall of Fame shooting guard expect on his road to recovery and what does his future hold? That is the question I want fans to answer. Can he come back and play again at a high level, or will he have to admit defeat and become a role-player on a team that he once ruled?

Your turn – go…….

By the end of February, the Lakers were out of the playoffs. They were 3.5 games behind the 8th spot in the Western Conference and things weren’t looking good. Kobe the famously spruicked that the Lakers would most definitely make the post-season. Now, I have followed the NBA for decades and I know that some guys go out and say this as a way of motivating their team, themselves, the fans etc and Kobe’s killer instinct should never be questioned, but the manner in which the Lakers have made their way back into the hunt for the 8th seed is almost laughable. I have included a youtube clip to help demonstrate my case here, I generally don’t do this kind of thing, but sometimes you just have to see it to believe it.

There have been a number of games that the Lakers, seemingly dead in the water, have managed to come away with a timely win. Yes, they have a great closer in Bryant, but even he has been surpassed as the game winner for the Lakers. This title has been handed to the NBA referees who are seemingly under orders to ensure the Lakers see the playoffs. It is no wonder why though – the NBA needs the Lakers in the playoffs. If the NBA have their way, the Lakers will make the 8th seed and a first round matchup with OKC or San Antonio (probably the latter). Even a blind man can see that the Spurs vs Lakers matchup would be much more lucrative and draw a larger audience thus increasing the revenue to the league. They may not win the series, but it may go a few extra games (if you get my drift) and the NBA knows that every time the Lakers step on the hardwood, the league makes more money.

I am not one who is big on conspiracy theories. I believed Lance Armstrong right up until he admitted cheating. I also believed the NBA until Tim Donaghy exposed the cheating that went down. Now I am skeptical when things just don’t add up – and after watching some of these Laker games and then watching the youtube recap – something doesn’t add up. Referees are human and they certainly can make mistakes. It is one of the reason the league introduced the review system, but even this is being taken advantage of in this case. Make up your own mind, and I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback, but to me something is clearly wrong here. David Stern needs to sort something out and fast before this is his lasting legacy.

The Bulls are struggling mightily without their franchise player. They have been served adequately by Nate Robinson and Kirk Hinrich, but let’s face it – these guys wouldn’t normally carry Rose’s bags. Actually, they should be lining up for the privilege – that is just how much Derrick Rose means to the Bulls and the Chicago franchise and city. We have all been on Rose-watch as he rehabbed the injured knee, and got our hopes up when we heard he was ahead of schedule. When he was starting to practice with the team we thought the return was imminent and we nearly lost our shit when we saw a clip of the left footed dunk. However, Rose is still sidelined – and I personally think he should stay that way.

The team to beat in the league is without a doubt the Miami Heat,and without riding their junk too hard, they will most likely win the NBA Championship. They might be tested a little by the Pacers and perhaps the Knicks will learn to win in the post-season when it actually matters, but I really doubt it. So what do the Bulls have to really gain by trotting out an underdone Derrick Rose? Are they trying to get a post-season win or two for the fans? If I am a Bulls fan (and let’s face it, a lot of us have a soft spot for the Bulls since the greatest player ever played for them) I don’t care about a playoff win, and I definitely don’t care about it at the expense of seeing Rose back on court before he is truly ready.

Rose has done everything in his power to recover from this injury and come back as the player he was pre-ACL. He has watched as his team has scored 7pts in a quarter, he has seen them fight and win close games  and then get blown out by cellar-dwellers. He has been on this ride the whole time. Just because he has not been playing does not mean he does not care – in fact – nothing can be further from the truth. We have seen the clip where Rose breaks down in tears when he addresses his fans – that is how much he cares. I just hope the fans can care enough about him and not themselves and stop pressuring him to return. And not only the fans, but the Bulls organisation who have not been secretive in their quest to get the superstar back on the floor.

Rose can and most likely will have a stellar career – but he needs to ensure that he comes back from this 100%. He has a game that is built around athleticism, speed, agility, quickness and explosiveness. In fact it would have to be Rose or Russell Westbrook who is the most athletic guard in the league. This is why he needs to make sure he is without doubt ready to return. If he is unable to return at his previous level it will impact on his career – without a doubt. It is probably safe to say he has improved his jumpshot (stats show that everyone who has had an ACL injury has come back a better shooter as that is all they can do for a long period of their recovery) but that can only accommodate so much. For this Bulls team, he needs to get to the rim, he needs to play above the rim, he needs that speed and quickness – without it, he is back to the rest of the league at the PG position.

Now let’s get to the final stage of this rehab process. As someone who has had a couple of knee surgeries (not ACL but torn cartilage, meniscus and strains of the MCL and PCL) I can attest to the last part of the process. Derrick Rose says he doesn’t want to come back and play because he is not pain free. The Bulls and 3 specialists who have been brought in by the franchise to assess Rose, say he is ready to go and that he will only complete the rehab process once he gets back out on court. So who is right?

Rose will not wake up one day and be pain free – this is not going to be as simple as that. He is going to need to push himself and really get some hard game action into his knees (cutting, running, jumping, reacting etc) that he just can’t get in practice and through rehab. I am a firm believer in this and I think others are too. I love Derrick Rose as a basketball player though and I admit I have missed him this season – but I want the original Rose back. I think Rose should sit out the remainder of the season. I think he should work extremely hard on his fitness, conditioning, skills and the knee itself and come back via the summer league. The Bulls rightfully don’t want this to leak into the start of next season, so why not give him the rest of the time to get right and bring him back the way they would a #1 draft pick. Get game time into him in the summer league and pre-season – not when competition is at its fiercest and when he is touch and go.

This is a contentious topic and I would love for some commentary. Do you think the Bulls should try and get him out there – if so, why? For the fans? Stakeholders? Teammates? Owners?

Hit me up with some good discussion points and feedback – it is what we are all about!!!

#1. The Nuggets Have A Go-To Guy

This has been something the Nuggets have lacked the past couple of seasons, but they seem to now have in their young point guard Ty Lawson. While Lawson is no Deron Williams or Chris Paul, he isn’t far behind, and more importantly he has shown that when the Nuggets need a basket in crunch time, he is undoubtedly the guy on their team to get the job done.  Averaging nearly 17 points and 7 assists a game; Ty Lawson is emerging into one of the best point guards in the game and in the process one of the better go-to guys in the game as well. With the emergence of Lawson, the Nuggets are vastly improved and a lot more likely to win the Western Conference.

#2. The Nuggets Have A Deep Team

This has been their calling card ever since the Carmelo Anthony trade. No stars, but tons of depth. Well now they have a star in Ty Lawson (as mentioned in reason #1) and they have tons of depth. The supporting cast that Ty Lawson has around him is really impressive, starting with shooting guard Andre Iguodala (on paper the best player on the team), power forward Kenneth Faried, center Javale McGee, small forward Danilo Gallinari, veteran point guard Andre Miller, center Kosta Koufos, and small forwards Wilson Chandler and Corey Brewer. All of these players are really good players who can all chip in and contribute in their own unique ways. McGee and Faried are extremely athletic on the glass, Koufos is a big body also clogging the middle, Chandler, Brewer, and Gallinari can all put the ball in the hole, and Miller is the perfect backup point guard to give Ty Lawson a rest or to accompany Lawson in the backcourt.  Around Lawson, the Nuggets have it all. Scoring, rebounding, energy, post play, and defense. The numbers show this is true: the Nuggets rank 3^rd in points per game (105.6), 2^nd in rebounds per game (44.8), 1^st in offensive rebounds per game (13.3), 3^rd   in assists per game (24.2), 4^th in blocks per game (6.5), and 2^nd in steals per game (9.2).

#3. They Are Unselfish

The fact that they rank 3^rd in assists per game should be sufficient evidence that they are unselfish. This team shares the rock as well as anybody in the NBA and it is because they don’t care who scores the basketball or who has the spotlight. All they care about is whether or not they win. Even with Lawson as their closer, they don’t really have any egos on this team or anybody who necessarily feels the need to take all the shots. It really is a thing of beauty to watch such an unselfish team play night in night out. Not only is it a thing of beauty, but it also makes them incredibly dangerous come playoff time. Shutting one guy down won’t do the trick like it used to when Carmelo Anthony was at the helm.

#4. They Are Young And Athletic

The Nuggets have the youth and athleticism (namely Javale McGee, Ty Lawson, Andre Iguodala, and Kenneth Faried) to hang with the Thunder and tire out the Spurs.  The Nuggets certainly won’t be tired by all of the Thunders’ running or be unable to keep up with them athletically. As for the Spurs, they could give them the same kinds of problems that the Thunder gave them last season in the Western Conference Finals.

#5. They Have Veteran Presence

While they are very young, the Nuggets do have some veteran guys in their locker room to give them guidance and assistance in making a deep playoff run. Namely their point guard Andre Miller and their head Coach George Karl. Andre Miller has been in the league well over a decade now and George Karl has been coaching for decades and has a trip to the NBA Finals under his belt. Both Miller and Karl possess the necessary veteran qualities that this team needs to make a deep playoff run and win the West.

#6. They Have A Great Home Court

The Denver Nuggets have one of the best home courts in the NBA, playing up one mile above sea level in Denver, Colorado. Many teams tire out in that thin air, especially when they are playing at such a fast pace. Look for the Nuggets to be a tough out at home again in the playoffs. If they can steal a game on the road, that might be all they need judging by how tough their home court is to win on.

#7. They Are Playing With No Pressure To Win It All

This may not seem like much of a reason, but it actually is. All the pressure out West is on the Spurs and Thunder to come out of the Western Conference. Nobody expects the Nuggets to even get close. This means that the Nuggets will be playing with little to no pressure on them, which will further enable them to benefit from the previous six reasons that were just mentioned. Teams that play with no pressure typically do very well in the NBA playoffs, and often exceed expectations. If they can get out early in a series against the Thunder or Spurs, the pressure will entirely be on their opponent, which means advantage Nuggets.

The Knicks had been clicking – they had found a way to introduce Amare off the bench and this was working well. They were playing defence, shooting well and winning games. Everyone appeared to be healthy for a change and the Knicks had one eye on the post-season as they started to hit their stride. Then the dreaded injury bug struck. Stoudamire was booked in for knee surgery and would be out of the lineup for 6 weeks or so. Melo injured himself too and missed a handful of games and all of a sudden things got a little scary in NY.

In the return to the Mile High City, Melo played through obvious pain. He wanted to play this game, for himself, his team and to prove a little something to his old stomping ground. As he limped around the court, he clearly looked like an injury waiting to happen. And happen it did – just not to Melo – it happened to the single-most irreplaceable member of the New York Knicks – Tyson Chandler. Chandler had a bone bruise in the pre-season after banging knees against the Brooklyn Nets and he has suffered a contusion on the very same knee after colliding with Corey Brewer. Chandler went down instantly, clutched the knee and had to be helped straight off the court and all the way down to the rooms. It was a bitter pill for Knicks fans to swallow considering they were already being comprehensively beaten by the super talented Nuggets.

The Knicks can ill afford an injury to Chandler. He is the lynchpin of the Knicks defense and cleans the boards like no other. He is a beast in the paint and gives the Knicks additional possessions with his offensive rebounding and his patented tap back (where he swats an offensive rebound out to half court to a waiting and ready Raymond Felton). More importantly, he is the key centrepiece of a team that just doesn’t have much depth at that position. The 30 year old is playing around 33 minutes per game, largely because of his importance but equally because the next best big on the roster is (insert one of these aging bulls – Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace, Kurt Thomas etc). You can see why Knicks fans held their breath while they awaited an update on Chandler’s condition.

The official word from New York is that the injury is a knee contusion which essentially means a bruise. Sometimes these injuries are quite minor and just hurt a bit (David Lee had a similar situation and was forced out of just one game) but other times they can become a very big issue. (Note: New York have a BIG TIME habit of not reporting injuries correctly or accurately). No doubt the Knicks and their legions of fans are praying for the former rather than the latter. With only a few weeks to go until the playoffs begin, the Knicks will be wanting to get everyone back and healthy. They will want to make a great push into the post-season and grab the highest seed on offer. In order to do this though, they need the big fella, no not Amare (although getting him back would really help their cause), they need Chandler.

JR Smith stepped in against the Thunder to fill the void left by Carmelo Anthony. See, as much as Melo may be the best and most talented player on the New York roster, he is not irreplaceable. They can score through JR Smith, through Raymond Felton, through good ball movement and the other shooters like Novak. What they cannot do without Chandler is rebound and defend. I am not taking anything away from the Knicks, but Chandler is just that valuable in my opinion.

I really hope the New York centre just copped a knock and that it won’t be anything serious or long-term, and I bet Knicks fans wish that more than me.

Lets take a look at some key players from each position and what there next moves could be and also some lesser big name players whose value will rise!

Starting with the men who run the show, the point guards.

Chris Paul – the number one floor leader in the game is up for grabs this off-season, but can he be pried away from the Clippers? It will take a max contract and a potential super group to do so, only team possible in my eyes are Atlanta if they can find enough to lure both Paul and Dwight Howard. ($17,779,458)

Brandon Jennings – Completely different player to CP3 but can be just as devastating, this could be interesting but I see him staying with the Bucks.  Surely they would prefer Jennings over Monta Ellis. ($3,179,493)

Two players whose value I see taking a big spike are playing different but just as vital roles for their respective teams.

1) Jarrett Jack – making a strong case for 6^th man of the year, watch other teams throw big money his way. Can the warriors afford to keep him? ($5,400,000)

2) Isiah Thomas – The little man from the Kings, can’t see him going anywhere just yet but his pocket should get a fair bit larger this off season. ($762,195)

Ok now onto the shooting guards

Andre Iguodala – Has a big sized contract but is an extremely vital piece for the Nuggets and their roster. Won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. ($14,968,250)

Monta Ellis – With the bucks having acquired JJ Redick before the trade deadline, are they ready to offload Monta? And better question will anyone be willing to pay his over priced contract? ($11,000,000)

Role player I see who should fetch more than what they are currently worth is

Jodie Meeks – Now being the backup for the greatest two guard currently in the game means you are going to get less game time, but when Meeks is on the floor he has flourished. In line for a nice little upgrade in pay. ($1,5000,000)

Well this is the section that I am meant to talk about the small forwards but there really isn’t many to talk about, the only one that interests me is a swingman on a young and up and coming team.

Chandler Parsons – Has shown this season that he is extremely vital to the Rockets cause. They will easily be able to keep him but don’t be surprised if another team makes a big play for him. ($888,250)

Now onto the big men of the game, this is where I expect most of the big trades to come from.

Josh Smith – Hawks GM Danny Ferry isn’t afraid to make a big move; I am expecting him to make a few more this offseason. Will one of them be moving Smith? Or will he make a play to bring in either one of or both CP3 & Dwight? ($13,200,000)

Paul Millsap – Utah are preparing for the future and that means that both Millsap and Jefferson are on their way out. Still extremely effective at the 4 spot, but will he still attract the same size contract? ($8,603,633)

Two big men who are going in opposite directions will make for interesting viewing

1) Lamar Odom – since winning the 6^th man of the year award has been on a downward spiral, can he get his groove back or is another change of scenery needed? I hope he can find his rhythm and get back to his best. ($8,200,000)

2) Larry Sanders – his paycheck should skyrocket after the season he has displayed, isn’t going to be a game changer but is a massive threat down low and could be extremely vital on a championship contender. Watch teams throw big numbers his way ($1,991,760)

The real big men bring on the Centers.

Dwight Howard – will we see episode 2 of the Dwightmare? It shouldn’t be anything like last season but it could get interesting. Atlanta (as mentioned above) will be a big game player, but don’t expect Dwight to leave for nothing. ($19,536,360)

Al Jefferson – the Jazz big man will be seeking a new home come the offseason, main question is who will take him? Solid down low but not sure if he is worth his big sized contract. ($15,000,000)

Two big men who can be extremely vital to a team’s success will again make for interesting viewing

1) Nikola Pekovic – should see huge numbers thrown his way once playoffs are finished, will the Wolves be able to keep him? One to really keep an eye on. ($4,837,200)

2) Andrew Bynum – everybody now knows that his knees will never be the same, surely isn’t worth a max contract anymore but don’t be surprised if a team offers him up huge dollars. When healthy is one of the best big men in the game.  ($16,889,000)

Firstly, let me start off by saying I am a massive Oklahoma City Thunder fan and I would love to see you and Kevin bring the franchise a Larry O’Brien Trophy. A small market team with such a tremendous fan base and passion for the organisation and team would enjoy a hard-earned Championship.

I think the Thunder organisation are doing a terrific job of building towards the quest for a ring, even making some of the toughest decisions (eg. letting an All Star SG in James Harden go) to ensure competitiveness for years to come. Now it is your turn.

There is no doubt you are an immense talent – a terrifically talented point guard with athletic ability that is rivaled by very few in this league. There is no questioning that you can win games single-handedly at times, but there is a question regarding your decision making and your poise.

There is nothing better than watching you and Kevin when you are on song. There is nothing worse than watching you force shot after shot in a quest to get hot, make terrible decisions, forcing the ball and therefore the team into turnovers, and then arguing, throwing your hands up, not getting back on defence and generally just whinging. It is not a very good look for your, nor for your fans and teammates who are putting 100% in to the Championship run.

I believe that you genuinely love the franchise, the team, your teammates, the city and the fans. I also believe that you want to be the best basketball player you can be and you want to hold aloft some of the most revered hardware in all of the land. It is hard sometimes though because your performances do not always reflect it.

See that guy with the 35 on his back? He is the best scorer in the game right now. He will probably win his 4^th straight scoring title this season – a feat only bettered by legends of the game Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. So why don’t you get him the ball? There is nothing wrong with playing second fiddle – it gave Scottie Pippen 6 titles, and has ensured Dwyane Wade a few too. You could still get your 25ppg on 15 – 18 good shots and free throws – your first step is so damaging and you finish well at the bucket. You can pass though – and I know your assists are up which is terrific, but there is more to learn grasshopper.

If you start to develop some poise and playmaking ability, while always being a threat to score and get your shots within the flow of a game, I could almost guarantee you a ring. Yes, you and Durant are just that good. With Serge and Kmart and the rest of the squad, you can get that jewellery.

No I am not a great basketball player and I don’t have any credibility within the sport of basketball. I am but a fan who has dedicated his life to follow the sport I love. You may choose to never read this, but I have to try. I am willing to sacrifice my time, my energy and my effort to try and make the Thunder better. Want to join me?

Kind Regards,

Mark Bruty

With a big time victory over conference rival and arguably the Heat’s biggest competition in the Eastern Conference the Indiana Pacers, Miami cemented themselves as the best team in the NBA (While their record may still sit just behind the Spurs, this is a technicality as San Antonio have played more games). The Pacers had soundly beaten and beaten up the Heat in their first two encounters which had some Heat-sceptics suggesting that teams with a physical and imposing presence and sizable frontcourt would be their Achilles ’ heel. The Heat dispelled this theory though with a complete domination of the Pacers.

Let’s have a look at the particulars of this league-best win streak. 9 of the 18 wins have come against playoff bound teams, 11 of these have been by double digits, and the Pacers aren’t the only big scalp to be collected during this run either. OKC, Knicks and Clippers have all fallen to the Beasts of the East during this time, and all were teams that some thought may be contenders for the title this season. It is a remarkable run and perhaps one that might not be ready to end. There are only 21 games left in the regular season for the Heat. Over the next 16 games, they only have to face 7 playoff teams – meaning there could be some big wins on the way.

We all know that LeBron has put together another MVP calibre season, and that he himself has played one of the best stretches on basketball in NBA history, but LeBron alone is not getting these wins. Dwyane Wade appears to be back to his phenomenal best, Chris Bosh is starting to regain some confidence and Chris Andersen has started to form a real chemistry with the second unit. Shane Battier is still a lethal three point shooter and great defender, and his presence on this team cannot be measured in the box score. Add to this the dependable play from Ray Allen and Udonis Haslem, and the development of Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole, and the Heat no longer have any glaring weaknesses.

The Larry O’Brien Trophy is not decided in March and there is a lot of regular season basketball to be played as well as a number of grueling and tough playoff basketball, but if things keep going the way they are, the Heat have to be considered the team to beat. The Eastern Conference don’t appear to be ready to dethrone the kings and as much as New York and Indiana have been able to get some regular season wins against them, the Heat weren’t clicking like they are now.

Even out West, the competition seems to be getting further and further in the Heat’s rear view mirror. The Spurs have lost Tony Parker who himself was having an MVP-esque year, and they can only hope he is fit and ready to go for the playoffs. The Thunder are coming off a very average month of basketball hosting a record just over .500 after a very hot first half of the year. The Clippers are yet to show they are ready to compete for a title, beating the weaker teams with regularity but struggling against the top-tier foes. So can anyone find a way to cool off the Heat?

I think barring any injury, the Heat are the best team in the NBA. I also think that they are in league best form and have a great balance to their squad which helps with the consistency. They have so many options it is very hard to develop a game plan to beat them. However, I still believe that on any given day, any team can win a game of basketball. The Heat may be favourites, but they are far from a shoe in. They will still need to win their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs – they won’t just be handed a return trip to the NBA Finals. In the West, the Spurs know this is probably one of their last (and best) chances to grab another title and the Thunder are still reeling from their finals loss last year.

The stage is definitely set for one sensational post season.

There is no doubt that there has been a great deal of mixed emotions this season in regards to the Oklahoma City Thunder. At the start of the season, everyone wrote them off saying that the trade of Harden ruined their chances of a return to the NBA finals. Then, the Lakers signed everyone imaginable and everyone thought this handed the Lakers not only the Western Conference, but the NBA title. 60 odd games into the season and things are definitely not as predicted at season’s start.

So here is what we know – in a nutshell. James Harden has had a breakout year leading the Houston Rockets into playoff contention while putting the league on notice that yes, he is just that good. The Lakers are struggling immeasurably and are in danger of missing the NBA playoffs entirely, and whimpering out if they do scrape in. The Thunder have the second best record in the West, they are scoring at a similar rate to a year ago and are still very competitive. So why all the fuss?

A number of self-proclaimed basketball experts have said that trading Harden was the worst thing the Thunder could have done. Those with an unbiased view saw it as a business transaction and OKC fans may have scratched their heads at first, perhaps felt a little cheated, but now have a better grasp on just what went down. There was NO WAY the Thunder could have kept KD, Westbrook, Ibaka AND Harden – with the new CBA and the salary cap, it just was not feasible for a small market team like OKC to do this. So they did what they had to and moved on Harden (who wouldn’t commit to the offer OKC were giving). They got the best possible deal in return – Kevin Martin who comes a lot cheaper, Jeremy Lamb who could be a future star and cap space.

Have the Thunder lost a step because of it? Perhaps – although they are still on pace to have the same winning percentage they had last season. Would they be better with Harden – most likely although they would still have had to bring him off the bench and he wouldn’t be putting up the numbers he is in Houston. So I guess my big question is – what do the Thunder have to achieve before they can be given a break? Do they have to return to the NBA Finals?

Kevin Durant is having a career year and he has developed his game to help compensate for the loss of Harden. Westbrook is averaging a career high assist mark compensating for Harden. Kevin Martin is doing everything he can to be the 6^th man that Harden was and has fit in very well and accepted his role. Ibaka has flourished, Reggie Jackson has developed into a solid backup PG and the Thunder are still winning – but to a lot of people it is not enough.

I hope the Thunder can make it back to the NBA Finals, not just because they are my squad, but because I want them to silence the critics. I want people to see that they did what they had to. I hope they bring back Kevin Martin on the cheap, that Jeremy Lamb becomes an All Star, that the draft picks we have turn into solid role players or stars. I just want people to give the Thunder a break. This is a very young team. They haven’t been together that long, they are inexperienced but talented. They haven’t made their millions of dollars like some other stars who are happy to take paycuts in search of a ring on other teams – they are a small market team with a big heart that are doing the best with what they have.

I actually think that if people stopped hating on them and started giving them a break for trading Harden, they might actually like them. I think Harden is secretly thanking the OKC organisation for making the deal. Harden came into the league NOT wanting to be a star. He contacted OKC and asked them to draft him because he wanted to fly under the radar, be a third option and not a go to guy. He established himself in the Thunder system to a point that he was willing to take the game on and is now a top 3 shooting guard in the league.

Everyone started out hating the Heat – then they won and silenced the critics. Everyone switched their hate to the Lakers – but they aren’t winning so people are giving them a break. I guess hating the Thunder is in fashion right now. Hopefully one day, they can win a trophy together and people can find another target to aim at.

But even if this big name squad of the Lakers gets in, are they the most dangerous team in the West? Quick answer is no, plain and simple I cannot see them beating either the Spurs, Thunder or even the Clippers in a 7 game series. So I’m going to count them out right now, and look at the 3 teams I just mentioned.

The Clippers are an extremely exciting team, they space the floor extremely well, have an aerial assault better than any other team in the league and are lead by the best leader in the game today (CP3). But with all that said I still feel they are another season perhaps even another star player away from really challenging.

On to the Thunder, the team that tried there best to dislodge the Heat last season are back and looking to take things one step further, Kevin Durant has somehow gone to another level this season. But the main thing that works against the Thunder is that they employ the same game plan as what the Heat use and unfortunately for them the Heat use it a lot better.

So all that we are really left with in the West is now the Spurs, the team that clearly has a fountain of youth in their change rooms. Losing TP for 4 weeks clearly isn’t ideal, but it shows that even without their superstar point guard they can still just flat out ball (they dropped 130 on the Kings). They possess easily the deepest roster in the league (Clips 2nd) and not only are they extremely deep but they also have mountains of playoff experience under their wings. In my eyes they are the team to beat in the West and the ones who could very easily be adding to their trophy cabinet.

Now onto the East we go and sadly as we all know, the West is the more dominant conference. 2 teams standout above all others when you consider the East but there is one that could be a sleeper that is often written off. I’m going to start with the Pacers, they have finally started to get their game plan going and are looking more and more threatening to the Heats chances of going back-to-back. They have a very solid starting 5 with Paul George leading the way and now with Danny Granger back and coming off the bench it adds a lot of strength to their second unit. They as I said above are the main challengers to the Heat, ok now lets get this over with. The Heat are on an absolute tear right now, they honestly look unstoppable! And they seem intent on winning another ring, they have an incredible starting 5 but the rest of their roster is filled with just gap players. My only fear for this Heat team is the amount of minutes their big 3 will have to play throughout the playoffs, if they can breeze through to the NBA finals then nobody will stop them (easier said than done). But if they encounter a couple of tough 6 or even a 7 game series then they could stumble at the final hurdle. Now my sleeper in the East (and this may be a bit biased as I am a die hard fan) is the Celtics, ever since Rajon Rondo went down they have been playing inspired ball (11-4 record). Players have stepped up in his absence and none more so than Jeff Green, the man has been in beast mode of late. They have the tools to disrupt the Heat or the Pacers if they encounter them in a playoffs series, with Green and Pierce matching up on LBJ and then KG working his toughness to upset Bosh and lastly (in my eyes the best perimeter defender in the game right now) Avery Bradley doing his thing and locking down on Wade. I still feel though that the Heat will make their way back into the finals and compete for the chance to win it all again.

And lastly to quote one of my favourite NBA analysts, Stephen A Smith “if you want an exciting finals you go with the Thunder if you want a series that when you turn up to the game it could go either way you want it to be the Spurs v Heat.” And I honestly could not agree more, I am hoping that not only will it be the Spurs v Heat but also I hope that the Spurs can knock them off and take home the crown.

The topic that I am writing about today isn’t about who is the best player in NBA history, but rather who is the most over-rated player in NBA history. I have given this question considerable thought after hearing Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe state on ESPN’s “Around The Horn” that Karl Malone is the most over-rated player in NBA history. Being a Utah Jazz fan, I took offense at what Ryan said, but at the same time it got me to thinking whether or not there is truly a “most over-rated player in NBA history”.

Bob Ryan’s reasoning for Karl Malone is simple. He is number two all-time in scoring, has two MVPs, three trips to the NBA Finals, and zero championship rings. Rings are undoubtedly what great players are most measured by, especially those that are in the discussion of being hall of fame players. While I find Bob Ryan to be way off about Karl Malone being the most over-rated player of all time (primarily because he ran into the greatest player of all time twice in the Finals), I do think that Ryan is on the right track in terms of searching for the most over-rated player of all time. It has to involve somebody who was thought by many to be a guy that could lead a team to a championship and a guy who many felt was the best player in the NBA or at least most valuable.

While there is no clear-cut way of finding out who the best player in the NBA is, starting with the NBA MVP isn’t a bad place to start. The NBA’s MVP award is an award given out by sports journalists in recognition of the best player in that regular season, and is supposed to only be a regular season award. But while it is labeled a “regular season award” and isn’t supposed to factor in post-season success, those who win MVP are expected by everybody to have a strong performance in the post-season to validate themselves as “most valuable” among all players. If there is a time to be “most valuable” it certainly is in the playoffs, and falling short in the playoffs leads many MVPs to perhaps unfairly be subject to a lot of criticism. Those who fail to deliver the goods as MVP are often called over-rated or over-valued since the MVP award is filled with so much expectations for those who win it, suggesting that they are the player that teams would most want to have to win a championship.

Upon looking at those who have won the MVP award and come up short of its expectations, one player seems to come up shorter than any MVP, and that would be Steve Nash, who won back to back MVPs for the Phoenix Suns in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 season. What makes Nash stand out as falling shorter than any other MVP isn’t the fact that he didn’t take his team to the NBA Finals or win the title in his MVP season. It’s the fact that he has two MVPs and zero trips to the NBA Finals in his career (not just in his MVP seasons).

Winning one MVP award is a big deal in the NBA. Many great players such as Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Hakeem Olajuwon ended up with just one MVP award, and I don’t want to say “just one MVP” like that isn’t impressive. I’m just saying that these are some of the greatest to ever play, and the most MVP awards that they could get were one. What does this mean? It means getting more than one MVP is awfully hard to get, and those in that class are considered to the greatest of the greatest players ever. This list includes LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Bob Pettit, and Steve Nash. All of those players but one have at least lead their teams to the NBA Finals, and all but two of them have a championship ring. What does this tell you? Those who win multiple MVPs are generally guys who have shown that they can win a championship and be a guy you can build a title team around. The two players without a championship ring on this list are Karl Malone and Steve Nash. The one player without a trip to the NBA Finals is Steve Nash.

When looking at the names on that list of players who have won multiple MVPs, nobody would ever mention Steve Nash in the same breath as any of those players if he didn’t have the multiple MVP awards. The lack of a title for Karl Malone puts the Mailman on thin ice like Nash, but at least he can say he lost in the Finals twice to the greatest player to ever play the game in Michael Jordan. But Steve Nash doesn’t have that excuse to fall back on, and more importantly he can’t even say he’s been to the Finals, which is something that Karl Malone can at least say he’s accomplished.

After comparing all the multiple MVP winners, it is a fact that Steve Nash is the least accomplished of any of them in terms of championship success. He is alone on his own very unique island: the only player in NBA history to have more than one MVP award and have zero trips to the NBA Finals. Some may call this bad luck for Nash, some may say he didn’t have as good of teams around him, but the bottom line is those who have won multiple MVPs can all at least say (except for him) that they have gone to the NBA Finals and gotten their teams in prime position to win a championship.

With Nash being the least accomplished of all multiple MVP winners, and even being less accomplished then guys with one MVP and zero MVPs, the question about whether or not Steve Nash is over-rated has to come up. In my opinion, I think that having 2 MVPs and zero NBA Finals appearances not only makes Steve Nash’s MVP seasons over-rated, but it unfortunately makes him the most over-rated player in NBA history. Look at all the other great point guards who came before him: only Magic Johnson has multiple MVPs as a point guard, and he was more of a hybrid player like LeBron James would could play all five positions if asked. Steve Nash is the only pure point guard to win multiple MVPs, which one would think at least makes him the greatest pure point guard ever. But actually it does not. Among pure point guards, John Stockton and Isaiah Thomas blow away everybody else. Stockton because nobody will ever touch his all-time assists record or his all-time steals record and Thomas because he has won two championships. If you were to make a list of greatest point guards ever, Magic Johnson would rank #1, John Stockton or Isiah Thomas would rank #2, and after comes Bob Cousy, and then a whole plethora of players in random order. Steve Nash would be included in that list along with Jason Kidd, Joe Dumars, Tim Hardaway, Mark Jackson, Pete Maravich, and Gary Payton. Upon analyzing where Nash ranks among the greatest point guards, he’s way behind Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, and Bob Cousy, and belongs in the top 10 discussion, and barely in the top five discussion. And yet, among all the great point guards to ever play in the NBA only Magic Johnson has more MVPs. This is another indicator that Steve Nash is historically over-rated.

For Steve Nash to be #2 all time among point guards in MVPs and yet barely be in the discussion for being a top five all time point guard is a strong indicator that the man is perhaps the most over-rated player of all time, and certainly the most over-rated point guard of all time. It’s as simple as that. The numbers from his MVP seasons don’t jump out as any thing MVP worthy (15.5 points per game and 11.5 assists per game in his first MVP season; 18.8 points per game and 10.5 assists per game in his second MVP season). Those are really good numbers, but not MVP worthy. John Stockton had at least three seasons where he hovered around 17 points and 14 assists per game, and he never got close to winning an MVP. Steve Nash never had any season as good as that statistically, and yet he’s the one with two MVPs. It’s indeed a head scratcher. At least to me it is.

Those who defend Nash’s MVPs say that he made his teammates better, and that without him the Suns wouldn’t have been any good. They also say that it isn’t his fault that his teams were not any good, as if they try to give him a sympathy vote. That may all be true, but that still isn’t enough to make him a two-time MVP. Two time MVP caliber players do more than just make their teammates better and lift their team from obscurity. They take their team on their back, take over playoff games, and take their team to the NBA Finals. Steve Nash did not to any of that, and thus makes his two MVPs highly questionable. One cannot help but ask how he won two MVPs without showing any of the characteristics of being a guy who could lead a team to a championship. The only conclusion is that those who voted for him thought he was a player on the same level as Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Tim Duncan. They had to. Otherwise they would not have given him two MVPs. But upon looking at his career, it seems clear that he never even came close to measuring up to that standard of excellence and level of expectations, which is why I say he is the most over-rated player in NBA History.

Granger has long been seen as the new franchise player in Indiana and with good reason. He is a good strong guard who can score from anywhere on the floor. He has great size for a shooting guard and can defend admirably. When he went down with a knee injury, more than just a few people wrote the Pacers off and thought they would really struggle in his absence. Well the team from Indiana have done anything but, including an impressive season record against the Beast of the East – the defending NBA Champs – Miami Heat. Even with the absence of Granger and the decrease in production from Roy Hibbert, the Pacers are still one of the teams that have a decent chance of going deep into the playoffs.

Much of the reason for Indiana’s success has been the development of Paul George. The first time All Star has had a breakout year and carried the Pacers on more than one occasion. He is averaging 17.6ppg, 7.8rpg, 4spg and 1.8spg – doing everything for the team night in and night out. He recorded his first career triple double against the Bobcats almost a week ago with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. George however, plays a similar role as Danny Granger, they are both long and athletic, shoot the three ball well and can slash to the basket. The big question though is with the development of George, is this still Granger’s team? And either way, how will Granger fit back into the rotation?

The two played together for 60 odd games in a lockout shortened season and things worked very well, however with a record this season of 31-21 without Granger, one can be a little skeptical when upsetting the balance of a team that is successful. Indiana coach Frank Vogel isn’t concerned though and from all reports he is just excited to be able to have the opportunity to see them on the floor together. The same can be said for Paul George whose “face lit up” when he was aware of Granger’s impending return. Even with the best intentions though, things can go awry – just recently the Knicks have had to relegate Amare Stoudamire to a bench role in order to keep the balance in the team right. I wonder if Granger (and Indiana) might benefit from a similar situation, even just at first?

The flipside of the coin is that Granger will now command a teams best defender and leave Paul George to continue his All Star form. This may actually work because Granger has a reputation for being a big time scorer and offensive weapon and has been so for longer than George. Paul George still can go missing at times, as younger players tend to do as they develop, but Granger rarely does (or did – time will tell). With Hibbert always a threat down low and David West providing great inside offence and post play, the swingman tandem have a nice flexibility. They can feed off of each other, playing the shooter / slasher role depending on the defences and who is hot at the time. Indiana also have point guards who can set people up and don’t need to dominate the ball. This is great news for a team that is trying to work back in it’s leading scorer. It also means, that Augustin and Hill will get a lot more open shots as defenders focus on the Granger / George combo.

So how does the Danny Granger return impact the Pacers? Time will tell and the game tomorrow against the Knicks will be a very good measuring stick. The Indiana Pacers may have just added another piece to an already competitive team – if they can get the balance right.

The first time I ever watched an All Star Weekend all the contests were jam packed with the best players available as too make it as exciting as possible. And that’s exactly what it was; everybody was glued to his or her screen because you never knew what was coming next. Not only where the contests unpredictable but even the games (Rookies & All Stars) where exciting because whilst they took it easier than what they normally would the players were so ultra competitive they didn’t want to be beaten even in an exhibition game.

Watching the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge game the other night was very tough, if it was not for two players in Kyrie Irving and Kenneth Farried the game would have been a complete loss. I understand that players nowadays use the All Star Weekend as a midseason break, but the reason that you get paid as much as you do is to be an entertainer for the fans. And there is no better weekend that the fans look forward to more than All Star Weekend.

The league needs to make a stance and ensure that this once amazing weekend doesn’t fade into oblivion; they need to force the best players to compete in the contests that they will shine in. Stop letting players that are roster stuffers take part whilst the greats just sit on the sidelines kicking back. Imagine how good a dunk contest would be that included Lebron James and Blake Griffin, not only would they throw down incredible dunks; the amount of viewers would be phenomenal. Another is stopping allowing the games to just become boring no defense 3 point and dunk contests.

If this keeps happening on All Star Weekend, I’d rather spend my time watching regular season games than wasting it on boring contests taking place between players who cant crack the starting lineups.

Thoughts?

Even after saying that, as a basketball fan, I cannot deny that Kobe Bryant has phenomenal basketball talent and has had a great career in the NBA.  I’m writing this article after seeing highlights from the LAL vs PHX the other day. Kobe went 1 from 8 from the field, not taking a single field goal for the first half!! This is ridiculous!! How can a player with so much offensive talent not contribute on the offensive end??

I think this new mentality Bryant has about getting his team-mates involved is a step in the right direction and shows great maturity, something he has lacked most of his career (saying he will not change his game in the losing seasons between his championships). But 8 shots in a game?? Come on! You come up against any team that is not a bottom dweller (eg.Phoenix) you probably are not going to get the W so easily!! Can he find a balance between passing and shooting? Can he find it in time for the Lakers to make a playoff run?

Realistically in my eyes, with Bryant’s unbelievable talent, he should be able to get his 20-25 shots a game and still be able to dish out 8-10 assists a game!! In doing so this will allow Howard to get his buckets, Nash will be able to sharp shoot from the outside and chip in some assists and Gasol when he gets healthy again can be a twin tower inside!

I will be watching after the All-Star break (because there are so many Lakers games on ESPN) to see if Kobe can perform a balancing act and pull the Lakers from the depth of the western conference.

What are the readers thoughts??

Unlike the Spurs who are aging, the Thunder don’t make a habit of resting players. This is to ensure continuity to their lineups but also out of respect to the fans who pay good money to see the stars in action. It would be like Miami resting LeBron James – it just doesn’t happen. The league though is getting harder and faster – we have already seen very strong, young, quick point guards go down with knee injuries – Rose, Rondo and Wall who has just made it back to the Wizards lineup over the past few weeks. This makes Westbrook’s streak even more amazing. LeBron is one of the most well-built players in the league – he is a physical specimen and even he has succumbed to an injury or two (luckily nothing too severe and let’s hope it stays that way).

So, 394 NBA games, quite a massive achievement, but where does it rate in history? Let’s just say it is a LONG way off holding the number one spot. The NBA record is 1,192 consecutive games  and this was achieved by A.C Green over a 15 year period. Now that is quite a number. Green was not a well built player either, he was wiry but he was strong and he played just as hard as anybody in his time on the floor. Sure the game wasn’t as quick as it is these days, but it was a lot rougher and Green managed to take the lumps and bumps and just keep balling. The preparation for each game and the recovery after each battle must have been intense to allow such a run like this.

Westbrook has been extremely lucky in his entire basketball career so far. Perhaps he does a lot of work off the floor in terms on strength, conditioning, recovery etc but either way, there still has to be an element of luck. I hope this article doesn’t jinx him, for my Thunder’s sake, but also for his sake. He is developing into a terrific player and he is a highlight waiting to happen – the way he attacks defenders is a joy to watch (even if his forced shots and poor decisions aren’t always easy on the eye) and I for one want to continue to see it. I have missed the NBA stars like Rose and Wall, I don’t want to miss any more.

The Heat are rolling and even with the roster changing daily through illness and injury, the one constant is LBJ’s performances. With Bosh out and Ray Allen out with the flu, it would be easy for defences to focus more on James – well if they did, it didn’t show. LeBron has totally dominated any defender thrown at him, he has played within the Heat’s system and more importantly, he has gotten wins against some tough teams too – Clippers, Lakers and Houston. If you actually stretch this amazing shooting out a bit further, and go over a 13 game period, LBJ is averaging 30ppg on a whopping 61.4 FG%. Those are stats you would expect from your big man – close to the rim, back to the bucket, putting up perhaps 5 or 6 shots a game, not from a SF scoring at such a high clip and taking so many shots.

So after looking at such a stellar stretch, it reminded me of what I think was the best fortnight in NBA history. Some people seem to forget (including the Laker Legend Magic Johnson!) a period of time where MJ flat out dominated the league. Sure, he dominated it for a number of years and won 6 titles in 8 years, but that is not what I am referring to. Over one 11 game period in March on 1989, Michael Jordan recorded a whopping 10 triple doubles. The one game he missed? He totalled  40pts, 11ass and 7rebs. This has to be considered one of the best stretches in NBA history. Although he didn’t shoot as higher percentage and they went 5-6 through this run, there is no denying that this feat is amazing.

Kevin Durant is another NBA superstar who is having an incredible period in basketball. He is leading the league in scoring while shooting 50% from the floor, 40% from downtown and 90% from the line. Since his 52pt outing (and NBA season high) he has solidly been piling up points, rebounds, assists and wins. Now he is a lot younger than LeBron and doesn’t have the all around completeness to his game as yet, but his season is another that is worth watching. The way he has developed his game, the amazing shooting percentages – is testament to his work ethic and dedication. It looks like he is learning a lot from LeBron (they worked out together during the off-season after playing in the Olympics together) and is working on ways to become even better.

There are always the greatest ever debates, and this is not the place for one. This is to recognise amazing performances by amazing players. Both weeks of basketball are things of beauty and I for one will be watching to see just how long LeBron can keep this up. Being able to watch such talented players, superstars of their sport when they are on a roll like this is unique. I don’t think I really appreciated it when Jordan did it in March of ’89 – being 10 years old I remember the games, but I didn’t appreciate them then – I am now.

Watching LeBron and the Miami Heat over the past week has been a joy – it made me fish out the old Chicago Bulls videos from the cupboard so I could go back and appreciate the little things that I never really captured as a younger guy. You can love or hate LeBron but there is no denying that he is really in a league of his own during stretches like this. Time will tell if he can keep it up and if he will win another MVP title, but either way – sit back and enjoy. Some of the best basketball of this generation is being played by the uber-stars on the NBA.

But this season seems to be completely different, the amount of players that have arrived and arrived in a big way are staggering. Obviously we all know that Anthony Davis has a game that will give him a long and successful career within the NBA, but at this point in the season the ROY award already (well in my eyes) seems locked away and headed to Damien Lillard.

A player a few scouts had down as a bit suspect at running the point, boy how he has proved them wrong. And the reason this is getting me and also a lot of other people I know so excited is because it is assuring us all that the NBA will continue to be as entertaining as ever and will ensure that I can happily sit back and watch every single game and stay happy.

Now of course I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail but here is my top 5 rookies so far this season

1) Damien Lillard (easy choice)
2) Harrison Barnes (posters left, right & center)
3) Andre Drummond (monster down low)
4) Jared Sullinger (bit biased but have loved what he has done)
5) Anthony Davis (would be higher if not for injury)

(Also have to add how bitterly disappointed with my 2 favourite college players so far this season – Austin Rivers & Thomas Robinson. Am hoping they can pick it up and dominate like I know they should).

The Pistons were a player in the Rudy Gay trade, and sent Tayshaun Prince over to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for European Point Guard Jose Calderon. It may have seemed like a weird move because Detroit are already stacked in the backcourt and drafted Brandon Knight as their point guard of the future. They also have Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum, but this was still a very positive move. Calderon is a very experienced player and can really help develop the backcourt of the Pistons. He also has a lot to offer on court as well, outperforming Kyle Lowry and holding down the starting spot in Toronto with his steady play and leadership. The same has been brought to the Motor City and was evident in the Pistons win over Milwaukee. He had a great night with 23pts, 10ass, 5rebs, 3stls and two key baskets. He worked very well with Brandon Knight who looks comfortable at the shooting guard spot, and is already developing chemistry with Greg Monroe on the pick and roll.

Calderon also benefits the Pistons for the future as his contract will be coming to an end soon. Whilst he is a very talented point guard, he has been overpaid by the Raptors who have been starved for talent for many years. While we have no knowledge of what Detroit are planning with him in the long term, either way it has given them some flexibility financially and within the playing group. It may also allow the Pistons to move some pieces from the backcourt in order to upgrade the roster in other areas. Jose may not fit the youth movement of Detroit, but he has made an immediate impact on the franchise and they must be excited for what is coming in the second half of the season.

The other reason the Pistons have been in the news is the injury to Andre Drummond. The athletic big man has showed a lot of skill and promise already in his rookie year and was selected to play in the Rising Stars game. This back injury will unfortunately rule him out of the game, but it just shows how well he has come along in such a short space of time. He has been rebounding and blocking shots as well as scoring a few baskets here and there. He is working very well with the young guards but also with young front court player Greg Monroe. It is scary to think that Monroe and Drummond are so talented, so young and so skilled – they may be the best young front court in the NBA within years.

The stress fracture in Drummond’s back is not ideal and will keep him out 4-6 weeks. It doesn’t appear to be overly serious though and the Pistons will be sure to take their time in bringing a potential franchise player back. His numbers won’t garner him too many rookie of the year votes – just 7pts and 7rebs and nearly 2blks, but he is getting these numbers in just 19 minutes per game. Not to mention, at such a young age, he is playing off raw talent and athleticism – he hasn’t even learnt how to play the game of basketball yet. He will no doubt look to the Detroit coaching staff for guidance and also Greg Monroe who is further developed in terms of all around game, in order to become the best player he can be. In the meantime though, it is going to be one hell of a ride.

So now, the Pistons are starting to get a clearer view of what their team looks like now and going forward. They are starting to turn up the defensive pressure and run the floor a lot better which utilises their youthful legs and energy. But now they also have a heady point guard who’s presence is a good balance and contrast to the young Knight. They look to have really turned a corner and put that terrible start behind them. In a weak Eastern Conference, the playoffs are never out of the question. They now sit with a win – loss record of  20-32 and are just 4 games out of the playoff race. The beat Milwaukee who are clinging to one of the final two playoff spots currently – this must be a good gauge as to the talent on their roster.

If the Pistons can continue to grow, develop, win games, play defence and fill the void until Drummond returns, then they may be firing on all cylinders at the business end of the season.

While the sampling is small, it seems that if fully healthy, the Wizards just may a team that is capable of sneaking into the playoffs, which would not only be good for America’s capital, but also for the NBA as a whole. Washington D.C. is a great sports town and with the Washington Redskins of the NFL and Washington Nationals of MLB on the rise, it might just be only a short matter of time before the Washington Wizards join them in the category of exciting up and coming teams. Upon looking at this Wizards team there is no reason to say they cannot join that list. John Wall seems very capable of being an all-star point guard in the NBA, and Nene is one of the best big men in the game. A good big man and an all-star point guard is a good recipe for success in the NBA. As for the supporting cast, it also looks pretty promising. Emeka Okafor is playing good down low aside Nene and Bradley Beal along with Jordan Crawford seem to be great backcourt mates with John Wall with Crawford sliding to the three position to have Beal play the two.

I’m not trying to say that the Wizards are going to be contenders anytime soon. But I am saying that they certainly have the makeup right now to sneak into the playoffs and give teams like the Bucks and 76ers trouble. This season is obviously a lost season due to Wall’s knee injury, but if healthy next season, as they are presently constituted, they could definitely make a run at that #8 spot in the East. Not to mention, they will be in the draft lottery again this season, so they should have another really good young player to add to their growing crop of young talent. Could the Wizards really make the playoffs next season? Looking at how they are playing when healthy right now, there is no reason to say it can’t happen.

Steve Nash- Huge signing in the off season for the Lakers to fix their issue (at the time) of having no Point to control the team… this signing was awesome to see and as a Laker fan I was extremely excited to see how Nash will prop up the Lakers offense and make them become more dominant and return as a title challenger.. however when I started watching the practice matches it seemed that Nash, wasn’t so ‘nash’ty and he portrayed negative image, at first I thought it could be the stages of gelling this team together but towards the end I realised this dude was obviously playing under duress maybe lack of match fitness but by the second game of the season this awesome signing and what would be one of worst things possible for the Lakers he suffered a non-displaced fracture which at first diagnosis was a 1 week injury.. However it turned out to be 7 weeks. Nash’s comeback was needed… reporters wrote up saying Nash’s comeback after injury will be the saviour of the Lakers season, I must say Nash’s return was great you could see an actual point running the show in Lakerland finally but you could still feel something was missing. The time Nash was away due to injury I feel the Lakers never had that chance to gel together properly having a all-star calibre Point running the show (Duhon doesn’t cut it and Blake went down with an injury).. Once Nash played out some game rust, it was entertaining to watch the D12/Nash combo but I still think they are finding their way on how to work together and Nash is still finding how to click with Kobe, Pau, MWP and the rest of the bench. Only time will tell if Nash will start getting this back on the winning list and become a strong contender back in the west, all I want to see is Nash get his confidence back, take more shots and become more of a force for the Lakers as currently some of Nash’s decision he’s made are shocking for a player of his calibre and becoming detrimental to the team’s success… or is it something else, shall I say it.. Is he getting too OLD?

Now onto Pau Gasol, this dude has probably been one of most rumoured players to be traded over the past 3 years… Lately these rumours are stepped up due to his inability to co-exist on the court with D12. Since D12 arrived Gasol’s motivation on the team has dropped dramatically, one main reason would be due to Gasol not gelling with D12. From a fan’s perspective I’ve noticed overtime Gasol’s heart/passion to compete has gradually declined since he was exposed in a few playoff games for not been physical, I understand he’s not the most physical and intimidating players going around but at least have some passion and fight for board and ball. I know Gasol was playing injured with bung knees and later on was concussed after receiving a nice accidental elbow from McGee in the Lakers V Nuggets game. Playing through injuries will obviously hamper him from playing to potential, but just watching his body language it seems that he easily gives up when there’s physicality involved, no urgency or energy shown when getting back to defend. Could all this trade talk about Gasol could be affecting his mentality before getting on the court, I personally think after all the years of this trade talk it may very well be affecting his game and ultimately causing further issue with the Lakers team. Furthermore, after a recent game between LA and Chicago, the commentator made note that he discussed with Gasol about coming off the bench and all the trade talk and Gasol noted he doesn’t like coming off the bench and it seems that his tenure with the Lakers may come to an end… and I agree with him being a Laker is coming to an end but for the moment he’s got to swallow the bitter pill and perform of the bench and make a point that he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Metta Word Peace – To be honest, MWP seems to fit the D’Antoni system quite well and since having D12 and Nash involved with the Lakers he’s having one of his better years in the Purple and Gold. Only disappointment with Metta is him jacking up three after three, I have no problems if the shot is there, take it but if there’s a better option or a better facilitator which leads to a better option use it. I love his passion however sometimes this passion can be negative for the Lakers team with poor turnovers with offensive fouls and unnecessary fouls in defence. I’d hate to see how the bad the Lakers were defensively if Metta wasn’t there with his physical defence… Side note for Metta, don’t make crazy statements like the 73-9 in the offseason it’s nearly as bad as the famous quote from Lebron saying the heat are going win not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5.. Well you get the idea.

After all the dwightmares over the offseason it’s time to talk about the big C in LA; D12. D12 joining the Purple and Gold was probably the biggest trade in the offseason apart from the surprise blockbuster Harden to Rockets trade. I was salivating at the chance to watch the duo Nash and D12 tear apart the NBA, D12 blocking out anything that came close to the bucket… I was like a kid at Christmas excited and over the moon expecting big things… and obviously hoping there wasn’t going to be anymore ‘dwight’mares for the Lakers. I’ve personally enjoyed watching D12 play, majority of the time he looked motivated to make Lakers become contenders again, with his hustle, presence in the D with his rebounding, blocks and scoring. But the biggest negative of D12 is his free throw shooting, that part of his game is absolutely horrible. D12′s free throw shooting has cost the Lakers numerous wins but I cannot put all the blame on D12 for these losses, this horrid Free throw shooting assisted in the losses the Lakers received. In addition to this Free throwing, the idea of putting a defensive play where teams basically fouled D12 (when he had the ball and even when he was furthest away from the ball, if you’re not sure go and check the Lakers v rockets match) which sent him to the line, and take advantage of his atrocious free throw shooting. Whether I have bias view with the Lakers, but I cannot fathom how this fouling D12 is for the good of the game. I’m guessing I’ll receive plenty of feedback saying it’s nothing different to fouling at the end of the game when things are close. On a positive note, I’m guessing all these extra attempts at the free throw line for D12, I can see he has improved in the free throws however there’s usually few bricks thrown every game by D12.

Now the D12 and Nash combo hasn’t really had the time to mesh for the D’Antoni system, only if they could get something like Stat and Nash days….. It doesn’t help with Nash injured for the first 7 weeks of the season and then Dwight sidelined for a week or two along the way with his shoulder injury. Once they had the opportunity of playing together I saw how well they can work together which gives me hope of them becoming a team contending for the title, but they need to do this consistently not intermittently. Since we’re talking about D12, there’s the terrible talk of D12 shipping out of LA to greener pastures since the Lakers are losing and he’s not really accepting D’Antoni’s setup plus the hyped confrontation with Kobe (which I think is just a stupid rumour). Do I think he’ll jump ship or be traded away before the trade deadline, no I don’t think D12 will leave LA. Unless LA keep losing it could temper D12 to leave but from an outsider looking in and ignoring all these reporters trying to make up a story and tear apart the Lakers I can see plenty of positives for him to stay. First positive would be financially, where the Lakers payroll could offer him something in the range he’s requesting, secondly the Lakers would be his after Kobe retires and being the face of one of the biggest franchises in the world the benefits would be endless. Finally with the Lakers payroll and it’s a bigger market I personally think it’d easier for the Lakers to entice someone to head to the Lakers then the Magic. But anything could happen in the NBA but I’m pretty confident he won’t leave although he does have a history of saying he’ll stay onboard and leave.

The final starter, probably one of the greatest NBA players and Lakers player is Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant would be one of my most favourite players to watch alongside Derrick Rose, Lebron James, Kevin Durant and most recently Kyrie Irving & Damien Lillard. ‘Bean’ is nearing the end of his career but with a Lakers team that has struggled to score, he’s taken this team and carried them throughout the season. I can’t believe a guy who’s 34 turning 35 this year is posting stats like these: 29.2 PPG 4.7 APG 4.8 RPG and 1.5 STLPG, it’s like he’s went back in time 3 or 4 seasons. Just hope his body holds up can endure this stressful season, guess the only way he can survive this gruelling workload is getting the others involved, getting Nash to take more on, D12 to take on more workload and Gasol to make an impact of the bench and lead the bench. I love seeing all the Kobe and Lakers haters comment on how he hardly passes and he’s a ball hog (Michael Jordan was a ball hog as well *crucify me for saying that* but as a Shooting Guard it’s not really their job to pass the ball, they are there to shoot) but when there’s no one else doing the work I guess it’s in his mentality that it his team and he’s got to show them how to do it. Is this good or bad for the Lakers, I think this outlook that Kobe is both good and bad to the Lakers.

On the positive side of things with Kobe taking over, you know there’s always a chance that your Lakers can win and when Kobe’s on fire he’s unstoppable. But on the negative side of this Kobe is when Kobe goes into the mindset of trying to take over, there can be some god awful games where he is cold… dead cold in shooting. This type of Kobe is damaging to the Lakers, and I guess he’ll have to trust the rest of the team to help him instead of becoming selfish, just look at who he has there to help him out D12 under the buckets, Nash at Point, MWP probably hanging around the 3pt line and Gasol about 13 ft away to put away an open jumper. I see Kobe as one of the few bright spots for the Lakers horrible season to date, I wonder if Kobe still maintains he’s scoring rate if he’ll win the scoring title, but for Kobe and the millions of Lakers fans a championship is far more important than a scoring title. We just have to see Kobe starts believing in the others around him and take advantage of the superstars that have joined forces with him, but from the last few games we’ve been witness too… Kobe may have clicked with the others but time will tell but dishing out double digit dimes and getting the hard rebounds whilst scoring is a great start

Since the starters have been completed it’s time to talk about the Lakers bench. As a Lakers fan I really wish they had invested in getting a decent bench, the pine riders of LA include Duhon, Clark, Hill (out for the season), Sacre, Jamison, Morris, Meeks, Ebanks, and the other Steve.. Blake. Comparing this bench to last season’s bench I see this bench as an improvement but it’s still a weak bench with no designated leader and one to control the game whilst the starters rest. I expected bigger things when they signed Antawn ‘The Lawyer’ Jamison, I expected Antawn to control the second team and become the leader of this bench by becoming that ultimate 6th man the Lakers need. I’m not sure whether he’s Jamison has been in cruise mode and riding the coat-tails of the super studded Lakers starter group but Antawn has been a big disappointment for the Lakers, totally understand it’s harder to make an impact with less minutes but I see number of benches around the league doing their job and actually performing instead of this Lakers bench leaving the starters to do all the work.

3 Coaches in 3 months of 2013 season, let’s start with the former Cavaliers coach Mike Brown. I personally never really liked Mike Brown just didn’t click with the Lakers. He did get the team to the playoffs last year which was great but just lacked any real direction or control of the team. So Browns firing at the start of the season I wasn’t totally surprised to see him given the boot although how early he was shafted was the only surprise. The second coach or the interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff whilst they found a proper replacement made the team actual perform together properly and had a nice win-loss record even without Nash involved due to injury. Bickerstaff’s run as interim coach was only short lived with a 4-1 record when the Lakers signed up not Phil Jackson but Mike D’Antoni as the head coach of the LA Lakers. From when Mike first entered I noticed the up-tempo attacking style and lack of defence type of coaching he provided the Lakers. I was excited to see how Nash would reunite with D’Antoni’s coaching but was also interested to see if they could reignite a similar connection of the Stat and Nash connection with D12 and Nash…

Since D’Antoni took over the Lakers struggled with defence and late 4th quarter for numerous games they weren’t able to shut down the game and let teams run over them. Obviously this team needs to understand D’Antoni’s game plan, his style of coaching along with trying to get the whole team gelling together. It’s great to see D’Antoni finally realising that Gasol and D12 cannot co-exist which made him change up the roster where Gasol comes off the bench. At start Gasol deterred this change as he saw himself as a starter and along with these trade talks suggested he was on the outer and quite possibly shipped out of LA. Over time Gasol still hasn’t warmed to the idea of him coming off as 6th man however he’s swallowed his pride and be that 6th man that the Lakers need and doing this role for the good of the team. Also the switch up of Kobe as the main facilitator now with Nash as #2, provides Nash more time to shoot and gives him more of chance to setup a better option due to less pressure on him. Can the Lakers make the playoffs… last week after they lost to the bulls I had my doubts but I’d never write them off as really 4 games isn’t too bad from been in the top 8 of the western conference. This week with 3 in a row over Jazz, Thunder and Hornets/Pelicans it seems that the Lakers may have turned that corner. But in all seriousness, it will require more than 3 game winning streak will be required to get respect again to become a playoff team and they can get this respect when they start playing together fluently and on a more consistent basis. I briefed over with the injuries the Lakers had to endure with getting D12 back from a back injury, Nash with the fractured leg, Hill out for the season with fractured disc, Blake with abdominal injury and Gasol with the troublesome knees and concussion.

All these injured players have played a role in the struggles of the Lakers season, especially the 3 starters of Nash, D12 and Gasol. Dealing with injuries and have time off from playing delayed the gelling process of the Lakers team, they couldn’t work out their roles in the team with the chop and changing of the line-ups. I think if it wasn’t for these injuries the Lakers would already be sitting in the top 8, not sure top 4 but certainly the top 8. Missing their star PG was an obvious issue for this Lakers team having the main facilitator away for 7 weeks and having C grade players covering this massive hole was never going to be easy. All these injuries the Lakers dealt with are they mainly resulting from age and battle worn team, as Gasol, Nash aren’t as bouncy and fresh like they used to be so the age card for these guys are definitely a factor of the struggles of the Lakers season and them missing time due taking longer to heal and getting back into game shape. Even with the impact of these injuries that the Lakers have been enduring through the season, there have been a few moments where they discovered a hidden gem through Gasol’s injury and delegation to the bench and Hills injury is Earl Clark. Earl Clark has come into this team with extra energy and hustle that the Lakers team was missing for quite some time, his hustle reinvigorated the team and made them seem a bit more refreshed and energised to compete.

What does the future entail for the Lakers, after recent string of wins the Lakers trade talk and pressure on them has eased a bit. I still think Gasol and few other players will be shipped off before close of the trade period. But really what do the Lakers need and who should they be trying to obtain for Gasol? I personally favoured a trade of Gasol to the Hawks for Josh smith, Korver and Teague, I’m not sure how J-Smoove would co-exist with D12 but at least J-Smoove will have the defensive game that the Lakers miss. Also adding Teague and Korver onto the bench would greatly improve this roster with a decent backup PG for Nash along with a great shooter in Korver. This trade probably would free up some cash and salary for the Lakers it also helps the Hawks with a proper centre and have Horford go in his proper role of Power Forward. There were talks of Gasol going to raptors but this has probably died down and almost not even worthy since the Gay three way trade. I’d like to hear other suggestions of what trades could be done for the Lakers and what players would be good for the Lakers in the short and long term.

This new look Lakers line-up have recently seen the Lakers win 6 out of the last 7 games, should have been 7 in a row apart from their horrid 4th quarter meltdown against Phoenix. So we may have quite possibly seen the team gel with Kobe as the main facilitator, D12 getting aggressive in attack and defence, Nash as the perfect #2 guard, Clark just hustling for rebounds and putting his body on the line, Metta keeping up intense defence and shooting the open three and Gasol leading the bench this team looks to be up on the rise again. The past few games I’ve watched this Lakers team has quite possibly clicked and started turn around the disappointing season they’ve had, maybe they’ll continue winning and get back into playoff contention. This Lakers team looks like a team getting its confidence back and it’s a team that starting to knows their roles and realise it’s not all about individuals it’s all about the team and the team’s success.

The only downside over the past few weeks apart from that embarrassing loss to Phoenix is injuries we’ve succumbed to again, with D12 out injured with a dodgy shoulder and most recently losing Gasol for 6 weeks with a torn plantar fasciitis. These injuries are seriously hurting the playoff chances of the Lakers, so hopefully D12 is back very soon to cover the loss of Gasol and we need the rest of the Lakers (starters and bench) to step-up, to work as a team instead of individuals and keep on winning. Only time will tell if the Lakers make the playoffs, if they don’t I know I’ll be very disappointed in the team missing out but I think Kobe’s passion to win will prevent them from missing out. Feel free to throw up suggestions about the Lakers, what trades they should to do become a dominant team again and possibly if it’s the coaching who should they target!

Greivis Vasquez is a very understated NBA player. He doesn’t have a lot of swagger, no really big endorsement deals and you won’t see him on television commercials or in many magazines, but what he does have is game – and he has it in spades. The third year point guard out of Maryland has to be considered in the Most Improved Player voting, that is just how good of a season he is having. He is currently averaging nearly 15ppg, 10apg and 5rpg and if he played on a bigger market team you would be all up in his biscuits. He is one of the very positive signs for the Hornets who have struggled for a number of years and are firmly entrenched in a rebuilding period.

However, all the talk in New Orleans is about the name and logo change, the rookies Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers as well as the health of Eric Gordon. All of those things are extremely important to the franchise but so is the sizeable point guard. He has well and truly beaten out the rookie for the starting PG spot (it’s hard to believe that pre-season the Hornets actually thought Austin Rivers might be ready to lead this team and start over Vasquez) and is settling in to life as one of the league better point guards. He is tall for the position (6’6”) and feels that this gives him an edge and allows him to see the court a lot better than some of the smaller guards. It’s hard to argue especially since with Rondo’s injury almost certainly handing the assists trophy to Vasquez.

The 26 year old Venezuelan is one of the more elder statesmen on a young team and although he is only in his third season, he really does play with a veteran savvy. Although his turnovers are high (a usual result on a young team) he does manage the offence and clock well and runs exactly what coach Monty Williams wants him too. He was originally drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies late in the first round and was moved to New Orleans a year later. Vasquez was the biggest beneficiary from the Chris Paul trade as it opened up the starting spot for him and he has yet to look back. The Hornets haven’t been able to find many wins, but they are definitely developing the more they become accustomed to playing with each other.

Rookie Anthony Davis has missed games and is a project anyway, Austin Rivers has yet to find his feet with the pace of the NBA game really testing him and they have just welcomed Eric Gordon back from knee injury who is still limited on minutes and doesn’t play on the second game of back to backs. So the emergence of Vasquez has not just been a delight, it has been a necessity. His development means that the Hornets can start to look confidently to the future as they have found a top quality floor leader to pair with their all star calibre shooting guard in Gordon and their franchise piece in The Brow.

Now that we have seen what Greivis is capable of, the sky is definitely the limit and I can guarantee that a lot more NBA fans are going to now who this talented guard is. He may not win the Most Improved Player award this year but he has got to be in contention. The way he is growing and developing, it might be an award he takes home next season when the Pelicans have a better team winning record.

Kyrie Irving headlines the sophmore group, and he is going to have quite a busy weekend, also being selected for the NBA All Star Game. Not sure how many minutes they will play him but it will be guaranteed excitement when he is on the floor. When he isn’t playing, Brandon Knight should fill in admirably. Very glad to see some of the lesser known players getting recognised too – Chandler Parsons is having a terrific year and Vucevic has really proven his worth for Orlando when Big Baby was on the sidelines.

Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis and Harrison Barnes are probably the biggest names on the Rookies squad and with good reason. These guys have been balling – Lillard clearly the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, Davis coming into his own after an injury riddled start and Harrison Barnes is quickly becoming the new Human Highlight Film.

Cleveland are the best represented team with 3 players in the game, while Golden State, Detroit and Charlotte all have two players, showing that these young rebuilding teams have some major talent to play with.

Sophmores

• Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers)
• Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets)
• Brandon Knight (Detroit Pistons)
• Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
• Chandler Parsons (Houston Rockets)
• Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors)
• Tristan Thompson (Cleveland Cavaliers)
• Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic)
• Kemba Walker (Charlotte Bobcats)

Rookies

• Damian Lillard (Portland Trailblazers)
• Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)
• Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors)
• Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
• Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons)
• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Charlotte Bobcats)
• Alexey Shved (Minnesota Timberwolves)
• Dion Waiters (Cleveland Cavaliers)
• Tyler Zeller (Cleveland Cavaliers)

In the most unfortunate of situations, Rajon Rondo, the starting Point Guard for the Eastern Conference All Stars tore his ACL and will be out of action for 9ths minimum. This leaves David Stern the chance to replace Rondo in the All Star team with whoever he chooses. Generally, it is a positional swap (eg a guard for a guard) to keep the rosters balanced, but there have been occasions where he has replaced the injured player with one of the “snubbed” players regardless of position. So we are really at the mercy of David Stern – but certain players, including Brandon Jennings are doing their best to be considered for that spot.

Yesterday we saw Deron Williams run a nice little rout of the Orlando Magic whilst getting himself 20pts and 9ass. Today it was Jennings who was on show. He torched the Detroit Pistons for 30pts and 6ass as the Bucks got a massive win over the up and coming Pistons. He also had 5 three pointers in this explosion and shot an impressive 11-19 from the field overall. Fact is – this isn’t anything new for Jennings. He has been doing this all year and because he plays in a smaller market, you may not get to see him as often as you should, but if you do, you get to see one of the best young guards in the NBA.

He had 30pts and 8ass a week ago against Portland. He had 35pts 6ass and 6rebs against the Bulls and he also posted 29pts and 9ass against the Suns. All these were good wins for the Bucks who are sitting pretty with a current record of 24-19 and would be the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. His backcourt running mate – Monta Ellis is also having a very good year, but there is no doubt the biggest reason for the improvement is Jennings. In fact, Jennings numbers are very similar to another young PG who has turned it on this year – JRue Holiday. Holiday was voted in to the All Star game as a reserve by the coaches, and I am sure they would have looked long and hard at either him or Jennings. Perhaps now they get to have both.

Jennings took a different route into the NBA. He decided to skip college and play overseas instead of taking the path well worn by other high school phenoms. He was given the ball and the keys to a professional team rather than learning systems, structures and getting an education. As he would admit, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, at times it was very tough, and he wasn’t sure that it was the best idea. However, he came into the NBA a year later as a rookie, had a 55pt outburst and showed that he could play the game. He is now still only 23 years old and his past two season have been very very good. This year he has played to an All Star standard, it’s just a matter of time to see if David Stern agrees.

The Celtics are devastated and I don’t just mean that from a franchise or form point of view. Rondo is their engine, their heart and soul, and to have to watch your main guy go down for the season is a very tough thing to handle. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have gone on record as being very upset and disturbed by the situation. Danny Ainge is not better – he is not sure “what a long period of time without Rondo looks like: and is worried. Doc Rivers is going to miss his floor leader just as much as anyone, but he refuses to raise the white flag. So what is going to happen in Beantown for the rest of the season?

A number of teams are running offenses through their “playmakers” these days and this is not always just the point guard. You only have to watch a Miami Heat game to now that Chalmers isn’t running anything there – LeBron and Wade are. You can flick over to the past 3 Laker games and realise that a LOT of the playmaking has been done by Kobe and this has appeared more successful. So without Rondo, do we automatically write the Celtics off or now that there is a change, do we see them being able to make the necessary adjustments and still remaining relevant and competitive.

I’ll go with the latter for a number of reasons. Paul Pierce, the face of the franchise for so many years, the recently rumored trade piece, has now become even less expendable (I highly doubt he was ever being traded anyway) because he is one of those players who is a play MAKER. He is not a point guard, but he has a great feel for the game, a great shot and a great handle. He has the respect of the squad and has been in Doc Rivers system now for what seems like an eternity. He will have to have the ball and the offence running through him a lot more now and he is the best candidate for the role. The Truth will be a Celtic past the trade deadline and he may even be the main reason the Celtics still make a deep playoff push.

Jason Terry, Leandro Barbosa, Courtney Lee and Avery Bradley. These are the main four backcourt players in the Celtics rotation now, and they are all going to have to play their part if the Celtics are to succeed without Rondo. The Jet has played a lot of PG before and has a decent handle, so he is not totally new to the role, but he is new to the system, so this is going to take time. He is a serviceable ball handler and could work very well with Pierce to keep the ship on the right course. Barbosa was used to back up Steve Nash at the Suns, but the Brazilian Blur is more of a shooting guard than a point guard, so this is going to take some adjusting also. Avery Bradley is not a PG even though he lines up there for your fantasy teams – he does not have the same vision and ball handling ability – but he provides great defense and toughness – these are also skills that are going to be needed moving forward. Finally Courtney Lee – he has no idea how to be a PG so he needs to do what he does best and shoot the ball. When Paul Pierce is making plays, these guys need to finish them.

There is a long way to go in the season – we aren’t even at the All Star break. The good news is this give the Celtics time to adjust and also gives them time to have a look at their squad prior to the trade deadline. The next month of play might determine whether or not the C’s make any moves. With a number of point guards being available (Kyle Lowry, Jose Calderon via trade and Keyon Dooling and ex-Celtic via Free Agency) they might try and fill the gap in that manner, but if Pierce can perform the playmaking role to a high level, they may not need to. When a player goes down, it provides opportunity and Boston will be hoping that someone from the group of players mentioned above will seize that opportunity. They need to replace 13ppg and 11apg, one person is not going to do that, but a team of people can. That is what the Celtics and their fans will be hoping for.

NBA All-Star Reserves!

East: 

West:

What is your take? Do you think the coach’s got it right? Were the fans right in their selections? Who were the most unlucky to miss out? Who will win and why and who do you think might just nab the MVP? Get the discussion going in the comments section below!

Memphis Grizzles trade Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby and a 2015 first round pick (with restrictions) to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Jon Leuer.

Yep – that’s it. That is all. Essentially the trade has been made to ensure the Grizzlies are under the salary cap and can retain their starters for seasons to come. Now that the dust has settled and you have had time to look over it, let’s break it down and see what it means to both teams in terms of the future and their performance right now.

The Grizzlies knew they had to do something to avoid being over the cap and paying additional taxes – so they have made this move. In the process though, they have ensured that they will have the financial flexibility to re-sign all their current starters. This is a good move, as they have a terrific starting lineup, the problem now becomes about depth. Do they have the depth to really make any noise in the playoffs? When games slow down and start to grind, are Memphis going to be able to keep it up and mix it with the western conference’s deeper teams? Highly doubt it. So, was this move just about money, or is there more to the story? I would suggest that this is not the least move Memphis make. I still believe that they will be looking to move Rudy Gay or Zach Randolph (although I think Rudy is more likely) and try to get a few more serviceable and cheaper pieces to fill the gap. It may seem like a neutral move, but if they can get some younger players who have good upside but get paid significantly less, then the replace Rudy and give themselves some depth AND save money. Winners all round, just not sure how this translates to winning games. Time will tell, but at first glance, this salary dump looks like the start of something rather than the end.

Cleveland have to let go of Jon Leuer and they had to drop Pargo in order to have the roster space available to make this work, but here they are. They have added solid front court depth with Speights who will help Tyler Zeller and Tristan Thompson in the absence of Anderson Varejao who is now sidelined for the rest of the season with a blood clot. They also get Ellington who is a capable wing, decent shooter and defender and provides them with some length on the perimeter. But here is the best part of the deal – they get Josh Selby. Selby is a combo guard who has been stuck well behind more established guards Mike Conley Jnr and Jarryd Bayless. Even rookie Tony Wroten Jr appears further up the depth chart. Sleby can play both guard positions, is very athletic and is young and developing. He won the NBA Summer League MVP after some outstanding performances and now gets to go against Kyrie Irving, one of the best young PG’s in the league every day at practice. He could become a very good option coming off the bench behind Irving and Waiters and give the Cavs even more reason to be excited.

When it is all said and done, this is just one of many trades that will no doubt occur over the next few weeks, how it pans out remains to be seen.

This new ownership has preached a change of culture in Golden State, and insisted that they are about making the Warriors a championship contending team for years and years to come. But to Warrior fans, they’ve heard it all too many times that things were going to change and that the Warriors were finally going to straighten up. With only one playoff appearance in the past 19 years, it is hard for Warrior fans to believe owners who tell them “this time it’s different” with all the bad history of the team. To the credit of the new owners, they have made a couple of very big decisions already, which seem to have dramatically affected the franchise for the better.

Their first big order of business was parting ways with Don Nelson, who was getting old, lazy, and tired of coaching and bringing in an energetic Mark Jackson who was about playing hard on both sides of the floor. They were wise in letting Don Nelson go since they realized that “Nelly ball” as it is called is only about putting the ball in the bucket with no regard for defense. Seeing that “Nelly ball” hadn’t produced any serious playoff success, they were wise in parting ways with Don Nelson, which was a big deal for the Warriors since it marked the end of what had been an unfruitful era of Warriors basketball.

Their second big move was getting rid of the franchise player Monta Ellis for a big man in Andrew Bogut who would help them play better defense and move away from “Nelly ball”. The ownership also correctly assessed that Monta Ellis wasn’t the guy to lead the team to the promised land and that the future had to lie in the hands of combo guard Stephen Curry and young power forward David Lee.

With the Monta Ellis trade being largely viewed as negative by Warrior fans, it is huge for the Warriors front office to be having the type of success that they are having with Monta Ellis gone. Even more impressively, they are doing it without the aid of their big acquisition Andrew Bogut who is still recovering from ankle surgery. Aside from Bogut being hurt, the Warriors have a really good looking team, largely due to other good moves made by the front office such as picking up Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry in the off-season as well as drafting Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Festus Ezeli. And while the Andrew Bogut trade may not seem to be fruitful in the sense that Bogut is hurt, the Warriors record is more than enough to keep Warrior fans plenty happy until Andrew Bogut returns.

Warrior fans seem to be so happy that they’ve at times forgotten that Andrew Bogut exists all together since they are so not used to winning. Some Warrior fans are even starting to ask whether or not they need Andrew Bogut at all, and it’s hard to argue a strong case for it with all the success that they’ve been having.

But the bottom line is that if the Warriors want any chance of winning a first round series this year, then they absolutely need to have a healthy Andrew Bogut. The first reason is due to which team they are slotted to match up against in the playoffs. At the present moment, they are slotted to face the Memphis Grizzlies in the playoffs who have a terrific frontcourt composed of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. The heart and soul of the Grizzlies is their defense and inside presence. If the Warriors want any chance of knocking out the Grizzlies in the first round, they absolutely need another big guy in their crashing the glass and rebounding the basketball. Even if Andrew Bogut doesn’t score at all, his presence in the paint to keep Gasol and Randolph off the glass is invaluable.

Secondly, the playoffs are all about making adjustments, and adding Andrew Bogut makes it harder for other teams to adjust to them and at the same time makes it easier for them to adjust to their opponents. Andrew Bogut is not Dwight Howard, but he is still a very stable center, who usually averages close to a double double every night. Having any staple double-double guy is a huge plus for any team in the NBA, and having him healthy will make them so much more versatile and harder to game plan for.

Lastly, the Warriors are deep at the guard and small forward positions, but not at the power forward or center position. If David Lee were to go down with Andrew Bogut hurt, then they really would be depleted on the front court and they would instantly become not very good. But if Andrew Bogut is healthy in the event that David Lee goes down, who is to say that they couldn’t stay afloat until Lee comes back? They’ve been doing just fine with one really good big playing, and while Bogut is no David Lee, he isn’t that bad of an alternative.

Upon analyzing the state of Warriors and where they are going, their success without Bogut is certainly beyond impressive and is a true testament to not just how well the players are playing, but also to how good Mark Jackson’s coaching is as well as how good the Warriors front office has done in terms of surrounding Stephen Curry and David Lee with good talent. But this success shouldn’t trick anybody into thinking that they don’t need Andrew Bogut healthy to be dangerous in the long run. His size and ability to control the paint isn’t a luxury for this team, but a necessity that they have to have if they want to go anywhere come playoff time. The Warriors are about to find out that playoff basketball is a whole other animal from the regular season, and they need all the help that they can get to make that adjustment. One of those key guys that they are going to need is undoubtedly Andrew Bogut.

We would love to hear from you too – who would make it, who doesn’t deserve it. In fact, why don’t you rate the writers All Star teams! Use the comments section to have your say and to vote on each lineup (score out of 10)! Or offer us your own all star team!

EAST Starters:

DWYANE WADE, CARMELO ANTHONY, KEVIN GARNETT, LEBRON JAMES, RAJON RONDO

WEST Starters:

DWIGHT HOWARD, BLAKE GRIFFIN, KEVIN DURANT, KOBE BRYANT, CHRIS PAUL

So here it is below, 6 of our writers chosen 2013 All Star Team bench players:

What are your thoughts on the teams???

Who has the best?

Who’s in YOUR All-Star bench…..comment below!!!!

Don’t let his lack of numbers fool you – Collison can flat out ball. He was the 12th pick in the 2003 NBA draft by the Seattle Supersonics who as we all know moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. Coming out of Kansas, the Jayhawk big man was highly sought after. He had a terrific work ethic, soft hands, great footwork and extremely good fundamentals. He was known as very coachable, having a high basketball IQ and would give you everything. You can tell this through his numbers as he improved in every way, every year he was on campus. His final year of college he netted 18.5ppg and hauled in 10rpg. He was the National Player of the Year, was a first-team All American and was named Big 12 player of the year all in 2003. Impressive stats and accolades for someone you might hardly know of.

He led the Jayhawks to 2 consecutive Final Four appearances (along with teammate Kirk Hinrich who has also had a very successful if not superb pro career). In 2003 he went head to head with Carmelo Anthony’s Syracuse squad and was unable to defeat them – but that is just testament to how good this guy really is. However, his career in the NBA has not been so highly recognised. He doesn’t have any accolades or individual awards to hang his hat on. In fact the only real note of interest is that he is the only player besides Kevin Durant who has endured since the relocation to Oklahoma. Ironically, he might be just as important as KD to the success of the Thunder.

The Thunder made it all the way to the NBA Finals last season and lost to the Miami Heat. They had endured a number of close encounters throughout the playoffs and it was the veteran leadership and poise of Collison that helped the extremely young Thunder achieve the success they did. When you think of OKC, probably 3 names come to mind – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. If you are a bit of a fan, then you may know Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Martin but if you are a true Thunder Buddy, you know who Collison is. His numbers don’t smash you in the face – they are a pedestrian 5.7ppg, 4.5rpg and 1.4apg. But this is one key occasions where stats don’t tell the story.

Watch a Thunder game. Don’t focus on how smooth Kevin Durant is, or how screwy yet accurate Kevin Martin’s shot is, or how Russell Westbrook is so athletic it is scary. Try not to follow Air Congo as he blocks shot after shot or throws home dunk after dunk. Look for the big white guy in the middle – he won’t be hard to find. He will be well positioned under the basket for a rebound. He will be helping trap the oppositions point guard. He will be guarding the pick and roll with superb effectiveness. He will be helped up off the floor time after time having taken a charge or thrown himself after a lose ball. He will get a sneaky tap out on the offensive glass to give OKC another possession, he will be continually talking and teaching, he will be drenched in his own sweat and still be outworking everyone on the court.

Nick Collison is old school, and I don’t mean that because he stayed the full 4 years at college, or that he will be 33 later this year, or that he is a big body who rarely dunks. I mean he is old school because he doesn’t care about the glamour and glitz. He doesn’t make commercials or headlines. He won’t be on sportscenter and he won’t win awards. What he does though is win. Wins basketball games, wins battles, wins fans with his heart, desire and determination to give everything he has. He may not be the most talented, but he toils away like very few others.

If the Thunder are lucky enough to run the gauntlet of the Wests super teams (Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies) and make it back to the NBA Finals, Collison will be a big reason why. He won’t be on billboards or on t-shirts, but he will be on oppositions minds. Nick has an impact in every ball game he plays in – it may not get recorded in the box score, but it’s there. They say every Batman needs a Robin – Jordan had Pippen, LeBron has DWade, well Kevin Durant has Russell Westbrook. I actually think every Batman needs an Alfred – after all, Jordan also had Horace Grant, LeBron also had Bosh and the Thunder have their  very own in Nick Collison.

The NBA is a sport that promotes its entertainment aspects more than any other. Unlike other major sports around the world that use teams as a primary marketing tool, the NBA uses its star players. The storylines between the star players and the individual matchups in an upcoming game are usually the focus to create hype and marketing opportunities for teams and the league. How does this affect the game itself? I am certainly not suggesting any fixes; this is merely just an observation.

I remember an incident last season where Ricky Rubio was clearly fouled late in a game, however it wasn’t called. The TV analysts were open and honest (so was Kevin Love after the game) in saying that Ricky hadn’t earned the right to have that called as he was only a rookie. Sorry I don’t have references as to which game and the actual quotes.

This is the one aspect that disappoints me about the NBA. There are examples everywhere that when a 50/50 or borderline call is made, it is more likely to be favourable to the “star” player. Casual NBA fans accept this as it is a superstar driven league and everyone wants to see the superstars perform and do well. What do you think?

I am of the opinion that an incident within a game needs to be called on the merits of that incident where the reputation of the players involved has no bearing on the outcome (call). Some of our readers may be of the opinion that superstar calls don’t exist, which is perfectly fine.

So in leaving, I just want to pose a few things, is it possible for a player to go 6 games (averaging 37 minutes a game) without committing a single foul? Also, an amusing occurrence from the Timberwolves game against the Thunder last week, who do you think was called for a foul on this play? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcrZngbvj2I

Please let us know your thoughts on the issue of superstar calls.

James has made it clear on many occasions that he cares little for individual milestones – he wants to win and he wants to win Championships, which is something that only comes about with the help and effort of a team. In fact, had James not been such a team player, he may have blown this record out of the water. He is already a year younger than the last “youngest player” to reach 20,000 points (Kobe Bryant), but he has also played a team brand of basketball that has seen him post high career assist numbers and perhaps not score “all the time” but rather allow others to have an imprint on the game.

This is not a discussion about who is the greatest, it’s not a discussion about “The Decision” it is a recognition of a man with superb basketball skills, the ability to score at will and in a number of ways, and to break down another record that has stood for a decent period of time. The change in the NBA game has meant that records will in fact be broken. Wilt’s 100pt game might be the only one that lasts through the new generation of NBA superstars, although Kobe did give it a fair shake with his 81 point effort against Toronto a few years back. The league changed the rule so that High School players now have to go to College for at least one year (or play outside of the NBA for a year in the case of Brandon Jennings). This obviously means that players will be slightly older when making it into the league. This doesn’t allow for an even playing field, but neither do records that stand prior to the 3pt shot being introduced. We may never even see another kid come out of high school, let alone one to do what LBJ did straight away.

Now just because LeBron will be the youngest player to ever score 20,000 points, that doesn’t mean he was the best, doesn’t mean he was even the fastest to that total and doesn’t mean he will keep it (Kevin Durant is racking up points at a high rate and decent shooting percentage, and people such as James Harden also have the green light). What it means is he is a superbly talented young player who has scored 20,000 career points. If he reaches the milestone tomorrow against the Warriors like I think he will, it will be game number 726 for James. To put that in perspective, Wilt did it in 499 games, Michael Jordan (620), Oscar “Big O” Robertson (671), Kareem Abdul Jabbar (684), Elgin Baylor (711) and Allen Iverson (713). Quite esteemed company to be in regardless of how quickly, how young or how many games it takes to join that company.

Now a lot of people are going to assume that LeBron is the best player ever and point to statistics and milestones such as tomorrows. This is a debate that will rage through the ages and will be determined through your own opinion. For me, it will probably always be Michael Jordan, but others who grew up in different eras will have different opinions – and that is the way it should be. Points scored is not the only measuring stick though – because I don’t see Allen Iverson or even Elgin Baylor in discussions about the Greatest of all time. To be honest, he still has a very good chance of finishing his career as the NBA’s leading scorer. He is just a shade over halfway to the record mark set by Kareem Abdul Jabbar (38,387pts) and is shooting 55% from the floor. He has a durable physique, is rarely injured and continues to develop his game as he ages. You just have to look at Kobe Bryant who at 34 years of age is putting up buckets at 30ppg. LeBron could be every bit as damaging in the latter stages of his career.

Now, should some milestones be left untamed? It is an interesting question asked by a basketball fan. There have been a number of instances where players won’t break records out of respect for the legends of the game and previous record holder. We have seen people share the honours etc as well as a sign of respect, but is this good or bad for the game? I think both. In some respects, records are made to be broken but I do like records that stand the test of time. I would personally love to witness a 100 point game from someone like Kevin Durant as much as I respect the legacy that Wilt has left. I would love to see someone score 40,000 career points even though Kareem would lose the mantle. Records will be broken whether we like it or not – LBJ is not going to put his career on hold for a year to not upset the apple cart. KD won’t have any issues dethroning LBJ as the youngest to 20k if he can. We as basketball fans need to embrace these records but also respect those who originally held the award. The playing field has changed, the game has changed, the technology has changed – we aren’t comparing apples with apples when it comes to records anymore.

Michael Jordan to me, is the best player to have ever played the game of basketball. I watched with anticipation every time he took the court and what he could do was amazing. A lot of younger people are now witnessing the same thing with the NBA newest stars, and a lot of older generations watch the battle of the big fellas with Wilt, Kareem and Bill Russell. Whoever ends up with the mantle as the best ever, you can rest assured it will be a short lived title. Out there right now, someone is busting his butt to become the best ever and he may just knock off a few of these milestones and records on his way there.

Let’s start with Matthew Dellevadova. Delly was born in Maryborough, about an hour from where I am sitting and writing this. A small country town mainly known for farming, it will soon be known for producing one of Australia’s best basketball stars. He was recruited to the Australian Institute of Sport for high performance athlete’s and competed for the Australian Junior National team at the FIBA Under 19 World Championships. The Aussies finished 4^th and Delly lead the squad with 10.1 points per game. Matthew Dellevadova also made it to the London 2012 Olympic squad which is where you may have seen his game most recently (unless you follow the Gaels of St Mary’s like a number of basketball mad Aussies do!) The 6’4” point guard has a very impressive resume, but a more impressive repertoire of skills. He is strong, quick, has terrific court vision and tops all that off with a smooth as silk jump shot. At 22 years of age and in his last year with the Gaels, we could be watching another Australian enter the NBA in the next draft. His scoring has gone up in each of his four seasons and he is currently pouring in 17.3ppg. Impressively, his shooting percentages have also gone up each year and he is netting them at a very efficient 45% fg and 40% 3pt. The Gaels have gotten off to a 4-1 start to their campaign and Delly is the big reason why. Make sure you follow this young man on twitter too, and show your support for a future star – @matthewdelly.

Next on the list is arguably the best player in the European league currently and it is this form that has made the San Antonio Spurs sit up and take notice (having Aussie Boomers Head Coach Brett Brown as an assistant coach must help too) but there is no denying Aron Baynes is a star. Baynes was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia and we now claim him! He is a different story to Dellevadova – for starters Baynes is 26 years old, 6”10’ and plays big. He played four years of college basketball in the United States of America for Washington State from 2005-2009. In his final year he had decent numbers of 12.7ppg and 7.5rpg but went undrafted. He has had a good career over in Europe which started in Lithuania, and he has really impressed in his latest stint with Olimpija Ljubljana where he is putting up numbers to the tune of 14ppg and 10rpg. San Antonio have taken notice and it is no surprise as nearly half the roster for the Spurs is foreign, including Patty Mills. Baynes also played in the Olympic team with Mills and Dellevadova and his size and fundamental skill shone through on a number of occasions. After signing his new $3.5million 4 year contract, I for one can’t wait to see just what he can do on the world’s biggest and best stage – we think he has the goods! @aronbaynes

Now we have spoken about the next generation of Aussie stars who have or will most likely make the NBA, it is time to focus on Patty Mills. Mills is a diminutive point guard from Australia. He stands barely 6’0 tall but plays big with blinding speed. Mills is the only Indigenous Australian currently playing in the NBA and is a big part of the Spurs rotation. He provides speed, outside shooting, a keen eye and sound knowledge of the game as well as the aforementioned quickness that an aging Spurs lineup needs. Mills played for the ACT Under 18 team and was swiftly recognised and given a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport which was not far from his home town of Canberra. Patty was selected to represent Australia in the Under 20 national team and impressed. He was then asked to try out for the 2006 FIBA World Championship Boomers squad, the youngest player to ever attend a Boomers training camp. He also earned Basketball Australia’s Male Junior player of the year award and then the 2006 Basketball Australia Player of the Year.

After these accolades and honing his craft in the very competitive SEABL competition, Mills took his talents over to the United States collegiate program where he attended St Marys University. After a very impressive career spanning 2 years (and dropping 18.4ppg and 4apg) and after leading the Gaels to the NCAA tournament, Mills went to the NBA. He was drafted in the 2^nd round of the 2009 NBA Draft by the Portland Trailblazers, but only appeared in 10 games after breaking his foot in the NAB summer league. The following year he saw more games and more court time, with 64 appearances and averaging 12 mins per game, as he came back to full speed from his previous injury. During the NBA lockout, Patty Mills came back to Australia to play in the local NBL competition for the Melbourne Tigers. (Side Note: I was lucky enough to score a jersey and catch the Tigers victory over New Zealand for my bucks day!) However after just 9 games, Mills decided he would head over to China and ply his trade there. He would be released due to a hamstring injury and then was picked up by the San Antonio Spurs where he continued his career and stills plays today.

Now we know of Patty’s on court achievements and his basketball talent, but this is where the story continues to grow and develop. Patty Mills is a very proud Australian – he loves the country, the people and gets back as often as he can. He also proudly represents Australia especially via his twitter account (@Patty_Mills). Yesterday, Patty hosted a competition via the Wears My Shirt website and the Patty Mills Foundation. He was raising money for Cottage By The Sea and was providing everyone who spent over $150 on products from the store a signed Patty Mills #8 Spurs jersey. The support was deafening, and not just from the faithful Aussie followers. He has a cult following over in America also and they were well represented on twitter this afternoon. By the end of it, thousands of dollars worth of orders were placed and Patty Mills was issuing over 40 signed jerseys. What an absolute champion. These types of stories get buried far too often and with the timing of Delly and Baynes and the upcoming Australia Day (which Patty cannot wait for!) we at Above The Rim thought it needed to be thrust into the spotlight.

In a day an age where people especially sporting stars are seen as insensitive, selfish, inaccessible, Patty Mills is the polar opposite. Perhaps it is his nature, his background, his patriotism to his country, perhaps he wants to give back to those who have helped and supported him – whatever the reason, it needs to be acknowledged. I have no doubt that everyone in Australia is proud of Patty’s achievements as a basketball player, but I have a feeling that everyone who knows and follows Mills is proud of who he is as a person just as much, if not more so.

For more information on the Patty Mills Foundation or Wears My Shirt, head over to their website at www.wearsmyshirt.com – check out all the work they do, but especially check out Patty Mills – his ASSIST AUSTRALIA campaign is listed on there, where he raised $40,000 for victims of natural disasters in Australia and much more. More importantly, continue to follow and support Patty who is super active on twitter – he deserves our attention on and off the court.

The Splash Brothers – is it a play on words from the Mighty Ducks “Bash Brothers” – or is it because that is the sweet sound reverberating from Oakland when the Warriors take the floor? Probably a bit of both to be honest, but I am loving the name and loving the game. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry are who Warriors faithful have bestowed this nickname upon, and there has never been a more fitting title. Both silky smooth guards can flat out light it up from anywhere on the floor and have picture perfect shooting strokes. If you haven’t seen them play, you need to – even just watch a highlights package of the backcourt and you will be suitable impressed. They are joyous to watch – and even better for the Warriors, they are super effective and efficient.

I will start with the lesser known Splash Brother – Klay Thompson. Klay was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 11th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He came with very good size for a shooting guard (he is 6’7″ with long arms) but also a very good shooting touch. He has a slender frame (not that it slows real scorers like KD), but good speed and strength. He had just averaged 21.6ppg for Washington State University in his third year at the program. The Warriors had Monta Ellis in the backcourt but really liked the look of former NBA player Mychael Thompson’s son and decided he was worth the punt. After a decent rookie campaign, Klay flourished with the trade of Ellis to the Bucks for Aussie big man Andrew Bogut and finished on the All Rookie First team. Thompson was given the reigns to the shooting guard spot and with that, some very big responsibility. He has lived up to the hype so far this season and is averaging a respectable 15.9ppg and 4.0apg while shooting 40% from both FG and 3pt range.

The other brother is Steph Curry. The delightful little point guard / shooting guard out of Davidson and son of NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry is one of the NBA’s best back-court players – he has just been limited in what he has been able to demonstrate to people due to a variety of injuries. Drafted 7th overall by the Warriors in the 2009 draft. Curry brought with him high expectations and an exceptional level of skill. Over his 3 year college career he had an average of 25.3ppg shooting 46% from the floor and 41% from down town – very impressive numbers by any means. His rookie campaign was super impressive and he missed just 2 games. His 80 games netted him averages of 17.5ppg, 4.5rpg and 5.9apg as well as 1.9spg. These were good enough for an All Rookie First team selection and runner up in the Rookie of the Year voting to Tyreke Evans.

The following season, Curry was also ultra-reliable as he put up very similar statistical numbers but at a better percentage. He had settled into the NBA game and the pace of the next level and was showing he belonged ion the NBA and that he would be a star on the world’s biggest stage. The third season rolled around and everyone was eagerly anticipating just how good Curry could be. Unfortunately, after a terrific start to the season, Curry was shut down early. He had damaged tendons in his foot, damaged his right ankle and missed 40 games. He then had to undergo surgery on the right ankle and that was that. His campaign was put on ice and many were wondering with the injuries to the same ankle, whether he would be able to come back and play at the highest level.

Enter 2012-13. Steph Curry has not just come back to play at the highest level, but he is flat out owning it. He is one of the best players in the league right now, the Warriors are winning and the Splash Brothers are wetting every jumpshot they take. Through 35 games, Curry is averaging 38 minutes per game but also delivering 20.2ppg and 6.6apg. He is knocking them in at a 43% clip (45% from 3pt range) and the Bay Area is buzzing. The level of his play has people talking about All Star weekend like he might not just be there for  the skills challenge or 3pt contest. Klay is also playing well and getting some good run averaging 35 mins per contest.

Today the Warriors have fallen to the Nuggets, but it was through no fault of  Steph. Curry had a game high 29pts (including 7-9 from 3pt land) 7 assists and just 1 turnover. Klay was not as efficient today and struggled with his 3pt shot but still had 13pts 6rebs and 3ass. The slack was picked up by rookie Harrison Barnes who had 21pts and is showing he is the real deal. The Warriors now possess a 23-13 record and are looking very scary. They look like a playoff team and what’s better is that Steph Curry is silencing his doubters. He is playing well, he is playing strong but most importantly he is playing.David Lee has been putting together an impressive season as well and works so well with the backcourt – he is almost as big of a reason the Warriors have 23 wins under their belt. (note: David Lee and Harrison Barnes will get their own features – they deserve them, so don’t flame me for only mentioning them here!)

Golden State are still awaiting the return of Andrew Bogut. With his low post presence and array of shots from the low block, that is only going to increase the open looks for the Splash Brothers – and if they get open, you know what? Splash…………..

For those who don’t know much about this young star, here is a little recap – as a freshman he led his Wildcats to a Big Sky Conference Championship averaging 11.5 points per game and 2.9 assists per game. In his Sophomore year he stepped his game up about 5 levels averaging 19.9 points per game and 3.9 assists and again led his Wildcats to a Big Sky Conference championship. At the seasons end Lillard received his first big sky conference player of the year award. The following year Lillard was averaging 19.7 points per game but his season was cut short 9 games in due to a foot injury. In his fourth year as a Wildcat he led the nation for most of season on an average of 24.5 points per game and dishing out 4 assists along with 5 rebounds. After his 4 years at Weber State, Lillard decided to nominate himself for the NBA Draft after he was rated one of the top point guard prospects in the country thanks to his final year at Weber State. Even due to not finishing his final year he finished as Weber States second leading scorer of all time and 5th all-time scorer in big sky conference history. It was a matter of time before this talent saw NBA Floor!

Drafted at the 6th pick by the Portland Trail Blazers they knew what most other teams didn’t they were getting an NBA Ready point guard, what they didn’t know was that he would be averaging 18.2 ppg and 6.2 assists in his first 3 months as a NBA Rookie. On his debut against the infamous L.A Lakers he scored 23 points and dished out 11 assists straight away joining NBA royalty Oscar Robertson & Isaiah Thomas as the only rookies in NBA History to debut with at least 20 points and 10 assists. This was just the beginning. He kept on going each game, getting more and more comfortable with the big man LaMarcus Aldridge in the pick & roll which could become a very lethal duo reminiscent of Stockton & Malone.

On his short resume that is becoming increasingly full is already a game winner he hit against number 1 pick Anthony Davis’ New Orleans Hornets with what is becoming his signature step back move behind the 3 point line. We again saw this in a great game against the New York Knicks – the Knicks made a run, Carmelo just hit a 3 to get the Knicks to within 3 point with 45 seconds left… but once again it was Lillard Time… one on one with Prigioni, top of the key, shot clock running down, couple of cross overs, he used his signature step back to make room between him and Prigioni to nail a clutch 3 pointer to all but seal the win in Madison Square Garden where New York have been virtually unbeatable all season long. These are just a couple of highlights on a very impressive start to a rookie season.

One thing Lillard has been fortune with is that he has been able to train with Jason Kidd & Gary Payton, not a bad way to start an NBA Career but People are already comparing Lillard to the likes of Derrick Rose, the way they play, how humble they are, just happy to be doing what they love…. playing basketball. However do not be mistaken this kid has worked hard for everything he has accomplished thus far.  He is a future all-star in my opinion and with a solid core at Portland this could be there chance to really start escalating the team back up in the western conference after years of bad luck through unlucky injuries.

He has said he is a one town player and really enjoys what Rip City has to offer, let’s hope so for their sake because a starting line-up featuring Lillard, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge & Hickson is one heck of team to build with. For now let’s enjoy watching this kid unfold into what I believe will be a top 5 point guard in coming years and maybe just maybe future MVP.

Knicks fans would have to be a little concerned, as since Melo has been a Knick he’s been on the best of behaviour and even going down the path of MVP status this season.
However with moves like waiting outside the Celtics bus for KG to start a fight, probably is going to steer him in the wrong direction for his first MVP award, the league doesn’t
seem to take to kindly to player thuggery such as this.

But where should the line be drawn in regards to on court talk? Speaking s*** about someone’s significant other IMO is going over that line. Yes, it put Melo off his game, but what does it say
about a player that needs to resort to that level of filth to get inside an opponents head? I know Celtics fans won’t agree, but they have their #celticfanlogic to thank for that.

I for one would love to see KG with Melo’s fist through his face. So…..who would win the fight?

10k assists over 17 seasons at a career average of 8.6apg – quite an incredible feat. Nash ha made a habit of making everyone around him better from his early days with the Dallas Mavericks, through the glory days with the Phoenix Suns and now he hopes he can do the same with the Lakers, who need all the help they can get. It can’t be heaped on Nash though – he is only just starting to find his feet again after the longest lay off of his career. Without  Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol to pass to tonight, he made those around him better and got them easy shots. In some cases, he made such exceptional passes that role players such as Earl Clark did not even realise they had an open layup. This happened on more than one occasion, but Steve, as he has all career, took it all in stride and continued to teach and pass the basketball.

This isn’t a Lakers bashing article – it has gotten to the point that we now need to start feeling sorry for a team that had so much potential yet has failed to deliver. Deep down, most of us hated the Lakers putting their superteam together but still wanted Nash to get a ring. Unfortunately, it looks like he is the one that needs some help now.

Congratulations on an amazing milestone Steve, you thoroughly deserve it – keep ballin’.

Miami was well and truly dominated by The Pacers on the boards also, 55-36……with an astonishing 22 of those being offensive rebounds.

If Miami expect to cruise to the playoffs with games like this, think again Heatles.

Miami moves to 23-10 with the loss, up next for the Heat… the Blazers

And with 0.3 seconds left on the clock, Bradley Beal was celebrating and the Oklahoma City Thunder reeling after losing a close road game to the league’s worst team. Not since 2002 had the team with the worst winning percentage in the league beaten the team with the best, but you were witnessing it. Beal has improved out of sight after a sub-par first month of rookie-esque basketball but the real question is “why on earth was Perkins defending him?”

It is no secret that Perk loves to pressure guards up the floor, take opposition teams out of what they want to do and basically be a nuisance through the first part of the shot clock, but this was not one of those situations. This was game on the line stuff, and Perk cost the Thunder this one. Yes games are decided over a 48 minute period and you can’t blame one particular person or play, but really Perk?

Thabo Sefalosha, one of the leagues best and longest defenders at the shooting guard position against a shorter and more inexperienced rookie? Should have been played straight up and Thabo contesting the shot rather than Perk getting in his way.

Players who could be moved before the trade deadline

DeMarcus Cousins

This ongoing saga could finally come to a close this year and before the trade deadline. I know that Sacramento are saying that they are not shopping DMC and that he is a required player and “he is what makes us work” but I smell a rat. I have the feeling that the front office of the Kings are just saying this in order to drive the price for the young and talented yet extremely volatile young PF/C. What I am hearing though, is that there are not a lot of teams who are actually in the running because of his attitude and drama filled baggage. There is no denying when focused and in the right situation Cousins is one of the very best big men in the league – however, that is only on some occasions. An aging team that are trying to win it all now might be the biggest chance of going after Cousins, but even then, it’s a risk. Word on the street is that there is a massive deal in the works between the Kings, Celtics and Lakers all revolving around Cousins, but is just speculation for now. Considering Sacramento asked for a first round pick for JJ Hickson, you are guaranteed that the price on DMC’s head is sky high and only a few teams who believe they can make it work, will be in the market.

Rudy Gay

This is an interesting one, with the very talented small forward now appearing on the outer with the Memphis franchise. After a very fast start, the Grizzlies have cooled of and it looks as though they may be looking at shaking things up to remain in the hunt (although quite a way behind the front runners). Rudy Gay is a super talent, very skilled and hard working. He plays a good team game and it is hard to see how he has fallen out of favour. The frontcourt for the Grizzlies of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph is first class and Gay just hasn’t seemed to have the same impact. The Grizzlies played very well without Gay last season when Rudy was out with a shoulder injury, but I still felt that he was an important part of this squad. Ultimately, unless a “too good to be true” offer comes up, I still think Gay stays in Memphis at least for the remainder of the year. The Grizz may be back in the playoffs again this year and I am not sure they would be able to integrate a new piece into their system and still be as effective as last year. Gut feeling is that Gay stays, but you never know – there are a lot of teams that would be very keen on the young forward and the repertoire of skills he brings.

Anderson Varejao

It seems as though every man and his dog are vying for the services of the curly haired Brazilian. At 30 years of age, Varejao is one of the elder statesmen on this trade list and since he is having a career year, especially on the boards, you can see why interest is high. A lot of teams need a big guy who hustles, doesn’t need too many shots and is the ultimate team player. His uncanny ability to get the offensive board means the team that has him will always gain additional opportunities to score and that is a very handy factor, especially in playoffs. It does appear however, that the asking price is going to be very steep and therefore limit the teams that can talk to him. The Cavs are trying to rebuild though and Anderson is one of the few viable trade pieces that will garner any interest as they try and build around a very talented but young backcourt – so I understand trying to maximise their end of the deal. To be honest, I think some team throws their hat in the ring to claim him – it won’t be one of the already settled teams like and OKC (where he has been linked) but someone will have Varejao in uniform before the trade deadline and it most likely won’t be Cleveland.

Marcin Gortat

I don’t think it is a secret, but Phoenix and Gortat seem to be at an impasse. He had a very strong showing when Nash was delivering him the ball but he has been nowhere near as effective with Goran Dragic running things. Add to that, the fact that Alvin Gentry’s system doesn’t appear a fit for the talented big man and you can see the frustration. Gortat is a major talent with true NBA-centre size but he is not being utilised – to the point where he in unnecessarily getting bench splinters. Marcin isn’t going to come out and demand a trade, it is not his style and he is slowly trying to work back into the system and into favour with coach Gentry, but if the right deal came along, I am sure the Suns would move him. There are a number of teams out there who could make a play for the big fella, and I think the Celtics should have a good hard look at him, perhaps even before looking at the first person on this list. He is reliable, big, can rebound and is less of a head case! I think this one is about 50/50 – he may very well go, but he may also languish on the fringe of the Suns team.

Pau Gasol

What would a trade rumour article be without the “trade rumour legend” himself – Pau Gasol. It seems as though Gasol’s name and trade rumours are forever linked, but nothing of note ever really seems to happen – and if it does, David Stern rescinds it! But with the Lakers in disarray and struggling to piece it all together, it appears as though Pau is the one piece that can go. He has been less effective since Dwight Howard came to town and he is really struggling to reach the heights his talent should have him playing at. On any other team, Pau is a 20pt 10reb guy – on the Lakers he is a struggling after-thought. I know the team and even Kobe Bryant himself are backing Pau to turn it around, but there is no suggesting that it will certainly be in LA LA Land. There are a number of teams that could use a big guy like Gasol, who can score, rebound, shoot and pass and the Lakers could really use some wing defence, passing and outside shooting. Perhaps this may be the time that a deal gets done and stays done.

Andrea Bargnani

No secret here – the Raptors are trying very hard to move Bargnani. Andrea just doesn’t fit with the Raptors who need a better big man with a good inside presence who can guard anything. Bargnani is a terrific shooter and scorer but couldn’t guard the bin on the bench. His footwork, speed and agility are all terrible and he doesn’t work with a younger, new and up-tempo squad. Bargnani would fit in with a slow tempo, half court offence where he can really stretch the floor with his outside shooting. The team he goes to though will already need to be defensively sound and able to rebound the ball, because Bargnani isn’t going to give you much of that. I see him ending up on an east coast team, who generally slow the game down and grind it out. The biggest factor in this deal though is not the lack of defence but rather the amount of money the team will need. Bargnani’s contract is massive and very tough to fit in with the new CBA and cap restrictions. The Raps might have to give a little on this and get burnt just to move him on – but time will tell if they are willing and / or able to do that. Once he comes back from injury, he will be given minutes and shots to entice teams and then watch the trade talks heat up as the deadline approaches.

Al Jefferson / Paul Milsap

I have placed these two in here together as it will either be one or both that gets moved, most likely in separate deals. When Utah drafted Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter, they shored up their frontcourt for the next decade, but the problem was, they already had 2 very talented big men in Milsap and Big Al. Now things are at a log jam in the frontcourt and something has to give – bet your bottom dollar it won’t be once of the young guys, so we are back to Milsap and Jefferson. I actually think both will get moved for different reasons. Milsap has great value to teams looking for depth at the PF position. He has great hands and feet, rebounds the ball well and plays a team game. He will  net the Jazz a very good piece in return which should be a PG – the position where Utah are really lacking. Big Al if going to be a free agent and the Jazz will want to get something for him beforehand. Jefferson has hinted at potentially re-joining the Boston Celtics where he played in the early stages of his career but the JAzz won’t want to let him walk. They will try and move him on and stockpile pieces in order to upgrade their team. As mentioned before, the Point Guard position is the most desperate as they have Gordon Hayward at the SG/SF spot. I definitely see Big Al with another team and Milsap is a 70-30 chance of having a different area code by the All Star game.

Josh Smith

Another star player whose name is always thereabouts when the trade deadline is nearing, J-Smoove is an intriguing prospect. A very talented player who is now the man on the Hawks team (well along with Al Horford and eventually Jeff Teague) he would draw a hefty price on the trade market – however he is not someone I feel will get moved. My reasoning is two-fold. Firstly, he really has come on and hit another gear since Joe Johnson was traded. He is still inconsistent at times and always appears capable of so much more, but the fact of the matter is he changes games. Whether it be his defence or his athleticism, players like Smoove don’t come around that often. He is not outspoken, is good to play with and has all that talent – why would you move him? Unless you are getting a Rudy Gay or someone in return, this doesn’t make much sense. The second reason is his best mate status with Dwight Howard. Although it will be a massive long shot for D12 to return to his hometown, it is not totally unlikely and if anyone can assist that return it would be Smoove. Imagine if you could roll out a frontcourt of Smoove, Horford and Dwight – very Memphis like and very scary. Either way, the Hawksa re still ticking along nicely with their rebuilt roster and as Teague develops they are going to get better – I think it will be with the number 5 still in the ATL.

Teams who will most likely do something before the deadline

Los Angeles Lakers

There is the old saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This has absolutely no reference to the Lakers situation right now – they are pretty busted up. Unless there is a massive turnaround in the way they play, their defence and their consistency, I think moves have to be made. They need an outside shooter, some decent defenders and some youth, because right now they are getting run out of opposing buildings and can’t stop anyone from scoring. It appears they are taking the gamble on keeping D12 which may mean they move Pau. Gasol hasn’t been effective at all since Superman came to town and would be the only real player of value who would net them someone useful in return. Antawn Jamison is also potentially disgruntled although the lawyer lookalike has retracted previous statements and seems ready to contribute if given the chance. I think something has to go down though or the Lakers are in serious trouble of not just underachieving and not winning the championship, but of missing the post season altogether – not something you want to happen when you are trying to convince the arguably best big man in the game to re-sign with your franchise.

Boston Celtics

Old and decrepit, the Celtics were hoping that Avery Bradley would come back and solve all issues. It has only been a couple of games and Bradley has yet to really get into the swing of things after dual shoulder surgery, but it is clear that things are not just going to miraculously get better. They re-tooled after losing Ray Allen and have just not flourished since. As with the Lakers, they have been letting teams score on them more than normal and they are appearing to show some cracks as the stars are getting older. Bass and Green are underachieving, Courtney Lee just has not been able to find his game and the rookies need time to develop (and in Fab Melo’s case, need to learn how to walk through doorways). I would hate to see them move Avery Bradley, but he may be the only really valuable piece to net the Celts anything of note. Alternately, they can keep plugging away, rest the oldies and play the rooks and just hope that the ship rights itself and Rondo and Bradley can carry the team more often than not. I doubt they take this chance and I see some sort of transaction taking place – I highly doubt it involves DeMarcus Cousins coming to Beantown though.

Toronto Raptors

Something will happen in Toronto – I can almost guarantee it. For starters, they really want to move Andrea Bargnani and until Lowry’s injury, had been trying to move Calderon. I still think Jose is available and as mentioned above, Bargnani won’t be a Raptor for long if the franchise can help it. It all comes down to finding a suitable trading partner and who is likely to take on the massive contracts. There is no questioning that the Raptors have some tradeable talent, but that comes with contracts that aren’t as easy to move. The Raptors have finally started to win some games and the young Terrence Ross is finding his feet. Along with the progression of DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors can look to the future, but they need to move at least one of these europeans to make it happen.

Utah Jazz

See above. The Milsap and Al Jefferson situation, along with the injury to Mo Williams, means the Jazz are desperately in need of a trading partner. They need a point guard and have a talented frontcourt tandem to deal. It is just a case of who comes to the party, but there will be new faces in Utah at some point soon.

Brooklyn Nets

They fired Avery Johnson because .500 is not good enough. At the moment, PJ has the gig, but for how long. With the Russian Billionaire at the helm and mediocrity not an option, I am feeling another move to be made – player wise. DWill and Jo Jo are safe, as is probably Brook Lopez, but don’t be surprised if Gerald Wallace is floated on the trade block and perhaps some young talent like MarShon Brooks. Not sure about any of this but if there is one thing I know is that the Russian won’t sit pat while the  Knicks are carving it up and that means change. Time will tell what type of change that is but Humphries is another option – if they don’t start giving him more than 20mins they may as well move him on and get something playable in return.

Charlotte Bobcats

The ‘Cats started well and then fell in a heap. They have a lot of good young talent, but still need to continue the development of this roster. It is clear now that Kemba Walker and MKG should be the building blocks of this team so they won’t go, but the Bobcats still have some good tradeable assets. Jeffrey Taylor, Byron Mullens, Bismack Biyombo, Gerald Henderson and a heap of first round picks could see the Bobcats land a decent talent. Could that be someone like DeMarcus Cousins? Who knows, but they have the pieces and the need to make a trade, so I am saying something happens, just not sure what or how major.