- Mar 19, 2006
- 957
- 49
Anyone got a .gif of Pekovic bulldozing Brandon Knight? Just saw that on Shaqtin a fool
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Not interesting for a team like the Thunder who is trying to be in win now mode and already has 2 rookies and 2 sophomores who never play and 1 who just broke into the rotation 2 months ago. And I am pretty sure we own the Mavs pick next year although it is protected til 2018 so another terrible pick, like #19, in a bad draft all because our owners are cheap and equally or more concerned with profit than winningDuncan was doing that before KD was even in the league. I'm not a fan of either by the way. Brook Lopez started using it more as well.
And the Harden trade is worth mentioning every game since he is a top 5 scorer in the league and all star leading his team to the postseason and the guy who is supposed to replace him scores single digits in 25% of games and the other one plays in Tulsa. Oh yea, we also got a draft pick (one of like 47 it seems) in the 13 draft which looks to be one of the worst in a long time and since the Raptors came on strong late will be like the #11 pick
There may still be some interesting picks left @ #11 though.
Ben Mac, Nerlens, Marcus Smart, Otto, and probably Trey all go top 10. Maybe Oladipo or Bazz can drop to 9-11, which is looking like what the Thunder's pick will be at.
And it'll still be better than the Mavs pick. |I
Anyone got a .gif of Pekovic bulldozing Brandon Knight? Just saw that on Shaqtin a fool
Yup, his ex wife looks like she set homie up.
Either that or he was into selling drugs and the deal that night or whatever went horribly wrong. Makes sense because she said he had drugs on him when he left the house that night, and homie was low on funds.
So glad the Knicks streak is done, now I don't have to see these Knicks Taped pics all of my IG timeline
Matt Powell
@mattSOS: 2012 US [basketball shoe] sales at retail: Lebron $300 million, Rose $25 m, KD $35 m, Kobe $50 M, Howard, $5 m, Wall, $5 m, Jordan $2 billion
This Lorenzen Wright piece. |I
That 911 call with the gunshots was eerie.
His shady ex-wife.
Wonder how they determined what a "bad game" was. Someone post the article please^
saw this on my timeline earlier
In LeBron James 10 worst games this season he's averaging 19.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 5.3 assists
That was a great feature last night. Such a damn sad story, can't believe it's almost been 3 years now.This Lorenzen Wright piece. |I
That 911 call with the gunshots was eerie.
His shady ex-wife.
This story still gets me |I Such a sad situation :\
Wonder how they determined what a "bad game" was. Someone post the article please
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Breaking down the MVP ballot
By Tom Haberstroh
ESPN Insider
Before the regular season ends and the postseason begins, we must first enjoy arguably the most fun chunk of the NBA schedule: awards season.
With the action becoming watered down with stars sitting the sidelines and coaches hiding their best stuff for the playoffs, it's time to break down the MVP award. Warning: Things can change slightly from here on out. But let's remember the remaining week is just one of 24 weeks over the entire season. Don't fall prey to the "What have you done for me lately?" bias.
Selecting the top three in the MVP race was easy. The top five? Not so much. Here are seven candidates I seriously considered for fourth and fifth spot, in no particular order, and why I left them off my hypothetical top five (I do not have a vote this season). Repeat: in no particular order.
Tim Duncan
Going for him: Fourth-best PER. Anchored a top-three defense with career-high block rate. Spurs are really good.
Holding him back: Only played 52 percent of San Antonio's minutes this season, which is still pretty incredible for his age.
Tony Parker
Going for him: Only player other than LeBron James to average at least 20 points and seven assists on 50 percent shooting. Solid company.
Holding him back: Missed 14 games and hard to ignore Spurs almost an .800 team in his absence.
Carmelo Anthony
Going for him: Absolutely torrid finish to the season.
Holding him back: The three months before that.
Dwyane Wade
Going for him: No top-25 scorer shot better from the floor after the All-Star break (56 percent). Made most of limited touches.
Holding him back: Minutes, not the fact that he plays with LeBron James.
Kobe Bryant
Going for him: Relentless scorer (to a fault at times) who defies everything we know about age curves.
Holding him back: Often makes Carmelo Anthony look like Avery Bradley in defensive intensity. In related news, the Lakers may miss the playoffs.
Stephen Curry
Going for him: One of the great shooting campaigns in NBA history. Top-10 in minutes played; who's injury-prone?
Holding him back: Average distributor at his position and lacking on defense.
James Harden
Going for him: Top 10 in PER. Led a team whose second-best player is Chandler Parsons to a No. 7 in a stacked West.
Holding him back: Not much except he's the only MVP candidate whose team played better with him on the bench (plus-1.3 points per 100 possessions).
THE TOP FIVE
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5. Marc Gasol
No big man dominated the game on both ends quite like Gasol. The fulcrum of the Grizzlies' improved offense this season, Gasol became a monster on the defensive end, who anchored the second-best defense in the league. He's a strong candidate for Defensive Player of the Year and combined with Arvydas Sabonis-like passing from the high post, it's plain to see that Gasol, not Rudy Gay, catapulted the Grizzlies to their best season in franchise history.
Gasol might not blow you away in the box score, but the advanced stats don't lie: the Grizz lose by 4.0 points every 100 possessions when Gasol sits but outscore opponents by 7.2 points every 100 possessions when he plays, according to NBA.com/stats. In fact, Gasol's plus-11.2 net rating ranked second among MVP candidates behind James. If you're wondering how the Grizzlies traded away their leading scorer midseason and never skipped a beat, pull up some game film on Gasol and enjoy the show.
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4. Russell Westbrook
Let's play a little game, shall we?
Player A: 25.0 pts, 7.7 ast, 4.1 reb in 37.4 mins per game, .445/.332/.858, 23.5 PER
Player B: 23.4 pts, 7.6 ast, 5.4 reb in 35.3 mins per game, .438/.320/.797, 23.9 PER
Who's who? Player B, as you might have guessed, is Westbrook this season. And Player A? That's Derrick Rose in 2010-11. Yes, Rose's MVP season. While Rose won the league's top individual award with nearly identical production, Westbrook may not even crack the top 10 in votes this season. Why? Probably because voters are professional storytellers, not talent evaluators.
Westbrook's assists are up, turnovers are down and he hasn't missed a game all season. And that final thing is huge in an ultra-competitive crop of guards. All told, it's no coincidence that the Thunder have posted one of the top point differentials in recent decades with Westbrook at the steering wheel. Love him or hate him, but the truth is that the only person who can contain Westbrook is Westbrook himself.
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3. Chris Paul
The knocks on Paul are very real. Sure, his 3-point shot continues to erode. It's true that he has played fewer minutes than Jarrett Jack this season. And the only thing that flops more often in Hollywood may be an Adam Sandler movie. But good luck trying to find an NBA player who executes a more brilliant brand of basketball on both ends of the floor than this guy.
Paul's 26.4 PER is easily the third-highest in the league and the Clippers' offense tailspins when he steps off the floor (from 111.6 points per 100 possessions down to 101.7 points, according to NBA.com/stats). Look at 82games.com and you'll find that point guards have a 13.0 PER against the Clippers, the lowest-such PER in the league for any team. While some of that can be credited to the pesky Eric Bledsoe, don't forget that only Ricky Rubio has a higher steal rate than Paul. CP3 is a good bet to receive the bronze medal for the second straight season -- and justifiably so.
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2. Kevin Durant
If he can hold off Anthony in the points per game column, Durant will become the first scoring champion in NBA history to also be a card-carrying member of the ultra-exclusive .500/.400/.900 shooting club. And unlike Anthony, Durant is no longer qualified to be a "pure scorer;" the OKC forward's repertoire is now bolstered with additional skills such as passing and defense. For instance, Durant has more triple-doubles this season alone (three) than Anthony has in his entire career (two).
Compare Durant's numbers this season to Dirk Nowitzki's 2006-07 campaign and you won't be able to tell the difference. Nowitzki won 83 of the 129 first-place votes to win the MVP that season; Durant may get zero this season. Because of the next guy on the list, the possibility is there that Durant may never win an MVP, but the 24-year-old (24!) remains a good bet to go down as one of the all-time leaders in MVP-caliber seasons. Remarkable player, remarkably poor timing.
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1. LeBron James
How do we capture LeBron's current mastery of the sport? We could talk about how he averaged more points than James Harden, more assists than Steve Nash, more rebounds than Marc Gasol and shot better from downtown than J.J. Redick. We could point out that James helped propel the Heat to a 27-game win streak, something that hadn't been done since the league added a 3-point line.
We could marvel at his consistency. You probably don't remember a bad game from James this season and that's because he was pretty much a human metronome of dominance this season. At his worst, he was Blake Griffin. No, seriously. Take James' worst 10 games of the season by Game Score (a PER-like metric developed by John Hollinger to evaluate single-game performances) and you'll find that he averaged 19.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists in those duds. Griffin this season? 18.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
In other words, statistically on his worst days, James was an All-Star big man. Maybe even a little bit better.
We could also mention that we've never witnessed 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists on 56.2 percent shooting in NBA history. Not Jordan. Not Oscar. Not Bird. Not Magic.
But it's the 56.2 percent shooting that stands out. Let's try to wrap our heads around that. In order to catch James in field goal percentage, Durant -- he of an amazing 50.6 shooting percentage of his own -- would have to make his next 176 shots without missing once. And that's just to catch James. What about Kobe? Making 300 straight wouldn't even do it for Kobe; he'd need 49 more.
And Carmelo? He could make his next 350 shots and he'd still trail James in field goal percentage. That's the equivalent of Carmelo shooting a perfect 14-for-14 for 25 straight games, and James would still look down on him in the field goal percentage column.
Let that marinate for a second.
How about we try this another way. Many will claim that James is nothing more than a 6-foot-8 bully who barrels his way to the rim for dunks. If you've watched James this season, that notion couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, according to NBA StatsCube, James' average shot distance this season was 11 feet away from the basket. Yes, he shot more jumpers than dunks and layups combined.
Looking at recent history, Shaquille O'Neal and Amar'e Stoudemire are the only players who have shot better than James from the floor on at least 15 attempts per game since 1996-97 (when the StatsCube database began tracking shot distance data). When Shaq shot 57.4 percent in his 1999-00 MVP campaign, his average shot distance was 4.4 feet, or less than half the average distance of James' attempts (11.2 feet to be exact). When Stoudemire shot 59 percent in 2007-08, his average shot distance was 7.0 feet. So, if you lay Stoudemire and Shaq's average shot distance end-to-end, that's roughly the distance you're getting with James.
At just 28, James is wrapping up his fourth MVP in five seasons, a feat that only Bill Russell has accomplished. When we look back on James' 2012-13 campaign, we'll remember it for the way he made an incredibly difficult game look impossibly easy. Whether you examine his gaudy stat line or his mesmerizing game film, this is as close to basketball perfection as we'll ever see.
Yes, the MVP debate may be over, but the GOAT -- the greatest of all time -- debate is just getting started.
James Harden
Going for him: Top 10 in PER. Led a team whose second-best player is Chandler Parsons to a No. 7 in a stacked West.
Holding him back: Not much except he's the only MVP candidate whose team played better with him on the bench (plus-1.3 points per 100 possessions).
James Harden > Kobe in the MVP race
Harden def top 5
Lebron
Durant
Carmelo
CP3
Harden
Parker
James Harden > Kobe in the MVP race
Harden def top 5
Lebron
Durant
Carmelo
CP3
Harden
Parker
Lol How....hes 5th in ppg behind kobe and Lebron and his team is 6th or 7th in the West
Now look at Lebrons team record compared to the LakersOk look at LeBrons team then if you wanna go that route...
Ok look at LeBrons team then if you wanna go that route...