2012-13 Season Preview, Pt. 1

Day by day, the NBA season just keeps getting closer and I couldn’t be more excited.  I’m offering up some previews and predictions today, and I really don’t want to spend much more time on introductions so I’ll just dive right in.  I’ll kick off my predictions with some season awards, some of them real and some just for the fun of it.

X-Factor of the Year

This first award goes to the person whose performance has the potential to change the shape of the Eastern conference, and possibly the whole league.  With Derrick Rose, the Bulls finished in a tie for the league’s best regular season record.  After tearing his ACL at the very opening of the playoffs the rest of the team went 1-4 against a barely-.500 76ers team, effectively losing the first round.  If Rose ends up sitting for too much of the season, the team will finish somewhere between a 6-8 seed and fail to reach the second round of the playoffs again.

On the other hand, if Rose can make an early return, the team can finish among the top 3 in their conference and serve as the only real problem for Miami in the playoffs.  With Ray Allen jumping ship from Boston and New York still having some difficulty getting Carmelo and Amar'e on the same page, nobody else really has a shot at stopping the Heat this season.

His return may also decide if other teams from the Central Division can get into the playoffs.  The Pacers are a shoe-in for the postseason, but I think the Pistons success also relies a bit on Rose’s return.  A schedule that sees a lot of games against a Rose-less Bulls team, as well as the Bucks and Cavs, could give Detroit the extra couple wins they need to sneak into a playoff spot.  I just hope D-Rose doesn’t try to rush himself back too soon and cause any further damage; he’s got quite the career ahead of him.

Comeback of the Year

The Mavericks had a lot to prove last year, as some team members felt that they weren’t getting proper respect for their championship in 2011.  They didn’t do much to help their case.  Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t playing like himself after the lockout ended; his game was just off.  The team finished with a mediocre record and a first round playoff exit.  Don’t expect the same from Dirk this year.

Chris Kaman came to Dallas this offseason, which means that Dirk will get back the down-low help he lost when Tyson Chandler left for New York a year ago.  It also doesn’t hurt that Kaman and Nowitzki have teamed up together before, both being former members of the German national basketball team.  The West is a tough conference, and the Mavs will be lucky to reach the conference finals, but Dirk will help the team get back the respect that they deserve.

Rookie of the Year

Last year’s rookie class had some pretty low expectations with some critics even going as far as to call them the worst in NBA history.  They proved us all wrong as guys like Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Kenneth Faried and Iman Shumpert, just to name a few, showed just how much impact they could have on a team.  Of course, Kyrie came out on top of that class.  This year, the popular opinion seems to be that Anthony Davis already has this award in the bag.  I never follow college basketball much, aside from March Madness, but from what I have seen of Davis I’m not quite sure I can agree with everyone else.

It’s not that I don’t think Davis will be good, I’m just not sure he will see the immediate stardom that everybody else seems to be expecting.  I expect a Kevin Love-esque start for Davis.  He’ll be good, just not in the phenomenal way everyone expects him too.  I might be a little out there with this pick for the top newcomer, but I’m going with the Portland Trail Blazer’s Damian Lillard.

I followed Lillard’s college career at Weber State a bit, mostly because he was the nation’s number 2 scorer behind Reggie Hamilton of Oakland University, where I’ve been going to school for the past couple years.  I’m not sure how the rest of his game is yet, but this guy can score.  He also gets the chance to play with LaMarcus Aldridge, coming off of his first all-star season.  They have the potential to be one of the NBA’s best duos 3-4 years down the road, and the Blazers need it after losing great draft picks like Brandon Roy and Greg Oden to injury in years past.

6^th Man of the Year

What I like so much about this award is that I can’t remember the last time I disagreed with the winner.  James Harden did great coming off the bench for the Thunder last year and played a key part in their championship run; there was no doubt that the award belonged to him.

With that being said, this is an award that players don’t typically end up winning more than once.  Some players are stars that just feel more comfortable coming off the bench.  Once a player wins this award, it’s as if they’ve reached a certain player status that makes them too good to really be thought of as a sixth man.  Let’s be honest, Harden is the third best player on his team, same with 2008 recipient Manu Ginobili.  Taking that into consideration, I don’t think we’ll see Harden repeating as the winner in this category.

A clear winner can’t really be determined until about a month or so into the season when we actually know what a team’s regular starting five looks like.  Jeff Teague was pretty solid at running the point last year for the Atlanta Hawks.  After the team picked up Lou Williams and Devin Harris this offseason, they’ve gained quite a bit of depth at that position.  Harris’ game has taken quite the drop since he got an all-star selection in ’09.  He could still be solid for some teams, but I expect Teague to keep his starting spot in Atlanta.  Lou Williams seemed to have gotten comfortable playing backup to Jrue Holiday over the past couple years.  If he can keep up, or improve upon, his nearly 15 points per game with his new team, expect him to add this one to his trophy case.

Defensive Player of the Year

Tyson Chandler took this one home last year.  He played not only tough, but also smart defense and did a great job of making up for the lazy and seemingly uncaring defense that Amar’e Stoudemire has been playing for a decade.  I’m still amazed at how he only made the 2^nd all-defensive team last season, despite winning Defensive Player of the Year.  That’s part of the reason why I don’t think we’ll see him get recognized as the top defender this year.

Tony Allen really stepped his game up and showed what a strong on-ball defender he could be last year.  I’m sure he’ll be considered the top backcourt defender this year, but it won’t be enough for him to take home the hardware.

We all watched as Serge Ibaka swatted away nearly 4 shots per game last year.  He’s not great at playing straight-up defense like Chandler is, but not since Ben Wallace was in his prime have I seen somebody be able to time somebody’s shot or rush to help defense well as Ibaka did last year (as seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-PwEFnPLNQ).  This award won’t be an obvious choice, but I think being on title-contender will give Ibaka that little advantage to sway some votes in his favor.

Most Improved Player

This award is definitely the toughest to predict, as it usually goes to somebody who comes out of nowhere for a breakout season.  I think Jeremy Lin kind of missed out on this, as he really didn’t play long enough to be considered for it last year and he’s already expected to perform at a higher level of play this season.  If his expectations aren’t as high as I think, he may still be able to take this award.  Otherwise, I really just have to take a shot in the dark on this one.

In spite of a serious back injury, Evan Turner was still the most athletic player in college basketball 2 years ago.  After being picked 2^nd by the 76ers, he came out with a pretty disappointing rookie year.  His second year was better, but this guy still hasn’t reached his full potential.  Andrew Bynum will be taking on the star role in Philly, and I think Jrue Holiday and Turner will be able to play pretty well off of him.  Don’t be surprised if this team sees a struggle in trying to work cooperatively (think of a less-talented Knicks), but don’t be surprised if ET’s numbers take a jump this year either.  Lucky for him, this is one award where team success is often overlooked.

Most Valuable Player

Grabbing his 3^rd straight scoring title, Kevin Durant was just outstanding last season.  In the playoffs, he managed to strip ‘Melo of his “best clutch shooter,” title (sorry Kobe fans, he’s good but was never the best), on his way to a conference championship.

The league’s other Kevin, Love that is, also managed to amaze us all last year.  Although not the strongest defender, he can score from anywhere on the court and cleans the glass like Windex.  There’s no doubt that he’s the best power forward in the league, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets even better this season.  With all that said, I have to give my apologies to the two Kevin’s, LeBron James is just the best basketball player around. 

There’s no doubt that he’s been the best basketball player in the league for a few years now.  He only missed out on getting 4 straight MVP awards because of the huge backlash that resulted from teaming up with Bosh and Wade in 2011.  Much of the negativity has gone away since he finally put a championship title under his belt.  Another MVP award is almost certain this season.  The only real question of his skill is: how long will he be able to keep this up for?  At only 27, he has at least another decades worth of play ahead of him.  I know this is a bit of a taboo to say or think in the basketball world, but if he can continue at this level of play for years to come, he has a shot at surpassing Michael Jordan.

I’ve still got power rankings for 2013 to come, so stayed tuned for some more predictions on the upcoming season of basketball.

Don't Believe the Hype

ESPN is getting down to the top of their NBA player rankings, and I do enjoy checking this list out.  I think it brings some attention to skilled players who may not always get that notice that they deserve, like Marcin Gortat at #57 and Ryan Anderson at #50.  It also shows how greatly other players have improved in such a short period of time.  Kenneth Faried advanced a whopping 260 spots to be ranked #71, and there was also an 83 spot jump up to #49 for my favorite big man, Greg Monroe.

Of course, I always expect to have some disagreements with a list like this.  Anderson Varejao got placed at #74, and he’s probably the worst player that starts for an NBA team.  There’s one thing about these rankings though that really got to me, and that’s Kyrie Irving.

After a strong rookie season, Irving hits the rankings at #22.  I know that Kyrie will likely be a top 20 player one day.  In all honesty, if he works hard and develops his game well enough, he could be top 5 one day.  But right now, Kyrie is just not that good.

Sure, if I were a GM and had my choice of players to pick from, he probably would be somewhere in the 20-30 range.  When ranking the best players in the league though, people shouldn’t be considering how many years a player has ahead of them, or how much they could potentially grow as an athlete.  I look at it this way:  if we were playing a pick-up game, who would you want to pick first?

It amazes me how many players Kyrie ranked ahead of that I wouldn’t hesitate to pick over him in that situation.  Players like Andre Iguodala, Paul Pierce, Rudy Gay and Danny Granger.  I’m not at all a Spurs fan, but I can’t deny that I would scoop up Ginobili over Irving in a second for a pick-up game.  And how on earth did he rank above James Harden? 

Harden’s the 3^rd best two-guard in the league, behind Wade and Kobe.  He’s coming off of a year that saw him winning a gold medal and playing a key part in a team’s run to the NBA finals.  What did Kyrie do?  He led his team to a 0.318 winning percentage, landing a full 14 games out of a playoff spot.  Obviously, Kyrie didn’t have much help out there, but the Cavs only slightly improved on their record from the season prior to Kyrie joining the team.

If you put all of the earlier mentioned guys on the court with Kyrie right now, he’d definitely be the weak link out there.  Fans were upset last year when Blake Griffin cracked the top 10, but I truly think he earned that spot.

Blake could hold his own with anybody on the court.  He put up 22.5 points and 12 rebounds his debut season.  Some might argue that he had a “red shirt,” rookie season of sorts, since an injured knee sidelined him for his entire first year.  Regardless of any of that, 20+ and 10+ is superstar numbers.  He also takes some flack for being weak at the power forward position.  The fact of the matter is he just doesn’t play the position traditionally.  He may not be able to post up or power through defenders like other big men, but he’s more athletic than most big men, and it truly pays off for him.

Let me get back to the topic of Kyrie Irving though.  He’s got a big future ahead of him.  I look forward to watching him become an elite scorer.  Of course as a Pistons fan, I have to look forward to cheering against a division rival’s superstar as well.  The fact of the matter though, is that he hasn’t hit that superstar status yet.  To the experts that voted on these player rankings, I say that potential is something that doesn’t always get fulfilled.  And if you don’t take my word for it, just ask Darko Milicic and Adam Morrison.

The Answer

The NBA 2K series recently announced the inclusion of Allen Iverson in their next installment, NBA 2K13.  I for one could not be more thrilled with this announcement.  Everybody was amazed when Michael Jordan first came on board for NBA 2K11.  This was understandable since MJ was rarely seen in video games throughout his career.  We saw him with the Bulls in a couple early ‘90s games, such as the NBA Playoffs series, with the Wizards at the end of his career and as a boss or teammate in games such as NBA Live 2000 and some of the NBA Street games.  What was special about 2K11 was that it was the first time the full ’96 Chicago Bulls team, the same team that posted a 72-10 regular season record, was featured on a game.

Getting back to Allen Iverson, he has been featured on video games before.  In fact, he was the cover athlete for the NBA 2K series for 4 years in a row.  The reason I’m so excited though is because fans will finally be able to use Iverson in his prime in a modern video game, a game where players get full control of the player and the athlete performs moves just as they would in real life.  Could there be a more fun player to use in this game then one of the quickest and most skilled ball-handlers in basketball history?

Iverson’s career has seen an immense downturn since he was traded to the Pistons in 2008.  Recent years have seen him putting up lackluster numbers, sitting the bench and having to travel overseas to find a team interested in him.  All of this among rumors of family problems, large amounts of debt and drinking issues.  I think that because of these recent troubles, people often forget what a great player he was at his peak.

Iverson came into the league in 1996 and immediately amazed the basketball world with his ability to put a whole team on his back, score from anywhere on the court and crossover anybody, including (SERIOUSLY!?!) Michael Jordan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3X274lz3wY).  He went on to a career full of accomplishments, including his 2001 MVP award, 11 all-star selections, 4 scoring titles and even 3 seasons of leading the league in steals.  Listed at an even 6 feet, he would be considered undersized even at the point guard position, which he did play at times.  For a shooting guard, AI ranks among the shortest ever; yet, he absolutely thrived at the position.  He had a great shot off the dribble, and an outstanding dribble to go along with it.  On a regular basis, he was able to put in layups with the most difficult of defensive traffic crowding the lane.  Countless big men were embarrassed as Iverson came out of nowhere to throw down put-back dunks off of rebounds that they couldn't quite grab away from the little guy.

Iverson is one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball.  Jordan is always the player that new NBA greats get compared to.  Everybody’s waiting for when (if ever) somebody will be able to grab that title of “greatest,” away from him.  The first to step up to this challenge was Grant Hill.  Hill wasn’t as good of a scorer as Jordan, but he was a superior rebounder and an arguably better passer.  Unfortunately, we never quite got to see if he could’ve matched Jordan, as his final season with Detroit ended with an ankle injury that kept him off the court for the better part of three seasons.

I would consider AI the next to come close to Jordan.  As far as strictly athletic skill and ability is concerned, I personally think that Iverson ranks at 2nd right behind His Airness.  On an overall player level though, Iverson doesn’t even crack the top 10, maybe not even 20.  He just couldn’t keep his head on straight.  We all remember his infamous “practice,” remarks during a press conference in 2002.  He also ran into disagreements with coach Larry Brown and at the end of his career, never shied away from complaining when he didn’t get the playing time or starting spot he wanted.  That extra large ego was disappointing to see on such a rare, outstanding talent.

If Iverson could’ve contained his cockiness, I think we would’ve seen more finals appearances, at least one ring and a longer stint in the NBA for The Answer.  He’s probably even second to Mike in his marketability.  Kids loved his style on the court, and it lead to successful sneaker and clothing lines with Reebok.  Did I mention how many times he appeared on the cover of video games?

Even though I remain incredibly disappointed in the way Iverson was never able to treat basketball as a team sport, I still have to admire his incredible skill for the game.  I’m really looking forward to being able to use that skill when NBA 2K13 comes out on October 2^nd.  So what legends can we hope for beyond this?  I’m hoping for a Pistons team with Grant Hill by the time 2K14 rolls around.

Preface to the Laker Hater

Welcome, and thank you for reading the first blog post by me, the Laker Hater.  This blog will cover anything that has to do with the NBA.  I’ve been watching and critiquing everything about the NBA for over a decade and quite frankly, I felt it was time to share my thoughts with the rest of the world.  Let me first give you a bit of background about myself.

I’m 22 years old and am currently a student at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.  Being from Michigan, I’m a HUGE Detroit Pistons fan.  There’s not many of us Pistons fans left right now, and there hasn’t been since Chauncey Billups got traded and the team started going downhill in 2008.  I haven’t given up though; I still think that they can make a push for a 7 or 8 seed in the playoffs this year.  As for reaching the second round, I don’t think even Baron Davis could make that long of a shot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWUEnbPsVfo).  But the Pistons will always be my favorite team in all of sports.  So what’s my second favorite team you ask?  Well, that leads us to where I came up with the title of this blog, because my second favorite team is whoever happens to be playing the Los Angeles Lakers.

Simply put, I absolutely loathe the Lakers.  There’s always just been something about that team that I can’t stand.  Whether it’s listening to Kobe fans who haven’t watched a full NBA game in years try to argue that he’s the greatest basketball player ever or watching Ron Artest (I refuse to use his current name) blatantly take out one player after another, I absolutely hate this team.  Year after year, I have to watch as they pick up more superstars and spend all season beating up on historically bad teams like the Clippers, Kings and Warriors.  All this while still listening to those Kobe fans brag about how he’s winning those games “all on his own.”  Let’s not forget that the Lakers had their own Big 4 before the Celtics or Heat squads ever came around.  Remember when Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined forces?  That’s 4 future Hall of Famers on 1 team.  I know 2 of them were quite aged when that team came together, but that’ll never take away from my memories of watching the Pistons pound them 4-1 in the 2004 finals.

With that being said, I do still respect the Lakers athletes and their basketball skill.  The "hatred," is intended to be that of any dedicated sports fan.  And in all honesty, Kobe Bryant is the second-best to ever play the two guard.  Just don’t expect to see me cheering for them.  Ever.

But I’ll save the rest of my Laker hate for another day.  I hope you enjoyed this little introduction, and I hope you come back to me for more great reads from a true NBA fanatic.