(t5!) 2008-2009 NBA Season Recap
The season is over. It was great. Not as great as the one that preceded it, in my opinion, 2007-2008 just had more storylines, more uncertainties. In the East, we knew that Boston was the best team, but we weren’t sure if they can pull it out in the end. In the West, it seemed like seeds 1 through 8 had a legitimate chance to represent the conference in the finals.
Now, we’ve pretty much penciled in Cleveland vs. Lakers, a Lebron vs. Kobe duel. More on that later.
But it is the NBA and even a downgrade in quality, an NBA season still delivers loads of entertainment Let’s go through it conscientiously, bullet-point style:
>> One sour note to kick it all off. Because of the uncertainty of the world’s economic climate, the NBA is in a multitude of hurt. The salary cap is going backwards, the luxury tax is going backwards, season ticket sales are abhorrent, more than half the league is losing money, as many as six teams are hinting that they would rather sell their team to another city, and, the most crucial factor of it all, players’ salary will continue to rise.
So now we’re looking at a league that are all sellers and no buyers. Nobody is taking a risk on huge contracts, not even if that contract is guaranteed to make them a better team. Before the trade deadline, Phoenix was frantically shopping Amare Stoudemire around like he’s a stolen Macbook Pro. He promises you 29 points and 10 rebounds every game. Are you telling me that teams like Sacramento or Chicago weren’t willing to give up 60 cents for a dollar?
We’re lucky that there is no drop off in the quality of the game.
>> Executive of the Year award goes to Thunder GM Sam Presti. He’s patiently putting together something solid that can be devastating in the near future. Let the trio of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook percolate for a couple more years and it will scald the whole basketball world. He canned Latrell Sprewell’s best friend, PJ Carlesimo, for a legitimate first-time coach, Scott Brooks. Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha are not only hard names to spell, but were also serious mid-season pick-ups. He almost stole Tyson Chandler from New Orleans for Chris Wilcox and Joe Smith huge expiring contracts, (who Presti got rid of eventually). He has a lottery pick coming next year and humongous cap space. They may be like the Portland Trail Blazers two to three years from now.
>> Coach of the Year award goes to Nate McMillain of the Portland Trail Blazers for managing a team that is 11 players deep while keeping everyone relatively happy still. I know the importance of playoff experience can’t be overlooked but if you ask me at gunpoint who is the second best team in the West, I would say Portland. Let’s go through it: Denver has too many head cases; Houston doesn’t have an assassin in the clutch; San Antonio is way too injured; New Orleans seemed to lack athleticism even when Tyson Chandler is 100%; Dallas is too old; and Utah doesn’t play D like coach Sloan wants them to. I would take Portland’s negative over all of those teams’ negatives, and take their rabid home fans and the fact that they are coached so well to negate that negative, and you get the West’s second best team. It’s unlucky that, from where it stands right now, Portland will face the Lakers in the second round.
>> Most Improved Player of the Year award goes to New Jersey Nets guard, Devin Harris. When a team starts to go sour, you don’t pull off a desperate trade for a name to save it; you fire the coach! He’s the prime example of it. No one predicted this explosion from him. Phoenix pulled off a similar desperate move, acquiring Jason Richardson from Charlotte for Raja Bell and Boris Diaw (the latter has reemerged as an all-around player), when really the correct move was to fire Terry Porter who they dismissed eventually anyway. If the Suns never left SSOL this season, maybe they would’ve made the playoffs and maybe my defective preseason prediction of Matt Barnes winning this award would’ve came true.
>> Rookie of the Year award goes to Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. Remember the 2004 “Dream Team” debacle when the citizens claimed there were no American point guards left? Now we have three intensely vying to start for the 2012 Olympics: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Mr. Rose (with Devin Harris and Rajon Rondo looming in the shadows). Once Derrick Rose figures out a jump shot and defenders play him a little bit closer, he’s ultimately illegal. Right now, he’s beating guys off the dribble who are playing five feet off him! Watch out!
>> Sixth Man of the Year award goes to Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry for fixing Dirk Nowitzki’s end game absenteeism. According to 82games.com, Disco Dirk shot an alarming 40.6 percent in the clutch while Jason Terry has an icy 55.2. After watching Dallas play Houston Thursday morning, I decided that I would hate playing against Terry, especially in Dallas. He’s always smiling, always playing to the crowd, doing that jet imitation every time he made a basket. I would have a problem with that.
>> Defensive Player of the Year award goes to Lebron James. He defended the opponent’s best scorer every night, and it doesn’t matter whether he’s a 1, a 2, a 3, or a 4; he was equally phenomenal on the ball or at weak side; he had an astounding knack for anticipating passes; and he always seemed to have a Bill Russell-like momentum changing block per game.
>> Most Valuable Player of the Year award, again, goes to King James, convincingly winning a spectacular MVP race. Peep the reasons:
i) the bullet point above
ii) he led his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. Only Dave Cowens, Scottie Pippen, and Kevin Garnett had seasons like that before him.
iii) numbers don’t lie: yes, he led his team in all those categories. In addition though, he was pretty close to leading the whole league in them. 28.4 ppg (2nd), 7.6 rpg (25th), 7.2 apg (9th), 1.69 spg (7th), 1.15 bpg (23rd). He’s the only player to be in the top 25 in all of those cats, evar!
iv) he is also the premier reason why Cleveland leads the league in chest bumps and pregame intros. He loves playing in this team and, of course, this team loves playing with him. It’ll be an interesting contrast if the Lakers meet the Cavs in the finals. Kobe treats his teammates like employees working for his title quest, while Lebron is both the team’s superstar and the team’s galvanizing force.
v) and because Lebron is such a fantastic teammate, his team pulled off a 67-15 record and a record-tying 40-1 record at home. But almost every team that won 67-plus games had at least two Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers. Lebron had Mo Williams as a second banana, a player who sneaked in the All-Star Game because of Jameer Nelson’s injury. The other 40-wins-at-home team they tied, the ’86 Celtics, had FOUR Hall of Famers (five if you count Dennis Johnson who will be there when all is said and done). Lebron is playing with borderline all-stars!!! Zydrunas Ilgauskas!!! Anderson Verejao!!!! Delonte West!!!!! Boobbie Gibson!!!!! Are you kdding me??!!!!!!! There aren’t enough exclamation points in the world to express my elephantine disbelief!!!!!!!!!!!
>> Now that Kevin Garnett might not come back for the Celtics because of a knee, Cavaliers vs. Lakers finals is pretty much a lock.
In the West, the two teams that have a sliver of a chance of knocking off the Lakers are fourth seed Portland and fifth seed Houston (and one of them is eliminating the other in the first round). If Denver’s Carmelo Anthony somehow switches it to another gear and matures to a there-is-no-fucking-way-we-are-losing-this-game phase of his career, they might have a chance. But I’m still not seeing it.
In the East, who is stopping Lebron? Does anyone have an answer to that question? Celtics had a chance if Garnett is healthy, but now that’s out the door.
Nevertheless, Kobe vs. Lebron should be epic, one for the ages. Basically, it all comes down to Cleveland’s home court advantage and the fact that it’s nearly impossible to hold serve at home for the middle three games in the 2-3-2 format. So Cleveland over Los Angeles in seven games, a dazzling Finals series to cap off a dazzling NBA season.
Now, we’ve pretty much penciled in Cleveland vs. Lakers, a Lebron vs. Kobe duel. More on that later.
But it is the NBA and even a downgrade in quality, an NBA season still delivers loads of entertainment Let’s go through it conscientiously, bullet-point style:
>> One sour note to kick it all off. Because of the uncertainty of the world’s economic climate, the NBA is in a multitude of hurt. The salary cap is going backwards, the luxury tax is going backwards, season ticket sales are abhorrent, more than half the league is losing money, as many as six teams are hinting that they would rather sell their team to another city, and, the most crucial factor of it all, players’ salary will continue to rise.
So now we’re looking at a league that are all sellers and no buyers. Nobody is taking a risk on huge contracts, not even if that contract is guaranteed to make them a better team. Before the trade deadline, Phoenix was frantically shopping Amare Stoudemire around like he’s a stolen Macbook Pro. He promises you 29 points and 10 rebounds every game. Are you telling me that teams like Sacramento or Chicago weren’t willing to give up 60 cents for a dollar?
We’re lucky that there is no drop off in the quality of the game.
>> Executive of the Year award goes to Thunder GM Sam Presti. He’s patiently putting together something solid that can be devastating in the near future. Let the trio of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook percolate for a couple more years and it will scald the whole basketball world. He canned Latrell Sprewell’s best friend, PJ Carlesimo, for a legitimate first-time coach, Scott Brooks. Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha are not only hard names to spell, but were also serious mid-season pick-ups. He almost stole Tyson Chandler from New Orleans for Chris Wilcox and Joe Smith huge expiring contracts, (who Presti got rid of eventually). He has a lottery pick coming next year and humongous cap space. They may be like the Portland Trail Blazers two to three years from now.
>> Coach of the Year award goes to Nate McMillain of the Portland Trail Blazers for managing a team that is 11 players deep while keeping everyone relatively happy still. I know the importance of playoff experience can’t be overlooked but if you ask me at gunpoint who is the second best team in the West, I would say Portland. Let’s go through it: Denver has too many head cases; Houston doesn’t have an assassin in the clutch; San Antonio is way too injured; New Orleans seemed to lack athleticism even when Tyson Chandler is 100%; Dallas is too old; and Utah doesn’t play D like coach Sloan wants them to. I would take Portland’s negative over all of those teams’ negatives, and take their rabid home fans and the fact that they are coached so well to negate that negative, and you get the West’s second best team. It’s unlucky that, from where it stands right now, Portland will face the Lakers in the second round.
>> Most Improved Player of the Year award goes to New Jersey Nets guard, Devin Harris. When a team starts to go sour, you don’t pull off a desperate trade for a name to save it; you fire the coach! He’s the prime example of it. No one predicted this explosion from him. Phoenix pulled off a similar desperate move, acquiring Jason Richardson from Charlotte for Raja Bell and Boris Diaw (the latter has reemerged as an all-around player), when really the correct move was to fire Terry Porter who they dismissed eventually anyway. If the Suns never left SSOL this season, maybe they would’ve made the playoffs and maybe my defective preseason prediction of Matt Barnes winning this award would’ve came true.
>> Rookie of the Year award goes to Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. Remember the 2004 “Dream Team” debacle when the citizens claimed there were no American point guards left? Now we have three intensely vying to start for the 2012 Olympics: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Mr. Rose (with Devin Harris and Rajon Rondo looming in the shadows). Once Derrick Rose figures out a jump shot and defenders play him a little bit closer, he’s ultimately illegal. Right now, he’s beating guys off the dribble who are playing five feet off him! Watch out!
>> Sixth Man of the Year award goes to Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry for fixing Dirk Nowitzki’s end game absenteeism. According to 82games.com, Disco Dirk shot an alarming 40.6 percent in the clutch while Jason Terry has an icy 55.2. After watching Dallas play Houston Thursday morning, I decided that I would hate playing against Terry, especially in Dallas. He’s always smiling, always playing to the crowd, doing that jet imitation every time he made a basket. I would have a problem with that.
>> Defensive Player of the Year award goes to Lebron James. He defended the opponent’s best scorer every night, and it doesn’t matter whether he’s a 1, a 2, a 3, or a 4; he was equally phenomenal on the ball or at weak side; he had an astounding knack for anticipating passes; and he always seemed to have a Bill Russell-like momentum changing block per game.
>> Most Valuable Player of the Year award, again, goes to King James, convincingly winning a spectacular MVP race. Peep the reasons:
i) the bullet point above
ii) he led his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. Only Dave Cowens, Scottie Pippen, and Kevin Garnett had seasons like that before him.
iii) numbers don’t lie: yes, he led his team in all those categories. In addition though, he was pretty close to leading the whole league in them. 28.4 ppg (2nd), 7.6 rpg (25th), 7.2 apg (9th), 1.69 spg (7th), 1.15 bpg (23rd). He’s the only player to be in the top 25 in all of those cats, evar!
iv) he is also the premier reason why Cleveland leads the league in chest bumps and pregame intros. He loves playing in this team and, of course, this team loves playing with him. It’ll be an interesting contrast if the Lakers meet the Cavs in the finals. Kobe treats his teammates like employees working for his title quest, while Lebron is both the team’s superstar and the team’s galvanizing force.
v) and because Lebron is such a fantastic teammate, his team pulled off a 67-15 record and a record-tying 40-1 record at home. But almost every team that won 67-plus games had at least two Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers. Lebron had Mo Williams as a second banana, a player who sneaked in the All-Star Game because of Jameer Nelson’s injury. The other 40-wins-at-home team they tied, the ’86 Celtics, had FOUR Hall of Famers (five if you count Dennis Johnson who will be there when all is said and done). Lebron is playing with borderline all-stars!!! Zydrunas Ilgauskas!!! Anderson Verejao!!!! Delonte West!!!!! Boobbie Gibson!!!!! Are you kdding me??!!!!!!! There aren’t enough exclamation points in the world to express my elephantine disbelief!!!!!!!!!!!
>> Now that Kevin Garnett might not come back for the Celtics because of a knee, Cavaliers vs. Lakers finals is pretty much a lock.
In the West, the two teams that have a sliver of a chance of knocking off the Lakers are fourth seed Portland and fifth seed Houston (and one of them is eliminating the other in the first round). If Denver’s Carmelo Anthony somehow switches it to another gear and matures to a there-is-no-fucking-way-we-are-losing-this-game phase of his career, they might have a chance. But I’m still not seeing it.
In the East, who is stopping Lebron? Does anyone have an answer to that question? Celtics had a chance if Garnett is healthy, but now that’s out the door.
Nevertheless, Kobe vs. Lebron should be epic, one for the ages. Basically, it all comes down to Cleveland’s home court advantage and the fact that it’s nearly impossible to hold serve at home for the middle three games in the 2-3-2 format. So Cleveland over Los Angeles in seven games, a dazzling Finals series to cap off a dazzling NBA season.
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