|
Overall
Win/Loss Record : 33-49, fourth place Northwest Division
|
Last Season’s Rank
20
|
Projected 2013/2014
Finish
13
|
Last
season’s Team Statistics and League Rank
|
Returning
Individual Statistical Leaders
|
|
Projected
Starters Based on Talent, Tenure, Paycheck and Potential Impact:
|
Second Unit Roster Order Ranked on Talent, Tenure, Paycheck and Potential Impact:
|
|
Analysis:
Last season many expected the Portland Trailblazers to tank as they had gotten rid of all their veterans from last season and were looking to rebuild; however, that all changed when a rookie point guard and virtual nobody stepped on the court dramatically and almost single handily change the team's fortunes. Damian Lillard took a team that had been reeling from injuries and sheer bag luck and turned it into a competitive one that managed to stay in the playoff race until almost the very end. Had the Blazers played with more than a third of a team, they would have probably made it to the post season, but they were marred by having the worst producing bench in the league. Their almost invisible second unit literally led the Blazers' starting five to simply burn out in the end and them team was fortunate that none of their starters had been injured because of them logging so many minutes. Considering that this rather shorthanded team managed to win more than 30 games despite allowing .478 shooting from their opponents and got out rebounded by a +2 margin, it amazing to think that the Blazres were even able to stay competitive let alone contend for a playoff spot. To illustrate how run down the Blazers starting five were, all you need to see is the percentage of the minutes played along with the percentage of the points scored. The starters played approximately 74 percent of the game averaging nearly 36 minutes per game per player while at the same time they scored 81.9 of the 97.5 points per game and took 61.9 of the 81.9 shot attempts per game over the course of the season. On the other hand, the bench averaged a paltry 12.6 minutes per game per players and only offered an average of 3.4 points per game per player while at the same time shot a brutal field goal percentage of .381 as an entire unit. With such a huge overload on the starters' shoulders, it was not surprising that one only of them managed to play all 82 games in the regular season and ironically it was the same player who had held the Blazers from crashed--Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard. This season, however, the teams has addressed their issues concerning the roster's depth last season and turned the Blazers from a team that was struggling just to hang on to not only one of the league's deepest team, but also one with a shot of challenging for the Northwest Division Title. The Blazers worked feverishly during the off season to address their needs to bolster their roster and they succeeded grandly by acquiring low cost but high producing veterans to support their talented, but beleaguered starters. They first acquired center Robin Lopez in a draft day trade with the +New Orleans Pelicans providing the team with a young big man whose has a string penchant for defense and protecting the rim. Last season Lopez had his best season with New Orleans as he posted a career high in scoring 11.3 points per game while grabbing nearly six boards and blocking two shots per game in just 26 minutes of playing time. So far in training he has brought an infectious attitude towards defense which has thus far inspired his teammates to match his same intensity during practice and the hope is that paired with LaMarcus Aldridge in the front court, Lopez will provide a soil one two punch in the paint with Aldridge pumping in the points on offense with him achoring the paint in defense. In addition to Lopez, the Blazers futher bolstered the front court acquiring Thomas Robinson, a talented young big man who was selected five overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, but never had a chance to proving himself due to being being on a dysfunctional +Sacramento Kings team last season and not getting much playing time last season. The Blazers hope that Robinson will provide the team the blue collar grit that they lost after they let go off last season's leading rebounder +JJ Hickson as he was allowed to leave as an unrestricted free agent and later signed with the +Denver Nuggets. The prospect watching him pair up with Meyer's Leonard, the Blazers' first round pick from last season and a seven footer who provided his team with a solid rookie campaign averaging six points and four boards per game in just 17.5 of playing time, can make any Portland fan's mouth water in anticipation. The same can be said for the other off season additions in established veterans Mo Williams, Dorell Wright, and Earl Watson who provide the Blazers with more offensive firepower and perimeter defensive presence that the team, fans and city have not seen the likes of for quite some time. Williams is a career 14 point, five assist, and one steal per player who has shot nearly .400 from the arc during his 10 years in the league while Wright has averaged around nine points, four rebounds and two assists per game in his 9 year career and has not reached 30 yet. Add Watson's maturity and veteran savvy at the point guard position, the Blazers' situation has changed from not having adequate depth in on their roster to having simply too much depth which probably suits head coach Terry Stotts just fine as he will have so many weapons in his arsenal once the season begins. Altogether the Blazers not only will have a team that will only make the playoffs, but also challenge the status quo of not only their own Northwest Division, but also the Western Conference as well. They'll be entering the season in a division with a short handed +Oklahoma City Thunder who lost much of their offensive firepower with the departure of their top scorer off the bench, Kevin Martin, as he left for the +Minnesota Timberwolves and an injured +Russell Westbrook who will probably not play until mid December or January at the earliest. They'll also be facing a Denver Nuggets team that does not hold a candle to the same team that won a franchise record 57 games last season and looks to be heading towards a downwards spiral as they have no real go to player and the overall makeup of that team consists of average players at best. What was once though of as a team that looked as if it was heading for a major crash and burn following by a long and arduous rebuilding period looked to have bounced back to playoff contention within a year. It is all thanks to a player that had come from a rather low key school and arose to become one of the future young stars in the league and with a team like this behind him, it is certain that Portland will be among the west's elite for some time to come. |
||
Showing posts with label number 13. Show all posts
Showing posts with label number 13. Show all posts
Friday, October 4, 2013
SDH's 2013/2014 NBA Worst to First Previews and Predictions: 13. Portland Trailblazers
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 13. Denver Nuggets
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 57-25,
second place Northwest Division
|
10
|
At
Season’s End:
13
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team
Statistics and League Rank (At Season’s End)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (At Season’s End)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taking a Look Back at the Season that Once Was . . .
|
SDH Player of the Year:
Kosta Koufos 
His regular season numbers do not jump jump out at you as he average just eight points and a shade under seven boards per game, but Kosta Koufos still played consistently enough to remain as the team's starting center, despite having signed the higher profile JaVale McGee to a four year contract extension worth 44$ million. At just 24 years of age, Kosta Koufos has maintain a solid and consistent presence providing points in the paint along with rebounding and interior defense. Despite playing just 22 minutes per game, Koufos finished second on the team in rebounds behind Kenneth Faried while almost being automatic from the filed making close to .600 of his shot attempts. If he had played more minutes, he would have been considered for All Star recognition as his per 40 minutes averages would show: 14.3 ppg, 12.2 rpg, and 2.3 blkpg. At just only 24 years of age Koufos has yet to reach his full potential and can be possibly become one of the best players in the NBA that no one has ever heard of.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
As it was the case in the last four years, the Denver Nuggets had failed yet again to advance past the first round in the NBA playoffs despite finishing the regular season with the third best record in the Western Conference at 57-25. The Nuggets looked as if they had so much going for them as they not only earned the third seed in the NBA playoffs along with home court advantage in the first round , but, they were facing a team who had not made the post season since 2006 and only had it third playoff appearance in the last twenty years. The Golden State Warriors surprised everyone, even their own fans when they went from being one of the perennial cellar dwellers in the league to becoming the feel good story of 2013 NBA Season; however, no one thought that those upstarts would have a chance against a seasoned Denver Nuggets team. The Warriors would silence any doubters and turned the table on this supposedly superior Denver team as they eliminated the Nuggets in six games and moved on to the second round to face the San Antonio Spurs. As for the Nuggets, they would return to their usual routine of packing it in early and watching the rest of the playoffs on TV; however there would be a slight change as this time they will be doing it without their head coach. When the season had finally ended, many assumed that the Nuggets would re-up head coach George Karl's contract as he not only led Denver to one of the best records in the team's history, but also earned Coach of the Year honors to go along with it. Fortunately for Nuggets' fans, the team were not swayed by Karl's recent accomplishments, but chose to instead look at Karl's career as whole while coaching the Nuggets and it left little to be impressed about. In his nine years as head coach of the Nuggets, which ranked second longest among active coaches in the NBA, George Karl only brought his team past the first round of the playoffs just once. Most NBA coaches would have been fired a long time ago, especially since much of the Nuggets' inability to advance to the post season was the reason why Carmelo Anthony wanted to jump ship because he was tired of being stuck on a team going nowhere. Even with the departure of Anthony, Karl was still capable to keep his job as the Nuggets still managed to make the playoffs despite losing the best player the team has ever had; however, after the team's third straight early ousting from the post season, the shtick simply got old and Karl simply wore out his welcome in the Mile High City. What is even more shocking about the situation was that it took the Nuggets' front office close to a decade to finally wake up and finally part ways with Karl in the first place. Essentially Karl had been coasting with the team having it play well enough to remain respectable enough to keep his job and not aspiring more than doing the bare minimum. He essentially was never pressured by his higher ups to raise the bar because they also simply settled with the team remaining at the same spot it had been for close to a decade being happy with just simply being a middle of the pack team with no other real aspirations whatsoever. The team's third straight embarrassing post season exit was the straw that broke the camel's back, especially since it look as if the Nuggets' would finally breakout of it four year first round slump. Unfortunately, that did not happen and what was even more insulting about the entire state of affairs was that Karl was nonchalantly arrogant to expect the team to resign him despite failing yet again simply because he won coach of the year and coached the team to its best regular season record. Thankfully the ownership and the team's front office finally wised up to see what George Karl really was--certainly, not the coach that could inspire greatness in his players enough to make Denver a championship contender. Instead, George Karl proved himself to be no more than a charlatan who only looked to pad his numbers well enough to earn the elite coach salary that he never deserved. He was actually pretty fortunate that Denver went on that 40-10 tear to finish the regular season, because the team started it rather weakly at 17-15 and if things had not turned around the way they had, Karl probably would have been fired by mid-season. The Nuggets struggled mightily at the start of the season trying to keep their heads above water before that almost miraculous run brought the team out of mediocrity and into the upper echelons as one of the league's elite team. Had the Nuggets managed to pass the Warriors in the first round, Karl probably would have been re-signed to a contract extension and his charade would have continued for another three or four years; fortunately, however, that was not the case as Denver certainly dodged a bullet in retaining him. Now the Nuggets have the chance to take the team into another direction instead of being stuck in the same spot spinning their tires going nowhere. The ousting of George Karl should not be seen by Nuggets fans as a sign that the team looks to tear down and rebuild, but more of going into a new direction. They already have a deep and talented roster with players who have yet to reach their full potential and with the right coach, they can probably be able to break their poor playoff streak once and for all. Even if they don't next season, at least the Nuggets will have a new coach at the helm instead of the same guy who simply settled with the status quot. Hopefully, the Nuggets find a coach who will challenge his players and have them play with a greater sense of purpose instead of simply going through the motions as they did with George Karl. The season may have ended disappointingly with the Nuggets being ousted yet again in the first round of the playoff, but at least their future has a chance to be rewritten thanks to the departure of the man that kept them stationed at the same spot for the last nine and a half years. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, April 19, 2013
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for January and and February: 13. Utah Jazz
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of February 28th): 31-27 (third place,
Northwest Division)
|
19
|
This Month:
13
|
Team
Statistics and League Rank (as of February 28th)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (as of February 28th)
|
|
Worst Player
of the Month: Marvin Williams
 Again Marvin Williams has continued to disappoint in his stay in Utah justifying the thoughts of many of how much of lottery bust he was playing for the Atlanta Hawks. With each passing month, Williams has been less relevant with every game as his production on the offensive end has steadily stopped while at the same time his presence on the defensive end has been all but nonexistent. January and February were by far the two worst months of his season as he dropped averaging 7.7 points per game while shooting a respectable .459 from the field to completely tanking down to 6.7 points per game and shooting a woeful .372 from the field. This was supposed to be the season where Marvin Williams was to resurrect his failing career, but all he has accomplished is just simply continue justifying the perception of him being a utter waste of space on the court. He is essentially a small forward in a power forward's body who is too slow to beat his opponent off the dribble and whose sole offensive repertoire consists of a shaky jumpshot--and what's worse is that the Jazz will continue to be stuck with him for yet another season. |
First Player
of the Month: Alec Burks
 At the start of the season Alec Burks looked as if his breakout rookie performance last season was a fluke as he had simply lost his shot and was on his way to be swept away as so many wannabee NBA stars end up as. Fortunately for Burks however, with each passing month he slowly and surely improved with each passing month as his shot had gradually reappeared in time. He hit a major breakthrough in February when he finished the month with his best performance of the season averaging 9.9 points per game while shooting a season's best .455 from the field and a whopping .478 from beyond the arc. Considering the fact that Burks started the season averaging only 1.7 per game while shooting an even more woeful .182 from the field, one can certainly notice the vast improvement that has occurred over the past four months. With such an impressive performance, Burks has proven all doubters wrong that he was nothing more than simply a one hit wonder and continues to show an ever evolving game making him certainly a future building block for this Utah franchise. |
|
Analysis:
Although NBA hoops fans in Salt Lake City must be ecstatically cheering for their Utah Jazz team as it has defied the odds yet again to remain among the top teams, the sad fact of the matter is that their home team is essentially on borrowed time. Although they currently hold onto the seventh seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a rather comfortable lead, that will be short lived at best because the Utah Jazz are simply not as good as a team as their record would indicate. For starters, despite sitting the a respectable record with four games over .500, the Jazz have allowed their opponents to outscore them by a little over a point per game and while at the same time allow them to shoot over .460 from the field. Although the Jazz do have a slight advantage when it comes to rebounding the ball and rank among the top ten teams in the league in rebounds allowed, those numbers are rather misleading to say the least. The real reason why the Jazz have a slight lead over their opponents on the board is not so much their ability to box out their opponent in the paint, but the simple fact that they allow their opponents to shoot at a rather high percentage resulting in missing the ball less thus grabbing less rebounds.
In January the Jazz seemed simply marvelous going 10-4 after finishing 2012 with a rather mediocre 15-17 record and improved their record to a respectable 25-21; unfortunately however they started to show signs of waning in February going 6-6 for that month, yet managed to maintain their respectable standing in the west with a 31-27 record. Upon closer examination at their games, one can see a rather disturbing trend as most of the games that Utah won were rather close ad could have gone either way leaving many to believe that much of the Jazz's good fortune had more to do with luck that anything else. Although it may look as if the Jazz won their games rather convincingly by an average margin of 8.8 points, six of those sixteen games were won by six points or less and five of those teams that they narrowly beat can not be considered as the NBA's cream of the crop. They narrowly beat two of the Eastern Conference's worst teams in the Detroit Pistons (1/12/2013) and Washington Wizards (1/23/2013) by a grand total of seven points while narrowly scraping past two of the Western Conference whipping boys, the New Orleans Hornets (1/30/2013) and Minnesota Timberwolves (2/13/2013), by just nine altogether. Utah even needed overtime to defeat of all teams, the Sacramento Kings (2/9/2012), a team that many consider a laughing stock by not only NBA standards, but on the world of professional sports as well. One should also note that despite finishing January and February with a rather respectable 16-10 record, when the Jazz lost, they lost rather badly as their opponents literally pounded the team into the ground crushing them by an averaged margin of 13.8 points losing all but four of those ten games by 10 or more points. In that rather impressive January performance where Utah finished 10-4 for the month, in their four loses, they lost three of them by an average margin of 31.9 points as they lost to the Denver Nuggets (1/5/2013) and Los Angeles Lakers (1/25/2013) by a total of 37 points then simply got humiliated by the Houston Rockets by a whopping 45 points (1/28/2013). Utah managed to show a somewhat respectable performances in their losing efforts in February as they lost their six games in that month by an average margin of eight points; however, considering the teams that they lost to and how they lost still will make many an observer raise an eye or two. After losing two hard fought games against two respectable team such as the Portland Trailblazers (2/2/2013) and Chicago Bulls (2/8/2013) by a total of just ten points, the Jazz would lose by eleven points against of all teams, the NBA's laughing stock Sacramento Kings (2/9/2013). And in what can be seen as an absolute low for the Utah Jazz's poor reputation on the defensive end, they would allow the league lowest scoring teams, the Boston Celtics (2/25/2013), to score 110 points on them eventually outlasting them in overtime.
Upon looking at these stark examples, one can certainly see how the Utah Jazz, despite resting comfortably in seventh place in the West are nowhere near as good as their record would indicate and certainly not in any place a lock at making the playoffs. Despite being four games over .500 at the end of February, the team has yet been able to outscore their opponents as they have -0.06 points margin from their opponents while allowing them to shoot the lights out at .460 from the field. Those numbers certainly should not inspire any confidence for Jazz fans who have been rooting for their home team to make the postseason for the second straight year since the resignation of long time hall of fame coach Jerry Sloan and the departure of the disgruntled star player Deron Williams to the Brooklyn Nets. If anything, making the playoff would probably be detrimental to the Jazz as it will give them a false sense of security which would then lead the head office to put back plans to do what is necessary for the team's overall growth. Namely, the Jazz need to just tank the team, unloading the veterans that impede the development of the impressive young talent and allow these young players to grow and improve at the expense of winning; however, if the team manages to reach the playoffs, it will certainly not force Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor and head coach Tyrone Corbin to undergo the long road towards rebuilding, because they would be more than satisfied to simply keep the gravy train rolling as long as they can to keep their jobs.
Missing the playoffs will be what the Utah Jazz needs to finally move on from the past because as it stands now, the team still rest under the immense shadow of coaching legend Jerry Sloan. If Tyrone Corbin wants to show that he is a worthy successor to Sloan, who had coached the Jazz for 26 years where he led the Jazz to the playoff in all but four years, he needs to prove that he can build the team in his own image. Instead of truly making a name for himself as a head coach in the NBA, he has been simply content coasting with the same team that was originally coached under Sloan giving him a winning coaching record that he most likely does not deserve. The Jazz front office may also be tempted to take the cowardly approach keep the team as is by resigning the Jazz's three major upcoming free agents--Al Jefferson, Paul Milsap and Mo Williams--offering them bloated contract extensions that would erase any real salary cap flexibility in the future. Upon doing that, the Jazz will end up marginalizing the team's young group of talented players thus creating internal discontent and threatening to tear the team apart. The Jazz have extremely young, talented and hungry players are looking to prove themselves but can't because they are being upstaged by veterans whose time in Utah should come at an end--and unless they get their chance, Utah will never improve as a team, but simply continue to settle with being a team hovering between being average and mediocre. |
||
Friday, February 8, 2013
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for December: 13. Denver Nuggets
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of December 31st): 17-15, second place Northwest Division
|
16
|
This Month:
13
|
Team
Statistics and League Rank (as of December 31st):
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (as of December 31st):
|
|
Worst Player
of the Month: Andre Iguodala
 It was good to be true to think thank Andre Iguodala would live up to the hype and his ridiculous paycheck after a rather impressive start of the season where he led the Nuggets in scoring. Instead his production, which was his best in three or four years, has sank like a stone back to earth proving once again that he is nothing more than one of the most over-hyped, overrated, and certainly most overpaid players in the NBA. It seems as if Andre has shriveled up once again as he seems to have settled back into the background, refusing to utilize his talents and just settle to continue his playing days as a bloated and overpaid role player. For those who held onto the belief that Andre would return to being the player that he once was in Philadelphia when he led the team in scoring averaging 19 points per game, that faith has been all but shattered. Nuggets fans have now realized what fans in Philly had known for the past three years--that Andre Igoudala is nothing but a second rate poser who has lived off of the inflated hype of the media. |
First Player
of the Month: Corey Brewer
 If there has been anyone who deserves the misplaced credit on acclaim from fans and media, it has to be Nuggets' swing man Corey Brewer. For the past couple of months, Brewer has come off the bench and has essentially out-performed the over-inflated, grossly overpaid, and overrated man that plays ahead of him. In under 25 minutes per game, he average more than 13.1 points , 3.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while shooting a career high .486 from the field. Brewer has also been a major factor defensively in the second unit as he is third on the team in steals averaging 1.2 per game. It is such a shame that a player whom no doubt deserves to get starters minutes cannot because he is overshadowed by undeserving fraud who currently lives off of false hype. |
|
Analysis:
After a rather unimpressive and rather lackluster start, the Denver Nuggets continued the trend by finishing December with a 9-6 record and entering 2013 with a winning record two games over .500. As with the previous month, December was another roller coaster ride with the Nuggets bouncing up and down with no real consistency. They performed their bouncing act splitting their first six games as they would win one, then lose another only to win the next one again. After that six game pinball period, the Nuggets managed to produce a solid stretch winning three games straight that included beating two of the Western Conference's top teams in the Memphis Grizzlies (12/14/2012) and San Antonio Spurs (12/18/2012). Unfortunately, that streak would not last as Denver finished December the same way they started it bouncing up an down splitting their last six games.
Despite the team's inability to maintain a consistent streak, the Nuggets did show quite a bit of promise as they lost by an average margin of just 6.3 points with only the Los Angeles Clippers able to beat them by double figures (12/25/2012). Two of the games the Nuggets lost, in all fairness, could have gone either way as Denver lost to the Atlanta Hawks (12/5/2012) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (12/12/2012) by a total of seven points. If the ball would have bounced their way and they made a few crucial plays on defensive end, Denver could have finished 2012 with an even more respectable record of 19-13. Unfortunately, as it has been the case with Denver, despite being able to go toe to toe with their opposition in terms of scoring, it was their defense or lack there of, that cost them the victories. In their six losses, the Nuggets allowed their opponents to score 103.7 points on them despite allowing them to shoot .426 from the field which makes one ask how could the Nuggets allow themselves to be outscored like that. Perhaps the answers lie in not so much the scoring and the shooting, but more in other areas that the Denver Nuggets have had problems--that of ball protection and committing turnovers. As of the end of December the Nuggets ranked near the bottom of the league in committing and forcing turnovers being the fourth worst team in committing turnovers and were equally as bad at forcing their opponents to cough up the ball. Along with preventing the opponents from scoring and gathering rebounds, protecting the ball is also crucial in winning games, especially late in the game where one slip of the ball can cost a team to win. It was a last second steal and score from Josh Smith that cost the Nuggets the win at Atlanta as Nuggets coughed up the ball a total of 20 times compared to Atlanta's 14. The same can be said for the six point loss against the New York Knicks (12/9/2012) where Atlanta tallied 16 turnovers compared to New York's nine and their 19 slip ups also allowed the Minnesota Timberwolves to slip past them despite out-shooting them .506 to .437 from the field. Turnovers could have also cost the Nuggets to finish 2012 on a winning note as three of those games were rather close to call as they could have lost against the Toronto Raptors (12/3/2012), Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs if they had a late game slip up or two. Fortunately for Denver that did not happen or that would have given the team's management to reevaluate its relationship with head coach George Karl finally giving the team justification to finally rid themselves of him once and for all. Thus, the winning record to finish the year was both a blessing and curse for this young up and coming team because it allowed them to maintain some sort of respectability before heading into the new year while at the same time, maintained their status as a team stuck in the middle going nowhere. As it stand right now in the West, the Nuggets are barely hanging on to a playoff berth and are closely locked into a battle for second place in the division. Just one win or loss can determine whether the Nuggets reach the the postseason to just be knocked out of the first round or forced to just stand and watch as they arrive at bottom of the draft lottery. Until something drastic happens, the Nuggets will remain a team that is going nowhere for even if they manage to snag their tenth straight playoff appearance, history will show that it has been all for naught as Denver has only past the first round just once in that span of time. Being a team that constantly gets sent packing early in post season every year is just as bad, possibly even worse, that being a perennial loser. At least the teams with the worst record have a greater chance to acquire a top five game changing NBA draft pick unlike a team like the Nuggets who have to settle with being at the bottom of the first round with little to show for their efforts. Thus despite their supposed successful finishes, Denver still remains in limbo being not bad enough to earn a lottery pick and simply not good enough to take the next step in becoming a true contender. Sooner or later Nuggets fans will catch on and decide to no longer follow a team that starts off strong to only to pack it in come playoff time which may also result of the demise of another small market team. |
||
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for November: 13. Boston Celtics
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of November 30th): 9-7, third
place Atlantic Division
|
12
|
This Month:
13
|
Team
Statistics and League Rank (as of November 30th)
Points Scored:
99.3 (12th)
Points Allowed:
100.1 (23rd)
Team FG%: .478
(2nd)
Opponent’s
FG%: .463 (27th)
Rebounds per
game: 36.9 (30th)
Opponents
rebounds per game: 41.9 (12th)
Turnovers per
game: 13.9 (6th)
Opponents
turnovers per game: 15.2 (15th)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders
Scoring (ppg):
Paul Pierce (20.1)
Rebounds per
game: Kevin Garnett (7.1)
Minutes per
game: Rajon Rondo (38.5)
Assists per
game: Rajon Rondo (13.7)
Steals per
game: Rajon Rondo (1.9)
Blocked Shots
per game: Kevin Garnett (0.8)
|
|
Worst Player
of the Month: Darko Milicic
The Darko Milicic
era has finally ended in the NBA as he has decided to head back to his
homeland Serbia to be with his ailing mother.
Although quite noble, it is also rather disappointing for fans who
have followed Milicic his entire career hoping that his stint in Boston would
revitalize a once failure of a career.
By all accounts, Darko Milicic will probably never return to the NBA
as he has been given chance after chance to prove that he was a worthy second
pick of the 2003 after Lebron James, but has failed on every count. Now it seems as both Darko and the NBA have
both decided to part ways cleaning the slate for both sides and Darko has a
chance to finally move on from a career that has offered more bloopers than
highlights. So best of luck to you,
Darko as you leave from the shattered pieces that was once your NBA
career.
|
First Player
of the Month: Rajon Rondo
Rajon Rondo
was headed for another career milestone almost reaching Magic Johnson’s
streak of consecutive double digit assist games until he was thwarted by an
ejection and probable suspension in his game against the Brooklyn Nets
(11/28/2012). Now as a result of an
early game fight with Brooklyn' s Kris Humphries, Rondo will be sitting on the
sidelines waiting for his punishment from the NBA. Nonetheless, it does not diminish the fact
that Rondo has been the best performing Celtic player in the first month of
the season. He has given his usual
contributions of assists, steals, and energy for his team along with a
budding offensive game that includes an extended shooting range shooting a
career high .353 from the three point line for the month of November. If his adopted shooting range extension is
permanent, Rondo can be an even more dangerous player than he already is.
|
|
Analysis:
The Boston Celtics entered the season with plenty of
hope and optimism as GM Danny Ainge kept all but one of the players from last
season’s squad that brought the Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern
Conference Finals before being eliminated in the last game. Unfortunately, the Celtics have been off to
a rather sluggish start finished just one game over .500 and has been resting
on second to last in the Atlantic Division trailing the New York Knicks,
Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.
Why might one ask that a team coming in with expectations to challenge
the Miami Heat for the Eastern Conference be in such dire straits? It is quite simple really—because Celtics
GM Danny Ainge brought back all the players, except one who wisely chose to
leave as a free agent, from last season’s squad that brought the Miami Heat
to seven games Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals
before being eliminated in the last game.
Ainge should have accepted the fact that last season
was the best his veteran team could have done, break the team apart and start
rebuilding it with the huge blessing of cap space inherited by the expiring
contracts of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen that amounted to close to 40$
million. Instead, he chose to take a
significant amount of that cap space, about 12$ million of it, and resigned
an already 36 year old Kevin Garnett to three more years removing any chance
of his team being able to acquire a marquee name in a free agent class which
will include Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Chris Paul, and Josh Smith to name
a few. He then squandered another 5$
million for the next three years on an already aging Jason Terry who was
wisely let go by the Dallas Mavericks.
To finish it off, Ainge used 14$ million more to take a chance and
gave big contracts to a player who missed an entire year due to a heart
complication in Jeff Green (4 years, 36$ million) and Courtney Lee (4 years,
20$ million), a player who essentially had one fantastic month out of an
otherwise average season. Add the
resigning of veteran Brandon Bass to three more years at 18$ million, Danny Ainge wasted all that
precious cap space and essentially chained himself to an already aging and
deteriorating team for the next three or four years.
Thus far the Celtics have only proven any if not all
allegations that they simply no longer have it to make it to the playoffs,
let alone remain a championship contender.
Boston started the month of November on a low note losing three of
their first five games—winning two just barely against the worst team in the
league, the Washington Wizards. They
did manage to bounce back winning seven of their next eleven games earning
them a respectable finish ending November with a 9-7 record; unfortunately, however,
the Celtics have gone 5-7 since then and are just barely hanging on with a
.500 record. This was certainly not
the result that Danny Ainge was envisioning when he choose to maintain the
team’s rotting core in the hopes of making another deep playoff run—he
especially did not envision his elderly roster to rank at the bottom
defensively allowing their opponents to shot close to .470 from the field and
out-rebound them by a close +5 margin.
The Celtics are a team just barely hanging on and all
they need is just one losing run to close the door on any chances to reach
the postseason for the sixth straight year in a row. Both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have shown
signs of wearing down as Pierce has slowly begun to lose his signature
shooting touch and Garnett’s production, along with his abilities, have
continued to decline. Their new
additions to their roster have not lived up to expectation by the least as newcomer
Jason Terry has shown signs of his age as his numbers have dropped to career
lows while Courtney Lee, who many expected to pick up where he left off after
posting career highs in Houston, has been a complete bust so far. Jeff Green has shown signs of being a solid
NBA player, but has not shown by any means that he is a player that Boston
can build a franchise around nor has he shown that he was worth the 9$
million per year that the team signed him to. By the looks of things, there
is only one direction that the Celtics are headed and it is certainly not
up—and they have no one to blame for their predicament but themselves.
Thanks to the moves made by the team’s General
Manager, Danny Ainge, the team has virtually handcuffed itself to bad
contracts for the next three years ruining any chance of it going anywhere
but down. Overestimating the abilities
of an aging Kevin Garnett is one thing, but to pay him 36$ million—an amount
that could have netted an equally talented but younger player—was not only
unwise and foolish, but also potentially self destructive as well. Now the Celtics are stuck with making the
best of an increasingly worse situation for the next three years as they
continually drift further into irrelevance.
To think this could have been all avoided makes it even more
frustrating to watch this team scratch and claw their way through the season
while they get left behind by the rest in the league. Unfortunately for the Celtics, their team’s
front office sealed their fate for not only this season, but for the next
three after thereafter.
|
||
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)