|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 47-35,
second place Pacific Division
|
20
|
At
Season’s End:
5
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team
Statistics and League Rank (At Season’s End)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (At Season’s End)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
SDH Player of the Year:
How Mark Jackson did not get chosen for the Coach of the Year award defies belief, reason, and plain good taste. Here is a man that took a moribund team considered as a laughing stock in the NBA and brought to respectability in just one season. Mark Jackson not only chance the view of the Golden State Warriors, but also the team's culture bringing in a philosophy or defense and determination. It was because of him that the Warrior manage to earn its first playoff appearance in six years and a first round upset against a team coached by the man who got selected as coach of the year ahead of him: the Denver Nuggets' George Karl. Hopefully Jackson and his team will continue their progress and this season will not be considered as just a fluke.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
Of all the feel good stories of the 2013 NBA season, the biggest and best most definitely has to be the shocking and celebrated rise of the Golden State Warriors--a team that was once a virtual laughing stock a year ago becoming one of the top teams in the league. Not only did they post their best record in more than a decade and make the playoffs for the first time since 2006, but they made one of the most stunning upsets in the NBA playoffs by eliminating the third seeded Denver Nuggets in the first round. As it were not enough for them to reach the second round, the Warriors also lived up to their name as they gave the San Antonio Spurs a fight to remember using every ounce of strength and courage to battle the Spurs through five games before eventually falling in game six. The Warriors played them so hard in that second round series that even the San Antonio Spurs tipped their hats off to them giving them far more respect or recognition than possibly anyone has ever had given to Golden State. The most poignant moment of that series was at the end of game six where Warriors fans gave their team a standing ovation for giving them the most memorable season that they will never forget followed by the heartfelt thanks by Stephen Curry to the crowd for supporting them for so long. To really understand the gravity of his season One has to look back the historic plight of the Golden State Warriors to see what this team and its fans had to endure simply to get where they are today. Here is a team that since its inception in 1947 has just 24 winning seasons in its 66 years of existence, and these winning seasons came sporadically to say the least as they would come one good for every five or six bad one. The only time that the Warriors fans ever had a team to proudly cheer for was during the 1970s when they had six straight winning seasons from 1971 to 1977 in which included them winning the first and only NBA title in 1975; that dramatically ended in 1978 and since then, fans in the Bay Area have had little if nothing to cheer for. Sure they had some bright spots, but they were very few and far between--from 1987 to 1994, for example they were moderately respectable as they reached the playoffs five of those seven years; however, the team during that time was marginal at best going as far as the second round and no further. After that, it was simply one bad season after the other as the Warriors missed the playoff for a whopping ten year until they made it by some fluke in 2006 and surprised the top seeded Dallas Mavericks who at the time finished with the league's best record at the time; sadly however, that would be a one year affair followed by six straight years writhing in futility. And it was not just the losing that made the Warriors such a historically sad pathetic excuse of a professional sports team second only to the Los Angeles Clippers, but it was also a poorly run team that suffered through bad management and one poor personnel choice after another. Who can forget the time where the Warriors had the chance to have two future NBA Hall of Famers in Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, but instead traded both of them away to the Boston Celtics for a chance to get the number one pick at the time which was Joe Barry Carroll? Although Carrol performed exceptionally well by modern day standards, the Warriors still continued to lose while both Parish and McHale would join Larry Bird to become one of the greatest frontcourt tandems in NBA history and lead the Celtics to five NBA Finals winning three of them during the 1980s. That would be one the numerous boneheaded moves committed by this Warriors franchise and it would take possibly another ten or twenty more blog posts to mention every last one of the team's miss steps. Add along the sheer bad luck that simply followed the Warriors each and every season whether it be due to the team being decimated by injuries or personnel in-fighting that would cripple the team and one can see how a fan base can be so sickeningly apathetic to this point. In fact, the apathy came to a point where fans simply shrugged off the impressive 9-6 start of the 2013 regular season as they simply waited for something bad to happen yet to bring it all crashing down; however, to the shock and dismay of everybody, that did not happen. Instead of following the same script to failure, the Warriors actually did the unthinkable and continued to win as they finish 2012 in shockingly splendid fashion with a 21-10 record holding down second place in the Pacific Division ahead of their perennial oppressors, the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a true case of the meek inheriting the Earth as not only the Warriors, but also their fellow cellar dwelling LA Clippers had both risen up to take the division that was once dominated with an iron clad fist by the Lakers and Phoenix Suns. Even when the Warriors starting slipping in January and February losing 15 of twenty seven games and fell from 10 game over .500 to just six, the positive vibes from Warriors' fans kept Golden State pushing as they showed the grit and toughness that had never been seen in ages. It was that toughness that not only propelled them to the playoffs, but also pushed them to give the heroic effort by first taking down the Denver Nuggets in the first round followed by giving the post season veteran San Antonio Spurs a run for their money as well. Now the question that will come to mind as the 2013 season comes to a close is what will be next for the Warriors come 2014? One would hope that this season would be the start of a new era in Golden State basketball as the taste of victory will lead to even more success; however, knowing the sad history of the franchise, it is hard to keep optimistic as the Warriors have been known to sink right back to the bottom after receiving a small taste of victory. Hopefully the tandem of head coach Mark Jackson and Warriors special consultant Jerry West, better known as the architect of the Laker dynasties of the 1980s and early 21st century, will keep this team on track instilling a winning culture in an effort to fight against history. With a talented roster that has a perfect blend of youth and experience, it is the hope many Warriors fans that this season will not be just a one shot affair--after all, have they not suffered enough. After suffering through nearly 30 years of futility and failure, one would think that this generation of Warriors fans are finally due to have at least a monetary period of bliss to at least reward them for staying true to a team that has let them down time and time again. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, July 18, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 5. Golden State Warriors
Monday, July 15, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 6. Chicago Bulls
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At
Season’s End
) : 45-37 (second place, Central Division)
|
14
|
At Season’s
End
6
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team
Statistics and League Rank (At Season’s End)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (At Season’s End)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SDH Player of the Year: Nate Robinson 
Consider Nate Robinson as one of the feel good comeback stories of the NBA. He went from being labelled as a knucklehead and a lost cause to re-emerging to becoming one of the bright spots on this struggling Chicago Bulls team. Although Robinson's arrival to the Windy City was welcomed with plenty of raised eyebrows and a heavy helping of skepticism, he still managed to turn it all around providing much needed leadership for a Chicago team in desperate need of it. His brightest moment by far was in the playoff where he led the Bulls to a surprising first round upset over the Brooklyn Nets in this year's playoffs making him the Windy city's favorite son for now. With his contract expiring at season's end, look for many team to take a look at the quick and athletic 5'9" dynamo as he will certainly be a player to watch out for in the free agent market.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
They entered the regular season not only just without their star player, but a drastically altered roster which had many wondering whether or not the team would even finish with a .500 record, let alone qualify for the playoffs; however Chicago Bulls still managed to silence any of their doubters and not only make the playoffs, but also managed to pull off the impossible by eliminating a far more deeper and talented Brooklyn Nets team. After losing rather badly in game one, many though that it would be a rather short and forgettable series, but Chicago bounced back winning three straight games to take a three games to one lead over the Nets and the opportunity to eliminate the far stronger Brooklyn squad in game five. Despite winning game five, the Nets could not stretch the series to the seventh and deciding games as they would fall in game six which resulted in the Bulls to advance in the second round to face the top seeded Miami Heat who Chicago also caught off guard taking the first game in the best of seven series. Unfortunately for the Bulls that would be the only game that they would win as Miami made short work of them winning the next four games and quickly eliminated Chicago as they marched on to their second straight NBA title. As for the Bulls, they would end their season with their heads head up high that they were capable of accomplish so much despite having so little and now spend their off season for the star player, Derrick Rose, to be healthy enough to bring the team back to the upper echelons on the Eastern Conference; however, one has to ask himself whether Derrick Rose will be enough to bring this team back to notoriety and championship contention. With Rose, the Bulls had two straight seasons where they finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference only to fall short in the playoffs first losing to the Miami Heat in the Conference Finals and then shockingly eliminated in the first round by a far less talented Philadelphia 76ers team. They then entered the 2013 regular season with the grim reality that their leader and heart and soul of the franchise would not be playing alongside them and despite being able to pull off a somewhat respectable finish, it was still rather touch and go for the Windy City's finest. For starters, the Bulls were absolutely horrid on the offensive end as they were the second worst team in the league in terms of scoring and in the bottom five when it game to shooting from the field. And despite being arguably one of the league's best defensive teams by far, they were still unable to convert that defensive effort into easy offensive opportunities as they were one of the worst teams in the league in forcing turnovers and had only beaten their opponents by a mere +0.3 margin. In other words, if they had been a missed turnover or a last second miss, the Chicago Bulls probably would not have made the playoffs and probably would have finished with the league's worst record had it not been for a lucky bounce or two on the rim. Where most of the league's top teams relied on defense more as a catalyst to spark their offense by getting easy baskets through turnovers, Chicago's defense more resembled a crutch that propped the team up long enough to come through for the win. Watching the Bulls on offense was simply painful as every possession become a chore and Chicago virtually had to pull out their own teeth to come away with a basket each time they came on their side of the court. And despite ranking among the top ten rebounding teams in the league, that did not make much of a difference as they allowed their opponents to crash the boards at relatively the same rate only separated by a rather slim margin +2.1 rebounds per game. What is even more sad about this slim rebounding differential was that it had nothing to do with the Bulls being able to grab more rebounds than their opponents, but the fact that their opponents had made more baskets at a better rate than them thus resulting in them not having to rebound as much. Putting together all the factors surrounding the team during the regular season, it is safe to say that the Chicago Bulls truly were not that great of a team in the 2013 season, but a bad team that got very lucky. In addition to the loving intervention of Lady Luck that kept them within striking distance of the post season, the Bulls were also fortunate enough to be playing in a rather weak Central Division as they spent the season behind an equally poor executing offensive team in the Indiana Pacers. With the news of Derrick Rose's absence become known, many had handed Indiana the Central Division wrapped up with a bow on it as the Pacers came into the 2013 season with a far more improved roster than last season's team; however, upon arriving Indy started the season dead cold from the field and spent much of the first half scratching their way to reach .500. The Pacers did manage to get it together to put a strong finish late in the regular season to win the Central Division, but it was far from impressive they barely won it over Chicago by a mere four game margin and considering that Indy was projected to be a dominant force in the league, their finish was far from spectacular. The Bulls did not have that much of threat from the team right under them as the Milwaukee Bucks proved to be even more of a mediocre team finishing the season winning just 38 games to only be swept in the first round by the eventual NBA champion Miami Heat. Simply being in that rather weak division gave the Bulls enough confidence to fight on because unlike what many predicted, despite all the challenges they faced, they still had a fighting chance to come out with the Division lead. Now with the 2013 NBA season finally at a close, the Chicago Bulls can finally breathe a sigh of relief, allow themselves to rest up for the next season, and patiently await the arrival of the their absent franchise player, Derrick Rose; however, one has to wonder whether the return of Rose will bring the Bulls back to the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference. Rose will not be returning to the same team that went 50-16 last season as much of the roster had been hollowed out due to financial reasons leading one to think that perhaps the Bulls no longer have what it takes to be a contender for the NBA crown. In fact, one can go as far to say that Chicago's time has passed as their window of opportunity has firmly closed thanks to the emergence of teams such as the Indiana Pacers, the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks being in their way. Facing far more potent obstacles than they have ever faced and with an older team looking even more worn down than before, the future no longer looks a brought for the Chicago Bulls who looked to finally come up from under the shadows of history to create their own championship legacy. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sunday, July 14, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 7. New York Knicks
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 54-28, first place Atlantic Division
|
5
|
At
Season’s End:
7
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
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:
Carmelo Anthony 
Carmelo Anthony was essentially the beginning and end all with the Knicks as he not only led his team, but the league in scoring. Unfortunately, despite his accomplishments this past regular season, Carmelo is far from being considered as one of the league's top players. He is certainly not at the same level as his contemporaries--namely the Miami Heat's Lebron James and the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant. Other than putting the ball in the basket, Carmelo Anthony offers little if anything else as he is often lazy on the defensive end of the court and a mediocre rebounder at best considering his size, skills and talents. It is these red flags that keep Anthony from getting any real respect in the league and it will probably continue as long as he continues to play the same way he has had.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
Despite winning the Atlantic Division for the first time since 1994 along with posting their first 50 plus season in 16 years, it was quite apparent that the New York Knicks were in any way ready to contended for a title, let alone take on the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat. Overall the Knicks did not play that impressively in the regular season considering that they allowed their opponents to shoot better than them and despite having one of the deepest rosters in the league, were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. They exposed their flaws in the playoff where they blew a three games to none lead over an old and weary Boston Celtics team, a team that they should have swept in four games, losing two straight games and were forced to play a game six to finally eliminate them. Once they lost the first game of the second round against the Indiana Pacers, it was all over for Knicks and their fans as the team would fall three games to one and Big Apple fans swallowed another steamy helping of disappointment as they watched their team fall four games to two shattering any hopes for contending for a title. The Knicks' failure not only showed how far they are from being championship material, but also that they are not nearly as good a team that their fans believe that they are. To put it bluntly, the Knicks showed that they are a team that is all sizzle but no steak and all flash without any real substance whose window of opportunity has possibly shut on them already. The team itself consisted of of either broken down or worn out old pieces and were held together by a player who simply dominated the ball on the offense taking most of the team's shots and offered basically little if anything else. Carmelo Anthony, who not only led his team but also the league in scoring, only continued to show what many have judged him to be--a shot happy player who offers little or nothing else other than scoring and his reputation of being one of the league's most dominant players is rather over inflated to say the least. Sure he finished the season with the highest scoring average, but he shot at rather a rather sub-par rate hitting just a shade under .450 from the field while taking a league high 22.2 shot attempts per game. Compare that with players that are considered his contemporaries, Lebron James and Kevin Durant who nearly scored just as much but with fewer shot attempts and with better field goal percentages, one can certainly see that Carmelo Anthony is nowhere near in the same league as the great players that media and fans have placed him in. Anthony is nowhere near the superstar franchise player that Knicks fans and the local media have touted him of being and what is worse is that he is put in the unenviable position of being the team sole option on the offensive because no other player can be counted on to consistently step up to take the pressure off Carmelo. The other two leading scorers, JR Smith and Raymond Felton, were far from being solid consistent supporting cast member as both players put up rather sad shooting percentage numbers to say the least. Smith, who was second on the team in scoring at 18.1 points per game while earning the league sixth man of the year award was far from being a model example of stability as he spent most of the season shooting under .400 and finished it with a less than stellar .422 field goal percentage. The same thing can be said for Felton who also spent much of the season shooting at a rather low field goal percentage of .427 despite taking the third most shot attempts on the team behind Anthony who led the league in that statistical category and Smith, who took nearly 16 attempts per game coming off the bench while making less than seven of them. What was even more sad about the state of affairs the fact that the rest of the team did not fare any better as most of the players, save for three of them, shot at respectable percentage at .450 or higher. Although he finished the regular season with the highest field goal percentage, Tyson Chandler was not much a offensive threat as he averaged just six hot attempts per game and most of his baskets came from lob passes and alley oops. In his twelve years in the league, Chandler has yet to develop even a half way decent post game on offense end and can be seen as more of a hindrance than a help as he was essentially a non factor on offense. The same thing went for Amare Stoudemire who despite shooting and impressive .577 from the field while average a shade over 15.0 per game, played just 29 games this season spending most of it on the bench watching the games in street clothes. He certainly has yet to live up to the higher expectations put upon him by the fans and the rather brutal scrutiny of the press after signing a whopping 5 year 100$ million contract as he has spent three of them on the injured list. Finally, there was Chris Copeland, who was probably the best of the three as he provided a solid rookie performance coming off the bench to average around eight a game while shooting .479 from the field; however, he was nothing more than an energy player who provided solid production in limited minutes and nothing else--and at 27 years, it is possible that will be the best he has to offer. With such a roster, it is quite evident why the Knicks suffered such a bad a collapse against the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the playoffs--all the Pacers had to do was allow the Knicks to beat themselves with their poor shooting an offensive execution. All Indiana needed to do was essentially block all the driving lanes to the basket which preventing Carmelo Anthony from attacking the basket thus forcing him to take bad shots and keeping him away from the free throw line. That led to the Knicks' offense to grind almost to a halt because it primarily counted on Carmelo's ability to put the ball in the basket and his domination of the ball on the offensive emd to keep the team running. And the rest as they say was history as the Indiana Pacers went on to show what frauds the New York Knicks really were and that they were in no ways deserving of the praise it received from the press nor their image of being a real match for the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference. In addition, with the team being virtually capped out by the massive contracts on Anthony, Amare, and Chandler totaling up to 56$ million, the Knicks have little or no ability to upgrade their roster as they have used up all their salary cap space on those three players which will lead Knicks fans to anticipate another less than anticipated finish next season and the season right afterwards. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, July 11, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 8. Oklahoma City Thunder
|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 60-22,
first place Northwest Division
|
3
|
At
Season’s End:
8
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
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:
Russell Westbrook 
This past season Russell Westbrook has undergone one of the most amazing transformation going from a turnover, ball hogging gunner into the true point guard that many had hoped that he would be. Instead of simply barreling through the lane with every offensive possession, Westbrook has chosen to slow down his game in order to get his teammates involved and it has been a blessing for all concerned. He still managed to get off his usual plethora of shot attempts, but they remain in the flow of the offense and have not been forced as he has been known for doing. His impact was certainly felt when he was forced to sit out the rest of the playoffs due to injury. If he were to have been healthy, perhaps the Thunder would not have fallen 4-1 in the second round and be still playing in the post season.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
It was all champagne wishes and caviar dreams for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they finished the regular season with the second best record in the league behind the Miami Heat and entered the playoffs with home court advantage until the Western Conference Finals. Many believed that it was already a forgone conclusion that the Thunder would return to the NBA Finals as they simply dominated their competition in the regular season on both sides of the floor ranking among the NBA's top five in scoring, field goal percentage, opponent's field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and three point field goal percentage. Save for the Miami Heat, the team that had beat the Thunder in last year's finals, OKC had virtually no equal and fans simply waited for the season to play out and to see yet again these two titans duke it out again. Thunder fans especially anticipated facing the Heat simply because they believed they had a far better team than they had last season--not in terms of improvements in the roster, but in terms of the team's overall execution on the offensive end. The team's most notable improvement of all came by a rather unlikely source who last season seemed to hurt the the team more than helped it, and underwent the greatest transformation of all. In the 2012 season, Russell Westbrook was a selfish, turn over prone ball hog whose idea of setting up his team's offense was simply barreling through the lane hoping there will be someone to kick it out to or someone to rebound one of his errant shots. After that harsh drubbing in the NBA Finals against the Heat, Russell Westbrook returned the following season as a changed man going from ball hogging chucker to an actual facilitating point guard. Instead of pushing the ball on the offensive end so fast that his teammates could not keep up with him, Westbrook actually slowed down his game so his teammates can actually catch up and got them more involved as well. His assists per game average jumped from 5.6 per game in 2012 to 7.4 this season and his assists to turnover ratio improved from a shameful 3:2 ratio to a more respectable 2:1. His teammates certainly benefited from the new and improved Russel Westbrook as their scoring averages improved greatly along with the team's overall offensive efficiency as there was greater ball movement and his teammates actually had a chance to touch the ball. Two of the players that had benefited the most from Westbrook's new found generosity were guard Thabo Sefalosha and power forward Serge Ibaka--two players who were essentially non factors in the Thunder's starting five last season. Last season, Serge Ibaka's role on the teams was that of a simple shot blocking clean up man who basically got his shots from put backs off offensive rebounds and whatever few scraps that were left behind in offensive possible; this season however, Ibaka became a greater presence on the offensive end as his scoring spiked from just 9.1 points per game last season to posting a career high in scoring averaging 13.2 per game. Thabo Sefalosha's did not have as much of a dramatic boost in offensive production as Ibaka's, but it can be seen as equally impressive as his scoring jumped from under 5.0 points per game over the last two seasons to nearly eight per game this season. Sefalosha's shot attempts bumped up from under four per game last season to six and went from being a mere misnomer on the offensive end to becoming a clutch three point shooter thanks to his .419 shooting efficiency from beyond the arc. Thanks to Westbrook, Oklahoma City went from being a two man show with him and Kevin Durant hogging most of the spotlight to becoming one of the league's most balanced and efficient offenses with four players averaging double figures in scoring with eight total scoring at least five per game. One can actually go as far to say the Russell Westbrook was actually the Thunder's best player this season as he all but transformed the Thunder's offense from a predictable two man affair to a more balanced and efficient team where everyone got a chance to contribute. Instead of trying to keep up or outdo Kevin Durant in terms of scoring, he chose to complement him by doing the things to help keep a lot of the pressure off Durant so he can do what he does best--namely put the ball into the basket. Westbrook can be said as being the true leader on the team this season, actually surpassing Durant in that regard, as he channeled his almost limitless well energy in a more constructive way--namely through facilitating his teammates and being the team's rallying point. He still remained the same offensive force as he was last season as he averaged the around same 23 points per game, but he became even a more potent and efficient on the both ends of the court. Nothing highlighted his importance the team more than the Thunder's first round series against the Houston Rockets when Russell Westbrook fell to injury in game two and would be lost for the rest of the playoffs. Once Westbrook got sidelines, everything started to fall apart for the Thunder as they lost the confident swagger and leadership that Westbrook provided and the team simply fell apart after that. The Thunder blew a three games to none lead losing the next two games to Houston and managed to barely scrape past the Rockets in game six to advance in the second round. Upon advancing, the Thunder simply got outplayed and outclassed by the fifth seeded Memphis Grizzlies as OKC no longer had the spark that Westbrook provided on both ends of the court subsequently losing the series in five games. It was such a shame to see such a team that was so very dominant during the regular season become a shadow of its former self because of the absence of one sole player. If Westbrook were to have remained in the lineup during the playoff, the outcome would certainly been different as the Thunder would have certainly been more than a match for the Grizzlies. They probably would have far better opponent for the San Antonio Spurs than the Grizzlies were in the Western Conference Finals, for sure; however, that is all speculation as the Thunder spend the off season licking their wounds as the team waits to avenge their past humiliation at the hands of a lesser team. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)