May 21st, 2007

Top 30 Players in the NBA this season

 

1. Kobe Bryant – Best offensive player, dominant on defense, will take over. HS
2. Dwyane Wade – Terrific player, takes over games at an extraordinary pace. HS
3. Tim Duncan – Dominant everywhere, always deep in the playoffs. HS
4. Steve Nash – Great playmaker, and extremly efficent on offense. SS
5. Tracy Mcgrady – Still great offensively, and can be dominant defensively. SS
6. Kevin Garnett – Great at everything, still can go for 20/10/5 a night. SS
7. Jason Kidd – Still puts up triple doubles routinely. SS
8. Allen Iverson – Who can stop this man? And he gets his teammates involved too. SS
9. Carmelo Anthony – Maybe the best pure scorer in the game. SS
10. Yao Ming – 25/10 everynight now, great production. SS
11. Gilbert Arenas – Prolific scorer who takes and makes big shots. SS
12. Baron Davis – Clutch, tough, underrated. 25/8 guy when healthy. SS
13. Lebron James – Hed be higher, but he doesnt take over games enough. SS
14. Deron Williams – In 3 years could be in the top 5 on this list. SS
15. Paul Pierce – Seems to be forgotten, but still puts up 25 and 7 a night. SS
16. Amare Stoudemire – Terrific scorer, will only get better. SS
17. Chauncy Billups – CLUTCH city, and damn good point guard. SS
18. Gerlald Wallace – Most underrated player in the NBA. AS
19. Josh Howard – He’s the real best player on the Mavs. AS
20. Vince Carter – Puts up 25 points but disapeared in the playoffs. AS
21. Elton Brand – 20 and 10 is a solid bet for EB everynight. AS
22. Chris Paul – Injured this year, still is a great player. AS
23. Chris Bosh – Is now a very solid 20 and 10 guy for Toronto. AS
24. Dirk Nowitzki – MVP? Hell no. But he is still a great shooter and puts up 25 a night. AS
25. Shawn Marion – Does everything, defense, rebounding, scoring. AS
26. Luol Deng – Emerging as a great player, 20 points with very good D. AS
27. Andre Iguodala – Now a legitimate scorer to go along with the defence. AS
28. Marcus Camby – DPOF, that despite 11 points a game gets you in the top 30. AS
29. Manu Ginobli – Can create going to the rim better than alomst anyone. AS
30. Shaquille O’Neal – Still puts up 18 and 9, and creates open shots for everyone. AS

 

HS – Historical Star, someone you’ll be talking about 30 years from now.
SS – Super Star, a guy who can lead your team to the promise land.
AS – All Star – A great number 2 guy, but might not lead you to championship
glory as a number 1 option.

May 5th, 2007

Round 2 Playoff Predictions

Pistons vs Bulls

Bulls lost game one today but they will still contend with the
Bulls. Luol Deng proved himself as the go to guy they needed
in the Miami series which is what they needed to be a serious
contender. But the Pistons are still really really good, and have
a slew of good big men in Rasheed, Webber, Mcdyess, and
Davis to go along with Prince, Hamilton, and Billups that is
one of the best rosters in the NBA. Pistons will win this in 7,
but Chicago will give them a scare. I expect Chicago to win
game 2 in Detroit.

Cavaliers vs Nets

The Cavaliers had trouble vs the injury depleted Wizards,
and did not play that well, despite sweeping the Wizards,
the games were really close. I think there play will pick
up though once they face the Nets, a team that is
signifigantly better than the Wizards, since now the Cavs
know they cant play there C game and still win. The
Nets looked good in the Tornoto series, and played
much better than I thought they would and Kidd really
carried them and played great, and they played good D.
But the Raptors were obviously very very rattled from the
playoff pressure, shooting terribly, and Chris Bosh
admitting that he was extremly nervous in his first playoff
series. The Cavaliers won’t be nervous, Lebron, Hughes,
Ilgauskas, and company have been there before, and will
beat the Nets 4-2.

Suns vs Spurs

The Spurs are playing extremly well, and beat the Nuggets
4-1, who is a better team than the Lakers who the Suns
beat 4-1. But the Suns have the best offense in the league,
underrated defense, not a great defense by any means, but
Raja Bell can get the key stop on a player like Ginobli in the
final moments of a game to close it out, which the Suns have
need to win. The Suns will win this series in 6 games, maybe
7, and even if they don’t completely control the tempo, I still
see Nash and Stoudemire doing enough damage to beat the
Spurs anyway. That pick and roll can’t be stopped, Nash can
score and create off the dribble wonderfully, and that will
create open 3 pointers for Bell, Marion, and Barbosa even in
a half-court offense. The Spurs are a great team year in and
year out, but this year the Suns are just a little better I think.

Warriors vs Rockets/Jazz

The Warriors pulled off one of the greatest feats in sports
history, and I expect them to keep it up. The Rockets are
horribly matched up with the Warriors, just too too slow to
keep up with the frentic pace and I see that series being
won by the Warriors in 5, maybe 6 games. The Jazz series
would be a lot tougher, the Jazz won’t be run on like the
Rockets, but the Warriors have become a very good
swarming defensive team, and contrary to what I thought
were a good defensive team in the regular season. Once
they got rid of the stiffs Dunleavy and Murphy,and
imported the toughness of Stephen Jackson, along with
Al Harrington they took off. There defense over the last
17 games there opponents field goal percentage was .453,
which would put them tenth in field goal defence over a full
season, and over the last ten games it was .439, good for
3rd. Thats some good defence, along with the terrific
offense they have, which would lead them to a 4-2 series
win over the Jazz. And who can stop Baron Davis?