Playoff Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

1.    L.A. Land:    The Lakers impressively dispatched the Spurs to make their first NBA Finals since they lost to the Pistons in 2003-04.  It’s hard to figure why the Lakers were able to excel this entire series, winning easily in two games and erasing big Spurs leads in the other games.  In the end, the Spurs had no answer for Kobe Bryant and couldn’t muster enough points to stave off the inevitable Laker runs. 

Going forward, no matter who wins in the East, we will have a historical rematch in the NBA Finals with the Celtics (a Lakers Finals nemeisis in the 1960s and the 1980s) or the Pistons (the Laker rival in the late 1980s and again back in 2003-04).  This got me wondering, what are the the most frequent NBA Finals match ups?  We know that teams generally have extended runs, so we’ve seen plenty of rematches but here is the current list recurring Finalists:  Continue reading Playoff Thoughts…

Early Mock Draft

by Ed Weiland

The 2008 draft could be called 2007 light. There are 2 players, Rose and Beasley, who are clearly above the rest. They’re not quite at the level Oden and Durant were last year, but they’re clearly the top 2 players  and there should be some spirited debate over who goes #1 and #2 during the days leading up to the draft. Like Oden and Durant did for Portland and Seattle last year, Rose and Beasley make Chicago and Miami the big winners in this draft. Also like 2007, this draft class has good depth after the top 2. The next tier of players is deep, but not nearly as deep as the 2007 class, which featured some likely future all-stars and some good players drafted in round two. That doesn’t mean this is a weak draft though. The problem for teams drafting from #3 on will be figuring out who those other impact players are. A strong case could be made for about 25 different players being good prospects, most of them being freshmen and sophomores. The thing is only 5-10 of these players will amount to anything substantial as pros. Because the draft is on the deep side prospect-wise, teams with multiple picks in the top 40 like Seattle, Memphis, Minnesota, New Jersey and Portland are all in a position to do well for themselves. Continue reading Early Mock Draft…

Transactions 5/1-5/16

by Harlan Schreiber

Dallas Mavericks 

5/14    Name Rick Carlisle head coach 

Let’s see…so the Mavs get rid of their old coach because they thought he was too controlling on the offensive sets and restricted Jason Kidd, only focused on defense, and grated on the players.  So of course Rick Carlisle is the perfect replacement!  Carlisle, though a very sharp guy, has really put a premium on controlled offense, similar to Avery Johnson, and supposedly teed off people in Detroit.  Granted, if Carlisle is a clone of Avery this isn’t necessarily such a bad a thing.  Avery won plenty of games with the style.  Hell, the Nets weren’t exactly a running team with Kidd, so maybe there isn’t a reason to run.  Still, the spin here is that Carlisle offers something different and I’m not sure that this is actually the case.  Carlisle conceded that he grinded out in Detroit (2001-2003) and Indiana (2003-2007) but contends that this was a function of his personnel and urged people to look at his time as Larry Bird’s top offensive assistant form 1997-2000 in Indiana.  Well let’s check out Carlisle’s total body of work and see.  Here are all the Carlisle coached teams (including his time with Bird from 1997-2000) and how the teams ranked in points per possession, points allowed per possession, and pace ranking: Continue reading Transactions 5/1-5/16…

Playoff Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

1.    More Home Stuff:    Last night, the Celts, were again beaten on the road to drop their road record 0-6 in the playoffs.  We reviewed this a bit last time but I wondered how unique this playoff’s home dominance was.  Fortunately (for me), John Hollinger was kind enough to beat us to the research punch, letting us know in a great article today that home playoff teams won 65% of second round games in the 2000s.  This year the home teams are winning at a 95% rate (until the Lakers beat the Jazz last night).  Okay, so we’re watching a bit of an anomaly this year.  But has a team ever won a title without winning home games?  Let’s take a look: Continue reading Playoff Thoughts…

Playoff Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

1.    Homing In:    After the Cavs win tonight in Cleveland, home teams have now one every game this round, with the exception of Orlando’s loss at home in Game 4 against the Pistons (even this was a one-point loss).  This trend of home winning raises some interesting questions. The most obvious questions: Are the lower seeds ultimately doomed in round two?  Is this home winning trend a historical anomaly?  Let’s start look at each series and see if we can answer these questions and others that pop up: Continue reading Playoff Thoughts…

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