Playoff Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

Round One is under way and here are quick thoughts on the series so far: 

-Cavs/Bulls:  This series is basically over after LeBeron James tossed around the Bulls to take a 3-1 lead.  Even still, from the Bulls’ perspective, the series hasn’t been too bad.  Sure they have no shot of winning but they have played respectably for the most part and have gotten the one token win to build on for next year.  It appears that Vinny Del Negro is going to be fired because of internal issues (questions on his play calling and, more importantly, clashes with John Paxson).  It’s hard to make judgments on internal issues we are not privy to but based purely on his record on the court, he has been a solid enough coach. 

-Magic/Bobcats:  Like the Bulls, the Bobcats have been relatively competitive in their series against the heavily favored opponents.  Unlike the Bulls, they haven’t gotten a win yet.  Charlotte has been so good at home, they should be able to at least avoid the sweep.  The only reason this might not happen is because of the Bobcats’ main weakness (scoring) coincides nicely (or not so nicely depending upon your rooting interest) with Orlando’s strength (tough defense).  In the three games so far this series, Charlotte has an anemic 84 ppg and has not broken 90 points in a game yet (notably, Boris Diaw is averaging 40 mpg and has only 5.7 ppg).  Continue reading Playoff Thoughts…

NBA Playoffs Preview: Western Conference

by Harlan Schreiber

In terms of possible playoff outcomes, the Western Conference is much more unsettled, and much more interesting, than the East.  While the Lakers are the defending champs and the team with the best record out West, things are very tight and basically any team has a shot of winning in the first round.  Before we get to the match ups, here’s a few fun facts: 

-The spread between the Lakers as the one seed and Oklahoma City at the eight seed is only seven games.  This is quite rare.  We went back to look at the typical spread in wins between one and eight in each conference since the expanded playoff format came into effect in 1983-84.  Here are the year-by-year spreads by conference: Continue reading NBA Playoffs Preview: Western Conference…

NBA Playoffs Preview: Eastern Conference

by Harlan Schreiber

After slogging through one of the least suspenseful seasons in a long while, playoff time is finally here.  As thankful as we are that the regular season is done, the playoffs are fairly intriguing.  In the East, we’re all waiting for the outcome of Cavs-Magic, while out West it’s not clear what’s going to happen.  Let’s jump in with our annual playoff preview.  Today we’ll start in the East: 

1.    Cavaliers v. Bulls:   The interesting story coming into the series is the state of the Bulls.  Yes, it’s nice that they were able to rally to a playoff spot (thanks to Chris Bosh’s broken face).  But there is still an overall sense of chaos with the Bulls.  After all of Chicago’s changes the last few years, they are essentially the team they were before.  They dumped defensive whiz Scott Skiles in hopes of having a more balanced team.  They let Ben Gordon go and replaced him with Jannero Pargo.  The end result?  A 41-41 record and a team with a bad offensive efficiency (27th in the NBA) and a solid defense (11th).  Then you throw in the Vinny Del Negro-John Paxson rumored altercation and you wonder why Paxson hired Del Negro to begin with, considering that there have been apparently internal murmurs questioning Del Negro’s coaching ability since day one.     Continue reading NBA Playoffs Preview: Eastern Conference…

NBA Draft 2010: Post-Tournament Update

by Ed Weiland

This will be the last update until I do the draft previews. I doubt things will change much, but I’ll go much deeper with the analysis in those. Right now I’m just skimming the stats. Not a whole lot has changed in the past month. There are still 4 players who stand above the crowd. After that there are about 6 players who look like they’ll be decent rotation players. Finally there are about 15-20 who offer enough intrigue and potential that they’d be a worthwhile pick after about #20. That says the draft is thin after the top 10 and there is going to be some reaching. This follows 3 deep drafts, meaning some scouting time and resources should be spent looking at players who may have fallen through the cracks during the last few drafts. I doubt we’ll see as many 2^nd round and undrafted surprises from this draft because it is so shallow. Forwards remain the strength of this draft, with the SFs being a particularly deep group. These rankings are based on everything else being equal, as always. That basically means the question I’m asking when ranking these players is: Which player would I select if I were starting an NBA team? Continue reading NBA Draft 2010: Post-Tournament Update…

The DJ FAQ

by Harlan Schreiber

This article was originally written in February 2007, right after Dennis Johnson passed away.  It examined his career and Hall of Fame prospects.  I was lukewarm on DJ as a Hall of Famer but have since embraced the idea, less because I think Johnson was better than I remembered and more because I frankly think a larger Hall of Fame is better policy.  In any event, here’s a look at the DJ, an interesting person and a very good player… 

Unfortunately, the impetus to look back at player’s career usually comes at a final point, retirement or death.  In the case of Dennis Johnson, his untimely passing has inspired plenty of writers to eulogize a great NBA player.  I thought I’d look back at his career and hopefully find a few more nuggets of information that haven’t been touched upon yet. 

Continue reading The DJ FAQ…

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