1. More Age Limits?: This has been one the more exciting NBA regular seasons that we can remember but back stage things there may have been some interesting changes being proposed on an administrative level. Just a few days ago, David Stern and NCAA president Myles Brand were talking about requiring basketball players to stay in college (or just out of the NBA) until two years after high school graduation. Obviously, the NCAA has every financial interest in keeping players in college as long as possible. The NBA, for its part, probably wants to avoid a reputation as cradle robbers, though Stern has been very astute and kept the matter as strictly an issue of NBA teams being able to have enough information in drafting players (i.e. evaluating a player on an established body of work against a high level of competition). Stern noted that: “[w]e had, in fact, proposed two years the last time but settled for what we thought was gettable at that time [which was a one-year restriction]. I have no doubt that it is very good for the NBA to get a chance to see players develop, see them get collegiate-level coaching, see them play against collegiate-level competition, have them spend the year in college and ultimately see them deal with the pressure of the NCAA tournament or even the Final Four. … That year in college will cause NBA teams to have different judgments with respect to particular players. And that’s good because draft choices are very valuable things.”
Transactions: 3/1-4/3
Atlanta Hawks
3/10 Sign Jeremy Richardson for the remainder of the season
Outside of his first two games back in Atlanta, Richardson has mostly sat on the bench for the Hawks. He did show enough, however, to be the token last guy off the pine, which is actually a very valuable reward for a player of his ilk.
Philly Phlying: Refusing to Tank?
One of the bigger potential ironies of this season is that the Philadelphia 76ers look like a pretty solid playoff team whereas the Denver Nuggets, who took Allen Iverson from Philly because the Sixers were mired in the lottery, are likely going to miss the playoffs. Of course, that’s a bit of a superficial observation as ironies go. The Nuggets are significantly better team than Philly but the Sixers have the fortune in being a far less deep conference. Still, Philly’s run has been impressive. They continue to beat their competitors for the lower seeds on a regular basis and they have many impressive wins over good teams (San Antonio, Phoenix on the road, and last night against Boston) Contrary to what many (including myself) believed, the Sixers have not tapered off at all but in fact have played better and better as the season has progressed.
NCAA Tourney Preview
Last season when I did the tournament preview, one of the theories I suggested for picking the winner was to look for a team with a strong point guard. The idea being that a good PG is the most essential player to NCAA tournament success. Last year things didn’t turn out that way, as a team without a true PG won their 2nd title in-a-row. After actually researching this theory, I discovered I couldn’t have been more wrong. Not that it’s better to have a bad PG, but teams with strong frontcourts have traditionally been a little better at advancing to the final four.
It’s really hard to explain and contextualize this amazing Rocket run. The Rockets are a good team and have been in the 50-win range for the last few years but this 22-game winning streak makes no sense. As we noted last season, almost any team that ever strung together an 18-game winning streak won a title. In fact, before 2006-07, only one team with at least a 16-game winning streak didn’t make it to the conference finals (the Mavs and Suns proceeded to get bounced in the first and second round respectively). Houston is a good team but they do not seem to fit in the company of all these other winners. The Rockets have one star with T-Mac (and two if Yao Ming was still healthy) and some depth but this is not the roster that you’d associate with a title contender. This raises all sorts of questions that I’d thought we’d take a little close at this streak and see if we learn anything deeper:
Is this streak a fluke?
Quick Thoughts
1. Trade Progress Report: The recent trades of Pau Gasol, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jason Kidd have all been pretty well examined and re-examined to date but I thought we could take a look a little closer and see what else the trades have yielded to date and beyond:
–Pau Gasol: This trade was obviously was a no-brainer for the Lakers. They were willing to spend the cash and they got a huge asset, without giving up anything. Since the deal, the Lakers are 14-3. Even more impressive, the Gasol Lakers are outscoring opponents at a +12.2 ppg clip, well above the team’s +7.5 ppg margin for the season as a whole (and even atop Boston’s season point margin of +10.4 ppg). While the Lakers 17-game stretch with Gasol hasn’t been it’s toughest, they were on the road most of the time (11 of the 17 games on the road). Clearly, the Lakers look as likely as any team to win the title at this point.