Hello,
First of all what I want to say is thank goodness the Jazz didn't make the playoffs. What good would it be for the Jazz to get swept by the Thunder? That's especially when so many Jazz players are going to be playing elsewhere next season? The Jazz will have up to 10 free agents, of all those players I can live without all of them. It's time for the no defense Al Jefferson to find a new home. I thought Paul Milsap was a great player for a long time, but if he leaves it won't be a big deal. I hope that someone from the Jazz drives Mo Williams to the airport asap, the Jazz are desperately in need of a real point guard next year.
The Jazz will welcome back Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward. I'm excited by the first two, but I'm not fully on board with Hayward yet. He's just too slight of frame to be as effective around the basket as he should be. Also the Jazz terribly mishandled going to a youth movement about 2/3rds of the way through the season. I wished they would have dumped either Jefferson or Milsap before the trade deadline.
Now the Jazz are probably the most conservative team in the NBA, so I expect Tyrone Corbin to be back as Jazz coach. Although with many new players coming in, I'm not sure it would be a good idea bringing him back.
The other bad thing about the Jazz this season was how boring they were. It was hard to watch a game with their ponderous offense. Passing to the black hole and standing around while waiting for him to shoot isn't that exciting. Can the Jazz also develop some semblance of a 3 point shooting offense? The Jazz seem to forget that they can shoot 3 pointers until another team rains a bunch on them.
The Jazz now have two first round picks, I hope they pick at least one point guard. They desperately need a point guard after having William, Jamaal Tinsley and Earl Watson. My favorite Jazz point guard this season was Alec Burks, who's not a traditional point guard. Burks was mostly wasted this season as the Jazz and Corbin didn't fully embrace a youth movement when they should have. This will come back to hurt the Jazz. All those young studs could have got valuable experience and been a hell of a lot more fun to watch.
Meanwhile the Lakers closed the season on a 5 game winning streak and somehow ended up with the 7th seed in the playoffs. I look forward to seeing the Spurs completely dismantle the Lakers in the first round. Anybody who thinks the Lakers have a chance in this series are either crazy or a Laker. I loved Dwight Howard, who was going to put it all on the floor last night, was so uninspiring yesterday. He shot 40% from both the free throw line and the field. That's 40% from the field when he usually shoots within 3 feet of the basket and against red faced Omer Asik. Maybe instead of leaving it on the floor, he should leave a few in the basket.
Although the Nuggets are the Western Conference's 3rd seeded team you wouldn't know it by the national press. If you thought the Lakers was the West's 3rd seed I'd understand. The Lakers have that prime Sunday afternoon spot for their first playoff game. And let's be honest that has nothing to do with the Spurs. It's because David Stern and the NBA are in love with the Lakers. I see the Spurs winning this series in 5.
ESPN had a poll asking who people thought would win the NBA Championship. For those 16% who voted for the Knicks you are completely idiotic. This Knicks team who depends so much on Carmelo Anthony and his .449 field goal percentage is going to beat the Miami Heat? Really? Next to saying either Jerry Jones or James Dolan is the best owner in all of professional sports, that might be the next dumbest thing to say.
Thanks to Johnette Howard at espn.com, here's some of the most interesting stats from her article about Anthony. Here's the link to read her full excellent story.:
http://espn.go.com/newyork/nba/story/_/id/9185836/2013-nba-playoffs-carmelo-anthony-tortured-playoff-history
Some of the highlights of Howard's article. She mentions Tom Van Riper's article at Forbes magazine naming Anthony the NBA's most overpaid player. I always thought it was him or Dwight Howard, I'm glad there are stats that back up these thoughts.
From Howard's article here are some other random Knicks/Anthony stats:
1) The Knicks have one playoff win in 11 years, they somehow won a game against the Heat last season. The Heat are like a cat that sometimes gets bored playing with the mouse and sometimes they lose interest.
2) As a player Carmelo Anthony is 17-37 in the playoffs. (He's the NBA's version of Tony Romo, other than Anthony at least gets his teams to the playoffs.)
3) Carmelo Anthony's teams have gone to the playoffs 9 times, but have only got past the first round once.
4) The Bulls are 4-0 against the Knicks this season, the Knicks playoff opponents will probably follow the Bulls' blueprint.
Don't get me wrong I still expect the Knicks to beat Boston in the first round of the playoffs. However it wouldn't completely surprise me if the Celtics win that series, especially if they steal the first game. The Knicks may even stumble to the Eastern Conference Finals with the East being so depleted and weak. Miami against Milwaukee in the first round is practically a bye for the Heat.
Meanwhile the Knicks will be in a dogfight with a hungry, experienced Celtics team playing for themselves and the whole city of Boston.
Just a side note Anthony took 56 more shots than Kevin Durrant, but scored 360 points less. When Anthony is your team's best player, there's a certain point you'll never reach.
The Heat will be the team to come out of the Eastern Conference and go to the NBA Finals. In the Western Conference it's going to either be the Spurs or the Thunder. We may have a NBA Finals rematch.
themusicaddict
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