2012 NBA Allstar Game

So the 2012 NBA Allstar weekend is approaching us. This will give teams a few days to set themselves end of season goals and more importantly most players a few nights of well earned rest. I realise I have not written a blog post in a long time, even though I have said before that I would try and post more regularly. Here is a post nonetheless.

Where the 2012 Allstar Game will be held

Miami (23-7) were tipped by many to go one step further than last year and win the Championship and although they have had a few minor blips and numerous injuries they are half a game back of the Bulls (24-7) a top the East. LeBron James is on the way to what could be another MVP trophy but this time he looks like taking his team to glory as well. The aging Celtics seem to have run out of steam and sit 7^th in the East, although they are still on course to make the play-offs they have had a very back and forth season and their age is starting to show. Languishing nearer the bottom of the East are the Raptors (those of you who have read these before will know that is who I support) and with a pretty poor record of 9-22 they have looked much improved since the addition of new head coach Dwane Casey. Finally in the East a Charlotte side that nobody predicted to do well are still turning out despite having lost 16 straight and have only picked up 3 wins along the way.

Over in the Western Conference the OKC Thunder (22-7) is leading the pack into the Allstar break. While below them there has been a lot of jockeying for position. The San Antonio Spurs (21-9) are on a 9 game winning streak and have got themselves up to 2^nd. Last year’s Champions Dallas (19-11) are in 4^th place and are splitting the two L.A sides with the upstart Clippers in 3^rd and Kobe’s unpredictable Lakers’ 2 spots below. Although they are only 5 games back of the number 1 seed, this Lakers’ side have not been anywhere near that of the last few years. As before they could get help from other players it seems this year they are 100% relying on Bryant to get the W’s. Veteran PG 2 time MVP, Allstar, future hall of famer Steve Nash has been having another brilliant season. Leading the league in assists and the only man averaging above 10 has been selected for the Allstar game as a reserve. Although many disputed this due to Phoenix’s poor record 12-18 there is no doubt in my mind that he deserves to be on that team this year.

From this position I predict that Miami will win the Championship overcoming Oklahoma City in the Finals. It was only a matter of time until LeBron won a ring and only a shorter matter of time that it would be going with him to South Beach.

I suppose I should write about the Allstar Game as that is the title of the post. Rose, Wade, Antony, James and Howard will start for the East. They are best 5 players of their positions in the East so it only makes sense. For the West, Paul, Bryant, Durant, Griffin and Bynum will look to try to put on a show in Orlando. Many people could have probably predicted those 10 players would be starting the game when the ballots first opened up. With Paul and Griffin representing the Clippers Lob City will be moving to Florida on 26^th February. The West came out on top 148-143 with Kobe Bryant taking the MVP for the night.

In the other events on Allstar Weekend, James Jones will be looking to defend his 3 point title against Kevin Love and Joe Johnson most notably. Blake Griffin will not be coming back for another go at the Slam Dunk challenge, instead T-Wolves rookie Derrick Williams, Pacers Paul George, New York rookie Iman Shumpert and Rockets forward Chase Budinger will be looking to light up the Amway Centre.

It promises to be a brilliant weekend and run in to the play offs that could end up anywhere. There will be another post after the Allstar game to round up the ins and outs.

ESPN's NBA Rankings Part 2

Wade and James in a Miami Heat game

Two-time reigning scoring champion Kevin Durant was ranked at #6 with a rating of 9.62. Durant can be a little aggrieved with this spot due to his crazy scoring ability and out-right skill, fair enough the guy might not be able to play defense as well as Bryant but he isn't in the team on his defensive merits. People may argue that Durant deserves the #1 spot or at least #2 but for now he will have to make do with #6, maybe another scoring title can get him to the heady heights of #5 next time.

At #5 is a player many though would be occupying the #2 or #3 slot, me included. 2011 NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki took his Dallas team all the way to a championship last year with an above average backing crew. Nowitzki swept the Lakers, beat Durant and his team of upstarts, then shut down Miami's big three (2 of which we are yet to see). If this doesn't give reason for a player to be at #2 at least then I am not entirely sure what does. He averaged 23 PPG at over 50% shooting and has an unstoppable one-legged fade-away.

#4 is an awful choice, don't get me wrong Chris Paul is a premier player but he is not better than the 3 maybe 4 previous players mentioned. When Paul is healthy he can win games single-handedly but the players previously can do that and with more success. Paul has never made the Conference Finals and has always had a relatively good team to do it with. His argument for 4th cannot be sustained unless the Hornets make the West Finals at a minimum.

The remaining 3 players could all have possibly tied for first place. Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard and LeBron James. Wade was ranked 3rd with a rating of 9.72. There can be no argument to say that these 3 players are not the 3 most dominant players in the NBA. People will say, Howard cannot shoot FT's, Wade cannot shoot the 3 as well as many would like and of course LeBron James doesn't turn up in the 4th Quarter (or any derivative of that) but that does not take away the fact that all average over 22 PPG and all above 5 PG in another category with LeBron averaging 26, 7 and 7.

James is a player who received a lot of hate for moving to Miami and people love to hate him, but love him or hate him he is the best player in the league and will be for the next 3-4 years.

ESPN's NBA Rankings Part 1

ESPN asked 91 experts to rate each player on a 0-to-10 scale, in terms of the current quality of each player and over the past month they have been releasing the results from 500-1.

Unfortunately bringing up the rear in 500th place was PF Lovay Allen who was drafted in this years draft at a fairly respectable 50 by the 76ers. Allen was given a dreadful rating of 1.22/10 which must be close to my rating. The worrying thing as a Raptors fan was that 3 players were ranked in the 401-500 bracket with our highest ranked player Andrea Bargnani coming in at 81, which is harsh in my opinion.

On October 7th the rankings broke into the Top 50 and this is when it started becoming contentious. One of my biggest issues with these early Top 50 rankings was that Steph Curry was ranked 3, yes a whole 3 places above his Golden State team-mate Monta Ellis. Ellis averages more points, rebounds and assists than Curry and the big argument as to why Ellis was ranked so low was his FG% which is only .29 worse than Curry. Ellis can change and win games on his own but I'm not sure I could say the same about Curry.

Kobe Bryant

The main reason I am writing this is to talk about the Top 10, 15 players and their spots.

Blake Griffin came in at #10 he was undoubtedly the Rookie of the Year but to place him higher than Carmelo Anthony #12 and Amare Stoudemire #13 is purely due to him being over-hyped. He is not better than either of them, full stop.

Number 14, Steve Nash, shoe-in Hall of Famer, one of the best PG's ever ranked 5 spots lower than Deron Williams who has been majorly over-rated in my opinion. Nash lead the league in assists, made 90% of his FT's and lead his pretty awful Suns 6 games away from the West playoffs, on the flip-side Williams was traded to New Jersey from Utah both of whose teams finished with a worse record and with arguably better rosters.

Number 8 was a brilliant choice. Derrick Rose, reigning MVP due to his performance last season, yet after thinking the 7 players ahead of him are all better than him and the 492 players behind him are worse. After taking the Bulls to the East Finals and averaging 25 PPG and 7.7 APG he deserved MVP, he may not win it again but he will not be seen as the 8th best player in the league for much longer.

Wherever Kobe Bryant was ranked unless it was the #1 slot, there would be controversy. If you haven't guessed by now he came in a #7. Maybe he deserved #6 but anything higher wouldn't be correct. On the simple logic that the players ahead of him are better. If this were any season before this up until about 7-8 years ago he would have been 1,2,3 or 4 but he is ageing and players like Rose and #6 Kevin Durant are peaking. There is no doubt that he is an amazing player who has achieved amazing feats over his career and he will be remembered for winning Championships and not being ranked 7th on ESPN's Rankings.

The remaining players which I have written about will be posted on Friday.