Mavericks Vs. Thunder: The Matchups

At SB Nation Dallas, an in-depth preview of the matchups in the Dallas/Oklahoma City first round series:

In breaking down an NBA playoff series, you can throw away the storylines and you can throw away how each team has performed against the other 28 NBA teams. All basketball games begin with the matchups, and understanding a series starts with breaking down whose guarding whom. 

In last year's Western Conference Finals between these two teams, Dallas exploited the poor jump-shooting ability of three of Oklahoma City's starters. The Mavericks packed in their defense and dared Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha to beat them from the perimeter. The story of the series was the Thunder's inability to score with a traditional line-up, as they continually dug themselves huge early deficits. 

This year, Chandler is gone and Harden has assumed a much larger role in the offense. However, Dallas still has many of the other match-up advantages they had in 2011, which is why their first-round series should be a lot more competitive than the regular season records might indicate.

NBA First-Round Playoff Preview

At RealGM, ranking the entertainment value of the eight first-round series as well as some preliminary predictions:

1.) Memphis vs. LA Clippers 

The most intriguing first round series features a Memphis team with the talent to knock off anyone in the West and the first playoff appearance of “Lob City”. The Grizzlies will try to pound the ball inside to Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, while the Clippers will try to attack them on pick-and-rolls. Blake Griffin, meanwhile, is almost guaranteed to take someone’s dignity at the front of the rim. 

The key match-up: Los Angeles will run its offense through Chris Paul in the fourth quarter, while Memphis will counter with Tony Allen, one of the NBA’s premier perimeter defenders. The undersized Paul scores most of his points through guile and skill; he’ll need every bit to score over the top of Allen’s 6’9 wingspan. 

The prediction: Memphis in 6

David Stern's Vindication In New Orleans

At RealGM, looking back at David Stern's infamous veto five months later and why he's been proven correct:

However, his reasoning for vetoing the trade was sound, and five months later, it’s extremely hard to argue the Hornets would have been better off taking the package from the Houston Rockets and the Lakers instead of what they eventually received from the Los Angeles Clippers. In the original deal, New Orleans would have received Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic and Lamar Odom for Paul. 

A New Orleans Hornets team with that declining trio as well as Emeka Okafor and Jarrett Jack wouldn’t have even made the playoffs. They would have taken the Rockets place on the mediocrity treadmill: not good enough to contend in the playoffs, not bad enough to get a high draft pick. Houston, currently in line to get the No. 13 pick in the 2012 draft, had the No. 14 in 2011 and 2010. 

Instead, the Hornets now have two lottery picks in the 2012 draft, their own as well as the Minnesota Timberwolves, which they received from the Clippers. They also have Eric Gordon, who after missing most of the season with a knee injury, has bounced back in the last few weeks to show why he’s considered one of the top young shooting guards in the NBA. In nine games with New Orleans, the 23-year-old Gordon is averaging 20.6 points, 3.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds on 45% shooting.

2011-2012 NBA Awards

 

At RealGM, a look at how I would vote for the NBA's major regular-season awards:

MVP: LeBron James, Miami

Last season, I thought Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose and Dirk Nowitzki were the league’s three more valuable players. This year, Howard repeatedly wavered back and forth on trade demandsbefore being sidelined after back surgery, Rose missed almost two months to injury and Nowitzki showed up out of shape before taking time off to improve his conditioning. 

With none of the top teams this season similarly dependent on one player, the MVP award should go to LeBron, the best player in the NBA by a significant margin. There are no holes in his game: he’s a 6’9, 275 monster who averages 27 points on 53% shooting, defends all five positions and has 6.3 assists on 3.4 turnovers. It’s rather preposterous how good he is.

The Utah Jazz Roster Brilliance

 

At RealGM, a look at why Utah Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor deserves the Executive of the Year Award:

Houston GM Daryl Morey has become a cult figure in the NBA blogosphere, but it’s Utah GM Kevin O’Connor who has been running rings around most of the league. He should be the NBA’s Executive of the Year, as the Jazz will be reaping the fruits of his decisions for years to come. 

The only way for a small-market team to build a championship contender is through the draft, which is why tanking has become increasingly popular. But because O’Connor sold high when he had an unhappy superstar, he was able to get two high lottery picks without needing to blow up the rest of the team. 

The Jazz acquired two high-upside 6’10+ players (Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors) without the losing teams typically need to do so, which has given them the luxury of bringing both young big men along slowly. Utah has two parallel cores in place: a veteran group led by Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and Devin Harris and a nucleus of four under-22 lottery picks.

The Playoff Matchups Out West

At RealGM, a look at why the Grizzlies and the Lakers size should scare the top two teams in the West:

What makes the playoffs different are your opponents. How a team performs against the other 29 teams can only tell us so much about how they will perform against the personnel of another excellent team in a seven-game series. The name of the game is matchups, which is why the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers should scare both of the favored teams out West.

Both teams have size and scoring ability in their frontcourt, with two players capable of running offense from the low-post. Memphis has the 7’1, 260 Marc Gasol and the 6’9, 265 Zach Randolph; Los Angeles has the 7’1 275 Andrew Bynum and the 7’0 250 Pau Gasol.

While low post scoring is the easiest way to generate offense in basketball, it’s just as valuable in terms of how you can dictate your opponent’s lineups. Small-ball lineups won’t work against Memphis or the Lakers, which makes a good portion of San Antonio and Oklahoma City’s regular season success meaningless.

Andrew Bynum's Time To Shine

At RealGM, a look at why it's time the Lakers became Andrew Bynum's team:

Bynum has drawn more headlines for his often immature behavior this season, but the real story is his production on the court. He’s averaging 18.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks on 56.4% shooting; his PER (23.0) is at an all-time high. It’s time the Lakers became his team, and the more Kobe Bryant resists, the uglier the situation is going to become. 

Bynum is 7’0, 285. He has a 7’6 wingspan, big and soft hands, excellent footwork in the low block as well as a free throw shooting percentage of 68%. Individual defense is ultimately about being bigger, faster and longer than your opponent; there isn’t a player in the NBA who is bigger, faster and longer than Bynum. 

It’s no real surprise he’s been passive-aggressively rebelling by jacking up three pointers and ignoring the coaching staff. As a big man, there’s nothing more frustrating than working to establish position in the low block and then watching your guards jack up shot after shot after shot. This season, Kobe is averaging 23 shots and shooting 43% from the floor; Bynum is at 12 while shooting 56%.

No NBA Coach Is Irreplaceable

At RealGM, a look at the Stan Van Gundy soap opera and how replaceable NBA coaches are:

There aren’t many athletic 6’10, 250+ human beings in the world; there are easily hundreds of people capable of running an NBA team. Kevin McHale, a former player who had only previously served as an interim head coach, has done an excellent job with the Houston Rockets. Erik Spoelstra, a former video intern with no previous head coaching experience until he was hired in 08-09, has been widely praised for his work with the Miami Heat. 

If Van Gundy is tired of handling the egos of NBA stars, it’s time he joined his brother in the broadcasting booth. NBA coaches operate at the mercy of their players, and while it would be nice if every star player was as professional as Tim Duncan, it isn’t all that important to winning. Over the course of his career, there were few players as unprofessional as Shaq, and he will go down in history as one of the ten greatest players of all-time. 

Orlando will have to fire Van Gundy at some point, but it won’t make much of an impact on their fortunes going forward. Their real problem lies in a series of mistakes their front office made in building a team around Howard, and as long as Otis Smith is still in charge of personnel, coaching changes are little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The Long-Term Future Of The Thunder

 

At RealGM, a look at the problems Oklahoma City will have in keeping their young talent together:

With the development of Serge Ibaka and James Harden to go along with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Oklahoma City Thunder have become one of the best teams in the NBA. The bad news? They’re not going to be able to pay all of them. 

The new CBA, with its punitive luxury tax penalties, is designed precisely to ensure that teams can’t afford to pay four players near maximum salaries. Leaving aside whether it’s actually in the best interests of the NBA to break up the Thunder, that leaves Oklahoma City with a tough decision: do they keep Harden or Ibaka? 

Dealing Harden would lower their chances of winning a championship in 2013, but it could open up a much larger title window. Let’s say they hit on one of the two picks they could acquire in 2012. In four years, they could spin this cycle forward again, flipping elite young talent looking for a payday into more elite young talent on cost-controlled salaries.

Where Does Brittney Griner Go From Here?

At SB Nation Dallas, a look at the limitless ceiling of Baylor star Brittney Griner:

Griner had 26 points on 11-16 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and 5 blocks. At 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan, she plays on a different plane than the rest of women's basketball. In a below the rim game, she is an above the rim presence. 

That's the main reason why Baylor went 40-0 this year. Even more frightening, only four of those 40 wins were by fewer than 10 points. But what's most frightening for the rest of the sport is that Griner and her entire supporting cast will be back next season. 

There's no reason why the Bears can't make a run at another 40-0 season, which would give her a 114-3 record over her last three collegiate years. To find a historical comparison, you have to go past the female game, where there's never been a player with her combination of size and athleticism, and look towards when the very beginning of the men's game, when the sport was still in its infancy. 

While he's been somewhat forgotten in popular culture, there's a good argument to be made that, over the course of his entire career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the greatest basketball player of all time. In high school, his teams went 79-2, winning three straight New York City championships. In college, his UCLA teams went 88-2, winning three consecutive national championships (College freshmen weren't eligible to play in the 1960's). In the NBA, he won six championships and six MVP's.

Kentucky's National Title And The Power Of The Fan

 

At RealGM, a look at how Kentucky's latest national title exposes one of the big differences between pros and the colleges:

The University of Kentucky didn’t have to become a basketball powerhouse again. The school isn’t close to any of the traditional areas that produce elite basketball talent; Darius Miller (2008) could become the state’s first Mr. Basketball to play in the NBA since 1990 (Dwyane Morton). 

Kentucky gets the best players nearly every year because they have John Calipari, one of the best, and most honest, coaches in the business, and they have Calipari because they can afford to pay him $4.5 million annually, second only to Louisville’s Rick Pitino. 

It’s no coincidence the state of Kentucky has the sport’s two highest paid coaches. College basketball is an integral part of the state’s culture; Kentuckians care more about it than in most other places, and because they care so much, they’ve turned their schools into basketball powerhouses. That’s what makes their latest national championship so special: it shows the power fans have in collegiate sports, especially in comparison to how they are exploited on the professional level.