dunkside

Mike Brown better hand over that COY award, cause Stan van Gundy just whooped his ass. Stan van Gundy went in just a short time from a Ron Jeremy look-alike who resigned as coach of the team that went on to win the title, a Master of Disaster who was questioned by his superstar and one step away from being eliminated by a depleted Boston team to the guy who took his team to the finals and wiped the floor with the reigning COY in the process.

Although, to be fair, I don’t think Stan van Gundy deserves as much credit for Magic’s win as Mike Brown deserves criticism. Mike Brown had the reaction of a deer in the headlights: he froze. The problem is not that his adjustments against the Magic did not work. The problem is that he made no adjustments. He went with what worked during the season and against the Pistons and Hawks and waited for it to work against the Magic. That despite the fact that it didn’t work against the Magic during the season, and it didn’t work against them during the playoffs.

Mike Brown just kept waiting for his system to work. And it didn’t. He waited for his players to make  their shots. They didn’t. But he’s the coach for a reason. When they can’t make their shots, he has to get them easier shots. When they can’t defend, he needs to change his defense. When they can’t score in the half-court, maybe he should try to play faster and go small. He did none of those things.

As a result the real coach of the year got to the finals, while the best player in the world will have to watch them from home.

Coaches Mike Brown, Stan van Gundy

MVP

Lebron. Book it.

Lebron played well enough to win in both in 2006 and 2008, but he had a horrible team, kinda like Wade has now. Now that Cleveland is ahead of the Lakers in the standings and things will probably stay that way till the end of the season, there’s no more excuse not to vote for Lebron. Just like last season the game between the Lakers and the Hornets that decided the final standings might have been decisive in the MVP voting. Last season Kobe got it as some sort of career achievement award and possibly because of the voters’ feelings of guilt. I don’t think many of them really liked him, so that time they voted just to prove they are not biased against him: “we’ll give him one now, so then we can never vote for him again without feeling guilty about it”. Since Kobe then sort of fizzled in the finals, I doubt he’s gonna win another MVP award until he leads his team to a title.

I expect Lebron to win it overwhelmingly, and Wade to be a distant second. Wade will get the most second place votes, but less first place votes than Kobe. The top 5 would be: Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan.

DPOY

Dwight Howard. It should be a landslide, maybe even more so than the MVP vote. Lebron and Wade should get some 2nd and 3rd place votes.

ROY

Rose. Might have been closer had the Bulls not made the playoffs (they can still miss them, but the way they played lately and their schedule suggest they will get in).

Sixth Man of the Year

Allen Iverson.

Ok, Ok, I’m just kidding. I’d go with Flip Murray, but I don’t know if he got talked about enough in the media for the voters to recognize him. Nate Robinson on the other hand won the Dunk Contest and plays in NY so he gets enough coverage. Plus playing in D’Antoni’s system helped him put up some nice numbers which can only help his cause. Murray might be more deserving for being an important part off the bench for the 4th best team in the East, but Nate will win it.

Most improved player

Paul Millsap will probably win it. He helped the Jazz stay afloat while Boozer was out. Had the Nets made the playoffs Harris would have won the award, but they faded of late. Jameer Nelson would have been a good candidate had he not been injured.

COY

Stan van Gundy. Mike Brown might have a chance, but the decisive factor should be the way Orlando’s defense (and overall play) improved despite playing a soft SF at PF and having just average to poor defenders around Howard.

Executive of the year

I expect the COY and Executive of the Year will go one to Cleveland and the other to Orlando, so if Stan gets the COY then Ferry should get this award. Mike Brown gets less credit because he got a good team (put together by the Executive of the Year) and he has the best player in the world on his team.

First All NBA Team and First All Defensive Team

I don’t think this ever happened before, but this could be the 1st time when these 2 teams are identical. The 1st All NBA Team should have Wade and Kobe at G, Lebron and Duncan at F and Dwight Howard at C. Kobe is a permanent fixture on the D teams, Dwight couldn’t miss it as the DPOY and Duncan should be in by default as Garnett missed a bunch of games and the Celtics played beyong expectations – the expectations they built themselves with that torrid start of the season. Considering the effort put forth by both Wade and Lebron on the defensive end (Wade has more blk/game than a whole bunch of 7 footers and Lebron’s come from behind blocks are even more spectacular than his thunderous dunks) they deserve to be recognized.

Bowen is now too old now and played too little to have a chance at the 1st team. Battier or Artest might still ruin it by taking the place of Wade or Lebron, but the fact that they now play on the same team could work against them and make them split the votes.

Awards Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Nate Robinson, Paul Millsap, Stan van Gundy

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good: Shaq has been playing better and with more motivation this season than he did in years.

The bad: The Orlando game Shaq took a long piggy back ride on Dwight Howard’s back. Not being able to keep up with Dwight’s athleticism, Shaq tried to wear him down by leaning on him like an old boxer trying to slow down his younger opponent. 

The ugly: When that failed, Shaq resorted to some pretty obvious flopping. On one play Shaq tried to take a charge, only Dwight used a piruete and there was little to no contact, yet Shaq fell to the floor like a giant sequoia. He must have spent too much time with Nash, cause these days the flop is Nash’s only defensive strategy. But at least he has an excuse: he doesn’t have the size or strength or hops to keep up with younger, more athletic players and try to block their shot.

Stay classy, Shaq

The obvious flop mentioned above had Stan Van Gundy complaining, and for good reason. Here’s what he said:

I was shocked, seriously, shocked. And very disappointed cause he knows what it’s like. Lets stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that tonight.

Not much to get upset about, right ? Well, guess again. Shaq did have something to say about it. He showed off his “class” again by lashing out at Stan Van Gundy, calling him a bum, a nobody (amongst other things) and calling his career a flop. Shaq also took swipes at Dwight Howard, Jeff van Gundy and Patrick Ewing as well. Way to stay classy, Shaq. 

Of course it’s not new from Shaq to show absolutely no character. In fact he has a pattern of trashing his former organizations and teammates. When he left LA he not only dissed Kobe but he went after the entire organization, especially Dr Buss, and the city of LA. Then when he left Miami he threw his former team-mates under the bus. He always was a petty, jelous, boastful, ego maniacal baby in a man-shaped whale’s body. But lately he’s been taking it to a whole new level. First he attacked Bosh without any reason after Bosh complained about the refs not calling 3 seconds on Shaq (without saying anything bad about Shaq himself), and now this. 

The Big Hypocrite

You know who must have enjoyed Shaq’s flopping the most ? Vlade Divac. After complaining and making fun of Vlade’s flopping, Flopzilla ended throwing himself on his back quicker than a 5 dollar whore.

While incoherently tring to explain how he flopped cause the rules required him to and how his flop was not really a flop cause he doesn’t do that,  Shaq said that “He (Howard) came with the same old, stale Patrick Ewing move”. Yeah, the guy who after almost 20 years in the league doesn’t have one single move (unless you count buldozing people over as a move) complained about someone else’s “old, stale move”.

 

At this point I hope the Suns miss the playoffs cause he just doesn’t deserve to be there. Not on account of his play – to his credit he stayed motivated for almost an entire season and might play 70+ games in a season for just the second time in 9 years – but because of his attitude. And if they do miss the playoffs, I fully expect him to take 35 games off next season and mail it in for the rest so he can be well rested for … his retirement.

General Shaquille O'Neal, Stan van Gundy

So many choices here … Scott Skiles, Jim Boylan, even Larry Krystkowiak. I kid, I kid. It’s a tough choice between:

 

• Phil Jackson: finally making Kobe understand what team-play is and getting the Lakers the 1st place in the West even with Bynum out, Gasol comming over, then getting injured and comming back after some weeks, not to mention he had to deal with losing Kwame Brown
• Byron Scott: taking a team that didn’t make the playoffs last season and almost winning the Western Conference is no small feat. And there’s no way you can compare the talent on the Hornets with what the Lakers have. The Hornets are not even close, so from this point of view Byron Scott’s achievement kinda trumps Phil’s.
• Doc Rivers: he managed to turn a bunch of newly acquired players into a team from day 1. He put his ego aside and allowed assistant Tom Thibodeau do his thing.
• Stan Van Gundy: I know he won’t really receive considerations for the award, but I’d like to give him props for the job he did in Orlando. I highly doubt that the 120 million man Rashard Lewis is the reason for this team’s improvement. In fact, Rashard’s play was quite average, at best worth half of the 20 mil he makes per season. Van Gundy found a way to turn a team with only one real good defender (Howard) and that featured a poor defender playing out of position (Lewis at PF) into the league’s 7th best defensive team. He also found a way to unleash Dwight Howard upon the league. One can only imagine what he could do with a real PG able to put the ball in Dwight’s hands more often and in better spots.

 

With all due respect for Byron Scott, but I think it’s about time Phil Jackson got his second COY award. Just think about this for a moment: best coach alive, arguably best coach ever, has 9 titles but only 1 COY award. Another reason is that Scott has been the coach of the Hornets the past couple of seasons when they were just another lottery team. So I’d rather credit Chris Paul’s improvement as playing the biggest part in the Hornets raising in the rankings.

Awards Byron Scott, Doc Rivers, Phil Jackson, Stan van Gundy