Clearing Out the NBA Notebook...

The NBA announced their all-NBA teams today and unlike most of the other awards this season, I actually think they got it fairly right. If I were going to quibble about anything, it would be that LeBron James should be on the first team. A move which would send Amare Stoudemire to the second team as a center, promote Kevin Garnett to the second at forward, bump Yao Ming to the third, Dwight Howard out all together, with Shawn Marion added to the third as a forward. While that seems drastic, it’s more just a chain reaction thing than a real cataclysmic restructuring of their decisions. What this really means though, is that we’re only a few days away from the big MVP announcement…

The Idiocy of NBA Playoff Scheduling…

I continue to be confounded, and annoyed, by the NBA’s playoff seeding and schedule. Three nights off between games two and three in the Suns-Spurs series is just down right stupid. Not as stupid as having those two teams playing in the second round, but stupid all the same. You want to maximize the intensity of your playoffs so that fans get into series and have to keep following them. The longer you break the action, and for that point, the longer you draw out the whole proceedings, the less interest fans take. There are four series going on right now, which means I should be able to watch two games every night. Instead, I never know who’s going to be playing, I have to go look online, find out it’s only one game and find other things to occupy my time. Obviously I’m going to come back, but what about the fans who find other things to occupy their time and then forget about the playoffs? Why give them the option? I know that the NBA’s logic is that the longer the playoffs go, the longer the NBA’s in the national consciousness, but I think instead the longer it goes the more irrelevant it becomes. Like the NFL playoffs, the NBA needs to work on making their postseason, shorter, tighter, and thus hotter.

The Idiocy of NBA Playoff Seeding…

Likewise, they need to ensure that the best teams are meeting as late as possible, which means reseeding after the first round. David Stern said to the guys on PTI the other day that the reason the NBA doesn’t reseed after the first round of the playoffs is because the TV guys don’t want to… Uhmmm… really? This is Stern we’re talking about. The man who walks into every meeting knowing that he’s the smartest man at the table, who rules his team with a Stalin-esque influence, who single handedly fixed the 1985 draft to give Patrick Ewing to the Knicks, while simultaneously infiltrating the Soviet Union to bring down the Red Menace. I mean, is there anything he cannot do? Still, if I were a TV executive reading that quote, I’d think to myself, “wait, I do want the best teams meeting as late as possible, and apparently we control that…” This actually might be the moment to try and push through something like that, because I am pretty sure that Stern is distracted right now. I have no real doubts that he’s using his considerable mind powers to alter the memories of every single MVP voter into believing that they voted for Steve Nash, LeBron James, or any member of the Detroit Pistons not named Rasheed Wallace. That way when the MVP announcement goes out and it’s not Dirk, nobody will be surprised. This will be the true test of how far his powers go.

Counter Move, Counter Back…

I was impressed with the lineup changes that Mike D’Antoni made prior to game two, moving eighth man Kurt Thomas into the starting lineup to pester Tim Duncan, which allowed Shawn Marion to use his inhuman reach and athleticism to contain Tony Parker. Thomas helped to neutralize the Spurs advantage on the boards, while only taking a little away from the Suns offensive attack. The real advantage though, came in allowing two of the Suns weaker defenders, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, to cover the Spurs weakest offensive weapons (Bruce Bowen and Francisco Elson). It actually also makes Nash a better defensive weapon, because while his lateral speed makes him a one on one liability (especially against the lightning quick Parker), Nash is an underrated help defender, who sees the passing lanes well, knows the angles, and is fully committed to sacrificing his body in front of much larger players. All of that is neutered if he’s covering Parker, but leaving Bowen to take a charge from Ginobili is an easy choice.

At this point, the Suns have to know that they made the right adjustments to beat San Antonio, and that they were a good bandaid away from leaving Phoenix with a two-oh lead, but they also had better know that Greg Popovich is pretty good at his job, and that he’s going to come back with some changes for them. Game three isn’t a must win for either team, but I’d bet the winner on Saturday wins the series.