Questions:

Best Player to build your offense around?

I say Dirk, can play all three front court positions with the skill set a two guard. You can run the pick and roll at half court with him (when Nash was in Dallas, the use to run it 3 feet behind the three point line). Every time he comes off a screen he takes two players with him, and, I believe, he makes the players around him better. Nick Van Excel, Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Terry, all guys who had their careers reborn or go to another level playing with him - plus the Mavs have won 50 games in a row for six seasons, and he is the only player left from the first one. (Seriously, win 50 games with Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz as your front court help.)

I know a lot of folks will say Kobe, Nash, or Wade - and I can't argue - I just value a constant front court mismatch more than a dominate guard. (And I feel Dirk may be the most unique player in the L - who else has his size and set of skills?)

Best player to build your defense around?

I'm going to make a call here based on talent, not on mentality - Ron Artest. The guy is crazy, he'll double your PR budget, but he can defend the 1,2, and 3 anywhere on the court. He can #### them off, make them miss their shot, and create turnovers. He rebounds great, hustles and is ruthlessly intense. Softtown (sactown), I feel is a bad fit for him, but if you surround him with gritty players (like the pacers in their heyday) he will not only be great individually, but inspire the attitude it takes to be dominate defensively from his team mates.

Best to build your whole team around?

Toughy, eh? Let's limit this to a 5 year plan - so that younger players don't get too much of an advantage. I say - Kobe Bryant. I know some love him, some hate him - and both seem creepy pathological about it - but he's the best player when you factor in both sides of the court. He could play more intensely on defense more often, that'd be great. However, he's getting better at playing with teammates, has triple double potential every night. Kobe has the playoff experience, and his ability to mesh nicely with Phil is making me think he may one day adapt to playing next to another Shaq-type player.


I'm not married to any of these choices, feel free to persuade me to your point of view (no promises, though).

The Question at this point in the season isn't so much about which team can win the title - but which team can make the adjustments that will make them a Champion.

I don't care what the stats say, the suns do not have a good defense. I don't care if they play a faster paced game - you don't give up a 121 points to the Wolves. The Wolves shot 59%? Their front court went 27 for 42? The Suns can win a lot, a lot, of regular season games that way. In the post season though, they won't be able to out score teams. The Spurs and Mavs, in particular, play a very physical defense. You can't under estimate that in a 7 game series. When you been knocked around, grabbed, held and been contested for the majority of your shots, there is no rythem, no offensive jugernaut. You have to manufacture your points - which I believe the Suns can do. On the flip though, can put the lock on the Mavs or Spurs offense? They don't have to play great defense the whole game - but can they do it in the fourth quarter? A lot has been made of the fact that they only lost to Dallas on that last second shot - not how easy it was to get the ball to Dirk, or how they didn't have the personal in place so he could shoot right over the top. The Suns must learn to play better spurt defense - or they are going to have a long, embarassing off season.

Dallas, on the other hand, is woefully inconsistant. They have the ability to lock down opposing players and score at will, and sometimes do. They shoot 50% and hold others to 40%. Then they shoot 30% and allow 60%. WTF is going on? Part of their problem is Jason Terry is not a good ball distributor - this was painfully evident in Miami last year. They did not have a ball handler that could disrupt defenses and create open shots for teammates in the half court - and this is why it is still not out of reach to shut dallas down for long periods of time. Dropping the ball off to Dirk at the top of the key and waiting to seeing what happens doesn't cut it against top notch defensive teams (although, thats exactly how they beat the suns last). When they are in an offensive rythem, they do the same on defense (they might be the best team in the L when it comes to 12-0 runs). If they are going to win in the post-season though, they must get a better, more consistant offense that feeds their defense.

The Spurs just look flat out old. Pop has made a point that he won a title with a three seed, and that's perhaps their best option. Robert Horry should be reading to his grandkids, Barry is sometimes money, sometimes not. And whatever happened to Manu? Did Josh Howard steal his Mojo? Duncan still puts up great numbers, but how far does he seem from that guy that would beat you all by himself? The best hope, I believe for the Spurs, is to stay calm. They arn't catching the Suns or Mavs, and have to set their sights on playing their best basketball when the post season starts. Once the post season starts they'll really have to hope serveral players (Fin-dog, Barry, co.) get hot from the outside or they could end up getting swept by Dallas or knocked out easily by the Suns.

Out of these, Dallas seems the best bet to put it together. They are more likely to be fresh, a problem the suns really have to worry about (career high minutes for Nash, who has a history of post-season wilts). Their bench is deeper and more reliable that what the Spurs have, and Dirk seems to be a different sort of player sense knocking down that post season shot against the Spurs. He has a killer type look to him, it releases the pressure from his team, and they just might ride him to glory.

My aplogies to Lakers fans, I just can't see them as contenders - same story with anybody from the east.

So much said about who should win the MVP I wanted to come from a different angle. Here are the top four guys, and my thinking of why no one should win the MVP. Maybe we should just give it to Charles Barkley for making half time interesting. Or to China for being able to out vote us at our own game. Or to Isiah Thomas for being able to keep such a sorry, horrible team in the headlines. Or, if all else fails, award it to cattle for the great sacrifice they made for the sake of the NBA - seriously, they give the skin off their backs. They must really love this game.

Steve Nash plays on a very talented team, and as such, gets a boost to his numbers. He does not have to take shots under pressure, has three front court players shooting over %50 (Amare is over %60). This will pad your numbers - as good as he is, if you put him in Washington or on the Lakers his numbers would drop. He would have to shoot more contested shots and dish to finishers who don't shoot such great percentages.

Dirk, as opposed to being on a very talented team, is on a very deep team. The offense runs through Josh Howard for the first quarter, with Dirk just taking the shots that come in the flow of the game. In previous years, he was not known for his incredable fourth quarter play - he'd been too tired from carrying the team the first three. Again, if you put him on a lower level team his numbers would fall out of the Larry Bird range.

Kobe is not on a talented or deep team, and it is often said that if he was he would dominate the L. This may not be true - he has been on a talented and deep team and was a source of conflict. Although he has made great strides in playing with teammates, the question of what he could do on a team loaded with talent should be a question. If he played shooting guard for the Mavs or the Suns he would have to get far fewer touches, play more off the ball, and have use his great ability on defense constantly. What his numbers would look like on those teams is a question - what would Kobe do with an offense that didn't always run through him, and players who didn't always look to dish it back to him? It's well known he didn't like having an offense run through Shaq. Personality is a liability and quiets claims of what he could do on the Suns or Mavs.

Gilbert runs into that old Scottie Pippen quote about Michael Finely when he played for the sucky Mavs. Pippen said something to the effect, "Anyone can put up great numbers on a horrible team." And the Wiz, even if they do hang on to their lead in the Least Conference, may be exactly what Pippen was talking about. Yes, your numbers look great, but how great can your numbers be when your team sucks against the best? If Gilbert is in the running because of his numbers, Garnett should also be. He has a playoff spot in the superior conference and his all around numbers are far better.