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Basketball. A poetic game played created by Americans and played all across this great land, on playgrounds and in high school gyms alike. Yet the Most Valuable Player in the highest level of the game is a 6-foot tall Canadian point guard named Steve Nash. For the second year in a row.
Something's wrong with this picture.
If you go by the literal definition of the award, the NBA's MVP trophy should go to the player who is the most valuable to his team. Not to the player who puts up the most beastly stats, and not merely to the best player on the best team. If there were a formula to determine how many wins and losses each player, it would be simple. Sure, you could make up an equation like the baseball statistician Bill James and his "win shares"... but that would require someone with a lot of time on their hands and no social life. To that end, the decision is left up to the league's beat writers who, according to several reports, messed up this year. Tremendously. There haven't been this many voters blatantly voting for the wrong guy since Marion Barry was re-elected mayor of Washington, D.C.
It's not that I have a problem with Nash winning the MVP award - he was more than deserving last year when he led the Suns to 62 wins in the regular season. But I do have a problem when part of the reasoning behind the voters choosing him for the award was that seven of his teammates are averaging career highs in points this season.
There's a serious flaw in that logic. Amare Stoudemire missed practically the entire season. When you take out a guy who took nearly 17 shots a game in 2004-05, those shots are going to be redistributed amongst the rest of the team. More shots = more chances to score = more points for everyone. Even Vince "Wonderlic" Young knows that.
Nash had a solid season, but he's arguably not even the most valuable player on his own team - you can make a case for Shawn Marion in that regard. That all being said, the true MVP of this season... is Dirk Nowitzki. Who happens to be German. Maybe basketball isn't America's game after all.
Dirk led the Mavericks to 60 wins this season (only the second time in franchise history the team has won that many games) with Jason Terry and Josh Howard as his two complimentary scoring options. No offense to Terry and Howard, but neither of them is a superstar on the level of Shawn Marion.
Averaging 26.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game for the team with the third-best record in the league is a pretty impressive feat. Of course, Kobe's 81 point explosion was an impressive feat as well, but one game does not an MVP make. And personally, I think Lebron is the best player in the league, but that's not what the award is called. In terms of value, Dirk is responsible for more wins than any other player in the league. And that is the true mark of an MVP.
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The Blueprint 2: How to Fix the New York Knicks
Tuesday, May 2, 2006, 08:58 PM EST
[General]
Contrary to popular opinion, the New York Knicks are a quality basketball team. If you don't believe me, ask Jalen Rose.
"I put together our roster on [the video game] NBA Live," Rose said recently, "and we're pretty good." The video game world is just about the only world in which you could classify the Knicks as "pretty good." Gotham's Finest finished the season at 23-59, which would have been good enough - or is it bad enough? - for the #2 pick in the NBA draft, provided that the lottery holds to form. The only problem is that GM Isiah Thomas traded away the Knicks' first-round pick in order to acquire Eddy Curry from the Bulls. The New York front office should have known better than to give Zeke free reign with the team at the end of 2003, considering that he bankrupted the ENTIRE Continental Basketball Association. Two and a half years later, the Knicks are the worst team $123 million can buy. Somewhere, Stephen A. Smith is screaming for the return of Scott Layden. It's going to take a few years to dig out of the salary cap / underachieving talent hell that Zeke has gotten into, but a few good moves (or non-moves) this off-season should point them in the right direction. 1) End the Starbury experiment. Stephon Marbury - or Starbury, or whatever he's calling himself this week - is not going to work with Larry Brown. Ever. As a matter of fact, it's very unlikely that he'll work well with any coach. Ever. Not that Steve Francis has ever shown anything different, but you know for a fact that Stephon isn't the answer with the Knicks, especially with the spectre of Coney Island in the background. So do the logical thing and reunite him with his boy KG out in Minnesota. In return, have the T-Wolves send back Ricky Davis, Mark Blount and Marko Jaric. Davis gives you a legit small forward, and Blount is a quality banger. And the Knicks don't necessarily need another point guard in Jaric, but you do have to match up the salaries. Marbury will make $18.3 million next year, after all. That's not a misprint. 2) Do not trade Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor or Shandon Anderson. Barring any off-season roster moves, the Knicks are going to have a salary cap figure of $125 million next season. For the record, the salary cap is at $49.5 million this season, with a luxury tax threshold (the amount at which a team is charged a dollar-to-dollar tax if they exceed it) of $61.7 million. Needless to say, even with the inflationary increase next season, the Knicks are going to be well into the luxury tax range. The problem is that they can easily afford the luxury tax. But if you can afford it, that doesn't mean you do it, which is how they've gotten themselves in the predicament where they are now. Just because you CAN put together a team of perennial underachievers in Marbury, Francis, Rose, Taylor, etc. - and afford to pay them whether or not they actually mesh together - doesn't give you the license to do so. The cycle needs to end. You need to let the contracts for Rose, Taylor and Anderson (which total about $34 million in 2006-07) expire so you can regain some sembalance of fiscal responsibility. 3) Play the young kids more. Larry Brown has something against younger players. He actually has something against all players who don't "play the right way", which leads me to believe that he is the Tom Emanski of basketball. Whatever the case may be, the future of the Knicks lies in the hands of their three young players: promising center Channing Frye, active PF David Lee and the slam-dunk champion/locker room brawler/spitball-throwing point guard Nate Robinson. It's safe to say that the majority of the "talent" surrounding these three will be gone three years from now - the exact time when these three should be coming into their own. The learning process starts now. Send them all to the summer league so that they can familiarize themselves more with Brown's concepts. Send them game tapes to review during the off-season. But most importantly, send them away from the other players on the roster. There are far too many veteran malcontents on that roster just waiting to prey on impressionable young players. Danger, Nate Robinson! (Sorry... it was too easy.) All in all, the roster doesn't change much, but the starting lineup improves with Ricky Davis, and the bench improves with Jaric and Blount. The rising sophomores should be better, and the cloud of the Marbury/Starbury era will be a memory. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Knicks won't be rebuilt in an off-season. But you do have to lay the foundation at some point. Tags:
A Man and His Draft
Friday, April 28, 2006, 06:33 PM EST
[General]
I have an unnatural obsession with the NFL Draft. Tags:
The 2006 NFL Draft Drinking Game
Friday, April 28, 2006, 05:41 PM EST
[General]
I don't normally endorse drinking games, however... the NFL Draft is perfectly suited for one. The players change, but the events and the buzzwords remain the same. Please don't actually try this - somewhere around the 10th pick, your blood alcohol content would be approaching the "do not operate heavy machinery"/Eddie Sutton level. Anwyay, with that being said... enjoy.
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The Blueprint: How to Fix the Philadelphia 76ers
Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 06:43 PM EST
[General]
Everyone thinks they're a GM these days. With the sad state of affairs on so many teams in the NBA, there's no wonder why a regular sports fan such as myself believes that he can't do at least as good as a job as some of the general managers in the league today. I've never done it, but I'm sure that I'm perfectly capable of signing players to bad deals. I am confident in my ability to lead my team to the lottery year after year. And, with one look at my bank account, many people would say that I'm more than qualified to mismanage finances, including - but not limited to - the NBA's salary cap.
But I think I'm better than that. I think that I could actually improve some of the teams in the NBA, especially my hometown Philadelphia 76ers. To that end, I put together a four-point blueprint for the team's front office to follow this summer: 1) Do not trade Allen Iverson. Yes, I know that his trade value is as high as it's ever going to be. And I'm fully aware that he made the Sixers' organization look absolutely foolish when he showed up five minutes before game time on Fan Appreciation Night. But here's the all-important caveat: If you trade Allen Iverson, you won't receive equal value in return. It's like giving someone five dollars and have them give you three dollars' worth of stuff in return. It simply doesn't make sense. You don't trade the second-leading scorer in the league for a bunch of role players. It never works - ask the Lakers. The Sixers did something similar in the not-too-distant past (the infamous Charles Barkley trade in 1992) and were absolutely dreadful for several seasons afterwards. I'll say it again... it never works. 2) Trade Chris Webber to the Denver Nuggets for Kenyon Martin and Ruben Patterson. Here's how crazy sports have gotten these days: when I heard that the Denver Nuggets had suspended Kenyon Martin indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team (read: cursing out head coach George Karl in the locker room), I was ECSTATIC. Finally, another organization with a disgruntled player (whom they'll HAVE to move in the offseason) that I actually wanted on my own team. See... in the NBA, the vast majority of trades involve players who, for either financial or other reasons, are considered "problems." And now, the man who calls himself the "Bad Azz Yellow Boy" is officially a problem. Truth be told, the same can't necessarily be said for Chris Webber. He met, and in some ways exceeded, the expectations set on him since he came over in the deal with Sacramento. However, his defensive shortcomings and his domination of the ball on the offensive end - stunting the growth of the younger players on the Sixers - make him expendable. K-Mart burned his bridges with the locker room tirade, Chris did the same with his late arrival on Fan Appreciation Night. Kenyon and the self-proclaimed "Kobe Stopper" make the Sixers instantly younger and more athletic (and better defensively), while Webber is a consistent second option to compliment Carmelo Anthony. C-Webb's salary ($43 million over the next two seasons) comes off the books in 2008 and, while Kenyon Martin's deal isn't up until 2011, Ruben Patterson is only on the hook for one more season at $7.8 million. The trade makes too much sense not to happen. 3) Use the lottery pick on the best point guard available. Outside of Allen Iverson, the primary ball handlers are Kevin Ollie and John Salmons. That needs to change. Immediately. There should be a few quality point guards on the board when the Sixers pick - Randy Foye, Marcus Williams, Mardy Collins, et al. The day that Iverson will no longer be able to give you 40+ minutes per game is fast approaching - The Sixers need to be ready for it. 4) Use the entire mid-level exception to bolster the bench. Jared Jeffries would be an nice addition, as would Nene Hilario and DerMarr Johnson (as you can see, I have no qualms about raiding the Denver Nuggets' cupboard). I would even call up Jay Williams (I'm sure Billy King has his number - they're fellow Dukies) to see if he's ready to make a return to the league. But I think the Sixers need to go big, especially if they take a PG in the draft. As it stands right now, the frontcourt depth on the Sixers is absolutely atrocious. Shavlik Randolph seems like a nice enough guy and Michael Bradley is a decent enough banger in short stints, but they shouldn't be your first line of defense off the bench. If the Sixers were to successfully follow this blueprint in the coming offseason, the potential starting five would be Iverson, Andre Iguodala, Patterson, Martin and Samuel Dalembert. Those are five gazelles on the floor at the start of each game, capable of running with any team in the East and most of the teams out West. And with Kyle Korver, Willie Green, Steven Hunter, a free agent big man and the lst-round draft pick coming off the pine, you have a quality two-deep rotation that wouldn't suffer a noticeable drop off when the starters are getting a blow. The team is younger, better defensively, and gains some slight salary cap flexibility. The blueprint is here, Billy King. Make it happen. Tags:
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