Friday, June 28, 2013

NBA Draft Thoughts 2013

I kind of wanted to do some sort of mock draft of the NBA on where players should go and where they would go.. But, that would have been time consuming, so I didn't end up getting to it.  Instead I decided that I would pretend to be the GM of the Charlotte 'Bobcats' and attempt to solve some of their problems, which will be in a different post.  In this post I hope to at least glance at a few players in the draft and the trades which occurred around the draft and offer my limited knowledge on both of them.

Trades of note
New Orleans and Philadelphia
Noel for Holiday
Jrue Holiday's salary was set to skyrocket this year and will continue to be high for the next 4 years.. But still, I think the 76er's kind of got mugged.  The Pelicans won this trade.  Admittedly Noel could become a very good player, but still Holiday is a quantifiably good player, albeit with a vaguely high salary, while Noel is largely unknown.

T-Wolves and Jazz
Trey Burke for Muhammad and Dieng
I expect fairly good things from all 3 players..  But, Muhammad is kind of an unknown high-risk high-reward, while I expect Burke to become a very decent player.  I'd say the Jazz barely won this trade.

Grizzlies and Nuggets
A second round pick and Darrell Arthur for KOSTA KOUFAS...
Not a good trade by the Nuggets..  In really any way, except that Arthur also plays decent defense.  I'm fairly high on Koufas, I think that he should be getting high starting minutes on a playoff team.

Also, ESPN said the following.. "The Grizzlies, sources said, made the move to create playing time for young big man Ed Davis"
How does that even make sense?  You are trading for a CENTER, not exactly a wing player..  Oh well.  I know Centers and Power Forwards aren't entirely interchangeable, but still, they are by and large quite similar.  So while Davis may indeed get a couple more minutes, it's still not really a major block of time that is created by the trade.

Player Notes
Don't have a lot of thoughts about the players.  I didn't watch very much college basketball this year.  So I mostly just know the big name players.
Otto Porter seems a bit undersized, I'm not certain if he will end up being a good pick for the Wizards
Trey Burke may be a bit undersized as well, but I expect good things from him.
Cody Zeller should be very decent.

I guess I'll go ahead and take a shot at ranking the top 10 players..  Or 14 as it ended up being..  (Basically based on the little I know of them, and how I think they will have performed in the NBA 3-5 years from now.  So very limited selection, since I know virtually nothing about a fair number of the players, especially about players from other countries)

Top 14 choices 
Cody Zeller
Trey Burke
Victor Oladipo
C.J. McCollum
Jeff Withey
Deshaun Thomas  (The Spurs got a steal)
Anthony Bennett
Alex Len
Rudy Gobert
Shabazz Muhammad (possible bust as well)
Ryan Kelly
Gorgui-Dieng
Nerlens Noel  (I expect him to be decent, but his attitude and the drama surrounding him worries me)
Mason Plumlee

I'm technically not including him, but I expect Nate Wolters to be at least a serviceable bench player.  Also, Seth Curry should have a job 3 years from now.  And Mike Muscala could also be decent.

Potential busts.  
Otto Porter
Kentavious-Caldwell-Pope
Ben-McLemore  (Impressive year in college, I would just feel a lot better if he was at least a Sophomore.  A bit of a boom or bust pick.  And considering Sacramento picked him.. Well...  I'll let you decide.)
Tim Hardaway Junior

Friday, June 14, 2013

Heat vs Spurs Notes and Analysis for Games 1-4 of the NBA Finals 2013

Game 1 of the NBA Finals
Green was on Lebron for a good portion of the game.
Totally different Wade this game. (Finals Wade)
Lebron finally arrived with 9 minutes left (I think that's what the note meant)
3:30 Typical Parker UGH shot.  (This shot kind of annoyed me more than his theoretical 'game winning' shot. {Even though the Spurs were still up 2 before the shot anyways)

Game 2
(More Anderson please)
(Take Wade out Plz)
Post Lebron..
Miller always takes it from that spot..
Ginobili can't dribble today..
Spurs lack of movement 8:30 2nd to end.
Lack of fouls once again
Iso Duncan is not working.  (just sayin')
Well-called (referee) game again.
21-3? Whoa.
30-5, Wows.
Felt like Anderson (14 minutes) got more minutes than he actually did.
Chalmers with a noisy 19 points.
Lebron still passive, yet I like his shots.
Bill Simmons said that, "Duncan took good shots." WHAT?! In no way shape or form did that happen.  Duncan had 6 quality shots in the game and 7 non-quality shots, while by comparison Bosh had 9 good shots and only 1 NQ shot. To say that Duncan took 'good' shots is a joke.
I kind of thought Lebron played poorly throughout, except for a very minute part of the game.

Why didn't some of this happen in the first game?
When the Heat lose game 1, they go ahead and sweep the remaining games.  Spurs should be able to stop that trend, barely.
Fairly quick game.
Take the starters out, 6:00 left.  (Taken out 1:10 later.)
Messy stats..
Finally turned the Spurs over this game.
Parker was guarded well in both games.
Wade wasn't in during the huge run, surprise..

Game 3
Wade is always getting the ball early on.
Lebron... Defense..? C'mon.
A man against boys.
Wade shooting pt blank shots.
Green is great at getting back for transition defense.
Low scoring game so far.
Anderson please? 5:40 3rd down 17
3:36 finally a better lineup.
Worst finals performance by LBJ?  (Quite possibly)
Finally clicked 4th quarter begin. (I don't know what that note was supposed to mean..)
Neal's bad shots keep going down.
Demolition.
LBJ takes a small step forward.. WHY?  He took the step forward from the 3 pt arch to shoot a long 2 jumper.  (He missed it as well, but that's irrelevant.)
Not sure if you should bench starters or not...  Hmm, Yes.  5:40
Blowout City.
3rd worst loss in Final's history.  (Or from the Spurs point of view, 3rd biggest win in Finals history)
Most 3's in Final's history.  Ouch.

Game 4
I had many more notes for this game.
No way the Heat lose this game.
Popovich just got out coached, wow.  (Miller was inserted into the starting lineup for the Heat and Popovich responded with the fastest substitution in Finals history to get in NEAL.)
James is ON.  (It took all of 3 possessions to see this.  His energy on defense was back)
Parker is hurt..?
Another communication error for the Heat?
0 traps?
Heat need to trap.
6:40 Cole is finally in.
Joseph? (getting minutes instead of Parker, since he was hurt)  Hmm.
Fast breaks early for the Heat, thank goodness.
James not giving up on plays.  (something he has done a lot in the Finals, possibly because he is tired..?)
4:00
More free throws.
Much crisper Heat team today.
Game flow is favoring Heat.

2nd Quarter
Green's decline should begin now..  (He struggled a little, but he still kept hitting the triples)
About time Battier got minutes.
9:30, Wade on Parker please?
Royals with the win again.  Hottest team in baseball for awhile now.  (That didn't last for long though)
I saw Lebron coming, but Wade has really shown up about as well as Lebron has.
Wade had no non-quality attempts in the 1st quarter.
No Birdman yet.
3 minutes left.
Cole won the jump ball, game over..
Why don't the Heat complete their traps??

3rd Quarter
My main adjustment for the Heat, is that they need to do a lot more hard hedging and trapping.
(oddly enough, one of the first things out of the gate for the 2nd half) Finally a hard trap.
8:30 Looks like Parker is halfway limping now.  Finally.  (I was kind of wondering when that would happen.)  Valiant effort by Parker so far.
Spoelstra is a really good coach.  He should get more credit for the things he does.  (Wade recieved his 4th foul here, I believe) Wade is being left in.
STAY ON GREEN.  (I don't understand why on some occasions, [unless the players forget] the coaches don't just tell the player guarding Green to forget help and just focus on Green.)
67-63 Woah, horrible lineup for the Spurs right now, no Q player on besides Leonard.  Heat should win this lineup battle somewhat easily.
And of course the Spurs one field goal by this lineup was by Leonard..  He got an old fashioned 3 point play.  The Heat only 'won' the scoring battle though, 7-5. so yeah..
Refs slightly more lenient this game, though still not really an 'average' type of NBA game.
 4:39 on I tried to pay attention to the hedges and a few traps performed by the Heat.  (mostly just hedges)
Someone left Green, (to hedge kind of, which is good) but Chalmers recovered just in time to get to Green.
Love the post ups for Lebron.
Great hedge on Parker, but then 6 secs later Green is passed the ball with no one within 6 ft (at least).
Repeat of the SOG.
I'm fine getting beaten by Parker, but not by Green.
Other hedge later resulted in open 3 for Leonard, unrelated to the hedge, but he missed.

4th Quarter
Lebron time. Boo yah.  5 pt edge to begin the 4th.
Hedge "foul" on Ginobili.
Another good hedge.
Goodness.. Neal with another bad three that goes in.
Anderson in for Haslem please..  (Didn't happen, Anderson didn't get any playing time.)
Another great hedge.
Another hedge, partially indirect result was a jump ball.
Yeah.
Lebron with rest, boo-yah.  (If only the Thunder had done likewise with KD....  Ugh... That still annoys me)
Ginobili with a 'what are you thinking' 3 pointer.  (and like most of his shots this series it missed)
Never give Parker & Popovich the same look.
Wow.  ABC is showing the block highlights, 7 total, I haven't been paying attention to that, but i would have thought it would be like 4 to 6 blocks.
Splitter's FT coach FTW.  (I assume that person would be the Spur's main FT coach, so major props to him.  Especially considering all the great FT performances by the Spurs this year.)
Trapping results in a TO and fast break opportunity.  Wade dunks it.  How odd that trapping can cause turnovers....
High scoring evenish game finally.
LBJ can come back in now..
Wade hitting a couple midrange jumpers finally.
Ginobili has been a bit of a liability this series.
Finally a Heat player is over 20 pts.
6:04 4th 11 pt spread. Lebron has been oddly (and understandably, since he's actually playing defense this game) tired this game.
6 steals for Wade.
Didn't hedge, resulted in a Q shot for Parker (which he missed)
Who is this Dwayne Wade?
Gj helping Parker up, Chalmers.
A trap resulted in Duncan throwing it away, wow..
I agree with Van Gundy, the Heat have given a lot more effort tonight.
Wade has been fairly consistent throughout this game, first time all series, except for parts of game 1.
Double digit victory.. I don't know about everyone else, but this was a huge surprise to me.. (that was sarcasm.. Jic you couldn't tell.)
 In some ways I thought the referees were biased in favor for the Heat for certain calls, but then I looked at the box score after the game, and the Heat shot 14 fewer free throws.  I think this has been a very decently called series.

Here are some notes I am just now writing that are based on interesting statistics of how the players performed in my stats.
Game 1
Heat Defense.  Bosh, Allen, and especially Anderson were good defensively.  James, Wade, and to a certain extent Haslem were all poor defenders.
Spurs Defense.  Leonard had a decent game defensively.  Green was very (which is odd for him) poor defensively.  Splitter was decent, Parker was not taken enough on the offensive end..  Duncan was all over the place, in both good and bad ways.
Spurs Offensive Notes.  Green and Leonard took a combined 14 threes, 12 of which were quality, Green was hitting his, Leonard was not.  The only two black holes (in terms of NQ shots) for the Spurs were Duncan and Parker.  (Per usual, basically.)
Heat Offensive Notes.  The Heat took many Q3s (which is effectively the only kind of 3 they take.)
Extremely impressive shot selection throughout the table.

Game 2
Heat Defense.  Lebron again playing as a below average defender.  No horrible defenders this time.  Again Anderson was effectively the best defender.  Haslem with a bounce-back game.  Miller was also very decent.
Spurs Defense.  Parker was a major liability on defense.  Green was flying around to a certain extent, but he wasn't always in the right place.  Duncan was mostly positive this time.
Spurs Offensive Notes.  Duncan and Parker were again the black holes of the offense.  Green took 5 quality 3's, and hit each shot.  Lack of free throws for both sides.
Heat Offensive Notes.  Wade and Bosh were slight NQ offenders.  Otherwise, fairly typical Heat amazingness.

Game 3
Heat Defense.  Cole and Bosh were both decent defenders.  Wade and James were extremely poor defenders.
Spurs Defense.  Leonard was extremely good.  Duncan was oddly quiet.  Again the Heat did not attack Parker (or Neal) enough.  Green was absolutely amazing this game.  He was effectively, literally everywhere.  I stat-ed him as defending 20 possessions, a very high number, especially for a guard, and not only did he just defend them, but he did an incredibly decent job at defending them.
Spurs Offensive Notes.  Parker didn't take many shots this game, and Duncan finally had an efficient game.  For some reason though, other Spurs players picked up some of the NQ slack by throwing up some NQ shots.  Green continued his incredible shooting, while Neal somehow...  managed to shoot (at least in my recorded shots) 6-10 from deep, despite only 4 of those being quality shots.
Heat Offensive Notes.  Again James and Wade slight NQ offenders, everyone else was incredibly decent.  (other than that they were out rebounded and stuff, it's a bit odd that the Heat lost this game so badly)

Game 4
Heat Defense.  Miller had oddly poor defense this game.  James (FINALLY!) played like an elite defender. Cole submitted another very good defensive effort.  Battier (per usual, when he gets decent playing time) was a good defender.  Wade was gambling all over the place, and as such, actually had no 'medium/average' defenses, but was instead towards the high or low quality end of the defensive spectrum.
Spurs Defense.  Leonard (once again) was very good.  Parker and Neal are still not being attacked enough.  Ginobili was a very poor defender.  Duncan had a lot of total defenses, but didn't perform very well.  Green had as many defensive possessions charted as Chris Bosh!  (they might share my record for most defenses in a game)  And while Green obviously was not always perfect, he still did an incredibly decent job of defending the opposition.
Spurs Offensive Notes.  Duncan with his second straight fairly efficient game.  Once again, Neal hit a very high number of NQ 3's.  Probably due to Miami's defense the Spurs took an oddly low amount of Q 3's this game, only 6 total shots.
Heat Offensive Notes.  A pristine offensive performance by the Heat, except for Wade..  Wade had 8 NQ shots, which meant that he tied with Neal as shooting the most NQ shots.  Wade and Lebron were effectively constantly attacking or pulling up for midrange jumpers this game, as such the Heat attempted a lower than usual number of threes.

Overarching notes.
The combined NQ shots of Parker, Neal, and Duncan are greater than all the combined NQ shots by the Heat.
Duncan has taken 17 NQ shots.. And hit a grand total of zero of them.  Parker is slightly better, shooting 26 NQ shots and hitting 6 of them.  Neal has taken a total of 23 NQ shots and he has hit 11 of them.  (most of which were 3's)
Wade is the worst NQ offender on the other side, he has taken 17 and splashed 6 of them.

MVD
Green and Bosh/Anderson have been their team's Most Valuable Defenders through 4.
MVOP
I can't really split the tie on this one.. So it's a 3 way tie on Miami's side.  Chalmers, Bosh, and Allen.  (Somewhat honorable mention to LBJ and Anderson, who did not qualify due to lack of shot attempts)
Gary Neal..  Kidding, kidding.  This side looks much uglier than the Heat side of the table.  Another tie..  Green and Leonard.  (Somewhat honorable mention to Diaw, but nowhere close to enough shot attempts to qualify)
MVP
Hopefully the remaining 2 or 3 games will provide some real difference between these three players.  But, until then, I have a three-way tie between, Bosh, Allen, and Anderson.
(Honorable mention to Chalmers and not quite as honorable mention to James.)
On San Antonio's side it is certainly Danny Green for MVP.

These are the complete team stats for games 1-4.
One of the most interesting statistics to me is that the Heats' offense has been the main difference in the series thus far.
According to my statistics over this series the Heat should have outscored the Spurs 96.3 to 89.8.
All of this took a lot longer than I expected it to take [and I didn't get around to posting the individual team stats (which I will probably never bother posting then) ] so I won't go over this post with a fine-tooth comb looking for mistakes.  Sorry if there are a lot of blunders.  Thanks for reading, God bless.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Griz vs Spurs G3 and Heat vs Pacers G 6-7 Notes and Statistical Breakdown, 2013

Well, that was certainly a long post name.  I couldn't think of many other decent shortened versions, so I just went with that.

Grizzlies vs Spurs Game 3
Here are my notes from this game.
Duncan is still getting breakaway dunks at 37?
Pondexter "foul"
Spurs almost never stop moving..!
Spurs are playing 'small ball', Bonner at the PF.
Amazing Spurs touch pass from high post.  (This was a very impressive play and the Spurs did it twice with different players)  Similar to this, only from the High Post.  The two plays resulted in easy layup attempts each time.
Parker is always probing.
Ugh, hate the high pick and roll chuck.
Memphis Griz logo looks nice.  (random)
Great pushes by Tony Allen. (He had quite a few fastbreak layups)
Diaw's threes resulted in good things.
Nasty back door cut by Leonard.
Good Hammer action from the Spurs.


If you have any questions about the graph, then please ask away.
Whoops..  I did this for two out of three graphs, but in the future I'll try not to block out part of the graph with the mouse 'tips'.
These graphs and the numbers therein are based on charting a game as to whether a player is taking quality shots and being a quality defender or the opposite.
Some of the main points from this graph are that on a possession to possession basis (based entirely on what kind of offensive look they were getting for this stat) the Spurs 'should' average 1.20 pts and the Grizzlies should average 1.17.  Both defenses gave the same overall number for defensive rating 1.12 (A higher number is good in both cases).  So overall the raw numbers have the Spurs with the very slight advantage per offensive possession, 1.11 to the Grizzlies 1.09.

The expected score for the game when adjusted for defense is Grizzlies 104.6 to Spurs 92.0.
The reason for the Grizzlies having such an advantage, while the Spurs were actually having the slightly better game offensively, was because I charted 17 more shots for the Grizzlies.  The 'real' box score had 15 more shots for the Grizzlies.  It's not often that the team which shoots 15 fewer shots wins the game.  However, that (obviously) did not happen.  The 'real' score for the game was an OT victory for the Spurs 104-93.

Unless I looked at the box scores incorrectly, I think the Grizzlies outrebounded and had fewer turnovers than the Spurs in EVERY SINGLE GAME.  (except for game 3 in which the Spurs outrebounded the Griz by 2, although the Griz still grabbed 6 more offensive rebounds)
I would guess that this has happened before in a playoff series.. But, wow.  It takes a much, much higher FG% on your side to beat an opponent that is constantly outrebounding and committing fewer turnovers than you are.

Heat vs Pacers Game 6
Bosh does a good job of hustling.
Cole is owning Hibbert by shooting open jumpers.
How many missed Pacer dunks have there been?
How fast is Lebron?  Wow.
Tagline from the NBA was, "Win or go Home." Imho, that is completely inaccurate, the Pacers are obviously already @home so the tagline should be, "Win or Stay Home."
Hibbert has mostly just had a few tip-ins.  Only a few hook shots.
I despise Lebron iso jumpers (And that is on repeat in the Finals)
Lebron passes are so crisp.
I certainly don't get into the "NBA CONSPIRACY" stuff, but seriously, the Pacers have gotten not only every 50-50 call, but every 60-40 call as well.  Odd.  (And that basically happened all series.)  I certainly don't think it's a conspiracy or anything like that, but I do think it could have been some sort of bias against the Heat, since the Heat aren't exactly a well-liked team.
Wade is on George.. (And it worked out soo well..)

According to the numbers here, the Pacers had the slightly better defense and the slightly worse offense (sorry about the typo), while the Heat took 3 more shots than the Pacers (that I charted).
I forgot to mention above that these series expected points (and really all the data) are very slightly off, because I updated my main data sets after I had already finished these three games.
Oddly, according to the expected points numbers, the Heat were supposed to win 86.4 to 86.3.
The actual score was in favor of the Pacers 91-77.

Heat vs Pacers Game 7
I had a lack of notes for G7 for some reason.
Lebron was missing his shots long (Maybe..  This note was hard to understand.)
Lebron's 30 pts have been fairly quiet.  (It's interesting how often he does this.  You are just casually, or even intently, watching a game and suddenly the announcer says "Lebron has 20", and you do a double take.  Lebron's points generally look somewhat effortless.  Although that hasn't yet been the case in the Finals)
The Heat have won 48 of their last 53 games, wow.
Main points - The Heat had a somewhat significant advantage on offense, while the Pacers had a somewhat significant advantage on defense.  And (somehow) I again charted more Heat shots.
Expected points Heat 99.8 Pacers 82.3.
Actual result Heat 99 Pacers 76 (Typo: The 78 should have been 76).
Finally the 'right' team won.  And finally my final expected points numbers were fairly accurate..  Or you could turn that around and say that finally the 'real score' almost matched what it should have matched.

I suppose I'll go ahead and break this into two parts.  The next blog post should be somewhat similar to this, and will deal with the NBA Finals.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Finals Preview: Heat vs Spurs 2013

THE NBA FINALS
The longer the series goes, the less likely that SA will win.  Even though that kind of goes against Gregg Popovich being a great coach, I think that because I don't know if SA can win game 6 in Miami and I'm fairly certain that they couldn't win a game 7.

WOW.  Miami and the Spurs are certainly the class of the playoffs.  SA boasts a 10.1 net scoring margin while Miami has a 9.6 net scoring margin.  The next closest, the Knicks, are at 2.7!  Obviously part of this is due to Miami and the Spurs completely crushing their first round opponents, but that is still quite impressive for both teams.

There are quite a few similarities in each teams' stats.
The Heat haven't lost consecutive games since JANUARY.  Depending on how you want to count..  That is 6, six, SIX months ago.  That is quite incredible.  So if the trend were to continue, then to lockup the series the Heat would only have to win game 1.

PG Cole or Chalmers vs Tony Parker  
Cole was not really a heavy usage player in the regular season, but due to some improved play he has seen his minutes tick up in the playoffs. Win Shares despises Cole.  I think that Cole defending Parker makes a ton of sense.  Cole should do a very decent job.
Chalmers is very inconsistent (partly due to limited shots per game), sometimes he'll toss up 20 points and the next game he'll only get 8.  
Tony Parker has been a fairly legit bronze MVP the last two years.  In the last series he had an 18 assist (and 15 point) game and a 37 point game.  Very impressive stuff.  
Obviously the edge is going to the Spurs, but it is not by a tremendous margin.

SG Dwayne Wade vs Danny Green
Wade has been struggling a lot as of late.  His jumper is erratic (especially thanks to him taking NQ shots) and he usually does not have the energy to blow by his man.
Danny Green has a TS% in the area of Lebron and Parker, but only takes about 8 shots a game.
Unless D-Wade regains his 2012 form, then this could actually be a very even matchup.  Slight edge Miami.

SF Lebron James vs Kawhi Leonard
Lebron James can turn in a triple double in any given game, or simply toss in 35 and be a lockdown defender. He's the best player on the planet, and he wants to add another ring to his hand.
Kawhi Leonard is a player who has grown by leaps and bounds since coming into the league.  However, he will be vastly over matched against Lebron.  Leonard's ability to cut and hit 3s will be key in having good spacing for the Spurs.
No offense to Leonard, but the definitive edge here kind of goes with out saying..  Miami.  


PF Udonis Haslem vs Tim Duncan

Haslem provided some absolutely critical baskets in the Pacers series and he actually provided an offensive spark... Occasionally.
Tim Duncan is the most polished PF in the game, and while he is not often talked about as this.. He is one of the best players of all time.  If he turns in a performance significantly less than 20 and 10, then a fan of the Spurs is generally surprised.
Not as bad a matchup in terms of pure athleticism/freakishness for Haslem, but Duncan has  many more post moves than Hibbert and Duncan even has a fairly reliable jumper.  Solid edge  to the Spurs.

C Chris Bosh vs Tiago Splitter (which I always hear in Stephen A's condescending voice)
Chris Bosh was actually having a decent playoff run up until 4 games ago (though his rebounding problems started in G1 against Indy), since that point his shooting has suffered tremendously.  I expect both aspects to improve considerably against Splitter.
Tiago Splitter is an underrated player and he's only been in the league 3 years, so he can certainly improve even more.  He may not stuff the box score, but his defense is quite decent.
Not a considerable edge, but still a definitely noticeable edge to Miami.


The remaining 4 players I'll attempt to matchup according to position.


SG Ginobili vs SG Allen 
Ginobili is saying that he is now fairly healthy, the problem is that he and the Spurs face the Heat's swarming defense.  I don't expect great things from Ginobili in this series.
Allen has had a bit of a cold stretch, but I expect him to have a good series.  His quick release threes will provide plenty of extra spacing for the other Heat players to have decent driving lanes.
Generally Ginobili would win the battle here, but in this series I think Allen will have the very slight upper hand.  Miami.

PG Gary Neal vs SG Mike Miller

Gary Neal is a decent backup point guard, but he will likely lose the battle against Cole and Chalmers.
Depending on matchups and foul trouble, etc, Miller may be getting single digit minutes this series, or he could be a semi-relevant bench player.  I'm expecting most of the former, but still he should get more minutes than last series.
Neal wins somewhat comfortably, due to the lack of minutes for Miller.  Spurs.

C Boris Diaw vs PF Shane Battier or C Chris Anderson
Diaw puts up even less numbers than Splitter, don't expect too much impact from him this series either.
(also just wanted to throw in that I think Dejuan Blair is an underrated player who I hope (Since I'm picking the Heat) will not be getting any serious minutes in the Finals.)
Shane Battier has been very cold from deep lately, though I still think he should be getting more minutes.  Now that the Heat are past the Pacers, he should get a few more minutes.
Chris Anderson (obviously) isn't actually the MVP of the Heat, even though I sometimes I joke that he is.  Anderson provides a great spark for the Heat.  Effectively speaking, he doesn't do a lot on the box score, the thing is that he provides so many great bench minutes that would otherwise be going to someone like (and no offense meant to him or others) Joel Anthony.  Heat.


Coaching
Erik Spoelstra vs Gregg Popovich 

Erik Spoelstra had some odd matchups in the last series, but I don't really expect too many problems in this series.
Gregg Popovich has kind of obliterated the opposing coach in each series, and he is actually the main reason why I see this series going 6.  If the coaches were swapped, then I would take the Heat in a very comfortable 5.  Spurs.

Miami Crowd vs SA Crowd

No big advantage to either side here.  Miami's crowd has finally started to realize the Heat are good, and SA's crowd has basically been coming all season. Push.

** Quick aside

Looks like the 'curse' of being named Coach of the Year has struck again.  Coach Karl is out, despite winning 57 games and losing a key player right before the playoffs.  I don't completely hate the move or anything, because Coach Karl may not be a great coach, but still he was a very competent coach, who at least gets his team into the playoffs (effectively) each and every year.  I think a great spot for him to coach is in Charlotte, not as some sort of punishment or anything, but because I think he could get the best out of that young team, and provide much more exciting and fast-paced basketball for the city.  (Not that I'm saying I want Steve Clifford to be fired or anything, while he is unproven, I generally like 'no name' hires, and as such I kind of think Clifford will do a decent job.)


FINALS PREDICTION

Miami is the first team facing SA that I thought could actually beat the Spurs..  Except for the Lakers anyways.  (/cough)  And SA is the first team facing Miami that I think could possibly beat the Heat.

Best case for the Spurs, win in 6.  Best case for the Heat, win in 4.
Yeah, I might be too favorable to the Heat, but honestly other than the Duncan matchup, I think the Heat should do quite well in this series.  Overall the matchups claim to be somewhat close, Miami won the matchups in this count, 5-4 with a push.

The Heat are 12-1 in their playoffs series in the Big Three Era...  12-1.  And yet people still complain that the Heat aren't 'good' enough..  What a joke.  This may be because people love to 'hate' the Heat, but seriously folks can be very dense sometimes.  According to SportsNation (Scientific, no, but I don't know why anyone would want to mess with the results.) the Pacers were favorites (by the public) 51-49 over the Heat, and the same 51-49 is what the public favors the Spurs over the Heat.  This might be the only situation where the PU Spurs should actually be the somewhat heavy underdogs.
I have the Heat winning in 6, though I certainly thought about other possibilities.  This is the least certain I have been about a series since the first round.

NBA Conference Finals Review

1 Miami Heat vs 3 Indiana Pacers
Predicted Miami in 6, actual result was Miami in 7.
Well, thanks to the coaching of Erik Spoelstra, and a certain play by Chris Birdman Anderson, the Pacers best possible scenario came true.   Otherwise Miami in 6 would have come through.

2 San Antonio vs 5 Memphis
Predicted Spurs in 5 actual result was Spurs in 4.
Weird, I predicted a much quicker series than most folks did and yet I was still too long.  Overall though, I am also quite satisfied with this pick.  All I am generally trying to do is pick the most likely scenario, which in this case happened to be Spurs in 5.

In games 1 and 4 the Spurs had a fairly sizable advantage, in games 2 and 3 the games were much more competitive and both went to overtime.  And if you are given 2 theoretical overtime games between somewhat evenly match teams, then the most likely scenario is that each team will win a game.  And if that would have occurred than the series would have been at 3-1 in favor of the Spurs, with a home game for the Spurs to (likely) close the series out.  Apparently though, the Spurs wanted the sweep instead.

My Finals prediction should be out later today.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Lebron James is guarding David WEST?

Quick preface.  The last post was just in my drafts, so I didn't have to do anything but quickly edit it.  So it's not often that I will actually post twice in a day, but here is a blog which is actually on time and relevant.

My suggestions for the Heat to implement in game 7.



Lebron James is one of the few players on the NBA All Defensive First-Team who isn't on the First-Team as part of a facade.  I'm not necessarily saying that any of the First or Second Team Defenders are poor defenders, (though in the case of a player like Kobe Bryant, I am certainly willing to say it..  It's kind of a joke that he has made [this was just my quick count, so I could have miscounted] 12 of the last 14 all defensive teams either on the first or second team.  He hasn't always been as bad a defender as he was the last two years, but still, I don't know if he has ever been a top ten defender in the NBA.  And he most definitely has not been a top 10 defender 12 of the last 14 years.) I'm just saying that a large portion of being in the top two tiers is just based on the player's name ID and relevance, as opposed to the player's actual ability and performance in defending other players for that given year.


I got side-tracked a little there with what my main point is...  Anyways..  Lebron James is a great defender, and while I haven't had the chances to watch too much of the Heat and Pacers games so I don't know if Lebron guarding West is in the 60th percentile or the 90th percentile, but I do know that I do not understand why Lebron James is guarding David WEST.  David West.  

lefloppin2.gif (411×276)
I don't care if a team is playing small ball, big ball, little ball, annoying ball, defending ball, offensive ball, huge ball, fast ball, ANY KIND OF BALL.  Why is Lebron James guarding David West?  Unless the purpose is to produce funny sequences such as the LBJ and West flop on the right, then it is utterly, mystifyingly dense of Coach Spoelstra for him to have one of the best defenders in the world on David West.

Lebron James, apparently, isn't (mainly) being put on Hibbert, or Paul George, he's not even being put on George Hill to create havoc, heck, he's not even being put on Stephenson so that James can rest and be more productive on the offensive end.  It does not make any sense.

I'll go ahead and go through each player individually.
LBJ on Roy Hibbert makes some sense to me because, A. The Heat effectively have no players who would actually matchup with Hibbert better than Lebron James does, other than possibly Bosh.  B. Lebron is vaugly superhuman, so I don't think that guarding Hibbert would tire him as much as it would a normal player.  However, I still think it would tire him more than guarding any of the other Pacer's players, except for David West and possibly George Hill.

Lebron on Lance Stephenson..  Well, I actually already stated my main reason for it being better for Lebron to guard Stephenson as opposed to West.  The reason is less effort exerted on the defensive end, so Lebron could have more energy for the offensive end.

James on George Hill would not really provide Lebron with more rest, but it would create massive havoc for the other team.  If the Pacer's floor general is out of commission then the Pacers offense would have some major problems.

Lebron on David West seems a bit dense to me because, (and I could be wrong) West is usually a physical, Memphis-type Grizzly Grinder (Ha, I just thought that phrase up, I'm totally using a slight variation of that in my Spurs-Griz series recap).  He shoots about an average % for a PF, though that is actually kind of decent for the Pacers.  He shoots a couple more shots a game as opposed to an average PF, but that certainly is not a great reason to place Lebron on him.  Overall, it makes no sense as to why LBJ is on David WEST.

I just got bumped!!  Who bumped me??  Oh, I see
Hansbrough, he's a scrappy player, it must have been him.
I know, I'll deck Tyler Hansbrough on National TV,
I'm certain no one will see me do it either.
Finally, the last matchup analysis, Lebron on Paul George.  George stuffs the stat sheet in just about every statistic Lebron does.  George is kind of like a mini-Lebron (I don't mean that as an insult, obviously), except that George also has turnovers. (Lebron James puts up an insane EFG net of shooting about 10% better than the player he is guarding, while P George puts up an extremely impressive net of about 6%.)  It just makes sense to me to have Lebron shutdown George.  I have a lot more respect for Coach Spoelstra than most people have for him, but this decision (of his I'm assuming) for Lebron to guard West is not exactly the best idea in the world.  And I would hope that he has learned from his mistake, and will not have Lebron be West's primary defender in game 7.

Why is there so much 'strong like' for Indy?  Is it just the 'hate' the country has for the Heat, or what?  Like quite a few things I've been talking about in this blog, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Why did Chris Andersen deck Hansbrough?  Of course the dude does look like the above image, and he does other various crazy type things, so yeah, the things which he does on the court probably shouldn't make a lot of sense anyways.

Paul George just had two games, one after the other, consecutively, in a row, (I'm guessing you get the point) in which he shot a decent percentage, that will not be happening in game 7.
My preference is to have Lebron guard P George 70% of the time, Hibbert 15% of the time and then 15% on any random Pacer due to switches, or if a player is hot and the like.

I will be quite interested in watching and (and to my limited extent) dissecting the game tomorrow night. It should be interesting to see the matchups in general and, in particular, who Lebron will be guarding.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment.  (Haha, like anyone's going to do that.)  God bless.

Overall NFL Season Spread Records, 2012


Straight up 
With the exception of the Ravens at 6-10, the lowest records I had were 7-9's.  I just did not have many high performers (with the exception of the Texans at 14-2) and couldn't get above the 11-5 mark.

Spread
I had a couple more bad records (though no completely horrible teams) and had 7 teams finish 6-10.  Once again the upper limit was basically an 11-5 record.

I was destroying it in the first half of the season, correctly predicting around 65% of the spreads, but in the second half of the season I was worse than flipping a coin and was around 40%.

Overall, I finished with a disappointing 57% accuracy on picking straight up..  Simply picking the favorite in each game would quite possibly have provided a better %.  I was also a little disappointed with only hitting 53% in terms of correct spread predictions.