khandor’s sports blog

Where does your favourite team rank at the halfway point in the regular season schedule?

Related:

What it takes to win the NBA Championship

Where is your favourite team in the race to win this year’s League Championship?

Related:

What it takes to win the NBA Championship

As of today, the odds to win this year’s NBA Championship look like this.

However …

If there is one player who is currently on the open market that Pat Riley SHOULD try to add to his existing squad, in order to ensure that his team has the best opportunity possible to win this year’s NBA Championship, it is none other than …

=========================

Miami Heat extend contract offers to Kenyon Martin, Joel Przybilla

The Heat have offered contracts to both Joel Przybilla and Kenyon Martin, their agents told ESPN.com. Przybilla is expected to make a choice between the Chicago Bulls and Heat, according to agent Bill Duffy. Martin is interested in several teams, with the Heat in the mix, according to agent Andy Miller.

The Sporting News reported Wednesday that Przybilla is planning to make a choice by the end of the week.

Heat president Pat Riley has been recruiting both players as the Heat look to add depth to their frontcourt. According to multiple league executives, the belief is that the 7-foot-1 Przybilla is healthy and believes he can contribute to a contender in a limited role off the bench.

Przybilla played in 36 games for the Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Bobcats last season, averaging 1.8 points and 4.0 rebounds.

=========================

Joel Przybilla [C, 7-1, 259].

It says here and now that … if Mr. Przybilla is indeed 100% healthy, once again, and in position to play regular minutes, as a highly effective role player, either, as a “starter” or a “key sub” coming off the bench, then … the Miami Heat will win the NBA Championship this season, and the mere possibility of still getting them at odds of 5-2 is, in fact, a huge value investment.

There are three main phases to the game of basketball:

i. Offense;
ii. Defense; and,
iii. Rebounding.

Developing an accurate understanding of the overall NBA talent which exists on the roster for each team at the beginning of the season is a fundamental aspect of properly evaluating the day-to-day goings-on across the league over the course of the season.

INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF TEAM ROSTERS IN NBA’S EASTERN CONFERENCE [as of Sun-Dec-25-2011]

The fact is …

Champions simply work a whole lot harder … and longer, and smarter, and together … than everybody else.

They just make it look like they really don’t because of the fluidity, ease and confidence developed from hundreds [or, sometimes, thousands] of hours of additional – diligent, well coordinated, high level – practice, over a period of years.

PS. Current Odds, To Win the 2011-2012 NBA Championship

Could it possibly be the case that … after completing his 8th season in the NBA … Chris Bosh has finally developed an accurate understanding of what his “best” position actually is:

=========================

Bulked-up Chris Bosh: I’ll play center if needed

After shying from the assignment for much of his career, Bosh said he has resigned himself to the reality that he might be the Heat’s best option in the middle at times.

“You know, as much as every time I try to run from it, it just comes and pulls me back in,” he said during the start of informal team workouts Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena. “So I accept it. If I’m a five, put me down there, have me guarding the biggest guy, I accept the challenge. It is what it is. Every year that I’ve said ‘Oh, no, I’m not doing it,’ I’m in there anyway. So, I accept it.”

Bosh arrived bulkier than last season.

“Leaps and bounds better in my opinion,” he said of his revised physique. “But that was one of the things, not only did I want to get better on the court, but I really wanted to get in there in the weight room and really put a lot of work in and improve my body and improve my endurance and be in the best shape possible coming into this season, because it is physical down there and there shouldn’t be a season where I don’t average 10 rebounds.

“I feel like I let my team down, so that’s not going to happen again. And the only way I can do that is to get stronger, get more physical and be more of a presence on the boards.”

That emphasis, he said, was a constant during the lockout.

“Just weight room every day and just work,” he said. “That’s one thing I kind of didn’t do. I don’t think I worked hard enough last year. I was in a position where I didn’t know what to expect, and everything, I was kind of caught in the headlights a little bit and I couldn’t catch up.

“But now I know what to expect. I played in a championship series. I came up short. And I feel I know what it takes to get over that hump.”

=========================

as an integral player for a championship calibre team?

If so, then, this corner says, “Amen.”

Instead of trying to ‘put down’ the dynamic duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade [Miami Heat, 2010-2011], by comparing them to the perceived to be ‘less-than’ dynamic pairing of Jack Sikma and Gus Williams [Seattle Supersonics, 1978-1979] …

———————————————

Bringing it all together

So why were two good players able to team up and win it all when some of the all time greats (Wade and LeBron, Stockton and Malone, Drexler and Porter) have failed to do so? The answer is that they had perfect timing. They were in the league when the requirement to be a top team was much lower and the competitive advantage of a top team wasn’t as high. Additionally the playoffs were easier if you were a top team. Putting this all together let team work prevail! Of course as I’ve chronicled, this is not  the way things are any more. And that’s why modern superteams can still fail and why teamwork is no longer enough to win it all.

———————————————

… what ‘Mr. Dre’ SHOULD really be doing is asking the following question:

“How do the Dallas Mavericks/2010-2011 compare favourably with the same TEAM of Seattle Supersonics?”

The answer, on a person-to-person basis, might actually surprise him … when it comes to understanding the construction of a championship-winning TEAM.

FYI …

According to what was written by David Friedman, on Thu-Jul-07-2011, in an article about the Cavaliers:

————————————————

Analyzing the collapse of the 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers

“ … it will likely only become more difficult for Miami to win a championship, particularly if the lockout wipes out an entire season of James/Wade/Bosh in the prime of their careers.”

————————————————

According to what was written by yours truly, on Sun-Jul-10-2011 [published by the host at 11:56 PM], in a comment on David’s blog:

————————————————

Comments for “Analyzing the collapse of the 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers”

David:

If someone was inclined to make you the following wager:

=================================

During the course of the next 10 seasons, I say that the Miami Heat will, in fact, win at least 1 NBA Championship with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James on their team.

In contrast, you say that this will not happen.

=================================

might you be inclined to accept it?

————————————————

According to what was written by David Friedman, on Mon-Jul-11-2011 [published by the host at 11:56 PM], in a reply comment on David’s blog:

————————————————

Comments for “Analyzing the collapse of the 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers”

Khandor:

I said exactly what I intended to say on the subject and I am not foolish enough to wager about hypothetical happenings 10 years from now. We don’t even know if there will be a 2012 season, let alone what the salary cap/financial structure will look like when the NBA lockout eventually ends: there could even be a scenario in which the Heat have to break up the “Big Three” to get under the salary cap, so it is possible that the Heat may never win a championship with the nucleus that they had last season.

————————————————

According to what was then written by yours truly, on Mon-Jul-11-2011 [sometime after 5:05 AM], in a 2nd reply comment submitted to David’s blog:

————————————————

David:

re: “I said exactly what I intended to say on the subject and I am not foolish enough to wager about hypothetical happenings 10 years from now. We don’t even know if there will be a 2012 season, let alone what the salary cap/financial structure will look like when the NBA lockout eventually ends: there could even be a scenario in which the Heat have to break up the “Big Three” to get under the salary cap, so it is possible that the Heat may never win a championship with the nucleus that they had last season.”

1. Which is all the more reason someone who holds the opinion that you do – re: the supposedly increased difficulty Miami will have winning the NBA Championship during the next several seasons, with a core of Wade, Bosh and James, than they had this year – might actually be inclined to accept the wagering opportunity I outlined for you in my original comment, that was a follow-up question to the quote from your original article.

2. I asked you a simple question based on the quote from your original article. “What you’ve said” in the original article leads in the direction of the question I asked you and some might consider it disingenuous on your part not to answer it with a straight-forward, A. “Yes,” or, B. “No.”

3. Personally, I think your answer to the question asked might actually be, B. “No” … in which case, the extent to which you actually believe the original observation made in this quotation might be called into question by a thoughtful reader concerned with your own motivation for making it in the first place.

4. The British bookmakers who accepted the wager made by Gerry McIlroy and friends several years ago … i.e. that his young son Rory would actually win the British Open by a specified age, years in the future [somewhere in his mid-20s, IIRC] … were, in fact, MORE committed to their belief than you seem to be to your own observation about the difficulty Miami is likely to have winning the NBA championship with a core of Wade, Bosh and James.

PS. FWIW, at this point, I would not be prepared to bet my own hard-earned money on the threesome of Wade, Bosh and James winning the NBA title together, either, even though I believe that this will actually become EASIER for them to accomplish as each year goes by prior to them moving beyond their prime.

————————————————

which – interestingly enough – has not yet been published by the host … even though other, more recently submitted comments from other contributors do seem to have been published on his blog.

As each day goes by, it will certainly be intriguing to note, if and when David actually chooses to publish this comment on his blog … with a suitable reply, or not.

 Loading ...

PS. FWIW, please be aware that yours truly also happens to believe David Friedman is, in fact, one of the best and most accomplished NBA writers working in the business today.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on youth, LeBron

What was your reaction to the Finals?
I think it was a triumph of great teamwork over great individual play. The Miami team really is not. They weren’t ready to play the team game the way the Mavericks were, and that’s why the Mavericks came out on top.

What about how people react to LeBron James?
I think people just did not like his style, in self-promoting and aggrandizement of himself that ESPN was part of, and the event on ESPN turned a lot of people off. All these things to say about him as an individual. It’s a team game. People seem to lose sight of that pretty quickly.

How does he proceed from here?
That burden, really, is going to fall on the franchise, to get the right players that comprise a good team. He’s always going to be, for his whole career, a dominant and outstanding player. The way that they put the team together and promoted the team really did not do the team any good, and it didn’t do the game any good. It’s a team game and they should promote it as such.

For the most part, today’s article by one of ‘The Godfathers of modern-day statistical-based analysis for the NBA game’ – i.e. Dean Oliver – strikes the right note:

———————————————-

How Mavs’ style swap beat the Heat

Credit the Mavs and don’t kill LeBron. The Mavs’ defense did a great job keeping creators out of the paint. If you want to criticize someone, criticize the coaches, Scotty Brooks and Erik Spoelstra, for not figuring out how to attack the Mavs’ defense in a more decentralized way.

What team did the best against the Mavs’ defense this year? The Orlando Magic, who shoot 3s like maniacs. The Heat could have done more to spread the floor by running more sets for perimeter shooters, but they were also reportedly hampered a bit by an injury to James Jones. Don’t get me wrong, Brooks and Spoelstra are good coaches who just couldn’t quite match the moves quickly enough. And, of all the voices criticizing Westbrook and LeBron for what they did and didn’t do, [#1] I didn’t hear any of them offering constructive criticism for how to beat the Mavs’ defense.

A final lesson for the playoffs: When teams are fairly close, the NBA playoffs become a chess match. This makes it difficult to have basic statistics characterize a series. There are no great rebounding or shooting or turnover statistics to characterize the 2011 Finals, because adaptations constantly change what wins.

Even MVP Dirk Nowitzki had a statistically bad game in the clincher. Did he have a good series? Absolutely. [#2] But the tactical moves were what won this series.

———————————————-

in an effort to explain accurately what happened in the NBA Finals.

re: Bolded Text #2

This observation is 100% accurate.

re: Bolded Text #1

This observation, however, is not completely 100% accurate.

i.e. Exhibit A and B