The Greatest Season Ever: Post 3

Beginning in 2003, the San Antonio Spurs reeled off three straight championships every odd year. Not forgetting their chip in 1999, and its safe to add historical precedence to the list of reasons why the Spurs should rightly be considered dangerous in 2011. With the foundation of Tim Duncan/Greg Popovich and Pete Holt/R.C. Buford, the Spurs have all the makings of a team that if healthy, should be considered in a class with Boston, Orlando, Los Angeles and Miami.

It is my humble belief that the Spurs are the deepest they’ve been since 2003.

Last season, the team made it to the Western Conference Semis with Tony Parker hobbled and Richard Jefferson clearly still trying to find his way in a system that takes most a year to acclimate to. To his credit, Jefferson has been very candid about his struggles last year. He’s even put in one-on-one time with Greg Popovich and with a new, fat contract in tow, seems to be more than willing (dare I say driven?) to focus on molding his game to fit with what the Spurs have successfully done for over a decade (at least 50 wins for the last 11 seasons).

Parker is in a contract year and is only 28. Despite the pounding his body takes due to his attacking style of play, with George Hill’s emergence and Pop’s brilliant time-management skills, Parker will get the best of both worlds. Plenty of rest. But plenty of opportunity to return to the 50 percent shooting and 18 and 6 he consistently put up the five seasons prior to last.

Outside of Lebron, potentially the biggest offseason acquisition for a legitimate contender? Tiago Splitter. For those who don’t know, Mr. Splitter was named the 2010 Spanish League MVP last year. A couple of other recent Spanish League MVPs? Luis Scola (twice) and Marc Gasol. Sure, there was an adjustment period for both, but they each shot over 51 percent and both had PERs better than 16 their first seasons in the Association. And neither got to play and learn from Tim Duncan. Splitter is tough, unselfish, smart and defensive-minded. Basically the perfect fit in the Spurs system. Best of all, he’s only 25.

As for the rest of the roster, Gary Neal, another Euro-find, is polished enough to contribute right away and there is absolutely no reason why the Spurs’ drafting magic can’t continue. James Anderson will join DeJuan Blair, George Hill and to a certain extent, Alonzo Gee, as an immediate contributor with plenty of upside still yet to explore.

Look, people are rightly talking about the Boston Celtics (me included) and how they should still be the most feared team in the East, always providing the caveat of health. So, what makes the Spurs any different? Well, besides the fact that they have three championships with the Manu, Parker, Duncan core to Boston’s one with Pierce, Allen, KG.

I expect a Western Conference Finals bid for the Spurs barring no major injuries.

Despite my affinity for Kobe Bryant and my belief that he is widely undervalued, I still recognize that there’s little debate that Duncan has been the decade’s best. As a big man with a new defensive presence protecting him, I’m confident that he’ll continue to play at an elite level.

Especially with how svelte and fit he’s looked in the preseason. It’s preseason, but he did put up 10 and 7 in only 16 minutes a game.

Some quick thoughts on a few other teams.

The Orlando Magic are also not being given the proper amount of respect. Is Vince Carter past his prime? Yes, but he’s still a really good player and any marginal improvement from last season, which is a reasonable expectation, could be enough. Especially if Dwight Howard has figured out how to utilize his speed and athleticism to punish the two centers that have been his kryptonite (Shaq and Kendrick Perkins). If, if, if…sure, but Miami, LA, Boston all of have plenty of ifs as well.

Look at the Magic. They are perhaps the deepest team going into the season. Two-deep at every position, the Magic can easily withstand any injury to anyone on the roster that is not season-ending. That goes for Howard as well, seeing as how Marcin Gortat would start on no less than 13 other teams. Ryan Anderson, who was stolen from New Jersey in the Carter trade, is a Troy Murphy-in-training. Brandon Bass provides size and offense off the pine. Mickael Pietrus is good from beyond the arc and a defensive menace while Quentin Richardson started 75 games last year for the Heat. And if Orlando had not matched Chicago’s offer, J.J. Redick would be starting at the two for the Bulls.

Hell, Chris Duhon has 137 starts over his past two seasons.

The Magic have a new state-of-the-art arena; a terrific coach who has talked earnestly about unwinding from previous stressful highs; a deep as the ocean bench, and several trade assets that could be used come February to snag a whale of a catch…

I’m going to watch the Toronto Raptors this year. I thought last season was going to be a grand experiment testing if a Euro-style team could be successful in the NBA. Only problem was that Jarrett Jack and Chris Bosh still played like Americans. Now Bosh is gone, and Andrea Bargnani has assumed the mantle of franchise player. Bargs is the prototypical European player. Tall, skilled. A stretch-five with a deficiency in the rebounding and physical play that the NBA demands.

A very intriguing player is Linas Kleiza who led Lithuania this past summer to a bronze medal behind 19 points and 7 boards on 52 percent from the field. He’s a bit laterally slow for a small forward, but he’s big, strong and weighs close to 250. He’s also 25 and coming into his prime. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the Raptors go-to scorer this season and average 16-18 points.

In fact, I’d be willing to bet that five or more players will be averaging at least 10 points.

Freak athlete DeMar DeRozan will get plenty of looks to have a breakout sophomore campaign. Leandro Barbosa, with a year’s distance from his mother’s death and the injuries he endured, will be looking to reprise his sixth man of the year role. Bargnani will be shouldering a greater scoring load. And the dynamic duo of Jarrett Jack and Jose Calderon has me thinking of 07-08 when T.J. Ford and Calderon shared the lead guard spot and both had highly efficient seasons.

This year’s Raptors are going to be weak inside and will survive by moving the ball and spreading the wealth on offense and by implementing a variety of zone defenses and team rebounding concepts. If the team gels, they could win 35-40 games and snag a playoff spot and officially announce what has been steadily gaining momentum—that Euro League style of play and players are both NBA-ready.

The Greatest Season Ever: Post 1

Been a long time since I last posted something. No time like the present to start it up again. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about an NBA season before. So many changes, so many exciting storylines: the Superfriends, the Lakers 3peat aspirations, the maturation of young teams like the Bucks and Thunder, the refusal to concede of veteran championship squads like the Celtics and Spurs, vindication mixed with a pinch of revenge for the Cavs, and of course Blake Griffin.

Here’s an interesting thought. If Andrew Bynum really will be out until December, a Lakers squad sans the soon-to-be 23-year-old is not nearly “faraway best in the west.” In fact, without Bynum, Dallas has a much deeper, bigger team and suddenly Portland has the size advantage and the Thunder no longer is too small.

On a quick side note, I honestly think expectations are too high for OKC. First of all, while the team has extremely talented bigs, all of them are really power-forwards, except for Cole Aldrich who’s big, but also a rookie. In addition, the Thunder have never won a playoff series and they’re a young team (average age was 24 last season). The last Finals team whose best players had never won a playoff series before that season was the Shaq/Penny Magic in 94-95. And as good as Durant is going to be this year, not sure he’s at 94-95 Shaq level. Shaq, because of his sheer size, caused massive adjustments on both ends of the floor. Durant’s awesome, but he still lacks defensively, and in three seasons he’s never averaged three assists. Even Melo averages more than three assists. Hell, a third-year Shaq only had 16 less assists (in three less games) than a third-year Durant. So, yeah, Durant’s got a ways to go before he impacts entire games like young Shaq. End, somewhat long “quick side note.”

All that to say, if Bynum is out? Yeah, definitely I can see the Thunder beating the Lakers.

And, I really, really like a healthy San Antonio team. Especially if Richard Jefferson learned anything at all from Greg Popovich over the past month in their one-on-one time. A Jefferson closer to his 08 self, a healthy Tony Parker (who, for whatever odd reason a lot of people seem to be overlooking), and 2010 MVP of the Spanish League Tiago Splitter, along with Duncan, Ginobili and Pop—that team is Lakers-with-Bynum good.

So, I’m not convinced that the Lakers are far and away favorites in the West. On a similar line of thinking, I don’t understand how people believe the Heat are going to automatically roll to the finals. Could they win 70 plus games? Absolutely. In fact, if they don’t, it’s going to be somewhat disappointing. I mean, come on. They’ve got arguably the Association’s top two talents and arguably the league’s best power-forward. I know Pau Gasol is widely considered the best power forward. And I think he’s a wonderful player. Top-15 for sure. But he’s playing with Kobe Bryant! Who’s Nowitzki played with? (Okay, Nash, but he’s no Bryant). How about Chris Bosh?

Forget Bynum, Artest, Odom, and Phil’s HOF coaching, Bosh has never even played with one other great player. I mean, Vince Carter…Sure, VC had MJ talent, but without the MJ drive to go with it, the former Tar Heel high water marked at all-star/best dunker of all time—which is sadly poetic considering VC stopped doing the dunk contest because he didn’t want to be known as a dunker.

But, I again digress. Back to Bosh. While he never has played with much talent, he’s also never been coached by the best. No offense to Kevin O’Neil, Sam Mitchell, and Jay Triano. O’Neil has an NBA record of 33-49 to go along with his 187-194 career college record. Mitchell won coach of the year, but in four full seasons, his teams only had one season over .500, a 41-41 season, a 33-win club and a 27-win club. Triano’s 65-82 for his career.

I know Spoelestra (career 90-74 record) is no veteran coach, but he did a phenomenal job with last season’s team that finished second in opponent FG%, second in opponent points per game, and seventh in defensive rating according to basketball-reference.com while ESPN’s John Hollinger had them rated as the fourth best defense. That’s all the physical evidence I need to accept that he truly is Pat Riley’s disciple. Whatever you may think of Pat Riley, there’s no denying his ability to win. And in terms of quality of NBA coaches, Riles walks closest to Red Aurbach.

So, it will be interesting to see how the storyline concerning Bosh’s status in the NBA goes and how people’s view of Gasol as the best power forward will change now that Bosh is playing with Kobe-Bryant-level talent, under the direction of a Hall of Famer.

Remember, Bosh shot 77 percent during the 2008 Olympics. He also led the team in rebounding and as a roleplayer, he was free to play tenacious defense. With Lebron and Wade this season, I could easily see a healthy Bosh shooting over 60 percent from the field and averaging 11 plus rebounds while leading the team in scoring and being a beast on defense.

What Worst Trade Ever?

So people still think the Pau Gasol trade is the worst heist in the history of the NBA? Still scratching your head about why the Grizzlies swapped the elder Gasol for Kwame Brown, Aaron Mckie, Marc Gasol, Javaris Crittenton and what basically became the draft rights to Darrell Arthur?

Please stop.

First off, Kwame and Mckie were pure salary dumps that helped put the Grizzlies in the position to get…well, they went out and got Zach Randolph. While I question that choice, in some respects I understand it, especially considering the Grizzlies drafting of Hasheem Thabeet.

You can denigrate the Thabeet selection all you want. But that was a Heisley move. So Chris Wallace, like he’s done for quite some time now, tried to make the best of it.

Yeah, Pau Gasol is a stud. He was a key component in getting the Lakers their 15^th championship last season. The Lakers are a ridiculous 120-35 with the elder Gasol in the lineup. But this year has been a coming out party for the younger Gasol who is turning into a monster himself.

If you look at the trade now, you can see that despite Heisley’s best efforts it has turned out rather nicely thus far. Marc Gasol is a 25-year-old banger averaging 16 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists on 64.3 percent shooting. He’s one of only two centers (the other being Marcus Camby) in the League that is averaging at least 1.5 blocks and over a steal per game.

And he hits free throws at a 76 percent clip.

Remember, this guy was the reigning MVP of the ACB League, the second best league in the world, before coming over to the States last season.

Of those players who have played at least ten games, Marc has the highest true shooting percentage (68.8) in the NBA after Chris Paul. He’s got more double-doubles than David Lee, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki. And in his last game against the Clips Sunday, Gasol dropped this statline: 26 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals on 13-18 shots.

Gasol’s PER of 22.57 ranks him 21^st in the entire league and sixth amongst centers behind his brother Pau (who has only played five games), Duncan, Dwight Howard, Nazr Mohammed, and Greg Oden. Outside of the anomaly of Mohammed (we’ve seen his stud for two weeks routine before) that’s some pretty lofty company. And while Mohammed only plays 14 minutes a night, Gasol is tied for second amongst centers with Brook Lopez in minutes per game at 35.9 (the injury-prone Chris Kaman leads all centers at 36.9, just another reason why Dunleavy should be fired).

So, a Gasol for Gasol swap all by its lonesome would have been looking pretty decent now. But add to Marc the services of 28-year-old Randolph, who, despite the horrific rep, is averaging 19 points and 9 boards and 2 assists and shooting over 50 percent for the first time since his sophomore season, and we begin to see the real value of the trade.

While history tells us that Randolph’s good behavior probably won’t last, it has to be noted that he’s having the second best season of his career and the team is actually winning too.

With the Gasol/Randolph duo, Rudy Gay’s matured game and the surprising run of Jamal Tinsley (who knew?), the Grizz find themselves with a 4-1 record over their past five, which really should be a 5-game winning streak after blowing a 22-point lead against the Clips.

And this is without seeing what Arthur, who had a pretty decent rookie season but is out with a torn pectoral muscle, can bring to the table as well as who the Grizzlies will draft with the pick they had returned to them when they traded away Crittenton to the Wizards.

In five years, we could be saying that the Grizzlies got the better end of the deal, even if the Lakers win three more championships, seeing as how Pau couldn’t carry a team all by his lonesome (no one can).

So please, please, please. Let’s stop with this most lopsided trade of all time talk. That’s so, 2008…