2013 NBA Season News and Discussion

[Jibjabb]

Awards predictions!!

MVP: Kevin Durant (OKC) [Lebron was good but Durant was more vital to his team leading them to a better record, plus his stats were overall better besides assists which Lebron ofc will beat him in]

ROTY: Kyrie Irving (CLE) [Missed some games but clearly the best, wasnt even close]

COACH: Tom Thibadeu (CHI) [Best record in the league with his best player missing close to half the season, as well as other key players missing key time. Popovich was close but should be Thibbs once again]

6TH MAN: James Harden (OKC) [The best year round]

Dont really care about Most Improved. Probably wouldve been Lin but he missed about half the season so I doubt he is eligible

[buck008]

I suppose I'll toss my picks out there too.
Chicago over Philly in 5
Miami over NY in 6
Boston over Atl in 6
Indy over Orlando in 4

SA over Utah in 4
OKC over Dallas in 5
Lakers over Den in 7
Memphis over Clips in 7

[Thallidomaniac]

Congratulations Charlotte Bobcats, you are the worst team in NBA history!!

Woot woot! We're one step closer to having an NBA team go winless in a single season!

Here's my predictions for the 1st round of Playoffs:
West:
Spurs over Jazz in 5
Nuggets over Lakers in 7
Grizzlies over Clippers in 6
Thunder over Mavs in 6

East:
Bulls over Sixers in 5
Heat over Knicks in 5
Celtics over Hawks in 6
Pacers over Magic in 5

[conscript]

Awards predictions!!
MVP: Kevin Durant (OKC) [Lebron was good but Durant was more vital to his team leading them to a better record, plus his stats were overall better besides assists which Lebron ofc will beat him in]

ROTY: Kyrie Irving (CLE) [Missed some games but clearly the best, wasnt even close]

COACH: Tom Thibadeu (CHI) [Best record in the league with his best player missing close to half the season, as well as other key players missing key time. Popovich was close but should be Thibbs once again]

6TH MAN: James Harden (OKC) [The best year round]

Dont really care about Most Improved. Probably wouldve been Lin but he missed about half the season so I doubt he is eligible

MVP-LeBron by miles. The Heat were 13-1 without Dwyane Wade. LeBron's PER was miles ahead of everyone in the league. He will be a finalist for DPoY comapred to Durant being wildly mediocre on defense. OKC is all of one game better than Miami so record is completely irrelevant.

LeBron compared to Durant (NBA Rank)
Durant beats LeBron in PPG, 28.0(1) to 27.1(3). Thats it. ONE significant stat he beats him in and it is by .9 PPG lol.
LeBron beats Durant in Shooting Percentage(10), Rebounds (led the Heat at 7.9 per), PER (30.7, 1st by miles, 10th ALL TIME), EFG% (7th), Assists per game (13th), Steals per game (3rd), Offensive Rating (7th), Defensive Rating (7th), Offensive Win Shares (2nd), Defensive Win Shares (2nd), Win Shares (1st), Win Shares per 48 (1st, 8th all time).

LeBron's season was SOOOO much better than Durant's it is comical. For a significant portion of the year, LeBron was having the single best season in NBA HISTORY. He is so far beyond Durant on the defensive end it is a joke and he is right there with him on the offensive end. If LeBron doesn't win it will be for two reasons. One, the voters don't want to vote for him or two, Chris Paul gets all the credit he deserves for the Clippers complete 180.

1. LeBron James
2. Chris Paul
3. Kevin Durant

Rookie of the Year- Kyrie Irving and hard to argue. Maybe if Rubio was in the entire year it would have been close, but Kyrie was the only reason Cleveland wasn't bobcats level bad.

1. Kyrie Irving
2. Kenneth Faried
3. Ricky Rubio

Coach of the Year-Gregg Popovich. The Spurs tied the Bulls for the best record in the league. The Spurs did so playing in a massively harder conference. They may not have had a single injury with the impact of Rose, but the way the Spurs have managed this entire season is beyond masterful. Pop sat guys when the team was on an 11 game win streak to get them rest. TWICE. The Spurs are going into the playoffs looking like the best team in the NBA thanks to their fantastic management of their players. No one would say that about the Bulls.

1. Pop
2. Thibs
3. Monty Williams-New Orleans has no one on that roster except Gordon worth their paycheck and he missed most of the year yet New Orleans was respectable.

Sixth Man-James Harden, possibly unanimously. Seriously, that guy is great. He would start for basically every team in the NBA, and could start for OKC if they didn't use him as a rotation piece early. Heads and shoulders and chest above any other 6th man.
1. Harden
2. Lou Williams
3. Shane Battier. Lol scratch that, what a bust. Mo Williams

Most Improved-It will be Lin from the story alone. Does he deserve it playing half the year, maybe not, but the story is too big to pass up.
1. Jeremy Lin
2. Goran Dragic
3. Greg Monroe

Defensive Player of the Year=Tyson Chandler. The Knicks went from the 20s in defensive efficiency top being a top 6 team this year largely because of his signing. He has been great inside all year long.
1. Tyson Chandler
2. Tony Allen
3. Dwight Howard (only 3 because he missed time and destroyed his team all year with his off the court shenanigans)

---------- Post added 2012-04-27 at 08:18 AM ----------

If you want to see graphical evidence of how much better LeBron James was this year than the rest of the entire NBA:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/mia...ical-dominance
PER compared to minutes played. It is comical how far ahead he is of everyone. Absolutely comical.

[Jibjabb]

MVP-LeBron by miles. The Heat were 13-1 without Dwyane Wade. LeBron's PER was miles ahead of everyone in the league. He will be a finalist for DPoY comapred to Durant being wildly mediocre on defense. OKC is all of one game better than Miami so record is completely irrelevant.

LeBron compared to Durant (NBA Rank)
Durant beats LeBron in PPG, 28.0(1) to 27.1(3). Thats it. ONE significant stat he beats him in and it is by .9 PPG lol.
LeBron beats Durant in Shooting Percentage(10), Rebounds (led the Heat at 7.9 per), PER (30.7, 1st by miles, 10th ALL TIME), EFG% (7th), Assists per game (13th), Steals per game (3rd), Offensive Rating (7th), Defensive Rating (7th), Offensive Win Shares (2nd), Defensive Win Shares (2nd), Win Shares (1st), Win Shares per 48 (1st, 8th all time).

LeBron's season was SOOOO much better than Durant's it is comical. For a significant portion of the year, LeBron was having the single best season in NBA HISTORY. He is so far beyond Durant on the defensive end it is a joke and he is right there with him on the offensive end. If LeBron doesn't win it will be for two reasons. One, the voters don't want to vote for him or two, Chris Paul gets all the credit he deserves for the Clippers complete 180.

1. LeBron James
2. Chris Paul
3. Kevin Durant

Coach of the Year-Gregg Popovich. The Spurs tied the Bulls for the best record in the league. The Spurs did so playing in a massively harder conference. They may not have had a single injury with the impact of Rose, but the way the Spurs have managed this entire season is beyond masterful. Pop sat guys when the team was on an 11 game win streak to get them rest. TWICE. The Spurs are going into the playoffs looking like the best team in the NBA thanks to their fantastic management of their players. No one would say that about the Bulls.

1. Pop
2. Thibs
3. Monty Williams-New Orleans has no one on that roster except Gordon worth their paycheck and he missed most of the year yet New Orleans was respectable

?? Kinda lost here

Lets just start with some facts
FACT: Kevin Durant scored more than Lebron
FACT: Kevin Durant rebounded MORE than Lebron, contrary to what you said
FACT: Kevin Durant shot better from FT and 3PT line, while Lebron only held an edge in FG
FACT: Kevin Durant got more blocks than Lebron
FACT: Kevin Durant plays with 1 All-Star while Lebron plays with 2
FACT: Kevin Durant led his team to a better record in what you have said is a "Massively harder conference"
FACT: Kevin Durant played in more games for his team

Now based off those facts alone, Id say its clear that Durant has been more "valuable" to the Thunder than Lebron has to the Heat. Lebron should be 2nd but Durant has proven that his season was more impactful to his teams success. I dont think anyone could argue that OKC minus Durant is better than Miami minus Lebron. While with Durant they could easily be considered a better team.

For the coaches I dont see how Popovich can be but ahead of Thibaddeu. Thibs took a team that had to play without their MVP for 27 games in a 66 game season and led them to the BEST record as they will have home court if they played the Spurs. If that isnt impressive within itself then look at this. Their starting shooting guard missed over half the season (38 games), their other all star missed 12 games, the main 6th man missed 17 games, and he took a relatively nameless player in John Lucas and helped make him into a solid contributor. Any other team make them miss their starting back court for about half the season and their record will not be very good, let alone the best in NBA.

[Skarsguard]

Pretty sure Lebron's year doesn't compare to Jordan's 91 season or the year-s that Wilt did 50ppg/25reb per game.

Now for 2011-12 short season here's my awards:
MVP: Lebron James
ROY: Kyrie Irving
COY: Pop
Most Improved: Ryan Anderson
DPOY: Chandler
Sixth Man: James Harden (because Manu was out half the year)

[Windry]

My Predictions. I agree with Jibjabb on almost all the predictions.

1st Round
Bulls over 76ers in 4
Celtics over Hawks in 6
Pacers over Magic in 4
Heat over Knicks in 5

Spurs over Jazz in 5
Grizzlies over Clippers in 6
Lakers over Nuggets in 5
Thunder over Mavericks in 5

2nd Round
Bulls over Celtics in 5
Heat over Pacers in 5

Spurs over Grizzlies in 6
Thunder over Lakers in 5

Conference Finals
Spurs over Thunder in 6
Heat over Bulls in 7

Finals
Spurs over Heat in 6
Timmy gets his 5th ring!

[Skarsguard]

I don't think the Bulls are beating the 76'ers in 4 more like 5-6. It's going to be a "boring" series the both play defense 76'ers are 7th in rebounds and 3rd in allowed points they don't score but they pass a lot 10th in assist.

[Jibjabb]

I think the most boring series is Pacers vs Orlando. Pacers should destroy them.

Most intriguing to me is Thunder vs Mavericks. Potential major upset I think. Bulls, Heat, Spurs I dont think have any chance at losing. But Heat/Knicks will be fun to watch cause of all the star power. Im hoping Knicks can at least make it interesting.
Clippers vs Grizzles and Celtics vs Hawks should also be very good, I can see those going either way.

[Windry]

Clippers vs Grizzles should be the most competitive first round series. I think Knicks/Heat series is overhyped.

[Deleted]

I am indeed looking forward to the Clippers and Grizzlies series. Grizzlies have depth to stun any team in the league, hands down!

[dgarner32]

Im suprised the Thunder lost to the Nuggets, I thought for sure they would really try to win that game to avoid the Mavericks.

The Thunder did try to win that game and the Nuggets proved they could beat good teams. People forget that the Nuggets were # 2 in the West before all of the injuries hit them.

[buck008]

As far as the post season awards go...
LeBron is winning the MVP and it won't be close. You could make an argument for Durant, sure, but James is winning by a large margin. I think KD had a point in the season where he was obliterating people on the offensive end effortlessly, and the numbers he ended up putting up could have gotten him past LeBron had he sustained it. Maybe. James had a historically good season.

Coach is obviously between Popp and Thibs. It's a coin flip as far as I'm concerned. They both did enough to earn it, and I really don't know how the voters will see it.

RoY is Irving and again it isn't close.

Sixth Man is Harden by a mile.

I'd imagine Most Improved is Jeremy Lin solely because of a solid month of Linsanity. Linjury problems after be damned.

Defensive is very likely Chandler.

So really the only award that would be a close vote is Coach of the Year. Despite the vigorous support for Durant here, LeBron is walking away with the MVP.

[conscript]

Grats Thibs on proving all your critics right. For the last two years people have said that Thibs strategy of playing Rose and the rest of his starters in last minutes of decided games was going to hurt the Bulls. Now Rose looks like he hurt his knee with 1 minute to go when the Bulls were up by a dozen. Hope Rose isn't hurt too bad, but that is exactly why I don't like Thibs as a head coach. He beats his guys to death playing them pointlessly. They will still kill the Sixers even without him though.

[Skarsguard]

Grats Thibs on proving all your critics right. For the last two years people have said that Thibs strategy of playing Rose and the rest of his starters in last minutes of decided games was going to hurt the Bulls. Now Rose looks like he hurt his knee with 1 minute to go when the Bulls were up by a dozen. Hope Rose isn't hurt too bad, but that is exactly why I don't like Thibs as a head coach. He beats his guys to death playing them pointlessly. They will still kill the Sixers even without him though.

That's why I put Pop as my Coach of the Year I mean do you think Pop would have Timmy,Parker,Manu out if they were up by 20 with 1 min to go I don't hell he would have had them out earlier then that more then likely.

[fizzbob]

Grats Thibs on proving all your critics right. For the last two years people have said that Thibs strategy of playing Rose and the rest of his starters in last minutes of decided games was going to hurt the Bulls. Now Rose looks like he hurt his knee with 1 minute to go when the Bulls were up by a dozen. Hope Rose isn't hurt too bad, but that is exactly why I don't like Thibs as a head coach. He beats his guys to death playing them pointlessly. They will still kill the Sixers even without him though.

ehh, bulls aren't better with him. vs teams over .500 they have a higher win % without him than with him.

he's a poor shooter who shoots a lot. that's a lot of dead possessions and in the post season where defense is better and you see more zone, the games are slower, the value of each possession matters more.

bulls will win/lose based on their 3pt shooting and offensive rebounding. they're just not on the level of miami though. we saw that last year

as for MVP, lebron was the better player. he has no weakness and if he wants to, he will beat you. the only thing the GOAT candidates have on him is that he knows he's just an entertainer. they'd have murdered their families to win which is why guys like MJ were also gambling addicts. they wanted to win everything. lebron wants to win but at the end of the day, he knows he's a millionaire, a dad, a role model, etc. he is a better defender than any of those guys too, has a lot to do with his size and speed, you can't teach that. people make up reasons to knock him too, they'll talk about "the clutch" but since he came into the league nobody has hit more clutch shots and he hits them at a higher rate than the league average.

if he wants to go balls to the wall, nobody has a chance

[Auguine]

Grats Thibs on proving all your critics right. For the last two years people have said that Thibs strategy of playing Rose and the rest of his starters in last minutes of decided games was going to hurt the Bulls. Now Rose looks like he hurt his knee with 1 minute to go when the Bulls were up by a dozen. Hope Rose isn't hurt too bad, but that is exactly why I don't like Thibs as a head coach. He beats his guys to death playing them pointlessly. They will still kill the Sixers even without him though.

True enough. However, the Bulls have beaten the heat/celtics without rose a few times this year, and other really good teams. They are not done by any stretch. Home court will matter a LOT if they go against the heat however.

Miami is crushing the knicks thus far, pretty much as expected. I think everyone overplayed the "lol they suck in the playoffs" and people are forgetting just how insanely talented lebron james and dywane wade are. And Bosh is no slouch either.


I will only mention the MVP and coach of the year for my awards..lebron james will win it, should win it, and if he does not win it there is something terribly wrong with the system. I do not like Lebron James very much, and I think he is a proven choke artist/quitter in big games that are not going completely his way, but to say anyone was more valuable to his team, or if you want to go the "Better" route, is asinine. Lebron was by far the best player in the league this season, and he carried that team in a lot of games. Durant was great to, and he carried his team, but Lebron had one of the best modern seasons of all time, durant had a "Great" season.

Coach of the year in my opinion should be Pops, playing with his old man team, knowing how to get the best out of his new, young players, knowing when he could rest his starters (And still get the number one seed!) Thibedeu (I Spelled that wrong and I do not care to look it up) would probably be second. Adelman third.


I would love to see Dallas upset the thunder (I have no feelings for either team) I just think it would be awesome. And look out for memphis, I think they are flying heavily under the radar.

[RollTide]

Rose gonna be out into next year too. ACL and MCL. Chicago may have just entered the Shabazz sweepstakes.

....Hold that thought. NBC just retracted that story and says his status is unknown.

[buck008]

Jesus. I thought the Knicks would put up more of a fight than this. Battier has absolutely erased Carmelo thus far, and if Shumpert is as hurt as he looked... the Knicks are in for a long 4 games.

[Jibjabb]

ehh, bulls aren't better with him. vs teams over .500 they have a higher win % without him than with him.

he's a poor shooter who shoots a lot. that's a lot of dead possessions and in the post season where defense is better and you see more zone, the games are slower, the value of each possession matters more.

bulls will win/lose based on their 3pt shooting and offensive rebounding. they're just not on the level of miami though. we saw that last year

as for MVP, lebron was the better player. he has no weakness and if he wants to, he will beat you. the only thing the GOAT candidates have on him is that he knows he's just an entertainer. they'd have murdered their families to win which is why guys like MJ were also gambling addicts. they wanted to win everything. lebron wants to win but at the end of the day, he knows he's a millionaire, a dad, a role model, etc. he is a better defender than any of those guys too, has a lot to do with his size and speed, you can't teach that. people make up reasons to knock him too, they'll talk about "the clutch" but since he came into the league nobody has hit more clutch shots and he hits them at a higher rate than the league average.

if he wants to go balls to the wall, nobody has a chance

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? Please tell me you are joking with these comments.

1st off lets start with Lebron. Lebron is clutch? Really? Seriously? Better than Melo? Better than Dirk? Lebron is one of the WORST clutch performers in the NBA. Watch either of the Finals he was in. Look at his % when he came into the league. Started off something like 3 of 19. He frequently shys away from the moment. Takes awful shots or just plays hot potato with the basketball wanting his teammates to take the shot. And please tell me you did not just say hes a better defender than all the other Hall of Famers... Jordan, Russell, cmon. He has plenty of weaknesses too Idk where you are getting this dillusion from:
Ball Control (has never averaged less than 3 turnovers a game, very poor)
Free Throw Shooting (never has been 80% which isnt even all that good)
Outside Shooting (they used to have a shot chart of NBA players and outside the paint he was pathetic)
Clutch Factor (self explanatory)
I feel like im constantly having to rip Lebron just because of how overrated he gets at times. Hes a really good player, hes a potential hall of famer. But hes not Jordan, hes not clutch, hes not a top defender, but he is a good one.

Bulls are loads better with Rose. He makes their offense go as he can get other people open shots when the defense collapses on him. Hes the only player on the team who can go 1 on 1 on a consistent basis. They can beat 76ers without him, past that its doubtful. You cant blame Thibaddeu for his injury. It was a 12 point game (not 20 as someone said) and he had missed signficant time already he doesnt need more rest, he needs to keep him in to keep him in rhythm and Philly was making a run so he wants to close out the game, it is the playoffs after all. Also Rose wasnt even touched, he basically hurt himself. So its not like being in there exposed him to unnecessary contact, nobody hit him. He landed awkwardly on a hop step and thats that. If hes not ok then East playoffs just got booooooooooooring. Unless Indiana can make some noise.

For MVP I gave some pretty good facts for Durant, just saying Lebron was better isnt really saying anything. Theres lots of evidence that Durant was better even statistically (Durant led Lebron in 5 of the major stats (FT, 3PT, REB, BLK, PTS) while Lebron led in 4 (FG, AST, ST, TO)) Plus the fact he lead the team to a better record, in a better conference, with less all stars on the team, and didnt miss any games. But ok. I dont think Durant is loads better, heck I can see why some people would even pick Lebron. But to say Lebron was clearly superior is just a joke as there is nothing to support that claim.