Jump to content

NBA 2011-2012 Season


The Imp's Advocate

Recommended Posts

I have just watched my Mavericks lose three in a row in the last three games to the likes of Phoenix, Sacramento, and Golden State. In the last 9 games I have seen them lose 6 in 12 days. I need a couple of days break from basketball. My remote is dangerously close to becoming permanently embedded in my big screen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I take it you haven't watched the Knicks play very often this season =P Before the KNicks can accomplish anythgin at all they need to get rid of the coach. He's got no fuckin clue what he's doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rockets are on the slide as well :(. Lost 5 out of 6, and now no Kyle Lowry for 2-4 weeks. Fortunately Portland and Minnesota are in a tailspin too, but it's going to be tough to pull out wins when Johnny Flynn is your backup point guard :(.

ST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excuse my double post, but I just took a look at the standings. At the moment every Western Conference team except Sacramento and New Orleans are better than the 8th seed in the East. I mean, I know the conferences have been imbalanced for a while now, but it's pretty ridiculous this year. The Knicks missing out on the playoffs would push up Houston's draft pick from 15th to 9th!

ST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can someone explain to me how that works, draft picks? Do clubs earn a right to pick the best rookies or something?

At the end of the year, the teams are arranged in reverse order of their records. All the teams that didn't make the playoffs (ie. the bottom 7 in each conference) are put into a lottery, which is weighted in favour of the teams with the worst records. They determine which teams get the top three picks using the lottery, and then the rest of the teams are sorted in reverse record order. Once the lottery teams have been ordered, they then put in the playoff teams in reverse order after that.

It is possible to trade your pick in the draft to another team (if there's a player you want to get rid of, for example). In the scenario I'm interested in, New York has traded their first round pick to Houston. Now, if New York make the playoffs, then they cannot pick any higher than 15th. However, because of the imbalance between the conferences, they actually have the 9th worst record in the league, so if they were to miss out on the playoffs then they would be picking 9th (assuming they do not move up as a result of the lottery).

Because there are many fewer basketball players on the court at any time than in pretty much any other team sport, the value of a 'star player' is much higher than in other sports. It is possible for a single player to carry a team to a much greater extent than any other sport I've followed. A consequence of this is that it is VERY valuable to have a high pick in the draft - if you can find the potential star, he will significantly improve your team's performance. For example, this year there is one player (Anthony Davis) that scouts are saying will be a superstar some day - if you can draft him onto your team, then you're set for years to come (at least in theory...projections of superstardom don't always come true).

Unfortunately, that leads to some teams pursuing a 'tanking' strategy - they will trade their good, older players for as many draft picks as they can with the aim of doing very badly, get high picks in the draft for a couple of years and in theory end up with a nucleus of very talented youngsters who as they mature will lead the team to glory. The idea behind the lottery system is to prevent this from happening - you are not guaranteed the top pick if you do badly. But unfortunately it doesn't do enough to stop teams from bottoming out - there are at least two teams this year (New Orleans and Charlotte) who are transparently employing this strategy. They will still be getting a very high draft pick, even if it's not necessarily the #1 pick.

ST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, that leads to some teams pursuing a 'tanking' strategy - they will trade their good, older players for as many draft picks as they can with the aim of doing very badly, get high picks in the draft for a couple of years and in theory end up with a nucleus of very talented youngsters who as they mature will lead the team to glory. The idea behind the lottery system is to prevent this from happening - you are not guaranteed the top pick if you do badly. But unfortunately it doesn't do enough to stop teams from bottoming out - there are at least two teams this year (New Orleans and Charlotte) who are transparently employing this strategy. They will still be getting a very high draft pick, even if it's not necessarily the #1 pick.

New Orleans and Charlotte are obviously looking to rebuild with a younger roster and some of those players are not yet in the NBA. But I personally don't think that is a problem, in and of itself. No system is perfect. If you don't give the worst teams the best draft picks, then teams with fewer resources will remain cellar dwellers forever. In the NBA it is already hard enough to compete if you are a small market team, and I mostly think that the NBA lottery system is a pretty good one for maintaining the balance between discouraging tanking and helping poor teams rebuild. It sucks that the Bobcats and Hornets suck so badly, but no matter what some team is going to be the worst, and since the NBA is less chancy/luck based than say, baseball, then it isn't surprising that bad teams lose the vast majority of the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder what the backlash will be when New Orleans "wins" the draft lottery, Will Stern finally get ousted?

No. New Orleans will be near the post possition anyway.

Sir Thursday,

The eastern conference is now significantly stronger than the west. You dont evaluate the conferences based on the bottom tier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The eastern conference is now significantly stronger than the west. You dont evaluate the conferences based on the bottom tier.

Well, it all depends on how you define "stronger". If it is difficulty in making the playoffs, the West is stronger. If it is difficulty making it out of the first round, it is debatable. If it is difficulty in making it to the Conference Finals or winning the conference, then the East is stronger.

But I don't think you can make a blanket statement that the East's two best teams > the West's two best teams = East is stronger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. New Orleans will be near the post possition anyway.

So? New Orleans is the team owned by the NBA and run by Stern. If it wins a luck based draw then there would and should be an uproar over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just saw on hoops hype:

Milwaukee traded forward Stephen Jackson and center Andrew Bogut to Golden State for guard Monta Ellis and forwards Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown.

First thoughts: good trade for GS. With Steph they have enough outside shooting power (better shooter than Jenkins) and Bogut and Lee will be a good tandem (gasol Bynum light)

For the Bucks............I dont know......Monta and Skiles will butt heads like montain goats I fear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Radio reports that Mike D'Antoni has resigned. NFL reporter Adam Scheftler just tweeted it. http://twitter.com/#!/adamschefter

ETA:

http://espn.go.com/n...dantoni-resigns

yeah, was just coming in with this:

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/eye-on-basketball/17792972/mike-dantoni-out-as-knicks-coach

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...