The Double Standard

Life is full of double standards, who knew it would carry over to the NBA.  Four seasons ago, Kobe Bryant posted one of the single greatest scoring seasons (not to mention single greatest scoring game, at the Raptors expense) in NBA history, averaging not only a league leading 35.4 points per game but 4.5 assists as well as 5.3 rebounds.

Rather then handing the leagues Most Valuable Player award to the more than deserving Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash of the Pheonix Suns won the award for the second year in a row, despite an increase in turnovers and decrease in assists from his prior year. The reason? According to David Sterns (AKA "playa hater" according to some) dictionary, the league MVP not only makes himself better, but also his teammates. Since the Suns as a whole were doing better, Nash won the award, despite having Amar’e Stoudamire as opposed to the great Kwahmay Brown (who’s more infamous for throwing cake and small hands than basketball).

So what does this all mean? Does this rule apply to every award in the NBA? No, clearly not, because a Most Improved Player of the Year can’t and shouldn’t necessarily have to make his teammates better to win the award, and the Defensive Player of the Year usually is the DPOY BECAUSE he teammates aren’t as good as he is, defensively at least. Although, if this is the unwritten rule for the MVP, it should then go hand in hand with the Rookie of the Year award, due to it being practically the same award, but strictly reserved for rookies.

That brings me to my next point, why does the ROY award seem to be unanimously and anonymously Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans and even second at this point seems to be Golden State’s Stephen Curry. There is no denying the greatness in both these players, but the team’s record speaks for itself.

Curry’s averaging 16.3 points per game, 5.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds a game, and dropped a very impressive triple-double on the Clippers, but there is no denying Don Nelson’s system inflates his numbers across the board. On top of that, Curry has a deserving All-Star in his backcourt by the name of Monta Ellis, and still they have the third worst record in the league.

On to Tyreke, who is on pace to join an elite club consisting of Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, and Lebron James as the only rookies to average 20 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds, but once again, where is his team?  The Kings have won a measly 24 games this season, tied for sixth worse in the league, meaning at this point, any numbers any of these two point guards throw on any team virtually won’t go anywhere farther than the stat sheet.

That leaves us with the Milwaukee sensation that has made everyone forget Michael Redd’s name. Brandon Jennings exploded unto the NBA scene with a 55-point outburst against the Warriors (that’s 41 more than Stephen Curry had that game if you were wondering). Since that time, his scoring has significantly dropped and has hit the 30-point mark only once. Ironically enough though, Jennings revived himself at the expense of Tyreke’s Kings, in which Jennings outscored Evans by 20 and had the same amount of assists (and three pointers) as Evans did turnovers (that would be eight). The Bucks went on to win that game behind Jennings’ 35 points in double overtime over the Kings, propelling their record since the All-Star break to 15-3, best in the NBA.  This gives the Bucks a solid grip on the fifth spot in the playoffs, three games ahead of Dwayne Wade’s Heat.

Before the season started, no one would have predicted rookie Brandon Jennings leading the Bucks into the playoffs, especially if it was mentioned that All-Star and sharpshooter Michael Redd would have a season ending injury, but Jennings has done just that. All three point guards are deserving of praise, but it seems when it comes down to vote for the award for Rookie of the Year, everyone’s only looking at the individual’s stats, as opposed to the teams success. Jennings will be marching into the playoffs come April as a team no one wants to face, while his rookie counter-parts will already be on summer vacation, watching the playoffs on TV just like everybody else.

Velcro-Man

  It seems it only took 13 less pounds to remind everyone why Ron Artest was Defensive Player of the Year, and making a late surge to win the award for the second time in his career. Sure that may sound a lil’ crazy, what with Avatar like players like Lebron and Dwight hitting people and blocking everything and anything within sight (even some that aren’t), but Ron Artest is slowly grooving into his comfort zone to be back to Ron Artest.

The “Velcro-Man” Artest has been stuck on his defenders since the All-Star Break, holding seven All-Star caliber players well below their season averages (5.7 approximately).  Artest has been the sparkplug the Lakers have desperately needed these previous games, igniting important runs in the third quarter, while average 5.5 of these bad boys in the last two.

So how good has Artest been? Everyone’s had their doubts about the whole Trevor Ariza/Ron Artest swap, but what’s there to think about at this point? Artest was predicted to melt down, but Artest has been nothing but the model citizen, while Ariza’s already been suspended for throwing elbows, and has been injured since the 27^th with no timetable set. With Ariza sidelined on the Rockets, Artest has been getting physical in every game by any means necessary (literally). He’s held these last seven prolific scorers to average practically four turnovers (Carmelo Anthony, Danny Granger, Andre Iguadala, Shawn Marion, Rudy Gay, Paul Peirce, and Corey Maggette), including eight by Carmelo and forcing Granger into a rugged 2 of 9 shooting night.

Before the season started, Artest made it clear, if the Lakers don’t win a championship this year, “it’s on me”.  Well, with one third of the NBA season left to go, Artest is making sure the Lakers are clicking on all four-cylinders before the playoffs start, and has started by making some personal changes. Artest has a new workout routine in which he runs five miles a day, and doesn’t eat after 9 p.m. “Some people get in a shooting rhythm but I get in a defensive rhythm. I’m in a rhythm right now defensively and I’ll continue trying to keep people under their average.”

The Lakers have made the NBA Finals the previous two years, but were labeled “soft” after their first encounter with a hungrier Boston Celtics team. Ron Artest was brought to this team for the sole purpose to bring with him his aggressiveness, and his desire to win (at times has taken “by any means necessary” to a different level). Artest is transforming this team, and making a transformation himself, to the old RON Artest.

Things Aren't Always How They Seem

It’s funny how trades work. How things turn out, for better or for worse. In the NBA, there is always something deeper to every trade. No longer do players simply get swapped like they used to. To make the salaries work, other players are usually used as “throw-ins” to make the deals work, and it’s usually players that have nothing to lose and everything to gain that make an impact.

            Lets move back a couple years to the “steal of the century.” After the Lakers “ripped off” the Grizzlies in the Pau Gasol trade, the Memphis front office was heavily criticized for “handing” Pau over to the Lakers. Greg Popovich, Spurs head coach, went as far to say there should be a trade committee to review all trades, and “I would have voted no on the L.A. trade.” Well, while the Grizzlies did trade away All-Star Pau Gasol and the missing link to a championship for the Lakers, the Grizzlies are doing more than okay for themselves. Two years later, and the Grizzlies are not only the youngest team in the league, but are fighting for a playoff spot. Marc Gasol (oh the irony) has turned into one of the leagues best centers, averaging 15 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Throw in 1.6 blocks per game and you have a very solid center for your team. On top of all this, the Gasol trade was used to create salary cap room with "Kwahmay Brown's" expiring contract, which was eventually used to land Zack Randolph, who would go on to have the best year of his career, making the All-Star team for his first time.

            Lets fast-forward a bit and talk more about this years trades, and how they may affect the unforeseeable future.

The Wizards are doing their best Indiana Pacers impersonation by starting completely new after their Gilbert Arenas gun scandal. Not only have the released Javaris Crittenton and Gilbert is suspended for the rest of the year, but they shook up the rest of their roster as well. Antwan Jamison moved on to bigger (not necessarily better after an abysmal 0-3 start) things in Cleveland. While Dallas received Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, and Brendon Heywood in exchange for Josh Howard and Drew Gooden. The two main players in this trade are clearly Josh Howard and Caron Butler. Well, Josh Howard played four games for the Wizards before tearing his left ACL, leaving him out for the rest of the season (could have been the ganja). While Caron Butler has missed a few games due to an allergic reaction, he too is playing less then average, throwing up numbers below his career averages. While this is all happening, Andray Blatche, forward/center for the Wizards, dropped 33 points and 13 rebounds in a winning effort against the Timberwolves in his first game after all the trades. The same Andray Blatche that was suspended in January for complaining about his role on offense has been averaged 26.6 points per game, 11.7 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game over his last seven. Dallas has improved immensely as well. Since losing their first game since the trade, the Mavericks have been on a tear, winning their last eight in a row. Who knows how any “throw-ins” will affect these teams later on down the road, but it seems both parties will benefit, either now or later.

The NBA is full of surprises, but with a good front office, surprises can be limited. The Lakers traded for seldom used Trevor Ariza at the beginning of the 2007 season, for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook, with Ariza eventually becoming a key component in their championship run. Same goes for the Adam Morrison trade, Shannon Brown was nothing more than a throw in, but played well enough to earn himself a two million dollar contract. A trade that seemed to get the same response as the Pau Gasol trade of two years ago, was Marcus Camby being shipped out from the Clippers to the Portland Trailblazers. It didn’t seem to make sense, Camby, the teams best rebounder and defensive player, for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw, two bench players? The trade has given the Clippers salary flexibility for this years free agent bonanza, and when you have players like Lebron saying money is not an issue, simply winning, how’s both money and winning? With enough money to sign a player like Lebron, the Clippers would also surround him with talent like Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Blake Griffen, and Eric Gordon. It all depends on how the Clippers want to play this one.

Once again, critics wrote this trade off as another bad trade by money hungry Clipper owner Donald Sterling. But as many teams have shown as in the past, things can turn around a lot quicker than anyone would have expected.

The Draft of the Point Guards

Who’s the Rookie of the Year this year? Blake Griffen, right? Wait no; he’s a Clipper, meaning he’s got to wait till next year to find out how much he can contribute, and that’s contributed on a stacked team who is one summer away from adding a marquee player from the 2010 free agent class. So who is left? This was supposed to be the Blake Griffen draft right, the only player that was supposedly “NBA ready”.  Wrong. These four point-guards are turning teams around, making them re-think exactly who their franchise players really are…

Theirs two point guards who are making a late push for the Rookie of the Year award:

 Stephen Curry boldly stated before the season started that he was going to win the award. Critics were skeptical, especially with Coach Don Nelson’s sporadic substitutions. Curry started the season slow, but has definitely picked up the slack. With Monta Ellis out, Curry has responded. He has hit for double digits 19 of his last 20 games, picking up a triple-double along the way, and a pair of 13-assist games as well as a 15-assist game. Curry’s been shakin-n-bakin defenders since the turn of the new year, boasting his averages to 15.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. Not too far away though, is another point guard who has picked up his game in the absence of a star.

If I was to tell you over the last eleven games, the New Orleans Hornets point guard is averaging 23.3 points per game, as well as 7.7 assists, you would probably respond, that’s it? Well, Chris Paul’s been injured since January 29^th, and rookie Darren Collison has gladly stepped in. Although averaging 4.8 turnovers to go with his stats over the stretch, its late in games that Collison has surprised most critics. In his second game in for the injured Chris Paul, Collison dropped 17 points and 18 assists to help the Hornets rally back from a 21-point deficit, including the go-ahead steal and dunk in overtime to cement the victory. After Paul went down, it seemed the Hornets were going with him, but Collison has helped keep them in the playoff hunt for that eighth and final spot.

            Seven games into the NBA season, one Compton bred left-handed rookie erupted for 55 points. Brandon Jennings put his stamp on Rookie of the Year honors, joining an elite club of four other rookies to reach the half-a-century mark in their first year, on all four players went on to win the Rookie of the Year award (Elgin Baylor, Rick Barry, Earl Monroe, and Wilt Chamberlin). Since his explosion, Jennings has yet to reach the 30-point mark once, and has hit for double digit assists just three times this season, and lost his starting spot to Luke Ridnour (at least he’s picked up an enormous amount of endorsements, especially for a rookie, along the way.) After practically writing his name in stone for Rookie of the Year, it’s another point guard who is trying to make history. Regardless of the award, Jennings is going to shine bright in this league, and be around for many years.

            Ladies and gentlemen, this year’s Rookie of the Year. Tyreke Evans’ impact on the Sacramento Kings has been remarkable. With Kevin Martin out, Tyreke has completely turned this franchise around. If the season were to end today, Evans would join the elite club of Oscar Robinson, Michael Jordan, and Lebron James as the only rookies to average over 20 points five rebounds as well as five assists. The fourth pick in the draft has been playing so well, the Kings traded away their previous “franchise player” away in Kevin Martin and handed the keys to Tyreke, resulting in cap space for this years free agency that seems to be on everybody’s mind.

            The “Blake Griffen Draft” has turned out to be much more than that. Four quality point guards along with a number of role players that will have a very bright future in the NBA.