Music to listen to: Black History Month by Death from Above 1979
I saw DFA 1979’s performance at Coachella this year and was reminded of how good of a band this was. Thankfully the fellas have reunited and are touring this summer.
Anyway, we’re now throughly into the conference semifinals of the NBA playoffs and I’m overdue for a review of what we’ve seen so far…
-It may be time for Dwight Howard to put his home in Orlando for sale.
Since the Magic reached the NBA Finals in 2009, nothing has seem to gone right for the squad in making a run for the NBA Championship.
First, after the Finals appearance, Hedo Turkoglu leaves the squad to take a bigger contract with the Toronto Raptors. He was only the team’s best perimeter player and provided matchup difficulties for the Magic opponents.
In a rash move to replace the offensive production, the Magic signed Vince Carter who never fit Orlando’s schemes, especially on the defensive end.
Rashad Lewis regressed from an All-Star to someone who should have been on the bench if not for his high-salaried contract.
Jameer Nelson kept getting injured, Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson aren’t the same players they were only two years ago themselves…you get the idea.
The end result was Dwight Howard playing his heart out, making a legitimate case for being an MVP candidate, becoming the best defensive player in the league, yet, his squad has gone from playing in the NBA Finals to losing in the conference finals to losing in the first round in three seasons.
Even Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy expressed disappointment in not being able to get the surrounding players around Howard to play better around the best center in the league.
The problem for the Magic is that the team is set for the next few years. Players such as Arenas, Nelson, Turkoglu, etc. are on long-term deals and will be difficult to move. Howard is a free agent after the 2012 season and you have to think that he sees that if he returns to the Magic, he will experience more of the same.
I don’t think firing Van Gundy provides an answer even though if he loses his job, legitimate arguments can be made for and against that move.
Therefore, Howard will probably come into next season with the Magic but not last the entire year there.
-Indiana and Philadelphia have a decent futures.
If other elite teams played as hard as the Pacers did against the Bulls and the Sixers against the Heat, we would see more legendary playoff runs.
Many people, including myself, picked Chicago and Miami to win those series in five games each but each contest was close, accept for the first Miami/Philadephia game.
While a case can be made that the Bulls and Heat were overlooking their opponents, I look at it more as two teams with young cores and excellent coaches making sure that their squads weren’t going to get embarrassed during the postseason.
For Indiana, they have to hope that Tyler Hansborough and Roy Hibbert continue to improve in the offseason to go with Danny Granger.
I have more optimism for Philadelphia which saw mullioned rookie Evan Turner make more contributions towards the end of the season.
You just hope for the Sixers’ sake that they don’t get burnt out by head coach Doug Collins, who has had early success with previous franchises such as Chicago, Detroit and Washington but worn out his welcome over time.
-I should have stuck with my instincts about Dallas.
If you’re a frequent reader of the Blog, especially my NBA-related posts, you know that I’ve placed the Mavs as one of the top teams in the league. In fact, I placed Dallas at the top of my Power Poll for several weeks throughout the year.
I liked the MVP-caliber play of Dirk Nowitzki, the increased defensive presence with Tyson Chandler at center, the bench play of Jason Terry, the top road record in the league, etc.
However, I picked the Mavs to lose to Portland in the first round of the playoffs.
My main reasoning was that Dallas didn’t end the year well and the best player in the series would be LaMarcus Aldridge.
Major mistake on my part, which makes no sense since I think that Nowitzki is the second-best non-North American born player ever in the NBA.
A bucket of pride for anyone who can guess who I have at number one in my list.
Anyway, I should have stuck with Dirk and kept it moving. Sorry Dallas.
-Chris Paul is itching to take back his “best point guard in the NBA” crown from Derrick Rose.
Many of us, myself included, have made Rose the MVP of this year and that’s deserved but we shouldn’t forget how great Chris Paul was.
I named Paul my MVP for the 2008 season when he led a squad to a 56 win season, good enough for the second-best record in the West. He was able to do with David West and not much else. Paul continued his great play in 2009 but a severe knee injury that has hampered his last two seasons. Even halfway through this season, it looked like Paul would always be slowed by a bum knee.
However, in the second half of this year and in the playoff series against the Lakers, Paul reverted back to his old self and dominated that series.
Its going to be interesting to see what the Hornets do this offseason in relation to keeping him because his contract is up in 2012.
-The Knicks have a lot of work to do to become an elite team.
This section can be 1,000 words or 100 words, but I’ll try to keep it in the latter.
The defensive effort must improve which may mean D’Antoni doesn’t last after the 2012 season. They need better point guard play because it looked like Rajon Rondo of Boston was in his own layup line during periods of the series and it goes beyond having a healthy Chauncey Billups in the lineup. Carmelo Anthony or A’mare Stoudemire must learn to play without the ball on offense because having two players of their skill set needing that much control on offense isn’t going to work in the long run.
-Memphis is for real.
If anyone was watching the NBA in the last month, you could make a case that the two best teams playing the best going into the playoffs were Chicago out of the East and Memphis out of the West.
We’re not going to see a Chicago/Memphis NBA Finals but its not as far off as you think.
The Grizzlies have the formula for a successful playoff team. They play defense. They have a go-to player (Zach Randolph), a viable second-option (Marc Gasol), good point guard play (Mike Conley), scoring off of the bench (O.J. Mayo and Tony Allen), etc. If they weren’t the Grizzlies and someone like the Phoenix Suns, we would be saying that Memphis is a championship contender.
I would be surprised if Memphis made it to the NBA Finals but it wouldn’t shock me, if that makes sense.
-You had a good run San Antonio. Nothing to be ashamed of.
-Respect to Atlanta and Joe Johnson.
I’m a harsh critic of the Hawks because I get to see them play more than any other team in the NBA, therefore I see the flaws more often.
However, when you win a playoff series, I have to give you respect.
Furthermore, while I still have reservations about Joe Johnson, he’s had a good playoff effort so far and was outstanding in Atlanta’s victory over Chicago on Sunday.
-I’m looking forward to the Zach Randolph biography in a few years.
Imagine if one of the most immature players to ever enter the NBA wore out his welcome in TWO NBA franchises (OK, THREE if you want to include his one year with the Knicks), got into legal trouble, had a legendary bad attitude towards everything in basketball ended up getting traded to arguably the worst franchise in the entire NBA, struggled there at first but turned it around on and off the court to the point that he was one of the top-10 players in the league and leading his squad on a potentially historic run in the playoffs? What if he did all of this before he was 30 years old? What if his fourth franchise just gave him a four-year contract worth $71 million?
Is that something that you would be interested in?
Here’s what I see happening in the conference semifinals:
Miami over Boston in seven: This is what I predicted before the playoffs started and I’m sticking with it.
Oklahoma City over Memphis in seven: I had OKC over San Antonio in six so I’ll stick with the Thunder and add a game.
Chicago over Atlanta in six: I had the Bulls beating the Magic in six and I’ll do the same here. Winning the first game of a series on the road is the easiest one to get and the Hawks deserve credit. for getting that on Sunday. However, even with Derrick Rose hurting his ankle, I think the Bulls will have enough to get past the Hawks.
Los Angeles over Dallas in seven: We finally get to see Kobe Bryant and Nowitzki in the same playoff series and its going to be a classic.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
The Sports Inquirer 
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