Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Best Part of the 2012 Playoffs

The best part of the 2012 playoffs was not the Sixers brutalizing the Bulls.  It was not the improbable Celtics run, or Rajon Rondo's ascent to godhood and near defeat of the Heat before the forces of history overwhelmed him.  It was not the tough, 80s like basketball that made up the Heat-Pacers series.  It was not the San Antonio Spurs, a team that should by all rights have been a fourth seed but who, through 10 glorious games, played like the best team in the NBA; a team so well coached, it functioned not as a collection of players, but a living organism, evolved to mindlessly dominate.  It was not even LeBron James' rise to the top tier of basketball players.  His unstoppable effort to be included in the list that reads Jordan, Russell, Bird, Robertson, Chamberlain, Kareem, and now and forever going forward, James.  Good as all that was, it was nothing compared to the look on Durant's face at the close of Game 5 and his subsequent meltdown in the arena tunnel.  This was a look of sheer failure and misery.  A look that said that Kevin Durant would never forgive himself for what had transpired during the series and would work every day to guarantee it never would happen again.  That was the best moment in 2012 because it means that good as this year was, 2013 will be even better.  The sheer basketball beauty of these finals: the unbelievable effort, the swarming defense, the display of athleticism at its peak, the repeated presentation of the human body being used as perfectly as it can be -- all this is prelude.  Barring any unpredictable injuries or James Harden deciding that his pathetic finals performance should earn him a max contract in 2013, we will be seeing these two teams face off repeatedly in the years to come.  Only next time, Kevin Durant will play with scorn.  He will be the one trying to secure his place among the top echelon of basketball gods.  He will not be forgiving.  I cannot wait.

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Most Important Day of The Season

Tomorrow (or today on the East coast if I don't finish this post in the next 7 minutes) is the most important day of the season for the Utah Jazz.  The team is playing the Phoenix Suns.  Currently the Jazz are a game ahead of the Suns and just barely in contention for the playoffs.  If the Jazz win this game they are guaranteed a playoff spot as both teams only have a game left after tomorrow.  If the Jazz lose they could still get into the playoffs by beating the pathetic excuse for a northwestern team the Portland Trail Blazers.  For this to work the Suns would have to lose their final game to the Spurs.  That's pretty unlikely, as the Spurs clinched the top Western conference seed tonight and are highly likely to kickback, relax, and let Cory Joseph and Kawhi Leonard do the heavy lifting necessary for a 60 point game.  Since the Jazz have already lost twice to the Suns, the Suns have the tie breaker.  So tomorrow the Jazz, in front of a fully charged and terrifying home crowd, will likely play the game that will determine whether or not they will have the honor of losing in 5 to Joseph and Leonard.  But due to the whims of a mad, Caligula like despot, the Jazz owe their draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves if they make the playoffs.  This being a year that pretty much everyone agrees is ripe with draft talent, this might not be a trade worth making.  Although the playoffs would shore up this young Jazz team and provide them with some maturity on which to build, maturity can only get you so far.  What the team needs is a point guard and with both Kendall Marshall and Damien Lillard potentially in play, I'm not sure if a brief trip to the playoffs now is worth losing out on this golden opportunity.

Fear not, Jazz fans/others who come to join in my wisdom!  The Jazz still have a shot at a draft pick, and one significantly higher than the 14th or so that they would get based on their own mix of skills and ingenuity.  By some twist of fate too crazy for the Marvel Universe, but barely comprehendible in a universe with this, the Jazz also have the Golden State Warriors' draft pick.  The Warriors, you say.  They're terrible.  Ah, but hopefully they're not too terrible, as this pick is, my uninformed friend, protected if the team gets any of the first 7 draft picks.  Currently the Warriors are the 8th worst team in the league.  But two of the teams with worse records than them are the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors.  These horrible teams will play each other on Thursday.  Although everyone who watches this game will lose, one of the teams will have to win.  The Warriors are currently only one game back from these two teams, and they lose the tie breaker to both teams.  The Warriors have currently been on a tanking tear, which shows little sign of slowing down, despite their accidental win yesterday against the Timberwolves.  But the unstoppable momentum of this gleeful tanking may soon come up against the immovable object that is the New Orleans Hornets, playing in Oakland.  The Hornets are truly awful this year, and it is not at all clear to me that you can lose to them on your home court even if you try.  That game is also going down tomorrow.  It is possible that the Warriors could lose it, but still come away as the 8th (or even 9th, as they win [or for them lose] the tie breaker with Detroit) worst team in the NBA.  The team also plays the Spurs on the last day of basketball operations.  This Spurs team will be resting its starters and playing off of a back to back in Oakland.  But still.  I feel like with the Warriors with their tanking tanks on full can still outlose the Spurs, who won't be trying to lose just, you know, to nap.

So I think tomorrow is make or break for this Jazz team.  They could end up going to the playoffs AND getting a great draft pick.  They could go to the playoffs with no draft pick.  Or they could miss the playoffs and get the crummy remnants of a once deep draft.  Of course, the Warriors could always win tomorrow and then win the luck of the draw and end up as one of the teams with a top 3 draft pick.  But barring any unforseen insanity, like Joseph and Leonard overperforming against the Suns or underperforming against the Warriors, tomorrow will determine the fate of the Jazz's future.

And wouldn't you know it, it takes me too long to type.  Tomorrow is already today.  It will likely be one of the most important for the Jazz since they traded Deron Williams and for many years to come.  Let's hope it's a kind one.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Bolerjack post of the night

"The other end, playing the cherry pickin' game, is Camby."

--Craig Bolerjack, 1/30/12