Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 10th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

LeBron James --- 36 pts, 7 rebs, 7 asst, 13 FTM, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 trey, and 11-23 FG%...Interesting question - where does LeBron stand among the greats if he never played another game, and where might he end up in 15 years time (when at 42, I'm guessing he could still be an 8/3/3 guy in 15-20 min a night)? Today I have him between Rick Barry (27) and KG (25) at #26. The stats, ability, and highlights are all top 10, but the playoff moments push him farther down than he should be...but also offer plenty of room to move up as his career continues on. As a ceiling, I'd say MJ, Wilt, Russell, and Kareem are all untouchable for him - but everyone else is fair game, depending on eventual rings and his play in crucial games and moments. To pass Bird, Magic, and Hakeem would take big results and a long, relatively injury-free career...I'm not sure he'll end up among those guys. So now he drops to Duncan, Kobe, Oscar, & West. I think he ends up somewhere around this group. Be fun to watch develop over the next decade. And at the opposite end of the superstar spectrum, Lester Hudson (25, 8 reb, 6 asst) and Kevin Seraphin (24, 13 reb, 4 blk, 11-16) also had large games last night.

The Trajan Langdon Award

Corey Maggette --- 4 pts, 1 rebs, 0 asst, 2 FTM, 2 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 1-7 shooting in 16 ugly minutes...Maggette was Duke's first one-and-done hoopster, playing on the 1999 team that was 37-1 going into the NCAA title game, only to be upset by Khalid El Amin, Rip Hamilton, Jake Voskuhl and the rest of the UConn Huskies squadron. He was taken 13th overall by the Seattle Supersonics (today's OKC Thunder), only to be traded immediately to Orlando for an aging Horace Grant (there was other random driftwood in the deal, but these were the main names). After playing him almost 18 minutes a night, the Magic then traded him to the Clippers, where in a few short years he established himself as a competent rebounder and elite slasher, averaging over 8 free throw attempts a game his last 5 years there, including 10/gm in 2004-05 and 9.7/gm in 2007-08. He finished in the top 5 in free throws made 4 times, leading the league in 2003-04. He averaged over 20 pts/gm 3 times as well. But injuries and Father Time have slowed down the 6'6" jumping jack, and he's shooting only 37.3% this year while missing 24 of the team's 56 games so far.

Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 10th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

Kenneth Faried --- 27 pts, 17 rebs, 1 asst, 3 FTM, 2 stl, 1 blk, 0 treys, and 12-18 FG%...Word out of the Denver training camp from veteran Nuggets was that this rookie out of Morehead St.(22nd overall pick) could play, but then, you never knew when his chance would come to show that he could really play, when it counted. Well, in the season's first 26 games, Faried logged exactly 60 minutes of playing time while playing in just 6 of those games. But then Nene got injured in mid February, and the rookie got got court time, showing a broader audience that indeed, he could play. Over an 11 game span in the latter half of Feb/early March, Faried had a 13/9 game, 18/10 & 2 blks, 10/14 & 3 blks, 13/10, 16/11 & 2 blks, and a 20/12 with 2 blocks. Nene was traded a week later, and Faried has been a starter at PF ever since. He's undersized at 6'8", 225lbs, but he's an athletic jumper who averaged at least 13 rebs/gm his last 3 seasons at Morehead. Since March, he's averaged over 11 pts, over 8 rebs, and 1 block while shooting almost 59% from the floor. And ironically, much like Nene, Faried has some sweet dreadlocks, so the Nuggets keep some continuity in that department.

The Trajan Langdon Award

Chandler Parsons --- 2 pts, 1 rebs, 0 asst, 2 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 0-7 shooting in only 24 stinky minutes...It's a sweep for rookies today, as Parsons was a 2nd round pick out of Florida, 38th overal last June. And also like Faried, Parsons was a 4 year guy, which is probably why teams passed on him for so long in the draft (also, Parsons is white - how many great 4-year white guys have come out of college into the league in the last 20 years?). But this 6'9", 200 lb SF has bucked the odds so far, showing some fine versatility for the Houston Rockets while earning a starting job just 7 games into the year over Chase Budinger (yet another white SF taken in the 2nd round, but only played 3 yrs at Arizona) and Patrick Patterson (played on the John Wall Kentucky squad). He's had 7 games with at least 5 assists, while averaging 9.1 pts, 4.8 rebs, 1.1 steals, and shooting 45.7% on the season.

Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 5th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

LeBron James --- 34 pts, 7 rebs, 10 asst, 11 FTM, 4 stl, 1 blk, 3 trey, and 10-20 FG%...I watched from 83-82 in the 4th quarter as the Heat were playing the Thunder, and all I saw was one guy completely dominating the game - King James. He drove at will, and made a couple passes to a wide-open Battier in the corner (2 straight threes that took it to an 88-83 Heat lead that was then never relinquished). He also stripped Durant of the ball, pulled a nice offensive rebound after his own miss, and played good post defense as well. I was thinking at the time, this is why LeBron still has a very good chance to retire as one of the 5 best players to ever play the game - he's such a dominant, athletic freak. Strangely, they went to Wade to initiate the offense after much of LeBron's 4th Q dominance, and he turned it over while dominating the ball and dribbling excessively - not a proud moment for a monster Wade fan like myself. Bynum was dominant as well last night with 36 pts, 4 blks, 10 FTM, and 13-20 from the field. The Lakers fined him for his recent actions, and Steven A. Smith reported that some within the organization want to trade him, but games like this are why they'll likely keep him. The problem with Bynum is, he seems to be an arrogant jerk at his core, as his cockiness and flippant, nonchalant, Cartman-style attitude ("I don't care, I do what I want") grew much worse after he made his first All-Star game this year, while replacing Pau Gasol as the Lakers main post threat. Bottom line - if a jerk can get them more rings, they'll keep the jerk.

The Trajan Langdon Award

Cory Brewer --- 0 pts, 1 rebs, 0 asst, 0 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys, and 0-7 shooting in 24 extremely unproductive minutes...Brewer has had some nice stretches this season in Denver filling in for Danilo Gallinari, but last night was horrible. He was originally drafted 7th overall by the T-Wolves in the 2007 Draft, after leading the Gators to their 2nd straight NCAA title alongside Al Horford and Joakim Noah. I thought he'd be great - a long athletic defender who would steadily develop the other parts of his game, but alas - not to be. He's a nice 20 min/night sub, fill-in starter, but not a top notch player in the league. He's only once averaged double-digits in scoring, 13 pts in 2009-10, and he's never averaged more than 3.7 rebs or 2.4 asst in his career.

Daily Hoops Awards for Apr. 4th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

Lebron James --- 41 pts, 6 rebs, 4 asst, 10 FTM, 3 stl, 1 blk, 1 trey, and 15-25 FG%...and... DeMarcus Cousins --- 41 pts, 12 rebs, 2 asst, 9 FTM, 2 stl, 1 blk, 0 treys, and 16-25 FG%. This game ends a rather quiet stretch by Lebron's standards, having not scored more than 26 pts in his prior 8 games, including only two double-doubles in that period. Wade was out with a bad knee, so some slack had to be picked up last night. For the year James is at a robust 26.5 pts, 8.1 rebs, and 6.5 dimes, to go with his far and away best FG% year, 53.5% (interestingly, this is the 5th straight year he's set a career high in FG% - 48.4...48.9...50.3...51.0...53.5)...as for Cousins - nice job stealing him halfway thru the 6th round Hollandia!!! At 17.7 and 11.1 rebs (1.3 blk), Cousins is probably the next all-star center in the West, but still has to work on that shooting (44.3%). Interesting question these days - which guy would you take to build around right now - Cousins or the mental mystery that is Andrew Bynum? Certainly if Bynum showed some stability, it would be him in a heartbeat, and he still might get things straightened out by playoff time, but one has to wonder about his comments and actions these last few weeks. I would assume management must be quite bewildered and disappointed, if not fuming mad, at his behavior of late. How long before Kobe just hauls off and punches him...? He should...

The Trajan Langdon Award

Iman Shumpert --- 5 pts, 0 rebs, 0 asst, 0 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 1 trey, and 2-6 shooting in 37 minutes...It's almost hard to go 37 minutes and take a complete goose egg in boards, dimes, thefts, and fly swats...esp for a jumping jack athlete like Shumpert. Chalk it up to a young rookie playing in his 47th game of a compressed schedule (which by the way, is a dream for fantasy - basically at least a few guys going nightly 7 days a week). Last week Shumpert had back to back games of 25 pts, and I'm sure he'll return to productivity shortly as his minutes have jumped with Lin's injury - oh yeah...that died died fast, huh?

Daily Hoops Awards for Mar. 27th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

Paul Pierce --- 36 pts, 10 rebs, 4 asst, 15 FTM, 3 stl, 3 blk, 1 trey, and 10-20 FG%...What a monster effort from the 14 yr vet out of Inglewood High and Kansas. I remember hearing about Pierce just a few years removed from college, living the happy bachelor life in Manhattan Beach, CA. He was a highly touted forward and I meant to make it to a game of his, but never did. He then went to Kansas, became a 1st team All-American his junior year, declared, but then was then shocked when he dropped to 10th in the 1998 Draft, right behind an unknown German forward named Dirk Nowitzki. His teammate Raef LaFrentz went 3rd overall to Denver. Of the top 10 picks in that draft, 5 are still active today, including the two future Hall-of-Famers at #9 & 10, Mike Bibby (2nd), Antawn Jamison (4th), and Vince Carter (5th...Hall of Fame? Probably not, but will get consideration). Pierce ended up having a better career than anyone expected, as he is the #2 Celtic scorer of all-time behind only John Havlicek, his 22,281 career pts more than all but 25 guys in NBA history. He also boasts impressive career averages of 6.0 rebs/gm, 3.8 dimes, 1.5 stls, and 6 FTM/gm. In Bill Simmons' 2009 'Book of Basketball', he put Pierce at #54 on his list of all-time hoops greats - right behind Dwyane Wade and just ahead of Dominique Wilkins. There were two other noteworthy performances last night - DeMarcus Cousins' 38 pts and 14 rebs, and the aforementioned Dwyane Wade pulling off a rare 4X4 trick - 4 blks and 4 treys in the same game.

The Trajan Langdon Award

Norris Cole --- 0 pts, 0 rebs, 0 asst, 0 FTM, 0 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys 0, and 0-4 FG% in 19 painful minutes. Wow...it's not often a player plays more than 15 minutes and still can't put a single positive number in the box score. The rookie backup PG for the Heat was making some noise at the start of the season as some were calling for him to take over for Mario Chalmers. He scored in double figures in 5 of his first 7 games as a pro, including 20 in his second game and 16 with 9 dimes and 3 stls in his 5th. But lately he's been awful, averaging just 2.9 pts and 1.5 asst in the month of March while shooting a horrific 27.1% from the floor while playing just over 16 minutes a night. He has only 6 free throw attempts in March, as well. Cole was the 28th player selected in the 2011 Draft, coming out of basketball powerhouse Cleveland Sate.

OVERTIME OVERSITE Failed to mention two things yesterday: #1 - the OKC/Minn OT was a double OT game, and #2 - there was a 4 OT game Sunday night between Atl and Utah. The game didn't start out headed to OT at all, as Atl raced out to a 55-40 halftime lead. But the Jazz erased almost all of it in the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Hawks 34-20. It was 98-all at the end of regulation, before the first OT came where both teams were totally inept, scoring just 2 pts each. The Hawks ended up winning by six, 139-133. 8 Guys played at least 50 minutes in the game, including every Utah starter, led by Gordon Hayward's 57 min. For a 4 OT game though, there weren't any remarkable box scores.

Daily Hoops Awards for Mar. 26th 2012

The Jerry West Award:

Kevin Love --- 30 pts, 21 rebs, 4 asst, 7 FTM, 2 stl, 3 blk, 1 trey, and 11-19 FG%...With this game and his Fri night performance (more on that later), Love tacked on 81 points and 35 rebounds this weekend to his already impressive 2011-12 numbers. For the season he's averaging 26.3 pts (4th in the league), 13.8 rebs (2nd), and shooting 45.5%. In his short career, he's averaging 12.1 rebs/gm after 260 games, which would place him 16th on the all-time career list if he had the requisite number of games. Quite impressive for a guy with zero explosiveness or quickness (certainly by NBA standards). Remember also, Memphis drafted him but shipped him off to Minnesota along with some random driftwood (Brian Cardinal, Mike Miller, Jason Collins), for OJ Mayo and some of the T-Wolves' roster driftwood (Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric, and Antoine Walker). Mayo was taken 3rd in that 2008 Draft, ahead of not only Love (5th), but also Russell Westbrook (4th).

The Trajan Langdon Award

Antawn Jamison --- 2 pts, 1 rebs, 0 asst, 0 FTM, 1 stl, 0 blk, 0 treys (5 attempts), and 1-8 FG% in 20 awful minutes...Quite a stinker for yet another guy who exactly 10 years earlier, was also taken top 5 in the draft and traded on draft day (for college teammate Vince Carter). Jamison is averaging 18 pts/gm this year, but is nonetheless clearly slipping, now in his 14th season. He's shooting a career-low 41.2%, after shooting a then career-low 42.7% last year. His rebounding average of 6.6 is his worst since his rookie year. He has managed to put up impressive career numbers in those 14 years, albeit largely for mediocre teams. His 19.6 pts/gm career average puts him at #60 on the all-time list, while he also has pulled down 7.9 rebs/gm for his career.

OVERTIME!!! There was a barn-burner of an OT game Fri night between OKC and Minnesota. The Thunder won 149-140, after the game ended up tied at 116 in regulation (old-school 80's style scoring fest). Love set career highs in the game for scoring (51 pts), FGs made (16), 3's made (7), and 3's attempted (11). Durant had 40 pts on 15-26 shooting, 17 rebs, 5 asst, and 3 stls. Westbrook also set career highs in pts (45) and FGs made (17, out of 28 attempts). Also in the game, Jose Juan Barea, last seen causing havoc in the 2011 Playoffs for Dallas, had a triple double for the T-Wolves, going off for 25 pts, 10 rebs, and 14 asst.

But there was one other very interesting, very telling stat line - that belonging to the infamous Mangy Mutt. 36 minutes, 2-11 from the floor, with 2 rebs and 3 asst. First of all, there's the minutes. OKC has the best record in the league, so you'd think they would have enough depth to not have to play D-Fish 36 minutes. But with their original backup PG Eric Maynor out for the year, Fisher has quickly replaced Reggie Jackson (not Mr. October, but a rookie combo guard out of Boston College) as their backup PG. He followed up this gross performance by missing 2 shot attempts in 18 minutes yesterday vs. the Heat...while also grabbing 1 rebound, and dishing out zero assists.

Here Laker fans and pathetic journalists like the LA Times' Bill Plaschke - this is why they got rid of him. His locker room intangibles are not enough to offset his absolutely pathetic play. And for an OKC team hoping to win it all this year, it's rather scary that he's the best backup PG they could scrounge up...but they did look good beating the Heat soundly yesterday, 103-87 on national TV.