So when I saw the headline that the Lakers had hired Mike D’Antoni for head coach, I could scarcely believe it.  Not only was Phil Jackson available, but he was the perfect coach for this team.  I thought for sure, after screwing up with Mike Brown, they’d pay whatever was necessary to bring Jackson back.  However, Jackson’s asking price was exorbitant and his heart didn’t appear to be in it.  Still, couldn’t the Lakers have done better than Mike D’Antoni?

D’Antoni’s famous for his 7 seconds or less offense.  This offense relies heavily on quick hitters and fast breaks and requires fast, quick, athletic players and lots of depth.  The Lakers have neither.  Their average on-court age right now is 30.6 years old, and the number will go up as the players age and as Nash, 38, returns from injury.  Only 7 teams have won titles with players over 30, and if they do manage to win the title this year, the Lakers will almost certainly be older than all but one if their roster remains in tact.  All 7 of these teams had been playing together for at least a year prior to their titles, and they all had been in the same offensive system for at least that long.  They also were all well below the league average in pace.  The oldest team to win a title is Jackson’s 1998 Bulls.

The message is clear – old rosters should be handled with care.  Historically, if you want to win with an old team, you need a methodical offense and a familiar system. This effectively minimizes the energy gap and allows the experienced basketball instincts of the older players to show through.  Basically, the antithesis of the 7 seconds or less offense.  Trying to teach a roster this old a new system and then expecting them to be able to outsprint their younger opponents to a title is asking this team to do two things that have never been done before.

Certainly, in terms of spacing the floor and allowing players to run a simple offense based on instinct, attacking, and pick and rolls, seven seconds or less has the potential to make the Lakers offense pretty slick.  But plenty of coaches can teach players to run the pick and roll and space the floor in a simple system, and it’s hard to imagine the Lakers wouldn’t have been excellent on offense anyway, given their overwhelming talent. Despite being wildly inconsistent and at times looking awful, the Lakers were 6^th in points per possession at the time of Brown’s firing running the Princeton and have looked fine running a bare bones offense under Bernie Bickerstaff.  With Nash, Kobe, Howard and Gasol, I don’t think you need much coaching on offense.

However, they were only 23^rd in terms of team defense, and D’Antoni certainly won’t help that.   Every team D’Antoni has ever coached in the NBA for a full season has been in the lower half of the league in terms of team defense, based on both total points per game and points per possession.  That’s a long track record of futility, and it points to a philosophical problem.  The Nuggets, Suns and Knicks all improved markedly on the defensive end once he left.  Dwight Howard has the potential to be the league’s elite defender but he’s recuperating from back surgery and clearly not 100%.  Kobe and MWP were once great defenders but are now in the twilight of their careers and have clearly lost a step.  Guys like Jamison and Nash, never good defenders even at their peaks, are now huge liabilities.   If Brown couldn’t get this group playing defense, I shudder to think what D’Antoni will do with it.

Beyond this, major in-season changes in coaching philosophy do not lead to titles.  Only three teams have made in-season coaching changes and gone on to win a title, and all of these teams filled their positions with people who already knew and could implement an established system.  The 2006 Heat went from a young coach, Stan Van Gundy, to team GM and recent head coach Pat Riley.  The Lakers dumped Paul Westhead for Riley, then an assistant coach, after the team mutinied during the 1981-82 season.  Westhead had actually taken over the 1980 Lakers and won the title after the head coach almost died in an accident and he was gifted an elite team with system in tact. The Lakers will obviously not run the Princeton, which brings us back to the triangle-the system with which the most Lakers are comfortable and a system that is a proven winner for both the Lakers and older teams in general.

Furthermore, the Lakers are probably the most challenging team in the NBA to manage and put D’Antoni back in a situation in which he has not thrived.  Both Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant, for all their talent, are both well established prima donnas and coach killers.  D’Antoni has shown time and again that he cannot deal with that kind of player.  He lost Shawn Marion in Phoenix and failed miserably with both Stephon Marbury and Carmelo Anthony in New York.  Furthermore, he never seemed to reach a comfort level with the pressure-cooker that is New York City.  Now he’s expected to handle Kobe, Dwight, and Los Angeles at the same time?  Established relationships or not, good luck.

Those who know me well know that my two favorite pastimes are the NBA and the James Bond film series. The latter involves a license to kill, while the former involves many with a license to thrill. This autumn marks the 50th
anniversary of 007′s debut on the silver screen, and this weekend, the release of the latest Bond film, Skyfall. With that in mind, I present, on a film-by-film basis, the NBA figure(s) who is/are the best match with a prominent feature of each film in the 007 series:[1]

1. Dr. No (released in 1962): Who else but Dikembe Mutumbo, the NBA’s all-time leader in blocked shots, who became famous/notorious for wagging his index finger at opponents whose shot he had just blocked, as if to say “No no no”.

2. From Russia With Love (1963):  This one goes to Andrei Kirilenko, who is the best Russian-born NBA player to date, his decline over the past several years notwithstanding. Besides, with him, “From Russia with Love” takes on a whole new meaning when considering the annual “free pass” from his wife which became public a few years ago.[2]  If that weren’t enough, From Russia with Love even has a character, Krilenku, with a similar-sounding name (although Krilenku was a Bulgar working for the Soviets).

3. Goldfinger (1964): Bill Russell gets the nod here for his jaw-dropping collection of championship rings. If he wore them all at the same time, he would have 8 gold-adorned fingers, 2 gold-adorned thumbs and even a gold-adorned toe. It’s enough to make even the depository at Fort Knox seem meager in comparison.

4. Thunderball (1965): This can only be the Oklahoma City Thunder, whose progression from league dregs to NBA Finalists in just three seasons makes them the (arguably unrealistic) model for franchises seeking a turnaround. Their progression to the last step of becoming NBA champions will certainly be tested by the trade of James Harden (a mistake, in my opinion), but even with that, the Thunder still belong on any short list of teams with the brightest future in the NBA.

5. You Only Live Twice (1967): When Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced on November 7, 1991 that he was HIV-positive and was retiring, virtually everyone watching thought they were seeing someone who would not only never play again, but would be dead within a short period of time. Three months later, Magic returned for the All-Star Game in Orlando and won MVP honors with the most memorable performance in All-Star Game history. In January 1996 he came back to play the remainder of the season for the Lakers before calling it quits for good. Today, 21 years after his announcement, Magic is busy with his business ventures, media involvement and HIV/AIDS education activities; in his second life, if you will, he is more alive than ever.

6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969): This one goes to Luol Deng of the Bulls and Patty Mills of the Spurs, both of whom played for Queen Elizabeth II in this year’s Olympics, Deng as a member of the British national team, and Mills as a member of the Australian national team (the Queen is the official head of state of Australia, a commonwealth country). In fact, Mills might be a more apropos choice for this film, since it featured the one and only appearance by native Australian George Lazenby as Bond.

7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971): The bulk of Sean Connery’s last official appearance as 007 is set in Las Vegas, so this one goes to the NBA itself for having the bright idea to hold the 2007 All-Star Game in Las Vegas. What was touted, at least in part, as a trial balloon for Sin City’s ability to host an NBA team on a full-time basis turned into a massive debacle, played in a substandard arena (the Thomas and Mack Arena, on the UNLV campus) and plagued by logistical nightmares and gun violence. The NBA quickly shelved the notion of fielding a team there full-time, forcing the Maloof brothers (more on them later) to look elsewhere.

8. Live And Let Die (1973): Roger Moore’s debut as 007 was released in 1973, and the beginning of the film is set in New York. Two months before its release, the New York Knicks won their second and last championship to date. Much of the rest of the film is set in Louisiana, in and around New Orleans.  The 1972-73 Knicks were led by Willis Reed, the team captain and a Hall of Fame center, as well as a Louisiana native who stayed in-state to attend Grambling.

9. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974): This one goes to Gilbert Arenas, whose gun antics and subsequent suspension in December 2009 effectively finished off his NBA career. (The knee injuries which limited him to a combined total of 15 games played in the ’07-’08 and ’08-’09 seasons staggered his career, but the gun antics and suspension were the knock-out blow.) He was once the league’s most dynamic scorer not named Kobe Bryant, and he’s still just 30, but he’s as washed-up as washed-up can be and has had to move to China to pursue gainful basketball employment. To think that Orlando still owes him an average of $19M per year for the next two seasons.

10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): Carly Simon hit #2 on the U.S. charts in the summer of 1977 with her title song, “Nobody Does It Better.” The obvious choice for this one is Michael Jordan; as I’ve written before, no one’s done it better than him, perhaps not even half as good, and it does make me feel sad for the rest. Honorable Mention goes to Bill Walton and the 1977 Trail Blazers; no one did it better than them that year, as they pulled off their “Blazermania” championship that is revered to this day as one of the purest examples of team play that the league has ever seen.

11. Moonraker (1979): The Houston Rockets have to be the choice for any Bond movie set in space itself, as this one was. In addition, that spring Moses Malone became the first Rocket to win the league MVP award. (Hakeem Olajuwon is the only other Rocket to do so.)

12. For Your Eyes Only (1981): I’m going to cheat a bit on this one. Much of the action, and the climax, for this film is set in Greece, and Bond’s main squeeze, Melina Havelock (played by French actress Carole Bouquet) is half-Greek, so I’m going with the 2006 Greek national team, which shocked the U.S. 101-95 in the semifinals of that year’s world basketball championships before losing to Spain in the gold-medal game. It’s a cheat because that Greek team had no NBA players on its roster.[3] But that makes its silver-medal showing all the more remarkable.

13. Octopussy (1983): An octopus has 8 arms; Pat Riley has 8 championship rings.[4] An octopus’ arms are arrayed with suction cups to help it grab onto various surfaces. Over the past three off-seasons, Riley has used his charisma and motivational methods to grab marquee free agents (LeBron and Bosh two years ago, Shane Battier last year, Ray Allen this year), in each case overcoming the disadvantage of having less money to spend than other suitors. Teams have learned the hard way that if they let one of their free agents walk into a Riley recruiting pitch, they might as well wave goodbye.

14. A View To A Kill (1985):[5] Much of the action, and the climax, of Roger Moore’s last appearance as 007 is set in San Francisco, including on the Golden Gate Bridge itself. The Golden State Warriors, who have called the East Bay home for the past four decades, are no doubt viewing a financial killing in planning a move back to San Francisco in 2017. But we may instead wind up viewing the killing of a downtrodden but loyal fanbase, much of which is likely to be priced out with this move.

15. The Living Daylights (1987): The easy choice here would be the Lakers, whose acquisitions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash have scared the living daylights out of much of the Western Conference. But judging by the bulk of preseason predictions, even the Lakers’ new superteam isn’t the 2013 title favorite. Why not? The main reason is because LeBron James is squarely in his prime at age 27, he still has room to improve skills-wise, he got an 800-pound mental gorilla off his back in June and now knows how to win, and told NBA.com/TNT‘s David Aldridge before the Olympics that he wants the title-winning feeling again. The combination has to scare the living daylights out of at least the 14 other teams in the East, and most of the West as well.

16. License to Kill (1989): The original title for this film was “License Revoked”, because M revoked 007′s license to kill after he went off on a personal vendetta against drug lords who maimed his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, and murdered Leiter’s wife. Mitchell Wiggins and Lewis Lloyd were backcourt-mates and key contributors to the Rockets’ 1986 Western Conference championship squad. The following season, both were handed lifetime bans from the league for substance abuse. But like Bond, whose license to kill was reinstated at the end of the film, Wiggins and Lloyd were both reinstated for the 1989-90 season. (Lloyd played 21 games that season before hanging it up for good, while Wiggins played most of that season and much of the 1991-92 season as well.)

17. Goldeneye (1995): This one goes to Steve Kerr, who according to http://www.basketball-reference.com is the most accurate 3-point shooter in NBA history, having made 45.4% of his 3-point attempts during his career. That’s better than what most players shoot 2′s these days. Kerr certainly had a “golden eye” from downtown; he also came through in big moments, esp. in the 1997 and 2003 playoffs, and has 5 NBA championships to show for it.

18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): This one goes to the Lakers. In a town that places a high premium on star power, the Lakers’ ability to produce a nearly unbroken line of leading men going back more than five decades, from Elgin Baylor to Jerry West to Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Magic Johnson to Shaquille O’Neal to Kobe Bryant and now Dwight Howard, has made them the NBA’s longest-running hit.  In particular, their knack for nabbing superstars at the beginning, or in the prime, of their careers has ensured a long string of bright tomorrows.

19. The World Is Not Enough (1999): 1999 saw Michael Jordan’s second retirement from the Bulls and the break-up of the Bulls’ dynasty, arguably the league’s most dominant run since the Russell-era Celtics. Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause were on top of the basketball world: they had a championship team led by the greatest and most popular player in the world, a marketing machine the likes of which the league has never seen before or since, and home sell-outs every night. Anyone else in their position would have tried to keep all of this going for as long as possible. But for whatever reason it wasn’t enough: they set the wheels in motion, as early as the 1996-97 season, to break up the team, by antagonizing Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. By in effect pushing Jackson out the door just a few days after winning the 1998 title, and then by making it clear that Pippen wouldn’t be brought back, Reinsdorf and Krause essentially left Jordan with no choice but to retire upon the end of the lockout in January 1999. All of this was in a colossally misguided attempt to show that, in Krause’s immediately infamous words, “Organizations win championships.” Well? The Bulls wouldn’t return to the playoffs for six years, they wouldn’t win another playoff series for eight years, and the stigma of that episode on the Bulls, in my opinion, has yet to fully fade.

Honorable Mention: I’m going to get myself into some trouble here. On June 17, 1986, Len Bias, an All-American from Maryland who had already been favorably compared to James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins and even Michael Jordan, was taken as the #2 overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, who were coming off perhaps the best season by any team, ever, and had their Hall of Fame quartet of the Big Three plus DJ all in their primes. It was the perfect landing spot for Bias, who could contribute immediately off the bench (and, in all likelihood, contribute to another title or two) while buying time to grow into the role of the next great Celtic and the headliner of their next era of greatness. In other words, Bias seemingly had the basketball world at his fingertips-and it wasn’t enough. He wanted some white powder too, and approx. 40 hours later it killed him, in what remains to this day the most tragic and senseless death and waste of talent in NBA history. Is it disrespectful for me to include him here? Perhaps. But there’s no denying that it’s all too fitting.

20. Die Another Day (2002): This one goes to the 1994 and 1995 Rockets, who went a rather incredible 8-0 in elimination games en route to back-to-back titles. In 1994 the Rockets rallied to beat the Suns in Game 7 of the West semis after losing the first two games at home and trailing by 14 at halftime of Game 3 in Phoenix.[6] In so doing, they became only the second team to that point to win a best-of-7 series after losing the first two games at home. Then, after trailing the Knicks 3-2 in the NBA Finals, the Rockets won Games 6 and 7 at home to take the title. All of this, however, was merely a prelude to 1995. After limping to a #6 seed out West, the Rockets rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Jazz in the first round, mounting a fourth-quarter rally to win the deciding Game 5 at Salt Lake City. Then, after falling behind a revenge-minded Suns squad 3-1 in the West semis, the Rockets took the last three games, including fourth-quarter rallies in Games 5 and 7 at Phoenix, making them only the second team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit by winning Games 5 and 7 on the road. After all that, Hakeem made the West Finals and NBA Finals look easy. Their resilience in do-or-die situations truly exemplified the “heart of a champion,” as Rudy Tomjanovich so famously, and accurately, boasted.

Honorable Mention goes to the 1994 Nuggets, who won six elimination games in just that postseason. After falling behind the Sonics 2-0 in the first round, the Nuggets took the last three games to become the first #8 seed to beat a #1 seed in the playoffs. Then, after falling behind the Jazz 3-0 in the West semis, the Nuggets won the next three games, one on a buzzer-beater and the other two in overtime, to force a deciding Game 7. Denver’s thrill ride ended there, however, as the Jazz regrouped to win Game 7.

21. Casino Royale (2006): Who else but the Maloof Brothers, who own the Palms casino in Las Vegas and also own the Kings. An exceedingly ill-timed expansion of the Palms, coming just as the Great Recession was hitting Las Vegas in particular with full force, left the Maloofs hemmoraging money and looking to compensate by upgrading the Kings’ financial picture. Negotiations with Sacramento civic leaders over a new stadium have repeatedly stalled, but their preferred destination of Anaheim has been blocked by opposition from the Lakers and Clippers, and Las Vegas is apparently not an option either. If none of these roadblocks gets resolved, then the Maloofs will have to seriously consider a longer list of options (Seattle and Kansas City are two possibilities which have also been mentioned) or will have to consider selling the team. In the meantime, one imagines that Kings fans can’t think of the whole situation without making a face similar to the one Le Chiffre made when Bond pulled out the straight flush on the final hand. (No word on whether any of them have ever wept blood, however.)

22. Quantum of Solace (2008): Dictionary.com defines “quantum” in part as “a particular amount”, suggesting that a quantum can be as small or as large as the context warrants.  Sonics fans who were heart-broken by their team’s departure for Oklahoma City in 2008 got a “small quantum” of solace when the Heat defeated the Thunder in last June’s Finals.  Dictionary.com also defines “quantum” as “a large quantity; bulk.” Cavaliers fans who were devastated by LeBron’s departure for Miami in 2010 got this larger quantum of solace from Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving, who restored hope to the franchise and, with more development and seasoning, seems poised for stardom.  (They had previously gotten a “small quantum” of solace from the Mavericks’ victory over the Heat in the 2011 Finals.)

23. Skyfall(2012): This one goes to the present-day Bulls, whose 2012 title hopes evaporated the moment that Derrick Rose’s ACL snapped on April 28. As if that weren’t galling enough by itself, Joakim Noah got hurt, Carlos Boozer and the rest of the team failed to pick up the slack, and the Bulls lost to the 76ers in Round 1, marking just the fifth time in NBA history that a #1 seed lost to an #8 seed. On top of all that, this off-season saw the Bulls, whose quality depth enabled them overcome a slew of injuries to finish with the league’s best regular-season record in each of the last two years, lose a big chunk of that depth (Omer Asik, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, John Lucas III and C.J. Watson) without adequately replacing it, in my view. Richard Hamilton is 34 and is reportedly being shopped, and Boozer’s regret-inducing contract still has four years to run, meaning that the amnesty for which many Bulls fans are already clamoring is unlikely to occur until 2014 at the earliest. Obviously the Bulls’ outlook will brighten if Rose comes back 100% healthy, but he’s now expected to be out until at least next February, and there’s no guarantee he’ll regain his old form when he comes back.

And thankfully for NBA fans everywhere, so is the NBA. After sitting through a forgettable season of baseball, a round of political debates that pandered to the lowest common denominator of the US, the final implosion of Lance Armstrong’s reputation and the start of a football season with no clearly great teams (though who doesn’t like to watch RGIII), the NBA ushers in the new era of the “super team” where the 1% continued to amass wealth over the offseason. With David Stern retiring (Laker fans rejoice!), just don’t expect see any Occupy Charlotte movements anytime soon.

Before we begin this year at Chasing 23 with our Western Conference Preview, let’s spend a minute and review the results of our 2011-2012 preview (since what good is a preview is we can’t criticize it later?). Here’s what we had last year:

The middle of the pack was fairly predictable, with the Lakers, Clippers, and Grizzlies all settling into their positions as predicted. The Spurs and Mavericks provided the biggest surprises of the year. The Spurs found the fountain of youth once again and cemented Greg Popovich’s status as one of the greatest of all-time. The Mavericks had one of the worse follow-on years of an NBA champion in recent memory.

We don’t expect significant movement this year at the top. The Thunder, Lakers, Clippers, and Spurs all will benefit from either more experience, more talent, or both. Outside of those teams, it remains to be seen if the Nuggest acquisition of Iguodala can help them to join the elite and whether the Grizzlies have peaked yet.

8. Utah Jazz

Take your pick here of a collection of bottom feeders that include Sacramento, Portland, Houston and others who will be competing for the final spot over the last few weeks of the 2012-13 season. Utah squeezes back into the final spot this year for their solid front court anchored by Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, and Marvin Williams paired with their newly acquired (and underrated) sparkplug point guard, Mo Williams. A team to watch here if the Jazz falter are the Kings, who have the mercurial, yet talented trio of Demarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, and Marcus Thornton.

7. Dallas Mavericks

That the Mavericks get the 7 seed in this year’s preview is more a sign of the respect we have for Dirk Nowitzki versus any endorsement of Dallas’ talent (though Dirk will miss roughly the first 1/5^th of the season). The Chris Kaman acquisition should help and give Nowitzki the first legitimate offensive post presence he’s had in his career and Elton Brand/OJ Mayo should provide some spark off the bench. As followers of UCLA basketball will most likely agree with however, new acquisition and starting point guard Darren Collison will likely be exposed as the limited passer and decision-maker that he is.

6. Memphis Grizzlies

It’s difficult to tell if the Memphis Grizzlies have peaked, but the feeling here is that just might be the case. Randolph, Gay, and Gasol are one of the best front courts in the NBA – however it is difficult to see any of them getting much better at this point in their careers. OJ Mayo and his ability to create off the dribble is gone, leaving little offensive punch in the backcourt. Additionally, a disappointing playoff performance last with home court against the Clippers means that the Grizzlies  failed to capitalize on the opportunity to gain valuable playoff experience.

5. Denver Nuggets

Make no mistake, this is a good, solid Nuggets team and if it weren’t for some serious talent in the Western Conference, they would be higher on this list. This is also the perennial team  that “no contender wants to meet in the playoffs” (as the Lakers nearly found out last year). The acquisition of Andre Iguodala along with the continued growth of Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Danilo Gallinari and one of the deepest benches in the NBA make this team a threat, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if they earn homecourt advantage for the 1^st round of the playoffs.

4. San Antonio Spurs

We really wanted to pick the Spurs back in the sixth seed this year, but have to respect their incredible accomplishment last year as well as Pop’s mastery of his profession, so despite the continual decline of Tim Duncan, San Antonio should be able to squeeze out another respectable season.

3. Los Angeles Clippers

Clippers at number 3? Really? If last year was the beginning of the Lob City bandwagon, this year we should see the train leave the station. Chris Paul is still (with apologies to Derrick Rose fans), the best point guard in the NBA and Blake Griffin the greatest emerging power forward talent – assuming the King decides not to make the transition over to 4 this year. Add to that some valuable playoff experience and a deep roster that includes the additions of experienced veterans Lamar Odom, Grant Hill, Matt Barnes, Jamal Crawford, and Willie Green, and the Clips look ready to finally emerge out of their dark history.

2. Los Angeles Lakers

So clearly, we don’t put much stock in the preseason, otherwise this team would be somewhere below Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors right now. While the Lakers have the talent to finish with the no. 1 seed, as we’ve seen in the preseason, the early part of the 2012-13 season will be an exercise in acclimating to each other. The bench is a clear weakness, with Antawn Jamison looking his age and Jodie Meeks still trying to fit in. Mike Brown is still a liability as well, Princeton offense not withstanding. Additionally, it will be imperative for Bryant to cede ball control to Nash for the first 46 minutes of each game for the Lakers to be truly successful – which seems like a stretch at this point. At the same time, with this roster, anything less than a title this year for the Lakers should be construed as a disappointment.

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

James Harden just found out what old school really is about. Kudos to Sam Presti for standing his ground, not giving Harden an undeserved max contract, and still getting a very good young player (Jeremy Lamb), a solid veteran (Kevin Martin), and lottery tickets for the future (2 1^st rounders) out of it. Absolutely brilliant. The core of Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka are all still intact, more experienced, and hungrier than ever after getting punished by the Heat – so expect this team to be highly motivated and set the pace in the Western Conference from the get go. The key to the title this year for the Thunder still lies with Westbrook, who must continue to mature and develop into the perfect complement for Durant’s already MVP-caliber game.

After getting taken out to pasture by a younger, hungrier OKC team, the aging Los Angeles Lakers appeared ready to go quietly into the night. Retired for good along with the 1987 Celtics, 1989 Lakers, 1991 Pistons, and many other former champions whose window had effectively closed.

This would have been the obvious takeaway…at least to anyone who has completely ignored recent Laker and NBA history.

Each of the Lakers’ last 3 dynasties in the past 30 years – from Magic/Kareem/Worthy to Shaq/Kobe to Kobe/Gasol has been marked by stunning Houdini-esque Laker front office maneuvers. How else to explain the acquisitions of Kareem, Worthy, Kobe, and Gasol for – wait for it – a collection of talent that includes: Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Myers, Junior Bridgeman, Don Ford, Chad Kinch, Vlade Divac, Marc Gasol, and Javaris Crittenton. For those keeping score at home: that’s 2 all-time greats, 1 other Hall of Famer,  and a perennial All-star power forward for a group of misfits headlined by two lumbering Euro centers. In acquiring Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns, Mitch Kupchak and crew are attempting to repeat history once again.

A Big 4 delivered on the 4^th of July. Kobe. Nash. Gasol. Bynum. So the question now is: can the Lakers win the title with Nash?

Let’s cut to the chase: the prevailing opinions tend to slice one of two ways:

(1)    Yes! The Lakers got the point guard they finally needed. He will make Gasol and Bynum better and deliver in the clutch.

(2)    This still doesn’t solve the Lakers’ primary issues. Kobe is aging. There are too few balls to go around (and this exacerbates the problem). Gasol and Bynum are soft and Mike Brown is not the right coach.

Every article you read over the next few days will essentially boil down to 1 of these 2 points of view. So what are we to really make of this trade?

1.       Nash will make Bynum and Gasol better.

This is undeniable. As a point guard that Kobe actually respects, Nash will be able to better control game flow and ensure that Bynum and Gasol get touches at areas of the court where they can be effective. Whether or not you believe he is the greatest offensive player ever, Nash’s ability to break down defenses should also increase the number of easy buckets each big man gets. Lastly, Nash’s career has been dotted with his ability to make the big men around him look much better than advertised: from Boris Diaw to Amare Stoudemire. There is no doubt he will be able to do the same in LA.

2.       This in no way solves the Lakers’ athleticism problem.

To anyone who watched the Lakers/OKC series during this past year’s playoffs, it was immensely clear that the only way the Lakers could hang around was by neutralizing the Thunder’s immense edge in athleticism. Will Nash allow the Lakers to play faster at times? Sure. Will he make them more efficient on offense? Probably. But still fundamentally, the Lakers will look like old men against the Heat and Thunder. If fact, this trade just makes them slightly older. While a well-coached Laker team may be able to hold off the physical freaks that represent Lebron, Westbrook, Durant, and Ibaka for finite periods, as Charles Barkley likes to say, “No one beats Father Time”.

3.         Kobe and Nash will get along.

Anyone who uses the line that Kobe can’t play alongside Nash because he needs the ball, doesn’t really understand Kobe. From 2000-02, Kobe played alongside Shaq extremely effectively, putting up big numbers while allowing Shaq to get his own. Things turned sideways only when Kobe really lost respect for Shaq, amidst his conditioning issues and contractual demands. On the other hand, Kobe respects Nash immensely and will be happy to co-exist in an environment where Nash is the primary ball handler while on the floor. Expect a similar relationship to the early Kobe-Shaq days, where Kobe consistently deferred to Shaq for the first 3 quarters, while demanding the ball in the 4^th.

4.       Contrary to popular belief, Dwight Howard is not the final piece.

As a Laker fan, I don’t believe the line of reasoning that this trade is only effective if the Lakers subsequently acquire Dwight Howard. I just didn’t see Bynum as the problem in last year’s playoffs. Was he as consistent as you would like him to be? Surely not. But his averages of 17/11 with 3 blocks per game don’t suggest someone that drastically underperformed either. The Lakers’ loss was due to several factors plain and simple, none of which had anything to do with Bynum or Howard: (1) Kobe not playing well in two 4^th quarters that would have had the Lakers up 3-1, (2) Gasol shrinking once again when needed most, (3) OKC’s athleticism, and (4) the Lakers’ inability to get anything out of Sessions or their bench (especially from the outside). Trading for Nash will alleviate some of the pressure for Kobe to deliver in the 4^th quarter, and it seemed as though the Lakers were able to effectively neutralize OKC’s athleticism for large chunks of their playoff series. Gasol and the bench however are two persistent and serious problems – neither of which gets solved by acquiring Nash or trading for Dwight.

5.       All this being said, the pressure is now truly on Kobe.

With a top 10 all-time point guard, one of the game’s best power forwards, and a top 3 center – Kobe’s legacy will be under greater scrutiny than ever. Even if these pieces are each individually imperfect (Nash is too old, Gasol is too soft, Bynum is too immature, etc.), another early playoff exit with this roster would inflict great damage on our impression of the latter stages of Bryant’s career.

This is a tough one to draw a conclusion on – at face value: it still seems like there may not be enough here to put the Lakers over the top. Adding Grant Hill, and upgrading the bench would go a long way however and the jury is still out on Mike Brown.

A Nash Equilibrium is a game theory concept conceived by mathematician John Nash, loosely meaning “a set of strategic choices between two parties in which neither party has anything to gain by changing their strategy alone” (thank you, 3^rd year college Econ class). However you may criticize the state of the Lakers’ post-Nash acquisition, it truly seems as if acquiring him (despite arguments against his age, need to handle the ball, lack of defense, etc.) was something they couldn’t pass up. Conversely for the Suns, another year with Nash wouldn’t have made sense for a team being rebuilt – and the Laker outcome was certainly better than an alternative with Toronto where no compensation was received at all.

In the end, it may turn out that this equilibrium with Nash was exactly that. The best choice out of a limited set. One that may provide just a brief flicker of life for the Lakers’ Kobe era over the next couple of years, but not much more than that.

This raises the question: what are we to make of all this? What are we to make of the evolution of LeBron James?

My answer: this is how it had to be. It’s an overused cliche to say that everything happens for a reason, but in this case, everything had to happen the way it did for LeBron to grow into the leader of a championship team. Everything that happened in the past two years served to forge LeBron into the player and champion that he now is, starting with the very beginning of this two-year journey:

1.) He had to leave Cleveland in order to reach full bloom. If LeBron had re-signed with Cleveland two summers ago, then how hard would Cavs management, the coaching staff, and the fan base have pushed LeBron to improve his game? LeBron was a gigantic money maker for the team, and the Cavs had, by Dan Gilbert’s own admission, coddled him throughout his stay there. They would have likely been too happy about him staying to risk pissing him off. In all likelihood, the coddling would have continued and the demands for improvement would have been soft-pedaled.

In an environment like that, it is a certainty that LeBron’s game would not have advanced as much as it could have in Miami. In order to get more out of himself, he needed to ditch the cocoon of Cleveland for an environment where more would be expected out of him, where there would be no coddling, where team management was led by someone who had the guts and gravitas to lay down the law on LeBron if necessary. All of that added up to Miami.

2.) He needed to go to Miami, and to lose the 2011 Finals with Miami, to understand that he wasn’t good enough and needed to get better. Of course, Miami also offered the advantage of being able to pair up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, star power which no other 2010 suitor could match. But this blessing became a curse last June when the Heat lost to the Mavericks in the Finals, because it meant that LeBron had nowhere to hide and no one else off of whom to deflect blame. Wade had a great 2011 Finals until he got hurt in Game 5, and Bosh played well in that series too. The supporting cast, while flawed, was not the reason the Heat fell short.

When LeBron signed with Miami in 2010, the message that he seemed to convey to many people was “I’m good enough, and now the team around me is too.” The 2011 Finals shattered the first part of that notion. LeBron’s poor play in last year’s Finals was the biggest reason why the Heat lost, and as he admitted after this year’s title-clinching Game 5, it made him realize that he needed to get better, both in s and in his mind.

3.) He needed to go through everything (“The Decision” and the resulting backlash, the 2011 Finals loss and the resulting backlash, and the adversity faced in the 2012 playoffs) to learn, to develop mental toughness, and to understand that his proper role on the Heat is to lead. I consider “The Decision” to have been an egregious and unnecessary mistake, notwithstanding the fundraising that it yielded for the Boys and Girls Clubs. But in a way, LeBron needed that too. If what LeBron has said about his state of mind during the 2010-11 season is to be believed, then the backlash to “The Decision” put him in a revenge-focused mood which threw him out of whack and may have worn him out; many observers noted after the 2011 Finals that LeBron simply looked fried in the last few games, and I have to believe that part of this was as a result of his self-described “something to prove” mentality. He needed to learn that the mental approach he took post-”Decision” was the wrong approach to take and deprived him of mental strength at the worst possible time. In that sense, he needed to learn the hard way what not to do so that he could figure out what to do.

The 2011 Finals loss humbled LeBron by showing him the need to improve his game, and it hardened his resolve to get better and to get over the hump. But for much of this season, he and the Heat struggled with the familiar dilemma of who should be the real leader of the team. Then two moments of true peril presented themselves in this year’s playoffs. The first came in the East semifinals, when the Heat were decked by 19 in Game 3 at Indiana, fell behind 2-1, and seemed on the verge of implosion amid the sideline tiff between Wade and Spoelstra. LeBron responded by putting together an utterly ridiculous 40-18-9 showing in Game 4, helping the Heat turn that game and series around. The second came in the Eastern Conference Finals, when the Heat lost Game 5 at home to fall behind the Celtics 3-2, and faced elimination in Boston, which in turn raised the prospect of a break-up of the Big Three. Going on the road against a team that had ended his season twice in the previous four seasons, LeBron responded with an already-legendary 45-15-5 in Game 6 (that particular combination had last been achieved in the playoffs in 1964) to save the Heat’s season, then came through with 11 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter of Game 7 as the Heat pulled away late to get back to the Finals.

These were situations in which the LeBron on display in 2010 vs. Boston, and 2011 vs. Dallas, would have crumbled. The 2012 LeBron produced not only perhaps the two best playoff games of his career, but given the circumstances, arguably the two best playoff games by anyone in recent years.

What was different this time? Part of it was mental toughness which LeBron had gained from his previous failings, and part of it was his improved skills (making his low-post game a focus, more consistently attacking the paint, improving his midrange game and expanding his range and repertoire on defense) and decision-making. But in my opinion, the biggest difference was that this time LeBron took control of these situations by taking control of his team. I have to imagine that his mindset was something to the effect of “No matter what, I’ll get the blame if we lose, so I might as well do everything I can to avoid losing. I can’t just be a part of the team or along for the ride, I have to be the biggest part and the biggest of the Big 3 for us to succeed.”

This mentality carried over into the Finals. One thing to understand about LeBron is that for him, leadership does not equate to scoring a ton of points, although he can do that too. It means doing a bit of everything, from attacking the paint to crashing the boards and guarding every position if necessary.  Most of all, it means getting his teammates involved. I have to think that Game 5 of the Finals, with so many of his 13 assists resulting in open 3s, represented basketball nirvana for him. He had to have been thrilled to death not just with the title, but the particular way in which it was clinched.

All of this raises another question: where do LeBron and the Heat go from here? My answer: there will be more evolution to LeBron’s game, and more title contention for his team. As Wade declines (a process which may already be underway), LeBron will assume a more pronounced and overt leadership role on the Heat, which will eventually include LeBron becoming the go-to option in crunch-time and last-shot situations. Looking further ahead, LeBron’s low-post game will gradually become the dominant part of his arsenal and he will eventually become a full-time power forward. In five or six years, as his speed and agility decline with advancing age, he will not be able to operate on the perimeter as effectively as now, but he’ll still be able to score, rebound, pass and defend effectively in the blocks-even better.

As for the Heat, they now find themselves in a place where the tumult and scrutiny of the past two seasons may actually help them. They won’t be fazed by wearing the bulls-eye of defending champs because they’ve been wearing a bulls-eye for the past two years. Internally, the Heat can play free and confident because they now know how to win, which will be an immense aid in trying to do it again. One has to like their chances to at least get to the 2013 Finals, with Derrick Rose expected to miss at least the first two months of next season, the Celtics staring at a roster shake-up, and the Pacers still short on star power. Longer term, the Big 3 are signed for two more seasons, and if they win another title before then (and quite possibly even if they don’t), it is certain that they will re-up in tandem. The Heat won’t win 8 titles, and Kevin Durant and the Thunder remain a long-term threat, but the Heat’s window of contention figures to remain open for quite some time.

Look, I was just happy once the 2012 NBA Finals finally started. It was one thing for every national sportswriter, blogger, Governor, and late-night TV host to offer their fly-on-the-wall predictions. And it was entirely another for every Hollywood Celebrity, family member, and professional colleague to throw down their own gauntlet. But once my 85 year old neighbor decided to throw her hat in the ring with an “OKC in 7” prognostication, I had officially hit my limit. It was time to start already.

And start it did. Once the dust cleared, the Miami Heat had defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in 5 games, thereby establishing a new NBA hierarchy, and validating what many of us have known since 2009 – that Lebron James is officially the undisputed “Best player in the NBA”.

I needed a few days to gather my thoughts and put the LeBron James phenomenon in proper context. For the record, I am not a Lebron James fan, although I am a fan of basketball excellence. During the 2012 NBA Playoffs/Finals, I did not root for LeBron or the Miami Heat, but instead rooted against them at every opportunity. Perhaps I am still turned off by “The Decision”, and subsequent Hip-Hop concert that ensued less than 24 hours thereafter. Perhaps, I continue to remain riveted at just how much longer a basketball nation can continue to grow their dog pile on a player who goes year upon year without a ring. Perhaps a part of my heart still goes out to Cleveland, a city that absolutely and unequivocally revered Lebron James, not just as an athlete, but as a hometown hero and a savior, whose economic and social impact on his community during a recession extended far beyond that of a mere basketball player. Perhaps, as a Bulls fan, I am still bitter that Lebron spurned Chicago during his 2010 Free Agency, and now our current superstar, Derrick Rose, may never again be 100%. Or perhaps there will always be a small part of me that will look to defend the legacy of my childhood hero, Michael Jordan, against any potential on-comers, even though in the eyes of most, his legacy remains beyond reproach.

No, I am not a Lebron James fan, but over the years, my objectivity has compelled me to become a Lebron James apologist. Why? Because it is simply unfair to hold one player to a completely different set of unreasonable and hypocritical standards versus the others.

Now that Lebron James has won his first ring, some of the pundits that have historically levied their criticisms against him will begin applying some of their same false logic to the next “ringless” superstar. Will their target be Carmelo Anthony? Dwight Howard? Chris Paul? The intensity will never be the same as it was for Lebron because of a multitude of reasons (some of which were generated by Lebron himself), but a portion of their collective energies will nonetheless now be redirected.

The majority of pundits however, will remain steadfast in their position in continuing to criticize Lebron – a person who is deserving of some of that criticism, but certainly not all of it.

Those critics will still point to Lebron’s failures as an Alpha Dog in 2009, 2010 and 2011 – permanent black stains on his resume, that somewhat negate his recent accomplishment. Of course, what they will fail to mention is that Magic Johnson also failed as an Alpha Dog 3 times (1986, 1990, and 1984), Kobe Bryant 4 times (2003, 2004, 2011, and arguably 2008), Wilt Chamberlain twice (1961, 1968), Jerry West 4 times (1964, 1969, 1970, 1973), Shaquille O’Neal twice (1994, 1995), Moses Malone twice (1979, 1984), Larry Bird 5 times (1980, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1990), Oscar Robertson twice (1962, 1965), Hakeem Olajuwon once (1987), and Kareem Abdul Jabbar a whopping 6 times (1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981). Yep, every one of these legends were the Alpha Dogs of teams that lost in the playoffs to inferior opponents, and by the same standards, “failed” just as Lebron did. Moreover, in most instances, each of these legends played terrible in a losing effort. Yet, they arguably remain 11 of the 14 greatest players to ever play the game, with failures that are either never mentioned, or merely forgotten.

Can you say “double standard”?

These same critics will point to the fact that Lebron’s championship is tainted because he teamed up with another future Hall of Famer in Dwyane Wade, in order to finally win his first ring. Of course, what they will forget to mention is that Wilt Chamberlain teamed up with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in order to win a championship in 1972, Oscar Robertson teamed up with Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 1971 in order to win his first ring, and Moses Malone teamed up with Julius Erving in 1983 in order to win his first championship. You see, not every great legend is gift-wrapped a championship caliber supporting cast the way that Magic, Bird, Kobe, and Russell were. Others had wait to for their fortune. And while it is true that Wilt, Oscar, and Moses were traded, and did not willingly choose to team with one another, it is important to remember that NBA Free agency only began in 1976, years after Oscar and Wilt had retired, and years before the concept of using Free Agency as leverage even existed. It was a different time, and a different culture, but do you really think that Oscar, Wilt, and Moses would have remained silent had they played in today’s era? Do you really think that they would have refrained from forcing management’s hand, or using free agency to test the waters? Do you really think that they would  have won a championship had they not teamed up with another superstar? And by the way, Wilt, Oscar, and Moses are 3 of the 14 greatest players of all time.

The critics will continue to declare that Lebron James is unclutch, that he disappears during big games, and cannot be relied upon for big shots. However, they will conveniently gloss over the fact that throughout his career, Lebron has repeatedly hit big shots throughout the playoffs, has a respectable 45% FG in playoff crunchtime, has a better career playoff GW shot percentage than the current “clutch” standard, Kobe Bryant, and has already amassed 3 of the most legendary
“Big games” in NBA History –  two of which are runaway choices for Top 10 of all time:

• 2007, Gm 5 vs. Pistons, – 48 points, 9 reb, 7 assists, 18-33 FG, and scored the 29 of his team’s final 30 points
• 2008 gm 7 vs.Boston– 45 points, 5 reb, 6 assists, 14-29 FG, including 10 points in the fourth quarter.
• 2012, gm 6 vs. Boston – 45 points, 15 reb, 5 assists, 19-26 FG in which a stoned/highly medicated Lebron had perhaps the greatest single game playoff performance in NBA History.

No, the critics will conveniently leave this out, forcing emotional arbitrage on folks such as myself, who simultaneously root against Lebron James with the right side, while defending him with the left.

But regardless of whether I want to appeal to my logic or emotions, 3 things became clear to me  once the NBA Finals ended. It became clear to me that in 2012, Lebron James peaked on both sides of the ball like only 4 others ever have: 1991 Michael Jordan,  1962 Wilt Chamberlain, 1971 Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and 1995 Hakeem Olajuwon. It became clear to me that Lebron James was a player that had endured more scrutiny and hypocrisy than any other in the history of sports. And it became clear to me that Lebron James had become a person who managed to turn the other cheek, rise through rubble of the one of the most embarrassing performances in NBA Finals history, and begin a transformation from villain to victim similar to only Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, a bi-polar girl named Janet that I dated back in 2002, and the overpriced plumber that miraculously unclogged my toilet 3 weeks ago.

Absolutely remarkable.

The critics will continue, the inaccurate perceptions will continue, and the false narratives will continue. But for those who care, for those who share a passion for the history of the game, for those who seek truth, for those who value basketball excellence, and for those who believe that every player should be held to the same set of standards, the reality will in fact remain far different.

It’s interesting, because one of the readers on Chasing 23, Paulie Walnuts, has always maintained in our Comments board that a player with the talent of Lebron James would eventually win a championship for the simple reason that a player of Lebron’s caliber has never not won a NBA championship. Lebron got his first, and the scary thing is that he still has yet to reach his ceiling. There is no doubt in my mind that he is already a Top 10 Player of all time, and his evolution is nowhere near complete.

It’s tough not to love everything that this team is about; not just the players, but also their management and fans. Throughout the playoffs, we repeatedly heard about the unique bond that existed between the city and the team, and that was never more evident than upon the team’s return from Miami after being defeated in the NBA Finals.

Going forward however, the Thunder need to ensure that they avoid becoming the 1995 Orlando Magic: a young team with an extremely talented core that peaked when losing in the NBA Finals, and ultimately got torn apart by injuries and free agency.

The Thunder have the unenviable task of trying to sign both James Harden and Serge Ibaka within a salary cap system that will become especially punitive in the near future. Both Harden and Ibaka are eligible for extensions this summer, but become unrestricted free agents at the end of 2013. Given the new CBA and subsequent luxury tax penalties, OKC’s ability to re-sign both players will be near impossible unless they either trade or amnesty Kendrick Perkins, but even then, will still remain a challenge.

Ironic that the same set of rules that were put in place to protect small market teams such as OKC will simultaneously prevent them from retaining their talent core in the future, huh?

The Thunder will also need to understand that their loss to the Heat is merely history repeating itself. Outside of the 1970 New York Knicks, and 1991 Chicago Bulls, no other first-time NBA Finals team had ever been victorious when pitted against an opponent with NBA Finals experience. For the Thunder, this is par for the course, part of the painful growth process that the majority of budding dynasties inevitably endure. The 1970 Knicks and 1991 Bulls were the exception, not the rule, although it can be argued that they too still had their series of Conference Finals heartbreaks.

The good news going forward though, is that the Thunder will now have the requisite NBA Finals experience, championship talent, character players, shrewd management, and home crowd that is  second to none, as they enter the 2012-2013 season. Next year, there is no reason to believe that they will not make the NBA Finals next year, and perhaps even win.

And lastly, my personal 2012 NBA season farewell to the following:

Dwyane Wade: Back in 2011, I wrote that the only way for the Miami Heat to succeed would be for you to become the Alpha Dog, and for Lebron to become the #2. Not because you were the better or more talented player, but because it would be easier for Lebron James to unselfishly adapt to the #2 role, than it would be for yourself.

I was wrong.

Not only did you transform before our very eyes, you definitively settled into the #2 role by deferring to your more talented teammate, provided your team with a second scoring option, and continued to play ferocious defense despite being limited to one leg. The only question that now remains is at 31 next season, how many more years do you have left, and how long can you keep the ride going?

Unlike other players, you have continually relied on unparalleled athleticism to define your game. Will you be able to adapt once that athleticism leaves you? Will you develop an even more deadly outside shot? Will you enhance your post game? Will your game continue to compliment Lebron’s?

Regardless of what happens, just know that no one will be able to take from you 3 things:

1.) Your 2 championship rings

2.) Your 2006 NBA Finals MVP

3.) Your unofficial 2011 NBA Executive of the Year Award.

Kevin Durant: You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Not only was your 2012 playoffs (29 pts, 7 reb, and 4 assists on 52% FG and 63% TS) lights out, but your 54% FG shooting in playoff fourth quarters, and 14/28 (50%) shooting in crunchtime, were amongst the best in playoff history. You are not only the best scorer in the NBA given your seamless ability to generate shots from multiple spots on the floor, but you are also the best scorer that the NBA has seen since Michael Jordan.

You are humble, likable, and a person that the NBA  feels safe in entrusting with their future. Unfortunately, you simply ran up against a rival that was more experienced, more mature, and more battle-tested than yourself.

However, the good news is that you are only 23, have yet to peak, and will only get better over the next few years. Get into the gym this offseason, work on your post game, work on your elbow game, work on your defense, and build 15-20 more pounds of muscle. Then, we will all have the privilege of watching you quickly progress into one of the greatest players of all time.

Lastly, thanks again for crying on your mom’s shoulder after Game 5. That not only appealed to the casual fan, but also won over the emotions of every female around the world, enabling basketball degenerates such as myself to steal a few more games next season that we would have otherwise lost:

“Hey honey, you remember Kevin Durant don’t you? That was the guy who was so sweet and sensitive and started crying in his mother’s arms. That guy you really liked? Do you remember?Do you remember how you said “Sure, I’ll watch him play next season. I’ll support him. He seems so nice”. Well, guess what, he’s playing right now, and again 3 more times this week! So you get the Chips and Salsa, and I’ll get the Wild Turkey!”

Russell Westbrook: Yes, we all know that you can score. We all know that you are arguably the most athletic point guard in the league. But your shot selection is absolutely maddening.

Look, if you really want to win, your primary focus should be to get the Durantula the ball at the Elbow next year. If you have any questions, feel free watch tapes of Dwyane Wade during the 2012 NBA Playoffs. Trust me, if he did it, you can too.

Oh yeah, on a side note, there is one other thing that I wanted to say: Thank you! For the past 6 years, I, like most men, have struggled to figure out what ridiculous costume I am going to sport on Halloween. After 9 consecutive years, I had painfully exhausted Run D-M-C, Luke Skywalker, or ‘Guy with a bunch of paint on his face to try and look scary’ in an effort to appease the masses. But now, between your Sesame Street pajama shirts, Dwyane Wade’s inoperative accessories, and Amare Stoudamire’s Crocodile Dundee getup, I have enough to last me until 2028, and perhaps beyond.

Thanks again.

James Harden: Congrats on earning the 2012 NBA Finals LVP. In truth, there wasn’t even a close second.  With an anemic 12.4 ppg on 37.5% shooting, the only person who should be more embarrassed than you, is me – for jumping on the Bruce Blitz podcast and actually declaring that you were better than Russell Westbrook.

Shame on you, but even worse, shame on me.

Kobe Nation: The bad news for Kobe Bryant fans is that you can no longer use the “Lebron can’t win” or “Lebron has never won a ring” argument. Lebron has not only won a ring now, but has earned more MVPs, peaked at a higher level, is statistically more clutch in GW shots and Crunchtime, and has performed better in Big games (Elimination Games, Do-or-die Game 5s/7s, etc..).

The good news though is that you have one last card remaining in your arsenal: Kobe still has 4 more rings than Lebron James, which places Kobe only one ring short of the immortal Jim Loscutoff and 2 rings short of Robert Horry. Good luck in your pursuit!

In the interim, the rest of us will watch in anticipation to see whether Lebron James can win his second ring and match the legacy of the immortal Dickey Simpkins, or perhaps if lucky, a 3^rd  ring to match resumes with the legendary Luc Longley.

I know that I am picking on you, but at what point do we finally acknowledge the fallacy of ring counting, and at what point do we finally acknowledge the ongoing double-standard that has existed for the past 4 years between Kobe and Lebron? I’m excited to see how much longer you can keep this up.

Chris Bosh: Now that you’ve won a championship, how much longer are you going to be content watching your career waste away as a 3^rd Fiddle? Just curious.

Erick Spoelstra: Congratulations on officially becoming a member of the Barry Switzer club. Fair or unfair, the jury will continue to remain out until you coach a team that does NOT have Lebron James on it. Until then, you remain a question mark.

Scott Brooks: A very distant #2 in this year’s LVP voting, but nonetheless a viable candidate. Your failure to switch Thabo Sefolosha on Lebron James came way too late, and your failure to establish solid defensive rotations and mix up your schemes (I dunno, perhaps a zone or two might have been nice) was absolutely baffling. The good news is that you’ll have next year to grow and become better. In the interim, we will all continue to wonder: are you a championship caliber coach? Or merely a stepping stone coach? Only time will tell.

David Stern: “BRI”, “Union” , “Owners”, “Players”, “Commissioner”, “Board of Governors”, “Player’s Union”, “Luxury Tax”, “Salary Cap”, “Flex Cap”, “System”, “57/43”, “53/47”, “52.5/47.5”, “51/49”, “50/50”, “Revenue Sharing”, “Revenue Split”, “Big Market”, “Small Market”, “Competitive Landscape”, “Sources”, “Decertification”, “Disclaimer” “Amnesty”, “Labor Relations Board”, “Hawks, “Doves”, “side deals”, “escrow”, “concessions”, “49-51 band”, “litigation”, “settlement”, “George Cohen”, “rookie scale”, “sign-and-trade”, “extend-and-trade”, “escrow system”, “B-list issues”, “nuclear winter” and of course, last but not least, my favorite,  “Trust Me”.

In the words of the immortal George Carlin, just 27 additional ways of saying the word, “BULLSHIT”. However, in the end, you delivered a profitable business model to your owners, relinquished yourself of a  major liability in the New Orleans Hornets, landed a marquee LeBron vs. Durant matchup that should sustain the NBA for the next 5 years, and garnered record Finals’ ratings. You really are the Cat that ate the Canary. Congrats! I look forward to 2012-2013.

• OKC vs. Miami Predictions
• The Impact on Lebron’s Legacy
• Will this series determine the NBA’s best player?
• Who will be the ‘X’ Factor?

… and more.

You can either listen or download by clicking on the link below:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/blitzhardcorepodcast/2012/06/11/2012-nba-finals-preview-lebron-vs-durant-heat-vs-thunder

1. Q. On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for these Finals?

A. 9. For me, anything more than a 9 would require the Lakers to be playing, with a matchup vs. the Celtics garnering the perfect 10, so this Finals matchup has me the most excited possible for one not involving the Lakers, and for good reason. These are arguably the two most talented teams in the league, and the two most entertaining when they’re on their game. Both teams showed great resilience and heart by coming from behind in the conference finals against savvy veteran opponents. Plus there’s the factor covered in question #2 below. Add these up and all the ingredients are there for a truly classic Finals.

2. Q. Is LeBron vs. Durant the best Finals matchup of players at the same position in recent history?

A. I say yes. I’m talking about matchups of players at the same position, so this leaves out the Bird vs. Magic Finals in the ’80s, Magic vs. Jordan in ’91 and Jordan vs. Barkley in ’93, among others. Considering that LeBron and Durant are considered the top two players in the league, finished #1 and 2 in MVP voting and elevated their games in the playoffs, including in conference finals comebacks, I’d give their matchup the nod over all others involving players at the same position since Russell vs. Chamberlain in ’64 and ’69.

3. Q. Which team has the coaching edge?

A. The Thunder. Remember that idiot who, before last year’s Finals, called the coaching matchup between Erik Spoelstra and Rick Carlisle a “push”? Yes, that was me. Sorry Rick, my very, very bad. The Heat somehow survived Spoelstra to get back to the Finals, and if they can somehow survive him to win the title, then maybe I’ll reconsider my view of him yet again. But unless and until that happens, I have to give the edge to Scott Brooks, who made the key adjustment (switching to Thabo Sefalosha as the primary defender on Tony Parker) to turn around the West Finals, and who also got the Thunder to improve their overall D and take better care of the ball against a Spurs squad which looked truly invincible.

4. Q. Who is the X-factor for each team?

A. Shane Battier for the Heat, Serge Ibaka for the Thunder. After a disappointing regular season, Battier made timely contributions against Indiana and stepped up with big games against Boston. The Heat will count on him to hit open 3s to stretch the Thunder’s defense, and also to at least share the defensive burden on Durant with LeBron. Ibaka has emerged as one of the premier shot-blockers in the league, but facing Chris Bosh and his resurgent perimeter stroke will be a different type of challenge. On the flip side, the Heat will be left with no answers if Ibaka can produce anything even remotely in the neighborhood of his 11-11, 26 point performance in Game 4 of the West Finals for even just a few games.

5. Q. Which player has the most riding on these Finals?

A. LeBron James. Well, duh. Two facts:

Fact #1: LeBron has excelled in the Eastern Conference playoffs on numerous occasions.

Fact #2: LeBron has yet to have a single breakout game in 10 career Finals games.

Fact #2 is the biggest reason why LeBron is considered a playoff choker in many quarters, even though his career resume in the first three rounds rivals that of anyone else in the league. LeBron has the most to lose of anyone in this series, but he also has the most to gain: a stellar Finals by him, culminating in a Heat title, would cement his status as the best player in the league bar none, and would remove the “playoff choker” stigma forever.

LeBron is such an obvious answer to this question that I should note two players on the Thunder who rate mention as well. The first, of course, is Durant, who with a stellar Finals culminating in a Thunder title would vault past LeBron to be the best player in the game. But he is just 23 and figures to be back many more times. The other is Russell Westbrook, who actually has more on the line in the sense that a bad Finals leading to a Thunder defeat could put him back in the trade rumor mill, notwithstanding his contract extension earlier this year.

6. Q. Which team will fans in Seattle be rooting for?

A. Ever since “The Decision”, the Heat have been the most hated NBA team across the country. But fans in Seattle who had their hearts ripped out when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City in 2008 have a reason to hate the Thunder even more. They may still like Durant and the other players who were in Seattle, but surely they cannot stomach the thought of Thunder ownership getting the O’Brien trophy, or of David Stern handing it to them. Don’t be surprised if last year’s “Cavs for Mavs” fan movement gets a counter-weight this year in the form of “Sonics’ Fans for Heat”.

7. Q. The 2012 NBA champion will be …

A. The Thunder. The Heat passed a major test by winning the last two games against Boston when no one thought they had it in them, and LeBron may have turned a corner with his stupendous Game 6 performance in Boston, followed by a strong fourth-quarter showing in Game 7. But the Thunder have the game’s premier crunch-time assassin in Durant, better balance and quality depth, better coaching, and the best home-court advantage in the league. For these reasons, I like the Thunder to prevail in a seven-game nailbiter that will have fans asking at the end, “What do you mean there’s no Game 8?”

Heat vs. Celtics

Now that the Scheme Team has advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, fans are not only wondering why it took so long for Dwyane Wade and Lebron James to simultaneously explode, but whether they can sustain their level of play for the remainder for the playoffs, and particularly against the Boston Celtics.

In last week’s column, I felt strongly that the answer was a firm “yes”. If we have already seen playoff scoring eruptions from dynamic duos in past such as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant from 2001-2003 and Elgin Baylor and Jerry West throughout the 60s, then why not Dwyane Wade and Lebron James?

Then I re-watched the tape, and realized just how badly Frank Vogel had gotten outcoached in the Miami-Indiana series, particularly with his failure to trap Lebron and Wade, or at minimum, vary his defensive schemes. Once Eric Spoelstra finally caught on by Game 3, Lebron/Wade began exposing the Pacers’ defense by involving Roy Hibbert in as many screen/rolls as possible, waiting for Hibbert to fall back instead of “show” or trap, and then attacking the paint with a variety of floaters and layups.

This will not happen against the Boston Celtics.  Doc Rivers, unlike Frank Vogel, WILL trap Lebron James and Dwyane Wade and is known to mix up his defensive schemes against elite perimeter players. Moreover, Kevin Garnett is the BEST big man in the NBA when it comes to trapping the screen & roll. His ability to move his feet and utilize his length will force Miami’s dynamic duo to either take more perimeter shots than they did against Indiana, or defer to their role players.

However, while Wade/Lebron may fail to experience the same level of offensive proficiency that they did during the Indiana series, they should nonetheless overcome the Celtics fairly easily given their age and injuries. I’d be shocked if this series went more than 6 games.

What should I wear?

I’m still trying to nail down my attire for next week’s big meeting. The good news is that I have narrowed down my choices to the following, or perhaps even a combination thereof.

Doug Collins

Before we close the season on the Philadelphia 76ers, I’d like to recognize Doug Collins for once again overachieving with his 2012 squad, and proving again that Collins remains one of the best Coaches in the NBA.

Since his first head coaching stint in 1987, Collins has steadily improved the fortunes of every NBA team that he has coached including the Bulls, Pistons, Wizards, and now the Sixers. And while he  mimics the Larry Brown approach of simultaneously maximizing his team’s talents while burning them out within 3-years, he is immensely valuable when it comes to changing an organization’s culture, transforming his team’s attitude, and laying a solid foundation for the future.

Hopefully, Collins will one day get the opportunity to coach a team with elite-level talent and compete for a championship.

I’ve always felt this was an argument more steeped in machismo than reality. My goal in this article is to present my definition of the “correct play” and to determine what evidence we have about whether a superstar in general, and Lebron James in particular, should try to take over a game on his own vs. looking to his teammates for assistance.

First off, what is the correct basketball play? My definition of the correct basketball play is the play that leads to the greatest chance of a team winning. Most of the time this will be the play that produces the greatest expected number of points, although in specific end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios, this may not always be true.

Now to be clear, I’m saying that the actual result of the play does not justify the play in and of itself. Rather, it’s the expectation from the play that makes it correct or not. The result of a single play is far too small a sample size to determine whether it was correct or not, but the average result of many such plays, while still imperfect, is a much better gauge of what is right and what is not.

So which plays are the best plays? What is the Correct Basketball Play?

Synergy broke down various types of plays by points per possession produced and found that plays involving off-the-ball cuts (1.18 ppp) and transition plays (1.12 ppp) are the two most efficient plays. The least efficient is an isolation play, which is worth 0.78 points per possession. In iso plays in which the player passes the ball, that number jumps to 0.93 ppp. The least efficient way to score, it would seem, is 1-on-1.

Another way to break down the value of a play is to look at assisted versus unassisted shots. The folks at 82games.com calculated that an assisted shot had an 8% better chance of going in. Given that free throws are more likely on an unassisted shot, however, we find that an assisted shot is only worth about 0.13 more points than an unassisted shot. This is also evidence that trying to score on one’s own is, more often than not, not going to be the right decision.

Of course, there are numerous game-specific factors that alter these numbers for any given team or player, not the least of which is which are the players actually involved. Furthermore, you can only run one play so many times over the course of a game before the defense is going to adjust. Yet on the whole, I doubt many will disagree with the idea that getting the whole team involved is the best way to run an effective offense.

Some would argue, however, that the endgame, be it the final few minutes or the final possession, is a completely different animal, and the right basketball play can become the wrong basketball play. There is no doubt that added pressure has a tendency to bring out the best and the worst in athletes, and there’s also no doubt that those at the peak of their craft are most likely to excel under such circumstances. Yet is this phenomenon really so powerful that it fundamentally changes how basketball should be played? I have my doubts.

We know that as the game progresses, fatigue sets in, fewer shots are assisted, more outside shots fly, and shooting percentages decline. The closer we get to the end of the game, the worse offensive efficiency gets, with it reaching its nadir in the few seconds before clock strikes zero.

However, one team consistently bucked that trend since 2000: Lebron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. El Gee at backpicks.com has looked in depth at clutch performance, and among his findings were that no team improved their shooting in the clutch from 2006-2010 other than the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose eFG improved by an impressive 2.6%. In 2009, they improved by a shocking 13.5% in the clutch, which is the best of any team since 2000. During Lebron’s last 3 seasons in Cleveland (2008-2010) the Cavs were the only team with a crunch time +/- of over 100, a mark they reached all three seasons. And lest you question their ability to put it together in the postseason, their eFG% was an otherworldly 66.7% during the postseason, and their simple rating system was the best of any team within the past 12 years in 2009. During this time period, James averaged 44 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists per 36 minutes with a TS% of 63%. Once he left, the team regressed to the mean.

When he went to Miami, Lebron joined a team that had been outscored in the clutch 3 years running and got them to +45 and +27 the past 2 years. He scores more, scores more efficiently, and assists at a higher rate during the clutch. This from the guy Skip Bayless referred to as not even Robin, but Alfred, during crunch time. With all due respect to Bayless, Lebron makes a strong case as the best crunch time player in the league, both in terms of individual and team results.

Lebron’s main competition for that title has been Chris Paul, whose Hornets outscored every other team on a per possession basis in the clutch during his time in New Orleans. According to Paul, “Why shoot with three people on me if one guy is open? If I’m open, I’ll shoot it, and if I’m not, I’ll pass it.”

All of this is evidence that demonstrates that keeping everybody involved is still the right move, even in the last few minutes of the 4th quarter. But what about the final possession, or the final shot? Shouldn’t this be where the wheat is separated from the chaff?

Jordan Sams put together a compilation of clutch shots since 2000 and potential game-winners since 2006. While Lebron is tied with Tim Duncan for highest field goal percentage in the clutch (last 5 minutes, game within 5 points) at .460, he is only 18 for 61 for a .295 field goal percentage in such situations in the final 24 seconds and a chance to win or tie. Among the twelve players with the most potential game winning/tying shots since 2006, the average clutch FG% was .417, but in the final 24 seconds, it was only .314. Even the best players are going to miss over 2/3 of their shots in the final 24 seconds.

At the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, they looked at all players trailing by 3 points or less with 30 seconds left, and they found that on the road, such players had a FG% of .359, while at home, their FG% was .314. Admittedly, the timeframe is not identical to the 24 seconds used in Sams’ dataset, but it’s pretty close. And what the data suggests is that a potential game-winner or game-tying shot from a superstar is, at a minimum, not more likely to go in than that of one of their teammates. If there’s time to make that extra pass, there sure doesn’t seem to be any downside.

Now frequently, with the game on the line, having your superstar shoot will be the right option. Often the superstar will be able to get a better look than any of his teammates or will be able to draw a foul and get to the line. At other times, the defense won’t give you any better options. Sometimes, there just won’t be enough time to do anything else. But the desperation jumper over multiple defenders with no time left on the clock is the worst play in basketball.

Given the option to take the guy willing to defer to his teammates, or the guy who will do it all himself, all things being equal? I’ll take the former. It was good enough to help Michael Jordan and Larry Bird win titles, and it may one day do so for Lebron as well. But regardless of whether it does or not, looking to your teammates when they’re open is still the correct basketball play.

References:

http://82games.com/assisted.htm

http://www.backpicks.com/2012/03/23/the-crunch-time-myth-part-iii-overrating-closers-and-clutch-offense/

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/40886/outscoring-opponents-in-the-clutch

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24990/chris-pauls-crunch-time-mind

http://www.libertyballers.com/2012/2/29/2832299/lebron-james-kobe-bryant-dwyane-wade-clutch-nba-playoffs-4th-quarter

http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2012/03/05/lebron-james-and-the-sloan-sports-analytics-conference/

The media pundits in Los Angeles have had a field day, positing a myriad of reasons for the Lakers’ demise:

•  Pau Gasol’s second consecutive lackluster playoffs in which he went from averaging 17 ppg on 50% shooting during the regular season, to 13 ppg on 43% shooting during the playoffs.
• Ramon Sessions’ complete disappearance in which he went from averaging 13 ppg on 49% shooting during the regular season, to 10 ppg on an anemic 38% shooting during the playoffs.
• Mike Brown’s coaching system, lack of command, and frequent whimsical looks on the sideline.
• Andrew Bynum: The NBA’s version of Liza Minelli – Diva, Brat, Arrogance, Entitlement, Starlet.

While all of these factors no doubt played a role in the Lakers’ 2012 playoff exit, the primary issues at hand were actually much simpler than that, and essentially revolved around 2 factors:

#1: The Lakers simply went up against a team that was better, younger, more athletic, and sported a Big-3 in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, that is arguably the best in the league. Could the Lakers have won this series? Yes, but it would have required them to play to their full potential – something that never happened. Again, in the end, OKC was simply a better team.

#2 Kobe Bryant has simply become old, and as Charles Barkley has often declared, “Father Time Is Undefeated”.

Yes, Kobe still remains a top 10 player in the NBA, and still remains one of it’s most explosive scorers, averaging 30 ppg throughout the playoffs. Moreover, as we saw during the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the Lakers’ first round playoff series against Denver, Kobe still has the ability to explode at any time, and rattle off points in bunches.

However,  the number of shots that Kobe required, to get his points during these 2012 playoffs, was simply too many. The fact is that Kobe’s shooting percentage has been declining substantially over the past 2 years, and the impact on a team whose offense revolves around their aging Alpha Dog’s shooting prowess is far greater than you think.

To illustrate, during the Lakers’ 2009 and 2010 Playoff runs, Kobe Bryant averaged 30 ppg on a very efficient 57% True Shooting. However, during his last 2 playoffs, he has only managed to muster 27 ppg on a very anemic 52% TS. This not only represents a game-changing/series-changing 6 percentage point disparity (which in True shooting terms is extremely sizable), but also propels Kobe into an Allen Iverson bracket of efficiency.

Put another way, is it really hard to believe that 2009/2010 Kobe could have pulled the Lakers past OKC in a series that saw 3 out of 5 games decided by 3 points of less? Or that 2009/2010 Kobe would have scored more than 4 points on 1/10 FG in fourth quarters when matched up against Kevin Durant?

As Kobe’s shooting declines, so does the margin of error that the Lakers have to win, a luxery than an aging Laker team no longer has. As a result, our expectations for both Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers can no longer be what they once were. This playoff season, Kobe was closer to 34 than 33, while possessing the overall mileage of a 35 year old, and ultimately beckoning the question: Is it time for Kobe Bryant to take a backseat and follow in the footsteps of fellow legends such as Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal, and Tim Duncan? Is it time for him to transform from Alpha Dog to Second Fiddle?

More to come….

Heat vs. Pacers

The biggest beneficiary of Lebron James’ historical 40-18-9 performance in Game 4? The ESPN public. For at least a 48-hour period, we are spared from the “Lebron is not clutch” nonsense that has enveloped the Sports World for nearly 5 years. Don’t get me wrong, Lebron has had his share of stink bombs throughout his career, but as I have repeatedly argued on this site, certainly no more than nearly all of the top 15 legends that he is continually compared to, including Kobe Bryant, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, or Magic Johnson. The only difference is that Lebron has yet to win a championship, which then becomes an exercise in ring counting – something that everyone knows I abhor.

But enough rehashing of a tired, old, Chasing 23 debate. While Lebron and Dwyane Wade were fantastic in Game 4, the real GOAT for the Pacers was not their players – it was their coach,  Frank Vogel, who never quite understood how to take a hint as Wade and Lebron executed a layup line for nearly three and a half quarters. Did it really take him that long to realize that the middle of the paint was wide open EVERY TIME Lebron/Wade executed a screen roll? Or that backing up Roy Hibbert 3 feet from the basket off screen/rolls still allowed Lebron and Wade the opportunity for easy floaters-  shots that they are more than capable of making?

By the time Vogel made his adjustments during the middle of the 4^th quarter, and forced the Heat supporting cast to beat him, guess what happened?  They beat them, with Udonis Haslem looking like the Haslem of old, and knocking down open 15 foot jumpers.

So, a couple of suggestions for Vogel heading into Game 5:

1.)   Trap Lebron and Wade off the Screen/Roll: Learn from your mistakes and trap Wade and Lebron off the screen/rolls more frequently, forcing the others to beat you. You may get burned in the end, but given that the Heat only have 2 playmakers, you can sleep easy knowing that in the end, Norris Cole and Udonis Haslem beat you instead of the Big-Two.

 2.)   Wade almost never passes to Lebron in the half-court:  Has anyone else noticed this?  Lebron will pass to Wade, but Wade will almost never pass to Lebron in the half court. No joke, the over/under per game is literally 1.5, and usually occurs with the shot clock winding down. Knowing this, Vogel may want to incorporate this into his defensive game plan, perhaps having Danny Granger shade off Lebron more than usual?

As for the Heat, the question that everyone continues to ask is whether Lebron and Wade can sustain their Game 4 level of production for the rest of the playoffs, or at least until Chris Bosh returns. And why not? The 2001 Lakers had 2 stars in Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal that averaged nearly 60 points per game (30 ppg each) during the 2001 playoffs. Can Wade and Lebron do the same despite Wade’s ongoing knee injury?

Spurs vs. Clippers

Speaking of the 2001 Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs are beginning to invoke memories of one of the NBA’s most dominant playoff runs by remaining undefeated in the playoffs, closing out the Clippers by winning their 8^th consecutive playoff game, winning their 18^th straight game including the regular season, and winning 32 of their last 35.

Are you kidding me? The San Antonio Spurs? This has to be one of the biggest under-the-radar runs of dominance that the NBA has ever experienced.

By comparison, the 2001 Lakers rattled off a run that included a 15-1 record in the playoffs, 19 consecutive wins before losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals to the Philadelphia76ers, and 23/24 wins to close the season.

The major difference? The Lakers had 2 of the Top 15 players to ever play the game in their prime (or near their prime), while the Spurs have a cast of past-their-prime All-Stars and role players. Any doubts I had when Gregg Popovich won COY have officially been eradicated.

The votes are in and Lebron James has won his 3rd MVP award. The Chasing 23 writing team sees it no differently, making Lebron the unanimous choice for the 2011-2012 season.

The NBA Realist: Lebron James

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the MVP is all about criteria, and for me,  the MVP deserves to be awarded to the best player in the NBA. For the past 4 years this has been Lebron James.

2012 not only saw Lebron enhance his overall game, but in my opinion, peak to a statistical level that only 3 other players have been able to reach:

1.)   Michael Jordan (1988, 1989, 1990,1991)

2.)   Wilt Chamberlain (1962,1963)

3.)   Kareem Abdul Jabbar (1971,1972)

Lebron averaged 27.1 ppg on 53% FG shooting during a season in which the league average for FG% was 45% – an astounding 8 point differential. He also shot 60.5% True Shooting, while averaging 8 rebounds and 6 assists and evolving into not only the NBA’s most versatile defender, but arguably it’s best, covering all 5 positions throughout the course of the game while mastering the delicate balance between on-ball defense, and help defense. Moreover, he served as the definitive Alpha Dog on a team that finished with the 3^rd best record despite missing it’s second best player for over 40% of the season.

The 2 supposed biggest knocks on his season?

1.)   Failing to take the final shot in an All-Star game.

2.)   Passing to Udonis Haslem in the last seconds of a regular season game against the Utah Jazz– a game that saw Lebron hitting 8/9 shots in the 4Q.

Are you kidding?

No other player in the history of the NBA (with the possible exception of Wilt Chamberlain) has endured more scrutiny, double standards, or hypocrisy, than Lebron James. Fortunately or unfortunately, all of his regular season accomplishments will be perceived for naught should the Heat fail to win the championship.

Pressure is on.

Brown Mamba: Lebron James

So The King has taken back the crown that rightfully belongs to him (even though it was taken away unfairly last year). The media, in an attempt to stir up some late season drama around the MVP race, implied there was actually a close competition between Lebron and Kevin Durant, but in reality, it wasn’t even close. It’s was actually a bit laughable to even think about — the only category that one could justify that Durant is better is in scoring, and even there, Lebron is far more efficient. When it comes to the regular season, Lebron has been head and shoulders above the rest of the league for several years now, and his recent growth as an elite defensive force has only served to distance himself even more from the competition. Only Lebron could relegate Dwyane Wade, arguably a top 15 all-time talent, into a position where he is the unquestioned no. 2 on a team.

Honorable Mention: Kevin Durant

Sean Cribben: Lebron James

This season only reconfirmed what had become patently obvious over the last two or three seasons: that LeBron James is the most befuddling superstar in NBA history. When fully invested, his play is so dominant, so transcendent, that there’s nary a soul that can dream of matching him; observe his clutch performances in his first career playoff series in 2006, his Game 5 evisceration of the Pistons in the 2007 Conference Finals, his duel with Paul Pierce in Game 7 of the 2008 Eastern Semis. But when detached (the entirety of the 2007 regular season, the 2010 Celtics series, the 2011 Finals, etc.), his passivity and insouciance are of such a debilitating effect that his team’s fortunes typically take a nosedive into the abyss.

His 2012 campaign was thus a perfect encapsulation of his career narrative thus far. From the “Greatest Season Ever!” talk which greeted his early-season efforts, to the “What the hell is wrong with LeBron?” conversations that filled the airwaves post All-Star break, to the “LeBron is Back!” chatter inspired by the Heat’s latest revival, the entire spectrum of the LeBron James Experience was on prominent display throughout the course of the season.

But however low the troughs, his peaks were of such undeniable brilliance that his inconsistency can be forgiven. Indeed, shooting 53% from the field (a career-high) while leading his team in all the relevant statistical categories and developing some hitherto underdeveloped facets of his game (most notably on the low-block), coupled with a relatively weak field (Kevin Durant excepted, of course) and a late-season surge.

Honorable Mention: Kevin Durant

Daniel Douglas: Lebron James

It speaks to how bored I’ve become with LeBron James and his robotically brilliant yet somewhat hollow seasons (his box score always seems to exceed his impact) that I found myself saying “Yeah, he put up 28/8/6 but so what?” If Kevin Durant had not played like complete dogshit at varying points toward the end of the season (case in point: a late regular season game against the Lakers), I would have talked myself into picking Durant as the Most Valuable Player. I’m not sure what type of analytical acrobatics I would have used to justify him – he’s a better scorer than James, no more, and not by much – seeing as how James had a better all-around season than Durant or any other MVP candidate has, arguably, had in their entire career. When you look at it objectively (and doubtless this will cause bitter fighting in the comment section) LeBron has been the best player of the last ten years. I know. He hasn’t won a championship, which means he’s not as good as someone who has, but if he played with an elite big man, like Kobe Bryant always, always has, I suspect LeBron would have the same number of titles (if not more). I hate myself for trying to solidify my argument with a hypothetical Back to the Future fantasy so let me just say this:

When a player is being criticized for having an off month – as LeBron was in March – yet is still putting up 24.8 PPG 8.5 RPG and 6.1 APG – when this statline is indicative that the player has tapered off – I don’t see how you can’t give him the MVP trophy (again).

Honorable Mention: Kevin Durant

Bruce Blitz: Lebron James

The MVP award certainly is the highest honor an NBA player can receive for his regular season level of play. The value of this award on a player’s legacy is so high that I believe the responsibility of the voters, or people who discuss the award, is very high. I would like to qualify my choice by stating that I do subscribe to the league pass, and I’ve watched enough games this season to give any basketball fan a headache. I’m basing my choice on what I’ve seen, and certainly can back it up with metrics and facts. I think when certain people look at metrics they forget the level of play that it takes to put up the metrics that LeBron James produces. It takes a very special player to produce in so many facets to the game of team basketball the way LeBron James does. LeBron James is an elite defender, passer, scorer, rebounder, and athlete. No matter who a player has around him, it certainly can only decrease his individual value if his touches are diminished. LeBron James creates a large margin for error when it pertains to his teammates. With LeBron James on the court, he makes life easy on everyone around him.

You can count on LeBron James to drop right near 30 points every night, with a minimal amount of shot attempts which frees up more possessions for his teammates. LeBron’s efficiency as an offensive player has jumped this year due to taking less 3 point shots, an improved post game, and better fundamentals on his jumper. LeBron James opens up the floor for his teammates with his ability to suck in defensive attention, and his court vision to hit the open man. LeBron James ends defensive possessions with rebounds, but more importantly he is the centerpiece of a top 5 NBA defense in the Miami Heat. Without LeBron James, I don’t see that team coming even close to being a top 5 defense. LeBron’s on ball, and off ball defense is phenomenal. We also saw LeBron James defend every position, 1-5, on many different nights. Now I’m not talking about defending the 3 in one game, and defending the 5 in another game… I am referencing the games where he actually defended every single position during the course of a single game. The negatives on LeBron are obviously his game finishing shot attempts, and his free throw shooting. LeBron certainly has negatives, just like every other player in the NBA. I guess you could classify these areas as “still need improvement”. That does bring his value down a bit, but with that being said all of the other players in the NBA have more weaknesses, or areas that “still need improvement.” There is no question that LeBron James should be the 2012 NBA MVP. I won’t even bother going into the metrics.

E-Dog: Lebron James

It’s tempting to pick Durant, who at just 23 will win multiple MVP awards before it’s all said and done. But while Durant has had another excellent season, much of Oklahoma City’s success this season has to do with Russell Westbrook’s assertiveness and James Harden’s emergence, and as good as Durant is, I don’t think he can take credit for those developments. As for Paul, he immediately took leadership of the Clippers and transformed them from a laughingstock to a contender. But as considerable as his impact has been, he hasn’t been quite as much of an all-court force as LeBron.

Honorable Mention: Kevin Durant, Chris Paul

Brown Mamba: Ryan Anderson

Opponents of the Ryan Anderson for MIP bandwagon will note that Anderson’s per 36 minutes number were virtually identical (and in some cases, slightly worse) than last year. This is an unfair comparison however, as Anderson performed at nearly the same efficiency but with 50% more minutes (33 MPG vs. 22 MPG last year). The more noticeable impact however is that Ryan Anderson was perhaps the one player this year (outside of Jeremy Lin, whose season was just too short to qualify) who really stepped up from being an NBA unknown to a guy we heard about night in and night out. Even in the face of Dwight Howard’s inconsistency, Anderson was a key factor in keeping the Magic out of the bottom of the Eastern Conference and emerged as the reliable option on a solid playoff team (unlike alternate MIP candidate Greg Monroe, who performed his good deeds playing for an NBA doormat).

As a runner-up, I would vote for Andrew Bynum, who blossomed from oft-injured, full of potential young center into the definitive 2nd best center in the NBA (and perhaps best on the offensive end), All-star game starter, as well as the Lakers’ no. 2 option. Bynum did not get much love in the MIP voting because so much has been expected of him over the years, but this should be noted as the year the future superstar finally grew up.

Honorable Mention: Andrew Bynum

Sean Cribben: Jeremy Lin

Sure, he played in only 35 games and started in ten fewer, was less effective when Amare and Carmelo returned, and was exposed relatively quickly by opposing defenses. Yet Lin’s superhuman run, no matter how brief, is enough to qualify him for an award as ill-defined as Most Improved Player. For not only did he rescue a team that was flirting with collapse at the time of his arrival, but he also somehow managed to transcend his status as a mere sports curio and emerge as a full-fledged pop culture icon. Not too shabby for a guy

Perhaps that shouldn’t matter, especially when considered in a context exclusive to everything else but basketball

Honorable Mention: John Lucas III

Daniel Douglas: James Harden

Before getting his clock cleaned by Ron Artest’s elbow, Harden was looking as though he could succeed as the primary option of his own squad. It never seems to work that way though but I still talked myself into Harden being the first bench player to dominate on his own since Tracy McGrady left Toronto. Harden’s scoring improved by over four points per game (12.2 to 16.8) as well as his shooting. He improved his three-point shooting from .354 to .390 and looked, while he was out there, like a leader and an anchor.

Honorable Mention: Greg Monroe

Bruce Blitz: Greg Monroe

This is always a fun award to contemplate. As we all sit there on our couches, feverishly watching game after game after game, it’s always fun to see who’s performing at a much higher level than last year. There are a handful of guys who come to mind with this award. Let’s start with the obvious contender: Jeremy Lin.

There was a point in time where most of us thought Jeremy Lin would be the runaway winner of this award. Jeremy Lin certainly had the most captivating story of the year, but let’s keep it “real”, there are others who drastically improved and displayed that level of play for a longer period in time. Nikola Pekovic would be a fantastic choice as well. Pekovic has come on strong at the end of the season, and he’s given Minnesota Timberwolves fans something to watch with the injuries to Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love. Pekovic is what the Timberwolves need beside Kevin Love, another solid rebounder who can stay inside on the offensive end for potential offensive rebounds. Pekovic averaged nearly 4 offensive rebounds per game this season.

Ersan Ilyasova has probably been the NBA’s best kept secret this season. Ilyasova has improved in many different areas to his game, along with an improved consistency. Unlike Pekovic and Jeremy Lin, Ilyasova has done it for most of the season. To me Ryan Anderson has made the second most compelling case for the NBA’s most improved player. Ryan Anderson is getting proper due respect for his 3 point shot this sea

son, and he’s led the league in 3 point shots made. Ryan Anderson’s scoring has jumped and he’s doing an amazing job on the glass as well compared to last season. I just can’t give this award to anyone else other than Greg Monroe though. Greg Monroe is the definition of a most improved player. Monroe has improved his free throw shooting, passing, rebounding, and scoring. Anyone who’s watched Detroit Pistons basketball games this year knows that Greg Monroe is their best player, and he’s been there all year night in and night out producing at a very high level. Monroe is a very efficient player, and he brings a high basketball IQ to the court. Monroe is also a solid defensive player as well. Nobody has improved this season as much as Greg Monroe

E-Dog: Lamar Odom

Bad joke. He would be a unanimous winner of Most Regressed Player if there was an award for this.

The real Most Improved Player: Greg Monroe

It’s tempting to pick Harden for this honor as well, but Brown Mamba and The NBA Realist are no doubt expecting a more detailed explanation for my pick than “ditto”. Bynum has a strong case for this honor, as he experienced a break-out season, averaging nearly 19 points and 12 rebounds per game, and making his case to be the Lakers’ “alpha dog” sooner rather than later. However, Bynum also displayed confounding bouts of immaturity and selfishness on the court, and in any event, a good deal of his improvement this season has to be traced to good health (for a change) and increased playing time.

That leaves Monroe, who with only a slight bump in playing time per game from last year (less than for Harden, significantly less than for Bynum) went from averaging just over 9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game to 15.5 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game. He also improved his assists by one per game, and his free-throw shooting went from just over 62% to nearly 74%. All in all, he progressed from being a promising but raw rookie, to a mainstay (and potentially more than that) on a team that needs more of them. He is not as good as Harden or Bynum (at least not yet), but he improved more than they, or (in my view) anyone else, did this season, and that’s why he gets my vote here.

 Honorable Mention: James Harden, Andrew Bynum

G. Tony Allen –Not only the best on-ball defender in the NBA, but also one of it’s most psychologically unstable, thereby posing a rare combination of skill, footwork, and certifiable crazy. Add this to fact that Allen finished 5^th in steals, continued his “that guy came out of nowhere” ascension from bench player to starter, and served as the enforcer for the proverbial “playoff team that nobody wants to face” – you now have your premier defensive perimeter player in the NBA.

G. Chris Paul: League leader in steals at 2.5/game, and one of the best perimeter help defenders in the NBA, CP3 wreaked havoc on offenses in 2012 and helped marginalize gaps in an otherwise defensively undisciplined Clipper front line.

C. Tyson Chandler:  Not only performed as the best Defensive Center in the NBA in 2012, but also the best Defensive player. See more in the Chasing 23 DPOY selections post.

F. Lebron James – My runner-up candidate for DPOY, Lebon is the NBA’s most talented and versatile defender, oftentimes defending all five positions throughout the course of the game, and always assuming responsibilities for the opponents best perimeter player in crunchtime. Like a big cat in the wild, no one in the NBA covers more ground faster. As such, Lebron may in fact become Scottie Pippen 2.0 after all, if not on offense, then certainly on defense.

F. Serge Ibaka: Who said that the NBA shot blocker is gone? Ibaka not only lead the league in shot blocking (3.7/game), but was arguably the most electric defender in the NBA in 2012, providing a strong athletic/thug dynamic, along with front court partner Kendrick Perkins. However, to put Ibaka’s 3.7 blocks in perspective, he ties 2001 Theo Ratliff (3.7) with the highest blocks/game average since 1999 Alonzo Mourning (3.9 blocks). Quite remarkable considering the declining pace and fewer number of possessions in today’s NBA.

2^nd Team:

G. Rajon Rondo: Once again, one of the league leaders in steals, Rondo continued to be the best perimeter help defender in the NBA while offering an element of toughness and athleticism for an aging Celtics team.

G. Dwyane Wade: Almost missed the cut because he only played 49 games, but I had to include him in the end. Wade remains one of the elite defenders in the NBA, and the 2^nd best Wing defender behind Lebron James, averaging 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. Had Wade played a full season, I may have been persuaded to give him first team recognition. Instead, he will have to settle for Second team.

C. Dwight Howard: I know, I know – it feels dirty awarding Dwight with anything, but the fact remains that Howard is still the League’s best defensive player, even if he failed to perform at that level with consistency. Regardless of how annoyed we may be,  an inconsistent Dwight still merits a 2nd team All-Defensive selection.

F. Kevin Garnett: Fountain Of Youth anyone? Make no mistake, Garnett was once again the defensive anchor of an aging Celtics team, remarkably adapting to the Center position by mid-season, and enabling the Celtics to become a Top-2 Defense. Kevin Garnett is going to earn his 12th NBA All-Defense Selection folks, and must now be included in the “Greatest defensive power forward of all time” discussion.

F. Andre Iguodala: You’ve gotta admire a guy who transformed his game in order to serve as the Defensive leader for his team. In 2012, Igoudala helped lead the NBA’s 3rd best Defense to an 8th seed, serving as the defensive glue-guy on an otherwise defensively challenged Sixers team.

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Honorable Mention:

Taj Gibson: My toughest omission. The NBA’s most underrated defender, and arguably it’s best low post/position defender, Gibson rarely allows big men to get to their sweet spot and played the bulk of the defensive crunchtime minutes for the best defense in the NBA. Expect him to receive a hefty raise once he becomes a free agent.

Mike Conley: Finished second in steals, and became one of the best defensive point guards in the NBA. Who knew that Conley would have a more productive career than his Ohio teammate, Greg Oden?

Arron Afflalo – Afflalo received a new contract during the off-season, and then went out and earned it by serving as one of the leagues perimeter defenders on a miserably defensive Denver Nuggets team. Can you imagine how bad that Denver defense would have been without Afflalo?

Kobe Bryant: He will still likely make the 2^nd team off reputation alone, but this was not the same Kobe that we have seen in years past, oftentimes lackadaisical on screen/rolls, and failing to close on rotations. Understandable considering Kobe’s age and his penchant for conserving energy for offense. While he still remains one of the best crunchtime defenders in the game, he will have to settle for an All-NBA selection instead.