There has always been heavy debate over what the true criteria for the MVP award is. By definition, the award should be given to league's most valuable player. More often than not, the applied criteria leans more towards the league's most outstanding player. Sometimes the two are one in the same and no controversy arises, but most years, the winner of the Most Valuable Player award is not actually the most valuable player. In recent years, prime examples have been Kobe Bryant over Chris Paul in 2007-08, Steve Nash over LeBron James in 2005-06, and Michael Jordan losing to Charles Barkley in 1992-93 and Karl Malone in 1996-97.
This season, little is up for debate. Whether the criteria involves value or dominance, Derrick Rose deserves to become the youngest NBA MVP in history. Rose ranks 8th in scoring, 10th in assists, and 3rd amongst point guards in rebounding. He is one of only two players in the entire NBA to ranks in the top 10 in two major statistical categories (Dwight Howard). He has also led the Bulls to a 44-18 record thus far (good enough for 2nd in the Eastern Conference). His dominant production already stated, his value to his team in unrivaled. Of the top nine teams in the NBA, only Chicago, Dallas, and Orlando had one player selected for the All-Star Game this season. By all-star criteria, this would say that Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, and Dwight Howard are the most valuable players this season. Giving further support to these "top 3," Chicago is 0-1 without Rose this season, Orlando has gone 1-2 without Howard, and Dallas went 2-7 without Nowitzki. In terms of on-court impact on the team's success, Rose ranks 3rd in the league in usage rate behind only Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony; by comparison, Nowtizki ranks 12th and Howard ranks 17th.
While LeBron James' statistical season cannot be discounted, Derrick Rose has been the most outstanding player this season. Additionally, Rose, Dwight Howard, and Dirk Nowitzki have been most valuable to their teams. It is undeniable that the most outstanding player and one of the three most valuable players in the league deserves to take home the MVP award. Justice will be served this season and Derrick Rose will become the youngest MVP in NBA history.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Influence of Good Executives
It is impossible to understate the potential influence, positive or negative, of a top executive in professional sports. These executives undoubtedly have the most sway in the NBA. Much like in most other arenas in society, poor jobs receive a lot more heat than good jobs receive praise. Even casual NBA fans know of the disaster that was Isiah Thomas and the Knicks, but far fewer know about Sam Presti and R.C. Buford. At the end of the day, players play the game, so how much influence do the executives have? Kobe Bryant was the 13th pick in the 1996 draft (behind Kerry Kittles and Antoine Walker), Amare Stoudemire went 9th in 2002 (behind Drew Gooden and Chris Wilcox), Dirk Nowitzki was taken 9th in 1998 (after Robert Traylor and Raef LaFrentz); should the executives that, in hindsight, blew those previous picks be blamed for their mistakes? Simply put, no, they should not. Sometimes executives drop the ball. More often, a sleeper is a sleeper and it is really no ones fault that the player snuck by. While most of these front offices lie somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, which ones lie at the ends and how much influence do they actually have?
R.C. Buford has been the Team President of the San Antonio Spurs since 1997 and the team’s General Manager since 2002. In the past 13 seasons under Buford, the Spurs have won a league best four NBA Championships. Winning four out of thirteen championships is effectively considered a dynasty. Each dynasty in basketball history has had its centerpiece (Russell, Johnson, Bird, Jordan, O’Neal, Duncan), but what separates these dynasties from every other team with an all-time great player is the supporting cast. The second guy on each dynasty is a member of the NBA’s Top 50 Players of All-Time list—excluding Kobe Bryant because the list was released in 1996—; a remarkably telling fact (Russell>Cousy, Johnson>Abdul-Jabbar, Bird>McHale, Jordan>Pippen, O’Neal>Bryant*, Duncan>Robinson^). The possible exception to this rule is the current Spurs dynasty under the leadership of the aforementioned R.C. Buford. While Tim Duncan had a strong David Robinson in the first title run, the team has lacked a second dominant player since 2000. What about the modern NBA can explain this change and why have the Spurs been so good at figuring it out?
Since the Lakers’ three-peat from 2000-2002, five different franchises have won the title: Spurs (’03, ’05, ’07), Pistons (’04), Heat (’06), Celtics (’08), and the Lakers (’09,’10). Of these five teams, only the 2006 Heat fit the classic “Batman and Robin” model. The new trend involves two formulas: one superstar with balanced surroundings (Spurs, Lakers), or a truly balanced team with no superstars but multiple studs (Pistons, Celtics). Interestingly, in these eight seasons, the first formula has been more successful while it also seems to be the more difficult to achieve. Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant were the centerpieces of their respective championship teams but why were the Spurs able to surround Duncan with championship talent and the Lakers the same with Bryant, while the Cavaliers, 76ers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, and Suns not able to do the same with their MVP centerpieces?
General Managers cannot be blamed for missing on sleeper picks in the draft, however then can be praised for catching them. Outside of Tim Duncan, the Spurs central pieces over the last decade have been sleeper picks that R.C. Buford deserves praise for. Tony Parker (28th pick), Manu Ginobili (57th), and more recently, George Hill (26th), and DeJuan Blair (37th), have all been sleeper picks that have turned into championship caliber players. The Spurs have surrounded their superstar with solid late draft picks to aid his success. By comparison, the Cavaliers surrounded LeBron James with: Shannon (later traded), Daniel Gibson, J.J. Hickson, Christian Eyenga, and Danny Green. Basketball is a team sport and team support is a necessity for any level of player that is attempting to carry his team to a title.
Conversely, a poor front office can set a team back a number of years. Isiah Thomas' failure as the General Manager of the Knicks was due to the terrible free agent signings he consistently made. While poor decision-making in the free agent market can hinder a team's development, poor drafting can be equally as debilitating. The poster-boy for poor draft choices in recent years has been Timberwolves GM David Kahn. The Wolves are perennially one of the league's worst franchises and, while they are one of the youngest teams in the league, unlike the Thunder, they are not filled with young talent. The main difference between Oklahoma City's development as a young franchise and Minnesota's (besides Kevin Durant) has been the high percentage of "hits" on first round draft picks for Oklahoma City compared to the high percentage of "misses" or "busts" for Minnesota. Certain teams, like Portland with Greg Oden, are not to be blamed when draft decisions do not work out, but others, like Minnesota taking three point guards in the first 18 picks of the 2009 draft, are to be held accountable.
To illustrate the point, a redo of the 2009 draft, with a better General Manager, could transform Minnesota from a cellar-dwellar to a competitive team. Minnesota held the four 1st-round picks (5, 6, 18, 28), and two 2nd-rounders (45, 47). With those picks they selected Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Nick Calathes, and Henk Norel. Of those six players, only two are currently on the roster and they combine both average only 19 minutes per game. At the time of the draft, the roster consisted of: Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love, Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Corey Brewer, and Brian Cardinal. Redoing the draft, the picks would be Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Ty Lawson, DeJuan Blair, and Chase Budinger (trade 45th and 47th picks for 44th pick). One year later, a pitiful Minnesota franchise turns into a competitive team with a starting lineup of Curry, DeRozan, Brewer, Love, and Jefferson, with a bench of Lawson, Budinger, Gomes, Smith, and Blair. Or, if they continue to execute the Al Jefferson and Michael Beasley trades, a lineup of Lawson, Curry, DeRozan, Beasley, and Love, with a bench of Telfair, Brewer, Budinger, Smith and Blair. With either lineup that is a team that can compete for the 8, 9, 10 spot in the Western Conference, something that is laughable now.
No team can be expected to hit on every draft pick, but the championship teams are the ones that hit on late picks and the cellar-dwellars are the ones who miss on lottery picks. As important as players are to team success, the value of a good front office cannot be downplayed.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sympathy for a Heatle
Current sports culture deems it morally wrong to feel anything but ill will towards anyone or anything related to the Miami Heat. As much as you try to fight it, the Heatles, and their overwhelmed leader Erik Spoelstra, will always be there to drag the detestation right back out of you. From "The Decision," to Chris Bosh publicly acting like his arrival was what the public actually cared about, to LeBron James' "karma" tweets, all the way to the most recent "Crygate" incident, there have been very few stories out of Miami this season that evoke any semblance of sympathy.
The Miami Heat have rewritten history this season. Never has such a polarizing team been polarizing on such a diverse level. In the past, villainous teams carried a certain stigma that was dependent on one characteristic. Whether it has been the Yankees' elitist attitude, the Raiders' "bad boy" image throughout the 70s and 80s, or Duke's whiteness, there has always been a single characteristic that epitomized each polarizing team. The Heat have broken that trend this season and have done something remarkable in the process, the entire franchise has become polarizing. The team itself it too overconfident, the coach is too naive, the star is too cocky, the butler talks like he is the sidekick, the role players (who couldn't get a job anywhere else) get fined for inappropriate gestures and flagrant fouls, and for some reason, the franchise suddenly has fans. Only one person associated with the Heat has remained out of his deserved spotlight and flown under the radar, I present to you, Dwyane Wade.
In a season where his game should have suffered after going from lone ranger to team player, Dwyane Wade has transformed his game better than LeBron James and Chris Bosh have combined. By no measure is he having his best statistical season but he is average a career high shooting percentage and, for a team that has struggled rebounding the basketball, Wade is having a career year in crashing the boards. While LeBron gets all of the attention, the Heat have actually followed the trends of Wade more than James. Wade's statistics have been at their best this season in wins and the team clearly thrives on his leadership.
So why is the spotlight not on Wade, and more importantly, why does he seem impervious to the ridicule? The easy explanation as to why the spotlight has not shone on him is that it has been too focused on LeBron's attention-whore-ness and Chris Bosh's pathetic-attempt-at-acting-like-I-seriously-think-it-is-the-"Big Three"-ness. The deeper, more relevant explanation is that the spotlight has never really been on Wade. Sure Dwyane has prominent good marketing deals with T-Mobile and Converse, and he certainly gets credit within basketball circles for his on-court excellence, but it is rare that a sure-fire top-5 player/talent in the NBA is not a household name. He gets his due credit for leading the Heat to the title in 2006, but in all of the biggest headlines coming out of Miami that season, where the number 3 was supposed to be there was a 34, and where "Wade" was supposed to be there was "O'Neal." It is not Dwyane's fault, nor is it the fault of the media. Wade is a quiet guy and without a boisterous personality, it is difficult to grab the media focus (just ask Tim Duncan).
More importantly, why do none of these headlines criticizing the Heat ever seem to focus on Dwyane Wade? Maybe it's because Wade does not deserve to be criticized... The fact of the matter is that none of the Heat players deserve to be criticized for their production this season (besides a few terrible games by the raptor). The only reason the on-court play has drawn criticism is because of the off-court self-promotion and over-confidence. Big free-agent signees holding a press conference is not abnormal, neither is giving interviews as a group or even stating a desire to win titles (see Boston). What is abnormal, is holding an hour-long special to announce your occupational choices, holding a 10,000 person in-arena party celebrating your arrival before you even fill out your roster, taking credit for successes but excusing the blame for failures, publicly telling the fans of a franchise that supported you whole-heartedly for 7 years that their subsequent humiliation can be chalked up to karma, and a coach trying to save his own job by throwing his players' reputations under the bus. Notice that none of those focus in on Dwyane Wade. Everything that the Heatles have been criticized for this season that Dwyane Wade has been a part of, has been a joint issue.
Not only has Wade not received independent criticism this season, but he hasn't deserved to. He has been consistently effective on the court, he has kept his mouth shut off the court, he is undeniably one of the hardest workers in the game today, and he is a good role model. Dwyane deserves no criticism, but rather he deserves sympathy. He has kept his mouth shut even when you know he knows he should be getting the ball in crunch time instead of LeBron, he has not dropped a 1-18 in an important game on national television (a la Chris Bosh's world-class effort against the Bulls), and he didn't make a fool of himself before the season even started. Most importantly, Wade is clearly upset by the criticism that he does not feel his team deserves. After a tough loss to the Bulls on Sunday, Wade said "The Miami Heat are exactly what everyone wanted, losing games. The world is better now because the Heat is losing." The Heatles have become the villians of the league this season and it is tough to say that it isn't their own doing, but the fact of the matter is, Dwyane Wade did not sign up for the antagonist role and he clearly isn't fit for it.
The Miami Heat have rewritten history this season. Never has such a polarizing team been polarizing on such a diverse level. In the past, villainous teams carried a certain stigma that was dependent on one characteristic. Whether it has been the Yankees' elitist attitude, the Raiders' "bad boy" image throughout the 70s and 80s, or Duke's whiteness, there has always been a single characteristic that epitomized each polarizing team. The Heat have broken that trend this season and have done something remarkable in the process, the entire franchise has become polarizing. The team itself it too overconfident, the coach is too naive, the star is too cocky, the butler talks like he is the sidekick, the role players (who couldn't get a job anywhere else) get fined for inappropriate gestures and flagrant fouls, and for some reason, the franchise suddenly has fans. Only one person associated with the Heat has remained out of his deserved spotlight and flown under the radar, I present to you, Dwyane Wade.
In a season where his game should have suffered after going from lone ranger to team player, Dwyane Wade has transformed his game better than LeBron James and Chris Bosh have combined. By no measure is he having his best statistical season but he is average a career high shooting percentage and, for a team that has struggled rebounding the basketball, Wade is having a career year in crashing the boards. While LeBron gets all of the attention, the Heat have actually followed the trends of Wade more than James. Wade's statistics have been at their best this season in wins and the team clearly thrives on his leadership.
So why is the spotlight not on Wade, and more importantly, why does he seem impervious to the ridicule? The easy explanation as to why the spotlight has not shone on him is that it has been too focused on LeBron's attention-whore-ness and Chris Bosh's pathetic-attempt-at-acting-like-I-seriously-think-it-is-the-"Big Three"-ness. The deeper, more relevant explanation is that the spotlight has never really been on Wade. Sure Dwyane has prominent good marketing deals with T-Mobile and Converse, and he certainly gets credit within basketball circles for his on-court excellence, but it is rare that a sure-fire top-5 player/talent in the NBA is not a household name. He gets his due credit for leading the Heat to the title in 2006, but in all of the biggest headlines coming out of Miami that season, where the number 3 was supposed to be there was a 34, and where "Wade" was supposed to be there was "O'Neal." It is not Dwyane's fault, nor is it the fault of the media. Wade is a quiet guy and without a boisterous personality, it is difficult to grab the media focus (just ask Tim Duncan).
More importantly, why do none of these headlines criticizing the Heat ever seem to focus on Dwyane Wade? Maybe it's because Wade does not deserve to be criticized... The fact of the matter is that none of the Heat players deserve to be criticized for their production this season (besides a few terrible games by the raptor). The only reason the on-court play has drawn criticism is because of the off-court self-promotion and over-confidence. Big free-agent signees holding a press conference is not abnormal, neither is giving interviews as a group or even stating a desire to win titles (see Boston). What is abnormal, is holding an hour-long special to announce your occupational choices, holding a 10,000 person in-arena party celebrating your arrival before you even fill out your roster, taking credit for successes but excusing the blame for failures, publicly telling the fans of a franchise that supported you whole-heartedly for 7 years that their subsequent humiliation can be chalked up to karma, and a coach trying to save his own job by throwing his players' reputations under the bus. Notice that none of those focus in on Dwyane Wade. Everything that the Heatles have been criticized for this season that Dwyane Wade has been a part of, has been a joint issue.
Not only has Wade not received independent criticism this season, but he hasn't deserved to. He has been consistently effective on the court, he has kept his mouth shut off the court, he is undeniably one of the hardest workers in the game today, and he is a good role model. Dwyane deserves no criticism, but rather he deserves sympathy. He has kept his mouth shut even when you know he knows he should be getting the ball in crunch time instead of LeBron, he has not dropped a 1-18 in an important game on national television (a la Chris Bosh's world-class effort against the Bulls), and he didn't make a fool of himself before the season even started. Most importantly, Wade is clearly upset by the criticism that he does not feel his team deserves. After a tough loss to the Bulls on Sunday, Wade said "The Miami Heat are exactly what everyone wanted, losing games. The world is better now because the Heat is losing." The Heatles have become the villians of the league this season and it is tough to say that it isn't their own doing, but the fact of the matter is, Dwyane Wade did not sign up for the antagonist role and he clearly isn't fit for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)