NBA Season Awards

The hectic lock out shortened NBA regular season has come to an end, but before we move on to the postseason, let's take a look back at this season and hand out some awards.  Here are my picks for the regular season awards.

MVP

He may not be the most popular figure amongst NBA fans in the post-Decision era, but there is no doubting that LeBron James is the best all around player in the league.  For much of the season he was on pace to break Michael Jordan's record for single season PER (31.71).  A late season slide pushed his efficiency level down a bit, but his 30.80 mark was still by far the best in the league.  Amazingly, it's only the third best mark of his career, as he's twice passed the 31.00 mark (MJ is the only other player to do so, as those two make up the top 5 on the all-time list).

James finished third in the league in scoring (27.1) to go along with 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game in leading Miami to the second seed in the East.  He was also a major contributor as one of the league's best wing defenders on the other end of the court. 

His late season swoon will likely make the choice a bit more interesting, with scoring champion Kevin Durant likely stealing some votes.  Durant may hold a slight edge on the offensive end, but LeBron's superior defense pushes him to the top. 

Chris Paul deserves a lot of credit for turning around the Clippers franchise by changing the culture of the team and turning them into a legitimate contender.  Kobe Bryant battled through injuries all season, but still managed to lead the Lakers to another division title while falling just short of another scoring title.  Rajon Rondo earned his first career assists title, taking the torch from Steve Nash, while fueling a drastic second half turn around for the Celtics that has put them in position to be a surprise contender.  With Nash's Suns narrowly missing the playoffs, Rondo sneaks in to steal the final spot on my ballot.

Kevin Love deserves to be mentioned based just on his eye popping numbers, which clearly make him one of the league's elite, but his Timberwolves failed to make the playoffs, which holds him off the list.  Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade and Manu Ginobili all put up impressive numbers, but missed too many games with injury to be considered.   Dwight Howard sat out the last few games of the season as well, but that's not all that kept him off the list.  Despite his great numbers, he was on cruise control for much of the season, put the entire franchise through the drama of speculation regarding his future, tried to get his coach fired and then ultimately quit on his team.  Fair to say he won't be making the list this year.

MVP Ballot
1. LeBron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Chris Paul
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Rajon Rondo

Patriots Draft

This Thursday evening the NFL will begin it's annual draft.  While there won't be much suspense in the early going, since we already know where Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III are headed, there is still plenty of options for other teams as we get deeper into the draft.  This is especially true for the Patriots, who enter the draft armed with 5 of the top 93 picks.

Considering 6 of their top 7 picks last year were made on offensive players, you would expect the Patriots to focus primarily on defense this year.  New England has plenty of holes to fill in a defense that ranked 31st in the league last year, giving up a staggering 411.1 yards per game.  The pass defense was the main reason for their defensive struggles and the revolving door in the secondary certainly didn't help.  The pass rush could also use an upgrade, as last year's team leaders in sacks are no longer with the team.  Mark Anderson signed with Buffalo, while Andre Carter is still recovering from last year's season ending injury and remains an unsigned free agent.

Trying to predict what Bill Belichick will do during a draft is a near impossible task, as he tends to zig when everyone else assumes he'll zag.  They don't call him "Trader Bill" for nothing, so you have to consider the possibility that the Patriots won't stay in their current draft position with all of their picks.  The Patriots once again own multiple first round picks.  We've seen the past couple seasons that when faced with a similar scenario, Belichick has been willing to trade out of the first round with one of the picks.  By doing so he has been able to move back to a second round pick while also picking up a first round pick for the following year.  So essentially by moving that first rounder back another year they are picking up a free second round pick.  It's a sound strategy for a team that stresses getting the most value out of their picks.

On the other hand, you have to wonder when the team will put more emphasis on drafting impact players instead of just waiting for value picks.  Getting all those extra picks is nice, but in doing so the Patriots have passed on chances to draft quality players such as Clay Matthews, Dez Bryant and Mark Ingram (all players that were selected with a pick the Patriots traded away).  After all, Tom Brady isn't getting any younger.  At 35 years old, the window this team has to win another title with their future Hall of Fame QB is starting to narrow.  Could this be the year that Belichick cashes in on the stockpile of picks he's accumulated by packaging picks to move up in the draft for a real difference maker?  Changes in the CBA agreement prior to last season may make that scenario more likely, as the rookie salary scale makes it less expensive, therefore less risky, to select a player higher in the draft.  That may make it more enticing to move up in the draft given that the financial impact won't be nearly as steep as it would have been in the past and they have the ammunition to get a deal done.  It will be interesting to see how the new rules will impact draft day trades this year, but rumor has it that plenty of teams in the top half of the draft are still willing to trade down.  The Patriots may be willing to pounce if the right offer comes along.

Fenway 100th

When the Red Sox begin their weekend series against the Yankees on Friday night, the team will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park.  The long time home of the Red Sox has become a monument to baseball history and one of the league's most beloved ball parks.  It's rich history fills each game with a nostalgic sense for long time fans, while landmarks from the Green Monster in left to the Pesky Pole in right field make Fenway one of the league's most unique parks. 

For many Sox fans, there's no better event than a summer afternoon at Fenway.  While it may be the smallest ball park in the league, each game is packed to capacity inside it's cozy confines.  Combine a limited seating capacity with a rabid fan base and it's no wonder the Sox have the longest active sell out streak in the majors.  Can't get tickets to the game?  The atmosphere all around the park is electric on game day.  Bouncing around between the endless string of bars along Landsdown Street (hello, Cask N Flagon!) can be an equally enjoyable way of catching a game.  Either way, count me in for catching the Green Line on the T down to the Fenway area a few times every summer.

The current ownership group deserves a lot of credit for the improvements they've made around the ball park, including adding seats in the concourse area and on top of the Green Monster (easily the most unique view of a game that any park in the league has to offer).  While it may not have the shine of some of the new state of the art ball parks, it's not nearly the dump that the Luke Scott's of the world would have you believe.

Celtics rising

It wasn't long ago that this Celtics team was left for dead.  When the team limped to a 16-17 record in the first half of this shortened season, things were looking pretty dim for any reasonable hope of this core pulling together one last title run together.  They looked too old, too tired, too injured and with a roster too thin to compete with the top teams in the Eastern Conference.  Rumors flew as the trade deadline approached that the team was considering breaking up its core by trading away their fading veterans.  With no hope of making a deep playoff run, it seemed the best course of action may be to blow it up and start the inevitable rebuilding process early.

What a difference a few weeks makes.  GM Danny Ainge resisted the urge to shake things up and ended up keeping the team intact as the trade deadline passed.  Since then, the team has been making him look like a genius for believing in them.

In the second half of the season, the Celtics have turned things around.  Thus far they've gone 17-7, including wins in 8 of their past 10 games, to rise to the top of the Atlantic Division.  All this in spite of the fact that their schedule over this stretch has been murderous, with the majority of those games coming on the road against above .500 teams.  Only 10 of their last 23 games have been played in the friendly confines of the TD Garden, while 16 of those 23 games have been against teams in the playoff hunt.

During this run they have proven themselves capable of hanging with the best teams in the league.  They've beaten Miami twice in the past couple of weeks, including a blowout win in Boston, in addition to last nights win in Miami, where the Heat have been nearly invulnerable all season (league's best home record).  They fell a missed buzzer beater jump shot short of knocking off the Spurs (the league's hottest team right now) last week and played the Bulls tough in a close outcome in Chicago the next night.  Granted Derrick Rose missed that game with injury, but he's missed about a third of their season already and that hasn't prevented the Bulls from remaining at the top of the Eastern Conference.  They are still a formidable foe without their star point guard, which gives credit to the notion
I suggested last year that Rose should not have been the MVP given that he was not the primary reason why they were winning.  In the second half of the season the Celtics have matched up against some of the best in the league and either came away with a victory, or at the very least, proved capable of putting up a good fight against any of them.

WrestleMania XXVIII Rewind

It's the biggest night in the world of sports entertainment - it's WrestleMania XXVIII!  The PPV event is the WWE's premiere annual event and a show no pro wrestling fan can miss.  Ok, I know this is a sports blog, and pro wrestling isn't really a "sport."  I don't follow wrestling as much as I used to, but I couldn't resist checking it out this year, especially with the headline event featuring a match up of generational icons between John Cena and The Rock.

The PPV and pizza have been ordered, the lap top is warmed up and the show is ready to begin, so I'm ready to note the play by play of the night.

• The show kicks off in The Rock's hometown of Miami with former ring announcer Lillian Garcia signing America the Beautiful.  The event is held under the open roof of Sun Life Stadium, so with the 7:00 PM start time, the sun is still out.  Maybe that's why they have a tent covering the ring?  Seems like that might obstruct the view of some of the balcony rows, but I suppose you have to protect the performers from getting a sun burn.
• This is why I stopped watching Smackdown.  Even WWE doesn't respect it as much as the superior Raw show.  The Smackdown title match for the World Heavyweight title opens the show as the first match of the night.  Daniel Bryan defends his title against Sheamus.  Ok, not exactly mainstream names, so I guess I can see why its not close to the top of the card.
• To make it even worse, the match ended in... 18 seconds.  Seriously??  Bryan gave his girlfriend a good luck kiss at ringside, then turned around and got kicked in the face by Sheamus.  Three seconds later, Smackdown has a new champion.  
• You have to wonder about the story behind this.  I assume that either Bryan suffered a last minute injury that kept him from being able to compete or he's about to be suspended (or fired?).  Either way, they had to find a way to strip him of the title without needing him to actually do anything in the match, ending it as quickly as possible.  Otherwise, Bryan comes out of this looking awful and can't be considered as a serious contender again anytime soon.