Time for awards and other all-stars

Well, that was an entirely boring day. No hassles at the airport, no practice to race back for, no game, no big Raptors news. A nice day to do pretty much nothing.

And with it being so quiet around the Heroes Of The Hardcourt, let’s do a bit more league-wide stuff than usual.

Like …

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I’m prone on the couch watching the Lakers and Cavs last night and, like everyone I imagine, the attention is on Kobe vs. LeBron.

Now, Irregulars know I think Kobe’s a better player because he can do more offensively, I think he’s better defensively and there’s just so, so much to appreciate about his game.

Not that LeBron’s a stiff, of course, but it came to me last night just why I go with Bryant.

I’m much more for grace than power, especially in basketball, where I can appreciate nuance more than brute strength.

And maybe that’s the genesis of Bryant over James, there’s a style to Kobe that I appreciate. The head fakes, the pump fakes, the cutting off screens. The immaculate jump shot that might be the best in the game.

LeBron? A fullback on a basketball court and for raw power and an incredible ability to get to full speed so quickly, he’s unrivalled.

To me?

I’d rather watch Kobe play than LeBron.

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Okay, some real quick halfway awards since everyone’s getting to that point in the season.

MVP: Kobe

See above, also see (last night’s game notwithstanding) the best player on the best team.

Rookie of the year: Tyreke Evans.

I haven’t seen an awful lot of him but enough to know this kid is polished, and fearless and very well-rounded.

Sixth man of the year: Jamal Crawford.

He could be the best Eastern conference pick up of the year.

Coach of the year: Scott Brooks.

There’s going to be a lot of love for Larry Brown when this is all over but taking a young team like the Thunder to where they are gets him the nod.

Biggest surprise: Memphis.

You could put Oklahoma City in here and I’d have no problem with it but the Grizzlies are going so well, getting so much good play from so many guys and I don’t imagine too many of us saw this coming.

Biggest disappointment: Washington.

Let’s see: Guns, injuries, guns, suspensions, guns, losses, guns. This might be a unanimous choice.

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So the fans got nine out of 10 right, I guess, in the all-star voting.

I can live with Kobe, Nash, Carmelo, Duncan and Amar’e in the West and Wade, LeBron, Garnett and Howard in the East.

But Allen Iverson?

Simply a ridiculous choice as an all-star and perhaps the single greatest embarrassment in the history of fan voting in any sport. A travesty.

I have no idea why anyone would have punched his number in the first place, either when he was in Memphis or in Philly. And seeing how he was coming off a wretched season that he quit on in Detroit, not sure recent history played a role in it, either.

But, anyway, like I said, nine out of 10 are understandable and we can be thankful enough people came to their senses and got Tracy McGrady out of the starting West lineup.

The most interesting thing to me?

That Chris Bosh had the 10th largest number of votes of all all-star on the ballot, finishing third to James and Garnett among forwards.

Guess this whole “they’ll never pay attention to him because he plays in Canada” stuff might be a bit of a fallacy.

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Random thought, apropos of nothing really:

As I sit there and watch all the hugs and high fives and enough elaborate and secret handshakes that would put The Loyal Order Of The Water Buffaloes or the Raccoon Lodge to shame when the Raptors take to the court, I figure it out:

If they put as much energy and thought into, you know, the plays and defensive assignments, it might be better for all concerned and give them something to really celebrate about.

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They’ve hit the halfway point in Milwaukee, which is what the local fishwrap is writing about today.

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What do you think we see tonight when the Bucks and Raptors renew hostilities?

Well, I would suspect the Raptors would pay more attention to putting bodies on people on the boards, I would suspect Bargnani, whose back acted up in Cleveland, will have benefited from a day of rest and treatment, and I would suspect more consistent energy from the heroes of the hardcourt.

One thing to look for, and this came out of a question I asked Jay in Milwaukee about the use of point guards down the stretch.

(The premise of the question being that he went with Jose in Cleveland and Jarrett in Milwaukee, hooking Jose with about six minutes to go after he’d been playing very well). Said Jay:

“At one point, we thought Jose was a little bit fatigued and we suspected, as they do sometimes, that they might come back with Ridnour and Jennings on the floor at the same time and we wanted to make sure Jose was prepared to come back had they gone small. It was just a rotational thing.”

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All right, since we know the all-star starters, let’s figure out who else makes the teams. Here’s the deal, the coaches, who can’t vote for players on their own teams, have to choose seven subs – two guards, two forwards, a centre and two “wild cards.”

They have some leeway in what’s a guard or a forward or a centre or a forward and can choose players they think will give their team the best chance to win the game.

Some of them decide who goes on the strength of a team’s record, some choose on personal bias, some choose because they are lobbied by friends in the business? Me? I choose off the top of my head.

(That’s a bit of a joke but I offer these as a first-draft, if I had to pick today; they could be revised by this time next week, when the subs are to be announced).

So, without further ado …

East

Guards: Joe Johnson, Rajon Rondo.

Johnson’s a lock, I go with Rondo because despite the roster, they’ll need a ball-handler on the team somewhere.

Forwards: Chris Bosh, Gerald Wallace.

Complete no-brainers here. If there’s an argument against them, it’s so radically flawed I don’t want to hear it.

Centre: David Lee.

It’s a tough one, no doubt. There’s got to be some love for Andrea Bargnani out there but I don’t think enough coaches know his game well enough.

Wild cards: Josh Smith, Paul Pierce.

Toughest group to decide although Smith’s pretty easy. Pierce probably gets it on reputation but I could see them going with someone like Andre Iguodala here, or maybe even a Stephen Jackson. If they go all crazy on me and take, say Derrick Rose over Rondo as a guard, all bets are off.

West

Guards: Chris Paul, Brandon Roy.

Duh! I guess you maybe make a case for Tony Parker in here, or even Jason Kidd since he’ll be at home but it’d be hard.

Forwards: Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant.

This might be even easier than the East forwards. Dirk’s at home, Durant’s spectacular and the all-star game should suit his talents perfectly.

Centre: Pau Gasol.

This is where I’m giving the coaches a break. The leeway they have fits perfectly in this situation.

Wild cards: Zach Randolph, Deron Williams.

A toughy again. Randolph should go on his numbers and the fact the Grizzlies are going well but the coaches may like Rudy Gay better. And Williams is a reputation pick and maybe the coaches go with Gay and Chris Kaman of the Clippers here. Me? I’ll stick with Zach and Williams but could be convinced otherwise.

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Don’t forget, we’ve got to go at noon eastern time, 9 a.m. central, late afternoon or early evening for our European friends, with the game-day question-and-answer thingy today.

See you then?

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And mail. I could use mail.

Comments

[Matty-Pix]

I guess it's tough to argue with Z-Bo, but I would give the nod to Kaman.
Other than that, Banks over Rondo is the only other change i'd make.

[jimt]

I agree Kobe over Lebron even though Lebron and I are birthday buddies lol.

Nice to see Bosh move up to 9 on the scorers list,and still tops the FG% among that group I might add :)

Hearing Marbury is heading to China for 100k a month made my Week lolololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol. CYA

And for the four point play- Lebron is a Wussy(can I say that) for backing out of the dunk comp,boooooooooo birthday buddy,hey at least hes not in a sex rehab clinic like another b-day buddy haha poor tiger

[Felix]

i'm sure you'll get a lot of flack for this, but i think you included dirk by accident in your starters as you have 6 not 5 in the west...

Blogger's note: Yeah, just went in and took him out, thanks

[N]

What about Horford or Perkins over Bargnani as potential Cs? Bargnani has a long way to go before the ASG. Also, hard to swallow Zach Randolph may be an All-star but he does deserve it this season.

[Johnn19]

Doug

Not good coaching for any reason, keeping Calderon, the only Raptor supporting Bosh in scoring, and Belinelli, on the team for his scoring, on the bench.

With the terrible effort on the defensive boards, the only option was to score, which his choices predictably, based on their games failed to do.

[Don]

I hope Andrea's back is better tonight, I would love to see him stick it to "big mouth" Andrew Bogut

[Peter]

Hey Doug,

Great blog, as usual.

I agree with you that Allen Iverson at the all-star game is a disappointment. He hasn't been playing well enough the last few seasons to even deserve to be there on reputation. There are much more deserving guards in the East (Rondo and Johnson for instance!).

I think Bosh deserves it over Garnett as well, who I think had his reputation working for him on the fan voting a little bit. If they were both playing it'd be a different story, but Garnett has been out a few gaems this season, so the edge should have gone to Bosh.

[Jack]

Stop building up Bargnani. His only time in the All-star festivities was during the rookie-sophomore games. He won't be in the all-star roster at all. Jeez... There's got to be some love for Bargnani... only you and Matt Devlin love him.

[Jim Rootham]

Cooment on your article today.

That's just silly. Teams don't win a lot of games by closing out close games. They win by being up 10 with a minute to go (having been up at least 10 for that whole fourth quarter). Well, that's a little specific but the point is good teams don't win any more close games than anyone else, they win blowouts more than anyone else.

So, yes, it really was the rebounding.

[Nilanka]

I would say the fans got 8 of the 10 starters right. One could easily argue that Garnett has done nothing to warrant a spot over Bosh.

[GT]

Hey Doug,

I agree with all of your picks, except I think I would choose Chris Kaman from the Clippers over Gasol. I believe Gasol is the better player and that the Lakers have a much better record than the Clips, but Gasol has been hurt more and Kaman has had a much better season so far. Thoughts??? Either way Gasol or Kaman are not going to be doing much during that game anyways.

Blogger's note: Sure, you can make that case

[aditya]

Randolph should go on his numbers and the fact the Grizzlies are going well but the coaches may like Rudy Gay better
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I guarantee you they won't....trust

[Hope Caper]

Hey Doug, I don't know if I would say the Raps lost in a most worrisome manner (article) as I thought the blowouts they were in earlier were more worrisome. I don't really see Garnett as a better forward than Bosh. I would give him the edge on defence but after that he is a long way behind Bosh. Bosh has put up career numbers and as the team gets better I expect all things to increase. I'm not happy the Raps lost those games but it was encouraging to them IN the games. Fans have been calling for trades but I don't see that happening. You have also mentioned that. Really the Turk is the only one who hasn't stepped up and if you trade him, who replaces him? Or do you let him play through based on past performance?

[Jonathan Cabot]

"But Allen Iverson?

Simply a ridiculous choice as an all-star and perhaps the single greatest embarrassment in the history of fan voting in any sport. A travesty."

I'd have to counter with Habs fans stuffing the NHL All-Star ballot box last year to get Mike Komisarek voted in as a starter despite having only one goal and two assists (with a +3 Plus/minus).

At least Iverson has accomplishments in the past that are being honoured. The only thing of note that Lomisarek has accomplished is giving Milan Lucic knuckle pain from repeatedly contacting Lucic's fist with his skull.

[DIK]

Saying the Lakers are the best team right now is true only if your speaking of their record. They have played only 16 road games this year so far. Fewer than every other team in the league. Add to that that they are only 9 and 7 on the road and this is deffinately not the best team in the league right now. Best home team = yes.

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Morning, Doug.
Nice work on the All Star and half-point lists, as always. Another pre-game blog thingy today, so does that mean another round of “hey, where’s the pre-game blog thingy today?”?! Ever wonder why folks might be confused? Well, has anyone – anyone at all at Mother Star – bothered to have a serious look at the typical Star/Sports/Basketball landing page? Let’s break it down, shall we:
Section 1: You’ve got one current story (today it’s your ‘Home Cooking’ piece) and then a mishmash of four old stories – as in several days old. Tell me, Doug, would your newspaper run one current story and several days-old stories on page 1?
Section 2, labeled “Today”: One story, and it’s the Cavs-Lakers write-up. Again, why a section labeled Today BELOW the top section, which features mostly old stuff?
Section 3, labeled “Yesterday”: Here you have a repeat of the Raps-Bucks story that already runs in Section 1 but with a different headline (and trust me, it’s aggravating to keep having to open these renamed reruns just to make sure we’re not actually missing something that might be, you know, new, or news, only to find that, no, we really are still wasting our time here…) and then you have – labeled “Yesterday” mind you – the link to TODAY’s pre-game chat! Dang, why can’t people find this, the dummies…
Section 4, labeled “Previous” (never mind the fact that the opening section features 4 out 5 stories that should be living in “Previous”): And what do we find here? Oh, your blog from THIS morning… along with your last pre-game chat and three other old stories, two of which are IDENTICAL.
We’re at the halfway point of the NBA season, and this is how your basketball web pages having been running since, what, last July or August? Not sure how one might go about asking your wonderful web-meisters to clue in and clean up. They obviously don’t embarrass easily.
Meanwhile, thanks for all your great work, Doug – a lot of us do still seem to manage to hunt it down and appreciate it on a daily basis, in spite of all the efforts to make that as non-user-friendly as possible. Cheers!

[Caleb]

Pretty accurate picks Doug, but I don't know I agree with "reputation picks". I think that's no better than fans picking Iverson based on a impression he made on them oh I dunno, 6 or more years ago! (since he went to Denver there is nothing that can be qualified as All Star caliber play from him) If a guy like Deron Williams or Paul Pierce have a nice reputation, that's all fine and good, but shouldn't the All-Star game be a representation of who is at their best this season, and at this moment in time? I know that doesn't jive with fans making picks based simply on who they like, or coaches wanting to win a all star game with strategy, but seriously, guys like Gay and Kaman shouldn't be left off an all star jersy this year based on what another player did in previous seasons to this one....or am I totally off base in what the All Star game "should" represent?

(and I know Gay and Kaman aren't clear cut All Stars, I just hope the get a fair shot based on what they've done this year and this year alone)

[Phil A]

Your picks are bang on. The only thing that frustrated me was that Iverson and Garnett are starting in the All-Star game. We all know Chris Bosh is having a much better season then Garnett. Garnett is not playing like the Garnett of old. We all know Iverson's career is essentially over so I don't understand why fans would vote this guy in.

[greg]

Who is or is not a star in any business is not about talent its about popularity. Thats what the all star game is , a showcase of the most popular players hence why nobody plays seriously in this game. You guys are taking it way too seriously. If snoop dogg played for the raptors and was the 12th man off the bench he would make the all star game. A.I. isnt an all nba caliber player now but he is still popular.

[aditya]

and brandon jennings is a decent defender...he plays for scott skiles...do you not remember him pressuring jack in the third quarter in milwaukee, and calderon coming in earlier than (your estimated) 10 minutes gone in the third quarter...

[Matty-Pix]

Can you imagine if Bosh went public with:

Yeh, I don't think Kevin Garnett should be an all-star this year. I've played more games than him, am putting up better numbers ... his team just has more wins than mine.

[Sean]

Sorry Doug, but I could not disagree with you more on Kobe as MVP. Not only is LBJ beating Kobe in almost any statistical category (and by a wide margin in some), he has also taken a good team and made them great. Kobe has a great team and (admittably) kept them great. No comparison in my eyes.

I agree that LBJ uses his size to force the issue, but he is also as smooth as Magic out there sometimes. He had a crossover last night that made my jaw drop.

The debate continues...

[CARLoS M.]

"If they put as much energy and thought into, you know, the plays and defensive assignments, it might be better for all concerned and give them something to really celebrate about."

Have you ever brought this up to a player or coach? Maybe they read the blog but it would be interesting to hear a reaction to this poignant observation.

[Thane]

I definitely think that this could hav been Bargs year for the All-Star team. Ironically, I think he didn't make it because of Bosh - if Bargs was the #1 scoring option on the Raps, I've no doubt he'd have the numbers to be a lock. (yeah, yeah, it's not the world we're living in, but just saying).

A few questions.

Re: 6th man - if the starting lineup stays the way it is, does Calderon get any potential love at season's end for 6th man honours?

Re Rookie-Sophmore - what do you think DD's chances of getting some burn for the rookie-sophmore game are?

Thanks!

Blogger's note: I doubt it and if they don't take him, there should be a federal inquiry

[The J]

"That Chris Bosh had the 10th largest number of votes of all all-star on the ballot...Guess this whole “they’ll never pay attention to him because he plays in Canada” stuff might be a bit of a fallacy."

Except all of the U.S. Media will point out how he didn't make the team (as a starter) to argue he doesn't get that attention. Nevermind that he was a starter before KG came to the east. Or that he got into the top 10 overall votes. Or that it was an all-time great (KG), on an all-time great team that kept him out of the starting unit. I still don't understand how being the 10th most popular player (arguably much lower) in the US is better than being the most popular in Canada. I'd rather be Superman in Toronto, than Robin in Miami.