Well, the ballot is up and running whether you are ready or not. Those were who I officially voted for earlier today. I will be voting multiple times per day (ah, the beauty of being in a computer lab at school) and those guys will be getting a majority of my votes. Randolph may get kicked out of my voting here and there for votes to head to KG and Duncan and maybe Ford will depend on the day (I was close to voting Andre Iggy). Although, once the returns come in, my votes may be used to help players that are in competition for spots.
On a different note: LaMarcus Aldridge's NBA debut shows great potential for the Blazers future. He was dominating Dirk on the boards. It was his FIRST game ever. He had 10 points and 8 rebounds (6 offensive) in 19 minutes even though he hasn't practiced since his shoulder surgery back in like September. Roy and Aldridge could become a two-some to fear in the future.
Originally posted by Myth
Or it proves how terrible Marbury is. In fact, I think most people overlook the fact that it was Marbury there before and every team gets better when he leaves.Anyway, I know Nash is good and helps his teammates, but it is brought to an extreme and everybody else's skills are overlooked. Joe Johnson is proving right now that he didn't need Nash to be good. But if he were doing this on the Suns, Nash would be getting 75% of the credit for what Joe Johnson is doing. Same thing happened with Boris Diaw. Yes, Steve Nash helps him, but many people seem to completely give the credit to Nash.
While we're on the Nash subject, I'd like to say, I hate the fact that the NBA has changed rules to favor small ball and eliminate defense. Nash is the very symbol of the NBA's rule changes that piss me off. I have been raised to cherish defense. I have personally worked hard to become a defensive minded player and I appreciate those who play hard defense in the NBA. However, now the concept of defense has been flipped on me. Nash has always been a good PG that was always a lower-level all-star. Suddenly, the NBA takes away the players' abilities to play hard defense and now Nash is suddenly a premier player. The NBA is taking the D out of the game and making it 1-dimensional. Nash is the very symbol of this. Earlier we had an argument of Nash vs Payton in his prime. One reason I believe Payton's prime is superior is because he was a premier player when the NBA was tough on guards. Nash would have never been an MVP candidate during the days when people were allowed to defend the perimeter. In his Dallas days, he was a defensive reliability. The moment he went to the Suns, rule's changed making that not a problem anymore. It sickens me.
I agree, Marbury was a terrible leader, but that doesn't take away what a great leader Nash is. I understand why you're upset, but considering how much burden Nash has to carry is frankly unbelievable. Phoenix is a solid team talent wise, but once you get to see a few games without Nash, the team is no longer a team. They're totally unorganized and in a mess without him. And not to take anything away from Marcus Banks or other PG's in the Suns team, but Nash doesn't really have a true backup. He initiates the running and gunning every game. Do you know how much D'Antoni relied on his starters last season and postseason. That's part of the reason they fell apart against Dallas at the end. They ran out of gas. Considering that they did not have Amare last year, it was a pretty good season for them. So without comparisons with Payton or Stockton or whatever, I think Nash gets the credit he deserves. And I know he gets a lot of credit, but it's definitely not as much as you're implying. Unless you're simply exaggerating of course.
Originally posted by Myth
Well, the ballot is up and running whether you are ready or not. Those were who I officially voted for earlier today. I will be voting multiple times per day (ah, the beauty of being in a computer lab at school) and those guys will be getting a majority of my votes. Randolph may get kicked out of my voting here and there for votes to head to KG and Duncan and maybe Ford will depend on the day (I was close to voting Andre Iggy). Although, once the returns come in, my votes may be used to help players that are in competition for spots.On a different note: LaMarcus Aldridge's NBA debut shows great potential for the Blazers future. He was dominating Dirk on the boards. It was his FIRST game ever. He had 10 points and 8 rebounds (6 offensive) in 19 minutes even though he hasn't practiced since his shoulder surgery back in like September. Roy and Aldridge could become a two-some to fear in the future.
Wait, so now on NBA.com I can log on and vote? Sweet.
Originally posted by RecSpecs110
I agree, Marbury was a terrible leader, but that doesn't take away what a great leader Nash is. I understand why you're upset, but considering how much burden Nash has to carry is frankly unbelievable. Phoenix is a solid team talent wise, but once you get to see a few games without Nash, the team is no longer a team. They're totally unorganized and in a mess without him. And not to take anything away from Marcus Banks or other PG's in the Suns team, but Nash doesn't really have a true backup. He initiates the running and gunning every game. Do you know how much D'Antoni relied on his starters last season and postseason. That's part of the reason they fell apart against Dallas at the end. They ran out of gas. Considering that they did not have Amare last year, it was a pretty good season for them. So without comparisons with Payton or Stockton or whatever, I think Nash gets the credit he deserves. And I know he gets a lot of credit, but it's definitely not as much as you're implying. Unless you're simply exaggerating of course.
Even Lord Evolution just said Diaw is trash, which seems to imply the only reason he did good is because of Nash. I think a running passing PG just fits with the (Phoenix/currently f*cked up NBA) system at hand. Chris Paul and yes, even Luke Ridinour, run around weaving between players and dishing the ball in a similar fashion to Nash. I think putting players such as them into the Suns system would make the Suns nearly as good as they are now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ridinour is in the league of Nash, but Paul is getting damn close and would be even closer if defense still mattered.
As for Banks, yes, he is terrible. Barbosa on the other hand ran the Suns just fine when Nash went to the bench in the past year.
Anyway, I'm just happy there will be less "justification" for giving Nash the MVP this year. The last 2 years the MVP has been the Most Surprising Team's Most Valuable Player (MSTMVP). The first year, I honestly believed nobody deserved MVP. But somebody has to get it, so the default candidates were Nash and Shaq. Shaq was screwed for not being "as unstoppable" as his former self while people were surprised at Nash. Though, this MVP did make more sense because it was pretty much by default of a lack of competition.
The 2nd year, people again expected the Suns to be bad, so when Nash led them to slightly better than mediocre, people were like "OMG! The Suns are above mediocre and we didn't expect it. Lets give Nash MVP again even though there were better players on better teams like Wade and Dirk"
This year? I can pretty much guarantee Nash won't get MVP. Why? Because the surprise factor is gone. It doesn't matter if he leads them to another 55-60 win season because people "expect it" this year. MVP should be about being the best, not about having a surprising year.
Kool - It is a heal injury. He has a brace on it for the next 7-10 days. Roy said that if that doesn't do the trick, he may consider surgery (kind of odd since it seems to be short term.
If Wade performed in the regular season like he did in the finals, he definitely would have gotten MVP. As for Dirk, he was certainly a candidate, but Nash still played better overall. And you can't completely abandon the Suns' success as a contributing factor for MVP. It's the reason why Iverson doesn't have a chance. Think about it, the Suns sucked with Marbury (who you have to admit is a pretty decent player, even though he's not an ideal PG) and with one trade in Nash, they suddenly improve tremendously. That improvement didn't come from nowhere. He definitely deserved it the 1st time. The 2nd time was questionable, but hey, it's not like he was out of the MVP race, he was right there, and he won it.
I'm not saying this is right, in fact I think it's BS, but one factor that hinders Wade's MVP chances is the fact that he has Shaq. So, everybody thinks he has a safety net to fall onto just in case he screws up on a given night. But it's been the opposite, he's been the lone superstar in Miami, and Miami's HIS team, not Shaq's.
Anyway, getting back to my point, he also had a good chance to win it last season, but he didn't. He won finals MVP. Isn't that enough for you? He's in his 4th year, and I'm sure he'll accomplish much more. It almost seems like you think Nash shouldn't have been a MVP candidate.
Under the current NBA style, I do believe he should be an MVP candidate. However, I don't think he'd be a real candidate had the NBA kept its old rules, which didn't favor one style of basketball over another. Nash is pretty 1-dimensional. The new NBA rules make the game more 1-dimensional which is why he is now MVP material out of no where, which to me is just wrong.
But you also have to consider that in the current NBA era, defense is emphasized a lot less, so they're a lot less players who are both supreme on both offense and defense. And those who are, are considered as MVP candidates. (i.e. Kobe, LeBron, etc.) I know that there are many solid all around players like Ron Artest, but ultimately, it all comes down to favortism, and Steve Nash happens to be a very popular player, and rightfully so.
But it's certain he won't win it for a third time, so don't worry.
Bad News for Portland. Darius Miles is out for the season, he's undergoing microfracture surgery on his knee.
And the Nets are looking sluggish without RJ with a terrible loss to the Sonics. They say he can't come back until a week or so. Hopefully they'll win tonight against Milwaukee. They need some confidence going into Indiana and then to Seattle.
Im not sure its that bad for the Blazers, it will give them a chance to give the young guys a chance to play together. Miles is just a distraction and proof that it takes more than being an amazing athlete to be a great pro baller.
The Blazers are going to be a very good team once their youngsters develop, they have Jack at the point, Roy at the 2 spot, Webster at SF, Aldridge at PF and Pryz in the middle and thats only the youngsters. Add to that Mags and a rejuvenated Randolph and you can see that they have all the pieces to go far once it all comes together. Also Nate is a very good coach how stresses defense (unfortunately you're not allowed to play it any more), i see them contending in the west in a few years if they stay healthy and keep drafting the way they have.
Miles' injury/surgery is bad for one reason (btw, they said surgery was almost guaranteed about 3 months ago so this isn't surprising news). It postpones a possible trade of Miles. Miles is crap. Most of his value comes from "potential talent" that hasn't developed and most likely won't develope because of his attitude. Don't get me wrong, he is still pretty talented, but he is just about the worst person you can have in the locker room. I suspect that the Blazer's terrible record last year is much in part because of Miles. Miles pretty much broke Mo Cheeks down and got the whole team into a depressed slump. He also refused to listen to Nate Mac once the season started badly last year. The attitude during games and in the locker room was contagious, mostly due to Miles. I pray for the day he is no longer a Blazer and this injury just delays possible trades 🙁
As a side note, Miles once made it a goal to make as many highlight reals as possible to get endorsement contracts. The result was more bricked dunks than I've seen anybody do in my life.