Tap Dancing

Since there is nothing to talk about in the NBA at the moment I might as well don the tap shoes and get busy. I was pretty happy with my predictions for the most part this season (excluding my 10-5 playoff record). The teams that I missed on I didn’t miss on by much, although being wrong on 9-10-11 in West would have looked better than 10-11-12. Only four teams from the East would have made the playoffs in the West whereas three sides that didn’t make it in the West would have qualified in the East.

EAST

I had in…

5. Milwaukee Bucks – I had high hopes for this group but a combination of injuries, chemistry and a key player regressing did them in. First off they lost 277 man-games to injury which led the NBA. Then GM John Hammond added questionable character guys in Corey Maggette, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Drew Gooden, Keyon Dooling and Earl Boykins. Lastly Andrew Bogut (right elbow) was flat out not right as his drop in PER from 20.81 to 16.77 shows. Even though they finished 9th I think Coach Scott Skiles needs to go. If his message isn’t old by now surely his team being dead last in shooting (43%) is.

I had out…

9. Philadelphia 76ers – They performed to what I thought was their absolute ceiling and credit goes to Coach Doug Collins who certainly got the most of them. An underrated factor in them finishing .500 was that they almost had no injuries to their key rotation players.

WEST

I had in…

6. Houston Rockets – Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks (left ankles) getting hurt in the seventh and fifth games respectively really sent them into a tailspin they were never able to get out of. I watched them a lot during the season and they were flat out awful in close games. I think Coach Rick Adelman deserved to be fired even though his squad finished 9th after going 17-8 post All-Star break.

7. Utah Jazz – After Coach Jerry Sloan and his top assistant Phil Johnson resigned on 2/10 they went 0-3 prior to trading Deron Williams on 2/23. After D-Will’s departure they went 8-17. It’s tough to compete when you lose a Hall of Fame coach and your best player over a two week span.

8. Los Angeles Clippers – They never recovered from Baron Davis showing up out of shape and pulling his left hamstring three games into the season. Then Chris Kaman twisted his left ankle eight games in so by the time Eric Gordon (right wrist) went down on 1/22 it was already over. That’s what I get for picking them yet again.

I had out…

10. Memphis Grizzlies – I had them 8th originally based on their undefeated preseason record (8-0) and moved them down, shamefully so. I was surprised by how well they stayed together with O.J. Mayo moving to the bench and Mike Conley getting a 5-year $45 million deal while Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol had to play for their new contracts. Coach Lionel Hollins deserves plenty of kudos for keeping this disparate bunch together.

11. New Orleans Hornets – After David West (left knee) went down for the year their front court depth was about to do them in until GM Dell Demps acquired Carl Landry on 2/23 allowing them to go 13-11 down the stretch. As I expected Chris Paul wasn’t the same player but I didn’t count on him adjusting his game to still be extremely effective minus his once dominant athleticism. I won’t be picking against a healthy, albeit limited, CP3 ever again.

12. Denver Nuggets – VP Masai Ujiri got WAY more in return for Carmelo Anthony than I ever dreamed he could. They also weathered the 57-game MeloDrama much better than I anticipated they would. Considering that he was coming back from throat cancer this was an excellent coaching job by George Karl.