NBA

NBA Finals Predictions (Spectator Sporting Episode #1)

Posted on April 15, 2018 by spectatorsporting

Adewale Apata & Zachary Roach predict which teams will make it to the NBA’s Final 4.

Reference

LeBron James & Klay Thompson. [NBA]. (2016). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavaliers%E2%80%93Warriors_rivalry

3 Most Pleasant Surprises from the NBA’s 2017 Draft

Posted on April 8, 2018April 8, 2018 by spectatorsporting

By Adewale Apata

I was obviously not listening when someone said, “You shouldn’t judge a draft after only one season.” That’s a good point but I’m defiant. So, allow me to be quick to judge a few rookies who exceeded expectations.

#3. John Collins PF Atlanta Hawks – Collins is a rim rattling high flyer that is quick to dunk on anyone who around the rim.

https://youtu.be/x8TA6dPSpwA

However, he’s more than just a highlight film stud. John Collins is 2nd amongst rookies in blocks per game with 1.1, 2^nd in rebounds with 7.3, 3^rd in FG% with 58%, while averaging 10.4 points and he only plays 24 minutes per game.

What makes John Collin’s rookie performance such a pleasant surprise? He was not a draft lottery selection as he fell to the Hawks at the #19 pick in the draft. Collins has made a few teams second guess themselves for selecting some underwhelming big men ahead of him.

With the 16^th pick, Minnesota selected Justin Patton. But you might find him on the back of a milk carton because Tom Thibodeau won’t use him even though he has fully recovered from his foot injury. With the 10^th pick, it seems like the Blazers reached too high for the former freshman Gonzaga star Zach Collins. He’s only averaging 4 points, 3 rebounds and his field goal percentage of 41% is low for a big man. With the 6^th pick, the Magic are keeping their fingers crossed that Jonathan Isaac fully recovers from continuing pain and stiffness in his right ankle. Isaac is only averaging 5 points and 3 rebounds in an injury riddled 27 games. John Collins has established himself as the best big-man on the Hawks rebuilding roster in his rookie season and he’s an exciting young piece with the potential to average a double-double while wowing the crowd with explosive dunks.

#2 Kyle Kuzma SF Los Angeles Lakers – Kuzma busted onto the scene during the Laker’s summer league play by out shining highly touted Lonzo Ball by winning the Summer League Championship MVP award. During the regular season, he proved that was no fluke as he’s currently 2^nd amongst 2017 rookies in scoring average with 16.1 points per game and 4^th in rebounds with 6.3 per game.

What makes Kuzma’s rookie year performance such a pleasant surprise? He was only a few selections away from falling to the unguaranteed contract zone in the 2^nd round of the draft as the #27 pick. Even if King LeBron doesn’t join the Lake Show next season, the Lakers have a young core to build around with Lonzo Ball, Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, a ton of cap space and the 2^nd biggest steal of the draft in Kyle Kuzma.

#1 Donovan Mitchell SG Utah Jazz – The 2018 Slam Dunk Champion is more than just an eyebrow raising Vince Carter impersonator. Mitchell is by far the scoring champ amongst rookies with an average of 20.4 points per game.

What makes Mitchell’s rookie performance such a pleasant surprise? Who knew that this #13 overall pick from Louisville University would make Jazz fans quickly forget about losing All-Star Gordon Hayward to the Celtics in the off-season? As a rookie, Mitchell is the leader of a squad that has established themselves as a serious playoff contender even though you can’t find one NBA expert or anyone who predicted that Utah would make the playoffs before the start of the regular season.

As the 13^th overall selection, Mitchell is the best player from the 2017 draft and he plays with a chip on his shoulder for not being drafted higher. The Pistons has got to be kicking themselves for selecting former Duke star Luke Kennard (7points per game) with the 12th pick one spot ahead of this rising star..

Unfortunately, Mitchell probably won’t receive that Rookie of the Year honor because Ben Simmons (16ppg, 8reb & 8ass) from the 2016 draft class will get that trophy because he sat out his 1^st season due to a broken foot. But Jazz fans should be more than happy that Gordon Hayward’s departure for Boston during free agency seems like a blessing in disguise as Mitchell has restored hope in Utah.

References

CliveNBAParody, “Russell Westbrook Gets Dunked On By John Collins! OKC Thunder vs Hawks.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 13 Mar, 2018. Web. Apr 8, 2018.

Amis, J. (Photographer). (2018). Westbrook’s 100^th Triple-double, Thunder Beat Hawks 119 – 107. Retrieved from http://nationalpost.com/pmn/sports-pmn/basketball-sports-pmn/westbrooks-100th-triple-double-thunder-beats-hawks-119-107.

NBA Lottery Reform Won’t Stop Tanking

Posted on March 10, 2018March 10, 2018 by spectatorsporting

By Adewale Apata

Only 6 out of the 28 (21%) players selected to a 2018 All-Star roster were drafted outside of the top 10 of their draft class. On top of that, 16 out of the 28 (57%) players from the 2018 All-Star rosters were selected within the top 5 of their draft class! Yet Commissioner Adam Silver can’t seem to figure out why bad teams tank.

Here’s what Silver had to say about tanking, “(NBA) governors have taken steps to address the underlying incentive issues by adopting changes to our draft lottery system.” The 2019 draft lottery reform reduces the chances of the bottom 3 NBA teams from receiving a top 3 draft pick. However, the incentive for bad teams to lose is still not eradicated because the worse teams still have the best chances to receive the top picks.

Click this link https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/913480042352693250 to view the 2019 NBA draft lottery reform for yourself.

The only way Adam Silver can eliminate the “incentive issues” with tanking is by eliminating the NBA draft and adopting a system where every NBA draft prospect becomes a free agent.

The draft was designed to give the worse teams the best chance to select the best draft prospects. This gave fan bases of the worse teams some hope for the future. Eliminating the draft would make bad teams like the Magic, Suns, Kings, Nets, etc… permanently irrelevant. So, his plan to get rid of the incentive for bad teams to lose while maintaining the NBA draft makes no sense. Adam Silver just created a nonsense lottery reform that won’t even stop tanking.

Fake All-Stars

Posted on February 13, 2018February 14, 2018 by spectatorsporting

Paul George 22 points, 5 boards and league leading 2.2 steals per game and Ben Simmons 16 points, 7 boards, 7 assists and 2 steals per game should have earned them a 1^st ballot all-star selection. The head coaches vote for the guys that come off the bench in the all-star game and they clearly put too much emphasis on players who play on teams high up in the NBA standings over players who are performing better.

Should the coaches really be giving Draymond Green a ton of credit for averaging 7 assist a game by passing to 3 of the best shooters/scorers in NBA history? Playing with sharp shooter Klay Thompson and a pair of MVPs (Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant) will keep his assist numbers inflated. His 8 boards and 1 block a game is decent but 11 points per game is well below all-star status. It’s funny how people overrate Green and feel obligated to put 4 Warriors on the all-star team because they have the NBA’s best record. While in 1996, a historic 72 – 10 Bulls team, arguably the best team in NBA history only had two all-stars (Jordan & Pippen), while hall of famer Dennis Rodman was slapped with some snubbery and left at the crib.

Al Horford is another guy who should be sitting at home watching the all-star festivities in Los Angeles rather than participating in them. His 5 assist per game as a power forward is good, 8 boards a game is decent but 13 points per game is not enough for 1^st ballot all-star status. Horford is currently 40^th in the Eastern Conference in points per game. If you’re going to be an all-star while averaging a mediocre amount of points then you’ve got to be exceptional at another aspect of the game.

And that brings me to another player who should have been selected over Horford, if the coaches were hell-bent on continuing their foolery by slighting Ben Simmons simply because he’s a rookie. Andre Drummond is having an excellent season leading the league in rebounds by averaging 15 a game while also averaging 15 points. Simmons and Drummond have undoubtedly been outperforming Horford but the coaches will rationalize their decision because the 76ers and Pistons are fighting for a playoff spot while the Celtics had the best record in the East at the time of the voting.

But the coaches need to wake up and realize that there have been some teams that had excellent regular season records or even won the championship with only one all-star. The 1993-94 Rockets won the championship with Hakeem Olajuwon as their only all-star and the 2010-11 Bulls had the NBA’s best record but Derrick Rose was their only all-star.

It would be great if the coaches could stop feeling like they’ve got to select ‘Fake All-Stars’ just because they play on a team at or close to the top of the NBA standings. It’s true that Paul George loss more games than Draymond Green and Ben Simmons loss more games than Al Horford. However, George and Simmons’ performances has been much better the Green and Horfords’ and they deserved that 1^st ballot all-star spot.