Written by Sam Shannon, Adrian Coburn and Anthony Manakis
Artwork by LUNA TUNES
It’s time again for three basketball heads to sit down at our imaginary roundtable to discuss all things NBA. Hopefully you’ve forgotten all of the predictions from our Season Preview that we got wrong and have let only the correct ones remain. Don’t dwell on my prediction of a significant drop-off from Dirk this season (throwing up a 18 and 6, Dallas currently 8th in the West), or Adrian’s similar prediction for Pau Gasol (17, 11 and 4, All-Star reserve). Also please don’t focus on the fact that none of us predicted the Warriors to win the championship this season or that only one of us predicted them to even make the Finals. Instead cast your mind back to Anthony’s ‘Joe Johnson Will Move To A Contender By Season’s End Prediction’, now famously known as the JJWMTACBSEP or me and Adrian’s predictions that Andre Drummond and Kawhi Leonard will make the All-Star leap (which were not that bold in retrospect). The good thing about following sports is that at the beginning of each season you get the chance to make these sort of predictions. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong. It doesn’t make watching the season unfold any less thrilling. Especially if there’s a bloke named Stephen Curry playing who never stops amazing us. So let’s do this again.
WARNING: Vol. 2 will be slightly more Warriors focused then Vol. 1.
Is there any chance that Steph Curry doesn’t win his second MVP award this season?
Coburn: I had no idea Steph Curry was this good and there is no way he isn’t this years MVP.
Manakis: Only question for me is will it be unanimous? Only Shaq and LeBron have claimed 120 of a possible 121 first place votes. Word to the guy that voted for my man Melo in 2012/13.
Shannon: I agree with both of you. There is no chance. Steph wins it again this year. He’s having a historically great season. At the time of writing he is averaging 30 points, 5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game, he is on track for the elusive 50-40-90 club (he’s actually 50-45-90 at the moment) and he’s had 12 games with over 40 points and 3 games over 50 points. He’s also made 322 three pointers through 63 games (an average of 5.1 a game) which smashes the single season record of 286 which he happened to set last season. Oh, and his team are currently 63-7. It should be unanimous, but there will always be someone who wants to make a name for himself or herself and vote for somebody else i.e the aforementioned clown who voted for Melo instead of LeBron in 2013.
Will the Warriors win 72 games or more?
Shannon: I hope so. As a sports fan I like to see records be broken or witness greatness unfold. To see something I can tell my grandchildren about one day. I think this Warriors team has that in them. They do have to play the Spurs a couple more times at least, but let’s assume Pop goes full Pop by that stage and doesn’t take those games as seriously as he might a couple of weeks later, the Warriors could cruise through those games as well. I think they’ll get it.
Coburn: Yes. I don’t need to look at any upcoming schedules either. This Warriors team hates losing. We know they’ll rest players down the stretch but I’m not sure that will matter all that much. Any team that has Draymond Green won’t settle for losing a game for no good reason either.
Manakis: Short answer: Yes. I made a fifteen-leg multi-bet at the start of the season for NBA teams over/under, all of which look like they will get up… except one. I had Golden State under (that’s right, under!) 60.5 wins. I relied on the belief that the Spurs/Thunder/Rockets/Clippers would have developed a legit answer for the Warriors. This hasn’t happened, Steph Curry is an android, the Warriors are unfair. They will beat the record, they want to beat the record, MJ told them to go and beat it. Book it in.
Side note… the return on that multi is $129,330.61.
Who are the Warriors biggest threat in the West?
Coburn: Blazers. Spurs. Western Conference Finals mode Russell Westbrook guarding Curry is great to imagine but the 2015-2016 Spurs are even better than Spurs teams of years gone by. Kawhi is a beast on both ends and Parker, Ginobli and Duncan will all be serving their duties with incredible efficiency come Playoff time. But the real tipping point is Aldridge and the A+ offense he provides. He provides a bail out option for the Spurs when the offense is lacking and draws Draymond away from the bucket where he does his best work altering shots. I can’t wait for the the tactics and tricks that Pop comes up with either.
Manakis: Russell Westbrook.
Shannon: Goooo, Spuuuurs, Goooo! As much fun as it will be to see the Westbrook and Durant duo take on the Dubs, the Spurs have again produced another stellar season. For the past couple of seasons their success has somewhat defied logic, but this year seems to be different. Aldridge, in my opinion, has fit in as well as I expected him to (which is extremely well) and Kawhi has grown into a bonafide superstar and MVP candidate. As for the former big three, well, injured testicles aside Tony, Timmy and Manu are doing Tony, Timmy and Manu things like they have for as long as I can remember. So they’re not defying logic, it’s logical that they are as good as they are.
Who are the Cavaliers biggest threat in the East?
Manakis: No one. If Toronto or Boston manage to wrangle the top seed off them that is great for them, and could possibly have some free-agency implications. In terms of impact it means as much as Atlanta’s 60 win season last year.
Shannon: Themselves. We’re hearing too much about locker room unrest for my liking but as we all mentioned in Vol. 1 there’s nobody that can really stop LeBron from cruising to the Finals again.
Coburn: Highly unlikely but if I had to choose one team it would be the King’s former home in Florida. The Heat have such a balanced roster and whether Bosh returns or not, they have enough weapons, and enough wing players to try and limit playoff LeBron James.
Which player has been the biggest surprise this season?
Shannon: A thousand apologies to Draymond Green but I have to go with Dame DOLLA. Damian Lillard. When Aldridge left for San Antonio the Trail Blazers handed the keys of the franchise over to the young point guard and he has delivered in spades. At the time of writing he is averaging nearly 26 points a game to go along with nearly 7 assists and has the Blazers, a team that was stripped for parts at the end of last season, heading towards the playoffs. Am I surprised he’s this good? No. Has he reached the level he’s operating at quicker than I thought he would? Yes. Did I include him here purely so I can show this clip? No comment.
Coburn: Without doubt it has been Damian Lillard. The Blazers were gutted at the end of the 2014-2015 season and I personally questioned whether they would finish bottom of the West alongside the Lakers. I never doubted that Lillard would be a bonafide star in the league but I never expected him to be able to carry a team on his shoulders like he has done this season. It’s Lillard Time.
Manakis: I’m sorry if this is too obvious but Stephen Curry is easily the biggest surprise in my eyes this season. This guy as we all know is having an absurd season. Not one of us had Steph winning the MVP, we all thought he couldn’t keep up the efficiency of his 2014/15 campaign where he averaged 23 points, 4 rebounds and 7 dimes and a PER of 28. I personally thought that other teams, especially in the West would have figured him out. Instead of that happening, the basketball world has gone into meltdown trying to comprehend the season he is having, many stating that we could be seeing the best regular season ever, and Steph garnering praise from his peers who have never seen anything like him. He is averaging 30 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, whilst maintaining the highest ever PER 32.15. The next highest? Wilt Chamberlin with 31.82 after averaging 50 points and 25 rebounds…
Which player has been the biggest disappointment this season?
Manakis: James Harden. Our five loyal readers (us 3 included) will remember that I picked The Beard as my MVP favourite for this season, and although his play has picked up significantly, I am not a fan of him coming into this season out of shape and with a Kardashian in tow. His sluggish start had people questioning whether or not he had done enough to earn an All-Star reserves spot! This has left his team with a 35-35 record, after finishing second in the conference last year. I was hoping to see Harden’s facilitation of the offense in Houston go to another level, and hopefully, drag Dwight Howard’s head out of his ass, and make the West interesting. Instead, we are left with the usual narrative in the West, where the finalist is all predicated on the Spurs. Admittedly I am more than likely being way too hard on Harden, he is second in the league in scoring, and averaging 7 dimes and 6 boards a game. I guess I was hoping to see Harden unleashed with a chip on his shoulder, trying to show Steph why he was the players MVP. Instead, the chip is on Steph’s shoulder, and his team is 63-7.
Shannon: I’m probably going to steal Adrian’s answer here, but I have to say Bradley Beal. I was going to say Anthony Davis because I picked him first overall in my fantasy draft and a couple of obscure injuries lost me a handful of crucial matchups but it has to be Bradley. This year the Wizards seemed poised to follow the success of last year but unfortunately Beal appears to be made of paper mâche and has left a lot of the heavy lifting to John Wall, who has fought valiantly. There’s even talk that Beal, at just 22 years old, will need to be on a minutes-restriction for the rest of his career. I might just leave it there. Anything else to add Aje?
Coburn: No doubt the the Bradley Beal choice is a justified one here, but I’m going to go with Anthony Davis. A fair amount of this article is an unabashed love affair with Damian Lillard and his ability to carry a team of role players to the playoffs in the West, so I see no reason that the flip side of that can’t be the superhuman Anthony Davis and his inability to do the same with a superior roster. Granted, as always, the Pelicans have been hit hard with injuries, but they have had Holiday, Evans, Gordon, Anderson and Asik all available throughout the season. Yes, Davis has averages of 24 and 10 and yes he is in one of my All-NBA teams because not many PF/Cs in the league are anywhere near these averages but this is Davis’ prime and just like LeBron did and just like Dame is doing, his team should be in the playoffs too.
Which team has been the biggest surprise this season?
Coburn: Charlotte Hornets. A team going largely unrecognised in a greatly improved Eastern Conference and doing so for an extended period of time without Al Jefferson. The Hornets are currently sitting on 40 wins and are sixth in the East with 12 games remaining, which is a great improvement on their 33 win season last year which placed them 11th in the hideous East. The addition and return to form of Nicolas Batum has been hugely beneficial but the improvement of Kemba Walker has been their driving force. His season averages of 21pts/4boards/5assists per game are not eye-popping but he has carried this team over the month of March with his PPG jumping to 26 to go with 5 board and 6 assists.
Shannon: Hard to go past my sentimental favourite team: the Trail Blazers out of Portland, Oregon! They are a great story this year because of a combination of great coaching and chemistry, the emergence of guard CJ McCollum, and the stellar play of Lillard. For a team that lost four of its five starters from last season (Wes Matthews, Nic Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez) and not getting an awful lot in return to be currently sitting sixth in the West and heading towards the playoffs is just an amazing effort. I’m right behind Rip City.
Moose: Stealing a line from a Bleacher Report article I read mid-year…
“At the end of each regular season, an award is given out to the NBA‘s Most Improved Player. If there were a team award similar to that, the Boston Celtics would win it hands down.”
A recent drop from form hinders this answer a bit, however last season the C’s finished 40-42, already this season with 11 games to play they have a 41-30 record, and will look to finish with either the 4th or 5th seed in the much improved Eastern Conference. Although we have seen some great play from their 5 ft 9 point guard, the team has a great blend of young talent, and awesome coaching… if they can acquire a big free agent or trade for a big name player i.e. Boogie Cousins, this team could be contending for titles as early as next year.
Which team has been the biggest disappointment?
Coburn: Milwaukee. This team had so much freaking promise for season 2015-2016 and it’s hard to argue that it’s been nothing but a massive disappointment. The Bucks were approved a new arena, brought out some dope new home jerseys and had some of the best player nicknames going around with two of their young stars The Greek Freak and Duke Skywalker. They re-signed Khris Middleton, beat the Knicks in signing Greg Monroe and had Jabari Parker coming back to full health, but this is where it stopped. No doubt there have been signs, especially of late, with Giannis being able to play point-forward and Parker showing why he was a number 2 draft pick, but overall, this season has been a waste for the Bucks.
Shannon: It’s the Houston Rockets. In the first month of the 2015-16 campaign James Harden, while out of shape, was shaping up to be the biggest disappointment of the season. In the offseason he seemed to have gotten carried away with his successful 2015 season and showed up to training camp both unfit and dating a Kardashian, both seemingly a recipe for disaster. We know what happened next, the Rockets started 4-7, they fired Coach McHale and have been fighting inconsistency on the court and locker room drama off the court the whole way. Harden’s numbers are still really great, the Rockets have crawled to .500 and are currently in a playoff position but I wouldn’t expect last years Western Conference Finalists to make much noise if and when they get there. A shame.
Manakis: Sammy is spot on with this one, and it builds upon Harden being the most disappointing player for me this season. Although we can see his play improving dramatically, it seems it’s already too little too late. I thought Ty Lawson was going to be a great addition allowing Harden to take his game to another level as I have alluded to above. Firing Hall of Famer Kevin McHale after 11 games is just egregious and probably the worst decision they made this season. They won’t be getting past the second round. D12 won’t be sticking around. Unless they somehow manage to get KD, I think the Rockets need to start rebuilding already.
The regular season is coming to a close. Forget about any justifications, who is in your All-NBA First, Second and Third team at this stage of the season?
Coburn:
FIRST
G: Damian Lillard
G: Steph Curry
F: Lebron James
F: Kevin Durant
C: Draymond Green
SECOND:
G: Chris Paul
G: Russell Westbrook
F: Kawhi Leonard
F: Anthony Davis
C: DeMarcus Cousins
THIRD:
G: James Harden
G: Klay Thompson
F: Paul George
F: LaMarcus Alridge
C: Deandre Jordan
Moose:
FIRST
G: Steph Curry
G: Klay Thompson
F: Lebron James
F: Draymond Green
C: DeMarcus Cousins
SECOND:
G: Chris Paul
G: Russell Westbrook
F: Kawhi Leonard
F: Kevin Durant
C: Anthony Davis
THIRD:
G: Damian Lillard
G: James Harden
F: Paul George
F: LaMarcus Aldridge
C: Andre Drummond
SHANNON:
FIRST
G: Stephen Curry
G: Klay Thompson
F: LeBron James
F: Draymond Green
C: DeMarcus Cousins
SECOND
G: Damian Lillard
G: Russell Westbrook
F: Kawhi Leonard
F: Kevin Durant
C: Andre Drummond
THIRD
G: Chris Paul
G: James Harden
F: Anthony Davis
F: LaMarcus Aldridge
C: DeAndre Jordan
See you next time.
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