All-Star Snub??? Meh.

First off, I am loving the plethora of “I can’t believe Paul Milsap was left off the All-Star Ballot.” articles that are littering the web in the last few weeks. Any national articles lauding a Jazz man are ok in my book.

Second, I could not care less that he was left off the All-Star ballot.  If anything, it just shows that the way they pick the nominees, basically a few writers/columnists from around the country get together in a room and pick, is flawed.  Dumb.  Really, it doesn’t really matter anyway.  Paul was never going to get voted in by the fans anyway.  NBA All-Star voters around the world vote in stars regardless of their stats.  Millsap could put up 40 a game in the first half of the season and still not get voted in because he is not really a “name” yet.  You have to remember that All-Star voters come from around the world so they vote in the guys they know. i.e. Guys the NBA promotes.  To the best of my knowledge, the Jazz have had one game on national TV.  Lakers/Celtics/Heat got to be at least 6/7 times.  I mean take a look at some of the dubious All-Star starters voted in by the fans.

                 2010 – Allen Iverson – Played 19 games up to the All-Star break.     Cut  by the Grizzlies.

                 2007 – Shaq – Had only played 4 games for the Heat that season.

                 Every year – Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady leading the field in votes.  I can personally attest that this is due to ballot-stuffing in China.  People in China love some T-MAC.  Even though he is now a marginal role player for the Pistons he will still be in the top 10 for Eastern forwards. Mark my words.

In fact, you can pretty much call who the All-Stars will be right now.  What’s the point of voting? Here is what they will be:

EAST:

Dwayne Wade

Rondo or Derrick Rose (This is the only one I am not sure about. People will probably be so shocked that they can’t vote for Allen Iverson they might have a heart attack)

Lebron

Kevin Garnett

Dwight Howard

WEST

Chris Paul

Kobe

Carmelo/Durant (I had Carmelo as a lock but I think KD is starting to take off internationally so he will not be denied.

Tim Duncan

Yao

That’s the list.  Even though some of these guys are hardly deserving of another selection they will still get the votes.  Millsap may be killing Timmy Duncan in the stats department (he is) but it doesn’t matter.  He wouldn’t have been a starter.  The lucky thing is that if he keeps playing the way he is playing he will get the call from the West Head Coach to be an All-Star reserve. D-Will will get one too.

However, the best part of the story is that the guy who cares the least about the “snub” is Paul himself.  When asked by the writer’s decision, Millsap said "It's just one of those things."  "It's not a big deal to me. I'm going to get out there and continue to do what I'm going to do."  Way to be, big man.  Keep on killin’ it out there. 

Just for fun the following scrubs are on the All-star ballot.  Recall that Millsap is averaging 20.4 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 1.21 spg, .93 bpg.

Ron Artest – 9 ppg/3.5 rpg

Trevor Ariza – 10 ppg/5 rpg

Caron Butler – 13 ppg/4 rpg

Grant Hill – 13 ppg / 4 rpg

Hedo Turkoglu – 10 ppg/3 rpg

And that is just the West Forwards. There are plenty of other jokes there as well.

Crisis Averted

I was very close to writing an extremely reactionary posting about the Utah Jazz's awful start to the season but am glad that I decided to hold my tongue.   Should have known that Sloan and Deron Williams would right the ship.  Still the start of the season was all kinds of bad.  Notwithstanding the two blowout losses to the Nuggets and Suns, respectively, the team had some seriously nasty mojo surrounding it during the first week. Obviously disturbed by the slow start, Deron was saying all the wrong things after the Suns game like "We don't know the offense. It's as simple as that. We don't know the offense," or "I'm not used to playing this bad and things being this difficult."  I mean, he berated fresh-faced Gordon Hayward for missing a defensive rotation.  How could anyone yell at this guy??

But after beating up on every pundit's darling, the Thunder tonight, everything looks better.  Should have remembered that the last time the Jazz started 0-3 was the 1979-80 season. i.e. the first season in SLC.  In five seasons since they have started 0-2 but always won the 3rd game.  Yep, Sloan is a good coach who knows how to make adjustments.  So the train is back on the tracks...for now.  They should have an easy week with games against the declawed Raptors, the Curry-less Warriors and the still no good Clippers.  Three games that should equal three wins.  If they drop these though, all bets will be off and it will be a long season.  I mean, even longer than it usually is, because it is always really long.

NBA Predictions

Quick break from the Curses for a few minutes. Tonight is the NBA's opening night. I can honestly say that I am as excited about this season of the NBA as I have been in a long time. Growing up in Salt Lake, I am obviously a big Jazz homer and this years team is one of the most interesting in recent years. The additions of Al Jefferson, Raja Bell and Gordon Heyward are very crafty by GM Kevin O'Connor and I think they will mesh well. Also remember the name Jeremy Evans. He is a 6' 9" forward who is pencil-thin but Sloan apparently loves him and he brings to mind favorable comparisons to Tayshaun Prince. Just a little FYI. Also I think Heyward will turn some heads. But outside of my personal bias for the Jazz, there were huge moves throughout the league this year. Not withstanding Miami Thrice, there was Boozer to the Bulls, Amare to the Knicks, Shaq to the Celts, return of Blake Griffin, etc. etc. With all this hoopla going on I thought I would commemorate my thoughts on how it will all shake out. I've included how each division will [mostly not] finish up, the playoff order, and how the playoffs will unfold. Also I've got some awards because everyone loves awards. Will any of these pan out? Much like my Twins-Phillies World Series pick, I doubt it. But, hey, it's opening day so even the lowliest team should be brimming with optimism. Well, maybe not the T-Wolves.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

1. Boston (2)
2. New York Knicks (8)
3. Philadelphia
4. NJ Nets (As my new local team, I hope they are especially bad so tickets are cheap and plentiful)
5. Toronto

Central

1. Milwaukee (3) - Won't have the 3rd best record but I think this is how the playoffs work
   
2. Chicago (6)
3. Detroit (7)
4. Indiana
5. Cleveland

Southeast

1. Miami (1)
2. Orlando (4)
3. Atlanta (5)
4. Washington
5. Charlotte

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northwest

1. Oklahoma City (1)
2. Utah (4)
3. Portland (5)
   
4. Denver (8)
   
5. Minnesota

Southwest

1. Dallas (3)
2. Houston (6)
   
3. San Antonio (7)
   
4. Memphis
5. New Orleans

Pacific

1. Lakers (2)
2. Clippers (!)
3. Phoenix
4. Golden State Steph Currys
5. Sac-Town

PLAYOFFS

WEST:

1st: OKC over DEN; Lakers over Spurs; DAL over Houston; Jazz over Blazers
Semi: Jazz over OKC; Lakers over Mavs
Final: Lakers over Jazz (Can't believe I would write this on a blog no one will read)

EAST:

1st: Heat over Knicks; Boston over Pistons; Bulls over Bucks; Orlando over the Hawks
Semi: Orlando over Heat; Bulls over Boston
Final: Orlando over Bulls

NBA Finals

Lakers over Orlando in 6. Three-peat, ugh



Awards

MVP : Kevin Durant
Rookie: Blake Griffin
Coach: Jerry Sloan (It's about effin time)
Defensive : Dwight Howard
Sixth Man: Ty Lawson
Most Improved: Andrew Bogut makes a big leap

So now...Let the games begin and let these predictions start becoming WAY off.