Ngomongin NBA aja deh capek ngomongin pecundang di Eropa soalnya gw gak punya
kaset kayak Rudy kekekeke
Regular season NBA bentar lagi abis. Ada artikel soal ALL NBA TEAM dan ini
adalah pilihan koresponden NBA di ESPN Marc Stein.
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All About the NBA All Train
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Season-ending award ballots arrived from the league office this week, but
we're sticking to the usual schedule. The choices made at Stein Line HQ will be
revealed on the final Friday of the regular season.
Except for one category.
We usually run out of real estate in the season's final Weekend Dime,
expansive as it is, for a detailed breakdown of our All-NBA selections. So
we're going to start going through the process now, with two reminders:
1. This is a preview of where I'm strongly leaning with 13 days to go in the
regular season. I reserve the right to tweak any of these three teams before
actually submitting my ballots -- changes to the current Dallas-Denver-Golden
State order would undoubtedly necessitate a rethink, for example -- but you
will be notified of any changes.
2. The league instructs us to vote for five players on each of the three
All-NBA teams at the position they play regularly and with no ties. Five points
are awarded for every first-place vote, three for every second-team vote and
one for every third-team vote.
First Team
F -- Kevin Garnett (Boston)
F -- LeBron James (Cleveland)
C -- Amare Stoudemire (Phoenix)
G -- Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)
G -- Chris Paul (New Orleans)
The rationale: Four names on the first team were automatics because Bryant,
Paul, Garnett and James are everybody's top four in the MVP race in some order.
The only contestable item here, I suppose, is that I'm favoring Stoudemire as
my first-team center, knowing very well that he only plays center now when
Shaquille O'Neal is off the floor.
Here's the deal: He's played more center than power forward overall this
season, which technically addresses those aforementioned league instructions to
"please vote for the player at the position he plays regularly." It's a fact
that Stoudemire has played more regularly this season at the five, and that
fact is a huge help in a season where we're at least one worthy center short
because Yao Ming played only 55 games before getting hurt.
Then there's this: Amare has also been one of the five best players in the
league in the second half of the season, which motivates me even more to find
room for Stoudemire on the first team.
Shaq's arrival is widely credited as the spark for Amare's latest dramatic
spike, which is something we've all been watching for since Shaq said on his
first day as a Sun that one of his most important jobs in the desert would be
overseeing the "Amare Stoudemire Project." Yet we tend to agree with Suns coach
Mike D'Antoni, who pointed out recently that Stoudemire's numbers "started to
go off the charts" even before the O'Neal deal, with Phoenix running more plays
than ever before for the 25-year-old.
Turning my ballot in this way would thus bump Dwight Howard to the second
team, which will enrage my oldest son Alexander The Greatest, who's been doing
Superman dunks on the mini-hoop upstairs pretty much nonstop since All-Star
Weekend. Howard, however, played his best ball in the first half and has been a
touch less ferocious since, dunk contest aside. Factor in the whispers coming
out of Orlando that Hedo Turkoglu is the Magic's greater source of consistency
and the case for Amare grows.
---------------------------------
Second Team
F -- Tim Duncan (San Antonio)
F -- Carlos Boozer (Utah)
C -- Dwight Howard (Orlando)
G -- Manu Ginobili (San Antonio)
G -- Steve Nash (Phoenix)
The rationale: Team success, as usual, bosses my thinking here.
Ginobili is having his best season and has essentially been Duncan's equal
for the first time, which has the defending champs vying yet again for the best
record in the West and should leave little doubt why there are two Spurs on the
second team.
I fully expect Howard to appear on most ballots as a first-teamer -- and I'm
not ruling out reverting to such thinking when ballots are due April 17 --
while Boozer has only enhanced his status as one of the game's most fearsome
down-low operators for the team with the best home record in the league. So
they're no-brainers, too.
As for Nash
If you're planning to write in claiming that the two-time MVP has slipped at
34, don't bother. You'll never convince me. Check out the numbers; Nash's
statistical production remains highly efficient and spectacular. His role in
helping to quickly assimilate Shaq in one of the most dramatic midseason
changes of all time, furthermore, can't be underestimated.
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Third Team
F -- Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas)
F -- Paul Pierce (Boston)
C -- Marcus Camby (Denver)
G -- Allen Iverson (Denver)
G -- Tracy McGrady (Houston)
The rationale: Figuring out the third-team forwards is fairly easy by
comparison because Pierce has raised his ferocity to KG's level for the team
with the most wins in the league and thanks to Nowitzki's second-half return to
his MVP form. Denver's Carmelo Anthony isn't far behind, but misses out because
the Nuggets aren't putting three players on a 15-man squad. Not even Boston can
do that.
Injuries were an unavoidable variable at center. Yao will wind up missing
more than a third of the season when you include the playoffs, leaving us to
choose between Toronto's Chris Bosh and Camby. This is subject to change if the
Nuggets squander their current playoff-bound status, but Camby's nightly
attempt to make up for the defense multiple teammates don't play and his
newfound durability -- he hasn't missed a game yet this season at 34 -- broke
the deadlock. (Although we should add that Rasheed Wallace was also a
consideration here, in spite of what the stats say, given Sheed's overall team
contribution to the mighty Pistons and his better-than-ever relationship with
the refs.)
That brings us to the crowded nightmare at third-team guard. Everyone keeps
waiting for Iverson to break down, now that he's 32, but do you see any
slippage? Not us. T-Mac's Rockets, meanwhile, were supposed to collapse without
Yao and wound up stretching a 12-game winning streak into a 22-gamer, which is
only the second-longest unbeaten run in NBA history.
The problem with choosing those two, though, is that you're then forced to
leave out Deron Williams, Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups. Which makes you
feel very bad about yourself.
Yet you conclude, in the end, that Houston has to have one All-NBA
representative, even more than a Detroit team that makes it almost impossible
to pick out a standout. Davis will come back into consideration on my official
ballot if the Warriors manage to reclaim their playoff spot -- D-Will and
Billups deserve the same reconsideration at season's end, frankly -- but it
looks as though Baron's still-alive run at playing all 82 games will be
bittersweet unless the Mavs and Nuggets slip up.
Adiossssssssss
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