Spurs Brazil
04-05-2008, 12:28 PM
All Aboard The All-NBA 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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 winningest team 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 re-consideration 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.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
Dimes Past: March 29-30 | 30 | 31 | April 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080405-06
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 winningest team 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 re-consideration 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.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
Dimes Past: March 29-30 | 30 | 31 | April 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080405-06