Who's first in second trimester? By Marc Stein

[Jimcs50]

Who's first in second trimester?By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime.
Dividing the NBA season into thirds like a pregnancy or a three-term school year always has been the preference at Stein Line HQ. But there's a hiccup in the system.

Teams generally reach the 54-game mark right around the trade deadline, forcing us to delay our Second Trimester Report one week, which puts most clubs closer to 60 games.

Yet I suspect you'll get over all that pretty quickly and happily focus on how the award races look entering the regular-season stretch run.







Sixth Man of the Second Trimester



Manu Ginobili, San Antonio


I could have picked David Lee if I wasn't wondering whether that recent charade of Jerome James as a Knicks starter was actually coach Isiah Thomas' attempt to preserve Lee's Sixth Man Award eligibility.

I could have picked Ben Gordon, except that he's a regular member of Chicago's first five now and will soon have more starts than sixth-man appearances for the season.

I could have picked my pre-season choice -- Leandro Barbosa -- but went for Ginobili because he moved back to the bench in this trimester, uncorked a 40-point game as a sub last month and will make this a legit three-man battle (along with Barbosa and Lee) for the actual Sixth Man trophy if he continues in a reserve capacity for the rest of the season.

[exstatic]

Late to the dance, as always, Jim. already here...

[Jimcs50]

oops