And the winner is…
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Now back to Billie Crystal as he announces the best player pickup in the off season…
Drum roll ta ta ta ta tata.
Richard Jefferson by the San Antonio Spurs.
Come on up Richard.

Congratulations and guess why you were number 1?

Jefferson (14 votes)
The first big move of the offseason will prove to be the best move, more than one-quarter of our voters said. RJ is the piece that will get the Spurs back into the West’s elite. Jefferson’s shooting numbers were down last season with the Bucks, but he shot 40 percent from beyond the arc and still knows how to score. Playing in a winning atmosphere certainly will help matters, too.

Most important, perhaps, is that RJ has been healthy for the past two years — something the Spurs’ big three has not been — and he’s still on the right side of 30. If he proves to be the perfect fit, the Spurs could push the Lakers for the Western Conference crown.

source

Duncan will have Richard Jefferson to help him to the NBA Title

Squibster take: This one stood out for me, because Richard Jefferson has been a quality player on a couple of confused teams. Now he won’t have to be the team leader. The Spurs have plenty of those guys. He can do what he does best and slash to the basket. Spurs may be once again looking at NBA title contention.

O’Neal to the Cav’s – does Shaq have enough left in the tank?
Artest to the Lakers – can Phil Jackson handle this guy? If he does then Phil goes to the Hall of Fame without retiring.
Carter to Orlando – Plenty of O, but will he deliver the D?
Marion, Miller, Turkoglu, and Wallace round out the field with Rasheed to the Celtics maybe paying the biggest dividends.

Photo source Newscom

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Danny Granger is for real. There, it is out there for everyone to see and if you have not seen this guy play then you are missing one heck of a player.

My first introduction to Danny Granger was last year when Granger was scoring at will against my Pistons. Now Indiana had nobody on their team including this Granger guy and yet, there he was driving and scoring, pulling up and shooting, draining free throws and just being an offensive pest.

This year Danny made the All Star team and just notched Most Improved in the NBA.

Danny Granger is one of the bright young NBA stars!

Maybe the highest praise came from Larry Bird.

A first-time All-Star, Granger realized how far he’s come after Larry Bird’s comments this morning.

In introducing the Pacers forward as the NBA’s Most Improved Player this season, Bird referred to Granger as “a hell of a player.”

“I watched Larry play probably when I was in diapers,” Granger said with a laugh. “It’s a great honor to have him congratulation you on the type of success you have. It speaks wonders.”

Granger, the NBA’s fifth-leading scorer this season with a 25.8 average, reiterated his desired to become an elite defender.
source

Now if Larry Bird could just surround Danny Granger with some other talented players.

Photo source Newscom

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MVP time is this week Thursday and the choice is a tough one. LeBron James or Kobe Bryant? It really is down to the two of them as Dwyane Wade as had a drop-off recently and that remains in the voters’ minds.

Kobe Bryant is hardly fifth best?

One way to look at a player’s production is the Bird value.

As always, I am informed, but not driven, by the formula three-time MVP Larry Bird devised to quantify any player’s true value: points, rebounds, assists, steal and blocks, minus missed shots, missed free throws and turnovers. The sum is divided by games played. It’s a great jumping-off point for careful consideration.

LeBron James, Cavaliers

Bird average: 32.15

Case for MVP: He has the highest Bird value. Additionally, he’s nearly as good a closer as Bryant, still the player every coach would want taking a deciding shot in Game 7 of an NBA Finals. He’s worthy of consideration for the All-Defensive team, too. Simply, he gets the vote because he’s the reason Cavaliers have the best record.

Kobe Bryant, Lakers

Bird average: 24.26

Case for MVP: No player in the league is more reliable when the ball is in his hands and the game is on the line, or more focused on getting a stop in the same circumstance. Plus, he understands, more than at any time in his career, how to make his teammates better.

source

In case you were wondering:
Chris Paul 30.3
Dwyane Wade 28.98
Dwight Howard 27.32

My personal consideration of this matter reveals that stats are stats and don’t always tell the story. While LeBron is certainly deserving, you can’t put Kobe 5th in this group. Kobe or LeBron will likely win the award.

Photo source Newscom

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Kobe Bryant gives the ‘Who me for MVP?’ look

Image details: Los Angeles Lakers v Denver Nuggets, Game 4 served by picapp.com

The NBA has not made an official announcement, but sources are saying that Kobe has won the MVP award.

Your intrepid author has mentioned this possibility before.

Kobe Bryant for MVP

Kobe has had a fabulous season in leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the second round of the playoffs.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing in all 82 games despite tearing a ligament in his right pinkie finger in February. A hand specialist recommended surgery, but Bryant decided to put it off until after the Olympics this summer.

He led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference and a sweep of Denver in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers open the second round Sunday against Utah at Staples Center.

source

Kobe will win the award over Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett (NBA Defensive player of the year), Dwight Howard (All Star Slam Dunk Champion), and LeBron James.

NBA Basketball special comment Kobe was overdue for the MVP award.

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Kobe is flat out a great scorer

The Bulls have got to be wondering what they were thinking.

Hold on to Luol Deng and pass on Kobe Bryant?

Luol Deng. Now how many votes for the All Star team did he get? Hmm, there was that one from his mother. And that one from his agent.

Oh well, Luol is going to be great, right? Right?

Kobe is great and has been since the day he stepped on the court.

GM Mitch Kupchak should get more credit for not pulling off any deals.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports has compiled some first half of the season awards with the MVP being one of them. Let’s look at Adrian’s awards choices and why he feels that way.

Your intrepid author’s comments will be in italics.

Most Valuable Player: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Sometimes, there are superstars due to win the Most Valuable Player Award. It is the year owed them. No one wants to hear this, but it’s true. Kevin Garnett has an MVP trophy. So does Dirk Nowitzki. Steve Nash has two. Once Shaquille O’Neal left, Bryant was considered an unworthy candidate because the Lakers were still losing. source

Adrian goes on to support his argument, by stating that LA winning in the West is far harder than Kevin Garnett winning in the East.

He also states that LeBron will win several MVP’s but this is just not the year for him to get support from his team.

It will be a great MVP race. Not like in past years where you arguable could have just handed the trophy to Shaq every year. In fact, it got to the point that someone had to get smoking hot to take the trophy away from Shaq.

For the first half of the season you have to go with Kobe.

Least Valuable Player: Vince Carter, New Jersey Nets

He has stopped going to the rim, stopped risking life and limb and declared his new four-year, $62 million contract fit for a suburban jump shooter.

Have never understood why Rod Thorn thought the Nets could win with a 6′ 4″ ball hog that played no D.

Rookie of the Year: Kevin Durant, Seattle SuperSonics

Adrian brings up what could have happened with a healthy Greg Oden.

Kevin Durant is instant star power in a franchise that is floundering. He will be a star for his entire career and hopefully will leave town to play for franchise intent on winning.

Oden has the power to bring back the true center into the NBA. But at this point, Greg is just potential and Kevin is doing it.

Rookie Bust: Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls

no one can live with the insubordination that he showed with assistant coach Ron Adams prior to getting a two-game suspension in mid-January. Maybe his chatter will be entertaining when he’s considered a good player, but until then, Noah needs to grow up.

Just be glad you are not a kid in an adult world where everything you do is told to the media and printed the next day or shown on the internet. Noah will make it in this league. He will mature as well.

Executive Disaster of the Year: Isiah Thomas, New York Knicks

This is a career achievement award for Thomas. Kevin McHale has been a different disaster, but he does have a blossoming young star in Al Jefferson, No. 1 picks and cap space on the way. Odds are, he’ll do nothing with it, but at least you know Thomas has no chance with the constitution of his team.

All the Isiah Thomas stuff just stuns me. As a long time Piston fan it is so hard to fathom.

Did Isiah ruffle feathers as a Piston? Absolutely.

Did Isiah turn people off, in spite of his cherub smile and youthful energy? Absolutely.

Did Isiah move beyond all that and get the job done? Absolutely, positively.

Try two rings as the team leader of a franchise that had no belief in itself for decades.

And, like now, Thomas told everyone that he would do it!

Let me leave you with this thought, no matter how ludicrous. What if the Knicks start to win?

Adrian gives us some other awards, so be sure to check them out!

NBA Basketball Fan Question What other MVP candidates are out there?

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By Guest Blogger, Kori Ellis

While it’s a bit early to be talking MVP, here’s an early look at the current leaders in the race for the 2007-08 NBA MVP award:

1) LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
James built on a very good playoff run last year and this year he’s been fantastic. In fact, he’s on pace to have one of the best seasons in NBA history. He’s averaging 31.7 points, 8.5 assists, 8.0 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.6 blocks. Those numbers make him the clear cut MVP favorite.

2) Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics
Coming into this season, the MVP award was basically Garnett’s to lose. He’s held up his part of the bargain but so far LeBron has just been too good. If LeBron cools off, Garnett is the next in line to take home the MVP award.

3) Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic
Howard is simply a beast. He’s so big and strong that he’s no almost impossible to keep off the boards. His scoring touch has improved to the point that he’s now a capable go-to scorer. 22.5 points and 14.4 rebounds per game isn’t bad for a 21-year-old.

4) Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns
When it comes to MVP talk, Nash has to be in the conversation. The Suns are yet again off to a good start and Nash is playing as well as ever. He’s shooting the ball great and his passing is fantastic, as expected.

5) Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs are playing really well to start off the season and surprisingly enough, arguably the best player on the team has been Ginobili to date. His per minute stats are off the charts and he deserves to be listed as a candidate at this early point of the season.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

There may still be arguments about whether Dirk deserves this or not especially since Steve Nash was a very strong candidate again this year and he and his Suns are still playing while Dirk and his Mavs aren’t. No matter what you say, you have to admit that Dirk was one hell of a player in the regular season and certainly worthy of the trophy. It’s the fact that the Mavs suffered a miserable upset in the playoffs that seem to taint his worthiness of the MVP trophy. I’m sure if the Mavs won that series and the Mavs are still playing now, we’d not be having this discussion.

This MVP trophy is bittersweet for Dirk but it’s something that he and the Mavs can work on this coming off season. They know they can be the best team in the league as they did record wise this year. Now they need to work on on improving and improving so they can truly be championship worthy – a team that may struggle down the road but still emerge victorious in the end no matter who they face.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Shaquille O’Neal promised an NBA Title when he arrived in Miami via the trade from the L.A. Lakers. It took him a few years and but he delivered. He delivered with the help of a team effort, a legendary coach and a phenomenal superstar. They won by winning game 6 with a score of 95-92.

The 2006 NBA Finals will always be remembered for many different reasons. The first obvious reason is that it was a matchup between two excellent teams that never reached the Finals in their respective franchise histories. It will be remembered for spectacular performances of Dwayne Wade and Dirk Nowitzki. It will be remembered for Shaq’s fourth title, Pat Riley’s fifth coaching ring, The first ring and Finals MVP award of Dwayne Wade, and the ring that has eluded Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton after all these years.

I was cheering for the Dallas Mavericks entering the NBA Finals but had a change of heart when they blew their chance after losing three straight in Miami. On paper the Mavs had the advantage but the Heat had the “heart of the champion” that you should never underestimate (according to long time Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich) I’m a fan of both teams so Miami winning is fine by me. If you were to look this whole situation a bit selfishly, you can take this Heat Championship and say that it was their time to win (like Pat Riley said after the game) because I think the Heat won’t be able to win next season with all the old and injury prone players they have. The Miami Heat was designed by Riley to win now so they just had to win now or never at all. The Mavericks have a pretty young team with a deep bench and an extremely amazing young coach. They can win next season. (End of selfish rationalization)

My selfish rationalization doesn’t discredit Dwayne Wade. He’s the man who carried the team to this title just like MJ did in his titles. Even when the Mavericks won the first two games Wade was still the unstoppable force they couldn’t find an answer to. His performance in his first ever Finals appearance is just mind boggling and to take the NBA title too, now that’s talking future Hall of Fame.

Congratulations Miami Heat! Gary and Alonzo you can both retire in peace.

Post from: NBA Obsessed

Story

Sometimes you wish all decisions were as easy as this. Chris Paul could have been named Rookie of the Year months ago and they’d still be right. It’s like this piece of news isn’t news at all, since everyone knew eons ago that this dude would win it. Yes there were a few rookies who did very well this year, like Charlie Villanueva of the Raptors or the Knicks’ Channing Frye but none of them even came close to Chris Paul’s rookie campaign.

Chris Paul is the real deal! He’s quick, he can shoot, he can pass and most importantly he looks to pass before scoring. His 16 point 7.8 assist average says it all. In a way, you can put this guy’s name along with the Steve Nash’s and the Jason Kidd’s of the league in terms of attitude in playing the game. In a basketball era where scoring seems to be the glamorous thing to do, Chris Paul goes old school and does what a point guard should do – create scoring opportunities for his team. He led his New Orleans-Oklahoma Hornets to the brink of a playoffs berth in his rookie season. Considering the type of roster the Hornets have that feat is awesome. Who knows what this guy will surprise us with in the years to come?

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Story

Somehow choosing the Defensive Player of the Year these days gets really boring. It’s always the same guys that get nominated and it’s always Ben Wallace that wins. For this reason I was sort of wishing that Bruce Bowen or Ron Artest would win this year. But that’s just because I’m bored.

But seriously, I think it’s great that Ben got it again. The famed Pistons defense is one of if not the best defense in the whole league and you can’t say Pistons defense without Ben Wallace. When you get selected to the All Star team because of your defense (because we know his offense isn’t that good) then that says something about being a defensive player.

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