2010-11 Player of the Year thread

[Sedale Threatt]

While he had a very nice statistical game, I can't get over the fact that he has six points in the last 4 fourth quarters. That's really really bad.

Stunning, frankly, especially considering how well he played in the fourth against Chicago. Certainly Dallas deserves some of the credit, and he's obviously deferring to Wade, which is the wise choice. But he's not having nearly enough impact for a player of his caliber with the game on the line. The Heat blowing fourth-quarter leads in all of their losses while he does little to stop it just isn't acceptable for a player of his ability.

[mopper8]

While he had a very nice statistical game, I can't get over the fact that he has six points in the last 4 fourth quarters. That's really really bad.

Stunning, frankly, especially considering how well he played in the fourth against Chicago. Certainly Dallas deserves some of the credit, and he's obviously deferring to Wade, which is the wise choice. But he's not having nearly enough impact for a player of his caliber with the game on the line. The Heat blowing fourth-quarter leads in all of their losses while he does little to stop it just isn't acceptable for a player of his immense ability.

The worst is watching him get the ball on a swing pass from Wade on a possession when Miami absolutely needs a bucket, top of the key, has space, and instead of taking it to the rim, fires a 3. With still 10 or so seconds on the shot clock to work for something better.

It breaks my heart.

[Sedale Threatt]

Also, Miami had a 116 Ortg last night, and were scoring very well with Wade/James/Bosh on the court late into the 4th. I'm not sure how that game can be used as an example of them not working together or struggling against the Dallas zone; they scored 24 points in the fourth, getting a ton of open layups at the rim. How is that bad production?

Yeah, there were stretches where they were running their offense to near perfection. Granted, they didn't sustain it, but still -- I think by far the bigger problem came down to giving up 112 points, on 57% shooting, with 13 3s. You're not going to beat anyone on the road giving up that kind of production.

[Sedale Threatt]

The worst is watching him get the ball on a swing pass from Wade on a possession when Miami absolutely needs a bucket, top of the key, has space, and instead of taking it to the rim, fires a 3. With still 10 or so seconds on the shot clock to work for something better.

It breaks my heart.

That's always been one of my greatest frustrations with Kobe -- he's just a good enough shooter that he can make those, which gives him carte blanche. Nice when they go in -- LeBron hit some massive 3s against Chicago, as I'm sure you recall -- but so easy to second-guess when they don't.

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

Maybe LeBron doesn't have any confidence that he's going to get to the line, or make anything else happen. This, to me, is where a fully formed post game would serve him so well. Get it down on the block and force the issue. That's aggressive basketball, not settling for 25-foot 3s with time left on the clock.

[Dr Positivity]

I'd be surprised if my final ranking is any different than:

1. Dirk
2. Wade
3. Lebron
4. Rose
5. Howard

Dirk is a virtual lock at 1 for me, winning as much in the Heat in the regular season without the star help + insane playoff run leading Dallas to at min. G7 of the Finals. Wade gets the edge over Lebron due to these finals. If LBJ shows up the last 2 games he can still pass Wade. But at this point the difference has been substantial enough for me. Can't give Rose more playoff credit than LBJ, when LBJ killed up to the point where Rose got eliminated. Rose is the MVP. Howard had a great statistical year but I didn't like his effort level or impact on teammates as much as Rose all year and Atlanta's strategy of daring him to go off while everyone else is stopped would be disastrous against the top 4 guys.

6th is probably Durant and I'm not a huge fan. I need to see a lot more out of him in set plays, right now I see him as the best oppurtunist in the league. Westbrook puts more pressure on the defense nightly to me.

[Sedale Threatt]

I will say this about LeBron -- it's an indication of how incredibly high your standard is when you put up a triple double yet still draw very legitimate criticism that you didn't play all that well.

[mopper8]

The worst is watching him get the ball on a swing pass from Wade on a possession when Miami absolutely needs a bucket, top of the key, has space, and instead of taking it to the rim, fires a 3. With still 10 or so seconds on the shot clock to work for something better.

It breaks my heart.

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

Maybe LeBron doesn't have any confidence that he's going to get to the line, or make anything else happen. This, to me, is where a fully formed post game would serve him so well. Get it down on the block and force the issue. That's aggressive basketball, not settling for 25-foot 3s with time left on the clock.

Agreed about it being lazy. About that second point, I do think he gets discouraged, which is a problem. A minute earlier, he takes a hard baseline cut, gets a feed from Wade, puts the bucket in and I'm up screaming "And-1!" and then see they called a charge, replay shows Chandler's heel in the lane, and its Dallas ball going the other way. I wouldn't say that call changed the game, but it certainly did seem to take an edge off Lebron IMO for a minute.

edit: Also, I want to add, Dirk is fantastic, a great great player and undeniably having a big impact on this series and in general. That being said, at some point, you have to give credit to the guys around him to. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, JJ Barea, these guys are all great shooters who were making great plays last night. Jason Terry made a 1-handed push-shot from 24 feet off the dribble with 1 second left on the shotclock, and made another over a heavy contest from Lebron.

Dirk played a role in that, but you have to give credit to the guys who actually made took and made those shots. 13-19 from 3 is ridiculous.

[Sedale Threatt]

I knew that was a bad call even before the instant replay. It was obvious Chandler didn't get there. Nonetheless, I'm sure you'll agree that you can't let that take you out of your game. He wasn't very aggressive throughout the whole quarter.

Which I still can't figure out. He was sooooo good against Chicago, and we've got other instances where he was just as good -- the run against Detroit, the Orlando series, etc.

Then you have this, the Boston series, the 07 Finals. Not to bring up Kobe again, but the swings in performance are definitely comparable.

Yet another reason to respect the hell out of Jordan. The dude never scored less than 22 in a Finals game.

[mopper8]

I knew that was a bad call even before the instant replay. It was obvious Chandler didn't get there. Nonetheless, I'm sure you'll agree that you can't let that take you out of your game.

No you definitely cannot and if that is what happened, I think that's a serious issue with Lebron.

I keep replaying the last few minutes of the game in my head. It's making me sick. Sunday can't come soon enough. It's unbelievable, given Dallas' offensive numbers, that Miami held a 4-point lead late in the 4th. They had it. Ugh.

In Lebron's defense:

Miami outscored Dallas by 14 points from within 10 feet. Miami had 25 assist on their 37 made FGs, the ball movement was at times perfect, and Lebron nabbed 10 of those assists. Miami crushed Dallas on the glass on a night when he went for 10 rebounds. I think if you look at everything but 3-point % you'd think Miami won the game. Win the paint points. Win on the glass. Get to the line and make your freebies. Make the other team beat you by taking long-distance shots.

Isn't that the time-honored recipe for success? Dallas just did it, they beat Miami by tallying 49 points from beyond 15 feet. That's incredible jump-shooting production. Miami "only" had 27 points outside of 15 feet.

So how much should we be getting on Lebron's offensive disposition when Miami clearly lost the game on the defensive side of the ball? Does that stuff no longer matter once you hold (and blow) a 4-point lead late thanks to some questionable decision-making?

[Sedale Threatt]

edit: Also, I want to add, Dirk is fantastic, a great great player and undeniably having a big impact on this series and in general. That being said, at some point, you have to give credit to the guys around him to. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, JJ Barea, these guys are all great shooters who were making great plays last night. Jason Terry made a 1-handed push-shot from 24 feet off the dribble with 1 second left on the shotclock, and made another over a heavy contest from Lebron.

Dirk played a role in that, but you have to give credit to the guys who actually made took and made those shots. 13-19 from 3 is ridiculous.

Agreed. Dirk is obviously having a massive impact, and he deserves the lion's share of the credit for what Dallas is doing, but he didn't make those shots for those guys.

[Sedale Threatt]

So how much should we be getting on Lebron's offensive disposition when Miami clearly lost the game on the defensive side of the ball? Does that stuff no longer matter once you hold (and blow) a 4-point lead late thanks to some questionable decision-making?

No, it definitely matters. I agreed previously that Miami lost this game primarily on the offensive end. That was the biggest problem, by far.

But you can't let LeBron off the hook, either. He's way too good to be having such little impact with the game on the line, especially when this is the third time it's happened this series.

You can't come through every time, but you can argue that Miami should have already swept this series, and would have if LeBron had been able to do more.

I'm not ready to crucify him, because he hasn't been terrible, and there's still at least another game to play. But he's certainly left a lot to be desired thus far.

[Doctor MJ]

edit: Also, I want to add, Dirk is fantastic, a great great player and undeniably having a big impact on this series and in general. That being said, at some point, you have to give credit to the guys around him to. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, JJ Barea, these guys are all great shooters who were making great plays last night. Jason Terry made a 1-handed push-shot from 24 feet off the dribble with 1 second left on the shotclock, and made another over a heavy contest from Lebron.

Dirk played a role in that, but you have to give credit to the guys who actually made took and made those shots. 13-19 from 3 is ridiculous.

In general, while I'm all for giving props to teammates playing roles, I think using that to take away from Dirk is unreasonable. The reality is that when teams play well, typically the role players look like they know what they are doing. I don't see a point to trying to penalize a guy because his team has good fit, when establishing the relationships that make the fit is part of a star's job. When you add in that it's pretty hard to single out anyone on the team other than Dirk as being even an all-star candidate, and it's Dirk's +/- that is what's jaw dropping, it's frankly pretty hard for me to see not giving him my #1 POY spot.

With that said, yes 13-19 from 3 is ridiculous. Dallas was literally on fire in Game 5, and still could have lost. We need to appreciate that as we criticize the Heat. If Miami were playing bad basketball, they'd have been eliminated a long time ago.

[mopper8]

Yeah, thats kinda how I feel. This was just another game where he didn't seem too aggressive in the 4th, and we lost, but I find it hard to pin the total blame on him when Bosh and Haslem were missing rotations all night, and the Mavs seemingly couldn't miss from deep.

So he's less of a scapegoat in this one, but on the other hand, he still managed to reenforce what everyone was concerned about anyway.

[Doctor MJ]

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

I completely agree.

I've come to the epiphany that a big factor in what make my favorite players my favorites is simply that they don't make me yell at my television very often.

[Sedale Threatt]

In general, while I'm all for giving props to teammates playing roles, I think using that to take away from Dirk is unreasonable.

I didn't get the sense he is doing that, at all. Rather, trying to bring a little realism to the tendency to give one guy ALL of the credit. (Or ALL of the blame, for that matter.)

[Sedale Threatt]

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

I completely agree.

I've come to the epiphany that a big factor in what make my favorite players my favorites is simply that they don't make me yell at my television very often.

LOL. That must be the reason why, for all the great things he's done in a Laker uniform, I've had such a love-hate relationship with Kobe over the years. The ability to go from "WTF?!?!" to "Holy crap that was awesome" on such a regular basis -- sometimes on the same play -- is truly unparalleled.

[JordansBulls]

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

I completely agree.

I've come to the epiphany that a big factor in what make my favorite players my favorites is simply that they don't make me yell at my television very often.

[mopper8]

In general, while I'm all for giving props to teammates playing roles, I think using that to take away from Dirk is unreasonable.

I didn't get the sense he is doing that, at all. Rather, trying to bring a little realism to the tendency to give one guy ALL of the credit. (Or ALL of the blame, for that matter.)

Yeah this.

[Doctor MJ]

In general, while I'm all for giving props to teammates playing roles, I think using that to take away from Dirk is unreasonable.

I didn't get the sense he is doing that, at all. Rather, trying to bring a little realism to the tendency to give one guy ALL of the credit. (Or ALL of the blame, for that matter.)

Yeah this.

As per usual, in the end we all agree.

[Doctor MJ]

It's just a lazy way to play basketball, in my opinion.

I completely agree.

I've come to the epiphany that a big factor in what make my favorite players my favorites is simply that they don't make me yell at my television very often.

LOL. That must be the reason why, for all the great things he's done in a Laker uniform, I've had such a love-hate relationship with Kobe over the years. The ability to go from "WTF?!?!" to "Holy crap that was awesome" on such a regular basis -- sometimes on the same play -- is truly unparalleled.

Hehe. Yeah it's funny how it works. I'd like to say it's because I like smart basketball players because I appreciate the incredible talent involved with making the right choices, but in the end its probably more about being irritated whenever I see people doing something wrong and then hearing Mark Jackson chortle his approval with a series of mind-numbing cliches.