The Beginning of the End

So the regular season is coming to a close and I thought it wastime to give out some awards, and not just good ones.

Most Improved Player:
Can we give it to a whole team? Look at the Suns' players and tell me no.
Gerald Green

2012-13	27	IND	NBA	SF	60	7	18.0	2.6	7.1	.366	1.0	3.1	.314	1.6	3.9	.407	0.9	1.1	.800	0.5	1.8	2.4	0.8	0.3	0.4	0.9	1.1	7.0
2013-14	28	PHO	NBA	SG	80	48	28.7	5.5	12.4	.445	2.5	6.3	.400	3.0	6.1	.492	2.4	2.9	.846	0.6	2.8	3.4	1.5	0.9	0.5	1.8	2.7	16.0

Markieef Morris

2012-13	23	PHO	NBA	PF	82	32	22.4	3.2	8.0	.407	0.5	1.6	.336	2.7	6.3	.426	1.1	1.5	.732	1.6	3.2	4.8	1.3	0.9	0.8	1.3	2.5	8.2
2013-14	24	PHO	NBA	PF	79	0	26.5	5.0	10.3	.483	0.4	1.3	.321	4.6	9.0	.507	3.3	4.1	.796	1.8	4.3	6.1	1.8	0.8	0.6	1.8	2.9	13.7

Miles Plumlee 

2012-13	24	IND	NBA	C	14	0	3.9	0.4	1.5	.238	0.0	0.0		0.4	1.5	.238	0.2	0.3	.750	0.9	0.7	1.6	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.9
2013-14	25	PHO	NBA	C	78	77	24.6	3.6	6.9	.516	0.0	0.0		3.6	6.9	.516	0.9	1.7	.561	2.5	5.5	7.9	0.6	0.6	1.1	1.4	2.4	8.1

P.J. Tucker

2012-13	27	PHO	NBA	SG	79	45	1910	4.0	8.4	.473	0.4	1.3	.314	3.5	7.0	.503	1.2	1.6	.744	2.5	4.1	6.6	2.1	1.2	0.4	1.3	2.7	9.5
2013-14	28	PHO	NBA	SF	79	79	2446	3.9	8.9	.434	1.1	2.8	.390	2.8	6.2	.454	2.2	2.9	.772	2.4	5.3	7.7	2.1	1.6	0.3	1.5	2.9	11.1

Eric Bledsoe

2012-13	23	LAC	NBA	PG	76	12	1553	5.9	13.2	.445	0.7	1.8	.397	5.1	11.4	.453	2.5	3.1	.791	1.8	3.4	5.2	5.4	2.5	1.3	3.2	2.6	14.9
2013-14	24	PHO	NBA	PG	41	37	1362	6.8	14.1	.481	1.3	3.6	.356	5.5	10.5	.524	4.8	6.2	.778	0.7	4.5	5.2	6.0	1.8	0.4	3.7	2.6	19.7

Goran Dragic

2012-13	26	PHO	NBA	PG	77	77	33.5	5.2	11.8	.443	1.1	3.6	.319	4.1	8.2	.497	3.2	4.2	.748	0.8	2.3	3.1	7.4	1.6	0.3	2.8	2.8	14.7
2013-14	27	PHO	NBA	SG	75	74	35.1	7.3	14.4	.506	1.6	3.9	.415	5.7	10.5	.540	4.2	5.5	.758	0.9	2.3	3.2	5.9	1.3	0.3	2.8	2.7	20.4

With this roster last year, they would have been in the bottom half of the leauge.

6th Man of the Year:

I think it's no question that it's Markieff Morris. Call me biased, but he leads the leauge in total minutes, points, and rebounds off the bench. 

Defensive Player of the Year:

Joakim Noah led a Rose-less team to the 3rd/4th seed in the East with his monster defense and rebounding.

If you would've asked me before the All-Star break, I would have said Roy Hibbert, but the Pacers have absolutley broken down. 

Coach of the Year:

Jeff Hornacek. I believe that he took a very decent Suns roster, and made it a 50 win team. Call me biased again, but look where I'm coming from. If not Hornacek, then Gregg Popovich. The only 60 win team this year is the Spurs.

Rookie of the Year:
I would give it to Michael Carter-Williams, but no one on a 26 game losing streak team should have any awards. So, I'm giving it to Victor Oladipo. Oladipo and MCW are so separated from this, in my opinion, undeveloped draft class. In my mind, MCW will be better for the long run.

Most Valuable Player
Kevin Durant. LeBron has been amazing with his usual 25 7 6 stat line, but KD has been phenomenal. We saw that 41 game streak of 25 or more points, breaking Michael Jordan's record. KD is leading the league in scoring with 32.7 points on 50% shooting. That's crazy. Blake Griffin is third on the list, but LeBron and KD are on a whole another mountain compared to the rest of the MVP race.  

Knicks

As the season unwinds, here's how the Eastern Conference stacks up.

Miami1se	52	23	0.693	0.0	32-14	12-2
Indiana2c	53	24	0.688	0.0	36-12	11-4
Toronto3x	45	32	0.584	8.0	29-18	10-3
Chicago4x	45	32	0.584	8.0	33-15	10-5
Brooklyn5x	42	34	0.553	10.5	24-22	9-6
Washington6x	40	37	0.519	13.0	29-18	8-5
Charlotte7x	39	38	0.506	14.0	26-21	4-10
Atlanta8	33	42	0.440	19.0	23-22	7-7
New York	33	44	0.429	20.0	22-25	7-6

By the end of February, it seemed like it was impossible for the Knicks to make the playoffs, but a recent change in the tide put the Knicks in a 10-4 record since they snapped their 9 game skid. Since the Knicks are in an abysmal Eastern conference, they still have a chance. Seriously, the West is twice as powerful: they have a 50 win team (Phoenix/Memphis/Dallas) not making the playoffs while the East has a below 40 win team in the playoffs.  

Anyway, the recent success could be due to a few things: the appointing of Phil Jackson, their ridiculously-should-be-but-isn't schedule, or the realization that they traded away their lottery pick. But I think that it's the resurgence of Amar'e Stoudemire. Earlier this year, I was mad that the Knicks didn't play him more. They gave him around 15 minutes, and who got his starting role? Oh yeah Andrea Bargnani! (refer to last post).

 

In games where Amar'e played over 30 minutes since the All-Star Break, he's averaged 17.13 points. This isn't like the numbers he's put up in his Phoenix days (that seems ages ago, like it was 1901), but it's definitely a start. Amar'e will never, and I say this with 90% assurance, return to his former glory. James Dolan made one of his many huge mistakes signing Amar'e back in 2010 to a max deal, butt now they have to work with what they have. This is the type of play Melo needs surrounding him and not major defensive lapses and a  YOLO mentality of J.R. Smith.

So unless Phil Jackson can do something and bring the Knicks back to supremacy, the Knicks will have no Melo, no lottery pick, and Amar'e's fat contract (would you do that? Amare'e's?). If Melo was smart he would leave. He has options to go join Harden and Dwight in Houston, Rose (if healthy) and Noah in Chicago, the Showtime Lakers with Kobe, or Bledsoe and Dragic in Phoenix. 

YOLO All-Stars

Alright, it's been a while since I've posted. To start things of I put together a small roster of what I like to call the YOLO All-Stars. These are players that chuck up the most random shots and somehow get them to go in (or not).

PG

J.R. Smith, #8, New York Knicks

Since there aren't many inefficient Point Guards in the league as these players on this team, I have to go with a Shooting Guard. J.R. Smith (as shown above) shows that even though he gets his shot to fall, he does take terrible shots. J.R.'s game is made up of either thunderous dunks, raining threes, or terrible shots like this one.

 

SG

Gerald Green, #14 Phoenix Suns 

Although he's from my hometown Suns, he still has to be on this list. Here's an example why. The score was 103-102, Timberwolves had the lead. There is still seven seconds left. Markieef Morris dumps off the ball to Gerald Green who then shoots this abysmal shot and somehow gets it to go in with four seconds to go. The Timberwolves fail to convert the next possession, and the Suns win.

SF

Kobe Bryant, #24, Los Angeles Lakers

This is a bad quality picture and not a .gif,so I'll explain it. Here we have the Lakers playing the New Jersey Nets with under five seconds to go, down by three. Kobe obviously has to take the shot, but why should he?? There are two wide open Lakers on the top of the key and the right wing, but no; Kobe decides to shoot it, and miss, losing the game. 

PF 

Carmelo Anthony, #7, New York Knicks

Here's a thirty-foot three pointer that was totally un-needed. He made it, as he make others, too. He is probably the best player on the list this year averaging 28 points and 9 rebounds, and he is one of my favorite players, so I'll cut him some slack. 

C

ANDREA BARGNANI,#77, New York Knicks

Wow! The Third New York Knick on here. I guess that explains their failure this year. I really don't like Bargnani, mostly because he was the #1 pick in the 2006 draft over my boy LaMarcus Aldridge, Rajon Rondo, Paul Millsap, and Rudy Gay. AS you can see all the bonehead plays (and rubbing heads on The Big Ticket) by Bargnani only as a Knick in one season. The last one is the one I want to talk about. The Bucks and the Knicks are leading, 94-92 with 15 seconds to go and the shot clock running. Smith takes a shot and misses, but the Knicks get the offensive rebound and dish it out to Bargnani. There's 11 seconds with no shot clock so he can just sit on the ball and wait to get fouled, but instead he decides to shoot and miss, giving the Bucks the ball back. Shaqtin' a Fool has been boring this year due to the absence of JaVale McGee (which is why he's not on the list), and I think I found his perfect replacement. LOOK HERE SHAQ 

AFC

Ok so the reason why I haven't put up this post yet is because I was waiting for the Chiefs vs Broncos game, and it came yesterday.

So:

Indianapolis Colts
New York Jets (There you go Mr.Smith)         Indianapolis Colts                Indianapolis Colts
                                                                      New England Patriots                                      
                                                                                                                                          Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs                                                                                                                          
Cincinnati Bengals                                       Kansas City Chiefs                   Denver Broncos
                                                                  Denver Broncos



So it's pretty obvious that the Chiefs will win the wild card game. The only reason why they would probably be a wild card is because the Broncos are the other team in the division. There's one more match up between the Chiefs and Broncos, and that just may be the main factor in deciding who would get the division and who would fall to the wild card. Either way, there is an 85% chance that they'll meet in the divisional round. I personally think that the Broncos can and will perform better in the postseason, which is why I picked them into the Superbowl.

For the other divisional game, yes, I picked the Colts over the Patriots. Sorry +Somil Jain, but I don't think the Patriots have really won any difficult games as opposed to the Colts who defeated both the Broncos and the Seahawks.

So for the Superbowl, I predicted the Seahawks and the Broncos. It hasn't changed from before the preseason started and +Vedik Navale can vouch for me.

Eric Bledsoe

I am really impressed in Eric Bledsoe right now. 

Let's compare his stats with some other elite point guards.

MIN	3PM	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
34.0	1.3	4.4	7.3	1.9	0.1	20.9

Derrick Rose                                        

MIN	3PM	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
31.0	1.2	2.8	4.0	0.2	0.2	14.4

 Tony Parker

MIN	3PM	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
32.0	0.4	3.0	6.6	0.7	0.1	19.0

Chris Paul

MIN	3PM	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
36.1	1.0	4.3	12.6	2.7	0.0	21.3

That's pretty good right?

PHX SUNSSS

So I'm like the only one that cares about the Suns, because I'm not an entire bandwagon. I care about my hometown team. They're doing pretty good, surprisingly. Mainly in part of because of Eric Bledsoe. I expected him to help the Suns a lot, but not this much. Right now, he's putting up averages of 21 points, eight assists, and five rebounds. He's 6'1" and he's averaging five rebounds? Daang. He is very efficient, too, shooting 50%. He's added in some clutch-ness with a game winning three over Utah. I was pretty mad yesterday when Coach Hornacek decided to shoot a game-winning three with Gerald Green instead of Bledsoe.
 The Suns' fresh legs and athleticism may just keep them in the Playoff race. We have two great fast point guards in Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe. We have a young center in Alex Len and a surprising beast in the post, Miles Plumlee, and soon we'll have Emeka Okafor. We can expect more to come from Markieff Morris who just came off a career game. P.J. Tucker is a very underrated player with his hustle on defense and his shooting abilities. 

For their own good, they shouldn't be as good as they are right now. With a stacked 2014 draft class containing players like Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker, a lottery pick would be perfect for the Suns.

Jason Derulo

This is a sports blog. Just not this post. I'm kind of bored of sports right now, and I have no idea why.

I'm going to spend this post to tell you how amazing "Tattoos" is.

Jason Derulo kicked off his career with "Whatcha Say" which was #1 on the Billboard for a couple of weeks. He had a couple of other songs that made it to the Billboard like "Ridin' Solo", "In My Head", "Don't Wanna Go Home", and "It Girl". So I have no idea why he isn't as popular as he was.

O.K. so like it is AMAZING, as I said before. My favorite is Talk Dirty ft. 2 Chainz. It's really good except for 2 Chainz, but what with 2 Chainz is good. DOS CADENAS

"The Other Side" is good, but it became all mainstream.

"Trumpets" and "Stupid Love" are my second favorites. Especially Trumpets. I can't describe these with words.

Whoever reads this should take my word for it and go listen to it.