NETS VS SIXERS

 

The Brooklyn Nets have been on a tear since trading for James Harden including winning 8 straight games. They have the top offense in the league averaging 121 points per game. Brooklyn has been without the Nets Star Forward Kevin Durant during this 8-game winning streak. James Harden has blended nicely into his role as the point guard with his focus on facilitating and scoring when he needs to. Kyrie Irving is helping carry the scoring load especially with Durant being out averaging 27 points a game. There defense has improved over the last 10 games as well allowing about 112 points per game. With the dynamic scoring trio, the question is can any team stop them.

 

The Philadelphia 76ers are the one team that can matchup well with the Nets out of the Eastern Conference. They are led by All Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons who can matchup well defensively against the Nets. Tobias Harris, who is averaging 20 points a game will be key for them to beat the Nets with his ability to score on the perimeter. The Nets are very small on the inside ranking 18th in rebounding. Brooklyn’s rebounds per game each month have gone down every month since the Harden trade, from 45 to 40 in February. The Nets inability to rebound combined with Embiid’s ability to get to the free throw will make close games go in the Sixers favor. Embiid averages 11 free throw attempts a game and shoots 85%. 

 

I predict the Nets will beat the 76ers in the Eastern Conference in 7 games. For Nets to do so they will need to acquire another big man such as Andre Drummond, in either a trade or signing a free agent who becomes available through the buyout market.       

NBA DOUBLE STANDARD

 

On Monday night in a post-game press conference Draymond Green spoke about how he felt that there was a double standard on how players are treated when they request trades compared to when a team announces that they are looking to trade a player.  The Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavilers have announced that they are looking to trade Piston’s Forward Blake Griffin, and Caviler’s Andre Drummond. The organizations have determined that they would have the players not play in games in order to keep them healthy so they can hopefully find a trade prior to the trade deadline on March 25^th or until they can agree to a buyout.

Draymond expressed that he wanted the players to be treated with the same respect as teams specifically when it comes to how media covers the stories and how fans react to players demanding trades. Some recent examples of players being vilified for demanding trades are James Harden, and Anthony Davis. Both players were made the bad guy by fans and the media for wanting out of their respected situations. In Harden’s case it can be argued it was self-inflicted due his behavior and him being unprofessional when dealing with his teammates and his amount of effort given during his games this season as a Houston Rocket. The Anthony Davis situation he was mad the bad guy unfairly especially when he went to management and said he wanted out and that he didn’t plan to re-sign when he became a free agent. He was willing to play but the New Orleans Pelicans put him in a sticky situation by putting a minute restriction on him which hurt the team’s chances to win games. They eventually traded him the Summer of 2019 to the Los Angeles Lakers, but they could have made the same deal they made in the summer during that previous season.

This brings about an interesting dynamic of employee compared to employer. Yes, everyone wants to be respected no matter your status or power in the workplace; but most people will show more respect and leniency towards the owner rather than the players. With that being said, the real issue is people are loyal to teams and not players. When a player wants out from your team, fans will turn against that player as though they are personally betrayed. If it goes the other way around fans will justify it as the team looking to the future or doing what is in the best interest of the organization.   

NBA Contenders and Pretenders

 

The NBA Season is about a third of the way through and now is around the time you can figure out which teams are legitimate title contenders and who are pretenders. There are only 5 teams that can truly contend for an NBA Championship. They are the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets, and the Philadelphia 76ers. The purpose of the article is to examine  2 teams that are in playoff contention to see if they truly have what it takes to be a dark horse Championship contender.

 

Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are currently 11-14 and sitting in 10^th place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat are looking to get back on track as players getting healthy. They were missing several players over the last 10 games due to players testing positive for Covid 19 and nagging injuries to key players such as Jimmy Butler, and Tyler Hero. They great news for the Heat is that they play great team defense and with just 3 games separating the 10^th seed and the 3^rd seed, they have a great chance to finish as a top 4 seed if they are able to get healthy and run off 5 or 6 game streak in the process. I believe the Heat my not win the Eastern Conference as they did last year but will surely be one tough out in the playoffs.

 

Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz have the number record in the NBA at 21-5. I am not completely convinced that they can win a NBA Championship. They remind me of the Milwaukee Bucks from the past 2 seasons; you will great a regular season total wins from them, but the pieces do not have enough to win in the playoffs. They have a strong defense with being ranked 5th in opponent 3pt percentage, and 3rd overall in opponent field goal percentage. Also they have played 15 teams who currently have records below a .500 winning percentage. In addition, they have played of the easiest schedules in the NBA. It will be interesting to see how far Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert can take this team especially since they will be the core of the team for future. This being because they both in the offseason signed max extensions. The Jazz will improve record wise from last season but will disappoint when the playoffs begin.