2012 Luxury Tax Payers

Via ESPN’s Weekend Daily Dime

In this first season of the new labor agreement in which teams are still only being charged $1 for every $1 over the tax line they sit, we’re already down to six teams on course to wind up as tax teams. And only one of those six teams — Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers — is looking at a tax bill that strays beyond the $10 million mark.

2012 Award Watch

As we close into the final month of the regular season, these are my current frontrunners for the following awards

MVP

1. LeBron James
2. Dwight Howard
3. Kevin Durant

Defensive Player of the Year

• Dwight Howard

Most Improved Player of the Year

• Jeremy Lin

Sixth Man of the Year

• James Harden

All-NBA Teams

First Team

• G – Russell Westbrook
• G – Kobe Bryant
• F – Kevin Durant
• F – LeBron James
• C – Dwight Howard

Second Team

• G – Chris Paul
• G – Tony Parker
• F – Kevin Love
• F – Pau Gasol
• C – Marc Gasol

Third Team

• G – Derrick Rose
• G – Dwyane Wade
• F – Andre Iguodala
• F – Kevin Garnett
• C – Andrew Bynum

All-Defensive Teams

First Team

• G – Tony Allen
• G – Andre Iguodala
• F – LeBron James
• F – Anderson Varejao
• C – Dwight Howard

Second Team

• G – Rajon Rondo
• G – Dwyane Wade
• F – Luol Deng
• F – Kevin Garnett
• C – Tyson Chandler

Coach of the Year

• Gregg Popovich

Note On Memphis

Throughout the first of this season, I have been a little put-off by Memphis’ bench after losing Shane Batter (FA), Darrel Arthur (injury) and Greivis Vasquez (trade) and without properly replacing them.

I rated Battier as one of the best backup SFs in the league, Arthur as a top backup PF and Vasquez as a well above average (top ten) backup PG. In their stead, they brought in Jeremy Pargo (slightly below average backup PG), Quincy Pondexter (below average backup SF), Marresse Speights (below average backup PF) and gave more minutes to OJ Mayo (above average backup SG). Overall, a much weaker second unit.

So while I was a big admirer of the upgrade they’d be receiving in a healthy Rudy Gay, I was concerned that they had lost too much talent on the bench to make it a major upgrade. If they had of kept the bench, I would have considered Memphis a top two team in the West and a legitimate title contender. Without those bench players, I considered Memphis a very good team with an outside shot at a title (in part due to how weak the West is at the top of the conference outside of OKC).

However, I think I may have been too harsh in that assessment.

Playoff Minutes

LA Lakers

A few days ago, I was thinking about how many minutes the Lakers would be giving to Kobe, Pau and Bynum in the playoffs (110-115 minutes) and how many minutes they’d be forced to give to their supporting cast (4 through 12, easily the worst of any playoff team in the league).

So even while their core is still exceptionally strong, there is a large amount of court time (a bit over 50%) to be filled by players who will give the opposition a good chance of creating an advantage against them.

Memphis Grizzlies

Which in turn led me to think about Memphis’ playoff rotation and how many minutes their starters were able to play and how much that would minimize the loss of their bench pieces.

Mike Conley, Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol are all capable of playing 36-40 minutes a night in the playoffs. That is 150-160 minutes right off the bat. Then there is Tony Allen who can give them another highly productive 30+ minutes a night leaving 50-60 minutes for the bench players to split.

The Grizzlies can get a good 20 minutes out of OJ Mayo leaving 30-40 minutes for the rest of the bench pieces. Jeremy Pargo for 10-12 minutes a night. Quincy Pondexter or Sam Young for situational minutes on the wing when they need more size. Marreese Speights for 20 minutes a night as the chief backup big man with Hamed Haddadi getting situational minutes.

And really, that doesn’t sound too bad at all to me.

Their top five/six players can shoulder enough minutes to help hide that weakened bench.

Conclusion

Which in turn leaves me to believe I have been too hard on the Grizzlies and should rank them higher on my power rankings.

I am still  debating where exactly to rank them but I am leaning towards a second or third place slot.

Brandon Knight’s Infectous Personality

Interesting article in the Detroit News about Brandon Knight’s personality’s positive influence in the Pistons locker room and on Rodney Stuckey in particular.

Knight seems to have lit something inside Stuckey — in a positive way. He readily admits Knight has had an effect on him.

“It’s a different atmosphere than in the past couple years, everything’s positive, everyone’s just trying to get better,” Stuckey said after Saturday’s practice.

Power Rankings

Early Season Rankings for 2011/12

Nearing the halfway point in the 2012 regular season. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to get around to doing any power rankings until now. So we’ll have two editions this season. One now and one just before the playoffs.

A reminder over the old rules — firstly, rankings are done infrequently so recent results carry minimal weight while long term ability takes prime importance. Secondly, these rankings do not take into account injuries. They judge teams as they would be if their roster was fully intact (ie with injured star player on the court).

Eastern Conference

#1 — Miami Heat

Some Details on Sloan-Deron Debacle

Good article by Gordon Monson in the Salt Lake Tribune with Karl Malone providing commentary on Malone’s understanding of what went down just prior to Jerry Sloan’s decision to resign.

Here are the interesting details

Trouble had been stirring between Williams and Sloan for months. Sloan admitted that the two “got into it.” Malone said the Jazz had empowered the point guard to go directly to O’Connor when he disagreed with Sloan and that was, as Karl called it, “the perfect storm.”

“I know for a fact that [Sloan] was overridden on practices sometime on the road because Deron was calling our G.M. at that time,” Malone said. “ … You give a guy that much power, and he’s the kind of player you think he played hard all the time, but if he wanted to sulk he could sulk. … I never went to Larry [Miller] to talk about Coach Sloan. … It’s not one time, in my gut and heart, that I would go over his head.”

In that fateful game against Chicago at ESA, Williams busted out of a number of plays called by Sloan — something Malone said he and John Stockton would never do — and the coach was infuriated. He wanted Williams disciplined and believed management, including O’Connor, didn’t sufficiently back him. So he quit. A half-hour meeting with Jazz brass after the game left Sloan unsatisfied.

It’s a sequence that has never been publicly detailed by any of the handful of people in the meeting. But it has been confirmed this week by a confidant of someone in the meeting who was told what occurred.

2009 Rookie Class’ Contract Extensions

Here is a quick recap of the contracts signed

• Oklahoma City Thunder keep Russell Westbrook on a five year $80 million contract.
• Minnesota Timberwolves hang onto Kevin Love on a four year $62 million deal.
• Denver Nuggets sign Danilo Gallinari to a four year $42 million deal.
• Denver Nuggets sign Kosta Koufos to a three year $9 million contract.

Bogut, Injured Again, Out For Season?

IamaGM.com has the press release

Milwaukee Bucks General Manager John Hammond announced the following update on the injury to Andrew Bogut (7-0, 260):

“This morning in Milwaukee, Andrew had additional diagnostic tests performed on his left ankle.  The results of the testing confirmed a left ankle fracture which will keep Bogut sidelined for a period of 8-to-12 weeks.”

Damion James, Out For Season

The Associated Press reports

New Jersey Nets forward Damion James will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to replace a screw in his right foot.

Nets General Manager Billy King announced Tuesday that James had the surgery earlier in the day at University Health Center in Indianapolis. Dr. David Porter replaced the screw in James’ fifth metatarsal.

2012 Free Agency List

An early look at this summer’s free agent class

Unrestricted Free Agents

Guards:  Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups, Jason Terry, Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd, Andre Miller, Leandro Barbosa, Baron Davis, Delonte West, Goran Dragic, Kirk Hinrich, Keyon Dooling, Nate Robinson, TJ Ford, Shannon Brown, Randy Foye, Jonny Flynn, Anthony Carter, Ronnie Price, AJ Price, Willie Green, Carlos Arroyo, Gilbert Arenas, Jannero Pargo, Mike Bibby, Sundaita Gaines, Patty Mills, Sebastian Telfair, Earl Boykins, Patrick Beverley, Armon Johnson, Jeremy Lin, Willie Warren, Roger Mason Jr, John Lucas, Royal Ivey, Gabe Pruitt, DJ Strawberry, Terrico White, Ben Uzoh, Ish Smith, Antonio Daniels, Travis Diener,