Outside The NBA

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This is the third OTN podcast and it’s just me and Julian this time. Stupid Wagman and his evening shifts. Anyway, here we start off discussing the two ROY frontrunners and their teams. Then, we spend a lot of time looking at the Western playoff picture, more specifically analyzing the Rockets, Jazz, Spurs, Thunder, and the post-Oden Blazers. Finally, we talk about the bottom half of the Eastern playoff picture and what we can expect out of the Sixers, Wizards, Bobcats, and Bulls moving forward. Oh, and we cover LeBron’s recent shenanigans on the sideline. This was recorded just before Wednesday evening’s games, so we don’t get to talk about John Wall’s insanity or Chris Paul’s game-winner, but I should point out that we both predict what Brandon Jennings did to the Raptors.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

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I’m not a basketball lifer, I’m aware of this. I’m a white kid from Toronto. I didn’t see my first basketball game (in person or on TV) until 1995. I didn’t really get into basketball until I was 16. Yet here I am, confounded by the sheer idiocy that’s going on in and around the NBA. I can’t know more about basketball, interpersonal skills and basic math than people paid 6 or 7 figures to know these things right? Right? (more…)

Remember how crazy the West was 2-through-9 last year? We knew no one would catch the Lakers, and we knew you’d have to win close to 50 games to make the playoffs, but we had no idea how everything would shake out in the end. There was one great team in the conference, a bunch of very good teams, and then a whole bunch of crap. No Western team won between 29 (Golden State) and 46 (Phoenix) games.

Well, the East is even crazier than that this year, but the action is all in the middle. I see three teams that should easily win more than 46 games as presently constructed and only two that might finish with fewer than 29. That’s almost what happened last season, but what’s even more interesting is that, if forced to predict team records this season, I’d argue that there are ten Eastern teams that could hover around the 40-42 win mark. (more…)