Playoffs baby!

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

Right now we are tied for the 6th playoff spot in the anemic East, ahead of
the generally predicted dominant conference teams Miami, Orlando, and
Milwaukee. These surprises as well as the amazing success of Cleveland show
the difficulty and danger of omnisciently predicting the entire NBA season
before it has begun.

Of course, all of our success has been at home so far. Our next game comes
at home against the skidding Vancouver Grizzles, who have lost seven
straight after opening the season 4-1. Vancouver is probably better than
their record this year. They are led by Shareef, who seems to be the
consensus "most underrated" player by the media -- almost sounds like a
contradiction. He's averaging 20 ppg and 9.4 rpg on 48% shooting. We've had
trouble matching up with him in the past because he can drive past our big
men and shoot over our small forwards. Their second best scorer, Dickerson,
is on the injured list. Kevin Edwards is starting in his place. After that,
they have Bibby, who is averaging 14.7 ppg and 7.3 apg, and Othella
Harrington at 12.7 ppg and 6.8 rpg. Their last starter is Bryant Reeves at
4.3 ppg and 5.2 rpg, though he did burn us for 40 at one point. 

Those who complain about the production we get from the overpaid Battie and
Potapenko just have to look at Reeves' massive contract to put things into
perspective. If you look at all the centers in the league, somehow almost
all of them would seem overpaid relative to other positions. They are just
so rare and so vital. Practically the only ones who aren't overpaid are the
guys on rookie contracts and guys making the max or more, like Shaq,
Mourning, and Duncan. Practically every roster that doesn't have a max-type
center has some unproductive second-rate player making $25-30M+ --
McIlvaine, Longley, Geiger, Michael Stewart, Ostertag, Dudley, Dampier. Did
you know that Scot Pollard has a $30M contract? It's the state of the
market. If Battie can maintain and over the years improve on his 8 ppg, 7
rpg, 2 bpg performance so far, he'll be a great bargain.

Anyway, the thing about the Grizzlies is that they had similarly impressive
individual stats last year and absolutely stunk. Defense doesn't show up in
individual statistics. So far this year they're a better defensive team
which is why their record is better. Their prize rookie Swift is averaging
10 minutes, scoring 4.8 ppg and 1.9 rpg. This is a slow year for rookies.

Alex