Table of contents for The Best Players in the NBA Tournament
- The Best Players in the NBA - Tournament - Rules
Welcome to the latest brainchild of mine: The Best Players in the NBA Tournament! This series will feature all of the hottest stars in the league right now, and they will compete in a tournament to see who the best player is. Now don’t get too excited; there will be no actual one on one games. It is going to be based off of my opinions and observations, along with cold hard stats. However, if you disagree with what I come up with, feel free to leave a scathing comment! This post is just an intro to the Tournament and will explain how I am rating all of the players. I am also going to describe the format of the tournament. So, let’s get on to the rules!
Daequan Cook. Technically, the Heat did not draft him, but after a bit of wheeling and dealing, that is who the Heat ended up with. Miami originally picked Jason Smith, the man with the most boring name ever. But after being a member of the Heat for all of five minutes, Smith was traded to Philadelphia for their pick, Daequan Cook. The Heat really needed some help in the athleticism department, but can Cook deliver?
Just in case you’ve forgotten, the Miami Heat did play in the playoffs this season. Against the Chicago Bulls? First round? Four game sweep? No, not coming to you? Well they did, so just deal with it. Now, I’m not saying with a healthy Wade we could have won the whole shibang, but at the very least we could have taken care of the scrappy (see flopping, see sissy, see Dallas) Bulls. Game 1, in Chicago, final 96-91 Bulls. Wade’s night, 21 pt, 3 ast, 2 ribs. Not exactly your classic Dwayne Wade playoff night (see 30+ pts averaged in last year’s finals). More telling than that though was the fact that he dunked only once (to my knowledge) in that game (though my memory is forcibly fuzzy on the whole subject). Three similar games followed, but without defense or the benefit of 20 points from Antoine Walker. The closest, game three, didn’t even have that close of a final score (104-96) due in part (see whole) to the fact that Miami was outscored 32-20 in the final period, something that’s usually the other way around with a healthy Wade on your side. So, no we probably would not have been able to beat the Spurs, but Chicago was well within our ability.
It has now been about 5 weeks since Dwayne Wade underwent surgery to repair both his left knee and left shoulder. If the Miami Heat are to have any hope of being a contender for the upcoming season, they will need Wade to be full strength. The former Finals MVP, who proved capable of carrying the team when healthy, has been showing marked signs of improvement lately. While he still has a long way to go in the rehab process, he is confident that he will be ready for next season.
You know, I spent 4 long years going to college in Switzerland. That is also the number of years I have gone without Miami Heat basketball. Sure, I caught the tail end of the playoffs last year, but other than that, I have had nothing. I could only wake up the next morning and check out whether the team won or not. Finally, this year comes around and I am back in the US and what do I get?! A lackluster, uninterested team that will be remembered for bookend losses to the Bulls; our season started and ended at the American Airlines Arena with a shameful loss to those young kids from Chicago.
Stan Van Gundy was recently “traded” to the Orlando Magic, thus ending his tenure with the Miami Heat. He only coached one full season for the Heat (2003-2004), but that was a memorable one. Dwayne Wade was a rookie, we had a dynamic Lamar Odom, and a fast paced, high octane offense. Indeed, it is a world apart from the team’s current make-up. It was an exciting year with an amazing playoff run in which the Heat nearly advanced to the Conference Finals. And for all of that, we owe Stan a tremendous thank you.
