NYSTOM NBA MVP Race

It's getting down to the wire and if you're talking MVP, we've got your updated MVP Race.  Some things have changed since the last posting, but I'm almost in agreement that KD and LBJ are even at this point.  Some may have KD ahead since he and the Thunder beat the Heat in a head to head matchup, but I'm still on the fence about this one.  OKC seems to be playing better than any other team in the NBA right now.

	Player of the Day count	Position-team	Total MVP points
1	LeBron James (13)	SF-Heat	621
2	Kevin Durant (8)	SF-Thunder	372
3	Derrick Rose (6)	PG-Bulls	242
4	Dwight Howard (4)	C-Magic	207
5	Russell Westbrook (5)	PG-Thunder	202
6	Josh Smith (4)	PF-Hawks	176
7	Tony Parker (3)	PG-Spurs	152
8	Chris Bosh (3)	PF-Heat	137
9	Carlos Boozer (3)	PF-Bulls	131
10	Ty Lawson (3)	PG-Nuggets	127
11	Chris Paul (2)	PG-Clippers	113
12	Dirk Nowitzki (3)	PF-Mavericks	107
13	Gerald Wallace (2)	SF-Blazers	77
14	Roy Hibbert (2)	C-Pacers	75
15	Dwyane Wade (2)	SG-Heat	74
16	Paul Millsap (2)	PF-Jazz	72
17	Luol Deng (2)	SF-Bulls	68
18	Andre Iguodala (2)	SF-Sixers	63

NYSTOM - please remove Roy Hibbert from this list.  I'm sorry, that almost invalidates all of the hard work you've put in.  

Who you got?!?!?!

Eastern Conference Finals Wrap Up - Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat

The Heat wrapped up this series winning 4-1 against the Bulls.  It was definitely exciting and we learned a lot about both teams.  Let's take a look at what went down. 

Bulls:

1) Derrick Rose needs help scoring the ball.  Rose did pretty much all he could and ended up playing terribly in all of the 4th quarter games in this series.  The Bulls will probably hate that they didn't acquire a 2 guard (Courtney Lee for Omer Asik) during the trade deadline and it will be harder for them to do that in the off season because they probably won't have the money to do it and if they make a trade they are going to have to give up a good piece (think Taj Gibson). 

2) Is this Duke Central?  Deng played well for the majority of this series.  He is really a compliment to a superstar (Rose) and he can play on both ends.  I am a little hesitant to say this but the Bulls have their Scottie Pippen clone.  He's finally living up to his contract.  Carlos Boozer disappointed this entire series.  He put up numbers in some of the games but if this is what $75M gets you these days then we definitely need to re-evaluate the dollar.  Boozer never put up numbers that mattered in this series (starting a run, or more importantly stopping a run) and he definitely showed his lack of desire to play defense.  Maybe it was his toe, maybe he wasn't healthy but he couldn't even get off the floor and I'm not even expecting to see him like Amare, but some athleticism would be nice.  Add in the two flagrant fouls, and this was a bad series for Boozer.  Another year like this and they will be trying to find a way to ship him out of town. 

3) I like Thibs but I think he got out coached by Pat Riley in this one (yes, Pat Riley).  Why wasn't Kurt Thomas more of a piece in this rotation?  Thomas should have gotten more minutes because he's a veteran, he can rebound, he can score, and if necessary can lay some wood on someone.  He doesn't have the height that Asik has, but name someone on the Heat's front line (a big) than can rebound with the 38 year old.

4) What happens next year?  CJ Watson had a chance to make this an opportunity for some money.  I still think the best lineup for the Bulls against this Heat team was CJ (1), Rose (2), Deng (3), Gibson (4), and Noah (5).  This team would have been small but they could run with the Heat and they can also hit shots.  The issue with this lineup is that it doesn't work if CJ isn't hitting some of those shots.

Heat:

1) Maybe just maybe LBJ can shed that 'can't close' label. He showed up when the Heat needed him and closed out these Bulls.  4 straight losses for a team that hadn't lost more than 3 in a row the entire season, that's something.

2) Chris Bosh, this is the guy that the Heat needed all year long.  Bosh showed everyone (including Boozer) that if you think the Heat are the Big 2 and a pretty good 3rd, you will have some problems on your hands.  Bosh had two 30 point games in this series and basically outplayed both Gibson and Boozer.

3) This may have been the worst that I have seen D Wade play.  He really only played about 20 minutes of good basketball this entire series.  Think about that.  I'm not sure if he was hurt, or disinterested or what.  All I know is that the Mavericks team that they will be playing in the Finals is going to require that he plays up a level or two or they won't be winning many games. 

4) Mike Miller is finally coming alive.  Looks like he and Bibby actually hit some shots in this series, right when they needed to.  Miller is playing with two injured thumbs and is having problems with his shooting and Bibby's time was limited in this series because of the opponent (Rose), but with all of that said, if these guys show up and play, that makes the Heat that much harder to beat. 

Thanks again to both teams for an exciting ECF, and good luck to the Heat in the Finals. 


What was your take on the Eastern Conference Finals. 

NBA 2010 Top 50 NBA Players (as of 1-31-11)

 Here's the latest Top 50 NBA Players.  Take and look and give my boy NYSTOM some feedback. 

	Player	Team	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	FG%
1	Howard, Dwight	ORL	36.21	22.40	13.60	1.21	0.579	199.8319
2	James, LeBron	MIA	38.15	26.02	7.15	7.30	0.477	198.2842
3	Duncan, Tim	SAN	29.28	13.57	9.43	3.06	0.483	196.6079
4	Wade, Dwayne	MIA	36.75	25.68	6.77	4.20	0.499	194.0318
5	Bryant, Kobe	LAL	33.33	25.48	4.96	4.75	0.464	193.4353
6	Westbrook, Russell	OKL	36.36	22.64	5.17	8.49	0.434	192.1442
7	Stoudemire, Amare	NYK	37.21	26.19	8.81	2.70	0.501	190.6578
8	Parker, Tony	SAN	32.79	17.49	3.19	6.89	0.524	190.2326
9	Gasol, Pau	LAL	37.38	18.27	10.48	3.75	0.515	189.1689
10	Boozer, Carlos	CHI	32.10	19.90	10.24	2.31	0.546	186.2462
11	Garnett, Kevin	BOS	30.97	15.08	9.00	2.34	0.539	186.1871
12	Griffin, Blake	LAC	37.55	22.81	12.72	3.55	0.518	186.0320
13	Rose, Derrick	CHI	37.98	24.43	4.61	8.13	0.442	184.4913
14	Nash, Steve	PHO	32.93	17.00	3.64	11.05	0.528	184.4075
15	Paul, Chris	NOR	35.31	16.65	4.04	9.71	0.485	184.1815
16	Love, Kevin	MIN	36.79	21.62	15.64	2.49	0.473	183.6498
17	Horford, Al	ATL	34.96	16.17	9.78	3.52	0.570	183.0557
18	Nowitzki, Dirk	DAL	34.55	23.05	6.84	2.47	0.522	182.2505
19	Randolph, Zach	MEM	36.40	19.96	13.18	1.51	0.484	177.5536
20	Durant, Kevin	OKL	39.81	28.93	6.74	2.79	0.466	176.9649
21	Anthony, Carmelo	DEN	35.05	23.90	7.90	3.05	0.434	171.2166
22	West, David	NOR	34.79	19.02	7.27	2.31	0.515	170.0006
23	Ginobili, Manu	SAN	31.51	18.81	3.83	4.89	0.437	169.0641
24	Scola, Luis	HOU	33.14	19.33	8.37	2.35	0.502	169.0354
25	Williams, Deron	UTA	37.57	21.93	3.65	9.43	0.468	168.9259
26	Bosh, Chris	MIA	35.41	18.48	8.18	1.82	0.500	167.3249
27	Odom, Lamar	LAL	33.40	15.35	9.40	2.92	0.570	165.7124
28	Hilario, Nene	DEN	30.63	14.98	7.28	2.09	0.639	164.7257
29	Pierce, Paul	BOS	34.47	19.19	5.04	3.23	0.512	164.1611
30	Millsap, Paul	UTA	33.81	16.85	7.77	2.23	0.528	163.7132
31	Smith, Josh	ATL	34.73	16.13	8.81	3.44	0.465	159.8467
32	Aldridge, LaMarcus	POR	39.19	21.02	9.00	2.04	0.481	159.6925
33	Jefferson, Al	UTA	34.86	16.59	9.04	1.59	0.475	158.4133
34	Rondo, Rajon	BOS	37.36	10.44	4.50	12.58	0.517	154.8336
35	Martin, Kevin	HOU	31.04	23.00	3.02	2.28	0.442	154.6459
36	Blair, DeJuan	SAN	21.04	7.74	6.87	1.11	0.485	153.5076
37	Chandler, Tyson	DAL	27.98	10.11	9.27	0.36	0.662	151.6362
38	Miller, Andre	POR	32.17	12.96	3.72	7.09	0.458	150.3272
39	Bynum, Andrew	LAL	24.58	11.38	7.29	0.88	0.572	148.9344
40	Curry, Stephen	GSW	33.77	19.13	3.59	5.90	0.475	146.7822
41	Noah, Joakim	CHI	36.75	14.04	11.71	2.67	0.514	145.7830
42	Brand, Elton	PHI	34.67	14.93	8.54	1.48	0.518	145.4059
43	Allen, Ray	BOS	35.85	17.19	3.60	3.06	0.505	144.4739
44	Lee, David	GSW	36.79	16.00	9.71	3.45	0.500	144.2746
45	Ellis, Monta	GSW	41.09	25.15	3.34	5.53	0.459	144.2525
46	Johnson, Joe	ATL	36.36	20.13	4.26	5.44	0.441	143.2943
47	Gordon, Eric	LAC	37.85	24.10	3.12	4.54	0.468	143.0358
48	Okafor, emeka	NOR	32.37	11.10	10.12	0.51	0.593	141.8830
49	O'Neal, Shaquille	BOS	20.86	9.49	4.94	0.71	0.667	141.5462
50	Bass, Brandon	ORL	24.86	11.14	5.61	0.84	0.506	141.4129

What does Luol Deng have to do to get on this list?  I mean, he's having a great year and I don't think he's made the bottom of this list, but you have guys like Brandon Bass and Nene.  What's going on here?