NBA 10-11

[thrill]

Bill Simmons of all people with the best thoughts on Derrick Rose and the MVP: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ortCat=nba

We'll remember this as The Best NBA Regular Season Ever. Naturally, the league is going to seize the momentum by disappearing in July, then duct-taping us to chairs in a dark basement and torturing us with months of lockout rhetoric. By August, we're going to forget about a regular season that gave us dozens of compelling subplots, at least 250-300 truly entertaining games, at least 200 Blake Griffin YouTube clips, multiple polarizing trades, a USSR-like villain in the MoHeatos, playoffs that could dart in about 20 different directions and a heated MVP race led by Derrick Rose, who I will choose to remember this season as someone who …

A. Worked his butt off to get better last summer

B. Bought into everything his new coach was selling, led by example and never undermined his coach publicly or privately


David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images
You can question Derrick Rose's game, but you can't question the man's commitment.
C. Was a phenomenal teammate who kept a fringe contender afloat for two months when they were crushed by injuries, then kept them humming as they evolved into a semi-juggernaut

D. Played harder from night to night than anyone else

E. Was the only elite player on a good team who had to make every offensive decision in crunch time because his team didn't have another perimeter player who could create a shot, but hey, let's not factor that into anything

F. Was a legitimate athletic freak who needed to be seen in person to be truly appreciated

and not …

G. The guy whose MVP candidacy got crapped on by the entire blogosphere because his plus/minus and true shooting percentage weren't quite good enough.

Look, I haven't decided whether Rose is the MVP yet. After three months, I thought he was. His play tailed off a little once the Bulls got healthy. Now I'm not so sure. It feels like one of those seasons like 2007 when there just wasn't a most valuable player, so we had to talk ourselves into someone. (Note: I copped out and voted for the fans.) I hate those seasons. Regardless, it's a fun debate and I've enjoyed arguing about it with my friends, even if it's bizarre that Rose -- who truly gives a s--- about winning, wants to get better and doesn't care about his own numbers, unlike Dwight Howard (who occasionally gives a s---, continues to block the ball out of bounds because it's cool, can't be trusted in the last two minutes of a game and does care about his numbers) and LeBron James (who thought this was a good idea) -- became the most polarizing candidate.

[stlouie_lipp]

Yeah Hollinger took a very public stance against Rose early because he's the inventor of a very flawed statistic that shows little guys who shoot in high volumes in a negative light. Ever since then he's had a harder time sticking to his guns and this massive wave of public sentiment has turned against him. Now me and fellow, super intensely annoying Derrick Rose fan boys get way up in arms whenever someone says anything less than 100% positive about the guy which has led to this anti-Rose for MVP backlash. The MVP is an subjective award and as such there are valid cases to be made for more than one player. Coming out against Rose has been a particularly effective way to get a lot of page views and generate a lot of discussion.

It's pretty simple, really. LeBron is the best player in the world. Dwight Howard is probably #2. Derrick is probably somewhere in the 4-6 range, but his team is awesome, they play really hard every night and he's a really likable dude, so he'll get it. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't go to the best player. As a Bulls fan, I saw that happen quite a few times in the 90's. People get tired of the usual suspects.

Kobe?

Yeah, MJeff got screwed out of many MVPs. Although, I've never really cared that much about post season awards in any sport.

[Socnorb11]

Nuggets beat the Lakers....... at LA, ending the Lakers' 9 game winning streak, and they did it without 2 of their better defenders (Anderson and Affalo).

Denver is 15-4 since trading Carmelo Anthony (and the 4 losses are by a combined 15 points).

I love this team.

[Maclowery]

Definitely a great story, perfect compliment to all the drama and posturing in New York and Miami.

OKC / Denver is going to be a really fun series. It's just awesome how fast the Denver guys gelled together; the post-trade team looks like the best example of Whole > Sum of Parts kind of teams.

Can you give the Bulls Affalo please?

[TGantz]

Definitely a great story, perfect compliment to all the drama and posturing in New York and Miami.

OKC / Denver is going to be a really fun series. It's just awesome how fast the Denver guys gelled together; the post-trade team looks like the best example of Whole > Sum of Parts kind of teams.

Can you give the Bulls Affalo please?

Afflalo is fun to watch. He'd fit in perfectly.

[Socnorb11]

Definitely a great story, perfect compliment to all the drama and posturing in New York and Miami.

OKC / Denver is going to be a really fun series. It's just awesome how fast the Denver guys gelled together; the post-trade team looks like the best example of Whole > Sum of Parts kind of teams.

Can you give the Bulls Affalo please?

With the Bulls and Nuggets being my 2 favorite teams, this is definitely turning out to be a fun season for me. They really are 2 of the more enjoyable teams in the league.

No, the Bulls can't have Affalo.

[JunkBondTrader]

Nah, we need this guy.

[MrSaigon]

Nah, we need this guy.

He'd do the same thing if they were down 14. He's an ass. There's no 'Nuggets' in 'Smith.' Don't like that guy, but it is nice to see the sans-Melo Nuggets doing well, even though I thought they wouldn't.

[cardsfansince82]

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[JunkBondTrader]

He'd do the same thing if they were down 14.

That's exactly why I love him.