Okay, so a spectacular Denver Nuggets regular season ended with a whimper, not a bang, in Portland. Hopefully very few people outside of Denver and Bristol, Connecticut were paying attention to a game that didn't matter.
If they were, it will undoubtedly further hurt any chance Nuggets head coach George Karl has being awarded the NBA Coach of the Year award, an honor he richly deserves. No doubt with the eastern bias that exists within the media, most voters will look to Cleveland’s Mike Brown and his 60-win regular season. Some are touting Stan Van Gundy in Orlando and even Rick Adelman in Houston. They’ll grasp at any reason they can find to continue to ignore the miraculous season the Nuggets have had in 2008 –’09.
Back in the fall, before the NBA season began, very few were giving Denver much of a chance of even making the play-offs much less winning the Northwest Division. The so-called experts had the Nuggets anywhere from 8th to 11th place in the Western Conference – out of the play-offs. They’d lost Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera. How could they compete? Denver was an afterthought.
Instead, the Nuggets ended up second. Second to only the talent laden Los Angeles Lakers. If that’s not a “Coach of the Year” performance, then what exactly is? Yes, Denver was able to make a trade that brought Chauncey Billups home, and rid the team of Allen Iverson and his non-stop dribbling. That was undoubtedly a key. But so was Karl’s use of reserves like Chris Anderson – who played far better than Camby ever did for the Nuggets – and J R Smith, who showed the kind of improvement that only a patient coach can bring out of a player. Karl deserves an enormous amount of credit for Denver’s 54-win season in the rugged Western Conference. It was a far better coaching job than Brown, Adelman, Van Gundy or anyone else in the NBA did this season.
For example, Cleveland, the team with the best player on the planet LeBron James, was picked first or second in almost every single pre-season poll. What exactly did Brown’s team do that was not expected of them? “Here's the ball, LeBron…go get ‘em.” And as for the glittering regular season record, remember that Cavs plays in the shallow Eastern Conference, where teams that don’t play .500 ball can still make the play-offs. Cleveland doesn’t sniff 60 wins if they are playing in the West. Adelman’s team finished behind the Nuggets when they were projected to be far better. Ditto with Portland’s Nate McMillan and others. Put Van Gundy and the Magic in the West, even with Dwight Howard, and they don’t come close to 54 wins, either.
None of this will likely matter when the votes are counted. It didn’t count for Colorado Rockies stars Matt Holiday or Troy Tulowitzki in 2007 when they were robbed of post season honors by the biased eastern media. Work in the Mountain Time Zone, and you better win it all if you want any recognition at all.
Of course, attention is not what Karl is interested in. First and foremost, he wants to break the Nuggets streak of first round play-off exits. It will do wonders for the franchise if they can go deep in the play-offs and present at least a challenge to the mighty Lakers. That would be reward enough for the coach.
In the meantime, he can continue to play the ‘disrespect’ card with his players as the Nuggets head into the play-offs, because there will be plenty of evidence for him to post on the bulletin board.
For instance, ESPN.com’s “Power Rankings” have the Nuggets ranked a disrespectful 7th overall – behind Western Conference foes the Lakers, Portland, and Houston. The odds makers are at it again as well. They have Portland as the team most likely – by more than a two-to-one margin over the Nuggets – to challenge the front running Lakers for the Western Conference crown. No doubt Karl will remind his team that they are still no more than an afterthought to those outside Denver as the play-offs begin.
You’ve got to figure that the folks in and around Bristol must have been watching that final regular season game closely. It’s going to be up to Karl and his team to prove those ‘experts’ wrong all over again.
(AP Photo of Nuggets coach George Karl)
For more info: www.epsn.com , www.usatoday.com/nba
Comments
Hey Mark. I'm a Cavaliers homer, so I'm gonna have to point stick up for my team here. The Cavs are 17-13 when they give up 96 or more points. That's a terrible mark considering they lost 15 games total. This makes them a defense first team, the exact kind of coach that Mike Brown is. LeBron is one man on defense, and he alone cannot hold teams to 95 points or lower. Also, the Cavs are 26-4 vs the West. So though they are not in the more rugged conference, it's clear they are a team that can win anywhere. "Cleveland doesn’t sniff 60 wins if they are playing in the West." If we extrapolate that 26-4 (87%) over 82 games, they go 71-11.
o wow, you call yourself a reporter when you couldn't get your facts straight? That's such an uninformed piece of article....
This article makes absolutely no sense. First, this east coast bias your referring to is mainly NY and Boston, which is the same east coast bias us midwesterners hate also. If Doc won coach of the year, than you have a point. Second, six western conference teams had less than 30 wins. Only one team in the east had 32 wins or less. Denver played far more "easy" games than cleveland, not to mention cleveland's 26-4 record against western conference teams this year as Boya pointed out. Cleveland doesnt sniff 60 wins in the West? Didnt cleveland beat denver by a total of 28 points in two games this year? If your going to write an article, do some research first.
OK let me see. Cavs this year vs WEST 26-4, vs EAST 40-12.
I see what you're saying, the Cavs really wouldn't sniff 60 wins if they play in the west, cos' they will actually be sniffing 70 wins..
Do the math, 23-7 vs East, 45-7 vs West...68-14, that's about right...hm....you are on to something.
Dear Internet Surfers:
I humbly apologize in advance for the post(s) you're about to read. I nearly vomited on my keyboard after reading Mark's article and I couldn't contain my incredulity. I've decided to respond to Mark paragraph by oh-so-ridiculous paragraph.
So, here goes, in 5 delightfully logical installments....
PART ONE
"No doubt with the eastern bias that exists within the media, most voters will look to Cleveland’s Mike Brown and his 60-win regular season."
Not so fast, dude. If the media is biased, it's certainly not in favor of Cleveland. The national media loves to dismiss Cleveland. Poor Cavs fans have been subjected to nonstop conjecture about Lebron leaving for greener pastures in 2010.
Secondly, when was the last time this "eastern bias" affected Coach of the Year voting? D'Antoni won it in Phoenix in 2005, despite not "winning it all." Isn't Arizona in the same time zone as Colorado?
In fact, 4 of the last 6 COY winners came not from the east but from the Central Standard Time zone. Are you suggesting the CST is part of the "eastern" media? When you say "eastern bias," do you just mean "east of the Rockies?" Because if that's the basis of your argument, perhaps you should look at a map. Roughly 66% of the teams in the NBA are based east of the Rocky Mountains. Therefore, there are more candidates in the "eastern" part of the country to win COY. The national media isn't "biased" toward anyone in particular. There are just more media outlets east of you than west.
But if you want an example of bias in the media, let's look at your next couple paragraphs:
"Back in the fall, very few were giving Denver much of a chance of even making the play-offs. Denver was an afterthought. Instead, the Nuggets ended up second. Second to only the talent laden Los Angeles Lakers. If that’s not a “Coach of the Year” performance, then what exactly is?"
Um, how about ending up FIRST, ahead of a talent-laden Celtics team? That sounds like an even better example of a "Coach of the Year" performance to me. And by the way, you're bolstering your argument by under-selling the talent Denver had on its roster at the beginning of the season. This isn't the Memphis Grizzlies you're talking about.
PART TWO
"For example, Cleveland, the team with the best player on the planet LeBron James, was picked first or second in almost every single pre-season poll. What exactly did Brown’s team do that was not expected of them?"
First, there are a lot of fans in Los Angeles and Miami that would disagree with your assessment of James as "the best player on the planet." And Carmelo Anthony is no slouch, either. Many reports from Beijing claimed that Melo and Lebron were the leaders of the Olympic team both on and off the court. Did you forget he was on the Nuggets when you wrote this article or something?
Second, who cares what pre-season pollsters thought the Nuggets or the Cavs would do this year? It shouldn't impact who wins COY and it certainly doesn't make the Cavaliers' accomplishments this year any less impressive. If you want to talk about preseason expectations, though, Vegas put the o/u on Cleveland's wins this year at 48.5. That means Cleveland exceeded the best guess by experts in Vegas by 17 games. THAT'S impressive.
PART THREE
“Here's the ball, LeBron…go get ‘em.”
Alright, now you've got me absolutely ticked off. If you bothered to watch any Cavs games over the past couple years, you would know that the "give Lebron the ball" offense is what killed Cleveland against the Spurs in the Finals and what killed them against Boston in the playoffs in 2008.
I realize you're just a Colorado homer, so I'll fill you in on what's been happening in Cleveland this season: Mike Brown changed the offense this year specifically so that it would NOT revolve around Lebron handling the ball so much. This was successful in part because of the addition of Mo Williams. Anyone in Denver should be able to appreciate the difference a good point guard makes to an offense. However, it also was due to Brown's willingness to admit failure and change up his offensive strategy. If you think I'm making this up, contact Cleveland Plain Dealer beat writer Brian Windhorst and ask him if Brown has changed his coaching style this year and what it's meant to the Cavs.
"And as for the glittering regular season record, remember that Cavs plays in the shallow Eastern Conference, where teams that don’t play .500 ball can still make the play-offs. Cleveland doesn’t sniff 60 wins if they are playing in the West."
A modicum of research shows how inaccurate your statement is. The Nuggets were only 19-11 versus Eastern Conference teams this season for a winning percentage of .633. The Cavs were 40-12 (.769) against eastern teams. Against Western Conference teams, the Nuggets were 35-17 (.673) while the Cavs were a stunning 26-4 (.867).
PART FOUR
"Karl deserves an enormous amount of credit for Denver’s 54-win season in the rugged Western Conference. It was a far better coaching job than Brown, Adelman, Van Gundy or anyone else in the NBA did this season."
Adelman's Rockets won ONE less game than the Nuggets, despite having lost Tracy McGrady and trading away Rafer Alston. Stan Van Gundy's Magic won 59 games despite having lost Jameer Nelson. Mike Brown's Cavaliers had the best record in the NBA despite having lost 3 starters (Wallace, Ilgauskus, and West) for extended stretches of the season. George Karl's combined record against these 3 coaches this year: 2-6. Hey, don't let logic get in the way of your argument.
"Adelman’s team finished behind the Nuggets when they were projected to be far better. Ditto with Portland’s Nate McMillan and others."
Not quite. Adelman's team finished one game behind the Nuggets. Portland's McMillan? He finished WITH THE SAME RECORD.
"For instance, ESPN.com’s “Power Rankings” have the Nuggets ranked a disrespectful 7th overall – behind Western Conference foes the Lakers, Portland, and Houston."
Disrespectful? WHAT? The Lakers and Rockets were each 3-1 against Denver this year. I guess you could quibble with Portland being ranked higher than Denver, since the Blazers were only 2-2 against the Nuggets this year and both teams finished with the same record. But getting blown out by 30 on the last day of the season by Portland probably didn't help their final standing in the oh-so-important ESPN "Power Rankings."
PART FIVE
"It’s going to be up to Karl and his team to prove those ‘experts’ wrong all over again."
Look, I understand you're from Colorado so you're going to be upset when you perceive that the Nuggets are being overlooked in some way. But sniping at other media members only shows how biased YOU are and ultimately destroys any credibility you may have had.
Do us all a favor and close your eyes and imagine the Nuggets had the best record in the NBA this season; imagine that they played smothering defense and led the league in point differential, they went a near-historic 39-2 at home, they increased their win total by 21(!) games over last year, and they shattered numerous franchise records along the way.
Now, based solely on those facts, would you vote for George Karl for Coach of the Year? Yes, you would. Admit it. It's ok. I would vote for him, too.
But that team isn't the Nuggets. It's the Cavaliers. In fact, I find it hard to believe that any objective person could possibly vote for George Karl as COY over Mike Brown, Stan Van Gundy, Phil Jackson, or Doc Rivers.
Sorry for the long post, everyone. I realize I shouldn't get so worked up over an opinion piece on examiner.com, but it drives me up the wall when people make an argument with no facts to back it up. The ironic thing is, based on this posting I could probably fill out the examiner application and become a "professional" examiner like Mark here. The only difference is, if I DID bother to post something, I'd have the sense to do some research before hitting the 'Submit' button.
blah blah blah...what was cleveland record vs the west? well? it was 26-4....also it wasn't a 60 win season.it was 66...AND...Cleveland is in the midwest, not the east coast...i feel for the readers who have to read this garbage
author=idiot
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