Comedy Central's "Workaholics," might be more than just a satirical,
hippied-out, sarcastic dedication to today's working class (Who knew?).
Between the drugs, drinking, and controlled substances that Anders,
Blake and Adam consume on a daily basis, the troubled trio manages to
spit out some important (and strange) life lessons; lessons that the
sport of basketball (NBA included) have recently come to admire, adhere
to, and even practice.
Bare with me here (pun intended).
Lesson 1: "Let's Get Weird"
-It
shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the first three weeks of this
NBA season have been as odd as they come. First things first, the
Lakers have a worse record than the Bobcats, the Hornets, the Warriors,
and a number of other less-talented teams,
and they selected Mike D'Antoni
over
ex-Lakers Head Coach, Phil Jackson, to be the chosen figure that will
solve their multitude of problems and lead them to the promised land.
For
a team that's "championship or bust" most analysts assumed that Phil
was the easy and obvious choice between the two coaching candidates.
However, Jerry Buss and the Lakers' management went with D'Antoni
instead who is arguably the most gifted NBA offensive mind over the past
decade. The downside is that he's not known for his defense (he's an
average defensive strategist at best), and he's never been to an NBA
Championship as a Head Coach whereas Phil owns 11 championship rings.
If
I wanted a championship this year, I probably would've gone another
direction, aka the " Phil Zen Way." However, it seems like the Lakers
are hellbent on out-scoring their opponents rather than locking down
defensively; a strategy that rarely pans out favorably.
Also,
when was the last time that the Knicks were the best team in the
league? 1999? Maybe 1973? (the Dave Debusschere, Earl Monroe, Willis
Reed, and yes, Phil Jackson playing days). Regardless, at this exact
moment Melo's squad is balling out of control (Jim Jones' Dipset style)
and tearing apart the competition one team at a time.
What's
more is that Amare' Stoudemire's absence from the active lineup is
arguably the prime reason for their recent success. That's right, the
Knicks play better without one of the game's most dynamic forwards of
the past ten years. Also, for a team that's older than a good 99% of
the league (avg. age is 31), they are out-running and out-gunning teams
to the tune of 103+ ppg. Plus, JR Smith is having the best season of
his career thus far, with insane off-the-bench averages of 18 points and
5 boards a night on 72% shooting from downtown! However, the most
impressive statline for the Knicks right now is their stifling defensive
numbers. Their defense is allowing the league's least amount of points
per game (87.8ppg), and they are leading the league in defense per 100
possessions (only giving up 96 points). Also, they are forcing
opponents into a very pedestrian FG% (42%). If they keep this up, they
might as well just bench Amare' for the remainder of the season because
you shouldn't try and fix something that's not broken.
Frankly, the Knicks and the Heat may be the only NBA Championship contenders from the Eastern Conference.
Also,
how long has it been since the 6th man of the year was up for NBA MVP
bragging rights? Since the creation of the 6th man of the year award in
1982, no reigning 6th man of the year has ever been considered a top
MVP candidate the following season, but James Harden deserves to be in
this year's MVP conversation.
You have to give credit where credit is due folks.
In
all my years of basketball research and analysis, I've never seen a
player as instantly explosive as Harden. He's ready to score the second
the game starts, and his ability to fight through double teams and make
intelligent basketball decisions in only his first season as an NBA
starter is uncanny. The only other "James" that might be more
explosive than Harden is King Lebron (who's currently ranked #1 in
ESPN's MVP rankings). In his first season as a starter, Harden's
averaging 26 points, almost 5 boards, and close to 5 assists per game,
and he's turned his Rockets into a legitimately competitive team that
recently gave Lebron and the Heat fits in Houston a few nights ago (it
took a 38 point effort from LBJ to get MIA a "W"). I don't know what's
more strange: the fact that he's averaging the 3rd most points per
contest in the league as a first-time starter on a new team, the fact
that he stole the spotlight from Jeremy Lin, or the fact that he's a
credible MVP candidate the year after he won the 6th man award.
Right
now, the Thunder might wish that they hadn't wasted their max contract
on Westbrook last January because Harden is worth franchising and he's
worth every penny of his 5 year, $80 million max deal in Houston.
He's just scary good.
Tune in this weekend for some more NBA lessons from the "Workaholics."
Thanks for stopping by,
The Mattman
