NBA Championship Odds
September 28, 2008
Shortly after the Celtics won the NBA championship in June, we posted the NBA Finals Odds. Now that the off-season moves have been made, we thought it would be a good time to take another look at the NBA Championship Odds and see what Vegas was thinking about this upcoming season. Here’s a chart showing what each team opened at and what their current odds are:
| Team | Open | Current |
| Los Angeles Lakers | 5/2 | 3/1 |
| Boston Celtics | 7/2 | 7/2 |
| New Orleans Hornets | 7/1 | 6/1 |
| Detroit Pistons | 7/1 | 7/1 |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | 15/1 | 8/1 |
| Houston Rockets | 15/1 | 8/1 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 7/1 | 8/1 |
| Utah Jazz | 12/1 | 10/1 |
| Phoenix Suns | 10/1 | 10/1 |
| Orlando Magic | 15/1 | 15/1 |
| Philadelphia 76ers | 40/1 | 20/1 |
| Toronto Raptors | 25/1 | 20/1 |
| Dallas Mavericks | 15/1 | 20/1 |
| Denver Nuggets | 22/1 | 30/1 |
| Chicago Bulls | 40/1 | 30/1 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | 50/1 | 35/1 |
| Washington Wizards | 30/1 | 40/1 |
| Golden State Warriors | 30/1 | 45/1 |
| Indiana Pacers | 50/1 | 50/1 |
| Los Angeles Clippers | 75/1 | 50/1 |
| Miami Heat | 200/1 | 60/1 |
| Atlanta Hawks | 50/1 | 60/1 |
| Charlotte Bobcats | 75/1 | 60/1 |
| New Jersey Nets | 50/1 | 60/1 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 150/1 | 75/1 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | 100/1 | 75/1 |
| New York Knicks | 150/1 | 100/1 |
| Sacramento Kings | 75/1 | 125/1 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | 250/1 | 250/1 |
| Memphis Grizzlies | 250/1 | 300/1 |
The first thing that stands out is how the Cavs and Rockets have moved from 15/1 championship odds to 8/1 due to their respective acquisitions of Mo Williams and Ron Artest. The Sixers also jumped from 40/1 lucky-to-make-the-playoffs odds to 20/1 longshot odds after acquiring Elton Brand.
If you want to put your money where your mouth is, click here to bet.
Wild Wild West
September 25, 2008
You may have seen the poll that we’ve been running lately asking who will win the Western Conference. Well, the results are in and they are a bit surprising. The Lakers managed to take home 44% of the vote, followed by the Rockets at 18%, Other at 15%, the Hornets and Spurs at 11%. I presume Other refers to teams like the Jazz, Mavs, Suns, and, of course, homers. Now, it’s not surprising that the Lakers win this poll given they are the defending Western Conference champions, but it is surprising by how much they won. They got more than twice as many votes as the 2nd-place Rockets. So, are they that good with Bynum or are the fans just a bit overly optimistic? Here’s how I rank the top four teams in the West:
1. Lakers - I do give the nod to L.A., but just barely. With a healthy Bynum and the duo of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, there’s no reason for the Lakers to not be competing for the trophy again this season. It won’t be so easy, though, because even though the Lakers should be better, their competition will also be better, and that brings us to #2.
2. Hornets - The Hornets got better this summer by bringing in James Posey from the world champion Celtics. Posey gives New Orleans that defensive stopper they’ll need to get far in the post-season. Chris Paul is still going to give other teams fits and now that the Hornets have some playoff experience, they’ve got a good shot to survive the West.
3. Rockets - The Rockets enter the season with a great upside, but also a great downside after their acquisition of Ron Artest. Artest, a gritty defender and third scorer, looks to be exactly what Houston needs, but he could bring chemistry problems as well. Not to mention, T-Mac and Yao will need to be healthy come playoff time.
4. Spurs - The Spurs are aging and, like the Rockets, they have some questions of their own. They’ll need Manu Ginobili to recover from his ankle injury and come back at full strength. The regular season is not San Antonio’s forte, but they do know how to win in May and June so don’t count them out.
Who do you think will win the West?
Also, check out the new poll which asks who will win the East!
Carnival #60: The Brotherhood of the Traveling Blogs
September 22, 2008
This week HoopsAvenue has been called upon to host the 60th edition of the Carnival of the NBA maintained by Bulls Blogger! If this is your first carnival, don’t be confused, just remember the links tell the story.
Let me introduce you to The Brotherhood of the Traveling Blogs…
We begin our travels in Boston where we receive some important instructions on how we are to scale any mountains we may come across. This advice will come in handy later, but for now we are sent to the nation’s capital with the Celtics where we meet with our leader.
While in DC, we hear from another leader, the worldwide leader thinks we should investigate the continent across the Pond, but is it a good idea? We decide to head overseas to check it out.
Our first stop is Italy where Andrea Bargnani is all the rage. We’re told why he struggled last season. Hmm, could he be ready for a breakout season? He could be the X factor.
Wait, we’ve just received an urgent message…”The world might be ending.”
Eeek. We hear that we need to go to Switzerland to investigate. Luckily, we’ve learned how to scale mountains so the Alps are no problem.
We arrive in Geneva where we learn the Large Hadron Collider has been tested and worked fine. That’s a relief. It did suck up the Timberwolves though.
Looking for some positive news, we head back to the States and arrive in Miami where we catch up with Michael Beasley. He’s in a particularly good mood and tells us he’s on his own now. He’s obviously in a very jubilant Starbury-esque mood and tells us he knows how to travel through time.
This is good news because we’ve heard of a little-known team called the White Horses that played one season only in 1938. That was a refreshing history lesson, but now we’re heading back to modern days to enjoy the scoring abilities of a mystery man.
Well, our little trip with Beasley is over and now we’re back in 2008 where we find out what Josh Howard was really talking about on that video.
Before we end our journey, we’re reminded its time for fantasy basketball and we all know how important it is to pick a good point guard.
It’s important to pick a good league too so why not give HoopsAvenue Fantasy Basketball a twirl? One thing is for sure, we’ve got a good scoring system.
If bloggers reading want to get involved with the Carnival of the NBA, join the group at Ballhype. You can also get information on upcoming (and past) editions of the carnival at blogcarnival.com.
3 NBA Stocks That Are Crashing
September 18, 2008
It’s not a good week to have money invested in the stock market and it hasn’t been a good week or two for some NBA people either. Here’s a look at 3 NBA stocks that have taken a hit this week…
- Washington Wizards - What a brilliant move by Agent Zero to sign a $111 million deal and then just 2 months later announcing you’ll be having yet another knee surgery and will miss at least the first month of the season. The Wizards are just praying this doesn’t turn into another Allan Houston or Grant Hill situation. Washington fans are already too familiar with overpaying for guys that don’t pan out (See: Juwan Howard). Once again it’s up to Caron and Antawn to keep this stock out of freefall.
- Josh Howard - Howard’s now infamous comments: “The Star-Spangled Banner is going on. I don’t celebrate this [expletive]. I’m black.” Add that to his “NBA players do smoke marijuana” comment just before a playoff game last season and his brilliant idea of throwing a birthday party after losing a playoff game last season. Yeah, time to sell this stock. Here’s the Star-Spangled Banner video:
- Rookies - Michael Beasley’s now the latest rookie to be fined. He got hit $50,000 for the marijuana-smoking incident at the Rookie Transition Program. Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur were disciplined a few days ago. Who’s teaching the Rookie Transition Program? Josh Howard?!? These guys are rookies so they’ve got plenty of time to bounce back, but their stocks are dropping right now.
“Juan” Day in May
September 15, 2008
Today is NBA Stadiums Blog Day! If you have not heard of it, do not be alarmed as we wouldn’t expect you to, but some of us NBA bloggers led by Jones On the NBA have organized today to blog about our experiences being at a stadium during a big game or moment in NBA history. I’ve witnessed a few big moments at the “Phone Booth” here in Washington, DC where the Wizards play and ultimately I narrowed it down to 2 choices.
First, the runner-up is this play where Michael Jordan shows us he can still get up…
As impressive as that block looks on video, it was 10x better in person as it just came out of nowhere. Think him getting his shot blocked on the previous play had anything to do with it?
Now, onto my choice for most memorable moment at an NBA game…
To set the stage, it’s 2005, the city of Washington, DC is hyped up as the Wizards are back in the playoffs for the first time since 1997 when they were the 8 seed and known as the Bullets. After years of losing, this Wizards team is exciting and really has a shot to get out of the first round as the 5 seed. But, we haven’t been to the post-season in forever and the city is panicking as the Bulls take games 1 and 2 on their home floor. The Wizards respond in Game 3 though, winning 117-99 setting up a do-or-die Game 4. You’re not coming back down 3-1 and going to Chicago. I was lucky enough to score tickets (albeit in the upper level) to Game 4.
Coming into this game, we knew we’d have to play like we did in Game 3 when our Big 3 of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Larry Hughes each scored 20+ with a little help from Etan Thomas off the bench. We needed our Big 3 to come through and to get some bench help.
Unfortunately, the one guy off the bench who could score in a hurry, Juan Dixon, was slumping. Wrong time to be slumping. Being a Duke fan, I still wasn’t a fan of this guy.
The game is about to begin and, like you do at all Wizards games, the PA announcer welcomes everyone to “the most POWERFUL city in the world” and does the player introductions. I’m looking around, looking down at our play-by-play and analyst team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier. I’m wondering what mistakes Buck has already made for the fans watching at home, and I’m hoping he’ll be excited when he’s talking about “daggers” and “backbreakers” late in the game. In Buck-ology, a “dagger” or “backbreaker” is a big shot at a key moment in the game sort of like Mike Breen’s “bang,” but not quite as frequent.
I can’t remember who was at this particular game, but DC is, of course, the politician’s Hollywood and the legendary Tim Russert would often sit courtside as would other political types.
Onto the game…
Late in the first quarter, Dixon entered the game. To be honest, it was a bit surprising as it was somewhat a question mark if he would even play given his slump, but Eddie Jordan wanted to roll the dice.
In his first six minutes, he scored 14 points. Impressive, but would it last? I was still skeptical. The arena was electric, though as the whole team was playing with energy, sparked by Dixon. Nobody was sitting down.
By halftime, the Wizards were up 61-37 and Dixon had 16 points. This would not be a nailbiter.
When it was all said and done, Juan Dixon scored a career-high 35 points and led the Wizards to a 106-99 win.
I had never heard the “Phone Booth” so loud as that game. From tip to buzzer, no matter what the margin, everyone was on their feet. I don’t think I sat down the whole game.
I have to admit, though, being at Game 5 in Chicago would have been nice…
If you have any memories of special NBA moments you have attended, feel free to e-mail me an article and I’ll try to publish it.
4 Thunder Logos Better Than The OKC Thunder Logo
September 11, 2008
The Oklahoma City Thunder logo is out and, frankly, it’s a disaster…
I’m no designer, but you can find a good breakdown of this logo’s flaws here.
Even an amateur eye like mine can see the text “Thunder” is really boring and the basketball looks like clip art. I saw this and I thought there must be better Thunder logos out there and, alas, there are. Here are 4 teams you probably never heard of who did a much better job than OKC (probably on a much smaller budget too):
I like what the Berlin Thunder has done here (several teams use this logo actually). The “Thunder” text is nice, eye-catching, and actually conveys the idea of thunder a lot better than the OKC logo.
Ok, so the OKC Thunder weren’t going to use a viking with a hockey stick, but at least Stockton used some creativity in their fonts. Come to think of it, that viking is pretty cool looking.
This one’s a little too amateurish for the NBA, but the lightning strike on the T is pretty cool. Replace “Frisco” with “OKC” and come up with a replacement background image and you’ve got a pretty good logo.
Remember the old WCW Thunder logo? The color scheme was perfect and really set an aggressive mood. Look at this logo, then compare it to the OKC logo and the OKC logo will make you want to go to sleep.
Well, at least OKC did a better job than this last one…
The 5 Most Indispensable NBA Players
September 7, 2008
Today, Tom Brady went down with a serious knee injury and it looks like he is done for the season. Brady is undoubtedly one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks and has been practically injury-free throughout his career. In fact, he’s so injury free that his name appears on the team injury report every single week as a joke because everybody knows he will be out there. So, if Brady can get hurt, anybody can get hurt. Think about that. Any NBA player could go down in the 1st quarter of the 1st game this season…just like Brady. Brady is obviously one player no team could afford to lose, but who are the NBA’s most indispensable players?
Remember when David Robinson was injured (allegedly) in the ‘96 - ‘97 season to propel the Spurs to the bottom of the standings and top of the draft board? We’re looking for guys that would have that kind of effect on a season. In order, the top 5:
5. Joe Johnson - It’s hard to convince some people that anybody on a 37-win team could possibly be considered indispensable, but after JJ’s playoff performance against the Celtics last season, it’s hard not to be convinced. The Hawks could win 45+ this season, but if JJ goes down you’ll hear more about the Hawks in Letterman’s punch lines than you will in SportsCenter highlights.
4. Steve Nash - Nash was never the best player. He won back-to-back MVP awards for the sole reason that he is indispensable. It’s not hard to figure out why Amare Stoudemire is so well known for his power dunking.
3. Dwight Howard - Just looking at Orlando’s roster you’ve got to wonder how they managed to win 52 games last season. Howard, like Shaq in his prime, is a classic example of a guy who makes his teammates that much better just by drawing so much defensive attention.
2. Lebron James - Lebron does it all and the Cavs would certainly have fallen flat on their face in the past without the King, but things might finally be a little different this season. With Mo Williams in town, a little bit of the burden is lifted off Lebron. Just a little. He’s still indispensable.
1. Chris Paul - Paul showed how indispensable he was last season surprising the basketball world by taking the Hornets to 56 wins and a #2 seed in the West. David West is nice. So is Tyson Chandler. But, this team is lottery material without Paul.
Who do you think has that Tom Brady-esque quality of indispensability?
Sign Up for Fantasy Basketball
September 3, 2008
We’re less than 1 month away from the start of HoopsAvenue Fantasy Basketball and now is the time to join. In case you are new to HoopsAvenue, here are 3 things that make our fantasy basketball league the best on the net:
- Daily, Weekly, and Season Leaderboards - Play a little or play every day, you still have a chance to see your name atop the leaderboard and you can join at any time at no disadvantage.
- Unique “Coach” Feature - In every other fantasy basketball league I’ve seen, you set a lineup and that’s it. There is no strategy beyond who to play and who to bench. In HoopsAvenue Fantasy Basketball, you can play anywhere from 5 to 8 players and you divide up the minutes. Not confident in a player? Give him maybe 20 minutes. Got a star? Play him all 48 minutes. It’s up to you how many minutes you give each player. You’re not only the GM, you’re the coach, too.
- Demand-based Player Pricing - We’ve developed a state-of-the art, exclusive fantasy player pricing system that places the most realistic value on each player. Not only do we consider the player’s performance, but how many teams have him on their roster, and whether he’s a hot commodity as of late. This means if you spot a gem and move fast, you can sign him for significantly less than your opponents giving you the advantage you deserve. This adds a whole new element to fantasy basketball. Think of it like a stock market.
We hope to see you on the leaderboards this fantasy basketball season!
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