Now that Rick Pitino and his Louisville Cardinals have captured the NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship, we can get back to focusing on the big boys—many of whom have some big, big problems. Chris Sheridan gave us a rather interesting take on 10 unanswered questions that persist as we head down the stretch run of the season, and Chris Bernucca gave us a nice piece on separating the playoff contenders from pretenders.
I am still have a very difficult time comprehending are how the Los Angeles Lakers are on the outside looking in with only five games remaining in their regular season. The Lakers are to the point where they have to depend on the Utah Jazz to lose at least one more game for them to make the playoffs.
Who’d have thunk it?
Meanwhile, out East, we know which eight teams will have their ticket punched to the postseason party, but not necessarily who will dance with who in the first round. If the seeds hold, the two New York teams will both be engaged in Must-See TV battles, if you ask me. Both teams will be in the playoffs for the first time since 2003-04, when Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin—as members of the Nets—swept the Knicks out of the playoffs. How’s that for irony? The Knicks and Nets would have their hands full with the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, respectively.
And after personally watching Derrick Rose go full speed and run, jump, cut, dunk, plant and do just about everything else he would need to do on a basketball court, I am still confused as to why he has not already let his intentions be known to his team. The gossip I am hearing out of Chicago is that some around the team have grown weary of the uncertainty.
March Madness, good riddance. We are in the stretch run of the 2012-13 NBA Season, and I certainly cannot wait to watch the Lakers Heat attempt to turn their regular season dominance into playoff success.
LOOKING FOR OKC THUNDER TICKETS? LOOK NO FURTHER
As for our free agents? We have copious amounts of shuffling this week.
I needed to see some consistency from Nikola Pekovic before he earned a spot here, but after winning the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week, he crashes our party. Aside from him, Corey Brewer and Tony Allen turned in super solid weeks and shot up the board, while Tyreke Evans and J.J. Hickson have us backpedaling at an alarming rate.
Chris Paul regains his top spot, Dwight drops, and Kenyon Martin gets a mention (if not a ranking) as an ode to the surging (winners of 12 straight) New York Knicks.
The last thing you should know before moving on is that our rankings do not rank players based on what we expect them to earn on the free agents market. Big guys always have and always will get paid more for less because size—and size with potential—is a huge commodity.
Instead, we are ranking players based solely on their performance on the court and their impact on their team. Just something to keep in mind.
On to the rankings.