Dancing With Noah

Excuse this departure from the team-by-team previews (which may or may not ever be completed) as I recently participated in a highly informal NBA round table. It was a cold Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa when I rendezvoused at the local Buffalo Wild Wings with Bug, Milton and Rex. The primary reason for going was sixty-cent boneless wings and there were 7-10 different sporting events being shown on the 50” screens that surrounded us, but after dinner and a few beers it was time to break out the napkins, locate a pen and attempt to sloppily break down the then-pending NBA season.

We didn’t start out with any goals in mind and didn’t end up achieving anything, so to that end, it was a success. The distractions were aplenty and mostly of the liquid variety, yet we were able to arrive at a loose consensus of the 16 teams we expect to make the playoffs and the order they’ll finish. We tackled the Eastern Conference first:

The main thing I recall from the Eastern Conference discussion was Milton’s distaste at the Knicks projected fifth seed. He despises D’Antoni’s perceived lack of commitment to defense and it showed in the venom he spewed forth and his insistence that Philly would finish ahead of NYK. Calmer heads prevailed. The other hot topic was Bucks vs. Pacers for the honor to be the sacrificial lambs to Gods of Miami. Grand ideas indeed.

As you can see by the napkin below, the Western Conference analysis deteriorated or evolved (really open to interpretation) in depth, but sacrificed quality with comparisons being drawn between injury-prone players like Devin Harris and Andrew Bynum and the comparative value to their teams. The biggest argument here was between the four and five seeds—Lakers or Mavs; which was really just a debate about who would get home court advantage. Also, Milton refused to attach his name to a Clippers number two and instead preferred the veteran Spurs for that spot.