UPDATEDIf you're a hardcore fan of Basketbawful, or even a softcore fan (sometimes, I'm just in the mood for softcore - wait, what are we talking about?), you've undoubtedly said to yourself, "Self, it would really be awesome to have a more direct mode of access to the inner workings of Basketbawful." Or, based on the commentary of most fans, this inner monologue more likely manifested itself as "Stop dissin' Kobe, you Celtics-humping Laker haters...boy, a podcast would be friggin' cool... not that I even give a crap, because I hate this site, but it would be cool."
Well, we at Basketbawful agree.
Basketbawful Productions, in conjunction with Evil Ted, proudly presents the first Basketbawful Audio podcast.
Listen as Evil Ted tries to sound savvy and knowledgable in the face Basketbawful's gaudy basketball IQ...
Laugh as Basketbawful discusses the absurd circumstances that would allow the Lakers to lose to the Jazz, or the Magic to lose to the Sixers...
Live in a world when you can actually hear first hand the nerdy insight of what before you could only consume on a 2-dimensional page...
Love that you can download us to your iPod and take in amusing sports commentary that is
way too explicit for ESPN Radio while you, I don't know, jog in the park, ride the train to work, have sex with your wife/girlfriend, take a bath...
...OK, maybe I'm overselling this, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.
UPDATE: I'm learning which podcast sites are good, and which suck ass. So go to the link below to download the mp3 from a file sharing site:
Labels: Basketbawful Evil Ted 2009 NBA Playoff Preview Podcast
Try the download option:
http://www.podbean.com/podcast-download?b=142551&f=http://eviltedbasketbawful.podbean.com/mf/web/k8hz89/bawful_2009_playoff_preview.mp3
Alas, they choked the 3-2 series lead.
In all fairness to Dirk, he came through in the clutch semi consistently throughout the Mavs' entire playoff run the year they got to the finals, at least until David Stern and Dwayne Wade donkey punched him in game three. MVP award or no he hasn't been the same player his.
I also agree 100% that Kevin Durant would not have been a better choice for Portland than Oden. Durant is very talented but he's a volume shooter who needs the ball in his hands an awful lot. He couldn't have coexisted with Brandon Roy, Travis Outlaw, Rudy Fernandez et all and been as effective. Even if Oden peaks as a 15-10-2 guy Portland didn't whiff on the pick.
Oh Bawful, you're so dreamy, that rich smooth voice of yours :swoon:
Agreed on all points. Portland needed a center, they got a center. You can't second-guess that decision based on what we know about GO's knees now; at the time everyone and their brother would have taken GO over Durant. And Durant would have demanded too many shots, which would have stunted the growth of Brandon Roy, who just keeps getting better and proving his critics wrong.
So, does Portland get out of the 1st round vs. Houston with home court advantage?
Honestly, I'd like to see Portland advance, but deep inside, I kind of want Houston to win a round without Knee-Mac just to make his failure complete and prove that he was the problem all along. Yeah, that's right AnacondaHL- das ist Schadenfreude!
One of the my personal favourite what-ifs is, what if Jordan had been drafted by the Blazers? The prevailing wisdom said that the two wouldn't have been able to coexist, but Jordan and Pippen did. Maybe it was an anomaly, but imagine Drexler playing Pippen's role. You might be looking at 8 championships instead of 6.
And yeah I know these are big what ifs, but imagine Durant instead of Outlaw spotting up for a Roy drive-and-dish. We might have been looking at a legitimate championship contender.
As for the Mavs-Spurs, yes it is The Spurs, but let's not forget that Dallas is no stranger to playing San Antonio in the playoffs, and even beat them in 2006, winning Game 7 in San Antonio. Dallas has more weapons right now and they're playing a lot better lately. It'll be a tough fought battle, but I'm going with Dallas in 6.
A few additional notes: I love the So I Married An Axe Murder quote, and that was maybe the greatest sign-off ever, ET :)
thanks eh
Nuh-uh, you're wrong Colonel Sanders!
Even the advance stats clearly tell you that T-Wac is a better clutch player than even Kobe Bryant!
Mr. Bawful, I do have to say that I think it's far too soon to say for sure whether Durant is absolutely a volume shooter who has to have the ball in his hands. He's that guy for the awful team he's on right now, but it's too early to proclaim him a taller version of Allen Iverson. Oden doesn't even start for the Blazers, and if you ask any impartial non-Blazer fanatics they'd say that Oden's impact is negligible at best (Bill Simmons pointed out that his rookie numbers compare unfavorably to even Stanley Roberts' rookie numbers). Meanwhile Portland has a French teenager starting at the 3. I daresay they'd be a much better team with Durant than they are with Oden. Also, is there anyone else on the Blazers who really seems like the kind of player who needs a lot of touches to be successful? Even Brandon Roy almost seems more like a point guard than a shooting guard.
I know you're down on Durant (and there are some questionable things there, like his team's record with him and without him), but IMO the guy is a physical freak almost in the same way LeBron James is. A guy with that size, that length, that athletic ability and with such a good outside shot you just can't find anywhere else. If he does figure out how to become more efficient on offense and how to better involve his teammates, he's going to be incredibly scary. He could be like Kevin Garnett's body with Kobe's mentality. Yikes.
This must be like what Bill Walton feels inside when he thinks about the days of Bird and McHale....why that reminds me of the time Chief, McHale and I.....blather blather blather.......
No one on Portland is a ball hog (except for Travis Outlaw) but they already have (or had at the time of the draft) a very good shooter in Martell Webster who fits their playing style. Roy is so effective because he has the ball in his hands a lot and creates for others and himself. I think having Durant might have added unnecessary friction and forced a restructuring of the team. I'm really not sure he would have added all that much: he can't play defense, he isn't particularly adept at getting to the rim and he's not a particularly strong rebounder. His many, many strengths aren't exactly glaring Portland needs.He could still become a genuine superstar but the reason he has developed as he has is because the entire team has been built around him and he has been allowed to do anything he pleases on the court. He wouldn't have been able to do that in Portland.
Even today I wouldn't pick him over Oden, and I realize just how clumnsy, tired and ineffective he has looked. Now if two seasons from now Oden's athleticism hasn't returned and he still has the post game of Rafael Araujo, I will concede Durant would have been a better pick.
the thing Erik Spolstra made a mistake of was not realizing that beasley matured well enough after the all-star break to warrant more playing time. A string of injuries led him to start and he just looked amazing those last few games. The only reason Udonis Haslem (who has driven me mad all year with his feast or famine jumpshot) is starting is because of loyalty at this point. In the beginning of the season Beasley should have never started, but earned that role as he improved. The reverse happened.
Mark my words. Watch out for this kid
That said, I don't think the Blazers drafted badly. They made their choice and it seems to be working for them so far. I mean, Oden's rebounding percentage is great. If he can improve his foul rate and develop normally otherwise, I think things will work out well. He's certainly no Kwame Brown.
The end is priceless : "if you're chewing it and it's not, gum be prepared to swallow it".
Apologies for the podcast issue. I'm still looking for the best site. An alternate location is now posted.
ET
As far as his team's record without him, I don't think it proves that Durant isn't worthy of the superstar title. Young teams like OKC are inconsistent. They just happened to hit an upswing when Durant went down. With Durant, the Thunder defeated the Spurs twice this season.
Hell.
Yes.
I can't wait to hear how Chicago got lucky and it took a miracle game from Rose and a stinker from Allen and blah blah blah it's a long series blah.
Chicago came out and out-hustled them all game, outran them all game, out-defended them all game (Hinrich had another open-court steal that lead to a fast-break basket on one of the league's superstars, Paul Pierce), owned the paint, and won a game they were supposed to lose on the road.
Boston better win the next game, and they better figure out something besides "feed the ball inside to Glen Davis" or else they're screwed.
On a very rare side note: thumbs up to the referees in game 1, not calling BS touch-fouls, not calling the flagrant when Noah was fouled hard, allowing these teams to play playoff basketball, and calling it both ways. I feel like the refs were not the focus of the game, and for the NBA, that is rare and worthy of mention. I can't believe I'm saying this, but my hat is off to the referees.
And you sorta called the Bulls win... in a roundabout, cover-all-bases, ambiguous sort of way. I think you said "either they win one game at home or they surprise Boston in game 1" so, like, good "call" and stuff :D
Really though, enjoyable podcast, good humor, especially wrt Jermain O'Neil
as a mavs fan, i have to say i feel dirk has an unfair reputation as "un-clutch." those clutch stats you cite, by definition, have a very small sample size and fluctuate greatly.
case in point, dirk's clutch stats for this season have already risen to 40.6%:
http://www.82games.com/0809/CSORT11.HTM
while that may seem nothing to write home about, it's not that different from other players who are generally considered to be more clutch than dirk, such as ginobli (39.6%, granted he was hobbled most of the year, but still) and joe johnson (36.5%).
Last year dirk shot 42.2% in the clutch, which was not far off kobe's mark of 44.8% or carmelo's 42.0% and way above d wade's (who is supposed to be super clutch) 32.1% (granted, he was hobbled last year). meanwhile ginobli was a league leader last year, shooting 57.4%. i think his drop off this year is not simply a reflection of his injury, but more so the fluctuating nature of clutch stats in general:
http://www.82games.com/CSORT11.HTM
for game-winning shots between 2004 and halfway through the 2009 season, dirk's percentage (32.4%) is similar to lebron's (34.0%) and better than kobe's (25.0%) and d wade's (27.5%):
http://www.82games.com/gamewinningshots.htm
when it comes to the playoffs, dirk has arguably been one of the clutchest performers in the league between 2004 and 2008, hitting 3 game-winners, second only to kobe and lebron. moreover, he shot 50% (3 of 6) from the field on these shots, as did kobe and lebron (4 of 8 each):
http://www.82games.com/gamewinningshots.htm
so give dirk his due, he's as clutch as some of the best players in the league. and he does it while being a 7-foot power forward without the benefit of being able to create his own shot as well as those other guys can.
Paulius Parachomikas performs two unusual dunks - perfect basketball lacktion :)
I did not find your e-mail so wrote it down here
ESPN/ABC Fail 3 - Before the start of the 4th quarter, Lisa Salters interviews Phil Jackson. And it's strange that she's about the same height. Of course Phil Jackson makes the quip that she's grown up quite a bit since the last game they did on ABC. Now, everyone knows at this point that she's using a stand, but did the camera man have to really pan out and show how high the stand really was? Nice ESPN, for making your number one sideline reporter look like a fool.
there was a horrible (i cant think of a good word, but the exact opposite of epic) double flop where cp3 and 'melo ran into each other and right away both hit the floor. it was hilarious and yet face palm worthy all at the same time.
That Nuggets-Hornets series is gonna be a good one, you can tell. Those are two teams who really have chips on their shoulders and who you can tell already dislike each other a lot. That was an extremely chippy game for a Game 1 last night. It's gonna be interesting to see how that all plays out. I'm sticking with my above prediction that the Nuggets win that series in 6 or fewer games, and I'm sticking with my above prediction of Mavs in 6 as well. Portland better step up tomorrow or just like JVG says, they're gonna get swept.
I wonder if we're gonna see Paul and Billups do much of guarding each other in this series.
Other than the fact the Nuggets probably would have played worse and thus not have had home court advantage, either...
I think you could make a case for the Nuggets having one of the strongest benches in the league. JR Smith, Kleiza, Anderson (that hair is ricockulous) all are NBA starting caliber players. JR Smith can light you up, Kleiza is a good scoring option and can rebound well, and Anderson continues to impress with his tenacity, rebounding, blocks, and overall defensive presence. It seemed like Denver owned the paint, especially with the Birdman swatting shots in the lane (3 blocks and I don't know how many shots redirected or intimidated- the guy is playing out of his mind right now). You just wonder where the points are going to come from on the New Orleans side? CP3 can't do it all every night, and besides West (who seems to have returned to Earth since his ridiculous season last year), you just don't see a lot of offensive threats on their team.
Bulls-Celts tonight; I can't wait. If Chicago wins again, it's game over, man... game over.
It's funny how one guy can change the whole team, isn't it? Billups came over to Denver, and now all of a sudden they are poised, disciplined, willing to play defense, patient on offense, able to run 1/2-court sets, and basically a legit playoff contender.
Meanwhile Detroit went from "expected to make the conference finals" to "first round fodder".
I'm happy for Chauncey- he is a great player and he has single-handedly and fundamentally changed that entire team and organization. As a PG, he has no flaws; he can shoot, pass, take over games or defer to teammates, bullies smaller guards, harasses larger ones, and no matter who is guarding him, it always seems to be a mismatch in his favor. I think back to that season they won the title and without Chauncey, they wouldn't have beaten the Pacers, but he was just that much better than Indiana's guards. I think the success Denver is having goes a long way toward proving his worth as a player.