It’s been a really rough couple of weeks. While I should have been reveling in the commencement of a new baseball season or trying to figure out what channel the NHL playoffs are on, I’ve been holding my breath instead, waiting to see if my Mavs could secure a playoff berth for the eighth straight season. Actually, this is why the sports content here at the Dic has been blatantly lacking NBA coverage during one of the most compelling playoff races in recent memory. Call me superstitious, but I just couldn’t risk writing anything that would potentially jinx my team in favor of the Golden State Warriors. But now that the Mavs have secured their postseason ticket and I’m thankfully not obligated to pound out an article perusing the potential lottery pick that could come the Mavs’ way, it’s time to cover a lot of ground about the NBA season that was.

Actually, the fact that the Mavs’ playoff streak was even temporarily in doubt is somewhat of a microcosm of what this NBA season has been. Between this ridiculous playoff race in the West, the floury of superstar trade activity at the deadline and the emergence of surprise teams like the New Orleans Hornets, this has been one of the most entertaining and unpredictable seasons that I’ve been around to witness. But now that the end is near, the question remains, years from now, what will we actually remember about this season?

Way back in October I wrote an article about the stories I was most interested in following going into the then upcoming NBA season. While I perhaps missed a lot of the bigger developments that cropped up, that handful of stories remained relevant and are worth revisiting in retrospect.

Kevin Durant’s Rookie Year

Durant’s rookie year was inherently flawed from the day he got drafted by a crappy team in a crappy time zone. As hard as the NBA tried to market the kid and get him as much exposure as possible, people will only tolerate watching 60 loss teams on national television for so long (see Miami Heat). And even when they did get on national TV, it was usually at around 10:30 eastern, 9:30 central, which never bothered me, but from a ratings standpoint, that’s not exactly prime time.

Unfortunately, those weren’t even the biggest obstacles for introducing a young star onto the national scene. For most of the season, it wasn’t much of a secret that the Sonics’ future in Seattle was in jeopardy. Everyone knew about the conflict between the team ownership and the city about their current lease and desire for a new arena. But what did start to come out roundabout December or January was David Stern’s role in the ownership transfer years before that had apparently sealed the deal on a move to Oklahoma City. Consequently, and true to form, it seems to me that Dictator Stern set out to silence any reporting in the mainstream media on the subject, and essentially turned Seattle into basketball Siberia. Seriously, it’s really inconceivable that the city of Seattle is in the process of getting screwed over so badly by the NBA and no one in the mainstream media is talking about it. It seems the commissioner has done a particularly good job in silencing his pawns over at TNT and ESPN, even during NBA broadcasts. For anyone who saw our link the other day to a column on Sports Media Bias, stay tuned for something on Sports Media Censorship, as this is a particularly egregious corporate act. In spite of all the off court issues surrounding Seattle, though, how did Durant actually do on the court?

A few days ago I went back and compared Durant’s numbers this year against LeBron James’ rookie stats. In a nutshell:

LeBron- 20.9 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 5.9 APG, 41.7 FG%, 29 3FG% in 39.5 MPG.

Durant- 20.0 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 2.3 APG, 42.5 FG%, 28.7 3FG% in 34.4 MPG.

Not bad. After watching Durant play for a year in college, it was obvious to me that his FG% would take the biggest hit after his jump to the League, but I also said in my article in October that “once he’s on the right side of a steep learning curve, his shooting percentage will rise and his rebounding will adapt”, which has been the case, at least with regard to his FG%. And I still don’t understand why everyone has been criticizing him for his rebounding numbers. It should’ve been expected his numbers would drop because 1) he’s only 19 and still years away from an NBA body and 2) PJ Carlesimo said from day one that he intended to start Durant at shooting guard, not small forward. It’s unfair to expect Kevin Garnett-type rebounding numbers from the shooting guard position. The big question now facing Durant is what type of improvement will there be between Seasons 1 and 2. Going back to LeBron’s numbers, James experienced significant improvement in essentially every major statistical category. So it would appear that Durant’s progress between years 1 and 2 will give us a much better gauge of his stature as an NBA player.

And for the record, Durant is absolutely Rookie of the Year. Any conjecture about Al Horford is only out there so Skip Bayless will have another ridiculous position to defend on Cold Pizza.

Are The Spurs Old Yet?

Short answer, yes, but not enough to make me go back on my preseason pick for them to repeat as champions. The biggest question regarding the age of the Spurs was and is at the shooting guard position. But, to my surprise, Finley has actually gotten better as the season has gone on and Bruce Bowen has been as active and dirty as ever on the defensive end. Couple that with Ginobili’s ridiculous play since mid-January, and any questions about the Spurs’ depth at shooting guard can be disregarded. The problem with the Spurs is they still have Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, and they still don’t give a collective crap about the regular season and haven’t for almost a decade. It’s been fun to speculate this season if their run could be coming to an end during some of their losing streaks and injuries, but they’re still third in the West, they’re still on the cusp of being Division Champs and they’re still something like 40-15 this season when their triumvirate of all-stars are all healthy. Sounds like the same old Spurs.

The Celtics

If I were a real journalist, this would have to be an article all to itself. And if I were Bill Simmons, it would probably be a series of 13 or 14 articles all to itself, followed by a book tour. But for brevity’s sake, I’ll try to contain myself. First, let’s go back to what I said about the Celts before the season began.

I (along with several others) thought that Rajon Rondo’s improvement at the point would be a good barometer for the team’s prospects in the playoffs. As far as Boston should be concerned, this challenge is kind of a push. To be sure, Rondo has showed flashes of brilliance, not only in orchestrating a team featuring three former franchise players, but in establishing himself as a legitimate scoring threat. His biggest weapon is his ability to get into the paint and either finish, dish to KG, or kick it out to Allen or Pierce. But, true to form as he’s still only a second year player, he doesn’t always make the right decision after he’s broken down the defense, often throwing up wild attempts instead of deferring to his teammates. But the acquisition of Sam Cassell in March certainly alleviated a lot of the team’s dependence on Rajon Rondo as the only option at the point.

Which brings up what was possibly the most intriguing aspect of the Celtics during the season: the emergence of everyone not named Garnett, Allen, Pierce or Rondo. In addition to the acquisitions of Cassell and PJ Brown, several of Boston’s role players made significant strides in complementing the Boston Three Party, particularly Eddie House, Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins. Usually I’m not a big Eddie House fan because he’s just so loud, and like a lot of the more vocal players in the NBA, can be somewhat volatile and erratic as a player, which is why this team is the ideal setting for a player like him. There aren’t a lot of teams that have enough voices of reason to counteract the loquaciousness of a player like Eddie, but this is one of them, and consequently, House served as a solid backup for Rondo early in the season. Speaking of backups, it wouldn’t be easy for a rookie player to overcome being a second round pick, having a terrible press photo and unveiling a ridiculous “fro-hawk” haircut halfway through the season. But Glen Davis has done just that, even finding time to play some solid defense against Tim Duncan, which could come in handy pending a matchup with the Spurs in the Finals.

But having twelve quality players on your team isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially if Doc Rivers is your head coach. Here’s a quality submission from a Bill Simmons mailbag column a month or so ago…

Q: Have you seen our team right now? We have 12 quality guys! I’m going to start KG, Perk, Pierce, Ray and Rondo, and I’m going to bring P.J., Sam, Eddie, Posey and Big Baby off the bench, but I’m going to find minutes for Tony and Powe, too. Everyone’s minutes will be determined on a game-by-game basis at my whim. I couldn’t be happier. Has a team ever won the NBA title with a 12-man rotation?
–Doc R., Boston

Sports Guy: (Gulping.)

Putting Doc Rivers in charge of a 12 man rotation is like putting a frat bro in charge of ordering the playmates in this year’s Playboy calendar. The words arbitrary and mindless seem appropriate, which aren’t usually adjectives that in any way describe the rotation of any former NBA championship team. I wrote back in October that “The question coming out of Boston this year… will be ‘How is Doc Rivers going to manage to screw this up?’. It could be poorly drawn plays to end games, poor timeout management, who knows. This guy’s a maverick; there’s no predicting how he’s going to ruin this for Garnett, Allen and Pierce.” We could have our answer. This should definitely be on any “Top stories going into the playoffs” list.

It has occurred to me that I’m approaching the 2,000 word mark, and since this is still a blog and not Sports Illustrated, I’m cutting this article in half. In Part 2, expect to see thoughts on the February trade extravaganza, the unprecedented West playoff race, the MVP race and perhaps a joke about the Rockets’ 22 game win steak.

**EDIT**  Continue to Part 2 here.