NBA Tip-Off: Oden injured...again

In his first NBA showing, Portland Trailbazers Rookie Greg Oden didn't look so hot: 0 points, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes. Although he did have one nice block to welcome Andrew Bynum back, the 7-footer didn't seem like a potential Rookie of the Year yesterday.
To top the night off, Oden had to leave the game with a foot injury.

When asked about it, Oden said: "I was trying to go get a rebound and kind of came down on Derek Fisher's foot on like the third play of the game. I kind of fell and didn't think twice about it. I tried to play the rest of the half with it.
I wanted to play in the second half. I was taped. I was trying to run. It just wasn't happening. I'm just trying to get through it and trying to get back. It's just a little setback. I'll still be in the gym tomorrow."
Oden will have an MRI exam back in Portland on Wednesday to determine the severity of his injury.
Even if the Blazers would have to play without Oden for a while it wouldn't be like it's something they're not used to by now.

Update: Oden will be out for 2-4 weeks with a foot strain.

On a bright side for the Blazers, another Rookie, Rudy Fernandez looked sizzling on the floor: With 16 points on 50% shooting and 3-5 from downtown in just 29 minutes, the Spaniard left quite the impression. Travis Outlaw added 18 points on 8 for 15 shooting.

On the Lakers' side Kobe Bryant looked good with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, while Ariza was strong off the bench with 11 points and 2 blocks in 24 minutes. Bynum disappointed in his comeback with just 8 points, 3 rebounds but a solid 3 blocks in 28 minutes of playing time.
For the complete box-score follow this link.

Here are some more highlights from last night's game (or click here for even more highlights) :



To complete last night's scores: The Boston Celtics started their championship quest with a win over the Cavaliers, while the Bulls' Rose looked good in a win over the Bucks.

The defintion of MVP

Before the season starts, I want to talk about something that’s been bothering me for a while. It’s the definition of the MVP award. I mean what exactly is the Most Valuable Player? Is it the best player on the best team in the league? Is it the most valuable player to his respective team? Or is it simply the best player in the league? Nobody ever told people what the definition is and looking at some of the past winners I don’t think there has ever been one:

Just a couple of years ago we saw Nash winning the award when he averaged around 19 points and 10 assists a game, while leading his Suns to a 54-29 record. Was he the best player on the best team in the league? No, that title went to Chauncey Billups, who lead his Pistons to a 64-18 record, putting up 18 points and 9 assists a game, numbers rivaling Nash's.
Was Nash the best player in the league? Highly doubtful when you have a Kobe Bryant and a Lebron James averaging 35-5-5 and 31-7-7 respectively.

Ok, so I guess he must've been the most valuable to his respective team then? Possibly, also, this would be the most plausible explanation. But if the voters went by that criteria, then please explain to me how, just one year later in 06-07, the award could have gone to Dirk Nowitzki? This guy put up worse numbers than the year before, so they told us that he won the award because he was the best player on the best team.
Hold up, rewind please. The season before you snub Billups and give the award to Nash justifying it by claiming he is invaluable to the Suns, then you turn around and award Dirk, while Nash improved upon his previous numbers, all the while leading his team to a better record.
Am I missing something here, or does this just not make sense at all?
But it doesn't end there, oh no, last season saw a new MVP: Kobe Bryant. Now, Kobe finally seemed like a worthy MVP, receiving little complaint from the fans, and I actually would have voted the same way, but in order for him to win the award, the criteria must have been changed again: He was not the best player on the best team in the league, and it's also tough to say he was the most valuable player to his team, looking at the Lakers' roster compared to what runner-up MVP Chris Paul had to work with in New Orleans.

Did he really deserve to hold up the trophy that year?

So to sum it up, we have three MVP winners, based on three different criteria...in three consecutive years! First, Nash wins the award by being the most valuable player in the league. Then, Nowitzki gets to hold up the trophy at the end of the season, the reason being: he was the best player on the best team in the league. And last but not least Kobe wins the award by, arguably, being the best player in the league.

Now I'm not saying that none of these guys deserved to hold the trophy in their hands, all I'm saying is that the way it happened seems a little odd.
My question now is: What is it gonna be like this season? Are the voters going to vote based on last year's criteria, which seems to have been accepted by the majority of people, or are they just going to pick another seemingly random Most Valuable Player?

Lakers for Gold

This year’s NBA season is going to see Kobe win his first NBA Championship without Shaquille O’Neal. How can I be so sure you ask? Well, I have three reasons:

1. Andrew Bynum is back:
I know it’s been said a thousand times, but it’s true: with Andrew Bynum in the line-up the Lakers are a whole different team. Bynum is exactly what they were lacking in last year’s post-season series against the Celtics, which was toughness under the basket. Gasol is great, don’t get me wrong, but he just didn’t play his best in the Finals, but most of all, he played soft. Bynum is going to be different; he’s going to be the force the Lakers need in the paint, on offense and especially on defense. And Bynum knows it too, he’s aware of the fact that Phil Jackson doesn’t need him to score, not when he has offensive-minded players like Kobe and Fisher along with Gasol and Odom on the floor. No, Jackson wants Bynum to do what big men are expected to do, and that is block shots, rebound and secure the paint. Also, to prove that Bynum is not only mentally aware of his role as an intimidator take a look at these pictures…’nuff said.
Along with him becoming the Lakers centerpiece of interior defense, Bynum will most likely please us with a couple of dunks every now and then too. Even though he doesn’t have to, Bynum will score, and he will do so efficiently by dunking at a Howardesque rate. Before Bynum got injured last season, the young fellow was neck-to-neck with Dwight Howard, leading the league in dunks. Also, looking at Bynum’s numbers from last year, the future looks promising: The big man steadily increased his scoring and rebounding average every month, with the pinnacle being March, where in his last 8 games he averaged a rock solid 17 ppg, along with almost 10 rpg, while shooting an astonishing 70% from the field.
All in all, the big man will most likely fulfil the expectations that are being put in him and lead his team to its desired championship.

2. Kobe Bryant:
Of course Kobe has been a deciding factor in the Lakers championship bid every single year he’s been on the team, but he should have some extra motivation this year.
Last year Kobe was coming off an off-season full of tension. He didn’t expect much of his team and ended up in the NBA Finals. Having experienced this, knowing how good of a team he has, how far they can go, he should be ecstatic seeing how promising 08/09 looks for the Lakers. This is a team that has the game’s best player at his peak, two dominant forces in the post and a team that now knows what it takes to get to the Finals, a team that has been through it all. They’ve been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, twice. They’ve come back the next year and fought their way through one of the toughest conferences in the history of the NBA, and came out on top. They went up against a star-studded Celtics team and got slaughtered by more than 30 points. They’ve been through the storm, and now they’re back better than ever.
Not only that, but Kobe also experienced a great individual season, winning the MVP award for the first time. Now this championship, the one without Shaq, is one of the last things left for him to accomplish.

3. Who can stop them?
The way I see it, there are only 6 teams in the league that have a shot at winning the championship, namely Boston, Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Utah and Phoenix.

Now let me break each one of these teams down in terms of how they would fare against the LA Lakers:

Utah Jazz: This is a very talented team, with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer leading the bunch. These two would already be a lot to handle just by themselves, but adding to that, they have a great team surrounding them. For one, they have Ronnie Brewer, a guy that might surprise some people this year. The 23-year old is coming off a great sophomore season and looks to build on it. He’s a young wing player with great athleticism and an improving outside shot. Then there's Kyle Korver, a deadly three-point shooter, Andrei Kirilenko, a great defender and shot-blocker and Mehmet Okur a capable scorer. Utah as a team had a successful 07/08 campaign and they’re hoping to go deeper into the playoffs this year. But this is a young team and I doubt they could hold their own against an experienced Lakers unit. They don’t have any good interior defenders that can contain Bynum and Gasol and they can’t afford to double either of them with a Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant on the perimeter. Utah will most likely be a force to be reckoned with in a couple of years, but as of now they are a great team, who are just not quite there yet.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Some of you might wonder ‘Why would he think of Cleveland as a contender?’ Well the reason is simple: Any time you have a LeBron James on your team, you are very, very dangerous. Not only that, but this is a team that took the reigning champs to a 7-game series, which they would have won if it wasn’t for Paul Pierce’s all-time performance, matching LeBron’s.
This year they added Mo Williams, who is a scoring threat as well as a capable passer, and, as a team, look to be more dangerous than ever. Still even if they come out on top in the Eastern Conference, which is not a given, the Lakers might be too much for them to handle, with their good perimeter defenders in Fisher, Kobe and Ariza and Bynum protecting the paint. I just don’t see Cleveland being able to score enough in order to win, because even though Cleveland plays great defense, this Lakers squad is a tough one to contain on offense.

Phoenix Suns: Phoenix’ success depends on how much more is left in Nash’s tank. Steve Nash is not as young as he once was, and neither is the rest of his team. With an ageing team Phoenix might be out of gas come postseason. Even with the ever dangerous Amare Stoudemire, who btw might just become this season’s scoring champ, I don’t think Phoenix poses as much of a threat as they used to.

Houston Rockets: Houston, if they can stay healthy, they might just be one of the most dangerous and deepest teams in the league. We all saw them win 22 games in a row last year, even without Yao Ming, and then put up a dog fight against the Utah Jazz. Tracy McGrady is still one of the most potent scorers in the league, and with the big guy back in the middle they are a team to look out for. Now with the newest addition of Ron Artest they have one of the best starting 5’s in the league, well at least on paper that is. We’ll all yet have to see how the addition of Artest will work out in reality. Another big concern, as always with this team, is health. Houston still only goes as far as Yao and McGrady take them, and so far that’s been the first round. As of now, this team is kind of a wild card, but they might be able to give the Lakers a run for their money once the season starts.

Boston Celtics: The reigning champs are the most likely opponent for the Lakers to meet in the Finals. But the Celtics haven’t really done any thing this off-season to let me think that they can go for a repeat. The Big Three are all starting to get up there in the age department and the young guys are not enough to make up for it. Also, a Lakers team with Andrew Bynum is a whole different team for the Celtics to go up against, which leads me to the opinion that the Celtics should not be the Lakers biggest concern. That title goes to the…

New Orleans Hornets: This is the only team that I see standing in the way of the Lakers and the NBA title. The Hornets are a young team, with a fierce leader in Chris Paul, who finished 2nd in last year’s MVP voting. Backed up by Tyson Chandler and David West under the basket, deadly shooters in Stojakovic and Peterson and an elite defender in James Posey, Paul and his Hornets might just have the tools to defeat the team in purple and gold. We’ll just have to wait and see on this one.

This might be the match-up to watch this season

I for one definitely know I won’t mind the wait. With Andrew Bynum and a fired up Kobe Bryant leading the Lakers, a great Celtics team looking to repeat, the rising Hornets and other aspiring teams, this looks to be a great 2008/2009 NBA season.