Monday, March 21, 2005

My Situation!

You know that movie called "Wallstreet". I can relate my situation to one of the scenes in movie. (May be I am exaggerating situation here). But scene is something like this. Charley has one opportunity to talk to Big bull on wallstreet which he gets by begging and doing so many other things. That is one single thing which can make his life on street. Now Mr.Bull asks him, tell me something which I don't know, Surprise me. I have to do samething, and I am confused as hell. It's not like I don't have information but I don't know which will surprise him.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

What it takes to win NBA Championship

I am not a basketball player. Yes, I do fallow and watch it, but when it comes to play I suck because I can not shoot. But this post is not about me or my fav team. I trying to put down my thoughts on what it takes to win a championship analytically. Simultaneously I have also tried to look into the economics behind the scene. Ok, so what are necessary factors. 1) You need a star if not superstar: Memphsis has no star except Gasol who is in and out this season. This team performs great in regular season without any star. But when it comes to playoffs, you will not see them with same results as playoffs. Reason, in playoff every team has ton of time to just concentrate on one team. They know how you run plays, and if you opposition know your chemistry or technique, you need something extra ordinary show to make them eat their words on you. I think only stars have that power. Simultaneously, if you got superstar (only one), then other team knows your offence is gone run through him so they just block him and then if others can make shot then you win, which is not possible in all 7 games. So you need mutiple stars or superstar and a star. 2) You need depth: There should be at least one proper backup for every position (considering there are only 3 positions Forward, Guard, Center) So you need 8 players. Example, Pistons: They got Hunter, McDyess, Arroyo. That's why they look so good, they place exceptional defense but if starters failed to score then bench does. I don't need to talk about Spurs because they got more than required depth. They got at least 2 backups for every position. 3) You need medium size players with good Basketball IQ or Big bodies: Take for example Ben Wallace. I don't think he plays smart, but got big body, rebounds like hungry dog for a bone. That's his job, then at least one of his team will score. Opposite to him, Chris Miami (Lakers), he got medium size body, good height but no IQ at all. He will move around, but never picks up when his guard is gone get in, or where he should stand when you need to make a bucket. The guy who got both, SHAQ but I will talk about him later. 4) Last but not least "shooters": Take phoenix, they got Richardson, Marion, Johnson and Nash. All these guys can shoot 3 at anytime, any distance. They got inside presence with Amare and Marion can also work inside. Perfect game for offense. So after talking about all this let's see if i can apply my theory and find out what any team lags and why best teams are best. Let's start with Spurs for why they are best and what are their chances of winning championship: Spurs: They got stars (Manu, Tony) and superstar (Tim). They got depth (Brown, Bowen)as I said earlier. They got big bodies(Rasho, Massenburg) or smart IQ (Berry, Horry). They got pure shooters like Berry and Manu can do the same. Heat: They got star (Wade) and superstar (Shaq). They got slight depth (Doleac). They got big bodies (Alonzo) and but not great IQ. They definitely got pure shooters in Jones. So with the speculation that Heat and Spurs will meet in final, what's the result. Heat lags in 3 areas with Shaq doing couple more things you can say they lag in one area. So if they meet and none of the areas are lagging due to injuries spurs will take over. If any area is hit by injury then Heat will win. But we are forgetting about Detroit. Now let's see, a team with 3 areas covered just lags one and that's why it's not gone make until conference finals. Dallas: They got star (Finley) and superstar (Dirk). They got depth (Daniels (really he is good player), Bradly, Keith Van Horn). Big bodies (Eric Dampier who pulls at least 10 rebounds and anytime equivalent of Wallace) and IQ (Stackhouse, Terry). But yes they lag pure shooters. Terry, Stackhouse can shoot but once you get anyone double job they can handle it for some games and some games their real talent dies. Considering same 4 factors, I will talk about my two fav teams next time. (Lakers, Kings) Also, this analysis may not be true when Jordan or someone else played. But I guess this is true for current time.