End of fantasy basketball season wrap

I haven't posted much about my fantasy basketball season lately and now that we're in to the real-life NBA Playoffs, our season is over. This was the first year that our league has chipped in money to put up some cash prizes and the pay out went to the top 3 (of 12). My team didn't make the money, finishing in 7th place. Congrats to two of my boys, Al and Mitch for their second and third placed finishes.

For most of the season I found myself at the bottom of the league so fighting my way up to 7th wasn't too bad a finish. A bit of luck and a few less injuries and I could've made it to 5th, oh well, there's always next year.

Looking back, I blame my lack of success on two players. My 3rd and 4th picks, Hedo Turkoglu and Carmelo Anthony. I owned Turk last season, he was outstanding and I expected similar if not an even better performance from him this year. I believe he may have had some niggling injuries but he let me down badly with his terrible field goal percentage and high turnovers. He also failed to deliver the point guard type numbers (high assists) that I expected from him. Melo on the other hand was held back by injuries and never really got moving (he played in just 66 games, down from 77 the year before). His field goal percentage, scoring and points were all well down from the previous season. Not good enough when you draft them 36th and 37th respectively.

On the upside, my superstar turned out to be Troy Murphy who I took with the 84th pick and when the season was over he was ranked 8th on averages. Every single stat category of his was up from the year before and when one of your centres can knock down over 2 triples per game that is gravy! Other good picks were Danny Granger at 13 who had a breakout season and Devin Harris at 60 who was excellent for the first few months of the season (struggled down the stretch). My boy Steve Nash got off to a slow start to the season but finished strong, as did Al Horford.

The free-agent pick-ups that did well for me this season were Joakim Noah and Ronnie Brewer. Noah was inconsistent early which saw a number of GM's pick him up and then drop him but he was outstanding for me over the last couple of months. He had a great field goal percentage, rebounded well and blocked a few shots which was exactly what I needed. Brewer was sneaky good, shooting good clips and getting active in the other categories.

The mistakes I made as GM this season were:

• Dropping players too quickly to try and combat the slow start (from Nash, Hedo and Melo). Names such as Rodney Stuckey and the surprisingly solid Steve Blake were early cuts from my squad that went on to shine for others. I also dropped Joel Przybilla when Oden returned but Joel continued to start and produce (for someone else).
• Due to injuries, I fould myself without many shooting guards so after stealing Marc Gasol off someone, I traded him for Quentin Richardson (who stunk it up for me and I quickly dropped him).
• I traded away Danny Granger (when he was at his peak and I thought was going to be rested because of some niggling injuries) for Kevin Garnett who played a few games for me and was then basically shut down for the rest of the year. Unlucky result but I did it thinking Danny was going to struggle and I wanted to improve my rebounding and field goal percentage.

My league is now counting down to the next draft night, probably the highlight of the fantasy basketball season.

Troy Murphy, a great shooter and my steal of the draft

Elsewhere in the bball blogosphere

Its been a slow month for me as far as blogging by the looks of it. I really don't like April, its a very slow month as far as business goes and there are just so many public holidays that effect things.

Anyway, here's a quick look around the blogosphere to see what's going on:

1. John Rillie has now written back-to-back posts about my mate JVG (Jeff Van Groningen) and his ties with Eddie Groves and the Adelaide 36ers. Here's the first and here's the follow-up. Nice to see JR also giving up love to The Machine earlier in the week.
   
   
2. Congratulations to one of my idol's, Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA) for chalking up 5 years of blogging. Here is his post marking the achievement and some of his favourite and most popular stories during that time. I have really enjoyed his "success & motivation" series of posts and reading about his early years in business.
   
   
3. With all the love that Mr Bigshot, Chauncey Billups has been getting for his performance in the first round against CP3 and the Hornets, it was only a matter of time before someone compared Billups to AI's playoff performance this season. Dime give their thoughts on it here.

And one final NBA note from today, Adam (my colleague) was watching Dr Phill at lunch today and the topic was about "Deadbeat Dads" and the dad in question on the show was ex-NBA player Jason Caffey. My friends and I used to pay out on Shawn Kemp for fathering 7 kids to 6 different women, it seems Caffey has taken it one step further with 10 kids to 8 different women.

Chauncey, showing why they call him Mr Bigshot

Chris Paul - Shooter of the Month for March

We've just announced our Shooter of the Month for March, click on the title below to read the full story and see exactly why Chris Paul (pictured right) got the nod.

Chris Paul - Shooter of the Month for March

There was plenty of competition for last month's Shooter of the Month award. The contenders in no particular order were:

* Danny Granger - Indiana Pacers in the NBA (48% fg, 84% ft, 3 triples per game)
* Jose Calderon – Toronto Raptors in the NBA (54% fg, 96% ft, 1.3 triples per game)
* Troy Murphy - Indiana Pacers in the NBA (49% fg, 87% ft, 2.9 triples per game)
* Steve Nash – Phoenix Suns in the NBA (52% fg, 89% ft, 1.7 triples per game)

The winner of the March Shooter of the Month award goes to New Orleans point guard Chris Paul. His numbers were 26.7 points per game, 52.8% from the field, 93.8% from the line and he averaged 0.7 triples per game.

Chris Paul is a little different to our normal Shooter of the Month winners because he’s not a prolific 3-point shooter, but when you check out those shooting percentages (above) it’s impossible to go past him for this month's award. Chris likes to do his work inside the arc with an array of jump-shots, runners and driving moves to the bucket.

Basketball Shooting

Why do you want to become a great shooter? What will come of all that time in the gym? The lonely hours spent perfecting your form, honing your craft. The great ones have put in the work so that come game time, when their team needs them most, they're ready, they deliver.

Last night was yet another example of what separates the truly great shooters from the good. Our favourite NBA shooter, Ray Allen coming through for the Boston Celtics when they need him most.

Game 1, Ray shot just 1 of 12 from the field. The truly great shooters know that everyone has bad days and they have the confidence to bounce back and keep shooting. They don't shy away from the spotlight, they revel in it and they want to show the world that an off-night won't stop them.

So we get to game 2, 10 seconds left, scores tied:



For the record, here's Ray's line from the night:

Boston Celtics (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
P.Pierce	F	43:55	8-19	0-1	2-3	+5	0	8	8	3	2	1	4	0	4	18
G.Davis	F	41:17	12-21	0-0	2-3	+20	4	5	9	0	3	1	1	1	1	26
K.Perkins	C	32:19	7-9	0-0	2-5	+12	7	5	12	0	3	1	3	2	2	16
R.Allen	G	38:47	9-18	6-10	6-6	+5	0	3	3	5	4	0	0	0	1	30
R.Rondo	G	40:03	7-18	0-1	5-8	+17	7	5	12	16	1	5	2	0	5	19

With Ray Allen's heroics, what will get slightly less talk than it deserves is the shooting performance of young gun, Ben Gordon from the Chicago Bulls. Gordon has had a great season (coincidentally in a contract year) and this was one of his best.

Chicago Bulls (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
J.Salmons	F	39:24	6-17	1-5	4-5	-7	1	1	2	2	1	1	2	1	3	17
T.Thomas	F	20:25	2-7	0-1	2-2	-21	0	4	4	0	2	0	1	6	1	6
J.Noah	C	38:50	6-9	0-0	1-1	-4	3	5	8	3	4	2	1	4	0	13
B.Gordon	G	43:31	14-24	6-11	8-9	-1	0	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	42
D.Rose	G	34:25	5-11	0-0	0-0	+1	2	4	6	7	2	0	2	2	0	10

Steve Nash day

I'm not sure how it started but I stumbled across Steve Nash's twitter page (I'm refusing to get involved in twittering) and official facebook page (I originally ignored it but got onboard a year or so ago). Since then I have spent most of the morning/day checking out videos of his.

Phoenix may have missed out on the playoffs this season but that doesn't mean we can't give up the love to one of my favourite players. I mentioned to one of my mates the other day, Nash had a John Rillie-esque slow start to the season (no offence JR) especially from a fantasy perspective, but Steve was back to his best over the last few months.

Here are a few of the best videos he had on there:






And a few good Steve Nash ads I found:

NBA Playoffs and draft news

I was going to blog about the opening round of the NBA Playoffs, but John Rillie has beaten me to it. Click here to find out who is playing who and JR's picks for each series.

In NBA draft news that will surprise no one, future Aussie superstar Patrick Mills has declared for the draft. Hopefully he goes high in the first round and is picked up by a team that will give him plenty of minutes. Click on the title below to read the full story.

NBL > News

Australia’s Olympic Games standout Patrick Mills has decided to nominate for this year’s NBA draft.

The 20-year-old point guard has just completed his sophomore year at St Mary’s college in California, and now has the toughest basketball competition in the world in his sights.

“I’ve come to decide that I want to chase my dream and really push myself and challenge myself at the next level,” Mills said on Friday.

Free-throw shooting

I came across this article today about free-throw shooting. It questions free-throw percentages haven't improved over the last 50 years, while other achievements in sport improve with time.

Click on the title to read the full story.

For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help - NYTimes.com

CEDAR CITY, Utah — Basketball in the United States has changed in myriad ways over the decades, from flat-footed set shots to dunks, from crotch-hugging uniforms to baggy knee-length shorts, from the dominance of American players to the recent infusion of international stars.

But one thing has remained remarkably constant: the rate at which players make free throws.

Since the mid-1960s, college men’s players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was 68.8. It has dropped as low as 67.1 but never topped 70.

In the National Basketball Association, the average has been roughly 75 percent for more than 50 years. Players in college women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A. reached similar plateaus — about equal to the men — and stuck there.

The general expectation in sports is that performance improves over time. Future athletes will surely be faster, throw farther, jump higher. But free-throw shooting represents a stubbornly peculiar athletic endeavor. As a group, players have not gotten better. Nor have they become worse.

“It’s unbelievable,” Larry Wright, an adjunct professor of statistics at Columbia, said as he studied the year-by-year averages. “There’s almost no difference. Fifty years. This is mind-boggling.”

No pressure ... can you make a free-throw when it matters most?