What the Pickle Learned from the 2009 NBA Playoffs

As the NBA Finals come to a close the Pickle has some thoughts of how the last six weeks of the season played out.  First, and foremost, is that the Magic lost the championship moreso than the Lakers winning it.  The Magic had ample opportunity to win the Finals only to blow it with an inability to hit free throws, bad turnovers, and an overall lack of ability when it came to closing out the Lakers in the second half. 

The Pickle wishes the ESPN/ABC announcers would stop drooling over Kobe Bryant.  It is simply annoying to hear announcers drone on about one player the entire game.

Either Dwight Howard is not as good as everyone thinks he is going to be or Patrick Ewing is simply stealing a pay check from the Magic.  Ewing has been there for a couple of seasons and apparently the only thing he has taught Howard is a little running hook shot.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Lakers are going to regret giving Andrew Bynum that big contract extension.  He keeps getting hurt and boy did he fail to show up during the postseason.

Trevor Ariza is going to be in high demand this summer and some team will likely give him more money then they should thinking he is a budding star when he is really only ever going to be a nice role player/sixth man.

The Sixers are heading in the wrong direction.  Andre Iguodala is not living up to the contract he got and Elton Brand struggled to find his niche on the team last season.  Andre Miller is likely going to be playing elsewhere next season and they are likely stuck with Sam Dalembert’s contract for the time being.

Despite being the coach of the year Mike Brown needs to go and the Cavs need to find someone who knows what he is doing out there.  The Cavs were just flat out embarrassed by the Magic in the Conference Finals.  The Cavs will never win a title with Brown as the head coach nor will they win if LeBron has to rely on Zydrunas Ilgauskus and Delonte West to be the #3 scoring options. 

Whatever happened to Daniel Gibson?  Remember when he lit the Pistons up for 31 points in getting the Cavs to the Finals in the spring of ’07 and followed that up with 16 and 15 points in the first two games against the Spurs?  Whatever happened to that player?

Carmelo Anthony is not going to win a championship until he decides he needs to play a little defense when it matters.

The Celtics look to have the makings of a one-and-done team.  Kevin Garnett is clearly in the twilight of his career and the fact that he could not get his knee well enough to play in the playoffs does not bode well for the future of the team.

Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Aaron Brooks, and Glenn Davis were the breakout players of the postseason.  Rondo carried the Celtics past the Bulls in the first round and was arguably the best player through the first two rounds of the playoffs nearly averaging a triple double.  Rose was better than I ever expected he would be and once he develops a NBA jump shot he will be truly dangerous.  Brooks was written off as too small to be effective in the NBA but he had 4 20 point games in the playoffs averaging 18 a game against the Lakers.  Davis was labeled as a guy carrying too much weight to play significant minutes in the NBA.  Not only did he give the Celtics significant minutes in the postseason (36.4 minutes per game) but he scored 15.8 points as well including 5 20 point efforts.

Chris Paul and Hornets disappointed this spring.  The Hornets were supposed to be one of the teams to beat this season only to see them flame out in the first round of the playoffs.  One wonders if Paul just ran out of gas after playing for the Olympic team last summer.

I know the Pistons are high on Rodney Stuckey but I just do not see it, at least not yet anyway.  He did show imrpovement this season but he was overmatched in the playoffs and just does not get to the line enough and does not have the jump shot needed to keep defenses honest on him.  The Pistons may live to regret the Chauncy Billups deal for years to come.

Josh Smith is not nearly as good as he appears to think he is.  I was excited to see the Sixers make a play for him last summer but after watching some of the Hawks playoff games I was not impressed with the way he carries himself on the court.  He strikes me more and more as a guy who has immense talent but never puts it all together because he is not willing to put in the extra work to get himself and his team to the next level.

Why doesn’t Will Bynum get more playing time?  He just seems to find ways to put the ball in the basket despite his physical limitations.

Joakim Noah actually looked like a NBA player at times during the Boston series.  The Pickle is interested in seeing if he can carry that momentum over to next season and emerge as a double-double threat for the Bulls.  Meanwhile Tyrus Thomas still looms as a bust for the Bulls.

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