Sloppy Potatoes

NBA: Yaouch

Today’s announcement that Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season, including the playoffs, just continues to crazify this year in the NBA to me.

Big things are happening to big names all over the place:

The whole Shaq going to the Suns thing was crazy enough for me. I doubt anyone has overlooked the fact that they got Shaquille O’Neal so they can have someone to matchup against the Shaqs, Duncans and Yaos — well, mostly the Duncans because it seems like he wins every year.

Now, no more Yao.  Even without Shawn Marion the Suns are going to be the team to beat this year. They’ve been my favorite team to watch in the playoffs.  Shaq puts them over the top, despite his aging and the sterling records across the conference (see below).

Jason Kidd going to the Mavs is another awesome storyline. He’s one of my favorite players simply because of his play and because he, on occasion, throws up bricks like me and finishes with 2 points and 30 assists. You just don’t see players like that all too often.

Players like him and Steve Nash just change their whole team. Dallas coach Avery Johnson said last night that Kidd’s style makes everyone run the floor and play harder because they know anyone could be put in a position to score with Kidd dishing. Get open, he’ll find you.

The emergence of Andrew Bynum among other things has stopped Kobe Bryant’s trade demands. Kobe’s looking like an MVP candidate because the Lakers are in first place in the Pacific.

Speaking of the Lakers record, avid NBA fans surely have noticed this but there are nine teams in the West with 30 or more wins. Another team, the Blazers, have 29. The Kings have 26.

I never watch regular season NBA, but love the playoffs. I can’t wait for them this year and, depending on how this second half works out, the last couple weeks of the season may actually make me watch before that.