I feel kind of foolish even linking to this bitch-fest, but I have to point this out.  I mean, get a grip Mr. Rick Morrissey... Mr. High and Mighty Chicago Sun-Times Columnist.

He's complaining about how "boring" the Chicago Bulls season has been, despite making the playoffs, and a bunch of other random dumbness.  Most glaringly, he bitches about how the Bulls are "stuck in NBA Hell" and have "little hope of getting better through the draft..."

It was easy to look at their victory over the Celtics on Tuesday night and see hope. Rose scored 39 points and Kirk Hinrich added 30. But it was one game in a five-year history of lukewarm basketball. You'd be foolish to believe in it.

No, the Bulls find themselves in NBA hell, where there's little hope of getting better in the draft and the likelihood of landing one of the top free agents seems slim, thanks to league rules that reward players for staying with their teams. So here the Bulls are, spooning out gruel to the peasants, who, for some reason, continue to eat it up.

Really dude? What a flippin joke, man.  Were you bitching when your 2008 Bulls won the NBA Lottery and were gifted with Derrick Rose?  Hmmmm.  Nevermind they had the NINTH worst record that season.  How quickly you forgot.

Oh, and us Wolves fans would glad take a "boring" playoff season and/or winning the lottery.  Please.  Sign me up. You realize the Wolves have NEVER won the lottery, and haven't made the playoffs since 2003-04?  And its not like the Wolves are the only franchise suffering as such.

Terrible.

You can read his entire article "Bulls' real crime? Zzzzzzz" via that link. 

It is an age-old debate among basketball aficionados - which brand of hoops is best, the NBA or the NCAA.  While there is no right or wrong answer to this question - it basically comes down to personal preference - that doesn't stop people from having very strong opinions on the subject.  In that vein we present to you the latest Bloguin Basketball Roundtable - NCAA vs NBA.

Participants in this battle royale are Jeff Fox of The Hoops Manifesto, Don from With Malice, a Bloguin newcomer in Ezra of The Purple and Gold Blog, Dave "College Wolf" Kelsey of TWolves Blog, David Pustilink from Da Bulls' Eye, Gene Zarnick of Favre Dollar Footlongs and A Stern Warning's mookie.

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When discussing the West these days, you have to start with the playoff race.  The from the two seed all the way down to the eight seed is incredibly small.  I mean it’s only THREE losses currently – which is quite extraordinary, considering we are approximately 75 games in (Editor’s note: After Denver’s beatdown of Portland on Thursday, the Blazers are now 4 losses back of the #2 Utah Jazz in the loss column).  When breaking down how teams stack up against each other this close to the second season, I like to put things into perspective based on how likely it is for each team to win the title this year.  When looking at it this way, Denver needs to be addressed right after the Lakers in the West.

Several times during the last 14 months I have thought that the Nuggs had real potential to take the Lake Show in the playoffs.  To me, they pose as realistic of a threat to the Defending Champs (yes, capitalized on purpose) as anybody.  But that is with one huge if, which I think is something that should be getting at least some media attention – Kenyon Martin’s injury.  If K-Mart cannot come back for the playoffs, the Nuggs probably won’t even get out of the first round.  The Nuggets without him, in comparison to the well-oiled machine running when he was around, have been like night and day. I literally just looked up the gambling statistics, as I was curious to how the Nuggets have done lately compared with what they were supposed to do, and the numbers back me up all the way.  The Nuggs are 1-4 against the spread in their last 5 games, the same goes for their last 5 home games, and they are 0-6 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite.  And get this: they are 0-8-1 in their last 9 games overall (Editor’s note: That was before Thursday’s win over Portland).

If you were gambling on the Nuggs after K-Mart went down, you felt like College Wolf and I did in Vegas during March Madness 2006.  Long story short, we laid fat cash on Mr. Potato Head Foye’s Villanova team, twice, and got our hearts and wallets broken both times in ridiculous fashion.  I’ve never seen a guy puff so many Marlboro Mediums in my life.  And College Wolf and I were both deep into the Hennessey too.  That’s what we do when we put really big money on something.  That’s our thing.  But enough about our desert drought in 2006.  The Nuggs are really a different team when K-Mart is gone.  I have been witnessing it with my eyes, and the stats back it up.  Birdman is great on defense overall, but he looks to have lost a half-step, and isn’t quite following up his 2^nd-coming out party last year.  And Nene is down a little bit this year too.  Nene and Bird both had career years last year, and you can not expect that out of them every year.  But K-Mart was the guy who really stepped it up in the frontcourt for them this year.  Without him, they are toast in the playoffs.  But with him – I still like their chances against anyone in the West not named the Defending Champs.

 

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EASTSIDE

First of all, I just need to start with this quick word:  I still think Bill Walker is going to be an all-star some day, and whoever picks him up this offseason is going to get a STEAL.

Now let’s talk some NBA….Eastside.

 
Who’s the most dangerous low seed in the East you ask?  I've got to go with the RobertCats allll the way. They play stellar defense, have a lot of capable bigs, Stevie Jackson can be a killer in the playoffs, and they have depth and play like a team. 

I really like what Milwaukee has done this year. Scott Skiles seems like a fantastic coach.  He would be my vote for Coach of the Year right now.  He MAKES them play hard every single night.  And they found guys that will step up to the challenge.  That’s why I like Jennings a lot – he just seems like a winner.  He likes to get his shine on off the court too, but on the court he is straight business, with a whole lot of style and headiness, and an abundance of energy.  You also can’t discount John Salmons’ season since the trade.  He’s been legit.  They are currently 15-2 since the Salmons trade. “FEAR THE DEER” is what the fans up in Mil-Town are screaming right now…good for them – its good to see good TEAMS get rewarded.

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Shameless excuse to post this picture.  But it's better than reading about how much we suck, right?  Play game.  Lose.  Repeat 10 more times to close this season. 

Go vote for the TWolves Dancers on NBA.com NOW!

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It's that time of the year again.  Mookie from A Stern Warning and editor of the Bloguin NBA collaborative blog NBA Baseline tabulated this edition's results.  Make sure to check out the Mid March Edition HERE. 

As usual, here are my totally awesome votes and commentary:

MVP:

1 - LeBron: The season is almost over, and I still can't think of a reason as to why he wouldn't be first.

2 - Kevin Durantula: He very well could lead the league in scoring, and really, he does it all.  The Thunder might have home-court advantage in the playoffs, in the West.  That's just sick.

3 - Dwight Howard: I don't feel like he's getting any love from anyone this year... media or bloggers. All he's done is lead the league in rebounding and blocks, while scoring almost 20 points per game on the team with the third best overall record.  Chump.

4 - Carmelo: Any other year and he's a legit top MVP candidate with his stats.  This year, bleh, he's just fourth.  But he's still really good.

5 - Dirk: He's not doing it all in terms of Dallas winning so many games; that team is loaded.  But Dirk is definitely the main cog in Big D.

6 - Zach Randolph: Who cares that Memphis isn't going to make the playoffs.  Look at the season he is having!  And he hasn't even gotten kicked out of a strip club yet. 

7 - Kobe: Only because I have to put him on this list somewhere.  Boo Kobe boooooo.

8 - D-Wade: He needs to be liberated from that sad-sack team.  It's gotta be killing him inside each day.

9 - Chris Bosh: Toronto is coming on strong, and he's one of only THREE players averaging at least 20 points and 11 boards on the season.

10 - Chris Kaman: I love me some caveman.

RoY

1 - Tyreke Evans: The LeBron James of rookies.  This dude is ill.

2 - Brandon Jennings: Yes, his shooting percentage has dropped off, but the Bucks are looking to make the playoffs, and Jennings is the gas that makes them go.

3 - Stephen Curry: Do not like him.  Doesn't stop me from admitting he's really good.

4 - Ty Lawson: Doesn't have the best stats because he has decreased minutes compared to everyone else, but this dude is legit.  P.S. The TWolves didn't need him.

5 - Darren Collison/Marcus Thornton: Super Hornets rookie studs!!! Tie vote!  How can I decide between two rookie baller studs on the same team?
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8,912 Jonny Flynn: God he sucks.