NBA Podcast: Playoffs, Poets, Penny & Post-Season Awards

This weekend's podcast: Mosi Platt vs. Andres Alvarez

Bloggers from the Wages of Wins Network got together for their regular weekend podcast to discuss the NBA playoffs, Derrick Rose, the Dead Basketball Poets Society, Best (and Worst) Defensive Players of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year as well as the Most (and Least) Improved Players of the Year.

Listeners can enjoy the podcast right here or one of three other ways:

• Download it from nerdnumbers.com, 
• Subscribe to the RSS feed or 
• Check it out at iTunes.

The Cast

• Mosi Platt from the Miami Heat Index
• Andres Alvarez from NerdNumbers.com

The Synopsis

Platt and Alvarez covered a lot of different topics in this free-flowing discussion. Here's a rundown of the conversation:

• Alvarez starts the podcast off by comparing the Heat to a killer in a slasher movie and Chris Bosh to J.R. Smith. Yes, it sounds weird.
• A lot of fans complain that stat-heads just focus on the numbers and don't watch the games. In Alvarez's case, blame it on the recession or The Matrix. Plus, The pros and cons of NBA League Pass were also discussed.
• The WoW Network bloggers briefly discussed the Blazers-Mavericks series. On Wednesday's PTI Show, Tony Kornheiser compared Brandon Roy to Penny Hardaway. Both bloggers agreed that it was a good comparison, but the numbers say Penny was more productive than Roy (see the figure below). In addition to being more productive, Penny got to play with a 22 year-old Shaquille O'Neal in the 1995 NBA Finals (even though Shaq dissed him later) and make commercials with Chris Rock before succumbing to knee injuries. Roy, on the other hand, has rarely gotten the chance to play with a 22 year-old Greg Oden and has never advanced past the first round.

• After Blazers-Mavs, the conversation turned to the Bulls-Pacers series, Derrick Rose and the Dead Basketball Poets Society's myth-making about his exploits. What is the Dead Basketball Poets Society? It's a group of sportswriters that use lazy cliches to describe what they can't understand on the court. For example, if the Bulls win despite Derrick Rose shooting 4-18, then they won because of Rose's "toughness", "leadership" or "confidence." In fact, that's what Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith said on "Inside the NBA."
• Platt and Alvarez both agreed that Adrian Wojnarowski is a hater, but they had different reasons. This was Platt's reason and this was Alvarez's reason.
• The podcast ended with a discussion of the Wages of Wins Network Awards, the Anti-Awards, the three Kia Performance Awards the NBA released this week and the newly created "team awards":
• Defensive Player of the Year - Dwight Howard. Platt and Alvarez discussed who should win the Worst Defensive Player of the Year award.
• Sixth Man of the Year - Lamar Odom. Platt said that Marcin Gortat should have gotten more consideration than a ninth-place finish.
• Most Improved Player - Kevin Love. Alvarez suggested Andrea Bargnani should win the Least Improved Player award. Platt's spreadsheet froze during the podcast, but afterwards he determined that Troy Murphy would be a good nomination, too, with a Win Score that declined by 8.7 points this season.