Not much to say here, other than…
1. Each time I post a new Dirty 30, I rank the teams anew, meaning I don’t look at the previous rankings at all until I have to enter in the PREV slots. So I thought it was kinda funny that so many teams (12 of the 30) are in the same place they were two weeks ago when I last posted a Dirty 30.
2. In short, I think L.A.’s the best team in the League because of their depth, their offense, their experience, their coach and their size. But Cleveland and Boston are not far off.
3. Finally got rid of my Sidekick and made the move to a G1 phone. (Thanks, T-Mobile!) I am not regretting it whatsoever thus far.
4. In the COMMENT section on the Dirty 30, I try to drop all the links I don’t have anywhere else to post (other than on my Twitter feed, at least until we get that hooked into The Links). So have fun with those.
Let’s get Dirty…
| RANK | PREV | TEAM | REC | COMMENT |
| 1 | 3 | Los Angeles Lakers | 46-10 | You know the one guy on the Lakers who is getting criminally slept on? Derek Fisher. He must be one of the most dangerous players in the NBA with a career ppg average below 10, right? |
| 2 | 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 43-11 | Two things keep me from being convinced that the Cavs are a legit Championship team: 1) Lack of quality depth, particularly on the interior 2) Lack of offensive imagination. I’m just not sure how much having the best player in the world factors in to rendering those points moot. |
| 3 | 1 | Boston Celtics | 46-12 | I know they KO’d Phoenix and Denver without KG, but they lost to Utah before that with him. I think the Celts are a little too inconsistent this year, especially without the added depth of James Posey and PJ Brown. And Mikki Moore is no PJ Brown. |
| 4 | 4 | Orlando Magic | 41-14 | 5-3 since Jameer went down, but I think ultimately Rafer will make them a more dangerous team. |
| 5 | 5 | San Antonio Spurs | 37-17 | From the Spurs team report on Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!: “C Fabricio Oberto took his father along for the final leg of the Rodeo Trip, which ended Saturday at Washington. Raul Oberto traveled from Argentina to watch games at New York, Detroit and Washington. The elder Oberto had not seen his son play in person since 2000, when Fabricio was playing in Spain. The son said it was hard persuading his dad to take two weeks of vacation from his job at a farm equipment supply company.” |
| 6 | 7 | Denver Nuggets | 37-20 | Great Nuggets stat I learned on Twitter yesterday: Teams that get to the line most often, measured by fta/possession: 1. DEN 2. UTA 3. ORL 4. GSW 5. PHO. Lowest? NYK, SAS, and DAL. |
| 7 | 10 | Houston Rockets | 35-21 | In a roundabout way, I think the Rockets losing T-Mac for the season actually helps them, because now they don’t have to worry night-to-night about whether or not he’s going to play. At the same time, they lose their best one-on-one scorer. |
| 8 | 8 | New Orleans Hornets | 33-22 | The Hornets are the second-worst rebounding team in the NBA. Coaches always say rebounding is about desire and hustle. Desire and hustle are either innate or are fostered by coaching. Which means… |
| 9 | 6 | Portland Trailblazers | 35-20 | Does anyone still think Greg Oden isn’t injury prone? In other news, the Blazers looked great last week, but I still think they’re one year away from being true contenders. Though it helps that Brandon Roy gets calls like Michael Jordan used to. |
| 10 | 11 | Phoenix Suns | 31-24 | We’re about to find out just how good Suns trainer Aaron Nelson really is — he can keep Nash and Shaq healthy, but can he somehow make Amare/é/’e’s eye heal faster? |
| 11 | 12 | Utah Jazz | 34-23 | Watched the Hawks/Jazz game last night and the one thing I can say for certain is that Jerry Sloan somehow gets those guys to consistently play really hard. |
| 12 | 15 | Atlanta Hawks | 32-24 | During last night’s Hawks game, as Mike Bibby played his best Steve Nash defense, I was told that he was suffering from the same illness that’s been going around the Hawks locker room of late. What, I wondered, the no-defense flu? Remember how the Hawks were playing great defense in November? Neither do the Hawks. |
| 13 | 9 | Dallas Mavericks | 33-22 | They’re 11 games over .500, but they’ve gotta be the best boring team in the NBA. We need Cubes to stir up some excitement and stop blogging about Bernie Madoff. The man is obsessed. At least J-Kidd’s alleged girlfriend is gonna be in Playboy. |
| 14 | 14 | Miami Heat | 29-26 | I’m glad the Heat finally got a point guard, but I didn’t expect it would be D-Wade. |
| 15 | 16 | Philadelphia 76ers | 27-28 | I just did the math, and this has to be a record of some sort: Our man Sammy Dalembert is on pace to finish the season with a 4.8-1 turnover-to-assist ratio. |
| 16 | 18 | Milwaukee Bucks | 28-31 | Latiiiiiiiiiiiika! |
| 17 | 13 | Detroit Pistons | 27-27 | Again, I had no idea this sort of collapse was coming. None at all. Shocking. |
| 18 | 17 | New Jersey Nets | 25-32 | By far the funniest part of this video is when Brook “Bull” Lopez sees his favorite comic book artist. His voice kinda sounds like Buffalo Bill from “Silence of the Lambs.” Or Bull from “Night Court.” |
| 19 | 19 | New York Knicks | 24-32 | Nate Robinson is the best 5-7 two-guard in the history of the NBA. Discuss. |
| 20 | 20 | Chicago Bulls | 25-31 | In honor of Khalid: (Del) Negro, Please. |
| 21 | 21 | Indiana Pacers | 24-35 | At least Mike Wells seems to be enjoying covering the Pacers. |
| 22 | 22 | Toronto Raptors | 22-36 | I linked to this on my Twitter page yesterday, but if the new PSP ends up looking like this, I’m in. |
| 23 | 23 | Charlotte BETcats | 22-34 | If I did this as a Separated At Birth I’d get hated on, but still… |
| 24 | 25 | Golden State Warriors | 20-37 | It’s just one man’s opinion, but here’s some reading to get you G-State (and OKC and Sacto and Minny and whoever else) fans prepped for next year. |
| 25 | 24 | Minnesota L-Wolves | 18-37 | Since we’re in Minnesota…I had a dream last night that I went to some sort of seminar about learning how to be a DJ and for some reason it was taught by Prince. He started the class off by grabbing a record and putting on “Purple Rain” — you know, the electric guitar intro part — and then suddenly he did something and became almost completely invisible like one of The Chimera in “Resistance 2.” Then I woke up. The lesson? Don’t play “Resistance 2” for two hours just before going to bed. |
| 26 | 26 | Memphis Grizzlies | 15-40 | Congrats, Marko. You done good. |
| 27 | 27 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 13-43 | College basketball is full of cheaters. I’m glad they’re finally cracking down on them. |
| 28 | 28 | Washington Wizards | 13-43 | Hey Wiz fans, at least all your players have shown up. |
| 29 | 30 | Los Angeles Clippers | 14-43 | Since we’re in Hollywood here, anyone watching the new season of “The Amazing Race”? Sad to see Randy Johnson and his much older wife lose this week. Hilarious when dude broke down at the end. This is called great TV. |
| 30 | 29 | Sacramento Kings | 12-46 | By far the best thing about the Kings this season is Jason Thompson’s twitter feed. I love hearing about what he eats for breakfast. |
